Inez Cooley Parsons
Memories of my Grandmother, Inez Cooley Parsons, Tanner
by Judith Ashcroft Peterson
I would like to share some personal memories of my grandmother, Inez Cooley Parsons Tanner. I believe I may possibly have spent more time with her than any remaining living descendant. My older sisters knew Grandma when she lived in Logan and had borders, but she was so busy at that time that she had little time to spend with her grandchildren. I grew up in Cedar City, Utah, and Grandma Inez lived with her second husband, David Tanner, in Milford, Utah, which was less than an hour’s drive away. They came to see us often.
Grandma would sit in the big rocking chair near the fireplace with Susan and me each on one of the sturdy wooden arms. She would tell us how she and her sisters used to save little pieces of broken glass to use as doll dishes, and small scraps of beautiful fabric were real treasures. They would make doll clothes out of them or sew them together to make little quilts and carefully crochet around them. When Grandma was eleven she was taken away to work for a family in Idaho, and then later to care for the family of President George Albert Smith. A mere child herself, she would wash and iron, clean house, and tend the babies. She told us how she often ironed late into the night, using one foot to rock the baby’s cradle. Sometimes she was so tired herself that she could barely stay awake. My mother, Lucretia, told me that everything that Grandma was paid while caring for these families was sent home to help support her widowed mother's (Ann Hazen) family. Some of that money was used to purchase a horsehair sofa. Mother told me that on one occasion years later, she and Grandma Inez went to visit Grandma’s mother, Ann Hazen, in Newton. When they arrived, they discovered that the horsehair sofa had been put out on the street as a piece of trash. Even after all those years, Grandma Inez wept openly at the memory of the sacrifices required of her in order to purchase that sofa.
About once a year mother would put Susan and me on the train that ran between Cedar City and Milford to spend a week at Grandma’s. It was usually an evening train that left about dusk. Many times, Susan and I were both asleep by the time we arrived in Milford. Grandpa would carry us off the train. Sometimes we never even knew we had arrived until we awoke the next morning in the sofa bed in grandma’s den.
We loved Grandma’s house with a small living room and dining room. Grandma’s bedroom was off the right hand side of the living room. Off the right hand side of the dining room was the den with the sofa bed where we slept. The kitchen was one step down from the dining room, and off to the right side of it was the bathroom and a pantry where the fridge was kept. We liked to wash our hands in the bathroom because Grandpa Dave always had a bar of Borax soap that felt a little like sandpaper on your skin.
Grandma had a front gate and a back gate that opened into the alley. The back yard had the garage, a chicken coop, a garden, a clothesline, and a porch swing big enough for two. Occasionally, Grandpa would take us into his shop, which was on one end of the garage. It was full of saws and tools. Most of the time the door was locked and it was always a treat when we got to go inside and look around.
Grandma loved canaries and always had three or four cages full. An important part of the daily routine included giving the birds their bath. The cage was set on the kitchen table where the sunlight from the kitchen window was warm and cheery. The tray in the bottom was carefully removed, the paper discarded, and the tray cleaned and lined with fresh paper. We were allowed to remove the glass water containers, rinse and fill them with fresh water. But most important was the little plastic bathhouse. It was filled with half an inch of tepid water. Grandma raised the door of the cage and carefully inserted the bathhouse in the opening. Then we were expected to be very quiet and not disturb the birds. Most often our impatience drew us away to play with the kittens or to swing on the back gate, but once in a while we would actually see the birds dip into the bath house, singing and flapping their wings.
Susan and I would often stay for a week. We loved swinging on her front gate and watching for grandpa Dave to turn the corner, swinging his empty lunch pail. We would run to meet him and thought it was special to carry his lunch pail the rest of the way home. Grandma would let us clean it out for him, wiping out the crumbs and rinsing out the black thermos, which was stored in the rounded lid. We also liked to open the back gate and check out what was going on in the alley. We used her clothesline for a "tricky bar", or draped blankets over it to make tents. We would sit together in the porch swing and swing for hours. On Saturday Grandma would give us money to go to the movie AND buy a candy bar. One evening during our stay we would go to the Chinese restaurant for dinner. That was a real treat.
Grandma gets credit for teaching me to embroider and crochet. Unbleached muslin was quickly cut into dishtowels, hemmed, and marked with embroidery transfers -- mostly birds or flowers. By the time I was six, I had laboriously embroidered a set of bird dishcloths. Next she taught me to crochet. She was a master at handwork, and her home was filled with beautiful doilies, tablecloths, and runners that she had made. She would sit by me for hours, working on her own projects and supervising my painful efforts—counting a few stitches here, undoing a bit there, always making sure the thread was draped over my second finger in the proper way. I quickly progressed from lopsided hot pads, to simple edgings on washcloths and hand towels. Next came beautiful edgings on pillow cases and table cloths. By the time I got married, I had a whole chest filled with the beautiful things Grandma had helped me make for my own home. I love all kinds of handwork, and will forever be grateful that grandma taught me these skills.
Grandma crocheted outfits for storybook dolls for all her granddaughters. The one she gave to me was the beautiful Spanish dancer with her black crocheted dress lined with red taffeta and a red lace veil. She still sits inside my china cabinet waiting to go to some lucky great great granddaughter.
Sometimes our family would drive to Milford to visit grandma and grandpa. To save time, we took a "shortcut" over a twisty, bumpy dirt road. We would often get carsick on the trip. To distract us our dad would offer a nickel to the first one who could spot the Milford water tower. It stood on tall legs and could be seen from quite a distance. It supplied Milford with water and grandma always talked about what wonderful soft water they had. When we stayed overnight with her she always gave us a bath in that "wonderful" water and shampooed our hair.
Grandma gave each of her grandchildren a United States Savings Bond. She timed the gift so that it would mature when we graduated from high school and would be worth $25. That seemed like a very generous gift in those days. I used mine to purchase a Smith Corona portable typewriter before I went to college. It served me well for many, many years and I was always so grateful for it.
Grandma had a teaspoon that had small holes punched in the bowl of the spoon. I do not know what the intended use of the spoon was, but we loved to eat with that spoon. Grandma bottled raspberries, and we would sometimes be sent to the cellar to bring up a quart of bottled raspberries. We loved to eat these with the holey spoon. Grandma must have had a little sense of humor because she would try to get us to use the spoon when we were eating soup. That would really get us to giggling!
Speaking of soup, Grandma made the world’s best chicken soup. It started with a trip to the chicken coop in the back yard to select a plump hen. She laid the hen over a stump and chopped off its head with an axe. We hated that part, but were fascinated to see the hen running around without its head. Grandma plucked off the feathers, cleaned the hen, stewed it with vegetables and topped it with delicious light fluffy dumplings. Yum!!
When Grandma got sick in 1957 our mother, Lucretia, spent many weeks in Milford taking care of her. She would leave on Monday morning and stay until Grandpa Dave finished work on Friday. Then she would come home on Saturday, do the week's washing and ironing, clean, and try to prepare a few things for us to eat during the week. We really hated it when mother was gone, but it was a little more bearable because she was taking care of the grandmother that we loved. I was thirteen years old when Grandma Inez passed away. I attended both of her funerals -- one in Milford and the other in Newton.
At the time of her death she left six children, 19 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren.I have two pieces of jewelry that belonged to Grandma Inez. Both of them are lapel pins. I had quite a bit of her handwork, but I have given a piece to each of my granddaughters. I do still have a piece of her famous “monkey face” stitch.
