An Early Angel

I have often honored the earthly angels in my life. They have given comfort and strength. They have taught me lessons. They have brought me messages of love from my Father. I want to remember one of my earliest angels.
    Third grade. Sunday School. We met in the ancient basement of the then unrefurbished Bountiful Tabernacle. We met in a windowless room with bright checkerboard linoleum flooring. There were plenty of interesting places to look during the lessons. One Sunday in my third grade year, a new girl sat in our class. She was introduced as someone that had just moved into our ward. She had blond hair and a shy smile. I was so excited to meet her. (You know who you are don't you?)
   From then on my life was so blessed. LeeAnn was a fun creative person even back then. We loved to play at her house in the top playroom. It just felt great to be there. They had the best toys. I remember making the plastic bugs and things with some machine (sorry the name escapes me....that is why I am trying to record memories!). They had a record player and great records. "And he fam and he fam all over the dam". We would sometimes get to do some cooking. Their family would make burnt sugar. They took some sugar and put it in a pan and cooked it until it was dark brown. I seem to remember it was very dark brown. Then pour it onto a cookie sheet and break it into pieces when it had cooled.
  Then there were the 'sleep outs'. (I may have remembered this in a far distant history on the blog , but enjoy it again!) I lived in a 'different age'. To have some peace and calm, parents would frequently let their children have slumber parties and even better - have the noisy little cluster spend their happy evenings out of doors, thus freeing up the television set and the parents minds and ears for peace. I will state that we were just about perfectly behaved and would never run the neighborhood, toilet paper, scream or any of that sort of stuff...(wicked wink right here). My dad would make us sleep under his bedroom window. I always thought it was so he could listen for 'creepers' but I have come to realize that he didn't want us running the town too far after curfew.
    We would sleep sometimes at my house sometimes at LeeAnn's. One night we even tried sleeping in the front yard. That was way too creepy. LeeAnn always worried about these aforementioned creepers. She would arm us with baseball bats and batons...Let me tell you, it doesn't make for a comfortable night. If you slept too long in the morning, you awoke by yourself in an empty yard. Everyone else having gone their merry way.
   I also remember watching Big Money Movie at the Youngdell house. How I loved watching the old movies. I think that is where I acquired my devotion to the classics. We would watch Uncle Bernie spin the wheel and count down his telephone directory list and dial the number. On more than one occasion the phone would ring at the same time and we would have a moment of exhilaration, thinking someone in the house was about to be rich beyond their wildest dreams. (The jackpot was usually never more than $1,000.00 )
  My earthly angel was always kind and loving to me and everyone she met. She was the head cheerleader in high school! I never saw her treat anyone like they weren't as cool as she was. She was so talented at gymnastics. I would have dreams that I could do flips and splits like her. Bummer when I woke up and found I still couldn't touch my toes without bending my knees.
This was my cohort in all the previous posts about running all over at Stoker School.
My final tribute to her. She had to organize a play at Christmas time for our Young Adult group. She wanted Steve Johnson to be the narrator. I thought to myself, "He is too shy to do that!" but I went with my buddy to ask him anyway. As she asked him and we stood there, he stopped and stared at me...but that was another story!