May 30, 2010 Gabriel Thomas Poulson 6th Birthday

Happy Birthday Gabe.

Is there anything you have now that you have kept from your childhood?

There are several things. I have an old upright Zenith broadband radio, my father's old .22 rifle, a couple of other old radio's that were antiques (actually I don't have those radio's anymore since no one thought that they were worth keeping around so I was talked into taking them to Deseret Industries.) I still have my father's old ammo box converted into a photo paper exposer. It was used to transfer the negative to the photo paper. I have a number of my old books as well and several of my model cars and trinkets from my youth. There were a lot of things that I loved as a child and have a great deal of meaning to me.

May 29, 2010

Tell about the closest friend you had during your childhood.

I had two close friends, one boy and one girl. You have heard a lot about both of them throughout these stories. The boy, Don Hansen and the girl, Marie Behrmann, your mother. I spent lot of time with Don hunting rabbits and doing scouting. Then I spent a lot of time with Marie as I had a chance to at church functions and school activities. I really didn't have a lot of free time since I had chores and work to do on the farm for a good share of each day when I wasn't in school. Don likes Marie as well so we spent a lot of time as a trio also much to Marie's dismay but she put up with him.

May 28, 2010

Did you play a musical instrument?

I played two instruments. The Alto Saxaphone and the Trumpet. Dad played the Sax for a lot of years in a dance band with his brother and sister. They played throughout a lot of the basin. Anyway I played dad's old Sax from 7th grade until 9th at which time I shifted to the trumpet for two years and back to the Saxaphone for my last two years. We played at the basketball games (Duchesne didn't have football) and then had special bands such as a dance band that we played with in competition and then played for the drama plays. It was really a lot of fun.

May 27, 2010

Share a special memory of Memorial Day.

I have a jumbled memory that is probably a composite of several trips to Holden. However I do remember going to see Uncle Mark and Uncle Hart that had fought in the Koren war. One of them had lost his legs and the other had also received many wounds that I do not remember what they were. Anyway we went to Holden where my father had spent the first four years of his life and where his parents were buried. While there tough I remember listening to Uncle Mark's stories and how fun he was to listen to that day. I also met some of my other relatives that knew their names but had never seen. It was a special experience.

May 26, 2010

Tell about Memorial Day traditions in your youth.

Grandma always had beautiful flowers by the time it was Memorial Day so we would go cut several bunches of them and take them to my Grandmother and Grandfather Poulson's graves in Holden. It was always a very long day and we would then go to Centerfield to do the graves there as well. In my teenage years I think it was getting harder on dad to travel so we didn't do it nearly as much as I had remembered earlier. There were a few family relatives in the Duchesne Cemetery that we would also take flowers to so that we could decorate those graves.

May 25, 2010

Describe a very proud moment in your childhood?

Well other than graduating from High School, and receiving my Eagle rank, I would probably have to say one of the moments that made me most proud was catching a fly ball out in right field. I only played one summer and that was not a real good year so having caught the one and only fly ball to right field was pretty amazing. I really don't remember much of that season other than that one catch and riding my bike to Duchesne every time we had a practice or a game. I seem to remember going to the store for treats after the game and enjoying it more than playing. Maybe that was why I only played one year.

May 24, 2010

Tell of someone you envied and why?

It would probably have to be Leesa because she was so smart. However I finally got to catch up a little as I got to 9th grade and started getting straight A report cards, something she had always been able to get . She was also very good on the piano but I had to realize that I had my chance, we started piano lessons the same year and I stopped after just 8 weeks. Oh well I was only 8 at the time and hated the piano at that time also.

May 23, 2010

Did you have homework during your school years?

Well if I did I don't remember it very well. I might have had a few days of homework but I can't think of any. Our teachers usually gave some time in class for doing homework and I took advantage of it as well as the time before and after school in the library. I think the teachers were a lot more aware of the work they gave us since they knew a lot of us also had responsibilities on farms and had work to do after we got home. I probably could have taken more home but didn't.

Then I got to college and had a shock of a lifetime with homework that kept me busy well into the night a lot of days. It was a totally new world.

May 22, 2010

How many students were in your high school? approximately 300.

In your graduating class? A grand total, still holding the school record, of 54.

Duchesne had a lot of activity during my high school years adding a lot of people to the towns head count and census. There were a lot of oil well people working the new fields and Starvation Dam was being built so there were a lot of people with the government in town. That was what created the largest class ever to go through school.

May 21, 2010

What year did you graduate from high school? What do you recall about your feelings, emotions, hopes and dreams at this time of your life?

1971, at the age of 17. I was close to the youngest in my class. I think one girl was younger.

I was a bit scared about the future as well as excited for it. I knew I would have a full year in college before I could go on a mission so since Lynn and Leesa were both attending Snow I applied for and received a scholarship to SnowCollege in Ephraim, Utah. It was a small school but highly accredited and had an electronics program which I had decided that I wanted to go into. I knew I would miss MArie terribly but did look forward to dating without fear of judgement. (I did date that year also and I also dodged and ducked from one girl that was chasing me.) It was a good time of my life but one filled with a lot of questions and few answers. The answers did come however and I have enjoyed all of my life with the challenges and activities that I have had and done that never crossed my mind at that time.