Mar 13, 2011

Eagle Court of Honor 8/13/1971

I enjoyed scouting as a young man, at least the activities of scouting but not necessarily the merit badges of scouting. I did them however and was almost ready to receive my Eagle rank at age 14 like my older brother Lynn had done.  However there were two merit badges that stood in my way and I just couldn’t get past them. I did my eagle project and everything else required for the rank and still just couldn’t get past those two badges. I then stopped earning badge s as I went into the teachers quorum at church and later into the priest quorums where scouting wasn’t a major part of the activities. I still had everything to be an Eagle Scout except the leadership or personal motivation to get those two badges. Now you might be thinking  what were  those badges and why were they so tough. They were swimming and lifesaving and I was not a deep end of the pool swimmer since I swam so well as a rock rather than a person. Then Sister Caldwell moved to town and had been a professional lifeguard for years and upon discovering my plight with water took me on as a special project the day after I graduated for high school. We went swimming during the day and evenings as I had a graveyard shift at the Texaco for the summer and had time tat I could learn to swim. I finally passed off those two merit badges and four days before my 18^th birthday passed my board of review for the eagle rank in scouting. I received it four days later on a Sunday afternoon at a District Eagle Court of Honor. We held that Courts of Honor at a district level back then and everyone from tabiona, Altamont and Bridgeland came to the court of honor. It was a great day and I was in my scout uniform still able to have parents who put enough importance on the program to buy me uniforms as I grew. Luckily I didn’t grown too much and only had to have new pants and shirts a couple of time between 12 years old and 18 and then they were pretty much hand me downs form the older brothers. I was the only Eagle presented that day and right after it was over and the pictures were taken for the local newspaper (in Roosevelt) I got into the pickup with Lynn and Leesa and headed off to college at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. When we got there we quickly unloaded our things into our apartment with Sister Anderson and Lynn informed me that we had a dinner engagement and I didn’t have time to change from my uniform before we were to be there so I went in my uniform to the home of Brother and Sister Findlay. He, Brother Findlay, just happened to be the Director of Training for the local council the Utah National Parks Council from which I had received the Eagle rank. I think it was a setup but I have always been thankful for it since it set me on a trail of scouting that has helped me to help other young men who have been in much the same predicament that I was in during those years and I always tell them about Ray Hansen and Sister Caldwell. 

Mar 12, 2011

My personal Eagle Project

Scouting will be the subject of many of my historical stories. I was not the most avid scouter as a youth but became such many years later. However the reason it became so intense an interest in my later life was due to a few stories that did occur in my youth. One such story was the story of my Eagle Project. I was I suppose as many of the youth of today and dutifully did my project even though I didn’t understand the scope of the reasons for it’s being required.

The reason for an Eagle project is so that the youth can show his use of the leadership  skills that he has learned through his scouting experiences.

I didn’t know that back then but as I look back now I realize that I did have to use many skills that in the time since then I have fallen back on many times.

My project was a deep cleaning of the LDS church meeting house where we went each Sunday to church. I had a number of good friends during my youth and most of them were involved in this project since we all went to church each week together.  One of special interest was also there whom I later married and with whom I still do many scouting projects and activities. Marie and I were about fifteen at the time if I remember correctly. (Another story that will require verification from Mom’s journals.) I had planned what we needed to do including such things as removal of gum from under the benches and washing the windows on the inside and out. I can’t remember how many were there but I do remember working on one of the windows and Marie was working on the next one to the side of me. It was such a special feeling that I suppose it stuck where many other details have long been forgotten.  It was tough one of the many times during our youth that I knew I loved her (or thought I did at that age, I have since discovered that it was love but not to that extent that it has since become.) I always enjoyed being around her during those years as we were growing up and she made many of my memories very pleasant.

I went on to earn my Eagle Rank even though it was several years later as I was nearing my eighteenth birthday. Another story.

Mar 11, 2011

The next few posts are some stories from my history.

Years: 1961-1971 Chores

When I was in High School I had the responsibility to do chores. Milk and feed the cows. Feed the horses and chickens and whatever other livestock we would have on the farm at the time. Generally Dad would get me up in the morning to milk the cows and then I would do them in the evening after school. When I was younger it was in conjunction with my older brother Lynn but since he was four years older than I then he was off on his mission by the time I was fifteen. Until I was 18 and off to college then chores were my daily routine at home on the farm.

The getting up routine was an interesting one for I was not unlike any most other teenager’s. That bed would be able to have a strong pulling power in the morning and breaking out of it’s grip generally took Dad about three trips to my room. He would start at about 6 AM and come down to my room and would say “It’s time to get up.”  The furnace room was just on the other side of the door from my room so then I would lay there and try to sleep as he would remove the clinkers from the furnace and fill the coal bin with new coal. After that job was complete he would again open the door (if it wasn’t already) and again announce “Come on son, it’s time to get up.” 

Dad would then go out to the barn and get the cows into the barn and once again return and tell me. “Get up, it’s time to get up.” He would then usually succeed and I would crawl out of that very warm bed into the chilling cold of the basement room that serves as my bedroom.  I would then go up and help him carry the buckets of hot water the 50 yards out to that barn.  Part of the water was used to wash the cow’s tits and then the rest later served to wash up the buckets and other milking tools.

The main reason the cows were so easy to get into the barn was due to the grain that we would put into the stanchion.  After they stuck their heads through the bars we would then move one of them into place and lock it there so that the cow couldn’t back out and walk out of the barn while we were trying to milk them.  We would also put hobbles around their back legs to prevent them from kicking us (and the bucket) while in the process of milking them. These hobbles were sometimes more trouble than help.

We had one old cow that wouldn’t let anyone milk her by hand so we would have to hook up the milking machine to her and then milk the other two cows by hand. This was accomplished by removing a one legged stool from off the wall and while balancing on it put the bucket between your legs tilted toward the cow and then spray the milk into the bucket. We could each take one of the two cows and have them milked about the time the automatic milking machine, or what we referred to as the “milker”,  would be finished with the first co

We then would put the milk into another room and let the cows out of the barn. I mentioned that the hobbles were sometimes more trouble than help and it was during this part of the chores where that happened. There were a couple of times (OK several) when I would forget to take off the hobbles before releasing the cow's head. She would then go to step back and if she didn’t fall she would go out of the barn jumping with her back feet each time she moved them. It was of course very hard at that point to stop her and get the hobbles off but if we were lucky they would fall off or she would stop long enough that we could flip one side free so that they would then fall off. I always felt bad when I did this because of the terrible time it would give the cows but even more because of the hard time I would have in getting them off. There were times in my later years that I wouldn’t hobble them because I found out it was easier for me to move when the cow wanted to kick than it was to get her back up off the floor when she would still try to kick and thus slip and fall down while her head was still locked in the stanchion. There were those times of course when she would reach up to relieve a minor objection to my milking and catch the edge of the bucket and then get her foot caught in it and spill it out onto the floor. Of course though the cats and our dog Pee Wee loved that because then they got more than an occasional squirt that they would lick up off the floor under the cow beside my stool.

After the cows were let out of the barn we would then put the milk through a milk strainer to remove all of the hair that would fall in as well as any other foreign objects that might have fallen in as well when the cow would flick her tail or move her leg or let out other objectionable stuff while we were milking. (It is funny as I think back over the years realizing that all that stuff that came from the strainer never once made me stop drinking it or using the cream on my cereal.) 

After the milk was strained we would either pour it into glass gallon bottles that I would get from our neighbors who bought the milk form me or put it through an old crank up milk separator that would separate the cream from the milk. We would save the cream and feed the milk to the pigs.

We would then go to the house carrying the extra milk we kept for our use and the empty buckets. The other milk was left in the barn where our neighbors could pick it up later in the day. I kept the bottles it in cold water or would take them to the house depending on the temperature in the barn and how soon they would be over to get the milk.  The cold water would keep the milk good for almost a full day if needed.

I then would have breakfast if there were time and then get ready for school and ride the bus to school. Dad would usually have left to go to work earlier while I was finishing up the chores.

At night after I got home from school I would change into my old clothes and go out around 5 pm to do the evening chores. The routine was much the same in the evening as in the morning except for the fact that the cows would not be waiting in the barnyard but rather would be somewhere else on the farm. I would either walk down to the bottom of the field and drive them back to the barnyard or take the horse and put a halter on it and ride bare back down to drive them back to the barnyard. The evening always found me having to go out to the stack yard where we kept the hay and spread out a couples bales into the place where the cows could stick their head in and eat the hay. I then would carry some of it over for the horses as well. I only did this at night since Dad would usually have it done in the mornings while I was still battling my mattress.

I do not regret ever the responsibilities I had doing the chores for it taught me how to work and how to stick with a job until it was done regardless of the way I was feeling. There were many times I still had to do the chores when I was sick and didn’t want to do them. One time in particular I will relate later that has stuck with me throughout the years.

Mar 10, 2011

How is the world different now from what it was like when you were a child?

Many many ways. Cars are greatly improved ad have air bags and seat belts and lots of laws about when and where children can sit.
There is more than just the US Mail service to deliver letters and packages. UPS, Fed-Ex and a host of other smaller ones.
There were converse All-Star tennis shoes and that was pretty much the only choice. Now there is Nike, and a huge host of others including the ones that I have now that rock back and forth with you when walking and are suppose to help improve your muscle strength. I also wore special shoes all the time and most everyone wore nice shoes that now we pretty much only wear on sundays except for the rising generation that wears tennis shoes to church. Well I guess I used to as well but only to play basketball.  We had to cook on an electric stove and use an electric oven. After Marie and I had been married three os so years we bought our first Micro-wave oven for $800.00 and it was listed for more than that. Marie took lessons to learn how to cook cakes and other meals in the new oven that lasted us for a lot of years. Now they are less than $50.00.
I watched the first man carrying rocket go into outer space and now they are stopping pretty much the space shuttle program where they can fly the same ship up and down from orbiting the earth for several trips before retiring it. Airplanes have also become very advanced especially warship aircraft including Drones taht are remote controlled from miles away.
Super glue was invented along with a whole host of other things that were invented for use by the military and then marketed to the public.
We had a Black and White TV and no computers, and in fact no calculators. I used a slide rule in college the last two years that they were teaching classes with them. Calculators capable of adding, subtracting and some other limited calculations were possible. I even went and toured The computer floor where University of Utah had their computer. It was capable of doing a lot but took up an entire floor of the building. Calculators can now do more than it could and in lightning speeds faster than it as well. Home computers were invented after Hayden was born or at least started to be marketed to the public in general. Apple and IBM were the two main manufacturers of them and we had a small version called a Instructor 50 that I had bought when working at Signetics. The other computers at the time were the TRS 80 by IBM and the Apple computer for education purposes mainly by Apple.
Record players played the old 78's and then 33 and a 1/3 rpm records and now I can't buy a player to play them.
Video cameras and cassette tape players were invented and replaced by smaller video camera's including ones on the computer and Ipod and Ipads have replaced a lot of them. We had a cartoon called Dick Tracy who spoke and looked at the person to who he had called on his wrist watch. Well cell phones are almost there now and I am sure video capabilities are not far off in the future.
Camera's were capable of Black and White images and not color even though it would come out soon in my youth but now digital camera's are almost knocking film out of existence. There a few die hard photographer's still using film but very very few.
TV's are now standard in every home but just not any TV they have to be big screen TV's. 42 inches and larger if possible.  I repaired TV's when I was first married by replacing electronic tubes and now new small TV's can be purchased for less than  repair bill then.
Wind generating power plants are all over and the coal ones are going away. Hydro plants are still in use but they too are meeting with a lot of enviromentalist restrictions. We had Presidents who loved their country and now one that hates it yet he is the President and Commander in Chief.
The internet was also invented by the military and then released to the public. Now shopping on line makes it super easy to spend money t hat you don't have along with credit cards that were only used for gasoline when I was young. It is uncommon not to get several invited to a credit card company for a card in one week anymore, except I now send it back to them with all the trash I can stuff into them so they will get the idea that I really don't want them. It is working.
A letter in the form of a blog is much faster and easier than the old handwritten ones and will more likely be kept over time a lot longer than they were.
Cruise's were not heard of then even though people took vacations all over the world then. But now they are almost so common that if you haven't been on at least one if not one a year you are considered very odd.
I use to haul 4 buckets holding about 40 lbs of coal from the coal shed to the furnace around 60 feet and into the house and down the steps into the furnace room every day. I got to where I would pack all four at one time so I didn't have to do two trips. Now we have a gas furnace and no coal other than out in a shed for emergency heat only. (That 160 lbs of coal each trip has not been missed at all.)
We have gone from single pane glass windows to standard two pane and lots of times three panes. It has helped with conserving heat inside of the home and using less energy.
We have even seen changes in the church. There was an assistant quorum of the 12 when I was growing up and now there are several quorums of the seventy and no assistants to the twelve. The church has also gone for a million members to nearly 14 million and my mission in Texas is divided into about 7 or 8 of them.
I have seen a lot of change and most of it for the good even though the devil uses each new technology for himself as well. I won't list them.
Last but not least the cold war has changed dramatically. The Berlin Wall which I never expected to see come down is now down. The world politics have changed. Japan and China have become world powers and America stands on the brink of disaster but the Lord isn't finished here and it will stand until He comes again.

Mar 9, 2011

What did you do on New Year's Eve? Were you allowed to stay up until midnight? Did you do anything special at midnight?

I remember one particular New Year's Eve and it was in Metarie, LA. I had gone with mom and dad and Stan down to visit Alma and Loyle. We had gone to visit between Christmas and New Year's. I remember going to New Orleans earlier that evening and going through the French Quarter's. It was an education for me and I didn't particularly like it. We stayed in the car with the doors locked. Then we played Monopoly after we got back to Alma's. It lasted all evening but I didn't play the entire time. I don't remember for sure but it seems like I was pretty tired and fell asleep before midnight but was awaken easily by the noise of the fire crackers and fireworks that started going off just before midnight.
So that was the most memorable one I ever had but I am sure that I stayed up for some of them but I really don't recall for sure. Anyway ringing in the New Year I don't remember being any real big deal or I would probably had a few more memories stick. I am sure we banged pots and pans or made some noise for a short period of time but we never did use and fireworks or fire crackers. It just wasn't something that we needed to spend any money on since money was never in great abundance.

Mar 8, 2011

Did you have a Christmas Tree? Buy it? Cut it? What were the decorations like? Tell about your most memorable Christmas.

We had a Christmas tree every year and they were always fresh cut from the farm or bought from the scouts because I had gone on a fund raiser and cut them also. Most of the trees were cedar trees with the occasional white pine that we brought from the scout fund raisers. Those were cut from Grass Hollow in Indian Canyon south of Duchesne. We would then put them into a water stand and they lasted really well until we took them down after Christmas.
Our decorations consisted of breakable glass ball ornaments, pop corn strung on thread that were usually long enough to go around the tree several times from the top to the bottom. We also had silver tinsel that was always fun to put on but hard to take off. There would be occasional ornaments that we had made in school but they were far apart and few. There were also candles on the tree that we lit, oh wait a minute I am not that old, we had strings of lights with the big bulbs in them that we would string around the tree as well. Then there was a star that we would put on the very top. I always loved the smell of the fresh cut trees each year.
As far as my most memorable year I have already written about it in my 2010 edition. 1963.

Mar 7, 2011

On Christmas, what time did you get up in the morning?

When I was little it seemed harder to go to sleep than to get up. But if I recall correctly it was sometime around 5 or so but then I would have to lay in bed until much later. Then when I began milking cows and helping with the chores we would go out and do the chores before we could open any presents or see what had been left by Santa. So it was usually around 5:30 or 6 that we would start doing the chores and then come back in about a half hour later and get everyone else up. I thought it quite mean to have to do chores first but it was so much better because then we didn't have to stop in the midst of playing with our toys to go do them.

Mar 6, 2011

The next question was about Christmas but that was covered last year so I am putting another segment from my histories about my grandparents.

Grandpa Poulson's lap and Grandpa Hansen’s blessing

Many of the memories of my Grandparents were with my mother parents. Grandpa Hansen gave me my patriarchal Blessing and Grandma Hansen lived until I was home from my mission and had my first son. Dad’s parents however were a part of my memories as well but Grandpa Poulson was only a part of one specific very vague or faded memory. I remember sitting on his lap while I was three years old just prior to his death. I can’t remember his funeral even though I was most likely there but I can remember sitting on his lap just that one time. I have often wished that I could remember him better but know that someday I will get to know him just as I did my own father. Grandma Poulson was a big part of my childhood though since she was my babysitter after mother started working for the school. I would go from Kindergarten to her home just a coupe blocks from the school. I would play there until Mom or Dad came to pick me up. Dad was working as a carpenter and at that time was helping Mr. Grant build a home just a block away from Grandma so she would let me go visit him once in a while also while he was at work.  We got to spend most of the holidays with her since she lived in Duchesne. We always loved to go there to do our Trick or Treating on Halloween and I always loved her tapioca pudding. Grandma lived until I was ten years old, seven years after grandpa had passed away.  She was in our home for the last couple of months prior to her death and passed away the day after Christmas in 1963. Mother said she always felt that Grandma had stayed until after Christmas so that she wouldn’t spoil Christmas day for us children. We all loved her very much and she was the lucky Grandma that we got to live close enough with that visiting her was almost a daily occurrence. I loved my other Grandparents as well but getting to visit them required a trip usually taking up a couple of days.

Received My Patriarchal Blessing from Grandpa Hansen

My Grandfather Hansen had been a spiritual leader in the church most of his life. He was a Bishop and a Stake President and late a Stake Patriarch.  It was the last calling that I remembered him as being in the church during my lifetime. I could hardly wait to receive my patriarchal blessing since I could receive from my Grandfather even though he was in a completely different stake of Zion.  I knew my Brothers and sisiters had all received theirs from him so I was anxious to get mine. It was a soft policy I suppose in the church while I was growing up to wait until you were older than 14 to receive your blessing. However there were some allowances made for my younger sister Marsha and I when we traveled to Centerfield to receive them from Grandpa. I was 13 and Marsha was 10 years old.  I remember it seemed like hours as I sat on the chair with Grandpa sitting on a stool behind me nd with his hands on my head and then Grandma sitting to the side with a pencil and paper recording the blessing for him as he spoke it. That was part of the reason for the length of time since he would pause regularly to give her time to write each word down.  Marsha and I were dressed in Sunday clothes and it was on a Sunday that we received the blessing. I have always felt very fortunate to have been able to receive that blessing when I did because only a few months later he had a heart attack and passed away. Marsha was really lucky since he was only 10. Grandpa was always special to me for a lot of other reasons a swell. I would wait for him to go get water from a lake north of Gunnison and then help carry in the gallon bottles filled with their drinking water. The water apparently was so hard from their well that they could only bathe and do dished in it. I also loved going out to the corrals behind the house to watch him do chores and help feed the livestock. I never got to know my Grandpa Poulson since I was so young when he passed away and so Grandpa Hansen filled both of the roles so to speak and did it well. 

March 5, 2011

What did you do on Thanksgiving? Who came to visit? Where did you go to eat?

Thanksgiving was always held at home. Mom and the girls would cook a large meal and we would eat it as a family. I do remember after the older children (Alma, Clair) were married that we would have their families and after Clair had built his home on the farm that we would sometimes hold it over in his yard. I don't remember any more than that. I am sure Grandma Poulson would be there when she was living and we may have even eaten in her home a few times but I don't remember for sure on that point.

Mar 4, 2011

What did you do on Halloween? What did you wear for a costume? Did you make your own costumes or buy them from the stores?

I have a lot of memories of going to Halloween Carnivals but not many where we ever dressed up in costumes. I don't remember even doing any Trick or Treating other than at Grandma Poulson's after the carnivals. The carnivals were always fun however and the had a lot of fun booths to spend money at and win prizes. I think they were used as fund raisers for the most part but it basically was also designed to prevent Trick or Treating for safety reasons. I remember one specific year when I went with Marie to the marriage booth and was married by Don Hansen, my best friend. I think I still have the paper we used for it. Other fun booths included face painting and ring tosses. I don't remember a lot to then though, just  the fact that they were pretty fun.  If I ever did dress up in a costume it was most likely home made and a ghost at that. I don't remember any store bought costumes until I was older and then it seemed like it was mostly just masks that we put on for a few minutes. No wonder it was always more fun for me to stay home and hand out treats that to go out for treats.