My Biography by Anita Van Natter

My Biography by Anita Van Natter

MY BIOGRAPHY

By

Anita VanNatter Carden

I have tried several times to write my own life story, but I’ve had lots of difficulty remembering things which I feel are important. I will write this short version, and as time passes I will add stories of particular events in my life.

I was born in Whitmans Creek, West Virginia, October 23, 1936. I am the daughter of Anna Mae (Carter) and Percy Chester VanNatter. My dad was a coal miner for Island Creek Coal Company. My mother worked for a time for a man named B. T. Call; she also worked for the coal company when I was young. She went to Washington D. C. and worked for the U. S. Government for a time - urging my dad to also work for the government.

I had a brother, James Sloan, four years older than I. He and I weren’t particularly close in my growing up years - he usually thought I was a nuisance. I must have been a tag-a-long kind of little sister, because I can remember how wonderful it felt to be included with the “older” kids.

Since my mother worked, my grandmother, Margaret (Maggie) Moran Curle Carter raised my brother and me, took care of the house, the cooking, the yard, as well as us kids.

For a time we lived in a small house down by the creek, but when my dad was promoted to mine foreman we moved to a big yellow house on the hill. We had West Virginia woods behind us, a long driveway we sledded down in the winter, a back yard with a big swing, and a porch with big white columns.

I lived in West Virginia until the late summer of 1945 when my dad took a job in Hiawatha, Utah. He had wanted to live out west ever since his mission, so he was pleased with that opportunity. He went ahead of us to Utah, and my mother, grandma, brother and I drove to Utah. I think now of how brave my mother was...quitting her job and driving her family across the Rocky Mountains to a place she’d never seen. Her brother, Sidney Curle, who lived in Wyoming, drove with her part of the way (I think they parted ways in Denver). She was on her own across the Rockies and on in to Utah.

We lived in Hiawatha from August until December. I went to school there, and was determined to read every book in the little library. Needless to say, I did not! The missionaries baptized me in Price, Utah, which was the custom at that time. Dad became a mine inspector for the U. S. Bureau of Mines, and reported for training. He was assigned to Denver, Colorado, and our family had to relocate again. While he, my mom, and my brother went to Denver, my grandma and I stayed with Uncle Sid in Winton, Wyoming.

Finally, we joined the family again, and I entered the fourth grade at Wheat Ridge Elementary School. My folks had bought a house and two and half acres about a mile and a half from school. I walked every day because my mom and dad left for work too early to drive me. I made up stories that I told myself on the way to school. I can imagine that passing motorists often wondered whom “that little girl with pigtails” was talking to. I walked home with friends and we would often walk part way out of our way just so we’d have company.

When I was a sophomore in high school we moved to a lovely brick house on 32nd Street in Wheat Ridge. It wasn’t out in the country, but still a ways from school. I had a steady boyfriend, Paul Randall, who picked me up in his family truck each morning. He was on the basketball team and went out for track, so I walked home with friends or stayed after school for drama club or other activities. In high school I was active in choir and an a cappella group that sang for local events. I participated in speech and drama, had the lead in the junior and senior plays, was the valedictorian speaker at graduation, held student body office - all in all had a productive high school experience.

I went to Brigham Young University, majored in English, and minored in speech and drama. I completed it all in three years by going to summer school and taking one religion class via correspondence. I met James Lorin Yeates there, and married him in the Logan temple in 1957. We moved to Sherman Oaks, California - Lorin had a job with Rocketdyne, and I settled in to being a “Mormon Wife.”

My daughter, Marlene, was born on September 21, 1958. I had four other beautiful girls, Cynthia, April 3, 1960; Lorrie, March 25,1961; Linda, March 8, 1963; Alayne, August 19, 1964. During those years, we bought a home in Canoga Park, California. Lorin completed law school, and I was definitely a mother. However, I taught seminary and Relief Society in Sherman Oaks and in Canoga Park where we had bought a home, planning to raise our little family there. Marlene and Cindy went to school at Welby Way Elementary, and we had many friends in the neighborhood and in church.

When Lorin and I were divorced because of his adultery, I began teaching for the Los Angeles School District. First I was a substitute teacher, then a half time teacher, then a full time English and Social Studies teacher at Chatsworth High School. Lorin and I remarried, sold our Canoga Park house, and bought a house in Northridge, California, closer to Chatsworth High, but a long way to drive the girls to school in Canoga Park that first spring we lived in Northridge. He told his parents later that he had re-married me just to get his fellowship back in the church. I also found that while we were re-married, he was still seeing Sharon, and she had become pregnant by him. The church still declined to excommunicate him. I was not consulted in the matter at all.

Lorin then left us, and we were again divorced in 1970. While the divorce was in progress, not yet final, he re-married Sharon in Las Vegas, legally committing bigamy on top of the adultery. I began the task of mother and breadwinner in earnest. I was hired permanently by LAUSD as an English teacher at Millikan Junior High School located in Sherman Oaks, some distance from Northridge. My girls all walked to their elementary school and were truly “latchkey” kids, coming home to an empty house until I got home from school, too.

I went to a “singles” dance with a girlfriend and met Thom Carden, president of the Orange County Singles and we were married in May of 1973. He was going to school, having decided after his divorce that he wanted to change his life completely. He was working, too, so getting married and taking on a ready-made family was not an easy thing to do. He got his doctorate in psychology in 1978. I continued to work, becoming an adviser in the region offices of the school district and Thom had his psychology offices at home. He also taught classes for disabled students throughout the LA district.

Raising my five girls and being concerned for Thom’s five children, working, going to school, and remaining active in the church was no small task. We kept very busy. We were very blessed.... there were no serious illnesses, financial setbacks (although we lived on a very strict budget), or any other major catastrophes that we were unable to deal with in those years. Our children grew, became adults, and started lives of their own.

I contracted a strange malady when I was about forty-five. It was diagnosed as a form of Multiple Sclerosis. I found it very difficult to walk and maintain my balance. Thom took over many of my duties at home, and I retired from LAUSD when I was fifty-five. We moved to Durango, Colorado in 1993, bought a cabin, planning to live out our days in the mountains.

My parents, who had lived in Denver, Colorado for most of the years I was in California, came to live with us in the fall of 1997. We bought a larger home with a two- bedroom apartment to accommodate them, but my dad died March 3, 1998. We had been looking forward to doing many things with dad, and missed him very much. We continue to live in Durango. My mother is still living with us. Our children live in several different places all over the United States. Marlene, Lorrie and Alayne live in south Denver, Cynthia lives in Mesa, Arizona; Linda lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Thom H. lives in Oregon, Kevin in Prescott Valley, Arizona, Shawn lives in Plant City, Florida, Dennis in Palm Springs, California and Suzanne (Carden) Burg lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

This is a very brief history of my life to the present. I promise to write more as time goes by.

It is now 2009. The update promised is forthcoming. Thom and I still live in Durango, Colorado. Both my parents are gone – Mother died in 2004, and Thom’s mother died in 2006. We made a trip back East the summer after Mother died. We visited Logan, West Virginia – the first time I had been there as an adult. We saw several other places, Washington D. C., Mt. Vernon, Monticello, etc. My handicap made visiting historical places difficult. Thom has retired from practicing psychology and our income is from the sale of the little cabin we first lived in, rental of the mobile home on our property here in Durango, a house in Farmington N. Mexico, Mary McGill’s house in Indianapolis which we purchased from Thom’s sisters when Mary died, and also another house in Indianapolis. We have a rental manager for the homes in Indy, but Thom takes care of the mobile home and the house in Farmington. We have been very fortunate to date.

The major changes in our lives involve our children. Marlene teaches high school English in Denver; Cindy teaches kindergarten in Mesa; Thom H. is pastor of his own church in Oregon; Shawn, after living here in Durango for a few months, relocated to Scottsdale AZ. He divorced his wife of seventeen years (Anna), is at this moment establishing himself as a photographer; Dennis still lives in Palm Springs, is employed as a director of all N. America in a company that gives botox and laser treatments, and is fighting a neurological problem similar to mine; and Suzanne lives in Fairplay, Colorado where she and her husband Jim have a ranch (178 acres) and six horses. She also has a home in Breckenridge and a condo in San Diego. Her son, Oliver, is in Japan. He married, has a son and is in the U. S. Navy.

We are now involved with grandchildren and great grandchildren. Lorrie’s boy, Tyler, returned from a mission in Montana, married, and now has two children – Bren and Benjamin. Marlene’s son, Greg, returned from a mission in the Philippines, married, and now has two children – Caroline and Jack. Cindy’s daughter Jill graduated in nursing from BYU. She is married and has a son, Jackson. Cindy’s boy Jesse has returned from a mission in Mexico and plans to marry in May of this year. Her son Brian is on a mission in Seoul, Korea, having been out about one year. Linda is Relief Society President in her ward, and Troy is on the high council. Their daughter, Melissa, is at BYU along with Cindy’s daughter, Dana.

As a gift from Suzanne, we have a German Shepherd named Brek. He helps us pass many hours away from children. Although we did not want to be tied down, we enjoy him.

Sept. 30, 2000

Dear Jade,

Your cousin, Kristen,called me the other Sunday and prompted me to do some thinking about what it was like growing up during the second World War. I began to think more about some of the experiences I had that were directly related to our country’s involvement in the war effort. Maybe sometime you’ll have an assigment in school that will require you to know some of these things, so I’ll just start writing.

We lived in a little coal mining town, Whitmans, W.Va. My father did not go to war because the coalmining industry was considered crucial to the war, and Dad was important at the mine. Since coal was so important, we had to observe curfews every night, which meant that we had dark shades on all windows that hid any lights from view. There were no lights on in any businesses, no street lights either, so outside it was really dark! I remember one Christmas, we had a lighted Christmas tree. but those dark blinds kept all the light inside. Sometime on that dark night, we heard carolers at our door. Those brave folks were walking through the neighborhood without any lights, and we could not open our door to thank them for the beautiful carols!

We had to observe food rationing, too. A family was given stamp books which allotted them eggs. sugar, meat and other commodities. I remember that my grandma Carter would save up the sugar and egg stamps so we could have home made ice cream during the hot summer. She made that ice cream (lemon flavored) in the refrigerator, filling the ice cube trays, beating it when it began to freeze to keep it from getting lumpy. We thought it was delicious! I think now how much I take for granted. I can have ice cream, eggs and sugar any time I want them. Once when my brother and I had mumps we got a small can of coconut to share as a treat.

Another book of stamps was given to the family for gasoline. The amount a family received depended upon how far you lived from work, and how many people in your household had to work. My dad could walk to work, but we lived some distance from church. We used the gasoline allotment to go to church.

No cars were made during the war either. I can remember that my dad bought a new car when the war was over! When I think about that, I figure he’d been thinking about that car for a long time!

One of the “important” things kids could do for the war effort was save aluminum foil in balls and turn it in at the post office. We got the foil from around chewing gum. We saved it diligently and wrapped it tightly. The size of our ball of foil was a matter of serious pride!

Of course, we didn’t have TV, so we got war news by seeing a newsreel at the movie theater, or reading the paper. Parents could easily control how much their kids knew about the war. They just didn’t get to go to the movies. Grown-ups got limited info, too, especially in our little coal camp where few men went to war so families were not informed by letter. It sure wasn’t like today where the war is right in your living room on the TV screen. For a girl my age, the war was very far away.

Sometimes we talked about the war in school. I recall one day in second grade our teacher asked us to draw a picture depicting “Victory in Europe” or VEDay. I was in second grade. My picture was displayed on the bulletin board! How important I felt. However, the picture wasn’t realistic at all, I just remember it had a n American flag flying.

These are just a few of my memories of the war when I was such a little girl. Thanks for giving me a chance to recall a little bit.