Move to California and birth of Mark

In June 1963, we loaded up a moving van which Leon drove and I drove our station wagon. He had a couple of the kids with him while I had the rest with me. It seemed like a very long trip and I was so happy to finally get to our house. The address was 15692 Starboard, Garden Grove, CA. It was a nice four-bedroom home, two bath with living room and a dining room off the kitchen. It also had a two-car garage which never housed our car! In later years we converted it into a bedroom plus storage.
My sister Nancy and her husband Jerry bought a home just a block away and we did many things together. Now that she was married, the 11 years difference in our ages didn’t matter at all. We took our kids to the beach every summer, either going to the beach at Huntington Beach or to Newport Bay. The bay had calm waters and the kids learned to swim there. It was also very nice to be about 45 minutes away from my folks, who lived in Downey.
We belonged to the Westminster 4th Ward and Leon was 1st Counselor to Bishop Persons, who was the Marine Adjutant at El Toro Marine Base. His wife was a lovely Hawaiian lady named Anna. One evening the whole bishopric and wives were having a get-together and it turned out that every wife was a year older than her husband. The Bishop’s wife hadn’t wanted to admit she was older until the rest of us admitted our ages.
We enjoyed taking our kids on trips to the different canyons in the summer and up to Lake Arrowhead in the winter so they could play in the snow. The trouble was that all the benefit of being in the mountains was ruined by the long drives and traffic on the freeways on the way home.
We had six children but I never felt that our family was complete. We decided to try for number 7. While pregnant, Leon did some shopping on his own and bought a very firm mattress. Being pregnant, it was a very uncomfortable bed. He also bought a living room set, on his own, and it was ORANGE. Very comfortable, but horrible color.
For Christmas, 1967, we decided to drive to Colorado Springs to spend it with Leon’s parents. Trying to drive up the Cajon Pass our gutless wonder of a car, a VW bus, just wouldn’t make it. We went back home and turned the bus in for a pickup. We had a shell and benches in the back for the kids to sit on. Leon did some more work and made it so we could all sleep in the back. He rigged up beds, like hammocks, that went from side to side of the back. With the benches and the front seat, we had room for everyone. We also had our dog Tchai (Tchaikovsky) with us, a beautiful white Samoyed mix. He was a gift from the band kids to Leon.
We had a very nice visit with the Honeys. There was lots of snow that the kids enjoyed. Mom Honey had a little dog Cindy and no one could come near her. She was a mean little dog and barked a lot but Tchai didn’t let her bother him! The folks took us to movies and sightseeing. I don’t remember if it was this trip or another one that they took us for a ride on a cog railroad up to the top of Pike’s Peak. a beautiful mountain.
I told my doctor that I had had four nine-pound-plus babies but he said this one would only be about eight pounds. Surprise, surprise. Mark Richard Honey, born July 25, 1968 was 10 pounds even! He was 22 ½ inches and was born at 8:22 p.m. We were thrilled to have another

More Life in Glendale, 1960-63

I was expecting again and this time our drive to Mesa and Dr. Allen took one hour. I was in labor but one muscle didn’t want to relax and Dr. Allen put his hand inside to massage it. He said I was a real stoic, that anyone else would be screaming! I guess it worked because Rob was born January 21, 1961 at 10:20 p.m. and weighed 9 lb 5 oz. He was a cute, round-faced little boy who had a huge smile when he got a little older. I don’t remember who came to help us out.
We were given a little Pomeranian dog which we named Brownie. The kids loved him and when we moved to California he had to be left behind with the twin neighbor girls. Sylvia really didn’t like that.
Leon received his Masters Degree and started teaching in the Alhambra School District in Phoenix. He would go to two elementary schools a day teaching band. He also played for many musicals that came to town.
Another baby was on its way. My sister Mary came to help out with the kids but she was not much older than our kids. Sylvia was just 8 ½ and didn’t like having her in charge.. Leon and I went grocery shopping one evening and I guess that got things going well. Doug was born the next day at 4:25 a.m. on July 11, 1962 and weighed 9 lb 4 oz. He was my only baby born on his due date. David was a couple of days over and everyone else was early.
My father was the business manager of a Peruvian airline called TAPSA. There were several crashes of their airplanes and the airline went out of business. Dad sent Mom, Nancy and Mary up to the States. Mary stayed with Keith and Gina and Mom and Nancy with Leon and me. Dad stayed to settle up the business affairs. This was a very hard time for him as he had had to identify the bodies of the pilots. He read lots of action-packed books to get his mind off of all he had seen. He then came up to the States and he and Mom and girls moved to Downey, CA.
One day Tricia and Rob went for a walk. They thought they were lost and little Robby suggested they say a prayer. I was proud of the little guy for thinking of that.
Tricia decided she wanted to be a nurse so for her 3rd birthday she got a little nurses’ kit. Later for Halloween she wanted to be a mother. Sylvia was a little more exotic, and dressed as a bride or princess. David was always a cowboy or pirate. Alan wore a Bolivian knit cap and little poncho for his disguise.
After four years in Glendale, AZ, Leon wanted a change and interviewed for a teaching job in California. He accepted a position in the Garden Grove School District at La Quinta High School.

Glenday, AZ 1959-60

Before we moved to Maryvale, we took the family camping. Sylvia was 5, David 4, Tricia 2 ½, and Alan just a few months. We went north near Oak Creek Canyon but camped by another stream. We just laid our blankets on the ground and had one big family bed. Alan was in a little portable canvas bed I had gotten with Green Stamps. The kids played in the water and had so much fun. We drove to the Grand Canyon and also visited a fire lookout. The little house was built way up high and we had to climb up lots of stairs to reach it. Leon was really worried with the little kids climbing the stairs; he was afraid they would fall through the railing. The view was spectacular and the ranger very kind.
The house in Maryvale was very nice; four bedrooms, two baths with a family room off the kitchen. It had a very large back yard and a garage that Leon converted to a music studio where he gave clarinet lessons. Sylvia’s kitten Sugar got run over by a car so we got another one, a distant relative. It was orange and not as nice a cat. She named it Pinky and it was rather wild.
A family that lived in back of us had twin daughters named Brenna and Brenda plus a younger girl. Sylvia and Tricia became very good friends with them and they played together a lot.
Not long after moving there, David came riding up the sidewalk crying very loudly. When I got to him I could see a bow in his left arm. It was just a big dip. I called Leon at work and he came and took him to the doctor. While Leon was holding David on his lap, the doctor asked him if David was a brave boy. Leon said he was and the doctor just grabbed the arm and pushed it back into place. Leon said that the doctor hadn’t asked him if he were brave! That was hard for him. David wore a cast for several weeks. He had told me he had fallen off his tricycle but it wasn’t until many many years had passed that he confessed he had fallen off a roof, a place he was told not climb on. The decoration on the front of a neighbor’s house was like an A-frame and the sides reached down almost to the ground; very accessible to little boys.
That first summer in our home, Leon worked in a plant that was trying to extract tungsten from tailings. It was very dirty work!!! He would come home black from head to toe. He was quite a sight; only the whites of his eyes were normal color. I would make him get out of his dirty clothes by the front door. I kept a special pair of underwear for him to wear at work because I couldn’t get the clothes clean, always very grey!
Gina and Keith moved into a little old house not far from us. Early one Sunday morning, Gina and her kids appeared on our doorstep. Their house had caught on fire! I think their genealogy books were about the only things saved. Luckily they had all gotten out in time. I believe it was a problem with the wiring. They soon moved into a nice large home, still quite close to us. We would take our kids to Nelson’s Pool frequently during the summer. We had fun

Greer House in Phoenix, 1958-59

While living in the little house on 39th street, on the east side of Phoenix, Leon graduated from Arizona State with a BA degree. Also, Sylvia developed the habit of sucking her thumb and pulling out her hair. The top of her head was just stubble! We tried everything we could think of to make her stop sucking her thumb, the only time she pulled out her hair. We tried nasty-tasting stuff on her thumb. We also tried tieing newspapers on her arms so her thumb couldn’t reach her mouth, all to no avail. We finally got a black and white kitten and that did the trick. She loved that kitten whom she named "Sugar". I guess petting the kitten helped her to not want to suck her thumb and pull out her hair. It is the only cat I have really liked.
Leon obtained work in the Alhambra school district, on the west side of town. He taught band in elementary schools, going to two schools a day. He was one of two band directors. A family in the ward named Greer moved out of their house into a new one and offered the old one to us. Since Leon was now employed we moved into that house. It was on Picadilly street. The house had three bedrooms and one bath but with a toilet in the laundry room. The back yard was a grapefruit orchard. Men would come pick the fruit each year and pay us for it. The yard was watered by irrigation water and the kids loved to wade in it when it was our turn to inundate our yard.
We were expecting again. A woman in the ward told me that if I had a boy, that I would be really thrilled after having a girl, a boy, and another girl. I thought it a strange thing to say but I really was thrilled when Alan Veness was born, March12, 1959. He was 9 lbs and 9 oz. and was born at 10:30 a.m. Leon was supposed to be marching in a parade with the elementary band but when I started labor, he let the other band director take care of things and took me to Mesa to Dr. Allen. The doctor now had a brand new hospital, but nicer than the little clinic where Tricia was born.
My aunt Mona came to help us out. Leon earned her love and respect when he came home one day , I had come home from the hospital by then, and the house was really messy. I had washed my hair and curled it and all he said was "You look really nice." That impressed Mona. She thought it so nice of him to not comment on the mess.
Leon got tired of driving clear across town every day to teach school and a new housing development opened up in Glendale. The development was called Marysvale and built by John F. Long. The price was very affordable. We let Leon’s brother Bill and his wife Kathy have our house and we moved across town to a four bedroom, two bath home. It was on a cul-de-sac with a very large yard. Bill and Kathy decided to move to California so we had to give that house back to the Greers.

Life in Phoenix, 1956-57

We first lived in a little house, that was one of about five in a row, in an orange grove. The grove was on the front of the house and a driveway was in back of the houses with clotheslines on the side. Our little washer was outside on the back of the house by the door. It had two bedrooms with a large closet, reached by both rooms. Sylvia was a little pack rat and whenever the comb or another item was missing, it could be found on the floor of the closet. Some of the odd jobs Leon did to earn money was to play in the Phoenix symphony, wash dishes at a Mexican restaurant in the evenings, and or worked at a dog kennel. Some of these jobs were summer type, others during the school year.
I was expecting again and went to Dr. Ben Allen in Mesa. He had been one of my father’s missionaries in Argentina. A very caring person. If the doctor’s bill was paid before the baby was due, it was only $100.00! The hospital bill was comparable. His hospital was just a little clinic, later a nice hospital was built where others of our children were born. Patricia Ann was born on December 1, 1956. I had gone for my checkup that morning and the doctor told me I would have the baby before the next week. That afternoon my pains started. I had washed my hair and it was put up in curlers so that’s how I looked when she was born. She was 9 lbs. 4 oz and it was at 6:30 p.m. when she made her appearance. This experience was much better than in an army hospital. Leon’s parents came to help out with Sylvia and David. We now had three under the age of three all in diapers; Sylvia didn’t turn three until the end of January.
We next moved into an little old house on a large lot that had a horse pasture next to it. This had one bedroom and a large living/bedroom combined. The little bedroom had a door that opened onto the front porch but had no key. We put the baby’s bed in front of that door. The side door opened onto the living/bedroom. It had a large swamp cooler that blew air into the bedroom and the other large room.
Once, when Gina was having problems with her teeth, she came with her two little ones and stayed with us. She loved being on Sylvia’s bed where the cool air blew right on her. We enjoyed doing things with Keith and Gina and visited frequently with them. Their daughters Debbie and Melanie were exactly nine months older and nine months younger than Sylvia.
The pasture next to our lot was rented out to a boy for his horse. He took care of it. One Sunday morning, when Leon was at Priesthood meeting, the horse got loose. I took off after him with a rope, dressed in my robe and hair in curlers. I must have been a sight but I caught him and brought him back to the pasture.
I have a cherished memory of little David. Once I looked out of the window and saw him in the pasture looking up at the horse and the horse was looking down at him. It was a darling picture and I wish I had captured it on film. He was either 18 months or close to being two.
Some more memories of that house. Once, I caught Sylvia about to touch a scorpion on the rug inside the house. I quickly pulled her away and killed it. Another time, Sylvia and David decided to put "gasoline" in the car and put water in the gas tank. A scary memory happened one night when I had forgotten to lock the side door. Our bed was across the room. I heard someone outside the door and then saw the door handle start to turn. I sat up in bed and the noise must have scared the person away. That was very frightening.
I suffered a miscarriage while living at the little house; the only one I’ve had. It was on Valentine’s day and the person who prepped me painted a heart on me with something red. It was different being in the hospital with no baby.
I was the Primary chorister in our ward in Scotsdale. I was lucky with the accompanist because she could play by ear besides read notes. I made rhythm instruments and the kids played to the theme of the Adams Family, plus others.

Life in El Paso, TX & birth of David, 1964-55

Since Leon had completed his basic training and was now assigned to the 424th Army Band at Ft. Bliss, he was able to live off base. We lived in a variety of places in El Paso. The first was a room in a large house, bathroom down the hall. He brought Sylvia and me there when we were able to join him. The first night, after we were asleep, the bed collapsed! What a way to wake up. We were only in that room a day or two when we were able to move across the hall to a much larger room. This had a bed, table and chairs, refrigerator, little stove, and a sink. We were there several months.
We then moved to a little rock house closer to the base. The area was called Logan Heights. This had a bedroom and living room, kitchen and bath but it had COCKROACHES! If there is anything I hate in this world it is cockroaches. We then moved to a little apartment on top of a garage. It had a large room, a combination living room and bedroom, with a kitchen and bath. We have pictures of Sylvia here in her high chair and on the lawn. I would see a sad sight out of my windows every week. Prisoners in shackles would clean trash in the alley behind us. It always gave me a sad feeling to see them.
I was now expecting another baby and we needed a bigger place. A motel had been converted into apartments and we moved into a two bedroom apartment. It was nice to have more room. Our next door neighbors were also members of the church and in the army. They had a little boy Sylvia’s age. They were Jerry and Lola Hyde.
When it was time for the baby to be born, my Mom came out on the bus to help out. I had gone to the doctor and he said I had miscalculated, that I was not big enough for the baby to be due. My Mom didn’t want to stay for weeks so that night she gave castor oil. Ugh! I started having pains in the night but couldn’t tell if they were gas pains or labor pains. They started to be really hard so Leon took me to the hospital and David was born 15 minutes after we got there. No time to be prepped! He was 7 lbs 10 oz. and was born at 6:45 a.m. The Air Force Hospital was a little bit better experience than the hospital in Albuquerque. We still took care of our babies but I don’t remember having to make my bed. They had given me a spinal, over my protests, saying it had been improved. I still had a headache but not as bad and it didn’t last as long.
We now had two darling children. Leon’s time in the service was up in December, 1955. At first he thought he would stay in El Paso. He did some substitute teaching in an elementary school but we decided to go back to BYU. We borrowed his grandparents farm trailer and loaded up all our furniture and started out. When we got to San Simon, in Arizona, the axle broke on the trailer, so we parked it at the side of the road and drove to Queen Creek, AZ, when Gina and Keith lived. Keith and Leon went back to San Simon, got the trailer fixed, and drove it back to Queen Creek.
Leon visited with the music people at Arizona State and got a music scholarship. That, and with his G.I. bill, made it possible for him to go on with his schooling.

Birth of Sylvia, 1954

Sylvia says I should continue so occasionally I will keep on with my history.

In Albuquerque, the evening of January 27th, I went to the movies with Mom Honey and Joan and we saw "Kiss Me Kate". When I went to bed I felt something wet between my legs that I couldn’t stop. I called Mom and she told me my water had broken! This was three weeks before the expected delivery date. They took me to the Army hospital on the Sandia Army Base; that’s where Dad Honey worked. I spent all day, part of the time on a bed in the hall because there were so many expectant mothers. Dad checked in with me periodically to see how I was doing. Labor didn’t start until later in the day. They gave me a spinal (bad choice). The nurses said I was singing during labor, I guess to keep up my spirits. Sylvia was born about 7:45 p.m. about 6 lbs 5 oz. It was hard because my husband was in El Paso in basic training and my own mother in California.
The army didn’t coddle its patients. We had to make our own beds and I had a splitting headache from the spinal. All the mothers were put in a large room, had to be uncovered and disinfected when the male attendants brought us our babies! It was embarrassing but at least there were lots of us. After a day, the babies were left with us to care for. I was glad my Mom had had Mary when I was about 17 and knew how to care for babies. Some of the mothers had never held a baby. Leon wasn’t able to come see our daughter until she was about a week old. I was so happy to see him.
About the end of February or first of March, Leon was able to come get Sylvia and me and take us to El Paso.