1st 20 years (growing up)
I was born on Saturday, Nov. 7, 1942. The address listed on my little newspaper birth announcement was 140 Gerard Ave. in S.L.C. My parents didn't live here for very long. Gerard Ave. was just barely on the North side of downtown S.L. I remember my dad saying that Gerard Ave. was torn down and Social Hall Ave. replaced it. Social Hall Ave. was where Rex worked in his career a few years into their marriage and then for the rest of his working career (when we lived on Boxelder street in Murray). So Dad said he worked on the same street where they used to live when I was born! We moved to Mt. Pleasant soon after my birth, by my Dad’s parents, when he went off to serve in World War II (he never did combat, but stayed in the states). Merrill was born in Mt. Pleasanton May 3, 1944, when I was 18 months old.
I can’t remember exactly how old I was when we moved to 4568 Boxelder Street in Murray, but it was before kindergarten. When we first moved there, the trains just west of us were so loud, in the night it was scary for me as a child because it sounded like they were heading right for the house. But soon you never even noticed the noise.
I went to the movies at Murray Theater a lot as a child (It is still there on State Street in Murray, but not used as a theater). As I remember it, I would have 20 cents. It would cost 12 cents for the movie ticket and I would buy 8 cents worth of penny candy at a little store by the theater. We also went to a theater in downtown Salt Lake (Utah Theater I think). I can't remember if we took the bus or someone's parent took us. I remember there were black and white newsreels of what was going on in the world and lots of cartoons. Later, when I was teen, my friends and I would go to Murray Theater a lot on Friday or Saturday nights----no so much for the movie, but to see friends from school, especially boys, who might be there. I remember I could often tell who was there as they walked up the aisle in the darkened theater, just by the way they walked, and size and shape etc.:-).
We lived at the Boxelder house through my sophomore year in high school. I attended Arlington Elementary, Murray Jr. High and Murray High School. In 8th grade, my friend DeAnne Webb and I were cheerleaders, song leaders, and would lead the school in the school song after each assembly. We did a lot of lip sync acts on assemblies. I was elected Sophomore Secretary in 10th grade and was one of the nominees for prom queen, but didn't get chosen.
My first job was as a carhop at the A & W Rootbeer Drive-in at 4500 South and State Street. We moved to 2665 E. Spring Hollow Drive, in East Millcreek, in the Fall of 1959, after Nelva got married on March 20, 1959, on her 20th birthday. My mom’s brother, Berthell Howell, built our house. Merrill and I started school at Olympus my Junior year and I had to drive from Murray for awhile. We were in the new house before my birthday in Nov. I went from being “a big fish in a little pond” to being “a little fish in a big pond.” Olympus was a very big school, with 720 in my graduating class in 1961, so I didn’t get well acquainted in my two years there. I was #20 academically. Skyline started the following year, so Olympus was divided. Nelva worked as a secretary at a law office in the Sentinal Insurance Co. building about 21st South state Street and got me a job there. She was married and had a baby and worked mornings and I worked after school. I received a full-tuition scholarship to Henager’s Business College, so I went there and graduated in 1962, shortly before we got married. I was voted by my classmates at graduation as “The Secretary most likely to Succeed.” LaMar graduated from the University of Utah in Chemistry 1962 also.
While at Henager’s, a chapter of Lamda Delta Sigma (the Church fraternity/sorority at the U.) was started—Omicron. I joined. As part of joining, you had to memorize the names of the Inter-chapter officers, of which LaMar was one. I thought Westra was a nice name. I met LaMar at the first “conjoint” party between Omicron and Delta chapter (which LaMar was in). It was a Halloween party. The day before meeting LaMar, I sent off the missionary I was planning on marrying. We were “pinned” for Valentine’s Day and became engaged at the U. of U.’s Junior Prom at the UnionBuilding in April.
First 20 years of marriage~
We were married in the Salt Lake Temple on June 29, 1962. I was 19 and LaMar was 25. We had our wedding breakfast at the Maxfield Lodge up the canyon. Our reception was held at our Church bySkyline High. Our first apartment was in a new 8-plex in Sugarhouse on McClelland Street. LaMar did a year of post-graduate work at the U. to avoid the draft, which ended at age 26. I worked as a secretary in the Radiobiology Dept. at the Cancer Research Center at the U.
Around the time of our first wedding anniversary, we moved to Richland, Washington. LaMar had 3 job offers, one in California, one in Denver, and the one in Richland. He visited Denver to interview, we both made the trip to California to interview----then accepted the Richland job offer from General Electric without even visiting there. I was 3 months pregnant with Scott. It was difficult to find a place to rent. Apartment complexes didn’t want people with children or expecting one. We finally found an old house to rent on Rainier Street. LaMar had to start work, so I had to spend the days in the empty house, waiting for the moving truck to arrive. I had morning sickness and ate barbecue-flavor potato chips while waiting at the house----I haven’t been able to stand them for the next 50 years!
We had some nice young couples as neighbors and enjoyed life there. LaMar was a stake missionary and took classes a couple times a week, so I got tired of being alone a lot. Scott was born on Monday, Dec. 16, 1963, just before midnight, at the Kadlec Methodist Hospital. It was a fast labor and delivery. My parents came up for a visit after he was born. After they returned to Salt Lake, I developed a fever and weakness on my left side and was re-hospitalized. They did a spinal tap, etc. to check for meningitis, etc. Our pediatrician arranged for baby Scott to be admitted also, so I could nurse him, and so LaMar didn’t have to care for him. The doctor put the bump on Scott’s ear as the reason for the hospital admittance.
I had a couple more episodes of the fever and weakness over the next few months and my doctor had me go to a neurologist in Seattle. I was never really diagnosed—just “an inflammation of the brain.” It hasn't reoccurred but has left me with a slight weakness on my left side.
LaMar had appendicitis and had it removed (I think while I was pregnant with Chris). Chris was born on Sept. 5, 1966. Chris was a long labor and was born on Labor Day. We purchased a new home at 726 Saint Street before Wendy’s birth on April 29, 1968. Since I was sent home from the hospital when I first went in for Chris’s birth, I almost waited too long when in labor with wendy and was only at the hospital a half-hour before she was born. Jeni was born Nov. 10,1970. We moved back to Salt Lake in August 1972 and bought a newly built home at 1677 Hermitage Circle. We lived there for 23 years. Shane was born on May 3, 1976. Kellie Sue was born April 17, 1979, and died of a congenital heart defect at Primary Children’s hospital on April 25, when she was 8 days old. Cory Matthew died in utero two weeks before his due date, and was born on Nov. 5, 1980. Derek was born May 5, 1982. Scott was 18 ½ and graduating from Cottonwood High School. After one year at BYU, Scott left for his mission to Tampa, Florida, May 1983.
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