Favorite Toys

Mom-I didn't play with toys.....we worked all of the time....

Brooke- My favorite toys when I was younger was Barbies and then Cabbage Patch Kids. I remember playing with Barbies up until about 4th grade. When I was in Kindergarten and went to Grandma Morrell's house after school, I would play Barbies. She had the best Barbie collection around with the most beautiful dresses and attire to dress them up in. When I hit 5th grade the Cabbage Patch Craze was in. I wanted one for Christmas along with every other girl in the country. I actually really got one that Christmas and was the only one in my class that got the Real Deal. My friends got homemade ones with strange squished up noses on their faces but we played with them all the same. A year or two later I got the Cabbage Patch Pony along with another Cabbage Patch. I named and registered that pony with the Cabbage Patch Company and received a birthday certificate every year on that pony's birthday. I kept my dolls in very good condition. When I played with them I put them away and took very good care of them. I still have them to this day and my kids have played with them throughout their childhood. They have been a favorite to them too.

Sarah- My favorite toy was my strawberry shortcake doll. I never really liked barbies but I liked playing with dolls. I always liked my bike and I took really good care of it. I think it keep me busy and helped me stay in shape. When I got older I like collecting little glass dolls.

Collette-I was really obsessed with Cabbage Patch Dolls for a few years. Mom once motivated me to read all the books in the 2 bottom shelves of the bookcase with a promise of a new cabbage patch. Once I completed the task she bought me Fernando the Cabbage Patch Doll from Spain equipped with a bull fighting uniform. I also remember how excited I was when Grandma and Grandpa Morrell got me a cabbage patch play pen for Christmas. My first and most endearing Cabbage Patch was my read headed doll named Agatha, which came with a homemade white dress with a yellow ribbon that I think Aunt Janie made. I always envied Brooke for taking care of her toys so well but I for one had too much of an imagination for simply putting my dolls on the shelf. I played long and hard with each and every one. I often wonder if any of my Cabbage Patch dolls are still under the house.

Allyson-I think that one of my favorite toys was the strawberry shortcake teepee. I loved setting it up in the family room and sleeping in it for days. I also liked to play with barbie dolls. It was more fun to fix their hair and it was easy for me to pretend that they were real. I have good memories of playing with the teddie ruxbin, my little pony, and pound puppies.

What is the greatest invention in your life

Becky:

Well, when I was a little girl, we didn't have television. In fact, I was in the third grade before anyone in Wayne county did get a t.v. I can remember the first television our family had.....it was black and white and was in a wooden cabinet. We watched Lassie and Leave it to Beaver. I can remember going to see my Grandmother Morrell in Salt Lake City when I was about 5 years of age and we went to see her sister Mame Worthlin who lived just up the street on 9th East and about 3rd South. Aunt Mame had a color television and that was a big deal. Before television, all of the children played outside. We would swing, ride our horses, play softball as a neighbor gang of kids, and play 'night games' where we would run and hide from the big corner light. It was much more fun than watching t.v. Even when we got out television, I don't remember watching it that much. We would still ride our bikes and play outside.

Then as time progressed, my mother bought a really nice stereo system in a big cabinet. She had lots of records and the music was always playing. She liked Western and Easy Listening. I learned all of the songs and would sing them along with the music. There was Johnny Cash, Don Williams, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves (grandma Morrell's favorite) Walt Whitman, and two pianos like Ferrante and Teisher, and Johnny Mathis, Al Hurt on trumpet, Lawrence Welk and many more. The music always filled out home and we learned to love it.

Then came nice electric appliances like the washing machine and the dryer was a big deal. Before that we would hang all of our clothes out on the clothesline. You should have seen the stiff frozen diapers coming off the line in the middle of the winter. My oh my, what a sight. Then they would have to thaw before we could fold them and put them away. And there were frozen towels and even frozen levis. Also, my mother was very fussy on how we would hang out the clothes. We have to hang them by size. We would hang the longer items on the end of the line as it would be higher and then go down to the small dish rags on the other end. We would hang the Levis by the back side with zipper hanging open and legs down. That way there wasn't any line creases in them. My mother was always worried about what the neighbors would think. Also we had to have very WHITE whites. She always Clorox'd the whites until they were 'sparkling white' and would say, "We don't want dingy white hanging on our clothesline." My younger and only brother James was quite a goer and would run off when he was very young. I remember my mother tying him to the clothesline so that he wouldn't run away. He would run back and forth as the rope was hanging on the clothesline and on the loop of his levis.

Then came all of the electric appliances like an electric mixer, before that we had to use an egg beater. My mother always managed to get the latest gadget out and learned how to use them. We didn't have blow dryers or curling irons. We had to put our hair in stickery rollers and had to sleep in them. It was pretty hard to do but we wanted our hair to look just so. Then we went from manual typewriters, to electric typewriters, to word processors, to computers. Now the computer is such an amazing invention. The internet, email, instant message, etc is a wonderful way to keep in touch with everyone. When I went to college, it was too expensive to use the telephone, so my mother would write a letter to me once a week. We didn't talk on the phone, only maybe once every six months. Letters were our method of communication.

All in all, I think the greatest invention in my lifetime was the Cellular Telephone. Dick and I were the first salesmen in Wayne to sell the Cell phone and we made really good money selling phones. With the money we made in the three years we sold them, we purchased a new green leather living room set with a couch, love seat, chair and Ottoman. This was from 1994 - 1997. We also purchased Ralph Pace's cattle permit out west. We purchased 51 head of permit in the Dark Valley Allotment. So cellular phones have not only been a good thing in our family for communication, but they also helped us out financially by increasing our net worth. It has also been a great blessing as the cell phone helps Dick stay connected with his brothers on the farm and also me when we need to talk to each other. Before that, we had no way of keeping in touch and it was such a worry to me not knowing where Dick was or when he would be coming home from the farm work. Now it is much nicer keeping the communication going back and forth. I also like talking to all of my children, my parents and family members on the cell phone. With rates so cheap, we can talk for long periods of time for a few cents or no cost at all if after 8 at night or on weekends.

Yes, many things have changed in the 60 years I have lived on this earth. And things just keep evolving and getting better all of the time!!!

Brooke:One of the most important inventions made in my lifetime is of course the computer. I remember being in 7th grade and learning how to use the computer for the first time. I was amazed and I was told that it was just the beginning of a great invention. Wow, how computers have changed since then...One of the greatest inventions however, that involves the computer is Online Banking. I love doing my bills online and checking my account balances daily online. The Online Banking saves me a lot of time and money. I don't have to write a check or buy a stamp; the bank does it all. That is what I call a great invention......

Collette: "Life before Google" I hear this saying sometimes and would agree Google is by far the greatest invention in my life time. I google everything like recipes, coupons, spell check, directions (especially for Allyson when she is traveling), random facts, images to use in therapy, and home cures for illness. Nobody can dispute the wonderful invention of the personal computer. I remember when they first came to Loa Elementary and if you earned a high enough reward you could play "The Oregon Trail" game in the Library. In Junior High we worked on some DOS programs to make banners in Lisa Rasmussen's class and in High School I was introduced to Microsoft Word. My first year in college I signed up for a Utah State email that I hardly used. During my mission windows was introduced and by the time I got home I felt like a whole world opened up to computer use. It was then Allyson signed me up for hotmail and I haven't looked back.

Allyson: I think the greatest invention is probably the cell phone. My life would be completely different without a cell phone. I wouldn't be able to talk to everybody as I drive back and forth from work. Matt and I have a much happier marriage because he can call me and let me know where he is and it's easier to communicate. I remember the very first cell phone that we got when I was in the 6th grade. I took the big cellphone on the bus and showed everyone. I know everybody was impressed that I could call my mom from the bus.

Favorite Books

Did you have a favorite book or nursery rhythm when you were little?

Mom: My father used to read us "The Little White Indian Boy". We looked forward to him reading it each day to us. It was a rare occasion when he read to us, but he must have enjoyed this book because he took the time to sit down with us in the middle of the day and read it to us.

I really think it reminded him of when he was a little boy and Indians lived in the hills around Bicknell and they would come to his backdoor and his mother, Grandmother Dora Morrell, would give them food.

This story is about a little white boy that the Indians stole from his parents. They took him to their village and raised him as an Indian. Years later the boy had grown and came back to his family.

I have often wondered if my father sometimes thought that maybe he would be taken by the Indians to their village.

Collette: Mom recently told me she used to read a book about Giants over and over to us but I must have been too little because I don't remember it. I googled "children's book written in the 70's about Giants" and came up with "The Book of Giant Stories" I do however remember mom reading a bigger book with some fables which included Rupelsteilskin. I also remember at Christmas time mom would bring out the Polar Express and I thought it was the longest book ever written. When I got a little older I loved to read "Ramona", "The Little House on the Prairie", and "Anne of Green Gables" series.