Dec. 15, 2011

A double wedding in one for the same bride:

I have just completed writing about Uncle Kay’s funeral and stating the fact that he had stopped using contracts in his business and had gone through his life with very few disappointments. I too had done the same with few disappointments. I did have one wedding however that was a little disappointing in a young lady from Gunnison who took advantage of my generosity in business. I try to do what the bride’s want and to make their wedding fun. This particular bride wanted me to do engagement pictures up American Fork canyon but due to weather we did it at BYU and then later went to American Fork canyon. She also wanted bridal pictures taken in two spots which we did. Then the day of the wedding she had requested that I come to Manti early to do pictures but when I told her that the temple generally suggests that it not be done since the brides seem to get into the temple late, I suggested that she not do it but that I would do whatever she wanted. Well I never heard from her so on the wedding day we took a few pictures at the temple then traveled to Gunnison for the luncheon and then back to Manti for the rest of the pictures making it essentially twice as well. We then returned to Gunnison for the reception. I had started charging $800.00 for the entire set of wedding pictures in the business and collecting usually at the reception. Well she had required so many expensive things for her wedding that she had drained her parents funds completely dry and in fact her brother had been helping her pay for the wedding expenses including the honeymoon and she had drained his finances as well.

I processed the pictures but it took a couple months to finally get her to pick them up. She had wanted to wait until her dad could pay for them. I finally convinced her that I would rather have her enjoying the pictures than to have them setting around my place. She picked them up and then paid approximately $400.00 in a couple of payments. She called almost a year later and asked if she owed any more and when I told her she said that she thought it was all paid up. I wondered then why she called. But she said she would get it to me. Well I very easily could have been incorrect in what she had paid and she may well have paid in full I have not gone back to my records to check because I know whatever it is it was sufficient if it meant not having to put that father through anymore expense. I do it for fun not to end up fighting over it and feel I can still love the people better if I don’t try to make it a big deal and let them decide for themselves when and if it is done.

Dec. 14, 2011

Uncle Kay’s funeral 9/2010

Marie and I got up around 4:30 AM to travel to Blanding for the funeral of Kay Perkins Lyman my Uncle. He was the Husband of mother’s second sister Velma Alvira Hansen. She passed away in December and we were not able to attend that funeral but were very glad that we got to this one. We had planned on leaving at about 5:30 but finally entered the mouth of Spanish Fork canyon around 5:50 AM. Earlier I had heard sirens going up the canyon as I was emailing my Good Morning email and remember thinking that I hope it isn’t someone I know headed to the funeral.

As I was putting gas in the car at the Jack Rabbit gas station by the highway leading to the canyon there was a police car that also went up the canyon at that time. Marie reminded me not to go fast as he was ahead of us. Well as we traveled I kept expecting to see him doing a radar trap but we had traveled all the way to Colton before we finally found where he had apparently gone. As we rounded the corner from the café toward the rest area there was an accident involving one semi-truck and possibly two and a white van. The van looked as though it had hit the semi from the front driver’s side of the van and was totally smashed on the one side. There was a tire in the road just beyond it and a second semi stopped right in the south bound lane making passing it very dangerous as it was close to the curve coming down from Soldier Summit. I commented to Marie that I hope it wasn’t a family member headed to the funeral but we would not probably find out until we got to Blanding.

Well we traveled on with no other incidents and not a lot of traffic to Blanding and got there just shortly after 10:00 AM. We were able to go through the viewing line and meet again my cousins, some of whom I had not seen since we were youth in high school. We also saw Aunt Helen, and Aunt Carma, tow of whom I knew had traveled down before us. We also saw Uncle Doyle and Aunt Ardyth. It was really fun to see and get to know again some of my family from Mother’s side of the family.

I really enjoyed the funeral as the children talked about Uncle Kay and his life and for the first time knew more about his involvement in WWII that went beyond the picture of he and Velma on their wedding day when he wore his military uniform.  I also learned that he went on a mission around age 25 or 26 maybe a little older, went to war after his mission. He had met Velma while serving in the mission-field where she also served. They wrote while he was in Germany fighting the war. Then they were married after he was released from the service.

He had written a life history that was used during the talks to point out these parts of his life. After the funeral services we went ahead of the procession to the cemetery so that I could get pictures as the group arrived at the cemetery. There was a military honor guard there awaiting the casket and the family. I photographed as many of those at the cemetery as possible including the 9 gun salute and the folding of the American Flag that had been draped on his coffin. The flag was then given to Ben who has retired also from military service. He began to cry as they gave it to him even though he had held so well his emotions prior to that. (They also presented the bullet casings to him after the services at the graveyard were over.) It was a very special service at both places.

We then went to the luncheon at a second church in town, the original chapel of Blanding. I also took the opportunity to photograph there and took family group pictures after the meal. The family wanted me to take a group picture of all of Uncle Kay’s posterity as one large group. I had to move to the other side of the hall and stand on a table with the camera in order to get all of them into the one picture.

We then drove home. It took a little longer than going since I stopped to photograph the Monticello Temple and a natural arch between Moab and Monticello. We were also held to below the speed limit as we followed 3 sets of trucks and caution trucks that were carrying the large windmill fan blades used in the windmills for generating electricity. We arrived home around 8 PM and had a very good day. Marie and I were the only ones from Mother’s family that were able to attend. I am thankful for families and was very impressed with that again as I watched my cousins pay respect to their father and mother at that funeral. Uncle Kay and Aunt Velma had very strong testimonies and taught their children well. I was also having fun trying to put timelines for his life in respect to mine. The closest similarity was that he was set apart as a Patriarch when I was called to serve my mission in 1972. I loved him and Velma and will always appreciate their example to me through my life. Another that seemed to hit me was the fact that he used contracts in his business for several years as he installed heating and air-conditioning in people’s homes. He went to install one in the of an old family friend once though and the fellow wouldn’t sign it. He commented to Kay that if his word couldn’t be trusted then he didn’t want to deal with him. Well Uncle Kay apparently went home that day and stopped using contracts in his business and went the rest of his business life trusting other people’s word with very few disappointments. I have not ever used a contract in my photography and I too have not had many disappointments but am thankful that the Lord has helped me to trust in others as well.

Dec. 13, 2011

Family Trip to national Jamboree 1990.

As a child I remember taking Stan and Clair down to the church as they headed off to a National Jamboree in Colorado. I later as I became an Eagle scout realized that I had never had the chance to go to a jamboree and wished that I had. (I probably wouldn’t have done so well because it would have been some very large crowds and I struggled with that.) Anyway so when a chance came along to go with my sons to a National Jamboree which was then held only in Virginia state I decided to put myself on the list to go. A ward boundary change made other changes as well and one of them were the plans to go to the jamboree. Since the boys were no longer preparing as a ward to go I decided that since I already had time off scheduled at work I would just go on the trip with my family instead.

We went for 18 days and only 5 hours of it ended up at the National Jamboree of which three of that were in the rain. We first headed down through Colorado and stayed overnight in a park. We pulled out the sleeping bags and went to sleep or so I had planned. There were bugs in the grass that were biting very hard but since we had insufficient room in the van for the whole family we put our sleeping bags on picnic tables and went to sleep there instead. (Park tables are harder tha the ground by the way and a lot less comfortable if you can believe it.) We then went on down to Pampa Texs where we stopped and visited with Art Skewes, My Uncle Jack’s brother.

He had turtles and big bird houses in his back yard and the children had a blast playing in it. We left there and looked around at where I had stayed and worked as a missionary.

We left there for Dublin Texas and stayed with a family that I had met and worked with during my mission. They were on a different farm but were so excited to have us stay with them. The children couldn’t understand a bit of what she said because she spoke in a foreign language called “Texan”.  It was a lot of fun. After leaving there we went to North Carolina traveling through several states to get there. We went through Dallas and then east to Mississippi and through Georgia. We stayed with Stan and Leora for that night. (There were several other nights that we stayed in places like Motel 6 or other less expensive rooms.) We had a great time st Stan’s place because of a duck pond that was near there home.

We went up the coast after that and stopped in several historical places and learned a lot We also went to Washington DC where we visited with Aunt Helen and Uncle Charles that was there on a mission. We went to New York and visited the twin towers staying with one of Marie’s cousin’s in New Jersey. They took us on a tour at night of New York city.

We went to the National Jamboree in Virginia for a very short 5 hours and then into West Virginia for one of the nights. It was there where Brittany as a very young toddler pulled some lockers over on herself and ended up being locked into the room since the keys were in there with her and Tia. We went to the motel pool where the owner, a doctor, happened to be relaxing and stitched up the cut in her head.

We also went through Hershey  and to the sites of many of the civil and revolutionary war battle sites. It was a great learning experience for us.

We traveled across the top of the United states to Nauvoo where we stayed in a little missionary pad where my Aunt Carma and Uncle Carling Allen were staying. It was fun because he took us on our private tour after the play at night through many of the sites in Nauvoo. We also visited other historical sites of the churh in that part of the country such as Carthage, Illinois and Kirtland, Ohio. 

We continued from there to Cheyenne WY where we stayed with Mari’s Uncle Vaughn Behrmann and his wife Liz. From Cheyenne to another small town, Kemmer, on the western side of Wyoming where I had another cousin on my side of the family.

We drove back through Heber and home. It took 18 days but it  was well worth it.

Dec. 12, 2011

Family Singing

My mother and father were very musically inclined. Dad loved to sing and mom loved to hear him sing. He had also played for several years in a family band that traveled all around Duchesne County for Saturday night dances where they would play for them. Dad had a saxaphone and played that in the band. I don’t remember hearing him play it during my youth very much but did end up playing it myself during my upper school years. It was a fun instrument and I ended up with it and still have it to this day. I took a breather form it and played the trumpet during my Junior year then went back to the sax for my senior year. Mom played the piano although she didn’t play it a lot. She did however try to get each of us to play it. She failed with me. However she succeeded with Leesa and thus Leesa, or Alma, would play for us on Sunday nights as we sang together as a family. We always tried to get dad to sing the Mighty Deep or No Man is an Island since they had such beautiful base parts and he could sing them even when the lowest note was way down on the scale.  We sang hymns for the most part and always seemed to have a fun time doing it. It was part of our Family home Evenings. I learned to sing alto from the help of Alma during those times and later to sing base and some tenor as well.

Dec. 11, 2011

Events surrounding my call as Scoutmaster of Troop 66

I was in the  Mapleton 4^th ward many years ago when te boundaries were changed and we got back into the ward several families with whom Marie and I had associated with in the 1^st ward prior to the last change prior to this one. One of those families was the Lester Long family and another the Robert Arbon family. In the 4^th ward I had been serving in the ward bishopric prior to my going to scout leader training (woodbadge) in 1986. About four months after I had attended Woodbadge Bishop Jan Wynn asked if I would be the Varsity Scout Coach and Teachers Quorum advisor. He told me that it was a lot easier to find counselors for a bishopric than to find dedicated scouters. I accepted the call and in early 1987 became a varsity coach. The ward boundary change came a short 9 months later and I found myself in the ward with two of my scouting Mentors Long and Arbon. I was worried sick because now I wouldn’t be in scouting or if I was I would be displacing Lester Long in the Varsity position in the ward. Well Bishop Anderson and Brother Everett came over to the house and visited with me as I was working on  some things in the garage, I still hadn’t converted it into a den. They asked me to be the scoutmaster because Bob Arbon had been called as the ward clerk and they were in need of someone to take over the scouting position of Scout Master. I then became the Scout Master and felt very grateful to still have Brother Arbon in the ward and he continued to be a mentor to me because his youngest son Jimmy was one of my new scouts. These events were then when I really became involved in scouting as an adult again. I had been a cubmaster in our other ward but Woodbadge, Varsity Coach and the Scoutmaster set me on a course that would make it a lifetime love.

Dec. 10, 2011

Church Dance Festival with Marie

One of the regrets in my life was during my teen years. There was going to be a Church Dance Festival that all the wards through the church were invited to attend. It was in 1967 if I remember correctly. We had an energetic ward Mutual program and so we were invited to take part in it as young men and women. I was lucky and got to dance with Marie as my partner and I really enjoyed learning 3 or 4 different dances. However I wasn’t really a social butterfly and did not like large groups of people. Sometimes to the extent that I would become sick physically if I felt uncomfortable enough. Well the day of the dance festival came and I was very sick. I don’t know for sure that it was the cause or if I truly had the flu or something like it but I was unable to go that morning with the ward. I don’t remember if Marie went or not but I do remember wondering why it was so difficult for me to do it. I did go to a church music festival in 1964 (I believe) it was that year) and sang in the basketball arena at Utah State University. It was a lot of fun but the fact that I couldn’t dance as well as I sang was most likely the reason I didn’t make it to the church dance festival. It was beneficial however because I do still to this day remember the fact that there are a lot of different dance steps and I can still do the waltz step because of that experience. (I also can remember the names of several others like the Fox Trot and Charleston.