Christmas Land

Hey Hello out there in Christmas Land. Monday I thought I would put away a few Christmas things, next thing I knew I had put it all away. It's odd how naked your house looks when it's all away but how nice it is to have your house back at the same time. Next I took on the spare room where our spare refrigerator sits with all 1 million pot & pans sit along whit some bulk food storage. The out door manger seen used to rest in there also but no longer. The room was rearranged and has given me a much nicer room. with lots more room. Because the mangers seen has to have a new home. I have emptied the shed Tuesday thrown away a lot of things. Rob I have the lights for you, that I said I would give you. Maybe you can leave some room when you deliver the dogs. The weekend you go to the McCall carnival. I have one concern for the puppies. That on their ride to their destinations that they have a quiet ride. It will be their first day away from their mother, commotion enough I believe. A nice ride to their new homes I hope they could have. I appreciate your willingness to bring our dogs to us. It sure saves us a long round trip. Well long & short of the shed I make room for the manager scene in the shed. The garbage man once again hates us, well it's nothing new.
We got to Janet, Tate and the kids the day after Christmas. They were going to stay the night but because plans changed at Sandy & Jarrel, they ended up there for the night. We enjoyed all of our family, all of you. We are always so glad to see you all and feels so accepted by all of you.
There is talk of going to Island Park for three days this summer instead of the water park. Darlene and I would like to spend more time with the family as a group. I think it will draw us all closer as a family. Hope you all can think towards this mini vacation. We will get back to you with the dates.
Generally speaking not much impresses me about Christmas presents you really never know what your buying is going to be what a person would want. Sometimes you're surprised, someone will real happy with what you gave them. Such is this case for me this year. I opened all my presents this year, all things I needed my last present was a BEAUTIFUL RED HAND TRUCK! I have been waiting my time looking at garage sales and the D.I. for a long time. This is a gift that keeps on giving when you don't have a hand truck you are always needing one. So since you don't have one you have to call your home teacher to help you move something heavy. When you have a hand truck it seems you don't need one so often. It's a win win deal. So thanks a bunch all of you for the best present I have received in such a long long time.
In closing I would say I have written a few stories about my childhood. I will have to stop there my teen years were not fun filled. There is not much about married life I could say. My life was a blur of mental illness and anger. I can't explain the guilt I fell for all those years, but on the bright side of things I can't tell you what a wonderful life I've had the past 16 years. I am so happy I found God and Jesus Christ. I found Darlene being part of my life,I am so happy to have learned a life of volunteering and giving service. I am so glad to have been given the love of my children and grandchildren. For all of this Christmas is every day of the week for me.
That's it for now. We are looking forward to our new puppy and seeing all of you.
Love, Dad/Grandpa

Chased by Turkeys and Chasing Pigs

I would like you to know the farm time was good times, well except when grandma would yell. Grandpa was always nice kind and gentle we did a lot of things together. Grandma reminded me of the time she had fixed one of those big farmer breakfast, potatoes, and gravy for breakfast. Grandma cooked sunny side up eggs for every breakfast cooked with 5 pounds of lard. How sick is that. I wanted hard eggs. I just couldn't stomach grandmas eggs. I complained a little, she barked at me, if you want hard eggs you cook them. Okay I said. I cracked me a couple eggs put them in a lard free pan. Eggs cooked just like I liked. This was my first involvement in the fast food business. I went to set down when Ted saw my eggs. He said Kenny can you fix me a couple of those eggs. Sure I said. Then grandpa piped up, I'll take a couple too. The crap had just hit the fan, Grandma said, fine you can cook all the eggs. Looking back now I realize I got my mental illness from my dad who got his from grandma. One of the fun things grandpa did to have fun with me was to pull me around the courtyard on a big inner tube with his tractor. Now grandpa raised turkeys and I mean a lot of turkeys. These turkeys were always in hot pursuit to catch me. Grandpa would let the turkeys get near, about to get me, then take off in a different direction. It was big fun for him. My clothes were always filthy when we played this game. I'd have to change into some fresh coveralls when we were done. By the way I wore coveralls as my main source of apparel even to school, at least in the fist grade. There is a story of Kenny and pigs near the the barn. Somehow I had gained access to a harmonica and did pursue a career in this musical field. I was blowing to the top of my lungs as I came around the barn right near the pigs. All of a sudden 6 big pigs scared out of their minds hit the fence holding them in. BAMM. They were gone. I chased them up in the orchards where they had gone. Convinced I could get them back to the pen I tried. But everything was to no avail. I finally had to give up on persuading them to go home. I dreaded that long walk back to the house to tell grandpa what I had done. It's sad to say but that beautiful summer day was the beginning and the end to my musical career down on the farm. One nice thing that Ted did for me as a kid down on the turkey farm had to do with straw. There was a big stack of straw, Ted took the bales of straw and made tunnels and an inspiring hideout, like a secret chamber. I had much fun with new maze of tunnels. Imagine what it was all about in the dark then one day as I crawled around in my tunnel way in the back I see 4 shinny eyes looking down at me. I can't tell you how scarred I got. I quickly scurried and crawled as fast as I could go to get out. It didn't detour me from having much fun. The one good thing Ted did was build the tunnel thing and of course all the firecrackers, lots of fun.

Life on the Farm

Little known fact my dad was 7 years older than his brother my Uncle Bob. Bob was 7 years old the Ted my Uncle(cousin). I was 7 years younger than Ted which is why Ted tortured me on life on the farm. As a young boy I got to go down on the farm with grandpa & grandma. I would typically stay for a few weeks. I can remember being on the farm when I was 7 or 8 and as late as age 11. One thing you don't want to give a small boy is matches an firecrackers. I not only had some firecrackers I had a bunch, and being a boy I did my best to light the whole world on fire. For example I was with Ted in his 49 Ford, we pulled up beside a car on Sunny Slope. I lit a whole package and threw it out beside the other car. You should have seen the look of surprise on their faces, and the look of surprise on my face when Ted whacked me good. I had an uncommon way of using fireworks to have a good time. I remember the time I threw a package in an old chicken coop. Problem was this chicken coop was the home to 3 of Ted's prize bird dogs. You know the kind of dogs that are trained to point. I don't know if this comes close to cruelty, if nothing else it was very close. Ted showed me what I could do to have a rocket. You poke a hole in the bottom of a small can and fill a larger can with water, stick the firecracker in the hole put the little can firecracker up into the can with water and light the firecracker, then RUN. You would be surprised how high the little can would go. I liked this a lot and played with this new found fun. A desire to experiment with other things began to dissipate, well all except one last thing. It did not involve firecrackers. I was able to get a 1/2 gallon of gas. I climbed to the top of the silo (the silo was empty) I poured the gas down the side and set it on fire. I have to say seeing flames running up and down the silo , well it was cool. My career as a household fire bug came to an end that wonderful summer of blowing things up. I have had time many years to reflect over these memories. I must have been metal ill as far back as my first package of firecrackers.
In later years like being 11, I became a farmer under the directions of grandpa, I cultivated rows of corn on the tractor, I sat on grandpas' lap and managed to do quite well in retrospect grandpa must have been helping me along. I did get to drive the tractor back to the shed under my own power. I was hired by grandpa to hoe squash at 2 cents a hill which I did after I understood what a hill was. Referring back to snakes I had already been terrified of simple water snakes and I was much impressed by Ted's eagle eye. I remember sitting on the back porch of the old farm house when grandma YELLS out at Ted I need 2 chickens for dinner. I ain't lying Ted puts his 22 rifle to his shoulder and at 50 feet he shoots the head off two chickens. I can't explain what happened next but two chickens with no heads were doing the biggest circus show known to anyone close. The other chickens were running around yelling out the sky is falling, the sky is falling. It was a little hard to eat chicken dinner that night.
But back to the snakes, I was hired to feed the chickens 10 cents a day an easy job. After all it meant that I had 10 pieces of bubble gum every day. One day I opened the door to the barn, went over to the sack of grain and out came a big black long snake. If Ted couldn't hear right off he should have. I got to the house and told him my story, he said you stay here, I'll be right back, and back he came. He said all is all right I killed the snake. He shot it with his gun. He said it was safe to go feed the chicken now. I raced on down to scoop up some grain. I guess I was blinded by my faith that all was okay. I opened the barn door and walked right into the snake. Ted had hung up the snake to hit me in the face and scare me. I didn't earn my 10 cents that day. I can't tell you how afraid I am of snakes, I know it's a curse.
Well Ted grew less and less like a person who would have on your best friend list. Being 7 years older, me being 11 years old I remembers we were going to take a big fat pig to market. Instead of sitting up front with Ted in the truck I had to sit with the pig. Mind you a pig has no good end, not the part with a tail or the part with a big slimy mouth. Along he way Ted picked up some friends. They made me steal apples out of the orchard for everyone. So you see how my dilemma is starting to appear. The same guys wanted to go swimming and stopped by a murky brown colored water. They all took off their clothes. All their clothes. I just stood there, # 1 I couldn't swim, #2 well I just couldn't show what I barely had. Well I didn't go in my embarrassment was off the rector scale.
Well it gets better. I was at one of Teds friends farm. They were bailing hay that day, and there was a 12 year old girl driving the tractor pulling a trailer. We were all returning to the field to get more hay and then the group started yelling at the 11 year old boy (ME). They were harassing me to kiss the girl driving the tractor--isn't kissing something you reserve for your grandma or a dog or a turtle? Well you can guess I was totally humiliated and I didn't kiss her.
As a finish to my farm stories I was hired to drive the tractor in the fields while Ted and his football brothers bucked and loaded the hay. I got 10 cents an hour, unless I ran over a bale of hay that hour.
I have to say I enjoyed all the regular farm stuff, I did and when I became a pest grandpa would simply hang me on a hook in the barn, you know to stay out of the way of the cows.
Well that's another part of my life.

I'm Thankful Too

I just wanted to follow Janet in her posting of being thankful. Today I am thankful for car seats, seat belts and teddy bears. Last night Shane's wife, Christine, and daughter, Izzy, were in a car accident. Christine was taken to the hospital by ambulance and Izzy had to ride a long. They are both fine. Izzy wasn't hurt at all. Christine is sore and has a stiff neck and a headache. Shane called me from the hospital to pick them up because of course the car was towed and it had the car seat in it. The person that gave him a ride to the hospital doesn't have a car seat, but being a grandma there is always one in the car (unless we take it out for grow ups). When they came out of the hospital Izzy saw me and came running to show me the new teddy bear she was given. I hadn't really thought about the teddy bear dive they have here for the police to carry in their cars for kids when there is an emergency. I had of course heard of it, and my mother had a lot of stuffed animals one time shortly before she passed away that Ken and I took to the police station for her, but when you see the happiness and comfort that this one little act makes to a little girl that has been through a terror in her little life it makes you thankful that someone was thinking ahead for her. I know I will be giving bears to the police to help someone elses grandchild.

The Family Angel

This letter has some importance to the Wood Family for a small boy helped to set the tone of life as we know it. I was a small boy living down on Woodvine in Boise, Idaho. I had some friends who went to the Baptist Church in town. They rode the Baptist Bus to Bible Church, where they learned about Jesus. Being an impressionable boy I too wanted to ride the bus and learn more of Jesus. I asked my mother if I could go the Baptist Church. Reluctantly she said yes. It must have gone against the grain a little bit, for my mom was LDS. Totally inactive though she be. I went to church for sometime when I'm sure the Spirit talked to my mother which told her to take me to the Mormon Church.
At my small age there were only 2 LDS churches in Boise. We went each week to the church on Main Street. We started to be a little LDS family. My father was not a Mormon but we had good ward teachers. One such man was Albert Call who was fortunate to give my father the missionary lessons. My father was baptized and a year later we all were sealed in the Idaho Fall Temple. Albert Call was at that sealing. Albert Call would prove to be a very impressive angel sent to our family to be a part of our lives. In the old days when they built a church the members volunteered to help build the church. Thus was one of the first acts of giving service my father was involved in. I too gave service at the early age of 8 years old. I was given nails, board ends and a hammer to go at it. Occasionally I swept floors. That building still stands today. The old 6th Ward building on Broadway.
Now for the part that shows that God had a hand in this man being sent to our family. The next three incidences just happened. Brother Call was not informed about the events, he was just there. Albert Call was at my marriage to Joanne. Albert Call was there at the Temple when Janet and Tate were married. Albert call was at the Church on Broadway when Tricia's baby Alli was blessed and we had him stand in the circle.
Albert Call was there to be Bob and Bernice's home teachers in their later life. It was Albert Call through his love that prepared Bob to be sealed to Bernice. It was Albert Call who was at the sealing of Bob and Bernice. It was Albert Call who was at Bob's funeral. It was Albert Call who always seemed to be there at the right time who had his hand in the development of 2 families, the Woods and Power's families. Albert Call is an angel sent to watch over our families.
This has been a story of a good little boy who wanted to learn about Jesus who through his simple innocence changed the life and path of an entire family, and about a man who always seemed to be there for the perfection of Gods children.
I don't know if this account is exactly true but it is to my ability to remember.

The Criminal Mind of Grandpa

As I was recollecting my small life realized that at a young age I had a criminal mind as is reflected in the following 2 short stories. I can't quite visualize how old I was when I became a criminal but here goes for the world to know. I was young 3rd or 4th grade so I see in my mind I was at the Sprouse Rite Store, alone I think. There was a toy covered wagon with all the people. It must have been small enough for me to get it out of the store without being noticed. I never knew anything about having money back in those days. There was no such thing as an allowance back then. I believe my parents had all they could handle to put food on the table. The only money I had was from collecting beer bottles along the side of the road. Most of my ill gotten gains came from walking up and down Boise Ave. Well I got my wonderful new toy home and was ask by my mother where I got it I told her the store and I paid 10 cents for it. All was going well, I loved my new toy. Then came the day my mother went to Sprouse Rite to purchase something. She had see how well I liked my toy and she thought she might see if there was anything that went with the set. It was then that my goose was cooked. She saw the real price. It was then that her nice little son was nothing more than a common crook. Well a trip to the store by both of us to give back the toy and pay full price for it, ensued along with a whipping and being grounded for life. I learned from the experience that a life of crime only last for a while and that fun is short lived.
The next story goes to prove I learned nothing from the first story, so the life of crime continued. Roughly the same age I was one of the poor kids. I had to take cold lunch to school. I hated cold lunch. The same lunch every day. Peanut butter and jelly every day, some chips and an apple when we had them and occasionally a couple pieces of home made fudge. The fudge didn't count cause it was eaten on the walk to school so basically same sandwich every day. But then the criminal brain cells took over. I explain, all you needed was a lunch ticket to eat hot lunch. The tickets were pink with the # 1 through 5 on them. Its there that my mind too over. All I really needed was pink paper just like the tickets. Somehow at school I found that paper, I cut the new tickets to the same size as the real tickets. You got to stop and think where did I get the paper and what talent did I have to cut the tickets to look like the other tickets. Well the deed as done, I had my new lunch tickets. It was scary at first. I would take my fake ticket acting as if nothing was wrong and put my hand in the ticket bottle and then off to be in the hot lunch line. I did this for some time, but then as it happens, they started checking each ticket. The gig was up. I never got caught but my life of crime was over just that quickly. No more free hot lunch, back to eating my mothers cold terrible lunch again. I learned from this that you are going to get caught someday. But moreover I learned that to be successful crook you must act like the crooked thing you do. You must not act like the a crook but act as if what you do is okay. A lunch ticket thief, I was good at and I saw I must stop or be caught. There was no punishment for this I was never caught and no one has ever know about it. Now you all do. A life of crime is not a Christian thing, but you got to wonder what made Grandpa do this.
Well a wicked story should be followed by one good short story. One summer day my mother was in the middle of canning fruit. She had run out of canning supplies and sent me to the store to get those supplies. The store was on the corner of Boise Ave. and Gekler, not far from home. Well I went. Dressed in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I went to the store and got what was needed. I was told to hurry, she needed the stuff right away. About 3 blocks from home I notices this horse hung up by his feet in some barb wire. He was really agitated. I was worried for him, I was afraid he might get hurt. I knew he was the Bishop's horse, so I did what any child would do I hurried over to the Bishops home and reported the problem. I left and went right home. Apparently I had taken too long for thus a good spanking. But I new what I did was right. Then came Sunday the Bishop came over and thanked me for my help. He thanked me good right in front of my mother. Who says doing the Christian this is always the right thing to do. I've remembered this story all of my life it is the guide I use to live my life by.

Walking to school adventure.

I have three different stories all which are stories of a young boy's mischief.
Story 1. I started of to school with my fried Dickie Camp, a nearby neighbor of mine. The trail to school was abut 1 1/2 miles just short of my being able to ride the big yellow school bus. Before we stared our walk down the trail we wandered down to the empty irrigation ditches. Under the road was an irrigation pipe just the size for two young and inquisitive friends. We crawled through the pipes ending up on the other side of Boise Ave. There is a valley that goes to another irrigation area, down in this place there were piles of snakes, you know water snakes. We played around for a while we even picked them up. It was here that I learned to fear any type of snake. It was my luck that one would slither up my paint legs. I was terrified and couldn't get my pants off fast enough. From that day forward I have been terrified of snakes. The time seemed to disappear very quickly, we eventual make our way toward school. We were covered in dust and dirt. Arriving at school we realized we were hungry, but instead of going to lunch our teacher took us to the Principal, who gave us a great lecture, then he pulled out this extra large paddle with holes and gave us 2 hard swats each. The desire to have lunch had since been replaced by the repercussions of the fun day we had experienced.