Artell from Fay's history, told by Sherry Parker

This story about Artell comes from Fay's oral history. The picture that I have put with it shows Artell about the age that the story took place. I know that the quality is very poor. I am hoping that someone has the original and can help us get a quality copy. That is why I am using the picture today.

Here is the Story: "We had our time with horses. Artell was horse crazy, and he went and bought a horse named Hawk. Every time he would get on Hawk, Hawk would buck. One morning we were trying to get the wagon all loaded up and Artell--we could never get him in. Glen always got on the wagon and we went to the hills to get the wood. But Artell, we needed him, but he would never go. So he decided he would ride Hawk alongside the wagon, If he could ride Hawk, he would go. So he got on Hawk and Hawk commenced to buck and he bucked Artell right off and Artell's head just missed the wheel of the wagon.

So mother just looked at him and said, "Hawk goes into the barn."

So Hawk went in the barn and Artell had to get on the wagon, but he pouted all day.

That crazy horse tried to kill him two or three times.

Story about the chickens

 I think that some of us might have a few chickens to raise. I thought that you might enjoy this story that Fay tells about her mother and raising chickens.

"And mother had a whole mess of chickens, and we couldn't afford but just a little bit of grain. And mother said, "Well, we just can't let them eat it whole because we will be out of grain before spring." So she had this big chicken coop up there and we had a whole mess of potatoes because mother grew potatoes, and we would put them in the root cellar. And so mother would take these potatoes out and put them in a great big pot. Then mother would throw in just so many handfuls of grain with the potatoes. and it was cold in the winter so she would take this and cool it so it would just be warm. And the chickens had to have their warm feed every morning. She would take it out and those chickens would just go crazy. And you know, they layed like everything all winter long, and the other farmer's chickens all went into molts and got cold and all they had was grain. So mother's chickens did just great."

Grandma Mary was very smart and capable. What a challenge she had but she came through with flying colors and is an example to all of us even today.

 The following is a story that Fay told me (Sherry) during an oral history interview. I thought that it might be a good one to use since Valentine's Day is right around the corner.

Speaking of her grandmother Jane Panting Bell she says:"She told me one time about when she and grandpa (Charles Morris Bell) were going together and they went to a dance. And she said, "And do you know that he danced with that girl and he swung her so high you could see her ankle." She said it made her so mad and she said, "Why, Morris was just flirting with her terrible and so when she come and sat down, I just squiggled over by her and I pulled the cork out of her bustle. I fixed her, I did. She had to leave that dance and go home."

Courtship is certainly different now days.

The photo is of Grandma Jane at about the time she told Fay the story.

Story told by Gertrude's son, Rock

 I'm going to give a little story about Gertrude who was the fourth child of James William and Mary Jane Kofoed. She died really young at age 37 of a brain tumor. I thought it would be good to learn more about her.

This was a story told by her son, "Rock".

Another story Rock tells about his mother and father. “My dad was head meat cutter at United Grocery – 9th South and 9th East – and that was the most exotic meat market in town. All the customers were really rich people from Federal Heights and they wouldn’t come down and shop. They would phone their orders in and they expected you as the butcher to give them the prime meat, so they would cater to dad. Consequently that would put him in a position to buy their used Packards. And so he’s got a really hot deal going this Sunday when he’s going to get another Packard. So the family’s out for a Sunday drive and we just ended up in Federal Heights to talk to this person about another car and so mother says, ‘Eddy, we’re not going to wait here very long. If you’re over 15 minutes, we won’t be here.’ And she’s never ever said that, see, so she’s watching the clock and here’s about six of us in the old Packard and dad doesn’t come out. She gets in the driver’s seat and we go home. All of we kids in the back. And a couple of hours later, dad arrived home and acted like nothing had happened.”

Faye, Twila and the goldfish - by Sherry Parker

 I thought that this morning I would share a little story from Aunt Twila's oral history. This story kind of shows what a special character she was. We told the story at our last regular reunion held in the Lava Church two years ago.

"When Gertrude was sick we all went down to take care of her. See we took turns. Fay went down and I took care of you (Sherry). You know, we lived at 935 N. Hays. Bud and I lived in one side and Faye and Ardell lived in the other side."

"When Faye was down there, (Taking care of her sister Gertrude) she left me a fish to take care of. I didn't like cleaning them fish. One day I just flushed it down the toilet. I just flushed it right down the toilet. When she came home I said, "Your fish is dead." and I says, "You can go down, I'll buy you any fish you want but I says, I just couldn't stand to clean them."

The funny part of this story is that when Fay tells it she says that she took care of Twila's fish and when Twila tells it she says that she took care of Faye's fish. What a couple of characters they were and oh how we miss them.

The picture is of Sherry, Faye, and Bruce at the Pocatello Duplex on North Hayes, at about the time of the fish story.

From Fay's Oral history about her parents by Sherry Parker

 With Aunt Twila's passing, I have been thinking about their family. They are all together again and that is quite wonderful. I thought that it might be of interest to quote a bit from Fay's oral history about her parents. They both died before I was born so a treasure these insights.

She was asked to describe them and this is what she said:

"Well, Mother's eyes were brown. You couldn't miss that, boy. They looked just like Twila's are, just a real dark brown. (The family referred to that color as Bell eyes). And dad's eyes were blue, but he always had a problem with his eyes. In fact, when he died, he was getting cataracts and had very poor eyes.

Mother, I think, was just a little bit taller than I am, (5 foot 2 inches) and not really heavy but well built. And Dad was real stocky built. He was real muscular and a very strong person. I guess he could really fight when he was younger. He had blue eyes and kind of light brown hair. It wasn't really dark hair. He wore glasses, but I don't believe my mother ever wore glasses, I really can't recall too much about Dad. I do remember that he just worked a lot. And I remember what a struggle we had sticking together after he died, because we had to fix that house and boy, that first winter."

Memories of my sister Twila Kofoed Smith by Fay Kofoed

"Family ties are loving ties. That's why my thoughts of Twila are filled with warmest memories. She has been more than a sister. She has been a special friend as well.

Through our years together the moments full of laughter, happiness and joy have made me glad that she was my sister.

I remember the arguments over clothes. How we laughed together and how silly we were sometimes. I wouldn't trade one of those memories for anything.

After we were married and raising our families, we were still close and could talk things over together. The thing I most admired was Twila's love for her children. She would say to me, 'Fay, my kids are good kids.' and then she proceeded to see that they were just that--good kids!"