Gerald and April--Life in LA

1974-5 “APRIL HAS BULDOZED ME!”

Things over here are really hectic, and I’m about to go nuts trying to get everything taken care of. The VW is in the shop now, and the Malibu needs to be tuned as soon as the VW is out. ¾ of our furniture is still in El Paso, and the ¼ that is here in L.A. is just dumped in our apartment. That a mess. Hopefully we can get everything settled in a few weeks.

On top of all this, we’re broke. You won’t believe this, but April has bulldozed me into buying 3 suits in the last week or so. One in Phoenix and two here in L.A. They were all good deals—average was about $55 a piece, but still-we’re broke and no paycheck till the 7th of Oct. What a sad life.

We looked and looked on the west side for an apartment, but we struck out completely. We found only 2 places out of at least 100 that checked out or read signs on that would allow children. One was already full, and the other was so dumpy looking and high priced, that we didn’t even bother going in. I can’t believe the number of ADULTS ONLY apartments out here. We have found out form experience in our short weeks here, that babies are a real novelty. There just aren’t very many of them here. Anyway, we went to Glendale and bought a local newspaper and checked out an ad, all the way up in La Cresenta which is above Glendale. The place was $195 although the inside was nice, and exterior looked OK, the inside courtyard looked like a cell block. Even so, we were considering it and in talking to the manager, April asked where the closest LDS church was, and come to find out the manager was LDS. Not only that, but the next two complexes were LDS managed. To make a long story short the next place was $185 + utilities and is very nice, pool etc. WE took it and are really happy.

1974-5 “FIRST WAVE OF DISAPPOINTMENT”

Things in L.A. aren’t going so well. The first wave of disappointment has begun to set in. I am so sick of just sitting in the office, plus that I have tried to transfer to the tax dept, and they won’t let me until after busy season which means that I will lose a year as far as promotion in the tax dept. goes.

1975-05 “WO IS ME”
Now Park, after all of that—doesn’t tracting sound easy. Boy you’ve got it made. Just wait until you’re married and have an 11 month old bag of wiggles and squirms. Oh how simple the life of a missionary is. That part that bothers me is that as I look into the future, I see things going only one direction—more hectic.

Chipper has been really sick lately. He got horrible coughing spells which never get any better unless we take him in to the doc. Last week he got bronchitis, and the doctor told us that he is probably getting the infection in the nursery at church. The result is that we can’t put him in the nursery for 3 months—that in turn means I have to take care of him in Sunday School. Oh boy, what a mess. It’s also pretty apparent that he is developing asthma and I am bracing myself for the worst. April has an appointment to take him into the specialist, and we will find out how bad it is. One bad thing is that a lot of his allergies won’t have begun to surface yet. I can just see it now—all of my children will wind up with terrific allergies and I will wind up doing all the yard work for ever and ever. Wo is me!!

1976-03-14 “SHE WAS SUCH AN UGLY LITTLE THING” (April writing)

Lots has happened to our little family these last three weeks. We are very thankful for our little daughter Quinn and have found such joy in her sweet little spirit. She is an absolute doll and never cries except when she is hungry. We have had only one bad night since she came so I’m thankful for that. I will be glad when she sleeps a little longer between feedings, though. This 3-3 ½- 4 hour bit really gets old fast, doesn’t it? We had a little bit of trouble in getting her here (at least harder than Chipper). She was posterior in the birth canal (that is face up) and the doctor had to turn her around while still in the canal. It took about 30 minutes to do that but once she was turned, she came immediately. She was such an ugly little thing when she was born. Gerald and I have always kidded each other about which one of our children would bet my Dad’s big nose and when we took the first look at Quinn, we were sure she was the lucky one! Her nose was spread half way across her face, her head was so out of proportion, it was bruised and lumpy—in short, that little thing looked pitiful. However, we are pleased to report that now she is a cute young lady (the picture doesn’t do her justice!) Boy, do I ever sound like an obnoxiously proud mother! But I am so that’s that! We took her to church last night for the first time and that was fun, too. The biggest change I know that I will find now that we have two little ones the age that they are is that I won’t be able to get out and around like I have done. Did you, Alita, Pam and Mom find that was a problem when the others came along? How do you go grocery shopping or any kind of shopping for that matter? Hey, that will make Gerald happy! But it sure is fun and we kind of like having a little girl around.
I wish I could say that our little Number #1 son was being such and angel but we have really had our share of catastrophes as far as he is concerned since Quinn was born. To start the whole thing off, the day that we came home from the hospital, Gerald took him down to the doctor’s office to get a measles shot. There has been a measles epidemic here in LA and Chip had never gotten his vaccination. Gerald had stayed home that day and was a little bit reluctant (to say the least) to spend his day at home in the Dr. office. Nevertheless, I persuaded him to go. On his way home he had to stop by a garage because the Malibu was giving us some problems. He had called the mechanic before and the mechanic told him to just drive up and honk and he would come out and they would take the car for a little dive to see what the matter was. When he got there, he honked and the fellow didn’t come out. So Gerald hopped out of the car, put it in park, left the ignition on with Chip in the back and was standing 10 feet away for 10 seconds when he saw the car moving with old Pernelli Romney at the wheel.! Yes, it did crash and no, Crusher wasn’t hurt, but yes, the Malibu was. The only time it has ever been in a wreck, guess who had to do it--$450 worth! Let this be a lesson to all—never leave a little one in a car with the ignition on! Better yet, never leave a little one in the car period. The next day was pretty exciting, too. We have a darling family across the street from us that we are trying to fellowship. They are so nice and friendly but Catholic. They have three children—a boy 4 and twin girls Chip’s age. Carol came over and wanted to know if Chip could come over and play with the kids in their back yard. Of course I said YES because he had been wearing my patience a little thin that particular morning. In the mean time, I got in the shower, washed my hair, etc. and was just getting ready to curl it. It was almost dry and I have a permanent in my hair and when it isn’t curled and just dry, it looks like and extra long afro—frizzy and all. Well, I looked a sight and the doorbell rang. I went to the door and the little 4 year-old said, come quick, Chip is hurt! So I ran over to the house and here he was, leaning over the sink with blood all over him—he had wiped out on a motorcar and split his head open. The doctor wasn’t in and so I had to take him to the hospital emergency. I was really proud of him, though, because he never cried—not even when he fell—until he got in the emergency room and they tried to strap him down! Then you could have heard him all he way to El Paso! Because of the nature of the cut, they had to give him an x-ray, too, which meant more strapping down and to top it off, he moved after 20 minutes of x-rays and they had to do it again. I am convinced that Heavenly Father is giving us second chances with this little boy. If all we had were first chances, none of us would ever make it! A week later, I noticed a little sore on his chest, which looked like someone had taken a cigarette and burned a little circle on his skin. I watched it for a few days and it kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Then little bumps all over his chest and arm started to appear. I took him to the doctor again and found out that he has empatigo. I am not sure on the spelling, but it is a very contagious skin ailment that takes a while to go away. We hope this is all of the catastrophes in his little life for a while. He is getting to be just like his Daddy was, isn’t he, Mom?
Chip is also having quite a time adjusting to the new little one. I have decided to stay at home another we and not do any of my Primary work so that I can hopefully get him back to normal. He spends 30 minutes out of every hour in tears, it seems, and aside from it getting on our nerves, it’s so upsetting to see such an unhappy little fellow. I have really been trying to make special times for just the two of us and have them be frequent so that he can feel that his sister isn’t getting all the attention. She really sleeps most of the time so it isn’t that often that he sees me holding her or feeding her. He just realizes that our little family isn’t like it was and he is wondering why. I guess they all go through it but with the “terrible twos” almost here in addition to a new sister, it is a little more than he can handle—and more than his mama and daddy can handle, too!
Saturday turned out to be exciting too. Gerald is fixing up our unfinished basement room and we are putting in a washer and dryer, our freezer, and a large storage area down there. For the past month and a half, he has been so busy hooking up all the electricity, plumbing, etc. and on Saturday we had the washer put in and almost the dryer. The lady that we bought the dryer from had used it for two years and it has been in storage in her daughter’s garage for the past year. We went to look at it and at that time, Gerald made a comment on the rat droppings that were all over the garage. The dryer was in excellent condition and so we bought it. Well, to make a long story short, a pack rat had made its way inside the dryer and had built a little nest right next to the jets where the flame comes out in the dryer. When Gerald started it up, you can imagine the outcome. I heard this blood-curdling cry and ran down and saw smoke billowing out of the basement door—it had started in fire but we were able to put it out. We don’t know what will happen now—if the people will refund our money or if they will pay for a repairman. We are super disappointed, though, and are just keeping our fingers crossed

1976/09/07 “ABOUT THE FAMILY”

First, about the family—Chipper was a real terror when he got back from vacation. He would make it a life or death matter when it came to going to bed. It was a real trial, but now that the old routine is back it’s back to normal—only about 150% of what we can handle rather than 300%. This last weekend he was a really good boy and loads of fun. He tries to help out in whatever I do and is always right there.

Quinn is really growing and is scooting around now. She can’t crawl yet, but she gets where she wants to go. In scooting around she pushes off with her big toes and the other day April noticed she had two blisters on her toes. It looked kind of painful, but she kept right on going. She is going to be the only girl on the block with callused toes.

April and I have really committed our selves to our years supply program and last Friday we canned 35 quarts of peaches. We got the peaches from Army and they were sure good. The last two weekends I have really had the project. Underneath our house in what we call the basement I poured a concrete slab (built the forms, mixed the concrete and the whole works) to put our food supply on. Then Saturday I built a little platform to keep the stuff up off the concrete and stacked all the items. It was a real chore since there isn’t enough room to stand up and I can still feel it a little bit. I guess I’m a little out of shape.

1977/02/09 “CHIP AND HIS BIRTHDAY SUIT”
I got a ticket for speeding and it is the 3rd in 3 years and to keep it off my record I have to go to traffic school. I could just pay the $19.50 fine, but to keep it off I have to pay $8 and spend 8 hours in Saturday Traffic school. So I get to give up my day off—what a bite!! This ought to teach me.

The biggest news at home is that Quinn is walking now. It is so fun to watch her. She starts off across the room and you can see her start to lean and whoops—Down she goes. He’s getting pretty good though and doesn’t fall nearly as much. Imagine your self walking with 2 very, very stiff knees and swaying back and forth on every step and you’ve got her style down pat. She also says Dada, Mama, and ughhhhh!—The last translates to give me that bottle I see. She scrunches up her face into the weirdest contortions, That is one thing Chipper never did.

Chipper is having a great time too. He’s two and ½ now and really talking up a storm. In his prayers every night he remembers to bless Unca brent on his mission. He also thinks he is very grown up and is picking up various dialogue that he hears. The other day he came in with a scratch on his tummy and announced “Poorme, I hurt myself on my tummy.” He is also much better at minding now and is a pretty good boy all the way around. Last Saturday afternoon I was giving both him and his sister a bath, and after I finished dressing Quinn I couldn’t find Chipper. After awhile I found him in the back yard going to town on the swing—in his birthday suit.