Friday September 21, 1973

Gee how the time flies by. There are so many interesting things happening as well as those that are not so interesting.

Lynn & Jeannette & Robin & Brad came to our house and had dinner, & spent he evening. This was Sept 5. About two weeks ago. They were so interested in our place. We gave them a big box of cucumbers & tomatoes from our garden.

About ten days ago Aunt May called and said our peaches were picked, and to come down & pick them up. We had been down the week before, & brought a bushel of pears from Orem. They were Green as grass. Uncle Verl had just gotten home from the hospital. He had suffered a stroke. I sure felt sorry for May & Maurine, with all that fruit coming on. But Mary said they had a family who would pick everything in exchange for fruit.

We plan to buy our own cooking apples from them sometime in October. We brought the bushel of peaches we bought from them & bought another from a stand "walkers" (a Zabriskie relative) home. I planned to bottle them the day the Neals' arrived from England. The Neals' Ernest Hilda, and their 37 year old daughter Sylvia (who is a cripple in a wheel Chair) live in North Hampton England. They were converts of Larry, when he was on his mission.

We had to go up to 6th ave drug so we picked up Claire & her two youngest children & the Neals on our way to give them a ride. On the way we went up East Canyon and showed them where the pioneers came down into the valley. Came back by "This is the place" monument. They were absolutely delighted. We had to get back home so dad could sleep before going on the grave yard shift. We promised to come the next morning and spend the day showing them the sights. We took them to Alta and showed them the record vaults, out to the open copper pit mine, & the great Salt Lake. They were simply overcome with gratitude. This was Wednesday & Thursday. Friday we had a regular Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Turkey and all the trimmings, Clell & Ann were here too, & we had fun with music & home movies. I gave them each a pair of my nice pillow cases.

They were almost speechless over our dinner. They were delighted with the children, Clell & Annie and the music. Larry & Claire arranged a fireside for them in their ward Sunday night, & they were the speakers. I went to it by myself and brother Neal was amazed that I had driven there alone.

The following week was a nightmare. The peaches were getting too ripe, and the pears ripened all at once. There were also tomatoes coming on, plus the cucumbers, & Annie gave me a half bushel of session plumbs. The hard work of the dinner & fruit almost put me in bed with my back problem. The last bushel of peaches would have if Les hadn't helped me. It seems there is no help for me when I need it. I was surely glad for Les. We got 23 quarts of pears, 50 of peaches, plus 4 quarts of fresh plumbs & almost 20 quarts of plumb jelly & jam. There were also about 13 quarts of pickles, and seven quarts of tomatoes taken care of in that week. I have had such a drive within me to get some food stored up. I'm glad it's nearly done. I will put all the tomatoes from our garden in bottles as they come on. We can't buy bottles anywhere, so I borrowed 2 dozen from Claire. I'm sure it will be enough. During all this week we took time out to get Les to the doctor for a complete physical check-up. Dr. Keller says he is in great condition. I have an appointment next Monday for mine.

One more art class for the Relief society, and I've finished fulfilling my special call. I have enjoyed teaching the ladies. I just love some of them. Now I will teach a class all winter at Hill Crest High School, in adult education. Della Lee, Ida Burrows, Zelda Robertson have been down & requested for the class, Linda Halldamon & Karma Barlow said they were going down also. I will also enter my tenth year with Jack Vigos, next Thursday.