Fishing

I regret that when you children were young I talked much more about going fishing than I actually took you fishing. My father took me fishing often and I really enjoyed this. Some time you will have to ask Grandma O about the night she came home from working at the sugar factory covered with sugar dust and looking forward to a bath before going to bed only to find the tub filled with catfish we brought home to show her.

Here is evidence of one fishing trip we did take. While the catch is not trophy size, I hope the memories linger.

Hairy Potter?

In 1993 we went on vacation and I decided not to shave while we were gone. When I got back, this is what I looked like.

Mom won't let me do this again, so this is probably the only photo you will see of me with a beard. She says she doesn't want to feel like she is kissing her father. I'm glad I did this fourteen years ago; if I grew a beard now, it would be mostly gray!

I hope they call me on a mission ...

I'm still going through old photos and came across some from my missionary days in Saigon. Mom's favorite is the photo of the food vendor. On the back of the original I wrote the following: "Here is the sidewalk vendor assuring me that her deep-fried sweet potatoes won't make me sick." We tried to be selective as to what we purchased on the street. We figured that anything deep fried probably killed most of the germs. Even so, we didn't do this often. Once I bought some fresh squeezed sugar cane juice thinking this would be safe, but I got extremely sick for a week. It was so bad that while recovering I passed out on the way to the bathroom and cut my chin when I fell.

The other photo is me trying to be funny. Written on the back of this photo is this: "A xich lo (pronounced sit low) which was our main form of transportation before bikes. Sometimes this is what you feel like after riding in one. The record for one of these is about 11 or 12 people." These vehicles were available both in a pedal version and in a motorized version, like this one. Two elders made a snug fit in the narrow seat. The 11 or 12 people I once saw riding a similar vehicle were mostly children, obviously.

Young and Goofy

Twenty years ago I was working for Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation in Salt Lake City when Mom and I had the opportunity to go to Mexico on a business trip where spouses were invited to attend. Here is one photo from that trip showing how young (and goofy) we once were.

What is with the hat and the short shorts?

Time passes quickly! A few years ago I ran across a statement that I have tried to adopt: "Life is the process of exchanging time for memories." While I wish I had fully understood this earlier in life, I hope my children have some good memories of childhood, growing up, and some of the fun activities we experienced and traditions we established.

Who can forget the night we were camping and the tent collapsed on us? Or the July camping vacation where we got snowed on and it rained so much we had to dig a trench around the tent to channel the water away from us? Remember building the tree house? What about putting a roof on the shed in the back yard? Does anyone remember sledding at Sugarhouse Park? Or going on my company outings to Lagoon (an amusement park)? Did everyone enjoy Saturday morning waffles prepared by chef Dad? Or a fresh lime squeeze on a hot summer day? And how about decorating the war monuments each Memorial Day with fresh cut flowers from our yard? What about ice cream cones following the Priesthood session of General Conference or Daddy-daughter dates?

I hope some of these memories are as meaningful to you as they are to me.

Even Cuter

I have no idea where this photo was taken. It appears to be in a covered wagon, but I don't remember traveling across the plains this way. We usually took the station wagon with Ben in the back seat facing to the rear (sometimes sharing the seat with Abby) or the big blue van with our television and video player watching movie after movie. In the van we used to have a chart showing how to rotate positions so that everyone had a turn in the captain's chairs in the middle. In this photo, I'm not sure if there is a favorite seat.

Looking back, I think we were insane to take some of the trips we took. For example, I remember driving from Salt Lake City down to New Mexico, then to Arkansas, returning by the same route. Our trip lasted nine days, of which we spent three days driving out, three days visiting, and three days driving back ... with five small children!

I also remember one trip where the children tooks turns getting throwing-up sick on successive days. Just as we were leaving for home after an arduous journey, Lindsey (who was sitting between Brenda and me in the front in a car seat) vomited all over herself, in her car seat, and in the crack between the front seats. Though we cleaned up as best as we could, it smelled to high heaven all the way home. Once we were back, I had to remove the front seats from the car to clean properly and get the smell out of the car. Ah, the good old days!

Oh, for cute

Mom is going through thousands of photos she has taken and scanned, trying to decide what to keep (almost everything) and what to toss (almost nothing). So I thought I might share some of the little treasures she has collected along the way. For instance, here is one I had not seen for a long, long time.I believe this was taken when we were living in Tooele, before we moved to West Jordan. I have no recollection of the house in Tooele and don't know if it remains standing. My earliest memory is of living in the little "Sugar Factory" house in West Jordan. This house was owned by my Aunt and Uncle, Vea and Leo Sabey. We lived there until their son, Richard, was ready for his first place. Then we moved to Midvale. This was in the summer of 1963, I believe, between my third-grade and fourth-grade school years.

West Jordan address: 8235 South 1750 West, West Jordan, Utah (this was before zip codes). We did not have a telephone while living here.

Midvale address: 7934 South State Street, Midvale, Utah 84047. Our phone number here was 801-255-8735.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Even though Lindsey isn't home to continue the tradition, I am preparing for this month's double release of the fifth Harry Potter movie and the last book in the series. Last weekend I rented and watched all four videos, which everyone knows I don't like to do. And I also read books five and six again. I thought that I would not go to the bookstore at midnight, as I used to do with Lindsey. But she threw down a challenge I cannot ignore.



The other night while talking our tradition, Lindsey started rubbing it in that she would get the new book an hour before I did because of the time zone difference. She was sure that this year she would finish reading the book before I did. I had to remind Lindsey that being in the Mountain time zone means that it will turn midnight here in Iowa an hour before, not after, it turns midnight in Idaho. "Oh, suck!" she said ... and then immediately started trying to get me to promise that I wouldn't begin reading the book until 1:00am when she would also have a copy.



I think Lindsey deserves a bit of a lesson. So while I originally had planned to go pick up a copy during normal store hours, now I think I need to do the whole stand in line at midnight thing just to humble her! So unless Lindsey has learned one of the spells she can use to stop me, or unless she can use Hermione's time turner in some creative way, or unless she can apparate to the east coast and get a copy of the book an hour before I do ... she is history!