SMILEY BURNETTE aka FROG MILLHOUSE aka LESTER ALVIN BURNETTE..........................
Smiley Burnette
This memory has nothing to do with any of the History In A year Questions. It is just one of those memories worth writing about. When I was about 5 years old my parents took me, my sister, and my aunt Annie who is only 4 years older than me to an outdoor concert. It was held in front of BA Wackerlie Buicks car dealership on Broadway in Idaho Falls, on the back of a flat bed trailer. Those of you in your early fifties and older might remember Smiley Burnette. He was the train conductor on the TV show Petticoat Junction. As I recall you occasionally actually saw him on the show. Smiley also called himself Frog Millhouse. Not sure why. His real name was Lester Alvin Burnette. Anyway we went to see "Frog" perform. I don't remember much about the actual concert except that Dad put me up on his shoulders so that I could see. Mom and Dad bought a record album for us that day. It had some of the cutest songs on it. Kid's songs mostly.
We played and played that record. I wish that we could find a copy of it somewhere. We wore that record out. Recently however my dad found a website dedicated to Smiley's memory. His children have put the website together. You can find it at
smileyburnette.org.They have put some of the songs on the website that Smiley had on the album that we had. It has been so much fun listening to the songs again. It brings back alot of memories.
My dad was so jazzed about being able to play the songs for me when we were home in July.
I have downloaded all that I can but, looking through the list of songs that he actually wrote there are a few that were on the album that we had that aren't on the songs that you can download. Darn!
DESCRIBE A SOUND FROM YOUR CHILDHOOD, WHAT WAS IT? WHEN DID YOU HEAR IT? WHAT DOES IT BRING TO MIND?
The sound is Birdsong. Probably hundreds of birds. I enjoyed spending the night with my grandparents when I was a kid. They lived in a big old farm house that my Great Grandfather
Ritchie built, back in the early 1900's. Anyway, I would wake up early in the morning to the sound of birds. The house, pasture, and farmyard was surrounded by huge cotton woods, apple, pear, and plum trees as well as a Hawthorn. There were Honeysuckle along the drive way and along the road and there were always Hollyhocks that would come up along the road also. These birds nested in these trees. The birds would actually start before the sun rose and as the sun came up the birds would get louder as more birds joined in the chorus.
It brings to mind early bright summer mornings, Grandma and Grandpa's house and being snuggled in a great big bed. Often times one or the other of my cousins, or my sister Julie or
all of the above would also have spent the night. I get such a sense of peace and calm remembering those mornings. It is almost like my Grandma reaching out to me with a great big hug.
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?
President Spencer W. Kimball once said, "There is no success that can compensate for failure in the home."
I would like to be remembered as a good wife and mother.
WHAT LESSONS DID YOU TAKE AS A CHILD THAT HAVE CARRIED OVER INTO YOUR ADULT LIFE? WHAT LESSONS WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE?.....
(PIANO, VIOLIN, DANCE, GUITAR, VOICE, ETC.
I took piano lessons for a while when I was in Elementary and Jr High School. I really am not a piano player. I took typing i High School and I am one of the worst typists that I have ever met.
I took dance for a while in my early 20's. I loved every minute of it. Nancy Howard was the owner of the Ballroom Dance Studio on first street in Idaho Falls and I danced on her dance team for about a year. We became really good friends as well as me dancing for her.
Shane and I took Leather Tooling classes just a couple of years after we got married. I actually worked for the Tandy Leather store there in IF for a short time. The man that was the manager was an IDIOT! So I quit.
I took Tole painting while I worked at Roberts crafts just before we moved to Boise. I really enjoyed that. The only problem is you can only have so many crafts laying around the house.
They take up way to much room.
Lessons that I would like to take.
I would like to take voice lessons sometime. When Shane and I don't have Kids etc to have to worry so much about I would like to take golf lessons.
WHAT SPECIAL THINGS DID YOU DO WITH YOUR DAD?
The one special thing that we have always done with my dad is just to sit and talk. He is such a very intelligent person and he loves to read. He is very patriotic and very conservative. He has always enjoyed talking to us about world events and what is happening in the political arenas.
He is always studying and has something interesting for us to talk about.
Other things that we have always enjoyed with dad are camping and fishing trips. We were able to spend a few days camping with mom and dad and most of the family this summer. We had a Family Reunion in Teton Valley and everyone took campers and tents and we spent 3 or 4 days.
When I was in Jr High he bought a Hodaka Motorcycle. I enjoyed the rides that we would go on on the bike.
WERE YOU EVER IN A DRAMA, SPEECH , SPORTS, PEP, OR GLEE CLUB, ETC. TELL ABOUT IT.
I was in drama for a short time my freshman year. I switched to Girls Glee. I really enjoyed the music alot better than I liked my drama class. My Drama teacher was kind of a strange person. He had us do a Readers Theater thing where we had to wear black robes etc. It kind of gave the whole thing a dark feeling. My parents hated it and insisted that I get out of drama. I was really upset but at the same time I knew that they were right. That production just had a really dark
feel to it.
I was also involved in the Big and Little Sisters club. Paula Mazer was my big sister. The senior girls took the freshman girls under their wings and mad their freshman year alot easier to get through. I was a big sister my Senior year also, Kelly Gray was my Little Sister.
My Sophomore year I was in Concert Choir. My Swain our Choir teacher was really a fun teacher he made choir fun.
My Junior year I was in the Acapella choir. Mr Ralphs was the new choir teacher that year. He wasn't as fun as Mr Swain but he was a really good teacher. The years that I was in choir the
Bonneville High Choirs always took top honors at festivals
The Senior girls had a service club called Kappa Phi Dels. I was involved in that club,
Divirsified Occupations, and Big and Little Sisters club as well as working full time.
I missed very few football or basketball games. To this day I don't understand a thing about football. I just went to socialize with my friends.
TELL ABOUT A TYPICAL DAY DURING YOUR HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
A typical day during High School consisted of attending 6 classes per day. Usually math, science, choir, seminary, english, and a social sciences of some kind or another. One year I took typing, another I took shorthand. My Senior Year I took a class called Distributive Education. This class had to do with marketing. I think today it is called DEC or DEK. I only had four classes a day and then I was out the rest of the day to work. I worked at Skaggs Drug for my job that went along with Distributive Ed.
WRITE A WANT AD ABOUT YOUR SPOUSE
WANTED
A SWEETHEART:One that will love me unconditionally.
One that will build me up not tear me down.
Must enjoy late night talks,
Moonlit walks,
and babies.
Must be a people person!
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE SMELLS? WHY?
Spring Blossoms, such as Lilacs, Irises, tulips, apple blossoms, and cherry blossoms. They smell so sweet and new. Easter Lillys have to be the best.
Roses, and many other summer flowers.
Homemade bread, cookies, or cakes. My mom has always been a scratch cook. The smells of homemade food when you walk through the door after school was always so welcoming.
Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, rosemary, basil, other herbs and spices. I just love spices especially cinnamon. Yummy.
I think my absolute favorite is the smell of the air after a summer rain. It smells so fresh and clean.
ONE WORD ON HOW TO LIVE SUCCESSFULLY
LOVE!
LIFE HISTORY IN A YEAR
Several years ago mom gave me 9 or 10 pages of questions called My Life History In a Year.
Unfortunately I haven't been diligent in doing my history. So now several years later here I am still not done with my History in a Year! So I am going to start using my blog as a format to do my life history. Now I am 48 years old at the present time. How much do you suppose that my life history will change between now and the time that I am called back to meet my maker? HUM!
TELL HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT WATER - PLAYING IN IT, SEEING IT, USING IT, TELL ABOUT VARIOUS BODIES OF WATER YOU HAVE SEEN AND AN EXPERIENCE OF FEELING ABOUT EACH.
I have a healthy respect for water. I have never learned to swim. If I go near any large bodies of water I make sure to wear a life jacket. When we were kids we spent alot of time in the canal that ran in front of my grandparents house, during the summers of course. My cousins sister and I would get our inner tubes on hot summer days and float down the canal from just above my grandparents property to the bridge in front of their house. It was a really shallow canal so we never feared having any problems. The worst thing that happened was my sister didn't wear a pair of old tennies one day and cut her foot on a piece of glass or metal that had been thrown into the canal. She ended up having to go in for stitches and a tetnis shot. There was also a canal just about a quarter of a mile up the road from grandma and grandpa's that when we got older we would float occassionally.
I love to go out on a lake on a motor boat if I ever get the chance. Emily and I went to girls camp the first time 6 years ago. They planned a float trip for the girls down the Payette River.
There are 3 different trips that you can take. A white water trip, a medium white water trip and a mild trip. Em and I took the mild trip. I was really scared about the trip, but there was one of the young ladies that took the trip that was more afraid than I was. I had to keep her from totally flipping out. It was alot of fun. We had the opportunity to take the same trip for a Young Womens, Young Mens activity 2 summers ago with the ward. Again it was alot of fun.
I have visited California a couple of times and had to opportunity to be near the Pacific ocean each time. One trip I spent just a few minutes on the beach because it was a cold day. My sister and brother in law took us to see the Queen Mary on one trip and of course the ship is sitting in the ocean. So I saw the ocean from the deck of the ship.
I lived in Virginia with my aunt and uncle in 1976-77 for 10 months. We weren't very far from the ocean but the only time that I got to spend any time on a beach was when my aunt and I drove to Cape Hateres, NC. It was January and really cold so we just wandered around because it was to off season and nothing was open, then we turned around and went home. I have driven over the Mississippi River and Missouri River.
One of my favorite places in the whole world is the Palisades Reservoir area in eastern Idaho.
We have been fishing on that lake a few times. One winter we had a Young Womens activity there at a cabin owned by the bishop of our ward. I was older than Young Womens age but I went with mom to help out. The next day we were out walking around near the lake and I realized that my uncle was out on the
Ice, ice fishing! Personally I think that people are absolutely crazy to do that but to each his own. Uncle Bob talked me into coming out onto the ice with him.
YIKES! You know that the Ice is plenty thick to hold your weight plus all of the people out there with you but, when the ice underneath you starts to snap and pop you aren't really sure that you want to be out there.
We are fortunate to live where we live. Between Eastern Idaho and here I can think of several water falls that I have visited over the years. As I mentioned before Idaho Falls was built around the Idaho Falls. It is really a spectacular sight. Then up north of Idaho Falls about an hour is Island Park. Just before getting into Island Park you turn to the east and out in that area are 2 falls called the Upper and Lower Mesa Falls there again Spectacular. East of there is a river called Warm River up above Warm River is a falls called Cave Falls. It is called that because at the bottom of the falls over the centuries the falls has carved out a cave to the side of the falls. I've been inside of that falls several times. Then if you go back to Island Park and drive further North then east to Yellowstone National Park there is a falls in the park called
The Yellowstone Falls, imagine that. Then on your drive back to Boise from Idaho Falls and Pocatello in the Twin Falls area there is a falls called Shoshone falls. It is Amazing! When there is water coming over it. The last time we visitied there there was no water just a trickle or two here and there. That area used to have thousands of springs that came right out of the sides of the lava cliffs along the river. In the last 20 years most of the springs have been capped and water used for irrigation etc.
We have really taken our water for granted in the past, We are in the 6th year of a draught, Water is becoming really scarse. We have been blessed in this area to hve just what we need.
It has been really interesting this last winter watching all of the news about excess rain and all of the flooding that has taken place especially in California and Utah. To bad that that water can't be harnessed for use some way.
Cave Falls
LINCOLN II WARD CAMP OUTS
Before we left Idaho Falls, we lived in the Lincoln II ward, we were in that ward for 16 years.
Every year in August they would have a Campout. We went several different places. One year it was at Fall Creek near Swan Valley. A couple of times we had it at Black Canyon resort. It was just an indoor pool fed by a natural hot springs with a campground outside. This was on the Road to the Teton Valley. I think that everyones favorite place to go was at the Lundblade ranch in Tetonia. Tetonia is just few miles down the road from Driggs.
The Lundblades were an older couple that lived in the Ward. Rayola and Don were the sweetest couple. He was in his eighties at the time and she was probably in her late sixties or early seventies. They had 300 acres that was homesteaded by Don's father or grandfather.
They would usually have these campouts the weekend just after my birthday or my birthday would fall on the weekend. My parents usually came up to the campout with us. That was so cool. Everyone in the ward loved having them come and mom would usually bring up a birthday cake. At one time mom and dad's stake and our stake were all one stake. So mom and dad knew alot of the people from previous associations.
They would always have a great Dutch Oven meal of some kind on Friday night and then somekind of singing around the campfire, or other entertainment. Getting kids to settle down for the night was always fun. One time my kids were going to stay in a tent with some of the kids from another family. The ground where they had pitched the tent was what is described as dead pan. Extremely hard. The Pegs didnt actually take hold in the ground and the tent came down around the kids ears. That was kinda funny. I had to go out and pull about a half dozen kids out of a collapsed tent, wake up the other family so that they could get the kids settled in a
camper and get my own kids settled for the night.
On Saturday mornings the men in the ward would fix pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, etc for breakfast. It was always nice because the men always too care of the cooking, us girls didn't have to do much work. All we had to do was eat, sleep and relax. After breakfast there was games for the kids, the men would usually play horseshoes, and Brother Lundblade would fire up the tractor and hitch up a hay wagon and one of the men from the ward would drive the tractor and take any one that wanted to go for a ride around the property.
My kids were fairly young the first time that we went there for a campout. They immediatly started calling Rayola and Don Grandma and Grandpa Blade. They couldn't pronounce Lundblade. Don and Rayola had a daughter, Rita, she had downs syndrome. She loved the kids and always enjoyed having them around. Once the kids got a little older and realized that Rita was a little different than most people they acted a little afraid of her. I think it broke her heart
when they acted like that. Rayola was so sweet about it. She explained that it happened all of the time. After kids get older and are able to understand such handicaps they just love Rita.
One weekend while we were there a couple of hot air balloons were up on Saturday morning while we were all getting up and getting ready for breakfast. It was so cool. The crews saw us from up above and put down right across the street from us. They told someone later that we were the reason that they had landed where they did. The kids really liked that.
We would also go up to The cabin in July occasionally for the hot air Balloon races that they have. I would call Rayola a few weeks in advance and ask permission to camp at the rancy. She would always give permission and tell me not to expect, GRANDMA, to wait on everyone. Well
she wouldn't let us take care of ourselves. It was a great place to camp.
Our Campsite
Need I say more
MEMORIAL WEEKEND 1994
The 5 of us kids are spread out in age. Janece was born when I was 20. So Lifestyles changed as we were all growing up.
This particular weekend was alot of fun for the families. Shane the Kids and I love to camp, Mom and Dad enjoy camping, we created a monster the first time that we took Janece camping and fishing. She still can't get enough of it. Dean and James both enjoy camping. Julie kind of has to be talked into it, but if she has a camper to stay in she doesn't mind it. This was the first and to date the only camping trip that mom, dad, and all 5 kids have ever been together on. It was a really cold wet weekend and If you know anything about Eastern Idaho, you know that the wind blows all of the time. This particular weekend it wasn't exactly a gentle breeze either. Mom and Dad had come up on Friday evening and had to be back to Idaho Falls for something on Saturday evening, so they left my brother Dean there with us to have to deal with. Now Dean is an adult but, he has some mental issues that make him a little difficult to take at times. He just about drove me over the edge into the relm of mental illness also that particular weekend. Other than that it was alot of fun.
One of the funniest things that happened was, we were walking along the creek bank talking with my sister and her husband. He had bought a Leather cowboy hat just for that weekend. As we were walking along, the bank gave way under his weight, and he fell in up to his waist. He was so mad because he just knew that he had ruined his hat. Well he got lucky the hat didn't get a drop of water on it.
The guys fished, us girls cooked and cleaned trailers, and we nearly froze our toes off, but it was fun despite all that.
One of the Mesa Falls Near Pole Bridge campground in Island Park.
Same Weekend. Ritchie family
CAMPING
I mentioned camping in my last entry. When Julie and I were young we did a fair amount of camping. Mostly with mom and dads extended families. The two favorite places to go were
both outside of Island Park. The first was Fall River the second was a place called Pineview. We were young enough that I really don't remember alot about those particular camping trips. When I got old enough to go to girls camp 12-17, I had decided that I hated camping. I only went for the first 2 years. Then the next time I remember going camping with the family was probably between my Jr and Sr years in high school. We went out to Howe for a Memorial Day weekend as I recall. Jul and I had to ride in the back of the pickup all the way out and all the way back. We got so sun and wind burned from that drive that it was awful! However the weekend was alot of fun.
My mother had put cloths in a paperbag for James for the weekend and set it outside near the truck. Sad for both she also set it near the garbage cans that were to be emptied that weekend while we were gone. James ended up with one set of cloths for a 3 or 4 day weekend and the garbage people took the bag of cloths!
One of my favorite memories of camping was with my family, an aunt and uncle and their kids,
and two other families. I was the oldest, 18 at the time, of about 13 kids there that weekend. Once we got our campsite ready and everyone settled those of us kids that had fishing licences took all of the little kids that didn't and went to a bridge that was near our campsite. We older kids would bait and cast the lines and pass the pole over to one of the little kids. They must have just stocked that creek because we were pulling fish out right and left. It was so much fun.
Then the dad's decided that they were going to take a swim in the creek. Mind you the streams in that area are mostly fed by glaciers. That water was COLD! I really laughed at the guys gasping for breath because of the cold water. They in turn got a big kick out of us older girls the
morning that we decided that our hair had taken enough and we went to the creek and washed our hair in the COLD water. Boy talk about an ice cream headache!
I got stuck in a tent with probably 11 or 12 of the kids. OH BOY! First everyone wanted to talk all night, then after they finally got settled down, one of the younger boys got scared. It was really dark in that tent that night. I had just fallen into really deep sleep and he SCREAMED my name. I was out of my sleeping bag and had crawled half way over to where he was laying before I actually woke up. Needless to say I didn't sleep much after getting him settled.
A favorite camping trip that I went on was with 2 friends M & L. We went out to the Salmon River area for a weekend. We camped at a small lake called Horseshoe Lake. We took a dutch oven with us to cook with and alot of sandwich stuff.
We drove about a mile down the road to a road that took us into a parking area. You should see this road. It was great big lava bolders. A person really should have a pickup to get into this parking lot, we drove in, in a Toyota Corolla. We hiked up to a lake called Imogene Lake. I have never seen anything quite like this place. There were great big bolders all over in this lake. It was so clear you could see everything. At the far end of the lake there was a great big boulder that came up out of the water and several other great big boulders right there also. What a sight. We sat on one of the big boulders at the far end and ate some sandwiches and enjoyed the
sunshine then headed back toward the car. We hadn't gotten 3/4 of the way back around the lake and for some stupid reason my ankle dislocated itself. NUTS! It felt like it needed to pop and couldn't, and boy did it hurt. I had to walk back to the car on that stupid ankle, which was probably a good thing because it didn't stiffen up on my like it could have. We drove over to Sunbeam, where they used to dredge for gold. There is a great big machine that looks like a
big steel house sitting there. It was what men worked on and it did the dredging.
Since getting married, Shane and I have done alot of camping. Since moving to Eagle though,
unless I've gone to camp with Emily, we've only gone camping about twice. Mainly because the money is never there to do it. We left our camp trailer over in Idaho Falls, my friend Nancy has it at her place. We don't have any place to keep it here.
another taken at the same time. You can see a definate difference in the falls from the old picture.
this is a picture of some of the cousins taken a couple of years ago in front of the falls in Idaho Falls
this is what the falls looks like now days
This is what the falls looked like in Idaho Falls when I was growing up. Due to the need of hydro electric power they changed the look by adding cement around the rock.
SOUTH EASTERN IDAHO
As I said in an earlier post I grew up in a small town called Iona, ID. Iona is just a few miles
North East of Idaho Falls, ID. famous for the beautiful water falls right in the middle of town.
My Great Grandfather Jabez Ritchie was one of the earliest settlers in that area. He came to
this area as a young man of 13 years of age and surveyed the surroundings. He decided that he liked what he saw and went back to the Raft River area to get the sheep that he had left there in the care of friends and moved his sheep to what was then known as Eagle Rock. He settled in the Iona area and eventually built a large farm house there. He owned and Leased property from Iona up in to the Grey's Lake area which he farmed and ran sheep on.
In my opinion Idaho is one of the most beautiful places in the world. I haven't been alot of places in the world so that is a major contributor to my opinion! As a young person growing up we lived on a 40 acre parcel of land. My dad didn't farm so we leased the property out to neighbors that had the equipment to do so. We raised wheat, alfalfa, and barley most of the time. I lived near neighboring farms so I was around farm animals alot. My aunt and uncle had horses, my grandparents had a few cows and a horse or two around. I am not sure why it was such a fun thing to do at the time but one of the highlights of being near our grandparents home was being able to go out to the barn with grandpa at milking time and to watch him milk the cows. He had a milking machine so he didn't do it totally by hand but still it was a highlight of any visit to grandma, and grandpa's. At one time we all got on a kick of trying to raise ducks and geese. That didn't last long. My parents decided to try to have goats around for the milk.
Well it is a good idea in theory, but! They have to be bread in order to have a kid, in order to have milk. The milk tastes like a billy goat smells so in order to have milk that tastes good, you have to feed the goats molasses mixed with their grain for a while to sweeten up the milk.
There isn't a milking machine for goats that I am aware of so dad, bless his heart, had to milk them by hand. Now this can be frustrating because they tend to kick over the milk bucket unless you have figured out a way to keep them from doing so.
It is also true what they say about goats. THEY EAT EVERYTHING THAT THEY SEE! They ate the bark off of a small Blue Spruce tree that my parents had planted in front of the house. We really didn't expect the tree to survive but it did. One thing that you don't hear about goats that we learned the hard way is that they don't stay penned up. They can jump over any fence that is built. Well almost any fence. Dad ended up making a yoke type of thing out of heavy tree branches that were in the shape of a Y. The goats head fit thru the forks of the Y with a leather strap across the top of the goats neck and the leg of the Y between their front legs, this kept them from getting out of the pen. Goats only lasted a couple of years. MY DAD IS NOT A FARMER!
He didn't like having to milk and care for the goats so they went by by.
At one time we had chickens that lasted about 2 years until a neighborhood fox decided that
he really liked chicken for dinner. Well needless to say chickens went by by also.
Another time my folks decided that they would like to be able to have a heffer so that they could
raise calves for meat. Ok that is easy enough to do. A neighbor that also raised beef got a
calf for us. I payed 65.00 for her. She was a pretty little thing with big brown eyes and was white with red spots. She went on to bare as I recall 10 calves that my family was able to raise and then have butchered for meat to live on. Daisy my cow eventually got cancer and had to be put down.
Along with these animals there were always cats and dogs around.
Moe - short for Moses an English Short hair
Lady - A pretty little Springer Spanial white with red spots she was our first pet.
Taffy - a funny little mongrel mix that was a real pretty creamy color
Tux - a poodle that was given to my younger brother. Thus named because he was black and had this cut little white patch on his chest resembling a Tuxedo.
Happy - A Great Perinese. He was a sweet heart. My favorite of all of the dogs that we ever had.
We always raised a big garden. We had Raspberries, Strawberries, potatoes, green beans,
peas, corn, Kohlrabi, radishes, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, cabbage, just to name a few things that we grew. Mom and dad taught us early on how to Hoe and weed in the garden. Mom would get us kids up at 6:00 am to go out to weed. While it was cool of course.
We froze peas, corn, swiss chard, and various other things. Mom bottled tomatoe, beans, and fruit that we would have to purchase, such as peaches, cherries, and apricots. One of the more interesting things that we would make was Sauerkraut. You make it with fresh cabbage, and salt is all, and then it has to be fermented then bottled. Kind of a long process but well worth the effort. I am really grateful to a wonderful mom that taught me the importance of canning and freezing and how to do it. I don't do much because we are terrible gardeners but, I can if and when I need to.
