951 Diestel Road
February 2013
I am Ann Bowman Scott and I grew up on Diestel Road with my parents Lucille and Harold Bowman. Our family bought the house in the late 1930's and I resided there until I married in 1954. Lucille and Harold, and then Lucille, continued to live on Diestel until 2003, when one of my daughters bought the home. We have a long history here on Diestel.
Here are some thoughts about the neighborhood when I lived here.
During WWII my parents invited all their close friends to farm and preserve their own food grown on acreage bought down by the railroad. The kids would help out by chasing the snakes out of the garden. The adults would cook, can and bottle carrots, tomatoes, peas. One fall someone forgot to turn down the heat on the pressure cooker and it blew a hole in the ceiling. Needless to say, a bit of medicinal whiskey and laughter was always found in the kitchen.
My neighbor, Bob Pembroke, lived next door and we would walk to school through the gully with the other kids. On my home from school one day I found a horned toad on the gully path and put it in my thermos bottle. Lucille did not enjoy that surprise encounter. All the kids were schooled at Uintah Elementary, Roosevelt Junior, and East High. Some of you may remember Lisle Bradford the music teacher at East High. Besides Bob, some of my childhood friends were George Earle, Reed Clark, the Romneys, the Gleaves, Reed Holt . . . . . . and of course Shirley Graff grew up across the way. We used to play football in the street before it was paved. Bob Pembroke (939 Diestel), Reed Holt (966 Diestel), Bob and George Romney's - expert ski jumpers (963 Diestel), Reed Clark (939 Greenwood), Gleaves (971 Diestel), Collipriest (936 Diestel), Bob Young (1608 Michigan), Colonel Goodrich (953 Diestel), Lucilles friend Mina Finlayson (973 Diestel). Harold had a neighbor he nicknamed "Hot Foot" (934 Diestel) because he would stroll down the street on the daily basis and ask for a ride.
One of the gully cats climbed the phone pole and the fire department had to retrieve her - that would cost a fortune today. Bob and I and a few neighbors used to walk up to Fort Douglas and get the left over cable spools and "walk" them home down Sunnyside to our house. We'd pound off the wheels and use them to cover trenches we built in the gully hillside to make war rooms - a bit like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. More gully adventures included rolling boulders into the culvert under 1500 East to make a swimming hole in the Spring. By July end the police would have to come and roll out the boulders which we rolled back to finish off our summer swims. Sometimes our street felt like the stepsister of the Harvard/Yale neighbor but we had the gully and the stream as our hidden gem. The neighborhood was mostly boys my age, but there were a couple of girls. Margaret Wheeler (brother Don Wheeler, Wheeler Machinery) and I would sleigh-ride on the old church property (before the ward house was built). A great pasttime until Margaret knocked her teeth out on a boulder that jumped into her path. Ardith Vickers lived on 900S and Greenwood NE corner - she was a school friend. The neighbor kids would walk to the LDS ward on 1800 E near Laird Park to watch movies in the gym, afterward we would walk home at night, scatter at 900 S and Diestel and all run home terrified.
When I attended the University of Utah there was nothing but dirt fields of June grass from Sunnyside to campus.
Does anyone remember the butcher shop on Princeton west of 1700 East?
My husband, Lynn Scott, and I were married in the backyard at the house. During our wedding, a friend fell in the fish pond during the ceremony. Neighbor and LDS Bishop Jackson married us. The Salt Lake Tribune carried the nuptials on its wedding page.
Our daughters Elizabeth and Julie, grew up visiting this house while growing up. Sunday dinners in the formal dining room with everyone crowding the kitchen attempting to cook and cleanup; sleeping on the Mormon couch waiting for us to come pick up the children from a holiday party with us smelling like cigarettes, whiskey, and cold; lovely garden BBQs surrounded by petunias, geraniums, marigolds, and crabapple trees; family photos on the terraces and sandstone benches.
Bonneville Ward was my parents church of choice. They were active in the later years. One time on the walk home, Lucille was the victim of the first bicycle drive-by knock down near the church parking lot. The culprit is still at large. Poor Lucille broke her arm. The ward council was outraged.
Good to share with all of you,
Ann
I am Ann Bowman Scott and I grew up on Diestel Road with my parents Lucille and Harold Bowman. Our family bought the house in the late 1930's and I resided there until I married in 1954. Lucille and Harold, and then Lucille, continued to live on Diestel until 2003, when one of my daughters bought the home. We have a long history here on Diestel.
Here are some thoughts about the neighborhood when I lived here.
During WWII my parents invited all their close friends to farm and preserve their own food grown on acreage bought down by the railroad. The kids would help out by chasing the snakes out of the garden. The adults would cook, can and bottle carrots, tomatoes, peas. One fall someone forgot to turn down the heat on the pressure cooker and it blew a hole in the ceiling. Needless to say, a bit of medicinal whiskey and laughter was always found in the kitchen.
My neighbor, Bob Pembroke, lived next door and we would walk to school through the gully with the other kids. On my home from school one day I found a horned toad on the gully path and put it in my thermos bottle. Lucille did not enjoy that surprise encounter. All the kids were schooled at Uintah Elementary, Roosevelt Junior, and East High. Some of you may remember Lisle Bradford the music teacher at East High. Besides Bob, some of my childhood friends were George Earle, Reed Clark, the Romneys, the Gleaves, Reed Holt . . . . . . and of course Shirley Graff grew up across the way. We used to play football in the street before it was paved. Bob Pembroke (939 Diestel), Reed Holt (966 Diestel), Bob and George Romney's - expert ski jumpers (963 Diestel), Reed Clark (939 Greenwood), Gleaves (971 Diestel), Collipriest (936 Diestel), Bob Young (1608 Michigan), Colonel Goodrich (953 Diestel), Lucilles friend Mina Finlayson (973 Diestel). Harold had a neighbor he nicknamed "Hot Foot" (934 Diestel) because he would stroll down the street on the daily basis and ask for a ride.
One of the gully cats climbed the phone pole and the fire department had to retrieve her - that would cost a fortune today. Bob and I and a few neighbors used to walk up to Fort Douglas and get the left over cable spools and "walk" them home down Sunnyside to our house. We'd pound off the wheels and use them to cover trenches we built in the gully hillside to make war rooms - a bit like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. More gully adventures included rolling boulders into the culvert under 1500 East to make a swimming hole in the Spring. By July end the police would have to come and roll out the boulders which we rolled back to finish off our summer swims. Sometimes our street felt like the stepsister of the Harvard/Yale neighbor but we had the gully and the stream as our hidden gem. The neighborhood was mostly boys my age, but there were a couple of girls. Margaret Wheeler (brother Don Wheeler, Wheeler Machinery) and I would sleigh-ride on the old church property (before the ward house was built). A great pasttime until Margaret knocked her teeth out on a boulder that jumped into her path. Ardith Vickers lived on 900S and Greenwood NE corner - she was a school friend. The neighbor kids would walk to the LDS ward on 1800 E near Laird Park to watch movies in the gym, afterward we would walk home at night, scatter at 900 S and Diestel and all run home terrified.
When I attended the University of Utah there was nothing but dirt fields of June grass from Sunnyside to campus.
Does anyone remember the butcher shop on Princeton west of 1700 East?
My husband, Lynn Scott, and I were married in the backyard at the house. During our wedding, a friend fell in the fish pond during the ceremony. Neighbor and LDS Bishop Jackson married us. The Salt Lake Tribune carried the nuptials on its wedding page.
Our daughters Elizabeth and Julie, grew up visiting this house while growing up. Sunday dinners in the formal dining room with everyone crowding the kitchen attempting to cook and cleanup; sleeping on the Mormon couch waiting for us to come pick up the children from a holiday party with us smelling like cigarettes, whiskey, and cold; lovely garden BBQs surrounded by petunias, geraniums, marigolds, and crabapple trees; family photos on the terraces and sandstone benches.
Bonneville Ward was my parents church of choice. They were active in the later years. One time on the walk home, Lucille was the victim of the first bicycle drive-by knock down near the church parking lot. The culprit is still at large. Poor Lucille broke her arm. The ward council was outraged.
Good to share with all of you,
Ann