Life Story of Ruth Elizabeth Proctor-Part Three

Written by

Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook

I did date other fellows while I was at the Staker's though Vergil and I got very serious.  One night I had a date with Vergil and I wanted Jay and Dick, Opal and Atha's sons, to go to bed before he got there.  They were being brats as sometimes they were.  I went through the doorway between the front room and the kitchen.  I guess I stepped a little hard for one of the boards broke and I went down to my knee through the floor.  Atha looked at me and started laughing.  I know I looked funny.  She told me she'd get me out.  She went out and got the axe, put it above her hands and was laughing so hard the axe was shaking, I told her no way was she going to get me out by bringing the axe down over her head, so she could cut on the board next to my leg.  I thought she was trying to get even and cut my leg.  Finally she cut the other board enough so I could get out.  We put a throw rug over the holes and told everyone not to step there.  I told Jay and Dick not to say anything to Vergil.  While I was getting ready, he came.  They met him out in front and told him how I had stomped a hole in their floor and their mom had to get an axe and cut the other board so I could get out to go on a date with him.  I loved those kids when they were little.  They have since changed their style of living.

Ruth, Ahta, and Dick

Behind the Staker's home was a slough.  It was frozen solid in the winter.  I talked Atha in to going roller skating on the ice.  We only had one pair of skates so we each put on a skate and tied our inside legs together.  We were doing pretty good for a while when our feet went out from under us and we lit on the ice.  Atha happened to be on the bottom.  We got to laughing so hard, Atha became very wet and it wasn't from the ice.  We had to crawl to the house up a snow bank because we couldn't get the skate off.  She wasn't happy with me.  We finally got the skate off, got the old tin tub in as they didn't have a bathroom in the house.  Water was heated on the wood burning stove and poured into the tub.  She said she was going to bath first.  We didn't skate anymore on the ice, though we did in her home.  She did real fine on her rug but when she stepped on to the slick polished floors, one foot went under their Heatrola (stove in the front room) the other across the way under her buffet.  I told her to stay on the rug and she didn't.  She looked so funny I started to laugh.  She told me to get those skate off her.  I had to lie down on my tummy to get to her foot that was under the stove.  I asked her if she was hurt.  She said what do you think?  I know she had quite a jar but I couldn't help but laugh, she didn't skate in the house anymore.

Atha and Ruth

Opal Staker, Estus and Theola Fullmer and Thurman Long played for dances all over.  Atha and I would go.  I was wondering how she was getting so many different fellows to dance with her.  Then she said that while she was dancing with one fellow and saw another one who was a good dancer she would wink at him and he would wink back and then come and ask her for a dance.  I thought if my sister who was a married lady and her husband was playing in the band could do that then so could I and I did.  I danced all night long and had a blast.  Here Opal was busy playing and we were having a ball, once in awhile he would come off the stage and dance with Atha and me.  Once he told both of us to cool it.  She did because he was her husband, but not me.  Opal threatened not to bring me anymore, so I didn't do it so much any way where he could see me.  What fun I had to those dances.  If I could dance and swim I thought I had it made and now in 1993 I can't do either.

Atha and Ruth

Opal, Atha and I went to a show at the Rio Theater in Idaho Falls.  There wasn't any usher around so we started down the aisle.  Opal said there were three seats and so for us to go on in.  Atha went in, then Opal, and then I, only my seat was a broken one.  One of my long legs went up between a couple in front and one under the seat in front.  Here I was hanging.  The usher came down and told Atha she couldn't sit there.  She said tell me about it.  She said her husband Opal had told her to keep going and then to sit down and she did.  Opal was looking at Atha, people all around were telling us to sh-sh.  Here I was trying to get myself out of the mess I was in.  That dumb couple went to kiss each other as my leg went between them.  I got a very sloppy smack on both sides of my leg.  So then he was trying to push my leg out from between them and that wasn't working.  Opal looked at me and asked what in the world I was doing?  I told him in no uncertain terms to get behind me and help me to get up.  So he did.  He would just about get me up and then he would start to laugh and down I would go.  Finally Opal got me out with the help of the fellow who was next to me.  The usher found us three seats on the side and Atha and I made Opal set down in every one of them before we would set down in them.  When I got ready for bed that night, I was covered with black and blue marks. 

Ruth at Staker's home in Roberts

One time we went to a carnival in Idaho Falls that was held on the west side of the river.  We got on a darn Loop-A-Plane.  It looked like it was going to pitch us right out into the Snake River.  I got scared and reached over and grabbed Atha's sweater with my teeth.  Each time we would go around I would clinch harder.  When they stopped the blessed thing and let us off, I had bit her terrible on her arm.  It hurt her and I sure felt bad.  I haven't ridden on one since.

Ruth and Vergil

Verla Cook Hix, Reva Cook Maas, Ruth Proctor Cook

Opal and Atha had a long screened in front porch on the west of their house.  They had a cot out there and we would go out and lay there after we had eaten our lunch.  We would sing.  I taught her that Alphabet ('A' your adorable and so on).  She had quite a time remembering the words.  What fun we had.  One day we were out there and a good old Roberts wind came in.  She had a large flower on a stand in her front room.  The wind caught it just right and tipped it over and dirt went clear across the floor.  She told me to go and clean it up.  I told her no way that it was her flower and her floor and she could clean it up.  We just laid there and laughed about it.  Suddenly another blew over.  It was a mess in there.  About that time a car stopped out front and lo and behold there was Mom, Dad, and Rozella from Tooele.  Gee Atha felt dumb and I just laughed at her.  She was so embarrassed.  There sat our dirty dishes on the kitchen table and dirt all over her front room floor.  Mom, Dad, and Rozella just laughed.  I did go in and put the dishes in the dish pan while she and Mom cleaned up the dirt.  Dad walked over to the store where Opal was working, laughing all the way.  They stayed the night and when they left to go back to Tooele they asked if I wanted to come home.  I told them no I would stay the rest of the summer if that was ok with them.  Mom asked me if I had written to Elmer Searle.  I said once in awhile.  I told her he wanted me to come back to Tooele, and I wasn't ready to come home right now.  I asked if it was ok with her if I stayed till September and Mom said yes.  I was having fun going with Opal and Atha to the different places where Opal and those guys played for dances, and going out on dates with different guys from Roberts.

Atha Proctor Staker, Ruth Proctor Cook, Annie Procor Jaynes
Bessie Proctor Butts, Nellie Jones, Helen Meier Proctor