Nov. 4, 2011

Arrowhead hunting.

I grew up around some very special people in Duchesne. I talk about many of them when I recite stories from my youth. They all had different likes and abilities as well and so no two of them ever affected me the same. One such special person was my neighbor on the bench Edna Rasmussen. I sold milk to her during my teen years as I milked the cows and dad let me keep the money from the sale of the milk as my allowance. I knew Edna quite well and was also able to visit her in her home several times, a treat that was always liked because of getting to see the arrowhead collection that she had made and framed and hung on her living room wall.

Edna had collected the arrowheads and other Indian artifacts long before the government decided to make it against the law. She also had collected large amounts pf petrified wood as well since the two items were often located around the same areas of Duchesne where she would go to hunt for these artifacts. We as a family got to go with her one Saturday and I will never forget finding one arrowhead myself that was almost in perfect condition. However I will also never forget being right behind my sister Leesa as she found the perfect coal black arrowhead in what was possibly a firepit. Lynn was just in front of her and had in fact looked in the same pit but had missed the artifact and has always been somewhat jealous of Leesa because she found it and not him. I don’t know where that arrowhead is now but I do know where mine is and I have it with my artifacts and treasures of my youth. It seldom sees daylight but it is still there along with the memories of hunting for it with Edna. 

Nov 3, 2011

Ardyths Wedding.

I do not remember the year that my Aunt Ardyth was married. Ardyth was my mother’s youngest sister and so she was almost the same age as my oldest sister Alma. I do remember that Alma had graduated and Stan as well since he was on his mission in Argentina when the marriage took place. So the year had to have been around my 11^th or 12^th year of age in 1964 or 65. I’ll  have to look it up now since I am not sure when it was. Anyway the reason I tell this story is because of the ipact that it had on my life. I mean Uncle Doyle was as big an impact as anyone could have and has been such a favorite Uncle because of his sense of humor and his love of teasing his nephews and nieces. That wasn’t the impact that I remember best from it though. It was the desert. Ardyth wanted cake roll for her refreshments. Cake roll, that stuff that is made I Heaven and rolled up to be cut as slices and placed on plate and eaten with a fork. OK who am I kidding, I didn’t like the fork because it was so much faster getting to that ice cream rolled up between the cake if I grabbed it with my hand and ate it as I would a sandwich.  I am sure that I ate several pieces of it that night and had an instant love affair that would never end. That is probably also made all the more important to me too because I have only had cake roll a very few times since that night. In fact I can only remember two or three times and with it as much a part of my memory as it is I always remember when I get to eat it again. I don’t know why it isn’t very popular with the manufacturer’s because they would surely know how well it would sell to people like me that eat it every chance they get. I love cake roll and I don’t know if it was because of the cake and the icecream rolled together or the fact that I was young, a boy with an appetite for sweets, and probably very hungry when it was served at Aunt Ardyth’s wedding reception and it stuck.

Nov 2, 2011

American TV: Coalville store owner 3 children under 6.

When I was working for American Television during the first three years of our marriage I was able to experience a number of events that would ultimately change the course of my thinking and my life. Each week I had assigned areas that I would travel to do pick up jobs that were outside of Utah County. I would go to certain stores where TV’s were sold and there pick up any warranty jobs or other jobs that would come in during the week. One day I would travel to Price, another to Heber and Coalville and another to Salina. I got to know parts of the state pretty well from my assignments doing those jobs. I also was able to meet a lot of people and get to be friends with many of them.
One day as I was waiting for jobs in Coalville I overheard the owner talking to one of the customers about her children. (It wasn’t hard to her since I was standing right next to them at the counter waiting for her to give me the jobs.) Anyway she was explaining to the other person how she had given birth to three sons within six years and how hard it had been during their youth (as babies mainly) to raise them but that how she was so glad now that it had happened that way. Further questions form the customer brought out the fact that the boys were now in high school and one was a senior, on a junior and one a freshman if I remember correctly. Anyway they were close enough in age to be all in the same school and were also the best of friends. That was the part that caught my attention was the fact that they were good friends and because of it were also able to help each other and be a friend when others were not around to be such. They were always looking out for each other and taking care of each other. They had been in fights as brothers but for the most part those had seemed to bring them closer in the long run and now as older youth they were there for each other.
Well I decided then that if possible I would like our children to be close in age as well as friends. We were blessed with three boys first and they have had their trials getting along but for the most part I was always glad that they were close since they were able to be with me at scout events and sporting event and other such activities. We were also blessed with a daughter just two years after that who for the most part was protected by her brothers and later harassed by them to the point that I am not sure she appreciates them quite like I had hoped. A son came next almost four years later followed by our youngest daughter two years after that. As I watch them now with their families it is fun to see them interact and to witness some of the trilas they have but also to see them be friends. I love them all and know that there are things with each of them that seem to bother the others but I am still glad that they were able to be close in age. That conversation in Coalville did have an impact on my life and my family dynamics.

Nov 1, 2011

3 youth killed crossing train tracks

Life is so precious and often far too short as seen from a perspective of the mortal world. But it iis at time like the one I am soon to relate that I am aware of a far greater perspective and am so thankful for it.

During my adult years as I have been raising my children I have opportunity to be a coach and a scout leader and a friend to each of my children and consequently to many of their friends and youth of the same age. I have grown to love and respect many of those friends and also had heartache as some of them have made choices that have destroyed their lives here on earth. Again I  am thankful for a gospel plan and a loving Father and Brother in Heaven who will be the judge of our lives.

Some of the youth that I have known have not lived long enough to experience many of the joys of this life but I am again thankful that it doesn’t end here. Three of those youth were cousins. A couple of them lived in Mapleton and were approximately Ben’s age in school. I had had some interaction with the two in sports and in scouts. They were killed in a car wreck trying to beat a train across the tracks at the south end of Mapleton. I often wonder about the few moments before the accident and what it must have been like in that car (and in the train.) The three of them were apparently late to a golf appointment with their dads at the Spanish Oaks Golf course in Spanish Fork, Utah. They were traveling south along highway 89 toward Spanish Fork canyon and the quickest way to the golf course would have been to cross the tracks and go to highway 6 and from there down to the course in the mouth of the canyon. The safest way would have been to continue on to the mouth of the canyon , turn onto highway 6 and cross the tracks on the bridge which was part of that highway. They elected though to try and beat a train that was going south on the tracks and cross over the tracks before it got there. They tied in that race but lost their lives in so doing. I have often thought as I have crossed railroad tracks many times and many times at that exact crossing how that in a race with a train there really isn’t such a thing as a tie, the car or truck will always loose. It was once stated to me that a car and a train are the same in comparison as a pop can and a car.  These three young men are buried next to each other in the Evergreen Cemetery in Springville. They came into life at nearly the same time and left at the same time.

Note added 11/1/11

Two other teens were recently killed on the tracks by Covered Bridge Canyon. Here is the news article about the incident.

Essa Ricker and Kelsea Webster, both 15, were killed in the accident, according to the Utah County Sheriff's Office. Kelsea's sister, 13-year-old Savannah Webster, was critically injured and rushed to Primary Children's Medical Center. She was undergoing surgery Sunday and remained in critical but stable condition."It's very devastating," said Bruce Hiskey, who serves as stake president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the area. "These are vibrant, good young women. They were having a beautiful time on a beautiful fall day, and it's just a tragedy this happened."

Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said the three girls were taking pictures on the railroad tracks just off U.S. 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon near the small community of Covered Bridge."It goes without saying that they were in an area that would not be well advised for them to be in," he said.The teens apparently knew one train was coming but did not realize another train was approaching from the opposite direction and were caught between them, Cannon said. Moments before the accident, one of the girls had posted, "standing right by a train ah haha this is awesome" on her Facebook page.

One train either hit the girls or blew them into the path of the other, Cannon said, and it's possible they were hit by both trains.Noise from the first train may have prevented the girls from hearing the second one, although an engineer reported sounding his horn as the train approached the crossing."Or maybe they realized it was there, and it was just too late for them to get away," he said. "We just don't know. But there's just a thunderous noise as they're standing that close to the train."Mary Scobell, who lives in Covered Bridge, said dozens of trains pass through the area every day. Locals know there are two sets of tracks in the area, she said, and they caution visitors and newcomers to be careful around them."We always tell our visitors, if there's a train and it goes past, you still don't get on the tracks," Schobell said. "You count a few seconds, look right and left to make sure (another) train isn't coming."Kelsea and Savannah Webster moved to Covered Bridge from Sonora, Calif., about two months ago, Cannon said.

I have photographed there before but am always very cautious of trains since I know how fast they travel through that area. I learned something from this though that I did not realize before and that is that even being close to the train the wind created by them has potential to blow you away from it and onto the other tracks. I always thought that I would just move off the tracks but now I know that I would move across the road instead.

Oct 31, 2011 Happy Birthday Jeff and Genny!!

Happy Birthday Jeff and Genny and Happy Halloween!

Aaron Ford and Wardsworth

Just after I was called to be a Scoutmaster of Troop 66 I held my first camp. We decided to hike up a canyon in Hobble Creek Canyon right hand fork. The road is paved to the junction where this canyon starts. It was only a mile and a half to the camp area from the junction. We started the camp by going to the church where I had a gear check. There was one scout that had to leave a lot of things behind because he was expecting to go to the camp area by vehicle not walking. I was glad that I started with a gear check. When we started hiking there was one place where we had to walk across a log to get across he stream. One scout slipped off of the log and fell on his back into the stream. It was a small stream so we were able to just reach down and pull him out. We had talked about ways to keep our gear dry and he had followed those methods and thus came out of the creek with no wet clothes other than the ones he was wearing.

  The camp was good until the next morning. I had planned to leave camp that morning and do some compass work with the boys farther up the canyon. As we were cleaning up from breakfast three of the oldest scouts decided to pick on the youngest one Aaron Ford. They took his backpack while he was playing nearby and hung it on a rope about 15 feet above the stream. Aaron came to me and told me to make them take it down and I tried to explain that it would be OK to leave it there while we went for the hike and then I would help him take it down. As long as it was up there then nothing could get into it while we were hiking the rest of the morning. He didn’t like that answer and then tried to get it down himself and it dropped into the stream. That of course made him pretty mad and then no reasoning at all could make a difference. He grabbed his things and started down the trail for home. I looked at my assistant Gary Reed and told him to take charge and go on the hike with the boys while I brought Aaron back. Some of the boys were still fishing downstream so I told him I would send them back up to camp as I passed them on the trail. One of the boys was Jeffery, my son that was just 10 years old so I figured that I would just have him come with me when I found him.

Well Aaron went all the way to the start of the trail or at least almost all the way. He climbed a small hill near the start and hid behind some bushes as I walked with Jeff past him to the vehicles. I knew he had to be close by and in fact had suspected where he had gone as I had walked past that point a few minutes earlier. I went back and looked closer and had him come down. I tried to talk him into going back with me but instead he went out to the road and thumbed down a passing truck and driver. I was a little surprised to see him stop and really surprised when he the driver stopped and was going to let him have a ride. So I talked to the driver as Aaron started to climb into the back of the truck. I then told Aaron that he had to get into the cab since scouts do to ride in the back of trucks. I had him get in first then Jeff and then to Aaron’s surprise I climbed in and shut the door. Aaron then started to change his tune and was telling the driver to let him out at the next cam and the that he didn’t know me and of course the driver was pretty smart and knew exactly what was happening. The to add to Aaron’s frustration the young man knew exactly where he lived because he had been one of the men on the construction crew. So we drove right straight home and then I figured out why Aaron so badly wanted to get out. We had a meeting with is dad and he told his father he would earn his Eagle his dad also asked me to bring the leadership to his home after we got home as well which I did. We had a good meeting and the older boys who had started the trouble and who were the leadership also learned a lesson that day as well. It was an interesting first camp for me as Scoutmaster and I learned a few lessons also. Take more care in working with boys that have tempers being the first.

Oct 30, 2011

Learn well the Rules of Your Youth.

Life has a way of teaching some valuable lessons to us. One being “Rules of your youth also apply to your adulthood.”

Marie and I have not been married for 34 years. I cherish the time that we have been able to spend together and the love that we have for each other. That 34 years of course has not been void of it’s challenges for each of us and it has been many times that I have heard her say to me “We don’t seem to be having a very good relationship” or something to that effect. Now I have been a typical male and thought things were going great but she has had things missing in the relationship that I just didn’t understand. I have worked hard to change that and can now say that I haven’t heard those statements for several years and hope not to if I can avoid it. Some of the things which helped foster those feeling was my lack of doing the dishes and other household chores. When we were married Marie became pregnant on our honeymoon and Ben was born 3 weeks premature just 8 and a half months later. I was working for a TV repair shop and required to be on the job from early in the morning until the job was done which many times was till late at night. I felt as though I didn’t ever get to see her or Ben until Saturday and Sunday. When I would try to help with the dishes or whatever she would always chase me away and say that it was her job not mine and I finally quit offering and found other things to do. That was a big mistake but one that I made and it has taken years to be able to occasionally help with the dishes. We did always go grocery shopping as much together as possible and I always liked to take her with me when doing errands in the car or being required to go somewhere for something when I could take her along. However our love for each other has been challenged several times.

One particular instance started when another member of the ward took a liking to her and found ways to talk to her and be with her even though I might have even been there as well. During the years that I worked on swing shift he would call her from his shop and talk to her for long periods of time knowing she was home without me there. The occasional times he would call and I would answer when I was there didn’t seem to puzzle me for long because he always had something to ask me about and then would hang up. The there was a ward adult party where we met as couples and left babysitters with our children for the night. We had gone up to a cabin in Hobble Creek and had a great evening meal and then settled in for games and eventually as movie. It was a bit chilly so we had blankets that we put over us as we watched the movie and I was on one side of Marie and this fellow had sat on the other with his wife next to him. It wasn’t unusual to me because I was their family home teacher and knew them both fairly well or so I thought. It ended up that while we were watching the movie had had his hand high up on her leg and was caressing her during the time on the couch. This is why I titled this story as this ws one of those lessons from our youth “Never sit under covers together when dating while watching a movie.”  I never knew this had happened for several years or that he was calling her late at night but have always been thankful that she loved me enough to stick with me during those tempting times for her. He eventually moved on to another woman in the ward to whose family he was assigned as Home teacher and broke up that marriage. Then ended up with his own marriage broken and living out of his car.

I too have had a challenge that I never recognized until later. I had become friends during this same period of time with a divorced young mother that worked at Signetics on the same shift. I was a supervisor over the work crew repairing the  manufacturing equipment and had 5 or six men whom I was responsible for during that shift. One of the fellows was single and quite liked this woman and she would often talk to me about their relationship. I would “counsel” her about the relationship as though I really knew how to do it and unknown to myself he was somewhat jealous of the time I would talk to her not knowing that I was talking to her for his sake. Then there were a couple of times that she became scared that someone was stalking her and following her home to Spanish Fork after the shift was over at midnight so a couple of times I followed her to her apartment and waited for her to go in before going on home to Mapleton. She had even invited me in to the apartment as well but both times I told her I would stay in the car until I saw her light come on and then I would leave. I was tempted to go in with her but knew that I had a far better girl waiting at home for me. Later my employee told me in an interview for a raise that he thought that I was trying to get her from him for myself. I was shocked because I had never wanted to do that and told him that and then a few months later was invited to their marriage. I thought that I had really helped cement the relationship for them however when looking back realize just how close I had come to falling in love with her at the expense of my own marriage. Then a few years later learned that they had divorced and I have often wondered if she was really after me rather than him. Thus a second lesson was learned again that applied from my youth to “Always remember who you are and do the right thing”.

Well I have been grateful that I learned these and many other rules in my youth. I also am thankful that they apply even more once you are married and have found one that you can be eternally happy with and deeply in love with as well. But my reason for telling these stories is that you must always remember those rules that applied during your dating years and during your youth because they apply even more if you want to have a lasting relationship. Life is not as shown on TV and those who fool around texting, calling, sitting next to under blankets in the most causal of circumstances or even trying to counsel for all the right reasons will loose that which is most precious, a wonderful partner whom you must have once loved or you wouldn’t have decide to marry the first time. Love is something that has to be constantly nurtured and never left to chance or left alone. I love you Marie and thank you for all the wonderful years together that we have had and hope to still have.

Oct 29, 2011

Almost accident in Moat's pool.

One of the worst jobs of two that I specifically remember as a youth growing up on a farm was weeding the garden and mowing the lawn. This was prior to when I began milking and feeding the cows and doing the hay in the summer. I remember that we had a huge garden and it was at least 100 acres large. Now of course that is stretching the truth by 99 and ¼ acres but to a young kid it was way too much. The lawn was pretty close to the same size as well and we used a push mower, without a motor attached to it as happened in later years of my childhood. (And oh what a great day that was.)

Anyway I remember a particular day so very well that I am often reminded of it and was especially reminded of it during my years of service in Scouting. My older brother Lynn and I had been assigned to weed the corn. (99 of those 100 acres) Those rows looked so long and it was at least 150 degrees outside as well, Ok maybe 95 to 98 degrees, and I was not in the mood to weed the garden after all it was summertime and you were supposed to have fun in the summer. Well as luck would have it my brother had a friend, David Moat, whose family lived down off the hill from our farm and they were very, very rich. I judged that by the fact that they had an outdoor swimming pool. Well David had asked Lynn to come swimming in their pool that day and mother agreed that he could but with two stipulations, 1. That he weed the corn first and 2. That he take me along as well. I still don’t remember why Leesa wasn’t invited but knew that I was.  So Lynn and I worked really hard getting the corn weeded. I am sure as I look back at other times when I have weeded the garden that on that particular day I probably didn’t do the best job of weeding that I might have done in later years. But it was not very long, maybe 40 hours, really 2 hours later that we were headed down to David’s place to go swimming.

Now I was raised as I stated on a farm and with no swimming pool but we did have a canal that ran behind the house up a little ways on the hill. We would go swimming in it almost daily (and I never ever got sick from all that bacteria that was surely in the somewhat dirty and muddy water) after chores were done, usually weeding the garden and mowing the lawn since that was when we would need it the most. So I was a great swimmer in 2 to 2 and a half feet of water.  That particular day though I would discover that I wasn’t a great swimmer at all when it came to 8 feet of water.

We were swimming in David’s pool and I was enjoying the shallow 3 foot end quite well but kept getting told to come into the deep end. Well I finally relented and with a great deal of trepidation and fear jumped from the edge out into the deep end of the pool. Lynn and David then promptly decided they were done and got out of the pool and went into the house leaving me there fighting for my life in the deep end of the pool. (I was only 10 or 11 years old as I remember.) I remember the fear that I had of the water as I would start to sink into the pool’s murky depths and the struggle to come back to the top of the water and desperately try to make the edge where I could hang on and crawl out. Well as you can tell I didn’t drown but I did gain a very healthy respect for water and leaving children alone in it. I finally made the edge and probably didn’t even get my hair wet by anything other than splashing water on it and then went into the house. I didn’t drown as so thought that I surely would.

I didn’t like water much after that and didn’t spend time in it other than the continued splashing in the canal and taking occasional baths as required by mom at least until I was 17 years old. I had earned everything I needed to become an Eagle Scout by the age of 14 except my Eagle Scout service project and two merit badges. Yes the only two required badges that I didn’t have were swimming and lifesaving. At that time scouting did not have alternate badges that could be earned if you were not a swimmer so they had to be done. Then at age 17 Sister Caldwell moved into the ward with her husband and family and she was a highly trained swimming lifeguard. Somehow she discovered that all I lacked was those two merit badges and took me on as a special assignment. I had graduated from high school, lost a good friend and fellow classmate, John, to a drowning accident in the new Starvation lake just up river from Duchesne the day after graduation and had given up on ever earning the rank of Eagle Scout. Sister Caldwell however changed that for me and we went swimming,  pretty much everyday, for that rest of that summer in either Starvation reservoir, the Roosevelt Pool or the Price pool until I earned those last two very difficult badges. I have many times told this story to young men who were close to the Eagle Rank when I took them on a special projects as well. I can now say I am not deathly afraid of water, even though I still have a very healthy respect for it, and I am so thankful for a friend who cared enough to take me on as a special project. I don’t take non-swimmers on as projects but refer them to professionals but I have helped several make the last efforts to complete the requirements of the Eagle Scout Rank and have seen and felt the joy of giving that service. Thank You Sister Caldwell.

I have written the same stories now several times and here is another version to see if my memory is the same. I guess I need to figure out how to title them so I know when they have been completed.

Growing up on a farm had some distinct disadvantages that later in my life as I was preparing to leave the farm were finally somewhat resolved. Really growing up on a farm had a lot more advantages than many of those who live in the city have but when it came to swimming I almost lost out. My Brother had a good friend that lived down in the river bottoms from our home. We could walk to his place in just a few minutes and play there with the friend and his sister who was my age. One summer morning it was very hot outside and Lynn’s friend had invited us to go down to their home and go swimming. They had an outdoor pool and it was a fun place to cool off. We mostly swam in the canal above our home but it was only 2 feet deep so to really swim wasn’t an option. We could float for a coupe miles on inner tubes and we could wade and splash and cool off and just kind of really get dirty since the canal water wasn’t really very clean.  This particular day though we liked the offer to go down to the pool where the water was a little deeper and a whole lot more fun. Mom however decided that in order to get the corn weeded that she would require that we finish about four to six rows of corn each and then we could go. Now that seems like a pretty small task but to us it was huge since we didn’t like to weed the garden and the fact that the corn was so small still it would have to be weeded more carefully than if it were late in the summer after the corn was tall and would also offer some shade or relief from the sun. We did get it done and I don’t recall how long it took although I am sure for me at that time it seemed like hours but it was probably only two or three in reality.  We completed the task and I should probably add that I don’t know how well it was completed but at least we made an effort and then we grabbed our swimming trunks and headed down through the fields and off the edge of the hill to where the pool sat waiting for us. Little did I know what was about to happen or I would probably have headed to the canal instead that wasn’t so deep or so fun.  I had never learned to swim and as we swam that day I stayed in the shallow end of the pool where it was only three to four feet deep. Being only around  10 or 11years old I was not that tall either so even those depths offered a challenge to my non-swimming capabilities. Lynn and David Moat, Lynn’s friend, however often chided me to go into the deep end and learn to swim. When I finally did jump in the deep end and started to sink to the bottom they decided they were tired and got out and went into the house. I am sure if Dave’s dad would have known there would have been some no swimming days ahead. I did however go back to the surface scared as could be and I am sure that I must have looked like a frantic windmill waving my arms through the water in an effort to get back to safety. I was sure that I was going to drown that day and in a way I did because I developed a fear of water that I have to literally overcome each time I enter a swimming pool. I did learn to swim as I kind of alluded too in the beginning of this story. When I was 17 I was not yet an Eagle Scout and I was not because I could not swim and two merit badges were required at that time which were Swimming and Life Saving. I could now kind of swim but as I also mentioned I was very afraid of the deep water. Sister Caldwell however moved into the ward and upon discovering that I was so close to the Eagle and had only those two badges she determined it was time for me to learn. She was a professional lifeguard and very qualified to teach me to swim so after I graduated from High School she made sure that through almost daily swimming in one of three places I would learn to swim. It was either Starvation Reservoir, the Roosevelt pool or the Price pool. I also had a job at the Texaco in town from 10 PM to 6 AM every night of the week so the swimming was either early in the morning or early enough at night that I could get back to my job at 10:00 pm. I learned to swim and learned to not be afraid of the water as much as I had been but I do still respect the water very much and know that it can take you all too quickly if you are not on your guard or have someone else who is there for that reason. I do now love to swim even though as I stated earlier there is a small battle that rages in my mind each time prior to taking that first plunge into the pool.

I guess it really doesn't matter if I do write them twice as the information is almost the same, just a little different due to the mood and circumstances as I am writing each version.