Time for another family group picture. This is about 1962. We were living in a house on 54th street in Sacramento. Jay was in kindergarten. We loved that old house. It had a huge front room and dining room and kitchen...living areas, but only had two bedrooms and a small bathroom. We lived there until Mark was born and then we bought a house in North Highlands. One of the fun things about the house was it had a huge wrap around porch. You could enter the house by either the front room door or the one that went into the dining room. I think that was kind of an archetechtural style of the homes built in those days. On one side of the porch there was a garden of Calla lillies. The drop from the porch to the ground was about 8 ft. There was a wall around the porch with about a foot wide top on the wall. The kids used to love to run around on the top of it. I tried to stop them but they thought they were invincible. Of course in their enthusiasm someone got pushed off into the Calla lillies. 8 ft down. Lucky no broken bones or lasting injuries.

That was the house where I remember our first Christmas. (the first one I remember) Jay was about three at the time and Sherry was a year and Sandi was a baby. Larry's mom bought Jay a little red fire engine that he could peddle around. He really loved that fire engine. Larry and I got the kids a horse that had springs that they could rock on. Anyone older than my oldest kids will remember those rocking horses. It was the favorite thing for years. I think we had at least two of them if not more over the years.

Soon to be added upon!

Today my 10th great grandchild will come into the world. (RoseAnne is in labor and expects to deliver her baby boy tonite.) Thinking of the miracle of birth and of the joy that comes at the birth of any child reminds me of some of my experiences in child birth. I was very fortunate in that I gave birth pretty easily. My longest labor was 7 hours and my shortest 3. Valerie, my last child was one of the funniest. I had toxemia so the Dr decided to induce me about 3 weeks early. They started the drip at about 9 am and a couple of hours later I was telling the nurse she had better get the Dr. He had left to go change into his scrubs. Luckily she believed me when I told her the birth was eminent. She hurriedly left the labor room to go get an intern. Before she got back I had to push and out came Valerie . Larry said "what was that?" I said "its the baby." He lifted up the blanket and sure enough there was Valerie. Right at that moment the Nurse and the intern walked in and took over. I think this is proof of Valeries need for privacy. I'm sure she planned her entrance to be as private as possible.

MOTHERS DAY

means flowers and babies and family

Station Wagons that go down in the Haskin history.


We had several station wagons over the years and so many stories attached to them. One stationwagon we had had kind of windows on the top. you could look up and watch the sky as you were riding. It was cool. It had a back,back seat that faced backwards. The kids used to love to sit there and watch where we had been. One day I was driving by the high school near our home and someone hit a homer over the fence. You can guess where it landed. Yep right on top of my car. It broke the window that was on top of the car. I remember how difficult that was to explain to the insurance agent.
Another station wagon we had had a back gate that layed down flat to climb in and out of. We went to Yosemite every year for vacation and we had just pulled up to our camp spot and were unloading the car. Everyone was carrying something and last of all was a watermelon. Mark was about four and he got up in the back of the station wagon and rolled the watermelon right out and onto the ground! Of course it was smashed to pieces. We ask Mark why he had done that and he simply said "I don't like watermelon." I guess it made sense to him.
I got one of the two tickets I have ever had, driving the kids down to Paula's. The kids were playing the game where you pump your arm when you pass a truck and the trucker would blast his horn. The kids kept telling me to hurry up to the next truck and since I had a non functioning speedometer in the station wagon I was soon speeding. When I stopped for the flashing red lights and the police officer came to my window, Jay blurted out from the back seat.."It wasn't her fault our speedometer doesn't work!." He thought he was helping but he nearly got me two tickets instead of one!

In 1975 we sponsered a Vietnamese family. This picture shows Vo and our three littlest kids. I love this picture of Christine. (Chrissy at the time) Dave and Vic taught Vo english in all their playing. One time they were jumping on the couch and knocking each other off the back of the couch. Vo kept repeating 'nocadom' over and over. We thought it was vietnamese but later we figured out he was just trying to say 'knock ya down'.

At the time we had our family of eight children and the Vietnamese family which consisted of Hao and Hong who were newlyweds, Tung (20)who was a brother of Hao, and Vo (4) and an older sister (16) of Hong. There was also Trung(20) who was unrelated to them. Our house was full and we were supporting everyone at the time as it took awhile for the family to find jobs.
One Sunday when I went to prepare dinner I realized all I had was a few cans of tuna and some bread. I was pondering how that was going to work when there was a knock on the door. There at my door stood a family of angels. They were our neighbors who had felt impressed to share with us. They had their arms full of food and a wagon loaded with home canned fruits and vegetables. We were so grateful to them and to our Heavenly Father who watches over all his children.

We all know the stubborness of the Crams...I have a great story about my mom (Erna) and her dad(Grandpa Cram) when she was about 19 years old. She used to love to say that the street car she took only went to 'Q' street so she had to walk a block to 'pee". I guess when grandpa heard her make the comment he called her on it and told her the street car did stop at P street. Thus commenced a huge argument on whether the street car stopped at Q or P street. Finally in frustration mom said to grandpa "I'll prove it to you! " and she called the bus line. When she got the lady on the phone she ask her the question, and sure enough she was right. She thrust the phone at grandpa saying "would you repeat that to my father please". After Grandpa listened he hung up the phone and in a loud voice exclaimed, "That woman doesn't know what she's talking about!" Oh the confidence of the Crams...they are always right, even when they are wrong!

Spring

I remember one spring when we had 5 kids and we lived in North Highlands which is north of Sacramento. It was a rainy foggy early spring week and we wanted to get out of the fog. We planned a trip to the mountains above Placerville on Saturday. As anyone with children knows it took a lot of preparation to get ready. We were finally set to go about 10 in the morning. We had loaded all the food, coats, kids and parents in the old station wagon. After the usual arguments about who was going to sit where and who was touching who we took off. Everyone was excited for the mini vacation. We drove to the out skirts of town and the car just died. We pulled into a service station to see what the problem was. After sitting in the car for what seemed like hours as Larry checked everything he could think of we had to give up and call off the trip. I don't remember how we got the car home. (It was, after all, over 40 years ago) The rest of the day was spent with Larry trying to solve the mystery. He finally took off the gas tank and found that it was full of balloons! One of the kids had put water balloons in the gas tank! I won't mention the name of the child but I think it was a hard lesson to learn....no wonderful day in the mountains and everyone blaming you!

This is our first family group picture, Taken in 1958 in Salt Lake City at the Temple grounds. The baby, of course is Jay. Wow don't I look young? What happened? (besides age and gravity)

I am hoping to share lots of the funny stories, experiences both fun and sad, family fables, myths and misnomers of the Haskin Clan. Every family has stories. It is what makes each family unique. Each family has it's own style and flavor. I hope by sharing some of our history and stories and chapters you will be able to sense who we are. So here goes...hope you enjoy the ride!

By way of introduction: I am Arden Davis Haskin and I was born in Sacramento Calif. in 1938. I am married to my wonderful husband of fifty two years, Laurence (Larry) J. Haskin. I will tell how we met and our love story in another post. We are the parents of ten wonderful , amazing, terrific children. Our first is Jay Laurence Haskin, born in 1958 then came Sherry Elizabeth Haskin born in 1960. Our third child was Sandra Rosemary Haskin born in 1961. Mark William came next in 1963. He was premature and I was advised to wait three years at least before having another child sooo...Michael Bay Haskin was born in 1966. Then came the second half of our family: Victor Owen was born in 1968 followed by David John in 1971. We finally got another girl; Christine LaPreal was born in 1972. James Daniel in 1978 and Valerie Lynn in 1981 completed our family.

In the coming blogs I will attempt to relate experiences that will be humorous and revealing of the Larry and Arden family. Feel free to make comments, edit where necessary and ask any questions you like