1/11/11, 11:11 am

That will be the date and time of this post. I love stuff like that.

Also, are you all aware that when I called Time and Temp this morning it was FOUR degrees? That is just madness. And Char texted me and said that in Salt Lake it was saying -4. IT IS TOO COLD.

All this cold reminds me of a lady I worked for a couple years ago.

Just kidding, she has nothing to do with the cold. But I thought about her the other day and wanted to remember her.

Here's the deal--when I worked at the RSC (Religious Studies Center) at BYU (Brigham Young University), my boss, Dr. Holzapfel, was a nice guy who liked to help people out. One person he helped out by offering his employees' time was a woman named Carma de Jong Anderson. Her husband was a religion professor, and her father was none other than the namesake of the de Jong concert hall in the HFAC (Harris Fine Arts Center). Sister Anderson was (and still may be, for all I know) working on a book about Mormon historical clothing. She is an expert in historical fashion, and was writing a book about Mormon 19th century clothing, specifically just a few decades. I think it was like 1850-1890 or something like that. Anyway, she had hundreds of images in hard copy, but needed them all to be scanned for her book. I don't know how our office got involved, but Dr. Holzapfel lent her one of my co-workers, Megan, to help her scan things. When Megan graduated, I became the new girl to work with Sister Anderson and get her images scanned.

Let me tell you a few important details about this lady:
-She had very red hair
-She was near 80
-She always wore awesome hats or scarves
-She was very dramatic and talkative

Working with her was always so much more interesting than anything else I did that day. She would tell me lots of things about the images we were scanning, and sometimes insult me without meaning to. Like once she wanted me to do something in Photoshop that I didn't know how to do, like erase another person or something, and she said, "Oh, that's fine. I just got so used to Megan, she could do anything in Photoshop." Or another time when she showed up wearing a particularly amazing hat, I mentioned that I loved hats too, and she said, "Well, you're perfect for hats because you've got a big forehead!"

She is also an artist, and many of the images I scanned were little drawings or watercolors she did of people in their incredibly detailed clothing. And she would explain it to me, saying, "See, you can tell they're from Wales, because of these sleeves. . . ." I wish I could remember all the details, I can't, but I loved it.

One of the things we always had to figure out was when she would come in for us to work together. She would email me, or call me, and we'd sort something out. And she is so hilarious, because she would never just give you a straightforward, "I can come on Wednesday," it was always accompanied with a very detailed schedule of her entire week. I remember one time she called the office and I picked up the phone and said, "Hello?" and then looked at the clock, and I didn't say anything else for 3 minutes, because she was just talking away about her schedule for the week. Which was really insane, I have to say. She had a bunch of grandkids all getting married and having babies all around the same time, and she had showers galore to attend.

But what I'm really getting at with all of this (besides just making a record and remembering her) was this wonderful email she sent me once in regards to scheduling. I had sent her an email explaining that I would be out of the office for a few days because we moved and then went out of town, and I told her that after the 14th would be best. So keep in mind that all she needed to tell me was what day and what time she was coming to the RSC to do some scanning. But what I got was this wonderful gem:

Dear Erin,



I appreciated your schedule sent to me and hope the move is possible to do to your liking, and that your time out of town is a real pleasure and relief.

After the 14th is better for me as I have been assessing what has to be done, drawing and watercoloring some things and until the fifteenth won't be able to come. I think I could well come on the fifteenth. Will R. Holzapfel be back by then, or how long will he be away?

The 15th I would like to come fairly early in the morning so how about 9 am. I hopefully will have a campus parking pass renewed by then. If not, I will have to park below the hill and climb straight up the cement stairway to the Grant bldg. In BY High School years, I modeled going back to school clothes for J.C.Penney's on that stairway and on the porch of the old original white and pale brick Joseph Smith bldg. I detest the black and Navy blue of the new JSB; especially the auditorium. It appears to me as architecture just outside the Gates of Hell, with the inside depressingly dark and forbidding. Before, there were four story windows looking out at Timpanogos, our "holy" mountain, and I did much modern dance in bare feet on that golden oak stage and heard the great musicians of the world every summer for music festivals. Sad, for people trying so hard to look sophisticated that anybody approved that blackish bldg with black relief sculpture on the outside.

Its darkness is like the fresh-faced missionaries all wanting to wear coal black suits for missionary work. Have you seen the eager black flies buzzing around the MTC? It is hilarious. They look like novices of Old Calvinism. How weird to the general public they probably seem. In the JSB the main religion office is badly lighted and awfully dismal, crowded and remarkably lacking in beauty. More like a 4-H animal show with leading faculty and secretaries in their ugly cubicles. What a horrible impression it must make on out-of-state dignitaries.


The Grant building I have been in all my life from childhood to my years in college and then during my married years of classwork. My 57th anniversary is May 22! The Grant is "holy" to me because I met my husband in Hugh Nibley's class at the south east corner of it.


Well, this has been pretty negative, but I have some exciting images to scan and will love working with a cheerful person like yourself. I will like knowing you better. I hope the Mecklenburg marriage is going well. If it is okay, I will just see you at 9 am on the 15th in RSC.


Thanks, Dr. Carma de Jong Anderson


Is that not the most delightful thing you've ever read? I love people with lots of opinions about things, and she had lots of opinions about a lot of things, as you can see. She was so great. Yes, eccentric, for sure, but that's what was so fun about working with her. I don't know what made me think of her recently, but I did. I just might send her an email and ask how the book is going. She is so great.

Please indulge me and leave a comment telling me your favorite line from that email. Mine has to be the one about doing modern dance on the golden oak stage in her bare feet.