My tree hugging tendencies began when the Taos Plaza Movie Theater in New Mexico burned down in 1969. Learn what happened next.

This is Carolyn Murset's 2020 Armpit Year Story. Well she only tells the parts she chooses to make public. She had a bad case of COVID-19, but avoided hospitalization. What's your story?

Carolyn Murset's grandson's Eagle Scout Project is with your monetary donation, to provide 50 care and hygiene kits for homeless teens in southwestern Utah. He will donate them to Youth Futures, a local homeless shelter for teens. The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted local people's ability to donate items in person.

You know THAT song. Learn why we sing it.

Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories episode 19, Mary Lee Bland. I’m your host, Carolyn Murset.

 

Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers arrived into the Salt Lake Valley of the American West, on July 24, 1847, where the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois, and other locations in the eastern United States.

 

Before I continue with Mary Lee’s story, I will first explain: Following the Mexican War which ended in 1848, Utah became an official territory of the United States in 1850, and in 1896 became the 45th state to join the union.

 

Pioneer Day is an official holiday in Utah commemorating the arrival Brigham Young and that first group of Mormon Pioneers. Celebrations include parades, rodeos, fireworks, dressing in pioneer clothing, and re-enacting a trek.  If you’re a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and live outside of Utah, your local congregation probably observes the holiday, too.

 

My dad was raised in northern Utah, and his ancestors crossed the plains shortly after Brigham Young did with that first group of saints.

There is a monument at the mouth of Emigration Canyon named in honor of Brigham Young’s famous statement, “This is the Place”, honoring the Mormon Pioneers as well as the explorers and settlers of the American West. 

One of these explorers, Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco is my fifth great grandfather from my mom’s Hispanic family, and was the map maker for the Dominguez Escalante Expedition in 1776. This multi talented renaissance man drew the first map of Utah. My next podcast episode will be about him. 

Now, today you’ll learn about Mary Lee Bland my well loved Great, great, great grandma. She told her remarkable story  to an unnamed grand daughter who later transcribed and typed it, thus making it easier to read, copy and share. I first enjoyed reading it when I perused the stacks of family records and histories that I inherited a few decades ago. Listen to this story!

 

1817- I, Mary Lee Bland was born to Sarah Caldwell Lee and John Bland Jr.  in Kentucky

 Years after my 3rd great grandma Mary Lee told her story, a well written 40 page history was found which revealed many more details than what I have in my three page account. These are a few of the new details:

Mary Lee had blue eyes and blond hair. 

Mammy Chloe was wet nurse for Mary Lee at the same time as her own son, Sammy. 

William Fletcher Ewell practiced medicine among those who had no money. 

Mary’s life sized portrait was in a gold frame and was saved from destruction by her brother; Zachary. 

 

Have you started writing details about your life? Are you making progress. What questions do you wish you’d asked a family member or friend before they passed on.

Family historians have encountered road blocks in verifying Mary Lee’s famous relative claims. It’s no doubt she was patriotic, though. How do you show others your patriotism.

 

Come back next time and I’ll tell you about a family member from my Hispanic mom’s family who ventured across the American Southwest from Santa Fe and back in 1776, while the 13 original colonies on our eastern coast were declaring their independence from Britain. 

 

Until then subscribe to this podcast on your smartphone podcast app; or at iTunes or google play. Please Leave a five star review and a comment. Here at my website; mycarolynmurset.com have a look at my events page and my digital store. Thanks for listening. Thanks for writing. (The writing prompts are in bold lettering.)

 

Hello, and welcome! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories, episode 18, Silver Curls. I’m your host, Carolyn Murset.

Every night for years, Tom, my father in law sat at the head of the dinner table. And every night after eating the last bite, he scraped the plate with a fork. And scraped. And scraped, until his wife Mary, who wore the pants in the family exclaimed, “Thomas! That’s enough!”

Even though one doctor had told him he was diabetic, he managed to eat a quart of vanilla ice cream every night at bedtime. He scraped and scraped that bowl clean, too. It was one of the few little things he did to..  delight her.

We often wondered how this diabetic could eat all of that without affecting his blood sugar. It never occurred to me that he never checked his blood sugar like my diabetic mom had to a couple of times a day. When I’d visit her, she’d insist on checking mine, too, just for fun. But was it fun, for me? No. I digress.

Then one day, his doctor retired or died, and Tom went to another physician, who after examining him declared, “You don’t have diabetes!” Miracles happen. And so does malpractice? And Tom continued with his nightly quart of vanilla. He needed those extra calories because he worked so hard during the day maintaining his Sherman Oaks, California apartment complexes on Woodman and  Moorpark.

He had a tan on his face and his arms and if you didn’t know that his parents were Swiss and Irish, you’d think he was from somewhere more mysterious and exotic, like the middle east.

His wavy hair was completely silver by the time he was twenty six. My husband inherited the waves and the gray tresses and started graying the day after we got married. He was twenty two. Hmmm.

At the beach at Santa Monica, or boating with the old Glaspar at the lake near our house, Tom wore a buttoned white terry cloth short jacket over his full set of clothing. Bath towels are made of terry cloth. He didn’t mind the heat.

In the late 1990’s his brain function began to decline. The Alzheimer’s disease frustrated him when the mental clarity came through on occasion. He’d often say, “I just don’t know what to do! I don’t know!”

Mary did all she could to take care of him herself. In 2002, she was determined to get away to Denver for five days to attend her granddaughter’s wedding, so my husband went to California and took care of his dad.

Mary was already so run down from the 24 hour a day caretaking, that while in Denver, she came down with pneumonia and was in the hospital in very serious condition for three weeks. She missed the wedding, but the granddaughter, Dana and her new husband, Ryan came to the hospital afterwards in their wedding gown and tuxedo so that Mary wouldn’t miss out on everything.

Once Rich and I saw that his mom wasn’t going to be coming home soon, he brought his dad home to live with us in southern Utah until he died nine months later.

It took all five of us who were at home to watch Tom 24 hours a day. I don’t know how Mary did it on her own and can easily see how she ended up so close to dying for so long.

After three months of being in our home, Tom’s insurance transferred and we took him to daycare at the rest home a few blocks away from us.  He’d eat a couple of meals there, make friends with the residents and staff and then we’d come and bring him home for the night.

Our youngest child, Megan was eight years old, and  very bashful. She’d memorized the entire musical soundtrack of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and entertained her grandpa by singing it and acting it out for him.

We were so happy to watch her make her grandpa happy that we encouraged her by buying  an Egyptian Pharaoh hat, a Carmen Miranda fruit hat and a camel mask.

 

Memorial Day Chrysanthemums are  now on sale at my local grocery store. It seems like the day after Mother’s Day, retailers stock their shelves with potted plants or, silk and plastic flowers and wreaths suitable for placing on the graves of loved ones. But the original meaning of the holiday, to honor those American men and women who died during combat.has become somewhat lost over the years.

The holiday, was established in 1866 following the Civil War, when General John A. Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic,  called for a holiday commemorating fallen soldiers to be observed every May 30. It was first known as Decoration Day and was set aside to remember both Union and Confederate soldiers alike. Soldiers would decorate the graves of their fallen comrades with flowers, flags and wreaths. Memorial Day became the official title in the 1880’s, but didn’t legally become Memorial Day until 1967, when Lyndon B. Johnson was President of the United States.

 

In 1971,  Memorial Day was moved to the last Monday of May, so that we could have a long weekend. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act since then has also applied to our national observances of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, President’s Day, Labor Day and Columbus Day, but not Veteran’s Day, which will always be observed on November 11th. As a side note, it was originally called Armistice Day and honored the official end of World War 1 in 1918.

 

After World War I, Memorial Day commemorations honored not just the Civil War dead but soldiers who had died in all American conflicts.

At the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, Virginia, the President or Vice President of the United States gives a speech honoring the contributions of the dead and lay a wreath.

Each year the 3rd U.S. Infantry places a small American flag before the gravestones and niches of service members buried at Arlington National Cemetary (and the U.S. Soldier’s and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery) just before Memorial Day weekend.

The soldiers put flags in front of more than 260,000 gravestones and about 7,300 niches at Arlington. (Another 13,500 flags are placed at the Soldier’s and Airmen’s Cemetery.) It takes them about three hours to place them all, and then they stay at Arlington during the Memorial Day weekend to make sure the flags remain at each gravestone. I admire this  respectful and honorable practice.

When I was a kid growing up in the northern New Mexico community of Taos, I attended Taos Elementary School. Physical Education, PE  Day came once a week, and since the school didn’t have it’s own gymnasium, my class would walk to the Bataan National Guard Armory and use the gym there. The enormous olive green army vehicles parked in the connecting garage  fascinated me.

It would be several decades later while interviewing my mom  about her childhood and extended family that I learned about our two cousins who died while serving during World War 2. She mentioned that  cousin Moises Miera died as a prisoner during the Bataan Death march, and that another cousin, Manuel Jaime Garcia had died a few weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and was listed as missing in action. My interview with her was more than 20 years ago.

It took me a few more years to make the connection that the National Guard Armory, which later was sold to the town of Taos and made into a convention center, was named after the soldiers of the 200th Coast Artillery Battery H of the New Mexico National Guard who were deployed to the Phillipines in 1941 a few months before the Japanese bombs flew into the Pearl Harbor naval base on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. They were among the first Americans to engage in combat with the Japanese armed forces.

I hadn’t studied the inscriptions below the memorial cross that had st...

The Village Shop in Taos, New Mexico closes after 50 years. Homebody Carolyn Murset tells about shopping in Taos and how she came to be an online shopper.

Carolyn Murset introduces and features fellow singer/ songwriter, Lauretta Swansborough.

Do you have fond memories as a school child bringing a shoe box to school in mid February, covering it in red or pink paper, then gluing  on heart shaped paper doilies, or cut out paper hearts, then having your teacher or parents cutting a rectangular slit on top of the box for your school mates to insert their mini Valentine envelope treasures? I do.

 

And, if I was lucky, a conversation candy heart would be tucked inside, saying, “Be mine”, or “You’re far out.” Is it obvious I grew up during the 1960’s and 70's?

 

That was a few decades ago. My own kids did the same thing in the 1980’s, 90’s and on, and their kids probably ask their parents for an empty shoe box to take to school at the beginning of February.

 

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Valentine’s Day, February 14th, when lovers show their affection with greeting cards and gifts  is very popular in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and in many other countries where English is not the official language.

Speaking of chocolate candy, listen to this story of my husband’s parents,

Tom and Mary met the first day they attended Los Angeles City College. They sat next to each other in their English class where they were filling out papers.

Mary glanced over to see what the name of this good-looking, dark-haired man was . . . and saw it was Irwin Thomas Murset. She said to him, “What name do you go by?” He said, “Irwin.” Mary answered, “I will call you Tom!” He said that he never did like the name Irwin, but he never thought of changing it. After that, everyone called him Tom.

After seven years of courting, they were at a family gathering at Mary’s parent’s home on Valentine’s Day. Tom, after having informed everyone but Mary of his intentions, placed an engagement ring inside a box of chocolate candy and passed it around the room. She was the last person in the circle to choose her chocolate, but…. chose the diamond ring instead.  They married August 22nd 1942 in her parent’s home in North Hollywood, California.

Tom was a soft spoken, quiet man, which could explain why he courted Mary for seven years before popping the question. (Tongue Tied)

This next Valentine's Day story is from my side of the family: Ida Dayton and Sylvan Chatwin, my paternal grandparents, were born in Utah, United States, in 1905.

Sylvan was born in the town of Santaquin, where his Mormon Pioneer grandfather William Chatwin had settled in 1875 and had become a school teacher. In 1851 he’d  emigrated from Lancashire, England to the United States and crossed the plains with other pioneer companies.

By 1920, Sylvan was 14 years old and living with his parents and brothers and sister in Provo, Utah. He was the youngest of five children, four who lived to adulthood. His brother, Wallace Wayne lived to the age of 17 and died in November of 1918, during the height of the Spanish Flu epidemic, and as World War 1 was ending.

Sylvan was attending Provo High School, during the early 1920’s when lovely young Ida Dayton convinced her parents to allow her to leave their home in Vernal, Utah to go and live in Provo with her Aunt Kate, her mother’s sister. I imagine Ida was a great help to her Aunt who lost one child at birth in 1923, and another in 1924.

Ida was the sixth of eleven children. Only five of them lived beyond the age of three!

It was at high school where Sylvan and Ida met and fell in love, courted a few years, and a couple of years after graduation married on Valentine’s Day.

This choice of a wedding date doesn’t surprise me. Grandma was a romantic.  Most of the inside of her home was painted her favorite color, a bright pink. All of the sheet music tucked inside her piano bench was romantic music of the 1930’...

Singer songwriter, Carolyn Murset, tells and sings stories about her first two acoustic guitars, as a teen and a young mother, in New Mexico and in Utah.

  Hello and welcome!! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast episode 12, My Trujillo, the third bonus episode of my one-woman original musical play, Tales of Tila, which premiered at the Electric Theater, St. George, Utah in October, 2018. I am your host, Carolyn Murset.      

Grandma Tila is sitting right next to me. I invited her to visit us one more time. If you’ll remember, she wasn’t here for the last episode when, I told you some of my own Christmas stories, including a couple with my other Grandma, and let you listen to some of my songs and arrangements. I asked Grandma Tila to think of some nice things to say about my Grandpa Trujillo, because his birthday is very soon, on the first day of the year. Grandma, tell them what you’ve told me. 

Hello! This is Tila Miera Trujillo. You may not have expected to hear from me again. I didn’t know if I’d return with more stories after I last talked to you. Well, here I am, back for a little while. First of all, let me tell you a little more about the man I married many, many years ago: as people say, it seems like it was only yesterday.

    For a Trujillo, his hair was much lighter than you’d expect. He had a lot more of it in his early years,  than he does now, so he covers his baldness with the Stetson, and tells people he wears it so he won’t get sunburned. Whether that’s true or not, it’s a good excuse.

It was nice to visit with you once again. If la Carolina doesn’t beat the bushes and get on the phone, to get some more stories out of you family members, she’s going to start making up things about all of us. Are you curious to hear what she’d say about you?

Here now are some things for you to write about….Have you ever saved a life? Were you as frightened as I was?

Are you a noisy eater? Be honest, now. Do you eat more candy and sweets than you should? Why? I knew it.   

I have no idea what la Carolina is going to talk about next time. Come back anyway and listen and be surprised.

I have to go now and bake a birthday cake for my viejo. A big enough one to hold 126 candles. Hasta Luego. Happy New Year!

You’ve just listened to Song Stories, Quiet Stories, Episode 12- My Trujillo. Subscribe now at iTunes or Google Play, or at mycarolynmurset.com, where you can also find the writing prompts for this episode and the others. Check out my store, and see if I

Hello and welcome!! You’re listening to Song Stories, Quiet Stories. This is podcast episode 11, Winter Brown Noel.  I am your host, Carolyn Murset.     

In  previous episodes, I’ve always had, or pretended to have a special guest with me. That isn’t the case today. The Christmas stories and the songs you’ll hear will be my own.

As I write this, the month of December is half over. Thanksgiving came earlier this year, and many folks put their Christmas decorations up the day after that, or even a few days before then.

My husband and I have been married quite a while now, and through the years have accumulated several containers full of strings of lights, garlands, and ornaments, some of which the kids and I made when they were younger.

Our nest is empty now. Our three daughters who decorated the house very joyfully and festively when they lived at home have  married and moved away now. My husband and I just recently took the bins and boxes down from the shelves in the garage, where they then sat in the dining room for a few days while I summoned up the courage to open them.

May the remarkable gift of the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ and the wondrous gift of His atonement three decades later, shine on your everything and make you feel alright.

You’ve just listened to Song Stories, Quiet Stories episode 11, Winter Brown Noel.

Grandma Tila will be here next time with more stories. Stories about Grandpa Trujillo. Stories about saving lives.

Please make the time to write about your holiday traditions, for whichever ones you may observe, and find new ways to CELEBRATE them.  You won’t always be in this current stage of your life. Please subscribe now at mycarolynmurset.com or at iTunes or Google Play. I am your host Carolyn Murset.

My father's parents, Sylvan and Ida Chatwin.

Our family in Taos, New Mexico 1967. I'm wearing the white blouse. Today, I wear my hair the same style, if you'd call that a hairstyle.

Tila Miera Trujillo tells of family, church and community traditions at Christmastime in Taos and Los Alamos, New Mexico, during the mid 20th century.

Grandma Tila Miera Trujillo's niece, Simonita Miera, marries Tila's brother's wife's brother, Fred Trujillo in Taos, New Mexico, 1929. You may have to draw a diagram to understand this relationship!

Listen to two Ghost Stories, The Apple Tree Fairy, and the Golden Shovel, written by southern Utah's un-sung volunteer hero, Gary Payne. Carolyn Murset hosts.

Tila and husband write messages to each other in a ledger. After 30 years of marriage they attend the LDS Temple in Mesa, AZ. She urges others to write about their interesting lives.

Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, December 1941. The USA enters World War 2. Tila Trujillo's two sons enlist. Her husband builds government laboratories and apartment housing for Manhattan Project in the Secret City of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Tila Trujillo's life in Taos, New Mexico as a mother of ten children and wife of a shepherd during the Great Depression, 1930's.

Tila Miera Trujillo's family join the LDS Church, while her shepherd husband, Juan Manuel drags his feet. Her family donate property to the Mormon Church and an adobe chapel is built next to their home. Juan Manuel becomes the leader of the congregation and serves 17 years in that capacity.