Jen - LDSingers/Snow

Wendy had gone to Snow College and had such a good experience, especially enjoying the singing group LDSingers. That was a big part in the decision of where I went to school (that, and the full tuition + fees/books + housing scholarship swayed me toward Snow). I made it into the singing group and that helped a lot socially, having that group of friends (as I hadn't really known anyone at the college going in). There were four marriages from this year (just for my own memory, John/JanelleWilmore, Dale/JanelleThompson, Ruel/TresaHaymond, Mike/JenniferFrishknect). I dated a couple of the guys myself  (going from tenor to bass).  

1989 - Christmas (Part1)     1989- Christmas (Part 2)

• at minute 12:00 there's a quartet of Mr. Santa
• just past 22:00 there's a quartet of "I'm Getting Nothing For Christmas"

Just a little easier to find me than when it's everyone! LDSingers would put on a Christmas concert, then a Spring concert, and do a spring tour.

Spring 1990 - Part 1

• at 10:30 it's "Telephone Hour" from Bye Bye Birdie

Spring 1990 - Part 2

• 2:00 "Golden Age of Rock&Roll"

My second year at Snow, I was again in the LDSingers group. As some of the guys had been in the group, gone on a mission, and then come back to Snow, there was a bit of an overlap between Wendy and I. Some fellows she knew from her time there from before their missions, I knew after they had returned. The director Brother Wilmore was there all through the years of course!

Having made friends last year, and getting an opportunity to live in a rental house owned by my Psychology professor, I was able to have several of the girls in LDs as roommates. Cindy, Lilly and I had been in LDs together last year, and Jaynee and Chris were new this year. There were three weddings that came out of this year (my roommate Jaynee and the boy next door Kevin were one, Jeff/JoyceGuymon, James/JennyWillmore). 

Christmas - 1991 (Part1)   Christmas - 1991 (Part2)

• 26:00 "Fruitcake"

Brother Willmore had uploaded all the videoed concerts he had ... I don't see my second year Spring concert up there, but I may have a copy. I'm looking to getting an old VHS tape converted. Mom and Dad were always good at coming down to watch the performances. 

Jen - School Snapshot

 

Ah, school picture day. Sometimes they turned out, sometimes they didn't. Class pictures now feature just the faces of the other kids, their school pictures (you can check out the collages and elementary classes of  Callahan and Keaton) but it includes their names too, which is good for remembering in future years. In the olden days, it was actually a group photo, and sometimes they'd take it more than once to try and catch people who might have been absent. So the group photo wasn't always the same day as "picture day" ... here, the 2nd and 5th and 6th grades the individual photo and class photo happened on the same day, but the other years based on the different clothes/hair, the group shot was a different day. 

Preschool with Pauline Hogsen

Elementary Years at Woodstock

Jen had the same teacher as she entered and exited elementary ... Mrs. Diamond taught Kindergarten in 1976 and for several years after, but was moved to 6th grade in 1983. Jen has fond memories of all her elementary teachers, although she had been nervous about Mrs. Bullock (3rd grade). She would make you write "I have never ________" (whatever you did wrong) 100 times! So Jen just didn't do anything wrong *Ü*  Chris and Wendy had her as well ... I believe it was her class that introduced the family to the book "Sonny Elephant" which was a favorite, and which Mom/Margie picked up at a school sale many years later. 4th grade was a "split" class, and the teacher (Mrs. Bjarnson would end up being in Jen's ward years later after Jen was married). 5th grade was in the "Pod" ... a big open area with two classes in it. We saw the obituary for Principal DeGraw in July 2020, age 87. 

How many class pictures can we round up from the other Westra siblings?

There are a few in the school folder on Dropbox.

See the School Daze post for all the Westra siblings school pictures, glimpses of the schools; Woodstock, Bonneville Jr and Cottonwood High School and Remembering Woodstock ... as the elementary school was torn down and rebuilt in 2011.  Check out Dad/Lamar's elementary memories!

Carousel Kids

 

After Wendy and Jenny outgrew the baton lessons, Jenny still wanted to perform. Mom signed her up for a cute little song and dance group called Carousel Kids. It was Spring of 1980. Jen still has a cassette tape of some of the songs the group sang (she doesn't have a cassette player though ...) Here's a few of the songs/lyrics she remembers, even 40 years later!

Mom/Margie didn't remember any of these songs (below), 

but she remembered the group performed "Wells Fargo Wagon" ...

• Walking in the Sunshine: "Tell the blues that I've got news I'm putting on my walking shoes and I feel fine. Ummmmm. Come on in and watch me grin I'm letting all the sunshine in, I've got the time. Ummmm. To go walking in the sunshine. Taking it easy. Living my life now one day at a time. La la la la la la la la la la la, la la la la la la ..."
• Ain't Gonna Rain: "Raindrops and teardrops someday when the rain stops I'll find me a new place somewhere in the sun. I'll find me a new place I'll share with someone, and it ain't gonna rain anymore."
• Good Friend: "If you let me, I could be your good friend. If you let me, we could walk together. We're not so different you know. Though we may have different dreams. When they fall apart. We hurt the same it seems...
• The Inventor's Song: "When you're spelling the word, America, don't forget to dot the i, for the inventors, don't forget to dot the i." I still remember MANY inventors because of this song.
• There was a Man: " John Smith, there was a man! Hi Ho Diddle Aye Oh! From Kentucky he began, to make our country grow-ow-ow-ow, make our country grow. Brigham Young, there was a man, hi-ho-diddle-aye-o, down in Utah he began, to make our country grow-ow-ow-ow, make our country grow."  I don't know if this "There was a MAN" would be considered politically correct today!
• Are You For Independence: This went through the first 13 colonies ... "Connecticut, are you for independence? Are you for the pursuit of happiness? For life and liberty and freedom? Connecticut votes yes!"

The bottom three songs are all "America" themed songs, and some years ago, Jen found an album with them on (America Pie, the Peter Pan Chorus) and was able to get MP3s she has in her Itunes library (along with Music Man! A favorite record from the Westra childhood). And in 2017, Colton's class sang one of the songs during a school program (and he said the other two sounded familiar as well). 

In the pictures above, the girl with Jenny was Natalie Lewis, a gal down the street (a year younger than Jen, Natalie's brother Jason was Jen's age) and they were in this singing group together. Jen found a couple mentions about the group in her journal (she didn't write much when she was not quite 10 years old) ...

April 12 Today I started a singing group. I go every Sat. at 10:00

May 17 Singing program and I was so good my grandma gave me $1

Jen would continue to sing - high school musicals and madrigals, community theater, and another song/dance group in college!

Twirly Girls

The Wonderful Westra Sisters! Wendy and Jenny were marching in parades in 1978 and 1979, dressed in these tiny, sparkly red costumes, and twirling a baton. Really, it was all in the wrist, we never even attempted a spin with fingers. It was more about the marching. A red bow on the back of the head, or a sparkly headband with a feather ... in the "winter" costume, note the white earmuffs and the red pom-pom on the shoes too.

The leader of this incredible group was our neighbor across the street from our Hermitage House. You can see the group really varied in age (and height).  We marched in several parades and participated in competitions and I'm sure Scott, Chris and Shane just loved coming to watch!

Here's some of Wendy's memories from her journal ...

• December 1978: My name is Wendy Westra. I am 10 years old. I take piano lessons and baton lessons... My sister, Jenny is 8 years old. Me and my sister made up a routine in baton lessons, We did it to "It's a Small World." Our teachers thought it was cute!
• February 1979: For baton I did a routine to "Music Machine." It was my favorite record but the record melted and I was really worried because we needed to listen to it to do the routine because it was my best one and there would be trophies and prizes! Now I will have to borrow our neighbors. 
• July 3, 1979: We went to swimming lessons and to primary and then we took a shower and ate lunch and started getting ready for the Children’s Parade in Provo. We ate there and saw Cannonball and Harvey and we won second place out of the teams like drill, baton, pom poms, etc. (Last year we won first). We goofed up but the judges thought we were cute both years, but everything turned out pretty good.
• July 4, 1979: It’s the 4th of July. We were in a parade at Murray in the morning. Mom and Dad, Chris, Scott, and Shane came and watched us. There were lots of horses and I’m glad we weren’t after them because they went to the bathroom all over! There were people dressed up like Spiderman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.
• July 18, 1979: We had a slumber party at Shauneen’s house for baton. We slept outside and everyone brought a treat. We played games and had a lot of fun. They have a trampoline that we played on. I didn’t fall asleep till 12:30.

**FLASH FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

In 2012, Mom/Margie uncovered the little red baton outfits in storage. 

She passed them on to Wendy, and the Jensen girls tried them on and had a little photoshoot. 

Janelle, Jaiden and Jenna

Wendy wrote "One thing I remember (probably a few days before the parade) is Shauneen Hadley telling all of us to wash our hair really well the night before the parade so that it would shine! Then she told us that after we washed it -- wash it again! I thought that was funny that we had to wash our hair not only once -- but twice -- to make it shine!"

That reminded Mom/Margie of a memory ... "Talking about washing your hair twice brought back memories of how my mother always shampooed us once, and rinsed, then shampooed a second time, then rinsed. Then she rinsed our hair either with lemon water or vinegar water. The way she would curl our hair when we were little is with little strips of rags. She would roll a strip of hair up with the small strip of rag, then tie the rag to hold the curl in place. She would do this overnight and take the rags out in the morning----and voila, curly hair." 

Maybe Wendy and Jen should resume a routine and perform it at a family function! *Ü*

Little White Dress

The little white dress ... it was old, passed down through generations. Of course the Westra girls don't remember trying on the dress, but they were familiar with the pictures and some of the story behind it. It was over a hundred years old... 116 years old when Wendy wore it, 118 when Jenny tried it on.

Both of the pictures above were taken at Grandma Lucille's home (Wendy in the back yard, Jenny on the driveway). The dress was originally Lucille's grandmother Laura's when she was a little girl. Born in 1853, Laura likely wore the dress in 1854 when she was a toddler. I checked out family search to see if there were any pictures of Laura,  Olive (Lucille's mother) or Lucille in the dress, but couldn't see any. 

But there is a picture of Dad/Lamar's sister Sharon in it when she was a year old.

... and a picture of Sharon's daughter Alyson when she was a year old.

Fun to see a little piece of history worn by different family members!

Jenny Joins the Family

Just an interesting note ... here on Google's Blogspot, posts can be backdated, but the furthest back you can go is ... (drumroll please) 1970! Will I backdate this all the way to 1970? We shall see :) 1970 is when all the important stuff really started! The birth of Jennifer Lynn Westra.

Jenny was about 8 days late, so my parents went ahead and came to Richland, thinking surely she would be born any day. It was almost time for them to go back home before she was finally born. It was the middle of the night when we went to the hospital, so we didn't even wake my parents to tell them we were leaving, and they would be there to tend our 3 kids. Back then, new mothers stayed in the hospital a little longer. 2 or 3 nights? But since my parents had to leave and I wanted them to be able to hold her lots, I came home early, after maybe 1 night. So this was my hardest birth emotionally afterwards, coming home to 3 little kids, plus the baby. My parents left in about one day. And I really didn't get the help I needed being away from family and all. I don't think either Dad nor I really knew what to expect in the way of needing help after having babies. So he would come home from work and go out in the yard to work til dark. Born Tuesday at 2:35 am (the other three had all been born on a Monday). I have already written about Kadlec Methodist Hospital. 3 to a room. Get out and crank up your own bed. A young girl smoker in the middle bed--another reason to go home early. 6 lbs. 10 oz. 20 inches.

Information from the baby book ... 

• Room 413B
• Dr. Robert E. Chase (Dr. Gard also listed)
• Looks like - Mom/Chris
• Eyes - Blue, Hair - Light Brown
• First Smile - 4 weeks
• Slept through the night at five weeks.
• Crawled at six months
• Walked at 11 months