June 21, 2010

Did your father ever make a special gift for you?

I don’t remember dad ever making a special gift for me but I do remember when he made special gifts with me. There was one Christmas in particular when I wanted to make a pencil holder similar to one I think that I must have made in school out of a piece of wood from a tree limb. So dad helped me go down by the pond and find a cedar tree from which we could cut a limb and then showed me how to cut it into pieces and how too take off the bark and drill the holes and then varnish them. They were fun to make and I spent many other hours learning things like that from dad. I went with him a lot of times to work during the summers and was able to help him repair various things in the schools and from that learned a lot of skills as well. Dad was a good teacher nit only by instruction that was planned but also by spur of the moment teaching and instructing while doing work around the farm. He was also very patient so it was not a problem to him when we made mistakes, he simply showed us again the correct way until we learned it.

June 20, 2010

Relate your family Father’s Day traditions or tell me more about what kind of person your father was.

Since I don’t really remember much about the traditions of Father’s Day, (which was not made an official holiday until around 1978), I will write about my father. Dad was a very hard working person. He was also very loving and full of humor. A letter from Mom to Dad the day after his passing best explains it.

“Jan 29, 1978

Darling, today as I rode to fast Meeting, a bluebird streaked across the street in front of me – suddenly I realized that this miracle of spring enjoyed by both of us would be seen only by me this year. Then tears started as they o so easily now. So many things have had meaning in the sharing and now I must see and hear alone, but you are in my thoughts and I feel our love so strong that it makes the experiences so dear to my heart. If only you could know how many people have expressed their love for you and your family. Friends are so precious and ours have been just wonderful. Your love of life and fun and that irrepressible sense of humor have made our lives happy. Tonight we miss you terribly but we have been happy thinking and talking about those wonderfully shining memories. You’ll always be so close to us- guiding us, keeping our family close through the biding ties of love and caring that have been your special gift to all of us always. Goodnight dear.”

June 19, 2010

Tell about some good advice your father gave you.

Dad was a rancher growing up and even though his parents were LDS he picked up the habit of smoking. When mom came along when he was 32 she was able to change his ways and he gave up smoking. Well his advice to me was to never start but if I wanted to he wanted to be there with me. His knowledge of what it was like and that I wouldn’t really want to get a habit like that was enough for me to never make it even a temptation.