The Traditions of Our Fathers

My Dad was raised on a farm in Wyoming.  He graduated from High School in May 1943. His education summary, provided to the US Army at the time of his enlistment, gave his hobby as model airplane building and listed his vocational plans as agriculture and mechanics. A little over a year after graduating, in September 1944, he enlisted in the US Army, entering the service on Sept 26, 1944. This was about two months after the Allied invasion of Normandy, which began the liberation of Europe, and what was considered the turning point of the war in the European theater, also when German Army was defeated by the Soviets at Stalingrad. The war in the Pacific was already on the offensive after the hard won Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway in June 1942.

1943

He served in the Pacific Theater, taking part in the Philippine Liberation and being part of the Japanese Occupation army. His service was as a surgical technician with the Second Battalion.  As a result of that service, he was awarded the Victory Medal (1945), which is awarded for service between 7 December 1941 and 31 December 1946, and the Good Conduct medal (1946) which is awarded to any active-duty enlisted member of the United States military who completes one year of "honorable and faithful service" if during times of active war.

The Japanese surrendered on August 14, 1945 and Dad was honorably discharged on Nov 24, 1946 after which he returned home and began preparations to go on a mission.

1946

Dad was called and served a mission in the Eastern States Mission from January 1947 through January 1949, serving in Uniontown and Allentown in Pennsylvania, and in Crown Point, Plattsburg, and Middleton in New York.  His mission presidents were Roy M Doxey, who later worked as Dean of Religious Instruction at BYU and served as Director of the Church Correlation Committee, and George Q Morris, who went on to be called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

1948

Towards the end of his mission his mission president decided to get the Hill Cumorrah Pageant up and running again and used his missionaries to get this done. The pageant had first been performed in 1939 but because of the war production had stopped after only three seasons. So my dad was a cast member in the Cumorrah Pageant.

Dad in costume, stage center

After completing his mission he returned home by train, again traveling home to the family farm in Wyoming. He enrolled in school right away and began his studies in March 1949 and while in school  joined the US Army Reserves in Dec 1950,  However, his studies were interrupted by the Korean War.  

1954

Because of his service in the reserves, he was called to active duty again in February 1953 being stationed in Virginia to begin his active duty as a Second Lieutenant, where he was attached to the 647th Quartermaster’s Refrigeration Company.   However, while there the armistice was signed, ending the Korean conflict and he was released from active duty in August 1953.  At that point he returned to school.  My grandfather had torn down an old house that had stood on the property next to the family home and hauled the material 150 miles where he built a small house that several of his children lived in while they went to school, including my Dad until he got married.  My parents lived in campus housing for the first year or so of their marriage.  At that point Dad’s brothers and sisters had finished school so my parents moved into the house my grandpa built.  They lived in that little house until Dad graduated in 1954.  Dad graduated with a bachelor’s of science - his major was Agricultural Education and his minor was Farm Mechanics, the same subjects he had listed as his interests in high school.  His degree included a teaching certificate.

1968

After graduating in August 1954 he worked a year teaching public school (Weber School District) before applying to work for the Inter-mountain Indian School (IIS) in Brigham City, Utah in Sept 1955.  While working for the IIS he went back to school and earned his master’s degree in Education Administration, finishing in Sept 1959.  A year later, in Nov 1959 he got on with the Air Force, working at Hill Air Force Base where he worked until he retired.  He remained in the reserves until he reached retirement in 1978.  While in the reserves he was decorated with the Reserves Commendation Medal (1964).

Taken in 1980

Dad contracted diabetes and eventually died of complications in 1988.

I remember only once being ”spanked” by my Dad - I totally earned it. I remember hearing him swear only once - it was not in anger but instead he, my brother, and I were playing with firecrackers and it was a pretty funny moment. We recently had a new Elders Quorum president called in our ward. Each week he's been starting or meetings by having everyone state their name and the tell something about themselves. This morning we were to state something we enjoyed doing with our dads when we were kids. As I thought about it, since I was near the end, the thing I enjoyed most with my Dad was working with him. We used to go up to his family's farm before my grandpa retired and help with the farm work; working with the livestock, putting up hay, irrigating the fields, making repairs around the ranch. I also remember working on our stake’s welfare farm, which was a vegetable farm. We'd thin onions, hoe beans or beets rows that seemed miles long. In the fall we'd harvest those vegetable, sacking onions or potatoes, loading the sacks, stitching those sacks closed, and the loading them on wagons. I enjoyed working those welfare assignments with him. It was where he taught me to work until the job was done, not just until you got tired or tired of the work. After I came home from my mission I lived at home when I wasn't away at school until I got married. It was during that time that was the last time we did a welfare assignment together. As we walked back in from the field together we passed a plot that was being irrigated with siphons and I noticed several had stopped so as we walked by the plot I stepped over and started each one that wasn't going. It was a skill I had recently learned and was pretty good at - he was impressed, it was something he'd never learned. He complimented me. It felt great.

There was a song written by David Gates that was released in 1972 that expresses some of my feelings about my Dad. Gates wrote it about his Dad who had died by then:

“You sheltered me from harm
Kept me warm, kept me warm
You gave my life to me
Set me free, set me free
The finest years I ever knew
Were all the years I had with you
...
“You taught me how to love
What it's of, what it's of.
You never said too much
But still you showed the way
And I knew from watching you”

That was my Dad - quiet and soft spoken. I remember him only once ever saying anything about his time in the military. But there was never any doubt of his feelings for my Mom, us kids, or me. I never had any doubt about the love and respect my Dad felt for his parents. There was never any doubt about his dedication to the Lord.

Taken about three years before his death

My Dad passed away quite a while ago - most of my kids never knew him or don't remember him. I'm not big on funerals, I don't really like going to them regardless of who they're for. Funerals are usually the actual funeral service preceded by a ”viewing” or a time for “visitation”. I prefer to skip visitations, the only reason I went when my Dad died was at the specific request of my Mom. But in the end I was glad I did; person after person, for the whole time, told of their admiration for my Dad, and particularly at the end of his life after the diabetes had ravaged his body - left him blind and barely able to walk only with great difficulty. But still he did what he could, working to the end of the job and not just until he got tired and worn out. I got an expanded glimpse of the lives he touched during his life. I was very blessed to have had the father I had and even though I made a conscious decision to do some things in my relationship with my children different than what had been my relationship with my Dad, I am still very, very grateful he was my Dad. The more I learn about him, and thereby come to understand him better, the more I come to love and appreciate him and what he has done for me. I still think of him often. I will be eternally grateful that he was in my life as long as I was blessed to have him in my life.

Let Us Go Up to the Mountain of the Lord

 There has been a lot of stuff going on at our house recently.  A lot of stuff.  We needed a break.  It worked out very well that we have been planning on going to the temple this weekend as part of a joint Relief Society and Young Womens' activity.

Today at Ward Council they were talking about how well attended the activity was.  They figured we had about 25% of the active ward members there, including us.  However, we did not caravan up with the main group.  They met at the church and all rode up more or less together.  We just left from our house, a little earlier than they were planning, and went straight on up on our own.

It was good "us" time.  We were able to be just the two of us.  That is not to say that we talked about deep and significant stuff on the trip.  Sometimes just the comfortable quiet is just as beneficial, if not more so, than the deep conversations.

In fact, some times the necessary conversations seem to fill the time, you end up "conducting business" so much of the time that there is little time left to simply enjoy one another's company.

It was President Howard W Hunter who said, "We develop our ability to receive spiritual knowledge as we take time to meditate, ponder, and pray." (Oct Conference, 1981).  In our relationships in marriages and families, spending quiet time together is essentially the same thing, in my opinion.  We develop our strength and closeness as we spend time together, not "conducting business" but just quietly enjoying one another's company.

So after the work at the temple was done we did not go with the group to lunch and then caravan back.  We went over to a small, near by community to see their swinging bridge.  This bridge was over one hundred years old and spans a small ravine running through town.

There used to be several of these bridges in this town but now there is only the one left.  It was unusual being on it.  It would sway and swing as you moved around on it.  I put the camera on my tripod and started the timer.  As I ran over to get in the picture it set the bridge to bouncing and swinging quiet a bit.  Same thing when some other people crossed the bridge as we were looking around, getting ready to take some pictures. Very unusual. Kind of fun.

A small river ran under the bridge, down in the bottom of the ravine.  Very green, very pretty.

 It was a good day.  It was good to slow the trip down, to not just hustle over to the temple, do some quick work and hustle back, but take some time to recharge, to quietly relax and enjoy the company. The company - I did so enjoy the "us" time with my favorite person.

When I Ring the Bell

You know how in the church we are called to various positions where we serve for a while, sometimes short sometimes long, and then we are asked to do something else.  Well, I recently was called to work in the Sunday School organization.  And in receiving that call I got one of the best duties you can have in the church - I am the official Ringer of the Bells at the end of the second hour, the Sunday School hour.  Sweeeeeet.

As the Ringer of the Bell, I have to know when Sunday School is suppose to end.  That's so I can ring the bell at the right time.  And I have to be able to do a little bit of math.  I have to be able to ring the bell five minutes before the official ending time of Sunday School. All the teachers during the second hour depend on the bell to know when its time to end class.  Class members also depend on the bell to help prevent the teacher from going too long, cutting into the third hour time.  As one who has been a teacher during third hour I understand how disappointing it can be to have to start late because second hour went too long.  That's particularly an issue during third hour because there are so many things that are part of third hour that instruction time gets pretty short.  A lot.

So each Sunday I actually get to ring the bell twice, the five minute warning and the final bell.  The five minute warning is two rings, the final bell is one, long ring.  Classes are supposed to have been ended and dismissed by the time the final bell rings.

So, as the official Ringer of the Bell, it is my job to be out in the hall ringing the bell at the end of the second hour. This has provided some interesting experiences.  For example, I have noticed that a lot of people are usually hanging out in the chapel, halls, and foyers talking.  This may be parents of small children who have kids too rowdy too be in class, it would be disruptive to try to keep the kids in class.  This is primarily children under the age of eighteen months, at which age they are old enough to go to nursery - a major milestone in the life of every parent of small children in the church.  Another group seen frequently in the halls are people in leadership positions.  They are usually in the halls "conducting business" for their organization.  Frequent impromptu presidency meetings are held in the halls during second hour.  Or inter-organization coordination meetings - leaders of different quorums or auxiliaries talking about things that affect both organizations.  Official stuff like that. Another group of people seen frequently in the halls are third hour teachers preparing their lessons.  Actually, this group is usually not in the hall.  They are usually in quiet places, like this or that corner of the chapel, alone, studiously pouring over their lesson material.

Anyway, I have learned to try to be careful when ringing the bell.  In our building the bell is also in hall and frequently people are standing under or near it when its time to ring it.  I try to avoid ringing it when someone is standing near it because its pretty loud.  If there is someone under or near the bell I try to give them some warning. One time the librarian was standing there.  The bell is on the wall just outside the library.  One time I rang the bell, one of the first times after getting this job, and I thought she was going to jump right out of her skin.  That's what made me decide I better pay a little more attention to who is near the bell when I ring it.  Another time one of the young ladies, Mutual age, was walking down the hall.  She was several yards from the bell so I thought it would be okay but when I rang it she went wild, jumping and flailing all over from the surprise.  If anyone had been walking next to her they could have gotten hurt from all the arms and legs flying around through the air.  It was hard to not to laugh but she would have seen that.

One of the funniest things to happen, though, I didn't even see.  I heard about it later.  My own little three year old grandson was in the bathroom with his mother, Heidlebeere.  The bathroom door is also right by where the bell is.  He was sitting on the commode and looked at the toilet paper dispenser, which was fastened to the wall with a screw.  He looked at the screw and then looked at his Mom and asked what would happen if he pushed that "button".  She said, "I don't know.  Why don't you try it?"  So he put his little finger on the screw and pushed just as I hit the bell.  Now this was the first bell so I held it a bit.  He, of course, was startled and promptly took his finger off the screw, just as I let go of the bell.  The timing was perfect.  It was all his mother could do to not break out laughing.  His eyes got big and he gave his Mom such a look (think of the little kid in the movie Home Alone).  It would have been hilarious to see - it was funny enough just hearing about it afterward.  And he was so disappointed when he pushed it again and nothing happened.

I frequently can get the first bell rung without anyone being right under the bell.  Not so with the second bell.  And sometimes I have to disappoint people and tell them they can not ring the bell.  Its mostly the youth that want to ring the bell. Yes, being the official Ringer of the Bell has provided some interesting and entertaining experiences. One of the best parts of the job.