1963 - 1967
It Was Not In The Winter Our Loving Lot Was Cast!
It Was The Time Of Roses, We Plucked Them As We Passed!
Thomas Hood

Bob went off to Seattle to look for work in February. Another shutdown at the cement plant. On March 1 he signed up for his unemployment.

Just ahead was the beginning of more trying and difficult times for Bob. In April he and another employee of the plant went to Las Vegas. It was said that there was a lot of construction work there. They lived out of their car in Las Vegas -- uncomfortable sleeping! Bob couldn't take it. He stayed only one week and his nerves were shot.

Deciding to leave, he came home by bus. As he went through Montana, he passed the time between buses by taking in a movie. That movie happened to be Days of Wine and Roses, which helped depress him even more! That song always brings back sad memories. And yellow roses will forever remind me of Bob.

On April 24 Bob arrived home. I had ready a birthday cake for him because his birthday was on the 19th, and I wanted to welcome him home. The cake was a delicious angelfood cake with whipped cream and with shaved chocolate on top.

Immediately, after he was home, I sensed (but hoped I was wrong) that he was heading rapidly for a second nervous breakdown! It was exactly eight years since this had happened before, and he seemed extremely on edge.

I told him, "The cement plant wants to have you back to work on Monday!" That should have given him enough self-confidence to help him out of his depression.

Dr. Pierce came to the house to see Bob on the April 26.

On the 29th, Bob began working at the plant, and I thought, "Now, he is needed, he will be all right."

April 30, Leo brought Bob home early from work and he was in a very bad state. He had an appointment with a psychiatrist, Dr. Cressey. May 13, Dr. Cressey recommended that shock treatments once again be started. Bob's brother Harold and I took him to begin his series of treatments.

While he was having these, I felt Bob was no longer around for me. I was at my loneliest. It was a devastating time for me.

Had I not been in very great need, I might not have found my help with a Biblical passage. When facing a dilemma, it is said to be a good idea to open the Bible randomly and sometimes it will point you to a page that is just right to give the needed help.

So I opened the Bible and to the exact page of Proverbs 3:5 --this being a passage I had never heard of:

But it was so appropriate! I began to reaffirm this to myself whenever things got really tough.

The EST treatments continued on May 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 27. Bob was now feeling okay, but was really confused. After one of the treatments, as we stepped in the elevator at the treatment center, he moved just like a zombie! It happened that a person who knew him (I didn't know this person) got on the elevator with us, and, recognizing Bob, very cordially spoke to him. He had not the slightest idea who it was. Bob was always good at recognizing anyone he had ever known in his entire life.

I was knitting Bob a sweater. It was charcoal gray with light gray trim. It had a cowl collar and zipped up the front. I was obsessed with a feeling that when I finished that sweater, and put it on him, he would become once again a normal, healthy person. This was from a long-remembered fairy tale in which a sister wove garments that would make her enchanted brothers be transformed back into a real human beings again. It wasn't so easy! It didn't work!


Barry Nance

Barry in his Senior year was still winning awards . (You always knew when a student came from a well-adjusted home!) He went to a banquet at the Ad Club and received $20 for his winning ad. They gave him a plaque with his drawing etched in metal, and he appeared on TV. He got a special scholarship to Eastern Washington University.

Barry had his high school Baccalaureate exercises in May which we attended. His graduation was on May 27. The plant started up once more on June 3, and Bob called the doctor on this date. He was told that he was released to go back on the job on June 5. He seemed better and returned to work.

Bob wanted to get a new car. His medication was working. He was taking a combination of barbiturates and amphetamines and was having a false sense of well-being -- a high. In view of Barry's college expense and our medical bills, it was a bad idea, but we got the car.

June 19, Bob was again unable to function at work.

July 27, the doctor recommended reinforcement shock treatments, one each week for the next three weeks.

Then, Bob heard of a group, Recovery, Inc. Now, for the first time, he showed a little spaark of positiveness. With hope-filled heart, he went to a first meeting that same night. It helped miraculously. Being part of a group where everyone had similar problems was the very medicine he needed. They religiously followed a book, Will Training. Two of the affirmations that Bob learned to rely on were to:

After his initial visit, I went with him to these sessions.

Labor Day weekend, Bob felt better, and we camped in our tent at Lake Chatcolet. Gary was the only one with us except for our dog, Foxy. Foxy developed a bad cough from the cold air. She was such a tiny little dog that it caused lung scarring.

August 26, Dennis and family appeared at Mom's house next door in a rented moving van. Florence could not take any more of the Whitefish winters. They were going to move to San Jose, California, where Dennis had a friend who was employed in electrical work at Stanford University. I thought Dennis seemed quite uneasy -- I didn 't know whether it was because of Bob's condition, or that he was moving his family into an unknown -- probably both.

In San Jose, Dennis kept in touch with Bob through a schedule on amateur radio every Sunday. Thus, we were able to know what was going on with each of our families. I even talked to him from time-to-time.

Give Us the Luxuries of Life,
and We Will Dispense With Its Necessities
John Lothrop Motley

September I made a decision. I knew for certain that I would have to get a job. Not having worked since Barry was born (17 years) I didn’t think getting any kind of work would be easy. Reason enough to work was that Barry was entering college this fall (financial)) but my deep-down reason was (security).

"You don’t need to work; I can support us while Barry is in school," Bob told me. But even though I wanted everyone to believe that I would be working to help out with Barry’s college expenses, I was keeping a real reason to myself.

Bob was recovering from that second nervous breakdown, and even though he again avowed that he absolutely knew he would never have any more mental problems, I felt the pressures building. Knew that in the future I could not depend on anyone else--I had to be able to take care of myself and our children in the event that Bob had yet another siege.

So, on a Monday, September 16, Barry began at Eastern Washington University, and I enrolled that day as a student at Kelsey-Baird Secretarial School. I meant to stay there only until I (or some potential employer) felt I might be a satisfactory employee. As I began this momentous undertaking, Opal told me that Leo told her he knew I could do it. He seemed to always have a tremendous confidence in me! As I did him.

By the following February, after one semester, I had regained enough of my shorthand and typing skills (and acquired enough self-confidence) to go out into the world and look for employment. So, at age 39, I was interviewed and hired by a local business located in the Spokane Industrial Park. After Marvin Winton hired me, I went back to my car, and as I headed home, I gave a wild and loud whoop of joy! ! !

This was the beginning of 23 years of getting up and going off to work. During this time I subsequently worked for four companies. I did need to work during those years. I saw Bob through more tough times. . .times in which my income was all that we had to pay bills and medical expenses.

Our little pomeranian "Foxy" died. I was so upset. At school I was telling some of the girls about it, and I began to cry! It was a sad day, that November 22.

Feeling really bad about Foxy, I heard the news that November 22, that President Kennedy, while in Dallas, Texas, had been shot. Then we later heard confirmation that he had died! We were allowed to go home from school and were told we didn’t have to come back until Monday. I watched T V that weekend, and saw the assassin, Lee Harvey Osward, as he was being ushered through the crowds, and I was watching at the moment Oswald was shot down.

December 4th was the first slippery, solid-ice day of the winter. I was driving to school when a motorcycle cop, deliberately positioned out of sight at the first traffic light, told me to pull over. The fact is, I was slowly going through a yellow light because of the hazardous conditions. He was not sympathetic. He wrote me a ticket even though I told him I was related to the former acting Chief of Police, Eldon (Ralph) Johnson, and was acquainted with the present Chief, Clifford Paine, (a friend of Leo’s).

So, receiving my second ticket of my driving career, I went directly to see Chief Paine and did not go on to school. I sobbed out how unfair Officer Sweatt was to me. He told me there was nothing he could do about it.

But I think there was!

I was scheduled for traffic court on December 13, and after sitting in the court room through all of the traffic cases, my arresting officer (Sweatt) it was mentioned, had been assigned special duty and was not available. So, they told me the incident was removed from my record, and I had no court charges to pay.

On December 19, my shorthand teacher at Kelsey-Baird said my shorthand test was "the best she had ever given." I had all the punctuation and paragraphs exactly right! It was given at 80 words per minute. So on to advanced shorthand where I was expected to copy "Congressinal Record" at 120 words per minute. But, before I got very advanced I landed my job at Anderson-Miller Manufacturing Company.

1964

January, Opal had surgery for cancer of the female organs. She was told rightfully, that they got it all. She had to have follow-up deep x-ray treatments afterwards which lasted several weeks and were extremely painful.

Bob and I bowled in a mixed league. I never got to be even an average bowler.

Valentine’s Day I started my first day on my new job and made $160 a month as receptionist for Miller & Poston Mfg. Co. The name was shortly changed to Anderson-Miller Mfg. Co. In April the firm moved to new offices in the Spokane Industrial Park, the old Naval Depot where I first worked when I was fresh out of high school.

Anderson-Miller manufactured aluminum irrigation fittings. They installed irrigation systems all over Washington and Northern Oregon. Shortly after I began working there, they acquired a computer and I did the invoices and hourly payroll on it. I devised a program for making Canadian Invoices on this "632" computer. The people in the office always became unnerved whenever shipments went to Canada because of the precise information that had to be included, and invariably, it had to be done in a great rush! This harbinger computer was a real "rush-saver."

A flaw in our new offices at the Industrial Park caused a light fixture directly overhead to come crashing down on my desk. Luckily I was home when this occurred!

We were able to buy Nikki a spinet piano. I had no problem selling my worked-over old white-painted cabinet grand. Nikki took two more years of lessons.
Nikki Nance

In November, Mom Nance had surgery and it was discovered that she had pancreatic cancer. It was expected to be fatal, and we were all very worried.

1965


Dog
 		It was March, and Barry brought home a Springer Spaniel puppy that had been abondoned in the woods. He and his friend, Ted Esslinger, came upon a small black-and-white animal. They tried to get some distance between themselves and "it," when they heard a very reconizable whine. Realizing that this was a dog-type critter, they stopped and went back to pet it. As they tried to leave, either their better judgement or the dog’s persuasiveness won out. They brought it home.

We didn't really want to keep it, but, of course, we couldn’t send it back either. This little dog won our hearts. Her name of Snooper later evolved to just plain Dog. As an amusement to us, Dog ran around the neighborhood stealing such unusual items as a doll from Cole’s, a car wash brush, some overalls, and someone close by lost an ear of corn from their harvesting!

Nikki and Gary patiently taught Dog many clever tricks. As Dog was a chowhound, she was ready to please at any cost for treats, and she learned very quickly. She could do addition, multiplication and even square root problems. Her success at math being in the fact that Dog kept her eyes glued on the food offered until she saw a slight, almost imperceptive movement of the treat, whereupon she would stop her barking and reach out for the goodie. This always left observers baffled to not know how she could figure out those difficult problems.

In May, Gary played saxophone at the school concert. He was first sax in the band, but he actually never brought his instrument home to practice.
Gary Nance

When we returned from vacation this summer, Teresa Watts, Phyl’s sister-in-law, told me there was a position open at the Inland Empire Paper Company, located just one mile down Empire. I checked it out and liked the women there. . . and the pay. They hired me.

Giving my notice at Anderson-Miller, they were sorry I was leaving, but couldn’t pay me what I would be making on the new job. So, I was all enthusiastic about leaving when they began to talk about more pay. They had me convinced I should stay, and just as soon as I decided to stay, I had real second thoughts. Was sure I was detecting just a little resentment because I wanted to leave them. It seemed best for me to go.

I began as Sales Secretary in August after we had spent the weekend picking huckleberries with Leo and Phyl on Mt. Spokane. I was very sunburned on my first day at work.

At Anderson-Miller they asked me to return to for a few nights to do the weekly payroll. On the night when I thought this should be winding up, I found this little note on the desk:

I did not want to turn her down, but thought "enough is enough" and said I would be unable to help her out further.

At the Papermill, I typed for two men in sales, Byron Batson and Bill Morse, and one in purchasing, Joe Stout. Later I changed positions and did the payroll for 300 men. But I discovered I was actually missing the secretarial work; so when the girl who took over my position quit, I went back to the IBM Selectric typewriter and the dictaphone and teletype machine. Byron was precise in his dictation, inserting every punctuation mark and using perfect diction; however, Bill sounded as if he could drop off to sleep at any moment. I had to figure out where the heck he meant for me to put in every comma and each sentence end.

Barry changed colleges and was now going to Washington State University. His current girlfriend, Susan Greening, was encouraging him to change career goals from Commercial Art to Architecture.

Needing to look pretty good on the job, I went every Monday without fail and had my hair done. I enjoyed it, and my family managed to get along without my cooking on these Monday nights. In fact, we initiated a "do it yourself night," and everyone was responsible for fending for himself. Sunday dinner left-overs were most usually to be had.

The Vietnam War

My nephew, Lynn Keener, served with the Army. His work entailed training with a communications van. While awaiting assignment in Saigon, an officer approached his group and asked, "Who among you can type?"

No one responded. He looked at Lynn, "Can you?"

"Yes, a little," Lynn told him, and thought that would be the end of it. A summons to the officers’ headquarters told Lynn that he would be assigned to typing duties for them. He spent the rest of his career time in the Vietnam War in that capacity.
Lynn Keener

Lynn subsequently was awarded the Bronze Army Commendation Medal for Special Services. He doesn’t want to remember this time, or care to talk further about it. He was . . ."Just darned glad to get out and go home!" Fortunately, he entered the best rehab training in the country. He finished college on the G I Bill and taught school for awhile.


Tom Keener

Needing information regarding another nephew, Tom Keener, I wrote to him asking about his years spent in service. I received a beautifully worded, interesting, four-page letter. It was so graphically written that I have asked him permission to quote verbatim a lot of his parlance. I did so love it!

In high school in Whitefish, Montana, he related that he had dated a Cuban-exiled girl. Several Cubans were being relocated in the U S following Castro’s takeover. His high school Spanish improved dramatically. Thus began his propensity for the foreigh language, and this had a great bearing on his Navy years as you will see.

His family now lived in San Jose, California, but he returned to Montana for a year of college. Then he spent the summer in San Jose having work there. In the fall, he was unable to re-enter college as his registration and all admission paperwork had been lost.

So, to Spokane where he worked for a gypo logging company for three months, commuting into the Idaho mountains. A phonecall from his mother told him the draft board was asking for him.

In boot camp in San Diego, an aptitude test was given to him to "see what kind of raw talent they were getting," and it revealed enough skill in foreign language to merit schooling at Navy expense. He attended language school in Monterey, California, for a year where he studied Chinese six hours each day. He did finish at the top of the class and was rated E-3.

From there he was sent to the Philippines and never knew exactly what he was supposed to be doing there. He had found that they spoke English and Spanish (and numerous other native languages) so felt he would be comfortable in that situation. Actually, he discovered they mostly spoke "Tagalog" and he learned enough of that to wander among the people and observe a lot of the small towns off the "beaten track."

He made friends along the way, and was allowed some special privileges such as attending a good Friday ritual which turned out to be quite bloody by the end of the activity. Outsiders were not as a rule supposed to see this as it did not portray a progressive society.

Stationed in the Philippines, he was given a temporary assignment of six months on Guam. Then an assignment on board a ship scheduled to return to the Philippines, but it. . .

So after 20 months in the Philippines, the Navy realized Tom was trained in Chinese and so "in its wisdom" sent him to Japan. He was supposedly to spend his last year at a small base on the Island of Kyushu.

Within two months of his arrival there he was sent on various temporary assignments -- one day in Vietnam amid mortar attack; another week at Warner Springs, California, to suffer a survival school where he underwent many indignities in desert and ocean.

The best temporary assignment was Korea for three months where he was the only Navy personnel assigned to an Air Force base. While there he learned the Korean language with fluency and found the people much nicer than they were in Japan.

October, 1969, he was discharged which he opted rather than a six-year enlistment with a $10,000 bonus incentive.

The Navy offered him a chance to travel and to "broaden his otherwise restricted Montana horizons." It helped pay his way through the rest of college. His expertise in language and the series of circumstances in the service were conducive to getting him into his Government career in the Pentagon . . . DIA (Defence Intelligence Agengy) and the CIA (Central Intellegence Agency).

Tom married a Chinese girl, Nanda. They have a daughter, Victoria, and are currently living in Alexandria, Virginia.

In November, Mom and George went to California to visit Dennis and his family.

US planes began combat missions over South Vietnam. In December, another nephew, Richard "Ricky" Ridenhour, went with the Airforce to San Antonio and then soon was sent to Vietnam.

Bob’s nephew, John "Jack" Nance was at this time in Vietnam. (1966). He was a journalist for the Associated Press. We were able to follow his career for a while through a series of articles that appeared in The Spokane Daily Chronicle. He wrote with great feeling to protray a little of what it was like to be in the midst of it, and showed some very human interest along with the accounting of it.

The series was "Five Days at the Front," written at CU CHI, South Vietnam, recounting five agonizing days in the life of a fighting American soldier, Clark Richie, from Jay, Oklahoma:.

Jack was subsequently working in Cambodia.

New Years Eve 1965 we went to a party at Jon Danielson’s house. We took our new tape recorder and during the festivities, an obnoxious drunk threw up all over it! Other than that, we had a very good time and didn’t get home until 5:30a.m.

1966

On New Years Day we visited Mom Nance in the nursing home.

January 2 we were driving Barry back to W S U and couldn’t get further than Colfax because of snow, and the fact that we didn’t have chains. Luckily, Barry got a ride with some of the students who could get through.

And this January, Bob went the rounds of the neighborhood for the March of Dimes collections.

At the papermill, I was typing reams of school bid lettters. January was the busy season for school supply buying in California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Washington.

In February Bob applied for electrician work at the Kaiser Mead plant. He passed the test for electrician with the highest test score they had ever recorded. Having constantly kept up with electronics, the test was relatively easy for him. They were "surprised" he knew so many of the latest formulae, and asked his opinion of their test. Unfortunately, Bob wasn’t hired. The medical examination supposedly revealed he had an extra vertebra in his spine, and therefore it might pose a risk for their insurance plan. Back problems might arise. He had no previous trouble with his back!

Bob’s mother was in critical condition in the Madison South Nursing Home. Every day some of us went to visit her. Her mind was extremely alert except when her medication made her a little groggy.

February 19, Mom Nance passed away. She had been a victim of diabetes, and a resultant cancer of the pancreas. On that day, all eight of us (four sons and their wives) coordinated on the arrangements for her funeral. The girls at my office sent Bob and me some lovely flowers.

I lost weight. From127# I went down to 120# and I didn’t realize I was getting thin!

My good friend, Dorothy Torney and I took numerous classes together over the years since I have known her. In April we went to the Y W C A for "Trim and Swim" class.

June 6 Nikki graduated from East Valley High School. June 9 Barry began working at Kaiser Trentwood on the graveyard shift.

Gary was playing baseball. His team was not doing very well.
Nikki Nance

Barry’s now fiancee, Susan Greening, was graduating this summer from Eastern Washington University. Her dad gave her a new Corvair convertible. Dr. Paul Greening was an MD Pathologist. He wanted to go into the legal end of medicine. As he was studying in Nevada for a Legal-Medical degree he could not help her with college expenses. Shortly after Susan’s graduation, he died of a massive heart attack.


Bob and Gary

We got sand and gravel for more patio, and with the help of Gary and Nikki we also started on a pond. Gary remembers that his dad was angry with him because he got carried away while digging, and made one place in the pond deeper than where the drain had to be located. So, when the pond needed to be drained, the water had to bailed out by hand in that low place.

July 17, which incidentally was our 23rd anniversary, we went to a Safety Banquet at the Longhorn Barbecue for 100 employees and their spouses. Ideal Cement Company was inordinately proud of its safety record. Bob was chosen to accept a plaque "on behalf of the workers." We had a lovely dinner, and everyone was sort of proud that there had been 1500 accident-free days.

Two days after this celebration, I received a phonecall at work, with a man calling to say Bob had "bumped his hip." That didn’t sound so very alarming, but he was also telling me they were taking Bob to the hospital. Actually, he had fallen a distance of 20 feet, had chipped a bone in his hip, and was pretty much laid up for a while.

He was working on a cat-walk that ended up circling around a tower. Wearing the required safety glasses (which because of a coating of fine cement dust mostly obscured his vision). As he stepped down off the railing, he stepped exactly where someone had left a trapdoor open (wasn’t supposed to happen). On his fall he tore up his hands by grabbing at the foot-hold spikes along the way. By so doing he was able to break his fall. He was five days in the hospital and then in bed at home. There went the cements plant’s prideful record!

While Bob was home with his injured hip, Gary had a quite bad accident on his new, small bike. Going downhill he spilled on loose gravel. Coming home all bloody, he was met at the back door by Nikki. I heard her stifle a scream. She was horrified, but she didn’t want to alarm her dad.

Gary had to go to Dr. Saxon to get the gravel removed from his arm and shoulder. We thought Dr. did a very gentle, thorough job, and we happy to go to him afterwards whenever we needed to see a doctor. Gary received a badly scarred shoulder and arm from this mishap..

Gary's neighbor friend was Jim Lunderschausen. Jim’s father was a carpenter, and Jim was just as inclined to build things as Gary was. Barry went through numerous airplane and car-model kits when he was this age, but for Gary, I bought 1 x 4’s at bargain prices. He and Jim constructed a fort on the back of our acre overlooking the river. It was a two-story structure and they were very creative. They installed a metal drum in the ground that was their water container. Watching for enemy soldiers and hostile Indians was great fun.
Gary and Jim

Ricky spent some time in Germany. He sent Opal and Bill a black forest cuckoo clock.

August was Susan's graduation from E W U, and afterwards we had Susan's family here for a patio supper. This included her parents, sister Kathy, twin sisters Ginny and Ann, and brother Paul, Jr.

I occasionally shopped for fabric at this place called Alaska Junk Company. The material was sometimes a bargain, but always cheap! One day after I had been there and was back at work, the owner called me and offered me a job! It would pay very well, and as he was Jewish, there would be lots of paid holiday. I declined, but was sort of flattered that he wanted to hire me!


Gary Nance

On September 25, I took Nikki to Cheney, E W U for orientation; Bob and Gary went to Walla Walla to a Hamfest.

In December we heard the news that the cement plant would close forever here and move to Seattle. Bob would have the option of going there -- it was an all-modern plant.

1967

January, Bob and I went to see the new cement facility with the Danielsons. Both men decided against the transfer because Seattle was too crowded and traffic too congested. Bob and I stayed with his radio amateur buddy, Duncan Carman and his wife, Betty, in Bothell.

February 3 Nikki brought home a college boyfriend, George Heck, who was driving his new, white Mercedes. Since she had never dated more than one or two boys previously, we were alerted that this might be leading up to something. Right! ! ! Nikki and George informed us they were getting married. Four days after that they came by to show off an engagement ring and a marriage license!

This meant I would have nine days in which to put together a wedding: get the church, the pastor, the wedding dress, photographer, flowers, and plan a reception.

Nikki and I picked out her wedding gown at the Bon Marche’. I had just been to a wedding style show there with Susan and had an idea of the prices.

George’s mother and father were going to be here along with George’s brother, Lanny. George told us, "Lanny is 14. He doesn’t talk much!" I thought he was telling me that Lanny was just at that age when he didn’t communicate well. So when the three of them arrived from Lincoln, Massachusetts, I found that Lanny actually couldn’t talk at all -- he was retarded. Okay, why didn’t George say so?

The small ceremony was in the Narthex of the Millwood Presbyterian Church, and the reception was here at our open house from 8 to 10 p.m.

The next day we took the Heck family to see Coulee Dam and that evening they took our family (there were ten of us) to the Longhorn for dinner.

Gary began guitar lessons this February. He was 12 years old. Bob took him to the lessons. They both liked the teacher, Chuck Phillips, who called Gary "a dirty bird."

In March Nikki and George went to Tempe, Arizona, to visit his sister. When they returned, we were informed that Nikki was pregnant. I had hoped they would have waited.

A good amount of severance pay was due Bob from the cement plant’s closing and he began seriously looking for work. He applied for electrician work at the papermill. Bernie Warner, the superintendent of electricians, interviewed him. Later, Bernie cornered me and proceeded to ask, "Is it true that Bob has had some nervous problems in the past?" I told him, "Yes, it was," and then abruptly turned away from him and went back to my desk where I couldn’t hold back the tears!

Bob thought that a couple of men he knew in the Electrician Department -- George Logan or Max Thomas -- had as Bob put it, "spilled their guts" to keep him from getting a job there. Max Thomas had once said Bob already knew more about electronic work than he or George ever would know.

Those recent occurences caused me to have a lot of stress. The doctor prescribed birth control pills because he said I might possibly be getting close to menopause, which I wasn’t.

Nine days after Bob applied for a job with Inland Communications he got employment. He worked through May, 1969.

April 28 he took a test for First Class Radio and Telephone License and got his accreditation. He received his Certified Electronics Technician license.

Saturday, May 4, Bob, Gary and I took our camper to Pullman where Barry and Susan had invited me to Mothers’ Day Weekend. That night we all slept in the camper, and on Sunday morning, we drove off with Susan still asleep in the cab-over bed. We cooked a nice breakfast of steaks, eggs, coffee and toast at Kamish Buttte State Park. Then we drove to Palouse Falls for a picnic lunch. We ate it in the camper as it was snowing and hailing for the first few miles out of Pullman.

Bob got his severance pay. We paid off the mortgage, the car, and put in a big septic tank. I remarked that we buried the money in our backyard. It seemed to give everyone pause until they thought about our having to put in a septic tank.

Barry gave Susan an engagement ring and they got their wedding rings. Oh, no! Another wedding coming up this year! They planned a June wedding.

At the papermill the men went out on strike on June 8. It lasted until August 7. We offiice workers were allowed to go to work across the picket lines, and we soon caught up with our work and lots and lots of our favorite recipes.

Phyl had a lingerie bridall shower for Susan.

The wedding was June 16 at the Spokane Valley Methodist Church. Another reception here, and it went off very well. Susan’s aunt, grandma and cousin were here from California.

Gary played lead guitar with a group. There were four of them: Gary, Walt Westfall, Lester Malinak and Jim "Butch" Arnold. They often practiced at our house when Bob and I were at work. Jim Arnold became quite well-known later as a disk jockey . The station ran The Breakfast Boys, and all the young people of Spokane avidly listened to it.

On August 14, Ricky went to serve in Vietnam.

George was being abusive to Nikki, so one day Bob felt it was necessary to go to Medical Lake where they now lived, get Nikki and Dean and come back to be at our house. Before leaving he put a short length of 2 x 4 in the car to use if he should need to use force against George. Bob was not usually aggressive. But since he often said of Nikki, "She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body," he meant to protect her.

August 18 Nikki and George finished their finals at college and left the same day for Massachusetts. They returned after a short visit with his family.

August 21 Gary had pneumonia.

Dean David Heck was born October 27 at Holy Family Hospital. Our first grandson was born at 2:18 p.m. and weighed 7 lbs. 3-1/2 oz. Nikki’s Dr. Sweeney said he was delivering a first baby of one of his first babies. I had him for Nikki’s delivery.

On November 13 I had elective surgery having varicose vein stripping in my right leg. I had sodium pentathol and was told that I talked incessantly about having a grandson.