Mar 7, 2011

On Christmas, what time did you get up in the morning?

When I was little it seemed harder to go to sleep than to get up. But if I recall correctly it was sometime around 5 or so but then I would have to lay in bed until much later. Then when I began milking cows and helping with the chores we would go out and do the chores before we could open any presents or see what had been left by Santa. So it was usually around 5:30 or 6 that we would start doing the chores and then come back in about a half hour later and get everyone else up. I thought it quite mean to have to do chores first but it was so much better because then we didn't have to stop in the midst of playing with our toys to go do them.

Mar 6, 2011

The next question was about Christmas but that was covered last year so I am putting another segment from my histories about my grandparents.

Grandpa Poulson's lap and Grandpa Hansen’s blessing

Many of the memories of my Grandparents were with my mother parents. Grandpa Hansen gave me my patriarchal Blessing and Grandma Hansen lived until I was home from my mission and had my first son. Dad’s parents however were a part of my memories as well but Grandpa Poulson was only a part of one specific very vague or faded memory. I remember sitting on his lap while I was three years old just prior to his death. I can’t remember his funeral even though I was most likely there but I can remember sitting on his lap just that one time. I have often wished that I could remember him better but know that someday I will get to know him just as I did my own father. Grandma Poulson was a big part of my childhood though since she was my babysitter after mother started working for the school. I would go from Kindergarten to her home just a coupe blocks from the school. I would play there until Mom or Dad came to pick me up. Dad was working as a carpenter and at that time was helping Mr. Grant build a home just a block away from Grandma so she would let me go visit him once in a while also while he was at work.  We got to spend most of the holidays with her since she lived in Duchesne. We always loved to go there to do our Trick or Treating on Halloween and I always loved her tapioca pudding. Grandma lived until I was ten years old, seven years after grandpa had passed away.  She was in our home for the last couple of months prior to her death and passed away the day after Christmas in 1963. Mother said she always felt that Grandma had stayed until after Christmas so that she wouldn’t spoil Christmas day for us children. We all loved her very much and she was the lucky Grandma that we got to live close enough with that visiting her was almost a daily occurrence. I loved my other Grandparents as well but getting to visit them required a trip usually taking up a couple of days.

Received My Patriarchal Blessing from Grandpa Hansen

My Grandfather Hansen had been a spiritual leader in the church most of his life. He was a Bishop and a Stake President and late a Stake Patriarch.  It was the last calling that I remembered him as being in the church during my lifetime. I could hardly wait to receive my patriarchal blessing since I could receive from my Grandfather even though he was in a completely different stake of Zion.  I knew my Brothers and sisiters had all received theirs from him so I was anxious to get mine. It was a soft policy I suppose in the church while I was growing up to wait until you were older than 14 to receive your blessing. However there were some allowances made for my younger sister Marsha and I when we traveled to Centerfield to receive them from Grandpa. I was 13 and Marsha was 10 years old.  I remember it seemed like hours as I sat on the chair with Grandpa sitting on a stool behind me nd with his hands on my head and then Grandma sitting to the side with a pencil and paper recording the blessing for him as he spoke it. That was part of the reason for the length of time since he would pause regularly to give her time to write each word down.  Marsha and I were dressed in Sunday clothes and it was on a Sunday that we received the blessing. I have always felt very fortunate to have been able to receive that blessing when I did because only a few months later he had a heart attack and passed away. Marsha was really lucky since he was only 10. Grandpa was always special to me for a lot of other reasons a swell. I would wait for him to go get water from a lake north of Gunnison and then help carry in the gallon bottles filled with their drinking water. The water apparently was so hard from their well that they could only bathe and do dished in it. I also loved going out to the corrals behind the house to watch him do chores and help feed the livestock. I never got to know my Grandpa Poulson since I was so young when he passed away and so Grandpa Hansen filled both of the roles so to speak and did it well. 

March 5, 2011

What did you do on Thanksgiving? Who came to visit? Where did you go to eat?

Thanksgiving was always held at home. Mom and the girls would cook a large meal and we would eat it as a family. I do remember after the older children (Alma, Clair) were married that we would have their families and after Clair had built his home on the farm that we would sometimes hold it over in his yard. I don't remember any more than that. I am sure Grandma Poulson would be there when she was living and we may have even eaten in her home a few times but I don't remember for sure on that point.