100 and counting

In trying to decide the topic for my 100th blog entry, I have been considering themes that have to do with the number one hundred … century … Roman numeral C … and so on. When I thought about the number one hundred as ten squared, I was reminded of my grandparents who, coincidentally, each had ten children.

On the Oviatt side are three sons (Volmer, LuDean, Arden) and seven daughters (Vea, Grace, Agnes, Elva, Lois, Marva, Sally).

• Volmer lives in Price, Utah. He was involved in fierce fighting in WWII, but I never heard him mention anything about his war experiences. We would stop occasionally on the way to visit our grandparents to see him and Aunt Rita, who is now gone.
• LuDean and his wife Connie lived in California and we did not know him very well. The only time I remember seeing LuDean was at the Oviatt family reunion. They are both gone now.
• My dad, who died in 1976 a month after turning 44 years old, was the first of his siblings to pass away. He is buried next to his parents in the Elmo cemetery.
• Vea and her husband Leo Sabey lived in Midvale, less than a mile from the house we lived in from 1963 or 1964 to 1966. Uncle Leo was the manager of the Utah-Idaho sugar factory where both my parents worked for a time. Both are deceased.
• Grace and her husband Albert Rodgers lived in Salt Lake City. Grace was famous for the wonderful caramels she made for Christmas gifts. Her boys sold us a gasoline powered go-kart we loved driving up and own our lane. Both are gone now.
• Agnes lives with her son in Elmo. Even though she doesn’t see very well, she does intricate beadwork and has sent me a number of bead animals as gifts. Aunt Agnes lost a son in a coal mining accident. His body was never recovered.
• Sisters Elva and Lois married brothers Ted and Bill Jensen. We frequently visited Bill and Lois, who had children my age, but seldom visited Ted and Elva, whose children were older. You have heard me talk about visiting Aunt Lois’ farm and sledding down a snow-covered hill onto the roof of a shed. The first time I saw a goat slaughtered was at Uncle Bill’s house. Only Uncle Ted is still living.
• Marva Dawn and her husband Clifford Jones lived in Othello, Washington. I spent the summer of 1966 living with them and working on their farm. What an impact they had in my life and on my activity in the church! Marva still lives in Washington; Uncle Clifford is gone.
• Sally and her husband Dan Russ lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming. My earliest memory of Aunt Sally is seeing her in uniform (Air Force). While we didn’t visit her and Russ when I was younger, I have enjoyed visiting her as an adult. Pray for Aunt Sally as she recovers from double knee replacement surgery!
  

On the Allen side are five sons (Jim, Lynn, Hugh, Bob, Dean) and five daughters (Reva, Zelma, Melba, Loretta Mae, Rolene).

• Jim and his first wife, Connie, lived in California, where he had served in the Navy. After her death several years ago, he moved to Ferron, Utah and remarried (Dorothy). I have very few memories of Jim when I was young because he had already left home.
• Lynn is living in Colorado. Upon returning from his mission, he stayed with our family in Midvale for a short time while he was looking for a job. His first wife, Betty, died and I know little about his current situation.
• Hugh and his wife Carol lived in Grantsville, Utah. Hugh was terribly injured in an avalanche on a Boy Scout activity and nearly died. He also nearly lost his leg and had a very prolonged recovery. He finally passed away at a very young age of heart failure, no doubt hastened by his severe injury. I can remember Hugh digging out a basement under his house in Grantsville while he lived in the house. I never understood how the house didn’t fall in on him. Aunt Carol remarried and lives in Utah.
• Bob and his wife Earlene live in Orangeville, Utah. I worked for a brief period with Uncle Bob while on break from college classes. Bob saved my life one time by not killing me when I painted a house he was finishing the wrong color because I couldn’t tell the difference in the shades of the interior and exterior paint. Aunt Earlene made it possible for Mom and me to go to Mexico and Jamaica by watching our five children while we were gone (we didn’t trust anyone else with our kids!). Remember eating “dirt and worms?”
• Dean and his wife Connie live in Clawson, Utah. Dean went through the Salt Lake Temple with me as I prepared to leave for the mission field. I’m lucky this wasn’t work for the dead because of an earlier time when I was with him in a car he was driving and decided to show me what it was like to go 100 miles per hour on a country road!
• Aunt Reva and her husband Norman lived in Lawrence, Utah. Aunt Reva was already married when I remember visiting with my Allen grandparents. But we enjoyed many visits to her farm, especially at lambing time when we got to help feed the bummer lambs with large glass bottles full of milk. Uncle Norman is gone now.
• Zelma and her husband Jack Minchey live in Grantsville, Utah. We were frequent visitors at their home when I was growing up. One time I got into big trouble because I used my new tape recorder to secretly capture a conversation between my parents and Jack and Zelma. I have no idea what they were discussing. I remember that I was forced to erase the tape!
• Mom was responsible for purchasing the house in South Jordan where our family lived from 1966 until she moved recently. My father thought the $110/month payment for a house costing $20,000 was beyond their means and wanted to move into a more modest place (a dump close to a bar). But Mom held her ground – a wonderful decision for us kids!
• I never met Loretta Mae. When Grandmother Allen was pregnant, she slipped during a trip to the mountains and fell on her stomach. Loretta Mae was born disabled and eventually was placed in what was formerly called the American Fork Training School because of the care she needed for her severe disabilities. Coincidentally, she died shortly after my Grandfather Allen passed away in 1974.
• Rolene and her husband Gale Rasmussen live in Vernal, Utah. When I was a child Rolene visited with us and taught me how to dunk for quarters. On the Fourth of July holiday, one activity for the kids involved a big wash tub filled with water with coins scattered in the bottom. We were allowed to keep as many as we could pick up using only our mouths (no hands!). Thanks to Aunt Rolene, I became very good at this and got more than my fair share of extra spending money. Rolene has served as a Justice of the Peace in Vernal.

Not many people are so fortunate as to have twenty aunts and uncles (even more counting their spouses!).