The Roskelley kids

Mom - by Tia

2010-06-06T18:20:00.000-07:00

I love my mother because she taught me about sacrifice and service. She set the example by always working so hard, and always giving everything she had for our family. I remember a time when she worked the 3:00 am - 8:00 am shift at Albertsons to help our family financially. She didn't come home and spend the rest of the day in bed either - as I would be tempted to do. She came home and raised 9 kids and ran our household. She is truly of pioneer stock.

I spent a lot of time in high school being embarrased by what she wore, or what she didn't wear. It wasn't until I realized that every last penny my parents made went to their children - the athletics and activities they were involved in, the dance lessons and competitions - that I came to appreciate her sense of fashion. There wasn't money left over to worry about fashion and style. There wasn't time in the day after raising nine kids and working to worry about facials and pedicures. She could have thrown in the towel and said, "No more. I want more for me." but she never did, she gave and gave and still gives and gives. Because she has always been the giver, I sometimes forget that she is her own person, with her own passions and interests. I forget to engage those things about her and talk to her about the things she loves to do. She is always too quick to ask about me and what I'm involved in for the conversation to turn to herself.

Another thing I admire about my mother is that she gave me independence and encouraged me to become my own person. I had different interests than most of my siblings, and that didn't deter her support. She came to my dance performances, sewed costumes, paid for $120 dance shoes, and sat there round after round at my competitions. It wasn't her passion, but you would have never known it by her support of me being involved in it.

I love my mother and am so thankful she has taught me and trained me. I don't know how she did it with what she was up against, but she did an amazing job.

I originally posted this on Megan Williams' blog the week before Mother's Day, but I think it is appropriate to post here as well.

Theodosia Bassett Keyes - by Tia

2010-06-06T18:17:00.000-07:00

What a life she had! Learning more about her I understand why she just wanted to be left alone to sit in her chair, pet her dog Shaggy and watch episodes of Jeapardy and He-Haw. When she and grandpa Roskelley lived with us I was only about 4, but I have vivid memories of her. I don't remember what I said, but one time I was playing in the living room and she was in her chair and I said something (probably "stupid" or "shut up") and she called me over to her and in her old senile way slapped me across the face and said, "don't you talk like that!" I was crushed and ran off to my room to cry. I remember the night she died in our home, the bishop coming over and sitting in the hall listening to the adults all talk. I didn't fully understand it. Shortly after she died Laura, Beth and I had to sleep in the same bed she had died in and I was MORTIFIED! I had bad dreams and couldn't get to sleep for months!

Tough

2009-10-21T16:15:00.001-07:00

I write a lot of posts about mistakes and strange decisions my dad has made in his life, but he happens to be one of the most resilient, self sacrificing and tough men I have ever known.
Dad began to loose his eye sight when he was about 20 when he first noticed a line in his vision. Over 40 years the line has grown in size to where he has lost all color and central vision. When you see him "looking" at you, it is usually with his peripheral vision, giving the distinct impression he is looking past you. Dad drove until he couldn't pass the eye exam at the DMV then forged Dr's notes until he felt he was unsafe to drive. Never to be held back he has ridden a bike to work, DI, and home depot whenever he needs something. He has bus schedules memorized and is on a first name basis with every worker at DI, Checker, Auto zone, Home depot, Lowes, Johnstone Supply and every wrecking yard from Santiquin to North Lehi. It is very rare when he asks for help and when he does it is because he has tried and just couldn't get it right. I often visit the wood shop to find he has used almost all of my tools including my table saw and chop saw,where he measures something and sets up the saw by "feel". Dad never gives up even if it takes him hours to complete a task.
Dad took an aptitude test in high school and they told him he should become and Engineer. To which he stated, to me, one day " I could look at anything and figure out how to make it better" but later relented and said "I couldn't take the math". Dad found mom and dropped out of BYU 1 semester shy of his bachelors degree... he never went back. I laugh about my childhood because of all the crazy things we went through because we were poor but dad was always working some angle to try to earn more money for our family. I think part of the reason he was so grumpy when we were younger was every time he earned any money we would add another mouth to feed, which would require another scheme to earn more money. Dad sacrificed his 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's to us, trying to get us a decent start in life.
recently I was working with Dad on a railroad tie wall were we were drilling holes through the ties and driving re-bar into the holes. I was trying to work fast because sometimes dad will slow you down trying to help. I was busy drilling holes when I heard the Tap... Tap... of the 5 pound sledge hammer driving a piece of re-bar into the tie. Dad would place his thumb over the top of the re-bar and then tap the hammer on the top to find the center. Dad would then take a bigger swing and about 50% of the time would hit the re-bar and the other 50% would hit his hand. I always let him do what ever he wants to try so I went back to my drilling, when I heard a tap of the hammer then dad say "Crap!" then he pulled his arm into his chest and began to make his customary farting noise with his mouth. I have heard the farting noise a hundred times and I think it usually takes the place of him cussing. I asked "you OK?'. He gathered himself together and said "yes". He picked up the 5 pound sledge and started to hammer again when I saw the blood streaming down the re-bar and pooling on the wooden tie. "I don't think you are OK, let me see your hand" I said. Dad presented his hamburgered Dad had pinched his thumb between the top of the re-bar and the 5# hammer causing a through and through gash that needed stitches. "You probably need to go to the hospital to get that fixed" I said. "No" he said "lets get to work."
I wrapped his thumb and he went back to trying to driving re-bar into the railroad ties.
No excuses, hard work and resiliency= tough.

Radar

2009-10-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

Cody Bought Radar from Stuart Gray. He was a German Short hair pointer with a dark brown head and a white body with brown speckles, he had a huge abdominal hernia that never healed over and it took away the sleek look of usual pointers, and the fact that he was lazy.

Cody originally let Radar sleep in his bed, we shared a room and I secretly envied Cody because it was a cool looking dog. Each night radar would jump into Codys bed and snuggle up. radar slept in Codys bed until one morning when Cody woke up with a giant pile of dog pooh sitting next to his body and Radar sleeping at the bottom of the bed. One of the few times I've ever seen Cody loose his temper, Cody let loose a tirade of Mormon swear words, like "stupid dog" and "crapped" at Radar while slapping Radars backside. Cured of any bowel and urinary incontinence in one night Radar tried to get on Codys bed the next night and was met with a slap on his back side. Radar dejected turned to my bed and slept with me for the rest of his life.

Contrary to the temperament of most short haired pointers, Radar spent his life laying around under a desk, eating and farting. His farts had a very distinct smell and could quickly clear a room. At the first smell someone would yell "RADAR!!!" to which everyone would cover their nose to avoid even the first smell.

Dyke had a girl friend, Kristy, who made him a plate of cookies and had put them in his room on his dresser. radar went in and ate the whole plate. Dyke was mad but Kristy was madder, forever after anytime Radar crossed Kristi's path he was always followed by a "Stupid dog"

About a year into having the dog Cody and I began to wrestle on the ground when we felt Radar gently nipping at our heals, the longer we wrestled the more aggressive his nips became. We often wrestled in front of Radar to see who's side he thought he was on. one day while wrestling in the front yard Bill Marek came running across the street and grabbed Cody around the shoulders, then let out a loud yelp, radar had bitten Bill on the butt. Luckily Bill didn't sue us but simply stated "No, No, your dog was doing what he's supposed to... he was protecting you".

At about 1 year old Radar was through puberty and had started to carouse a little so we had talked about having him "fixed".

One day I arrived home from school only to find Radar walking with a limp, he held his back legs as far apart as he could while walking like he had saddle sores. He would walk a few steps, sit down and begin to bite at his testicles. Cody and I held him down to find Radar testicles were twice the size of normal and discolored in swirls of fire engine red and purple. Near the base of his testicles we discovered a rubber band wrapped tightly around cutting off most of the circulation. Cody and I tried to get to his testicles but when we began to try to cut the bands Radar began to growl and snip, so we waited for dad, all the time infuriated for the hate crime someone had committed on our dog.

When dad came home we went to him "Dad, we need your help"

"what for"

Exasperated and disgusted "some one wrapped a rubber band around radars nuts!"

Dad (silence)

We lay radar on my bed and turned him on his back, Dad held Radars mouth closed and held his front paws and Cody and I took turns holding back legs and trying to cut the rubber band with out cutting the engorged tissue that had surrounded the bands.

still infuriated Cody said "who would do this to our dog!"

"... I did" said Dad

Dad being the from a farm had done to Radar what he had done to hundreds of cattle, slap a rubber band on the testicles and watch them shrivel up and fall off, only this time all of the blood supply was not cut off so the tissue continued to swell and engorge. Not only were the testis's not salvageable but the vet had to piece together the surrounding tissue after the necrotic tissue was cut out. It cost us double the amount for the neuter $120 dollars, a monumental amount to me. Radar came out unscathed and within a week was back to his old lazy self.

Plywood rider

2009-08-01T21:09:00.000-07:00

Along the side of our house runs and old cement irrigation ditch. A solid 2 feet in diameter with a port that allowed access to control when we could set water on our lawn, and when we could send it down the line to Johnson's farm. we made several attempts at crawling up the cement pipe to see where it led to , but we always turned back when we couldn't see any more, and fear of being attacked by some unseen sewer monster usually turned us around.

We shared the irrigation port with 3 families, The Chamberlains, us and the Bowns. When the Bowns got irrigation we also got irrigation because to get to the Bowns yard the irrigation would have to travel down our irrigation port, across our lawn and through 3 cinder block ports under the fence.

Back then our back yard was lined with a brick and mortar fence on 3 sides that would trap the irrigation water in so that near the back of the yard in between the 2 cherry trees the water would sometimes stand 4-6 inches deep, as close to a swimming pool as we got back then. It was deep enough you could go in the back and lie in the grass and completely submerge your body and float but still easily keep your head above the water. The rest of the yard would be an inch or two deep and was the perfect depth for running and splashing. Friends would come from around the neighborhood to play in our own temporary swamp.

Real activities were in short supply until the summer Dyke made a sled; a piece of ply wood with a rope tied through a hole. The plywood, would easily skim across the water carrying a small rider. A smaller kid would jump on, knees down, and hold onto the rope while a bigger kid would try to spin and throw them off. Once thrown off, your turn was over until all the kids had had their own turn.

One Saturday there must have been 15 kids in our back yard and we were all taking turns. Chad Dyke and Jon Chamberlain were all giving rides to the neighborhood kids when Cody ponied up. Cody for some reason had built himself a little reputation as being particularly hard to throw. This day Cody would not be thrown. First Dyke took his turn spinning and jerking hoping for Cody to flip or let go , but Cody held tight leaning hard on the turns to stop the usually inevitable tumble, Cody didn't fall. Chad then took his turn and couldn't shake Cody. Then Jon Chamberlain, generally thought of as the strongest, took his turn to try and throw Cody off. Jon turned hard whipping Cody around harder than most rides and jerked hoping his hands would jar loose. Finally getting tired Jon sent Cody on a few break neck, clock wise, spins each time getting closer to the pine tree that stood near the back of the yard... and let go... sending Cody sliding underneath the over hanging branches and square into the trunk of the tree. Cody buckled over in pain. The neighborhood kids were in shock as we stood speechless. Jon stood and justified the means to Cody's end. Cody buckled over in pain and cried a little, but as far as I remember never snitched out Jon for running him into the tree.

Cody still retained the title as the best of the plywood riders. Most of the time Cody's turns would end in the puller finally giving up and saying "it's somebody Else's turn, I am tired"

leather shoes

2009-05-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

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.

My "new" bike - by Tia

2009-03-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-26T19:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-23T19:42:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T17:13:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-22T16:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-02T18:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

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.

Knock at the back door: by Cody

2009-02-22T16:44:00.000-08:00

For some crazy reason, Chad, Dyke, Wade, and I were all going to sleep in the boys’ basement bedroom that had an outside entrance. Chad was telling us a hunting story, as was often the case. Suddenly we heard a knock at the backdoor. Chad went near the door and asked, “Who is it?” When there was no reply, Chad asked a second time, “Who is it?” When no one responded the second time, we all got very nervous and decided to arm ourselves. I remember that Chad gave both me and Wade a pocket knife. Dyke grabbed his carp spear (a broom handle with a small metal three pronged pitchfork on top) and I believe that Chad grabbed a bow and arrow (not sure). In an effort to sneak up on the robber, we decided to go through Trina’s and Heather’s bedroom and then out the washroom door. Scared and armed, we made our way down the hall and into Trina’s and Heather’s room. Suddenly, Trina came walking out of the washroom. When Trina saw us, she started to laugh and then quickly ran up the stairs. We didn’t know what was so funny. Then it dawned on us that there was no robber, and Trina had gotten the best of us.

Many years later, after Trina was married, Dyke decided to get Trina back for her spoof. While Brian was out of town on a hunting trip, Dyke paid a late night visit to Trina’s little home in Orem, Utah. Dyke climbed up on the roof and started jumping up and down above Trina’s bedroom. Fearless, Trina got up and ran out into the front yard yelling something like, “Get off my roof! I have a gun, and I am going to shoot you.” To this, Dyke poked his head over the edge of the roof laughing. Trina didn’t think it was very funny.

Tuff skins By Wade

2009-02-11T12:19:00.001-08:00

The first day of school was always a good day we got to wear one of the two pair of jeans we would get each year. Mom would take us to a store across the street from Provo high called Christiensens. Christiensens didn't have a store front, you had to drive around the building to the back and follow a path, down the stairs to a door that opened into a warehouse with racks of clothes randomly placed, and 1 cash register. The store was a little better than DI because the stuff was new... but irregular. mom wouldn't let us by irregular levi's or wrangler, we bought Tuff skins. Tuff skins were not the soft cotton jeans we have today they were made of a blue canvas that was stiff and rough. On the back side of each knee there was a reinforcement that extended from mid thigh to mid shin, the reinforcement out line was easily seen from the out side, giving Tuff Skins their very own special look. When buying we would try to find what was irregular about the jeans, some would have a hole in the pocket, a pocket sewn shut or a back pocket that didn't exactly line up with the other one. We would take the 2 best in our size.

About mid year we would wear through the thick canvas and the reinforcement on the knees. The hole would get bigger and bigger, mom would take an iron on patch to hold it but soon it would fall off, the tear would start again, and our pants would be ripped from seam to seam. Mom would then get out a scrap piece of jean material and sew the knee back together. the seam was always zig zag and if you were lucky the thread and backing material would match. I remember many times getting a red patch and red thread in blue pants or a black patch with green thread. Mom would then zig zag back and forth so that even if the bottom cloth did not match it wouldn't matter because it was over whelmed with the stitching on top . After the sew job our pants never seemed to hang the same, the front would be a little higher than the back giving off the distinct impression they were floods. When I was young I used to hate my jeans after the patch job but now I realize it just made my decisions to wear something different, a little easier.

One Long Sleepover!: Cody

2009-02-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

When we were kids, we didn’t get to have many sleepovers, so I was really excited when I was told that I could sleep over at grandpa and grandma Roskelley’s house. I remember being dropped off on a beautiful summer evening after dinner. Dad told me that he would pick me up the next day on his way home from work.

Well, that night was not so fun after all. Grandma Roskelley sent me to bed around 7:30. I was very upset because it was still light outside. I remember crying myself to sleep. In the morning, grandpa fixed me a very big bowl of cereal, and then made me sit at the table until I finished it. I swear I sat at his table all morning long trying to finish that soggy cereal. When I did finally finish, grandma gave me some carrots and told me that I could feed Babe (Babe was the little black pony in the pasture behind grandpa’s house).

While I was feeding Babe, Ruthanne (the single woman who lived in the one bed-room shack behind grandpa’s house), saw me and started to talk to me. She was very kind, and asked me if I liked Jello. I told her that I loved Jello, so she invited me into her house to have some. After a while, I heard grandpa calling for me, so I told Ruthanne that I better go.

When grandpa saw me walking from Ruthanne’s little shack, he was very upset with me and told me that he could not find me, so as punishment he gave me a five gallon bucket of peas (still in their pods) that he had picked from his garden, and told me that I had to open all the pods, and dump the peas in a separate bowl. I spent the rest of the day sitting in a lawn chair in grandpa’s backyard getting peas out of their pods. I thought that dad was never going to come. Finally after what seemed to be an eternity, dad picked me up and took me home. After my wonderful experience, I never asked to sleep at grandpa and grandma Roskelley’s house again.

David get the gun!: By Cody

2009-02-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

One summer night Devon Call and I were invited to sleep over at Josh Smith’s house. Around 10 o’clock, we got bored and decided to wonder around the nearby orchards. As we walked to the edge of the Lunsford’s orchard, we could see into the Juskie’s backyard. David Juskie, Mike Juskie, and a Russian exchange student were camping in the backyard, and had a small fire burning.

In an effort to be funny, Devon, Josh, and I decided to throw pebbles into the Juskie’s backyard to see if we could scare the campers. We did a pretty good job, because after about 2 minutes, David Juskie said, “What was that? I heard something over by our tent.” Abruptly, the campers started to whisper, and then all three of them went inside the house.

Devon Call decided to sneak over by their tent so that he could really scare them, when they came out of the house. As Devon walked into their backyard, Art Juskie (the father) swung the backdoor open and jumped off the back porch screaming, “David get the gun.” Devon took off running with Art Juskie right behind him. The Russian exchange student ran behind Art, and then he stopped, looked at me, and then yelled, “I found one over here.” Like a frightened rabbit, I jumped up and started running through the orchard with the Russian hot on my heels. Suddenly, the Russian tripped me from behind. I rolled a few times, picked up a large stick, and smacked the Russian across the leg with the stick. The Russian yelled something out, and grabbed his leg. I got back up and ran to Josh Smith's house. When I got there, Josh was already waiting for me in the front yard. We waited 30 minutes or more for Devon, and then we decided that we had better go and find him. As we walked in the direction of the Juskie’s house, we found Devon walking along the road. We asked him what happened, and he told us that Brother Juskie had taken him in the house and asked him a bunch of questions. Devon told us that he just made up a bunch of fake answers so that we wouldn’t get into trouble. After Brother Juskie decided that Devon was not a true threat, he let him go with the promise that he would never return.

I learned two lessons from this experience. First, if you want to scare a robber, simply yell, “Get the gun!” Second, if you are ever being chased by a Russian exchange student, hit him in the leg with a stick, and he will probably let you go.

The grand canyon By Wade

2009-01-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-28T18:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-25T16:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T17:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T07:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T06:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T06:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T18:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T18:28:00.001-08:00

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!

Surprise: By Cody

2008-12-28T12:36:00.001-08:00

One day, I decided that I wanted to trick Wade. Before going to bed, I placed weights (the round cement filled disks that were part of Dyke’s weight set) in a line all along the mattress of his bed. I then covered the weights with his blanket and pillow. Later that evening when mom sent us to bed, I walked with Wade down into our room. As I entered the room, I ran towards my bed, and like a high jumper, I jumped into the air and then landed on my back. Wade saw what I had done and followed suit. He ran towards his bed, jumped high in the air, and also landed on his back. When he landed on the weights, he screamed out in pain. Immediately, he rolled off his bed, pulled the blanket off and saw the weights. He was so mad! He immediately ran over to me and attacked. As a boy, whenever Wade attacked, he was relentless. After I begged for mercy, he finally stopped attacking me. Wade then removed the weights from his bed, and climbed in. I had forgotten that there was also a weight under Wade’s pillow, so when he laid his head down, he hit his head one last time. Again, Wade was fuming and attacked me. Finally, he stopped beating me up, and we both went to sleep in a little pain.
The next night, Wade and I again walked into our room together. This time Wade ran towards his bed and jumped high in the air and landed on his back. Suspicious, I walked over to my bed, lifted up the covers, and found that my mattress was lined with weights. When Wade saw that his trick didn’t work, he warned me that he would get me back. On the next night when I climbed into bed, I noticed that my pillow was covered in peanut butter. Yuck!

The neighborhood bully gets his: By Cody

2008-12-28T12:31:00.000-08:00

In our neighborhood, there was one kid with “Little Man Syndrome.” His name was Sean Smith. Anytime one of the younger kids in the neighborhood didn’t do what Sean wanted, he would punch them in the face. For example, on one occasion, Sean punched Brett Clark in the nose because Brett didn’t get off our trampoline when Sean asked him to. On another occasion, Sean gave Tim Doll a black eye because Tim didn’t want to play football in the Smith’s backyard.
Well, one summer night we were gathering together all the neighborhood kids to play night games. As usual, Sean was threatening any of the younger kids that didn’t want to play. At one point, Sean asked Wade if he was going to play, and Wade told him, “No.” Being a bully, Sean got upset with Wade, threatened him, and pushed him. To this, Wade responded by picking up a 2X4 off the lawn and swinging it at Sean. To the delight of all the younger neighborhood kids, we watched as Wade chased Sean down the sidewalk with a 2X4. That was the last time Sean ever threatened Wade. I thought of this experience the other night while watching Ralphie beat up the bully in the movie, “The Christmas Story.”

The Longest Day of my life: By Cody

2008-12-28T12:28:00.000-08:00

While walking to elementary school one fall day, Josh suggested that he and I skip school. I thought it was a great idea because I didn’t like going to school anyway. We decided that the best place to skip school was the Lunsford’s orchard. With that thought, we walked to the apple orchard, climbed up a tree, and started eating the yummy apples. After about an hour of sitting in the tree, we heard someone in the orchard. Suddenly, we saw some Mexicans that worked in the orchard. We were so scared; we knew that if the Mexican workers saw us, they would either take us to Brother Lunsford or they would kidnap us. Frightened, we sat silently for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally, the workers left that part of the orchard, so Josh and I decided to get out of there.
Next, we decided to hang out in the field between the church and the Chappel’s house. After a while we got really hungry, so we decided to go to the school and get some lunch. I can’t believe we went to the lunch room, ate our lunch, and didn’t get caught. Then again, the teacher’s probably saw us, and were glad that we didn’t stay. Anyway, the day was so boring that we decided to sneak home to get some toys. We first went to Josh’s house. We peaked in the backdoor and made sure that Josh’s mom was not home. The coast was clear, so we snuck in the backdoor to get some toys out of Josh’s room. Just as we reached his room, we heard the front door of his house open, and we could hear the voices of Suzy Smith and mom. We quickly and quietly crawled under Josh’s bed and hid their while mom and Suzy had the longest conversation on the planet earth. Finally, the conversation ended. Mom went home, and Suzy went downstairs to do some sewing. Josh and I knew that we had to get out of there, so we snuck out the backdoor of the house and went down to the railroad tracks. While there, we hung out on Johnsons’ farm until we knew that school was over, and we could finally return home. We didn’t get caught, but the day was so long and boring that I never skipped school again.

My Big Race: By Cody

2008-12-21T15:09:00.000-08:00

After my mission, I was running a lot. I was a faster runner than some people, but not nearly as fast as the professionals. While buying a new pair of running shoes, I heard about a Halloween race in American Fork. In the AF race, the runners run through the cemetery at dusk. The race sounded like fun, so I decided to sign up and run the race.

When the race started, I took off running. After the first minute or so, the lead pack (about 10 guys) pulled a head of everyone else. Between me and the lead pack was one guy, and then everyone else was behind me. After a few minutes, the lead pack got further and further a head. So, I kept my eyes on the guy in front of me. After about two and a half miles, the lead pack went up a hill, and then disappeared. As I approached the top of the hill, I noticed that a runner could only go right or left. The guy in front of me went right towards the cemetery entrance, so I followed him. In an effort to show my manliness, I decided to pass the guy in front of me. I felt good as I ran through the cemetery, but could not see the lead pack anywhere. As I came out of the cemetery, I ran through the running shoot. Surprised, I looked down at my watch. When I saw the time, I thought to myself, “No way, I can’t run 3.5 miles that fast.” Suddenly the guy that I had past in the cemetery came running threw the shoot, and then said, “Oh no, I took a wrong turn!” Now everything made since, he took a wrong turn and I followed him. I then realized that I was the first person to go threw the shoot, so I was the WINNER, or the accidental cheater. I looked behind me, and I realized that all those people behind me had followed me as I followed the guy who took the wrong turn. But, because I was the first one to cross the finish line, everyone would think that it was my fault. A little embarrassed, I decided to sneak over to my car and get out of their before the race officials had the chance to talk to me. As I got near my car, suddenly I saw the lead pack come around the corner headed for the finish line. I didn’t wait to see who the real winner was, but I am sure that the fast guys were a little surprised when they got to the finish line and saw that about 40 runners had finished a head of them. By the way, the race never did send me my first place ribbon!

Making Laura a Star b-ball Player: By Cody

2008-12-21T14:55:00.000-08:00

I can’t take all the credit, but I will say that on two different occasions I helped elevate Laura’s basketball game, while she played for Provo High School.

On one occasion, I was supposed to pick Laura up from practice. I arrived a little early, so I stood at the side of the court, while she practiced. When I got her attention, I motioned to her to trip one of the other girls. Laura smiled, and then put out her foot – mimicking what I had done from the sideline. Just as she put her foot out, one of her team mates ran in front of Laura and tripped over her foot. Surprised, Laura bent down and helped her teammate back on her feet. Laura kept saying, “I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to trip you!”

On another occasion, Laura’s team was playing their big rival Timpview high school. Before the game, I told Laura that I wanted her to make a basket for me. Well, at one point in the game Laura was fouled. So, she got two shoots from the foul line. On the first shoot, she paused and then shouted at the top of her lungs, “This one is for Cody.” She then shot the ball and missed the basket entirely. After Laura missed the second free throw, her basketball coach turned around and glared at me.

Albertsons- By Wade.

2008-12-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

The only things I knew about grandpa Roskelley was that he was old and grumpy, liked to play golf and every week or so would bring us an assortment of doughnuts and old fruit. He would walk in with a big cardboard box with some fruit and veggies and usually a box of old doughnuts. I never saw mom or dad ever eat any of the food and it would always sit on the one end of the table opposite from dads chair until the fruit finally turned. It was several years before Chad or Dyke finally told me that grandpa would hang out behind Albertsons supermarket and collect all the stuff they were throwing in the garbage; old fruit and veggies and the (way past day old) doughnuts. I remember being appalled at the thought of eating fruit from out of a garbage can and swore off eating any of it ever again... OK maybe not. We were poor and we never got doughnuts, like a closet alcoholic drinking toilet brew, I would wait for every one to be out of the kitchen and I would sneak one doughnut at a time so as to not be easily noticed. I would then eat the food in private. One day I was caught eating a dumpster doughnut long after it was common knowledge where they came from, my response "O' I thought mom had bought these ones." what a lie, I continued to eat the garbage fruit and dumpster doughnuts until grandpa was too old to climb in the dumpster anymore

Bath Time: By Cody

2008-12-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

I don’t remember how old I was, but I do know that I was very young. I believe that it must have been Saturday night, because this story is about me taking a bath. After filling the tub up with a lot of water, I decided that I needed a cup to help me wash the shampoo out of my hair. I walked into the kitchen; got a chair, and then retrieved from the cupboard a large glass cup. I then climbed down off the chair and headed back to the bathroom. When I entered the bathroom, I put the glass cup into the water, and then decided that I was going to leap over the side of the tub into the water. I walked back to the door of the bathroom, and then I took off running. I jumped high into the air and knees first splashed into the tub. Problem – I had forgotten about the glass cup that I had already placed in the tub. When I landed, the weight of my body crushed the glass cup into the bottom of the tub. Suddenly, I felt sharp pain in both of my knees. Blood filled the water, and I started to cry. The last thing I can remember is Trina pulling me out of the tub with blood running down my legs. I still have scares in both of my knees from the incident. As I remember the details of this accident, I can’t believe I actually decided to run and jump into the bathtub. Not very bright!

My new Car: By Cody

2008-12-14T15:39:00.000-08:00

While growing up, there was no such thing as a new car. Dad usually bought a used car, or simply purchased a wrecked car and fixed it up. Dad was a mechanic by profession, so this all makes perfect since. Well, when I got home from my mission, I needed a car for college and for my new job as the delivery boy at CTI Travel. So, I started watching the papers. One day I found an ad for a Honda Civic that only had 60,000 miles. The car was in great shape all except for a little damage on the front end, and it was located in Salt Lake City. Excited, dad and I called the seller and arranged to see the car. That same afternoon, I went with mom and dad to see the car. When I saw the car, I was really excited because it looked a lot better than the 1979 Buick Skylark that I drove in High School (You know the one that dad bought from the White family for $200. It had “just married” on the side and would shake anytime you went over 45 miles an hour). Anyway, the Civic was slightly damaged in the front end, but there was no major damage. So, I bought the car, and dad and I started driving it home, while mom returned home in the mini van. After about 10 minutes on the highway, I saw that the hood was shaking a little bit. So, I asked dad if I needed to worry about the hood popping up. To this he replied, “If the hood hasn’t popped up yet, it’s not going to.” About two minutes later, wham! The hood popped up and wrapped itself completely over my entire windshield. Suddenly, all the cars around me scattered to get away from me. I yelled, “Dad, the hood just popped up.” To this dad said, “Remain calm, son! Remain calm!” Yea right, I thought to myself. I am driving down the Highway going 65 miles an hour with a blind passenger, I can’t see out my windshield, and dad tells me to remain calm. Luckily, I did remain calm. I flipped on my signal, checked my mirrors and got off the highway as quickly as I could. Miraculously, I got off the highway without wrecking into anyone. When dad and I got to the shoulder of the road we stopped the car and tied the hood back down. I then drove the car home with a windshield that looked like a big spider web of cracked glass. Gratefully, we made it home. The car proved to be a good one, but I don’t think that I will ever buy a wrecked car and try and drive it home on the highway again. Crazy!

Dead Man’s shoes: By Cody

2008-12-14T15:32:00.000-08:00

On Christmas day, just before my mission, I got a call from grandpa Roskelley. Generously, he wanted to give me a good pair of shoes for my mission. Now remember, grandpa lived through the depression and loved to get doughnuts out of Albertson’s garbage. The only gift that he had ever given me was a tie that was about 30 years old when he gave it to me, and had been initially bought from D.I. So, I was a little hesitant when he told me to come on over and pick out a good pair of missionary shoes. I tried to be kind by saying, “Oh grandpa, you are so kind, but really I will be fine!” Grandpa insisted that every missionary needs a good pair of shoes and asked me to come right over. Well, I drove over to his house. When I walked up the stairs of his home, I could see 10 to 15 pairs of old grandpa shoes lined up in front of the couch. I smiled and tried to look excited. As I sat on the couch, I saw one pair of shoes that looked like mailman shoes. They were black, shinny, and they had a thick rubber sole on the bottom. As I picked up the mailman shoes, I looked over at grandpa and said, “Thanks grandpa, these look great!” To this grandpa replied, “Well how do you know if those are the right ones, when you haven’t even tried the others on?” He then had me try on every pair of shoes. When I was done trying on the shoes, I again picked up the mailman shoes and said, “Thanks grandpa, these will be great!” When grandpa saw my selection, he smiled and said, “Those are a fine pair of shoes. You know, I’ll bet those shoes cost 75 dollars new. But, when someone dies over at the old-folks home, they sell their shoes for just 5 dollars.” I quickly looked down at my gently used pair of shoes and back at grandpa and said, “Wow, that sounds like a great deal – just 5 dollars!” I walked out of grandpa’s house the proud owner of a dead man’s shoes.

Ironically, I polished and cleaned up the shoes that grandpa gave me, and they ended up being the most durable shoes I wore on my mission. Some day, if I ever get to Heaven, I hope to meet and tell the original owner of the shoes that his shoes served me well – and grandpa only paid 5 dollars!

Who's that? By Wade

2008-12-07T17:46:00.001-08:00

Who is that? Beth, TJ and Asher?

No!

It's Mom, Wade and Cody... Who knew?

Where are my shoes?: By Cody

2008-12-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

While growing up, Trina and Heather did so much to keep the house clean. They were both hard workers, and tried to get the rest of us to clean up after ourselves. I remember that Heather tried for a long time to get me to pick up my shoes. In an effort to help me, Heather started hiding my shoes, and then she would not give them back unless I did a job. On one occasion, Heather had gone off to High School. I searched and searched for my shoes. I checked the regular places like the fire place, coat closet, and the bathroom cupboards, but I could not find them. Late for school, I finally told mom that I had left my shoes out and that Heather had hidden them. With this information, mom decided to call Heather at the High School. When Heather got on the phone she asked mom if she could speak with me. So, mom handed me the phone, and then Heather said, “Cody have you done a job?” I responded, “No.” Then Heather said, “Cody, I’m not going to tell you where your shoes are until you do a job. So, call back after you have done a job!” When I hung up the phone, I was in shock. I thought for sure that she would give in and tell me where my shoes were. When I told mom what Heather had said, she looked at me, shrugged her shoulders and said, “I guess you better do a job.” Disappointed, I vacuumed the living room and then had mom call the High School a second time. When Heather answered the phone, she again wanted to speak with me. She again said, “Cody did you do a job?” I then told her that I had vacuumed the living room. To this she responded, “Good, now stop leaving your shoes out!” She then proceeded to tell me where I could find my shoes.

Thanks to Heather, my wife never has to pick up my shoes. I learned my lesson well.

Disclaimer: I always felt a since of victory when I found my shoes and hence didn’t have to do a job to get them back. I remember on one occasion Heather saw that I had found my shoes and made me do a job anyway.

Toothbrush: By Cody

2008-12-06T08:18:00.001-08:00

After my mission, one of my good friends and former mission companions – Mauro Properzi – lived with our family. One morning, I was in a big hurry to get off to one of my BYU classes. As I quickly brushed my teeth, Mauro walked into the bathroom to comb his hair. Suddenly, Mauro said, “I didn’t know that you have a red toothbrush, too.” When Mauro’s comment registered in my brain, I stopped brushing and pulled the toothbrush out of my mouth and said, “I don’t - sick!” Then with a disgusted look on his face, Mauro said, “What do you mean that you don’t?” To this question I replied, “Sorry man, here is your toothbrush.” Mauro took the toothbrush and said, “Thanks a lot Cody, are you sure you don’t want to keep it?”

The Haircut: By Cody

2008-12-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of one summer, mom asked me to come inside and get a summer haircut. I obediently sat down and held still while she pulled out the clippers and started to give me a buzz. When she was all done, she told me to go and look in the mirror. When I saw that she had given me a buzz, I started to cry. I felt like I was the one kid in the world that didn’t need a buzz. Whenever I have super short hair, everyone asks me what happened to my head because my birthmark looks like a big scar. Well, I walked back into the kitchen crying. Mom asked me, “What’s the matter?” I responded by saying, “I hate buzzes, now everyone can see my birthmark.” Mom looked at me and said, “Oh, your hair will grow back, don’t worry about it.” Just then, Chad entered the room and asked me what was wrong. I explained to him how much I hated my buzz because of my birthmark. Wisely, Chad pulled me aside and said, “Cody, buzzes are cool. Everyone in the army has a buzz! Do you want to go play army men with me in the front yard?” Thanks to Chad’s convincing words, I stopped crying and went out to play army with him in the front yard. After a while, I told Chad that I had to go in the house because I needed to use the bathroom. Chad looked at me and said, “I thought you were an army man!” To this I replied that I was an army man. Then Chad said, “Army men don’t need bathrooms, they just go in the bushes. So, with that I walked behind the bushes in the front yard and went to the bathroom. I thought that it was so cool that army men didn’t need bathrooms.

Wally: By Cody

2008-12-06T08:08:00.000-08:00

I was downstairs in my bedroom playing with Wally Day. As we played, Wally said, “Hey Cody, say ‘I shot the city sheriff’ as fast as you can 10 times.” I was young and innocent, so I did what he told me to do. About the fifth time I repeated the saying, Wally started to laugh out loud. The faster I tried to repeat the saying, the more it sounded like I was swearing. Suddenly, mom appeared at the doorway of the room and said, “Wally, go home and don’t come back!!!” Wally quickly stood up and left out the back door. At the time I didn’t understand why Wally had been sent home. Years later, I finally figured out why mom was upset.

Family Scripture Study - by Beth

2008-12-03T18:46:00.000-08:00

I don’t know who said it, but I love the promise given that if you will study the Book of Mormon together as a family it will fortify your children against the temptations and fiery darts of the devil. I have a testimony of family scripture study even in its most basic and simple form.
As a teenager I HATED my parents and family. They seemed so stupid and I seemed so smart [and grouchy] (ah, my teenage righteous indignation!). But when my brother, Cody, returned from his mission he established morning family scripture study. And I HATED it! I had to get up fifteen minutes earlier each morning and I certainly didn’t show forth a cheery attitude about it.
But I cannot deny how it softened my heart, despite my internal protests. While I tried to never show it, I began to love and appreciate this time spent in discussing the gospel in a way that seemed communal rather than didactic. A spirit of love infused our family relationships and I know it came from daily family scripture study.
A few months after we had been having family scripture study another brother, Wade, came home from his mission and I remember him noting the difference in our family, as well. “It’s like,” he said, “You all love each other now.”
From time to time I think about how family scripture study was one of the few ways my hardened heart would allow the Spirit to strengthen me. I’m so thankful for a humble brother who tried unterminably, day after day, to influence my siblings and I for good through this activity despite my bad attitude.
The Book of Mormon is true and it holds real power for our families!

Yellow bike seat- by Wade

2008-11-30T17:45:00.001-08:00

When I was about 8 years old I wanted to play so bad with my friends that I developed the bad habit of avoiding going to the bathroom for fear of missing what my friends were doing. Many times to the point where I would end up using a ditch for a restroom.

This was the early 80's when short shorts were what you wore.

Ryan Chappell Had just gotten a new bike with a bright yellow seat, and he had brought it over to our house. The Smith boys were over and everyone was taking turns riding the bike. The bike ended on the top of our back hill by a large Crab Apple tree. I wanted my turn so I jumped on the bike and started to ride down the hill. About Mid hill My bowels decided they had waited long enough to empty and so the peristalsis started and would not be stopped. I raise my legs up off the pedals to try to clench my but cheeks together but it was to no avail. The Bowel movement had smooched out of my pants onto the seat by the time I got to the bottom of the hill. Embarrassed I ran into the house. I heard my friends saying as I ran away "he was so scared, it scared the crap out of him." I can't remember which of my brothers or sisters cleaned off the seat for me but I was too dejected to go back out that day.

I have let the lie of "having the crap scared out of me" live until this day. I still feel bad about baptizing Ryan's bike seat in crap, But some of my best lessons have been learned by embarrassment. Lesson learned!

The Meanest Sisters in the World: By Cody

2008-11-27T10:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks to year-round school at Westride Elementary, I was off track enjoying some cartoons, while my older siblings were getting ready for school. As I watched the cartoons, Trina and Heather attacked me. As Trina pulled on my feet dragging me across the carpet, Heather started pulling on my blanket. When the blanket came off, both girls giggled when they saw that all I had on was my underwear. With this new discovery, the girls decided to pull me out the front door. As my feet went out the front door, I grabbed the inside edges of the door. Trina kept pulling as Heather tried to pry my hands loose. There I was stretched out spread eagle on the porch in my underwear. In the middle of my struggle – and to my horror – my sixth grade teacher Mr. Jackman walked up to the door to drop a check off for mom (mom baby sat the Jackman kids for a couple of years). Mr. Jackman saw me, laughed, and then said, “I can’t wait to tell the rest of the class when school starts back up.” I was mortified. Heather and Trina let go of me, and I quickly ran into the house. Luckily, the next time I saw Mr. Jackman he just smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell the class.” Way to embarrass me sisters!

Kentucky Fried Chicken: By Cody

2008-11-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

I remember well the day that Trina brought home a big bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken from her work. She put the bucket on the table and told everyone that they could eat it until it was gone. I was very excited about the chicken because our family rarely had the money for such a special treat. I ate one piece of chicken and decided that it was so good that I needed to save some more for later. I then dipped my hand into the bucket of chicken and pulled out two more big pieces. I wrapped each piece of chicken in a napkin and then began to ponder. I thought to myself, “I better hide this chicken because if I put it in the refrigerator, someone else will eat it.” With that thought, I decided that the best place for the chicken was the bottom of my dresser drawer. So, I put the chicken in my dresser and there it sat for a couple of days. You see, I was saving the chicken for a special occasion. So on the third day, I was playing with Josh Smith. He was being nice, so I decided that it was time to share my prize. I opened my dresser drawer and then gave Josh one of the two pieces of chicken. Even though the chicken was room temperature, it still tasted great to me. As Josh and I enjoyed our chicken, we decided to walk outside. As we were walking through the front yard, mom saw us and asked what we were eating. I proudly told her that I had saved some of the chicken that Trina had brought home. With a perplexed look, mom said, “That chicken was gone days ago. Where did your chicken come from?” I then explained how I had saved my prize for a special time. Mom looked shocked and said, “You should not eat old chicken; particularly, old chicken that has not been refrigerated for several days. I really hope that you don’t get sick. If I were you, I wouldn’t take another bite. In fact, I would throw the rest of your chicken away.” Josh looked at me with a worried look, and we both walked over to the garbage area and threw our chicken away. Even though I was young, I felt really embarrassed, when Josh decided that he had better go home and tell his mom what happened. Luckily, I never did get sick, but I learned my lesson well. I am now quick to throw out any old chicken, and I never keep any in my dresser drawer.

Uncle Gary’s Fault: By Cody

2008-11-27T10:42:00.000-08:00

I was walking in front of the Chamberlin’s house with Josh Smith. Josh stopped and picked up a little rock off of the side of the road and then said, “Watch this.” He then proceeded to throw the rock under a car as it went around the corner. I smiled and said, “Cool!” I then began to process in my mind how I could do something that would top Josh’s feat. I then picked up a stick that was about two feet long and one inch in diameter. I looked at Josh and said, “I’m going to skip this right under the next car.” Josh looked at me and said, “No way!”

We didn’t have to wait long before a car came around the corner. I threw the stick and it hovered threw the air, hit the road, and then hovered back up into the air and hit the car right in the door. The car slammed on its brakes. Josh ran towards his house, while I ran towards ours. I ran threw the front door, down the stairs, threw the laundry room, and out into the back yard. As I ran into the backyard, I could see that Uncle Gary was in the backyard visiting with some of my family members. I ran towards Uncle Gary because he was standing between the tower and a cherry tree. I was headed for the garden, so he was in my direct path. As I tried to go around Uncle Gary, he picked me up and said, “Where are you going in such a hurry?” Just then I heard mom call out the kitchen window, “Codyyyyyyyyyyyy, you get your little butt in here!” I knew that I was doomed and it was all Uncle Gary’s fault. Had he not picked me up, I would have made it into the garden and down to the railroad tracks. Uncle Gary put me down on the ground and said, “Sounds like your in trouble. I think you better go see your mom.”

Well, I did go and see mom. She took me in to her bedroom and gave me the hardest spanking of my life. All I remember was mom said, “Did you throw a stick at a car today?” I said, “Yes.” She then put me over her legs and said, “That man could have sewed us.” She then began to spank in sequence with each word that came out of her mouth. The sequence went something like this, “Don’t (spank) you (spank) ever (spank) ever (spank) do (spank) that (spank) again (spank).” She then sent me out of her room. I ran out the front door and then I saw Uncle Gary’s truck. When I saw that truck, I wanted to kick it. In my little mind the whole thing was Uncle Gary’s fault because he kept me from getting away. I then decided that I was going to hide in the camper (the one that sat on Dad’s truck) until Uncle Gary left.

Singed- By Heather

2008-11-23T19:15:00.000-08:00

Dyke was trying to light the barbecue because the automatic start wasn't working. He came in the family room and asked Cody to come outside and help him. He told Cody to lean in under the lid of the barbecue and tell him when he was close with his match to the area where the gas comes into the bottom of the barbecue. Cody leaned in and helped. Seconds later Cody came into the house with his eyelashes, eyebrows and the front area of his hair all fried off and curly from the gas igniting and being so close inside the lid. I don't know if Dyke had done it on purpose but he was laughing his head off.

Easy Off- By Heather

2008-11-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

Mom had left Chad to babysit (I don't remember him babysitting that often), Mom had also left some hamburger to cook up. I clearly remember telling him how good it tasted, in fact everyone told him it was delicious. When Mom came home she asked what the oven cleaner was doing out. Chad said that he had used it thinking it was pan spray and had coated the pan before throwing in the burger. Mom called poison control, I remember sitting and waiting for the wave of sickness to come over me but poison control just said to drink lots of water!

Change- Wade

2008-11-22T19:14:00.001-08:00

When I was a senior in high school I got a girl friend who was a freshman at BYU, and she had a car. I would ride my Mtn bike to her house and make out until it was time for me to go home. Some times it would be so late she would give me a ride home in her crappy Peugeot car. One night after the previous series of events, at about 1:00 AM, I decided I was going to go get my Bike from her house. It was really very Innocent and I had no ulterior motives. I had my Yellow water proof Walkman on as I passed Dyke and Denise in her blue Grand Prix and started to run. I made it about half way to my destination when I heard foot steps behind me, I didn't have time to react because the really cool Walkman drowned out the sound of foot steps. I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder and I cowered away looking back to find Dyke standing there. He told me he knew where I was going and I shouldn't be going over to her house. I said "I am just going to get my bike, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING BAD!"
Dyke yelling back at me said "YEAH BUT YOUR NOT DOING ANYTHING GOOD EITHER"
I can't remember anything that was said after, and I still ran to my girl friends house and got my bike. Dyke telling me in a sense that I was a piece of crap, a parasite on society, effected me greater that he knows. I consider this one of the turning points in my life, an epiphany that being a low life looser wasn't good enough. I didn't graduate high school and I had no direction in my life. I feel that had things not changed, that working my way up from dish washer at Ponderosa and hoping for a promotion to waiter would be the pinnacle of my success. Dyke made me realize that not trying would leave me where I currently was and no one was going to change it but me. It was shortly after this incident I went on a LDS mission which provided time away from my former life and an avenue for me to change.

Riding the Bus - by Tia

2008-11-22T14:53:00.001-08:00

Whenever we got our meager paycheck from doing the paper route we'd pay tithing, put at least 10% in savings and then we could spend the rest (which was about $8). Our favorite thing to do was to go to the Mall and walk around. We would invite Melanie Walker, Becca Smith and Sarah Chamberlain to come with us. We always did the exact same things: buy a sucker at See's, ice cream cone at a burger joint and then ride the escalators and elevators throughout the Mall. There was a time when we'd have to spend time at Kaybee Toy Store so Beth could buy the New Kids on the Block trading cards that had bubble gum. We would wander around for what seemed like hours and we always ended up spending the rest of our money on the photo booth at Walgreen's and penny candy they had while we waited for our ride there. We'd try to beg for rides to and from the Mall, and usually we could get one. One time we weren't able to get a ride home so we decided we would take the bus. We went out and asked the bus driver which bus to get on and found one that sounded right. The first bus took us clear down to where the Provo Mall is now and I was so scared because to me, it felt like we were so far from home. The bus driver told us a bus number to get on that would take us back up north and so we took it. The second bus dropped us off at UVSC and we had to walk home because we had to do our paper route by a certain time and the next bus wasn't going to come in time - I think it took us 45 minutes to walk home.

Shopping at the Mall - by Tia

2008-11-22T14:44:00.001-08:00

One afternoon when I was in 6th grade Dyke told me Laura and Beth to get in the car because he was taking us shopping. Well, if you've read any of the posts below, you'll know that we had learned to be pretty suspicious of Dyke's offerings. After he had convinced us that he wasn't lying we drove to the bank and he withdrew $180.00 and handed $60.00 to each of us. Then he drove us to the Mall - somewhere we NEVER shopped (the best we got was Pic N Save if we were going to buy something nice, the rest of the time we rode our bikes to DI or waited for hand-me-downs from neighbors). The three of us went to the mall often, but it was to spend our paper route money on See's suckers, ice cream cones and photo's in the booth at Walgreen's.

We didn't even know where to start. I remember Laura spent hers at The United Colors of Benetton and the cashier was totally hitting on Dyke and was asking us, "So, your brother is buying you these clothes? What a nice brother, can I talk to him?" I got a pair of black jeans and a striped polo style long sleeved shirt that I wore to school the very next day. For the first time ever, the cool girls complimented me on what I was wearing (perhaps because it was clean, matched and was new). I felt like I was leader of the pack and I remember thinking, "I wonder if it would be bad if I wore this again tomorrow."

Trina & the Bikini: By Cody

2008-11-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

One day I was shooting baskets in the backyard. Trina was sunbathing on the trampoline in an aqua colored bikini. As Trina finished her sun bathing, she walked up to me and said, “Let me shoot a basket.” I gave her the ball, and then turned toward the basket. After the ball went up into the air, I heard Trina scream. I turned around to see Trina crouched down, holding her chest against her knees. I asked her what had happened and she replied, “Come here and tie that back of my bikini.” I then realized that the bikini had come untied when Trina tried to shoot a basket.

Trina's surprise: By Cody

2008-11-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

One morning, I was in the laundry room getting some clothes out of the dryer. Suddenly the door of the laundry room swung open, and Trina jumped into the laundry room and screamed, “boo!” Startled, I quickly turned around to see Trina buck naked with a surprised look on her face. When Trina saw that it was me in the laundry room, she quickly jumped back into her room and closed the door. Later that morning, I found out that Trina had just got out of the shower, and she thought that Heather was in the laundry room and decided to scare her. Wasn’t she surprised to see me instead of Heather?

Dyke's gifts to the little girls: By Cody Roskelley

2008-11-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

One year, I saw that there were a bunch of presents under the Christmas tree from Dyke to Laura, Beth, and Tia. I was surprised by this gesture because Dyke had never given any gifts to the little girls before. Well, on Christmas morning, mom handed Laura a present from Dyke. As Laura quickly opened the gift she said, “Wow a doll. I have a doll that looks just like this. Hey, this is my doll.” Dyke just sat on the couch laughing. The same scenario played out several times that Christmas morning as the little girls opened their own toys that Dyke had wrapped up and given them.

Christmas Present: By Cody

2008-11-22T09:24:00.000-08:00

One year for Christmas, Grandma Gringo gave me and TJ Scouguard (spelling) each a florescent red sweater that was Playboy brand. I wore the sweater, while at the Christmas party, but took it off as soon as I got home. I thought that the sweater was ugly, and I was embarrassed that it was Playboy brand, so when I got home I put it into the bottom of my dresser drawer, and never wore it again. A year or so later, mom asked me if I had any clothes that I wanted to go to DI. I said yes, and gave her the red sweater. When mom saw that the sweater still had the purchasing tags on it, she got really upset and said, “I can’t believe you don’t wear this beautiful sweater.” I looked at her and said, “Mom, it is playboy brand, do you really think that I should wear a Playboy sweater to school?” When mom realized that the sweater was Playboy brand, she didn’t say another word, and put it into the DI bag.

Christmas Eve by: Cody

2008-11-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

One Christmas Eve, Mom had asked all the kids to come into the family room so that we could all act out the story of Christ’s birth. While Mom was gathering the family, I decided to show off for those who were already in the family room. Trying to be funny, I lowered my pants a little and then pretended to be checking out the TV showing my plumbers crack. When mom walked into the family room and saw what I was doing she said, “Damn it Cody, do you always have to ruin spiritual moments?” I felt really bad after mom stormed out of the room.

What Smells: By Cody

2008-11-22T08:58:00.000-08:00

I knew I was running late for school, so I quickly ate my breakfast, and ran out the front door. As I ran across the front lawn, I watched the school bus go past. Gratefully, the bus driver saw me running and waited for me. When I got to school, I went to my first class, which was physics. I liked physics because I sat next to a cute girl named Amber.

After the first couple minutes of class, I looked at Amber and said, “Man, something really stinks in this room.” Amber looked at me and replied, “Yea, I agree something really stinks badly!” The smell didn’t go away during the entire class, so I was excited to get out of the room.

For second period, I had art. I sat down in my art class, and noticed that something still stunk. Then it occurred to me that the smell seemed to be following me. I scooted my chair back and looked at the bottom of my shoes. “Dang it,” I muttered to myself. Sure enough, there was a bunch of fresh dog poop all over the bottom and side of my shoe. Some of the poop had even gotten on the bottom of my pants. I was so embarrassed that I quickly asked the art teacher if I could go to the bathroom. While cleaning my shoes and the bottom of my pants in the bathroom, I realized that I must have stepped in Radar’s dog poop while I ran across the lawn trying to catch the bus. I hate dog poop!

English Leather- By wade

2008-11-17T18:23:00.001-08:00

When I was 15 my life revolved around Basketball. I was on my own financially and Bought all my own clothes, which was a fact of life. I saved my money one year and bought me the best pair of basketball shoes. The Flight 89's were my first good pair of Nike's ever.

One day while brushing my teeth I noticed a leather conditioner on the sink called English Leather It had a picture of a saddle on the container. I had seen my dad's leather conditioner and it was a solid goop in a can this was in a stick. I took the English leather and applied it to my new shoes. The leather was much softer after the application and they had a pleasant smell to them.

A few hours later Able and Adam Smith came over and I told them about how soft my shoes were and how nice they smelled. They said it was a good idea but snickered when I told them I had put English leather on them. I, not knowing what was in store, went and produced the stick of English Leather at which time Adam began to howl with laughter, gasping through the laughter he said "You put deodorant on your shoes?" followed by great heaving belly laughs.

I knew there was such a thing as deodorant but I was never taught or told what it did, where it went or that you were supposed to use it on a daily basis. I had seen cans of Right Guard but I thought it was only for Grown ups.

Cody was the one who took me aside and explained the whole hygiene thing to me.

Shower? -By Wade

2008-11-17T18:03:00.000-08:00

My first grade teacher was Mrs Meservy, I don't know how I got the mean old lady instead of, the pretty and nice, Mrs Hampell, but I did. Not only did I get freaked out by my older siblings about the woman she seemed to have it out for me (probably because of my older siblings).

Saturday nights were the night we "got ready for Sunday" this was the one day of the week when we had to shower, it was mandatory. We would take turns sometimes or we would bathe together. I remember actually being taught my home address and phone number in the bath by my older sister. As for the rest of the week we could play in the dirt, cow pastures and irrigation ditch with out as much as a hand wash.

One day in first grade Mean Mrs meservy stood up in class and announced we were to have a hygiene lesson. She introduced the "crazy" idea that we should bathe more often than once a week. This was a foreign concept and figured she must be talking to some one else because I was at least as clean as Cody. Then she dropped the bomb shell, in her meanest voice and looking directly at me she said "you have to change your underwear every day because nobody wants to smell like pee." I was dumbfounded I couldn't think of one reason why you had to change your underwear more than once a week. My underwear barely had any streaks in them after a week and I certainly couldn't smell myself. It wasn't until years later about 3rd grade before I discovered the shower and all of it's benefits.

When I was 12 I decided that hygiene was important and would try to shower in the morning. The problem was that we had 6 other older sibling who also showered in 1 shower. the shower was sheet rock and had a cement drain, the paint on the walls was always peeling the paint on the ceiling was cracked like a dried up lake bed and paint delicately hung waiting for someone to brush it so it could fall to the drain. The wall next to the laundry room did not reach the ceiling there was never any real privacy. If you were too long in the shower or took too much warm water you regularly received a cold bucket of water from the laundry room into the shower and would receive more water until the shower was ended.

Cody and Wade fights- by Cody

2008-11-11T13:37:00.000-08:00

You have to understand that Wade and I were born 14 months apart. This is both a blessing and a curse. Growing up, we were always best friends, but we were also very competitive. Wade has always been either my same size or bigger. As a result, we either played nicely together, or we would fight. Because we fought so frequently, we had agreed on the following rules:

No biting
No pulling hair
No punching in the face

With those established rules we did a lot of wrestling, punching in the stomach, and kicking. That is unless Wade was losing. As soon as I would start to win a fight, suddenly Wade would bite and pull hair. He never punched in the face, but it really made me mad, when he would break our pre-established rules. I remember saying in the middle of a fight, “Hey that is not fair, you are pulling my hair”. To this Wade would respond, “I don’t care”.

On one occasion, Wade and I were fighting downstairs in our room. Suddenly, we heard the heavy footsteps of dad coming down the stairs. Knowing that we would be in big trouble for fighting, we quickly started to untangle and get up off the floor. Dad walked into our room and said, “Are you boys fighting?” To this Wade and I both responded, “Oh no, we weren’t fighting, we were just wrestling.” Dad gave us a suspicious look and then said, “I better not catch you boys fighting, or you will both get a spanking.” Dad then walked out of the room, and Wade and I dismissed our argument and became best friends again.

On another occasion, Wade and I started to fight in the front yard. Dad was working in the garage. When Dad saw that we were fighting, he said, “You boys want to fight, well, I better help you cool off.” Then Dad grabbed the water hose in the front yard and started squirting both Wade and me in the face. All the water made it difficult to fight. I remember every time Wade and I would get close enough to do anything damage, Dad would again blast water in our faces. The water also made the grass slippery. At one point, I tried to kick Wade and slipped on the wet grass. I was really embarrassed when both Wade and Dad laughed after I slipped. Eventually, Wade and I both got tired of the water and stopped the fight.
On another occasion, Wade and I were walking home from school. As we walked through the field that separated the church from the next neighborhood, one of the neighbor kids asked which of us was the toughest. To this I responded, “I am.” Then Wade looked over at me and said, “No you’re not.” We then began pushing each other. The next thing that I can remember, Wade and I were rolling around in a muddy ditch in front of half the neighborhood boys. I don’t remember who won that fight; I just remember how it started, and being covered in mud. I still wonder how Wade and I explained to mom how our clothes got so muddy.

Keith Chadwick

2008-11-11T09:45:00.000-08:00

One day after school Keith Chadwick and I carved sharp points onto long sticks to make spears. I don't remember what the arguement was about but I remember telling Keith that I was going to throw my spear at him. He dared me too do it and I did: Right between the eyes. keith was taken to the hospital where he had 8 stiches in the forehead. I got a whippin.

Race Car Fire

2008-11-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

Dyke and I must have been 7 and 9 years old: We had gotten matching race cars for christmas except mine was blue and his was red. You pulled a chord that caused the weels to turn and then you let them race-after awhile of this I got bored and decided that jumping through a fire would be alot more fun. So we headed out behind the fence for our adventure. The only problem was that our little fire turned into a really big fire. By the time the fire dept got there about 2 acres had burnt. I got a whippin and had to go down to the fire dept. to talk to the fire chief who showed me the skin on his chest; which had been severly burnt in a fire many years previously and looked wavey like the frosting on a cake-he all but blamed it on "stupid little kids like you (me)"-scared the hell out of me.

Marlboro man- By Cody

2008-11-10T15:25:00.000-08:00

One cold winter day, I was sitting in the family room watching the fire in the fireplace. As I sat there, I noticed the pile of extra news papers from Dyke and Chad’s paper route. I then thought to myself, “I wonder what it is like to smoke?” With that thought, I looked around to make sure that no one else was in the room. I then grabbed a rolled up newspaper, and stuck one end of the paper in the fire. Once I got a good flame, I blew it out, and then put my mouth over the other end of the newspaper. I took a deep breath, and suddenly my mouth felt like it was on fire. I started choking and coughing uncontrollably. My eyes were watering, and I seriously thought I was going to die. As I coughed, I heard mom call from the kitchen, “Cody is that you, are you alright?” I did not want mom to know what I had done, so I threw the burnt newspaper in the fire, and then ran into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Concerned, mom again asked me what had happened. I then told a big lie about how I had gotten smoke in my face. Ironically, I have never had the desire to smoke since that time. close to the fire and got some the burnt newspaper in the fire, and then ran into the kitchen to get a drink of water. Concerned, mom again asked me what had happened. I then told a big lie about how I had gotten smoke in my face. Ironically, I have never had the desire to smoke since that time. close to the fire and got some

Red Rider- By Cody

2008-11-10T15:20:00.000-08:00

When I was about 10 years old, I was jumping on a bed in the room at the bottom of the stairs. Dyke came down the stairs with a red rider BB gun. I’m guessing that Dyke must have seen some kind of TV show about sharp shooters because he looked at me and said, “Cody hold still, I am going to shoot right above your head.” Surprised, I said, “No don’t!” Just then Dyke pulled the trigger and I felt something hit me in the forehead. I started screaming and crying. When I put my hand up to my forehead, I could feel something sticking out of my forehead. (What I didn’t know was, Dyke had unscrewed the interior portion of the barrel of the gun so that he could stuff a nail down the remaining outer barrel). I jumped off the bed and started running up the stairs. Suddenly, Dyke tried grabbing my feet and I could hear him saying, “Don’t tell mom, don’t tell mom.”

When I got to the top of the stairs, mom looked at me and screamed. She then asked Dyke what had happened. I don’t remember what he told her, but I do remember mom wrapping a cold-wet wash cloth around the nail and asking me to hold it against my forehead. As mom drove me to the hospital, I was crying very hard. Mom looked at me and said, “Do you really have to cry that loud?” I looked at her and said, “No”. From that point on, I didn’t cry again. When we got to the emergency room, they made me get all kinds of brain scans in order to determine if there was any major damage. (I’m sure that many close to me would argue that I suffered saver brain damage). But, after reviewing the brain scans, the doctor determined that it would be OK to pull the nail out of my forehead.

The doctor then explained to me how he was going to grab the nail with a pair of pliers, and then he would put a bandage over the spot where I had been shot. I asked the doctor if he was going to get blood on my new pajamas. The doctor assured me that blood would not get on my pajamas and then proceeded to pull the nail out. As the nail came out, blood squirted all over the doctors clothes, but none of the blood got on my pajamas. Before leaving the emergency room, the doctor gave me a large syringe and told me to go home and squirt my brothers and sisters with water. I was excited about the syringe, and happily returned home.

Fire- By Wade

2008-11-09T17:00:00.000-08:00

I arrived in the Smiths back patio to find the Smith boys with a can of gasoline and a box of matches. They were pouring a ring of gasoline on the cement in a large circle, every one would get in the middle and they would light the ring on fire. This was done several times each time with the ring getting smaller. Finally in a small 2 foot ring that 1 person would stand in. It gave you a warm gush of hot air.

After most of the gasoline was used up we all gathered around the play house they had built in the back yard. Really it was a hole dug in the sand that they had nailed boards up into a 3 sided lean too. The last of the gasoline was poured on the structure and the Hut was set to Fire.

We then began to dare each other to go into the hut, which several of us did. we then made bets on who could stay in the house the longest. Bright huh! How none of us got burned that day is beyond me. I like to assume we all had a greater purpose in life than to die in a hut.

We want icecream- By Cody

2008-11-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

One Summer day the three little girls came up to Dyke and asked him if he would take them to buy an ice-cream cone. Dyke replied that he would, and he told the girls to go get in the car, a 1977 Red mustang II. About 15 minutes later the girls came in and said, “Dyke are you really going to take us to get an ice-cream cone?” Dyke replied that he would and again told them to go get in the car. About 15 minutes later, one of the girls came in the house and the same scenario played out. Again, Dyke told the girls to go get in the car. Well, after this happened three or four times, the three little girls came marching into the house angry and said to Dyke, “ You aren’t really going to take us,” again Dyke replied, “Sure I will, go get in the car.” To this the girls replied, “no, you are not telling the truth”. Dyke just laughed as the girls marched down the hall to their room.

Family home evening- By Cody

2008-11-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

One day while I was in college, mom asked all the kids at home to come in for a short Family Home Evening. Beth really didn’t want to join us because she had a lot of home work. Well, she did eventually come into the room, and mom asked her to pick a song. Suddenly Beth smiled and said, “I want to sing do as I’m doing”. Mom agreed, and Beth stood up to conduct the song. As we sang the first verse, Beth pretended like she was picking her nose. On the second verse, Beth wiggled her bum back and forth. As you can imagine, mom didn’t think that it was funny, when Tia and I followed Beth’s actions and laughed during the song.

Whats that smell?- By Wade

2008-11-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

In chads room, the one facing the patio, Wally Day, Cody the Smith boys (Josh and Able) and I
were sitting on the carpet. The same carpet that was brown and wasn't quite cut to specification. The carpet curled up the wall on every edge, and in some parts had heating vent holes still intact from the last house it had been in. The brown carpet was laid on top of the old green carpet which was laid on top of the old tile floor.
We were all looking at the toll painted Cowboy and Indian that some one had painted onto 2 separate pieces of wood. We as kids decided we would have a contest to see who could pee on the cowboy and Indian face's. Setting the wooden painting against the wall, on top of the brown carpet, inside Chads room we began to pee... All of us... careful to follow the Ghost Buster rule not to cross the streams, we peed sometimes by our selves and sometimes 3 at a time.
Following the Law of Gravity the urine flowed down the Wood and into the carpet to be forever immortalized into a Pungent odor that lingered for months.

revealing boxer shorts

2008-11-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

As a child I remember not having gloves or boots for winter play. However Mom had a solution: Multiple layers of mismatched socks on our hands and feet covered by a plastic bread sack and a rubber band to secure. They worked great for sledding down the hill but getting back up was difficult. We were not out long because the bags tore easily and we got wet and cold.

Some of our most exciting days were one's where we returned home from school to find a box of hand-me-downs sent from our, just older, cousins in Wisconsin: That was the day that we got "new to us" name brand jeans, winter wear, socks and store bought briefs.

The biggest fights I remember having with my brother was over the few pairs of matching white socks or the one clean pair of fruit of the loom briefs.

Mom made most of our clothes: She made us coats, jeans , shirts and she even made us boxer shorts: They actually looked pretty good lying folded and flat in the bottom of our Christmas gift box. They were plad or multicolored. They had a nice folded and double stiched fly to keep things covered when not in use, however somehow the pattern had not calculated that boys butts are round instead of flat. When the boxers were worn the nice folded fly that was supposed to act as a cover streached out and, instead, made a nice diamond shaped window.

Thats my truck- By Cody

2008-11-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

One year before Christmas, mom showed Wade and me some trucks in the Sears catalog. For some reason, mom kept pointing out a diesel truck to the both of us. I didn’t want a diesel truck, so I told mom that I wanted a 4X4 truck that was jacked up and had removable wheels. Wade decided that he would take the diesel. Well, on Christmas morning, I was surprised when I unwrapped a diesel truck that I didn’t want. Attached to the box of the diesel truck was a note from mom that said, “I felt that the diesel truck better fit your personality, if you still want the other truck, you can trade with Wade.” After reading the note, I looked over in time to see Wade opening up the 4X4 truck. I quickly went over to Wade and asked him to trade with me, but he would not. Later that Christmas morning, I again tried to get Wade to trade with me, but he said that he like the truck that he got better than the diesel truck.

Well, I did eventually get the 4X4. One day Wade and the Smith boys threw rocks at some of the Tonka trucks owned by the Vanderpool boys. Mrs. Vanderpool found out about what had happened and told mom and Sister Smith. As a result, Wade and the Smith boys had to give some of their trucks to the Vanderpool boys. As Wade was walking out the door to give the Vanderpools his 4X4 truck, I stopped him and said, “Wait, give the Vanderpools the diesel truck, and give me the 4X4. Well, Wade took my advice, and I got my truck. The Vanderpool boys liked the diesel because their father was a truck driver.

Paned Glass- By Wade

2008-11-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

This is actually second hand from Dyke;

Grandpa Roskelley's house has been a thorn in our families side for 25 years. Some of the various yearly repairs were weekly mowing and the yearly Chinese Elm tree removal, not to mention the new carpet and hard wood floor sanding that has been done.
Dad needed some new paned glass for the rental but now that the kids are gone and sometimes mom is not as available as dad would like her to be he sometimes will take matters into his own hands, or his life into his own hands.
Dad made the trip from our house on grand view hill to Jones Paint and Glass on center street Provo on his bike. He ordered the sizes of pained glass and payed the man. After receiving the glass Dad pulled out a roll of Duct tape and requested the salesman tape the glass to his back so it could be carried easier. Dad, as we all know is legally blind, rode his bike from Center street in Provo to BYU football stadium, a distance of about 15 miles with the glass strapped to his back.

Tree removal -By Wade

2008-11-05T16:02:00.000-08:00

Dad told me this story the day after it happened;

Dad was cutting down the tree next to the tree house. Climbing out onto the tree to get to the far reaching branches. Rich Clifford came out and said "Chet you had better be careful, some of those branches look like they will hit that power line".
when telling the story dad said this "I couldn't see the power line so I thought I was OK." apparently forgetting he was legally blind he forged on.
Dad continued to cut down the tree despite the warning. Dad cut down the largest trunk just above the tree house landing. It slid down the trunk hitting him in the head and falling to the ground severing the power line. Dad a little dazed heard a new sound coming from the ground. He climbed down the tree house and then saw the end of the power line on the ground dancing.
He later stated "they charged me 900 bucks to fix that... It would have been cheaper to have the tree cut down professionally."

Get to work! -By Wade

2008-11-05T15:52:00.000-08:00

Jumping on the trampoline and working in the garden were 2 weekly activities in the summer. One summer day Cody, Josh and Adam Smith and I were out back jumping on the trampoline when Dad came out and said "didn't I tell you guys to weed the garden?" Cody and I knew play was over and we jumped off the trampoline and headed to the garden to begin our work. Josh and Adam jumped off also, knowing this was their Que to leave, heading towards home. Dad apparently not being able to tell who was who grabbed the Smith boys said "Where do you think your going?" and with a swift kick to both of their back sides they were out in the garden weeding with us. No words were spoken between the Smiths and us but it was only a few minutes before they had worked their way back far enough in the garden to slink over the fence to the "railroad tracks" to run off home.

Free house- by Wade

2008-11-05T15:38:00.000-08:00

Dad woke the boys up early one Saturday morning, packed us into the blue station wagon (the one that was 2 cars that had been cut in half and welded together) and hauled us to The Palmer's old house. Dad had been given this house by his friend Alan Palmer. According to Chad and Dyke, dad thought we could go to the house and strip it of all of it's 2X4's and then take it down brick by brick. Then the boys would sit on a street corner and sell the old house off, brick by brick. Dad did tell us it had a swimming pool which instantly increased it's street cred.
We arrived, and the street cred imploded. The house was made of cinder blocks and was not ever fit for human inhabition. I remember walking up the stairs, the walls weren't even sheet rocked. at the top of the stairs was found "Donny and Marie" and "Oak ridge boys" 8 track tapes, which turned out to be the only treasures pulled from the house. Once up stairs we got a full view of the "pool". More like a Cement pond, the Palmer's had run out of utility money and the garbage had not been picked up for what looked like a year. They had piled the last years garbage into the cement pond till it was filled to the brim.
It seems we made more than one trip out to the free house but our attempt at making money off of the cinder block house was soon abandoned.

A Gas Station in Nebraska - By Tia

2008-11-05T14:33:00.000-08:00

Reading Wade's tale of being left at home while the family drove off in the camper reminded me of a similar instance I had with Beth and Laura in the middle of Nebraska.

When Chad got married it meant two very important things: we got a new Mini-Van (a Chevy Astro Van that is) and we got to go to Minnesota for his reception. Up to that point we'd only had itchy, cramped station wagons and the van was a roomy, soft seated pillow in comparison. Lucky for us, the back bench folded itself down into a bed. That was extra nice because we didn't stay at hotels when we travelled for days at a time, we'd just pull into a rest stop and sleep in the car. As we ventured back across the never-ending-highway that is Nebraska, Beth, Laura and I were asleep in the back of the van when my Mom pulled over for some gasoline. We woke up just in time to see both of our parents going inside to pay and to use the facillities. Thinking we'd better take this opportunity to use a real toilet rather than the side of the road later on, we all three hopped out of the car too. We went inside and used the bathroom, came out and to our surprise the van was gone! We walked outside to see if they'd pulled it into a parking spot or around back and couldn't find it anywhere! We went inside and asked the attendant if they'd seen a grey mini van pull out a few minutes ago and he was able to confirm our worst fear - WE'D BEEN LEFT!

He assured us that they would be back in no time and that if they were gone for too long that he would call the police and they would track them down. In my overly dramatic ten year old mind I started going through the possibilities of being lost children forever, having to live on the streets and in train cars. As we sat outside on the curb waiting we talked about all sorts of things. Finally, about an hour later we saw in the distance the astro van speeding our way. My parents both got out of the car as soon as they screeched to a stop and ran over to us.

My parents had assumed that we stayed asleep in the car and when they returned they just took off. As they drove and had a conversation my Dad (remember, he's blind so we isn't able to just look in the back seat to see if we're still there) said to my Mom, "Linda, it's awful quiet back there, will you check on the girls?" That's when my mom pulled over and found out that we weren't there at all!!

Cat toss- By Wade

2008-11-05T13:36:00.000-08:00

The Smiths across the street had gotten a new kitten. Andy and I were outside playing basketball when their new cat wandered into our yard. I picked up the cat and threw it into our pool that was really an oversize galvanized steel cow watering trough. Andy thought this was good fun so after the cat climbed out of the water he threw the cat back in. Being boys we made a game of this and challenged each other to get further and further away from the pool for the cat toss. I went last because on the last toss the cat didn't quite make it to the pool and hit the side before falling in. The cat crawled out of the pool, only able to use its front legs began to howl, attracting the attention of the little girls and their friends. the girls who were there began to cry. suddenly mom from the kitchen window began to scream at me "you killed it, you killed it" over and over, then coming out of the house to yell at me some more.

I got on my bike and rode down to the pet store where the man at the counter gave me a kitten and a box. I rode home trying to carry the cat, in the box, while riding my bike. The cat would reach out of the box and bite and claw my hand. I took the new cat to Suzie Smith, apologized and offered the new cat as a peace offering. Suzie refused the cat and the apology.

Leavin' town- By Wade

2008-11-05T08:23:00.001-08:00

We were going on a trip to palasades lake, every one was getting ready, when the final call came. "Get in the camper". I heard feet scampering out the front door as I was holding 1 green shoe with white stripes down the side,in my hand and shuffling through the pile of crap in my closet looking for the other. It was at that point I saw my He-man on the floor, and thought he would be a nice addition to my camping gear. I found my other shoe in the storage area and ran up stairs and out the front door. There was the red and white Chevy with a camper on the back rolling around the corner off to vacation with out me.
There was no build up to the sobs that came, I lay down on the ground and cried, knowing they were not to be back for several days. I cried myself to sleep lying on the door mat, on the porch. I don't know how long I lay there but mom later told me they got to Nephi before Trina asked "Where's Wade?"

Running away- By Wade

2008-11-05T06:36:00.000-08:00

Mom had told me to go clean my room and that had my temper flared. I must have been pretty young because when I decided to run away I had visions of a Norman Rockwell painting, a run away with a handkerchief on the end of a stick. We didn't have any handkerchiefs, that weren't in dads pocket, so I decided a sleeping bag would do, a red one from BYU's outdoors rental department. The sleeping bag had holes burned in it, from many camp outs where the bag was placed to close to the fire. Mom had used black thread to close up the holes in a cross stitch pattern. I went to the storage room to collect my 2 cans of Chile con carne, and I shoved them in the stuff sack.
Cody walked in and said "what ya do'in"
In my most indignant voice I said "I'm running away!"
Cody simply asked "can I come?"
Somewhat startled I agreed to have him come and I grabbed 1 more can of Chile, cause we now had 2 mouths to feed.
I lugged the sleeping bag out to the back yard past the garden to the back side of the fence next to the "railroad tracks". By this time the sleeping bag and 3 cans of Chile had become to heavy so we decided to rest. Cody and I sat down and talked for a while then Cody turned the subject to future food "What are we going to eat once the Chile is gone?"
This was the question that turned my anger. Mom always cooked for us and while the food was not 100% of the time good tasting, it did somehow keep us alive. Giving in we then made our way, retracing our steps, back to the storage room and put away the Chile and sleeping bag and Cody then helped me clean my room by trying to get me to play "A-team", where he let me be B.A. Barachas, Cause I had darker skin, and he was Hanable because he had blond hair.

Marmalade vs. Salsa - By Tia

2008-11-04T17:28:00.001-08:00

One morning when I was in High School (I think it was 1997 or 1998) I was cooking some eggs in the kitchen for breakfast. Dad came in and put some bread into the toaster and then walked over the fridge. Because of his vision, when he talks to you he likes to put one hand on your shoulder and his face really close to yours so he can try to see you using his peripheral vision (so close that you can always smell how recent his last teeth brushing was). He walks over to me with a jar of marmalade jam in his hand and putting one hand on my shoulder, face close up and the other hand extended out in front of me he asks, "Is this a jar of marmalade jam?" Thinking it a silly question, I answered in my snooty teenage way, "uh, yeah" to which he replied, "oh, good! Yesterday I put salsa on my toast" in a voice that suggested this was normal.

That afternoon I was talking to my brother Cody and I told him what had happened and this is what he had to say, "Yeah, yesterday I was eating breakfast at the kitchen table and Dad sits down with a plate of toast. I said to him, "Hey Dad, what did you put on your toast?" and he says, "Jam" and I say, "I think that is salsa." Dad then takes a bite and says disgruntled, "You gotta be kidding me, it is salsa.""

New clothes By Chad Roskelley

2008-11-04T15:04:00.000-08:00

I remember not having gloves or boots for winter, however Mom had a solution: multiple layers of mismatched socks on our hands and on our feet covered by a plastic bread sack and a rubber band to secure: They worked great for sledding down the hill but getting back up was nearly impossible. And Mom knew we wouldn’t be out long before the bags would tear and we would get all wet.

Our most exciting days were the one’s where we got home from school to find that our, just older cousins in Michigan, had grown out of some clothes and sent us a box of Hand-me-downs. That was the day that we got new, at least new to us, name brand jeans, winter wear, socks and the much coveted store bought briefs.

The biggest fights I remember having with my brother was over the one good pair of matching white socks or the one pair of fruit of the loom briefs.

Mom made most of our clothes: She made us coats, she made jeans, shirts and she even made us boxer shorts. I remember the Christmas that we received our home made, multi colored boxer shorts. They actually looked pretty good lying folded and flat in the bottom of a gift box. The boxers looked great laying flat, they even had a nice folded fly to keep things nicely covered up when not in use, however Mom had somehow neglected the fact that butts are round not flat and when the boxers were worn, the nice folded fly that was supposed to act as a cover stretched out and made a nice diamond shaped window.

"I'd Like to Get a Litter Out of Her" -By Beth

2008-11-04T14:27:00.000-08:00

You know what my dad loves? Tradio. Not radio. TRADIO. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I’ve found my dad laying on the couch with his radio sitting on his chest listening for his favorite program to start. Sometimes dad would even have to get up at 6 a.m. just to listen to his program, broadcast out of Richfield, Utah. Most of the stuff for sale was out of Sanpete, Carbon or Emery county. He wasn’t bothered by the idea that he’d have to travel 1-2 hours to secure his deals. What he cared about was the DEAL. Yes, he’s a man with an eye for a bargain, and as one of his colleagues from over at BYU once said of him, “Your dad would spend $10 just to save $5.” Truer words were never spoken.
Dad has sold and bought innumerable commodities over tradio, but none so great as his dog, Snickers. On one afternoon in 2006 dad listened devotedly to his program and heard of a found dog available for free to a good home. The dog was located in Chester, Utah (fate, right?). They drove two hours to pick the dog up, and gave her a home even though she threw up in the car on the way there. Dad assured us she was a Yorkie and was valuable. But she looked, well, old. Don’t dogs that size only live about 10 years? She looked to be about 9 1/2. “I’d like to get a litter out of her.” He mused to us when we met the old pup. “Wow, Dad." I said, "I think she’s too old to have puppies.”
While Snickers was fully trained – going potty outside and polite and aloof to the grandkids, dad still felt compelled to “train” her. One night as we came over for a visit he excitedly asked us to watch as he showed us her new tricks. Now, remember that he’s blind? It hasn’t ever really stopped him from doing anything he wants to do, which is so much to his credit. (You’re a good example in that, Dad!!) On his knees with a doggie treat in his hands he called Snickers to him and said in a commanding voice, “Snickers! Sit! Sit. No. No. Sit. No, sit!” Then he cocked his head back to us and asked, “Did she do it?”

Hide and seek - By Tia

2008-11-03T14:54:00.001-08:00

The year was 1990 and I was only 10 years old. We'd just attended the baby blessing of the 3rd grandchild in the family - Kyle, and were at Trina and Brian's house for a luncheon. All of the kids were shuttled downstairs to play hide-and-seek. Kim Dickerson, Brian's sister, was counting and I followed Laura into the downstairs bathroom - sure that she would love to share her hiding spot with her little sister. As she lay flat in the tub, shoving me out, ("Tia, we can't both fit, go hide somewhere else!") I crammed myself into the cupboard next to the toilet. Unfortunately, the growth spurt I'd just finished meant that the door didn't completely close and I was sure I'd be found out! As Kim went around the basement finding people, I realized that she'd totally missed me! As they called for everyone to come out so they could start a new round I stayed put, certain that I had the best spot and I wasn't giving it up! I could hear that they began a new round so when the door to the bathroom opened and someone walked in I just thought it was another "hider", but then I heard the door being locked.Through the crack of the cupboard door I could see a tall man situating himself on the toilet to "manage the situation". I shut my eyes tight and tried to pull my legs in as close as I could and just waited - mortified at the circumstances I was in. A few minutes into the "situation" Laura and Kim were pounding on the door and the man inside was yelling back, "I'm in here, give me a minute!" Laura knew that I was still in the cupboard. When he was finished, the man washed his hands and opened the door as a gaggle of kids flooded in to open the cupboard. As soon as they opened the door I burst into tears of embarassment. Trina pushed her way through the crowd, ordered everyone out of the bathroom and sat me on her lap and held me while I cried.For the rest of the afternoon I was too embarassed to go upstairs to confront this man - I only wanted to tell him - and everyone- that I hadn't looked and I'd plugged my ears, as if that would have made him feel any better! I think the story is hilarious now - could you imagine?!!!

Tia

A whole candy bar! By Tia

2008-11-03T14:50:00.000-08:00

When our sister Trina got married, we thought she'd hit the jack pot! Her new husband not only drove a Trans Am, they would take us to Sounds Easy pizza on Friday nights and get us a large pizza and rent movies for us to watch on their hip wicker furniture. On one of our first of hundreds of sleep overs they stopped at 7-11 on the way home. As Brian got out of the car to run in for a Diet Coke refill he looked at me and my two sisters (Beth and Laura) squished in the barely-there-back-seat of the Trans Am and said, "What treat do you girls want?" Instantly, the three of us put our heads together to discuss what treat we would all consent to share. Brian got a puzzled look on his face and said, "You can all pick your own treat, I'm not just buying one for you to share." What?!! That concept had yet to be introduced to us up to that point in our lives and it took a few moments for it to sink in. We'd never gone to the gas station before and had someone buy us our OWN FULL SIZE CANDY BAR! Laura was the first to chime in, "I want a Snickers," Beth followed, "Me, too!" And me, being unable to deviate from my cool sisters who always told me what to do, finshed off with, "Uh, huh, that's what I want to." So, in he went and out he came with three Snickers bars and a giant Red Cream soda for us. It was a night I'll never forget - a night we fully became aquainted with the idea that we could each have our own treat, even if it was the exact same thing!

P.S. - Later, Trina and Brian also introduced us to Kids Meals at Hardee's and took me to Showbiz Pizza for my 5th Birthday - HEAVEN forany 5 year old!!!

Cadaver lab - By Wade

2008-11-03T13:22:00.001-08:00

When I was about 10 years old my dad, ever the bargain/thrift store hunter brought home a stack of plywood. The stack was huge, 20 to 30 pieces deep. The plywood wasn't your normal plywood, it was solid 1" thick plywood, not the 23/32" plywood you by at Lowe's these days. Each piece was heavy and had an oily strip about 5-6 feet long along and 2 feet wide, straight down the middle. My dad gave us strict instructions we were not to touch these boards. This was in the days when every scrap piece of wood we could find was dedicated to the building of club houses in the field behind our house. The new supply of wood gave us a new supplier of club house wood. This relieved Farmer Johnson (the name sounds cliche' but that was his real name) whose wood stack would receive a temporary reprieve from its many liquidators. We did not even attempt to resist, we began to pilfer, slowly, so as to not be detected. We took a panel here and a panel there over several months. My dad was legally blind so he didn't discover his wood had been taken until he went to find the wood for one of his many home improvement projects. My dad came unglued. He, not one to hold his temper back, first gave us a tongue lashing then personally escorted us to the club house and supervised us while we took every nail out of the wood and replaced the wood back in the stack. Dad then ordered us to go shower. I imagine that there was some amount of time we were grounded because that is the way things were. It wasn't until a few years ago while some of my brothers and I were talking that the real reason we got in so much trouble came out. My dad, who worked at BYU, had received a tip from the BYU cadaver lab that they were throwing out all their old cadaver boards. He went and picked up the whole lot. He later, when confronted about the story, admitted to the fact and laughingly gave me this morsel, "Those were nasty boards. It seems to me there was even green slime on most of them." That oily streak down the middle of the board was the oil that had sloughed off of the dead bodies and seeped off onto the wood... Gross!!!

Geese - By Wade

2008-11-03T13:18:00.000-08:00

When I was young, around 10 years old, the Clifford’s moved in next door to us. They brought with them a barn yard full of animals. I remember shortly after they moved in their geese adopted our yard as the yard they would protect from intruders. I remember running from the front door and hurdling the fence as the geese would chase me, nipping at the back of my legs and I would repeat the same on the return trip to the house. My dad is legally blind which means to him he can see shadows and objects that are white. One day as my dad started walking down the entry to our house he spotted what he thought was a piece of garbage and bent down to pick it up, when he picked it up he found it was a surprise left by the goose. As I watched from the front window of my house, I could see the rage that was welling up inside of him, body tensed, cheeks flushed when the offending goose began to advance flapping his wings. Dad, being an old farm boy, started chasing the white goose around the yard while trying to catch a glimpse of the goose’s white feathers, with the little vision he had, so he could grab a hold. The goose was backed into the corner of the yard when my dad grabbed him by the neck and swung it around like a lasso, then he let him go at the pinnacle. The goose flew over our fence, distanced the driveway and landed in the neighbor’s yard. The goose popped up and ran away unharmed. Mr. Clifford’s head then popped up from under the car he was working on and said "everything OK Chet?" Dad then said "yeh keep your goose on your own yard."

Tree climber - By Wade

2008-11-03T13:17:00.001-08:00

My dad called me last week to come help him fix his play house that has been in his yard for the last 20 years. My legally blind dad decided to cut down a 60" pine tree out of his back yard. So he put his 8' little giant ladder up against the tree to get to the lowest branch. He scaled the tree holding a chain saw in one hand and climbing with the other. He started at the top and worked his way down. He tells me after the fact that the chainsaw blade would only stay on track for about 2 branches and then would come off so he would have to climb back down the 60' tree and replace the blade onto the tracks. He cut off all the branches and decided he could cut down the trunk with this same chainsaw. He cut the trunk and the tree fell right through the middle of the 20 year old play house. His question to me, "can you fix it?" So to sum up this story: a blind man climbs up and down a 60" pine tree 50 times with a chainsaw in his hand...weird!

D.I. - By Wade

2008-11-03T13:15:00.001-08:00

My dad hasn't driven a car since I was 14, when he drove me and my brother to work we had to tell him whether he was in the middle of the road or not and what color the light was at the intersection. He would say things like, “There should be an intersection coming up, what color is the light?" like he wasn't really sure there was an intersection but in his mind’s eye there should be. After deciding driving was too dangerous he purchased a bike from D.I. the local thrift store, and began to ride it to and from work. He would memorize the breaks in the white lines on the road that he could see and count the breaks and turns until he had most of Provo and Orem mapped out in his mind. He attached a basket on the back of the bike, also from D.I., to carry other items he would purchase from D.I. Each time he went to D.I. he would park his bike out in front. He said he never locked his bike because "I can’t ever get the stupid thing unlocked... I can't see." One day while in DI he parked his bike in front near the "as is" department. He went and did his looking around and when he returned to his bike it was gone. Thinking his thrift store bike had been stolen by some "Mexican" as he put it; he asked the employees if they had seen the perpetrator. After describing the bike, the embarrassed employee explained the bike had been sold just a few minutes ago while my dad was in the store. As compensation for the bike the managers at DI gave my dad the pick of all the bikes in the store.