Friends of the Reid Family

What I remember about Friends of the Family…growing up

I don’t remember Mom and Dad being the “hang out with Friends” a lot kind of people that I observed in other families. Maybe because when you have a big family you don’t have a lot of extra time to devote to outside friends. I do remember the friends they did had were interesting to me as a child and a lot of them were from when I was very little before their family grew and grew and grew. I remember the Harris’s (Al and June) I remember the Whiteheads (Jim and Graceanne), The Sabin’s (Bob and Pat) The Elms (Joyce and Reed). Funny how I can mostly remember their first names because I would see them on Christmas cards each year. Friends I can list from life in Simi and since I knew most of their friends while living in Simi as Brother or Sister so and so, I can’t remember their first names as well so I’m not going to even try… I would consider The Sander’s good friends of theirs, The Browning’s, The Browns, The Kovach’s, The Miles, The Penrods, and The Hamblys. I feel like even my younger siblings might have a different prospective because different people move and move in to their ward (church congregation). One thing I always knew about my parents friends were there were always good people with good values, didn’t drink or smoke anything. I knew if our parents left any of us with them then they trusted them and that was a very high compliment to get from our parents they didn’t just leave us anywhere. A quality that I think most of us kids follow with our own children….aside from the families that have had to deal with divorce because ½ the time the parents have no say in who their children are with. I have an appreciation for the way our parents did friends; it has been a good example to me. –Cherry
         Oh Mom and Dad had some party friends (that smoked & drank) but you are right, we were never left with them.  They would meet them at the bowling alley.  Mom and Dad were at one time pretty good bowlers, trophies and all.  When Joey was born Nat and I stayed with the Glasgow's. Karen must have been pretty fond of Mom to put up with me.  Thinking back I must have been pretty snotty because she asked me to put on my pantie hose and I was mortified.  I didn't have pantie hose I had tights. Not sure if I told her about her mistake or just sulked. When we walked outside to go to see Mom at the hospital it was snowing, small flakes. I was no longer upset just fascinated. Some others I remmber are the Ashtons, Collins, Nicholas and Popletons.  When Leslie Jones came to visit teach one afternoon we were playing by the wondow and she said to Mom that I looked different than all her other children.  I later had to ask Mom and Dad if I was adopted.  Tiffany

      Mom and Dad I remember that you didn't have time for many friends but that those who you chose to have as friends were very close Lou and Pat Miles come to mind. You went out to dinner and plays with them often. I think of June and Al Harris. I am not sure how old I was but I was traveling with Grandma and they were not home but they left the key in the mail box and we stayed in their house and I remember as a small child knowing that they trusted you a lot to have let us stay there. We did a lot of family things with Sue and Steve Hambly and I remember so much laughter. I think of other families in the ward that we went to visit the Poppletons, Kammermans, Sanders and the Walshes. I think of Jim and GraceAnn Whitehead  -Natalie
      What Mom and Dad had friends? -Mike

Mom and Dad balancing their checkbook and other things scary things about Growing up Reid….

Mom and Dad balancing their checkbook and other things scary things about Growing up Reid….

ASK any of the six of us and we each on our own, can tell our own version of Mom and Dad balancing their check book. I personally think watching the passion and yelling that went along with balancing the check book proves we MUST have some Italian in us somewhere! The process generally started out calmly like Dad asking mom what the amount for each of the last 5 checks she wrote. But we knew from experience,  THAT question or anything like unto it was a sign you wanted to HEAD for the hills because a yelling match was about to ensue. I really don’t know if our mom just didn’t write down the amount or if Dad just couldn’t read her writing,  but I really think separate checking accounts at this time would have been beneficial because then they could each handle their checkbooks the way they saw fit.  

Another scary thing was the Dad’s comb being taken from its home on Dad’s side of the sink or sometimes it was the first thing you saw when you opened the sink drawer……IT not being there was a VERY VERY VERY BAD thing. It would cause an eruption of Volcano Dad to happen and this would take place in the wee hours of the morning when our Dad was getting ready for work. I believe through conversations with my siblings that as you became aware of the volcano you made it your business to make sure Dad’s comb was there before you went to bed….because while you may have been old enough to know better than to touch that comb, you knew you had younger siblings that DIDN’T and despite YOU not being the guilty party the heat would fall on you….so if you didn’t want to wake up to hot lava YOU made sure it was there before you went to sleep.

Michael having Idiopathic thrombocytopenia and before he had been diagnosed, all that bruising had raised suspicion;   the doctor reported it to Child Protective Services. They came to our and interrogated us. Luckily in all my childhood CPS only visited that one time and my memories of it were all uncomfortable and pretty scary.  Oh the bright side all the rest of us learned name of that disease and sounded pretty impressive when we were asked why our little brother had to wear a helmet all the time.

Once when we lived in Yerington, Nevada we were driving home from Reno late at night and from the road Dad saw a house on fire. He drove up to see if he could help he was going to go in and see if there was anyone inside, Mom was very upset and told him NOT to risk his live he had 4 children. SO he didn’t run into the burning house and as it turns out there wasn’t anyone in there anyway. But I remember knowing that night that my Dad was the bravest man alive and if someone had been in that house he would have saved them.

I broke two windows while I was growing up. One was when I was trying to be Mork from a popular TV show “Mork and Mindy” in which Robin Williams played an Alien who often sat on his head with his legs crossed, it was this pose I was imitating, when the chair tipped back and my feet went through the window. Another time was when I was much older and did not get to go on the family vacation because I was working so to cheer myself up I had a sleep over with a bunch of my girlfriends. I was trying to scare one of them by going outside on the ledge and knocking on the window and apparently I have a strong knock because the whole window collapsed. Yes I did succeed in scaring my friend. -Cherry
       I did not get my banking skills from Mom and Dad -Mike
The fire....the phone call that came was one of those ahh moments that never leaves your mind.  Seeing the devastation in Moms eyes and the disbelief in Dads has never left me.  Shifting through the ashes and having so many people trying to tell you everything can be replaced was surreal.  It wasn't until we broke down and burst into laughter that I knew everything was going to be ok.  Some people would break into tears and we shared plenty of them but our safety is in the humor. We have been blessed to lose lots of stuff but never one of us. We have been blessed beyond measure and so our scary is easy stuff. When Isaac was close to death it was a side of me that saw broken it was the true scary stuff.  Still so grateful that Natalie is one of Heavenly Fathers favorites and he knew none of us could handle that type of scary. Mom and Dad we need fifty more! -Tiffany

Universal Qualities that come from being a REID

What do I feel are Universal Qualities that come from being a REID….

There are a few Universal Characteristics that I feel all my siblings share and so I will attribute that being a REID.  The first is love of children, each of us truly love children there is patience, an acceptance and a strong appreciation that I’ve noticed not all people have for children, but we Reids have this special reverence for babies and little people we enjoy them and cherish them. I’ve always love this quality about us.

The second is we all have an amazing sense of humor I know EVERYONE one in this world thinks they have a great sense of humor but really the REIDS do. Come to any family event and you will hear more laughter than you hear anything else. We like to share what’s funny to us, we like to be funny and we like to cause funny things to happen. AND what would be interesting to the outside world is we don’t even NEED alcohol to have a good time we do it strictly on our own without chemical influence so we have a good time and still feel good the next day. I remember once while we were traveling to one of Michaels’ soccer tournaments Michael said “Our family can have fun anywhere.” This was a comment he made after we were laughing our heads off about the sub standard motel we were staying in as we watched the walls move as we drifted off to sleep. MAN that place was so gross, but we laughed about it. I’m not sure how we all developed this gift but I see each of us having the ability to see the humor in most any situation.

Another quality is each of us loves to feel and appreciate feeling the spirit some of us feel it more often than others chose to but I do know that all of us are never opposed to feeling the spirit. Some of us don’t work towards it as much as we should but I think as we age we will probably put more emphasis towards feeling the spirit.

Quite Competitive, whether you see this as a good quality or not, the Reids have it, we will make most anything a competition….whether it is fact checking or seeing who can eat the most, TRUST me there is a competition. WE TRY HARD to win, AND if a REID is involved in a competition you can BET that all the other REIDS are yelling and shouting for them. Which brings me to another REID Quality we are loud people, again whether you feel this is a good or bad quality we are stuck with it, we are LOUD.

Scatological YES we are very much free in our conversation of increment we have no qualms about discussing bowl movements. This might gross some people out but we are not grossed out, there have many dinner conversation about how we as children (records states Johnny as a baby was the best at it) painting with the poop from our diapers. Lesser people might feel this is something to keep secret but our mother taught us “you are only as sick as your secrets” so the fact that we finger painted with our poo is not a secret.

A Universal Quality my brothers’ share is the Quality of being heroes. Something I know without a doubt is this………………. put my brothers in any situation where a hero can emerge and they will be THAT HERO. I’ve observed this in them over and over. None of them have cowardice in their bodies. In a crisis situation when some would just worry about their own I know MY brothers would do more and be more. When I hear stories of our ancestors who were heroes, rescuers, stories where they would lay down their lives for others I know all my brothers were blessed with this gift.

Easily offended…………..This isn’t a great quality to have one I wish we didn’t have but hey there’s time maybe we can work on it. We are all easily offended especially by each other; in fact I would venture to guess that we actually don’t give other people outside our family the power to offend us as much as we give it to each other. I feel this actually steams from a good place because we do love each other so much and really value how we are thought of in the eyes of our family members and so when we feel misrepresented or feel that we have let one another down, we are defensive. We want to be seen as highly as we see the good in each other and when we feel we are not it hurts and we are defensive. AND please my dear sisters and brothers don’t be offended by my observations we CAN work on it ;)

I love my siblings so much I know we can drive each other crazy but I know we all love each other very much and all want the very best for each other. I am so proud of the people they are, I am so grateful that our parents gave each of us to each other. We”ve shared more childhood experiences with each other than with any other people, we all grew up Reid and no one can take that from us. -Cherry
               There are many qualities that I share with all of my siblings. In fact some of them I find so natural that when those around me don't have them I think they are odd. We all cherish family and have an understanding that any family member will be there for you no matter what you are facing or how hard times are. Family is who you go to when you need help. Family is where you spend Holidays and birthdays and  they are the people who you share important accomplishments with. Family makes you laugh, cry, and work hard. We all love children. We love to watch the sweet silly and remarkable things they do. We love to have a good time. We love the beach. We enjoy the satisfaction that accomplishing tasks brings. We all love to feel of service to others. We all have an understanding that we were born to parents who put all of their best effort into raising us and find great joy in all that we accomplish. We all respect education. We all love a good competition. We all love sports. We enjoy others successes. -Natalie
       Ditto.... We are all very funny -Mike
Something we all know is to reach Mom and Dad's hearts it will always begin with family. We all know Mom and Dad are the happiest when they have all their children and grandchildren right by their sides.  Each one of us Reids have a love for our children that is intense.  Even Joey without children has a crazy love for his dogs. I know that comes from you Mom and Dad! When we started to plan this anniversary party we gave you the choice and it didn't surprise us that you wanted just your children and grandchildren with you.  Nothing compares to spending time with family. Another gift: we can all write and deliver talks.  This comes in handy at church and is such an admiration outside of church.  We know how to tune into the spirit and let it teach those who are listening.  If our family had a church I'm sure we would could make a very good living motivating, teaching and helping people stop to think and ponder. We would and could have a great road show!  We also have gratitude...grateful hearts. We are fighters, getting our point across is important to us and we wont stop till we are heard. -Tiffany
         We each share too many qualities to list. Not only that but we complete each other. Each one of us has individual strengths that compliment each other. We owe so much of that to Mom and Dad. They raised us to be strong, moral, loyal and most importantly with love. The love in our family is second to none. It comes directly from that the love we were always given and the love our parents always had for each other. -Joey

Foreword for 50th Anniversary Book -Cherry

Scripture tells us we knew each other in the pre-mortal life. John Franklin and  Velvalee Mann Reid those were names unanimously and simultaneously shouted in our existence before earth life when six children were asked who they would like to be their parents on earth.

Seldom before have two names been more divinely appointed than when John and  Velvalee were given stewardship over Cherry, Johnny, Tiffany, Natalie, Michael and Joseph, choice spirits (affirmed in Lee’s patriarchal blessing) Who desired strong spirits to guide them. We must have known that they would be willing to sacrifice everything in their power to teach us to walk in the light. We must have been strengthened by the knowledge that living in the latter days would be much easier having parents with their qualities that they would give us more than either of them received in their own childhoods. We must have foreseen the blessing, the challenges and above all the fun that would be “Growing up Reid”

In our relatively short time together here in this life we have learned so much from you both and anticipate learning so much more from you though out the eternities. You have taught us how to treat others with kindness, serve with humility and to love small children and cherish them. Your examples have bound our hearts to yours and made us want to be better people. We are happier when we are trying to follow your example of sacrifice and family; above all we know you know the Gospel is true and that the plan of happiness was very aptly named.

The memories we have forged with you will continue with us forever. This book is an abridged collection of those memories that we cherish and remember the strongest. Some are inspiring, some ridiculous, all told from our vantage point some accuracy maybe questionable but we know you've gotten accustomed to how we saw things as children vs. how you did as our parents. And now as parents ourselves we understand how very different the  “how it was” and “how it felt” can be.

We have developed a love for family time because you always made it a priority in your life. Our children have been blessed by the energy and effort you have given to family get-togethers, cousin time and family reunions. We see this as BOOK one and know there are many adventures still to come.