Big Cottonwood Canyon 1936 Daddy had a job up Big Cottonwood Canyon the last six weeks of the summer.  We had been living with Uncle Joe in Salt Lake City during the first part of the summer.  Daddy had put us up in a small trailer in the woods.  I was six and Jean was ten.  I know Mother must have been happy to be there so she could be closer to my dad.  Jean and I were used to freedom, although I probably stayed closer to the trailer than Jean did. The inside of the trailer was very small.  The beds must have been bunk style beds at the back of the trailer.  Near the door was a small stove for heating and cooking.  I remember the day my mother said I could fry my own egg!  I was so excited and careful.  She taught me how to break open the egg, and then, with the spatula, turn it over.  I had actually fried my own egg!  That was a memorable experience for me. Jean and I with our new friend Jean and I would sit out on the steps of the trailer, holding out pieces of bread for the ground squirrels.  We would sit very, very still.  The squirrels would come nearer and nearer, and eventually they would grab the bread from our fingers.  We felt like real woodsmen (woodsgirls). One day, Mother asked me to take the bucket to the river and bring back some water.  There was a small path that led right down to the river from our trailer.  I had probably done it many times.  This time, however, halfway down the path and around a little bend, I came across a couple standing in the middle of the path kissing!  I was horribly embarrassed and ran back to the trailer, refusing to ever go down that path again!! Jean and I in front of a shepherd’s wagon in Big Cottonwood Canyon Jean and I (on left), me trying to look like Jean Jean and I (on left) sitting on the steps of the shepherd’s wagon, waiting for ground squirrels to feed This couple were newlyweds living at the camp.  Jean and I loved her and her Blue Waltz perfume. Red Canyon 1940 The school year was over.  We had just moved back to Salina, and three full months of summer play was before us.  I was ten-years-old and Jean was fourteen.  Nothing memorable happened, until Daddy said he was taking us all to Red Canyon with him.  (You have to drive through Red Canyon to get to Bryce Canyon in Utah.)  He would be working on roads there for at least six weeks!  The night before we left, our dog, Troubles, had puppies—two little boys and one darling little girl.  We drove to Red Canyon in a big truck.  Daddy had made a nice little bed for Troubles and her puppies in the back of the truck.  All the things we were bringing with us were packed in that truck, so it was pretty full.  I do remember Daddy letting me ride in the back, snuggled down by the dogs, for a short while.  I’m sure Mother protested. We didn’t drive very fast, and it seemed like we were never going to get to Red Canyon.  I would ask Daddy, “How much farther?”  He would point to mountains, far enough away to look blue, and say, “We have to go past those mountains.”  That seemed unbelievable!  I had never been so far away from home in my whole life! Since Mother had lost the baby in March, she had never been really healthy.  Daddy had everything ready for us when we got to the canyon.  He had put up a big tent.  A door had been built entering into the tent. The floor was wooden.  A wooden table and benches had been made.  I cannot tell you where or how Mother and Dad slept, but I do remember Jean and I had a bed so high, we had to run and jump to get up on it each night.  We loved it! Mother seemed to blossom there.  She was relaxed and would sit in a chair outside the tent and read or watch Troubles carry her little baby boys by the neck, up to the edge of a rising next to the tent, and push them down the incline.  We would laugh and clap our hands.  They would jump up and be ready to go down again.  Troubles didn’t like her little girl. I was in love with her.  She was the smallest and had one brown ear and other brown areas around her body.  Both the boys were light in color, like their mom.  Troubles never carried her up on the incline.  Did I mention that Troubles had papers?  She was a Fox Terrier and very, very smart.  Daddy had brought her to us from we don’t know where! The dogs were in the house at night and wandered in and out during the day.  Whenever we were at the table eating, one of us would drop something to a dog.  Mother would get after us and say, “Don’t you feed those dogs at the table!”  One happy day, we caught Mother dropping something to one of the dogs.  We jumped all over her and had a good laugh at her breaking her own rule.  We were a happy family living together in Paradise. We were totally free to wander wherever we wanted.  There were other children in the camp, and we would gather together and start a new adventure every day.  On one day of hiking, we went rather high up in those red hills.  I kept following behind everyone.  We came to an area where we carefully walked around a narrow ledge.  There was a long drop off on the one side.  Everyone walked around the ledge, so I had no choice.  I was so scared!  We did it, and then a great discovery was made: We were looking down into a miniature Bryce Canyon!  We were in awe!  Jean never got over our great discovery.  She just knew we were the first and only ones to have every seen that canyon.  It was an amazing day! Another hike took us up the side of a mountain where there had been a rockslide.  We found some logs and rode them down the slide, another great day!  Jean remembers a fire all the kids started, probably having been roasting hot dogs.  It wasn’t done on purpose.  When we were ready to go to our camp, we knew we had to cover up the fire, and we did, with needles that had dropped on the ground from the pine trees and whatever else we could find.  we then went back to camp.  Someone, luckily, saw the fire progressing and called the ranger.  It was soon put out.  From then on we kids hid from the ranger whenever we saw him.  In the evenings, everyone in the camp gathered around the wide, shallow, cement fire pit.  A big fire was built and the adults would sit around laughing and visiting.  Kids were chasing each other around the dark perimeter, having fun.  There was one women Jean and I had noticed who, wearing a dress (all the women did), would stand with her back to the fire and fan her dress out, trying to get attention and look glamorous.  We couldn’t stand her!  One night the woman got too close to the fire pit and her dress caught on fire!  Jean and I were laughing so hard, we had to back up far away from the fire so people wouldn’t hear us.  What a satisfying laugh that was! One evening, Daddy and Mother went into town (Panguitch) with Mr. Whiting, the boss.  Daddy was the foreman for the job and Mr. Whiting wasn’t always around.  He had brought his teenage daughter, Peggy Lee, with him.  She was to stay with Jean and I until they all got back from town. Of course, she seemed beautiful to us.  She played with us for a while.  We were both enamored with her.  When it was time for us to go to bed, she asked if we would like to have her sing to us.  She sang, “My Alice Blue Gown.”  She had the most beautiful, clear voice.  I asked her to sing it over and over.  Finally she said, “No more.”  I have always loved that song.  We were sad when she left the camp. A group of young boy scouts had come to Red Canyon from Panguitch.  They were around for a few days.  One evening, Mother told me I was wanted outside.  I opened the door, and there, in a line, were the scouts.  They had come to serenade me!  I couldn’t move; I was so embarrassed!  I finally got back in the tent while they continued to sing.  Two of these boys got my Provo address and sent me letters.  I’m sorry to say that their penmanship and English were so bad, I didn’t really share my conquest with anyone! An envelope from one of my admirers