My sister Betty, by Thelma Mikesell Winters

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~       Betty Lou Mikesell Erlandson   by Thelma Mikesell Winters, 1999             Betty, (like Loretta Lynn) was born a COAL MINERS DAUGHTER! Life in the Southern Idaho mining community was hard and dirty. Daddy (Jeff) worked underground in the mine. Mama (Florence) cooked for the miners and cared for her three young children. Ernie (the oldest son), spent most of his time trying to be big and tough and swear like the miners did. Betty had inherited her mama's red cast to her hair, her beautiful brown eyes, also her plentiful freckles! Because of this she also developed mama's "spunky character". With an older and younger brother she would need this to hold her own.     She was the apple of her daddy's eye and would run to meet him when he came off shift, riding triumphantly home on his shoulders. He was her tall, dark handsome hero.... "My Daddy!"    By the time Betty Lou, (as she was called by the family) was ready to start school, the family had moved to town! Life couldn't be better. Pocatello, Idaho was being in the right place at the right time for Betty. A beautiful home with green lawn and big trees and a garden in back. A sidewalk to play Jacks and Hopscotch and to roller skate on.. ..and best of all, a best friend living next door to do it all with- Martha Rice! Someone to share secrets with, play paper dolls, ride bikes and walk to school with. The two girls have remained friends for life! It was not all fun and games for Betty, as she was needed to help out in the home a lot! There was the year that her younger brother Jimmy was in bed with Rheumatic fever. Then a younger sister, Della Ann was born and about the same time mama's sister had a baby girl and they came to live with the family. So there were two babies in the house along with lots of extra chores. Betty was nine years old when a second sister, Thelma was born. By this time Betty was getting pretty fed up with washing, hanging and folding diapers!  It was a credit to her that Betty learned to climb trees, and she became an expert at it. She could climb faster and higher than Ernie and Jimmy or any of the neighborhood kids. It was her refuge from her teasing brothers and their friends. Up there she could think her girlish pre-teen thoughts and create poems and stories without interruption. Even daddy couldn't get her to come down until she was ready!  It is a good thing that she had this wonderful spot and time in her life in Pocatello, because by the time she was a teenager, dad had lost his job with the Railroad, the house was sold and the family packed up and got on a train headed for Washington State. Betty was devastated as was mama by our move to the "STICKS!" But remember their "SPUNKY CHARACTERISTICS!"  The house we moved into, 27 miles north of Spokane at the base of Mt. Spokane was soon made into a home. Also another new addition to the family was little sister Leslie. More diapers! But this time we had no electric washer, a pump for water out front in the yard, an outhouse out back, and a wood stove to heat water on. The best thing that happened was that we were introduced to the R.L.D.S. Church by a family by the name of "Love" that lived on the mountain also. Soon Brother J. F. Curtis came to the little school house and brought the wonderful charts and story of the Restoration Church and its Gospel. Later other Ministers came and some brought groups of young people to visit. What good times! Chicken Fry's! and in the winter Toboggan rides down the steep mountain road. Camp fires with song festivals, good friends too!  We had no car, but Brother Curtis came and took those who were old enough to Spokane to be baptized into the church. Dad held out and was baptized later when Thelma was eight.  We were in the process of moving to Spokane in 1941. Mom, Ernie and Leslie were in a small house on South Freya Street with electricity. They heard the news of Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning December 7th. Ernie hitch-hiked and really walked most of the way to come up on the mountain to tell dad and the rest of us.  The world had changed for everyone. We eventually moved to a larger house at 424 S. Haven. Ernie went into the Army. Later Jim joined the Merchant Marines, till he was drafted into the Army. Betty did her bit for her country by helping out at the USO. She was a beauty, and became a "pin-up girl" for one of the Navy ships. She was a good dancer too! Mom opened our home to the sailors from the Navy base and soldiers from the Army base when they were in town on leave. It started out as the sons of relatives and then they passed it on to their buddies. They were all nice fellows who were lonely for their families. We never had any kind of problems with them. Later in the War, mom and Betty worked at Galena making parachutes and aviator jackets.  Betty made a trip to Los Angeles to visit Ernie's girlfriend Eve.  Eve helped her with a make-over I guess, because when she came home her hair was black.  Daddy was really upset about it. It didn't take long to get it back to it's beautiful auburn color that meant so much to him.  Back home again she became a teacher at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio where she met Evan Erlandson...  But that's a Whole nother story!     <back to tribute page  TRIPLES with EMMA