leather shoes

About 4th grade I discovered the shower, a comb and began to see girls in a new light. that was the year the Smiths across the street found "locker room" clothes, which were cheap enough for mom to buy us a few shirts. Payless shoes were still the standard shoes, made with a plastic upper and a hard rubber sole they didn't scream style, in fact because of my new awakening for style I began to be slightly embarrassed about my shoes.

My Payless shoes were worn out and if we were shoe shopping it was because my current shoes had large holes in them. I remember being at the mall and we walked into a shoe store that wasn't Payless. My eyes were opened, They had shoes that were leather and didn't look like a single piece of molded plastic but looked like they would bend and fold with your foot when you walked. Mom had given us a $10 limit for the shoes. I spotted a pair that were the coolest I had ever seen and they looked like they were leather. They were white with red and blue stripes running parallel to the sole and the rubber gripped the ground when I tried to run in them.

$20 was too much to pay for shoes but I had seen the light so I begged which was usually fruitless but I still persisted. Mom being a better negotiator offered this "well your birthday is next month, you could choose to have these for your birthday... if you pay half".

I remember thinking this was a crappy deal but I had begged and didn't feel like I could back down now, so I gave in, "OK" I said. I had money from my paper route and present my $10 cash and we bought the shoes. Cody also liked the shoes and asked if mom would buy him the shoes if he paid half too, mom said "well you do need new shoes" , this is when I realized I had gotten a raw deal and probably where I first realized being a busness man was not for me. Cody got the same deal that I had, but his birthday was one month prior and he had already gotten his presents.

Lawn mower

Chad and Dyke always complained about having to do the hardest work with dad. They were the ones who learned body work on wrecked cars and helped straighten car frames. One job they got out of fairly early in life, though, was mowing the lawn. I may be be exaggerating but I seem to remember being thrust into the lawn mowing spot light at the ripe age of 6 years old. Dad took me out to the front lawn and placed me in front of the BYU reject lawn mower that he had repaired for the millionth time and taught me about keeping the far wheel just this side of the line, so you wouldn't leave any patches of grass unmowed. He then pulled the starter and I stood behind the bar. The upper bar was about shoulder height, and I remember trying to push the top bar but I could only accomplish movement if I was on a down hill slope once I hit level ground or a uphill slope I had to drop my hands to the lower bar and lean with all 45 pounds of muscle, bone and fury to get it to move. The front lawn took what seemed like hours to finish that day. From that day forward Cody and I slowly took over the lawn duties You would think that with Cody and I being the middle children we would have lawn mowing relief only a few years behind, but when Laura asked to mow the lawn, she took her turn and shined!
I think I remember saying something to the effect of "stupid Laura, she can't even mow in a straight line!", thinking dad was going to give her a "whipp'in". Laura took the mower and maneuvered it in a criss cross pattern around the yard. Laura then abandoned her efforts leaving huge patches of uneven lawn. Dad seeing the lawn yelled at me and made me go finish the job.
I now see the genius of Laura's plan, I being the people pleaser that I am tried to make perfect lines and no patches, thus increasing the amount of work required of me. Laura, following little girl Wimsey and fun, had a good time and decreased her work load.

Milk- By Wade

when I was in the 9th grade I played a lot of basketball. Every day after school we would play 2 on 2 basketball with Adam and Abel Smith and Ryan Chappell. Adam told me once that If I drank a lot of milk I would grow taller, having no information to combat this I began drinking a 32oz cup of milk 2 times a day, once in the morning and once at night.
Mom was buying about 10 gallons of milk per week at the time for all 9 of us kids and with me drinking a half gallon per day and the older boys probably drinking as much there always seemed to be a shortage of milk. After several months of a milk shortage Milk suddenly began to appear, which was great because I was going to be 7 feet tall and play in the NBA. I did notice an occasional change in the smell, a kind of a baby formula smell, but taste wasn't affected so I continued my routine. I would drink my 32 oz of milk in the morning and when I came home that night the milk jug would be full again. I would drink my 32 oz of milk at night and the jug would be full by morning, oblivious to this magic jug, I continued to drink out of the jug until the taste began to change and I would abandon my efforts to grow another foot tall until the other kids in the house finished off the old jug and a new one would emerge.
It was years later the older boys let me in on Moms secret; when the milk jug would reach half way, she would fill the rest back up with powdered milk, repeating the process several times with the same jug of milk. This was in an effort to save money as powdered milk was cheaper than real milk. After being cut so many times All the children instinctively knew not to drink it and it would sit...the same jug would stay in the refrigerator until some one would just dump it down the sink when Mom wasn't looking, allowing the process to repeat itself when money got tight again.