Sept. 26, 2011

A Quarter for a daring feat: Climb down into the well.

I don’t know for sure how I survived my Cousin’s visits each summer.  There seemed to be a favorite member of our family that they would always pick on and that person was me. This particular story also deals with one of those pranks.

Jack Skewes has always been one of my favorite cousins and I don’t know why because one of my earliest memories of him was when he challenged me to climb down into our well house. The well house was a cement box that about 8 to 10 foot deep and five foot by 6 or 7 foot wide. It was below ground and housed the pump and water tank that was the storage for the water when first pumped out of the well. It was a very dark place especially after the wooden lid was placed over the hole that was the access to the well house. Black Widow spiders seemed like the place a lot better than I did and for years I can recall on several occasions finding them in that hole along with other various species of spiders. I accepted the challenge because, well, I was trusting and he offered to give me a quarter which was more valuable than a bucket of gold to a young man of my tender years. I remember the fear that I had as I climbed down the wooden ladder that allowed access to the pump and the tank.  I was almost to the bottom and victory when the wooden lid was slipped back over the entrance and I was submerged in total darkness with all those spiders ready for a hearty meal of a young man’s flesh. I quickly climbed back up the ladder only to find that the lid would not moved. Jack had put a heavy rock on the lid so that it wouldn’t move. My memory from that moment on was probably something that I have shoved deep into my subconscious memory bank since I have no recollection of how long I was in there before he had pity on me and removed the rock. I don’t remember if I cried but suspect that I probably did since I was not very brave nor have ever been since that time.  I am sure the spiders were probably just as scared as I was as well but that wasn’t in my mind either. So why is he a favorite cousin, well, probably because he has also been there most of my life as a good friend as well as a cousin after the “rock on the well lid” incident.

Another version:

All for 25 cents

I have told in other stories about the fact that I had cousins from Bountiful who would spend their summer months in Duchesne living with Nana (Grandma Poulson) and often staying or visiting with us as well since we only lived a couple of miles out of town and were on a farm no less. I have also explained that I was often the target of pranks that they would devise in my behalf sine I was four years younger than my next older brother and 10 years younger than my oldest cousin.

It was my oldest cousin that pulled this prank on me and has since changed my life forever. (At least I like to blame it on him and hold no malice in so doing since we have become very good friends and I have gotten revenge many time over by taking his picture at every event we have ever attended just because I knew he didn’t like it either.) I must also explain that even though I did get an allowance of 10 cents or so once a month and maybe even more often, that to me at that time 25 cents was worth an awful lot. Candy was still sold for a penny a piece and so 25 pieces would go a long to satisfy a sugar need. I probably didn’t get to have all 25 pieces though since mother was very strict about our paying tithing first and so 3 cents would most likely have gone into my little yellow tithing bank. We also got our water from a well. The well house wasn’t an above ground building but rather a cement lined hole in the ground with a cement top minus room for a hole where the ladder would lean and we would gain access to the tank and pump below at about an 8 foot depth. It was very dark inside and consequently a handy spot for Black widow spiders with their lovely red hourglass marking on the bellies.  I hated the well since you could barely move around the tanks and work in it. My cousin must have guessed that fact and thus dared me one day to go into the well. It took some convincing but the quarter that he offered finally made me bow into the pressure. He removed the heavy rock that was on the wooden lid of the well house and then the wooden lid as well so that I could climb down into the well. He watched as I went all the way to the bottom of the ladder and then kindly replaced the wooden lid complete with the heavy rock. I have absolutely no recollection of the length of my duration in that dark spider infested hole but was sure at the time that every black widow sharing it with me was headed my way to teach me about the importance of not invading their space. I did finally escape their vengeance unbitten to receive my 25 cent reward but to this day am a bit claustraphobic in caves and dark abyss where black widow spiders not only try to get revenge for my invading their domains but revenge for all the black widows I have killed so that they wouldn’t invade my domain either.

Sept 25, 2011

Sister Gilbert/memorize Apostles

In Sunday School when I was somewhere around 8 years old I had a very special teacher by the name of Sister Gilbert. Her family owned the Dairy Queen in town and was one of my favorite places to visit since it was only a block and a half from Grandma Poulson’s.  One day in class Sister Gilbert challenged us in the class to memorize the Presidency of the church, The Quorum of the12 Apostles, Church Patriarch, The Assistants quorum of the 12 Apostles and then the Presiding Bishopric of the church. She also challenged us to memorize our Stake Presidency and Patriarch. To the first person to pass it off she would give a silver dollar that she had gotten in her Dairy Queen business. A friend of mine by the name of Jon rode the same bus as I did each day to school so we decided to take her up on the challenge. I remember working really hard to memorize each name specifically correct. The day I went to church early to pass it off I found out that Jon had also gone early that day and was at that very moment in passing it off. Sister Gilbert gave me a chance also even though Jon had done it correctly and basically won the silver dollar. I also passed it off correctly so she gave me a silver dollar as well. I can’t list them at this time but there were names in that group such as “O Leslie Stone” and “Hugh B Brown” that seemed to stick with me quite easily through the years.

I have always treasured that Silver dollar and for years it was the only one that I had until one day I was doing chores and had climbed the hay stack to feed the cows./ Our baler made the bales round so the stack was a in huge triangle  shape which was fun to slide down after pushing a bale off with which to feed the cows. This day however was a little different because as I slid down off the stack something hit me in the back. It was a silver dollar. We asked several possible people who might have lost it but never did find out who the dollar belonged to so I ended up putting it with my other silver dollar from Sister Gilbert. Years later after Lynn had gone on his mission we were going through my coin collection and I discovered that Lynn didn’t have a silver dollar so I gave the one to him that I had found on the haystack. I still have the other one to this day. It reminds me of the dedication of a Sunday school teacher who knew how to catch the interest of her students and help them to learn valuable lessons at the same time as they were in reality building testimonies of the Prophet and the Apostles.

Sept 24, 2011

Charles W Dahlquist Gen YM Pres: SB's, LDS/BSA Relationship

Nov. 10, 2005 I had an opportunity to attend an instruction session with Charles W Dahlquist, the General Young Men’s President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was about the LDS?BSA Relationship. Many rumors had been circulating for several years about the LDS church removing Scouting from it’s program. I had been in a meeting at Thanksgiving Point several years ago and had been told at that time that the church had no intensions of doing any such thing. However the rumors persisted and at this meeting Brother Dahlquist told us that it was not true and if anything was true it was that the LDS was moving closer to Scouting. He explained that the units of the church that were trying to move away and do just the Duty to God program would fail since the leadership principles taught in Scouting were essential to that program as well and if ran with Scouting would be much more successful.  (It was interesting to me since the original name for Duty to God seemed to have been pulled from The Scout Oath anyway.)

He also explained many other special points that I had so wanted to hear since we had been trying to teach it in scouting for several years. He explained that we need leaders in Scouting that have the four T’s. T number one was a testimony. Every Scout leader needs to have a firm testimony of the Gospel and at each activity teach the boys by ending with a Scoutmaster’s minute which would help the boys to gain a testimony of their own. The second T was training. Every leader involved with the boys needed to be Wood Badge and where possible Philmont Trained.  Those who come back from Wood Badge have a testimony of Scouting and a working knowledge of how to teach it to the boys. The third T was tenure. He explained that the average tenure of scout leaders in the church is 6 to 9 months. “You cannot influence the life of a boy in 6 to 9 months.” He explained that we need to call leaders for a minimum of three years. The fourth T is Time. Every scout leader must be able to spend time with the boys. Summer camps and weekly activities being a major part of that time but also just time to spend with a boy who may need a little extra help.

He also talked about Safety. 17% of all registered Scouts in BSA are LDS. However 50% of the accidents are in LDS units. We have got to be safety aware and practice Common Sense. There are three factors influencing this statistic. One is a lack of training. Two is a lack of tenure. The Third is a lack of the use of Common Sense. He told of a young Scoutmaster that died while on a rock climbing activity. The initial report said that there were three trained repelling adults, and that it was just an accident. The second report though told of the challenge the boys had issued to the Scoutmaster to come down as fast as he could so he took a running leap and the first anchor failed followed by the other four as he fell to his death leaving behind a young family. Common Sense.

He also talked about Fund Raisers and that the best one would involve the boys having to work for money to go to scout camps. There are three ways to fund scouting. The first is the $50 allowance in the ward budgets. The second is having the boy pay his own way and the third fund raisers. He explained that we too often leave out the second one abd the most important one at the same time . We need missionaries who are not afraid to work. There is no better way to train them outside of the home than in scouting. Teach boys to work.

He also explained that we are to never leave a boy behind because he may not be active. He told us to be sure to register every boy and then turn it over to the leaders to capitalize on that investment through getting the boy involved in Scouting.

I loved every minute of the meeting and have probably left some important parts out but want you to know that my love for scouting came because of leaders who were not afraid to include me in some of their “own” time. That is another story.

Sept. 23, 2011

American TV: An Apartment that I had to get on Top

When I worked at American Television Service one of my main responsibilities was to repair problems with antennas.  One such experience found me in Provo repairing an antenna on the top of an apartment building. As I got there I realized that the building was taller than most that I had been on in the past. I went inside to try and locate an entrance from the interior of the building that would lead to the roof. There was no such thing. So I removed our 24 foot ladder from off the truck and extended it to the full reach and it was still too short. I finally had to back the van next to the building and then put the ladder on the top of the van. I tied the ladder feet to the railing on the ladder and then the ladder reached to about 1 foot below the edge of the roof. I figured that would be sufficient and grabbed my tools and a new antenna and cable and climbed to the top. I took everything I might possibly need, that I could carry, since I wanted to only have to do it once. I climbed onto the roof and repaired the antenna. I can’t remember what I had to repair but I can vividly remember what I thought as I went to get off. Getting on the roof hadn’t been too bad but when I looked over the edge and the ladder was afoot below the edge it wasn’t going to be quite as easy to get back onto it. I put everything within reaching distance, threw down what I could so I wouldn’t have to carry all of it again and then laid down on the roof. I slowly inched off the edge until my legs could swing down and stand on the ladder. I then steadied myself, took a deep breath and gathered everything up and started down the ladder. I always felt blessed when I got to the bottom one wrung at a time rather than in one heap from a lofty leap. I was blessed to never have to do that again. 

Sept. 22, 2011

Accidents: Ball Bearings under the car

There has been many times through my life that I have been blessed by the Lord and didn’t realize it until some time later.  One for instance was while I was working at Signetics. I had gone to work on graveyard shift, as was the case for the last seven years that I worked there, and spent a regular night at work. The Blessing had been given that night on the way into work in the car but wasn’t realized until I left to go home the next morning. As I went to find the car I was approaching it from the back when I noticed a steel marble behind one of the tires. I bent down under the car to pick it up and noticed there were actually several of them. At that point one of the employees who often rode into work with me realized that they were actually the ball bearings form the car. I ended up having to get the car carried over to my mechanic in Mapleton so that the bearing could be replaced.  Now, You may ask what was the blessing in having your car break down and leave you stranded at work, and I will promptly answer that the blessing was that I made it to work in the first place. Obviously the bearing had fallen apart while we were riding into work the night before but the bearings had stayed and worked properly until the car was stopped and sitting in the parking lot at work.  It is at times like these that I am so very thankful for a Heavenly Father that knows my time table and knew that I could spend extra time going home from work that I couldn’t spend in getting there.