The question is why I have put these three dates together for this entry. Since I can put as much as I need on a blog page and not be limited to the small pages in the book.
I hope you have learned a little about me this year that might be of worth to you for your life. I have enjoyed the experience even though I know that most of you have hardly followed it anyway but that's OK since it is now written and I am on a roll to add a lot more that you may never read but it has been fun. I am a bit ashamed of all that I have forgotten about my youth but in a few moments will tell you about what really mattered most anyway as I was growing.
Many people consider their childhood as a painful experience and even though I had some challenges as a youth I must admit that they were lessened extremely by those whom I was associated with during that period. I have written about the Marie Behrmann's, Ray and Donna Hansen's, Sister Beverly Caldwell's, Harold Spencer's and Steve Aycock's that were there for me and gave me great direction. But I have not written as much about the Grandparents, parents and siblings that really were the greatest blessing of all that I had. Yes I have told you about Leesa (Tim) throwing the sugar bowl lid and hitting me but I haven't told you about the many times that she was a mentor and loving sister. She gave to me a great example to follow and I will always appreciate it. She had high grades in school that eventually prompted me to seek for the same. She was active in Seminary and church which made it easy for me to follow the same path. She was fun to be around and when pauline was added to the family it was even better as I got to be a part of their life as well together. Alma (Loyle) was always my best friend, and I thank her the most for having taught me to love to sing as she was the one who taught me to sing alto in a song that we sang for Sacrament meeting as a family one year. Stan (Nadine) was the one who first set the example of going on a mission and giving service to his country as he went to VietNam during the war in the military. He told me once after his mission that he never dated because he wanted to go on his mission, serve in the army, and complete his education before he married. He did just that too and we were shocked the month before he graduated from Utah State University when he brought Nadine to a concert that Lynn, Leesa and I were performing in at Snow College. he was married a month after he graduated and had already served. I loved listening to him play his guitar also. Both he and Clair played the guitar. Clair (Ruth) was a great mentor to me also and to his credit he was the more rebellious hot headed one that learned what life was all about and changed so that he became an example of the right things to do in learning how to control his temper and refrain from swearing. He was in a bishopric and setting a great example by the time I was called to serve a mission from the same ward. Lynn (Julie) was closer to my age and consequently we probably fought more with each other. I never remember having any fights with Stan and Clair even though they fought each other enough as it was. Lynn and I did though and he always won(he had four years on me). However it was with Lynn where I probably learned to work the most since he and I were the ones at home, after Stan and Clair had left, to be the ones to help dad with the farm work. We hauled a lot of hay together and it was usually just the two of us by that time. We had the haystack fall over that we had to rebuild and plenty of other experiences but most of all he set the example to get his Eagle Award in scouting and instilled the desire in me to also want it. We were also room mates during my first year in college and I have always been grateful for that even though I hardly ever saw him.
Even though she was younger by three years Marsha (Scott) was always fun to be with as well. She helped me to stay active as well since I was the one to whom she most likely looked to for guidance at church and school. I will never forget the accidents that she had where I wish I could have taken the pain from her. The broken tooth from jumping into the pile of leaves that I had also been jumping into, and the fall from the car onto the road where she was scrapped up so badly and the doctor had to scrub out the rocks with a wire brush. As I look back though I am sure glad that was what had to happen with so many other things that might have happened.
I have not really told much about my grandparents and cousins. There are too many cousins to really mention them here but I had some great friends in them as well. Although my cousins on Dad's side of the family were all much older they were still some great mentors to me. It was more their children with whom I played when at reunions since they were all in the range of age that I was. Many of them are dear friends as well today and have set great examples for me as well. My mother's side of the family were also a lot of fun and great examples. I was toward the middle of the ages there and so had older ones to look up to and ones my age to always play with. Some of my dearest friends are cousins as well. My Aunts and Uncles were always a special part of my youth (and adult life) as well. I only knew two of my father's brothers since Melvin (Helen) and Veda (Jack Skewes) had both passed away years before I was born but I loved to be with Mont and Florence and to go to Tennis and Fern's place in Orem. They were the two brother's of dad's that I knew. Then on Mom's side there were all of her sisters and their husbands that I grew to love dearly. There were Velma and Kay Lyman, Zelma and Lyle Clement, Helen and Chester Hill, Carma and Carling Allen, and Ardyth and Doyle West that were all very dear friends and I learned a lot from them and how they treated people especially each other. I had many special experiences with each of them and their families. I hope to continue my blog well into the future as I put my history into stories on this blog for you (and probably mostly for your children). I am reminded that there are a lot of stories that I have not listed that I should tell about where my cousins were a huge part of my life.
Grandpa George Alma Poulson was my one grandparent that I can only vaguely remember as my only memory of him was sitting on his lap in their home in Duchesne. Grandma (Nana) Rozilla Johnson Poulson however was a huge part of my life as I spent every afternoon of my kindergarten year in her home until Mom and Dad were done with work. I loved her tapioca pudding and great chocolate cookies and raisin cookies. She was with us in our home for each Christmas including her last the day before she passed away. She was always such a special part of my life in Duchesne. Grandpa Charles Savern Hanse from whom I received my patriarchal blessing at the age of 13 and Grandma Alvira Westover Hansen who always had fresh bread and was always cooking something in her kitchen when we arrived in Centerfield, Utah to visit was a huge part of my life. Every birthday we could look forward to a dollar bill in a birthday card from her. Mostly though what I got from each grandparent was a knowledge of the fact that they loved the gospel of Jesus Christ and were always great examples of living it to the fullest. I had very very special grandparents.
Dad (Kermit Poulson) and Mom (Gertrude Ilean Hansen Poulson) however were the greatest factors in my having a childhood that was fun and not very full of heartache from wrong choices. They set the example that I should follow and helped me to learn all along the way. I spent a lot of my childhood days at the feet of my parents during Family Home Evenings, a thing not stressed yet by the church, and around the piano singing as a family. I went to church with them and enjoyed their company at many of the activities in the ward. We always went as a family to tithing settlement at the end of each year and they taught us the principles of the gospel and how to live them. I rode with dad to many a ward meetings throughout the stake as he served on the High Council and then later rode to many meetings with him since he was in the Bishopric during my teenage years. I also spent a lot of time with him during the summer going to schools to work with him throughout the county as he was the Superintendent of Buildings and grounds for the Duchesne County School District. I spent many years with mom also in the library at Duchesne High School learning to love books and how o properly care for them and how to file them. I spent one entire semester at school organizing and cataloging all of the schools periodicals for her. Most of all though I learned from them to love the gospel as they bore testimony of it in all that they did in their lives. Dad was not always active in the church and in fact was smoking the first time mom saw him as he came out of the post office with Tennis shortly after she moved to Duchesne to take a job as a county social worker. She changed his life and he changed mine.
Now I have not been as good as them and I have had my own personal challenges through my life but I do want each of you to know that I am working hard to be like them as I want to be with them through the eternities. I have spoken of many today in my family that have had a great influence on me and my testimony of the gospel is stronger each day because of my desire to be more like them. I have worked hard in the church because they worked hard in the church and showed me why it was so important. I love the gospel and though I have made mistakes they are not nearly what they could have been had I not been raised with such loving family and friends. I hope you each know how much I love you and want the best for you. I hope you each strive to do all you can for the Lord as you continue to build your strength in the gospel and your testimonies of it. You have a great heritage and it goes even beyond me and my parents for many generations. We have truly been blessed by each of them even though we have not known them personally here on this earth. I believe that we did know them before and made promises to them to try our best and to follow their righteous examples that they tried their best to do when they were here for their test. May the results of our test be acceptance back into the presence of the ones from whom we have had the greatest help and example, our brother Jesus Christ and our loving Parents in Heaven, we call him God the Eternal Father and we call her Mother since she is so precious to him that we know little else about Her. We do know she loves us as well though and wants along with Him to have us each back with them. This gospel is true, strive your hardest to learn that for yourself and gain a strong testimony of it. Now I want each of you to know that I love you and that I know this gospel is true because I have felt the promptings for the other member of the Godhead even the Holy Ghost as I have been in some very special places and He has let me feel of the goodness and truth of this gospel. May the Lord Bless each of you along your way as he has been blessing me to this point and I know will continue to so do through the rest of my life.
