Charlette bulls her way into our lives

Now that all the kids are moved out, Nancy and I are living in a nice apartment in Sandy! It's pretty easy to maintain -- since the complex takes care of virtually everything!

Well, Nancy was feeling lonely and wanted another dog -- since this old dog wasn't paying enough attention to her. So she agreed to help Jared take care of his dog if he would get one and pay for it!

I expected a nice little house dog, maybe like the one that Lena had -- but without the yapping!

So what does Jared do? He gets a big rough and tough English bulldog! Oh, my heck!
Like I can take care of her! Oh, she's really nice around everyone and all other animals -- but she is really too big and rough with children!

She's really too big for me. I took her for a walk the other night to the boys' apartment in another building in our complex. When we rounded a corner and she saw a family with two boys playing out on the lawn, she was determined to join them whether I wanted to or not!

When I tried to restrain her with the leash, I think my crutch put too much pressure on my right ribs.

I finally had to let her go! She started to run up to the kids and the one boy who was about eight years old ran and jumped into his grandfather's arms to get away from Charlette. Charlette thought this was a great game! I finally had to call Nathan on the cell phone and have him come and get Charlette. Now I'm nursing a broken or cracked rib!

Sometimes we find ourselves alone with the dog! That was the case with me when Nancy, Jared and Nathan went on Hunt Mysteries Murder Mystery Mexican Riviera Cruise for 9 days!

While they were gone, I and Jason were responsible to take care of Charlette, Jared and Mom's dog! That went OK, and I think Jason at times actually enjoyed playing around with her.

Then Jared and Nathan went to Cleveland, Ohio, for their work with Defender (ADT) and then on Friday morning and most of the day Saturday, Nancy and Jason were gone doing a Hunt Mysteries show in Glenwood Springs, Colo. Being completely alone with Charlette was a lot tougher.
I did get Matt, in the apartment office to come and walk Charlette on Friday afternoon. I finally took Charlette down to the entrance in the drainage basin and let her run around while I sat in the car and kept an eye on her.

Then, Sunday, Jason and I took Charlette there and the two of them played fetch and wrestled with a gym sock!

She is really a lot of fun to play with, but she is so strong and won't let go! I'm really leery of getting my hands or fingers very close to her mouth when she's trying to grab a toy from me!

Sometimes it's fun just watching her play! This was the case today -- watching Jason play with her! I think Jason enjoyed it, too! I took several pictures in quick sucession as they played with the quickly-shredded gym sock!

Every day I go out on the patio and sit with Charlette and just watch the clouds go by or the pigeons and starlings flying around
!
She really perks up when anyone comes by! And if it's another dog, she better be on her leash or she's over the patio railing and ready to play!

One time recently, while Nancy, Jared and Nathan were on the cruise, our neighbor Carol was out with her like bugnose, which is virtually blind and on her last legs! Well, Charlette jumped the railing just as I was taking her out the patio door and before I could get the leash on her.

Charlette and Carol and her dog get along fine. Then Carol's husband came out. He is pretty unstable, recovering from a stroke, I think. Charlette ran up to him and almost knocked him over.

He then jumped up and down several times in front of him and almost jumped up into his face. He, Carol's husband, decided that was too dangerous for him and retreated to his apartment while Carol and I got Charlette on her leash and back onto the patio!

Earlier today, Nancy and Charlette spotted the neighbor's tiny kittens that must be living on their patio. The two of them spent a while just watching them -- and them watching Charlette, while Charlette was spread out on the lawn on the outside of the patio.

A fond farewell to Aunt Golda

My Aunt Golda, the wife of Lloyd Hunt and sister-in-law to my Father, Warren, passed away Jan. 15, 2010. She was 89 years old. Lloyd passed away several months ago.
I always have thought of Golda as the rock of her family. She worked tirelessly to keep her family on the straight and narrow. I think she did a fabulous job!
She was a tough farm woman but genuinely kind. As kids, Merrill and I loved going down to Sevier and visiting Uncle Lloyd, Aunt Golda and our cousins. I think Merrill always fit in with their family because he was built like them -- like a farm boy. I, on the other hand, was a little scrawny kid who enjoyed goofing around but din't much care for doing the chores they expected us to help with.
I always wanted to go with Merrill and Ray but always got left behind. Looking back, I realize how Robert always tried to be a good friend and cousin, but I was too much older than him -- probably by about a year. (Oh, my word, that much!!!?).
To this day I feel bad that I didn't hang out more with Robert. Over the years, he has stayed a good friend and often he would attend the Hunt reunions up in the Salt Lake area when the rest of his family stayed down South.
During those early years on our visits to Sevier, if I couldn't be with the big boys, then I wanted to hang out with Shawna. But Golda would give me a bad time about staying in the house with the women instead of being outdoors with the men. She was right, of course!

Shawna Cornelsen and her husband, Raymond, at "Mid-Evil Days & Knights" at Snowbird Resort.

I remember one fall when all the men in the family went deer hunting and I was left home with the women. I guess every felt I was too small for the rigors of the hunt. That really made me mad -- so I stayed back with Golda and pouted. The only thing that kept me from freaking was the incredible breakfast Golda would always make for us. She made the best pancakes! Back then I would eat a lot of them! She thought I had a hallow leg (but that didn't come until much later in life).
When I was about 10 or eleven, as I recall, I was staying with Lloyd and Golda for a couple of weeks. I remember having a very nice time. Merrill was back home in Granger, so I wasn't competing with him for attention. Everything was going pretty good. In fact, one day I was practicing my shooting skills with Robert's BB gun when I nailed a robin dead as a doornail. I was so proud! I couldn't wait to tell Golda and prove that I could hunt as good as Merrill or any of the other guys!
When I told Golda I had successfully downed a great big robin back among her apple trees, I was ready for the congratulations! Guess what? It turned out to be just like in The Christmas Story -- but worse. She wasn't so concerned about me shooting the BB gun, but she was really upset that I had shot a robin! "How could you shoot one of those beautiful birds!?" I was crushed. She told me to march right out there and bury that poor thing and to put the gun away. "No more shooting for you, Lee."
I'm not sure, but I think I ended up coming home earlier than originally planned. I remember being put on a Grayline bus and traveling several hours before reaching Salt Lake, where Mom and Dad had to pick me up.

Golda, Lloyd and Shawna at "Mid-Evil Days & Knights" at Snowbird Resort.

After Mom and Dad had divorced and I was living on funds from The State Division of Rehabilitation, I found myself in my last six months at college and very low on money. Lloyd and Golda allowed me to live with them in their home in Orem on State Street.
I really didn't spend a lot of time there because I was working as an editor on the Daily Universe in the late afternoon and then usually did my studies there at school. I mostly eat dinner at school and seldom ate breakfast.
When I was there at their home, Lloyd and Golda were very nice toward me. I enjoyed watching the football and basketball games with Lloyd and Golda. Ray & Becky lived with them, too, at the time, with their newborn son, Adam. We didn't seem to spend a lot of time together though because of our various activities. I usually went home on the weekends.
I remember during that time I had gone all out and bought tickets for all the Homecoming events: the football game, the homecoming dance and Homecoming Spectacular. I asked a girl out that I had known for several months there at school, and she turned me down even though I asked her way in advance (which I usually never did when asking anyone on a date). She wasn't interested in anything beyond just being friends. Well, I became pretty depressed about the whole BYU dating thing and decided just to forget the whole thing. I gave Ray and Becky the tickets to the football game and the Homecoming Dance, and I gave Lloyd and Golda the tickets to the Homecoming Spectacular. I probably could have sold them, but I thought the least I could do was repay the people I had been living with for their kindnesses toward me. As far as I recall, they had a great time. And I just endured.
Not long after that "fun" Homecoming week, Lloyd and Golda came back from a visit to Salt Lake. I guess the reports they got about Lorraine's kids and Dad were very critical. It was like the light had been turned out. Maybe I ate too much food, didn't clean my room right, watched too much TV, stayed in the tub too long. I don't think so. They asked if I could find another place to stay. My adviser at The Daily Universe, Bill Porter, took me in and let me sleep in his basement for the last three months of my college years. I started work at the Deseret News three days after completing school -- and a day after Christmas.
After getting married, Nancy and I visited Lloyd and Golda several times after they had moved to Monroe. One time we visited the Levi Hunt gravesite and took pictures. One of our boys is also named Levi. I still felt a strong connection to my Sevier family. On our visits, Lloyd and Golda were always very gracious -- and it was always great talking with them.

Golda Hunt and actor Bruce Craven as Brother Smothers in "Mid-Evil Days & Knights" at Snowbird Resort.

One time when Lloyd and Golda came up to Salt Lake back in probably around 1993, I got them tickets to one of our shows at Snowbird. That night the show was "Mid-Evil Days & Knights." They came up with Shawna and her husband, Raymond. I think they had a great time. It made me feel good that I could show them something I had accomplished -- and also to say thank you to them.
It'll be good when I can visit with the two of them again!

A salute to my Uncle David

On Jan. 31, 2012, I added the pictures in this post, which came from a stash of photos I inherited from my mother, Lorraine, who is David's older sister.

David played for Bingham High
School. I was young but remember
going to a couple of his games.

Today, Feb. 1, 2010, has been a shocking, sad day for my extended family on my Mom's side. Our Uncle David, brother to my mother, Lorraine, was found dead today after going missing following church Sunday. He was last seen by Elaine, his wife, when she decided to walk the two blocks home from church and Dave was to drive home in the car. Police found his car this morning after a missing person bulletin was posted overnight.
I'll miss Uncle David a lot! Some of the best memories were of playing basketball with David. He had a great hock shot, and he was a very good dribbler. When I was little, he loved teasing me by dribbling the basketball while I would try to get the ball. He would dribble it around his back, between his legs, over my head (I was really short) and I seldom could get the ball away from him. He played on the Bingham High School basketball team when the school was in Copperton. Bingham was a powerhouse in basketball back then. Vivian, David's older brother, was a senior when Dave was a sophomore, and I believe Clifford was a sophomore on the team when Dave was a senior. Everyone knew about the Butt basketball players. I remember mostly watching them play basketball in the driveway at their home in Copperton. I mostly watched because I was too little to play -- and they played a very aggressive game. Sometimes I would get to shoot around with them.

David, Elaine & Ronald lived down the street in Granger
for several years when I was a teenager.

 When Merrill and I were young and living in Granger, Mom and Dad would take up to my Grandma and Grandpa Butts on Halloween. It was a great place to do trick or treating because the homes Copperton is very compact with the homes close together and the residence pretty well to-do -- at least back then. Most of them worked at Kennecott, and the mine was doing was doing quite well back then. Many times we would get regular-size candy bars. One of the highlights of Halloween at Grandmas was when Dave, Vivian and Clifford went all out and did a spook alley through their home. Guests would come in the front door and would be greeted by a Dave as a Monster, then Vivian would pop out of a florescent-painted coffin looking like a skeleton (Grandma used an old pair of flannel underwear and dyed them black and then painted the bones of the skeleton with florescent paint. Vivian did a mask over his head that was painted like a skull. Then Clifford came out of the hallway as Frankenstein and scared the visitors as they were looking at Vivian. Then they had to go through the kitchen and down the back stairs and out the back door. The whole living room, kitchen and back stairs were all decorated for the spook alley. This would have been back around 1958-1960. Probably just before Vivian went to college.

David's Missionary picture, 1961.

Dave went on a mission, setting the example for many of us younger guys in the extended family. Soon after he returned home, he was working at ZCMI. The workers used a freight elevator that had a light bulb that had gone out and hadn't been replaced yet. The workers got used to still using it. One day, Dave stepped into the elevator, but the elevator wasn't there. He fell to the bottom and landed on the top of the elevator, shattering his leg. I can't remember what else was broken, but I remember that the leg was what put Dave down in the hospital bed hooked up to a weight pulley on his leg for months and months. Elaine, his wife of more than 40 years, was one of the nurses that took care of him in the hospital. After he was released, he came to our hospital -- put was still in his hospital bed with the weight pulley for several more months. It was "fun" for us kids having him there, but I do remember needing to do a lot of fetching for him.
I remember a couple of teaching moments for us kids: Dave taught us the proper way to eat with a fork and a knife. "In your left hand, you take the fork and hold it with your index finger pressing against the back of the fork just at the bottom of the handle. Keep your elbow as low and you can and use the knife in your right hand, holding similarly. Then after making three small mouth-size cuts of the meat, you set the knife down and put the fork in your right hand and continue eating the different items on the plate until you need to slice more meat. Repeat as needed."

Front cover of David's
Mission Farewell.

I'm telling you, it made a good impression on the girls at school when they saw the proper way I ate. (Well, I thought so, anyway.)
Also, he taught Merrill and me an important lesson in the nuances of girl and boy relations: "When you pass the bath of a good-looking girl, don't make any weird comments or whistle at her or them. Just give them a smile and continue on -- and especially don't look back. That's a no-no. Even if they turn and look at you, still continue on. If by chance you might up with them again, they may show more interest." I know I tried to follow his advice, but I doubt it helped me any.
After being stuck in a hospital bed for months and months, several of those at our house, Dave finally was able to get out of bed and get around. What was one of the first things he did? I'm pretty sure it was dating Elaine.
He still lived with us for several weeks after he started getting around, but even when he moved home, he would often come by on the weekends after a late date and come into the boys room and crawl into bed.
One night, I was awaken by the squeaky floor boards in the hallway. I was sure it was a monster coming down the hall to get me. When I heard the bedroom door handle and the door squeaking, I was positive I was a goner. When I felt the breath of the "monster" on my neck -- I was shaking with dread! Then I heard the words: "Hey, Lee, where should I sleep tonight?"

Left two inside pages of David's Farewell program.

Oh, it's just David! I'm safe! No monster! Just David!
It didn't seem like too much longer after that that Dave and Elaine married.
Dave walked with a limp most of his live -- and had at least two knee replacements (or was it hip replacements?). He also battled diabetes for many years. Diabetes had claimed his sister, Idella, two brothers, Clayton and Sylvan, and was a factor in my mother's suffering, too, though she died of an aneurysm.
When I returned home from my mission and had to have my left leg amputated because of bone cancer, Dave served as an inspiration to me. He had suffered so much because of the elevator accident -- which changed his life forever. But he was happily married and had a great family. That became my goal: I would go on despite having just one leg, go to college, get a job and most importantly find a sweetheart like Dave had found, get married and have a family.

One of the highlights during my recovery was going to the movies with Dave, Elaine, Vivian, Doris and my Mom. Our favorite theater back then was the doomed Century Theater off State Street and 3300 South. I remember going to Towering Inferno with them. At that time, all of us lived in the same ward in Granger (now West Valley City).

In October of 1971, while I was still recovering from the amputation of my left leg, I decided that we should replicate the spook alley that Dave, Vivian and Clifford had done up in Copperton. Dave and Elaine lived just down the road from us at this time, and he, Merrill and I re-created the spook alley -- with a few twists. Merrill became the monster with a bloody machete, Dave was Frankenstein and I was a poor victim of a machete attack. We stuffed one of Mom's nylon stockings and placed it below my stump as I laid on a bench in the kitchen near the back door. I had painted the end of my leg stump like blood and bones -- very ghastly. Dad was outside and directed the visitors through the back door. He had piped load Halloween music outside from his stereo system in the living room. As they stepped into the kitchen, Merrill would step from the side of the fridge and swing the machete at my leg, the leg would fall off onto the ground, and I would shake my stump and scream like I had had my leg chopped off! It was pretty "bad." Then Dave would step out from the hallway in the living room and would complete the fright as the kids and parents left through the front door. It was pretty cool! Dad had to stop a lot of the little kids and give them candy out in the driveway because our spook alley was too scary for little kids -- and really too much for a lot of the older kids. They said the machete attack was too real! They wondered how we were able to make it look so real! Dave was the link between the first spook alley and our spook alley.

David outside home in Copperton.

Over the years, I had the chance to listen to Dave talk in church many times. I loved listening to his talks and enjoyed talking church with him.
After I went off to college, I didn't have as much to do with them as I would have liked, but while Mom was still alive, we always seemed to get together on holidays or near holidays, for Christmas. But after Mom passed away and I got tied up with Hunt Mysteries, we didn't get together near enough!

Elaine & David at "Godfather of the Bride."

Elaine, Vicki Voss as Carla Beckenstein and Dave at performance of "Godfather of the Bride" at Gray Cliff Lodge in Ogden Canyon.
Dave and Elaine came to several of our shows -- many of them were close to where they lived when they were living in Liberty in Ogden Valley.
The last time we got together with them was at the funeral for Margaret, Clifford's wife, who passed away just a few months ago after her battle with cancer.

I'll miss David, but he and Mom can now catch up on things up there. And maybe he'll find another mission.

Dave was 70 years old. I'll be 60 years old this month. He was only 10 years older! That's not a big difference when you get our age! My dad, Warren, just turned 86 years old. Dad was shocked and saddened, too, over the news. Dad always seemed to enjoy being around Dave. There was a lot of connections -- Dave's missionary years, the times he lived with us and the time when we all were in the same ward. Those were good times.
I'll miss Dave, but I'll be seeing him pretty soon I suppose. (Oh, Heather, my daughter, says I'm not supposed to say that last part! Sorry!)

Ronald was Dave's firstborn.

Ronald Sherilynn. I'm not sure who the others are!

This was a special Valentine's that Mom kept of David.

A grown-up Ronald with his bride.

Dining with the extended family: Lorraine, left, Elaine, David,
Lee (across from David) and Nancy Hunt.

Yard and garden chores on the Hunt homestead

As early as I can remember, Mom and Dad made sure Merrill and I had chores around the house and yard.
As I recall, the first chores included cleaning our bedrooms, washing the dishes and cleaning the wood furniture in the livingroom with Pledge. Merrill liked to get it done as fast as he could, but I remember wanting to have everthing just right when I cleaned my room. I think Mom was good at making me feel like I had done a good job, which made me want to do even a better job the next time.
When it came to washing dishes, it usually was a battle between Merrill and I -- often a lot of clowning around. I remember that we settled pretty much into a routine: I would wash the dishes and he would take them out of the rinse bath and stack them in the drainer. Once we couldn't stack them any higher -- which became an art -- Merrill would dry the dishes with a dish towel. Remember, this was before dish washers -- at least in the Hunt house. I remember asking Dad about getting a dishwasher and he said we already had several!!! Well, I think I did the washing because I hated it when Merrill would hurry too fast and put dishes in the rinse that still had food on them. When I complained, he would make me wash the dishes. Now that I think about it, he probably did it on purpose so I would wash the dishes. But I don't think I thought of that back then -- I just figured no one could wash the dishes as good as I could and I didn't want to eat on dirty dishes -- especially the silverware (the utensils), we called them silverware though we didn't have any silver-ware! I was very careful to wash every spoon, fork and knife individually so there would be no food left on them to spoil the next meal. When Troyleen started helping to do dishes, I think I still kept washing the dishes and at the same time showed her the right way to do them -- including the right way to stack the dishes in the drainer so we didn't have to dry them. I was pretty dogmatic in what was the best way to stack the dishes and Troyleen would get mad at me for bothering her about "the proper way to stack." It was an art!
Of course, Mom was pretty clever, I guess, because I remember how she would praise me for being so careful in washing the dishes the right way.
The next step in chores for Merrill and I was doing the weeding of the yard.
Our yard was about 30 yards wide (north to south) and probably 70 yards deep (west to east). The house was at the west end of the lot with a driveway on the south side leading to a good size garage just behind and to the south of the house.
The front fence between the driveway and the north corner of the lot was lined with roses, which Dad had grown from sprouts from rose bushes he had found here and there. When he saw a rose that he really liked, he would bring home a sprout that he would plant in the mud under the front house faucet that dripped. The dripping kept the ground damp, and the sprout would be in the shade for more than half of the day. He covered the sprout with a clear glass gallon Ball or Mason jar to keep it humid and warm. If the sprout sprouted roots and started to grow, he would let it get as big as the jar would let it and then transplant the plant. I thought everyone did roses that way.
The job of weeding between the rose bushes was a thorny task -- one that Merrill especially hated. It didn't take long before it became my job. When Merrill got into sports in the ninth grade, most of the yard and house chores became my jobs. Merrill still had to do work with Dad and I on Fridays and Saturdays, unless there was a game. It seemed like we spent most of our weekends working at the apartments just off of North Temple and just west of the railroad tracks in Salt Lake. But that's another story for another day.
When I started doing the weeding between the roses, I was very careful to get all the weeds. I might come in the house with blood on my hands, but when Mom would tell me how good the roses looked without all the weeds smothering them, then I felt good -- but not like I wanted to do it again the next day. I hated it, too, but if I had to do it, I wanted it to look good.
One night, Dad came home with a bunch of tiny pine trees -- about 6" tall. Half were blue spruce and half where ponderosa pine. Guess what Merrill and I had to do? Yup, we got to plant everyone one of those trees along the north border fence and even along the east border. We planted them about a foot apart. After planting them, our job was to keep them watered. I don't think we did a very good job, because later (not sure if it was the next year or later that year), Dad brought home some more tiny trees and we had to replant almost the whole batch.
We did a little better of keeping them watered, and many of the trees actually survived for a couple of years. The ground was so hard that they really had a hard time surviving. I remember that later we transferred some of those trees into the southwest corner spot of the front yard. Some of those grew to maturity.
When it came to gardening, I remember early on being given the chore of watering the garden. I remember keeping an eye on the water running down each row and making sure it got to the end of each row. If the water didn't reach the end of the row or didn't build up enough at the end of the row, the plants toward the end of the row would be stunted or die. So, in everything you do, make sure the water gets to the end of the row. (Do every job you're given the completely if you want to reap the rewards.) Sometimes I would have to repair the rows to get the water to the ends. We would spend it seemed like hours watering the garden. If we left the water running down the rows and went to shoot a few hoops, inevitably the rows would flood and make a quagmire. We had a well with a pump that Uncle Lloyd had put in when he lived in the house before us. If we didn't do the gardening and watering, the garden failed. Also, if we were told to do a chore in the garden, we couldn't play basketball or any of the neighborhood sports and activities until the chores were done. Sometimes when we left to go play before doing our chores, Dad would come Hunting for us with a willow branch!
If we didn't do our chores, we didn't get to play. The neighborhood kids were always complaining about how much we had to work -- spoiling the good times. But still, we played tons outdoors.
One of the most tiring jobs was doing all the weeding in the garden. That was virtually all done by Merrill and me. I really can't remember Dad doing much of the weeding in the garden other than to show us how to do the weeding and how to recognize what were weeds and what were seedlings. This is where Dad's famous quote was used over and over in our youth -- "Get your butt behind you." That was the same phrase whether weeding, shoveling or hammering a nail. But I don't think he used the word butt.
One of the most tramatic experiences of my teen years happened because I failed to do my chores:
When I was a senior at Granger High School, it was a really heady time for me. I was in Concert Choir and Madrigals. I was Lancer Men's president (president of all the male students; yup, they actually had officers like that back then). I was the sports editor of the school paper. I was in the Ushers Club. I was the football manager and we had gone to state for the first time in the school's history. And I had a steady girlfriend. It was a great year for me -- probably the most eventful of my life in a lot of ways (I probably shouldn't say that!).
Well, my girlfriend, Vicki, asked me to Girls Pref dance at school, and it was the first and only time I had ever been asked to a girls pref dance. I was so excited. As it turned out, the night before the dance, the Madrigals had a party where we got up like at 4 in the morning and went bowling and to breakfast. My girlfriend was also in Madrigals -- so I had a great time -- though I was terrible at bowling -- even when I had two legs. I preferred basketball. I think we got home like at 7 in the morning and I went back to bed. I was exhausted!!!! I wanted to sleep all day until it was time to go on my big date that Saturday night.
About eight or nine in the morning, Dad came into my room and said I needed to get up and do my chores. He left and I went back to sleep. He came back a little bit later and woke me up again and told me I had to get up and do my chores. But this time (or maybe it was the third time he woke me up), he said if I didn't get up and do my chores that I would be grounded. Well, I went back to sleep. I didn't think that he would ground me from going on this one huge most important date of my life! But when he came in the last time at about 10 a.m., he was pretty mad!!!! He said I was grounded. Well, I got up finally and did the chores in plenty of time before it was time for my date -- but he said I couldn't go. Because I didn't get up and do the chores when I was suppoed to, I couldn't go.
I begged and pleaded with him -- and I think Mom even went to bat for me -- but he stood his ground. Can you imagine how hard it was to call my girlfriend, Vicki, and tell her that I couldn't go because my dad had grounded me, in my senior year of high school, because I didn't do my chores! She was devastated and mad! She was probably more mad at me than my dad because I could have gotten up and done the chores and then taken a nap.
Doing chores around the house was a big deal. It was a way of helping the family take care of itself. Dad was from a farm family background where everyone had a job and everyone did their part. This was in the 1950s and '60s and though we didn't live on a farm, we still were a part of that heritage. Plus, Dad was always working -- whether it was at Hill Air Force Base or at some other second job or at the apartments or doing church welfare jobs or other church duties. It was Merrill's and my job to help out at home -- to take some of the pressure off.
But there was something else to the whole process of learning to do our chores and the jobs that we were given: We learned a lot about responsibility and about consequences. I learned a very good but terrible lesson about consequences that day in my senior year.
I think I may have learned the lessons of responsibility and consequences, but I'm not sure I did a very good job of teaching those two principals to my kids.
When Nancy and I started our family and lived in Kearns, we had a small garden, about 25 by 30 feet, in the southwest corner of our lot on between the west sideway and the west side of our driveway. We planted a lot of crops there and had a beautiful garden. I think I did most of the weeding -- but maybe Nancy would disagree. One of the reasons we moved was to have a bigger yard. In West Jordan, we had a garden on the east edge of our back yard. It was probably 30 feet east to west and 60 feet north to south. We had some great crops come out of that garden, including a prize-winning giant pumpkin. We grew a lot of tomatoes, some corn, strawberries, boysenberries, raspberries, cucumbers, cantalope, zuccini, spaghetti squash, peppers, peas, string beans. Also, we had beautiful flower beds around the house and yard. It was a lot of work planting all the flowers, the garden and weeding everything every year. It seemed Nancy and I spent a lot of time doing all of that. I honestly don't remember the kids -- especially the boys -- doing much of of anything in the yard, especially not the weeding. I remember Heather and Lena and Jason helping us to plant the garden -- but I don't remember them doing a lot of the weeding. Wait, I do remember Jason doing some weeding a few times. I wonder if it was more than a few? It will be interesting if I'm all wet on this subject.
I remember too many times when Nancy would tell me when I would fight with the kids (the boys) about helping in the yard that it wasn't worth the fight with them, that we just as well do it ourselves, that maybe I was just trying to get them to do my jobs instead of doing them myself. Funny how I remember it. But I remember that I was always working and that the boys were always playing. Am I wrong? I know I always wanted them to be working with me -- but what I was doing wasn't any fun. So I remember sitting on the ground and scooting around and doing the weeding of all the flower gardens. I do remember Heather and Lena helping me a few times. I wonder if it was more than a few?
Then I got too busy to do much of even the weeding -- though I remember Nancy coming in and demanding that I take time to go out with her and weed the flower beds. She just didn't want to fight with the kids about the jobs outside.
Did I teach the kids, especially the boys, about responsibility and consequences? Well, I'm not too sure I did.
But it's a word to the wise that parents have a duty to teach their kids responsibities -- and consequences. How can we do it? Give them jobs to do, even if they are small jobs -- and make sure there are consequences and that you apply the consequences. Everyone needs to learn that they have the freedom to do what they want but that there are consequences to whatever they do -- good and bad.

Church, farming and tomato worms

When I was about 13 years old and living in what was then Granger (now West Valley City)on 4300 West just north of 3500 South, we had a stake president named Wallace Bawden. I actually took piano lessons from his wife, Dorothy, for a couple of years when I was younger.

At one stake priesthood session, he spoke to the priesthood holders about the need to care for the welfare farms, which back then was a huge job done totally by the members. We had assignments all the time: I remember planting tomato plants and corn seeds in the spring, then in the summer we weeded the sugar beets, weeded and spaced the corn and weeded the tomato plants. One year the tomato worms were really bad and we had a special job seeing how many tomato warms we could "harvest" bluck from the vines before they could destroy the plants. At one point it got so bad that the bishop or dad paid us a nickel for every worm we brought home in those gallon buckets. We got really good at spotting them.

Then in the fall we harvested the tomatoes and picked the corn, tossing the corn in a hookshot up in the big truck. The hardest job by far was weeding and spacing the sugar beets. The next hardest job was weeding the tomato plants and not chopping down a tomato plant! That was pretty embarrasing!

At that aforementioned stake priesthood session, he talked about responsibility and how important it was to the success of the church and the welfare farms.
He said there are three types of men (people):
One man says he will do the job or task and does it.
Another man says he will do the job or task but doesn't.
Another one says he can't do the job but then shows up and does it.

He asked which one of the three is the most respected?
Which one keeps the work moving forward?
And which one believes in repentance?
And which one causes the greatest harm to himself, others and the work?

The memory of Pres. Bawden teaching this lesson often comes back to me when I fail to follow through on a task or when one of my kids fails to do what he says he'll do.
My dad as far as I remember was a great example of doing what he said he would do when it came to church assignments.

There is A God -- Church lesson Jan. 8, 2010

Lesson outline:
1. What things testify that there is a God?
a. The incredible complexity of the human body
(Slide presentation)
(Following pictures, received in an email package from Phil Lindhardt, Oct. 2009, captured using a scanning electron microscope.
Incredible details of 1 to 5nm (nanometer) in size can be detected.)


Red Blood Cells -- They may look like little cinnamon candies, but they're actually the most common type of blood cell in the human body - red blood cells. They have the tall task of carrying oxygen to our entire body. In women there are about 4 to 5 million per micro liter of blood and about 5 to 6 million in men. People who live at higher altitudes have even more red blood cells because of the low oxygen levels in their environment.


Split End of Human Hair -- Regular trimmings to your hair and good conditioner should help to prevent this unsightly picture of a split end of a human hair.


Hair Cell in the Ear -- Here's a human hair cell stereo cilia inside the ear. They detect mechanical movement in response to sound vibrations.


Tongue with Taste Bud --This color-enhanced image depicts a taste bud on the tongue. The human tongue has about 10,000 taste buds that are involved with detecting salty, sour, bitter, sweet and savory taste perceptions.


Human Egg with Coronal Cells -- This is a purple, color-enhanced human egg sitting on a pin.


Villi of Small Intestine -- Villi in the small intestine increase the surface area of the gut, which helps in the absorption of food.


Alveoli in the Lung -- This is a color-enhanced image of the inner surface of your lung. The hollow cavities are alveoli; this is where gas exchange occurs with the blood.



Blood Clot -- Remember that picture of the nice, uniform shapes of red blood? Here's what it looks like when those same cells get caught up in the sticky web of a blood clot. The cell in the middle is a white blood cell.


Purkinje Neurons -- Of the 100 billion neurons in your brain. Purkinje (pronounced purr-kin-jee) neurons are some of the largest. Among other things, these cells are the masters of motor coordination in the cerebella cortex.
2. The marvelous variety and beauty of the Earth
a. Slide presentation of Fall Colors at Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC, Canada







b. Alma: 30:44 -- "... ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the bearth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its dmotion, yea, and also all the eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."
c. The ever-expanding knowledge that there is so much more out there in the Universe

(Wordpress google search)


(Milky Way IR Spitzer -- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

1. What was the scientific belief of life on other planets at the time Joseph Smith spoke of worlds without number that have been created by God?

(CNN) – (Oct. of 2009) Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth's solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday. The existence of the so-called exoplanets -- planets outside our solar system -- was announced by a consortium of international researchers, headed by the Geneva Observatory, who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. The device can detect slight wobbles of stars as they respond to tugs from exoplanets' gravity. With the discovery, the tally of new exoplanets found by HARPS is now at 75, out of about 400 known exoplanets, the organization said.

iii. (NPR) (Dec. of 2009) A newly discovered planet orbiting a small, nearby star appears to be a "water world," with a surface that might be covered with liquid water. "This is certainly the first planet around another star which we think is mostly made of water," says David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who led the research team that found the new planet, named GJ 1214b. If you could ride a spaceship to this planet — which you couldn't, because it is 40 light-years away — you would first approach the small, feeble red star that the planet orbits once every 38 hours, Charbonneau says. Then you'd see the planet, bigger and heavier than Earth, and probably enshrouded in an alien atmosphere.

3. How is God “The Great Parent of the Universe”?
a. God is the Great Creator – through Jesus Christ our world and countless other worlds have been created.
b. God oversees his creations c. As our spiritual Father or parent, he wants us to obtain all that He has – to become like Him; and He sent his Son, Jesus, who is like Him, to set an example for all mankind and to make it possible for all men to be saved.
c. Moses 1:39 -- “Behold, This is My Work and My Glory to bring to pass the immortality and Eternal Life of Man” a.
4. What are the two things he wants us to obtain?
a. Immortality – to live forever, which all Mankind have received through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
b. Eternal Life – which is the kind of life God lives, and thereby receive all that he has.
5. As a father, what is it that we want for our own children?
Robert D. Hales (Nov. 2009)
“Some wonder, why is belief in God so important? Why did the Savior say, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”?2
Without God, life would end at the grave and our mortal experiences would have no purpose. Growth and progress would be temporary, accomplishment without value, challenges without meaning. There would be no ultimate right and wrong and no moral responsibility to care for one another as fellow children of God. Indeed, without God, there would be no mortal or eternal life.
If you or someone you love is seeking purpose in life or a deeper conviction of God’s presence in our lives, I offer, as a friend and as an Apostle, my witness. He lives!
Some may ask, how can I know this for myself? We know He lives because we believe the testimonies of His ancient and living prophets, and we have felt God’s Spirit confirm that the testimonies of these prophets are true. From their testimonies, recorded in holy scripture, we know that “[God] created man, male and female, after his own image and in his own likeness.”3 Some people may be surprised to learn that we look like God. One prominent religious scholar has even taught that imagining God in the form of man is creating a graven image and is idolatrous and blasphemous.4 But God Himself said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”5
The use of the words us and our in this scripture also teaches us about the relationship between the Father and the Son. God further taught, “By mine Only Begotten [Son] I created these things.”6 The Father and the Son are separate and distinct individuals—as any father and son always are. This may be one reason the name of God in Hebrew, Elohim, is not singular but plural….
In matters of personal belief, how do we know what really is true?
I testify that the way to know the truth about God is through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, is a personage of spirit. His work is to “testify of [God]”19 and to “teach [us] all things.”20
We are then ready to ask our Heavenly Father sincerely, in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, if the things we have learned are true. Most of us will not see God, as the prophets have, but the still, small promptings of the Spirit -- the thoughts and feelings that the Holy Ghost brings into our minds and hearts—will give us an undeniable knowledge that He lives and that He loves us."
6. How can we learn the true nature of God?
a. Understand that He is like us – but perfected and glorified.
b. What would man be capable of if he had a perfect body – and, especially, a perfect mind, using 100% of its capacity instead 10%?
i. What if he had a perfect temperment -- a perfect spirit?
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
"What a piece of work is a man!
How noble in reason!
How infinite in faculty,
in apprehension how like a god."
7. How can we come to know God? How can we establish a spiritual relationship with our Father in Heaven?
a. Believe first that He exists and that He loves us
b. Study the scriptures and learn of Him
c. Pray to Him and want to know him as you would know your own Earthly Father
d. Follow His Example – Live the kind of life his son, Jesus, did.
e. Obey all His commandments as best we can
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Nov 2006
Brethren, you look like a shirtsleeve priesthood. You look all dressed in white, ready to go to work. And the time has come to go to work.
What a remarkable sight this is. This great Conference Center is filled to capacity, and our words are flung across the world. This is probably the largest gathering of priesthood men that has ever occurred. I congratulate you on your presence tonight.
I recently listened on television to a concert by the BYU Men’s Chorus. They sang a stirring number entitled “Rise Up, O Men of God.” It was written in 1911 by William P. Merrill, and I discovered a version of it is found in our hymnbook, although I never remember singing it.
The words carry the spirit of the old English hymns written by Charles Wesley and others. The text reads:
Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of Kings.
Rise up, O men of God,
In one united throng.
Bring in the day of brotherhood
And end the night of wrong.
Rise up, O men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up, and make her great!
Rise up, O men of God!
Tread where his feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,
Rise up, O men of God!
(Hymns, no. 324; third verse in The Oxford American Hymnal, ed. Carl F. Pfatteicher [1930], no. 256)
The scriptures are very plain in their application to each of us, my brethren. … The words of Lehi are a clarion call to all men and boys of the priesthood. Said he with great conviction: “Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust” (2 Nephi 1:23). There is not a man or boy in this vast congregation tonight who cannot improve his life. And that needs to happen. After all, we hold the priesthood of God.”