May 8, 2011

CAREER PATH AND LIFE CHOICES

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I am still the same way I was when I was a child and don’t know for sure. I loved photography but wasn’t sure I wanted to be a professional with a business to have to run and taxes to have to pay and everything that went with a business. I think when I was real young I wanted to be a farmer but also knew that was not practical either. When I was in high school is when I decided I wanted something to do with electronics and thus my course for the first 17 and a half years was in electronics. However since then I have been a chocolate maker, insurance agent, cabinet finisher, and finally photographer for a company.  So now here I am just laid off from Provo Craft and I still don’t know what I want to be. I just want anything that will pay the bills and keep me home during the week.

May 7, 2011

What important world events do you remember from this time of your life?

The Viet Nam war was the event of my life at that time. Stan had been drafted and served in Viet Nam and Clair had enlisted in the Army and became a part of the Military Police. I had been lucky or blessed to have been given a fairly high draft number so that my being drafted was not a real big threat even though it was still a possibility. It ended shortly after I was married and I even was blessed to have a very good Vietnamese friend that came to America seeking refuge from the communist government that would have killed him because of his association with the American army in his home country during the war.

Other major activities during that time were the large Hippie movements occurring through the country. Drugs were becoming a major problem. I had only really heard of alcohol and smoking problems while growing up but during the years after high school drugs became far more prevent and even some of my friends from High school became involved with them and the hippie movement. Flower children was how they were know and a large antiwar camp known as Wood Stock also took place during those years as part of the hippie community.

May 6, 2011

What were your roommates like? Tell a story about an enjoyable time you had together.

My first roommate was a young returned missionary in his second year at Snow who was  interested only in dating and finding a marriage partner along with getting his education. He was also the LDS Church Institute President that year at Snow and was always gone doing things with those responsibilities if not something else with school.  He started dating a young lady by the name of Julie Gividen that year also and she ended up taking a major part of his not so spare time. The only time I really saw much of him was in class and on Sundays as we sang with the institute choir called the LD Singers. That roommates name was Lynn Poulson my older brother. We lived in a downstairs apartment owned by Sister Andersen a special friend of my mother. I probably saw more of her than I did of Lynn that year and I spent a lot of time by myself studying or riding my bike up into the hills above Ephraim as weather permitted. The first day there we went to school right after my eagle court of honor so I was still in my scout uniform when we arrived in Ephraim and moved into the apartment. He wouldn’t let me change before we went to a dinner appointment with Ross Findlay’s family. I never knew it was a setup but it was. Ross was the Utah National Parks Council Training chairman and was very interested in the fact that I was an Eagle Scout. I spent a lot of time also that year doing scouting events at Snow with Ross. I even did a lot with him after my mission which is when he began asking when I was going to Wood Badge. He was at my wood badge camp eleven years later when I finally went. Their entire family became close friends with our family due to the number of years that we spent at snow. All of my brothers and sisters attended snow except for Alma.