Cherrie Rae Tippetts Bartlomé
This is the life history of
Cherrie Rae Tippetts Bartlomé.
In 1942, World War II was
upon our door step. Men were kind of excited about going to war. They wanted to
be a part of fighting the dread enemy. Verl Orvin Tippetts of Nounan, Idaho was
drafted for the army. He went for his physical in Montpelier, Idaho. One afternoon
shortly afterward, he was sitting in his mother and father’s house chatting. Some
friends were there also. His girlfriend was there. His sisters were there. Later
in the afternoon, his mother looked at him and said, “Verl, isn’t it time for
you to leave now?” His bags were already packed and sitting at the door. In
mock surprise he said, “leave where?” It seems that he didn’t pass the physical.
His hearing was partially lost when he had a severe ear infection as a very
young child. He was not to be taken by the army. He just leaned back in the
chair and went on with life. A year
later he and his girlfriend were married. Verl Orvin Tippetts was married to Ruth Busby.
So, you see Dad, without you, there would have been no me.
Verl Tippetts
On April 3rd 1943
I, Cherrie Rae Tippetts was born. My father would not even hear of a girl being
born. It was out of the question. There was no such thing as a girl being born.
But I was really born. I was born in Soda Springs, Caribou County, Idaho. Soda
Springs is about as far away as Montpelier and we were stuck in between. We
were in Nounan, Idaho. The doctors were either north in Soda Springs, or south
in Montpelier Idaho. Our choices were a bit limited.
I was six pounds and a little
bit at birth. We had a small frame building. Just two rooms to be exact. One
room was used for a bedroom and sort of storage room. The other room was just a little bit of
everything. It was a kitchen, a living room, and whatever else we needed. There wasn’t anything in that home. No
electricity or running water. I remember a well in the yard pretty close to the
back door. For the other need, there was a privy equipped with old newspapers,
catalogues, and such.
Across the street from the
Tippett’s home was the Logan Grinick home. When I was old enough, I used to ask
my mother if I could go over to their home. The thing that was so neat about
their home was that they had kitties and doggies. There were even deer which
wandered down from the hills and were taken care of by the Grinicks. My mother
would really give me the longest list of things to watch out for and be careful
when crossing the road. “Keep watch for traffic”, (there was hardly any on that
road of course) “don’t go near the well” and things like that. I just had that list emblazoned in my mind. One
day when my mother started the list, I was able to just continue on with it.
Ruth Tippetts
My mother tells me that there
was in our kitchen a bread box. I would sit on the tall stool and I would kind
of pound on that bread box like a piano. Now where I had seen Lola Skinner (the
ward organist) I don’t know, but I must have seen her somewhere. But I would
march right up to that bread box, hold my head high, and begin to play on the
breadbox.
When I was five, they told us
that I needed my tonsils out. The only
thing that I remember as to symptoms was that I had a lot of aches. In those
days all you had to do was go to the doctor’s office. You would go in, lay down
on the operating table, and they would give you ether. Then they would take
care of the tonsils. Then you would just go home. You would then lie around
eating ice cream for two weeks. I have to say that was probably the best
operation I have ever had. Dr Gurtner, the doctor that took my tonsils out, was
an interesting man. He was a man who smoked constantly, one right after
another. He was never seen without a cigarette in his mouth, and he would just
let it dribble down. If some of the cigarette ashes would drip into a person’s
wound, then so be it. Never-the-less he was known as a good doctor.
When I was two, I got a
little brother. They named him Stephen Verl. He was very sickly. He was allergic
to every kind of milk or anything they tried to feed him. He had eczema all
over his body; the back of his legs, on his arms, just everywhere. That was so
hard on my folks that they hardly knew what to do about it. My mother said that
when he was old enough to throw the bottle away, he started eating. He still
doesn’t touch milk. But he became sort of a regular person then. They spelled
his name Stephen, and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to call him step hen.
I notice that he doesn’t spell it that way now. He calls himself Steven. But I
know he is still a nice guy.
Stephen and Cherrie
When I was five and six, it
was announced that I was old enough to go out into the world. Which meant that
I would get the opportunity of going to church now. I have always repented the fact that I got
the opportunity of going to church when nobody else in the family went. My
father was a truck driver and was known as a milk man. He went to the farmers
and picked up their milk which they had gleaned from their cows. Then he took
the milk to the co-op which was in Paris, the county seat. He had to do this every day. He used to come
down the almost deserted road there in Nounan road. I, the dutiful daughter, (I
loved my Daddy so much) would wait for him. At just the right time in the
afternoon I would go out on the road. When I would see him coming- oh the
thrill! My heart just leapt. My father always did like little girls as I have
found from my daughters. I have five daughters now. He would be so cute with
them. I am sorry that he did not live long enough for some of them to know him.
Nounan Chapel
I got the marvelous privilege
of going to church. All you had to do is walk from our house up the hill. On
your right you would see the Skinner residence. Next was our church house. One
day my mother sent me to go to church all alone. I was mad that I was alone. Mother,
Steven, and Lee weren’t going because my brothers were not old enough to go to
church, anyone could see that. My father of course worked every day all day and
never had a day off. How could he go to
church? But I cried all the way up the hill. I was so mad that I had to go
alone. When I got to the church, I was sobbing hard. Then Brother Skinner (Lester
Skinner) put his arms around me and said. “you’re too big a girl to cry like
that”. I will never forget it. I will never force my children to go to church
alone. I would drive them to church even if I was suffering double vision. I
still drove them simply because I remember going alone to church that once. In the ward house you would go in through what they called the coat
closet. There we would leave our outer clothing and then we could go to the
other larger room and that was the chapel. In that room there was a pump organ
where the one and only Lola Skinner would play for us to sing. Farther up,
there was like a stage. On the stage was where they set up the things for the
sacrament and they had kind of a tall cushion thing. The men (because we didn’t
have any teenage boys) would kneel on this cushion and say the prayer and the
sacrament was disbursed from there. It was my father’s turn to do the sacrament
one day and he looked up there and my brother Lee said, what is he kneeling
down for? Is he going to say his prayers? Downstairs they had classes
partitioned off with drapes. You had to pull the drapes between each one.
The Skinners were in charge
of the “post office”. There were just some boxes in their home that they
dispensed the mail from. In those days you could buy a stamped envelope that
would send a letter anywhere for just four cents. The Skinner residence was the
two room school house and all of the grades were in those two rooms.
Let me tell you how we moved.
One day it was noised about that there was a house available in Nounan. In
Nounan there was no grocery store or service station. It was just a very rural
area. If there was gas available it was just some farmer down the road who had
put in a gas tank for his own use. The day that we went to the new house, it
really did look quite grand. I knew for sure that we were rich then. There was
a great big cottonwood tree by the house. Later on, my brothers and I found
that it was good for climbing. I really did think that we were rich with our
new house. I had heard my parents talking about how much they had spent for the
house. They didn’t know that I was listening (and I guess it didn’t matter
because I didn’t understand money matters then).
The new house in Nounan
We had two stories. A story
up and a story down. No basement of course. If you walked in the back porch you
went into a big monster room like a lot of old houses. It could be a bedroom or
living room just like the old houses you have all seen. Then to the north was
the kitchen. The familiar old coal stove was in the back just like the one in
our old house. Then I opened what looked like a little closet. It was amazing! It
was a miracle! A most modern miracles of a bathroom. And it was right inside of
the house. Next to the washroom extension was the back with another washroom
just like it. I think there was a coal stove set up there. You’ve got to have a
way to keep warm. Then you go north and there was another big room just like
the other three. One of the different things there was a closet in that one. In
one of those rooms you could open a door and there were stairs going up. Oh, it
was so exciting. Upstairs there was the big bedroom. I immediately chose that
for my place. No one else got any druthers. After all, wasn’t I the oldest
daughter? I went up the stairway and there it was, my room. It was large in
comparison to some of the rooms that I have known. There was something pretty
about that upstairs portion of the house that I thought was really lovely. There
was kind of a banister that went around and that was so quaint. I rather feel
like I could live with that even now. My brothers got a little tiny room. The
way they went to their tiny room was to go through my big room. But wasn’t I
the oldest daughter? That was the way that it should be of course! When I heard
that my parents had paid two thousand dollars for that house that was proof
positive that we were indeed rich. Just think of all those big rooms, and a
real kitchen, a bathroom inside the house and everything. There was no doubt in
my mind that we were indeed rich.
Let me just tell you about
one wonderful thing. There was something that would amaze and astound anyone.
In that house was something that I had really wanted for a long time, something
ever so much better than the old bread box. It was an old beat up scratched up
piano. I thought it was wonderful, there was nothing quite like it.
Steven, Cherrie, and Lee in their yard with their tree swing.
There was a humongous tree. It
was a cottonwood tree and a good climbing tree. My father put swings up so we
could swing. There were some out buildings. They all looked like they were
going to fall down at any moment. There
was a great big barn and we soon acquired a cow just for milk. Then there was
another smaller building which we used for a chicken coop and we raised
chickens. There was another building called the pig building. We never did
raise pigs but you have got to call it something. There was a privy out back
just in case you didn’t want to go into the house.
Cherrie with Lee
When I was six Lee R.
Tippetts was born. We had myself; Cherrie Rae, then Steven Verl, and Lee R.
Tippetts. As I grew up and thought about my own family and I never did want
anything more than a boy and a girl. I didn’t really want any boys. I thought
that they might be like my brothers. Because no matter what the argument was in
the neighborhood, they would choose the opposite side of the side I chose.
My father had trouble with
bleeding ulcers. When your ulcers bleed, it is like an explosion that happens
inside of you. The blood goes up and out or down and through and there is
nowhere else for it to go. My mother said that when it happened to my dad that
whole sink was just full of blood. My dad was taken to the hospital and I
remember that he was there an awfully long time. He sacrificed, he had to stop
smoking. It was either that or die, I guess. He went through what they call “cold
turkey”. A lot of people that want to quit smoking just can’t cut it off. Mother says that in the same room with him
was a man that needed to quit smoking. He kept right on smoking and it made it
that much harder for my dad to quit. But he did quit. After he quit, he did
something that my mother had wanted done for years. He took his family to the
temple. We were all sealed to each other. (This means that our family would be
together after this life). It was myself, Steve, and Lee, and my mother and
father. The joy that was there was just tremendous. We were sealed at the Idaho
Falls Temple. I was the oldest. I was supposed to keep things in order. Do you
think that my little two-year-old brother would cooperate? Not at all! He just would not. He just would not do any
of the things that he should have done. When we went into the sealing room he
cried through the prayer. Nothing was reverent.
But perhaps that is where we get the terrible twos quotation from. I
remember that my mother looked just lovely because of her white temple dress
and my father looked super-duper really. That was in the summer of 1950
Verl Tippetts was a milk man.
After we were sealed, we went
on a vacation. We went to Yellowstone Park. I still have a soft spot in my
heart for Yellowstone. We went through there and we counted all the bears and
geysers. We looked at all the pretty pools and the lovely scenery. It was a
happy, happy time for our whole family. While we were gone our neighbors in Nounan
were very sweet to help out and keep the milk route going. They were Les
Skinner and Ephraim Grosley. I am not sure who all else. This was the only break my dad ever had from
his milk route.
Cherrie on a picnic. Possibly in Yellowstone
The next fall it was time for
school to start again. My parents had decided that since I was the only child
in Nounan who was six years old, it might be best if I didn’t try to go to
school in Nounan. I went to school in Georgetown. I had a teacher whose name was
Mrs. Parker. She was a little round lady as I recall. She had a son who was a
little round boy who looked just like her. His name was Barry Parker. That year
the big excitement was that we were going to have a Christmas play. I was going
to get to be the hoppy bunny in the play. I was so excited that I practiced
hopping all around so I would be extra good. If you know the Bear Lake winters,
you will not be surprised to know that a blizzard hit right on the night of the
play. My parents weren’t able to attend, but my grandparents were there. I am truly,
truly, grateful for them at this time. My parents were still sad about not
being able to be there to see my first glorious performance.
Cherrie with her 1st grade class
I love to remember my
Tippetts grandparents. My grandmother was a terrific cook. I remember my grandfather
was just Mr. Fixit. He could fix anything. He could paint anything and put
broken things together in a flash. I remember his garden. On the east were
raspberries, strawberries, and all of the berries that we would want. On the west
were the vegetables. Anything that you could have a hankering for. I remember him always weeding and pulling
grass. He was constantly fixing the yard. Their yard always looked like it had
a lot of attention. I remember staying at their home quite a lot because of the
hard winters. I just couldn’t get to my home five miles away. There was no way.
All of the roads were blocked. So, I got to eat with them a lot. I remember my grandmother.
The first time that I ever had waffles was at Grandmother’s house. I loved it
when she made rice pudding. But you know what my favorite thing was of all? It
is something that nobody else likes so you will probably be surprised. I loved
to sit around the table with my Grandma and Grandpa and eat bread and milk. Yum!
Now the milk that we had was not just your regular super thin milk, 2% or 1%
that we always buy at the store. This was the milk from the cow that my Grandma
and Grandpa had personally separated. It was very close to cream. Oh, my
goodness, it was good. Sometimes my Grandma would supply small onions to eat
with it. Sometimes she would have cheese. It was always so yummy and good! I remember my Grandpa always took his false
teeth out and then he would just chomp down on his food no matter what it was. Then
I would go to bed on a feather bed. I would feel like a queen. But then, would
my Grandmother have it any other way? Grandma said that the happiest time of
her life was when her kids were little and they were just toddling around. I
loved to go visit Grandma Tippetts because everything was clean and everything
was orderly. My mother’s mother, Grandma Busby lived in Perry, Utah.
Cherrie in first grade
I don’t remember where I went
to school in second grade. I remember the friends that I met in first grade. I
was the only six year old in Nounan but there weren’t much more than four or
five in Georgetown because I was born in war time. There weren’t a lot of daddies
available to provide babies.
In the winter we would kind
of put on plays for ourselves and just go through these little stories like
Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. On that one I always had a
standing roll as the mirror. Probably because of my low and sultry voice and it
was like this and the other kids had high voices like this but my voice was low
and sultry.
I remember the summer. That
was the year that I got my very first big bicycle. Let me tell you, it was
wonderful. It had Donald Duck right in the front of it. It was just lovely. It
was brand new and it was shiny. That was a lovely thing for my father to
provide me a bicycle like that.
Cherrie with her new bicycle
I do remember third grade
though because we were in Nounan. Once again, I remember the Christmas program.
Being the only one in my grade I could choose what part I wanted. The best
parts were Santa Claus or some kind of fairy. I wanted that fairy part really
bad because I dreamed of being beautiful. All little girls dream of gliding
around in little fairy dresses. Diane Skinner came up to me and said, “if you
let me be the sugar plum fairy, I will always be your friend forever.” Since
then I have had more experiences with friends. I have learned that you can’t
always trust people when they would say that they would always be your friend
forever. I got to be Santa Claus and you
know I had my little Santa Claus suit on and Mrs. Skinner came out with a
pillow to make me look fatter. It was disastrous to even think of it. I think I
turned my back on her and went up on the stage. In my own mind I had decided
that I was fat. I had every word of that
part memorized. Right in the middle, I pretended to forget my lines. Oh, it was
so dramatic. I said “uh” and cast my eyes to the ceiling to make it look like it
was accidental. After it was all over, I gathered all of the applause and all
of the good words that I heard. Everyone told me that it was wonderful and that
I only stumbled one time. I knew that I didn’t need to stumble that time. That
was my way of getting attention.
Since we had a piano, the
next thing is that you have to have piano lessons. It was the natural thing. At
age five I started piano lessons. I took them from Mrs. Bartchie. She taught me
for 25 cents a lesson. By today’s standard that is a real good deal. Later my mother
sent me to another teacher and I was with her for a long time. Her name was
Lilis Swenson. I remember my mother dropping me off at her house on a Saturday. The piano was in the corner. Miss Swenson
would set me up just right. She would help me really reach my notes, not
fingering. Miss Swenson was in the room rocking away listening to the lessons.
But this is how people visualize a piano teacher. A little gray-haired lady to
the side. When I started teaching, I listened to a class given to piano
teachers. The professor said that most people think of piano teachers like
that. Miss Swenson was perhaps too patient and I became too patient when I
started teaching. I was the essence of patience. Now I know that that is not
the best way.
Cherrie in third grade
When I started third grade there
was much-a-do about my skipping a grade. It wasn’t that I was so smart. Because
I wasn’t that smart. It was just that they didn’t know what to do with just one
child in a grade. They didn’t know what to do. I look at my pictures and I can
see that I am with both classes the same year. This happened not only in school
but it was in primary and Sunday school also. I could have used just a little
more attention because I was extremely shy. I still had Mrs. Jewitch. She said,
“95 percent is not good enough when you can do 100 percent”. But she did teach
me to do my very best. You don’t just slosh through. In the end they decided
that I should take third grade the first half of the year and fourth grade the
last half. When it was time to go to the fourth grade, I wasn’t quite ready.
They made a big fuss over me.
I went into fourth grade so instead of being the only child, there were five of us. There were probably two boys and three girls. Like I said this was war times. I remember my teacher. She worked on introducing poetry to us and I had a couple of successes. But I wasn’t inspired and she made fun of my efforts. It wasn’t a very good poem. But that wasn’t the way to treat children who are just trying. “Why, oh why, oh why do I not like apple pie. I try, I try, I try to like apple pie”. She really made fun of that glorious effort. I was only in fourth grade. My word.
Cherrie in 4th grade- The same year as third grade
I went into fourth grade so instead of being the only child, there were five of us. There were probably two boys and three girls. Like I said this was war times. I remember my teacher. She worked on introducing poetry to us and I had a couple of successes. But I wasn’t inspired and she made fun of my efforts. It wasn’t a very good poem. But that wasn’t the way to treat children who are just trying. “Why, oh why, oh why do I not like apple pie. I try, I try, I try to like apple pie”. She really made fun of that glorious effort. I was only in fourth grade. My word.
The next school year came. I had already had fourth grade half a year.
They consolidated with another school not as small as ours but pretty small. So
now I got to go on the bus. Oh wow, big stuff! The bus picked us up at our
house. This meant they had to go up and down each lane, then went seven miles
to Georgetown elementary school. That elementary school seemed so large. When I
got there, there was some discussion about finding out what grade to put the
new kids in. I had only a half of third grade and a half of fourth grade. I was
confused because I had to decide all of a sudden. Should I be in fourth or
fifth grade? Well I had three friends in fourth grade. I had one friend from
Nounan. Her name was Lorene Ludwig. She was in the fifth grade. She wanted me
to come with her. I really didn’t know what to do. There were three fourth-grade
girls. Lorene was only one. I went with
the fourth-grade girls. We were all born in 1943 the year of the war and so
there were only four in the class.
Cherrie at Georgetown elementary in either 4th or 5th grade
Our teacher was Mrs. Dunn. I
remember that she could play piano by ear. She would play and when her left
hand hit a chord we were to bang on a symbol or pound on a drum. Another thing
was that was the year the Pledge of Allegiance changed. It was said in those
days like this: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible for
liberty and justice for all”. Mrs. Dunn said we are going to change that. It had
been legally changed by the President of the United States who was that year
Dwight D. Eisenhower. We now said it like this: “I pledge allegiance to the
flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands
one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. We
practiced this several times because this is the way it was going to be for the
rest of our lives. In fourth grade we did a lot of things at recess like play
jacks, baseball, and soccer. The truth was, I got pretty good at jacks and hop
scotch but I was never any great shakes at softball or baseball.
In the summers I would
usually go stay with my cousins. I went to Mary Lee’s home in Wayann, or to
Idaho Falls to stay with the Ellis Tippett’s family. While I was staying with
the Ellis Tippett’s family (my father’s brother) and his five children, I came
down with the chicken pox. I don’t remember being horribly sick. I do remember every morning I had the most
horrible ear ache that I can remember ever having. And not being at home I
didn’t feel comfortable asking for medication or anything like that. I must
have been sick because Aunt Mary and Uncle Ellis called my parents and said, “don’t
come and get her. She needs time to recuperate and get better.” I know that I
lost lots and lots of weight that year because the expression and the gasps and
the looks on the faces of my parents when they came to get me. Also, the next
morning they took me to a really swanky ice cream parlor. They said I could choose
anything I want. I did choose something that I liked. It was probably a banana
split with three kinds of ice cream and nuts. This was to put some pounds on me
and even to this day, my Mom says, “remember when you lost all of that weight?”
That was me turning from a fat kid into a skinny kid.
When I was in fourth or fifth
grade somebody new moved into town. I don’t remember her name but I remember
that she was really super at doing round offs, twirling around, and jumping
high. She could also do a marvelous thing. She could do the backbend. She
wanted to come and show my grandma that she could do the backbend. The trouble
with the backbend is that Grandma thought that it was indeed sinful. Grandma
said to me, “don’t you ever learn to do that. I don’t want you to do that”. I
thought that it was quite wonderful but I never did learn to do the backbend. When
I was about in fifth grade, that girl moved away to another town. We were back
to our original three; Kathy Wild, Judy Johnson, and myself. We were indeed the
cheerleaders of all the games. We did our “Akolaka ching, akolaka chow, akolaka
ching, ching, ching, chow. Bomalacka, bomalacka, sis boom, bah, Georgetown
eagles rah, rah, rah!”. Or we would chant, “e a g l e s, e a g l e s, Eagles.
Georgetown Eagles”. I even got so that I could do the splits. Purely accidental
though, because I didn’t work on it much.
One thing about a small
school, you do not have to try out for anything, you just have to say you want
to be in it. In fourth grade I wanted to join band. My folks purchased a
saxophone. The price was $225.00. I remember when it came to our house. Mr.
Johnson got out of his car, he looked for all the world like a salesman. My
mother was always hiding from salesmen. She told us to hide, and then “knock,
knock, knock”. I told her, “that is Mr. Johnson.” I opened the door to him. Mr.
Johnson came in and so did the saxophone which had been purchased by us. I
opened the case. It was beautiful inside. It was just brown on the outside, but
oh it was gorgeous on the inside. Very fluffy on the top half of the case and
there was a little sort of compartment to put in the extra things. And there it
was. Beautiful- all shinny and golden. I was excited about starting band. The
first year I was the only alto saxophone in the band. Diane Skinner of course,
got to be the one who marched up front. She blew the whistle to indicate that
we were to start playing. We had a couple of people twirling the baton.
Cherrie played the Alto Saxophone
Fifth was a whole different
thing from fourth grade. Fifth grade was more grown up. I got to forgo the ugly
brown socks that grandma insisted that I wear so that I wouldn’t have heart
trouble like she did, you know. She was just convinced that rheumatic fever
ruined her heart for the rest of her life. Speaking of illnesses, I hardly ever
got sick. But every once in a while, the school would say to me, “have you had
all of your shots”? Of course, what would a child say? “Oh yah, I had them a long
time ago”. So, I got out of a lot of stuff.
Cherrie in 6th grade
Cherrie
They didn’t have eye tests
like they do now. This was about when I should have had them. It wasn’t until
about 7th or 8th grade when I noticed that I could not
see out of one eye as well as I could out of the other. I would check it and
yes it was surely true. My left eye was really poor indeed. I didn’t know but my
right eye was also bad. I knew that I could see out of it better than the
other. I told my mother and she took me to good old doctor Owlsley. I think Dr.
Owlsley is such a good name for an eye doctor.
I went there and he checked my eyes. I tried to name the letters on the
chart and he checked my eyes on the machine. He said, “your right eye is not
good at all but your left eye is very bad indeed”. The day that I went to get
the glasses was exciting. On the way home I put them on. Wow! I could see the
cattle in the fields. I had not been
able to see that far away before. I could also distinguish the different bricks
in the buildings and leaves on the trees. Everything had been sort of blurred
before. When I got to school the next day, everybody told me that I looked ever
so much better with glasses.
Also, in eighth grade I went to the dentist a lot because I hadn’t been before. I started to be able to see that the teeth in front were starting to rot and they were ugly. So, we went to the dentist and I spent oh so much time in the dentist chair. I got so used to it, that I could relax and almost go to sleep. No one likes to go to the dentist of course. I went to school one day and Mrs. Haun, my eighth-grade teacher, said how pretty I looked and how nice my teeth looked. That compliment taught me that going to the dentist is one of the best things that one can do.
Cherrie 7th grade
Also, in eighth grade I went to the dentist a lot because I hadn’t been before. I started to be able to see that the teeth in front were starting to rot and they were ugly. So, we went to the dentist and I spent oh so much time in the dentist chair. I got so used to it, that I could relax and almost go to sleep. No one likes to go to the dentist of course. I went to school one day and Mrs. Haun, my eighth-grade teacher, said how pretty I looked and how nice my teeth looked. That compliment taught me that going to the dentist is one of the best things that one can do.
Cherrie
One year I was an artist for
the school paper. I would probably draw fancy valentines if it was February. In
the fall I would draw autumn leaves. Nothing unusually clever. I was worried that some people wouldn’t be
pleased with my work. I just hung back and hung back and didn’t hand anything
in on time. To do that, I felt judged. No matter how many wonderful things I
did. I was never complimented by my parents. They didn’t want me to be stuck-up
or arrogant like Lenesa Alloman who had a great deal of natural beauty. She
looked so cute all the time. I was jealous in a way because she was always so
sober. People would come visit her in Nounan. They would say, “oh what a cute
child”.
Dance that Cherrie attended in the junior high years. She is in the middle.
Georgetown Gold and Green Ball
I was in Junior High School.
I was in the school play. We did “Cheaper By the Dozen”. My part was one of the
dozen. It was so easy to do anything in school. All you had to do was say, “I
want to do it” and you got in quite easily.
Cherrie at a dance. She is in the middle.
The eighth grade is where you
graduate from elementary school into high school. You got to go over to the
county seat, which was Paris, Idaho. Oh, I got a beautiful new suit and a purse
to match. The purse was blue. The blouse was blue. The grownup high heels were
blue. I felt rather grand and rather grown up. I remember on the program I
played a piano solo that I had worked on for months. It was nice to be able to
do that. On the way home we stopped. I had my picture taken at good old Brown’s
Studio. He is still in business after all of these years. I used to call him
Brownie buttons.
Graduating from Junior High
The summer before I entered high
school, they had a getting to know you dance for the new freshmen. That is
where I meet my future husband Gordon R. Bartlome. I had in the past been kind
of a wall flower because I didn’t quite dare be myself. I just hung my head and
was glad when nobody asked me to dance.
I was doing my regular wall flower trick and I looked up and here was a
young fellow with a regular flat top hair do, like the boys all wore. Many of
the girls had on the costume of the fifties, the felt skirt with a poodle
front. I didn’t have one of those. I
didn’t know what was in fashion and what was not.
When I was sixteen, my mother
purchased a new piano. It was an Equasonic
built by Baldwin. My mother and I had gone Christmas shopping to Pocatello. Kind
of fooling around, we walked into a music store and there it was. I thought, “oh my word that is beautiful”. I
sat down and kind of fingered the keys. The man in the store wanted me to play
something. I had never been able to memorize things until now. Dear Miss
Swenson probably tried very hard to get me to memorize things. Most of all she
wanted me to practice. I didn’t really practice that much. I played at her
house for my lesson and I would go home and I wouldn’t touch the piano. When I
was thirteen Mrs. Swenson looked at me and said, “you know, I am going to have
to let you go because I have too many students. I am going to keep only those
who practice”. That scared me. I can’t tell you how scared I was. That is what
I think got me going. I would go home
from school (on the bus of course) and I would practice one, two, or three
hours. I noticed the difference in my playing and so did Ms. Swenson.
After eighth grade it was
time for me to leave my “little house on the prairie” school house and go
somewhere else to high school. Montpelier High School was of course located in
Montpelier Idaho. It had a small enrollment of about four hundred students. It
included freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Each grade had about 100
students each. As some of the students dropped out or quit school looking for a
more exciting life, then it would kind of dwindle down to 350. When I got into the freshmen class, I noticed
that we were indeed cliquish. We had the ones with the jeans and the leather
coats. I noticed that Gordon R. Bartlome was wearing a leather coat and so were
his friends. He seemed like a pretty nice guy. He was a senior. Boy, the one
thing that I could not remember was his last name. I kept asking my friends, “what
is his last name?” Bart La May? They would point out his dad downtown. To me he
looked very distinguished. When I heard him speak, he had a German accent,
which I loved. I thought Gordon was a real nice guy. He told me that his sister
lived in my ward in Georgetown. He told me that her name was Phyllis and I just
got all excited. Of course, in the fifties I probably got my circle felt skirt
with the poodle on the front.
Gordon and Cherrie
The classes I enjoyed most
that year were as usual, English literature, band, and a girls chorus which
they called glee. That year I sang soprano and we had a little show put on just
by the freshmen. Then there was seminary studying the Old Testament. We went
very thoroughly into the Ten Commandments. My friend Katherine Allaman was
pregnant that year and she was not married. I remember her sitting there in seminary
and having to endure at least three weeks of the seventh commandment. Most of
the students were LDS. I could count about five that were not. But every year
someone was pregnant.
Cherrie about 14 or 15 years old.
One thing we did that was
interesting for me was…(could not understand. Maybe pep club or choir?). Grandma and Grandpa were
home and they were just thrilled about it because I was a star. They said that
it does not hurt anyone to be a star when they are just somebody that was in
it. I did a lot of accompanying for that. I sang in a group and at the very end
we sang America the Beautiful and I sang the high obligato of that. “All hail,
all hail, from sea to shining sea, all hail, from sea to shining sea”. The
second year when I was a sophomore, I was flattered to be included in a beauty
contest. I was asked to try out to be future farmer of America (FFA)
sweetheart. That was wonderful. I remember I wore a blue dress. I can’t
remember if I made it or not. I was getting ready for the day. I was at the
beauty shop getting my hair put up. It just flashed into my mind that I was
going to win. I was so excited I knew it would not be very nice if I were to
tell everyone that I was going to win before I actually won. I didn’t say
anything. It may have been easier though. I knew I was going to win. I just
knew I was. There was no doubt. It made it easy to actually do your talent
which in my case was a piano solo. I
played Deep Purple. I was relaxed and so I played better than I ever did. I did
my bow. I was confident and poised. I walked over just like a movie star to
await the verdict. When they said, “Cherrie Rae Tippetts won”, I walked over,
sat on the throne, and we had pictures taken for the year book.
Cherrie with what could be "Peppette" uniforms.
I sang a lot of solos that
year merely because you get better grades if you do what the teacher says. We
had Mr. Baker who was a catholic and rather very harsh. Our seminary teacher
was Brother Skinner and I just remember when we were being rather rambunctious,
he would yell, “Repent!” And we would all scurry to our seats and be reverent.
I was in the main chorus with
boys and girls as a sophomore. I probably sang second soprano. The next year,
as a junior, I probably sang alto. Your voice changes and my voice has always
been low ever since. It was low before then, too. I became a member of the “Pepettes”, which is
a drill team.
By this time, I was going
steady (which was a 1950’s version of, you don’t date anyone else but one man.)
Of course, my one man was Gordon R. Bartlome. Finally, after a long, long time,
I learned his last name. My goodness that was terrible. But he was just still a
nice fellow. He was six feet tall and a football hero. He played tight end for
the Montpelier Bears.
I remember Gordie and I going
up when they gave the awards at the end of the year. We each got a perfect attendance award. Everybody
said that we each got one because we went to school to see each other, not
especially to gain an education. When I think about it, I think they were
right. We went to lots and lots of dances and a lot of movies. In Montpelier they had the Rich Theater which
was an indoor theater. They came out about that time with the outdoor theater.
Gordon graduated in 1958 which was when Cherrie finished 9th grade.
My grandfather had died in
1958 of cancer and it wasn’t too long after that I noticed that I had a lump in
my left breast. I thought that I was
only 17 and I was a little afraid to tell anyone. I looked in all of the books about
cancer signs. I wanted it to say, these are the signs of cancer except if you
are a 17-year-old girl. But it didn’t say that. It said you should go to the
doctor immediately. So, I told my mother about it and she got an appointment
with the doctor. Now, our regular doctor was not there. He was out of town. Aren’t
they always? So, we had to go to Dr. Burgoyne. Now, Dr Burgoyne, I didn’t know very
well. He was just a doctor. I go into
his office and he admitted that I had a lump in my breast. He asked how old I
was, and I said 17. He said, “well I wouldn’t worry about it too much”. I must have looked worried and he said, “well,
if you are going to worry, I will send you over for a biopsy at the hospital”. The
next day I went in. My mother signed me in at the desk and we went trundling
down the hall. The nurses were fusing over her. By the time I got to the room
they already had her in the bed. She was pointing at me and she was saying, “No,
not me, it is her”. They gave me the biopsy and it was benign. That was a
relief. Since then I found that it is not an uncommon thing for older teenagers
to have breast cancer. You do live and learn.
Roberta, Lourin, and Cherrie about 1958
I started noticing that the vision in one
of my eyes was getting worse and worse. I
remember checking on this every day. I would go to my favorite class, Mr. Monk’s
English literature, and see what was written on the board. I would see that it
was getting worse. I didn’t dare tell anybody. That sounds like a really
foolish thing to tell at all because there wasn’t any reason for it to happen.
I told my mother and I told my fiancé Gordon.
----------------
There is a gap here where the story must have been lost. There are a lot of pictures of this time period.
----------------
Cherrie sometime towards the end of high school
Cherrie senior picture
Cherrie senior picture
1961 Cherrie graduated from
high school.
1961 Cherrie graduated from
high school.
1961 Cherrie with Gordon Graduation day
July 6th 1961 Cherrie and Gordan were married
1961 They lived in a few apartments and homes in
Montpelier, Idaho. These pictures possibly fit in this time period.
1963 Moved to Draper, Utah. Gordon went to school during the day and worked at the prison at night.
1965 Moved to Hillside Drive in Salt Lake City.
-------------------------------
Story picks up again in Fall 1966.
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Dr Hinckley took me in for my first pregnancy examination it was kind of interesting. He had a pen and he was listening for heartbeats. He made an x where he found one. But on the other side he could hear another heartbeat. So, he made another x. But that didn’t necessarily mean it was twins. He thought that he was hearing two different rates of heart beats. It could have been hearing my pulse at the same time that he was hearing the heartbeat of a baby. So, there I am with 2 x’s on my tummy. The doctor said he would call when I got home. I got home and couldn’t wait to find out. Sure enough, he did call and he said there will be twins. I saw him the next week after that and he said that he was surprised that it was twins. He thought that it would have been triplets because I was so large. Pretty exciting. I remember going to primary at church the week before I went to the doctor. Someone said, “when do you expect your baby?” I must have looked puzzled. I thought no one knew that I was even pregnant and she said, “well I wasn’t born yesterday”. I guess everyone knew. I wasn’t keeping a secret very well. People started saying “when do you expect your baby?” They were surprised to know that I didn’t expect the baby for four more months. They thought that I was almost ready. Dr Hinckley had me rest two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. That is supposed to be a new trial situation where in England it helps for you not to come early. I didn’t come early, not at all. February came, March came, no babies. I got two or three new dresses which I grew out of immediately. Maternity clothes just didn’t last long.
I told Gordie that it was twins and it was like he just didn’t think about what I had said. He had news in his mind to tell me, so he just didn’t hardly hear what I said. His work had just told him that he was getting a promotion. He hardly heard me say that we had twins. The months went by and the lady that lived under me had her baby and I would look out there and I would see the little nappies flapping in the breeze on her little clothes line. Mr. Beardsley set up another clothes line because he could see that we were going to have to need a lot of clothes line space for diapers and baby clothes. I told a few people that it was twins; some said, “oh I have always wanted to have twins”. Linda was jealous. She wanted twins too. She had a boy and a girl but they weren’t twins. For some reason I became depressed from the first of May.
It was time to enroll Yvette in kindergarten. She was to go to Terrace grade school. They have each prospective kindergarten student come for one day so that they can see how it is going to be with kindergarten. Oh, Yvette was so excited and I was too. I took her up in the car and signed her up. I took her up to her one day of kindergarten so that she could get to know her teacher. I went away as they had told us we should do. That day I thought well, “what should I do with this free afternoon that I have before me? I think I will go and look at some houses for sale.” There was one that we had looked at and I wondered if we might buy it because we needed more than two bedrooms. So, I was just kind of driving around and I went by Marie and Bruce Rasmussen’s home. We were going there that night for games. I had another white lightening inspiration. I just knew, no words were spoken, but I just knew Marie was going to give me a baby shower that night. I thought oh that is so good of Marie. I was so thankful. I went on to look at the house we were interested in to find that it had been sold. So much for that. I went back to my little apartment. It was a living room, kitchen, two bedroom and a bath. Not much storage space at all.
That night I had terrific cramps pain like I had never had before. If I had not known that I was having a baby shower I would not have gone over to play games with Bruce and Marie. I just didn’t feel up to it. But I knew what it was, so I went. What do you do when someone is trying to give you a surprise and you are not surprised? I looked at a room full of ladies with presents on their laps and it was really sweet. It was touching to me that anyone would think enough of me to give me a baby shower. We got some really nice gifts. Twin gifts and some other things that were even nicer. Free dinners, diaper service, tend Yvette for a day, and help with ironing (I needed that, I needed that very much). I had been kind of down in the dumps for about a week. I had thought that after having been so happy about my twins, I thought I would never be depressed again. But the pregnancy just went on and on. The doctor said usually twins come about a month early. I thought they would come on my birthday, April 3. But my birthday came and went. May 3rd even came and went. Finally, on May 5th it was time to go to the doctor again. He had been in and out of town and nothing had happened at all. He had told me I had an unusual blood type and they are trying to find it just in case of hard times during the delivery.
They weighed me when I was at the doctor’s office. He had earlier given me a diet. I just followed the best diet. No sweets, not even any dressing on your tossed salad. I came back to Dr. Hinckley and he told me to forget that because I had stayed the same weight. He didn’t want me to stay the same as I had been earlier in the pregnancy. He agreed that I had grown more at the first than towards the end. When I was at the doctor’s office, I weighed in at 159 pounds. In the meantime, my husband had tried and tried to lose weight so that he would be below me.
May 5th came and about 1:00 o’clock I felt the most horrendous twinges. I thought, “it is time!” It was the middle of the night, it never fails. It never comes at a convenient time. I was up writing thank you notes to my friends who had been to the baby shower. I was just about done and the pains were getting harder and harder. Finally, it was about 4:00 o’clock in the morning and I told the doctor, “I am having contractions”, and he said how close together are they? I told him and he said, “well why aren’t you here”. He hung up and we charged to the hospital. You know how it is at the hospital. You have got to sign in and tell how you are going to pay for this. To get those nurses moving I said, “it is twins.” That is what did it. They got us going in and rushed me right into the labor room and I was having some really hard pains then.
They called Dr. Hinckley and he had gone back to sleep thinking that I would be still awhile. Pretty soon I was prepped and on my back in the delivery room. I had been told to watch out because they might come breach. The doctor had felt the toes during the examination. I knew that Monette’s head had been against my ribs for a couple of months and it was hurting. So, we knew they were both upside-down as far as having babies goes. At 4:09 Monique was born. Her weight was 4 pounds 9 oz (or 4 pounds 1 oz) and that’s the first I knew that 1 oz meant anything at all. Then at 4:19 Monette was born. Her weight was 6 pounds 14 oz. Dr Hinckley was terrific but he didn’t really bring them into the world. He was fiddling with IV’S putting them in. He was afraid that I would have to have a blood transfusion or something like that. My blood type was AB positive which is a little bit rare. Then they took me into my room. I met my room-mate she came after. I did her hair. It was beautiful. Mine was stringy I must tell you. They had weighed me on my way into the hospital. My weight according to the little scale they had there was 156 pounds.
Monique was low in weight and was low in blood pressure for the amount of blood she had. Monette was high in the amount of blood she had. When I went to the doctor later for their PKU test I remember the nurse had to just squeeze Monique’s little leg to get blood down into the heel they just put a drop of blood onto a card and then they sent that in. Monette’s practically squirted out. I was able to take Monette home in five days. Monique had to stay in the hospital for a little while after that. We went to see her. She was in her little isolet looking for all the world like a plucked chicken that you find at the grocery store. White and just so small, my goodness. Grandpa Bartlomé later said, “remember when she was born and her life was on the line, just hanging by a thread?” That is not true at all but to him it had been really serious.
The following six months were a trial. I let Yvette stay home as much as I dared because I needed her to help. You know when you are nursing two babies. It is a help to have someone there to help you get situated so that you can nurse them at the same time. I noticed in first grade book that she had missed seven days of school and probably it was because I had her stay home to help me. She loved first grade at this point and she doesn’t want to miss. Maybe you’ve noticed when you have young children in school, they gather up all of the germs that they can find. You and the family get the colds or the flu or the virus (or whatever it is) and the school kids just cope with it. Monique being the smallest or the weakest she always got it first. I being weak also I got it second. Monette being a baby she would get it third and Gordon, I don’t remember him being sick at all. I remember that it was a very bad winter, lots of snow. How I got through, I don’t know.
I remember having what I thought was the three day measles. I remember feeling so sick. I felt like I would just as soon die. But I am still alive. I remember having what I thought was the mumps but that was probably merely a bout with swollen glands in the neck. Someone came to do my laundry. Oh, thank heavens. I told the Relief Society President thank you so much. I said, “I feel just fine when I am lying down but when I am standing up I don’t feel good at all”. I chose that time to start reading the Book of Mormon. I was twenty five years old. The twins were probably a year old. We were delighted to have them and love them. They were so sweet. After I was better, I remember taking long walks. I remember going around the parameter of our ward and it was fun to take the twins. I also took organ lessons for a little while. That was so good. It felt good to help yourself. It made you feel better than you were. I would have to go over to the church and practice the organ. Yvette would tend the twins, while I had my lessons or while I practiced. It felt so good and it was fun. I was asked to be the Sunday School organist at that time. Poor congregation they had to suffer through my playing. I did the best that I could and it felt good to do it.
Monique and Monette were two years old. We had been looking for a home for the longest time and hadn’t really found one. Or if we found one, we hadn’t really thought of a way to pay for it. But Gordie found a home that he thought would be just right for us. It was on Redondo Avenue. It was a fun house it looked like a little cottage. It was surrounded by about nineteen trees. Every fall the leaves would come tumbling down. We would enjoy the grown up leaves in the trees and the beautiful drift of leaves tumbling down. The girls would go out and they would love to play in the leaves.
At church we had a huge choir. In this choir we would fill up all the choir seats plus others. I thought that was wonderful. One time we were right in the middle of a nice choir practice and we needed light. The light closet was locked I had to call someone with keys to the light closet. Brother Shumway came in and showed me why we don’t just let everybody have keys to the light closet. I looked in there and it was about a yard square and there was an empty stairwell. Their plans had been (in their homemade type way of putting things together in building that church) to make stairs going down the stairwell. That wasn’t all. There was a wall full of wires just sticking out of the wall. If you put the right wires together you got light. It wasn’t quite that bad but it was close to it. I was at last given keys to get into the light room.
There was another gal named Noel Carden. Noel was a good teacher. She was a returned missionary and an interesting lady. I was asked to do a number for the Kiwanis Club and I thought I can’t do it. But when I was forced to do it, I found that I could play well enough, just barely, to do it. Noel and I did it together. Well first of all she told me what I should make so that we could dress alike. So, we had little peasant dresses that we wore. Which by the way were popular then. Noel and I got together for the Kiwanis thing which was fun because we sang and played. We took turns being a soloist and we sang and played. One song we did was “Away Away with Rum by Gum” and my family calls it the “rum by gum” song. The “Rum by Gum song” is the temperance league song. Those men just loved it I have used it many times since.
1971 Moved to Grand Junction, Colorado
In Grand Junction I was the ward organist and I was also called to be in-service leader for the primary (training the teachers of children how to be better teachers). Sister Whiting came to me and asked me to possibly teach some of the ladies how to play the organ. I would go to church the seven miles, my husband would go to the grocery store. As he was getting groceries I would practice because I wasn’t really confident of my ability to play. I had two organ students a week who were quite good. I played a lot of accompaniment for kids who were in competition with band instruments. Yvette learned to play the clarinet there.
Another thing I remember is about Yvette in fifth grade. I remember she had the best teacher. One thing I can’t forget is how we took apart calf’s eyes. Yvette would say, “this is the retina”. Then she would pull out some jelly substance and she would tell us the name of that and she pointed out the pupil of the eye and other things. It was a good learning experience for us. But I thought, “gee, will be ever be able to eat on this table again?”
In Grand Junction there must have been twenty four sets of twins. People that had moved in accounted for some of them but they were just there when we moved there. My twins were five and in kindergarten and just learning to read. We knew twins all the way up to college age. A set of twins were born to our neighbors while we were living there.
One of the things I started doing was reading scriptures in the morning. For me that is better because that is when you are really perked up and you are alert. I was reading these scriptures and a neighbor came over to me and said, “what do you do every morning so early?” I had seen them walking by but I was just reading my scriptures. They asked me if I would be interested in jogging with them. So that is when it all started. I started to jog in Grand Junction. First, we would walk around the block and then we would start jogging. You have got to get all the latest gossip in first and then you start jogging. I remember starting out with once around the block, then twice, then three times. We invited other ladies to come jog with us, one lady smoked so she didn’t last very long at all.
Most of our neighbors belonged to the Adventist Church. One of the neighbors said, “I have been looking for something, I don’t know what it is but I have been looking for something.” I of course in my own shy way didn’t dare ask her to come to our Church. First of all, I am shy. Second of all, I couldn’t sit with them while they visited our Church (I was the organist). Third of all, we had the noisiest ward I have ever been to. I saw that they had suddenly joined the Seven Day Adventist church. Now that was hard to work around because their Sabbath would start at sunset on Friday and then it would end at sunset on Saturday. It was hard to work piano programs and recitals around them. I remember one Christmas I said, “you would enjoy this, come to my house and we will just do the program. Your children will play and it is all about Jesus’ birth”. So, they did come.
We had planted trees and we planted marigolds around where the driveway was. One of the really bad problems that we had there were the dogs. They had no animal control at all. Once the twins were coming home from school from the bus. I remember my girls just came home in tears. They were afraid of dogs anyway. I think there were a bunch of dogs bothering them. They had in their hands real telephones. The kind that you dial. I said, “my word, where did you get these?” Some kind telephone man had saved their lives and given each of them a telephone to fend off the dogs.
Then we had to put our house up for sale. We sold it to a little old couple. They had a nice place to live but they wanted a large yard so that they could work in the garden. We had a really nice garden. We had enjoyed planting all sorts of really yummy things. The thing I remember about Grand Junction was that we had corn on the cob and we were still digging out dandelions until the day that we left.
During the move from Grand Junction to Albuquerque we thought we would take our time and go to places I had not ever been. So that is what happened. We had our furniture in storage for a while. First we went up to Idaho. Gordie’s folks were having their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. We played for that wedding anniversary. I played the organ and I accompanied Yvette. She played the clarinet. She played such nice things. I was pleasantly surprised to see all of the grand kids playing and singing songs. I didn’t know that they could do that. But they did. We had a lovely anniversary celebration.
From there we went on down to Salt Lake, and stayed with the Goaslinds. Then my husband drove all night so that we could get to Las Vegas. We stayed at a flea-bag motel there. I found even then that Vegas had no interest for me. We had fun. We went to the Hoover dam and learned a lot. That day I turned thirty and I saw something even older than I was. I saw the Grand Canyon. Even now I can’t quite comprehend the Grand Canyon. It is so grand and so glorious. I can’t imagine it being real even as I was standing there looking at it. I just couldn’t imagine it being so beautiful and so nice.
That night as we were going along, we could see in the sky kind of a reflection of a light. Then as we came across the mountain and looked down, there was the city of Albuquerque. What a nice way to begin our getting to know it. Albuquerque is a wonderful place. I just love it. We spent the first night in a motel. That is kind of a special treat. We stayed for about a couple of weeks in the LaCosta apartments. It had its own swimming pool and we said that if the temperature gets up to 72 degrees we can go swimming.
We had to get into a house so that we could sign our kids up for school. Well in Albuquerque they do not have public kindergarten. The twins who had already learned to read were on their own. Yvette who had been in sixth grade I signed her up at… (could not understand). Albuquerque is one of the most interesting towns I ever lived in. I loved the combination of the Indian culture and Spanish American culture and all in one city. We Caucasians were among the minority. We lived in Albuquerque for three years.
I was pregnant after having waited for six and a half years. That seems like a long, long time. But knew for a fact that it was a little boy because he appeared to me before he was born. So, there was no doubt.
Here's the story from Andre that he remembers being told to him by Cherrie: While I was pregnant with Andre, I was asleep one night. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a young man about 20 years old that was dressed in a suit and tie at the foot of my bed. The young man talked to me and said that he was he was my son that was going to be born later that year. I knew that it was more than a dream. I knew it was Andre talking to me from the preexistence before he was born on earth.
During the pregnancy I remember taking Gordie to his work downtown so I could use the car. I got home and I would throw up. This happened until the end. Andre was born on June 30, 1973. At the same time that I was pregnant, Geraldine Bartlomé (Gordon’s brother James’ wife) was pregnant also. They were so thrilled. Her baby came early. That had been a problem with her for a long time. She had many miscarriages through her life. But her baby came early and was in the hospital for a long, long, time.
When I had Andre, it was very strange because this is my first little boy. In fact, I had promised Gordie this would be a boy. He said, “I don’t believe that. I bet you a hundred dollars that it is not a boy.” I said, “well, I say it is a boy. I bet you a hundred dollars it is a boy.” When I had Andre, I had wanted that he would see the birth of his child and he was sitting there waiting in the labor room. Dr Bennett came and grabbed him by the arm and said, “aren’t you coming?” He followed right in and he stood there and he was there.
When Andre was born it was a hard delivery. It was different than I had imagined. I was having contractions so close together that I couldn’t even breathe. The nurse had me pant so that I could get a breath. He was born and unlike my other children so far, he screamed to high heaven. Boy! Was he noisy. The umbilical cord was around his neck at one point but that was easily fixed, I guess. Then, I just felt so flat. That is an awful way to feel. I didn’t feel relief that it was over. I didn’t feel happy that the baby was born and was healthy and well. I didn’t feel sad for any reason. I didn’t feel anything. It was an awful feeling. Later I found that James and Jeri’s baby about the same time.
In Albuquerque there were many wonderful things to go and to see. Andre was probably the best baby I ever had. He was so pleasurable to have. I had not ever really wanted a little boy until he had appeared to me. I thought that little boys would be climbing up the wall and make you, the parents, climb up the walls. We had a chalk board in Andre’s room. One day Gordie wrote a message and it was, “we thank mommy for a fine boy”. That was touching because Gordie doesn’t do that kind of thing often. He was glad to have that little boy. I didn’t know he cared that much. But little boys are fun. You can play ball, catch, and all those things.
In Albuquerque we finally got a washer and dryer. I had been through all those years hanging my clothes on clothes lines. Also in Albuquerque there wasn’t much storage space so we just stored things the best we could in the garage. In Albuquerque I had sixteen guitar students and four or five piano students and I found myself.
I was really proud of my girls. Words like genius, and brilliant went flying around from the teachers and that is such a good thing to hear. The school was S. Y. Jackson know as a progressive school. The kids would discuss and make their own plans for the day. They planned what they were going to do and then wrote it down and they were expected to do it. Yvette hated that plan. Luckily she was now no longer in elementary school. She was in Hooper Middle School. They didn’t have junior high in Albuquerque at all they were just middle school.
I met a neighbor in back of me. Her name was Jane Gordon we became really good neighbors I just loved her. At one point she was interested in learning about our church but it didn’t work out. She gave me lots and lots of little boy clothes. They were very well kept up and they were just like new.
Some of the things we enjoyed about Albuquerque was our new way of celebrating Christmas. We had bagolitos, or luminaries. [From the internet: farolitos are made with candles placed inside a paper sack that decorate the outside of houses. Bagolitos are electric farolitos that have inside a small lightbulb protected by a plastic bag or screen instead of a paper bag.] Also, every year they would have all these hot air balloons. You would look out the window and see all of them coming toward you. It was just beautiful and most interesting. We made gingerbread houses. It was so fun that Yvette, Monique, and Monette made them. They all made their very own gingerbread houses only theirs were small.
The house in Albuquerque had a front living room and it had really large bedrooms. I was amazed it was a new home. In the entry were two arches that were filled with iron bars. I learned how to macramé in Albuquerque. I signed up many times to do it in Relief Society. Every time I did, I was asked to be the nursery leader or on the luncheon committee.
In Albuquerque is where Yvette joined the Duke City Dashers and she went to a lot of races and got a lot of ribbons. She had to jog for a mile and a half every day. I measured it with the car so that I would know how much that was. I thought that I would just jog with her. That will be neat. I tried. We went up the hill, then across, and then down the hill, then up to our house. That first time I thought, “oh I feel horrible”. The second time I thought, “I feel awful. I can’t do this.” I had done it in Grand Junction so why couldn’t I do it now?
We got to travel about once a year down to El Paso, Texas as a family. That was a fun thing to do. On the way home we decided that we would stop and see the White Sands. Now the White Sands are fascinating. They look like snow but they are sand. Andre hated it because he has these blue eyes and he couldn’t stand to open them.
In Albuquerque I had musical calling in the church. I wanted so much to teach. I had many musical callings in the Primary, Sunday School, Relief Society all of that. I wanted to teach so bad that I decided to be a leader in the Camp Fire Girls. I got all my cute ideas from my old Children’s Friends [LDS magazine]. It was just no trouble at all. Everybody was amazed that I had so many cute ideas.
In Albuquerque is where I thought where I finally understood the poem that Robert Frost wrote. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening By Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I was sitting there holding my little Andre and I was just thinking how nice this is. The end of the poem says that I have miles to go before I sleep. I have so much to do and here am I sitting here with my little tyke on my lap.
Andre, much to my surprise, had been the easiest to rear. I thought that girls were the easiest. I never did really want a boy. But here was Andre, obedient and sweet. The people at church would say, “how do you keep him so quiet?” He was only three but he was just so sweet, kind, so good, so easy, and so fun to be with.
I had begun fainting over and over for five minutes at a time. Gordie timed them to see if it was five minutes. I didn’t just make that up, it really was. I was learning from my neighbor to make men’s pants. It took me a whole day to cut them out because I would have to stop and faint. I would faint five minutes and I would faint again. I lost the whole summer. I would faint if I was lying down, I would faint if I was walking along. I would faint sitting in a chair. Any position I was in, I would just faint. I sort of learned to disguise it if I was sitting down. You could put your head down between your legs, or lean against the nearest tree or sink to your knees. The only person I couldn’t fool was Sister Glover. She was one of the visiting teaching ladies that I visited. I fainted three times and she noticed that I was passing out. Her husband being a neurosurgeon, she thought that I ought to go to the doctor, so I did. I went to the famous Dr. Bennett. He gave me a checkup. He recorded on cassette tape what he had to say. You know, he would say my blood pressure, my heart rate, and all of that. Then at the very end he announced calmly into the tape, “I find Mrs. Bartlomé is perfectly well.” After he clicked off the tape, I said, “then why am I fainting so often?” He just could not find a reason I should be fainting so much. I think Gynecologists (baby doctors) know how to bring babies into the world but they don’t know so much about other things. I rather think that it was an MS attack because it came on a little bit at a time and it ballooned more and more. At that time, I thought that I had it all figured out with MS. But this was so different that I didn’t notice it in time. I didn’t believe that that is what it was until it was all over.
It wasn’t too much longer that I came to him because I was having a hard time swallowing. It was like a sore throat but not exactly. I held my mouth open and he said that it looks sort of normal. He gave me a test for strep throat and said he would call back with you later. I waited for four days in the mean time I was not able to eat at all. I couldn’t swallow. So, for those four or maybe five days I lived on Jell-O and one of my favorite things in all the world, malted shakes. I would make them at home and I would drink them. It was amazing to me that I was losing about two pounds a day on that. I just took a whole week off from doing callings and my other things. The doctor never did call me back. I called him. The doctor said, “oh, we forgot to give you a call.” I said, “that’s ok.” I told him I had lost 8 pounds that week and it didn’t concern him. After all he was just a baby doctor, he isn’t anything else. I was just surprised to find out how much I yearned to have solid foods. One day we had hot dogs and I ate six of them because I just wanted solid food so bad. That is when I learned that to have a diet of liquids is not necessarily a good thing even if you like what it is you are having.
By this time, I was pregnant once more. A new baby. I thought it would be a nice friend for Andre so I was hoping for another boy. I expected that another boy would be as sweet and gentle as Andre was. She was a great friend to Andre, she just wasn’t a boy.
I found out that I was pregnant with Nicole and I went to Dr. Bennett. Dr. Bennett is a good doctor. He just had so many patients, you could just wait around for hours in his office. I waited for so long I was able to read Moby Dick. I read many other things in his office too. I was spotting at first. In fact, I thought that I wasn’t pregnant after all. But low and behold, I really was. I thought well, “I will just carry on.” I found out that it was easy to get a rest from Relief Society, Primary, Sunday School. But it was not so easy to bow out of Camp Fire Girls even though I was ill. I had to walk up and down the streets to visit with the mothers of those girls to see if I could find someone to do it for me. Invariably they would say, “oh I would love to do it but not now with Christmas. After Christmas I will do it.” So, I struggled through until Christmas.
One day when Andre was 18 months old we put him to bed. He just started screaming and yelling and he wasn’t the type to do that. But he was just hurting and you could tell. I called Dr Heaton and he was out of town of course. The person that was taking his place told us to take him down to the hospital so I did. Gordon was out of town. Yvette was awake so she held him all the way downtown to the hospital. We had not been able to wake up the twins to tell them that we would be gone. I couldn’t wake them up at all. So, we just locked the doors and left. At the hospital they were very kind. I was pregnant with Nicole at that time. But poor little Andre he was just in so much pain. The people at the hospital said that it was a hernia. They called the doctor. He was so sweet. He just gathered Andre up in his arms. His name was Dr Criddlebaugh. He just cradled him, rocked him, and comforted him. That was so sweet. He said, “what we have here is a hernia and he will have to have an operation.” By now I am used to operations. I liked to even watch them stitch up my kids. Monique had to have stitches in her face. Monette had to have stitches in her leg. Yvette had to have stitches in her shoulder. Now here is Andre having stitches. But I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn’t watch. He said just go home and we will call you in the morning to come and get him. Dr Criddlebaugh said he wanted to see him every other day for a week. So, we brought him home, put on his Snoopy robe (which had been given us by Jane Gordon) who lives in back of us. I took pictures of him.
Gordie came home on Friday and he saw the bill. It said $300 and he said, “what did you spend $300 on?” Itold him that $300 was spent on Andre’s hernia operation. We had asked someone to come give Andre a blessing. I wanted my children to see the blessing and they would see how quickly he would be healed. But by the time we got someone and they came to give him his blessing the girls were way long gone to sleep. But he really did heal quickly. It worked. Dr Criddlebaugh after seeing Andre twice said he is healing so quickly you don’t have to come back anymore. Gordie was out of town every single week by then. He came home on the weekends.
A tiny girl was born to us on July 9, 1975. In fact, I had been to the hospital twice. They knew me well. Once, the false labor was on our anniversary, the 6th of July. The kids were so disappointed when we came back without a baby. The other time we went, I was prepped and settled in the bed even. Then the contractions stopped. Now this kid was a really wiggly one. I remembered that Andre had the cord wrapped around his neck. I thought something similar would happen. Finally, the doctor came and said, “well I don’t think that you are quite ready. We will have you come back on the 9th.” On the way home contractions started again, two minutes apart. We got home and I was so tired. I said, “Gordon, let me know if the baby comes.” Then I sunk into sleep.
I wanted to have all the dishes washed, cookies in the cookie jar, and everything just right. It was Monday and I washed, ironed, and mended on Monday. Here it was July 9th and I was home. The doctor called and asked where I was. I said, “you didn’t tell me any particular time to come. I wanted to get things ready. We have quite a few children and you should understand that.” We came in at 12:30 or 1:00 o’clock. He said he would break the water. So much water came flowing out. I heard him say to the nurse that you won’t see that much amniotic fluid ever in any person again. I was delighted when I heard it was a little girl. Oh, she was so beautiful. Oh, so beautiful with black hair. One day the nurses brought one of the other babies in. I knew I was not my baby and then they switched it back to the right baby. Nicole had a little button round face. She became a tom-boy. Andre didn’t like baseball and stuff like that- maybe just a little. But Nicole loved all those sports. She likes to run and jump. She likes to play boys games. She didn’t really like her name that much.
In Albuquerque I remember I needed a car so bad. I needed to go to the doctor often and we had one car. Gordie had it because he went all over the state for work. I prayed for a car so that I could do things that needed to get done. For instance, Andre was very, very ill. He had thrown up all day and finally he started having convulsions about noon that day. I called the doctor who of course was on his lunch hour. They are always out to lunch when you need them. His office said he would be back at 2:00 o’clock. I thought, two hours? I have to wait and watch this little kid convulse? I couldn’t. I was scared because that hadn’t happened to me before in my whole life. I didn’t know what to do. I called a neighbor (who later became a good friend of mine) and I told her that Andre was very, very ill. Now this was the day or two before Christmas. This lady dropped everything and took us to the doctor’s office. Andre was tested and was given a spinal test for spinal meningitis and that was negative. But he was dehydrated. The doctor said take all those clothes off of him and let him run around in a diaper until his temperature is down. Gordie knew that we needed to have another car because I had more things happen. I had called on every person in my ward to take us to the hospital, to take us to the doctor, to take us visiting teaching. Whatever I had to do.
Yvette would run every day. The coach would come and get her most days. She was old enough for mutual now [Church program for teenagers doing weekly activities)]. She was asked to be secretary of the mutual. But the problem we had is that she had Duke City Dashers right after school until eight. Mutual ended at nine and she just couldn’t make it. She was in a lot of races. She won a lot of ribbons and Monette even joined that club at one time. She won one ribbon and she was injured. She wasn’t able to keep on with it.
New Mexico is one of the driest spots on earth. They compare it to the Sahara Desert, and Saudi Arabia. I found it to be true. I didn’t have even one attack of bursitis. I had MS attacks because of all the activities I did. The thing that I remember about Albuquerque is that people think that it is very hot. Perhaps that is so, but it is not as hot as Salt Lake City or Grand Junction. I found it to be comfortable. You would just be thinking how hot it was getting, and you started to move toward flipping on the air conditioner. Then you would see the clouds rolling in and the big rain would hit. This would happen every day between July 4th and September, the hottest part of the year. It was wonderful. One thing too that I noticed is that my feet would crack. I had a hard time walking sometimes. It was painful.
Yvette had a friend. Her name was Tammie Pullock. She Yvette would come to our house. Tammie’s folks were having marital strife. She would come just to get away from all the yelling and screaming. I was happy to have her there in a safe place. I made clothes for her and everything just like I would make clothes for my own children.
An annoying thing about the house we lived in were the crickets. They weren’t only outside; they were inside too. You could hear them singing away and you could never find out where they were. They would hide themselves in the cupboards or something and we could never find them. They just loved to rub their legs together and sing. We would hear these crickets singing. It was so close and so loud I knew it was in the room with us. I would search high and low. When you turned the lights on, they would quit singing. I would think, “where are the seagulls when you need them.”
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The story ended here.
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1976: The family moved to Cottonwood Heights, Utah. Gordon started working for the Vernon company.
Cherrie was a piano teacher
With her brother Steve, mom Ruth, and brother Lee
1980 a church sports event where the family won a trophy.
October 26, 1980: Marci was born. Cherrie wrote that she was so happy to give Gordon a gift of a new baby girl.
About 1981: Cherrie was mostly bedridden at home for the next three years. Members of the ward came in every day when Gordon was at work to feed her, visit with her, and read to her. Marci was taken care of by members of the ward also. This is when a lot of this story was dictated. Cherrie recorded her life story onto cassette tapes. About 2017 Carol Bartlome typed them up so we could enjoy them. The tapes were old and hard to hear. Cherrie was also not very well, so her thoughts were a little scattered.
About 1983 Cherrie needed more technical care than she could get at home. She was placed in a nursing home. This was so hard for Gordon. He visited with her every day and her children visited often. The last year or so, she was not really aware of people visiting.
1986: Cherrie passed away from Multiple Scleroses. She was 43 years old.
--More pictures are in the blog called Gordon and Cherrie pictures.
Note: For those who lived during the times when there is not much information, we would love your stories and remembrances to fill the gaps or to give us a bigger picture of Cherrie's life and personality. Please send in stories that I can add.
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