REITA HUNT HAMBLIN

Reita Hunt Hamblin was born June 10, 1910, to Edward Moroni Hunt and Candace Jeanette Brown Hunt. She is the third child of twelve children. They are Dalton, Elva, Reita, George, Amy, Jean, Mary, Joseph, who died shortly after birth, Ardell, Dorotha, Richard, and Ruth, who died as a child. Reita was born in a small farming community named Cedarview, Wasatch (Duchesne), Utah. That area was opened up to homesteading in 1905. Edward and Candace homesteaded there in the fall of 1906. They had 160 acres as did the others who homesteaded there. There weren’t any conveniences nor doctors. Reita’s grandmother, Mary Hyatt Brown, was a midwife and lived across the road. She was there for Reita’s birth and her name is on the birth certificate. Reita was named for her Mother’s best friend, Reta Webb.

When Reita was a tiny tot

She couldn’t walk at all.

She would run away to Grandma’s house.

To get there she would crawl

Through the irrigation ditch

‘n ‘ cross the road of sand.

Her sister Elva usually came.

They thought they were so grand.

And though they were a muddy mess

Their Grandma didn’t care.

She’d spread some jam upon some bread

And give to them to share.

One day Reita’s mother set her out in the yard while she went to run after the horses. She crawled into a bed of red ants and was hollering her head off when her mother returned.

Most of Reita’s childhood was spent herding sheep, pigs and cows and helping with chores and

milking. There were 7 girls to share house chores so Reita helped Papa with the outside work. She helped tromp the hay down as it was thrown into the wagon. She rode the cultivator horse in the garden and cornfields. She enjoyed being out doors! It gave her time to read, crochet and play. Usually Amy and George herded with her. Milking was another task that the older children did. They had an old black cow that they milked. She was gentle. Four kids would milk her. With the bucket underneath her, each one would have a teat and milk at the same time. They were a sad bunch of kids when she bloated and died. Papa dragged her down in the field and the kids put wild flowers around her.

Reita remembers climbing on a chair and getting onto her grandmother’s high feather bed and sinking down into it’s softness. She remembers the straw ticks on link springs [ the beds],the old Edison phonograph with the big horn and the cylinder records, the kerosene lamps with glass chimneys to be cleaned and wicks to be trimmed, also wood burning stoves and wood boxes to be filled and the old white topped buggy. The snugginess of long legged underwear and long black stockings they wore for comfort on the long walks to and from school. They helped stay warm in drafty school buildings and in their homes.

She remembered the first automobiles in the area with the snap on curtains and the cranks for starting. They always got stuck in the sand knolls near their place and Papa always kept a team of horses ready to pull them out.

“Elva, what are you doing

With those scissors in your hand?

“I’m going t o fix your hair, Reita,

So come right here and stand.”

“No not my braid, Oh please let go.”

“I will with one more snip.”

“Now that long and pretty thing

Won’t hang down to your hip.”

“Oh, dear, what if mother sees

What happened to your hair?”

There’s a crack in the wooden floor

Let’s stuff it down through there.

Or maybe we could put it here

Underneath the rug

It’s tucked under it so snug.

But it didn’t take their Mom too long

To notice what they’d done.

She had to take the scissors

And cut off the other one.

And oh, how others teased poor Reita,

“You’re a little boy,” they said.

It’s just no fun, no fun at all

To lose your braids from off your head

One time they made a wagon trip to Monroe, Utah to see Grandma and Grandpa Hunt. Grandma gave her a hair cut with a notch over her ears leaving them sticking out. The rest of her hair was cut short. She didn’t like that cut either and she was also teased. Reita’s hair was quite thick and sometimes the girl sitting behind her in school would re-braid her hair for her. Her Grandpa Hunt had a little dog that he held in his hand. At night Aunt Merle put it at the foot of her bed. Reita didn’t want to go to bed with a dog in it.

When Reita received a pair of red high-topped boots she was thrilled. But when they were handed down to George he wasn’t thrilled and refused to wear girls shoes. But shoes were worn for Sunday only. In the

summer kids went barefoot most other days. What fun it was to walk barefoot in the wagon tracks with the sand and dust squishing up between the toes.

When Reita was about 5 they moved about a mile west to be nearer to the school. The house had two rooms in it. Papa bought the place from his brother, T.A. Hunt. They felt sad not to live across the road from Grandma Brown anymore. They had to walk a mile through the fields or two miles by the road to get to Grandma’s now.

Years ago the UBIC [ Uintah Basin Industrial Convention] was held in Fort Duchesne, Utah. People would go and camp in tents. Some would ride their horses home to do chores and come back for the daytime events. There were programs and classes held to help people learn different things. One time when Reita was young she got lost. Someone found her and set her in a little rocking chair in the front of their house and gave her an apple to eat. She was content until she was found by her family.

When Reita was about 5 she went with her family to Monroe, Utah to visit relatives. She went on a ferris wheel ride and it broke down. Some men tried to get her to jump down , but she wouldn’t jump until they got her Dad to catch her. Her Dad gave Reita a colt. She named it Beauty, but it was ugly. It had a really large head. She led it, followed it, tamed it and rode it. One day while she was riding it She slapped a horsefly on it’s neck. It jumped and she fell off. [Reita really didn’t like to ride horses and was often bucked off ]

Reita remembered the horse drawn thrashing machine. A man would sit in the center cracking a whip

to keep the horses going. Children would often play Fox and Geese on the trail worn around in a circle where the horses had walked. The grain stocks or sheaves were thrown into the thrasher where the grain would be separated from the chaff. The grain would be caught in bags. It was quite a big job and required quite a crew of men to keep it going. The crew had to be fed. Although her parents didn’t drink coffee, many of the crew did. Sometimes Reita would grind the coffee beans. She loved the smell and sometimes chewed the coffee beans. Reita never did drink coffee.

Reita would go with her Mother to Primary, Sunday School or for music lessons [Papa bought them a piano]. They would go in the old white topped buggy. It was quite in style over the usual wagon.

Childhood pleasures were many, but simple. They played paper dolls which they made themselves. Playing mailman was fun. The new house had 7 rooms upstairs, four of them were unfinished.

Each child had a room for a home. The long central hall was the road. As was the custom in their communities, each child had a mail bag for the mail man to take with their letters in them to the post office

Then it would be returned to it’s place on the door knob with new letters in it. Having all those rooms

upstairs out of the way, was heaven to the children. They could fix them up to their hearts content. Except for the time Reita fixed up her favorite doll for a “Goddess of Liberty” for the 4^th of July celebration.. She

had hung an old curtain over the window to hide the view until that glorious day. Her mother saw the window from the road and made her take it down. Reita was very disappointed.

A willow patch is a special thing,

Those long and slender sticks.

The kids would find them most unique

For doing lots of tricks.

For two about the same size

Tied together at the ends

Would make a dandy jump rope

To jump through with their friends.

And if you’d take a great big bunch

And bend them down just right

They’d make the neatest bucking horse.

You didn’t have to hold on tight.

Some kids didn’t like them though,

Those willows by the ditches,

‘Cause if you didn’t behave just so

You’d get one ‘cross your britches.

The children liked to go swimming in the ponds. Or if you couldn’t swim you “mud crawled”. They tried boating in a tub with a broom stick through the tub handles for a seat. They got many a ducking. They made little ponds where they put pollywogs. Then they waited to see them grow into frogs one leg at a time. They wondered why, with all their watching they never saw a leg come out.

There were lots of yellow roses for perfume making. Dishes were made from clay. They tried molding dolls from clay but they usually lost their heads in the drying process. Little kittens made the best babies as they could cry and creep. Dressing up was great fun. Reita and her cousin, Lexia Johnson, were almost inseparable. Lexia usually dressed up as the father and Reita as the mother. Play parties and dinners were especially fun at Lexia’s house where her father would sometimes join them as the grandpa. He would ask the blessing on their food by saying, “Bless the girls, damn the boys” or “Bless the potatoes

[or bread], and damn the meat. Turn over your plate and lets eat.”

Playing Christmas was fun. Reita’s folks had a store for several years

When the children didn’t succeed in getting Mother to give them candy for the occasion, or they didn’t dare ask again, they’d send their baby sister, Jean, in to get some. She was just lower than the counter and if she did get caught she didn’t get the spanking that the older kids were afraid of. Reita’s mother tied her a chair once but she never remembered her Papa punishing her.

They used to ride stick horses. They played One’ Old Cat, Pop the Whip, Dare Base, Annie-I-Over, Pomp, Pomp Pull Away, Kick the Can and Jump the Rope. Indoor games were Blind Man’s Bluff, Wink, Crossing the Plains, Cross the Scissors and Hop Scotch.

The old root cellar was dark and damp,

But a playhouse it did make.

They pretended to live there, tend babies and clean,

Cook dinner or bake a cake.

One day as Reita and Elva went in

A big bear they did see

They came out a screamin’ an’ runnin’ so fast

And to their house they did flee.

They told their Papa an’ he said to the girls

There can’t be a bear ‘round here.”

But at their insistence he gave in

And decided to check out their fear.

Although is wasn’t a bear in their house

There was a creature inside.

Papa discovered that an old badger

Had crawled in the cellar to hide.

Reita recalled her father tending the babies. He would rock and sing in his monotone voice

louder then the babies crying. Soon the baby would give up and quiet down.

Reita’s favorite food was new potatoes and peas with milk thickened with flour. She hated mutton. They ate it often as, they had many sheep. She didn’t like food made with or fried in mutton tallow.

She didn’t like parsnips, rutabagas or cooked turnips. They always raised a big garden. At special times

They had home made ice cream frozen in the hand cranked freezer. [in the winter ice was often cut from ponds and stored in saw dust or cedar bark and would last quite a long time.]

It was made like a pudding and put in with milk or cream. It usually had eggs in it. Reita didn’t like the eggs and often when she ate ice cream there would be pieces of cooked egg yolk so she didn’t enjoy eating it.

When Reita was quite young they had a goose that would chase the kids. If it got a hold of your

skin it would pinch hard sometimes twisting the skin. It was most painful. Reita’s little sister Jean was to

young to realize the danger of the goose. She would get a stick and chase it around.

Once a cow came to the house bellowing because it was bloated. Because she came to the house they were able to save the other cows, but that one died. Bloated cows had to be stuck with a knife in a certain spot on their side to let the gas escape.

One time a pig fell into the slop barrel while Reita and some of her friends were sleeping outside

The pig made a lot of noise. Even though they were in their teens , the girls were scared and hid under the

Covers. If they’d told Reita’s Dad he probably could have saved the pig.

Reita’s Grandpa Brown had a special way of making husking corn fun. He made a little wooden man and put it on a wire. He stretched it across the doorway to the corn crib. After husking a dry ear of corn they could throw it at the little man. If he was hit he would do a summersault. The corn would go into the crib. He also often worked with the kids when they were weeding the garden. When they would get to the bottom of the row there would often be a treat for them, like cookies or cake.

Sometimes the kids would climb through an open window of the two story house to get up on the roof. It sloped up to a flat top. They would play or signal to Papa to come in from the field by waving a white dishtowel. Reita hadn’t been up there in quite awhile when she was asked to go up and signal Papa.

She got up there okay, but coming down she couldn’t find the window ledge with her feet. Finally she realized she’d grown taller and that her feet were below the ledge. Then she was able to find it and get back in through the window. She was about tired out from the ordeal.

Reita had a hard time sleeping and often pestered her mother with, “When will it be morning?”

The kids usually slept three to a bed which helped them become closer to each other. They would talk and “draw” pictures on each others backs with their fingers.

As a child Reita wasn’t very healthy. She had leakage of the heart and had a lot of nosebleeds. She spent a lot of time watching instead of participating in things. Sometimes she was taken to Vernal to see a Chiropractor to help her heart and nosebleeds. His office was on the second floor. She would have to stop and rest on the stairs a couple of times before she could get to the top of the stairs. Unfortunately

the trips never helped.

One time Reita was watching a ball game when the ball hit her in the stomach. Her nose started to bleed. She went in her house. Her parents had gone to town and the other kids didn’t check on her. She got so weak that she passed out. Her nose was against the pillow. The blood finally clotted, but she and the bed were a mess when her parents got home. She grew out of this condition when she was about 13.

Reita’ schooling began at the age of six when she entered the beginner class at the Basin District

School in Montwel. The school was a small one room frame building and nine grades attended there under one teacher. Most of the students had to sit two to a seat because there weren’t enough seats to go around. About twice a day the teacher lined the beginners up in front to have them count or say the ABCs. Sometimes he scolded them for being so dumb and the older kids would laugh. Most of the Beginners quit before the winter was over. Reita didn’t quit. The next winter was different. They dropped the Beginner class and the first four grades went to school in the front room of Aunt Carrie Johnson’s home. Miss Estella Foster was the teacher. She was kind and had a lot of patience. The children thought the world of her. They sang songs, played games and did “busy work”. Reita made a little blue cup and saucer from

flour, salt and water.

Reita’s 7^th grade teacher liked to read stories and take them on field trips.

One time Reita and some kids thought they’d play a trick with a snake. Reita carried it to school.

They thought it would scare the young single teacher and she would faint and the man teacher would have to catch her.

Another snake story: One time Reita went to change the water at the canal. She was out on a narrow headgate and a big snake started across. She didn’t move. There was barely enough room for it to

slither past her, but it did. Reita was really scared.

One time when Reita was a young girl she was going somewhere with her Dad in the car. He got sleepy and asked her to drive. She didn’t know how but slid behind the wheel. She thought he would teach her how, but he went to sleep instead.

During Reita’s teenage years the community used to have a lot of activities for entertainment. There were parties, dances, celebrations, rodeos, church activities and mischief. The teenagers often went to Reita’s home. They would move the furniture back and have a dance When they were finished they

Would put the furniture back. In the summer they used to have cedar parties. People would go up on a hill

Set a cedar tree on fire. Anyone who saw the fire knew there was a party. Sometimes the whole community would come. They would play games and things.

Sometimes the teenagers would steal watermelons from peoples patches and have a melon bust.

One time they went to Lorangers and tried to steal some melons. Their baby started crying and they lit the lamp, and, boy, did the kids run. Willard Goff had a great big watermelon and he said no one was going to steal it. He put his bed out there in the patch over it. Reita’s brother George and Art Doman sneaked in there, went under his bed and got his melon.

Reita attended her first year of high school in Richfield, Utah and the other 3 years in Roosevelt, Utah.. She graduated in May 1930 from school and Seminary. Her first attempt at taking part in High School activities was trying out for Seminary Declamation Pin. She said her knees shook and knocked while she was giving her talk until she could hardly stand. She was chosen as one of the three to talk in assembly for the finals. She was so frightened that she almost wished she hadn’t been chosen. She almost gave up but found enough courage to try. It wasn’t so bad after all. She did better than expected and tied for first place. She said Glenn Baird received the pin. [they drew to see who got the pin]. The experience was good for her. She gave a talk at the Seminary graduation May 19, 1930. She took her talk from the

book “The Man Nobody Knows.”

Holidays were much different than they are now. They always made their own Valentines to give to each other. Easter was celebrated with bonnets and baskets. They colored hard boiled eggs that they had gathered. They would usually celebrate Easter with a little picnic on the day before Easter. She remembers one Easter wading through a foot of snow from Will Domans to Labrums. They cut through fields instead of following the road. They were sorry. Another Easter Reita, Amy and George went horseback riding with some friends to the big blue hill. It was so nice and warm. They had a lot of fun rolling their eggs down the clay hill.

For May Day sometimes the Primary kids would gather together and braid the May Pole. They usually went for walks to gather Johnny Jump-ups. They would go through the sage brush and cedars. One time they got frightened when they saw some tracks which one of the girls said were bear tracks. They hit

for home on the run leaving their picnic things behind.

When Reita was a child about the only time they got new dresses was for the 4^th of July and

Christmas. The 4^th of July was quite a day. They all slept outside the night before so they could hear the gun salutes in the morning. The first boom was Reita’s father. Then they laid in bed and counted the other

Shots of neighbors. A patriotic program and parade were common. A rodeo, ballgames, and horse shoe pitching were entertainment. Ice cream, candy, oranges, etc. were sold in booths. Races and games were for the children.

Pioneer Day was on the 24^th of July. Reita remembers a Sham Battle: a group of people were camped when some Indians came riding up over the hill and scalped Mr. Parry. They took his hair and held it up and blood was running all over his head. Reita was quite young but never forgot how frightened

and worried she was for him. Her mother told her it was all pretending. Mr. Parry was bald and wore a wig which they took and they poured catsup on his head. Other entertainment for the 24^th was similar to that of the 4^th of July.

On Hallowe’en they didn’t go trick or treating. They would notch wooden spools and wind them with strings. They’d put the spools against the windows and pull the string and the spool would make a noise as it hit the window. . Sometimes they soaped windows.[if they wanted to be really naughty they put wax on the windows which was hard to remove]. Older boys would ride horses around and push over out

houses, which every one had, and barricade roads with logs or limbs. One Hallowe’en some kids took apart a wagon belonging to Mr. Hullinger. They put it on his roof [maybe a shed with a flat roof]. And put it back together. Another time they painted his mule white with white wash.

For Thanksgiving families always got together for a big dinner. They had turkey, chicken, mince, apple or pumpkin pies and all else that went with a big dinner.

For Christmas there was always a Ward Christmas Party for everyone with a program and Santa.

There were mostly homemade toys, balls, stick horses, dolls, spool tops and candy, maybe an orange.

There were colored paper chain decorations in the room and on the tree. Real candled were used on the tree. Once a tree caught fire but was soon extinguished.

Reita doesn’t remember having a tree in their home, but they decorated with paper bells and stars, paper chains and twisted crepe paper. They always hung their stockings up. One year Reita was worried that Santa wasn’t coming. She kept getting up to see if there was anything in her stocking. It was getting light and still nothing. Later they discovered some stockings on the dining table. All of the cousins used to get together and go from home to home hunting Christmas presents. Sometimes they were hidden in the granary and covered with grain but they usually found them. Reita just about didn’t get her last doll. It had a kid leather body and china head, arms and legs. She had stayed home Christmas Eve from the Ward Party

because she didn’t feel like going anywhere. Her parents thought she had stayed home to see her presents.[She had seen them long before] She wasn’t sleeping and heard her parents talking, but was thrilled to see the doll in her stocking the next morning. They had big long stockings. Some times they Were hand knit. One time Reita and her sister Elva got some big dolls with cloth bodies. They had painted Tin heads with mouths that were open a little bit. They put food in them until one day they discovered bugs in them.

Reita doesn’t remember meeting James for the first time. He said it was when she was about 10 and she was picking up potatoes for her Uncle Alva Labrum. Later when Reita was in high school, James was the bus driver going to Roosevelt. She had to walk 1/2 mile to catch the bus. She got left several times. She didn’t think much of him then. The first time Reita went with James It was home with James from a Thanksgiving Dance at Cedarview. He must have made a good impression on her then because she made the next date. It was to a Leap Year dance. A group of girls had been talking about who they would ask to the dance. Reita said she would ask James Hamblin. She didn’t think she would have to go through with it because none of the other girls went through with their choices. But Leah Parry had told him that she was going to ask him.

James lived in Monarch about 3 miles away. He came down on horseback and they went on to Cedarview with Reita’s brother Dalton in Papa’s Model T Ford. The next date was to a picture show in Roosevelt, 10 miles away. They got Wes Blanchard to take them. On the way back the lights went out. Wes had to sit on the fender with a flashlight so they could see their way home.

James was bashful and didn’t make many dates at first. Reita had a hard time avoiding dates with others boys so she would be free when he did ask or come around. One time she was getting perturbed at his not making dates ahead so she promised to go with someone else. On that night he came early and Reita was out irrigating the garden. By the time she was ready James had arrived, too. She didn’t know what to do and kept going into the kitchen to ask her mother. She said she had the date with Roy and he was there first. Reita was afraid that James wouldn’t ask her again. They walked out to the gate. Roy was on horseback and James had a car. When she said she’d go with James she guessed that Roy thought it was because he had a car. Reita and James went steady and he made most of their dates ahead.

By their 30^th date, James asked Reita to marry him. She accepted without even saying she’d have to think about it. In July 1928 she picked out an engagement ring from the Montgomery Ward catalog. Reita was 18 and James was 24. Reita picked a ring of white gold with a ruby set. She had 2 more years of school left because she had stayed home to help her mother when she was ill. She wanted to finish school. Her cousin, Dallin Collins, bet her a 5 pound box of chocolates that she would get married instead of finishing school. [He mailed the chocolates from his home in Idaho.]

While finishing school in Roosevelt she worked in the home of Mr. And Mrs. Ray Dillman in Roosevelt. The first night she stayed there she didn’t know how to turn the electric light off. [The rural area didn’t get electricity until 1938or 39.] She left the light on all night. When asked why , she had to admit that she didn’t know how to turn it off. Reita said she’d rather wash and dry dishes than cook and Mrs. Dillman thought that strange. Mr. Dillman was the ward Bishop. When General Authorities came out they often stayed with the Dillmans, so Reita would cook for them, too. David O. McKay came once. He was Reita’s favorite General Authority and Church President.

When Reita was in High School

She wanted to earn her way.

So with the Dillman family

For awhile she did stay.

She did some work for them

Some cleaning and some cooking.

She was an excellent worker

Even when no one was looking.

One day she made some fruit pies

Tapioca made them thick.

Then some company arrived

And she had to make more quick!

After dinner pie was served

And all were eating fine.

Except for Mr. Dillman

He said, “I’m not eating mine!”

“Maybe you can for good manners sake,

But I can’t eat this pie.”

This is the reason why.

In her haste to make more fruit pies

The tapioca that she got

Was really a box of soap grains.

It wasn’t what she thought.

All the others got the good pies.

Mr. Dillman got the soap.

If you think he let her live this down

The answer there is “nope!”

For every time her James did come

To call on her you see

He said, “Don’t marry her,

She’ll feed you soap pie

Just like she did to me.”

As soon as school was out Reita went to Provo where her mother had moved. She got a job picking strawberries so she could buy her wedding dress. James finished paying for her dress plus a few

Other things she needed.

James and Reita were married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple on June 13, 1930. Reita’s brother Dalton and Sylvia Anderson were married at the same time in a double ceremony. A double reception and dance was held for them in Montwel. James and Reita spent a week’s honeymoon in the Salt Lake and Provo area. To begin their lives together James had $200 in the bank, owned 4 cows, a team of horses and a school bus. He had a job driving school bus.

He drove children from Monarch to Neola and worked at Lionel Jensen’s store in Neola.

James had rented the farm of Ed Loranger in Montwel. It had a two room log house with no water of electricity. While on their honeymoon they had bought a bed, dresser, a phonograph, four kitchen chairs, linoleum for the kitchen floor and a rug for the other room. Other things they needed they got second hand from their folks.

Their first child was born May 26, 1931, a tiny baby girl, They named her Ila Vee.

Reita wrote about Ila’s birth as follows: “Aunt Carrie [Johnson] was there at your birth. .Dad brought her when he went to phone Dr. Whitmore. The only phone in Montwell was in her home. Dr. Whitmore had gone to Myton thinking it would be along time. My water had broken 2 days before bur Dad didn’t tell him. He was a long time coming and you should have been born quicker, but Aunt Carrie told me to lie still.

“Dad had gone for Grandma Hamblin before you were born. She stayed until you were 9 days old. Then she left to go to Victor, Idaho. It seems my water broke Sunday and you were born Tuesday. You were expected in June and only weighed 6 or 6 ½ pounds with a blanket on. Lily Whitehead said ‘You just as well have bought a 10 cent doll, you were so small. Being a dry birth was harder and your head was peaked. Dad held you in the rocker.

“When you were about a week old Grandma had me sit up in a chair and I about passed out. I had been flat on my back except for getting up to turn the phonograph on which was close. Grandma was worried about me doing it….Grandma Hunt was worried about me and at the time you were born she had a feeling that everything was OK.”
“When their second child, James Ballard, was born, February 11, 1933, they didn’t have a home They had rented Reita’s Father’s house and were waiting for the previous renters to move out.

When James was born they were living in two room of James’s parents home. Neither Reita nor the baby did very well. He cried day and night. Everyone in the neighborhood who came in to help got worn out. Mrs. Hamblin was sick in bed with one of her bad Asthma attacks.

They moved to Reita’s father’s farm the last of March in 1933. In April James left to go on an LDS mission for the church to Colorado. Reita and her brother George were left to care for the animals and the farm. The Depression was getting a good start. Also there was a severe drouth. Reita tried to raise turkeys and chickens but didn’t have much luck.. In the fall they turned the cows over to a neighbor and

Soon after, Reita and the kids went to Richfield to stay with her mother. They also spent sometime with her father in Monroe. They were there when James came home from his mission just before Christmas in ’33.

While James was on his mission Reita would write to him. Ila would draw pictures of apples and cups of cocoa for him. She sang songs about her Daddy. He drew pictures for Ila, too.

After his mission they bought the farm from Reita’s Mother. They spent all they had to purchase it. The drought and depression had come. Many people were discouraged and moving away. They planned to do the same. Almost every family was on WPA, a government relief program, but James didn’t was relief. Their third child was soon due and there was no money for clothes or doctor bills. Then James got a job as a deputy assessor for the county. James got some money in advance so they were able to dress their son Delmer Hyrum when he was born February 11, 1935. They were able to pay Dr. Whitmore. They decided to stay with the farm. They lived in the big, 2 story house for awhile while a smaller 2 room house with a screened porch which they later made into a room. The big house was torn down. It was unfinished and very hard to heat.

Reita liked to have dried fruit

For her family to try.

One time she had some apricots

Out to the big unfinished house

She laid the fruit in there.

It was an empty house you see

So there’s lots of room to spare.

Then off to a celebration

She and her family went.

It was quite a big affair,

So 2 or 3 days they spent.

Upon returning home again

She checked her apricots

But they were nowhere to be seen.

“They’ve been stolen” is what she thought.

But later they tore down that house

With it’s big unfinished halls

And what do you think they found inside?

Why, there were all those apricots

Stored for mousies dinner.

Some little mouse family

Would be fed through all the winter.

The moral of this story is

If you’ve got some fruit a dryin’

A three day trip away from home

Might not be worth a-tryin’.

In those first years there was no electricity so they used kerosene lamps. [Kerosene, when mixed with lard, and rubbed on the chest, made a good cure for croup and colds.] Washing was done on a washboard in a galvanized tub and usually with home made lye soap. Whites were usually boiled. Ironing was usually done with heavy stove irons heated on the wood burning kitchen stove, which made the house terribly hot in the summer. They had to be very careful not to get stove soot on the clothes, especially the white shirts.

It was a happy day when James bought a washer run by a gas motor. Reita never could get the thing started and would have to wait for James to come in from the field to start it. One day Ila was watching Reita put the clothes through the wringer. Reita left to hang clothes or something and Ila, about 5 years old, decided that she wanted to be helpful and she started to put clothes through the wringer and got her arm in the wringer. It was going through the wringer. She yelled and her mother came running and shut off the wringer and got Ila’s arm out. Her arm was white and rather flat but no damage was done.

When son James was very small he loved to pound with a hammer. He had watched his Dad and Grandpa pounding nails in building the new, small house. One day he was playing in the kitchen of the new house with a hammer. Suddenly there was a loud bang. James and Reita ran into the room. There was blood on James’s chest. Someone said , “He’s been shot!” They were very frightened. James had found a 22 bullet and it looked like a good nail so he pounded it , causing it to explode. A piece of the bullet shell had hit him in the chest, making a small cut. They counted their blessings that day.

When Ila was little Reita bought had a new pair of shoes. Ila was holding them while wading so she wouldn’t get them wet. She dropped one and they never found it.

The winter of 1937 was a severe one. The last of January they were snowed in for several days. Reita worried about their 4^th child being born with no doctor there. On February 3^rd about 5:30 the snow plow came and dug them out. About 10:30 that night Ruth Jeanette was born just after the doctor came.

Ruth was a “blue baby”. Something was wrong with her heart and it wasn’t working right They had two of Reita’s aunts, Carrie Johnson and May Scroggings come and help. They held Ruth up to their shoulders

To keep her heart going. They didn’t think she would live. Reita heard one of them ask if they should wake her and James up and tell them. She woke James up and told him what they’d said. He got up and went to Monarch and got his Dad. They gave Ruth a priesthood blessing. They sent for the doctor. When he got there Ruth was better.

One day when Ruth was about 6 months old, James talked Reita into riding with him to get the cows. Reita didn’t like riding horses very much but she decided to go. When she got on the horse it began to buck, throwing her off. She was knocked out. James carried her to the house.

She had blood on her from her mouth. When she came to she asked James what had happened. She couldn’t remember getting on the horse and didn’t want to believe she’d been throw from it. Reita had been nursing Ruth and after that she didn’t have any milk for her. Ruth had to learn to drink from a cup because she wouldn’t take a bottle.

One day when James and Delmer were quite young, Reita was chopping some squash up to feed the animals. Little James picked up the ax and was going to chop a squash. Delmer knew he shouldn’t do that and put his hand on the squash to stop him. The ax came down and cut Delmer’s finger very deep. He

was yelling and flipping his hand around getting blood all over. Reita didn’t have a way to get him to the

doctor as James had the car. She set the finger as best she could and bandaged it. She made a mitten bandage with strings on it to come around and tie around his wrist. She soaked it in Lysol water every day. Delmer’s finger healed but is a little crooked.

In 1941 a government County Agent came to the church house and taught women how to make

cotton filled mattresses. Mostly people had been using feather “ticks”. They sewed the ticking and put in the layers of cotton. They had to beat it with a stick to fluff it up. They had to put vaseline on their noses to keep the cotton fibers from out. Reita made 2 or 3 of these mattresses. They lasted a long time.

James’s and Reita’s fifth child was born August 1, 1941, at home. They named him Duane Edwin. His arrival made 7 of them living in their small house. By this time electricity had come to their community which helped considerably.

For community entertainment programs were held at the church house. The had singing, readings, and sometimes they put on one act plays. These programs were always enjoyed. Reita was in a one act play that Ila remembers. Louise Alexander wrote the following poem about it.

The Dinner

There once was a woman from Kinner,

Who was having ladies over for dinner.

She wanted some food

That was fancy and good,

That the ladies would think was a winner.

So the cook went for mushrooms to find.

He’d seen some growing out behind.

They weren’t quite sure,

If the mushrooms were pure.

Cause they’d never seen some of that kind.

The hostess, she thought they could spare some.

So she asked the cook to prepare some.

So they let the dog in

To test them on him

He seemed fine so they decided to serve some.

So the ladies came there to dine.

They ate all the mushrooms so fine.

Then the cook said,

“The poor dog is dead!”

The woman from Kinner went out of her mind,

Called the doctor and told ‘ bout their dinner.

He pumped from their tummies

All the mushrooms and yummies,

‘Til each lady was much, much thinner.

The cook, the woman went to get him.

“Did the dog have to suffer?

Did it get rougher and rougher?”

“No. He died quickly when the truck hit him.”

World War Two began December 7,1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This brought about many changes for them. Many products became scarce. Sugar, meat coffee, which they didn’t use, shoes and gasoline, tires , maybe others things, too, were rationed. Each family member had a Ration book with stamps. They had to use so many stamps when purchasing the rationed items. Only so many could be used in a week or month. When they were gone you couldn’t get any more until the right time came. For people who did a lot of canning extra sugar could be bought by applying for extra stamps.

Things made with rubber were scarce. Under panties began to have buttons instead of elastic. This lasted throughout the war. Duane lost a shoe once and they had to apply for another pair. Candy all but disappeared from our stores. Reita had two brothers, Ardell and Richard, who were in the service. James had three brothers in the service, Bill, Remo and Jesse. It was a constant worry about them. Family prayers were for us to win the war and to bless the brothers. They all came home after the war ended in 1945. They were so thankful when the war ended.

On November 19, 1945, after 12 years of building and waiting, they were able to move onto their new house even though it wasn’t finished yet. The war had slowed the building down. They had cut and hauled logs from the mountains. Some family members helped cut and haul logs. They peeled the bark from the logs. The older kids helped some with that. The logs were cut off on 3 sides, leaving the side on the outside of the wall rounded. The logs were brushed with linseed oil. They were cut on the sides and into proper lengths at a saw mill. They were set on a cement foundation, with the logs standing up. The living room had Silver Birch paneling and hard wood floors. They were very proud of it. Most of the work had been done by family members under the direction of Grandpa William Hamblin.

Even though she was expecting their 6^th child, Reita nailed most of the Celotex on the walls and ceilings and even helped with the shingles on the roof. Reita was always a hard worker. She raised a garden and canned lots of fruit and vegetables every year. She sometimes dried fruit and corn. Even in the hot summer she baked many loaves of bread, pies, cakes and cookies, made light dough biscuits and dumplings. She made a very tasty steamed [carrot] pudding. She made a tart lemon, vinegar sauce to go on it

Food had to be kept cold by water from the well running over it. It was often kept in glass bottles. Sometimes string was tied around the bottles and they were hung in barrels where cool water ran over them all the time. Reita got a new electric refrigerator 2 or 3 years after moving into the new house.

If any company was there at meal time they were always invited to stay and eat with them and they usually did.

Reita made many of her kids clothes and was good at making hand-me-downs fit. She made quilts and liked to crochet. She did both of these things until a few months before her death. Sometimes when she made quilts big staples were put into the ceiling with heavy string hanging down to hold the frames. When the frames were not in use they were raised up nearly to the ceiling to be out of the way. Other times the frames would be fastened to the tops of chairs while making the quilts. The frames were tied together with rags.

The quilt lining was tacked to the frames, the batting put on, then the top which was tacked or pinned. Then the quilt would be quilted, or sometimes tied with yarn or carpet warp.

January 1946 was very cold. Reita was expecting their 6^th child. This would be the first one to be born in a hospital. Their Willys car wouldn’t start in cold weather without being pulled by the tractor.

Reita didn’t want to have to do this in the middle of the night so, feeling that the birth wasn’t to far away

She had James take her to the hospital on January 23^rd. Doctor Whitmore thought it was a good idea for her to go to the hospital, too. The next day James called the hospital. No baby yet. Reita said that at the hospital there was another woman waiting to have her baby, too. She needed to go to the drug store and she invited Reita to go with her. While there they had some ice cream. After getting back to the hospital Reita got sick to

her stomach and had to keep going to the bathroom with the heaves.

When Reita felt like the time was getting close she told the nurse the baby was getting close to coming. The nurse, a little German lady, told Reita that she wasn’t making enough fuss for her to call the doctor yet.

Reita told her that she wouldn’t be making any more fuss. Someone else called the doctor to see a patient and while there he checked on Reita. He said, “Get her to the delivery room quick!” At 12:30 am January 25, 1946 a baby boy was born. Reita started to raise up to see him but someone pushed her down and told her to wait. She only got a quick glimpse of him. The hospital was crowded so the put her bed out in the hall where she spent the rest of the night.

James was milking the cows the next morning when his neighbor, Cecil Johnson, came with a note to tell him he had a new son. That morning they moved Reita into a room with another lady. They brought her baby in but not Reita’s. The nurse said he was having trouble breathing and they had called the doctor. Less then 9 hours after his birth Reita’s baby died.

James was still at home when his brother Marley came from town and told him that the baby had died. James got ready and went to the hospital. Then he went to the Dillman Funeral Home and bought a tiny casket. He got a burial plot and ordered flowers.

The next day family and friends came to help prepare the new house for the funeral which was held there. Remo Hamblin and Ed Hullinger went to Roosevelt to dig the grave. The funeral was Monday the 28^th. Reita had to stay in the hospital several more days

On the 27^th James went to see his dear wife. From his compassion for her and understanding her longings to see her baby, he got permission to bring the baby in for her to see. They didn’t name the baby then, but years later they bought a headstone and had it engraved to read: Edward Moroni Hamblin January 25, 1946-January 25, 1946. The baby was named for Reita’s father.

Oh! To have held you and stroked your sweet little head.

To have fed you and clothed you and tucked you in bed

I long for your cry, to hear your first word,

To teach you the joy in the song of a bird.

But, alas you were taken and laid “neath the sod,

Before I could teach you, you went home to God.

Someday I’ll be with you in that heavenly place.

I’ll hold you and kiss you and touch your sweet face

For this is the thing I’ll hold in my heart

That someday in heaven we’ll never part.

In the late 40’s James and Reita got a telephone. Before that there were only 2 phones in the community. One was at Johnsons, a neighbor to James and Reita. The other one was in Bryon Roberts home in the Cedarview part of the community.

Also in the mid 40s they got electric milkers. They were set up in the old corral. Three or 4 years later they built a Grade A milk barn. Reita helped draw up the plans for it. They had made it a matter of fasting and prayer before deciding to build the barn. Reita always helped with the milking, cleaning the milkers and others chores. Later to stay with the Grade A they had to build a bigger barn and install milk lines to a big cooler tank.

On September 13^th a healthy 9 pound boy was born to James and Reita. They named him Alden Haines. When he was still a baby he had a Johnny Jumper. A bouncy seat which hung from the ceiling or doorway. He loved to bounce and jump in it and he wore the pattern off the linoleum where he jumped. He also liked to wind it up and have it unwind fast when he lifted his feet up.

In November 1948 they finally got the bathroom in their new house. What a blessing!

June 18, 1949 their dark haired daughter Reita Lyn was born. When she was about 2 weeks old her oldest sister, Ila, got married to James “Jim” Larsen, July 6^th.

When Reita was 43, lacking 6 days, she had her last baby, a girl named Arva Mary, born June,4 1953.When Arva was born she already had three nieces, Ellen, Louise and Joy. Joy was born May 10^th.

They were always good friends.

One time in the 50’s mom’s pressure cooker blew up. She had a big piece of meat in it. The cooker leaked steam a little and she laid a dish towel on the lid to help hold the steam in. The cooker got to hot and the lid blew off, making a hole in the ceiling, splattering meat all over and mashing down the top of the electric stove. There were a lot of people there at the time, but no one in the kitchen. Someone was just leaving the kitchen. It may have been Delmer or Aunt Jean. Every one was thankful no one was hurt.

In the late 50s Reita took some art classes in oil and water color. She did some beautiful paintings. She did some wonderful portraits of some of the family. When Arva was small Reita would get her a brush and paint and let her paint, too. She did this for some of the grandkids also and had a lot of patience with helping them. She was very patient in all things in her life.

On January1, 1955, their daughter Ruth married Myron Haslem in their home in Montwel. James was a Bishop at that time and he performed the marriage.

In April that year their son Delmer went on a Mission for the LDS Church to the Southwest Indian Mission in Arizona

Their son James married Ruth Jorgensen October11, 1956 in the Logan Temple

Delmer came home from his mission in 1957. James and Reita drove down to get him. They got in a blizzard somewhere on their way home. September 1, 1960 he married Barbara Fetzer in the Salt Lake Temple.

In 1961-63 Duane served a Mission in Saskatchewan, Canada. He was at Regina and Moose Jaw.

On September 20, 1963 he married Alice Turner in the Salt Lake Temple.

Alden went on a Mission to the Southern States Mission in 1967. On August 15, 1969 he married

Ilene Storey in the Logan Temple.

About this time Alyce Sam came to live with Reita and James with the Indian Placement Program. She was with them for about 1 ½ school years. They dearly loved her and kept in touch with her for along time. Alyce and 2 tiny children cane to live with Reita for awhile.

June4, 1970 Arva married Devere Bench in Montwel. Devere died November4, 1970 from a stroke probably due to Lupus.

Reita Lyn went on a mission to Argentina in 1971 for 18 months. James and Reita flew down to come home with her. There will be more details of this trip later or in James’s history

June 29, 1971 Reita became a great-grandmother when Jimmy Betts was born to Louise and Howard Betts

On April 14, 1972 Arva married a returned missionary, Drew Jones, in the Manti LDS Temple.

In 1972 James and Reita sold their farm, except 70 acres, to their son James and Ruth. They bought a Boise Cascade house and had it put on their 70 acres. The house came from Boise, Idaho in one piece. So did Duane’s and Alices house. They were big 3 bedroom, 2 baths rooms.

On October10, 1974 Reita Lyn married Dale Humphries in the Salt Lake Temple. Reita and James were in Canada on their mission at the time. Reita Lyn and Dale went up to see them for their honeymoon.

When their children were growing up they had little outside interests other then Church and family activities. James was Ward Clerk, Councilor to three Bishops and then a Bishop from September 1949 to March 1955. Reita always held several positions at a time. When President of the Montwel Primary she wrote a pageant of the history of Montwel for the 1947 Ward Conference.

Reita was blessed July3, 1910 by Robert Powell, She was baptized into the Church July 27, 1919 by her Uncle John Brown in a pond on the Joe King pond [on the Maurel Taylor place across from where Delmer and Barbara live.] She was confirmed in the King home by Bishop Thomas Todd.

Her first position was when she was a Seagull girl in Primary when she was also the primary secretary of the Wells Branch of the Cedarwiew Ward. She held various positions in the Montwel Ward.

including Ward Clerk. In the Primary she was a teacher, councilor and President In the Sunday School she taught several different classes and was pianist for a short time. She was a “Bee-Keeper” and Junior Leader in the YWMIA. In Relief Society she taught Literature, Theology and Social Science lessons. She was a visiting teacher, first and second councilor and was a teacher and assistant in the Genealogy. She did Genealogy research on her own for most of her life.

After the Montwel Ward Church was burned down after being struck by lightening in July of 1957 the ward met in the Neola Chapel for nearly a year. In June 1958 the Montwel Ward was dissolved and most of the members went to the Roosevelt Second Ward. The people in the Monarch area went to Neola.

Reita’s callings in the new ward were Gleaner and Laurel Leader in YWMIA. She taught Genealogy classes, was Work Meeting Director and Culture Refinement Leader in the Relief Society. Reita was sustained September 8, 1971 as Stake Director of Libraries.

June 4, 1978 a new ward was created, Roosevelt 7^th Ward which included the Montwel area and down the Neola Highway to the first Hancock Road. Here she was Home Making Leader, Ward Record Examiner with Carrie Wills and helped at the Stake Genealogy Branch Library, helping on Mondays each week.

She was a Relief Society Librarian and also Librarian for the Handicapped Primary. She worked with her husband on the Indian Placement Program and with the Special Interest Group, older single people. They helped Virgil Mecham become active in the church and took him to many meetings and activities. She was also a Visiting Teacher. She did this until she was 80 or more. She was also a Welfare Leader and worked as a Primary Nursery Leader.

While in the Roosevelt Second Ward Reita and James went on a Mission for the Church in the Calgary Canada Mission for eighteen months, March 1974 to September 1975. There they worked with the Branch Organizations in Leadership positions and helping the Missionaries. They bought Jeep Wagoneer while there and spent much time picking up the Indian children to take them to meetings and other activities. They worked with the Cree Indians. Reita helped with the Relief Society. They made many friends and loved the people and were loved in return. They also took people on errands and hauled culinary water for them. While there Reita’s mother died and James’s brother Bill died. They were so far away they couldn’t come home for the funerals. They were on the Saddle Lake Indian Reserve.

James and Reita enjoyed traveling the last few years when James had good health. They made two trips to the Holy Land, South and Central America, the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, Panama. They enjoyed visiting the Book of Mormon Lands and ruins.

On the Panama Trip Dean and Remo Hamblin and Marley and Jean Hamblin went with them. They flew to Aubra, an island in the Caribbean Sea, and then went on a large cruise ship through the locks in the Panama Canal and to other ports. They went to Columbia, El Salvador, Guatemala and to Acapulco, Mexico. They visited many old ruins, probably from Book of Mormon times. They were thrilled to see these things.

In January 1979 they went on another trip to South America. It was a 14 day trip. Dean and Remo Hamblin went with them on this trip. They went to Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. While in Peru they met President Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the twelve Apostles. They also did a session in the Sao Paulo Temple.

Reita was able to go on trips with her sisters, Elva Galloway, Amy Stewart, Jean Hamblin and Dorotha Roberts. On one trip they went to England, Scotland, Southern Ireland and Wales. Elva didn’t go

On this trip. Later she went on a trip with them to some European countries. Reita said.”We traveled in Belgium, Luxemburg, Austria, Lichtenstein, Italy, Switzerland and France. We took a tram up 10,000 foot Mt. Titlis and walked inside a glacier. We visited Monoco and saw the palace of Prince Renier and Princess Grace Kelly [American Actress] and Monticarlo Cassino In Venice we traveled the streets in a boat and had a gondola ride music and all and saw the leaning tower of Pisa. We went to the Eiffel Tower in France. When in Rome, the Spanish Steps, Tivoli Gardens and the catacombs where Christians were buried and hid during the persecutions. We rode a ferry across the English Channel.

During the Scandinavia tour we traveled to Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. In Copenhagen, Denmark we saw the Little Mermaid on her rock in the harbor. While in Stockholm I tried to phone Shane but didn’t get him. We took a tour of Skanson’s Folk Museum and Wasa Museum displaying a 200 ft. ship which sank in 1628 on a maiden voyage and was brought up in 1961. In Olso, Norway we went to a Viking Ship Museum where they had 2 old ships well preserved as they had been buried in clay….also the first Kon Tiki. In Amsterdam rode in a glass boat through the streets and out in the bay. [They went to Rykes art museum where Reita and Elva rushed to see all the paintings they could. The saw Rembrandts “Night Watch”. They went to a wooden shoe factory and saw how wooden shoes were carved, and saw a working wind mill. On the way home they stopped in London 2 days and saw many other interesting things.]

They made several trips to places in the USA. Before Reita quit going on trips I think she had been in every one of the 50 states. The last trip she took was to Alaska. She loved to travel and it is so wonderful that she could do so.

Reita and some of her sisters also went on a trip to Minnesota, Michigan,and close states. They went to Mackinaw Island, where there are no motorized vehicles. All transportation is done by horses.

May 28, 1982 Reita left on a trip with Ruth and Myron Haslem on their way to Nauvoo, Illinois. The first night they stayed in a campground in Sulfur Springs, Colorado. The next day they drove through Colorado’s beautiful mountains and across the green, level Kansas plains. The following day they went

to Independence, Mo. They visited the LDS and RLDS visitors centers. They visited Liberty Jail. They stayed at Kampark in Arkansas. It rained a lot that day. May 31^, they traveled to Nauvoo, Illinois and stopped at the Carthage Jail, first. It had stopped raining so they went to see the monuments to Women.

June 1, they visited restored businesses and homes of early Nauvoo Church leaders. At the Coolige House of Arts and Crafts they met the Porters. Alden had asked them to look them up. Albert Porter made the fiberglass dinosaurs at the Field House in Vernal where Alden is the Superintendent.

Before leaving Nauvoo on June 2^nd they visited the homes of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. In

On the way home they went through Nebraska. They visited the Mormon Cemetery where a monument marks the place where so many of the Saints died after being driven from Nauvoo. On the 4^th they traveled through Wyoming and saw many antelope. They arrived in Logan, Utah where they attended the graduation of Glenn Haslem from Utah State University.

1982 Reita took a Fall Foliage Tour to some of the eastern states and Canada. Ila, sisters Amy and Jean went with her. They flew to Washington DC. They saw many sights there, ate at an Amish restaurant in Pennsylvania, toured Gettysburg and some other civil war places, saw a Corning glass Museum in New York, went to Niagara Falls on both sides of the border. The Canadian side was much prettier. There were flowers growing everywhere, almost every window having a box of flowers. They went to Toronto, Canada, went to a castle and up in the CN tower, the tallest free standing building in the world. They went on a tour boat around the Thousand Island Lake. And saw sights in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, Mass.,.

They went to the Atlantic coast in Maine where they saw a beautiful light house. They saw Plymouth Rock where the Pilgrims landed and saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell , North Church where the lights were put from Paul Revere ride, saw a mint where money is made and many other places. They stopped at the Washington DC LDS Temple and had their pictures taken with it in the background. It was a very wonderful trip. While on this trip Ila got word that their daughter Joy and husband Jim Munro had gotten their new adopted son, Benjamin from Guatemala. He was 7 months old.. This trip lasted about 15 days.

Reita went on a Friendship Force trip to Russia with Ruth and Myron Haslem and Dean and Remo Hamblin in October, 1982. October 16^th she went with Ruth and Myron to a Russian dinner at which they served borch, a beet soup with sour cream. Reita liked that but not everyone did. She didn’t like the thoughts of the caviar. She had canning to finish before the trip. Reita wrote: Oct. 21 I went to Salt Lake with Remo and Dean, Ruth and Myron for our tour to Russia…We saw Benjy, a cute little fellow Joy and Jim Munro just adopted. Nest morning we took United and flew to New York, then boarded Finnair for flight to Helsinki [Finland] about noon and did a little shopping, shops close at 4 pm and the Market at 2, gets dark early. Sun. had all Denominational church in Night Club of the Presidentti Hotel in Helsinki.” Then she wrote that Ruth can write about their days in Moscow and Leningrad and back to Helsinki.

They went to a Sacrament meeting with their guides. Half of the people there were Mormons and half were Baptists. The service was very nice. While there they were told NOT to drink the water or even brush their teeth in it. Reita didn’t like pop and it had sugar in it anyway so it was a little hard on her. This trip was more educational that a fun trip. They couldn’t give any one anything that was religious. They were glad to make this trip and it surely did make them appreciate the USA more.

Reita also took Arva on a trip to Hawaii.

Her last big trip was to Alaska. Amy Stewart went on this trip. They enjoyed it a lot and saw a lot of beautiful scenery. They rode in a boat in the ocean where they got to see glaciers. Reita hoped so see her grandson, Flint Hamblin who was working in one of the places they visited, but they didn’t find him. The only drawback on this trip was that they were told to bring warm clothes because the weather was often cold in June. So Reita took quite a few winter clothes which she had to carry around, and didn’t need because it was warmer than usual that year. It was a wonderful trip for her.

Reita wrote: We are proud of our family and love the grandchildren and great grand children we have. [Before her death she had two great great grandchildren] I love the Gospel. I love the Uintah Basin where I have lived my entire life except for a few short periods in Richfield, one winter in St. George, Utah and the 18 months in Canada on our Mission.”

The following is from a paper Reita wrote in May 1971, El. Ed. 301. “I had been feeling rather dissatisfied with my life so when the classes of the USU under the Uintah Basin Continuing Education

I signed up for 16 credits. I did this to help the college get going and to add interest to my life. I have taken a few classes every quarter since then and have really enjoyed them, but have found it hard to study after so many years away from school.

“When I complete this Foundation of Elementary Education, and the one I am taking in I.M.C.

Administration I will have a Teachers Certificate and a Minor in Library Science.

“My plans are to work with my daughter [Arva] who is taking a course at SUSC as a Nursery

Assistant, as she will have to work under a Certified teacher. I have had much opportunity to observe and work with children, having 8 of my own and 30 grand children next month I will become a great grandmother.”

Reita went to Logan, Utah to Utah State University to finish her on campus education. She finished her classes for her degree, which was given to her June3, 1972. The Major is Elementary Education and the minor in Humanities. We are all very proud of her for doing this. When she started classes she still had 2 daughters in school, though Reita Lyn graduated soon after. She still helped with the milking and other chores, fulfilled her Church callings and spent time with her grandchildren. What a busy woman! She never was idle. If she was sitting she was crocheting or reading.

Reita did her Student Teaching at the Roosevelt Elementary School. One student, Brent Gilbert, wrote: “To the person who really made class fun. To the person who learned me a lot To the person who never lost her temper. To the person who was really nice. To Mrs. Hamblin.”

Reita was also a member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and held positions in it.

Reita worked as a librarian in the Roosevelt City Library She was able to get quite a few more books for the Library. Her grand daughter, Lori Larsen worked with her for awhile when she was working with the Youth Corp.

Probably in the 70’s Reita got Diabetes. She took good care of her health and handled this well, although she sometimes couldn’t resist a piece of candy, cake or iccream. Even when she was living alone she fixed good healthy meals for herself. She loved potatoes and always tried to have at least one serving of potatoes while her family was growing up and when she was alone.

In 1981 Reita took a “Paint Along Class” at the Neola school. The instructor, A Vail would paint something in a scene and have everyone paint the same thing. They did 5 pictures in 5 days. She bought one of his paintings.

In about 1980 Reita bought a computer and took computer classes. She put a lot of family history on it and enjoyed using it. She always liked to learn new things. She was able to send many names from the Kennemer lines of ancestors to the temple.

James had surgery in the Fall of 1979. It was found that he had cancer, He had been in a lot of pain and the doctors said it was arthritis.

For Reita’s and James’s Golden Wedding Anniversary the family had a big picnic and get together

at Constitution Park in Roosevelt. All of their children and their spouses were there as well as most of the grand children and some great grand children. A party was held at the Moon Lake Electric Building for them. Many relatives and friends came to that. They had a big cake and other refreshments.

James continued to get weaker and in more pain. He tried to keep working out on the tractor as long as he could. Reita worried about him. Once he fell off the tractor and couldn’t get back on or walk very well so he had to crawl at least part of the way back. Reita took him down to vote in the National Election. He couldn’t get out of the car very easy so the Judges brought a ballot out to him.

It was hard to get James in and out of the house and car, but as long as she could Reita took him places that he wanted to go. She took great loving care of James. She tried to move or have someone help her move him every day and sit up in a chair for awhile to help prevent bed sores. When he got worse she got him a hospital bed and moved it into the dining room where he could see what was going on and it gave Reita more chance to get other things done. James couldn’t sleep well because of the pain. That meant that Reita didn’t get much sleep either. She would get so tired. Family members came to stay at night with him to allow Reita to get some rest. They took turns staying there. Ruth Haslem stayed there the most to help with James. James didn’t get to go to the annual family Christmas birthday party that year. He was in to much pain and was to weak. Ruth Haslem was with Reita when James died in the afternoon of January 26, 1981. Reita said that she missed him so much and especially his telling her how much he loved and appreciated her. She had done her best to care for him.

About the next year Reita bought a computer and took classes in using it. She enjoyed using it and did a lot of family history on it. She always liked to learn new things. She had a book on Kennemer families and since she had ancestors by that name she sent in dozens, maybe hundreds of Kennemer names to the temple.

.In 1983 Reita went on a trip with Delmer and Barbara Hamblin to Banff, Canada to a World Scout Jamboree to pick up about 8 scouts. They had their camper. They had a good trip and saw a lot of new scenery.

Reita went with Delmer and Barbara to Salt Lake to see their son, Laid off on his mission to South Africa. While at the airport Reita felt tired, weak and dizzy. She kept bumping into things and people. She couldn’t see very well. After getting home she still felt really bad. Julie Hamblin, grand daughter who is a nurse, was staying with her. She told Reita to see a doctor. She may have taken her. The doctor said she had probably had a mild stroke which is what Julie thought. He had her go to an eye specialist in Provo. Tests showed that the sight was gone in the right side of both eyes. This was very hard to get used to. She wouldn’t see things or even people on her right side. Eventually she adjusted, learning to turn her head more to the right. She was able to read, crochet and even to drive, even though we worried about that. She began working on her computer again and even bought a newer one. She did name extraction for the church on her computer. Reita loved going to the temple and went every chance she got. She often went out on the stake temple bus. She was happy when she could attend the temple weddings of her grandchildren.

After James died various relatives stayed with her for awhile, her sister-in-law Lora Hullinger , grand daughter Julie Hamblin, and former Indian Placement Alyce Sam Jones and 2 children. AT her Vernal home Kimberly Hamblin, Laird Hamblin, Alden Hamblin, Louise [Betts] Alexander and children and later Louise Alexander, Jenni and Justin and Becca and then Louise and Terry and Becca Alexander

stayed awhile, maybe others.

Reita decided to make a replica of the big house that she lived in when she was growing up. She made it from wood. It was about 2 feet square, maybe bigger. She got mini windows, doors, furniture, things like mat have been sold in the store part that they had for awhile. It was very nice. The grand children really loved to look at it and play with it. Her sister Elve painted some tiny pictures to go on the walls.

When Reita was about 75 she painted a picture for each of her children. She made many quilts, tying or doing the Crow’s Foot stitch. She made many baby quilts and crocheted baby blankets. She made quilts for each of her children, grand daughters and for great grand daughters. She bought back packs for the boys in the family.

Reita went to Salt Lake City with Delmer and Barbara to a house auction in 1988. She bought a house in Veranl, Utah. She just saw a picture of it on a screen. It was an older house, had 3 bedrooms, bath, living room, dining room, kitchen and sort of a storage or pantry room. The dining room had windows on three walls and Reita loved it. She had her sewing machine there and did genealogy, quilting etc. there. On the opposite side of the house was another bedroom with windows on 3 side. There she kept her computer and family histories and other books. She enjoyed living on Vernal. The church was less that a block away. A childhood friend, Meryl Carruth Bodily lived in Vernal and they went to Senior Citizen dinners and rides and took craft classes and once in awhile played Bingo. For awhile Reita was a Pink Lady at the hospital with Meryl. Other friends looked out for her. She often went to the Family History Library. She often walked to that.

Reita stayed in Vernal during the cold months and in her Montwel home in the warm months. She helped in Arvin Haslem’s garden when she could and she canned fruit and vegetables each summer until about her last summer. Arvin’s son Alden called her the garden grandma.

When Reita was about 83 her eyesight was getting worse and she had to quit driving She hated to give it up, bur her family were worried about the things she couldn’t see while driving. It took away her independence. She had always been the one to take others places. She gave her car to Arva. Then it wasn’t s temptation to drive.

Reita was so excited when the Vernal temple was announced. She thought that she would be able to walk to it, but she died before it was completed. She liked to go over and see the progress on it.

It would be hard to find anyone who was more patient, kind and generous than Reita was. She was always helping others out, with food, a place and with money. She gave money to help in college, or other schools, on missions, trips, where ever she saw a need. It wasn’t always family who she helped. She and James provided some scholarships when the local college began.

Cancer struck Reita in 1994 when she got breast cancer. She had to have a Mastectomy on her left side. The following is from her journal: Salt Lake City, Utah August 27, 1994.It is nice staying with Arva’s family while I convalesce from my [breast] cancer surgery. Today I am on the mend I was told by Dr. Gary White that a lump removed was cancerous. I should see Dr. Charles Edwards in Salt Lake I was

to see Dr. Edwards on Monday July 11^th.

My grandson Adam Hamblin had returned from an LDS mission to the Dominican Republic and was to give his report July10th. Reita and Dale Humphries came out about July 6^th and the next day I went to Vernal with them. We visited Julie and Buck Bynum and went to see Alden’s and Ilene’s new home.

[Sunday] I went to hear Adam’s report. I didn’t go to the family gathering but got ready to go to Salt Lake After the family gathering most of the family came to tell me good-bye. Duane and ? gave me a blessing [Dale also gave her a blessing in Tooele so I don’t know which gave her this blessing] In the blessing it was said, “You will feel the least pain possible. Even though your husband James misses you

your time is not yet. One reason to stay is to bear your testimony to your family. You still have work to accomplish. Heavenly Father is proud of you.” I haven’t had much pain through all the operations.

I came to Tooele with my daughter Reita [Lyn] and after the blessing she took me to Salt Lake July 10^th. He said to report the next morning at the hospital at 7 for the operation on my left breast. I was in the hospital 2 days. Then I went to Tooele and stayed in Tiffany’s room. She was in St. George and to be married August 12^th to Russell Shumway.

It was nice there. Reita Lyn had to dress the wound and empty a drain tube each day and take me to the doctor twice a week. In 3 ½ weeks the packing was removed. The flap of skin[to cover the place where the breast was removed] had decayed. I had been feeling fine and even walking.

When I went back to the doctor] the dead skin had to be cut away. I went back to Arva’s and she was packing the hole. Dr. Cannon, a diabetic doctor, said it would take a month of Sundays for it to heal and suggested skin grafts. It was so bad…..So I went in the hospital 2 more days, but the day I got to Arva’s it was bleeding again. It was nice here. Anthony gave me his room. I have a fridge, microwave and a TV with a remote control. I guess stopping the aspirin caused me to have a stroke and back to the hospital again. I couldn’t talk or swallow nor balance to walk. In the hospital they gave me a walker to use. I got out of the hospital August 16^th.

Reita was over the Hunt Reunion August 19^th at Powell Park in Montwel. Alden was over the Hamblin Reunion the at the Remember the Maine Park the 20^th. He had invited those who were at the Hunt Reunion to join them. Reita didn’t think she could go to them, but Arva arranged to take her out Friday night. When they tried to phone everyone was at the reunion. They went to James’s and he came, so they followed him back to the reunion. A large crowd was there.

Reita’s family started having family reunions every year in about 1955 and they still have them each year. They also started a family round robin letter which is probably still going around. It got sidetracked a few times but was always started again. The family was always a close, loving and caring family.

A large group attended the reunion the next day. A group went to look for the David Brown’s [Reita’s grandfather] place which was a mile north on up the canyon. Everyone had a good time.

August 30th Reita wrote: I am getting tired of being confined and anxious to be home although it is nice here at Arva’s….Arva is really busy. She works 8 hours at Salt Lake City Library, comes home and then goes to the BYU Center. She had this month off, but starts tonight.. The next day she had Arva drop her off at the temple. On September 3^rd she went to the Jordan River Temple with Arva and Drew and went through one session. This made the 6^th session she had attended since her operation. [She loved to attend the temple] Ruth and Myron brought her home. She wrote: When I came I only intended to stay 2 weeks and it will be 2 months Sat. Sept. 10^th. I am anxious to get home for awhile. I hope Arvin had corn and tomatoes I can freeze and bottle.. I missed the apricots but still have some from last year. [She always kept busy doing useful things]

The winter of 1994-5 Reita went back to Vernal. She came home early so she could take a Family History Class taught by David and Fontella Hunt

Reita went with Ila on July 5, 1995 to Manti, Utah to go to the temple wedding of Robert Hamblin and Judy Swasey on the 6^th. When they got to the temple they went to a session. Then the temple closed for the day because of the dress rehearsal of the Manti Pageant. They had a lot of time to spent before the pageant started. After eating they went to the lawn by the visitors center, spread out a quilt on the grass and talked, ate, and rested until awhile before the pageant began. They had good seats and a good parking place. They really enjoyed the pageant. It wasn’t so crowded being the dress rehearsal. They didn’t know that Janet Hamblin was in some of the scenes. The pageant was over at 11 pm and they were able to leave with no traffic problems, but as Ila hadn’t been to Reita’s sister Mary’s home, where they were staying, and Reita couldn’t remember just how to get there in the dark they drove around awhile before they saw Mary’s house with the light on. It’s a good thing Aurora is small. They stayed all night with Mary. The next morning they attended the wedding which was very special .

After the wedding there was a delicious meal at a restaurant. Reita was so tired that she slept most of the way home. She was to happy that she could go and this was a very special experience for Ila, too. Reita was happy when she could go to a temple wedding for her grandchildren.

In 1995 she made quilts for wedding presents and made a baby quilt or 2 for the Sort Center. She still went on the temple bus when it went.

By September Reita’s health was getting worse. She couldn’t see or hear very well. She was getting more forgetful about her medicines and shots. The family members took turns staying with her at night and sometimes in the day. Ruth and Ila took turns taking her blood sugar and blood pressure every morning and made sure she got the right medications. Someone would check her blood sugar later during the days and evenings. Everyone who stayed with her enjoyed being with her. It was a special blessing although they worried that they were doing things in the right way for her. Grand daughters and grand daughters in-law took turns bringing supper to her and often stayed to eat with her which she enjoyed and appreciated. She enjoyed her last Family Christmas Party and had Miranda Hamblin wrap some of her souvenirs up for each of her younger grandchildren and great grandchildren. Miranda had come to stay with her in December. Janet joined her in January. They were both taking college classes. Reita loved having the girls there.

The day of her final stroke Ila had been with her a few hours. Reita loved to hear Christmas stories and Ila read some to her. She would not only shed tears but would even sob. The stories touched her very much. Ila asked her if she wanted her to stop reading and she said “No”. She was always very emotional over sad and happy movies and stories and always shed tears. She had watched the new TV movie The Christmas Box and really enjoyed it. When her older children were young they often asked her to sing the sad songs that she knew. She always cried while singing them. One favorite one was “Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven For My Mamma”s There”. That was a tear jerker. Ila found the words and music to that in an old book.

Reita’s favorite movie, I think, was Random Harvest starring Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson, her favorite stars. They liked real life movies, usually of a historical nature and usually sad, or happy-sad.

Reita had a stroke January 29^th. Miranda and Janet were with her. She was taken to the hospital in Roosevelt. Many family members went to the hospital then and again the next day. Reita developed Pneumonia the next day and the family were called to come to the hospital. That night many stayed until quite late. Miranda decided to stay all night. Ila was going to stay, too, but Miranda said she’d be okay. There hadn’t been any change with Reita. Ila had just gotten home when she was called to come back. All of the children who lived near and some grandchildren were there. Alden and Ilene came over from Vernal. As she was breathing her last those who were there sat and visited and remembered and even though it was sad there was a good feeling there. She died at 1:15 am February 1996.

She was ready to go. She couldn’t see or hear very well and she hated not being able to do things. She was ready Spiritually, too. She had always lived a Christ like life and set such a great example for us to follow. We all missed her but we know that she is happy now with her beloved James, and with their son who died in 1946. She will also be with her parents and other family and friends. She was and still is a great woman.

To My Mom—Reita Hunt Hamblin Things I remember about Mom.

I remember my Mom, Always busy, always helping, always serving her family and doing things for them, and seldom thinking of her own needs.

I remember that my Mom was usually pleasant and tried very hard to create a good atmosphere in our home. I appreciated that, as I always hated to hear people jangling and arguing. I appreciate her efforts even more now because I have good memories of her pleasantness and of our home life. I appreciate it also because it helps me to try to keep a good feeling in my home, too.

I remember that Mom often donned chore clothes so she could help with the milking. Somehow that never made her seem less like a woman because Mom was always gentle and good. She often helped or did other chores, putting on old pants, shirts and chore coats. I remember seeing her often that way, but she was always refined and womanly, as the early pioneers, the mothers of the prophets and leaders must have been when they too were engaged in such tasks.

Mom was a willing worker and could accomplish so very much that it made me marvel when I later got a home and family of my own. I don’t know how she could possibly do all the things she did—cook the meals, do the cleanup, work in the garden, do the chores, wash and hang clothes on the line. Always sewing, canning, painting and fixing things, not to mention the care of the babies, and the church work she was engaged in. Such a worker she was and still is!

I remember her rocking the younger children, patting the babies on the back as she rocked them back and forth, tending, comforting, soothing, ‘til sleep and rest finally came.

I remember being ill as a little child and Mama fixed ma a place to sleep on the seat or couch in the living room, where it was nice and warm. Sometimes when I was ill, I’d have her sing for me and she would sing about “The Little Blind Girl” who died and went to heaven. She would sing the words to that or another song, “Hello, Central, Give Me Heaven For My Mama’s There,” and as she was such a tender hearted person would get tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat.

Mama gardened, canned and always, it seemed she fixed us three meals a day. I don’t know how she did it all.

Mama helped make things fun for us kids. She made clothes, mittens and doll clothes. She always saw to it that we had nice gifts for Christmas, and often spent hours sewing and fixing things so we could.

Mama spent a lot of hours raising a garden, a lot more time picking, cleaning, canning, cooking so we’d have good meals and so the money would stretch. She studied the pamphlets put out by the State Extension Office, so she’d know how to do all these things in the best way. She was as willing to learn as she was to work.

Looking back again to the fun things, I remember that we had Family Nights long before the Church set aside a special night for them. We played “Here comes am Old Lady With a Stick and a Staff” and “When I go Across the Plains I’m going to Take---“ and “Jump Jim Crow”. We had homemade Ice cream and picnics and set off fire works on the pond bank so we could see the reflections.

Mostly I remember that Mama had goals and ideals and she never lost track of those. She made life good whether conditions were good or not. She had loved life, lived it to the fullest, endured life’s hardships, too.

“We love you, Mom. Thanks for all you do and have done for us!” I think that we can all say “We love you and thanks for all you do and have done for us.” She is a truly great woman.