June 9, 1934…Donald Duck made his first screen appearance in the Disney film short "The Wise Little Hen."

Years ago, Les and I took Corey and Helen to Disneyworld for a couple of days.  Helen was 10 and Corey was 9 at the time.  I remember that on one day, the two of them were dressed alike and everyone thought they were twins.  But then, people have always thought they were either twins or brother and sister. 

Anyway, I went through all my old pictures looking for Donald Duck at some visit to Disneyworld and never found him.  Found lots of other characters, but no Donald Duck.  But, in honor of Donald, I am including these pictures of reminders of good ole days.

June 9, 1978…Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints struck down a 148-year-old policy of excluding black men from the Mormon priesthood.

One Hot Summer Day

One afternoon there was a balloon fight. I don't know where the balloons came from and who started the fight, but lots of kids were involved with Uncle Les in the middle of it all.


Poor Helen tried staying out of the way as much as possible...


Nancy had the right idea - bring on the shampoo and it's baths for everyone!!! (Mom is sitting in the porch swing behind Nancy).


Helen most likely thinking "Hey, I was just sitting here minding my own business when someone stuck some balloons down the front of my swimsuit"...

Hiking In The Mountain

Before Corey was born, I used to do a lot of hiking in the woods. I primarily went up in Pine Mountain, Georgia which is outside of Columbus and my hiking buddy was Diane Perry. These pictures were made on one of our trips and I had brought along my little dog named Perry and Diane had brought along one of her dogs.

One weekend I got a "brilliant" idea and thought how nice it would be for me to take someone else along and enjoy the scenery and fun with me. I invited Nancy and Donald who had Jennifer, David and Helen at the time.

We made plans to go and took along all the fixings to have a picnic somewhere at the top of the mountain. Normally it would take me about an hour to hour and half to get to the top, but with the kids it was taking a longer time. Here is Jennifer playing in one of the mountain streams and being cautioned to NOT drink any of the water even if it did look nice and cool.

This is a very enthusiastic? Donald with Helen hanging off his back...

When we reached the top, Helen was asleep and was propped up against a tree...

Shortly after starting to gather some sticks to make a fire to roast our hotdogs, the weather suddenly changed as a storm began complete with lightning, thunder and heavy rain. We quickly threw all of our things back into our packs to hurry and get off the mountain. There was no shelter anywhere, we were being pelted with rain, the kids were screaming, we'd placed a trash bag over baby Helen so she wouldn't get too wet AND we had to be careful about the descent on the wet ground so nobody would break any bones. We finally made it back to car - everyone soaked and wet.

They never went on another hiking trip with me. I wonder why?

Easter 1982 - Pre Corey

This picture was taken at Mom and Dad's house in Brookfield about March 26, 1982.

Our good friends, Joan and Bruce Allen and their children, (who now live in Kayeville, Utah) had come to visit with Mom and Dad. On the back row is also Nancy (with the sunglasses), Cindy (Jimmy's first wife) and Jimmy holding baby Helen and Dad. Mom is sitting down in a chair as she had recently had leg surgery and Jennifer is to her left shielding her eyes. I believe that is David on the front row in the yellow shirt and two Easter baskets. And then, that is Les giving me a kiss. (Donald was taking the picture).

Baby Helen...
At the time this picture was taken, I had no idea that I was pregnant with Corey and wouldn't find out for about two months. (That's my burgundy Mustang in the background).

Corey's Second Easter - April 22, 1984

This is the only picture I can find of Corey celebrating his second Easter. Here he is with his daddy in the background holding his basket and standing next to his cousin, Helen.
(For those of us who know and watched Helen growing up, we recognize her particular classic way of sucking her fingers).

Corey's First Easter - April 8, 1983

With this day being Easter, I decided to go back and look for pictures of Corey's first Easter 27 years ago almost to the day. Corey got his first Easter basket and in that basket was a stuffed rabbit named "Hoppy".

Corey getting ready to do first egg hunting with his cousins at Grandmother and Granddaddy Cattell's home in Brookfield...

(back) Susan, Nancy, Me holding Corey. (middle) David, Jennifer, Travis. (front) Sarah and Helen

From the look on my face, it looks like I found a rotten egg or someone had a stinky diaper...

another Helen Loves Corey! picture...

This is one of my favorite pictures of Corey and Helen.

If I remember correctly, it was taken one evening at their Young Men's/Young Women's meeting.

Corey was 14 years old at the time and Helen was 16.

Helen Loves Corey!

Helen has loved Corey before he was ever born. One day when she and Grandmother accompanied me to a doctor's visit, Helen became very interested in another woman's baby in the waiting room. The woman became very agitated that Helen was so near to her baby and asked her to step back. Helen began to cry and Grandmother told her that it was all right that Aunt Carol was going to have a baby for her and she took it literally.

From the day he was brought home from the hospital, she claimed him as her baby. These are some of the pictures to prove it...



You will notice in the top picture that Helen has crowded her way into Grandmother's lap to be next to Corey.





The picture below shows her with her famous finger-sucking style curled up with Corey who doesn't seem to be enjoying the time together at all.

(Also note how young and cute Jennifer and David are in the top pictures)

Behold! Art Thou Romeo and Juliet?

While attending Tift County High School, both Helen and Corey were in chorus together. One of the things the chorus did was a medival banquet with singing and dancing in costumes. Don't you just love Corey's sexy legs in his black tights?