Oregon Vacations

The Prices vacationed several times in Oregon, visiting long-time friends who had moved there. When driving to Oregon, Gene would leave right after work. He would drive from Pocatello to about Payette (about 5 or so hours). Even though he stopped smoking years earlier, he would smoke while driving -- to keep himself awake, Ann said.

Ann was responsible for driving from Payette to about Bend, Oregon, (over 6 hours) -- which would be through the middle of the night. Gene would sleep while she drove, and she would have to stay awake while he drove to take care of the children and to keep him awake.

When they got to the mountains of Oregon, Gene would drive again as the sun came up. He would be rested, but Ann would have gone without any sleep. She hated that drive.

As far as Ann knew, Gene was a faithful husband for most of their marriage. There was only one exception she did share. It happened when the family vacationed in Oregon. Ann didn't share the details of what happened, but they immediately returned to Idaho and stopped communicating with the family there. Ann said the couple there believed in an open marriage.

When an opportunity to communicate came up decades later, Ann's response was that she 'didn't want to talk to that woman ever again.'

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Photos from a vacation to Oregon. Left frame: a seal playing in the ocean water while a friend (in the hat) watches. Middle frame: a photo from the jetty back toward the beach with the family in the distance. Right frame: waves splashing on the jetty.

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Sent Away

After her high school graduation, she was sent to live with Don and Ginny in Mountain Home, Idaho, because of persistent nose bleeds. She was told the drier climate would help. Nosebleeds may be genetic for our family as several family members suffered from them. In retrospect, Ann said, she felt like she was constantly being sent away. She doesn't know if other siblings got sent away as much as she did. She also spent some summers in Montana (in Butte or Bozeman - she couldn't remember which [see note below]) to spend time with her sister Dorothy and her husband Grant. Dorothy was ill, and Ann recalls that the water there was bad. When they moved out of Montana, she got better. One of the funniest sights she ever saw was while visiting her sister Dorothy. She remembers her nephew, little Lewis, coming around the corner inside the house wearing one of Ann’s skirts. It was a beautiful full skirt that she loved. Lewis was about 7 years old and must have just grabbed something to ...

Wedding & Marriage

Ann was braver than Gene -- she was the one who asked him to sit by her when they first met. Gene was a safe person, she said, but not a brave person. After they got married (eloped to Twin Falls), Gene and Ann went up to the church youth camp where his mother and father worked during the summer. Ann got the impression that his parents didn't know they were getting married. Gene had to borrow some money from them to pay for a short honeymoon. Mostly they camped out. They argued like normal married couples, but Gene hit her only once. She was mad and slapped him first. He slapped her back. ----- Photo of Eugene Price in front of a camping tent in the middle of a forest.

Williamsburg, Virginia

Once she landed in Virginia, she lived briefly with her brother Don and his wife Ginny in Portsmouth and then g ot a job and an apartment in Historic Williamsburg, Virginia. Her apartment was on the third floor of a building on Prince George's Street, across the street from the Tri-Delta house near the campus of William and Mary College. The room was so small she would prefer to go down to the second floor to look out the windows and watch the people on campus walking around. She remembers the end of the semester or year when big limos would show up to pick up the students to go home. She walked to work at the Williamsburg Inn (a distance of about a mile). The walk took her through historic Williamsburg every day. At the Inn, she had to enter by the back (employee) entrance. She worked in the coffee shop, drawing beer, making sandwiches, and serving the customers. She loved that job. She never really did the touristy things in Williamsburg, though she did remembe...

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