Around 1965 the church decided to sell the dairy farm, and we needed to find a bigger place to live. They had one home for sale in Sugar City on South Fremont Avenue that belonged to a teacher who was transferring to another job. We decided to buy the home for $13,500, which seemed like a fortune to us at that time, but we were able to handle the payments, and we have lived on this property for the last 60 years. The home had a furnace and carpet, so I was thrilled. They had built an addition up over the garage, but it wasn’t finished. Arlin knew he could finish two bedrooms up there. It had two other rooms finished that we used for the boy’s bedroom and later for the babies. When Arlin got the other two rooms finished we had a nice bedroom for us and one for the girls. We were able to have a nice garden, treehouse, and playhouse for the children.
When the boys were little, they would love to go to Bear Lake and ride horses. Arlin’s brother Max was such a horseman. He had a racing team and everything. He didn’t have any boys, and he loved horses, so he bought a cute little black and white Shetland pony and brought it up here to Sugar City for Craig and Bryan. We had the pasture right here next to the house, and that little horse was so smart because he’d walk right under the apple tree in the pasture and let the branches knock Craig and Bryan off his back and they’d come crying into the house and never wanted to get back on him. Finally, Arlin had to call Max and tell him to come get the horse because the kids just weren’t enjoying him as much as they thought they would. So he didn’t last long at our house.
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| Cheree Bartschi |
On April 14, 1967, our Cheree was born. She was a darling little girl with blonde curly hair. We were so thrilled to have two daughters and two sons. Lisa turned three-years-old a month after Cheree was born, so Cheree was her baby. That summer we decided to go to Nounan to help Max on the farm. We didn’t have to go to summer school, so we rented our house to Nancy and Evan Meyers. They were just married and needed a place to live. We packed up the family and went down to live with Grandpa Bartschi for a few months. With a new baby and an old ringer washing machine it was a lot of hard work, but the boys and their father loved being on the farm. I think back on it now and realize it was probably a little challenging for Grandpa. He had lived all alone for so many years, and then to have a family move in on him must have been a big change. But he seemed to love the children and did enjoy a cooked meal he didn’t have to cook himself. We spent time in the canyon cooking dutch-oven chicken and going for bumpy rides on all the old roads up in the mountains. Cheree was a good-natured baby and we dragged her everywhere.
The summer went by really fast and soon it was time for us to head back to school. We hadn’t been home for very long when they called Arlin to be a counselor in the bishopric. He served with Bishop Sonderegger and Ted Holman for five years. In 1968, instead of going to Provo for summer school, we had the option of going on a Church History tour for three weeks. We decided not to pass up that opportunity. We sent Craig to stay with Grandpa and Grandma Ward, Bryan and Lisa stayed with Uncle Max and Aunt Vicky, and Bonnie Holman offered to keep Cheree who was 13-months-old. We had a wonderful trip and saw all the church sites. But I really did miss my little family. We had no cell phones to check on them every day, just hoped and prayed all was well. When we got back home Cheree wouldn’t even come to me and acted like she didn’t remember me. It broke my heart. They did get along fine, but we were happy to be back together again as a family.
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| Cheree, Karolyn, Rose, Nellie, and Lisa |
In 1969 Arlin had the opportunity to teach in the Building Construction Department at Ricks College. They were expanding the department and needed more teachers. He had loved teaching seminary, but it was time to move on. We didn’t really want to leave Sugar City. We loved the people and could see that it was a great area to raise our family. So with prayers and much thought, Arlin went to teach at the college. He needed to go back to B.Y.U. to get his master’s degree, so we went back to Provo for summer school that year. He taught at Ricks College for 29 years and what a blessing it was in our lives.
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| Rosanne Bartschi |
After four- or five-years Cheree kept begging me for a baby, so another baby girl joined our family when we had Rosanne On August 18, 1972. Rosanne had olive skin and lots of black hair. I called her my Indian baby. She had four older siblings who spoiled her and loved her to death. I had my hands full with my family, but the boys were good to always help and Lisa and Cheree were my little mothers. I went in for my six-week checkup and Dr. Passey told me I was pregnant again. I couldn’t believe it. I was nursing Rosanne and thought no-way this could happen. Arlin said he had a dream and knew we would have another son.
The next spring Arlin was called as the bishop of Sugar City 1st Ward, with Kenneth Howell and Robert Worrell as his counselors. We were asked to go to Salt Lake to be set apart, so we made the trip and met with Elder L. Tom Perry in his office. I remember walking in as he was standing there by his door, counting each one of the children as they walked in, and then he looked at me 7 months pregnant carrying Rosanne. I could read the thoughts on his face (“You poor woman…”) Ha! This was another wonderful spiritual experience for our family.
I didn’t go to summer school with Arlin that year because of the pregnancy. He continued to serve as bishop and would go down to school each week. He traveled with some other men who were also working on their master’s degrees, and then come home on weekends to do his church assignment. That would always be a long six weeks.
Our family was growing up fast. Lisa was the most tender. We hardly ever had to spank her. We’d tell her to do something and she’d just do it, or if we hurt her feelings she was just really tender. We could spank Cheree and she’d turn around and keep doing exactly what we spanked her for. She was just that feisty. Arlin was a good father, and I think in a way the kids were a little bit afraid of him because if he told them to do something they just did it. They all had respect for their dad. But when he wasn’t here, Oh man, they’d walk all over me. They were still pretty good, but they knew they could pull my strings. I think they still laugh about me chasing them around the bed with a broom. I think the hardest part about raising them was the heartache I would feel when they’d do something dumb. I remember crying all night one time when Arlin and I had come home from being gone somewhere and Craig had shaved all of Bryan’s hair off his head. You wouldn’t think much of it now, but it was such a big ordeal and it just devastated me. They were in high school at the time and Bryan wouldn’t even go to school for a week or two until his hair started to grow back. I don’t remember ever being more upset than I was through that whole ordeal.
The boys would go with their Dad to work on his summer building projects. It was important to us that they learned how to be good workers. When they were quite young they rode their bikes down to Ashcraft’s farm out in Moody to help move pipe. Lisa even went one summer because she wanted to earn her own money. She would move one end of the pipe while one of their daughters helped carry the other. I felt bad for her because she wasn’t very old, but she still wanted her job like the boys. They made their own money for school clothes, which was a big help to us. It also gave them some independence, even if they had to get up at 6:00 a.m. every morning.
I carried on a lot of the same holiday traditions that I grew up with. We would get new spring outfits for the kids at Easter and spend time with Laddie and Shirley dying Easter eggs and doing Easter egg hunts. We’d go to the parade on the Fourth of July. We would have stuffed turkey and carrot pudding for Thanksgiving. Arlin would wake up the kids on Christmas morning with jingle bells. Lisa and Cheree shared a few of their Christmas memories: (Lisa) - I remember the year I discovered that my Dad was “Santa” because he always dressed up as Santa and came to visit us every year, and one year I looked down and saw his watch on his wrist and thought, “Wait a minute. That’s my dad’s watch!” And that’s when I caught on to the family Christmas tradition.” (Cheree) – “One of my favorite Christmas memories was when we got these Crissy dolls; mine was blonde and Lisa’s had red hair; and even though mom hated sewing, she made these cute doll clothes for our Crissy dolls. Mom really liked to spoil us at Christmas and got us all the things we wanted. We found out later that it was because she would shop all the after-Christmas sales and buy everything 50% off and hide it in the old house down the street, and when it was time to go through all the catalogs and pick out what we wanted for Christmas, she would gently guide us toward the things she had already bought and it was perfect. When Christmas came, we were always happy. When we figured out where they had been hiding all our presents we would sometimes sneak down there and take a peak at what we were getting. Even Lisa had a sneaky side and she would carefully unwrap and then re-wrap all her gifts after taking a peak. But when I tried to do it, I got caught and scolded about how we don’t do things like that and now there weren’t going to be any surprises on Christmas morning. And mom was right, it did ruin my Christmas. But when I tried to tell them it was Lisa who taught me, they wouldn’t believe me because she never got in trouble. But on Christmas Eve we would go to bed and lay there for about two hours and then hear Dad fire up “Old Blue” and count how many trips he made back and forth to the old house bringing back the gifts and say, “Wow! This is going to be a good year!” Craig and Bryan would say every year, “This year it’s going to be a snowmobile. I just know it’s going to be a snowmobile.” And it never was a snowmobile. But Dad loved Christmas, and every time we opened one of our gifts Dad would be just as excited as we were like it was the best gift for him. He would make us jewelry or wooden jewelry boxes and we always got something special from him. Before we knew the truth about Santa, I remember asking mom if Santa was real and she would always emphatically reply, “Yes, Santa is real!” and she emphasized that it was the spirit of giving that makes Santa real, and it wasn’t a competition between Jesus and Santa because Jesus gave us the ultimate gift of eternal life and Santa was there to help us remember and believe in those gifts that we receive from our Savior. So I thought that was a good explanation.”
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| Max Bartschi |
On July 20, 1973 Max was born. He was my smallest baby, only weighing six pounds. He seemed so tiny. We discovered he had a knot in his umbilical cord, so it was good we had him two weeks early. If he hadn’t been born then he probably would not have lived. I chose each one of my children’s birthdays after Craig was born, because I had them so fast the doctor warned me I would never make it to the hospital. So they were all born on a Friday so Arlin could take care of the other children until I came home from the hospital on Sunday. Now I had two babies 11 months apart. I called them my twins, and they were the best of buds. As they got older, Rosanne always called Max “buddy.”
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| Bryan, Craig, Cheree, Rosanne, Lisa, and Max |
Arlin was still serving as bishop, so I had all six kids with me in the congregation while he had to sit up on the stand. I think Cheree was about 13 before she ever got to sit next to her dad in church. It was a good experience, it really was, but I felt lonely lots of times too. I was mostly in the background trying to be a good wife, and he’d spend a lot of time at the church. Those were the days when you had to count every penny for tithing, and it would get late on Sunday nights and I’d call his office and ask if he was coming home and he’d say, “Yes, but we’re off tally by about three or four cents and I have to find it.” So I’d tell him to take it out of his own pocket and just come home! I had my hands full all those years, but there was a sweet older lady, Florence Bean, who always came and sat by me and helped me with the babies and I called her “Grandma Bean.” I got real close to her because she was just like a grandmother to me and just so sweet. One day I was prompted to go see her and I thought, “I’m too busy today, but I can go see her tomorrow.” And then I got a phone call the next morning and she’d passed away that night. I felt so bad because I knew I was prompted to go see her and then I missed my opportunity. Arlin had a lot of funerals to handle as bishop, we had a lot of joy and a lot of heartbreak, you have a little bit of both with all of it. But I think overall he was really loved as a bishop and he had the type of personality that got along well with everybody and made them feel special.
While the kids were still young we made a trip back east to visit Sheila and Spencer in Detroit and took them to the Ford Museum as well as several of the church historical sites. We went through Boston as well and I remember how I loved the cobblestone streets of Boston. I look back on that trip and think, “How did I ever do that?” That was during the time when you didn’t have to have all your kids strapped in car seats and they were laying all over my lap. We had both grandpas with us and we were pulling Grandpa’s trailer. My kids were still in cloth diapers that we had to take care of, but we made it work and it was a wonderful trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had all our luggage stored in the trailer we were pulling behind us and Arlin was in such a hurry to get home that we decided to come down through Jackson, and Arlin said, “I’m just going to go up and over the pass.” And I asked him, “Are you sure you can pull this trailer over the pass?” Oh my gosh, by the time we got to the top we were just crawling forward inch by inch and I knew the engine was going to kill and we were going to roll all the way back down the mountain and kill us all. I’ve never prayed so hard in my life to see the top of that pass. But we made it home.
My brother Allen came to Ricks College and lived with us while he went to school in building construction. He loved Arlin and took as many classes as he could from him. Allen was a good help to us also, and the boys adored their Uncle Allen. He met his wife, Julie, while going to school at Ricks College. After they were married, they moved to Provo where he finished his schooling.
Arlin received his master’s degree in the summer of 1974. Yay! No more summer school. He had no desire to go for a doctorate, and I really didn’t encourage him either. With his jobs, family, and church assignment our plate was full. In the spring of 1976, the high school band was invited to march in the Disneyland parade. The kids all wanted to go really bad. Max and Rosanne were only two and three at that time. The older children gathered night-crawlers from the lawn and sold them to earn money, and soon we had enough money saved so that we could make the trip. Uncle Laddie and Aunt Shirley planned to go with us. They had a camper on the back of their truck, and we pulled mom and dad’s trailer. Grandpa Bartschi also went with us. We had a great time and loved Disneyland.
Lisa shared a few memories of her childhood: “I remember coming home with an honor roll report card and showing it to mother and she was so elated because the boys had never really applied themselves in school to make it to the honor roll. And I’m sure it wasn’t all academics, with my home economics, typing, short-hand and sewing, but I came home with such good grades that mother was so proud she took me out to celebrate and buy a new outfit. I also remember begging, pleading, and waiting an eternity to get my ears pierced because mother would not allow me to get them pierced before I turned twelve. Finally, on the day I turned twelve, we drove down to Idaho Falls to get my ears pierced and Daddy was not really thrilled about it. But mother took me in and got them pierced, and when we came back to the car Daddy was still being grumpy about it, so mother turned to him and said, “Arlin, this is a special day for her, and she’s been waiting a long time for this. Now try to make it a good day for her.” So I was proud of momma for standing up for me that day.”
Cheree also shared a few of her childhood memories: “When we were younger Lisa was a little more cautious and shy than I was, and I would beg her to come out and play in the yard with me, but if she happened to see a stray dog or cat she would run back inside. So she would make me go out and shake all the bushes and make sure no neighborhood cats were around before she would come outside to play. And it was super frustrating to me because I always wanted to be outside, but mom and dad wouldn’t let me unless Lisa came with me. So I started getting upset whenever I’d see a cat come into the yard (and this is really mean) but I would grab those stray cats by the tail and swing them around my head like a lasso and huck them out of the yard as far as I could just so I could stay outside with Lisa and play. So Lisa was shy and I guess you could say I was probably too outgoing. Lisa got mostly new outfits and I always got Lisa’s hand-me-downs whenever she outgrew them. I rarely had anything that was just mine, except for the clothing Aunt Shirley made me. But the year I turned twelve Dad made my cedar chest before he made Lisa’s, and I was sure it was a mistake as I sat there staring wide eyed and confused. But Dad said specifically, “I just thought maybe you needed something that was just for you.” And it was beautiful. I loved that it had cedar on the exterior and on the interior, I loved the pattern, I loved the color, and it was just the right size for me. Lisa wasn’t too happy that I got mine first, but when she did finally get hers, Dad made it so big she could have been buried in it. But it was just right for her because she was a “Suzy home maker” and had a lot more crocheted items to put in it. Mom taught me to crochet, but I didn’t embrace it like Lisa did. I wanted to go out and do everything that was social, I didn’t care what it was. But I admired Lisa’s talent for crocheting and sewing, and one of my favorite outfits that Lisa made was a deep blue corduroy skirt and fitted jacket that she let me borrow to wear to the basketball games, and people would always ask where I got such a beautiful dress and I would say, “My sister made it.” There wasn’t a big variety for clothes shopping in town, so you’d always show up to school and someone would be wearing the same shirt or the same dress, but I knew that nobody had this dress because it was made by my sister Lisa.”
Arlin’s sister Shirley taught me more about sewing than anybody. She only had one daughter, Nancy, and loved to sew. Laddie was always working night shifts and graveyards, so he would sleep during the day and she would sew while he’d sleep. Whenever we’d go down to Utah, she’d always take me shopping and I’d buy all the material and the patterns for all the kids and she’d make all their clothes. So I never had to, until they got older and I’d make a few little things. Sewing wasn’t ever relaxing to me. It was stressful. I’d spend most of my time unpicking and trying to fix it and then it wouldn’t fit me right. Arlin would walk in the house and take one look at me and say, “You’ve been sewing today, haven’t you?” Because I never really enjoyed it. I would buy fabric for quilt tops that I could quilt, but other than that I never really enjoyed sewing. I just let Shirley do all the sewing for me.
