April 22, 2010 Happy Birthday, Brittany

What is the biggest physical problem that you had to deal with.

Perthes Disease

Perthes is a condition in children characterized by a temporary loss of blood supply to the hip. Without an adequate blood supply, the rounded head of the femur (the " ball " of the " ball and socket " joint of the hip) dies. The area becomes intensely inflamed and irritated.

Although the term 'disease' is still used, Perthes is really a complex process of stages. Treatment of Perthes may require periods of immobilization or limitations on usual activities. The long-term prognosis is good in most cases. After 18 months to 2 years of treatment, most children return to normal activities without major limitations.

Perthes disease usually is seen in children between 4 years and 10 years of age. It is five times more common in boys than in girls. It was originally described nearly a century ago as a peculiar form of childhood arthritis of the hips.

The above quote from the internet is the explanation of a disease that I had at age three. Clair had it also at age two I believe. The thing that sticks in my mind about this disease was the fact that I had a brace that attached to my waist at the top and to a shoe at the bottom. My bedroom at the time was upstairs and the brace kept my leg straight so that I could not bend it at the knee. However by standing to the left side of the stairs I could swing my leg up to the next step and swing up by bracing my body against the wall. Later I was even able to do it without having to lean against the wall. Although I only wore the brace for a year or so it affected my walking in such a way that I had to wear special corrective shoes until I was 19 years old to keep me from walking over one side of the shoe.

April 21, 2010

What was your favorite book as a youth.

Old Yeller I suppose. Mom always got book from the reading book clubs at school so we were always able to get two or three books each time. They were paper back books but I still read many of them and even kept a lot of them when I got married. I have always loved books once I start getting into them but was never really anxious to start one. Now how ever I love reading Clair’s books and will often read them in one day if possible.

April 20, 2010

Did you ever write something that you were really proud of?

Nope, I think Clair and Lynn must have taken all of those talents before I came along.

April 19, 2010

Tell about any sports you played in Jr and Sr High.

The main sports that I played in High school were Cross Country, wrestling and track where I competed in school events. I ran the Cross country in the fall. We strived to get 5 minute miles and usually got that for the first mile and then hitting closer to 5.5 the second mile and 6 the third. We ran up and down hills on some courses which made the time change a little but it was mostly around a 5.5 minute average. Then during the winter for one year only I wrestled. I pretty much hated that sport and didn’t do it anymore other than in gym to help out the wrestlers who needed someone to practice with. Then in the spring I ran the half mile, and also the mile relay once in a while running the half my relay also. I never tried out for basketball but did play church basketball for several years. I had the most fun doing those games since there really wasn’t any state championships to have to worry about. Soccer wasn’t invented when I was that young or at least our schools never had soccer teams and I didn’t even know it was a sport until my children were of age to play it.

April 18, 2010 Hello Is anyone there?

Is anyone reading this?

If "Yes" why are you not replying with your facts?

So why should I continue? Let me know if it has meant anything to you or not, if not, I do have other things to do with my time.

Like write my personal history which you will probably not have time to read either. Maybe I will turn it on to my brother's and sisters so I can get correct facts.

Now on with today's question.

Tell about the best birthday present you ever received.

A Birthday Party. Here is the story.

15th Birthday Party.

I have had several birthday parties to remember but the first one that had left an impression far too strong to forget was my 15^th one. As many of you know it is a standard in the church to not date before you are 16 years old so this birthday was pretty important since my girlfriend and I could not date. I remember going out to do chores and coming in to change my clothes and spend the evening doing I didn’t know what. As I entered the back porch and put away the milking items and the milk I started down the steps to the basement where my room was located. Little did I know that Marie Behrmann was scurrying as fast as she could to exit through my room and out the door on the other side so that I wouldn’t see her. She had come to throw a surprise birthday party for me and before long I was surrounded by several of my friends from school and of course my only true love Marie. I only remember Marie, Serena, and Don of my friends that were there and of course my sisters but I am sure that there must have been others. I only remember playing a couple of games as well but I will always remember being told how close I had come to seeing Marie at the bottom of those steps before I was suppose to know that she was even there. We started dating after she was 16 on the 16^th of December a full year and a half later and I can’t remember if we even had a party for her but I know that now I am glad that she was willing to be my girlfriend and later my wife and eternal companion. We have both had a lot of birthdays since then and some of them with parties and I will always remember my 15^th birthday party first when I think back on them.

April 17, 2010

When you played make believe what did you pretend?

Well I cam from the cowboys and Indians era where we played those games quite often and maybe that was why I had the dream about that fight where I fell from the trees to the roof of the corrals. I don’t remember ever pretending to be a doctor or airplane pilot or anything else other than a cowboy or an Indian.

April 16, 2010

Did you ever have a recurring dream as a child?

I dream a dream.

Early in my youth I started having a dream about a cave. I have figured out over the years that it seems to come back around every few years. A lot more in my youth than now but I have had it in the past few years. It is a dream where I go into a cave for protection from a flood or some other disaster. I think that is part of the dram where it kind of changes but the basic parts of the dream seem to be somewhat consistent. Now I don’t remember my dreams usually when I awake in the morning but this one has occurred so many times that I recognize it when I have it and often awaken remembering it. The cave is dark and I am usually quite scared and yet I always wake up before anything happens such as the mountain caving in on me or water from a flood getting so high it fills the cave. I did dream one version of it once where the mountain opened up and a huge flood came out of it and we retreated into the cave to get above the flood it had created. Now don’t ask me how we got past the flood to the mouth of the cave after the flood ahd come out and we were still in our homes because well the answer is simple “That’s the magic of dreams.”

I must, while on the subject, tell about a dream I had this past week. I have always been a fan of Daddy Long Leg spiders. I have never on purpose pulled off their legs like my friends in elementary did because I liked them. Well I had a dream the other night and I saw a daddy long leg coming down toward me from above. I know however though that they don’t spin webs or use them to lower down on but due to the magic of a dream it was floating down with it’s legs spread out as though it was a parachute. When it landed I picked it up and went to show Marie but dropped it before getting there. It was in a crumpled heap and I quickly kept picking it up by the legs to untwist it and finally it got up and ran away carrying the parachute opened and attached to the end of each leg. It was pretty cool. Ye s the magic of dreams, so cool.

April 15, 2010

There was a question about other Easter memories but I pretty well explained what I remembered already but as we were talking the other night there was a discussion about how eggs don’t break when you throw them. Here is an example of that from my youth.

Eggs Don’t Break

I went on a number of camping trips as a young scout and have numerous pictures taken while on some of those camps. One camp however does not have any pictures of it in my collection but there is a very poignant one in my memory. Young people can be so mean even to their best friends or to the guy who is just being picked on that day. This camp was one held just a couple of miles up the Duchesne River from town. We had gone up Friday evening and Saturday morning we had played a number of games in the filed next to the trees where we had set camp. We had finished playing games that morning and for some reason had gone back to camp. It was probably to clean up and get ready to go home. Someone however began an egg fight of sorts. It was touted that raw eggs wouldn’t break when thrown just right. Now I don’t remember who suggested that or why Gary Foy was the chosen target but I do remember how badly I felt as I watched some of the other boys start to throw the eggs at Gary. He promptly got mad and climbed over the fence threatening to walk home. That was probably the fuel needed for the other boys to throw the eggs at him even more. I still have minds eye a vivid movie of an egg hitting Gary as he topped the fence and then it bouncing off and falling to the ground without a crack. That apparently proved the point and to the energizing of the group a full volley of eggs soon followed. Gary was luckily out of reach by then and many of them bounced off the ground while others simply broke on impact. He did carry a large goose egg though where the first one had made it’s impact. I have often felt very badly for this incident even though I did not participate in the testing of the theory. Gary was one of my friends and I remember being mad at the group for testing it out on him but they didn’t seem to be too worried about it. Gary later fell away from the church for several years and after a divorce from his high school sweetheart and being married to a waitress from a bar that became converted to the church he finally returned into full activity. I have often wondered if that incident could have been one of those critical points in his life that caused him to turn away. I was glad when I heard he had been baptized and returned.

April 14, 2010

Tell about an Easter Egg hunt.

Memories of Easter Egg hunts come only from after I was married since iI don’t remember any while growing up. Oh I suppose there were hunts but apparently they were not very memorable. We didn’t go to any in town that I can recall. We did however color eggs about every year since we had chickens and seldom had no eggs but rather an abundance of them. So we would get those nasty coloring kits from Kohl’s and get out the stinky vinegar and crayons. It was fun but not something that I really looked forward to when Easter came around.

I seem to remember that Easter Sunday Sacrament meeting was pretty much the highlight of the Easter Season for us. There was always beautiful choir numbers and a special spirit that would attend the meeting Sunday night.

April 13, 2010

Share a memory about a church social activity.

Another story already written.

Church Song Festival with Leesa.

Singing has always been a part of my life and especially since the time that we sang as a family for Sacrament meeting one day and Alma taught me to sing the alto part in that song. (Seems like the song was Love at Home but I am really not sure at this point.) Anyway I have been able to sing the alto part to many song since then and did so until my voice became of age and I had to start singing the base line instead. I have fun even now though using my falsetto voice and joining Marie on the alto parts of several songs that I had learned in my youth.

We had a number of opportunities to sing also and Leesa and I had a chance once to be part of a church wide festival where we sang in the large basketball facility on the University of Utah campus. We practiced the songs at the stake center for several weeks before we boarded a bus and traveled to Salt Lake city to the U of U campus where we stayed in the dorms and then practiced for several hours each of tow days with the actual conductor who would lead the singing for the event. It was a grueling couple of days with even some threats that it would be cancelled from the conductor because some of the youth thought they were there just to have a good time and thus didn’t sing during the practices.

Well the threats must have worked because we did sing a quite a few numbers, even had a record made from the performance and grew to love music even more than before after it was done. I can’t remember the numbers that we sang anymore and don’t even know where the record might be but I will always remember the feeling we had as we performed with such a large number of youth mostly 14 to 16 years of age.