Feb 9, 2010

Tell about a big lie you told.

I am sure I told probably many a lie in my youth but I am blessed to not be able to remember very many in fact I can only think of one right at this moment. My family went over to Price for some reason one day to shop. I remember seeing some glitter that was really neat so I stole it, yes I stole it and got away with it so I thought but the memory of it has haunted me through the years. I was never able to right it because that was the only time we went shopping in Price and I couldn’t even tell you the store or anything about it. That I guess was a lie because I never did fess up to it to my parents. In fact I doubt whether they even ever knew about it but I knew and it has always stuck with me.

Feb 8, 2010

Tell about another influential person in your life.

There were many very influential people in my as I was growing up and my Grandparents also took a very high role in that. Yet another person of whom I have referred to many times over the years when working with scouts was Sister Beverly Caldwell. Beverly moved to Duchesne with her husband Lowell and family the year that I was a senior in high school. She was somehow alerted to the fact that I was not an Eagle Scout and that the whole reason was because I couldn’t swim, remember the near drowning early in my life, anyway she saw to it that I learned to swim. She was a professional lifeguard and took me personally swimming in Starvation Reservoir, and the Roosevelt and Price pools. She spent a lot of time with me those summer days before my 18^th birthday. I had a 7 day a week job from 10 pm to 6 am and we would go swimming just after I finished the chores in the morning or early in the evening before I would have to return to work. I completed those merit badges, swimming and lifesaving, and passed the Eagle Board of Review just 4 days prior to my birthday. I know to this day I would not have been an Eagle Scout without her love and dedication.

Feb 7, 2010

Tell about someone who had a big influence in your life.

When I think about an answer to this question the obvious best first answer was my Mother and Father. However other than them I must write that the Hansen’s were very high on the list. First Sister Hansen was my first Cub Scout Leader and I spent a lot of hours in her home with Doug and Don, her sons, for many years after that because of the relationship I had built with their family at that time. The just a few years later after cub scouts I was lucky enough to have Ray Hansen as my scoutmaster for a couple of years and as a caring friend for many years after that. He was one of the major driving factors in getting me to my Eagle Rank in scouting. That was why Loren had the middle name of Ray, in honor of my scoutmaster.

Feb 6, 2010

Who was the most famous person you ever met as a child?

I was never lucky enough I guess to meet anyone famous as a youth. I saw General authorities come to Stake Conferences but do not ever remember meeting any of them at the time. Of course later in my early adulthood I met Pres. Harold B Lee. I didn’t put that into my earlier post since I had forgotten about it until I started thinking about my mission again. We did as missionaries meet in the upper room of the Salt Lake Temple where Pres. Lee spoke to us and answered questions that we had. I only shook his hand for a brief moment but it was a special moment.

Feb 5, 2010

How did you first smash a finger?

First of all I want to know how the author knew I had smashed my finger, does everybody do it sometime? If that is the case then I don't feel so spastic after all.

There are two possible answers to this question since I can remember smashing fingers plenty of times but have no idea the order in which they happened. However other than the smashing fingers with the hammer trick that I do very well all too often I think the actual fist finger smashing had to have been when I shut the car door from the outside (standing outside that is) and left my finger in harms way and that was where it ended up, right in harms way between the door and the frame of the door in one of our cars. (Seems like it was the old Nash but I can’t be sure of that at all. Anyway it was a real stinger and hurt for some period of time longer than a mere few minutes. Seems like it must have hurt for several days at best.

Feb 04, 2010

Do you have any knowledge of the origins of your family name?

My grandfather was George Alma Poulson,

His father was John Christian Poulson who came from Denmark. I do not have nay information beyond that point. I have a lot of information on my grandmother’s line but not grandpa’s. Therefore I have no idea whether Paul was made into Poulson somewhere along the line. Maybe even before Great Grandfather and mother came to America.

Feb. 03, 2010

Share a memory about a weather-related school cancellation.

I cannot remember a school cancellation due to weather. I suppose we could have had one but the worst thing that happened due to weather was the snow storm that caused us to have to walk a half mile to the bus. That story was related on Jan. 30, 2010 in this blog.

We had some pretty good storms when I was young and I remember walking to the barn with the snow near my shoulders as a little boy but remember I was pretty small so a foot of snow could have been pretty deep to me. Mostly the main thing that the snow did for us was to blow across the bench and create huge drifts over the cedar trees along the edge of the hill. That then created some great places to dig and have snow caves since the snow would go over the trees and under the trees would be bare ground. Those caves were a lot of fun, probably more fun had we gotten to miss school for it but that just didn’t happen that I can recall.

Feb 02, 2010

Do you have any ice skating memories to share?

Although I have owned a pair of ice skates all of my life it seems , they have hardly ever been used but plenty abused. I vaguely remember a couple of different things about ice skating as a youth. One was ice-skating on the pond down on the lower part of the farm. It was a bit tricky because there was a spring that few the pond and would keep the ice pretty thin n that area. However we never really worried about falling through the ice because if we did the water was maybe 4 inches deep below it. The worst part of the pond was thinking you could walk across it when it look dry and instead sink to your knees in mud much like if you were in quick sand. The other time or possibly times we skated was behind the County Courthouse in the middle of town. There was an area that they would flood in the winter to make a skating ring for the citizens. Needless to say I skated just enough to get my ankles sore but never enough to be able to skate.

Feb 01, 2010

What extra's did you use for your snowman's face, buttons, arms, hat, etc?

The only things that I remember using were pieces of coal for the eye's mouth, nose, and sticks for the arms. Since we used a coal burning furnace there was plenty of coal to use. I don't remember putting hats or scarves on them like we have with the family as you were all growing up and we didn't have coal so it was rocks that took the place of the coal.

Jan 31, 2010

What did you use to go sledding down a hill in the snow?

Living on a farm we had an interesting change in the way we did things. This was one of them. Dad had a piece of equipment that we used on the farm to work the ground and it had large metal disks and needless to say was used for disking the fields. Once the ground was plowed the disk hooked to the back of the tractor would break all of the clods up and make it easier to level the ground, plant it and them mark it for irrigating. Dad however found another use for these old disks. He would weld metal handles onto the sides and then we would take those to the top of the hill. It would take several rides down the hill to make a trail (and we were usually pretty tired by that time since we had to pull that heavy metal disk back to the top after each slide down the hill. So consequently the sledding ended after just a few runs down the hill. There was one interesting thing however and that was if you hit a tree the disk just bounced off. (We usually didn’t though but yet we were never hurt. We did have a traditional sled as well but it was a lot harder to find a place to use it and thus we seldom rode it.

The old sleigh of my youth.