Then & Now

Today's old pictures are from a trip our family took way back in 1962. We traveled back to Palmyra, NY in a station wagon with 4 kids & 4 adults. (My grandpa & grandma Ashcraft came with us on that trip). As I looked at these old photo's I thought it would be fun to compare them with what the sites look like today. So... here we go...

First stop, Clifty Chapel in Indiana.

That's me standing in front of Clifty with my dad.


There's our station wagon. Can you imagine 8 people hauling across the United States in this today? Not even the comfort of air conditioning.
Check out the barn across the street, and the outdoor cement table. They are still standing today.

These next photo's are some I took of Clifty when I was there in the summer of 2008:




July, 2008. I'm grateful to the people who belong to the Clifty Memorial Association for their loving care of this historic building that means so much to the Ashcraft family.


There's that barn, still standing. Also, the cement table just waiting for the next pot luck dinner to be spread out upon it.


Another close up picture of the cement table.

Next, we will move on to Nauvoo, IL

This was what the temple site looked like in 1962. They were excavating the site back then. Here's what it looks like today:



Nauvoo House, 1962. I actually think it looks pretty much the same today. The little rock house to the left is still there. Today, it's used as lodging for the Community of Christ tour guides.


This is the back side of the Nauvoo House. Remember the flooding they had back there last summer? It was about a month before our visit. The Nauvoo House is very close to the Mississippi river, and there was a little bit of seepage that came up but nothing worse than that. You can see a levee in this picture, it doesn't seem to be there in the 1962 picture. It looks like the lily pads go right up to the Nauvoo House in the older picture.



Here we are, standing on the porch of the Heber C. Kimball home in 1962. Apparently the tour guides didn't have the dress code they have today. (And yes, kids today will still have the same expression on their faces after they have been dragged thru every house in Nauvoo! Or as Kimball said last year..."nobody should come to Nauvoo two years in a row.")

I thought it was interesting to find out that Nauvoo Restoration Inc. (NRI) was founded in July of 1962. The very same month and year we traveled back there.


On the porch of the Heber C. Kimball home, August 2007. Bonnie, Kimball & Emilie

Carthage, Illinois, 1962. (L-R: Randy, Grandma Verna Ashcraft, Bonnie, Donnetta, Cheryl, Lalamae.

In my Grandma's notes for this trip, she says the following: "Carthage is quite a city now. Seems to be more progress than Nauvoo." How that has changed. Today the opposite is true. Carthage is an old run-down place that seems to have been forgotten.

Carthage, the trip of 2007 with Kimball & Emilie:



Kirtland, Ohio - 1962


There we are still sitting on the steps...

The Community of Christ Church has done a good job maintaining the Kirtland temple. But then they charge everyone $2.00 to take their tour, so they probably make a killing off the Mormon's. This photo is from 2007 - notice that the doors are now dark. That's the colors they were originally when the temple was first built.


I think this is a very interesting picture. It makes me wonder where the sign was located. You can see houses & sidewalks in the background. Maybe it was on the outskirts of a town?


Everything's bigger & better now - and we still stop for a photo every time we enter a new state on vacation!


Niagara Falls - 1962 In my grandma's notes, she tells how "we somehow got in the wrong traffic lane and found ourselves headed for Canada. Paid the toll of .60 to get in, and .75 to return to the U.S." Notice Rainbow bridge in the background.


Kimball on the Maid of the Mist last summer. You can see Rainbow Bridge in the background. That's the bridge you cross to enter Canada. Last summer, Kimball, Cheryl and I walked across the bridge. It was free going into Canada, but we had to pay .50 each to come back into the United States.


With my good looking son Kimball:


Bonnie, Randy & Cheryl standing in front of the Joseph Smith home in Palmyra. I wish I had a picture of the house back then, it looks NOTHING like it does today. Back then, it looked like an old farm house, with a big porch on the front. The trees you see in the background would be part of the sacred grove.


Here's how they have restored the home to what it originally looked like when the Smith family lived here:


Hill Cumorah, 1962. You can see the bushes at the top of the hill spelling out "CUMORAH". Those bushes are long gone. Also, notice the benches for watching the pageant. Now they put up nice chairs. So much better.


This is where we watched the pageant from, across the street. My grandma's notes say that the pageant got over at 11:00 pm. Rooms were $15.00 a night which they couldn't afford, so they drove all nite.


Hill Cumorah Pageant 2008.


View looking down from the top of Hill Cumorah


I need to add a photo of the temple in Palmyra. It is beautiful!


This is the view from the side of the temple that faces the Sacred Grove. President Hinckley had them cut down the trees in the foreground so you can see the sacred grove in the background.


Hope you enjoyed today's installment. Thanks to those who leave a comment. To the others, be brave! It's just me.