Little Swinging Singing Boy

Little Swinging Singing Boy

I’m a little boy and I sing sing sing

I’m a little boy and I Swing swing swing

I’m a little boy and I sing sing sing,

 yes, I sing sing sing

while I swing swing swing

 Julia Corry 

The Swinging Bear!

I’m a swinging bear, and I haven’t a care

 I am having the time of my life

I get to go here, I get to go there

and I always take my wife.

I’m a swinging bear, with tons of hair,

and I am ready for dancing tonight

I step to the left, I step to the right

and I step right out of sight.

I’m a swinging bear, I’m a swinging bear

And I’m swinging my way in here.

Come along with me, the party is free,

And will have a great time tonight.

Julia Corry Oct 19, 2007

Pictures and Memory Lane

Dan and our dad John Gilbert Nielson, Dan is just a little younger than me.  I remember how we used to jump on the bed and play Indians and cowboys on the make believe horses which were the bed front board rail and the bottom of the bed rail.  We would ride on them and get shot down on to the bed, by the make believe and invisible weapons.  Once we accidently broke our mother's Vase in the living room and we were afraid we would get into trouble, so we decided to run away.  We gathered up the pop bottles and I'm talking late 1950's early 1960's.  We put them in a bag and headed down the road.  We were living on a farm in Idaho on land that dad won in a lottery after World War II.  He had around 123 acres in Idaho and our nearest neighbor was probably a mile or so away.  We trudged along and that sack of pop bottles got heavier and heavier.  We were probably not more than 3/4th a mile down the road when our mother pulled up in the car and we gratefully climbed in with our heavy burden.

John and Mazie Alexander Nielson with their tenth and last child. I am glad my mother and dad had my baby brother, Mark.  I feel that our family was truly blest because we all loved each other.  Yes, money was tight and we did not have a lot of the material things of life, but we had what we needed and we never went hungry.  My parents worked hard to provide for us.  My mom worked a couple of times outside the home, when we were in Idaho and once in Arizona.  For the most part she was a stay at home mother.  That was a huge sacrifice, but we all appreciate it. We learned alot about prioritizing family first.  Dad worked hard and sometimes he was gone for weeks at a time; He started his own business and called it; Rocky Slopes Fire Prevention Company.  He would travel around the United States, cleaning and fire-proofing such places as Ramada Inn Restaurants.  I did miss seeing him more often, but his sacrifices for his family did not go unnoticed.

This picture is Gregory____________. Myself, and brother Leland.  We were living in Chandler, Maricopa, Arizona at this time.  My brother Leland and I were close in age and I felt like he always looked out for me as I grew up.  He taught me how to drive.  By the time I was old enough to get my permit, the school we were going to had just decided to not teach driver's ed and so he was my alternative teacher. I used a manual to learn how its done and took my test at the DMV offices.  We were living in Phoenix, Arizona at this time and Leland and I were attending Maryvale High School.  Okay, i this picture we were not even close to being old enough.  We still had to move to Idaho, then back to Mesa, Apache Junction, and then to Phoenix.  We moved a lot when I was young.  I was always having to make new friends in new schools.  Sometimes that was not easy.  But now I look back and realize that I had several adventures along the way!

Natalie Nielson MacNeille Nelson

     Natalie Nielson MacNeille Nelson was born December 26 1941, to John Gilbert Nielson and Mazie Alexander Nielson in Shelton, King, Washington, the first of our parents children to be born in a hospital.  At birth she weighed close to five pounds.  Because of the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequent war the windows had to have black paper to cover them.

.  Her parents with her three other siblings moved from Washington where her father was in the lumber business to Utah and then to Idaho where her father went to school in Pocatello, to learn to become a body and fender man. From there they moved to Duchesne, Utah where he worked at a shop and practiced those skills. 

 the family  then moved to Arizona when it was learned that Natalie had contracted Rheumatic Fever, the doctors felt would be better for her health.  From Arizona the family moved to Idaho so her father could go to school and become a Body and Fender man.  From Idaho they moved back to Arizona and again back to Idaho this time to homestead land.   As an adult she stood  4 feet, 11 inches tall  It was while living on our farm on land near Acequia, Minadoka, Idaho that Natalie met and married Leland Kay Olson the 27th of June 1959.  

Their son Dennis was a great comfort to his mother and brought joy into her life, after about a year; Leland and Natalie divorced and to support her young son and herself she moved to Arizona. She worked hard as a single mother to provide for herself and her son.

 On  November 27 1959, Natalie married Clarence Theodore MacNeille II, they brought their families together as one and adopted three more, giving them eight children to raise. Natalie  has  dedicated her life to the care and nurture of her own children and many other children through her work in the  Day care businesses, which their family owned and ran for many years in Arizona.  In 1993 Clarence Ted MacNeille died from a massive heart attack. They had been married about 30 years.

Natalie was living with her mother  when she met and  married Stanley Joseph Nelson on  August 14, 2004. He had been married two times before and passed through the sorrow of seeing them depart this life. So here were two people who had lived through deep trials.  I wrote the following poem for them.

 Stan & Natalie

This man and woman have known other loves

That lighted fires within their breasts;

The joys of children in their home;

The searing pain of their beloved one's death.

They have known the challenges of life on earth,

And garnered strength through faith in Christ,

Our Lord, to carry on.

It seems that God has watched above;

Has seen their suffering; their lonely nights.

Now, he gives to each, the other to love,

For a comfort in their hour of need.

Yes, sweet love has kindled a glowing

Flame within their hearts,

And new life breathes within their beings.

So let the wedding proceed.

Come, rejoice and join with us;

For these two were not meant to be apart!

Written by Julia Nielson Corry

Dedicated to Stan Nelson and Natalie Nielson MacNeille

  They enjoyed seven wonderful companionable years together until Natalie, who had suffered for years with debilitating illnesses was called home on easter Sunday, April 24 2011.