Camping at Big Springs

One time the Perkins family rented a cabin at Big Springs.  The cabin had a screened in porch where Evelyn and one of her friends slept.  Lamar had hung up his fishing gear in the rafters.  The girls woke up and though that there was a man in the rafters.  You can imagine the fuss they made until Lamar came out and turned on the lights.

One morning while they were there, Edwin had slept in and the men went fishing without him.  He went out and found some wild strawberries instead.  He must have picked a gallon of them.  Louise talked to the woman who ran the nearby store and was able to talk her out of five pounds of sugar.  Louise didn’t have any ration stamps for sugar so she may have traded her some Avon products to get the sugar.  She always had her Avon bag with her.

(1946 Evelyn, Lamar, and Louise Perkins)

 

Chicken Eggs

Rachelle Forschler Mendoza remembers visiting her Great Grandpa Lamar Perkins.  He raised chickens when he was living with Evelyn and Jim in Tyee, Idaho.  They were amazed when they would gather eggs and Aunt Evelyn cracked open one and it had an eyeball in it.  She cooked it anyways and Grandpa ate it with ketchup.  They thought it might have been the embryo beginning to form. Yuck!

(1995 Lamar Perkins)

 

(1995 The Forschler Family)

Petrified Watermelons

Edwin remembers driving through Glenns Ferry on a family trip and seeing a roadside sign pointing out large rocks that were petrified watermelons.  His son Bill told him the rocks were left behind by the glaciers.

(1937 Edwin, Evelyn, Elaine, and William Keith Perkins)

 

From www.hugefloods.com

Melon Gravels.....As the water ripped through narrow reaches of the Snake's (River) canyon, it dislodged large basalt boulders and tumbled them downstream. Within a few miles these boulders had been rounded with diameters ranging from three feet to ten feet. These remnants were given the name melon gravels after geologists observed a billboard that advertised one patch of boulders as "petrified watermelons."

 

 

 

 

Selective Memory

Lamar used to tell Evelyn that she had selective memory.  He would ask her about this or that, and she would say “I don’t know.”

 

(1947 Lamar and Evelyn Perkins)

Childhood Chores

Evelyn and Edwin would use the push mowers to mow the lawn.  It was a chore for the kids and there was a lot of it to do.

 

(1937 Edwin, Evelyn, Elaine, and William Keith Perkins)

Green, Green, Green

Evelyn remembers visiting Edwin and Denece in Denver after Edwinna was born.  “Everything was green, the sheets, towels, dish towels, everything.” Edwin had done the laundry and had washed Denece’s green blouse and dyed all the laundry green.

 

 

(1953 Edwinna and Edwin Perkins)

 

 

(1953 Edwinna Perkins)

 

Lamar Perkins Move to Neola

 Lamar moved with his family to Neola, Utah when he was a teenager.  While living there he and his brothers  were driving a wagon and they stopped and picked up some Indians who were tired of walking.  Lamar had learned how to speak their native tongue and when he heard them plotting to kill them so they could steal the wagon and horses Lamar invited them to get off. The family did not stay in Neola because the ground was alkaline and when they put water on the crops the gravel would rise up.  Lamar took Edwin and Evelyn to Neola one time.  He showed them the house and said the only thing that had changed was someone had painted the front door green.

 

(abt. 1926 Lamar Perkins)

Driving Around

In about 1938 when Edwin was 8 or 9 he was going to Montpelier, Idaho with his parents, Lamar Perkins and Louise Banks, his sister Evelyn, his Aunt Ethel, and his grandma Banks (Eliza Ann Tubbs).  They were driving through Georgetown when they came around a corner a horse drawn wagon was blocking the road.  Lamar drove through the wide irrigation ditch.  When the car came up out of the ditch the dust flew.  He remembers shouting "Good Lord, Aunt Ethel get off of me!" because in all the bouncing, she had landed on top of him.

 

(1937 Edwin, Evelyn, Elaine, and William Keith Perkins)

 

    (1938 William Edwin Banks, Eliza Tubbs Banks, and Vern Banks)