[most text in this document is duplicate from previous transcription; page 3 contains new text not in previous transcription]
3 C
Excerpts from Life of Dorothy Smith Clark
Growing up with three brothers closest in age was never a bore. I welcomed the chance to play pirates, climb trees, fly kites, and roots, go on hikes to the coulee (river bottom).
Later was skating, swimming, tennis, field sports, baseball, dolls paperdolls, scouting skills we later had […] playing mumbly peg with pocket knife on lawn jump from rafters in the granary & art hobbies.
and my time was well-filled with child-care. Mother's professional skills as a seamstress and milliner kept the girls in the family well-dressed and there was help with meals from out-of-town girls who boarded with us.
In my home-town of Lethbridge many religious denominations flourished but members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were in a minority. In this busy […] most neighbors were non LDS. We had many fine school mates among the Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Jewish, Greek Catholic and other beliefs. Most importantly, our main activities were centered our thriving ward of some 500 members. There was expert leadership and an opportunity to serve and develop talents. As teenagers we had the best of companions and LDS youth were prominent in all fields of achievement in the community. SS & MIA activities […] skating & sleighing & dancing, parties, candy pulls, caroling, house parties, picnics
Hobbies & Occupations (Art)
Having shown an interest in drawing in the 5th grade and starting to win "Fair" prizes in the 6th, I was given a chance for further study in the classes of Miss E.F. Kirk, an outstanding water colorist in the Dominion. These were followed by a correspondence course from Washington D.C. School of Art at age 16, which broadened my knowledge of various art mediums. No art instruction was offered past the ninth grade in our high school.
Original Christmas cards became an earning hobby at 17 with in collaboration with a new friend and ward member, Bill Russell, who excelled in lettering & pen techniques. (Our mutual interest as art students of different correspondence schools afforded us many pleasant evenings with our sketchboards and later also with our musical hobbies. We seemed to have little competition in town and we both helped with high school yearbook illustration.
Music
Music was a close runner-up for leisure time indulgence or probably the leader a favorite at first. Piano studies with Viva Elton and then Leo M. Coombs from about my tenth year led to playing for Primary dances, and later delightful jam sessions of popular music with y brothers Marvin & our friends. His bajo and ukulele skills increased (self-taught) after after we acquired a phonograph and some jazz records. He could also play piano and had had training in violin. The Russell brothers, Warren, Austin, and Bill joined us with guitars and ukuleles to 'raise the roof' on long winter evenings. Bill loaned me his guitar and taught me 2 Spanish songs.
Our small Atwater Kent ear-phone radio brought much excitement too in our late teen years.
Public Performances
When Marvin and I were about 13 and 11 we travelled with a group from the Alberta Conservatory of Music under Leo M. Coombs to several surrounding communities. Billed as the "Lethbridge Kiddies" in Easter in Fairyland our offering included piano with narrative, violin arrangements, dances & humorous readings from students dressed as Rain, Snow, Clouds, Flower Queen, and various garden flowers. My role as a pink hyacinth included a short piano number after which, in a later scene, I joined in a dancing group of four in a blue ruffled costume. Despite the novelty and excitement of being 'on the road,' the state never held any real attraction for me, even after some pleasant times in dancing choruses (Lethbridge and SLC) thru the years of M.I.A. road shows.
Mother's gift talents for costume-making won for me more than one prize. First as a gold-dust twin (black girls on a cleanser label) with Zola Brown at a Primary dance & later as a Spanish dancer at 17 with Orisa Green dressed as my male partner as well as […] for Dad & herself at ward costume parties.
Employment
I was 18 and hadn't yet anticipated finding work in the market-place. But now there was a fam. missionary to support (20 yr old brother called to E. Canada) and someone was looking after us must have been watching over looking out for us. Mother urged me to answer an ad for a male sign painter after its repeated appearances in the local newspaper. No one could have been more shocked surprised than I when they grabbed management welcomed me with open arms and put me immediately to work. This was for the Dominion-wide merchandizing chain of T. Eaton Co. currently