THE SISTERS

Mom's sisters all lived out-of-town. Blanche lived in Provo. Leah lived in Bountiful. Marvel lived in Granger. We occasionally visited them but most often they came to visit Grandma in Heber and spent the day either at Grandma's or our house. When Dad found out they were coming, he would get a little giggly voice and say, "Oh goody, the sisters are coming today." He knew that Mom was especially cheery when "the sisters" came into town. He was an eternal tease. But we did know that everyone was happier when mom's sisters came, whether one at a time or all together.
I was thinking about their relationship this morning and marveled at the kindness and love they had for one another. I can not think of a time that one of them was angry with one of the others. They laughed and cried together. They solved one another's problems together. They shared problems, sorrows and joys.

I remember when mom was having some health problems in the early 70's. My aunts didn't notice me sitting nearby listening. Mom was out of earshot but I listened to all their talk about what they could do to help her get better. Family member's health and well being was foremost in their minds. They felt the same way about their brothers. They would move heaven and earth to create comfort for the grieving or suffering.

To their credit, I never noticed any jealousy or anger in the hearts of my mother and my aunts.
I think it is their good example that has shown me how sisters treat sisters. Like mom, I feel so much love for my brothers and sisters. When I see them suffering, I feel pain. When I see them happy, I am happier. I wouldn't hurt one of them for the world. Thank you Mom, for being such a wonderful example of love and compassion. I thank the Moultons for carrying on Mary and Hyrum's good nature and kindness as a legacy of love.

Pictures Diane Keller sent

Please let us know who each of these are by posting a comment below. If you want to see the pictures enlarged, left click on the picture and then after it is enlarged, left click again and it will get bigger.

Recollections of Grandpa and Grandma Moulton by Sid Moulton

My earliest memories of Grandpa and Grandma centered , of course, around their house on Center Street, in the middle of Heber. It was a modest white frame house surrounded by lawn; and a break of tall straight poplar trees on the right side just at the back of the house. The universal coal shed was on the right. Just behind the trees further back was a long row of empty chicken coops separated from the house by an open space which had been the garden. There was another small shed on the left behind the chicken coops which served as a tool shed.
Since Grandpa died when I was ten, I don’t remember when there was any chickens in the coop. But, they stood as though it had only been yesterday. There was even a barrel of wheat in the feed room which separated the coops into halves. We would take a handful of wheat and by chewing, create gluten and then chew it as gum.. I remember that there was a pile of old boards in front of the right coop. We were attacked and stung one day, as we played in the back, by a nest of yellow jackets that came out of the wood as we jumped around on it. We all ran to Grandma’s to be nursed for the stings.
The center of my fond memories was the kitchen. I remember coming into the kitchen with Dad, and Grandpa, sitting there, took me on his knee and talked to me. I knew, as I looked into his face, that he loved me. It was the face of a man who had worked hard all his life ,wrinkled and weathered,. But above all, it was the face of a very kind man who smiled a lot.
Early morning in the kitchen was an experience all it’s own. The sun streamed in it’s east facing window and filled the room with light. Grandpa set at the table reading the newspaper, while Grandma fixed us breakfast. The radio was on and tuned to a show in which Leonard Friendly talked, read poetry and played music of a light and happy nature to bring in the new day. There was a bird cage near the big window on the north side of the kitchen and in it, a small yellow canary named “Dickey “sang his heart out to welcome the morning.
Grandma stood before her great wood and coal burning kitchen range fixing breakfast. It was a great stove with a large flat cooking surface. A spacious oven in which many a Thanksgiving turkey had been baked , not to mention cookies, cakes, rolls and bread. It also kept that kitchen and half the house warm. There was a galvanized water tank standing next to it as tall as a man! It became heated by the water jacket in that stove. The warming ovens stood as high as your head and it was trimmed in chrome. The food she produced there on was the delight of my childhood. This morning, she was frying bacon and scrambled eggs and a strange looking dish for Grandpa. I asked for some of Grandpa’s stuff and she replied, almost with disgust, “ Sid, you don’t want any of this.” She didn’t explain why but I later I learned it was calf brains.

During the time I was growing up, Grandpa was an operator at the Heber Light and Power plant some five miles north of the city on route 40. It was a tall building built from limestone quarried from the great deposits left by the geo thermal springs in Midway. The walls were built on a great concrete slab which served as base to the two hydro turbans and their generators. The water came from two removable dams across the Provo River that was about 3 or 4 miles further north and flowed into a great wooden flume to the power house. I remember visiting there with my dad. while he was working. The water gushed from the turbines to a cavity beneath the plant and found it’s way in a canal back to the river. There was a foot bridge across the torrent as it flowed out and Grandpa loved to sit on that bridge fishing for the white fish and brown trout “as long as your arm“, which seemed to thrive in that fast water beneath the plant. If you crouched on that bridge peering into the depths of that cold water once in a while you could catch a glimpse of those fish.
Long after Grandpa died, we lived in the house directly across the road and Dad worked in that same plant. But, we preferred to catch fish “as long as your arm” literally in the river. There were times when we resorted to means other than rod and reel.
My father, Glen, who was also known as “Lefty”, had a marked distaste for cats. He would tolerate them outside for mouse control purposes, but, never inside. I learned that he inherited that distaste from Grandpa. We already know that he was a bird lover because of “Dickey” the canary. I was told that he would occasionally put up with having a cat around the house for the sake of his daughters. But, about the time little piles of feathers began to appear on the lawn, the cat would mysteriously disappear. It was a long ride to the power plant!
These memories, and many more. formed in loving association with aunts, uncles, and cousins, from both sides of the family, bound me to the true principles of happiness. They formed the basis of who I am, making me a branch of this great tree, drawing strength from the same roots deeply planted in God’s garden. I will be forever indebted to this family and am grateful for it. Sid Moulton

Diane Keller March 20, 2011

It is with a lot of memories that I read everyone's stories. It seems like grandma always did get stuck with the sickos. I remember that when I got the chicken pox grandma had to put me up too. They didn't want my baby brother Steven who was eight years younger than me to get them. As I recall he got a really bad case of them anyway. Poor Grandma, she should have been a nurse and gotten paid for it.

It seems that a lot of us remember chicken stories. My dad must have tried to follow grandpa's footsteps because he bought a whole bunch of biddies. My mother was not happy about that to say the least! They built pens for them in the garage and it was my job to feed and water them. They were so cute and I used to get so upset when they would keep pecking at one poor chicken or another. I tried to do intervention but the chickens would not accept therapy. My dad said it was just their way of getting rid of the weak ones. I thought that was just sick and wrong, maybe because I was such a runt myself!

Anyway, one day months later when I came home from school, all the chickens were gone from the garage, and there were large tubs of very hot water in them. Alas, it was chicken killin' time! (Luckily, dad and friends had already done that deed) but I had to help pluck those suckers and it was not a fun job. A bad experiment; Dad never did that again!

I have my mom's scrap book and she has some pictures I will try to scan. Blanche with her very young kids standing with dad in his sailor suit, pictures of family get togethers, a very cute picture of Grandma and Richard when he was in his teens or early twenties, a picture of Donna about age 12 sitting on top of a pen with some of Glen's mink feeding them etc etc.
I like hearing your stories it is fun to remember and a great way to keep track of each other.
Diane M. Keller

Memories posted by Jeannine Sumpter

Hi Moulton Cousins!

It has been fun reading all of your “Grandpa & Grandma Moulton memories”. Reading them has sparked some memories of my own. I can see Grandma in her apron standing at the back door waving to us as we left her home. Every time she made mother cry as we drove away. Now mother sits at her window and waves when we drive away.

I remember helping Grandma kill chickens. That was nothing for her. She would catch a chicken with her long hook, wring their neck and cut their heads off. That is where I learned “Like a chicken with its head cut off” really meant. I watched a few run around their garden until she could get them caught again and dropped into the pan of boiling water. Then she would quickly pull out all the feathers and soon the chicken would be in the kitchen sink. It wouldn’t be long before it was in the pot on the stove and we had it for dinner. That wasn’t anything for her. She did it so easily I was amazed. I also enjoyed gathering eggs with Grandpa. He so enjoyed working around in the garden and with the chickens. I think he really enjoyed his grandchildren being there with them.

I came down with scarlet fever when we were visiting them one summer and I had to be quarantened there with Mother and Mary Dawn for two long weeks. I’ll bet that was a long two weeks for Grandpa. Grandma didn’t mind though. I had a bed by the window in the living room and my dad could only come and wave at us through the window.

I remember sleeping in the small bedroom very often. There wasn’t heat in that room and we would get ready for bed in the living room by the heater, then we would run as fast as we could and jump into bed and hide under the comforter. I didn’t like to get up in the middle of the night because the floor was so cold.

I remember that metal food storage cupboard also. Grandma always had crackers in there and it was always fun to go there for a snack. The cellar frightened me, and I didn’t like the damp smell, but I always enjoyed the fruit we got down there.

Mary Dawn & I loved to play in Donna’s closet and try on her shoes, clothes, especially her Wasatch High band uniform. We loved to put that on and pretend we were in a parade. We must have driven her nuts, but she was always good to us.

We would follow the pea wagons going to the cannery and sit on the side of the curb and eat peas from the vine that would fall as the wagon lumbered down the road.

I loved to go to the fair in Heber every August. One year Grandma gave me a new purse and I think I had a dollar in change in it. I left in on one of the rides and I was broken hearted. I went to find it, but I never did. I thought I had lost something very valuable. Grandma and Grandpa were always very patient and kind with us, and I loved to go visit them.
I have enjoyed hearing from all of you. It’s great to have all of your addresses and it’s good to keep in touch with you. I hope we can see each other sometime this summer.
Jeannine

Mary Dawn Hawk Nuzman's memories

Hi to everyone.  It has been fun reading all the stories about the Moultons and I hesitate to tell this one but here goes...Every summer when I was young I stayed in Heber for a week.  Sometimes I stayed at Grandma's and Grandpa's and sometimes I stayed at the Wright's house.  There were girls from the Wrights the same age as myself, Jeannine, and Elaine so we traded vacations.  Karma was my age and after chasing the pea wagon and eating all the peas we could stomach, we looked for something else to do...We ended up at Grandpa's chicken coop and decided we wanted to watch a chicken lay an egg so we took the long grabber hook that grandpa used to catch the chickens legs when it was time to have one for supper.  We picked a plump hen and thought that it might be ready to lay and we chased it around the coop, feathers flying, until we caught it around the leg and we put it, not so gently, into the place where it nested.  We watched for a while but nothing happened so we became disintestered and left, but that night at the supper table Grandpa said, Momma, I think someones been with the chickens today.  I found a dead hen in her nest..  I didn't know where to look.  I think the hen had a heart attack...and I never went into the chicken coop again..Another visit we had to Grandma and Grandpas we were playing in the ditch that ran in front of their house and Elaine fell into the ditch...lucky that Grandpa was watching us or Elaine might have drowned.  He ran over and plucked her out of the ditch just before she went under the bridge...We also loved to get into Grandpa's old car that was parked to the east side of the house under the lilac bush...It had a push button starter and we pushed that button and the car would leap forward.  we made it leap over and over until it got way up under the bush...Oh what fun we had in Heber...I have a million stories but one that I remember my mother telling me was one summer when Jeannine and I were little, she took us to stay for a few days and someone got sick and they quarentined us so we had to stay longer than we planned.  I got up on Grandpa's chair and peed then he would come and sit down.And it happened more that twice...  Oh dear he got mad..finally when it was time to go home he told Mother, "I love you and the kids but I'm not sorry to see you leave."  One time when Grandma and Grandpa came to Provo to stay with us we talked them into staying over night and Grandpa fell out of bed and he told Blanche, That's the last time I will ever stay anywhere but home.  Grandma had a trunk full of dress up clothes that she kept in the closet of the back bedroom with dress up clothes that were the most beautiful I had ever seen...We spent hours and hours in that closet and when Donna was in high school we loved to get into her perfume...Sometimes when I smell a certain perfume, it takes me back into the past and in that little bathroom where Aunt Donna used to get ready for a date.... Thank you all for waking up the memories and yes...Time is short,  Let's get together soon.  Much Love,  Mary Dawn

Vernon Moulton"s Memories

I also don't recall too much about Grandpa Moulton.  As I read Richard's stories, I was wondering how he knew him so well.  But then, It's the age difference.

 

Grandma, after GP died, had a toilet that didn't work so well.  It would back up and flood and the plunger was always right there beside the toilet for convenience.

 

We Moulton kids would use the toilet and it seems like every time it would flood.  Not pleasant and pretty scary.  One time I got off the toilet, anxiously pushed the handle and sure enough the contents and all the water came flooding over the rim.  Oh no!  After the cleanup, Grandma said, "You kid's terds are just too big for my toilet!"

 

Of course I remember the raisin filled cookies and we too tried to duplicate them, but they just didn't taste as good.  Why is that?

 

I remember Grandma fixing scrambled eggs and calf brains for Grandpa for breakfast.  Is that for real, or were they just trying to scare me?

 

Donna says she doesn't remember this, but one time shortly after she and Earl were married, she was at Grandma's and she was fixing Earl a ham sandwich.  She very carefully cut the fat off of each piece before she put it on the bread for Earl.  When Grandma saw that, she was pretty disgusted that Donna would have to remove the fat.  (I couldn't eat fat either.  It would gag me.)  One time at home during supper I was cutting off the fat of a piece of beef roast.  Dad, who sat next to me, said,  "Why are you cutting off the best part?"  Then he reached his fork over to my plate, speared the big juicy piece of fat and gobbled it down.  I almost threw up!  But Dad and those who grew up in the Great Depression didn't have the luxury of throwing away food, even fat.

 

Grandpa had mink in some cages in back.  They always warned us not to stick our fingers in the cages because the mink were mean and would bite down hard on a finger and would not let go.  Do I recall an incident when one kid did get bit and grandpa had to go out and smack the mink on the head to get it to let go?

 

My Dad, I think, would have liked to have his own successful mink ranch, but never did.  He had a friend in Daniels who did had a big mink ranch and an apple orchard.  We used to go out there to pick Johnathon apples (boy were they good) and look at the mink.  They stunk to high heaven.  It was interesting to see the owners feed them with the ground up meat.  Naturally, some of the meat fell on the ground under the wire mesh floors of the cages and that's what, along with the dung, produced the pungent odor.  I'll bet the neighbors loved that  smell!.

 

Us Moultons didn't have a TV until about 1966, so we would always love the chance to watch Grandma Moulton's TV.  We probably kept her up more than one night watching her TV.. Her house was the meeting place for Moulton kids who were waiting for a ride out to the Plant.  (the Power Plant 5 miles north of town, where we lived)  Have you ever met anyone who did not watch the Brady Bunch, etc., etc., while they were growing up?  I think we were somewhat stunted emotionally for that reason.  Or not!  As we would read and listen to the radio for entertainment as teenagers.

 

I remember being at Grandma's one day when Donna and earl came driving up in a brand new 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air.  It was tan and brown.  I was sure impressed.  I loved that car!

 

I think I remember the yellow rose bushes to the west of Grandma's house.  I would love to get a clipping of those roses also.

 

I also remember the chickens.  One day Grandma and Grandpa (I guess) were butchering chickens.  My dad was helping by cutting off their heads on a wooden chopping block.  He would chop off the head, then just throw the chicken into the tall weeds where they would thrash around a while, bleed out and die.  After killing several chickens, he gathered them all up to find there was one missing.  We searched and sure enough, the dreaded axe had missed it's mark one time.  The poor chicken was unscathed, hiding in the weeds thinking it had escaped certain death.  But it didn't, as the axe once again fell and even that chicken was soon prepared for the pot. 

 

I remember when Grandma got her first electric range.  We all thought it was marvelous, as we too cooked on a wood stove.  When we moved to the Plant, we had an electric range.  At first we would turn it on, then off, then on again several times just to see the burner glow as it it were a miracle.  After cooking with dutch ovens for a while just for fun, I told my wife, "Now I know why they invented the electric stov

 

 

Vernon J. Moulton