1954-1965

I went back to school to finish fall quarter and Larry began plans to go back after Christmas to start winter quarter with me.  Larry began taking the missionary discussions soon after he started school and made plans for my dad to baptize him in Arizona.  My grandma Lewis was still alive.  It was closer than the drive to Utah for my dad to make.  He was baptized 10 Apr. 1954 in Mesa, Arizona. 

Once back at school, we attended all the fun activities and dances that we could. One funny experience that I remember was when we were sitting toward the back of the Joseph Smith Building.  We were listening to one of the choirs rehearsing while waiting for a religion class to start.  Larry leaned over for a kiss (or two), and the choir applauded!!  I was really embarrassed!  Close to the end of spring quarter we knew that our wedding would be in June.  My mom tried really hard to talk us into waiting until I graduated.  But Larry was pretty adamant about the June date.  I promised I would continue to go to school and graduate.

I designed my wedding dress and sent the drawing to my mom.  Again, she preformed her seamstress magic and created a ballerina length white Chantilly lace dress.  Our date was rapidly approaching of June 26th.  We were married on the patio of my parent’s home in Fullerton, California.  A funny thing happened to Larry before the wedding.  He discovered, when Pres. Cannon asked for the wedding license, so he could sign it, that he had forgotten and left it in the roadster that he had hidden so his friends couldn’t follow us after the wedding.  As he went racing back to where he had parked the car, he passed his parents as they were almost to my parent’s house.  I’m sure they wondered if the wedding was off!!!  As it happened, he didn’t have to worry about his friends following us, because my Aunt Alma had driven all the way from Arizona to be there and arrived AFTER the wedding and the reception.  She thought the wedding was at 8:00 PM and it was at 4:30!!  Mom insisted that we stay and visit her for awhile.  Our friends had long left.  We borrowed a car to go get the roadster and there was a wedding present lying on the seat!  He had permission to park it on the ranch of some people he knew in Anaheim.  It was so sweet of them!!  We took off for our destination of San Clemente for our honeymoon.  We stopped for a romantic dinner at the El Adobe Restaurant in San Juan Capistrano.  Our room at the motel was high on the beach front, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  It was beautiful with colorful geraniums.  It wasn’t until the next day that we discovered that Larry had a very strong allergy to geraniums and had a bad asthma attack.  So we had to leave.  We were expecting to stay 3 days.  Granny Lutz had a beach house in Newport Beach on the ocean front and we stayed there for the rest of the week.  We went shopping for groceries and ate some our meals there.  I decided to make a cake for Larry as a surprise and put it in the refrigerator where he wouldn’t see it.  I didn’t realize it, but I had turned the temperature on the refrigerator the wrong way and it defrosted right into my cake!!!   What a soggy disappointment!!!

When we got back from the honeymoon, Larry started working for his uncle at an acetylene and oxygen company in Los Angeles. I got busy and registered for school at Long Beach State College, later to become known as UCLB.  (Univ. of Calif. Long Beach).  It didn’t take long to discover I was pregnant.  I went ahead and began my junior year, carrying 16 units, being a new wife and expectant mother.  We lived on a chicken ranch in a small house next to the main one in Cypress, California.  It was a 20 mile drive to the University.   That semester flowed smoothly.  My pregnancy was not presenting any problems, so I decided to begin the second semester taking only a few credits.  The instructors were kind enough to agree that I could take 2 weeks off for the birth.  The school had an upper and lower campus with no parking on the upper campus.  This meant walking up to classes.  My guess is that this activity started an early “spotting” or bleeding.  I went to the doctor to get it checked and he said the baby wasn’t in position to be born but, he wanted me to check in the hospital to be under observation.  Well…. Rand was born the next day, March 2, 1955 in the late afternoon.  We had a “natural childbirth”.  Labor was not too difficult.  After 3 days in the hospital, I went to my parents to stay for a few days.  I had been given a Bathinette and was giving the baby a bath.  My dad was standing behind me, when he was suddenly surprised by being squirted in the face with pee.  That was my first real lesson on keeping Rand covered when bathing or changing him.  It was much safer that way. 

After a total of 2 weeks, I went back to my classes.  My parents paid for babysitting for the rest of the semester.  That semester ended my junior year.  There was just one more year to get my diploma!!!!  I had started college with the intention of having music as a major and a minor in education.  That way I could get a credential to teach Junior or High School Music.  However, by this time, when I saw what was left to finish my major in Music, I realized needed to make an adjustment.   At the end of the senior year I would have to give a recital.  This meant renting a hall, printing invitations and having refreshments.  This would require more money than we had.  I changed my major to elementary education and a minor in music.  The credential would be effective to teach K-8.  In November, I knew I was pregnant again.  The baby was due in July.  I had it all figured out that I would be able to graduate in the spring.  Well, this was not to be!!!  They wouldn’t let me student teach, being pregnant.  So that meant I had to student teach in the fall.  Again, my parents came through and paid for babysitting  2 babies and giving  me gas money for travel to and from school.  They were happy that I was willing to make the effort to finish school.  And I was grateful for their assistance.  I graduated at the end of January 1957.  I was offered a job for Anaheim School District as a 4th grade teacher.  The class was a very difficult class to handle….22 boys and 7 girls.  This class had been selected for the previous teacher, because of her experience with discipline problems.  This proved to be very stressful for me and a very natural time to stop teaching and stay home with my two babies.

I want to go back and cover the beginnings of the lives of my two precious, babies, Lawrence Randall born, Mar. 2, 1955 and Loralyn born Jul 10, 1956.  I loved these two with all my heart.  Unfortunately, getting through the last 2 ½ years of my education took me away much of the time. We had a wonderful retired nurse that was their baby sitter.  I was never concerned that they weren’t in the best hands.  Randy, was a healthy baby, who was interested in cars from an early beginning (like his dad). December 18, 1955, we travelled to Tempe, Arizona to stay with my Grandma Lewis.  The next day we went to the Mesa Temple to receive our endowments and be sealed together for time and eternity and have Randy sealed to us.  Sometime, early in 1956, we moved to the home that Larry grew up in at 2020 Orange Ave. in Anaheim.  His folks sold the house to us and moved to an avocado ranch in Irvine, CA.  Shortly, after Lori was born, Larry went to work for the City of Anaheim as a Fireman.  When Lori was about 2 ½ years old, she became interested in jigsaw puzzles.  It wasn’t long until she was putting all the easy puzzles that I could find.  Soon, she was putting together 20 piece puzzles. I had read somewhere that children with this ability would be quick readers.  That proved to be true as she advanced through elementary school.  Randy’s only health problem was asthma and the need for his tonsils to be removed, which proved to be a blessing because Lori was going to require much care.  Lori developed asthma at an early age of about 4.  She was hospitalized and given oxygen while in an oxygen tent for several days.  It was recommended that we seek the help of a well known pediatric allergist.   He ran a series of tests on her and she began receiving allergy shots twice a week.  She didn’t have food allergies.  But, she was allergic to house dust, animal dander, and live Christmas trees!!!  Randy’s allergies began to manifest itself about the same time as Lori’s.  When Lori was tested, we had him tested as well.  He began to receive shots about the same time.  Rand still remembers getting root beer floats if everyone was good at A&W Root Beer.

Our plan, now that we had 2 babies, was to wait 3 years and then have 2 more.  However, after Debra Lorene was born June 18, 1958, we decided to go ahead with number 4.  Steven Andrew was born October 1959.   This was perfect!!!!  Two boys and two girls!   What a relief, Debbie had no allergies.  But, Dr. Harris (the pediatric allergist) said that the allergies could come on later.  And that they did!!  With a vengeance!!  When she was about 13, she went horseback riding with a friend and came back with wheezing and hives.  Then a little later, we found out that she was allergic to rats and mice.  We kept them in a cage for our pet red-tailed boa’s dinner.  As long as they were in the cage and she didn’t handle them, she was fine.  However, one our friends, let one of them out.  The critter was running all over the couch.  When Debbie was on the couch later, her eyes swelled shut!  Sooooo, we started her on shots when she was 13.  To this day, her allergies have been more severe than any of her siblings.  Steven had a very difficult first year.  He had so much mucus due to his allergy to milk; the doctor thought at first he had cystic fibrosis. He had projectile vomiting that led to being hospitalized he was ten days old and having surgery for a pyloric valve stenosis.  Finding a formula that he could tolerate was very difficult.  We finally found a meat-based formula that worked.  Even with that formula, his stomach couldn’t tolerate more than 3 ounces at a feeding.  He had to be very carefully “burped” every ¼ ounce.  I couldn’t pat him on the back or he would have the projectile vomiting.  I had to lean him over my hand and gently rub his back until he “burped”.  It seemed like it took forever to feed him the 3 ounces.  Then he was hungry again in an hour or so.  Through all this, he was a very good baby.  He wasn’t fussy or colicky.  We had to keep all milk products away from him until he was a year old.  Then we needed to introduce them to him very carefully.  I remember one time when he was about 6 or 7 months old, we were having ice cream and I thought I could let him lick my finger.  That was a mistake!!  No sooner did the ice cream disappear from my finger, than the projectile vomiting started.  Steve turning a year old seemed almost magical.  Most all of the projectile vomiting stopped and he began developing physically as any other baby of that age.

In 1961, I accepted a job with Centralia School District in Buena Park and West Anaheim area.  I taught 5th grade to a group of low achieving students.  They were looking for someone with a desire to teach music in addition to the regular curriculum.  The 5th and 6th grade teachers, each took an elective type class that the students could sign up for the last hour of the day for 3 times a week.  I was thrilled.  I could pass on my love of music and teach them to do some part singing.  The students did very well.  We preformed for several school functions: a Christmas program, patriotic program and a musical play in the spring.  At the end of that semester, there was another opening for a 5th – 6th grade teacher in another school in the district.  I transferred to that school and continued teaching music as an elective for 3 more years. 

About ten years had passed since we went to the temple.  We were less active for the most part.  With Larry being a fireman, he probably only had 2 Sundays off a month.  I used the excuse that 4 little ones were more than I could handle alone.  I also let others in my school environment, influence me to participate in activities that led me away from the path and prevented my progress that would keep me close to my Heavenly father.

My knowledge never wavered. I never doubted what my parents taught me was true.  That doesn’t mean I didn’t make mistakes or venture into unsafe situations.  Satan tried his best to test me and put obstacles in my path to prevent my progress back to Heavenly Father.  Everyone comes to a point in their life where their knowledge grows into a testimony.   We became involved with activities that happened on Sunday, thus creating another excuse not to go.  Soon those activities led me to do things that led me even further away.  Many of those things weren’t bad, but they led me away from my gospel activity and prevented my progress.   Again, this happened brick by brick.   11 years passed with total inactivity in the church.  Finally, I kept getting nudges from the Spirit that I needed to change my life.  The responsibilities of raising my 4 children without gospel learning started weighing heavy on my mind.  During this time we moved into another area that meant a new ward where no one knew me.  I had the strong impression that I was going to need the gospel teachings and the help and support of the teachers and advisors to help guide them during the difficult teenage years.  I had decided to go back to church and told my husband of my decision.  It was to be his decision whether or not to join me.  I was determined to return and to get back on the path to my Heavenly Father.  I didn’t know what to expect, but my husband joined me and came to church with us whenever he could.  Being a fireman meant there were at least 2 Sundays a month when he couldn’t come. My first Sunday back to church, I introduced myself to the bishop and told him of my inactivity and my desire to be active again.  I told him that I wanted a job in the church and that I didn’t care if it meant mopping the floors in the kitchen.  He laughed and soon I was given a calling in the Primary, directing the songs to the children. My testimony began to grow again as my knowledge increased.  Each calling I had in the next few years allowed my experience in the gospel to grow.  I knew with a greater knowledge that Heavenly Father had a plan for me.  This plan was an eternal one that would lead me back to live with Him forever.  That has been my goal ever since I made the decision to return to activity.  Making that decision has made all other decisions easier for me.  Heavenly Father has a plan for each for us.  That plan is to give us the path to follow that will lead us back to Him.