The grand canyon By Wade

When I was 7 or 8 Mom and Dad took the 5 youngest kids on a trip to the grand canyon. The trip was cramped to say the least, 2 adults and 5 kids in a 1929 ford coup built to carry 5 at the most. Our gear was carried by a large, early 50's, 2 ton truck with boards on the sides and a tarp on the top. at one stop we all piled out and had lunch.

When we were to get back on the road the driver of the 2 ton truck offered to let some of the kids ride in the back of his truck. Grateful to get out of the back of the 29 Ford Cody, Me, Jason Thomas and several others piled into the back of the 2 ton truck and lounged out on the piles of sleeping bags and luggage. The tarp flapped above us as we drove down the road. After what felt like hours the excitement of a change of surroundings had wained and it grew slightly cold and I remember wishing for the next stop. A light sprinkle started and at 55 miles an hour it felt like a down pour. The front of the tarp had come loose and was flapping in the wind.

Cody Jason and I all grabbed the tarp and a conscious decision was made to try to keep the luggage and us dry. We pulled the tarp down and rolled ourselves up near the front of the truck bed. In my mind I thought we would be hero's for saving the luggage from getting wet. After what felt like an eternity the truck pulled over. Jason Thomas was one of the first to go, taken by an unknown Old car club member. Slowly all the kids were farmed out to other cars, until it seemed like Cody and I were the only ones left. I was farmed out to the Thomas car who took me because Jason was gone. I was dripping wet so they pulled towels out and covered the seat before they let me sit down. They bought me a cup of hot chocolate at the gas station, which I promptly spilled on their towels.

We arrived at the camp and I remember listening, in the background, as the adults talked about how the kids in the back of the truck got all their stuff wet. I was appalled, I couldn't believe they couldn't see how we had saved their luggage. Mom came and told us all the adults were mad at us. Privately Cody and I complained but publicly we sheepishly accepted the blame.

40 Rolls of Toilet Paper: By Cody

I had just finished the sixth grade. Josh Smith and I were walking home from our last day of school, when he invited me to sleep over at his house. He told me that his mom was letting several friends sleep over, and we would have a big party. He also told me to bring some toilet paper because we were going to have some fun decorating houses.

Later that evening, all the boys got together, and we reviewed our toilet papering supplies. We had 40 rolls of toilet paper, a package of Oreo cookies, and some shaving cream. We were so excited; we knew that some unsuspecting house was going to get the best toilet papering job on the planet earth. Around 1 in the morning, we snuck out the back door (Sean, Adam, Josh, and Able all got to invite friends, so I believe there were 8 to 10 boys in total). We walked around nearby neighborhoods, and decided to plaster the home of the Vanburen’s. I didn’t know the Vanburen family, so it sounded great to me.

We started out with the trees making sure that we got toilet paper clear up in the branches. Josh Smith filled the mail box with shaving cream, and we put open face Oreo cookies all over the driveway. We even threw the rolls of toilet paper over the roof, so that there would be streaks of toilet paper over the entire house. To put the finishing touches on the job, Josh walked up to the door and was going to put an Oreo cookie on the handle, when Mr. Vanburen came busting out the front door yelling at us.

Filled with adrenalin I sprinted all the way back to the backyard of the Smith’s house. After a few minutes, we (the boys that made it back) noticed that we were missing Josh Smith, John Pack, and Ryan Savage. Suddenly the phone started to ring inside the house, so we decided that we better get back into the house and into our sleeping bags. Just after we got back into our sleeping bags, Suzie Smith walked up the stairs mad as a hornet. She flipped on the light and said, “I just got a phone call. At first, I thought it was the police, but then I discovered that it was Mr. Vanburen. He said that some boys toilet papered his house. In fact, he has Josh at his house now. Do you boys know anything about it?” Adam Smith looked his mother right in the face and said, “No, we have just been telling scary stories.” Suzie looked at us and said, “Who is missing?” Adam then replied, “Josh, John, and Ryan.” Suzie seemed to believe the story and saw that Sean Smith sleeping. Before walking out of the room, Suzie walked over to Sean to give him a kiss on the forehead. As she kissed him, he broke out laughing.

With fire in her eyes, Suzie said, “You little liars get in the van - everyone of you.” As we drove up to the Vanburen’s house, I was amazed by the wonderful job that we had done, I was also saddened that we were going to have to clean it all up. We spent the next two hours cleaning up our mess (Oreo cookies are hard to get off of the driveway). When we finally got home, Suzie let us go back to sleep. In the morning, Suzie called mom and let her know what we had done. I didn’t get to go to another sleepover for at least a year. I also got grounded for a week. Despite being punished, I did gain pleasure from the thought that the Vanburen’s mail box was still filled with shaving cream, and hence our efforts were not all in vain.

Ooops!: By Cody

I was 15 years old and it was a warm Saturday. Dad decided that he wanted to wash our gently used mini-van, so he asked me to pull it onto the lawn. Since I didn’t have a license to drive, I was very eager for the chance to drive the van. I started it up, backed out of the driveway, and then successfully drove to the opening in the fence of the front yard. Not being used to driving a van (short nose and a long back) I under estimated the turn. After I pulled the nose of the van through the opening in the fence, I scraped the back-side panel along the fence post. I backed up and corrected my mistake, but when I got out of the van, I could see the scrapes in the paint. Knowing that if I told dad about the scrapes, he would never let me drive again. I decided to keep quiet.
Minutes later, dad came over with his bucket full of soapy water and wash rag. As I helped dad wash the van, I was horrified when he noticed the scrapes in the paint. Suddenly, dad paused as he ran his hands over the scrapes and muttered to himself, “Linda!” I was filled with both relief and guilt. Dad thought that mom had scraped the van. Eventually my conscious got the best of me and I confessed to dad. He handled the situation well, and I didn’t get in much trouble. But, I always laugh when I think of him muttering to himself, “Linda!”

Times have changed!: By Cody

Anyone who has spent an entire day working with dad should be familiar with the phrase, “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done it with out you.” If dad was feeling generous, he would then add, “Why don’t we go down to the “Minute Man” gas station and buy one of their hamburgers for a dollar.”
On one occasion, I was 17, dad surprised me by saying, “Thanks for your help. I couldn’t have done it with out you. Why don’t you get cleaned up and take one of your girl friends out for a root beer in the roadster.” I looked up at dad a little shocked. I really didn’t know what to say. I wanted to explain to dad that maybe times had changed because I didn’t know any girls that sat around on a Saturday night waiting for a guy to buy them a root beer. I thanked dad for the offer, but opted not to call any of my girl friends (As if I had any girl friends!)

Blue high back By Wade

In the spring and summer our daily ritual when dad came home was; he would find the boys and we would go to what ever project he had thought up to do, whether it was straitening a frame on a wrecked car, building a monstrous shed in the back yard, digging Chinese elm trees out of the garden, or weeding the garden that never seemed to produce much for our efforts. As we grew older we all started to have our own activities so finding help was getting harder for dad so when you were found you were often the only one helping.
One day Cody came to me and told me when dad came home, he had been sitting in the high back blue chair, in the far corner, and had held perfectly still. Cody was not discovered when dad walked through the room. I thought that was genius and decided to try the same.
A few day's later I happened to be sitting in the blue high back chair in the dark corner of the room when dad walked in from work. I stiffened and knew this was my chance to try out Cody's trick. I sat and watched him walk through the room when dad suddenly stopped. I tried to stop breathing but only managed to slow it down .He slowly inched toward me looking out of the corner of his eye. He came so close to me his left cheek was only a few inches from my nose and his left eye concentrating on my face.
"Is someone there?" he asked
A little embarrassed but still wondering, in the back of my mind, if I kept quiet if I could get away with my charade. I relented "yes, Its Wade."
"Well, come and be my eye's!" he said.
Knowing I was caught I trailed behind him.
Dad then asked "were you trying to hide from me?"
"No", I lied. I knew if I told him the truth I would be in more trouble.
"Wanted to get out of work huh." Dad continued to walk, chuckling to himself as he went.

The flood By Wade

When I was about 7 years old our family made a trip to Capitol Reef State park. in southern Utah. We thought it was famous because of a water fall that had a "water slide" in it, really just a groove in the rock worn smooth from a century of water pouring over it, we played in the pool at the bottom while the older boy's (Chad, Dyke and John Chamberlain) and the adults went down the slide. I hear there is more to the park but I don't remember more. After the day at the water slide we returned to the camp which was in an old apple orchard. our truck and camper was parked and the older boys had a tent set up close by. That night it began to rain and I remember being awoken because the older boys had pulled their tent inside the camper and had gone back outside. I got dressed and before walking out of the camper I looked out to see our truck standing in what appeared to be a river of water strolling by. The water felt knee high on my 7 year old body but was probably only a few inches deep. The excitement was intoxicating and Cody and I quickly caught up with the older boys running though the rain and water "helping people". Helping people consisted of chasing down a sleeping bag that was floating away or grabbing a tent floating lazily through the trees. One Tent we saw to save was floating toward a sink hole and was caught by John just as it started to sink into a vortex, a hole that seemed to be sucking the lazy water and twisting it into a torrent. The older boys Cody and I were standing around the vortex pulling with all of our might and losing. we finally let go and the tent shot out of the other side caught by the owner.
Mom says that the rain didn't stop until Chad and John went behind the camper and prayed the rain would stop, according to her as soon as Amen was said the rain stopped and the floods subsided. I don't remember that part but I do remember the fun of running through a river and saving the lives of a tent and a sleeping bag.

Photo's - by Tia

Here is the whole family. I couldn't be more than 1 which means that Trina is mabe 15. I think Trina and Heather have the best hair, buy far! Dad is sporting a nice polyester suit and the boys have some stylin' sweater vests with bicycles on them.

Beth (almost 2 1/2), Tia (less than 1 year), Laura (between 4 and 5)

Tia (wearing the tutu), Beth (in the slip), Laura (trying, unsuccessfully, to get out of the picture)

Tia (age 3), Beth (age 4 1/2)

Laura, Beth (doesn't she look just like Clara?!) and Tia

Tia, Beth, Laura and Mickey in Disney Land - 1985 (or was it '84?)

Laura, Beth and Tia - we used to sleep with rollers in our hair and looked like Richard Simmons in the morning, what were we thinking?!

Beth, Dad, Laura and Tia wearing the pj's Mom had made us for Christmas.

Look at those TAN legs! Laura, Tia and Beth - about 1993 or 1994

Tia and Beth - this was taken at the little rental house while Beth and Joel were living there just after they got married.

Tia, Heather, Beth, Trina and Laura - Rockin' to the 80's at Trina's surprise 40th B-day bash!

Grandpa Roskelley’s last days: by Cody

After grandpa’s stroke, he was not all there mentally. I remember three different occasions when grandpa’s mental state stood out to me.

One night mom fixed us some soup – Yum! Grandpa looked at the soup, took a bite and then said, “This tastes horrible,” and then pushed his bowl away. About two minutes later Grandpa looked at mom and said, “What ya eaten?” To this mom replied, “Soup, would you like some?” “Well sure,” grandpa replied. Mom pushed grandpa’s bowl back in front of him, and he thanked her. Again Grandpa took one bite and said, “This is the worst stuff I have ever eaten,” and then he pushed his bowl away. This scenario went on three or four more times before grandpa looked at dad and said, “Hey Larry can you pass me the salt?” Dad nudged me with his elbow, smiled, and then said to me, “Didn’t you hear him Larry? Pass him the salt.” I could tell that dad was trying really hard not to laugh.

On another occasion, grandpa was in the living room watching TV. Suddenly he started yelling, “Chester, I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” Quickly, dad ran into the family room and said, “OK, let’s go.” As Dad helped grandpa down the hall, grandpa was yelling, “It’s going down my leg, hurry up Chester!” When Dad and grandpa reached the bathroom grandpa said, “What are we doing in here?” “You said that you had to go to the bathroom,” dad replied. With an angry tone, grandpa said, “What are you talking about? I don’t need to go to the bathroom. Now take me back to the TV.” Frustrated, dad said, “You said it was running down your leg.” To this grandpa replied, “I don’t have nothing running down my leg. Now take me back to the TV!”

Three days before grandpa passed away, dad asked me to help him give grandpa a blessing. Saddened by the prospect of losing his father, dad asked me to give the blessing. In the middle of the blessing, grandpa started to move his head and he said, “What you doing? Get your damn hands off my head!” At the time, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I will say that I quickly ended the blessing.

Being Teased: Cody

While growing up, I seemed to get teased a lot by my older brothers. To prove this point, I have written a few examples below:

First, I remember getting a new golf style shirt that had “PB” on the front. I really thought that it was a cool shirt, until my older brothers started saying, “Cody, are you going to wear your poo-butt shirt today?”

Second, I remember being called “Bucky Beaver.” Yes, it is true that I have rather large teeth. In fact, one time a very idiotic dentist told me that I have horses teeth and that he had to stretch out his biggest clamps in order for them to fit over my teeth. (I never went back to that dentist). But that does not change the fact that I didn’t like being called Bucky Beaver.

Third, I had a crush on Brenda Birch from kindergarten thru the 4th grade. All those years, my older brothers would say, “Cody loves Bbbbbb Brenda, Bbbbbb Brenda.”

Fourth, while at the Wheeler Farm, Dyke told me to pet a big white goose that had an orange bump on its head. Why I actually listened to him, I will never know. But, I walked forward to pet the goose, and it pecked the heck out of my inner thigh. Stupid bird!

Last, I once fell down on the sidewalk and scrapped up my knee. Dyke saw what happened and told me that it would feel a lot better if I mixed some vinegar and salt together and then put the mixture over my scrapped knee. I hurried home, made the mixture, and then put it on my knee. I can’t tell you how badly my knee stung after I put the vinegar and salt on it.

“I can’t do it” : By Cody

I learned a great lesson from dad many years ago while putting together that beautiful 8-car garage in the backyard. Dad asked me to hang the light fixtures that would later hold the fluorescent lights bulbs. I remember struggling to hang them. I was young, the fixtures were heavy, and I was standing on a wobbly ladder. After a while, I got frustrated and said, “I can’t do it.” To this dad sternly replied, “I want you to take the word ‘can’t’ out of your vocabulary! You can do anything you put your mind to! If you need help, ask for help, but don’t use the word can’t.” At the time, I was rather ticked off by dad’s response to me, but I have since learned that he is right. With dad’s help (he held the ladder) I was able to hang the tube holders.

I am often inspired when I think of my old man who builds hot rods, improves his house, and does many other things that most men would never attempt to do. In fact, while serving a mission in Nauvoo, dad memorized what he was supposed to say for his tours by having mom read the script into a tape recorder. Dad would then get up at 4:30 in the morning and listen to the script over and over until he had it memorized. Dad was so good at doing his tours that friends told me they didn’t know he was blind until they spoke with him after they had finished the tour. Yes I know, dad often needs help, but that does not stop him from trying or believing that he can do something.

Now when the words, “I can’t” enter my mind, I think of the lesson I learned a long time ago from dad. Today, I truly believe that with the Lord’s help, we can do anything that the Lord wants us to do.

Ordering Pizza - by Beth

While outwardly our mom was against staying home from school unnecessarily, I think by the time she got around to raising the last of her kids she’d lost a lot of willpower in enforcing it all. I can’t count the number of days in elementary school, junior high and high school that I spent away from school for no good reason.

Everyone appreciated our oldest sister, Trina, checking us out of Dixon Jr. High or Provo High whenever we called her because we were “sick.” We’d get to spend some quality time with a huge soda from the nearby gas station as well as with her cute babies. But you couldn’t call Trina from school everyday, and you could only coax Mom into letting you stay home from school once in a while, so at times we resorted to taking matters into our own hands by sluffing on the sly.

One of my favorite childhood memories is sluffing with Laura (2 ½ years older than me), Laura’s friend Emily Ann, and Tia (1 ½ years younger than me). Emily Ann lived down a dirt road among nearby farms, a bit behind our family’s home. Emily’s mom worked all day as a checker at Smith’s so it was easy to backtrack to her house in the morning and spend the day there instead of going to school.

One of our sluffing days was rather boring, and we remembered that there was a bookfair at school, which Emily had money to buy something from. So we tried to go back to school to the bookfair where we were caught by our teachers and were required to spend the remainder of the day in school.

We usually had spending money from our paper route and one day we decided to order pizza for lunch. We were just at that point in our youth where we were still silly, but also exploring the brashness that comes with adolescence. Here’s how it went down (according to my memory):

We called Little Caesar’s and placed our order. While Emily tells what toppings we want, Laura yells and screams from the background, making it sound like there’s a fight going on. (Both us Roskelley sisters and Emily came from homes were there was often a lot of fighting, so this didn’t seem at all inappropriate to us)

When it got pretty close to delivery time, one of us (me?) hid in the bushes that lay in front of Emily’s house with a handful of mini-marshmallows (or was it raisins?). When the delivery man came I tried to pelt him with marshmallows, stifling giggles all the while.

Laura then answered the door looking beat-up with our expertly applied rouge (to look like she’d been slapped in the face) and with tears in her eyes. She paid for the pizza and then Emily Ann came out, acting like she was handicapped.

The annoyed deliveryman left and then we hooted with laughter, imagining ourselves to be the best of actors who pulled off the most daring of stunts.

Weird, huh?

Ice Skating – by Tia

For a Primary activity one winter they took us all ice-skating at the Utah Lake ice rink. I was only 4 or 5 and was so happy with myself because I caught on instantly and didn’t fall down even one time. Beth however clung to the side rail most of the time. I felt a little pride puff up in my little body. At the end of the activity one of the Primary teachers, Sister Livingstone, offered to give Laura, Beth and me a ride home since she had a big van. We hurried out to her van and sat in the very back seat. We waited a few minutes for Sister Livingstone’s daughters to finish and get into the car. As soon as they got in, one of them asked Sister Livingstone if they could stop and get something to eat. Sister Livingstone said, “No, we need to take the Roskelley girls home and then we need to get home.” One of the daughters said in a disgusted/whiney voice, “Ugh, why do we have to take the Roskelley’s home?!” Just then, an embarrassed Sister Livingstone leaned around the driver seat and pointed back at us and said, “They are already in the car!” The girls turned around to see us sitting on the back bench of the van. That was the first time I ever felt like people looked down on us (okay, other than the Chamberlain boys calling us the Rottonsmelly’s).

The Greyhound Experience – by Tia

I don’t know all of the details of the story, but what I do know makes me laugh just thinking about it! About 2 years ago Dad took the Greyhound bus to go up to Chad’s in Boise. I don’t know why he didn’t fly – it would have cost like $49.99 more, and saved him 12 hours on a bus. Anyway, on the way home he sat down in his seat and as the bus filled up a man came to sit next to him. The man weighed more than he should have and needed two seats for himself. Therefore, he overlapped onto Dad’s right side for the entire ride home. About 2/3 of the way through the trip some men got in a fight on the bus and they had to stop while they called the police. They were finally able to re-load the bus and make it home early in the morning. I wouldn’t have known anything was wrong except that we had a family party and Dad was still limping around from being sat on for so long! Poor Dad, please let me buy you an airplane ticket next time!

John Olsen Fart – by Tia

The Saturday before Christmas our family would gather up at our Grandma and Grandpa Greengo’s house in Taylorsville for an extended family party. It always included a huge dinner and talent show complete with a rousing rendition of, “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer” by Matt, Jake, TJ and Grandpa, a violin trio by the Olson’s and a very packed tight version of our latest Christmas dance routine by me, Laura and Beth. The children would get shuttled downstairs to play pool and board games. One year (I think it must have been about 1990), we were down stairs playing and us girls were being sneaky and were spying on John Olsen who was in a spare bedroom watching a baseball game. Suddenly he let out the longest, egg-iest fart. We were hiding behind the door giggling as quietly as we could. It became almost uncontrollable though when he stood up and using his entire body, started waving the fart around (apparently it was too much for him). We quickly called for the other cousins and soon there were about 10 of us peeking around the corner with our shirts covering our noses because the stench had wafted out into the hall. It was so hilarious!

Taking Grandpa Roskelley to the bathroom – by Tia

During the last few years of Grandpa Roskelley’s life (that lasted much longer than any of us would have guessed) he came to our house each Sunday for dinner. Melba would get to spend the afternoon with Owen and we’d take Grandpa to our house. He would “amuse”/gross out the very young Skyler and Haylie by taking his teeth out after lunch. One particular Sunday Dad went home teaching with Mom and left Grandpa sitting in the living room. Most went off to find a soft spot for a nap. Before long Grandpa got my attention and told me that he had to go to the bathroom. Dad had always had the “job” of taking him and I had no idea what to do. I knew that since he was so senile that he was in diapers, and while I changed the grandkids often, our 93 or 94 year old Grandpa Roskelley was a whole different story! I looked around for help and called around the house for anyone to come and help me, but mysteriously everyone was “asleep” (thanks a lot Laura!). So I helped Grandpa up and walked him to the bathroom. It was terrible. Being just 14 years old I had no idea what I was getting myself into, to say the least! I had to help him with his clothes and help him sit on the toilet. This is the part that gets really scary…so read at your own risk. Apparently, growing up during the depression had Melba being as frugal as she could be. Stuffed inside his visibly used-more-than-once diaper were dish towels! I was mortified! The worst was yet to come, he finished his business and then leaned forward in order to facilitate me cleaning him up. Oh, my. It was more than my full stomach could handle and I gagged my way through the ordeal. Poor Grandpa. Poor me! Thanks a lot Laura, I know you weren’t really sleeping!