Aug 31, 2010

Share a memory involving an outhouse.

We had an old outhouse in our yard but luckily I was in line far enough down in my family that we had indoor plumbing by the time I came along. I never had any desire to use it either since it was infested by spiders more than anything else. Later as a highway patrolman my brother would dispose of confiscated alcohol in the old outhouse.

It had a single seat but the one I do remember having to use was at the ranch where indoor plumbing was never installed. It had a two seats and after visiting it many times I could never understand why it had two seats. I suppose though in the olden days a couple would find it more pleasant to visit it together in the winter if such a pleasant thing existed when it came to outhouses. The ones I have used in the mountains even to this day I can never call as pleasant experiences.

Aug 30, 2010

Tell about an incident when your mom or dad was very angry with you.

I am sure there had to have been a time that I could tell to answer this question but I suppose time can be a friend to us by helping to forget these kinds of trivial incidents. Thus I cannot remember any of them and find no reason to rack my brain to find one since my memories of them include those things where they made me happy and I do not recall any time when they were mad at me. That is probably because it had to be really bad to make them mad and even backing into a new car that the dealer had brought over to sell to us didn’t make them mad that I can remember. They were disappointed in me several times I am sure but like I said it took an awful lot to make either of them mad.

Aug 29, 2010

Tell about an incident when you were very angry with your mom or dad.

I am sure there had to have been a time that I could tell to answer this question but I suppose time can be a friend to us by helping to forget these kinds of trivial incidents. Thus I cannot remember any of them and find no reason to rack my brain to find one since my memories of them include those things where they made me happy or corrected me with love so that I couldn’t be mad at them. I was raised by truly a loving set of parents.

Aug 28, 2010

Tell about going to box socials or pot lucks.

The small Utah towns were mostly ran by the traditions of the LDS church by which they were founded. These traditions included annual 24^th of July celebrations which quite often included a dinner at the park that night. I remember having pigs roasted in the ground or on a spit where that was the main meat and then everyone else would bring a casserole or salad. The salad were usually of the variety of a jello, potato or pasta type. The drinks were mostly homemade rootbeer or Koolaid. There were a lot of other dinners usually held by the ward for special occasions such as Christmas or Valentines day. There always seemed to be a lot of food leftover after each of these dinners even though we would go back and fill our plates until there was no room in the stomachs for another morsel except the cake and ice cream or pie that we would then have for desert. I get sick now even thinking of how much we could put away.

Aug 27, 2010 Happy Birthday Tia!

Did you ever have a fire in your home or accidentally catch something on fire?

Here is what I have written on that subject. It is the only fire I recall other than the ones in our wood and coal burning stoves.

A Fire in the stack yard; BYU Pow Wow

When I was 12 to 15 years old we had the opportunity to go from Duchesne to Provo to attends for three Saturdays a Merit Badge Pow Wow that was held at Brigham Young University. I think I went twice in those years.

One particular Saturday however was very memorable.

I had left with the scouts early that morning since we had to be to Provo by 8:30 AM. I wasn’t feeling well but thought it to just be the jitters. I was not a real adventure seeker at a young age and often got sick to my stomach when I would be required to do something out of the ordinary. I went to my first class and had to leave to find a bathroom to relieve my stomach. After spending several minutes in the bathroom and having lost any and all of my breakfast I didn’t feel like going back to class so instead spent the rest of that hour and the following two hours in the hallways of several buildings on the campus. I had a unique desire in my youth to collect things and during those times there were many vending machines in each of the buildings so as I wandered the halls I would stop and put a nickel into the machines and retrieve a roll of life savers. (I never did eat any of them but later put them into an old cigar box that I had at home. Over the years prior to my mission I ended up filling up that box with a number of lifesaver rolls full of candy. After I returned from my mission I found that my stash of sweets had been already eaten by sugar ants during the years that I had been gone. The rolls were all still there but small holes in each package revealed where the ants had carried off my sugary treats.) Anyway I had to spend the rest of the day in misery as we ended the Pow Wow and went out for something to eat before returning home that afternoon. I didn’t eat anything since I was afraid that it wouldn’t make the trip back to Duchesne. When I got home late that afternoon all I wanted to do was to retire to bed and get feeling better. The rest of the family however had taken the day to go to the Wasatch front to do some shopping for Christmas and had not returned by the time we were supposed to be doing the chores. I finally got up and went out to milk the cows and do the feeding. I left the feeding till last hoping that Dad would be home by then and could do the job for me. I finished milking and still no one was home. But that night also had another problem in that it was cold and very dark and as I went out to the stack yard to do the feeding I had left the light off at the barn. I don’t know why but that light that could have helped me was left off. I often went to the stack yard in the dark and knew my way quite well even though there were more than a few times that I would step in fresh cam pies while going there. This night however I couldn’t tell where the hay was that I needed to get for the cows so since I was prepared as a scout I pulled a match from my pocket and started a small fire that would light up the stack yard enough to see the hay. I hadn’t gotten a very big fire started when Dad finally arrived home and came out to see where I was in the process of doing the chores. He turned on the light that was on the outside of the barn that shed some light on the stack yard but still didn’t seem to help very much and then came out to help me. When he discovered the fire he had me quickly grab a bucket and go to the canal for water to put out the fire. He didn’t seem overly upset but did seem quite concerned and after we had the fire out he calmly explained that the hay on the ground was several inches deep and had I left the fire much longer it would have burned deep into the layer and the could have spread for days without our knowing it until it could finally have burned down the stack totally. I have always appreciated the concern he had for me and the patience to help me understand the severity of the situation without getting mad at me. He didn’t say that I could go the house however while he put out the fire but helped me learn responsibility and then helped me finish up the chores so I could return to the house and go to bed sooner. I learned two valuable lessons that day. The first was the danger of fires in a stack yard of old hay. The second however was far more valuable to me and has helped me through the years and it was to be patient and loving in the process of raising children.

Aug 26, 2010

Phones have changed over the years. Describe how you used a phone to call up a childhood friend.

Yes they really have changed. When I was young we would hear the phone but not pick it up unless we heard two rings close together separated by a sort wait and then two rings again. If it only rang once before the space it was going to our neighbors who were on a “Party line” with our family. We could easily pick up the phone and listen to their conversations and they most likely listened to some of ours as well. We would call someone by moving what was called a rotary dial around from a number to zero and letting it return to the resting position before dialing the next in line of the four required numbers to contact someone. Later we got a private line and no longer could talk to the neighbors by simply picking up the phone but rather had to call them with all four numbers. Then toward the end of y teenage years we had to start dialing all seven numbers that made up a phone number that was listed in the phone book. (I might add too that just in this last year at an age of 56 we now have to dial all 10 digits that include the local number and the area code.) Long distance was always extra and we rarely made them. Now with cell phones we make a majority of our calls as long distance as defined in my early years but for little or no extra charge above the standard cost of our cell phone monthly bill. (Which is far more than if we had made a thousand long distance calls back then.)

Aug 25, 2010

If you ever had a hero, tell who. Tell why.

I had a three hero’s. My dad, my grandpa Hansen, (I never knew Grandpa Poulson enough to hold him up as a hero other than that he was my dad’s father) and my Uncle Mont.

Those three men held the place of hero’s in my life. Dad because of his love and gentle kindness which he always had for and toward me. Grandpa Hansen because of his love, spiritual strength and gentleness as well. Then Mont because, well he was Uncle Mont. He always could make me laugh and he was always fun to be with on the ranch and at his home. I also had a fourth hero but not one of the same gender as we normally consider people as we talk about hero’s but my Grandmother Nana was a hero to me as well because she loved me so much along with the other grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her cookies and tapioca pudding helped cement that honor for her too I suppose. Yes I had a lot of people to look up to as I grew up and the list would include a lot more than those four if I had time and space to explain. I was raised by goodly parents and by a caring and loving village or community.

Aug 24, 2010

Did you have to abide by a curfew as a youth?

I did. It was 10 pm when I was young and later as a teenager moved to 12 A.M. Mother always said that the Holy Ghost went to bed at midnight and so we were to be home before the temptations of the devil could start to get to us without the aid of the Holy Ghost. Now I know that the Holy Ghost never sleeps but the principle is sound as our ability to listen to the Holy Ghost is greatly weakened by a lack of sleep and a good daily routine that includes ample sleep. Mom was very wise in putting it that way since it was not easy to forget or to dismiss.

Aug 23, 2010

What other toys did you like to play with?

I had the rare opportunity to have a huge tire sandbox. We also had some large trucks and tractors that we could use to dig in the sand of that filled tire. We spent hours making roads that would go under the lip of the tractor tire and back out again to go under a bridge that we would make into the center of the tire. Slowly as I grew up the playtime in that tire was taken up by work on the farm but the memory of it has lasted forever. It was a good toy and a great place to play.

Aug 22, 2010

Tell about a favorite doll, teddy bear or other stuffed toy.

I still have a bear that my grandmother made from the upholstery material we took off of the family couch as mom and dad had it redone. It was a little red bear shaped animal in two dimension configuration. It had three legs in a row rather than the typical two for a two dimensioned toy stuffed animal so that it had the appearance of three dimensions. I loved that animal even though it mostly went into storage after I was into my teens. It meant more to me than just being a toy simply because it was made by a loving grandmother that passed away when I was merely ten years old. That was probably why it became a favorite simply because it brought back memories of her each time I looked at it or held it. It wasn’t soft since it was made of a material that was meant to stand the rough and tough play from children and their shoes but it still brought many soft memories of that loving grandmother whom we called “Nana”.

Aug 21, 2010

Share an early experience with shaving?

I come from an heritage of a grandfather that I was told never shaved and yet he never had a beard. I shaved maybe once in my senior year only to see how it was done and then I borrowed my father’s single edge blade that did a great job for him. I used the shaving cream and carefully removed the cream from my face but I doubt that there was much hair mixed in with it. I did later shave and do so daily now but I was well into my early 20’s before it became anything more than a ritual I was required to do as a missionary just for the principle of it. I could easily go several days before anyone noticed the light red beard beginning to break through the skin. Even now I don’t sport much of a growth even after four or five days.

Aug 20, 2010

Did you ever make a purchase that you later regretted?

I never regretted any of the candy or ice cream I purchased, yet you might say I was given good reason to regret some I made in my early years as a primary teacher sternly scolded my friends and I for buying candy cigarettes as we walked to primary. I liked the candy but needless to say we never bought anymore even if it was only sugar. I cannot honestly remember a purchase that I regretted other than now in adulthood as I am greatly regretting the purchase of a VW Passat, a mistake that will never happen again.

Aug 19, 2010

Did you ever experience homesickness?

Not that I can ever recall since we rarely left the farm for anything other than a trip to Grandpa Hansen’s or a scout camp. Then my parents would be with us, which is why most children experience homesickness from being away from their parents. Then at scout camp there was too much fun going on to think about being sick other than what you already were due to your own cooking. So, no, I guess I really didn’t ever have the chance for any homesickness to ever creep in to my away from home experiences as a child.

Aug 18, 2010

Share your childhood experiences with roller skates.

We had several pair of roller skates that were of different sizes so that as we grew we were able to fit into another pair. Our home had a sidewalk that was only about 35 or 40 feet long and had a major right angle turn in it. If you were to start on the one end under the grape arbor you could skate quite easily past the front o the house and then after getting to the side of the house make the right turn and go up the walk to the stairs to my bedroom. However if you started at the bedroom steps it was sloped just enough that you had pretty good speed by the time you went the 15 or so feet to the turn. It took a lot of practice to finally be able to make the turn and continue past the front of the house. I ended up on the lawn a lot more times than I ever made the turn. It was the only place we had to roller skate however as our road was just a dirt road and the barn though it had a lot of cement floor was divided by a gutter filled usually with cow manure, flies and larvae and landing in it was far less desirable than landing on the lawn.

Aug 17, 2001

Do you remember being really curious about something?

I was always curious about a lot of things and most of them dealt with things in nature. I became very curious about sunrises and sunsets as I began to notice the subtle differences that took place in the clouds as the process of the sun rising or going down took place. I now understand it to be a matter of angles of the light from the sun reflecting off of the clouds. However it took a photo session when I was 17 to really see it. I went over to the edge of the hill where I could easily observe the sunset and for about 15 minutes took a picture every two or three minutes. I was amazed by the differences in the clouds as I watched them more closely that ever before slowly change in color as the sun set. It was a very beautiful thing to me and one that made me appreciate the beauty of a sunrise and sunset ever so much more.

Aug 16, 2001

If you ever ran away from home tell about it.

I cannot ever remember having a need to run away from home but I suppose if I did it was probably for not more than a few minutes and then up onto the hill for my escape route. Really I do not ever remember running away from home since it was a pretty secure place to be with some very wonderful parents. Yes they did spank on occasion as needed but I always knew that they loved me and were glad that I was a part of the family. Children need spanked every now and then especially if they talk back to their parents and I believe that was what probably created the times that I was spanked. I never got the belt or the switch but the spanking hurt enough to get the point across yet not to damage my physical body.

Aug 15, 2010

Share a memory about staying overnight with a friend?

I do not believe that I ever stayed overnight with a friend. We were all pretty much farmer’s and thus stayed home at night to do the work. I did however stay overnight at grandma and grandpa Hansen’s place several times when we would go to Centerfield to visit them. There were usually other families there as well so we always had a lot of fun. There were two bedroom in their basement where we would sleep, the boys on the east side and the girls on the west or in the west bedroom. It had a hole between the rooms where we could stand up on the bed and by lifting ourselves up talk to cousins in the other room. We use to always plat red rover on the front lawn and hide and seek at night after dark. I believe we were always there during the summer as well since we didn’t travel during the winter or when school was going. It was always very fun except for the long drive to get there and back.

Aug 14, 2010

Tell about your bedroom.

I had an upstairs bedroom that was fun since we had a pole going up near the window where we could climb in or out of our room by using it. Then later I had a basement room where it was always cool and had mice running around in quite regularly. I caught an awful lot of mice down in that room. It had two rooms adjoined by a doorway with no door. Our beds (two of them) were separated by a closet and in the same room we had a shower in the corner opposite of the doorway to the other room. The second room had a desk and book shelves where we could study in relative quiet surroundings. It also had a door that led to the outside of the house where I could sneak Pee Wee our small dog into the room without mom knowing. Dogs were not house pets according to her, only small birds and not even cats were allowed in the house, if she knew about it.

Aug 13, 2010

Did you have any favorite family songs that you sang together?

Other than Happy Birthday? Well we quite often sang as a family on Sunday evenings after sacrament meeting or even in the afternoons before meeting. The best part of it though was listening to dad with his beautiful base voice sing “The Mighty Deep”. He also sang some others but that was our favorite because he had to sing a note that was really low and we loved it because he always hit it perfectly. That was fun to sing and in fact I learned to sing parts , Alto no less, from Alma during several of those evenings as we sang “Love at Home” as a family for Sacrament meeting on time and she needed some help with the alto. I have sang base or tenor mostly since getting older but can still do alto if I use my falsetto voice mode.

Aug 12, 2010

What was the dumbest stunt pulled by you and a brother or sister? Were there consequences?

There were no consequences from my parents n this one but there were some natural consequences. I roped a calf one day thinking I would be able to rope it throw it and tie it just like the calf ropers in the rodeo. Needless to say those animals are very strong even when they are young. I roped it and then it began pulling me all over the coral and I finally was able to get on my feet and quickly go around a pole that then secured the calf enough that I could let go of the rope and then determine my next move to release it. I do not remember how I got that rope off of it’s neck but it had to have been a miracle. I had no brother’s or sister’s involved in this act with me or maybe it might have been easier, probably not. I never aspired to be a calf roper ever again.

Aug 11, 2010

Did you ever play in the sprinkler or hose?

Did I grow up as a typical buy you might ask and then you would get the answer of Yes and know instantly that of course I played in the sprinkler and the hose. We often had water fights break out during a down time after we had finished hauling the hay. The water fight helped to wash off the sweat and the hay leaves and it felt so good. Then there were always the water fights that just naturally broke out at reunions and other family gatherings. I have since learned though that to not get wet you have to not let your expensive camera get off of your body. At that time I didn’t know that and got soaked plenty of times. Mostly however I played in the irrigation water and really enjoyed that even though in today’s teachings it would have made deathly ill or sick from the bounty of germs in the water. I swallowed a lot of canal water and youth today would be served well by doing the same so their immune systems could get a chance to learn to defend themselves from diseases.

Aug 10, 2010

Tell about a time when you get lost?

There were the usual summer scout camps that I went on each year and really loved them but the second one was not so great to start out with. I was hiking in typical scout fashion with a couple of other scouts. We were not at the back of the group but rather at the front and by quite a distance until we took the wrong fork of the trail and then a second wrong fork and found ourselves on the far side of Betsy lake when we were suppose to be going to Palisade lake. It started to rain real heavy so we got under the shelter of a huge rock and then began backtracking to find the fork that we had missed. We ended up finding a second trail that led to Palisade lake and it was a lot shorter than if we had gone back to the first one but we didn’t know that until we had actually reached the lake and were there ahead of a lot of the troop even then. So even though we were basically lost we were also very blessed to have been able to find the way to the lake. I still to this day do not know which trail we ended up on that day and have never found it again but will always be thankful for a loving Father in Heaven that knew where it was and led us on it that day.

Aug 9, 2010

What was your best talent?

Now there’s a question that I am unsure of how to answer. I was good at playing the saxaphone, I was good at talking with people and I was good at photography but didn’t know it until I was in 9th grade when it was put to the test as yearbook photographer. I still do not know how the English teacher knew that I had a talent for that either. Mom may have had something to do with it but I really don’t know, she was the librarian and knew the English teacher. I played the sax and loved it but later played the trumpet and found I wasn’t so talented with that instrument. I suppose I was pretty talented at teasing also but we have already discussed that one in past questions.

Aug 8, 2010

Share an experience about poison ivy or poison weed, a bee sting or bug bite?

I was stung by wasps mostly while growing up and bitten plenty by horse flies. I was stung by Stinging nettle but lucky enough to never encounter poison oaks of ivys. Once when I had gone out to feed the horses I was carrying a pitch fork load of hay to their pen and stumbled on an old tire that I knew was there but had just cut the corner a little too much due to the weight of the hay on the fork. As I got to my feet and regained control of the fork load of hay I was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of yellow jacket wasps. Only one of them stung me but that was enough. I delivered the hay ad then climbed up to the canal where I got some mud from the side of the canal and plastered it onto the sting. It took the pain away rather quickly and I was soo glad about that because I had endured it long enough. I never made that mistake again.

Aug 7, 2010

Did your mom or dad have a favorite remedy for when you were sick or hurt?

Mom had a number of remedies that were from the pioneer days. For a cold we had honey and lemon mixed together and heated to drink to relieve the sore throat and get out the cold symptoms. Then for the chest when it was a real deep cold that had gone into the lungs mom would mix vinegar and mustard powder with water to make a paste that she would then put on a cloth and set the cloth on our chests with the mustard away from the skin. (If it was on the skin we would get a sunburn type burn from it and that hurt pretty bad. We would keep it on for as long as we could stand it and the heat from the remedy would sink deep into our chest and relieve a lot of the congestion. I was lucky to be raised after the cod liver oil days and was plenty glad about it when I learned what it was really like.

Aug 6, 2010

Tell about board games and card games that you played as a youth.

There were basically three games that I remember playing. First off however I will tell you that the only card games we played were “Old Maid” and I don’t think there were any others especially since face cards were strictly forbidden in our home. Grandma and Grandpa Hansen had taught their children well concerning the evils of gambling and tat included even having those cards present that were used in such activities. (It was indeed a huge shock to me when Marie would use them all the time and played games that I never even knew existed and it was never for gambling either.) Anyway the board games we had were “Clue”, “Monopoly”, “Chinese Checkers”, “Checkers”, and “Seek” an LDS scripture game. I mostly played checkers and Seek. I enjoyed Monopoly but was always somewhat frustrated by the amount of time required to play it so I stayed away from it as much as possible. We always played Seek on Sunday evenings when we played it and it was fun to learn the scripture stories by having to answer those questions. However with that all said we really didn’t play a whole lot of games since we always had so many chores to do and by the time they were done we were all pretty tired.

Aug 5, 2010

Tell a memory about having company at your house, or of a family party.

My family had gone to church one Sunday evening in late August. Our Sacrament meetings were always held at 7 pm back then and so we would not get home until after 9 pm usually. Well on this particular Sunday when we arrived home it was dark and there was a car from Arizona in the driveway. We suddenly realized that Pauline’s family had brought her up for the school year and they were most likely waiting inside. When we went in we turned on the proch light and I went over to the front room where they had all fallen asleep on the couches and chairs while waiting for us. I woke up whom I thought was Pauline and gave her a hug only to then realize it was not Pauline but rather her sister. She looked so much like Pauline and apparently they were twins and I hadn’t known. It was a bit embarrassing for a short moment but then quickly saw Pauline and hugged her too.

Aug 4, 2010

Tell of an experience climbing a mountain or a big hill.

When I was very young, and young enough to not remember how young, dad took us to a hill near Starvation Reservoir to find some marble rocks. I have never forgotten though how each time we came to the top of a hill that I thought would be the last hill there appeared another one we still had to climb. It took us forever to get to the top of the hill where we found and picked up a small bucket full of round marble shaped volcanic rocks. I remember seeing them many times during my growing years and never really knowing where that hill is at. I think I know the general vicinity but would be very hard pressed to find it again. I played with those rocks a lot of times and still might even have one in my collection of things from my youth. It was a fun outing after we had finally reached that top knoll.

Aug. 3, 2010

Tell about going to summer camp.

The only summer camps that I went to were because of Scouting. They were all up in the granddaddy lakes area of the Uintah National Forest. I loved the five or six times I went into the Granddaddies as they were know and the different lakes that we camped at each time. We stayed at Palisade he most but also camped at Governor and Betsy lakes. I was always afraid of getting lost so I stuck to the trails unless with the leaders who knew the back country trails. Fishing was fun but I wasn’t good at it so it slowly lost its appeal and gave way to making rafts to cross the lakes and hikes into the closets meadows where we could watch the big fish in the stream and still not catch them.

I did go on one other summer camp just before my senior year. It was a summer biology camp with the class and of course Marie was one of the class members that made it worth being on for those couple of days. We saw the first and only flying squirrel that I have ever seen in the wild and had a great time. It was up in the Yellowstone drainage near Moon Lake.

Other than that it was just the weekend camps with the scouts and I always enjoyed them as well.

Aug. 2, 2010

Describe your childhood home and neighborhood.

I grew up in a home that had been moved from Duchesne onto blue bench and then added onto several times. There was a porch that was added, a basement set of rooms and siding. It was a two story home with a basement. We lived on a dead end road with the nearest neighbor a little over a half mile away and town was about two miles. It was a little more than a 40 acre farm and had plenty of work to always be done. Duchesne was a small town where everyone knew everyone and everything about them. There were several families that were the base of the community and they were all well known with my family as one of them. We were farmer’s for the most part and I loved growing up on the farm despite the lack of shopping malls and McDonalds. We didn’t have them and thus we didn’t miss them.

Aug 1, 2010

If you were to return to your youth what would you do differently?

Take more pictures of the things that I did everyday and the places that I loved and the camping trips I went on and the family outings that we had. I have memories but the way I saw things back then are so different from what they are now and even though I have taken some pictures now I can’t make it look like it did in my memory. Things like the Old Slaughter House will never stand again but thank goodness I do have pictures of it. I would probably do my stories about my youth while living it and keep a better journal.

WAIT that is what I should still be doing now. Maybe that is why I like my blog and the Treasured Photography Blog as well. I need to get on it more now too.

July 31, 2010

Tell a memory about riding on a ferry, bus, train, or plane.

Well having grown up on the farm the only one of the four that I remotely had a chance to ride (and I did it every day almost) and that was to ride a school bus. Ours was the second stop on the route in the morning and second to the last to get off at night. Jon Wagoner and I were best friends and his was the first stop so he was always on the bus when I got on and we always sat in the front of the bus. The only times I didn’t ride it were on the nights we would go to primary and the nights that I would run home instead of riding. We were good kids and didn’t make trouble on the bus and learned to really like Jinks Ivie and Harold Spencer, the two driver’s that we had through the years. I did spend a lot of time on school buses during all of those years.

July 30, 2010

Do you have any other memories about a river, lake, or beach to share?

I suppose that I do have one to share. I was in High School when the Starvation Reservoir was started. I am glad it did since it was actually what brought Behrmann’s to Duchesne. It was a long process watching the bridge being built and the dam being built as well almost on the Brown’s place, part of dad and his brother’s farming land near Duchesne. I spent some fun hours there working with Uncle Mont and dad as we herded cows, sheep and did other chores. It was also a part of my Senior year as I was in the band and we played during the dedication of the bridge where the DOT representative was my Uncle Jack from Bountiful. So there were a lot of things that I remember from that period of time when the dam was built for Starvation Reservoir.

July 29, 2010

Share the most unpleasant vacation experience you can recall.

Yep , that’s it. I don’t have one. It was always fun to travel with my family.

July 28, 2010

Share the best vacation experience you can recall.

I did in the last post. However all vacations were very special since we rarely went on any other than to go to Grandpa and Grandma's place in Centerfield once or twice a year. The farm prevented us from going very far for very long since someone would have to milk the cows for us while we were gone. We did go once to Idaho when I was 10. We went to visit another sister of mom's Aunt Helen who lived in Rexburg where Uncle Kay taught music at Ricks college. While we were there we went through Yellowstone National Park. It was also back in the history of the park when we had the bears on the road right next to the cars for several miles in various parts of the park. I didn't know how dangerous they were since they all seemed so friendly but as I have grown up I now realize it. It seems tome though as I look back that we saw very few other animals such as the buffalo and Elk. Bears were the main attraction along with Old Faithful. I loved old faithful and remembered it often as I would walk through Duchesne and take a drink at "old faceful "an appropriately named water fountain somewhere on the street in Duchesne.

July 27, 2010

Tell about a family vacation trip.

When I was 7 or so years old we went down to Blanding to visit my Aunt and Uncle Lyman. (Velma and Kay, Mom's sister just younger than she.) Anyway while we were there Uncle Kay took us in Jeeps out to see a lot of the Indian Ruins that are around that area. We also went over into Colorado to see the famous ruins there at Mesa Verde National Park. I will always remember the excitement at finding drawings up on the rocks and cliffs where it seemed no one could go. Later I found out that there were some small ones in Duchesne near where the canal left the river. Looking at them they seemed to be where no one could reach them but after climbing up there we found a narrow ledge that led out to the paintings. It then became clear to me how they had done those in the four corners area where we had visited them with Uncle Kay.

July 26, 2010

Share a special memory about riding in a boat.

We always had Father's and Son's celebrations while I was growing up. There were two of them that were very special in that we traveled out of the normal and went to float the Green River blow the dam at Flaming Gorge. We went and had rented several large rafts or what could be considered boats since that was the closest that I had ever been in getting into a boat. We floated the 5 or so miles down to Brown's hole where we would get out. I was always fun to go through the rapids even though they were never terribly big they were still fun. It was always a fun event. Later in life I walked that stretch of the river and photographed scouts as they floated down through the rapids. It was fun to do that as well and especially since I did not even realize it was possible until that time.

July 25, 2010

What memories do you have of lightning or thunder during your childhood?

I remember being scared a lot of times by the lightning and thunder. One time however I slept right through he worst one that mom and dad could ever remember. It was so loud and so close that it woke everyone in the house except Lynn and I. We slept in the basement with no windows in the room and thus sounds were usually blanked right out. The next morning we went to survey the damages from the storm. We couldn't find where that one had hit even though it had to have been close to the farm. We did find though a lot of power poles up on the Knight's ranch further up along Blue bench. It had caused a lot of them to fall down and were splintered very badly. I was always kind of sad that I had missed that one even though they were always so scary. I did love to watch the lightning however once it got far enough away.

July 24, 2010

Relate a memory of a tornado, hurricane, or destructive wind.

When I was about 14 Alma and Loyle lived in Louisiana. There was a hurricane called "Camille" that went through Mississippi and lower Louisianna areas. It went p streets close to where they lived. Mom and Marsha and Leesa went there for a vacation before it happened and then when I was 16 we went down there for New Years (ad, Mom, Stan and I) and went past the streets where the damage had been done. Mom time and time again commented how it had all changed so much since the stores and things that she had remembered from the earlier trip were totally gone. One side of the street would be the same while the other was wiped clean.

July 23, 2010

Relate a memory involving a flood or cloudburst.

I don't remember any specific floods or cloudbursts but I do remember the effects of one rather large rain storm. In indian canyon the hills rise rapidly from the road to the top of the mountain. When rain would come it would often come down rather rapidly since it ran off the rocks instead of sinking into the ground. It seldom did any damage but one specific one was so big that it washed out the dirt road going up indian canyon to Price in several places. I remember riding up with Uncle Mont to the ranch and seeing where the water had come down with such power that it had flooded the road in numerous places and washed it out in several others. We had a hard time getting to the ranch. It hadn't done any damage to the ranch houses but had washed through some of the fields leaving a lot of debris scattered through the fields. It was quite a while before all of the road had been repaired.

July 22, 2010

Share a memory about a power outage.

I don't remember a specific power outage but do remember that we had them. Usually it was bring out the flashlights and sometimes the oil burning lamps. I don't remember any other specifics but it was probably a routine of going to bed if it happened late enough or doing chores by candlelight such as mopping floors or doing dishes since they didn't require power to accomplish. Since mom and dad grew up without power it was no big deal to loose it once in a while so life seemed to go on as normal or otherwise I might have remembered them more significantly.