Landing in Lander

 Yes, we wrote about the "why" about Landing in Lander in our last installment. 

 However, to review...Dad was undergoing a change of jobs. His position and department with the study of soil and water physics as a professor at the University of New Hampshire was dissolved. Options were on the table, but were less than immediate.  Dad accepted an invitation from the United Nations to measure

 soils and work with tea production in Sri Lanka.  Grandpa and Grandma Gee visited.  They must have celebrated the birthday of James with us.  

Then they made their way with Carma

whom they had invited to attend an organ workshop for a week at Ricks college in Idaho.

Ground was broken and construction was begun and was nearing completion for the chapel we had worked for seven years to build in the hearts of the members and finally upon land in our own tiny city, Somersworth, New Hampshire.  

Dad departed.  Mom mustered courage, help, and collected our belongings

 say goodbye to neighbors and friends and prepare to make the thousand mile trek from the East to the West.  

From my journal:

Saturday, October 13, 1973

"Dear Journal, 

My name is Laurene Gee, I am eleven years old, (going on 12) I am now in 7th grade, and I now live in Lander, Wyoming, on 185 Wyoming Street.  This is a very important time in my life and I have a lot to tell about my interesting summer.  In February (the night Pres. Nixon talked on the T.V. telling us that the ward had ended in Viet Nam) Mom told me that we might move.  That night I cried myself to sleep.  From then until June i had time to consider and think about it and I got used to the idea of moving, even though I didn't like it.  At about the end of June, Dad got a letter from the United Nations saying that they had chosen him to work in the country Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to supervise an irrigation project there (I think they were having a drought.) 

See, because Daddy's job (at the University of N.H.) couldn't be afforded by the University because not enough students were taking soil & water science.  Dad is a Proffessor (sp?)

Sunday, July 1st Dad left to go to Ceylon.  He went with Brother Ching in the Ching's pick-up to the airport.  That Sunday was my last Sunday in N.H.  

It was a very special testimony meeting.  

It was the 1st Sunday I had ever gotten up to the stand to say my testimony in testimony meeting.  Almost everybody was crying and almost everyone that got up to say their testimony said something about "THE GEES."...

On the 5th of July at about 5:00 A.M. we left for the west.  Rhoby Treadwell (a friend of our who is 23) helped mom drive:  She loved us and acted just like a big sister to us, and comforted us when we were homesick, and all the things that you could think of to make us feel good & happy.  Oh, I love Rhoby so much.  

On our way out west we stopped at the Bagleys' in N.Y., the Newells in Ohio, Thompsons in Indiana, and a motel in North Platte, Neb(raska).  Carma was already at Grandma's because she flew back with them when they came to see us in May, so that she could go to a Fine arts Acadamy (sic) at Ricks College.

After we stayed at Grandma Gee's house for a while--we went to Idaho.  We stayed mainly at Aunt Aloma's and sometimes at Grandma Hillman's.  We went and saw the Idaho Falls Temple, we went to "The Sound of Music" David went to the Jamboree, Carma & I went for 2 days to girls camp, and then we went to Island Park--fished, had fun with paddle boats & canoes, and went boating.  

Then we went to the "War Bonnet Roundup."

The next day we started for Utah to see my Aunt Arlene.  She has 6 boys and not ONE girl!  Isn't that terrible/

We stayed at her house for about a week and then headed back to Wyo. On our way we stopped to see Rosemary, Steve, and their new baby.  Well, that was a brief summary of most of our summer.  See you tomorrow!  

October 14, 1973 (Sunday)

Dear Journal, 

When we got back to Wyo. school was about to start in 3 or 4 days. Mom and Dad had decided that we would start school in Lander and live there until Daddy got news of his job.  (We hope to be able to go to Australia or New Zealand)

Well, for the first 3 weeks, we stayed at Grandma's house while Mom flew back to N.H. to meet dad coming home from Ceylon, and to help him move.  (They only brought back the things that were absolutely neccessary (sic) and left the rest of the thing that we hadn't sold with the Hieftje's in their attic.)

We started school.  It was pretty fun.  we have 7 periods,  not including lunch--and we have 3 minutes to get from one class to the other.  

Here is my schedule:

Home room--Mr. Murray

1. Chorus/Study Hall-Mr. Hunt

2. Art/Study Hall--Mrs. Amadio

3. P.E./Health--Miss Groen

4. Math--Mr. Crouch

Lunch

5. Science--Mr. Brown, Snapp, Smith

6. English--Mrs. Mellecker

7. Social Studies--Mr. Murray

School is pretty fun but sometimes they just expect too much of you...

When mom and dad got back we moved into a house--3 houses down from Grandma's--which we rent from Uncle Laurence. We are living there now and have everything fixed up pretty nice but I still miss...my best friends back in N. H. 

Mary Ellen is in my grade but none of my classes...

I gave my first "Sacrament meeting" talk today.  it was about "And Jesus Wept" found in the April 1973 Ensign...

Love, 

LAURENE

October 16, 1973 Tuesday

Today was "Primary Day" I got to help Carma substitute for Dianne Taylor (the 3-year-old class.)  They made boxes for their sisters.  I wish I was in New Hampshire, sometimes.  It would be so different...

We started to build a chapel this spring.  They finished it over the summer and met in it either last Sun. or this Sunday.  Ever since we went to N. H.  I had wished and dreamed of a CHAPEL  of our VERY OWN.  But just before they got it build, we had to leave.  Moving is NOT very fun!! It may be exiciting (sic) in some ways but in other is it just TERRIBLE!!  P.S.)  Please excuse SLOPPY writing.

P.S.S.) Don't move!  I tell you from experience you'll MISS your friends.  Love, Laurene

One of my first memories in Lander, Wyoming was cleaning the house shared with us by Uncle Laurence.  With his partner, he had purchased a house across the street from the hospital.  It had been rented by a group of people called "The Rainbow Family," who had colored rainbows on the yellow kitchen wall.  In a conversation with Uncle Laurence June 30, 2021, I found out that this group had not paid their rent, and upon eviction, a dead deer was found in the basement.   

So, it may not be a surprise, when I asked my sister to tell me what she remembered about the house, she had three words:  "It was stinky!"

As mentioned earlier, thinking of substance abuse spooked me.  I remember cleaning the bathroom, wondering what I might find.  With a good deal of effort, elbow grease our family cleaned up the house.  

It was about four houses houses west of Grandma and Grandpa Gee's home.  Now instead of going to visit grandparents cousins, they would live in the same town!  We enrolled in school.  David and I would be attending Starrett Junior High.  I would be in 7th grade, David in 8th.  My cousin Mary Ellen (oldest daughter to my dad's eldest brother Laurence and his wife Alice) was to be in the same grade. Mary Ellen played clarinet in the marching band.  I signed up for choir, as an elective, with a dynamic teacher, Mr. Hunt.  I remember taking Physical Education with Mrs. Groen and being able to jump on the trampoline.  It seems like we had uniforms for this class and were asked to take showers.  

I remember a history teacher named Mr. Murray and making a diorama and/or play about pioneers in the West.  I remember that Mr. Murray (and maybe some of the other teachers) had a paddle.  I don't remember the paddle being used.  I remember I was allowed to attend the junior high dances (even if I was only 11 during part of the year.)  At one of the dances, I remember dancing with Mr. Crouch, my math teacher, and telling him that I thought Greg Ashdown was cute.  Greg, in the same grade as my brother, was in the class following the math class I was in.  Mr. Crouch made it a point to work to embarrass both Greg and myself, especially if I ever left anything in the classroom and had to return.  (Best reason to collect everything on the way out!)

I remember learning in Science that Salt Lake City was overdue 100 years for a big earthquake.  I remember in math or science, taking a test.  I must have done well.  I remember feeling hurt and disappointed to learn a rumor circulating that "Laurene Gee cheats."  I appreciated Mary Ellen standing by me.  

I remember being a first year Beehive, the first year in our church Young Women group.  Each of us had an older "sister."  I remember having a teacher named Mary Ann Johnson, whom the older class of young women raved about.  I remember Mary Ann standing up in testimony sharing her love for the older class and expressing how loving the class she had now (us) was a challenge.  I asked to walk home and cried and cried on the way.  When I returned to Grandma's house, I remember my mother sharing with me a poem I love:  

“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”

― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, A Life For A Life

I remember a few friends, who also were Mary Ellen's friends, Kelly Cadman, Pam Wilson, Jackie Irene.  I remember activities, like a progressive dinner, dances, and a play called "Sadie Shaw from Arkansas" put on by the young people.  I was the maid.  "Oi oi, Mademoiselle" was a line I remember.  

I remember having a party to celebrate my twelfth birthday in early December, where we drove to some hot springs not too far away and returned to drink hot chocolate and eat cinnamon toast.  I also remember on 1 December, having my grandfather give to me my patriarchal blessing.  

I remember sharing a room with my sister Carma.  I remember my little brother James being treated for a lazy eye with glasses and a patch.  I remember having a silver tinsel Christmas tree.  I remember my brother David having a paper route for the Casper Star Tribune.  

I remember working to earn a maroon bicycle.  I bought it at Coast to Coast.  It had handle bars that looked like a 10-speed bicycle but that it had one speed. 

I remember a first day, running in a pre-track practice, doubling over with stomach pains.  No more track that year.  (I did not know lactic acid and cramps are pretty normal upon exercise that someone is not used to. That issue would be dealt with, with a little more endurance, later.)

I remember a silver tinsel tree at Christmas time.  

I want to say Great Grandmas Stucki lived at least part of that time at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Great Grandma Mary Ann Price Stucki was hard of hearing and used a large device, perhaps called an ear trumpet to hear us talk to her.  

I remember a Saturday job helping to clean Grandma Pearl's bathrooms and vacuum her front room and other rooms.  I learned that at their home a couch or sofa was called a "davenport."  I learned how to use a toothbrush to sneak into the tiny corners of things that needed cleaning.  I remember deciding Grandma Pearl's standard of cleanliness was very difficult to aspire to, and pleading with my mother to let me stop working there.  

I remember taking sewing classes at the home of a friend Pam Wilson, with her mother Shirley.  I remember sewing double knit pants with flares from a pattern she had crafted by hand.  

I remember pushing the tire swing on the big tree to the south of Grandma and Grandpa's driveway, learning the words from Mary Ellen to One Tin Soldier.

I remember picnics on Grandpa and Grandma's big back patio.  I remember that Mike Taylor would walk my sister home from High School.  And that he gave her a snoopy figurine holding a globe, planted on our wishing well in the back yard that said, "I think the world of you."

I want to say that it was during our time in Lander that our friends Stephen Shaw and his fiancé Linda Stringer came to Utah, Manti, to be married and sealed in the temple.  

After the Fourth of July weekend, 2021, on the way to work together on the Paris house, I asked my youngest brother James what his memories were of Lander.  He was three, turning four when we lived there.  

His memories:  He remembers that we were three or four houses away from our Gee Grandparents.  He remembers spending a lot of time at the house.  He remembers that Grandpa Gee and Grandma would bake bread really often.  He remembers that "Great Grandma (Mary Ann Price) Stucki would read stories to us.  He remembers the lilac bush in front of the porch. 

"I remember that Steven and I would make bows and arrows out of string.  There were a lot of sticks.  One of the main things I remember is how we would catch caterpillars.  One day I messed up his collection.  I stepped on it and made my brother mad or sad.  I don’t think I meant to.  I remember the honey.  I remember the rope swing in Lander.  A tree swing on a huge four-foot diameter tree.   I don’t remember seeing a rope swing as high up in a tree, ever.  I felt a little robbed when the tree was cut down."

Question:  "What do you remember doing with your cousin Joseph?"

Answer:  "I remember, this was told at Joseph's wedding:  when his parents were gone, we lit some fireworks in the house.  We had bought bottle rockets, Aaron, Joseph and I, maybe Rachel, one corner of the basement, somehow one of the bottle rockets got lit and went across the carpet and blew up.  There was a scorch mark out of carpet and we worked hard to get it out."

He remembered having nativities with our cousins.  

An interview with one of my cousins, Mary Ellen:

"I remember that we loved when our cousins came.

I remember swinging on the big swing on the big tree. 

I remember playing in Grandpa and Grandma’s garden and eating the raspberries.  Grandpa did not like that, because he liked the raspberries. 

I remember our friends: Pam Wilson, Kelly Cadman, Marie Erickson, Laurie Millward, Alicia Walser."

Mary Ellen remembered the hay ride and the dances.

I loved Mary Ellen for her adherence to classic, core values, testimony, perseverance and example.

More memories from Mary Ellen:  

"Grandpa saw things in black and white.

It was a different time. 

Now it is frowned upon to say that something is not correct."

Mary Ellen remembers having family dinner with Grandpa and Grandma every Sunday. 

She remembers that they would come over and watch them open up their presents on Christmas Day.  She remembers one time they came and waited and waited in the car.  It was Wyoming in the winter, so after that, they waited until her parents called, then they came over! 

The games Mary Ellen remembers: Playing in the garden, Hide and go seek.

She remembers the bushes and that Grandma had a big yard.  She remembers the cottonwood tree, swinging on the other end and going between the bushes.  She remembers the cornstalks, the gooseberry and current bushes.  The raspberry bushes.  Chocolate in the closet.  Dipping chocolates. Pecan turtles.  She remembers with the ward, cracking shells, and digging out the pecans out at the church.  I remember that Grandma always brought a huge metal bowl of orange rolls to every pot luck dinner.  People loved them so much they would take more than one.  

Mary Ellen told me that perhaps it was Grandpa's deep voice which added to others deciding he was stern.  

Here are a few things that Mary Ellen kept that I wrote when I was 11 and 12 (maybe we had an assignment to write alliteration with the letter B?)

Talking to my uncle about the Lander house, it was an investment to him.  However, he shared this home with us.  It was not perfect.  I remember standing around the maybe four foot by three foot heater to keep warm in the winter.  I remember my night gown puffing up with the warm air from the basement underneath. 

Uncle Laurence and Steven and Carma each talked about the fire in the Petrolane (petroleum) truck one morning when Dad had the truck in Grandpa and Grandma's driveway as he was trying to drive my older sister Carma to early morning seminary.  

Uncle Laurence laughed and laughed.  (My husband cringed.  Liquid petroleum is combustible.  More than Grandpa and Grandma's house might have been affected by a truck that caught fire.) Laurence remembers that the truck would not start and that my dad tried to jump start it.  Apparently something sparked and caught fire in the engine. Steven remembers Grandma Gee coming out with baking soda to put out the fire.  The fire was put out.  The house was saved.  

Reviewing the memories told me by my siblings, it strikes me, they remembers things that directly affected them.  Joy comes to me in remembering the little things, the lilac bushes, the raspberries and gooseberries.  I love the kindness that fills me after hearing my cousin talk with compassion about her (and my grandparents.)

It gives me pause to think that my older sister, who I ever viewed as mature, refined, perfect, admits to being immature, off kilter, and distracted. 

She was fourteen, just like I once was fourteen.  I just always viewed her “fourteen” as being grander and ever wiser than mine. 

It also strikes me as I ponder and listen to my mom and my father's brother talk, that the discouragement and difficulty that I imagined my father to have, the “indignity” of driving a petroleum truck after studying for 10 years may not have been indignity at all.  Interesting, as I think about being a student, the blessing and joy that comes after periods of study and research and stress, to think about something less stressful.  Applying for work enjoins anxiety.  However, the idea, the blessing, of being in a home environment, a place of “grounding” where he had come to, to “gather his bearings” makes perfect sense.  I was thinking about going to Paris, what it does to help me remember the heritage I have arisen from.  The long winters. The sacrifice of family. Comforts.  Luxuries.  The blessing of gathering, giving up the short term for the things that will matter forever.  I appreciate the long haul of driving.  Driving. Driving.  The pleasant memory of hearing my father’s voice.  The memory of a dream I had during a difficult time, where I imagined myself carefree at a beach, blessed in the security of a father’s perfect refuge. 

What do I do regularly to “ground?”

How can I use this blessed recognition to understand how to be grateful during the times that I am invited to step back, to pull back, to listen?  To reflect.  To gather wits, to gather resolve.  To prepare for future trials. That will lead to further growth. Further accomplishment. 

What am I doing to offer wisdom, strength, encouragement, to others in such a situation?  A situation of soul searching.  A situation of soul hunger.  A situation of needing reassurance of “words of eternal life” and “joy of the saints.”

In a way, our Lander time was part of a Progressive Dinner (like we had as Beehives.)  Only it was dessert in the middle.  

One of the things I loved talking about with Mary Ellen was how much I loved one of our friends Kelly Cadman, who seemed to have unbounded energy and enthusiasm and creativity.  I asked Mary Ellen her appraisal of why I liked her so much.  She said, "Because she was fun! It is fun to be around that energetic, happy people."  Not only do I gravitate toward that kind of person, I like being that kind of person!

I appreciate, also that Lander became a crossroads, of sorts, where more than one set of friends passed through to celebrate marriage and sealings in temples in Utah and Idaho Falls.  I loved feeling like a charged electron in the security of an atom's nucleus, my nuclear and extended family.  

A place that as a grandparent, I desire to offer continually, consistently.  We knew where the play animals were.  We knew where the crisscross plastic cups were kept.  We could sit with Grandma in her sewing room (with an expectation of something creative and beautiful to exit with us.)  

More than just grandparents, it was the gathering time, I think, that we relished.  Play time.  Story time.  Adventures. Creativity.  

And even though I have memories of Grandpa's solemn "sternness," I learned that he had a sense of humor.  Years later, it would be my underlying goal of each phone call to and from my grandparents, to get Grandpa Gee to laugh.  

My father did apply for employment other places, including New Zealand.  I remember later hearing some of the practical reasons for choosing work in the wilds of the Dakotas rather than choosing an exotic overseas position.  He and Mom in their later years served as missionaries at the Hamilton, New Zealand temple visitor's center.  They visited Hobbit Land.  However, our next adventure was pointed in the upper Midwest.  A land of even harsher winters,"snirt" storms, second grade violin concerts and wrestling tournaments.  Upcoming vistas would forge further friends, unforgettable moments.  Meanwhile, this year for each of us can be looked upon as an eye in the storm, a haven we could return to literally and figuratively as "home" for many years to come.  More than a place, Lander, was a landing.