Life Story of Ruth Elizabeth Proctor-Part Eight

Written by

Ruth Elizabeth Proctor Cook

Ruth and Cleo

Kay

While in Lovell, another baby came to our home.  Everyone was so happy.  Lois and Joyce wanted a baby sister and Franklin and Theron wanted a baby brother.  The morning of 27 April 1953, a Monday morning, Cleo and George had left early to go back to work on the high power lines.  I was up early so I thought I would wash clothes.  I just had one sheet on the line when my next door neighbor came out of her house.  The kids had gone to school and Lois was with me.  Libby had gone to Utah to visit one of her sister's.  She was supposed to watch Lois while I went to the hospital.  I had a very sharp pain just as my neighbor, whose name was also Ruth, came around where I was.  She got Lois ready and took her over to the neighbors while she took me to the hospital.  Then she called Beverly Smith so she could get a hold of her husband Bob who was Cleo's boss and have someone bring Cleo to the hospital.  We had a baby boy.  We named him George Kay Cook.  Cleo didn't get there until after I had the baby.  Dr. Croft and his nurse gave me a spinal, which we had told them I didn't want.  After the baby was born I was paralyzed from my waist down for almost ten days.  We were so frightened and so was the doctor. If I had known then what I know now I would have sued him and his nurse.  I told Cleo the doctor gave me a spinal.  When he asked the doctor about it, the doctor said I hadn't told him not to.  He was using me as a trial run in that spinal, but it was my word against Dr. Croft and his nurse. 

Ruth and Kay

When I got my strength back, we went to Yellowstone Park again.  We made our big long bed with Cleo and George on the outside, me next to Cleo and Libby next to George.  We had Kay in a baby buggy at the foot of the bed.  All of a sudden George yelled out Sally (that is what he called Libby) quit licking my hand.  Libby told George she was not licking his hand.  George lifted up the side of the tent and there was a bear just a licking his hand.  He came up out of that bed a yelling and swinging his arms.  Cleo had to tackle him and sit on him so he didn't bring our tent down on all of us.  George never slept with his hand outside the tent any more.  We had so many good times with George and Libby.  They would come down into our home and George would sit in a big chair we had there.  He would play with the kids when he left the kids would argue whose turn it was to get the money he let slide out of his pockets.  After we had Kay home a while, they all wanted to keep him.  When Cleo went to get the kids and let them come and see me and the new baby, Lois told her dad he could take the baby back because she wanted a little sister.  The boys said they wanted to keep him!

Kay

Lois, Kay and Joyce

We stayed in Lovelle until the first part of August 1953.  Then the government decided there wasn't enough money to finish the high power line, so they let all the men go and closed down the project.  I felt so bad because Cleo had told me that the Indians had bought refrigerators and all kinds of things that would use the electricity.  Now they wouldn't have it.

Kay, Joyce and Lois in Menan

We came back to Menan.  We had rented our home while we were in Wyoming.  We had written to them and told them we were coming back to our home, but they hadn't started to move.  So we went over to Grant where Cleo's folks lived and we stayed there until we could get into our home.  Cleo brought the kids who were going to school over to Menan.  Franklin would have to catch a bus to get to his school.  When the renters finally moved out, did they ever leave us a mess.  They had glued linoleum down on the kitchen floor and then tried to take it up.  It had broken off in so many pieces.  The sticky mess had to be cleaned up with putty knifes.  They also took all my curtain rods, the drop cord lights from the ceilings, my towel rack and the place where you put the toilet paper.  They had painted the front room floor a ucky color brown and the walls half way up a horrible green.  We had left a desk here for them to use.  They took the drawers out of it and made shelves on the one side of it.  They also took all my curtains, left a dirty stove I had in it, dirty sinks in the kitchen and bathroom.  All in all we had quite a time getting our home fixed up so we could move back in to it.  I told Cleo if he was going to follow the high power line jobs, he would have to go without the kids and me.  I wasn't going to rent my home anymore and it would be too hard on the kids to moved them from one state to another for schooling.

Kay and Cleo

Kay and Ruth

Lois and Kay

Ruth, Kay and Old Pal

Kay and Lois

Kay

Kay and Cleo

On the 22 October 1954, we had another member of our family come to our home.  His name was Darrell James Cook.  That made our family of four boys and two girls, whom we love dearly.  

Darrell

Darrell

Darrell

Darrell

Darrell

Kay and Darrell

Theron, Joyce, Cleo, Ruth, Lois, Frank, Darrell and Kay

I started to work in the Primary with the six year olds.  I was also Jr. Gleaner leader.  I enjoyed these calls.  I was set apart as a teacher in the Jr. Sunday School by Brother Milton Hammon.  Janice Raymond was the other teacher in that class.  This was 22 September 1957.  Also early that year on 21 April 1957 Bishop Leo S. Waters set me apart as sports director in the Young ladies program.  I surely did enjoy this calling.  Here are some of the young ladies who played on my ball team:  Drue Berrett, Beverly Fullmer, Beverly Waters, Nancy Berrett (Drue's sister) Sue Hunting, Judy Kay Lewis, Marie Hancock, Lana Scott, Janice Rowberry and Lorraine Hammon.  Joyce McMurtery was our umpire from our ward.  We had so much fun.  One night we held a slumber party in Parmer's orchard.  We had a watermelon bust.  Each one of the girls was good sports and they gave me a hundred percent.  What a fun summer we had.  Cleo supported me in all my callings that I had in the church, as I supported him in his callings.  In 1958 these girls and a few more were added to our team: Cheryln Leavitt, Annette Raymond, June Danks, Diane Beyeler, Kay Poole, and Leanne Turman.  Joyce Cook did the pitching for us.  What a special thrill it was for me to have a daughter on the team.  This year our umpires were Beverly Waters and Drue Berrett.  Also on my team were Karen Hancock, Marie Hancock and Gayle Hancock.  The parents of these young ladies supported our team and would make sure their daughters had a way to get to our practices and games. 

We had a parade over in Rigby on the 24th of July.  We decided to enter our ball team.  So we all dressed up in potato sacks from Clifford and Hancock's potato warehouse.  Elwood Clifford and Irvin Hancock let us use one of their trucks for the girls to stand in as a team playing ball.  I sat near the bed of the truck as their coach and score keeper.  For the green field, we borrowed some fake grass from Eckersells.  We won the novelty division and took first place, which was $50.00.  What fun we had spending this.  We also rode the truck and our sacks in the parade in Menan on the 4th of July and won first place there.  Elwood and Irvin said it was good advertisement for their warehouse.  At the end of the summer, we had a ball game with the young men of our ward. The Bishopric furnished the ice cream.  I was elected Secretary of the Midway Jr. High P.T.A. for the school year 1957-58.  Oralee Bennett was the President.  I enjoyed going to the different schools and their meetings to see how they run their P.T.A.  I also attended the state P.T.A. which was held in Idaho Falls.  This job opened my eyes to a lot that went on in the schools. 

I was asked to be stake sports director.  I enjoyed this calling but I surely missed the young ladies from our ward.  I served under the stake young women's presidency.  They were Edna Poole, Norma Clark and Lorraine Gneiting.  Pauline Helm was the stake camp director.  When we went to girl's camp, the girls would do a lot of laughing and talking late in the night when the lights were out.  Pauline warned them and told them to go to sleep, but they didn't listen.  So as soon as that clock stroke 5:00 a.m., Pauline was up and dressed and took her whistle down the halls she went blowing that whistle and telling them that flag raising would be a 6:00 a.m. and for them to be getting up.  If no one stirred, she went into their rooms and stood at the side of their bed and did she ever blow that whistle.  That brought those young ladies up with a start, and the flag was raised at 6:00 a.m.  It only took one morning of this and the young ladies sure settled down the next night.

Pauline and I went to Salt Lake City, Utah for General MIA Conference.  We stayed at Opal and Atha Staker's home.  They treated us royally.  When Nadine Warner was asked to be Young Women's stake president, she asked me to be their camp director.  I told her camping wasn't my idea of having fun, so I declined the calling and that is the first time I had ever done that.  I told her you had to like your calling and as a camp director I knew I wouldn't.  I don't know why she didn't ask Pauline Helm.  The only thing I heard was some of the mothers were quite upset when their daughters told them about Pauline waking them up with her whistle.  I didn't see anything wrong about that for she had warned them they would be sorry.  

Back row: Theron, Lois, Cleo and Ruth
Front row:  Kay, Frank, Darrell, and Joyce