Cochran Family History and News – BlogCochran.com

My first grade teacher was Mrs. Larsen, who seemed much much older than Mrs. Kofford, my kindergarten teacher.  I think Mrs. Larsen had reddish hair, and it was piled in curls on her head.  I was excited to be in something other than kindergarten (I promise I’m working up to blogging about kindergarten—it was a traumatic and mostly unhappy year for me and I don’t like thinking about it) and my best friend Kacie was in my class, too!  I seem to remember our desks were in kind of a horseshoe shape and I sat on the right side in the back.  We had those pasteboard pencil boxes (I think mine was blue but I can’t rightly remember) and used to make them into little houses by turning them on their side and using the lid either as a door or as a flip-up awning, propped up by our pencils.  I had a big desk and liked keeping it neat on the inside; I remember putting things away carefully at the end of the day (I still do that at work and it bothers me when my things have been moved by someone else) so they’d be neat in the morning.

I don’t remember much of what we learned.  More advanced math and printing practice, I’m sure, as well as a little Utah history and grammar.  I do remember, though, having a pink eraser and those yellow pencils.  I also remember that we had play time almost every day on a couple of big tables in the back of the room.  We could bring clay from home—it was a set of that lovely oil-based clay in fat red, yellow, green, and blue strips—and we were required to put it away in our desks or cubbies near the tables when we were done playing.  Probably cubbies.  I remember rolling it out into snakes and making necklaces and bracelets with it.  I was careful not to mix my colors too much and was annoyed when the boys mixed the colors into a big gray-brown mass and Mrs. Larsen took it away from us.  I was sad when she took the container that mom had given me to put my clay in; I always felt that was unfair because it wasn’t me who messed up the clay.

I seem to remember that there was at least one boy who ate paste on a regular basis…

I’m not sure if this memory is from first grade or not, but I remember being on a bench on the playground under one of the cottonwood trees and seeing a nun playing with or watching a group of children.  I’m not sure how I knew she was a nun, but I somehow recognized her long black dress and veil.

Like I said, I don’t remember much (it will probably come back to me) but overall I liked Mrs. Larsen and the classroom felt friendly and nice, which any classroom would have after kindergarten…

The first toys I can remember playing with are the old wooden Fisher Price “Little People”.  I know I had dolls and stuffed animals, but I remember so many adventures with Zach and that Little People camper.  There was a mother and a father, a bad boy (because his hat was on sideways) named Butch, a good boy in a yellow hat we named Zach, a girl in a green dress we named Heidi, and a girl with yellow hair and a red dress whose name tended to change.  There were also two dogs, identical except that one of them was missing an ear; I’m not sure if WE broke the ear or what, but I don’t remember that dog NOT having a broken ear.  The dog with the broken ear was, obviously, older, and so we named him Pepper after grandpa’s black terrier-wirehair-mutt-like dog.  Pepper was older than our malamute, Sammy, so we named the other dog Sammy.  We had so much fun playing with those Little People!  Their camper had a big rowboat on the top and the truck made a wonderful clicking noise when we pushed it around; the truck also had a little gizmo in the front seats that would bounce the people up and down.

Later on, our cousin Darci gave us her Little People castle, which had everything a castle needed:  a dragon, a carriage, two horses, a king, a queen, a prince, and a princess, not to mention the knave (he had a Robin Hood-type hat and a rather rakish Errol Flynn mustache) and all the fun furniture.  The carriage is long gone and the beds’ foam died several years ago, but the horses are more or less intact.  The castle had a dungeon with a trap door, a secret panel behind the fireplace, and a hidden chamber behind the stairs.  It also had a drawbridge and towers.  We’d sometimes try to saddle the pink dragon, but it never really worked because the saddle was made for the horses.  There are a lot of pretends inside that castle, and it was fun to watch various children over the years play with it and have some of the same pretends.  I hope it’s always at mom and dad’s house.

I also had sewing cards (perforated, with yarn ribbons to weave in and out), My Little Pony, various Barbies, stuffed animals, and the Playmobil hospital set (Zach had the cowboy and Indian set, and, unlike the Little People, we’d often combine the two sets into one huge set!), as well as various dolls, blocks, and Hot Wheels.

We may not have ever gotten a Lite Brite, but we had a lot of fun using our imaginations to tell stories with the toys we had…and sometimes Mom and Dad would let us leave our set-ups out for several days at a time!

I know this is coming late, but I was spending Sunday (and most of last week) doing things I like to do when I have time…

I love to create.  Whether this is through sewing, painting, building, or anything involving working with my hands, I love it.  I took a spinning class a few months ago and learned how to use a drop spindle and a spinning wheel.  I enjoy embroidery, cross-stitch, knitting, crocheting, and weaving and I wish I had the equipment and time to learn more about each of those.  If I have the distraction-free time and motivation, I can make a dress in a few hours.  Cutting out fabric is the most tedious part of the process for me, but when it’s done I enjoy the rest of it.  I love making up costumes and designing evening gowns in my head even though I rarely have anywhere to wear them.  I want to learn more silver-smithing techniques, including fold forming and mokume gane .  If I could spend my days building or making things, I’d be insanely happy and probably very poor.

I love to learn.  I have built a small library of costume history and psychology reference books that I haven’t finished reading, but every time I’m on Amazon, I find more to add to my wish lists.  I want so many books about clothing and I rarely take the time to do research anymore.  I really enjoy watching documentaries or reading accounts of historical events.  On my bookshelf right now I have books about the history of the department store and an American shipwreck on the coast of Africa in the early 1800s.  I love reading but, like Laresa (although not to that extent), I sometimes find reading more difficult than enjoyable.  It’s hard to focus on one thing at a time for more than a few minutes lately, but I feel that buckling down and reading more would make that focus easier to achieve.

I also love theatre.  I know it’s insane, but I actually enjoy the long hours of rehearsal (mostly…) at the same time I miss being home.  I like watching the creative process unfold into something that takes people away from their lives for a couple of hours and I really enjoy being in a solid cast that works well together.  I’ve done some crappy theatre and some awesome theatre and have learned something from both.  I’ve auditioned for and worked with some of the most talented people I’ve ever met; I can’t imagine not having that in my life.  I love seeing the faces in the audience and knowing that I’ve helped make them laugh or think or sometimes even cry.  It’s wonderful.  Along with that, I enjoy singing.  I like singing to children, singing with my family, singing with my friends, singing in choirs.  I had to quit taking voice lessons from a good friend several months ago and it’s been hard not having that challenge every week, but I still sing in my car and for auditions when I get the chance.

I love music in general.  I want to learn how to play the guitar and the flute and maybe the violin one day.  I enjoy playing the piano, and if I had time and free access to the church, I’d practice the organ.  As it is, I wing it almost every Sunday, which is fun and challenging but sometimes frustrating.  I wish I had more time to practice something besides church music, but at least my callings keep me playing.  I really love the piano and organ–like Laresa said, it’s amazing that you can make something that big make some pretty sounds just using your fingers.

I would love to travel more.  I love driving and going on adventures, but when I have the time I don’t have the money, and when I have the money I don’t have the time.  It’s frustrating to want to go on a road trip when your car is 15 years old and has over 200,000 miles on it, and to know that it might not make it and you can’t afford to rent a car.  I want to visit more family and explore this great country and go to York and Edinburgh and Copenhagen and Prague…

Besides those great and noble things, I spend time surfing the intertubes, watching some TV, and playing games.  And spending time with family and friends.  I wish I had 26 hours a day sometimes.