My "new" bike - by Tia

I can't remember how old I was excatly but I think I was about 7 or 8. I had saved up my paper route money and finally had enough to buy a new bike at DI. I think I spent $5.00 on it. I remember driving it home so excited that I finally had my own bike! As my dad unloaded it from the back of the car, Beth came running out to see it. She insisted on riding it and though I protested (aka - threw a fit) my Mom told her that she could. She hopped on the bike and pedaled toward the street. As soon as she hit the end of the driveway and rode onto the sharp gravel between it and the street there was a loud "POP" and the tire went flat. Even though she apologized, I was so angry and the tears could not be held back. I remember it took me a few more months to save enough money to buy a new tube and tire.

Surprise party - by Tia

Cody's story reminded me of my own experience with a surprise party. When I was a freshman in high school I decided that I wouldn't have a traditional birthday party - I was in High School and thought I was too cool for it now. However, as my birthday approached I changed my mind. Two days before the fateful day I began calling all of my friends to invite them to come to my house that Friday at 6:00 pm for a party. I don't remember what I was going to do with all of them once they got there, but I invited anyway. Some accepted, some had something else to do and I understood - it was only two days away. Friday came and my best friend Breeanne came over at about 5:30 to help me set up for the party. 6:00 came and went and noone showed up. By 6:20 I started to feel sad and couldn't figure out why not even one person had come. As I sat on my bed in my room feeling sorry for myself Beth came in and told me that she had planned me a surprise birthday party but that it wasn't supposed to start until 7:00 pm and that was the reason everyone was "late". I couldn't believe it! She had gone to all of the work to plan me a party! At 7:00 everyone showed up and we went ice-skating and had a great time. It turned out to be a really great night - thanks Beth.

Tijuana with Grandma & Grandpa Greengo: By Cody

I believe that I was either in the fifth or sixth grade, when Grandpa and Grandma Greengo invited me and Wade to join them on a trip to California. While there, we camped at Dohinni Beach. One day, grandpa and grandma decided that they wanted to go to Tijuana so that grandpa could try to find a saddle for one of his horses, a new purse for grandma, and a stiletto knife for Uncle Gary. Wade and I were excited because we would get to spend some of our hard earned paper route money on something cool. After crossing the border, Grandpa Greengo gave me and Wade some sound advice about negotiating. He told us not to pay attention to the price tag on anything in Tijuana. He also said that we needed to decide how much we were willing to pay for something and then offer the seller less. “Be willing to walk away, if the seller won’t give you the right price,” grandpa counseled.

At the beginning of our shopping spree, I watched grandpa talk to the sellers of various goods. We walked into one shop, and grandpa asked to see the stiletto knives. The merchant asked grandpa if he wanted to see a particular knife, and then grandpa pointed to a knife under the glass counter. The merchant pulled out the stiletto (a stiletto knife has a button on the side that if pushed causes the blade to pop out of the top of the handle) and handed it to grandpa. As grandpa examined the knife, he decided to push the button and the blade only came part way out of the knife. The merchant looked embarrassed as grandpa lowered his eyebrows and said, “This knife is broken”. The merchant took the knife from grandpa’s hand and said, “I’m so sorry, I thought we fix this one. Here try dis one,” and he tried to give grandpa a different knife. To this grandpa replied, “No thanks!” and walked out of the store.

As we went thru the various shops, I had decided that I really wanted a bull whip. Grandpa asked me how much I wanted to pay for one. I said, “I don’t know…$15.” To this grandpa replied, “You don’t want to pay $15. A bull whip is only worth $5. Find someone that will sell you one for $5.” Sounded great to me, so when we went into the next store, I started looking at the bullwhips that were hanging on a rack. I asked the merchant how much he wanted for the bullwhip, and he said, “Twenty fi dollars.” I rolled my eyes, and kind of looked around with an expression of disbelief. I then said, “I can’t pay you twenty five dollars, I only have five dollars.” This time the merchant looked at me in disbelief and said, “I no sell to you for fi dollars. Dis is a great whip of fine ledder.” The merchant then looked at Grandpa Greengo and said, “Granpa why don’t you buy whip for liddle boy. He no have enough muney.” To this grandpa replied, “Oh no, he wants to buys this whip all by himself. To this the merchant replied, “OK I sell you the whip for fiteen dollars.” I again looked up at the merchant and said, “I only have five.” The merchant then said, “OK I sell to you for ten dollar.” To this grandpa looked disgusted and said, “Come one Cody lets go. We will buy you a whip from someone else.” We then started to walk out of the store. Just before we got out of the store, the merchant yelled, “OK, OK I sell to you for fi dollar.” I was so excited that I quickly walked back into the store with grandpa ready to buy my whip. Suddenly I realized that in order to pay the merchant, I would have to pull the stack of paper route money out of my pocket, and I was afraid that he (the merchant) would see that I had a lot more than five dollars. So, I quickly turned my back on him, pulled the money out of my pocket, and retrieved a five dollar bill (I’m sure that the merchant knew what I was doing). I paid for my bull whip and excitedly continued my shopping, knowing that I had just negotiated a great deal.

Later on, grandpa was trying to buy a leather purse for grandma, and he was not going to pay more than $9. I remember at one point, the merchant got so upset with grandpa that he turned to grandma and said, “Grama, why don’t you take gringo home and come back and do some shopping wit da liddle boys.” At hearing this, my jaw must have dropped to the floor. I wondered to myself, “How does he know Grandpa Greengo’s name?”

Last but not least, Wade decided that he wanted to by a cool spoon. We all went into a shop, and Wade picked out a sterling silver spoon. He asked the merchant how much the spoon was, and the man replied, “Twenty fi”. To this Wade replied, “Nope, I will only give you ten.” The man then looked at him and said, “OK I sell for twenty.” To this Wade offered fifteen. Finally the merchant said, “OK fiteen”. Wade reached down in his pocket and pulled out fifteen cents, and put it on the counter. The merchant looked disgusted and pushed the money away, and again said, “No fiteen”. Wade pushed the money back towards the merchants and said, “That is fifteen. See a nickel and a dime.” When grandma saw what was going on, she explained to Wade that the merchant wanted fifteen dollars not fifteen cents. To this Wade said something like, “Fifteen dollars? I’m not paying fifteen dollars for a little spoon!” and we all walked out of the store.

The trip to California was awesome, but my favorite part was shopping in Tijuana.

Surprise B-day Party: By Cody

When I was in the fifth grade, I was very excited about my upcoming b-day party. I had talked to mom about having the party on Friday afternoon after school (the day of my birthday). A few days before my birthday, I was walking with Josh Smith to school and asked him if he could come to my party. Josh gave me a really funny look. He paused like he wasn’t sure what to say, and then he said, “No, I can’t.” Devastated, I looked at him and said, “Why, what are you doing Friday after school?” Josh again paused and said something like, “I don’t know. I just can’t come.” Hearing Josh’s response, I demanded that he tell me why he couldn’t come. Josh squirmed a bit and then said, “Do you promise not to tell anyone? To this I replied, “Yea, I won’t tell anyone.” Josh then said, “Well, your sister Heather is planning a surprise b-day party for you on that same day, but she made me promise not to tell you. Don’t tell her that I told you, or she will get mad at me.” Josh then proceeded to tell me the entire plan for the surprise b-day party, and he made me promise to act surprised at the party. I was so excited! I could not believe that someone had actually planned a surprise b-day party for me. I thanked Josh and then dreamed about my surprised b-day party for the next few days. Finally, Friday afternoon came. Mom told me that she and dad were taking me to Fred Meyers to pick out my b-day gift. Thanks to Josh, I knew this was all part of the plan to get me out of the house, so I gladly went to Fred Meyers and picked out a wide skateboard that had the words “Thriller” written on it. For those of you who don’t remember, “Thriller” was the name of Michael Jackson’s hit song at the time. I knew my friends were going to think that my skateboard was so cool. Sean Smith later stole the skate board from me and then left it at his friend’s house. I insisted on carrying the skateboard out of the store. I was so proud. As we drove home from the store, I could hardly contain my excitement, but I knew that I had to act surprised. When I walked in the front door and then into the family room, all my friends and family yelled, “Surprise!” Once my friends saw my skateboard, they all wanted to go outside and try it. We had a great time watching a movie and riding my skateboard. Thanks to Heather, my fifth b-day will always stand as one of my favorites.

Track Meet: By Cody

As I mentioned before, I often went to watch Laura at her sporting events. I wrote in a different blog entry about the time Laura dedicated a foul line basket to me, and then proceeded to miss the shot. When I mentioned the story to Laura, she reminded me that during the same game, she stole the ball from a member of the opposing team and then did a lay up at the wrong basket. Luckily, she missed that basket, too. Well, on a different occasion, I was watching Laura run a cross country race at Kiwanis Park. Laura was really running well at this particular race. During the race, I stationed myself at different places in the park and cheered for her as she went by. As she came down the home stretch, I cheered her on. As Laura ran passed me, I heard her say, “I’m peeing my pants!” Perplexed, I thought to myself, “Did she really just say that she was peeing her pants?” As Laura crossed the finish line, I watched mom congratulate her. I also watched mom and Laura walk straight to the bathroom. Sure enough, Laura ran so hard during the race that she wet her pants. After that experience, I decided that I would be a really good coach because I knew how to push athletes to their physical limits. Yea right!

Picture Time - by Tia

At the beginning of each new school year my sisters and I would ride our bikes to Pic N Save and use our paper route earnings to purchase a few new outfits for the coming year. The beginning of 3rd grade was no different and with a fresh perm given to me by Trina - I was ready to start!

During the first or second week of school I wore one of my new looks - black stirrup pants, a large red t-shirt gathered by an elastic hair band at the waist and my hair in a half-side-ponytail secured by a sequined elastic arm band (thank's to a recent dance recital costume). I remember going to school and everyone complimenting me on how cute the outfit was. I thought,

"Man, I am really in style!"

So, the next day I wore it again - except this time I didn't get as many compliments. I was a little confused. That afternoon the teacher reminded us that the following day was our class picture day and that we should bring or wear to school the outfit we wanted to be photographed in.

What outfit do you think I wanted to be photographed in?!

The one that had elicited so many compliments of course!

So, now somewhat embarassingly, I wore the SAME OUFIT FOR A THIRD DAY IN A ROW!! Who let me out of the house? Apparently noone in my family noticed and my poor teacher didn't dare say anything. I saw nothing wrong with it (which in and of itself is a problem).

Grandma Greengo - by Tia

I've always remembered Grandma Greengo as being so glamorous and classy. She wore rollers in her hair each day so it would curl perfectly, she dressed well and carried herself with an aire of elegance. I thought she was so beautiful. Looking back, I believe that beauty was especially remarkable considering the great hardships she faced in her life.

I remember when she would come to visit she would offer me all of the change in her coin purse if I would brush her hair. I learned quickly to ask her if I could as soon as she would walk in the door.

There were a couple of times that Laura, Beth and I went up to her house to stay for a few days while off-track. It was so fun (even if I was scared to sleep in the rooms in the basement) and I think it was so great of her to allow us to come and have special attention by her.

When I was in 6th grade I went for a whole week by myself. I had the time of my life - she spent all day paying attention to me and I loved it. We read magazines together, cooked, cleaned, grocery shopped and even went to her dialasis together. As you can imagine, when she died later that same school year, I was heart broken. I remember it was the same time that we were practicing for the school patriotic music program and our class was singing "The Rose" by Bette Midler and during practice I began sobbing and had to be taken to the office to find Mom. When her funeral came I saved one of the dozens of pink carnations that decorated her casket. I hope someday to grow into as beautiful of a woman as she was.

Summer job - by Tia

When I was in 5th grade I went away for a week to Camp Big Springs for 5th grade camp. When I came home construction had begun on our home. My dad had decided to expand by adding an entire floor to our home. I remember for the next 3 years every person in the family - particularly my brothers - had a job to do in relation to the giant project. During the summer one year Laura, Beth and I were commissioned to make cardboard inserts before the addition could be insulated. We took huge pieces of cardboard and cut them into strips that fit inside each spacing and we measured, and cut each one to pop out from the ceiling, then we installed them. It took us 6 minutes to do each one and we got paid $.50 for each one we installed - netting us approximately $5.00 per hour for the three of us to share. Not exactly lucrative, but it kept us out of trouble.

Toilet Paper - by Tia

I struggled with the 4th grade. I didn't like my teacher and didn't like my class very much. I had been on the C track up until that point and then in 4th grade we switched me to the A track so I never got to be off-track with my friends and for the first time wasn't in the same class with them. Eventually I made new friends and things turned out okay, but the first half was pretty rough. I skipped school as often as I could. I would just leave a note on the teachers desk that said, "My sister needed me to babysit so I am leaving. See you tomorrow." Then I would go home and hide in the snow fort or the tree house until it was time to come home.

One day I must have been feeling especially rebellious. They had made an announcement on the intercom that someone had toilet papered the bathrooms in the public bathrooms at Rotary park just next door to the school. I thought that was a pretty good idea.

That day at lunch I went inside to use the bathroom. At that time you had to wait in line and the hall monitor would only allow one person at a time into the bathroom to minimize playing around. I went in and used the bathroom and then I went wild on the bathroom stall I was in. I strung toilet paper across the top, made spit wads and threw them at the door and filled the toilet tank with as much toilet paper as I could. Once I was satisfied with my work I went out the hall monitor and in my best tattle-tail voice said, "Somebody toilet papered the bathroom in there real bad!" That hall monitor sprang up out of her chair with a gasp and ran toward the bathroom and I just marched back out to the playground. I was never suspected and I never got in trouble.

A day of mischief- By Wade

Marty's dad had a giant apple orchard that set next to the Westridge Elementary baseball fields. it was bordered with a 6" chain link fence. Sometimes we would climb over the fence, go to Marty's house for lunch and take our time going back to school. We would walk down the rows of apple tree's and gorge our selves on any apple low enough to the ground to pick. there was one particular tree next to the base ball diamond that tasted different from all the rest, and I would usually take at least 1 apple from that tree each day I visited the orchard.

Marty's family had 4 wheelers and we spent many of our days riding around the great expanse of trees. Fuel was free because they had a gas pump on property so when we were low we would fill back up. On one edge of the orchard was a canal that was wider than I was tall and we would go and "ditch jump" which consisted of running as fast as you could on one side of the ditch and then jumping to the other all while staying above the flowing water. Many times, depending on how bad you didn't want to get wet, you would end up on the wrong side of the canal.

One day Marty took us to a new portion of the canal and as we were ditch jumping. I ended up on the wrong side. Marty told me I needed to come back because there was a 'mean dog" on that side. We all stood and stared looking at the dog house, there was no dog, intrigued Marty crossed the canal too and we began to walk quietly through the long grass bordering the canal. As we neared the dog house a black head pounced from behind the tree and began to bark, we scattered... I remember looking behind me and seeing the giant black barking head full of teeth and slobber, bounding behind, on top of an unseen body. we jumped across the canal and boarded the 4 wheeler, which was all very dramatic but the dog had stopped chasing at the canal.

We sped off down the dirt trail. Over the top of a ridge we came to another portion of the canal where we heard splashing. Over the bank were several of the migrant worker kids skinny dipping in the canal, their clothes laying just over the bank. Marty jumped off of the 4 wheeler grabbed their clothes and jumped onto the 4 wheeler and sped off down the dirt road as I sat on back holding all the clothes. After 20 minutes of holding the clothes we decided to return the clothes to the canal bank. back on top of the ridge Marty jumped off of the 4 wheeler and threw the clothes back on the ground. As he began to return to the 4 wheeler, we looked back to see a band of migrant workers running up the lane towards us along with a some of the kids who's clothes we had taken, although they were fully dressed this time. Marty Jumped back on the 4 wheeler and pushed the gas , which stalled the machine. He frantically pulled on the lawn mower type pull string in a futile attempt to get away from the Frankenstein like mob that was quickly approaching. As the angry mob got nearer Marty Yelled "RUN!" We bailed off of the 4 wheeler and down a path the mob would not follow... Strait off of the hill through a pile of bushes, old tree branches and briar's. We fought our way through, as the tree branches whipped us on our bare legs and the briar's clung every piece of clothing. We reached the bottom of the hill and ran for our lives, not stopping until we reached Marty's house on the other side of the orchard. We hid ourselves in his tree house and waited for punishment.

A short time later we a 4 wheeler engine was heard, which came to a stop in front of the farm house. The back door opened and Marty's dad come out of the house with a red faced and I think I remember steam coming out of his ears. He yelled at us, dispensed a threat or two then went back inside. We were banned from ridding the 4 wheeler for a while but the orchard was still a giant play land where you didn't have to go home for lunch cause there was always plenty to eat.

I hate you Russell!

I remember going to veteran's pool one afternoon with my friends Emily, Rachel, and Annette. We were probably in 5th grade. There were two boys from our school there that were bugging us. One was named Russell and for some reason he thought I wanted his attention. He was messing around and got a hold of me. He held me under water for 1 second too long and I was furious. When I was able to get my feet under me I stood up and without really thinking I smacked him across the face and said "don't you ever do that to me again!" I whipped myself around to walk away and saw my friends all together watching this with their jaws dropped. They all started to laugh and I did too when I realized what I had just done. That darn Russel never touched me again, I'll tell you. Not with the evil eye I always gave him whenever I saw him.

Mr Wilson By Wade

Through out elementary school I messed around so much so that I was sent to the principles office several times, some times for a fight with Gus ( I hated Gus!), or just being a giggly little boy. Mrs Parrish twice grabbed my arm, pulling me up in the air and spanked me in front of the class. Abel Smith and Chris Kapp were usually the ones who were my cohorts and they were spanked as many times as me. The messing around didn't stop through the sixth grade.

Sixth grade was one of the years mom had started baby sitting Mr Jackman's kids and also brought my new teacher MR Wilson, well known for his fiery temper. I had heard of his many yelling fits, and heard of his red "bomb bat", an over sized red plastic bat made for little kids, always placed next to his desk. Mr Wilson would often take his "bomb bat" and slam it on the desk to get the classes attention, and he had a loud booming voice that was a little frightening.

One day while in class we were especially disruptive, Chris Kapp had farted, which smelled like fruit cake at first, causing me to exclaim "who brought the fruit cake?" Chris and Abel began to laugh, then I began to laugh. Mr Wilson told us to stop but we were to far gone, each time we tried to stop laughing, it caused us to laugh even harder. 3 little kids in the front corner of the room laughing so hard we were doubled over while Mr Wilson sat at the front of the room, face getting redder by the second.

We heard a crash at the back of the room and we turned in time to see Mr Wilson's keys fall from the back chalk board and Mr Wilson finishing up his throwing motion. Mr Wilson walked over to get his 'bomb Bat and he started to slam the bat over and over on the desk at the front of the room, his booming voice echoing through the room. Mr Wilson yelled at Me, Chris and Abel in succession pointing out flaws we didn't know were important. He made a special point of telling me I wasn't special because my mom baby sat a teachers kid. He walked over to the ball box turning it over, then yelling at kids to "MOVE!" he walked through a row of desks tipping and throwing as he went. Mr Wilson then set to throwing chairs to the back of the room and only stopped when he threw one chair and hit his stereo, sending plastic pieces ricocheting off desks and the wall. He then stomped out of the room yelling as he went "CLEAN THAT UP!"

Dumbfounded no one spoke. Everyone in the class started to silently pick up chairs and the over turned desks. After 15 minutes or so Mrs Gibbs poked her head in, looking like she were breaking a rule, and said " you guys OK?". We all nodded in agreement as if we didn't have a choice. She said "OK" and left as quickly as she had come. After the room was cleaned we all sat in silence and waited... and waited... after what seemed like an hour Mr Wilson Came back in and with out a word picked up a book and read to us the rest of the day.

Get in the car! By Wade

Dad walked in "boy's get in the car".
Cody and I looked at each other "where we Go'in?"
'I gotta go down to the shop and borrow some tools".
Dads eye sight had gotten worse and shouldn't have been driving anymore , mom wasn't home, and Cody was not yet 15. I asked hesitantly "Is Cody going to drive?" Dad apparently irritated by the question said disgustedly "no, I am, get in!"
I was a little freaked out but I climbed in the back and Cody sat in the front, which I thought was appropriate because he would be driving himself in the next year or so.
Dad put the car in reverse and backed out of the drive way. We pulled around the corner when dad said "I need you boy's to tell me if I am in the middle of the road" suddenly completely alert we both sat up strait. Dad started to drift to the right and Cody and I panicked and both of us began to yell "GO LEFT, GO LEFT, GO LEFT!" the pitch and volume of our voices rising with each word. A jogger running past gave a start when she noticed an over correction to the middle of the road. Cody deciding more frequent direction was needed began to give more gentle commands as we made it down grand view hill and just past DI when dad said "I need you to tell me what color the light is" the light had just turned yellow and we, again in a panic, began to yell "IT'S YELLOW, IT'S YELLOW!" Dad stepped on the gas and sped through the intersection.
We made it to his shop and some how made it home but I was frightened, and vowed never to get in the car when he was driving again, luckily that was the last time I ever saw dad drive a car further than his own driveway.