Mar 01, 2010

Tell about being in a school play or program.

It was called “The Man in the Bowler Hat” and it was in my senior year. It was a play that we did for Drama and we were in a regional competition performimg it at Uintah High School in Vernal, Utah. The basic plot of the play is having a man in a bowler hat sitting at the right of the stage on a director’s stool. All he does is sit there until the very last scene when he yells something to the effect “that’s pretty good let’s go from the top one more time.” So you are probably thinking that I was the man in the bowler hat but I wasn’t. I had a part that required that I be tied up by the bad guy and had to try and wiggle around to avoid him while tied to the stool. It was even toward the last of the play just prior to that line by the man in the bowler hat. Well I had tied myself to the stool so I could get out but as we were doing the play on stage for the competition during that part I wiggled a little too well and fell over backwards onto the floor with my hands still tied to the stool behind me. It must have looked pretty good because as I remember we won the competition and that of course could have been the only reason for our success. It actually hurt pretty bad but I couldn’t let on during the play and the rest of the cast really did a great job making it still fit into the script but I won’t forget the fall, ever.

Feb 28, 2010

Tell about other pets you had.

My other small best friend pet was Smokey the cat. She had many kittens but only one made my memory and that was Flame. Both of them were good at catching mice and proved to be very good cats to have on a farm. Smokey loved to have you pet her and would purr very loudly as you did. I know of a lot of people who either love dogs and hate cats or love cats and hate dogs but because of my two lifelong pets I love them both. I can’t leave the subject of pets however without mentioning the large pets. I made reference to them in the story of Pee Wee and that is our horses Blue and Beauty. We did not have them at the same time but one after the other. They were both small horses that I could easily swing up onto their backs and that was the way I usually rode them. I would put a saddle on them if I had time to go for an extended ride but it was usually to ride down to the pasture to bring the cows in for milking. Both times I was thrown from them however was when I was riding bareback. I had some very wonderful animal friends while I was growing up and I do love them all.

Feb 27, 2010

Tell about the best pet you ever had.

Pee Wee was always my best friend and my best pet. A lucky little dog that survived being poisoned when just a pup and dad was able to feed her the lard or whatever it was that he gave that made her survive the poison. Anyway she was always with me when I did chores and always with me when I was walking down to get the cows or riding our horses Blue or Beauty to get them. She was also always to the side of me under the cow licking up milk that I would squirt from the cow onto the cement for her. One year she came up missing for several days and we thought that she had been killed or poisoned. Well she showed up early one morning walking on three legs and a stub. She had been caught in a trap and had to chew her foot off to be able to come home. Dad picked her up and took her to the vet in Roosevelt where he removed the rest of the leg up to the shoulder. She lived for a lot of years after that and was able to still keep up with me on three legs. She loved to climb the haystack, which was made from round bales of hay, and sit on the top watching the traffic over three miles across the valley. She was a good friend. Pee Wee finally had one set of pups when I was in High School. She had two that I remember Pedro and Sparky and they were both very cute pups. I don’t know when Pee Wee died but I think it was while I was on my mission or at college. She had been my friend from early in my childhood until after I had left home.

Feb 26, 2010

Tell about a favorite restaurant or public place you and your friends liked to gather.

It was definitely the Frost Top at the west end of town near the Texaco station. I never got to gather there very often since I lived outside of town two miles and had plenty of chores to keep me busy while the others in town were at the Frost Top. It was usually after Mutual when I might get to go over to the frost top and get a shake or a malt and a hamburger with fries. There was also a pin ball game there that we played once in a while. It was always obvious who spent the most time there because they could win pretty well each game on the pin ball game. Needless to say I didn’t play it well at all.

Feb 25, 2010

Did you or your friends have a secret hideout?

I did not have any secret hideout as a youth and thus really have nothing to write about today. In fact I guess the only “hideout” I could possibly claim were the snow caves we made under the trees at the top of the hill where the snow would drift over the top of them creating a cave or hideout of sorts. It wasn’t my friends that shared it with but rather my brother and sisters and yes they were friends as well.

Feb 24, 2010

Tell about a great victory or personal success story from your school days.

I think that the one greatest victory for me was not a victory as far as the race that I was in at the time but it was still a victory none the less personally.

It was my senior year and in the fall. I was running on the cross country team and was basically the second fastest in our school. We had several races and I had done pretty good all year. A 4 minute mile had recently been accomplished in world competition but all we wanted was a five minute mile average for three miles.

Well it was a race in Price that I want to write about here. It was on a golf course that had a lot of rolling hills to it and we had to run around it twice. I knew it was going to be a rough course and even worse than the one we ran in Tabiona where we ran up a hill for the first part of the race but here it was up and down and up again so that you were having to use up a lot of energy during the entire race. Well I had kind of just ran a standard race for the first round trying to conserve as much energy as possible but trying to not fall to far back. However Coach Josie shouted that I was in 25^th place as we ran past the starting gate at the end of the first round so I knew I had possibly waited too long. Well I kicked it in and started to run much faster yet trying to keep an even pace knowing that I knew what the course was like and tat I could run it OK. I can recall quite vividly the other boys that I began to pass as I went around the second time. It started to hurt and my lungs began to burn but I knew I had to pass as many as possible. I kept going and slowly passed all but four other runners by the end of the race coming in 5^th place overall. I may not have won the race but I passed 20 others on the last lap that had been ahead of me the entire first lap and that for me was quite a victory.

Feb 23, 2010 Happy 34th Birthday Ben.

What is the biggest problem you remember having in Sr. High school?

It was a I entered the ninth grade when I decided that I could be a better student. I had to follow behind an extremely smart sister that was only a year ahead of me in school. She had been a straight A student her entire school career. Pauline had also entered the picture being a year older than me yet in the same grade. The three of us would end up having a lot of fun for the next few years as we grew very close together. I did improve my grade that year and started to get A’s in most of my classes but still had a big climb to make to get straight A’s like Leesa. It was a hard trek but paid off as I graduated only 3 hundredths of a point behind Serena Davies who was our Valedictorian.

Feb 22, 2010

What is the biggest problem you remember having in Jr. High school?

The worst problem in Jr High was having to put up with the seniors since we had 7^th through 12^th grades in the same building. I remember one day when about four of the seniors decided to have some fun with me and it was again due to my size. In our school we had a ramp from the 1^st floor to the 2^nd floor. It had one turn in it just as the stairs would have had if they were in there. It was apparently made so that wheel chairs could go from one floor to the other. The problem with it though was that the side was only about three feet tall. So there you have the best set-up for some hazing seniors and they took full advantage by holding me upside down over the edge of the ramp so that I was looking down about 8 feet to the floor of the ramp. Well here again it didn’t last very long and they didn’t drop me but never the less I was scared. I remembered that little experience and never even threatened a 7^th grader 5 years later as a senior in the same building.

Feb 21, 2010

What is the biggest problem you remember having in grade school?

My biggest problem in grade school was probably my size. I didn’t have a lot of self esteem and my grades reflected it. I was basically a “C” grade student and quite scared to hold my own. I can’t forget the day that a neighbor who was in 3^rd grade and somewhat bigger than me even though he was younger. One day just as our recess was coming to an end Jay lit into me and did a pretty good job of beating me up. It was more of an issue of hurt pride than physical hurt. He beat me up but it was in such a short amount of time that I really didn’t get the thrashing that I could have gotten. The worst part of it though was that we had the same name, only difference was it was my middle name not my first name as it was for him.

Feb 20, 2010

What do you remember as your least favorite subject in school?

My least favorite subject was probably English. Band, PE, even running cross country and track was a lot more fun for me than the English class. It was the English teacher that got me started in photographing the yearbook pictures but it was also the same English teacher that kicked me out of class one day because I had to go take some more pictures again and she didn’t want it to happen that day. I remember having to go down to the library and tell mom what had happened. It was short lived though and the English teacher Mrs. Evans was one of my best teacher’s in the long run.

Feb 19, 2010

What do you remember as your favorite subject in school?

Math and science were my two strongest subjects in school until I got to college. I enjoyed science when I was a senior especially since that was the year where I got to make a photocell during that class. It was probably that experience that made me decide to go into electronics as an original profession. The classes that I probably had the most fun in however were the hours that I spent with the yearbook staff during the lat four years of high school. I was asked by the English teacher when I started 9^th grade to be the yearbook photographer and then I did that the nest three years as well as being the editor for the last two. It was fun.

Feb 18, 2010

Tell about family reunions in your childhood.

I only remember about three family reunions while growing up with the Poulson family. We had one at our house and the main thing that I remember is cooking the meal on the little outdoor fireplace that we had down in the yard. The other two were both held in Orem at Uncle Tennis’s home. He always had a beautiful yard and it was fun to play around it. Almost all of my cousins were at least 20 years my senior. Their children were mostly around my age so all my first cousins once removed were more like cousins to me on my father’s side of the family. That was because I was his 6^th child born when he was 42 years old. He was not married until he was 32 years old and his brothers were all married many years before that.

Mother’s side of the family was a different story. We had reunions almost every year or at least we made a trip to Centerfield every year and would see most of our cousins during that trip. I was in the middle of this side of cousins with a number older, several with in one to two years of my age and a number younger. We have reunions now every other year and I enjoy seeing the cousins. I wish however that we culd get a reunion on my father’s side.

Feb 17, 2010

Tell about your first favorite TV shows.

I will first tell about our fist TV. It was an old Black and White one with a thing we could put in front of it to make it look like color. It was a big beast as well. It was our only TV for a lot of years. We did finally get a color TV and from then on I don’t really remember any of them specifically. I do remember the shows however that I would get to watch once in a while after school. We had the Lone Ranger, Zorro, The Rifleman, and I Love Lucy. Those were probably my favorites with no particular one as the favorite. I remember a few other shows that we watched like Larwence Welk , and the Monkees.

I was curious after writing this the other night so went to the internet and found a list of movies from the 40's through the 70's. I was surprised when I found out the ages of some of the shows.

I have listed the ones I remember the best below from the 40's and 50's.

40's TV shows

Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts

Candid Camera

Ed Wynn Show

Howdy Doody Show

The Jack Benny Show

The Life of Riley (1949)

Lone Ranger

The Perry Como Show

50's TV Shows

20th Century Fox Hour

Abbott and Costello Show

Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet

Adventures Of Superman

Adventures Of Wild Bill Hickok

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Annie Oakley

Bonanza

Cisco Kid

Dennis The Menace

Dragnet

Ed Sullivan Show

Father Knows Best

Flash Gordon (1954)

Frank Sinatra Show

Gunsmoke

I Love Lucy

Invisible Man, The (1958)

Lassie

Lawman

Leave It To Beaver

Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour

My Friend Flicka

Perry Mason

Rawhide

Red Skelton Show

Rifleman, The

Rin Tin Tin (1954)

Robin Hood (1955)

Science Fiction Theatre

This is Your Life

Three Stooges

Twilight Zone, The (1959)

Untouchables, The (1959)

Wagon Train

Wanted: Dead Or Alive

Wonderful World of Disney

Zane Grey Theater

Zorro (1957)

Feb 16, 2010

Tell about your first kiss.
This is how I have written about this event in my life’s stories.

A Stolen First Kiss

I hesitate sometimes writing about some of the events of my life since it really shows how human I am and some of my weaknesses but it is for that reason that I write concerning this particular event of which I remember only a short part. Maybe by reading some of these my young friends and grandchildren may be able to side step such temptations.
I was a senior in high school and was also very infatuated by a beautiful junior girl named Marie. She and I had actually liked each other for several years and I had officially started dating her when she turned 16 just a year and a few months before this event. We were in the same LDS Ward and so we had lots of chances to be with each other. I guess in today’s terms we were “Hanging Out” as often as circumstances would allow. We spent time together at MIA (Young Men and Young Women’s activity night) on Tuesday nights and never missed a fireside or sitting by each other’s side during them. I am sure there were other cute girls that I could have sat by but this one was definitely my choice. I also remember the often given council at these firesides, church classes, parental suggestions and advice that asked or suggested that we date many members of the opposite sex so that we would know better the person that we would like to marry. Well being young and stupid as we often are in our youth and having liked several girls throughout my youth in elementary I felt it OK to see this young lady as often as occasion would permit. I think back on the temptations that were created by so doing and am very grateful for liking a young lady that had very high standards and wouldn’t compromise them.
So now on to this stolen first kiss episode. We were going to a school dance one night and I don’t even remember which one but for some reason after I had picked her up from her home, only two small blocks form the school, we went to my home about two miles from the school either for me to change my clothes or for some other reason of which I have no recollection. That two miles however included a drive across part of blue bench where there was no lighting, other than the stars and the moon which was probably full that night, before dropping off a small hill to the rest of the road along the canal below which I lived. We were returning from my home to town and the dance when I decided to stop the car (there is a Stake Center very near the spot now) and steal a kiss from this beautiful girl that made my heart skip so freely every other beat when I was around her. I remember well that it was my senior year because I was wearing something that had been totally foreign to my style throughout my life. I had just received my Senior Key and I never wore necklaces of any kind. I had to be toward the end of the year since we didn’t get them until we were about to graduate and I was wearing it on a chain around my neck. I suppose I felt it was time for a first kiss since I would shortly be graduating and going off to college and then on my mission so I might never get to kiss the girl that had been so much a part of my life for the past few years. Well Marie was wearing a very beautiful knitted sweater. Now I would never have remembered this since I seldom notice what others are wearing and have not really felt the need to memorize what they were wearing except that this particular time that was not the right thing for her to have on while I tried to steal a long and lasting kiss. I pulled the car to a stop along this stretch of dark lonely road and of course she wondered why so it didn’t take me long to let my intensions to be known as I leaned over and stole the kiss. In those days cars seldom had bucket seats and seat belts were not yet popular so she was sitting very close to me as she most always did. It wasn’t a very long or lasting kiss except in my memory, because about that time the Lord sent the needed interceptor along as a car drove up over the crest of the hill so that it’s light were directly on my parents car and well into our eyes. I have no idea to this day who it was but I remember well the fact that we couldn’t just swing back into our seats as though nothing were happening because the loop holding my senior key to the chain around my next had ever so slyly hooked itself through one of the strands of that lovely knitted sweater so that she and I became somewhat inseparable. I was probably a fairly bright red color by the time the car passed and it wouldn’t have been due to the fact that the tail lights of the car were red either. It only took us a few minutes to finally separate ourselves but the memory of the moment lasts to this day. I can’t remember much of the rest of the evening or even when we had our second kiss but I will actually cherish that memory for it put into my mind the lasting memory of kissing my future wife for the first time. Now I am lucky that she ended up being my wife and we have had many kisses since that time. She will often come up to me when I am busy working on pictures or something where I am very involved and give me a very passionate kiss and then I want to continue with more but she puts me back to work just to painfully wait for the chance to steal another kiss.

Feb 15, 2010

Tell about your first date.

I honestly don’t remember my first date but I know that it was with Marie. I had liked her for several years before she turned 16 and we had hung out together at dances and her home. Most of the time at her home it was while standing outside next to her window and talking to her through the window. I do remember however when we went on dates after we were both 16 years of age that we would often sit in the car and talk after getting back to her home. I also remember very well the signal that her mom and dad would send so that we knew it was time to get out of the car. Dad would turn off and then on again a couple of times the front porch light. It was not ignored either as I would then get out of the car and then let her out and sometimes walk her to the porch. I don’t think I went to the porch very often though since I knew her dad would be standing just inside the front door waiting.

Feb 14, 2010 Valentines Day

Tell about a special Valentine you once received.

Marie gave me several valentines that I always liked and below are two pictures of ones that she sent to me while I was in the mission field.

Feb.13, 2010

Tell about a special Valentine you once sent.

I really don’t remember any of the special valentines. I do remember going to the store, “Kohls” and buying valentines in a box then having to lay them all on the table and decide which ones to give to certain people. Of course the girls got the pretty ones and the boys got the stupid ones.

Feb 12, 2010

Tell about the Valentine Day festivities at your school.

Duchesne had one tradition that I remember about Valentines and I hated it because I just couldn’t ever make a winning Valentines Box to put on my desk so everyone could put their valentines to me into it. We had a lot of long nights prior to Valentines writing every girl’s name in the class on a special valentine even when I really didn’t like the girl at all anyway. Oh well it was a tradition and you have to go along with traditions. I must admit it was much easier when Marie started getting them from me. However I think more than Valentines from her were the love noted in shorthand that she would give me and then make me figure out what they said. I did like those notes.

Feb 11, 2010

Who was your first girlfriend?

I can’t really say I had a girlfriend quite as soon as I actually thought I did since I don’t know if any of the first three even thought about me. However I did like Ione Hooper, LeaAnn Weber (pronounced Webber) then Karla Lewis. I think LeaAnn liked me more than I liked her in that relationship and I was 12 when I liked Karla, I remember that because I use to get her folks fast offering route and got to go to her place always hoping she would answer the door. It was shortly after that when I first saw Marie and then they all just vanished from my thoughts because she was so darn cute and very pretty also and I fell head over heels for her.

Feb10, 2010

What was your favorite meal as a child?

I think I related that my favorite meal was bread and milk after sacrament meeting. That was my favorite but not my only one. I loved steak, corn on the cob and baked potatoes.

Mashed potatoes came in pretty close after that but I the taste of the baked potato skin with real butter dripping out the end was really a great taste as far as I was concerned. Those kind of baked potatoes have given way to microwave baked and the skins just never get crispy and hard enough to scrape the potato put of them and then replace it with the butter to eat. Yes that was truly some darn good eatin.

Feb 9, 2010

Tell about a big lie you told.

I am sure I told probably many a lie in my youth but I am blessed to not be able to remember very many in fact I can only think of one right at this moment. My family went over to Price for some reason one day to shop. I remember seeing some glitter that was really neat so I stole it, yes I stole it and got away with it so I thought but the memory of it has haunted me through the years. I was never able to right it because that was the only time we went shopping in Price and I couldn’t even tell you the store or anything about it. That I guess was a lie because I never did fess up to it to my parents. In fact I doubt whether they even ever knew about it but I knew and it has always stuck with me.

Feb 8, 2010

Tell about another influential person in your life.

There were many very influential people in my as I was growing up and my Grandparents also took a very high role in that. Yet another person of whom I have referred to many times over the years when working with scouts was Sister Beverly Caldwell. Beverly moved to Duchesne with her husband Lowell and family the year that I was a senior in high school. She was somehow alerted to the fact that I was not an Eagle Scout and that the whole reason was because I couldn’t swim, remember the near drowning early in my life, anyway she saw to it that I learned to swim. She was a professional lifeguard and took me personally swimming in Starvation Reservoir, and the Roosevelt and Price pools. She spent a lot of time with me those summer days before my 18^th birthday. I had a 7 day a week job from 10 pm to 6 am and we would go swimming just after I finished the chores in the morning or early in the evening before I would have to return to work. I completed those merit badges, swimming and lifesaving, and passed the Eagle Board of Review just 4 days prior to my birthday. I know to this day I would not have been an Eagle Scout without her love and dedication.

Feb 7, 2010

Tell about someone who had a big influence in your life.

When I think about an answer to this question the obvious best first answer was my Mother and Father. However other than them I must write that the Hansen’s were very high on the list. First Sister Hansen was my first Cub Scout Leader and I spent a lot of hours in her home with Doug and Don, her sons, for many years after that because of the relationship I had built with their family at that time. The just a few years later after cub scouts I was lucky enough to have Ray Hansen as my scoutmaster for a couple of years and as a caring friend for many years after that. He was one of the major driving factors in getting me to my Eagle Rank in scouting. That was why Loren had the middle name of Ray, in honor of my scoutmaster.

Feb 6, 2010

Who was the most famous person you ever met as a child?

I was never lucky enough I guess to meet anyone famous as a youth. I saw General authorities come to Stake Conferences but do not ever remember meeting any of them at the time. Of course later in my early adulthood I met Pres. Harold B Lee. I didn’t put that into my earlier post since I had forgotten about it until I started thinking about my mission again. We did as missionaries meet in the upper room of the Salt Lake Temple where Pres. Lee spoke to us and answered questions that we had. I only shook his hand for a brief moment but it was a special moment.

Feb 5, 2010

How did you first smash a finger?

First of all I want to know how the author knew I had smashed my finger, does everybody do it sometime? If that is the case then I don't feel so spastic after all.

There are two possible answers to this question since I can remember smashing fingers plenty of times but have no idea the order in which they happened. However other than the smashing fingers with the hammer trick that I do very well all too often I think the actual fist finger smashing had to have been when I shut the car door from the outside (standing outside that is) and left my finger in harms way and that was where it ended up, right in harms way between the door and the frame of the door in one of our cars. (Seems like it was the old Nash but I can’t be sure of that at all. Anyway it was a real stinger and hurt for some period of time longer than a mere few minutes. Seems like it must have hurt for several days at best.

Feb 04, 2010

Do you have any knowledge of the origins of your family name?

My grandfather was George Alma Poulson,

His father was John Christian Poulson who came from Denmark. I do not have nay information beyond that point. I have a lot of information on my grandmother’s line but not grandpa’s. Therefore I have no idea whether Paul was made into Poulson somewhere along the line. Maybe even before Great Grandfather and mother came to America.

Feb. 03, 2010

Share a memory about a weather-related school cancellation.

I cannot remember a school cancellation due to weather. I suppose we could have had one but the worst thing that happened due to weather was the snow storm that caused us to have to walk a half mile to the bus. That story was related on Jan. 30, 2010 in this blog.

We had some pretty good storms when I was young and I remember walking to the barn with the snow near my shoulders as a little boy but remember I was pretty small so a foot of snow could have been pretty deep to me. Mostly the main thing that the snow did for us was to blow across the bench and create huge drifts over the cedar trees along the edge of the hill. That then created some great places to dig and have snow caves since the snow would go over the trees and under the trees would be bare ground. Those caves were a lot of fun, probably more fun had we gotten to miss school for it but that just didn’t happen that I can recall.

Feb 02, 2010

Do you have any ice skating memories to share?

Although I have owned a pair of ice skates all of my life it seems , they have hardly ever been used but plenty abused. I vaguely remember a couple of different things about ice skating as a youth. One was ice-skating on the pond down on the lower part of the farm. It was a bit tricky because there was a spring that few the pond and would keep the ice pretty thin n that area. However we never really worried about falling through the ice because if we did the water was maybe 4 inches deep below it. The worst part of the pond was thinking you could walk across it when it look dry and instead sink to your knees in mud much like if you were in quick sand. The other time or possibly times we skated was behind the County Courthouse in the middle of town. There was an area that they would flood in the winter to make a skating ring for the citizens. Needless to say I skated just enough to get my ankles sore but never enough to be able to skate.

Feb 01, 2010

What extra's did you use for your snowman's face, buttons, arms, hat, etc?

The only things that I remember using were pieces of coal for the eye's mouth, nose, and sticks for the arms. Since we used a coal burning furnace there was plenty of coal to use. I don't remember putting hats or scarves on them like we have with the family as you were all growing up and we didn't have coal so it was rocks that took the place of the coal.