Oct 31, 2010

Do you have a special Halloween memory?

Besides the ones I just wrote about I would be very far off the mark if I didn't write about the most special Halloween ever. That was the Halloween when Jeff was born. Now he has not been all that fond of the fact that he was born on that holiday but I could have cared less about which day it was since he was two weeks overdue and we were ready to get him here. Dad had also just had the stroke two weeks before when he was due and maybe that was why he was kept a little longer from being born so we could go see dad in the hospital.It was a long day sine he was born in the early morning hours and I still had to work that day and travel to Brigham City to deliver a TV for American Television service where I was employed. My mind was set on only getting there, getting it delivered and getting back so that I could go to the hospital and see Marie and Jeff. Each one of the children's births have been special in their own way and this was just special because Jeff was a spook or rather born on Halloween.

Oct 30, 2010

What did people do at Halloween?

We did much the same things that are done now as far as Trick or Treating. My family, living nearly two miles from town, did not do a lot of it but we did go to grandma's place and some of the relatives homes in town. There were seldom any that came clear out to our place other than the closest friends that lived on the bench also. There was one thing however that we did back then that is seldom done now and that was to have a yearly Halloween carnival. There would be booths set up in the school gym and then lots of games involved with them. In fact one year I was married to Marie at one of those carnivals. (I still have the certificate from it as well.) They were always a lot of fun and involved other things like bobbing for apples and other such games. That was one tradition that could still be used but for some reason is probably not considered safe enough for Halloween and school children.

Oct 29, 2010

Do you have a good ghost story or haunted house story to relate?

I don't have one that I have made up or that really was a good ghost story but I do have one when I was asked to help give a blessing to a house and thus remove a ghost from it. I was in the Mapleton 4th ward and there was a house that was fairly new that was built along the highway. It was built by one family and then they moved from it and a single elderly man moved into it. A few weeks after he had moved in the Bishop and I were at the church one tuesday evening just after out Bishopric meeting had ended when this fellow came in and asked us to use the priesthood to remove some evil spirits from the house. I for one didn't believe him even though I am perfectly aware of many instances in church history where spirits both good and evil were seen by members of the church. I guessed we were past that point but Bishop knew that it would be best to go and asked me as his first counselor to go and assist with the blessing. I did so and we went and gave the house a priesthood blessing. I have seldom passed that house since without remembering that experience. It was needed and the man was then able to live there for some time without further incident from what I am aware.

Oct 28, 2010

Did you ever tell ghost stories?

I missed that important part of campouts and special halloween occasions apparently I did not ever tell any ghost stories.

Oct 27, 2010

Tell a story about a time when you dressed up in a costume.

When I was in high school in the 9th grade there was a practice back then that would now be considered as hazing in schools and that was "Initiation".

The seniors would each be assigned a freshman and they would make them do something for the morning and then in the afternoon both grades would go up to the D on the hill and repair it then whitewash it. Well my senior, and I don't remember who had me, told me to dress up as Cinderella in a gown for the ball. I also had to have high heel shoes to walk around in and I remember walking down main street for our initiation parade in that dress and heels. It was pretty awful but not nearly as BAD AS BEING HIT WITH THOSE PADDLES THAT THE SENIORS MADE AND SEVERAL OF THEM HAD DRILLED HOLES IN THE PADLE which really stung when they hit you, even through your clothes. It was a bad day in the life of every freshman and I for one was not disappointed when the practice was banned from schools.

Oct 26, 2010

Share a memory about being very scared.

An excerpt from my journal stories of 4H Forestry will best answer this question.

Mines and Mt Lions, Oh My.

Another trip found us about half way up Indian Canyon where we had hiked up the east side of the canyon on the slick shale covered hillside. We were identifying different species of trees and different types of rock formations. We were also collecting samples for our presses. We had actually gone several hundred yards up the side of the canyon and had become somewhat spread out when we heard a very strange sound. I can’t recall what it even sounded like now but I very clearly remember everyone’s reaction. Burt’s reaction was very short but very clear, “Get down the mountain” he loudly shouted and we all started running down the hill. I have thought many times about the incident since that day and cannot recall what the sound was but have often wondered if it was a Mountain Lion or a Bear or something of that sort which caused such alarm in his voice. We never did (or at least none of us young men) ever did identify the sound but it was obvious to me that Burt had and he knew the present danger that it posed.

That day ended up being eventful to me in a couple of ways. In the afternoon on our way back down the canyon we decided to hike up to the old Gilsonite mine, the entrance is still visible to this day as you travel the canyon. The road looked like a trail and from the bottom of the canyon the doorway appeared to be pretty small and so I was worried from the start about this particular event. We started up the hill and I soon learned that the trail was big enough for a vehicle to travel. It had the room for a vehicle although I would never have driven it since it was also not very far before the drop-off from the road was straight down. It was a long hike as well though and took us quite awhile to get to the entrance which when we got there was not only two stories high but each story was probably 10 feet tall. We started into the cave but only a few of us had flashlights of which few I was not one. So I depended on the guy in front of me and at times found it hard to see. I apparently have a bit of a dislike for dark, tight spaces (even though it was ten feet to the ceiling) and became somewhat scared that the water, which was steadily getting deeper on the floor, would suddenly be over my head or that the road which was very level would suddenly drop 150 feet to the next level. All of these were not founded on fact and in fact I learned later from my father that the mine actually comes out the other side of the mountain into what we refer to as the right hand fork of Indian Canyon. I was glad though when Burt decided we had gone far enough and to the dismay of several others in the group had us turn around and go out. It was a short hike to the vehicle and that only because we all pretty much ran back down to the bottom. Twice in one day and each time I had been pretty scared.

Oct 25, 2010

What hobbies or collections did you have as a youth?

Wow I was just an habitual collector from old radios, art and marbles to stamps, rocks and trinkets. I came by it naturally as mom was a collector of sorts as well. We always were having to pick up rocks for her gardens, rock gardens. I also collected coins and candy. I would buy Life Savers too and had a cigar box full of them. I didn't like to open the wrappers since they were so fun to collect so I just wouldn't eat the candy inside, they were only a nickel a roll. When I went on my mission I had left them in the box on a shelf in my room and after returning was cleaning out my stuff when I was getting ready to be married and move away when I found the box. I knew what was in it but couldn't believe haw light it had gotten. I couldn't understand how even when the candy would sugar over time that it could get lighter. Well it wasn't due to the chemical change but rather the ease which it provided the ants to go in a make a small hole in the wrapper and then carry away the sugar granules. Every single wrapper was empty and so I did something pretty dumb for a collector and threw them away. I now wish I had them even tough I could repeat the process and get more I would not have the wrapper from the era of the 60's in which they were made.

Oct 24, 2010

If you had a watch tell about it.

I had several watches. One pocket watch and then several that I would put on a leather band around my wrist. I hated them though and didn't like having things on my wrists so eventually I stopped wearing them and would just guess at the time or ask someone else. Now I just use my phone.

Oct 23, 2010

Did you ever pick apples?

So why did she have to stop with apples? I picked apples pretty much every fall by the bushels since we had several trees on the farm . Apples bear usually every other year but there are always some each year so we had to pick them as well. I asked why she had to stop with apples since we also picked cherries, plums, apricots, pears and peaches of the big fruits and then gooseberries, raspberries and strawberries of the smaller fruits. Mother loved trees and planted a lot of trees and bushes so we also had walnut and a couple of other nut trees.

Oct 22, 2010

What is the farthest you have ever ran or walked?

In one day probably 20 miles. That was for scouts and was a part of a camp. Other than that I mostly rode a bike to get around and didn't have to walk except for when I was in training for cross country and track.

Oct 21, 2010

Do you have a story about standing up against odds for something that you really believed in?

That would probably be the same story that I have told about being kicked out of English class to take photos for the yearbook. I did not have the reputation for causing trouble but I had yo meet a deadline for the yearbook and had no choice in the decision.

10-20-2010 (Oct 20, 2010)

Share a favorite fall memory?

I guess my favorite fall memories would have to include returning to school and seeing Marie again on a daily basis. She always looked so good as she walked to the school from her house and I loved to sit on the planter box in the hall in front of the doors and watch her come.

Oct 19, 2010

Was an injustice ever done to you?

Not that I can remember or at least that mattered in the long run and so I forgot about it.

Oct 18, 2010

Did you ever lose or break something that belonged to someone else?

Dad and mom's new car. The salesman had brought a new car over to Duchesne for mom and dad to look at and had parked it behind the car that was in the garage. I had just gotten my license and asked if I could use the car to go to town. The answer was yes and as I backed out of the garage I didn't see the new car and hit the bumper. It didn't do too much damage but it did do some and felt pretty bad. I went back into the house and the salesman just laughed. He took it home, had it repaired and as far as I know paid for it then brought it back over and dad bought it. I may remember wrong but I think that was the car that they gave to us a couple of years after we had been married.

Oct 17, 2010

Did you ever lose something really important to you?

I am sure I did but apparently it wasn't important enough to make a permanent memory of it in my brain. However I did find something that was probably pretty important to someone else or at least it would have been to me had I lost it. I had gone to feed the cows and at the time our hay baler was one that made small round bales. When stacked they would form a triangle and so we would have to climb up to the top and take one of the bales and push it off so that it landed in the manger below where we would spread it out for the cows. That particular night as I slid down off the stack (the preferred method of getting down) I got to the bottom and something hit me in the back. As I searched for what it was I found a silver dollar. Silver dollars were not at all common even though I knew what they were since I had been given one for memorizing the current prophet (David O McKay) and the quorum and the 12 apostles and assistants to the quorum of the 12. So I already had a silver dollar but was glad to find a second one. We could never discover who had lost the coin and figured it was probably because they didn't want us to know that they had been playing on the haystack. It was years later after I was married when Lynn and I were discussing it and he asked if he could have it since he didn't have one and I had two. I gladly gave it to him.

Oct 16, 2010

Tell about pulling or losing a baby tooth.

I think my memories of all the teeth that I lost were probably wrapped into one giant or not so giant recollection of what seems like just one tooth. I remember tat it was painful and so i always kept it a secret until it was almost ready to fall out on it's own. It seemed like the method of pulling was a pair of pliers in dad's hand and a few seconds later it was out but it still hurt. The best part though was the dime under my pillow in the morning from the tooth fairy.

Oct 15,2010

Do you have any advice on how to be wise with my money?

Pay tithing first, yourself second and then the bills and after that the fun things.

Oct 14, 2010

Did you have to do anything to earn it?

For the dime I had to do the dishes and other household chores. For the milk money I had to feed the cows, milk the cows, feed the chickens and gather and clean the eggs. I also had to help with the farm chores of irrigating, cutting, raking , baling, and hauling the hay that would feed the cows during the winter. We also had a lot of other chores that we would do depending on the seasons. For instance the late summer days were filled very full of picking, washing and processing the fruit. My job was more as well because I had to bring the bottles in from the grainery where we stored the bottles, remove the black widow spiders that made their home in the bottles, wash the bottles and prepare them for having the fruit added to them. I also was the one to sort through the storage room and remove old fruit and empty and clean those bottles as well. Then I would put the new fruit away in the storage room. I had plenty to do to earn any allowance.

Oct 13, 2010

What allowance did you get at different ages during your youth?

I don't remember what I received. I think I received a dime a month at one point but it was when I became a teenager that I received an allowance which was from the milk that I sold from doing chores. I had at one point about 6 customers that I would sell milk to for 25 cents a gallon. I had a little wooden box that I had built and placed in the barn where they would put the money. I sold probably an average of 2 gallons a day.

Oct 12, 2010

Share a memory about a bat in the house.

Strangely enough I cannot remember ever having a bat in the house because there were sure plenty of them in the barn and flying around outside at night. I remember watching them as they would swoop this way and that catching the mosquitos and other flying bugs that were ever present around our place. I only remember hearing that one got tangled in someones hair only once and now I can't remember who it was or if it really was an event.

Oct 11, 2010

Relate a story about a mouse in the house.

That one is easy since we always had mice in the house. They were in the house when Pee Wee (our dog) and Smokey (our cat) were not even allowed in the house. Of course mom didn't want the mice in there either but they came in under the old foundation and always found a way in through several areas of the basement. When I was living in the basement there was a bookshelf next to the wall between the bedroom and the study room. There was about a 2 inch gap at the bottom between the shelf and the wall. I discovered that it was their favorite place to get into my bedroom so I started placing a trap right there against the wall, it had no bait but it didn't matter since they would run into the room, over the trap, and that would make me have to empty another dead mouse from out of the house. I caught over a dozen in one day using that method. I was only able to control the mice but never totally get rid of them since they came in from outside from the fields but at least it was a lot easier to catch them that way then with adding bait to the trap.

Oct 10. 2010

What was the strangest thing you ever saw in the sky?

Two comets. We lived outside of town and had no yard light unless we turned the one on in the front of the barn where it shown so we could play basketball, well shoot hoops since it is pretty hard to bounce a ball on loose dirt which was in front of the barn. There were only a couple of months in the summer though when we didn't have to turn on any lights but most of the time when we did need lights we just turned on the ones inside of the barn or garage. Well one night as I was just out in front of the barn I thought I saw a plane coming in to land at the airport which was p on the bench just a mile or so from the house. I was use to seeing planes fly over even though it was somewhat occasional. That night however it didn't quite look right as it approached since it was going way to fast and it had only one light. As it went over the area between the house and the barn I thought for sure that it was low enough to hit into the ground above the hill. I raced across the canal bridge and up the hill only to find no trace of it. Well the next day on the radio it was reported that it had hit somewhere in Wyoming . It might have been Montana I don't recall right now anyway it was a long way from where I thought it would hit. Later in another summer I was on a tractor mowing the football field at the Altamont High School when I happened to glance up and another comet caught my attention in the middle of the day. What was really odd about that one is it seemed to go between the earth and a plane flying overhead. It was reported the next day that it had indeed gone under the plane.

Oct 9, 2010

What was your most prized possession as a child?

A blanket made and given to me by Grandma Poulson. It had a basic yellow color to it on the one side and a whole bunch of 2 inch blocks on the other. It was warm and it was from Grandma. I still have that blanket today even though it is showing it's age it is still basically in one piece.

Oct 8, 2010

More advice?

Tell your spouse you love him/her EVERYDAY and then prove it.

Oct 7, 2010

Do you have some good advice for me?

This blog could go on forever but I will make it short. Be true to the gospel, love your spouse and children, work hard, pay tithing first, play hard, go to bed early, get up early, listen to good music, read the scriptures daily, ponder daily, count your blessings daily and thank your Father in Heaven for all he gives to you daily. There are many more but that will do for now.

Oct 6, 2010

If you ever played in the leaves, tell about it.

As far as raking leaves we had plenty of them as well since we had an orchard where the lawn also was. There were apple, apricot, pear, peach and several other types of trees. (Mother loved trees.) Anyway one year we had a huge pile of leaves under one of the apple trees and were jumping into it for some time before Marsha came out holding her mouth. She had hit a rock and broken one of her front teeth. I haven't jumped into a lot a leaves since then.

Oct 5, 2010

Do you have any special memories about raking or burning leaves or mowing the lawn?

Wow do I ever, well maybe not special but very memorable. We did not own a power lawn mower until I was in High School. All of the mowing of the lawn was done with a push mower where the blades turned because of the wheel turning and they were ones that swept against a bar and trapped the grass between the bar and the blade to cut the grass. They were not easy to push and all of you have seen the size of the yard where I grew up. It took hours to mow. However I did like mowing better after we got a gas powered mower than I did weeding the garden so I systematically mowed more and more area so that it would grow into grass and not be available for garden space. It is that size now since Stan moved the garden area out into the field below the barn when he moved into the house.

Oct 4, 2010

Do you have any memory of going to a big concert?

Not until after I was married. MArie and I went to one in Provo one year and I can't even remember who it was (as Marie and I talked about it we think it was the Carpenters concert that we went to). Concerts were not a part of my activity schedules through the years. There have been some that I know I probably would have enjoyed but it was never put as a line item in the budget. Loren and I basically got to attend a Lee Greenwood concert that he did for the Utah National Parks Council at our Jamboral in the year 2000. I remember him coming out and saying that he had a lot of requests for the song that made him famous and so he sang the jingle about the MacDonalds sesame seed bun that was apparently one of the first songs that he ever did. He did finally sing "God Bless the USA" toward the end of the concert.

Oct 3, 2010

Tell about any other extra-curricular activities.

I am not sure these count but I did track and field and debate. They were part of the school activities but took quite a bit of time outside of school as well. I went to track meets in the fall for cross country event and in the spring for the 1/2 mile race and sometimes as a member of a relay team. During the winter and early spring I went to debate meets, even to state one year and to band competition and drama competitions as well. I was in a couple of plays for the drama team.

Oct 2, 2010

Can you recite any of your school cheers?

Not really. I have forgotten them through the years and I am not sure I could even remember the school song even though I know we had one.

Oct 1, 2010

Did your High School have cheerleaders? What did they wear?

Yes, Duchesne High School did have cheerleaders. Serena, Wendy and LuAnn were three from my class that were always cheerleaders. The wore a white and blue cheer outfit, but I don't know how to explain them other than they were the typical blouse and skirt combination that they could easily move in while doing the cheers. I photographed them for the yearbook each year and probably still have black and white photos of them in my albums.