The Bakery-Memories of David Lemar Ruesch

The Bakery-Memories of David Lemar Ruesch-Written by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

from Notes from an interview with David Lemar Ruesch with Schneider grandchildren-Thanksgiving 1983.

Key: I=Marilyn Ruesch Schneider, Dad=David Lemar Ruesch, Grandpa = David Ruesch, Grandma = Mary Ann Miller

Dad's earliest memory was of his father (Grandpa) surveying the bare ground for the bakery which he later built.  Dad was 4 or 5 years old when it opened.

The Bakery:  It was a bakery, restaurant, and grocery store.  Grandpa ran all of them.  Grandma helped with the restaurant and too care of the children.  They served ham and eggs for breakfast.  They also served steaks, cinnamon rolls and donuts at the restaurant.  Dad helped with deep frying the donuts.  He looped them through a tick and put them on a tray out of the deep fast.  Dad spent a great deal of time studying, so he didn't exactly work full time.

During rabbit hunting season, people would bring in rabbits to be cooked.  They always had icecream on hand. 

Grandpa borrowed money from the bank (on good character alone) to start the bakery.  He used the income to invest in farms.  He thought his boys would all become farmers and was gathering land for them.  However, at the same time he was always talking about the value of education.  He himself had gotten married and immediately left on a mission to Germany, while his wife working as a "nanny" for wealthy people in Salt Lake City.  None of his own sons went on missions, but all graduated from college with Masters Degrees in Business Administration and/or Accounting.

At Christmas time the bakery always had a beautiful, perfect 15' Christmas tree.  Some of the townspeople would be asked to go up to the mountains and cut one for the bakery.

Grandpa has gone into Salt Lake City after he located the bakery site to learn the business-It took 3 months.

All the kneading was done by hand.  At First they didn't slice bread, but later they had a slicer.  As the children got older they all helped.  dad had the job of sweeping out and running the bread wrapping machine.  The big furnace needed stoking with coal to bake the bread.  How did they know the proper temperature?--They had thermometers in the ovens.  They used a long stick for fishing out the bread from the ovens.

For years they lived above the bakery, where there were several bedrooms.  They ate in the huge kitchen of the bakery.  Hours for the bakery: Open when they got up, closed when they went to bed.  Grandpa got up very early to start the bread.  They had radiators for heating the house.  Dad got burned many times.

Movies-By Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Movies-By Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

When I was little we lived very close to a theater that had many premiers, with all the stars walking up a red carpets which was stretched 1/2 block down the center of the street.  In those days everything about the movie industry was very exciting to us.  We lived in a Ward where many movie stars attended, so I saw and talked to them frequently.

I especially remember the premier of "Dumbo".  There was a small circus with live elephants set up next to the Carthay Circle Theater.  My brother and his friend (5 years old) skipped school and went to see it.  They stayed through it 4 times.  Needless to say, the whole neighborhood and the police were searching for them by the time they were found in the theater.  My mother was sure they had been kidnapped!

When I was in High School, it was "the thing" to do to be an extra in a movie.  Scouts came to our school frequently to ask for volunteers.  I never did it.

They also gave us free tickets to movies-if we would critique them.  This was called a "preview".  We would sit at machines and punch in our reactions both during and after the movie.  I did do this many times.

I went to at least 1 movie a week mostly on dates all the way through High School and College.

Gone with the Wind-by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Gone with the Wind-By Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

When I was 5 years old and in the Kindergarten I had the chance to be the little girl of Scarlet in the movie "Gone with the Wind".  This is how it happened:

My school had a May Day (May 1st) dance and my class danced around a May pole.  The pole was really a teatherball pole.  A photographers from the Los Angeles Time Newspaper came to take pictures.  He asked me to take my shoe off and pretend my feet hurt from all the dancing,  My feet did NOT hurt.  My mother had to talk me into posing.

 The picture was on the 1st page of the Times the next day.  David O. Selznick saw it-he was the producer-director of the movie-an called my mother to ask her if I could try out for the part.  My mother was worried that I would become a terrible movie child and he called her many times before she agreed.  He sent us a copy of the script and I learned my part.

The big day came and we went by bus to the studio.  We were taken right in.  I gave my "lines" to Mr. Selznick and he said I was just right for the part.  Then the phone rang.  He started to yell at the person on the phone.  I remember suddenly being terrified of him.   I told my mother I didn't want to be in the movie.  She tried to change my mind all the way home on the bus.

I wasn't in the movie.  Do I regret it?  I don't know.. maybe a little

How the World has Changed-Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

How the World Has Changed Since I was a little girl-by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

First  let me describe my kitchen.  When I was very small we had a refrigerator with a coil on top of it.  It was run by electricity.  Some of the people I knew still had iceboxes.

We had an oven run by gas, but it didn't have a pilot light, so each time we used it we had to very carefully light it with a match.  A few times I wasn't careful enough and Wow!  What an explosion!  No eyebrows!  and very short bangs.

Our washer (for clothes) was a wringer type.  That meant that you put the soap into the open tub, then put the water in by using a hose attached  to the taps on the sink.  Another hose drained the dirty water out the bottom when you pulled out the plug.  The "machine" part was some paddles that beat the clothes back and forth to get them clean.  After you washed the clothes, you put them through the wringer with one hand while turning a crank with the other hand to get some of the water out.  Then we put them in a basket and carried them outside to hang dry.  Towels and sheets dried very stiff and scratchy, but they smelled wonderful-of sunlight and wind, earth with its flowers.  We ironed just about everything, since there was not yet polyester to make clothes wrinkle free.

We didn't have heat in every room and no one had air conditioning.  We had one heater in the living-room and one in the hallway by the den.  The bedrooms were cold.  I can remember standing over a grate in the floor to get dressed in morning.  Pretty soon my legs would be so hot they would itch, while my fingers were still so cold that they were shaking and clumsy.

Cars were for vacations.  At least that was what my father thought.  He rode the bus to work everyday-it was less expensive than driving a car.  The rest of the family also road buses, bikes or walked to church, to go shopping, to school, doctors appointments-whatever.  The first freeway was the Arroyo Seco.  We used it to go to the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Game.

Little girls ALWAYS wore dresses when I was a child.  We were even sent home from school for wearing pants or the wrong kind of shoes.  Shoes had to have heals and laces.  Boys had to wear long pants no shorts.

Childhood Trip Memories-Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Childhood Trip Memories-by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Story Key: I=Marilyn Ruesch Schneider,  Brother=David Arthur ("Art") Ruesch, Father=David Lemar Ruesch, Mother=Lenore McFarlane Ruesch
Our vacations were always planned by my father.  We went many, many places in a very short time.  The last time I went on a trip with my parents was as a teenagers, I still remember where we went-Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Zion Park, Bryce, Salt Lake City, Manti, Yosemite and Sequoia Parks all in 5 days time.  The only place we hadn't seen before was Yosemite.  All of us were looking forward to seeing it.  We arrived there and went directly to our cabin.  It was a tent cabin.  My father did not want to stay in tent cabin so we left Yosemite within 20 minutes after arriving and went on to Sequoia.

On one trip, we stopped by the side of the road for some reason.  There was a very steep embankment with a little stream at the bottom of it.  My brother and I were thirsty and decide to hike down to the stream.  We started out just fine, but got going faster and faster.  Then we rolled and couldn't stop.  And couldn't get back up the hill.  My dad had to come down and help us back up the hill.

We went for several years to Camp Radford, a summer family camp run by the Los Angles PTS (my mother was a big deal in the 10th district PTA).  We rode horses, hiked and did crafts-leather and gimp, especially (Ask me and I'll teach you how to make something out of Gimp).  A few years ago, I passed by Camp Radford.  It is in a beautiful area-Barton Flats of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Recollections of the Theater-by Lenore McFarlane Ruesch

Recollections of the Old Salt Lake Theater by Lenore McFarlane Ruesch (written in 1960s?)

I realize that many famous actors and actresses made their debuts or appeared on the stage of the Old Salt Lake Theater, but countless ordinary folks were presented in amateur productions, and I was one of them: so I have found memories of the old theater.

I was a young child, seven or eight years old, when I appeared on the stage of the Old Salt Lake Theater in an elaborate patriotic production which impressed me so much that I have always remembered it.

Along with numerous other young students from the Salt Lake City schools, I was selected to be in a "living flag" tableaux.  In costumes of red, white and blue, we formed a huge shield and sand patriotic songs.  It was during the time of the first World War, and one of the songs we sang went like this:

If you don't like your Uncle Sammy

If you don't like the red, white and blue

Then go back from whence you came,

Whatever be its name,

And don't be unfaithful to me!

 

If you don't like the stars in Old Glory

If you don't like the red white and blue,

Then don't act like the cur in the story,

Don't bite the hand that's feeding you!

(Good Advice even today!)

 

We sang it with fervor and enthusiasm as only children can.

I remember that the theater was very old even then, with worn plush seats in the pit, creaky wooden floors and a sort of spooky atmosphere associated with the place, which added to my excitement.  I remember going through the dark, narrow, musty smelling hall to the dressing rooms and waiting in the gloomy wings until the lights went up, and our act was on.

Then I remember watching a crew of men pulling ropes as the huge curtains opened.  The bright footlights dazzled and blinded us to all but a blurred vision of the vast audience arranged neatly out font and far up to the highest tier of the balcony seats.  And finally I recall the thunderous applause which greeted the completion of each of our songs.

I felt really sad when they tore the old theater down.  There I had lived through an adventure comparable to that enjoyed by the pioneer actors and actresses.  The place might have been a "firetrap", as people said, but it was dear to my heart.  I had acted on that famous stage even though the crowd of those participating was so large that even my own mother couldn't pick me out.  But I had appeared on it's stage, and forever afterward, the "theater" was in my blood; and the Old Salt Lake Theater was a alive in my memory.

Childhood Memories-How did we Play?-by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Childhood Memories-How did we play?-By Marilyn Merle Ruesch Schneider (written approx. 1988)

Story Key: I=Marilyn Ruesch Schneider,  Mother=Lenore McFarlane Ruesch

There was a lady in the neighborhood who liked to gather up all the children and put on plays.  She lived around the corner .  They were out of doors with a sheet for a curtain.  One play was about a flower garden with bees, butterflies and flowers.  I was a flower.  I remember thinking it was a dumb play, but I didn't want to be left out either.

Ann was my best friend.  We played hop scotch, jump rope, and kick the can with the whole neighborhood.  One day nobody would play with me, so I went home crying.  My mother spent the rest of the day with me.  We made some doll clothes out of little scraps of fabric--on my letter toy singer sewing machine.  We sat by the window and I could see the children playing.  I remember thinking "Ha, ha--I don't need you!".

We played lots of paper dolls.  We drew our own dolls and clothes and colored and cut them. We spent hours making up stories about them.  When I was 12, I secretly played with paper dolls and story book dolls with my friend Merlyn.  We knew we were too old for it.

When we went to Utah which was every summer-I played with my cousin Sharon.  Her grandma and my grandma lived next door to each other.  We made hollyhock dolls and played with them.  We thought they were gorgeous.  We liked to play in Grandma's rock garden. 

I always got a childhood diseases like chicken pox or measles while I was there.  But we would "sneak" and play through the fence.  When I got whooping cough the City quarantined us with  big sign on the house.  No one could come inside or even leave our hour unless they had already had the disease.  That was a hard summer!

First Memories-by Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

 

First Memories-by Marilyn Merle Ruesch Schneider (written approx. 1988)

Story Key: I=Marilyn Ruesch Schneider,  Brother=David Arthur ("Art") Ruesch, Father=David Lemar Ruesch, Mother=Lenore McFarlane Ruesch

My earliest memory was when I was about 2 years old.  My brother and I were cuddled in my mothers lap.  My brother was nursing.  I asked my mother "Can I have some too?" Mother laughed and said "you can, but I don't think you'd like it"

Another early memory is sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting on the sidewalk for what seemed like hours.  My friend Ann had left me, saying, "I'll be back in a minute".  I remember thinking that a minute was a long time--a very, very, long time!

I remember my mother reading nursery rhymes to us.  She had quotations for every occasion and we heard them daily.  She reminded us frequently that she has been an English major in college.  She wanted us to learn to appreciate great literature as she had learned to do in school.

There was always a war going on between my father and mother about who was the most learned, the better student, the most knowledgeable about current affairs, the most high-class in his tastes-actually, a war over everything that mattered to either of them.

Cars in the 1930's-How the World has Changed-by Dallas Max Schneider

How the world has changed since I was a little boy-By Dallas Max Schneider

(written approx. 1988)

Story Key:  I=Dallas Max Schneider, Dad = Orval Dallas Schneider, Mother =Rosabelle Larsen Schneider, Grandparents Larsen=Neils and Matilda Larsen

Cars were in, but not with the numbers or the dependability that they have now.  I can remember with great vividness my Dad preparing the car to go to Hyrum Utah to visit my Grandparents, Aunt, Uncles Cousins and Friends.  It was an awesome task;  Extra tires, extra gas and water for the radiator.  Let me tell you about this trip to Utah in 1933.

My Dad owned a 1928 Hudson which in this own words would "Pass anything but a gas station".  After Loading the car with all of our personal items, then came all the other things that I mentioned above.  Gas in 5 gallon cans were placed and secured on the running boards, at least 3 extra tires tied to the trunk and the extra water stored in several locations around the inside of the car.  It was jammed and packed .  The passenger list included my Mother, Father, older Sister LaRae and newly born brother Dee., my mother's 2 younger brothers Lamont Larsen and Lorin Larsen.

Because of the summer heat we would always leave about 9pm in the evening and drive all night across the desert.

We start, and spirits are high.  The car with my Father at the wheel speed across the desert towards Las Vegas, a sleepily little desert town.  Soon all are asleep but me and my Dad.  Even at that early age (I was 5 years old) I felt that it was my duty to stay awake with my Dad and help him drive.  He would set me on his lap and let me hold the wheel and sleep would flee from my eyes with this wild excitement in my life.  My Dad teaching me to drive!  Wow!  who could ask for anything else in life.

I guess I was not as stoic as a I thought for the next thing I remember is burning night air and the car had stopped.  Outside I could hear the voices of my Father and Uncles.  They were fussing with something under the hood of the Hudson.

My young mind did not comprehend what they were doing and all I knew was that it was dark, hot and we were not moving.  Others began to wake.  My one year old brother began to cry and my sister began to sya in a sleepy whiney voice "When are we going?"

Dad and Uncles finish their work and we are off, hurtling down the road in the dark of night fifty miles per hour.  Everyone settle back into the routine of Dad driving and everyone else sleeping.  Thirty minutes later the car stops again. Everybody awake, Dad and nclces repair the car, my brother crying and my sister and I impatient to be moving.  This sense is repeated over and over.

What has happened is that there is something in the gas line and it clogs the line from the gas tank to the carburetor.  My Dad and Uncles become so frustrated that unprintable words are spoken and finally my Dad has to sit on the fender of the car and slowly pour gas into the carburetor and one of my Uncles has to drive the car slowly down the road.

We would creep this way till we found a gas station opened with a mechanic that could fix the car.  The car would be fixed, an exorbitant fee charged, and off we would go.  Twenty miles down the road the car would do the same thing.  We limped into a least 3 gas stations, all with the same results.  Fix the car, charge a horrible fee, drive 20 miles out of the range of the gas station, and the car would stop and my Dad and Uncles would have to repeat the same procedure.  We finally arrived at Mesquite, Nevada as the blazing sun leaps over the western sky.  We ate one of the worst breakfasts known in all the halls of resturantdom.  The car repaired- we zoomed through the heat of the day for about 50 miles and CLUNK!  The car stopped again.  Dad back out on the running board all the way to Cedar City.  The mechanic there knew just what to do and 15 hours later we were safe, sung and well fed and put to bed at Grandpa Larsen's House.

It took us 32 hours to drive 900 miles.  The route has changed.  It is now only about 800 miles and can be driven in 16 hours.

 

Part 3-An Interview with Grandma Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Part 3-An Interview with Grandma Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

• When and how did you meet your spouse? What did you do on dates? I met him an a blind date That my roommate from BYU put on.
• What was it like when you proposed (or were proposed to)? Where and when did it happen? How did you feel? I waited and waited until, finally, his Mother told him you better ask her to marry you or she won’t think you are sincere. Soon after that he proposed that was probably the best thing she ever did for me. And then when he finally proposed, he wanted to do it in six weeks! My mother said it would be impossible.
• Where and when did you get married? We got married in the salt lake temple in 1955.
•  What memory stands out the most from your wedding day? We drove all the way to California with the Schneider’s on our wedding night. 
• How would you describe your spouse? What do (did) you admire most about them? He was a kind gentle person he was a good provider, took good care of me he was generous tall handsome and never stopped talking.
• What do you believe is the key to a successful marriage? Talking and agreeing with each other before talking to anyone else.
• How did you find out you were going to be a parent for the first time? I was sick and vomiting.
• Why did you choose your children's names? Ether because it was a family name or because we just liked it
• What was your proudest moment as a parent?  We did the  twelve days of Christmas for someone every year.
• What did your family enjoy doing together? Going on vacations
• What was your profession and how did you choose it? Occupational therapist I chose it because I couldn’t be a nurse.
• If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice? A nurse… my parents thought it was not a suitable profession.
• Of all the things you learned from your parents, which do you feel was the most valuable? Forgiving and the love of reading and literature.
• What accomplishments were you the most proud of? Created traditions, helped with my collage and mission, illustrated and wrote Anne free, paintings, Quilts costumes, and trained to be a naturalist.
•  What is the one thing you most want people to remember about you? All of the accomplishments I’m most proud of.

Part 2-An Interview with Grandma Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

Part 2 Interview with Grandma Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

• Do you remember any fads from your youth? Yes, we went to school dances and went to movies. Popular hairstyles?  For the women, the hair was set in curlers and then worn softly curled around the face. Clothes? For women, the shirts were tailored and the skirts were full tea length.
• Who were your childhood heroes? Super man.
•  What were your favorite songs and music? Just 40s music; I can’t remember what exactly.
• Did you have any pets? If so, what kind and what were their names?  Yes, I had a dog named Danny boy the thirteenth, a cat called Cinderella, some rabbits, pigeons, frogs and desert tortoises.  (It was legal to catch them and have them as pets then.)
• What was your religion growing up? What church, if any, did you attend? I grew up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Were you ever mentioned in a newspaper? Yes, I had a full page picture of me during a mayday festival. The photographer asked me to pretend like my foot hurt and to hold it. I didn’t like him instantly. So I scowled at him while I held my foot. It was a photograph that led to me being asked to audition for the movie, Gone With the Wind.
• Who were your friends when you were growing up? A girl named Ann, and boys from my neighborhood.
• What world events had the most impact on you while you were growing up? Did any of them personally affect your family? The bombing of pearl harbor, After that there were lots of black outs, air raids, and bombs.
• Describe a typical family dinner. Did you all eat together as a family? Who did the cooking? What were your favorite foods?My mother cooked a lot of fried steak and boiled potatoes.  My least favorite foods were canned veggies. And my dad had three different radios going with three different ball games on at the same time!
• How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions?  On Christmas Eve, if we covered the couch with a sheet, we were allowed to sit on it. And if we were good, we could also have a fire. (Because for some reason we weren’t allowed to sit in the living room .) That fireplace only got used once a year, at Christmas!
• How is the world today different from what it was like when you were a child? Well now we have Television and all sorts of other technological gadgets.
• Who was the oldest relative you remember as a child? What do you remember about them? My father’s mother, Mary Miller Ruesch . She taught me how to make bread…she scrubbed floors so that her husband could go on a three year mission. That was for their first three years of marriage.  
• What do you know about your family surname? “Rue” means road in French and  “sch” is a Swiss/German ending.
• What stories have come down to you about your parents? Grandparents? More distant ancestors? Anne Hicks Free was a pioneer who pushed a handcart from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake.  James McFarlane was also a pioneer who came west walking next to a wagon from .
• Are there any stories about famous or infamous relatives in your family? Our ancestor James Smith signed the declaration of Independence.
• Have any recipes been passed down to you from family members? Mary miller rueschs bread
• Are there any physical characteristics that run in your family? Heavy eyebrows, big legs, long earlobes.
• Are there any special heirlooms, photos, bibles or other memorabilia that have been passed down in your family? I have a crystal goblet and a baby bonnet from Anne hix free, a bible from Arthur McFarlen, Decorations from Gertrude McFarlane, photos, furniture, and German books from David Ruesch.  
• What was the full name of your spouse?  Dallas Max Schneider, Siblings? David Arthur Ruesch, Parents? David Ruesch, Lenore Ruesch.

Part 1-An Interview with Grandma Marilyn Ruesch Schneider

 

Part 1 of an Interview that Caleb Harrision did with Grandma Marilyn Schneider

• What is your full name? Marilyn Merle Ruesch Schneider.
• Why did your parents select this name for you? Because my mom wanted it.
• Did you have a nickname? No.
• When and where were you born? In Akron Ohio 1933
• How did your family come to live there? My dad taught there.
• Were there other family members in the area? No.
• What was the house like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones? We had to use an Ice box instead of a fridge but our stove was pretty much the same except we had to light it with a match.
•  Were there any special items in the house that you remember? Same as above.
•  What is your earliest childhood memory? When my brother was born, I was a year and a half.
• Describe the personalities of your family members. My mother was nice and so was my brother, but my father was kind of a grouch.
• What kind of games did you play growing up? Kick the can…hop scotch…marbles and of course dolls with my friend Ann, I had to walk two miles to her house to do it! I also played a real fun game with the boys on my street, it went like this… we would go to one of the abandoned lots where the grass grew really tall and burrow through it creating tunnels. Then we would create bases and try to spy on other’s bases.
• What was your favorite toy and why? Our tin can phones. 
•  What was your favorite thing to do for fun (movies, beach, etc.)? Well some of my favorites were to go down in the sewers and go on the roller coaster at the beach.
• Did you have family chores? What were they? Which was your least favorite? I hated to clean toilets when I was a kid.
•  Did you receive an allowance? How much? Did you save your money or spend it? I had to work for any money I wanted.
• What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects? All of my subjects were easy for me, and if you got good grades you got set out to recess early…that created a lot of tension between students.
• Where did you attend grade school? High school? College? Los Angles,  Salt Lake , BYU, Provo and UCLA.
• What school activities and sports did you participate in? I wasn’t into sports much but I was in a debating club.