April 26, 2010

Last early bird.

Did you ever take something that wasn’t yours?

Yes and got caught. It was from my family’s tithing bank. I didn’t think I was stealing because I replaced the money with a same amount. I was just collecting dimes so I would take the dimes and put nickles back instead of the same value. Mom however helped me to understand that it still wasn’t right without the other person’s permission. It was easy to do because we all had a separate small bank that was together with all of the other ones in the same box. I didn’t do it anymore after that. It is interesting to note however that the dimes that I did collect over several years I took into the bank for safe keeping not realizing that they would just put them back into circulation. When I went to get them they explained that I would have needed to put them into a safe deposit box. It was 1964 and that year the US government cheapened the dime by sand-witching them. The put zinc in the center then silver on the outside. The value of the dime and also quarter’s were far less after that and I wished many times over that I hadn’t taken those several rolls of dimes to the bank.

April 25, 2010

I am doing a couple early since I may not have internet access the next few days while on assignment in California.

Tell about the first time that you were ever behind the wheel of a car?

I think that this should have been stated as “behind the wheel of a vehicle”.

I drove the truck many times before I was legally able to drive simply because we used them in farming a lot. I was never out on public roads behind the wheel until I was 15 and in Driver’s Education but I drove a tractor and truck for several years prior to that from about the time that I was 8 or 9.

I do remember though in Driver’s ed going with Coach Josie in the cars from Duchesne to Altamont and Roosevelt. We mainly went to Roosevelt because it was large enough to give us a little feel for city driving. I had problems also regulating the speed up and down the hills. When driving the tractor it was mostly on level fields and up to the yard, not much need to constantly pushing and lifting your foot on and off the gas pedal. It didn’t take very long though to get use to it and I didn’t go home crying as Leesa had after her experience driving with Josie. She was a year ahead of me and he use to make her so scared of driving that she would come home crying and that made me a little nervous to do it a year later but my previous experience behind the wheel made it a lot easier for me.

April 24, 2010

I am doing a couple early since I may not have internet access the next few days while on assignment in California.

Where were your best hide-and-seek places?

Around the side of the lawn behind the hedge which hid the clothesline from plain sight and around the back side of the house. We played what are now referred to as night games very often during the summer months. We would wait until it got dark and although we had different names for different variations of the game it was pretty much hide and seek. The variations were “Kick the Can” where you had to get back to the starting point and kick a can that was sitting there before you got touched by the person that was it. Then there was the game of “No bears are out Tonight” which was one that generally was a bit more scary since we really did have bears out there and pretending they were there was almost too much. Again you had to get back to the starting point before the bear touched you and you then also became a bear until only one person was left. The reason I liked the back of the house so much though was because it took long enough to get around it without making noise that you usually won by default, everyone else was captured by the time you made it around without making any noise. Plus you were coming back from a totally different side from where they heard you run off from.

April 23, 2010

Did you have any superstitions?

Well I don't consider myself as ever having any but I did find myself never intentionally stepping on a crack since that "would break your mother's back". (Don't step on a crack or you will break your mother's back.) It was an old saying that I have no idea of where it's origin came from nor do I really care but it was a part of me from something. It is the only one I was ever told that seemed to stick in my memory. Mom never had a broken back so I must have done OK.
I suppose I did participate in other superstitions because as I think about it "I try not to walk under a ladder, I don't consider black cats bad since I can always find some white on them somewhere, and I do knock on wood once in a while. However Friday the 13th is never an unlucky day because of having a birthday that often falls on a friday the 13th. It is a great day for me.