Household Hint - Thank You Lisa!

What a wonderful product! We all use the Magic Eraser. When I was visiting Lisa last week she shared this hint.

"Use Magic Eraser to take off the stains on your ceramic stove top. It gets off those stubborn stains."

Well today I was boiling chicken and the pot boiled over. Grrr! Don't you just hate that mess! I was quick and got the pot off the ceramic stove top just as it boiled over. I moved to another burner after cleaning the outside of the pot. When the stove top cooled down I tried the 'Magic Eraser.' It worked! I even put a dab of Ceram Bryte on the Eraser and wow it came off with little effort!

The ceramic stove top instructions say to use the yellow scrubbie with the Ceram Bryte so it won't scratch. Sometimes starches, like boiled potatoes, are hard to take off, even tiny spots! I'm a believer in the 'Magic Eraser'! Try it!

It also works on porcelain sinks! I put a dab of Ceram Bryte on the eraser and scrub the porcelain sink and what a shiny brite white sink!

Thank You Lisa! :o)

Testing! Testing! This is an experiment!

Kirsten doing her favorite thing, sucking her thumb!

Picture of feet and hand reflexology

AN EXPERIMENT WITH REFLEXOLOGY!

Kirsten has Myochlonic Seizures. She has a VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulator) implant in her upper left chest just below her collarbone. She is on her '3rd' battery. It has been in almost 18 months. We have a magnet that we swipe across her VNS when her seizures start. Sometimes it is helpful, but most of the time it isn't much help. The reason being that for the past 6 months her seizures have increased in intensity from the onset. These usually happen predawn, around 4:00a.m. and 5:00a.m.

I went down to visit Lisa last week for a few days. We arrived on Thursday afternoon. Saturday morning around 6:00a.m. she woke up and I could tell by her breathing that seizures were starting. Her eyes rolled up in her head. Something (I'll will say it was the 'spirit') prompted me to rub and massage her feet. This particular start of seizures was mild, whew! I massaged her feet for 10 minutes and she relaxed. I continued to massage her feet for a total of 20 minutes. Kirsten fell back to sleep undisturbed by seizures. I was impressed! I thought, 'Wow! I wonder if massage therapy would help her with her seizures? Hmmm.'

We left that afternoon to head home. When I got home I hopped onto the Internet and researched reflexology.

This past Monday Neil came home from work with a book all about 'Reflexology.' I briefly gleaned the pages. It's a wonderful book!

Well, this morning, Wednesday, Kirsten woke up at 4:40a.m. with a full onslaught of seizure activity. I started in right away massaging her toes. (Toes tips and finger tips relate to the brain area as well as two areas on the top of your head-just above and below the crown area.) She resisted and was rather stiff but I persevered and continued to massage. She started with tremors and I grabbed her magnet and starting swiping across her VNS but also I switched to massaging her scalp on the crown area. At first she would grab my hand to pull it away but after a few seconds her hands went limp and slipped away from my hand. Now fifteen minutes had passed and she began to relax and I continued to massage her head for an extra 10 minutes. She fell back to sleep undisturbed by seizures.

When Kirsten has full on seizures I am only to wait 7 to 10 minutes and then administer Diastat (Valium) rectally as it absorbs quickly that way. I was about ready to do just that after 10 minutes but I wanted to wait five more minutes. I found that the head massage acted much quicker to relaxing her than when I was working with her toes.

What I discovered...
I think for her mild seizures the foot massage works. I think for her full on seizures the head massage seems to work better. I am going to continue to experiment with the massage for awhile longer and read more in depth on reflexology. I am tracking my work and Kirsten's reaction to the massage. I would never replace medication, ie, Diastat, when she needs it. But I found it interesting that massage technique might help her as well! If this proves helpful and successful, I might be brave enough to share this with her neurologist. Can you just imagine what he would tell me! Quack! Quack! :o) You know I really believe that the Chinese have it down with herbs and acupuncture!

This post will be quiet for ahwile, sorry

Hello everyone!

This blog will be taking some time off so don't look for any new posts for awhile. I have to do some rethinking on what I want to post. This last project took quite a while and 7 months to post. My brain needs some time to formulate what I will take on next.
.....snooze.....

Make a Smilebox photobook

63-Grandpa and Grandma get married

(Warning! This is just a little bit long and it is the final post of this series of stories.)

Grandpa and I started dating after he got back from his TDY in Germany. That would have been April 1969. As I mentioned in a previous story, Miss Tularosa, he was my escort for Armed Forces Day in May. We went steady. In October he asked me to marry him. I can’t remember the exact day in October; it’s been 39 years! I said, “Yes!” I told him that he had to ask my dad’s permission. I warned him that my dad liked practical jokes and could be in one of his rare moods and make light humor with him. I told him not to take my dad seriously. My dad could be intimidating too. Neil had hardly any sense of humor. He was very serious. He didn’t talk a lot either. We were totally opposite from each other. They do say that opposites attract! It’s true! I was social, chatty, talked a mile an hour and loved humor! This ‘opposite’ in our personalities made for some stressful and interesting first few years of marriage! I remember telling Neil one day, ‘it’s sink or swim, you have got to get a sense of humor!

I was so excited and told my mom I was engaged! I had just turned 19 the previous month! I thought I was so grown up! That was debatable! I was spoiled rotten and too independent for my own good! Neil was 22 years old. Then I told her that Neil was going to ask dad for his permission to marry me and I wanted mom to talk to him and to tell him to ‘behave himself’ and not give Neil a bad time. Neil is a serious person and doesn’t take joking too well. Mom told me that she would tell my dad to behave.

Well, the big day came. It was a Saturday and Neil had that day off and didn’t have duty. He worked in the Information Office and did PR (Public Promotion) work and conducted base tours, took care of brass that came on base, worked on the newspaper, etc. He was a Staff Sergeant. Neil arrived at the house. He drove a motorcycle. I had my own car. Dad was in the family room reading a paper. I went in the room with Neil because I knew my dad so well and I was not about to let him give Neil a bad time. It wasn’t that Neil couldn’t take care of himself, he really could, but I still wanted to keep an eye on my dad! I remember we both were standing and Neil said he wanted to talk to dad. He said that was fine. Then Neil just blurted it out, ‘I would like your permission to marry your daughter.’ Dad said, ‘Yes. I wish you good luck too. She’s as independent as the fourth of July and has a mind of her own.’ The two of them shook hands and we left the room.

“Whew!’ We breathed a sigh of relief! That was over with! My mom was in the kitchen watching and she said that both of us stood side by side so close together we looked like we were holding each other up for moral support and had serious looks on our faces and it looked as if we didn’t breathe!’ Later I told my dad I was so glad he didn’t give Neil a bad time. He said that he would not have done that, despite the fact that mom had talked to him. He said that marriage was serious business and it was not a time to make light of it.

That was a scary experience! We were both glad that part was over! We talked about a date for getting married. We originally wanted to get married the following spring 1970. Both of Neil’s parents worked and they had to request vacation time and they had children in school. Neil was the oldest, firstborn sibling. They wouldn’t be out of school until June. Well as things happen with military life, things can change in a moment’s notice. Neil was going to have to go on TDY back to Germany again. He found this out in November a month after we were engaged. He was going to leave right after New Year’s, sometime in January and not get back until the end of April or in early May.

Here’s where irrational thinking kicked in…Neil being gone for 3 to 4 months seemed forever to these two love sick kids. So what did we do? The only thing love sick people do…we decided to get married before he left so we could spend as much time together as possible! We told my parents and my mom was a real good sport. We would have the reception in January before Neil left for Germany. We were going to get married before Christmas! A whole month notice! Wow! We told Neil’s parents but there was no way they could make it for the wedding.

I wanted a temple marriage and Neil didn’t care either way. Neither his parents nor mine were sealed in the temple. I talked to our Bishop, who now was Bishop Roy Myers and he agreed we should have a temple marriage. That meant my parents had to be sealed in order to see us married in the temple. So my parents were going to be sealed too. I had a brother, Douglas, who had been married about 1-½ years to his wife Jan. They too were going to be sealed together. Then my siblings and I would also be sealed to my parents. We all had our interviews and temple recommends and off we went on December 23, 1969 to Mesa, Arizona. Neil and I had to leave a day earlier in order to get our marriage license in Phoenix, Arizona. We also had to get temple clothing for all of us. We all stayed at a little motel called The Utahan. We rented 3 rooms.

I have to say here before I continue that Neil had to get permission from his commanding officer on base to be married and have the time off. When you are in the military you don’t belong to yourself, you belong to Uncle Sam, the government! His commanding officer gave his permission and had papers typed up stating he had permission to get married and have time off to do so.

It was a beautiful day at the temple. It was warm and sunny and about 75 degrees. I remember that there were grapefruits on the trees and oranges on the trees. It didn’t feel like Christmas or winter!

The next day, December 24th, there were 13 of us that were brides at the temple that day. The session was jam-packed. We were all kind of nervous as none of us had ever been through the temple before. Some friends of grandpa and I, Dennis and Barbara Alton who had been married in the Salt Lake Temple the prior December 1968, went through with us. (Dennis was also in the Air Force and stationed at Holloman AFB where Neil was stationed. Barbara and I graduated from high school together.) So we all learned together that day. The sealer sealed my parents first and then my brothers and I to my parents. Then he sealed Doug and his wife Jan. Then he married and sealed Neil and I together for time and all eternity! It was a beautiful moment! The temple sealer said what a special day it was not only for him but also for our family, because now we were all sealed as a family together for time and all eternity!

Prior to our going to the temple, my mom and I had picked out a wedding gown but because I decided on a temple marriage, the top of the wedding dress was not high enough and temple standard so we did not end up buying that wedding dress. I rented one from the temple. It was satin and an antique white. Do I regret not having my own wedding dress? Not really. I did feel a little bad that I never had a wedding dress to show my own children, but that was a decision we had to make when I got married. There wasn’t time to find another dress because we chose to get married so quickly.

I can remember as Neil and I went outside the temple as man and wife I said, “I don’t feel married. I am married, but it doesn’t feel like I’m married. I’m Mrs. Neil R. Guptill now.” We laughed.

All of our family went to Abby Pizza Hut for dinner. My parents had asked us where we wanted to eat and we wanted to have pizza. They had a treasure chest by the door as you left and you could pick out toys, stuffed animals, etc. as a gift when you left. We picked out a green reindeer that had red felt antlers. I sill have that reindeer to this day and we put it out every year during Christmas.

We only had 3 days for a honeymoon as Neil had to be back to duty on base. One week after we were married the base cancelled his unit’s deployment orders to Germany. What luck! We were so happy! We had a wedding reception on January 22, 1970, almost one month later. A lot of people came and we got everything! We were so blessed and so thankful! We lived with my parents for the next 9 months to save money.

I should add a little note here... back in my day wedding receptions served punch, cake, mints and nuts. It's not like today where you serve almost a meal. My colors were peach, yellow and white. Peach and orange were my favorite colors then. The punch was orange sherbet with 7up. It was yummy! My corsage and mom's were a burnt orange. My skirt was an orange plaid with a white blouse. There were little sugar turtle doves on the cake with some baby yellow roses made from frosting. There is also something else I remembered. We had two 8-foot tables set up for the wedding gifts. The Bishop's wife, Sis.Meyers, was in charge of receiving the gifts. She also 'opened' them all to have on display. A sticker with a number on it was placed on each gift accompanied by the wedding card. We made out like bandits! We only had to purchase an ironing board. In my day, the gifts were opened so people could see what you received. It was a bit anticlimactic in that it took away the fun and surprise that someone had the fun of opening your gifts. I have to say that I really like it today that the gifts are opened by the 'bride and groom!'

Neil got out of the service in September 1970. Neil was a Staff Sergeant (an E-4) so that entitled him to have all of his household goods shipped back to Oregon for free! He was offered a re-enlistment with a bonus and one more rank, Tech Sgt., but he turned them down. Neil had signed up for college on the GI Bill and got out of the service on the ‘Early Out’ Program to get into school. He only got out two months before his 4-year enlistment was up. School started about mid-September and we had to get back to Oregon.

We moved back to Oregon where his family lived. We packed our car with things we needed and shipped the rest. This was the first time I had ever met his folks and they welcomed me in with open arms and I really liked his parents. We got along very well. She has always been a great mother-in-law! His dad was great too. His mom and dad had an Open House for us and a lot of people came. It was held at their home. We received a lot of gifts. We lived with his family for a month before we moved into an apartment.

Neil was enrolled and went to Mt. Hood Community College to get his associate degree in engineering. He went on the GI Bill. They paid for his tuition. I worked at US Bank as a secretary and paid all the other bills. His last year he worked part time as a school bus driver and that extra income helped us out too.

Neil graduated in June 1972 and went to work for the state of Oregon. I still worked until the following year. I quit work one month before we had our first born child, a daughter Michelle, who was born on March 20, 1973.

December 24, 2008 we celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary! In some ways, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long and other times it really has been a long time. I’m excited for this year, because on December 24, 2009 we will celebrate our ‘40th’ wedding anniversary. I’m going to look forward to that date all year!

Grandpa is 61 and I am 58 years old. Where did the time go so quickly! We have 6 beautiful children, Michelle, Julie, Lisa, Douglas, David and Kirsten. Five are married. Michelle and Christopher Gleed and they have four beautiful children -Tyler, Lauren, McKenna and Brooklynn. Julie and Bob (Robert) Ward and they have four beautiful children -Quintin and Brynnly (from Bob’s first marriage), Zachary and Braxton. Lisa and Jordan Newby and they have two beautiful children - LaRue and Matilda and another baby girl due this March 2009. Both our sons were married last year in August 2008. David and Angela Guptill were married on August 8, 2008 (08/08/08). Douglas and Ashley Guptill were married August 29, 2008. We love all of our children, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law and our beautiful 10 grandchildren with number 11 due in March! Kirsten is our youngest daughter and she is a special angel and special needs daughter. Kirsten will turn 19 on April 2nd this year. She lives at home with us, her mom and dad, and she brings us a lot of joy!

We look forward to many more years together and with more grandchildren and great grandchildren!

God bless this family! It is to Him whom we owe everything and are grateful for all the multitude of blessings that have been ours and all the blessings yet to come.

THE END

Author Note-
(This concludes the final chapter of ‘When Grandma Was A Little Girl.’ I hope my children have read these stories to their children. I wrote these stories so my grandchildren would know what my life was like when I was growing up. I hope they will enjoy the stories as much as I did writing about them!)

Wow! What next? We've had rain, snow, ice, rain...

I think this post is 101. Wow!

Wind, rain, snow, ice, more rain, flooding, etc. Yikes!

This post is today-January 8, 2009.
No pictures to post. They are too upsetting. (Our house is fine!)
FYI... We evacuated yesterday around 2pm and returned home today around 9am.

This is an experience I hope I never have to relive. However, on the bright side, it was a good drill for us!

We live in Orting, WA. We moved here 4 months ago. Orting lies between the Carbon River and the Puyallup River. We do not live right next to the water. I'm not a fan of that. However our housing development isn't too close but not too far. It is probably between 750 to 1,000 feet. Now mind you there is quite a high bank, a levee, wetland, then a rise and then the development. We are NOT on the water end. We are on higher ground.

When you get a call from the Emergency Center telling you this is not an evacuation call but an 'awareness call' that the river is rising and to be prepared. Then 3 hours later you get a call from same telling us 'it is advisable to leave, not mandate, but strongly urging us to leave.' Then the fire dept. comes around in their van with a loudspeaker, 'We strongly advise everyone to evacuate before 4pm.' The river is expected to get to 38 feet. Normally it is around 20 feet.

What goes through your mind?
How does this affect you?
What are your first thoughts?

Here's where ridiculous sets in...
'Darn! I should have washed my hair yesterday and now it's too late!' (Really, I thought this.)
"Oh well, I'll just take 5 minutes and use my electric curling brush." (Which I did!)
I tell myself..."Now Diana, be reasonable, who cares what your hair looks like, get packing! It's stupid to even think of 'washing' your hair!" (And I didn't wash it-but I did at the hotel.)

I scurried around and had everything ready in 90 minutes, this included putting things up high that I didn't want damaged and among those things I had boxes of genealogy and photos I didn't want ruined. I had called Neil with a heightened voice of anxiety. He said that he would be home in one hour and to sit tight. He had just left off some items with our son David at his work. He told David we were fine. Then after he leaves David, he gets this panicky call from me!

We are about packed when the fire dept. was driving through our neighborhood to leave. They could see our car doors open and getting ready. Now Kirsten was sick. She had been sick the previous night and had a bad time. It was 6am this morning when she finally fell asleep.
I quietly packed while she was sleeping. We wake her up at 2pm and carry her out to the car.

We drive over a bridge not too far from our home. We look down at the river and 'oh my it was getting high and very brisk!' It had about 4 feet before it got to the top. We checked into a Best Western Plaza Hotel 20 minutes away in Puyallup for one night. I call all of our family to let them know we're okay and keep us and our neighbors in their prayers. (Thank you everyone!) The best news ever, Kirsten slept through the entire night and did not wake up once! I was quite worried about her health. We didn't stay home to 'tough it out' like a lot of people did. They closed the roads coming in and out of Orting. If Kirsten needed medical help, we'd be stuck. We chose to leave. I'm so relieved we did. Neil and I and Kirsten had a good sound night of sleep! We all needed it! The previous night we were up most of it with Kirsten!

I called the Fire Dept. in Orting this morning at 8:35am and they said, "It's all clear, everyone can come home." Whew! What a relief!

The news had reported that this would be the first time in 27 years they would have asked the residents of Orting to evacuate. I'm sure with the multitude of prayers ascending to heaven, that our Father-in-Heaven was very merciful to everyone in Orting. Other areas quite a way from us have been hit pretty bad. Our prayers are with them.

Western WA. has been hit with record levels of rainfall, melting snow, wind, run off, and you name it, it's caused major flooding, mudslides, landslides. Our 3 major passes have been shut down until Friday or Saturday. The I-5 going down to Portland has been shut down for 20 miles between Chehalis and Centrailia. They are flooded again. That part of the I-5 is under water. We also had flooding in WA. in Nov. from too much rain.

Needless to say we were grateful to see the 'sun' come out today and no more rain for the next 5 days. The temperatures rose into the 50's and that's why the snow started melting, add 6 inches of rain to that and wow, what a mess! Now the temperatures are dropping and you guessed it, 1 to 2 feet of more snow in the mountains. What next? Faith and prayer and trust in the Lord will bring us all through!

I'm glad to be home and have a home to come home to! :o)

I did learn some things about myself that surprised me. I'm glad in a way this experience happened because if this ever happens again, (and I hope it won't) I think I will handle things a little better as far as being panicky. I've talked to several people who have lived here for 20 plus years and they have never had to evacuate and they too felt pretty scared and nervous. We are all human with human emotions. I never doubted and prayed even harder and I felt peace that our home would be okay.

When Grandma Was A Litle Girl #62

How I Met Your Grandpa - #62

I met your grandpa at a New Year’s Eve dance at our church in 1968.
Our church building was in Alamogordo, N.M. We lived in Tularosa, which was about 10 miles north of Alamogordo. Holloman Air Force Base was about 6 miles west of Alamogordo. So in this triangle area, everyone who was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went to the Alamogordo Ward.

When I was a little girl growing up we did not have our own church building. We rented the Women’s Day Club in Alamogordo. We were just a branch at the time. We had bazaars and building fund contributions and we finally raised enough money to build our very own church building. We had a booth at the local Otero County fairgrounds. We sold root beer and corn dogs to raise money for our building fund. That helped us out a lot. Back then the members helped build the building. I can remember my father spending a lot of his free hours to help build that building. I can remember cleaning the bricks. I think I was about ten years old when we finally had our church building completed. By the time we completed our building we finally had enough members and became a ward. Our Bishop at the time was Charles Bagley. He was a wonderful fatherly bishop. He was a genius and one of the scientists, a civilian, and worked out at Holloman AFB.

With the Air Base so close it gave us new members, which helped us to grow. However, like any branch of the service, you have on going transfers; people come and people go. So we had members that came and went. I remember how sad we all were when one of our service members did not come home. He was serving in Viet Nam. He and his wife had six children and their last name was Bonzo. They were a neat family. He had served his one-year and was waiting at the airfield to get on a flight to come home to his family. There was an enemy air raid at the airfield and he got caught in a strafe attack (gunfire) and was killed. We had pilots in our ward and they were always fun to have in our ward. We liked having the military families. It gave our ward new blood all the time.

We also had single guys in our ward from the base. It was at our ward’s 1968 New Year’s Eve Dance that grandpa showed up. A military family had brought him. His unit had just been transferred to Holloman from Germany. Neil and I had danced a few dances. He came to church the following Sunday and I sat by him. It wasn’t uncommon for me to sit with the single service men. There were few young women age 17 years and above in our ward. I was one of about 5. We were always nice to these young men. Most of these age appropriate young women were shy and I have to say somewhat immature. They would see the young men turn and walk away and then giggle. On the other hand I was friendly and outgoing. I guess you could say that I was like a USO welcome cheerleader. The young servicemen enjoyed our company and we liked theirs!

About a month after Neil came to church he had to go on TDY (Temporary Duty Away) back to Germany for 90 days. While he was gone I was dating a few other fellows and had a crush on one in particular. His name was Art Fletcher. He was tall and had dark brown hair and eyes. He was very polite. He was kind of shy but always sat with me. Grandpa was also tall and had dark brown hair and brown eyes. I guess I had a thing for tall, handsome guys with dark hair and eyes.

When his 90-day TDY was up Neil returned to his duty station at Holloman AFB. He came to church and asked if he could sit with me. We were walking up the aisle and Art looked up and moved over for me to sit by him and I smiled and sat between Neil and Art. Neil quickly escorted me out at the end of church with Art following behind. Neil got on his motorcycle and left. Art got in his car and left. Neil called me and we started dating. I never did go out with Art and we didn’t sit together anymore. He was later transferred. I don’t know what ever happen to him. My dad said of him, ‘Faint heart never won a fair maiden. He lost out!’ Yes he did, but I guess the Lord may have had a hand in that and had your grandpa in mind for me.

When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #61

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

61-Miss Tularosa – reality check!
The year was 1969. A lady whom we knew,Tina Quarrels, belonged to the Tularosa Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband owned a small grocery store. Tina asked me, in the presence of my parents, if I would be interested in running for Miss New Mexico Universe. They were going to host a Miss Tularosa contest. Our town of Tularosa had never had one before. You had to be graduated from high school and be 18. Well, I had graduated the year before and I was 18. We said that we’d think about it and get back to them. We decided this would be okay.

There were only two girls who competed for this Miss Tularosa title. Linda Hanway, who would graduate in less than a month and was also 18 and myself. We had to have some type of talent. Linda twirled her baton. I felt bad for her because she dropped it twice. I think it was just because she was nervous. She twirled it all the time in band and did great! I played a piano piece. As I recall, I think I even made a mistake because I knew I was nervous!

We also had a swimsuit and evening gown competition. There were not very many people present and I was glad. We had this competition at our old high school gym. My dad played the background music during the competition.

Who won? I did. I was excited! I felt bad for Linda because she really wanted to win! The town gave me a 3-piece luggage set. I remember the color was pink and loud! They also paid my entry fee for the Miss New Mexico Universe pageant, housing and extra spending money that was needed while at the pageant. I remember having to make a public appearance at the Armed Forces Day at Holloman Air Force Base. Grandpa and I were dating at the time and he was my escort on base. He was stationed at the base and was still in the service.

My chaperon for the Miss New Mexico Universe Pageant was Tina. The pageant was held in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the college campus. Each contestant was given a one piece bathing suit. You could chose between bright pink or lime green. I chose the pink. I used my senior prom dress, from the previous year, for my evening gown. My mom had to add a six-inch wide belt made from the same fabric. She had a big bow on the front of the belt. I had lost weight and the dress needed taking in and made a little fancier.

One pageant event that we went to was at a lady’s house where we all had a Mary Kay facial and make over. I remember the oatmeal mask! My face felt gritty and tight!

We had to have a parade through the town of Las Cruces and we all rode on convertibles. That was fun! I do remember though that not a whole lot of people turned out for that parade.

For the New Mexico Universe pageant we all had to do a 'group' talent. Back then the Miss Universe pageants didn’t’ require individual talents like they did for the Miss America pageant. The group dance was choreographed to the music 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow.' We also used umbrellas in part of the dance. It was fun!

I vividly remember the ‘interview’ session. We had judges from all over. One in particular was from Hollywood, some director. I don’t even remember his name. The thing I’ll never forget is that he never wore ‘socks!’ Here he was all dressed up in a tux with shiny black shoes and ‘no socks!’ I just thought that was peculiar. I asked my chaperon why he didn’t wear socks and she said that she was told, ‘He never wears them. He doesn’t like wearing socks.’ Hmmm.

I only remember two of the questions out of the 5 or 6 they asked me. One judge who asked his question quite animatedly was, ‘I notice that you state on your application that you love football. Well what do you think of the quarterback Joe Namath of the New York Jets?’

My dumb answer, ‘Oh, I don’t know who he is. I just root the guys in the ‘white’ uniforms and they usually win. My favorite team is the Dallas Cowboys.’

His response was, “Oh.” He said it very flat and disappointedly. (My answer fell flat as a pancake!)

The next judge said, “Well Miss Tularosa, you are very beautiful and probably one of the best looking contestants here and have a pleasant personality, what do you attribute that to?”

(Here’s the reality check!) I got a huge lump in my throat and tears sprang to my eyes and I said, “Thank you. Everything I am I owe to my parents and how they raised me and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for all my blessings.” (The judge looked at me like I was from outer space and said, ‘Oh, thank you.’ – Another answer that fell flat as a pancake!)

Well, I learned pretty darn fast that you have to have rehearsed pat answers that you give that the judges want to hear, not that they are true, but they sound great.

At the reception after the interview session, one of the judges came up to me (the sock-less one from Hollywood) and in real sincerity said to me, “You know honey, you don’t really belong here. You have everything; you have it all. You don’t need this. You’re real.”

At the time I was dumbfounded and thought that he didn’t like me but that night I realized he was right, ‘I was out of place.’ Many of these girls were on their third time around trying to win. They were fake.

The night before the performance we all had to take a ‘practice walk’ out and pretend we were just crowned Miss New Mexico Universe. I remember walking out and waving to the ‘empty seats’ and smiling radiantly and walking back. The pageant host, Mrs. Kowall announced, ‘Now that’s how it’s done, walk like Miss Tularosa just did!’ It was ‘the only thing’ I probably did right!

Well, the big night came and we all performed and then they called out the top 10 and then the top 5 and then the new Miss New Mexico Universe. Her name was Miss Palms- Theresa Phillips, the daughter of the Dean of New Mexico University of Las Cruces.

I wasn’t called in the top ten. How did I feel? As each name was called I was hoping to hear my name, but it never was. I was disappointed. I wanted to leave and never been seen there again. I remember my mom telling me how upset my dad was. He was about out of his seat saying, “What’s wrong with them, my daughter should be up there, she’s the best one!” Mom made him be still, it was embarrassing! I remember I got to see my parents for a few minutes and I was so excited to see them and then we were whisked away to a private reception. The parents were not invited to it. It was just for the contestants and their chaperones and the judges.

Talk about how catty girls are when they lose. Oh My! There were a few girls there that were totally ticked off! They didn’t say one nice thing about the girl that won, Theresa Phillips. Their comments were rude and had swear words in them! I have to say I was surprised that she won. She didn’t speak well, wasn’t articulate and the pageant lady was upset that she was slightly heavy. (When Miss Phillips won, the pageant lady Mrs. Kowall told her, “You better lose 15 or 20 pounds before the pageant!) Theresa Phillips was nice, but after seeing Mary Gard that just stepped down from her reign as the previous Miss New Mexico, oh my, she was elegant! Miss Phillips was a surprise I have to say.

Well, when we got back home, my chaperon was ticked! I was glad the whole thing was over. It was an experience but I never wanted to do it again. She called me up three weeks later and told me the ‘dirt’ of the pageant. Apparently the pageant was over $25,000 in debt (that was a lot of money back then) from the previous year and they had to ‘pay up!’ They were told if they let the college dean’s daughter win, they would drop the debt. So in a word or two, our pageant was rigged for this particular year. Unfortunately for our newly crowned Miss New Mexico Universe she bombed at the Miss Universe pageant. She didn’t place and the paper said she was somewhat a disappointment to represent our state, that she didn’t speak well, was over weight, and had no talent. The newspapers can be cruel. There is a happy ending…the following year they did crown a great young lady and she represented our state very well.

Moral of the story. Be yourself and pageants all have their soap operas. It was an eye opening experience for this one small town young lady!