Abel Almanza

We moved to California when I was two years old.  I don’t have memories of moving there.

 

At Easter, Mom filled two jars with jelly beans and made rabbit head lids for them.

 

Mom and Dad had some friends over one evening and boiled crab legs.  I remember the adults being in the kitchen talking and eating and Kristi and I were in the living room sitting on the floor in front of the big console television.  We were watching Godzilla.  It felt scary and exciting to see Godzilla, taller than the buildings, breathing fire, and walking among the Japanese city and destroying all in his path.  It also seemed like if the adults knew we were watching that, they might have turned the channel.  It felt kind of forbidden, because it was scary.  Afterward, I sometimes had dreams that I was with my family in the city, running and hiding from Godzilla.

 

I had the record story of the Wizard of Oz and became frightened that we might have a tornado at our house.  My friend, JoAnne, lived next door, and I would run as fast as I could from my house to her house because I was afraid that a tornado would come and swirl me up into the sky.

 

Mom invited kids for our birthday parties and made Peter Pan hats for the boys and princess crowns for the girls.

 

My sister and I and the neighborhood kids had some cheerleading pom poms and we used to stand out on the sidewalk and cheerlead.

California Oranges, Texas Cactus

We think your team needs a lot of practice.

Kick ‘em in the knee, Sock ‘em in the chest.

Drag ‘em to the secretary, Yay! We’re the best!

 

Grammy (Mabel Warner) and Uncle Rich Warner came to visit us from Nebraska.  We went to Disneyland and I remember being in the It’s a Small World ride.  We also spent a day at the beach.  I had a patriotic stars and stripes swimming suit.

 

Grammy would call us on our birthdays.

 

I started kindergarten when I was four years old.  I went to North Star Elementary School and my teacher was Mrs. Mike.  I remember learning the alphabet and all of the alphabet people were posted around the room.

Once I was finished with College I decided to move to Utah.

As I grew up I noticed that I was not like most kids as far as sweets.

As I was growing up I began to realize that I liked more salty foods than sweet stuff. Even today I rather eat more salty food than desert.  I was not t00 exided about candy or chocolate, though I did like hot or cold chocolate.

MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Anything that I accomplished in life has not been of my own effort. It is the Lord who deserves all credit. He is the one who gave me direction, guidance, blessings, protection, supplied my needs, wisdom, etc.

The most important thing that I was able to do by God’s mercy was to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. The next was when the Lord put a desire in my heart to be involved in reaching the unreached with the Gospel. Then led me to take a welding course in Waukesha in 1968. Right after I finished that course, I had a job waiting for me with no questions asked. It was a shop where Stone Breakers were built. The name of the business was “Highway Machinery Co. Two weeks after I started to work, I asked the owner Gene Johnson about taking two weeks off to go to Aguascalientes and see my family. He told me to see him the coming Saturday. I did and he gave my paycheck for the week and then he handed me another check for two weeks’ pay. I was surprised but thankful. After I got back, I worked for him as many hours possible that he would need me for. I also mentioned to him that I was going to attend the New Tribes Bible Institute. He was happy to hear that though he was not a believer. I tried to witness to him, but he was never interested.

My name is Alveta Ann Lee and this is the story of my life beginning with my birth on September 21,1946  at the home of Dr. Vince in Vici,Oklahoma.My dad was Elmer Fred Lee,a solider who had just returned from the war in Europe against the Nazis. My mom was Imo Eileen Daniels,a senior at Arnett Highschool. My dad’s family lived on a farm west of Vici,Oklahoma and Arnett was about 20 miles west of Vici.   According to the story that was told to me was that my dad first saw my mom while she was a waitress at the cafe in Arnett  and thought that this is the girl I am going to marry.  He then asked her to the VW Dance and I guess you could say that he swept her off her feet,as  he was a very good dancer. My mom was only 17 y/o and my dad was 26y/o. My mom’s dad said she could get married if she would finish highschool and graduate.

I must start somewhere, and this story seems to be the best.  It is January 2021, the year that I turn 80.  My first story begins with my two granddaughters, Olivia Rose and Eva Katherine Nienhouse.  Both are creative in their own way.  Olivia Rose is a working actor and music teacher, and Eva is a writer and videographer.  First Olivia, then Eva a year later, told me that they have taken on the professional name of Peck, my maiden name.  It moved me to write the following message to them:

“Hi, I’m just filled with love.  I know my parents are looking down and are pleased.  Let me tell you about my dad, William Samuel Peck.  He was a man who spent his life taking care of others.

His father, Samuel Danuel Peck, died when Dad was about 20 and his kid brother, my Uncle Roger, was only 4.  So Dad devoted his next 15 years or so taking care of his mother and little brother.  That included the time that he married my mother and that I was born.  We all lived together.

Then came WW2 and Dad was uncertain if his number would come up to be drafted.  He did not enlist because my mom, me, Roger, and his mother were all dependents.  They had to sell their house in Grand Rapids in case he was drafted.  Grandma and Roger moved into their own rental home in 1943 or so, when I was about 2.  Mom and Dad and I moved to a rental home in Wyoming Park, where we lived when my sister Judy was born in 1944.

Uncle Roger is still alive: 90 years old, fairly healthy, and we stay in touch.  He considers my dad as his father and mentions it often.

My mom became sick with porferia (sp) when I was 8 and was in the hospital for a few months.  She never became total healthy for the rest of her life.  When I was 12 and Judy was 9, Mom was hospitalized again with lupus, and spent 3 months at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  She came home just before Christmas, driven in an ambulance from Rochester.  Dad had missed months of work and then had a huge Mayo bill to slowly pay off.  He never accepted an offered administrative position; he worked as a tool and die maker until he retired.

Your mother can remember him, as she was 23 when he died of an aortic aneurysm in 1989.  My mother had died in 1978, also of an aortic aneurysm.  (Yes, I’ve been xrayed and all is OK)”

 

After I had been in the country for about four months are you are promoted from a private first class to a specialist for. With this promotion I got a little bit more money but I also got more responsibility. Shortly after I was promoted I was a sign

Huhuhugfdbnji

When Lori Lyn was one year old, we experienced a very traumatic event with her. We were at my in-laws for the weekend and had just enjoyed a home-cooked meal of roast beef, potatoes and gravy. Palmer, my father-in-law, and I were cleaning up in the kitchen when we heard the women screaming. We ran into the living room to find little Lori laying on the floor not breathing. She had grabbed a piece of meat from a plate in the kitchen and walked into the living room and then apparently fell backward on her butt. The piece of roast beef became lodged in her throat.

I felt a cold wave of fear that is difficult to describe but I knew I had to do something to save her. The women were paralyzed with fear and Uncle Bobby who was 12 at the time just paced the living room floor yelling “Shit! Shit! Shit!” It was panic city – the scariest scene imaginable. I grabbed Lori by the foot and held her upside down striking her back. Still she was not breathing and was turning blue. The God-awful thought went through my head about a film in a First Aid Class in college that demonstrated how to do a tracheotomy on a live animal using a razor blade and a pen to allow breathing through the throat. God – could I possible do that?? My next thought was to try to get a hold of the piece with my finger. Fear was over coming me as I tried to think what to do next. (The Helmick Maneuver wasn’t known to us back then!) The thought came to me to try to push the meat down her throat. So I put my finger in her small mouth and pushed on what I thought was the piece of meat. Suddenly she cried – the sweetest, most precious sound I had ever heard! She was breathing! We all hoped the meat passed to her stomach and not her lung, but she seemed to be okay. We called a nurse who said we should take her to the hospital in Sioux Falls to check her out. We did and they determined what we had hoped – that the meat had passed to her stomach.

I had never been so afraid in my life that my little girl might die. And I had to somehow save her. Thank God – I was able to do that. I felt a tremendous sense of gratefulness and when it was all over, it was the happiest day of my life!!