Jan 24, 2011

What is the earliest thing you remember?

Good Question. I suppose I remember walking through snow that was up almost up my shoulders so I had to have been pretty small. There was a trail that I guess dad had made from the house out to the barn. I don't remember any storms after that which were anything like it. There were a lot of drifts for several years that would form at the top of the hill as the snow would blow off of the bench. They would form over the trees creating caves under them that we would dig into and use as forts. So I suppose a lot of my first memories were about snow and our yard. I remember climbing trees and going for long hikes along the trails through the hills. It was a good place to make early memories.

Jan 23, 2011

As a young child, what did you look like?

I was skinny, and short. But I made up for it by being fast and smart, well kinda smart, I think. I had sandy red hair and plenty of freckles. I could get sunburned in a few short minutes of being in the sun so I learned to pull off dead, flaky skin or wear long sleeve shirts, I choose the latter. Every now and then I would forget but the pain would continue to make me remember the next time. I would have short hair in the summer and longer but never past my ears if mom had anything to do with it and she did. It was short in the summer because we would get a buzz at the start of every summer so that we would be able to work in the heat easier. I wore mostly hand-me-down clothes from the three older brothers. I would get new underwear and socks since they seldom made it past one person.

Jan 22, 2011

Where did your family go on vacation? What are your favorite memories of the trips you took together?

I told about some of these already but I will expound a little more on one of them to Yellowstone. I don't know how big I was but I do remember watching all the bears on the side of the road. We even had one that stood up on the door of the car or rather leaned his front paws on the door as he stood up. I also remember seeing one in a tree, a small cub, and wanting to go over and photograph it with my Brownie Instamatic. I realize now why mom and dad wouldn't let me do it. Also there was a big buffalo in the filed and I did go to the side of the road but that was as far as I could go as well and I also realize now why. It seemed also that Old Faithful went hundreds of feet into the air. I was mildly disappointed in 2010 when we went there again and it seemed to barely get started before it was done. It still is a magnificent thing to behold but to a young child it was all the more spectacular. It was a fun trip as I remember but it seems like the upper falls of the Yellowstone River was viewed from the other side of the river. I think we did actually go down to the lookout as well that was right by the falls. Needless to say it left a huge impression on me.

Jan 21, 2011

Did you have any favorite uncles, aunts or cousins growing up? Who were they and what did you admire most about them?

Gosh this is not fair. I had a lot of favorites depending on whom I was around at the time. I was blessed with great relatives on both sides of the family, mom and dad's. I knew dad's the best since they lived for the most part in Duchesne and surrounding areas. Uncle Mont and cousin Jack were probably the two favorites though if I have to narrow it down . Mont because he was such an old cowboy and loved to have us ride with him and work with him. He was always funny and even gross at some points when he would eat raw eggs just to see our reaction. That doesn't seem so bad to mew now though since I know a scoutmaster that would shock his scouts by eating the shell and all.

Jack was just a lot of fun even though it was mostly at my expense. He and Chuck both kept me on the edge of my senses wondering what they would do next and I must admit I was far to gullible to be very safe AROUND EITHER OF THEM.

I got to know another cousin after I was married though that became a very close friend in the few years that we were around each other. That was Ned Poulson. I loved the way he decorated his house and John Wayne was a favorite movie star for both os us. I am still quite close to his children and enjoy interacting with their families quite often. We have done quite a lot together because of scouting and being in the same district.

On mom's ide I must admit Doyle was probably the highlight since he was such a joker. He kept us laughing (and still does) every time we met at reunions. I enjoyed going finally to California where they live and photographing one of his daughter's wedding. I t was a special experience for Marie and I. It was too bad that I was over 45 years old before I ever got to visit their home. We were there one other time for Thanksgiving prior to that wedding by a few years when we were asked to do a wedding for someone from Oakland who we met at her cousins wedding here in Utah. We ate dinner with them and did a few other activities before heading to the hotel to prepare for the wedding the next day.

Jan, 20, 2011

What appliances did you have or not have in your home?

We had an outhouse but luckily could use the indoor toilet except when at the ranch where the double seater outhouse was the only place to go. We did not have a phone that you would have to pick up and crank until you got the operator but we did have one where you had to wait to answer it since it would ring once or even twice depending on if it was you or your neighbor that was to answer it. Iy was called a party line since there were two parties on it and if you were not nice you could listen to the neighbors conversations but of course that isn't so different from today when you can listen to several of them at a time as they talk on their cell phones, I guess there was one major difference in that you could hear both sides of the conversation instead of having to make up the one side you can't hear today. We had an ice box but by that time the name refrigerator was starting to catch on since it wasn't anything like an ice box in reality. We had an old Black and White TV which was upgraded to a color one sometime before my teens. We had two old wood burning stoves to cook on out in the shed and we used the electric one in the house. I did use an old wood burning one in the barn to heat up the wash room so we could wash the milking tools. We had old dutch ovens that we cooked with on special occasions in the fireplace in the yard but used pots and pans on the stove. We had a coal burning furnace that didn't get upgraded until I was long gone from the home and married. I did have to haul coal every morning and night into the basement and then fill the stoker and pull the clinkers out of the furnace. Dad usually did that in the mornings while waiting for me to get up but I usually did it at night. We had old kerosene lamps that we would have to trim the wicks on before using when the power would occasionally go out. And we heated water on the stove to cook with if the electric water heater didn't keep up with the demand of seven children. We had an old washing machine that we would ring the clothes out and then hang them on the outdoor clothesline to dry in the summer and indoor clothes lines during the winter. I was in my early teens when we did get an electric washer and dryer set that was really welcomed. We did have an electric freezer that was huge and could hold a full beef and lots of other things like deer meat and chicken that we had killed. It also held ice cream occasionally in the summer after we would sit out under the grape arbor and crank the ice cream maker until it was cold and frozen since we did not have an electric one to do the job of freezing the cream.We also made butter from the cream that I would bring in from doing chores after it was separated from the milk with an old crank style cream separator. Well that's not all of them I am sure but it is all that I can think of right now. Oops we did have an old iron that was heated on the stove for ironing sitting in a cupboard somewhere while we used the electric iron instead.

Jan 19, 2011

Was there a chore you hated doing as a child?

OK let's face it and rephrase it. Was there a chore I didn't hate to do as a child? Much easier to answer this one since it can be stated with two letters "NO". I hated washing or drying dishes, setting or clearing off the table, vacuuming, cleaning my room, washing the clothes on saturday, making my bed in order to go to sleep on saturday night (well Sunday morning technically), mowing the lawn, milking, feeding the cows, slopping the pigs, feeding the calves with a bottle of milk, cutting, raking, baling, and hauling the hay, irrigating, planting, weeding and harvesting the garden, picking the fruit and canning it also, cleaning the fruit room so there could be room for the new fruit, putting the empty jars in the grainery, getting the empty jars out of the grainery, cleaning the black widow spiders out of the jars, washing the jars, peeling the fruit, cooking and processing the fruit, bottling the fruit and putting it away after labeling it. Actually I really didn't hate it that bad now as I look back on it but I am sure that I complained about it plenty to mom since none of my friends in town had that much work to do. I didn't complain about the other ones who lived on farms as most of them did since I knew they also had plenty of chores as well. Life really was quite OK on the farm as long as we could cool off in the canal in the afternoon or late evening when the water always seemed to be a lot warmer.

Jan 18, 2011

How did your family spend time together?

Playing games inside and out. Listening to record on the record player an old 78. Eating together. Having Family Home Evening before it really became a push in the church to do it. I guess though it was a lot of working together also since we had the farm and plenty of work to do. Haying in the summer, canning in the fall, and chores all year round. We would maybe go to Centerfield a couple times a year and have Uncle Mont and Milton and then later after they moved have Harold do the chores for us. We went on only a few vacations to Blanding and Idaho falls and Yellowstone. I remember going to the Four Corners area of Utah before it became commercialized and cost a lot to go to see. We also went through the area where Lake Powell now is located. we also went once while the dam was being built. One other activity that we did almost yearly was go to Vernal and to Dinosaur land. I saw a lot of the bones excavated through the years as we would take cousins over there. It was always a lot of fun. we also tried to go to Split Mountain Gorge each time as well and have lunch there by the Green River. When Alma graduated and went to work at Jacob Lake AZ we took a coupe of trips down there and then on to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I loved that place but I think it scared mom and dad since it was hard to keep track of us as we went near the edge of the rim. I didn't go very close since it scared me pretty good just looking down from behind the fences.

Jan 17, 2011

What did you talk about at dinner?

Probably the farm work and what we did at school or whatever. I really don't remember that well but I do remember Lynn on one corner and Marsha on another since they were left handed. I was usually in the middle agains the wall. Dad had built a large table so that we (all 9 of us) sit around it at one time. The table always seemed so big until later years when I would go home and realize it really wasn't very big. I think it was maybe 7 feet in length or maybe only 6 but we did fit around it and that was the important thing. I do remember though that we always ate together as a family.

Jan 16, 2011

What did your family do for fun when you were a child?

Several things that are quite unlike anything done today. We had an old B&W TV which didn't hold our attention very long so we played games. We also went swimming in the canal just about every day in the summer afternoons. We also played around on the hillside above the house, went rabbit hunting in the hills around the house and climbed trees.

The games we played I mentioned the other night. Those games are called night games now as played in your childhood. No Bears are out tonight, Kick the Can, Hide and Seek, and Flags were the most popular ones.

Swimming in the canal above the house was always fun. It was only 2 feet deep and thus really didn't lend to swimming but it was wet and fun. We would often walk up the lane to the weir (where the water was taken out for our ditches) or to where the bridge was that we crossed coming to the house about a half mile away. We would then put inner tubes into the canal and sit on them and float back to the house. We would sometimes paddle to go a little faster since it was a pretty slow running stream. We would have water fights in the canal also and loved to find the pockets of sand where it was easy to walk. Sometimes we would just float on our backs down the canal without tubes.

There was a small bridge that crossed the canal by where we swam and it went up onto the hillside. There were numerous trails that went along through the trees and lot of rocks and scorpions. We would sometimes go hunting the scorpions and tickle their heads with long pieces of grass until they would strike themselves, not very nice but we did it since we didn't really like them. There were also a lot of black tail jack rabbits that dad would let us hunt with .22 rifles so that we could control their numbers. They would eat the hay in the filed and destroy a lot of our feed if let get out of hand. I can also remember chasing a badger up there one time trying to kill it. When I was in high school I would run up the hill and across the bench training for cross country and half mile races. I use to run after the deer but of course never ever catch up to them.

There were a lot of trees around the farm also that we would climb and play in as well. There really was no lack of things to do once the work got done.

Jan 15, 2011

Where has your family lived since that time?

That was and is our family home. My brother Stan and his family live there now and have since mother went on her mission. Clair built his home on part of the property and two of his children have built on the bench just above the property. My grandmother and grandfather originally moved a part of that house up there from Duchesne and then it was added onto a couple of times (or more) and thus has always been in the family. When dad passed away we gave Stan and Clair all rights to the property and in turn they gave all of the inheritance from mothers estate to us when she passed away. We have always been welcomed back and enjoy going there and walking around the farm, yards and hillside. It will always be a special part of me.

I guess though part of the answer can also be as to where we each now live. Alma is in Mesa Arizona and moved there from Sandy, Utah where they had lived just after their marriage. Stan and Clair of course are still on the farm, Lynn lives in Ephraim, Ut, Leesa in Idaho Falls, Idaho after a short time in Duchesne and Moab Utah, and Marsha lives here in Mapleton but has also lived in Phoenix, AZ, Sandy, Ut and Layton, Ut. And of course we have lived here in Mapleton in three homes and one in Spanish Fork for 6 weeks.

Jan 14, 2011

What was your favorite thing in the house or the yard?

Wow that is a hard one but I suppose it would have to be the old stone fireplace in the center of the yard. I always enjoyed when we got to do things there and especially the dinners but I also remember making homemade soap out there by that fireplace. Mom and dad stopped making soap when I was fairly young but I will always have visions of the cow fat hanging in the barn that they used when doing it. The fat was melted at the fireplace in the yard and the rest of the process was, well forgotten by me. I can really only remember doing it a couple of times but I do remember the bars of soap that were around for years after that. There may even be some still sitting out in the barn somewhere for all I know.

Jan 13, 2011

What was your room like?

It was an upstairs room until I was a teenager. (Early teen). Then it was a basement room the rest of my youth. The upstairs room had a sloping ceiling since it was shaped by the roof of the home. It was always hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The cooling was a cross breeze between the two windows on each side of the house and heating in the winter was by heat coming up from the living room via the stairs and a small hole in the other bedroom closet.

The basement was always cool and felt pretty good. Heated by a vent into the room from the furnace system. There was a shower in the one corner of the room that on one occasion had a visitor while I was showering, a scorpion. Many other visitors made their way through my room as well until I figured out a way to catch them where they entered the room, speaking of mice by the way. I had a neat place to grow up and wouldn't trade it.

Jan 12, 2011

What was the yard like?

HUGE!!! Especially when it came to mowing the lawn, picking the fruit, planting the garden and weeding the garden. It had to have been a full two acres or at least 1 and a half, well maybe just one, no it was a lot bigger than just one. The yard was made up of a lot of lawn, which I added to later in my teen years since I would rather push a power lawn mower than weed a garden. However when I was younger I liked weeding better than mowing since the lawn mower was a hard to push "push mower". The wheels made a blade turn against a bar that trapped the grass and cut it off. Only problem was that it was hard to push in long grass and we hated to mow so the grass grew as we put off mowing only making it worse. We did usually mow every saturday when mom could get us to do it along with helping do the wash. There were a lot of trees including 6 old apple trees, couple of cherry trees, apricot and pear and crab apples also. We had one green ash tree and several black walnut trees. Mom also planted a lot of other trees through the years with me getting to dig the holes usually when we planted them. She even planted a mighty Oak that dad mowed down several times until it gave up. He didn't mean to it was just that it was in the area where the wild grass grew and dad usually mowed that part.The lawn and garden were watered with irrigation water from the canal so it was always fun to play on the lawn when the water was on it. It was a beautiful yard too. Mom made sure there were alot of flowers and trees to make it that way. we had a playhouse in the lower part of the yard and an outdoor fireplace as well. It was always fun to have dinner out there and we had a lot of special meals there as well for different holiday during the summer. It was at the end of the road from town so we often had people drive in and turn around and drive back out but it was a fun place to grow up. It lent itself well to outdoor night games like "No Bears are out tonight", "kick the can", and "hide and seek". There was a hedge that mom had planted to kind of block the view of the clothesline from the rest of the yard so that made for a lot of good hiding places in that yard. It also made for a good place to change completely out of my clothes the day the skunk sprayed me on the way to work at 9:30 pm. It was dark and I never turned o the light to go out to the truck but should have that time.

Jan 11, 2011

Where was your first home? What are your earliest memories of your home? Can you draw a floor plan of your home?

We lived in an older home 2 miles or so from Duchesne. I remember in my earliest years at age three having to climb the stairs to my bedroom with a leg brace that prevented bending of my knee so I would step up one and swing my leg up to the step above that and lift myself up. It took me quite a bit of time to climb the stairs and strange as it may seem I do not have any vivid memory of going back down. There was also a pipe that ran up the side of the house near our bedroom window and I would climb out of the window and slide down the pipe to get out, a built in fire escape i suppose. It was easy to climb back up and get in the same way. Later after we dug two more rooms out from under the house that became me bedrooms , one for sleeping in and one for studying, of which I did very little of the latter. I could easily draw a floor plan but not in this blog. I will have to draw it and photograph it instead. there were three levels to the home consisting of several rooms. The basement had two bedrooms and a furnace room. Mainfloor had a kitchen, side porch (later included into the living room), two bathrooms, master bedroom, fruitroom, and back porch. The upper level had two bedrooms and two sides used for attic storage. I was the one who always got to clean and organize the attic space that collected old clothes, magazines and toys. It was actually pretty fun to play in also.

Jan 10, 2011

Share a memory of your brothers and sisters. To whom did you feel the closest? Why?

I think that the memories of the whole family together were mostly around the piano on sunday evenings after church.We would sing and dad was always so fun to listen to with his deep bass voice. Other than that I did a lot of things with them individually as well. Alma was older by 10 or so years and by the time I was very old she was off to college and I actually became closer to her after I was married and we would visit them in Sandy, Ut where they were living at the time. Stan also was older and I remember him best as my roommate after he returned from his mission and how I loved to listen to him play his guitar out in the furnace room. Lynn and I did an awful lot of farming together and that included irrigating, haying, gardening and milking the cows. We usually got along pretty good but did have our moments. Leesa and Marsha were probably the closest to me and Leesa especially after Pauline came to live with us. Pauline was Leesa'a age but in my class at school due to her Aug birthday and she waited a year while I went ahead a year. Marsha and I have been close most of our lives and I figure that is because we had to play together being the youngest and all.

Jan 9, 2011

What are the full names of your brothers and sisters? Where was your family living when they were born?

Alma Joyce Poulson Rasmussen Duchesne July 2, 1942

Stanley Kermit Poulson Duchesne April 19, 1945

Clair Melvin Poulson Duchesne Nov 12, 1946

Lynn Hansen Poulson Duchesne Jan 11, 1949

Leesa Ilean Poulson Wall Duchesne May 24, 1952

Kent Jay Poulson Duchesne Aug 13, 1953

Marsha Poulson Peterson Duchesne July 7, 1956

Jan 8, 2010

While you were growing up, which language s were spoken in your home?

English and Utahn. We spoke with the local Utah basin slur and mother was always trying to correct us. She was an English major or minor and wrote very well and was always helping us to speak better english even though it really doesn't always manifest itself now. Of course I have a Texan slang added to it also. Oh well it's all just communication. I look forward to speaking the Adamic language even though I may have a hard time learning it. Spanish also became a second language of sorts since Stan, Lynn and our neighbor Harold all spoke that as well, Lynn and Stan after their missions and Harold as a native language having grown up in the Mexican LDS colonies. of Mexico.

Jan 7, 2010

Who is the oldest person in your family you can remember knowing when you were a child? What do you remember about that person?

Wow this one is hard since I knew a lot of my mother and father's family. However I think that I will change the question a little since I think it means who was the oldest when you can first remember them but I will write about the one who was the oldest one I can remember at the time of their death.

Uncle Leo and Aunt Zelma were always pretty old even though I believe she was younger than Grandma Hansen who was her sister. But my Great Aunt Zelma lived one month shy of her 105th birthday. Great Uncle Leo was 94 when he passed away and Great Aunt Zelma was 90. Mom stated several times that she felt Aunt Zelma wanted to live longer than him and set her sites on 95 but made it to nearly 105.

They were never able to have children but adopted all of the nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. I received $10.00 per month every month for the two years of my mission as did everyone else that served missions. She was also our measuring stick since she was barely four foot tall. We would measure our growth by her each time they came to visit and it was a special day when we were finally taller. Each of you also had a chance to meet her when we went to St George to see Grandma while she was there taking care of your Great Great Aunt Zelma. She was even shorter then since when had a severe case of ostioperosis. She was not very well the also so her cute personality also didn't show itself very well.She was always a very special person to me.

Jan 6, 2011

Who were your grandparents?

This question was answered last year. But here is one of my history stories That I might have posted already but goes along with the death of my paternal grandmother when I was 10 years old.

President Kennedy's assassination

Nov 22, 1963 was a day that I would end up never forgetting. It was one of those days that in the years to come you would always be able to remember what you were doing, where you were doing it, and why you remembered it so well. I have had several of those years in my life and this particular one comes to mind now since it is Nov 20, 2005 when I am writing this and in two days we will remember as a country the day that John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

I was in elementary school, 4^th Grade, and 10 years old. Mr. Leo Foy was my teacher and playing marbles was the highlight of our recess periods and lunch hours. We usually spent our recess in doors during this time of year due to the cold weather but that day we were outside. My school always made me think of the Texas Alamo even though I had never been there or visited it. The front had a part that was built like the front of the Alamo. Coming straight out from the front doors was a wide sidewalk that was level and had a couple of steps several feet apart that ended up making the sidewalk level with the street by the time it got to the street. My classroom was on the second story to the right of that built up part. We had to go up a lot of stairs as I remember to get to it. But at that age that was no problem since I was built to run so it seemed.

I had some real good friends and always played with them. Marbles was not always the choice of games because we would often play kickball or baseball. Other times we would play on the swing set, pumping as hard as we could until we several feet in the air and then bailing out to the ground below. It was a contest to see who could go the highest before bailing out. I think back on it now and wonder why we didn’t have numerous broken legs and arms from the activity. Then there were the days when we simply chased the girls for whatever reason but mainly because it was fun and some of them were really cute.

This particular day however I was content to play marbles on that huge sidewalk in the front of the building. It was our noon recess so we had a little extra time to play. I had my favorite taws just like everyone else but I don’t remember ever really playing marbles for keeps. It always seemed more fun just to see how many we could win and then give them back to each other at the end of the game. There were just two of us playing that day as I remember but I can’t remember who the other person was at the time. Someone came out of the front doors in a rush yelling to us to come inside because Pres Kennedy had been shot. I don’t remember any of the rest of the day but do have some memory of the funeral services a few days later.

It was ten years later, while serving as a missionary in Texas, that I had an opportunity to go to the place where it had all happened and to see where the motorcade had gone and where the rifle had been fired. There was a special exhibit in an old building that housed all of the information. I remember it being a somewhat dumpy part of Dallas and understand that in the years since my mission it has been cleaned up and made into a very beautiful memorial for JFK.

One month and four days later, the day after Christmas, Grandma Poulson passed away in our home after suffering for an extended period of time from the effects of a stroke. That is another story but part of that memorable holiday season of that year.

Jan 5, 2011

What do you remember most about your father from your childhood? About your mother?

It is interesting but one of the things that sticks out most in my mind was the way dad's keys jingled on the side of his hip. There were many times that we would have to run to stop one of those blasted cows from taking off in a direction it wasn't suppose to go and as we would run to turn them dad's keys would be flipping up and down making a terrible noise. The keys were all of the keys that went to the different school buildings and how he ever knew which one went where I don't know but they were all used quite often. The other things that really sticks out in my mind also was the "Time to get up!" at 6 am and then "get up" as he would start to clinker the furnace right outside of the door a few minutes later. We would always get to sleep a little after the first call and it was kinda like hitting the snooze button. I still wake up better if I hit the snooze button a couple of times.

For Mom it was the scrubbing the floor at midnight on saturday night. It never made a whole lot of sense because she wouldn't clean on sunday but it was usually sunday morning by the time we got the floor scrubbed on saturday night. No matter how soon we started we never got done before 12;30 AM or so. That went right along side of the clothes washing that happened every saturday as well. I loved the smell of the fresh sheets each saturday night when we finally did get to crawl into them but I hated taking them off and usually putting them back on in order to go to bed (after the floors were scrubbed.)

Jan 4, 2010

What did your parents do for a living?

Dad was a rancher, then farmer and dairyman with his brothers for many years. About the time I started school dad was a carpenter building homes for part of his employment then he was hired by the Duchesne County School District as the Superintendent of the Buildings and grounds which he did until retirement. He then supervised the project where the Rocky point ditch (canal) was put into a pipeline from the river to the end of our property. He passed away three years after retirement from the school district job. He continued to run the farm during his entire life but never really made any money from it other than providing meat and produce for the family after he started working construction.

Mom was a school teacher in Gunnison and then a County Social Services agent in Duchesne. She had wanted to go on a mission but was unable due to her health. Her sisters all went on missions which she was finally able to also do in her late 60's. She taught school in Duchesne for several years and was finally hired as the full time librarian at Duchesne High School, the job from which she retired at age 65 or 66. After her mission and after going to St George she returned to Duchesne and was a worker in the Vernal temple for the last few years of her life.

Jan 3, 2010

Who were your parents? What are their full names? Where and when were they born? Where did they grow up?

This set of questions seems a little more in detailed than the last book so I will answer them and they might be a bit redundant but that's OK.
Kermit Poulson
Born May 27, 1090 in Holden Utah. Lived there until his family moved to the basin when he was age 4. Lived the rest of his life in Duchesne. Was a rancher with his father and had a ranch house near Strawberry ridge east of the home in Indian Canyon.

Gertrude Ilean Hansen Poulson
Born July 4, 1916 in Centerfield Utah. (It might have been Gunnison where she was actually born, I don't know for sure.) Grew up in Centerfield until she went to Snow college and then the University of Utah. where she earned a degree in Social Sciences and went to Duchesne to work as a Social Services person in the basin. She met dad there. She was 25 and he was 32. They were married in the Manti Temple Sept 9, 1941. Needless to say she spent the rest of her married life in Duchesne. After Dad died she went on a mission to the South Dakota mission and returned from the mission to move to St George to take care of her Aunt Zelma until she passed away a few years later after which she returned to Duchesne and lived the rest of her life there.

Jan 2, 2011

Were there any unusual circumstances surrounding your birth?

I was a little different from most of the older children in that I was actually born in a Duchesne Hospital. It was a small one and I understand the older brothers and sister got to look at me through the window of the room where mom and I were. The hospital was there for only a few years and vacant for a good share of my youth. I am not sure when it was torn down or moved.

Jan 1, 2011

What color was your hair when you were born?

I have been a bit neglectful for several days now but since the first few questions in my new book have been the same as the last then I felt I could wait. However this question was one I don't remember answering the last time around. My hair was a sandy red. Not a real dark red but red anyway.

Dec 31, 2010

If you were to make a New Year's Resolution this year, what might it be?

Since, for the first time, I have actually been able to complete a goal from the last New Year's Resolutions I am a little more willing to try again. Last year I decided that I would complete this little book and answer all of the questions as best as I could do and this being the last entry of the year I have accomplished it. I didn't do it every day as I had to group some together and type them when I could get time to do them. Anyway it is nearly finished and I must admit that I have enjoyed the journey back through my memories. I have lost a lot of detail but that has to be expected I guess. I do appreciate Hayden and Cheyenne staring me down this road with that special Christmas gift. Thank You and I hope that each of you have learned a little along the way as well. I will actually be continuing this exercise however due to a birthday gift from mom. She gave me an LDS version of the same type of thing. I have answered many of the questions in that book since it still deals with the same subject so since you will already have received the answer once I will substitute some of my life's stories instead on those days where the questions are repeated. I may answer some again just for formality but those will be few. Thanks again for a wonderful journey and I am looking forward to this resolution being completed as well.

The End

for 2010.

Dec 30, 2010

What special memories do you have of New Year's Eve or New year's Day?

Most of what I recall from New Years was staying up playing Monopoly until time to welcome in the new year. It was always pretty hard to stay up though since we were up early each morning to milk the cows and new years day was no different, the cows didn't observe our holidays too well.

I remember one year however that was really a different experience. Dad and Mom decided to travel to New Orleans to see Alma and Loyle. It is real easy to remember how old I was for that trip too since I had just received my driver's license and this would be a chance to use it. Stan and I were invited to go along so the four of us went. I had a couple of stints driving but not too much since Stan and Dad pretty much traded off. It was a long trip that took two full days of driving for both going and coming. I had a chance to drive from the state line of Louisiana to almost Baton Rouge. There was a huge football game being played in New Orleans and I happened to be driving when we got into a huge traffic jam just before Baton Rouge. When we had a chance Stan took over at the wheel, I was quite OK with that as well too. We stayed for a few days and spent New Year's Eve there with Alma. I still remember the new year's activities pretty well. We went for a drive into the French Quarter's of New Orleans. We went once during the day and saw all of the shops and things that were really quite neat and then Loyle took us back that night and we had to keep the windows up and the doors locked as it had turned into the Devil's playground and there were men trying to get you out of the car and into the topless, and sometime much worse, bars. Mom was really glad when we got out of there. We had a huge Monopoly game that night but I was somehow let out of it early and couldn't keep my eyes opened so i went to bed and then was awakened by the huge display of fireworks> There were all kinds and there were no laws against the types either as there was in Utah. It seemed everyone had a huge portion of them and I couldn't sleep through it had I wanted too.

We went across the 20 mile bridge that spans Lake Pontcatrain and visited part of Florida. We saw where damage had been done by the last hurricane earlier that season and where a tornado had wiped out parts of Metarie where Alma and Loyle lived. It was a fun vacation and little did I know that while traveling to and from I would go through parts of what were to be in my mission filed just three short years later in Texas. I often thought about that trip when in Texas too.

On the way home I was once again driving when we hit the eye of a snow storm near the four corners area in Colorado. Once again to ease mother's back seat driving I was relieved of the post and it was again given to Stan. By that time though we had almost passed through the worst of the storm, however once again I was quite OK with the switch from being the driver as it was pretty darn scary.