What does the mail mean to you?

I think this question is interesting. When I was a little girl getting a piece of mail was a really big deal. We mostly only got things around our birthday - like birthday cards from relatives or friends. I know that when I moved to California I loved getting the mail as I always anticipated a letter from my dad or grandparents. Those were special days. I really thought I was big stuff that something came in the mail just for me! I loved being the one who got to go to the mailbox. When I was older I would be the one who got to go to the post office box to get the mail. Now a days a letter in the mail is a rare thing. Most people just email or text one another if they want to know something. I think it is kind of sad. So much of ones life was written in letters back and forth to one another. Phone calls cost a lot of money and a lot could be written into a letter for just a few cents.

One especially fun thing I have gotten to do with mail is copy over the letters written by my great great great grandfather during the civil war. They were written to several family members but mostly to his wife Phoebe. I feel like I really got to know him and what it was like for him during the war. Just think how much I would have missed out on if he had just "text" his wife. When I got to do their work in the temple I really felt like I knew them and they were not just names on a piece of paper. All because he had written these wonderful letters.

I know my mom has saved a lot of the letters and cards she has gotten over the years. It was fun getting for Christmas a couple of years ago an old suitcase filled with letters and pictures and memorabilia. I am glad she saved those letters. I have saved a lot of the letters I have gotten over the years. I have all of the love letters that David wrote to me. He wrote almost everyday for about four months right before we were married. I had moved home to get ready for our wedding.

So in short, I guess the mail means a lot to me - even though we do not use it the way it once was used. I do write people once in awhile because I love getting a letter that is not "junk" mail and so hope others do as well.

Tell about activities and/or sports you participated in during school

I was very active in all the choirs and bands at both of the high schools that I attended.

In California I was in concert band and marching band. I played the flute for concert band and marched with the clarinet. We competed a lot and won a lot of those competitions. We were invited to march in lots of parades. My parents went to most of these things. It did not bother me that they came, in fact, it was fun to know that they cared enough about what I was doing to want to be there. We not only competed in parades but half time shows as well. In one such event I was to be the counter. We were squads and one person was assigned to count the steps in between the lines on the football field. We had a map of sorts and you count off and then tell the squad to turn right or left and continue on like this. I remember noticing at one point that my squad was clear at the other end of the field. We had turned left instead of right and visa versa several times. I was so embarrassed. I was never asked to be the counter again. (side note: I have never been good at directions - obviously I did not become aware of this until it was to late) When we moved to Oregon things were different. There was not the competing that I was used to. We marched for half time shows at the football games but that was it. Our concert band was very serious. I had a lot of friends in this class. Band was fun but I liked the choirs better.

My high school in Oregon offered a lot of different types of choir classes. I was involved with almost all of them. I not only sang but played the piano for several of the choirs. I really learned the most from our choir teacher Mr. Pool. He was a character and I looked up to him and his sage wisdom. He was one of the only teachers I can recall that cared more about the students than the teaching. He was a great teacher though and shared his musical talents with all of us. I learned life lessons from him though and that has helped me with many many other things I have been involved with over the years. I remember one time that I sang a solo at one of the concerts. I was not used to this at all. My sister Melissa was the singer in our family and she usually had that spotlight. I was very used to being behind the piano. I was very nervous but she helped me learn my part and I worked hard on it. I remember I did not tell my parents. I wanted to surprise them and I think they were surprised. I also remember I did not do to bad, although I know everyone probably could tell I was nervous. My senior year of high school I think I had five music classes and a history class that was required. I loved my senior year.

I did not play sports on organized teams. I did like basketball and volleyball and field hockey in gym class but it was not as popular for girls to play sports the way girls get to now. I think I felt to self conscious to play on a team so opted to only play during gym class and kept my talents in the classroom of music.

Tell about favorite family traditions

My sisters and I made the front page of the newspaper in December of 1966. The most vivid Christmas memories for me were of us getting to hang our stockings on Christmas Eve. We always had matching pajamas. After we "hung the stockings with care" we set out cookies and milk for Santa. Then it was off to bed to dream of "sugar plums" and all that Santa was going to leave under the tree. I guess these traditions are not unlike a lot of people. But because we lived in such a small town we must have been the big news story that year.

I was only two years old in this picture and obviously not to thrilled with Santa. We got visit Santa every year for many years. I think sometimes these visits were at the ward Christmas parties. There really were no malls when I was small. How did my parents do the shopping without a mall?
This picture was taken one year later and I must have figured out what Christmas was about because I look pretty happy! My mom always decorated the tree so pretty. We were allowed to put ornaments on the bottom part of the tree. I still have a few of the ornaments from when I was little. Our stockings were all the same. Red felt with our initial on them. We always hung them on the mantel in order of age. I do have an old movie that my dad took one year of this ritual. I love that we waited until Christmas eve to do this. For Halloween every year we would dress as devils. This was a tradition. I think my mom made the costumes. She made a lot of things when we were little. There was a house on our "candy" route that always took pictures of us. That is why I have these. We seem to always be dressed alike. Christmas pajamas, Halloween costumes, Easter dresses. Maybe that was so we would not fight over who got what. Maybe it was so my mom could keep track of us. Maybe my sisters and I liked it that way, I do not remember. But even so I think we were so cute!
Finally, one of the last years we were in Boulder City we got to be ballerinas. Aren't we adorable. My mom put make-up on us and we got actual pumpkins to carry not paper sacks! My dad would take us all over - it seemed like hours - and we would come home with so much candy. Not only candy but people would make great treats. Something that I would not let my children eat now. It was a different time back then. Plus, I am sure most of the houses we went to were friends of my parents.

Easter traditions were very similar - we got new dresses and had an Easter egg hunt inside our house. We always had Easter baskets. When we were small our dress always matched. When we were older my mom usually made our dresses. We lived in Oregon when this picture was taken. We also celebrated all the other holidays. I do remember New Years as a little girl being a big deal. I remember having party favors and a special dinner. The 4th of July in Boulder City was always time spent at the city park at the fair or carnival (I don't know what it was called) Then in the evening we would watch fireworks at the baseball field. There probably was a ball game that day as well. Thanksgiving was very traditional with the turkey and all the trimmings. Even though we moved a few times while I was growing up the one thing that stayed pretty constant was our holiday traditions!

Describe a typical day in your elementary school.

I went to three different Elementary schools. Boulder City Elementary. Miller School and Richland Elementary. My favorite year was my third grade year. I loved my teacher. I remember that we had lots of really fun art projects. We also got to do ceramics. I still have some of the projects I made. I don't know what happen to the chess set I made - it really was cool! It is also the year I had my first crush on a boy. My classroom was upstairs in the building and we had to enter by a set of stairs on the outside of the building. I remember getting to walk home from school for lunch. We lived in a really small town. I think everyone walked to school - at least that is how I remember. My "boyfriend" and I used to play tag everyday on the way home from school. I think he walked the long way home so he could follow me longer. We did not talk much at school but on the way home it was "you're it" back and forth all the way home. I am pictured in the first row of chairs second from the left. (Do you love my boots? I thought Iwas the cutest thing ever!) My "boyfriend" is standing in the back row third from the right. I was sad when we had to move. I have since gone back to visit this place and I was so surprised that when I saw the school again it had been condemned. I think I was only 20 or so and I remember feeling very old at that time because only grandmas had their schools condemned.

My second school was round. I thought that was neat. It was similar to the way my little kids have their school set up with pods and the classes opened up to make one large classroom for special events. It was also fun because I got to ride a school bus. I had never done that before and it was interesting to me that people lived so far away from the school. Especially after having lived in such a small town.

Richland Elementary was my last grade school and I attended there because we moved again. I walked to this school and remember that the walk home seemed like the longest walk of my life. It was all up hill. Even when we took the shortcut it was still uphill. The weather was warm most of the time so I think that is why it bothered me so much. I really liked Fridays because my mom would let us buy lunch. I called it "Taco Friday". I also got to have hot lunch on the days I had cafeteria duty.

I think I was an average student. My grades were pretty good and the things that the teachers wrote were nice. I have most of my report cards and the one that cracks me up the most was my Kindergarten one. It was more like the things kids learn in pre-school now a days. My favorite books were the Dick and Jane books. I still love them today. I have an original copy of one I found at an antique store once. I also loved the SRA reading program. You got to move up levels by color. I wish I could find those again. I used to copy Cat in the Hat books to practice my handwriting. Math was easy at this time . It was hard for me to remember the Social Studies stuff and Geography. But I did love to do reports. I especially loved the beginning of every school year and the smell of new crayons and glue. I still love a new box of crayons!

Side note to old "boyfriend": Years later when I was attending college I ran into him. We were at a freshman dance and he came up to me and said "Are you Candice Mccall?" Not recognizing him at all and having a different last name at the time because my mom had remarried I said "Depends on who wants to know?" (such an original comeback) He then said, "I am Lee Swindlehurst do you remember me? You look exactly like you did in grade school" Boy was I surprised (he looked ten times cuter than in grade school!) I wanted to say "Tag, your it!" but instead said something stupid like "You look the same too" - I immediately had the daydream that he was going to sweep me off my feet and we hook up and get married and what a fun story we would have for our children - Well, as it turned out he dated my roommate and we just studied together a few times for psych 101.