Get to know Grandma Carrie Lorraine

Carrie Lorraine Peterson Bolander

I was born 26 November 1927 at Presto, Idaho, a small farming community 2 2 miles southeast of Firth. I was the 8^th child of a family of 8 children; 5 boys and 3 girls. My oldest sister, and oldest in the family, died when she was only seven months old. My oldest brother was 18 years older than I was and my youngest brother 7 years older, so part of my brothers had grown up and left home by the time I was old enough to remember very much. I remember my sister Geneva the most, as she was only 3 2 years older than I was. My father was Niels Christian Joseph Peterson, known by everyone as Chris Peterson. My mother was Hulda Jane Teeples. I was raised on the same farm that I was born on until I was married. My parents worked very hard for a living. My father was always generous with what he had. He often helped a total stranger. Although my father farmed he specialized in beef cattle. Some winters he would feed as many as 800 or 900 head of cattle. My father always had at least 1 hired man and most of the time 2 and at harvest time there would be as many as 15 hired help. With older brothers and so much hired help it was my job to help in the house, because all the hired help had to be fed. Some of the men we fed breakfast and the evening meal to besides the noon meal. I remember sometimes my mother would mix bread in the morning and then bake that in the afternoon and then the same day mix bread in the evening and bake that the next morning. She was an expert bread maker, and you can see why. I did pick lots of potatoes in the fall (in potato baskets) and I hoed and topped quite a few beets. It was also mine and Geneva's job in the summer time to sometimes herd the cows. We had to keep them along the ditch banks or pasture so they wouldn't get in the crops.

I went all eight grades at the Firth grade school. The school consisted of 4 rooms; two grades to a room, and we even had a path to go to the out house. Before I finished grade school they did put in rest rooms and they fixed up the basement of the school so we had a lunch room. At first different parents would take turns and bring a hot dish to school for everyone, then they finally hired someone to fix the hot lunches. There were probably between 60 or 70 kids in the whole eight grades. We lived a little over 2 miles from school and all through grade school we had to walk to and from school. I remember how good it seemed when my father or maybe a neighbor happened to be going by the school at school time and we got a ride. We later got bikes that we rode to school. I remember my first bike, it was very small. I did ride it to school some, but it was more work to ride it than to walk. I remember falling while riding my bike at school. I cut my knee real bad and I still have the scare. In the winter the school district did supply a small bus for us to ride on that we called The Orange Crate. It was a truck with a cover built on the back and seats made in it, and it was painted orange. Sometimes the roads would get drifted with snow in the winter and we rode to school on a covered sleigh. We did have a school bus to ride on when I went to high school. The only disadvantage was that we were always the first on and the last ones to get off. There was a total of 14 who graduated from the eighth grade when I did. I went all 4 years of high school at the Firth High School. It to was a small school. There were only 31 who graduated the year I did.

I remember as a child, when our home caught on fire. It was early one summer morning. Because we had so many flies, my mother would fix a torch by wrapping rags on the end of a stick and then setting it on fire and then she would go along the eves of the house and burn the flies. This particular morning she caught the dirty cloths bag, that was hanging on the side of the house, on fire. This caught the house on fire. We didn't have a well on our place, but the kitchen coal stove had a reservoir on it and it happened to be full of water. This water was thrown on the fire until water could be packed with buckets from the ditch to finish putting the fire out. It was the reservoir of water attached to the coal stove, that saved our home.

Our home was very, very modest. The only house I knwe was a 3 room house. A front room, one bed room and a small lean to kitchen that leaked when it rained. The front room and bedroom was divided by just a dark green curtain about 4 or 5 feet wide. We didn't have a well on the place, thus no water in the house and no bathroom. Probably around 1938 or 1940 my dad did tare off the lean too kitchen and build a bigger one, with a eating area in it and a small entry way. A well was dug and water put in the house. I don't know the exact years. After Woodrow got home from his mission, about 1940, he did a little more remodeling and made a permanent wall between the front room and bedroom and we got to get rid of the ugly green curtains. He also put in a bathroom. I never did have a bedroom of my own, not even one to share. I'm not sure just where we did all sleep. I remember a roll away bed in the front room and there was two double beds in the one bedroom. I never remember paint on our home when I was growing up. When I was a teenager I got my dad to buy some paint and I painted the house by myself. I don=t remember much grass around our house either. I tried to dig up some of the yard with a shovel and I planted what grass I could. I also planted a flower garden, which the sheep got into.

About this same time we got electricity put in the house and our first radio. My mother got her first electric stove around this time. I remember we turned on one of the burners and then turned it off, but before it was cool my sister Geneva put her hand on the burner and burnt her hand quite bad.

My mother washed for years on the wash board. I can still see her. She would heat the water on the coal stove and wash in the middle of the kitchen. She did finally get a wringer washing machine. We used to put milk, butter and etc. in the cellar to try and keep it a little cool in the summer time, because we did not have a refrigerator.

My father had a few milk cows, which they milked by hand. The milk was run through a cream separator to get the cream, and then the cream was taken to town (I remember Blackfoot) and sold. I remember once we were going to town to sell the cream in my dad's Model T Ford, and we ran into a ditch and spilled the cream all over the car. What a mess.

When I was very young, I always had a desire to play the piano. My parents didn't have a piano, so whenever I was where there was a piano, and the people who owned it would let me, I'd mess around with it. I especially remember my Uncle Ed and Aunt Betsy letting me play their piano. When I was 8 or 9 years old, a music teacher at school helped me a little on the piano. I'd stay in at recess or noon hour to practice on the school piano. In the summer time I took lessons from a Florence Hanney, who lived about 2 miles from my parents home. I'd ride my bike on dirt roads, to her place, for a lesson one day, and the other days of the week I would ride my bike to her place to practice. My father finally bought a piano when I was about 10 or 11 years old. I never had a lot of lessons, but I always enjoyed trying to play. When I got married my parents gave me the piano, as I was the only one who had an interest in the piano. I never became a great piano player, but I did teach beginning students after I was married while Von was going to school in Logan, to help us through college. The last year Von was in college I had about 40 students. This took every night after school and part of Saturday. I hired a baby sitter while I taught lessons, because we had Marlene, Jerry, Thane, douglas and Cheryl then. The sitter took most of her pay in piano lessons.

When I was 8 or 9 I started taking sewing in 4H Club. I took sewing there for 6 or 7 years. This is where I learned the basics of sewing. A Mrs. Ed Blair, who lived in Firth, was the teacher I remember most. She taught for years. I also took Home Economics in high school, where I also took sewing.

My parents farm was about 2 2 miles from Firth and there weren=t to many farms around. I being the youngest in the family, grew up without too many playmates. I remember playing house and making mud pies by myself. Our swimming pool was the irrigation ditch, thus I never learned how to swim. I remember going swimming with Geneva and Gilberta and the McKelly kids.

In the summer time I used to like to go and walk down the banks of Sand Creek that was just a little ways from my parents home. It was calm and peaceful in the summer time, but in the spring of the year it could be very treacherous. In the winter time Sand Creek would freeze over with ice and many many springs, because of ice jams, it would flood over and flood part of my parents farm. I remember one spring they were trying to build up the banks to keep it from flooding, but they couldn't hole it, and the banks broke and within a very few minutes it flooded our house and hit the west end of the basement and knocked the whole end of the basement out. The basement was full of water in just a matter of minutes. I had just gotten over the chicken pox, and because we were working in the wet and cold to get what we could out of the basement, before the water came, I got a big abscess under my arm, that had to be lanced by a Doctor later.

I don=t remember to many outings or picnics we went on as a family. I do remember going to Basalt different years for the 4^th of July celebration. One 4^th of July, when I was about 5 or 6 we were there and I remember going to the out house and I locked the door from the inside and then couldn't get it opened. I thought for sure I would have to stay in there forever and I guess I made quite a fuss.

My brothers, being older than me liked to tease, especially Elwin. We had a lot of big poplar trees in our yard, and one summer day he sat me up on a branch of the tree and then went off laughing. I don't remember how I got down. He probably came back a little later and took me down.

Von moved to Firth when he was in the fifth grade and we went the rest of the way through grade school and high school together. Although we didn=t date to often we dated all through high school. I remember one of the big dances at school, I so wanted to go, and figured Von would ask me, but he waited until about the day before, or the day of the dance to ask me, (he was always bashful) and I was angry that he hadn't asked me sooner, so I wouldn't go. I guess he went anyway.

Being raised in a small farming area and attending small schools and a small ward the kids all knew one another. As teenagers we had lots of home parties at different kids homes; went roller skating at Blackfoot, (often on the back of Chapmans truck), swimming, picnics, dancing in MIA; all done as a group with very little dating until we were in our late teens. When I was a Gleaner, the M Men and Gleaners went as a group to Yellowstone Park on the back of trucks. I'm sure we'll all remember that experience.

My mother was active in the church, or as active as she could be. She always loved the church but my father was bitter towards the church and didn't like my mother to go to church any more than he could help. I attended church as much as I could and have always loved the church. I did graduate from Primary and attended Mutual most of the time. My sister Geneva and I walked to and from Mutual quite a few times, which was over 2 miles both ways. I remember a Frank Hanney who took us home a lot of times. We appreciated this, especially when it was dark. My father was always good to let us take the car after we got old enough to drive, but he wasn't to good at keeping his cars up, so they weren't too reliable. I remember one time I was driving the car at night and coming home it stopped on sand creek bridge. I had to leave it there and go get help to push it off. When I was in grade school, if my dad went by in his Model T Ford, I could always tell it was him by the rattles from the car.

I married Von Weston Bolander on the 17^th of September 1947 in the Idaho Falls Temple. We began our married life on a farm just 2 mile from where I was born and raised. We raised potatoes, grain, hay, clover seed and we had a few cows, chickens and pigs. Our first home wasn't finished when we moved in it. Von built a basement and we had the house moved onto the basement. We later fixed the walls, put water in the house, a bathroom and built cupboards in the kitchen. We planted grass, trees, including a fruit orchard and lots of flowers. We have always tried to take pride in our home and enjoyed working in our yard. Marlene, Jerry, Thane and Douglas were all born while we lived on the farm.

Marlene was born in the Idaho Falls hospital and Jerry, Thane and Douglas were born at the Eaton Maternity Home in Shelley. Both Thane and Douglas were early babies. Thane got along alright but when Douglas was born he got Strep Throat from the Maternity Home. When we brought him home he seemed OK, but when I took him to the Doctor at Shelley, a few days later, the doctor said he had a bad sore throat. He gave him a shot of Penicillin and for some reason this made him go into a circulatory collapse. His heart and lungs quit. The only way the doctor could keep him alive was to push on his chest with his fist. The doctor and nurse rushed him to the Idaho Falls hospital, where they gave him a blood transfusion. It was nip and tuck for a few hours, but he made it. Von had happened to go fishing that morning (which he rarely ever did) and when he got home that evening he found a sick little boy.

Von got itchy feet and in the fall of 1956 we left the farm and moved to Logan, Utah where Von attended Utah State University. It was a struggle getting through school. I baby sat for my nieces little girl for two years. I also took in some ironing until I got a class of piano students built up. I got started teaching piano lessons with a Mrs. Hansen from Smithfield. I went with her to Brigham City and Ogden, on different days, and taught students that whe had sold pianos too. After a couple of years of doing this I had enough students of my own in Logan, and I didn't go with her anymore. I had about 40 students when Von graduated from school.

On August 4, 1958 our fifth child Cheryl was born while we were still living in Logan and still going to school. On June 10^th 1961, which was Marlene's 12^th birthday, Von finally got his B.S. degree in Industrial Management. That was a great day because it had been a struggle getting through school.

After graduation we moved to Kent, Washington, where Von worked for the Boeing Company. The Kent Ward was quite small when we first moved there. They were meeting in an American Legion Hall, and were working hard to raise enough money to build a chapel. Finally enough money was raised and we helped, in a small way, to help build a small chapel overlooking the valley. Soon after the chapel was finished Von was put in as 1^st Counselor in the Bishopric. It was while we lived in Kent that our little red headed Vicky was born and 3 2 years later Denice was born. Denice was just 8 months old when we left Kent. In December of 1965 we moved to Kennewick, Washington where Von worked for the Computer Sciences Corporation. We only lived in Kennewick for 1 2 years. Our 8^th child, chubby little Kevin Lynn was born while we lived there.

It was while we lived in Kennewick that both Thane and Cheryl broke their arms. I don't know which happened first, but before we got the cast off from one of them the other had broken their arm. Thane was at Farragut, Idaho, on a National Scout Jamboree, and didn't make it over the high obstacle course, and fell and broke his arm. When he got home the scouts from the ward were going on a 50 mile hike, and Thane went along with Jerry while his arm was still in the cast. While the Doctor was sawing the cast off from Thane's arm he fainted. Cheryl broke her arm one evening while he and Douglas were playing on the bars at school, and she fell and broke her arm in two places. It was also while we lived in Kennewick that Jerry was playing catch and broke one of his fingers. I guess it's a good thing we only lived there 2 years, for that was all the broken bones, except Kevin broke his collar bone, while skiing, when he was a senior in High School.

In August of 1967 we again moved. This time to Boise, Idaho, where Von has worked for the State, the county and for Ore Idaho Foods. We have lived in Boise longer than anywhere else, and our family feels like Boise is our home. Most of our family have found their companions in Boise.

Von retired from Ore-Ida Foods, January 1, 1993. In December 1993 we went on a full time mission to Lagos, Nigeria. This was a great experience that we shall never forget, or will we forget the great people we met there, and the many struggles they have. We also learned to love this great land of America, and the many blessing we enjoy here.

During my life time I have worked in about all the organizations of the church; Primary, Relief Society, Sunday School and Mutual; usually in music. I have loved working in the different organizations, but the calling I probably enjoyed the most was Primary Chorister in Kent and Kennewick wards. I have also enjoyed being ward organist and Relief Society organist at different times, and I especially enjoy playing the organ at the Temple for prayer meeting before we go on our shift at the Temple. After we came home from our mission we were called as workers in the Boise Temple. We have worked there for over 5 years and hope to be able to work there more.

On June 22, 2001 Von had a 9 bypass heart operation. This was a very hard operation, and he was a pretty sick guy. After the operation the Doctor who performed the operation said, we have been blessed today. Our family was so supportive at this time, and for weeks after. As of August 7, he's still recuperating. We're just glad to have him still around, and love him.

We have tried to make the church a big part of our lives. I have a strong testimony of the Gospel, and I know that it is true, and I know that the only way to find true happiness in this life, and the life to come, is by keeping the commandments of our Heavenly Father. It is my greatest desire that all my family may gain this testimony and that we may all be together for eternity.