One evening when mother and I were pretty close together and I was telling her about things at school, I said, "The teacher called us a bad name today, a very bad name." I was setting the table and Mother was cooking dinner. She said, "She called you a bad name, really? Now are you making up something to say she called you a bad name?" "Oh, yes, Mother, she did." "Well what did she call you?" Well,I began to think that I had gotten into this and I had to make it a pretty bad name. I knew she got pretty rough with us, but here Mother was taking me to task. "What did she call you? Come on, I want to know." I said, "Well she really called us a bad name, she called us sons-of-bitches." "Now, you don't really mean that." "Yes she did, Mother." So no more was said right then. The next morning when I got ready to go to school, my dad and mother decided to go to school with me. Mother said, "We have to go to school and talk to the teacher about calling the children bad names." I wanted to die right then and there. Whatever was I going to do - there was no way I could get out of it then - they were dressed and ready to go to school with me. We all went into the school together. I took my seat while my Dad and Mother were sitting around the desk with the teacher. It seems to me they talked the longest time. I was just dying. I am sure my face was red. I was burning with shame and every terrible feeling I could have. My Dad and Mother got up and left. They didn't say goodby to me, they just left. Our classes went on as usual and not a word was said. I couldn't imagine what was in wait for me. About recess time the teacher said, "You children are all excused now." Raising her arm and pointing her finger at me she said, "Luzene - you stay." Everybody went out of the room, the teacher came down and sat at a desk opposite me. "Luzene, I want you to think real hard and I want you to tell me what is about the worst thing I ever called you in school or ever said to you. I want you to think real hard." I hung my head in great shame and I said, "One day you called us idiots." She said, "Yes, I believe I did. You see these sheets of paper? I want you to spend the rest of the day writing that word on these sheets of paper>" And that was the last that was ever said about the incident. My Dad and Mother said no more. I don't know how or why God was so good to me that I didn't go straight to hell for what I did.
One incident that should have been told about the Roland Ranch that I forgot to tell earlier was another one of my misdemeanors I was punished for. One beautiful day my mother gave us permission (I think Doug, Fern, Elva and Elinor were along. I think Val was still a baby.) to follow the stream and go pick some wild flowers and we didn't have to be back until late in the afternoon. So we followed the stream. We picked violets, listened to the birds and had a lovely time. She had told us not to go in the water. The stream was part of the Snake River. Parts of it were rather rough but parts of it were a nice little stream. It was Elva who first went close to the water and fell in. I think at first she just got her shoes and stockings wet. I took her over to the bank and took her shoes and stockings off. As long as she was barefoot she asked why she couldn't wade. My shoes had gotten a little wet rescuing her so I decided it wouldn't hurt anything if we all took off our shoes and stockings and waded a little bit. So we did. We playwed and had fun until Elva fell almost all the ways in, so I had to take her out. She got her panties real wet so we had to take them off, so I tied her little dress around her waist, and some of us went back in and some of the rest of us got pretty wet. So we kept taking off one piece of clothing after another and hung them on the bushes to dry. Mormon people teach their children that they should never be naked in front of each other, especially in front of brother and sisters. It was like some terrible sin to be naked. Well, we got so wet that I knew the only thing we could do would be to take our clothes off and let them dry. So while our clothes were drying, why not go in the water? Sudenly I noticed that the sun was going down, it was getting late. I got everybody out of the water, and unbelievably, our clothes were nowhere in sight. We hadn't realized that as we played and didn't pay attention, that the current had sort of carried us downstream and our clothes were upstream. Gauging how soon it would be dark, I didn't see any way we could get our clothes and get home before dark. I decided the best thing we could do was to try to go to the back of the house and make a mad dash up the stairs and find some other clothes. Then we would go back the next day to try and find our shoes and the rest of our clothes. So my dad tells that the men were working in the field and they looked westward to see how much more daylight they had and they saw these little naked figures streaking along the horizon, running as fast as they could go. Dad was absolutely horrified. When we came in we were caught. Dad was already in the house and each one of us was taken seperately, talked to, and scolded. The main thing I remember about it was that my mother made me get down on my knees and pray that God would forgive me. I felt guilty for my disobedience, but I didn't feel that what we did was anything that God wouldn't forgive us for.
