No Wimps Allowed!

In this world of wimpy folk who refuse to dress up for Halloween, (or other exciting events) it's nice to know that our parents have instilled the sweet memories of elaborate Halloween costumes. When mom had only 4-5 kids she sewed our costumes by hand with sweet anticipation and minimal cursing. After that, the sewing machine became a simple tabletop, with the magic Bernina hidden away. However, her dedication to the best costuming continued.
The Clown costume, Captain Hook, Raggedy Ann and Andy (For this, Marty and I won first prize at the Alpine Elementary costume parade. And as Brent mentioned, it was stiff competition, even if people did not dress up.) There were hobos, scarecrows, Dracula with the signature cornstarch blood that looked so real...
My children claim I traumatized them when they were sent to school in costumes that Grandma had carefully preserved and I happily borrowed. But I felt I was doing them a great service. I had learned that dressing up, though not optional, can be FUN! In the McGhie family, NO Costume Wimps allowed!

Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car

Any of these beauts look familiar? Never to be disputed, our vehicles were chic magnets. (Or in mine and Lisa's case, husband bait.) But no matter what era they arrived in our family, our beloved cars were respected, cared for, and loved. Sense the sarcasm. Enjoy the photos.

Let us not forget the Blue Truck or as Brent referred to it, the "3 in the Tree."

Remember when we were sitting at breakfast on winter day and we heard the awful sound of metal crushing metal? We all rushed to the kitchen window and looked out to see Waldo standing next to the truck staring in bewilderment at the carnage.

A little background. In case you didn't have the privilege of driving the beast, it was a massive workout to turn the steering wheel. Turning the truck required both hands and a lot of body leverage because of how stiff it was.

It so happened that on that fateful morning, the windshield had about an inch of frost coated to all of the windows. Waldo had scraped a softball sized round hole in the frost that was his only visibility. As near as we could tell, he turned in the driveway and instead of straightening out the truck to park side-by-side to our other car, the truck just kept turning and broadsided our other car. I am guessing he never saw it coming as he peered through the small hole in the frosted windshield.

I am just glad to know that i wasn't the only one that dinged up a McGhie car!

Halloween in Alpine

The kids had a Halloween deal down at the Dance Studio last night and it got me remembering Halloween's in Alpine growing up. When I was young, I didn't care much for trick or treating because there were no street lights, houses were scattered along our street and it was really dark. But as we got older we covered some serious territory, walking up Main Street, over Cemetary Hill and over into the center of town... I can remember how I hated trick or treating to the Hegorhorst house (later would be Despains up on Main Street)... but you would say "Trick or Treat" and they would let you in the house and then say, "You have to do a trick before you get a treat." I think they made me sing once. Hated going there, but candy was at a premium in those days so you took your lumps to get the goods!!

And I always used to get ticked off and wonder why I kept going back to the May's house (next to Reicherts over by the Elementary School)... they always gave out Apples and I felt like I got totally robbed when people would give out Apples. Funny thing is years later, when I was in college a fellow Alpiner complained about the May's handing out apples too, so it wasn't just me.

I remember one year we made it clear over to Bobby and Ethyl Bennett's house trick or treating and that was uh... interesting. (Serious diplomacy and restraint being shown here)

But trick or treating in Alpine back in the good 'ol days, and what about Elzira's Spook Alley every year down on the corner? And the "urban legend" back then was that people would put razor blades in Apples and hand them out on Halloween, so we were always looking out for hidden razor blades. LOL

Thinking back, a number of people in that town didn't really even need a costume for Halloween, they could have just walked around like normal and it would have been a great costume. Wasn't it on Halloween that Gordon Taylor and Kim Turner were scaring everyone with the giant Pig Man? Or maybe not...

But I sure logged some miles on my feet trick or treating in that town growing up. One year we somehow ended up clear up on Grove Drive hitting all the Pack's houses. We were apparently very desperate for candy back then!!! -Brent

Mom's Tirade against the white station wagon

I attacked the white station wagon with a baseball bat once but I smashed the windshield with a heavy Mug a guy that rode to work with Dad left on the floor. Every time I was in a hurry to go somewhere it wouldn't start and I had to lift the hood and find some wire and shake it or screw something together. I hated that car worse than snakes.

Remeber the Big Blue Buick -Kris, Marty and Mikes Era...we went up to Tibble Fork for FHE and Dad tried to cross the stream on the East end and we hit a pot hole and got stuck and the water was running thru the car. We had to open the doors to let it run out. I think Jeff Bullock was with us.

Carrie's First McGhie Family Dinner

Hey McGhie Family bloggers,

I have never done any blogging before so this is a new experience for me.

I was going to post some pictures but I am not sure how to do it.

My first "McGhie Family" memory is that Marty took me over to his parents house for Sunday dinner (I had only known him like 2 days) and he didn't tell me where we were going. So I wasn't dressed in Sunday clothes, just grubbies. So we get there and I meet all these tons of people at once and we sit down to dinner. Grandpa McGhie was sitting across from me, I remember this because he looked me right in the eyes and opened his mouth as wide as he could to show me the chewed up food in his mouth. Then all the boys stuck their fingers in my food at different times during dinner. I decided that I needed to go to the bathroom, so they politely showed me where it was. Everyone of them took turns beating on the door, telling me to hurry up. I think it was Michael who stuck his finger in my stawberry shortcake (made with a twinkie). Marty's mom called me Kathleen and Marty's dad told me that Marty never brought the same girl to dinner twice, so it was nice to meet me.

I think they were trying to scare me off but I was tougher than I looked. I kept coming back for dinner and I enchanted Marty so much he proposed 2 months later. Now you all are stuck with me for Eternity. I know that is a blessing you are very grateful for. The one thing I do have going for me is that I have great kids, so I have given more than I have received (just kidding, not about the great kids though).

Okay, I am now going to see how to post pictures here cause I have some really good ones.

Okay,
Bye for now
Yours truley
Princess Carrie

McGhie Cars

The talk of the Monte Carlo brought back memories of some other classic McGhie cars. When I was very young I remember we had a "Baha Beetle Bug"... the VW Bug with the Baha look, I think Dad got it from Carl Murdock. Of course the Monte Carlo, and the Blue Datsun that ended up with one white door, courtesy of Geebs sliding it into a field coming down Keller's driveway. And that blue car would get hot in the summer, so you had to turn the heater on full blast. Driving around in August with no air and the heater on full blast. Classic McGhie vehicle!!

We would take it out rabbit hunting on the West desert and pound the crap out of it. I remember we had some white station wagon that would just choose random times and places to not start. Didn't mom attack this car one day with a hammer or big wrench or something in a fit of rage? LOL

Michael had some vintage cars as well, the little green Avocado station wagon... and then Geebs had the biggest hunk of junk Kyle Terry claims he's ever seen... some little green VW wagon, Cabriolet or something, I forget what they called them. Kyle told me one day he could put $100K into that car and still not fix everything.

The blue Ford with the "three in the tree" shifter was a babe magnet and I knew it was officially a clunker the day Brian Davies asked me to see if Dad would sell it to him.

My favorite Monte Carlo memory was jumping it out on the Highland backroad to Lehi... there was a canal, a dip and a bump and if you got going 70 or more you would catch major air off that jump. After a school dance, me, Tom Patterson, and maybe Todd Murdock and our dates all went off that jump and we caught serious air... bottomed out twice on the landing.

It started making a noise shortly after, and when the car got to the Muffler Man over in PG he climbed under it and said, "Holy ****, somebody has been jumping this car or something. The whole underside of this thing is destroyed." It was some huge bill and Dad was so furious I don't think I ever told that story until many years later. But that car could grow wings and fly if you hit that dip with enough speed!!

Fun Times!!

Mom's Sunday Getaway

How about us talking about keeping the Sabbath Day holy and Matt called with a ticket to the closing ceremonies for the Olympics. Family coming to dinner and the potatoes weren't mashed - no hesitation - Dad told me to go. Called Kristen to come down and finish dinner and piled on the warm clothes and off we went.
Feeling a little guilty for abandoning the family -(not really!), I called home and told them I was rockin' out to 'Kiss' and I hoped dinner was going well.

Baby you can drive my car

One of the sources of pain and laughs growing up in the McGhie family was the horrible luck that we seemed to have with cars. No doubt about it--we punished the cars we drove. If cars were people, then being bought by us would be like getting a sentence of 10-years hard labor in Siberia followed by the firing squad.
Who remembers the most tortured car in our history--the orange Monte Carlo with the black vinyl roof? I belive that one brother (no names) smashed in the driver's side door against a gas pump at the local station while he still had his learner's permit. Don't recall who put the dent in the front right side.
Then on our fated fishing trip to Horne's ranch in southern Utah, the lock on the trunk got stuck with all of our fishing gear jammed in it. Dad was working, so we were left to our own devices to solve the problem (and save a day of fishing). I won't name names, but in an enthusiastic but misguided attempt to free up our fishing stuff, a needle was broken off in the trunk lock. That night when Dad finished work, we went to the local car mechanic (nice guy in a brown jumpsuit with "Claude" on the pocket) who drilled out the trunk lock. For the next few years we carried a screwdriver in the glove box and opened the trunk by jimmying the screwdriver in the hole in the trunk until the lock disengaged.
The final straw was when we were shooting rifles at the rifle range. People were leaning over the front of the Monte Carlo or the back of the Monte Carlo and resting their rifles on the car while they shot. Then Grandpa Charlie leaned his rifle over the vinyl roof. What happened next will live on forever in the mind of anyone who was there. The muzzle blast from the rifle shot was powerful enough to rip a large hole in the vinyl and send tiny pieces of vinyl flying into the air. As Grandpa Charlie stood there speechless surveying the scene, Grandma Rosalie said "Now Charles, you pick up all those pieces so that Jerry can glue them back on." We did not glue the pieces back on, but we did spraypaint the hole black to match the rest of the vinyl.
I am not sure whatever happened to the Monte Carlo. Did it end up in the scrap heap? Did it suffer the same fate as the truck I drove throughout high school (traded for a couple fruit trees while I was on my mission)? Or did we give it to someone who had fallen on hard times with the request to show the same loving care to it that we had shown??