May 7, 2010

Tell about some good advice your mother gave you.

There were may times that my mother gave me good advice and the one that sticks out in my mind the most was “The Holy Ghost goes to bed at midnight so be home before then.” It was good advice then and good advice now. Obviously the Holy Ghost never goes to bed but our ability to listen to him becomes more weak the later it becomes in the night or earlier it becomes in the morning. So when I was dating I was always asked to be home by midnight and knew that mom would be awake when I got there. Actually she was always awake until midnight or after and Saturday nights were especially bad because the kitchen floor had to be mopped before we could go to bed and it always seemed like it was almost midnight before we could get to it.

May 6, 2010

May 5, 2010 Leilah Poulson birth

We are welcoming a beautiful child into the world, Leilah Poulson. 6 lbs 19 inches.

Also the question for the day is:

Tell a favorite memory of your mother.

There are a hundred stories I could probably tell about mother but none come to mind at the moment. I spent a lot of time with mom in the library for several years and really cherish the time that we were able to spend together then. A story that just came to mind is when Richard was engaged to Lauren we found out that mom had spent her mission in South Dakota when Lauren's father was a young Elder in the mission. There is a picture that shows them with their companions when they served in one area together. It was an interesting connection and the world got a lot smaller when we found out.

I'll have to tell more later. It is bedtime.

May 5, 2010

Did your mother ever make anything for you?

Yes, an awful lot of dinners, etc. However I am guessing this is more along the lines of something specifically for me. Well the only thing that I can think of is a stuffed bear that was made from the old fabric that had been used to cover the couch. Most of you will remember the couch that we had while you were growing up and it was that couch that had been reupholstered giving way for fabric to make a few stuffed animals for the children.

May 4, 2010

Were you ever bitten by a dog?

Well this one is easy to answer.

No.

I had a dog that I loved and later pups that were a lot of fun but I was never bitten by any of them or by any of the neighbors dogs as well.

May 2, 2010

How much do you remember paying for an ice cream cone?

We always referred to them as Dime Cones or 10 cent cones. It was a real treat to get an ice cream cone but my favorite ones were the ones we got in Roosevelt after every visit to the dentist Dr Mantyla. He would always give us a free ice cream cone certificate after we had been to have our cavities filled. It seemed kind of strange to have sugar right after going to the dentist but it would keep bringing patients back to him. That wasn’t why he did it I am sure but does seem strange. They were always good to eat though.

May 3, 2010

Did you have a treehouse?

No, but I had plenty of trees to climb and play in as we had an apple orchard as part of our yard.

Here is a story about one of those trees.

Climbing the Green Ash tree in the yard.

Boys just love to climb and trees were made just for boys who love to climb no matter how dangerous that might be to the boy. Well we had many trees around our yard because mom liked trees or Nana did earlier that that. There were two trees though that were my favorite ones, a green ash tree and a Red Delicious apple tree. The apple tree because I could climb up it’s trunk and into the top branches when they were loaded with apples and then slide down the top of the branches to the ground, a round trip sort of thing. I di that countless times and maybe that was why it seemed to have grown so old when I returned from my mission. The green ash tree however was a different sort of challenge. It had a trunk that went up for several feet before the first branch so I had to shinny up that distance before being able to climb onto the branch and rest. It seemed like that branch was 100 feet off the ground because my first tow or three years attempting the climb always ended in failures due to the distance of that first limb. I did finally conquer the methods and talents and skills necessary and had many successful climbs. I returned a few years ago with these memories in my mind and I was shocked at how low that first branch was to the ground, well it must have dropped twenty feet through the years after I had stopped climbing, or else my perspective had changed as I grew taller. You can probably guess which was the real thing.

May 1, 2010

What were May Baskets made of and what did they contain?

Apparently this part of the tradition didn’t make it into Duchesne. I didn’t even know what they were but guessed that they were simple woven baskets full of flower blossoms. Well I went to the internet and there are some pretty simple ones and of course some very elaborate ones. However they do contain one common thread and that is to fill them with flower blossoms.

The following is a poem that I found about May Baskets.

May-Baskets

by Evaleen Stein

Let us take our baskets early 
 To the meadows green, 
While the wild-flowers still are pearly 
 With the dewdrops' sheen.

Fill them full of blossoms rosy, 
 Violets and gay 
Cowslips, every pretty posy 
 Welcoming the May.

Then our lovely loads we'll carry 
 Down the village street, 
On each door, with laughter merry, 
 Hang a basket sweet.

Hey-a-day-day! It is spring now, 
 Lazy folks, awake! 
See the pretty things we bring now 
 For the May-day's sake!

April 30, 2010

Tell about a May Day tradition.

There was only one May Day Tradition that I can recall. Every year the fourth grade class in our old elementary school would do the dance around the May Pole. Even though e were not old enough to participate we practiced every year from 1^st grade on until it was our turn in the fourth grade. It was a dance where your would hold a ribbon that was tied to the top of a tall pole and by weaving in and out of the other dancers you would weave the weave the ribbons into a beautiful circle around the pole. It was a pretty neat thing that at the time seemed to be pretty dumb. Others must have felt that way as well since the tradition as far as I know ended a couple years later when the new elementary was built and our old one torn down. Maybe they did it still after that but I cannot recall ever seeing it done again after that. I do not even know if any you ever had it occur in grade school with you.

April 29, 2010

What childhood fear do you remember?

It was a fear of bulls and was well earned. I remember so vividly going out to help dad kill a beef for our families meat for that year. I went after I had heard him fire the .22 rifle knowing that meant he had shot it and would soon be needing my help as we would drag it over to the slaughter house to skin it and prepare it for cutting and freezing. As I rounded the corner of the barn I was shocked to see dad clear the pole gate with very little effort even at his age of around 55 or so. (Now that I am 56 I can see that it wasn’t as big of a shock as I had thought it was and that I could even do it if I was given the motivation that he had.) The bull was right on his heals charging him at full speed. I was glad that he was as close to the gate as he was or I would have had a whole different scene in front of me. The .22 didn’t do what it was suppose to have and it was not because dad was a bad shot, it was because the skull was a lot thicker than imagined. It only took another three shots to finally bring it down. I had helped dad several times as we did that same thing every year but that was the only time that I remember a bull that was so hard to bring down. I was actually pretty glad to see him go because I could never trust him and hated being in the same field with him. I was glad when dad had chosen him for the year’s supply of meat.

April 28, 2010

Do you have a story about a big surprise?

I have to leave my childhood for this one since the biggest surprise of my life just took place a few weeks ago. Provo Craft was sold to Bank of America and we were told that we would receive a reward or bonus for our years of service to Provo Craft. Since I had been there longer than 5 years I received $15.000.00 dollars. It was taxable and we were told that if we wanted to change our deductible amount we would need to do it before that night. Well I didn’t find out for two days what my amount would be since I didn’t know about the 5 year part at that time so after taxes I netted $9,151.00. (A second big surprise but it was still a wonderful blessing.) It was followed that Friday by another surprise as I was asked to attend a party that was being hosted by the four original owners of Provo Craft and asked to take photographs for it. I was told they had money budgeted to pay for it but after what they had done earlier (they were the ones that gave the bonuses not Provo Craft) I told them I would do it for them at no charge that they had done enough all ready. Well that night as we arrived they were no where to be found then I discovered that they were in another room meeting with each person individually and handing out checks to everyone who had touched their lives due to Provo Craft association. There were employees that had been gone for PC for several years. It was a great reunion. I would tell the amount of the check but was asked to keep it a secret but they were true to their word in that “it would be worth our time” to attend the party. They touched our lives several times over and that night was a very special evening as we got to visit with many of our friends who had been a part of our Provo Craft experience.