Grampa's stories

Just in Time I want to share some thoughts with you before telling about my experience. My dad used to tell a story about when he was a young man. There were homes being built behind his house. He liked to play there and jump from one cement wall to the other. His mom told him not to do that because it was unsafe, but he didn’t listen.  more   When I was just a little boy, my family would go on ward picnics on occasion. Mom prepared fried chicken or sloppy Joe’s and all the fixings. We spread out a cloth on the table in the pavilion and had a delightful meal visiting with all our friends and ward members. We used to do this in Castle Valley, too. I remember once when I was young still living in Salt Lake, we went to East MillCreek Park and were having a delightful picnic as a ward. The activities committee brought the fixings to make root beer with dry ice. The dark liquid bubbled and foamed when the dry ice was placed in a large beverage dispenser. My friends and I learned th...

Before it’s too late  I was a young man—a boy really—when my family moved from the city  to live in the country,  fulfilling a lifelong dream of my mother. There were many challenges. We experienced miracles regularly in my home when I was growing up.  Surprised? No.  Grateful? Absolutely.  And this continued in earnest when we moved to the country. There were many chores we did regularly in Castle Valley, depending on the time of year. Lots of tasks were performed in earnest regardless of the season. For example, watering and feeding the animals, milking, and caring for livestock were tasks done every day. Chopping wood, breaking the ice on the animal watering troughs, and shoveling snow were reserved for the winter time. And then of course summer months included gardening, planting, and harvesting the fruits of our labors. And so it was during the summertime that I found myself working the soil in a field just in front of the cabin. It was a hot...

I had to learn to hitchhike when I was a kid out of necessity, since we didn’t have a phone in the early days. I became pretty proficient actually, but one day I was not getting too many takers and the afternoon had turned into evening. So when a group of Harley-Davidson riders sauntered by, I raised my hitch-hiking hand not really thinking they would stop. To my surprise they did. And following instructions, I hopped on the seat behind a burley, white-haired dude. When I climbed on the bike I was thinking what I should do with my hands. There wasn’t anything obvious to hold onto, but I had barely swung my leg over the seat and sat down when he gunned it. Without thinking, I grabbed around his waist and held on for dear life. He took off so quickly for the first 30 seconds, I couldn’t even breathe. Eventually I loosened my death grip and moved my hands to a more appropriate position on the bike. As I remember, the seat back curled up behind me so that he didn’t lose me altogether when ...

When I left the office, I had plenty of time so I wasn’t really watching intently for the bus. As I walked towards the bus stop, I turned around once to make sure the bus wasn’t coming. Nope. Nowhere in sight. I was thinking how much I was going to enjoy sitting down on the train. It’s sort of like catching a plane—once you get to your seats and you have successfully passed through security and luggage and ticketing and parking, it feels really good. I’m not really sure what I was thinking about, but when I looked up, the bus went driving past me. I was momentarily shocked and secretly hoped he was going to slow down for me. He didn’t. The bus stop was still a ways off. Nobody was there, so he didn’t pull in there either. But up the road I saw some emergency lights flashing. Maybe they would slow him down, but the flashers didn’t appear to delay him much. By this time I was running, but that didn’t really help either. I probably looked like Santa wobbling down the sidewalk with his kna...

  Pinewood Derby I think boys in Cub Scouts probably still do this, but when I was young we got to participate in a race called the pinewood derby. Boys and their fathers made cars from a little kit including a small wood block, nails, and four wheels. The goal was to make your car in such a way that it was the first one down a race track. Everybody participated. Some cars were fast. Some cars were colorful. But everybody had fun doing this. My older brothers participated when they were scouts, so I knew what I was getting into. A few weeks before the race, my dad and I went to work making the fastest pinewood derby car.  I didn’t really know what I was doing, but my dad had some good ideas. The principle we tried to follow was to put all the weight in the  very back of the  car, so it fell the furthest and helped carry the car along the flat part of the track to win the race. Aerodynamics, minimal friction, and physics strategies were all top of mind for my dad. I j...

SAVED FROM DROWNING I will now relate a wonderful experience which I had while we were living near the Jordan Bridge in the spring of 1861 when I was 10 years of age. Having sometimes seen boys come out to the river to catch fish on Sunday forenoon the same as on weekdays, and seeing some boys fishing on Sunday, I got a hook and line ready, but perhaps not to try it on Sunday. The thought came to me that those boys must be a good latter-day parents, and if their parents allowed their boys to catch fish on Sunday, it would not be more sinful for me then it was for them to try it for a little while. I threw my line into the water and while standing on the high bank. The bank caved in with me and let me down into the deep river. I did not know the least thing about swimming and the water took me along till I sank to the bottom. I thought that was the end of my life. Then I thought that it would still be possible for God to save my life; so in my thought I prayed to God to save me. Just th...

We had a sign posted above the piano in our home when I was a boy.  The hurrier I go the behinder I get… I didn’t really understand what this meant when I was young, but I have learned that doing things in haste may appear to happen more quickly, but it is not necessarily better.  For example, working out or raising a child takes significant effort. Home and family are of utmost importance to me. That takes time and effort, too. In healthy forests, even weakened trees are not abandoned. Stronger trees increase their flow toward the vulnerable ones, and they do so naturally. Support moves toward need, not away from it. Belonging works the same way.  My dad loves listening to bagpipes. Every time I hear them, I think of him.  Let’s enjoy listening together.  https://open.spotify.com/track/0mXcDbzyv4GvaSNN1gSpAG?si=Y2gkN37PRzWJkIBKw5ybsQ&utm_source=copy-link

A treat with Dad Fun memories I have include spending time with my father on a night out with Dad. Of course with seven siblings, spending one-on-one time with Dad was rare. To alleviate this problem, my dad instigated Dad’s Night Out, which was simply a regularly occurring time when one of the children would get to spend an evening with Dad doing something we liked. I’m not really sure what others did with Dad on their night out, but I was young, and we kept things simple. I remember going to Fernwood’s for ice cream on 23rd East.  Just being with Dad was a treat.

There are lots of really great stories from our Castle Valley experience.   While the valley doesn’t have a renowned organic farm, the legendary "once in a lifetime" melons people often speak about were actually  Green River Watermelons , mostly grown just up the road a little ways in Emery County.  But at least one year, the folks from Green River grew their famous melons in Castle Valley. We were the recipients of all the perfectly sweet, tasty melons we could possibly eat whenever we wanted—every day. Watermelons, cantaloupe, honey dew, and other melon types I didn’t even know what they were called. It’s no wonder that I remember this so well. It was really delicious and rather remarkable for us.  Lots of really great things got their start there in the valley :) Read more here: https://stuckicrew.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/once-in-a-lifetime/#:~:text=attention.-,Melons%20played%20a%20significant,life%20on%20the%20farm.,-Many