Janet Mabel Neate Hansen

So I was going through my desk the other day and I found my notes from my  interview with Grandma for an assignment in high school, and I thought that I would share some of the facts I tried to piece together. 

Janet Mabel Neate Hansen was born May 23, 1924 in Dovercenter, Ohio. She lived in an old farmhouse in the country with two brothers and two sisters, one of those being her twin. 

Janet loved being a twin. She loved her older sister Helen very much, but she had a connection with her twin Janice that was indescribable. The bailed each other out of trouble too many times to count and it was like they could read each others mind. When Janet was 14, she and Janice were supposed to home at the same time. Janet was not home, and so Janice had to hide in the closet in their bedroom so their mother would not know  that Janet wasn't home with Janice because she would have gotten into big trouble. 

Growing up, Janet has many fond memories of Monopoly, dress-up, and just getting dirty outside with her siblings. There was always a game of Monopoly being played and they took very goo care of it. If the board was ruined, they weren't getting a new one because they were growing up in the Depression. 

In 1930, Janet's family made the huge leap from Ohio to Montana. Her father was out of work at this time and there were rumors of potential in Montana. They also decided on Montana specifically because an aunt of Janet's lived there. She also was very wealthy and gave lots of clothes to the girls; without her the Neate girls would have had nothing to wear. The aunt also tried to make them take cod liver pills because she thought they were really good for you. 

While living in Montana, the Neate family had chickens so there was always eggs. They would also make playhouses and forts with old blankets given to them by Mother. The Neat children woke up around 7 every morning to be picked up first by a big school bus that took them to their one-roomed school house. It was the kind of school house that you sat on benches and there were only two or three children in each grade. As a treat, the teacher would sometimes handout a stick of gum if their behavior was good. This happened about once a month; gum was rare because it was so expensive. 

Like many families growing up in the Depression, the Neate family was poor. So Janet wore the same dress everyday. When they lived in Ohio, her mother washed clothes in a machine. But in Montana, her mother stood by the sink and used a scrub board to wash her children's clothes every night. Ethel Mary Russell Neate worked very hard to provide a good life for her family; they always had a really big garden and she spent hours slaving away- canning food, making butter, and baking bread. She also sewed her family's clothes and always made sure her children had something to eat. A bowl of oatmeal was considered a good meal; Janet says she never went hungry. Ethel was a school teacher before her children were born, but gave it up to raise her children. 

Her husband, Arthur Hamilton Neate was also a school teacher. He was a carpenter on the side, building things around the house as well as things for the family to use. Because he had a hard time keeping a job, they were forced to move around a lot. 

The summer of 1937 was an awful one for Janet; she  got a boil in her nose at age 13. The doctors in Billings didn't really know what created the infection; the only thing they could think of was the bacteria in the dust at the fair she had gone to. Unfortunately, the boil was not in an area that could be reached easily. Her face got very swollen; her lip stuck out and then there was no circulation in her nose. It became a matter of life and death. The only thing the doctor said they could do was to put hot packs on it in hopes that it would run down her nose and not up into her brain. After missing two months of school, her family went to the doctor again. He was then able to drain the puss. He told her the cartilage in her nose had rotted out due to infection. When Janet was 18, she made the two-day journey to a clinic in Minnesota to have plastic surgery done. They took cartilage from her rib and placed it into her nose. Because she was hit hard in the nose later in life, she went to have surgery done again. A different doctor said the cartilage hadn't rotted out, rather it had fallen to the side. She then had cartilage take from her ear and put in. Her nose is still very wiggly. She actually demonstrated just how wiggly her nose was while speaking with her.

During her teenage years, Janet's favorite candy was Mars Bars, but now it is Snickers. She was also scared of thunder and lightening and windstorms (still true today). Also, Janet dated a lot. In fact, her nickname was Red because of her hair. Janice's nickname was Slim because of her tiny figure. They started dating around 14, going to school dances and such. It was at one of these dances (Junior Prom) that she met the love of her life, James Robert Hansen. They both had different dates, but when they saw each other it was "love at first sight." The dance was on a Friday night, so she was thinking about him all of Saturday and Sunday. Sunday afternoon he drove over and she went out and talked to him. He asked her to prom via note from friend. At the dance, Janet got worried because she couldn't find Bob anywhere. After the dance, he magically appeared. He told her his buddies had dared him to ask her out, and then flattened his tires after he actually did. After prom they started "goin'" together. ( Bob was a speed demon everywhere he drove. He went to three weeks of ninth grade before dropping out of school. ) The became sweethearts and were "goin'" for three years before they were married March 22, 1944. (Janet weighed 105 lbs when she was married!) Seven months later Bob shipped out to be an infantryman in Europe because of WWII. He wanted to be in the Marines, but since he was colorblind he did not pass the tests. While he was at water, Janet lived with his parents- Logan and Mary. Janet became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while Bob was away because of the example of Mary Louisa Wray Hansen. She was a genuinely good person, so Janet began to look up to her. She then started going to church with them and was baptized July 1945. Janet emphasized that she never regretted her decision to join the church. It was really important to her that Bob marry her even if she wasn't a member; that he love her just the same. He never pushed her to join, and that was just a small part that made her fall in love with him. Beverly was born while Bob was away at war. She was five months old when he returned a little over a year later.

When Janet found out she was pregnant, she was very worried because her husband was away at war. She had always wanted 12 children though, so she was excited to start. Bob was a workaholic, providing for their family.  Janet was not able to conceive anymore, but felt their family was missing someone so they were able to adopt Taunie, now the youngest. Janet's time in labor was horrible. She squeezed her sister Betty's hand so hard when she was in labor with Beverly that Betty couldn't use it! She was also in labor for 14 hours. Her hardest baby was Michael. He was a big baby. But she had no cesarean sections and her doctor was a personal friend, so they weren't that bad. during the pregnancies, Bob was a good husband, but he wasn't very attentive. Janet thought the really good thing they did in raising her children was teaching them to be honest and having integrity.
If Janet could go back in time and change anything she said she would "spend more time with them, not for them." (ie at the sewing machine or in the kitchen.) When asked what thing they did really well in raising their children, Janet said "honesty and integrity."

When Ethel Neate was 64, she died. In 1977 Arthur died at the age of 83. Janet loved her parents along with Bobs a lot, but did not visit very often because they lived in Great Falls and her parents lived on the coast. Her husband, James Robert Hansen died September 17 2001 and was buried in the Saltese Cemetery. Janet still has her 11 children, nine with spouses. There are also many, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

Memories of Grandma:

• Candy jar always full!
• Peppermint Ice cream
• Going to Green Bluff to pick cherries or strawberries
• Canning
• Very obedient in everything she does
• Dolls, dolls, dolls and more dolls. Everywhere. And she made most of them herself
• Perfectionist when it comes to sewing or quilting
• Reading, she always has a book for me to read that she thinks I'll like
• Fried Chicken. 
• Reads her scriptures everyday
• Attends the temple every Tues, health permitting
• She always sends me a card for my birthday
• A total boss on the treadmill 
• Can start a fire anywhere, better wilderness skills than me
• Told me "Grow up to be a good girl. Stay strong in the Gospel."