1 Once upon a midsummer's night

Eliza Brazier Batt (1864–1926) wrote her life story sometime in 1917 or 1918 when she was 53 years old. It focuses primarily on her early life in England before she and her husband accepted the restored gospel, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and immigrated to America. This is the fourth of nine installments (see Batt & Lee Ancestors, 5–6). Eliza was the mother of William B Batt (1888–1959) and the grandmother of Dorothy Batt Cleverly (1915–1982).

After staying in London three months, I left and re­turned home to engage as cook in the family of William Chanpron Streatfield, an independent gentleman having eight sons and two daughters. The sons were in college at Cambridge. When vacation day arrived, it seemed as if a cyclone had struck the house—all was bustle and ex­citement. The mistress, giving orders here and there, almost danced for joy because her boys were coming home.

The pranks that were played on the maids by these young gentlemen were not few. I well remember an argument I had had with Masters Claud and Harry, who both con­tended that no one could go down the stairs without their hearing him. The next morn­ing when I got up and started to go down the stairs, some­thing went bang! bang! bang! and nearly sent me head first down the rest of the stairs. The young gentlemen had strung paper caps on each step, which of course awoke them.

Mrs. Streatfield always rang the bell for the servants to come to the drawing room for prayers before they retired for the night. The ser­vants’ apartments were a long way from the drawing room, two long corridors away. As soon as we left the hall, the lights were sure to go out. One or the other of these young gentle­men would turn them out, which meant lots of fun and frolic as we felt our way along in the dark. I rather en­joyed the fun. Being young, I did not sense the seriousness of being called to prayer.

One night, after lots of fun, I will never forget: the custom of the house was for the parlor maid to go first and place the Bible and prayer book on a small table for the master to read a chapter. She caught her foot in a rug and fell, the Bible landing at the feet of a very dis­tinguished visitor. I was in perfect purgatory because I wanted to laugh, which would have been severely cen­sured by the master. Not one word did we hear, but I wondered if it were only a mockery to be called to prayers, since some­thing always happened at that time.

After retiring, we were all supposed to be in bed with lights out in an hour, but we were young and full of fun, and many were the pranks we planned and carried out. I remem­ber well one Mid­summer's night, which night was always look for­ward to with much merriment because each one thought she could find out who she would marry. On this Midsummer's night the back door was left open instead of being locked, and because the house was very large and dark, this made a lonesome and weird feeling. Each girl placed on a table a basin of water and beside the basin a bunch of hyssop, then hung on a line a garment that she had worn many times. As the clock struck twelve, her future husband was supposed to come and sprinkle the garment with the hyssop.

So that night when the clock struck eleven, we were all sitting in a row. Not one word could be spoken or the spell would be broken. Tick, tick, tick—oh! how long an hour seemed! What if the house­keeper should find the door open, especial­ly the street door? But, nothing ven­tured nothing to have gained, was our motto. Tick, tick, tick—we never knew an hour could be so long! Five minutes to twelve. Hark! What was that? Creak, creak, nearer it came, a loose board in the corridor; creak, creak, closer and closer it seemed to come, but not a word must pass our lips. Creak, creak, creak. Sitting nearest the open door, I could take it no longer and jumped and ran and broke the spell.

The next morning I was sleeping long after I ought to have been up doing my duty, sweetly dreaming of the only man in the world for me, when suddenly came a sound so terrible that I fell from my bed to the floor. It was one long terrible blast from a cornet. The master raised his window and wanted to know if the house were on fire, but being told it was only the morning call for the maids, he returned to bed and dreamt of Gabriel's trum­pet sounding at the last day.

2 Quote of the week

"I hope that my dear sisters throughout the world—grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and friends—never underestimate the power of their influence for good, especially in the lives of our precious children and youth!" (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, in "The Influence of Righteous Women," Ensign, Sept. 2009, 5).

3 This week in our family

Mon, Oct 5: Jordan Reher's birthday [Ray]
Thurs, Oct 8: Chad's birthday [Kay]
Sat, Oct 10: Kay & Claudia married 1963 [Kay]
Mon, Oct 12: Columbus Day
Mon, Oct 12: Next issue of newsletter

4 Bits and tidbits

Gail's family
Yesterday morning I received this detailed update from Angie (Gail and Lynda's daughter) on her husband: "Last Wednesday Dick woke up in his truck and had had a stroke sometime during the night. He was at a truck stop in Boise. He was able to call 911 himself and they took him to

St Luke's Hospital. I called and talked to Cheryl, and she sent Gene and Ronnie over to administer a blessing.

"I got up there early Wednesday afternoon, and he was still having mini strokes. Dick has a wonderful boss by the name of Ken Summers. He drove me up and brought Dick's truck back to Utah.xI was able to talk to Dale on the phone, and Dick and I had a wonderful visit with Cheryl and Kim, Misty, and Michael (Kim's kids) on Thursday evening.

"We were able to come home on Friday after they got our medical needs in order here in Utah. We are looking at some agressive physical therapy and possibly some heart surgery due to Dick having a heart attack sometime in the recent past that he was not even aware of. He is doing a lot better, but he tires easily, and he fell twice yesterday. I had to ground him for going outside to the mailbox by himself while I was at the pharmacy. Next time I have to leave him alone, I might

have to strap him down to the bed. Ha ha.

"We are grateful he is alive and even more grateful that as of November 12 we will be covered by health insurance and that will help out a lot. I start working for Delta Airlines on October 12, and I am very excited.

"There is not much more going on with the family that I am aware of, except that Debbie has been sick with strep throat. My son-in-law Dustin will be in Idaho Falls for the next 12 days. Hastings is opening a new store there. The official open date is October 6. He is an assistant store manager here in Ogden at the Hastings.

"Lots of love to the family. I love being able to read the tidbits you get from being on Facebook. Everyone in the family needs to get on there."

Michelle Duay posted the following on her family's blog on Saturday, October 3: "I have really enjoyed the cooler weather the last few days. My children have been able to wear their warm clothes and little Zander hasn't seem to realize that it is colder outside. He is such an outside boy, every time I turn around he is trying to escape and run away. I am excited for Halloween and Zander's turn at wearing the Lion costume that was originally purchased for Michael. That is definitely what I call worth the money. All 3 of my little angels have worn it. Michael is going to be Superman and Melanie is going to be Cinderella or any other pretty little thing, she just wants to be pretty for Halloween. Although, we do tell her every day she is beautiful. After spring, this is by far my favorite time of year!!!" Click here to see a picture of Michelle's family.

Dale's family
We are aware of three of Dale and LeAnn's family who are on Facebook: Sarah, Kira, and Keisha. If there are any others, please let us know.

5 Our family 50 years ago

Excerpts from the October 1959 diary of Dorothy Batt Cleverly (1915–1982). The full text of her diary can be found online at Dorothy's Idaho Diaries and is updated daily, exactly 50 years to the day after it was originally written. The family at the time lived on a 40-acre farm in the Deer Flat area south of Nampa, Idaho.

Mon, Oct 5. Ivard started to bale hay but broke both needles on first bale. We took them in & left them to be welded. Ivard helped me make 15 pints grape jam.

Tues, Oct 6. I came home from work & took Kids to school, passed Ivard just comeing home. He had to waite for welders to open to get baler parts. got up at 1: & got ready & Jackie & I went to relief society, first time in new ward & first time for new year. I bore my testimony. At 6:30 Bishop called & wanted me to come in to a meeting so I went at 7: They ask me to be Literature Leader in relief society & I accepted.

Wed, Oct 7. I came home from work & took little Kids to school. It was stormy so Ivard tended Jackie and I went to bed awhile. I got up at 3: & Ivard went to work & I went & got Dean & Dale & we went in to high school & watched Gene play ball. Borah beat them 18 to 7. Max Barlow came & got Rays stuff & he didn't come home from school but went on a scout trip up to church camp until Sat.

Thurs, Oct 8. I came home from work & ate. Kids didn't have to go to school today or tomorrow, teachers Institute at Boise. Gene was going to work for Wally but it rained most of day.

Fri, Oct 9. I came home from work & ate & read paper & went to bed. Kids didn't have to go to school again today. Stormy. Gene worked on his biology & Dean helped him. Oil guy came early so they had a fire.

Sat, Oct 10. Kay called on phone said he won his letter in foot ball. Ray got home before we went to town, from his scout trip. We ate & I went to bed & Ivard Gene & Ray went in to Genealogy Priesthood Conference meeting then Gene went to lucky clover dance.

Sun, Oct 11. I came home from work & went to bed until noon. Ray went to Priesthood & sunday school with Max. No one else went to church today, listened to Conference.

6 What in the world

2016 Olympics
The International Olympic Committee this past Friday awarded the 2016 Olympic games to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It will be the first time the Olympics have been staged in a South American country. I was personally pretty excited because I spent much of my mission 40 years ago in Rio de Janeiro.

Chicago, the U.S. city that was in competition, was eliminated in the first round of voting despite the personal appearances of Michelle and Barak Obama before the IOC to lend their support for their hometown. The contending cities in Spain and Japan were also eliminated.

Where have all the editors gone?
Some more examples from actual newspapers:

A correction to an earlier story: Due to incorrect information received from the Clerk of Courts Office, Diane K. Merchant, 38, was incorrectly listed as being fined for prostitution in Wednesday's paper. The charge should have been failure to stop at a railroad crossing. The Public Opinion apologizes for the error.

In a police report: Police were called to Market Square for a report about a "suspicious coin." Investigating officer reported it was a quarter.

In a news story: An Australian Army vehicle worth $74,000 has gone missing after being painted with camouflage.

7 A final word

Another glorious general conference has just ended. As always, it was a delightful spiritual feast, a banquet of heavenly love and hope and truth.

The messages of our beloved prophet were simple and timely: Don't be angry. Serve others. Draw close to the Savior.