Cook Family History: Life Story of Ruth Elizabeth Proctor-Part Seven

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Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook

Ruth

Lois

While living in Roberts, we had another beautiful daughter who came to our home on 11 March 1947. So now we had two sons and two daughters. Lois is the name we gave her. She was a good baby, though she had a mind of her own in many ways. Cleo blessed her Lois Cook. Years later I found out that was the name of a girl he was dating before I won his heart. That didn't bother me any. While Lois was a baby, we moved from Roberts to a farm outside of Rigby, Idaho. It belonged to Orrin Jeppson. Cleo run his farm for quite a few years. We went to the Rigby First ward. Our Bishop was Henry Pieper. He was a good man. Lyle Peterson was one of his counselors. In this ward I worked in the Primary as a Guide patrol leader. These were the oldest boys in Primary. I helped these boys to graduate into MIA: Blaine Jensen, James Brammer, Ronald Adair, Bobby Tall, Richard Broulim, Keith Ward, Kent Ward, Clair Goody, Dennis Lake, Dale Phillips, Vonnie Fisher, Clive Kinghorn, Paul Wolz, Rex Call, Robert Anderson, Richard Wood, Gary Pettingill, Fred Hayes, Franklin Cook, Ronald Paulsen, and Cecil King. Most of the boys have served missions, and have married in the temple. We had many good times together. Then they decided to divide the ward. Primary presidents I worked under in Rigby were Estella Call, Ethel Casper, and Ruth Louder.

Lois and Cleo

Franklin, Theron, and Joyce went to school and Lois was at home. Cleo had won a nice doll on a slot machine and we had given it to Joyce as she was the oldest girl. Lois always wanted to play with it, but she wasn't the most careful with dolls, so when Joyce went to school she would hide her doll. One day Lois found it. When Joyce came home and went to get her doll, the doll had a new hair style, her eyes didn't open and shut any more. Glory it was a mess. Joyce cried and so did Lois.

Lois with Joyce's doll

Lois and Joyce with their dolls

While living on the farm in Rigby, it was during the postwar years. You couldn't get help for the crops. So I would go out and work in the fields. The older ones would also. We would be so tired at night, but after the chores were done, we would all go swimming in the dry bed that run through the place. Cleo said the kids should know how to swim, so we taught them in the dry bed.

Theron, Frank, Lois and Joyce at home in Rigby

Theron had a birthday on 24 May. I was cutting spuds for Fred Allred at one time. I had got up early and made Theron a cake before I went to work. Allreds just lived to the end of our lane. We had also bought some ice cream. We had planned on having a little family party for him that night when Cleo came in from the fields and I got home from cutting spuds. Here I was sitting at the kitchen table and relaxing when the school bus stopped out in front. It was the last day of school. Not only did Franklin, Theron and Joyce get off the bus, but all of Theron's room. He had went to school and told them it was his birthday. They were to bring their lunch and a present and his mom would furnish the cake and ice cream. They all had a good time playing while I cooled off. Then they got the cake and ice cream in small amounts. I spent the rest of the day taking kids home. I never got back to cutting any spuds that day. When Cleo came in from the fields and we had had dinner, he asked Theron if he had had a good day. Theron said it was just super. After the meal, Cleo asked where the cake and ice cream was. I told him to ask Theron. I just got up and walked out of the room. When Cleo came to bed, he was chuckling. I told him I didn't think it was that funny. He said well, he sure got a lot of things and who else would try something like that but our Theron. Then he told me that Theron had asked him to tell me he loved me and to thank me for taking the kids home and not scolding him in front of them. Then Cleo and I had a good laugh and said "That's our Theron!"

Frank, Theron, Lois and Joyce

While living on the farm, my sister Annie Carol and her husband George Jaynes came to visit us. They brought us a lot of fruit for they had it in Pleasant Grove, Utah, where they lived. They also had three kids, Frank, Vicki, and Bruce. We had a lot of baby chicks at this time they were there and for some reason, Bruce just loved to catch them and choke them. One time he got into them. It was the second time it had happened. We thought we had everything shut up tight. We missed Bruce. I ran out to where my little chicks were and somehow he had crawled through the window. It wasn't too large of a space, but I went through it too and grabbed him around his neck and threw him out on the ground. They way he bellered you would of thought I hurt him. I was so mad. He had killed 5 baby chicks. My sister Annie wanted me to tell him I was sorry because I hurt his feelings. I said, "No way. He killed five of my baby chicks." He dad George really got after him and Annie wasn't too happy about that. We finally got it through Bruce's mind that he must not go near the little chicks any more.

Lois, Frank, and Theron

Opal and Atha also came to visit us. One of their boys pulled a plug and the gasoline started to run out of the tractor. He started hollering for help. Opal ran outside and asked him where the plug was and he couldn't say anything. Cleo went out and found where the kid had dropped it and put it back in. That boy got his bottom warmed by his dad and he never got on the tractor any more.

Lois on Old Pal

We decided to leave Jeppson's farm as he kept promising to let Cleo buy it but would always change his mind. My brother George talked to Cleo and asked him if he would like to go work on a high power line in Wyoming. So we had a farm sale and Cleo sold all his machinery and all the animals but one milk cow. We found us a place in Menan, Idaho, and bought it from Dean Clifford. Gee it was nice to be in a home with a bathroom in it. It had a shower, sink and toilet and it was all inside. That was neat. The kids and I lived there while Cleo went to Wyoming with George and Libby Proctor. Cleo was looking for a place for us to live in for we didn't know how long he would be in Wyoming. He found us a basement apartment. We loaded up everything we could take and rented our little home in Menan. When we were moving to Wyoming, Lois was about five years old. We were traveling along at night and Lois kept asking her daddy to stop and let her ring the door bells that she was seeing along the highway. Cleo stopped the car right beside a reflector on a metal post. Cleo got out with her to show her they weren't door bells. She looked at him and smiled got back into the car and we went along our way. Lois didn't ask to ring anymore door bells.

Lois and Joyce

While we were traveling to Lovelle, Wyoming, we smelt the most sickest smell. I asked the kids if they were letting off those smells. Each one said no. I would look at Cleo and he said it wasn't him either. I told them someone was. Then Cleo told us to look at the pumps over there going up and down and that they were oil wells and that the smell was coming from them. I told the kids I sorry because I thought it was from them.

Lois and Joyce

My brother George and Libby had their trailer parked next to the house we were renting. George and Cleo were working for the C. L. Electric Company. They were putting a power line across Hardin, Montana. It was an Indian Reservation. Cleo and George would come in on Friday nights and we would go to Yellowstone Park. We would go in our car. We had a Ford Fairlane 500 which was a very nice large car. We would sleep in a tent. Cleo slept on one outside of our big bed and George on the other and the kids in the middle.