Grampa's stories

Sometimes as a parent, you deal with many issues directly related to your children. Who am I kidding? As a parent, you ALWAYS deal with things related to your children. That’s parenting.  Actually, parenthood is one of the real joys of life. You all know that.  But my parents never heard this story.  In fact, I have never told this story to anyone until I was chatting with a high school friend recently. Then I told Gramma for the first time. Only a handful of people know about this. Besides the people that were there that day, there are only 2 people in the whole world that know about this.  One time my friends and I took my car up to Southeast Elementary for scholl lunch. Back in that day, it cost 50¢. It was way less expensive than Pizza Hut, so we would try school lunch sometimes. Grandpa got school l unch for free, but I don’t remember seeing him that day. We had lunch and were driving my car down the road and goofing off. Dennis Giles was riding his bike back to...

Meeting Gramma Without a doubt, the best decision I ever made was to marry my sweetheart and have a family. The children, home, and posterity she has given me are the joy of my life. Her companionship, love, and support are my why.   And yet, the story of how it all began is kind of funny. I went to a dance at BYU. I got there early and began walking around, trying to look cool before the dancing started. I danced a little, including a turn with Linda. And then a few minutes later, she agreed to my pleas. She was definitely way out of my league. I found out she was a senior, that year, and I was a freshman, but I convinced her to dance with me. I told her thank you and kept on boogying with others. After a few minutes, I needed a rest, so I sat against the back of a chair. Linda came strolling by, so I asked if she wanted to sit with me to rest. She did. She was easy to talk with and fun. Soon we began dancing again and discovered that we had both taken BYU’s Dance 180 cl...

  Mrs. Goble Just up our street hardly a block from our house when I was a child lived a kind old woman and her son—right across the road from one of my best friends the Webbs. She was welcoming and kind to us children. Back in those days, youngsters could visit adults in their homes without fear of abuse, and I visited Mrs. Goble frequently. I enjoyed cheering her up. She was always so happy to see me. She obviously enjoyed having company, and I was 4-5 at the time and filled that need wonderfully. As benevolent as that may sound, I admittedly was there for the treats. Sometime during my visit after introductory pleasantries and probing questions about my family, Mrs. Goble brought out the cookies, and I was allowed to take whatever I wanted. Imagine that—a whole tray of sugar cookies, pecan pralines, lemon drops, and shortbread-like Mexican wedding cakes. Actually, I had no idea the actual names of the variety of delicacies. I just remember savoring every bite. She must have know...

Heroes   At least I don’t have to get up until 4.  I am grateful for that.  The paper route was daily at 3am. But one particular morning, I was still tired while showering and getting dressed. I collected my things and drove to the train station.   Sometimes at times like this,  I imagine myself on a beautiful beach. It helps. Do you ever do that? There were the typical folks waiting on the platform. It was still dark, and  once the train arrived,  I climbed the stairs to the upper level—like I always do. Once I got inside where there were lights, I noticed three large food stains stretching down the front of my shirt. How did I do that? There were no people around, so I did what anyone would do in this situation: I licked the spots with my tongue until the stains were gone. Proud of myself for being so resourceful, I sat back in my seat and waited for my station. We made the typical train stops, including mine. I just needed to hop on the bus, and in ...

Camie went to Alaska after high school and worked for a company rowing people out to see Mendenhall Glacier. Some of these folks were on  a cruise.  Later, she also spent a summer working down at Lake Powell. Toward the end of that season, the family went to visit Camie  and go boating  down in Lake Powell. When Fall came, she decided to go to school up to  Utah State in  Logan.  One time, Camie was on her way home and got a ride with a friend to Salt Lake City from Logan. They agreed to drop her off at the Crown Burger by the Delta Center. When I drove up to the restaurant, I saw Camie wearing her coat sitting outside on the sidewalk in front of the establishment. Before she saw me, a woman came out of the restaurant and seeing Camie reached into her purse and got a bill and gave it to her. She thought Camie was homeless and wanted to help.  Camie sat there stunned, not knowing exactly what to do .    As a father, I experienced a moment...

When I was a child, my dad used to tell me accounts of life and goodness that I still remember to this day. He always shared uplifting stories with me, many of which I have saved. One I really enjoyed and think about often was the  story about the  praying sailor. It’s about a young man who was drafted as a sailor into the Navy. Each night before bed, he was inclined to say his prayers  just as he had been taught to do throughout his life. But it was awkward and embarrassing to kneel on the hard floor, especially when he still had to climb up multiple beds to get to his bunk. Nevertheless, he persisted and faithfully prayed every night before bed. He had to endure a lot of ribbing from the other sailors and came to be known as the ‘sailor who prayed’ by the other members of the ship’s crew.   Nevertheless, he faithfully prayed each night and morning. Everything went swimmingly until one day the warship was attacked. The enemy shot a missile, which made a direct hit o...

This week I am going to tell you about an experience that happened at Knott’s Berry Farm. When I started composing the story of this experience, I wrote the name “Knottsberry Farm,” and then I thought that I should be sure to spell it correctly, so I looked it up. The term is actually “ Knott’s Berry Farm ,” which makes sense, since it’s the Knott family's berry farm. But I never knew that until now. I always thought it was Knottsberry. There are a lot of things we can learn, even when we get old. I think you may learn something today that you didn’t know. Like the time I went to Knott's Berry Farm as a child with my family. Disneyland is one of everybody’s favorites--mine too, but my most memorable experience at an amusement park happened at Knott's Berry Farm. We were watching some Spanish dancers perform on the grounds. It was remarkable, and even as a 4- or 5-year-old kid, I was very impressed. They danced so beautifully to the music. The long Spanish skirts flared into...

Now for a more recent recollection. This actually happened just a few years ago when the girls were about in high school This story is not really mine alone. We have Alyssa to thank for this gem.  She is the talented author of this event. This had a very scary beginning, but in the end it all worked out, thank goodness. Another reason this story is not really mine alone is that you all have young children who will certainly pull at your heartstrings at times like this week's story did for us. This was actually written by Alyssa.   She and Amy are the main focus of this experience. It's every parent's nightmare. I still remember the morning of this event. Gramma and I were asleep, and we got a call early in the morning from a police officer. He said something about our children having been in an automobile accident. "They aren't seriously hurt, but they are both pretty upset."  He wanted to call us ahead of time to give fair warning before he just showed up at ...