Nancy Williams Griffin

Singing in the Choir! Mr. Stocks was an amazing choir director! When I think of my favorite classes, Concert Choir tops the list. Miss Charlotte Whitaker, my Home Ec. teacher gave me a "D" even though I really loved that class too. I just skipped it too many times to go to the stage to rehearse "Sound of Music". Funny how things change. Now I love Homemaking and dislike the "Sound of Music".

This happened in Mrs. Whiting's 7th grade literature class at Washington. She was reading "The Great Stone Face" by Hawthorne to the class. I put my head on my desk because I was incredibly tired, and fell asleep. When I woke up, Mrs. Whiting was still reading. I thought, "Oh good, I haven't missed much". Then I looked around and discovered I was sitting in a completely different class. I had slept through my class, through the class change and into the next. I hurriedly got up and went to my next class. Mrs. Whiting put down the book and met me in the hall. She said she was afraid to wake me for fear I'd go into shock. I really liked her!

We are still doing what we've done for the past 18 years since Gary retired from the Air Force. He manages Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre in Logan, Utah. That is a full time, year round occupation. We farm a little and raise a huge garden and orchard. From Nov. to April I write the music for children's operas, which is part of an outreach program in the public schools. The rest of the year I garden, and hike and build rock walls. I've become quite addicted to Pickleball.

My folks drew a farm on the Northside when it was opened up for homesteading in 1953-4. We lived in a tent for a short time until we got a small house built. Listening to the coyotes howl at night was frightening for a six-yr-old, (me) There were plenty of adventures too. Dad set me on a tractor when I was 6 and told me to drive it into the yard from the field. He didn't tell me how to get it stopped. I knew nothing about the clutch but I pressed hard enough on the brake that it killed the engine. Whew! When I was 12 my mother took me to Boise to play the piano for a National Adjudicator. At Mtn. Home on our way home, she got very tired. It was after dark. She said, "Nancy, you're going to have to drive the rest of the way home. So I did.