Chapter 15
On With My
Life
I rented a cute house
on Normal Ave that the girls and I settled into. I got a job at the
Thriftway Drug Store on the corner of Main and Overland. Cindee and
Connie went to the new Dworshak Elementary School just a few blocks
for our house. Gordon was living on the farm with his Dad, he was
pretty bitter and hated me because of the divorce but the girls
seemed happy and liked living in town. There were a lot of neighbor
children for them to play with. Irma and her family lived just down
the block so she helped keep and eye on my girls after school before
I got home from work.
I liked working at Thriftway as I had worked in a drug store before. It was much bigger than the Miller Drug store where I had worked, so there was much more for me to learn. I worked with some very nice women that helped me learn the different departments that I had to work in. Birdena Bell was one of the girls I worked with. I was shocked out of my socks when I found out she was dating Gordon, whom she later married. I liked working in cosmetics best and the camera department the least because there was just so much to know about cameras if you are trying to sell them.
Mr. and Mrs. Hal Matthews owned the store. (Mrs. Matthews was Cindee's 3rd grade teacher, and found her eye problem). The manager was Grant Matthews (no relation to Hal). He was bipolar and had a cross eye, you never knew if he was looking at you and when he came in to work we knew right away what to expect from him. Cindee and Connie were taking Dance lessons at that time and took part in a Christmas Recital and the old grouch wouldn't let me off for even one hour to watch them dance. Jim, the pharmacist was a great guy. He had me helping him count out pills and stock the pharmacy shelves and other jobs.
In about December of 1968 Wilma Dayley from Dayley's Shoe store was in Thriftway one day and asked me if I would go work for them. The hours and the pay were better, so I changed jobs. I really liked selling shoes, checking in new merchandise, and stocking shelves. I have always liked people and clerking is a good place to meet them. Had and Wilma Dayley were owners and their sister-in-law Helen and I were the only ones that worked there. I got along really well with all of them. Helen and I got to do most of the window and store displays. I enjoyed working there. (Had, or Harold, and my mother were second cousins.)
I
was still running around with the girls from the drugstore and that
got me into a lot of trouble. I started going to places that I had
never been before. I still loved to dance and the only places to
dance was in the nightclubs. For a long time I only drank soft
drinks, then Satan said one little drink won't hurt. Ya, Right! I was
dating different guys and just having fun. The men I got involved
with were not the best, considering the places I went to find them.
Daddy and Mother at their 50th anniversary celebration, December 4, 1970.
Standing: Eunice, Thelma, me, Lorna, Marian, Irma, Gerald, and Kathryn.
The girls were growing up and Cindee had her friends and was doing her thing, which got her into trouble. Connie spent time on the farm with Gordon in the summers. I was not living right and I knew it. The Bishop called me in for a talk. Later I was excommunicated from the church. I felt like I was in a deep, deep black hole with no way out. I was very depressed. One of my friends told me, “No big deal. Just join another church”. I told her, “There is no other church.”
Even though I was no longer on the church records, I felt that they could not take away my testimony. I never once stopped believing that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the only true church. I knew that it was Christs words through his prophets and that Jesus is the Christ and only begotten Son of God. I always knew that I was a daughter of God and that he blessed me and protected me, even when I felt that I did not deserve his blessings. I did go to many other church’s with friends, but none of them had the spirit and was they felt cold with no feelings!
From there, my road has not been the short straight distance between two points, but, rather, one that winded, twisted, meandered, and, occasionally, lead over terrain rocky enough to shake up the devil himself.
Before
Tim left for the Navy, he had met a sweet girl named Deelynn Egland
at a church dance. She was too young to date but wrote to him while
he was away. When he came home on leave they spent time together. Tim
came home from the Navy in February of 1971 and they were married in
the Salt Lake Temple June 4, 1971. Again, I had to wait outside. Tim
and Deelyn made their home in Rupert and he worked for Elliot Brother
Implement as a diesel mechanic, a trade he learned in the Navy.
About the same time, Melody and Emil moved to Tucson, Arizona and
Emil's two daughters came to live with them. So I had two adopted
granddaughters, Adelma age 6 and Emily age 5. My first born
grandchild, Michael Layne Dudley, was born May 29, 1972. I was 46
years young. Wow! I can't believe how that aged me! 
Tim and Deelyn
One weekday evening I went to Boise with a friend and had a problem with the car and didn't get back in time for work the next morning. The store was having a big sale and Wilma was very unhappy with me and fired me on trumped up reasons so I was unable to collect unemployment. I had worked there for three years and nine months.
My friend Judy Anderson from the drugstore was then working at the Boise Cascade box factory south of Burley and encouraged me to apply for a job there. In about September of 1972 I was hired on as a laborer and had to work right along with the men. There were only about three women working in that area. Others were working in the office. Judy had finagled her way into office work with no experience at all. I thought I could do the same. No way. I worked right along with the guys and had to keep up with them. There was not one of those fine fellows that would lift a finger to help us gals out. I wore my finger tips completely smooth from handling cardboard day after day. The pay was better. My boss was Tom Quinley and he wasn't any better than the other fine fellows. I worked there for four months.
It
was winter and very cold and my car got stuck on a icy street and I
was freezing. I felt that I was in a rut with no place to go. I had a
chance to go to sunny California with someone so I situated the girls
with their dad and packed my bags. Leaving Irma to settle my affairs,
I took off in December of 1972.
Me, Connie, Gordy, and Cindee - December 1972
We ended up in Ridgecrest, in the Mojave Desert. I got a job at the Cornelius Shoe Store at 8001 China Lake Blvd. Where I worked for three months. The area there was really different to what I was used to. It was hot during the day and right down cold some nights. I got to go to a lot of fun places like Death Valley and some ghost towns. I saw different kinds of desert plants and life that I was not used to. It was an education.
In March, I came back to Idaho and worked at the Tupperware Plant in Jerome for three months. My boss there was Warren Mowry. He was not nice to me because I was too slow and kept screwing up with the count in packaging.
Cindee came to live with me, and spent her “Sweet 16th Birthday” there. I spent what time I could in Burley, but felt the family was against me. I was completely ignored by some. Gordy graduated from High School in May of 1973. About a month later, I moved back to California for good.