Jan 8, 2010

While you were growing up, which language s were spoken in your home?

English and Utahn. We spoke with the local Utah basin slur and mother was always trying to correct us. She was an English major or minor and wrote very well and was always helping us to speak better english even though it really doesn't always manifest itself now. Of course I have a Texan slang added to it also. Oh well it's all just communication. I look forward to speaking the Adamic language even though I may have a hard time learning it. Spanish also became a second language of sorts since Stan, Lynn and our neighbor Harold all spoke that as well, Lynn and Stan after their missions and Harold as a native language having grown up in the Mexican LDS colonies. of Mexico.

Jan 7, 2010

Who is the oldest person in your family you can remember knowing when you were a child? What do you remember about that person?

Wow this one is hard since I knew a lot of my mother and father's family. However I think that I will change the question a little since I think it means who was the oldest when you can first remember them but I will write about the one who was the oldest one I can remember at the time of their death.

Uncle Leo and Aunt Zelma were always pretty old even though I believe she was younger than Grandma Hansen who was her sister. But my Great Aunt Zelma lived one month shy of her 105th birthday. Great Uncle Leo was 94 when he passed away and Great Aunt Zelma was 90. Mom stated several times that she felt Aunt Zelma wanted to live longer than him and set her sites on 95 but made it to nearly 105.

They were never able to have children but adopted all of the nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. I received $10.00 per month every month for the two years of my mission as did everyone else that served missions. She was also our measuring stick since she was barely four foot tall. We would measure our growth by her each time they came to visit and it was a special day when we were finally taller. Each of you also had a chance to meet her when we went to St George to see Grandma while she was there taking care of your Great Great Aunt Zelma. She was even shorter then since when had a severe case of ostioperosis. She was not very well the also so her cute personality also didn't show itself very well.She was always a very special person to me.

Jan 6, 2011

Who were your grandparents?

This question was answered last year. But here is one of my history stories That I might have posted already but goes along with the death of my paternal grandmother when I was 10 years old.

President Kennedy's assassination

Nov 22, 1963 was a day that I would end up never forgetting. It was one of those days that in the years to come you would always be able to remember what you were doing, where you were doing it, and why you remembered it so well. I have had several of those years in my life and this particular one comes to mind now since it is Nov 20, 2005 when I am writing this and in two days we will remember as a country the day that John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

I was in elementary school, 4^th Grade, and 10 years old. Mr. Leo Foy was my teacher and playing marbles was the highlight of our recess periods and lunch hours. We usually spent our recess in doors during this time of year due to the cold weather but that day we were outside. My school always made me think of the Texas Alamo even though I had never been there or visited it. The front had a part that was built like the front of the Alamo. Coming straight out from the front doors was a wide sidewalk that was level and had a couple of steps several feet apart that ended up making the sidewalk level with the street by the time it got to the street. My classroom was on the second story to the right of that built up part. We had to go up a lot of stairs as I remember to get to it. But at that age that was no problem since I was built to run so it seemed.

I had some real good friends and always played with them. Marbles was not always the choice of games because we would often play kickball or baseball. Other times we would play on the swing set, pumping as hard as we could until we several feet in the air and then bailing out to the ground below. It was a contest to see who could go the highest before bailing out. I think back on it now and wonder why we didn’t have numerous broken legs and arms from the activity. Then there were the days when we simply chased the girls for whatever reason but mainly because it was fun and some of them were really cute.

This particular day however I was content to play marbles on that huge sidewalk in the front of the building. It was our noon recess so we had a little extra time to play. I had my favorite taws just like everyone else but I don’t remember ever really playing marbles for keeps. It always seemed more fun just to see how many we could win and then give them back to each other at the end of the game. There were just two of us playing that day as I remember but I can’t remember who the other person was at the time. Someone came out of the front doors in a rush yelling to us to come inside because Pres Kennedy had been shot. I don’t remember any of the rest of the day but do have some memory of the funeral services a few days later.

It was ten years later, while serving as a missionary in Texas, that I had an opportunity to go to the place where it had all happened and to see where the motorcade had gone and where the rifle had been fired. There was a special exhibit in an old building that housed all of the information. I remember it being a somewhat dumpy part of Dallas and understand that in the years since my mission it has been cleaned up and made into a very beautiful memorial for JFK.

One month and four days later, the day after Christmas, Grandma Poulson passed away in our home after suffering for an extended period of time from the effects of a stroke. That is another story but part of that memorable holiday season of that year.

Jan 5, 2011

What do you remember most about your father from your childhood? About your mother?

It is interesting but one of the things that sticks out most in my mind was the way dad's keys jingled on the side of his hip. There were many times that we would have to run to stop one of those blasted cows from taking off in a direction it wasn't suppose to go and as we would run to turn them dad's keys would be flipping up and down making a terrible noise. The keys were all of the keys that went to the different school buildings and how he ever knew which one went where I don't know but they were all used quite often. The other things that really sticks out in my mind also was the "Time to get up!" at 6 am and then "get up" as he would start to clinker the furnace right outside of the door a few minutes later. We would always get to sleep a little after the first call and it was kinda like hitting the snooze button. I still wake up better if I hit the snooze button a couple of times.

For Mom it was the scrubbing the floor at midnight on saturday night. It never made a whole lot of sense because she wouldn't clean on sunday but it was usually sunday morning by the time we got the floor scrubbed on saturday night. No matter how soon we started we never got done before 12;30 AM or so. That went right along side of the clothes washing that happened every saturday as well. I loved the smell of the fresh sheets each saturday night when we finally did get to crawl into them but I hated taking them off and usually putting them back on in order to go to bed (after the floors were scrubbed.)

Jan 4, 2010

What did your parents do for a living?

Dad was a rancher, then farmer and dairyman with his brothers for many years. About the time I started school dad was a carpenter building homes for part of his employment then he was hired by the Duchesne County School District as the Superintendent of the Buildings and grounds which he did until retirement. He then supervised the project where the Rocky point ditch (canal) was put into a pipeline from the river to the end of our property. He passed away three years after retirement from the school district job. He continued to run the farm during his entire life but never really made any money from it other than providing meat and produce for the family after he started working construction.

Mom was a school teacher in Gunnison and then a County Social Services agent in Duchesne. She had wanted to go on a mission but was unable due to her health. Her sisters all went on missions which she was finally able to also do in her late 60's. She taught school in Duchesne for several years and was finally hired as the full time librarian at Duchesne High School, the job from which she retired at age 65 or 66. After her mission and after going to St George she returned to Duchesne and was a worker in the Vernal temple for the last few years of her life.

Jan 3, 2010

Who were your parents? What are their full names? Where and when were they born? Where did they grow up?

This set of questions seems a little more in detailed than the last book so I will answer them and they might be a bit redundant but that's OK.
Kermit Poulson
Born May 27, 1090 in Holden Utah. Lived there until his family moved to the basin when he was age 4. Lived the rest of his life in Duchesne. Was a rancher with his father and had a ranch house near Strawberry ridge east of the home in Indian Canyon.

Gertrude Ilean Hansen Poulson
Born July 4, 1916 in Centerfield Utah. (It might have been Gunnison where she was actually born, I don't know for sure.) Grew up in Centerfield until she went to Snow college and then the University of Utah. where she earned a degree in Social Sciences and went to Duchesne to work as a Social Services person in the basin. She met dad there. She was 25 and he was 32. They were married in the Manti Temple Sept 9, 1941. Needless to say she spent the rest of her married life in Duchesne. After Dad died she went on a mission to the South Dakota mission and returned from the mission to move to St George to take care of her Aunt Zelma until she passed away a few years later after which she returned to Duchesne and lived the rest of her life there.

Jan 2, 2011

Were there any unusual circumstances surrounding your birth?

I was a little different from most of the older children in that I was actually born in a Duchesne Hospital. It was a small one and I understand the older brothers and sister got to look at me through the window of the room where mom and I were. The hospital was there for only a few years and vacant for a good share of my youth. I am not sure when it was torn down or moved.

Jan 1, 2011

What color was your hair when you were born?

I have been a bit neglectful for several days now but since the first few questions in my new book have been the same as the last then I felt I could wait. However this question was one I don't remember answering the last time around. My hair was a sandy red. Not a real dark red but red anyway.

Dec 31, 2010

If you were to make a New Year's Resolution this year, what might it be?

Since, for the first time, I have actually been able to complete a goal from the last New Year's Resolutions I am a little more willing to try again. Last year I decided that I would complete this little book and answer all of the questions as best as I could do and this being the last entry of the year I have accomplished it. I didn't do it every day as I had to group some together and type them when I could get time to do them. Anyway it is nearly finished and I must admit that I have enjoyed the journey back through my memories. I have lost a lot of detail but that has to be expected I guess. I do appreciate Hayden and Cheyenne staring me down this road with that special Christmas gift. Thank You and I hope that each of you have learned a little along the way as well. I will actually be continuing this exercise however due to a birthday gift from mom. She gave me an LDS version of the same type of thing. I have answered many of the questions in that book since it still deals with the same subject so since you will already have received the answer once I will substitute some of my life's stories instead on those days where the questions are repeated. I may answer some again just for formality but those will be few. Thanks again for a wonderful journey and I am looking forward to this resolution being completed as well.

The End

for 2010.

Dec 30, 2010

What special memories do you have of New Year's Eve or New year's Day?

Most of what I recall from New Years was staying up playing Monopoly until time to welcome in the new year. It was always pretty hard to stay up though since we were up early each morning to milk the cows and new years day was no different, the cows didn't observe our holidays too well.

I remember one year however that was really a different experience. Dad and Mom decided to travel to New Orleans to see Alma and Loyle. It is real easy to remember how old I was for that trip too since I had just received my driver's license and this would be a chance to use it. Stan and I were invited to go along so the four of us went. I had a couple of stints driving but not too much since Stan and Dad pretty much traded off. It was a long trip that took two full days of driving for both going and coming. I had a chance to drive from the state line of Louisiana to almost Baton Rouge. There was a huge football game being played in New Orleans and I happened to be driving when we got into a huge traffic jam just before Baton Rouge. When we had a chance Stan took over at the wheel, I was quite OK with that as well too. We stayed for a few days and spent New Year's Eve there with Alma. I still remember the new year's activities pretty well. We went for a drive into the French Quarter's of New Orleans. We went once during the day and saw all of the shops and things that were really quite neat and then Loyle took us back that night and we had to keep the windows up and the doors locked as it had turned into the Devil's playground and there were men trying to get you out of the car and into the topless, and sometime much worse, bars. Mom was really glad when we got out of there. We had a huge Monopoly game that night but I was somehow let out of it early and couldn't keep my eyes opened so i went to bed and then was awakened by the huge display of fireworks> There were all kinds and there were no laws against the types either as there was in Utah. It seemed everyone had a huge portion of them and I couldn't sleep through it had I wanted too.

We went across the 20 mile bridge that spans Lake Pontcatrain and visited part of Florida. We saw where damage had been done by the last hurricane earlier that season and where a tornado had wiped out parts of Metarie where Alma and Loyle lived. It was a fun vacation and little did I know that while traveling to and from I would go through parts of what were to be in my mission filed just three short years later in Texas. I often thought about that trip when in Texas too.

On the way home I was once again driving when we hit the eye of a snow storm near the four corners area in Colorado. Once again to ease mother's back seat driving I was relieved of the post and it was again given to Stan. By that time though we had almost passed through the worst of the storm, however once again I was quite OK with the switch from being the driver as it was pretty darn scary.