When Floyd was in high school, his family restored an old Chevy Blazer. It was a fun vehicle. While we were dating, we went on many mountain rides in that thing, sometimes even with the top off. It was a lot like riding in a jeep. It was a beast. I'm sure the gas mileage was horrific, but I had a lot of fun on those drives. It got sold somewhere along the way and I miss it. Maybe I don't miss the actual Blazer as much as I miss the freedom to just take off on a three hour drive on hidden canyon roads snuggled up next to my boyfriend - it's hard to say. Either way, I told Floyd that for my 40th birthday, I'd like a jeep. By then, I think our kids will be old enough to sneak away on a drive together. Of course, the bad news is that by then I will also have teenagers and it won't be long until they try to borrow my jeep to take their friends on rides, a thought which leaves me with heart palpitations. So maybe my 55th birthday when they are all grown up. I guess we'll see.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Things I Miss #33: Back to School
I don't know that I actually miss going back to school, but I definitely miss the preparation for it. I loved back-to-school shopping. New notebooks. New Trapper Keepers. New colorful pens and pencils. New bags or backpacks. New shoes. New clothes. Even new underwear. It was just so much fun to get all that new stuff and lay it out. In our family, back-to-school shopping always involved a trip to Ogden and both the Ogden City Mall and the Newgate Mall. Sometimes we made it to Layton and even Salt Lake. I loved those days. I loved stopping by the bank to cash our hard-earned farm money on the way and having a whole wad of cash that was mine all mine. I loved planning out new outfits and choosing the all important first day of school outfit. I loved the back-to-school fashion shows my sisters and I would hold for my mom and grandma. I loved organizing my bag and supplies. And I really loved imagining the new school year and all its possibilities. Really, it was a great time of year. It's been so fun to have kids and get to participate in the back-to-school shopping fun again. I think I go a little crazy, especially with the supplies - they are sooooo cheap during back-to-school shopping.
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Things I Miss #32: Grandpa Johnson
My two grandpa's were so very different. While my Grandpa Max seemed larger than life, Grandpa Johnson was like a calm summer breeze. He was such a quiet strength and a peaceful influence in my life. As a child, I enjoyed his easy-going nature and simplicity. As an adult, I'm amazed at his life and some of the things he did. He lived his life as a farmer and worked hard to support ten kids and when a fire doused those dreams, he and my grandma started over. I can't imagine the courage they needed as they left the only life they'd ever known and moved their family to a new state while they pursued college degrees. If I'm ever frustrated by my life not going my way, I always reflect on the choice they made when dealt a tough hand.
He never sought the spotlight, but lived his life quietly doing good deeds. He had a big smile, a great laugh, and always something nice to say. I never saw him speak a single cross word. I never saw him grumpy. He calmly faced whatever challenges came his way. He was such a sweet and kind soul. I'll never forget the last couple of times I visited with him when he knew his time left on earth I was short. He was so happy to be reunited with his parents and other loved ones. When my time on earth is short, I'll be happy to be reunited with him.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Things I Miss #31: My Room
I kinda like my privacy. Actually, I really like my privacy. Growing up, I spent a lot of time down in my basement room just thinking or reading or who knows what. I really liked having my own little domain. I remember being so excited when my dad finished the basement and I got to have my own bedroom. I loved my own space and I especially liked decorating and re-decorating it and re-arranging my furniture every couple of months. I loved it down there. For a basement room, it was actually bright and sunny and nobody really bothered me down there. One spring, I got sick of the shrubs outside my window and ripped them all out. After that, I always planted Geraniums out my window. I loved looking at them. Kelli's room was right next door, but she was really scared of the basement pretty much the entire time she lived at home, so it was often just me in the basement. I liked that.
When my kids are all demanding - I mean politely requesting - my attention at the same time, I really miss my old room and the quiet of it. I could really use a place like it some days.
When my kids are all demanding - I mean politely requesting - my attention at the same time, I really miss my old room and the quiet of it. I could really use a place like it some days.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Things I Miss #30: Ty Detmer
If anything defined my early adolescence, it was BYU football and Ty Detmer. I don't remember why I started liking football, but sometime around 4th or 5th grade, I became a fan. I remember watching Ty Detmer play during his sophomore season when I was in 5th grade. When my dad somehow scored tickets to the BYU-Miami football game at the start of his junior season (September 8, 1990 - forever etched in my mind) and together we watch BYU take down might #1 ranked Miami, I became a crazy superfan. Kudos to my parents for supporting this obsession. My room became a shrine eerily resembling a BYU bookstore display. I had posters and pom-poms and programs and media guides and all kinds of obscure knick-knacks. My Aunt Cindy became aunt of the century when she obtained a personalized, autographed picture of Ty Detmer and sent it to me, along with many Daily Herald newspaper clippings.
I was sick to my stomach waiting for the Heisman Trophy winner announcement that year, and when his name was announced, I jumped so high I almost knocked over the Christmas tree. My best friend, Brooke, was similarly obsessed and somehow our primary teacher obtained one of his wedding announcements. She made color copies for both of us (which was pretty impressive back in 1991). In an impressive display of parental loyalty, my parents surprised our family with tickets to the 1991 Holiday Bowl, his last collegiate game. On Christmas afternoon, our family packed up and headed south to San Diego to watch him play. I was over-the-moon excited about it at the time. Looking back, I'm a little humbled to see the lengths my parents went to for me. They liked football fine, but they weren't crazy BYU fans obsessed with seeing Ty's last game. They just loved their kids and knew something that would make them happy. What a memory.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Things I Miss #'s 23-29: The Farm
I remember my aunts visiting when I was a little girl and telling me I would miss the farm when I grew up and moved away. I thought they were silly old ladies. I remember my Grandpa Max lamenting all the people who had to miss the sunrise since they were still curled up in bed while we were fortunate enough to be out working in the pipe field. I thought he was crazy.
They were right, I was wrong. I miss the farm.
I will always consider it one of my greatest blessings to have been raised on a farm. The life lessons are just so many and so easy to come by. It's hard to narrow the list down because it's more a way of life than specifics, but here is what I miss:
#23 - Moving Pipe - I never actually hated the moving pipe part of moving pipe, just the bothersome hours it required. 5:30 in the morning? No thanks. I remember many dark, cold mornings in the pipe field and that specific part I don't miss. Same goes for moving pipe in the blazing early evening heat while trying to battle mosquitoes. But, the sunrise? I miss seeing that. And the smell of dirt and mud? I miss that. And working together with my family? I miss that.
#24 - Driving swathers/combines/tractors - I am kind of a loner. I like a lot of quiet time to myself. I do not get enough these days. Driving on the farm gave me plenty of time for that. It was an ideal job for me.
#25 - Pulling Rye - Pulling rye doesn't even really happen much on the farm anymore, but we used to gather a crew and go walk through the fields looking for wild rye. It was easy to pull and I usually had some friends on the work crew, so it wasn't really a bad job. Basically, it was just walking through fields and pulling a few weeds. Even as a kid, I liked pulling rye in the evenings. The only part of pulling rye I don't miss is when we would go in the mornings. It started out okay, but by the time we finished up late in the morning, it was always really hot. I did not like that part.
#26 - Saturday Night - It was crazy busy around our house in the summertime. My dad worked loooong hours, usually farming long after the rest of us went to bed. When I was a teenager, one of my favorite things was to wait and listen on Saturday night for him to come home. He always always always came home at about 11:59. My bedroom window was right by where he would park his truck when he came home and I loved hearing that diesel engine come home just in time for the Sabbath. I'm sure it was tempting to keep working some of those night, but it was a really good lesson for me to hear him coming home on time.
#27 - The sound of sprinklers - I loved leaving my windows open in the summer. I probably never closed them from May until September. One of the main reasons was I loved listening to the sound of the sprinklers in the field. I like the sound of lawn sprinklers too, but the nice, even staccato of sprinkler pipe is completely soothing to me.
#28 - Working with my Family - I think most parents want to teach their kids to be hard workers. Sometimes, I have to invent jobs for my kids just because I want them to learn to work. There was always plenty of work to be done on the farm {although at the time I was totally convinced that the "rock picking" job was invented just to punish us}. My best co-workers ever were my family. I worked with my siblings and parents and grandparents and some cousins that came to stay every summer. It was fun to be out there with them and laugh together and work together.
#29 - Harvest - This list is getting a little long, but harvest time was just so great. It was always busy and hard work, but so rewarding to be able to feel like accomplished something. Even as a little kid, I remember sitting on top of the pile of wheat in the back of the truck and being so proud of how much wheat my dad had cut.
Just so I don't totally over-romanticize life on the farm, here are some things I don't miss: mosquitoes, setting up pipe, waking up early every single day of summer vacation, missing activities with friends to move pipe. And of course, the very worst job on the farm, answering the CB radio and having to call a farm store with some obscure question. It was such punishment to take those calls.
They were right, I was wrong. I miss the farm.
I will always consider it one of my greatest blessings to have been raised on a farm. The life lessons are just so many and so easy to come by. It's hard to narrow the list down because it's more a way of life than specifics, but here is what I miss:
#23 - Moving Pipe - I never actually hated the moving pipe part of moving pipe, just the bothersome hours it required. 5:30 in the morning? No thanks. I remember many dark, cold mornings in the pipe field and that specific part I don't miss. Same goes for moving pipe in the blazing early evening heat while trying to battle mosquitoes. But, the sunrise? I miss seeing that. And the smell of dirt and mud? I miss that. And working together with my family? I miss that.
#24 - Driving swathers/combines/tractors - I am kind of a loner. I like a lot of quiet time to myself. I do not get enough these days. Driving on the farm gave me plenty of time for that. It was an ideal job for me.
#25 - Pulling Rye - Pulling rye doesn't even really happen much on the farm anymore, but we used to gather a crew and go walk through the fields looking for wild rye. It was easy to pull and I usually had some friends on the work crew, so it wasn't really a bad job. Basically, it was just walking through fields and pulling a few weeds. Even as a kid, I liked pulling rye in the evenings. The only part of pulling rye I don't miss is when we would go in the mornings. It started out okay, but by the time we finished up late in the morning, it was always really hot. I did not like that part.
#26 - Saturday Night - It was crazy busy around our house in the summertime. My dad worked loooong hours, usually farming long after the rest of us went to bed. When I was a teenager, one of my favorite things was to wait and listen on Saturday night for him to come home. He always always always came home at about 11:59. My bedroom window was right by where he would park his truck when he came home and I loved hearing that diesel engine come home just in time for the Sabbath. I'm sure it was tempting to keep working some of those night, but it was a really good lesson for me to hear him coming home on time.
#27 - The sound of sprinklers - I loved leaving my windows open in the summer. I probably never closed them from May until September. One of the main reasons was I loved listening to the sound of the sprinklers in the field. I like the sound of lawn sprinklers too, but the nice, even staccato of sprinkler pipe is completely soothing to me.
#28 - Working with my Family - I think most parents want to teach their kids to be hard workers. Sometimes, I have to invent jobs for my kids just because I want them to learn to work. There was always plenty of work to be done on the farm {although at the time I was totally convinced that the "rock picking" job was invented just to punish us}. My best co-workers ever were my family. I worked with my siblings and parents and grandparents and some cousins that came to stay every summer. It was fun to be out there with them and laugh together and work together.
#29 - Harvest - This list is getting a little long, but harvest time was just so great. It was always busy and hard work, but so rewarding to be able to feel like accomplished something. Even as a little kid, I remember sitting on top of the pile of wheat in the back of the truck and being so proud of how much wheat my dad had cut.
Just so I don't totally over-romanticize life on the farm, here are some things I don't miss: mosquitoes, setting up pipe, waking up early every single day of summer vacation, missing activities with friends to move pipe. And of course, the very worst job on the farm, answering the CB radio and having to call a farm store with some obscure question. It was such punishment to take those calls.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Things I Miss #'s 19-22: More Newton Stuff
I knew there would be more Newton memories I would decide to add. Here are a few:
#19- The Newton Sky. I took for granted being able to see the stars when I was little. When I was 12, we had a foreign exchange student from Paris visit for the summer. I remember how amazed she was at the stars. She had never seen them before living in the city. That was unfathomable to me. When I was a teenager, my dad was a bishop in a USU student ward. Sometimes some of his students would come to our house to stargaze. I thought they were strange. When I moved out, I realized how many more stars you can see there than the small cities I have lived in since then. I'm always amazed when I am at my parent's house at night and step outside and see the stars. It's beautiful.
#20 - Softball Tournament. Until I was a young teenager, Newton hosted a softball tournament every summer and for a week or so, our town park was the place to be. They borrowed my dad's guitar amp every year to do the announcing and teams came from all over the valley to compete. We loved hanging out up there and feeling a little taste of independence since our parents just let us be there with no supervision. I was sad when they stopped the tournament. There is something so fun about a softball game on a summer night.
#21 -The Beanery. I guess this is technically a Cache Junction locale, and not Newton, but close enough. When I was very little, there was a restaurant in Cache Junction. Yep, the Cache Junction that is now basically a ghost town with four houses and a granary had a restaurant. It was a big railroad stop when railroad was king and the restaurant was still open when I was little. I was probably only six or so when it closed, but it made me very sad. I remember that I loved their chili and that they sold t-shirts and I always tried to get my mom to buy me one. I also remember that some of the teenage girls from town worked there and I hoped to be a waitress there when I was a teenager. Big dreams. I think it was mostly a hangout for old men, maybe kinda creepy old men, so my dad probably would've killed those dreams even if it hadn't closed.
#22 - The Newton Cafe. For several years, there was a cafe in the back of the store in town. Greasy, fried food at its finest. I don't think it was the food I cared about so much as the fact that when I was a young teenager, my parents would let me meet my best friends there with no adult supervision. I relished those kinds of experiences. I have good memories of meeting my friends there and hanging out. Loitering, I suppose you could call it. No one seemed to mind, though.
#19- The Newton Sky. I took for granted being able to see the stars when I was little. When I was 12, we had a foreign exchange student from Paris visit for the summer. I remember how amazed she was at the stars. She had never seen them before living in the city. That was unfathomable to me. When I was a teenager, my dad was a bishop in a USU student ward. Sometimes some of his students would come to our house to stargaze. I thought they were strange. When I moved out, I realized how many more stars you can see there than the small cities I have lived in since then. I'm always amazed when I am at my parent's house at night and step outside and see the stars. It's beautiful.
#20 - Softball Tournament. Until I was a young teenager, Newton hosted a softball tournament every summer and for a week or so, our town park was the place to be. They borrowed my dad's guitar amp every year to do the announcing and teams came from all over the valley to compete. We loved hanging out up there and feeling a little taste of independence since our parents just let us be there with no supervision. I was sad when they stopped the tournament. There is something so fun about a softball game on a summer night.
#21 -The Beanery. I guess this is technically a Cache Junction locale, and not Newton, but close enough. When I was very little, there was a restaurant in Cache Junction. Yep, the Cache Junction that is now basically a ghost town with four houses and a granary had a restaurant. It was a big railroad stop when railroad was king and the restaurant was still open when I was little. I was probably only six or so when it closed, but it made me very sad. I remember that I loved their chili and that they sold t-shirts and I always tried to get my mom to buy me one. I also remember that some of the teenage girls from town worked there and I hoped to be a waitress there when I was a teenager. Big dreams. I think it was mostly a hangout for old men, maybe kinda creepy old men, so my dad probably would've killed those dreams even if it hadn't closed.
#22 - The Newton Cafe. For several years, there was a cafe in the back of the store in town. Greasy, fried food at its finest. I don't think it was the food I cared about so much as the fact that when I was a young teenager, my parents would let me meet my best friends there with no adult supervision. I relished those kinds of experiences. I have good memories of meeting my friends there and hanging out. Loitering, I suppose you could call it. No one seemed to mind, though.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)