My Othello Days by Charlie Wardle

My Othello Days
January 1961 to December 1963
By: Charlie Wardle

I was born on January 28, 1961.  Our family moved away from Othello in December of 1963--a month before my third birthday.
I don't remember anything about Othello.  I just remember stories that were told to me about Othello.  My first memory is of when we left Othello and were at Disneyland in the submarine looking out the window at the fish swimming by.  (December after we left Othello)
One of the stores that was told to me about Othello was of me peeing on the flowers and bushes outside the church just as church was being let out.  Another story was of me taking the foam stuffing out of my high chair and stuffing it up my nose.  It think it stayed there a couple days before someone noticed it.  Dad pulled the stuffing out with his needle nose pliers.  Also while living in Othello I got ringworm from one of the cats on the farm. 
During the summer of 2006, Mom, Sara, Weldon and I took a trip back to Othello to see the farm.  While we were in Othello, there were a lot of places that looked familiar to me.  It was like I had seen them  before or I had been there before.  Places that seemed familiar were; the canal and ditches, the road along the canal, and the road coming down the hill  from the canal to the house.  The front of the house looked familiar, especially the windows and front door area.  Inside the house the front door is probably where I learned to walk.  The bedrooms, bathroom and laundry rooms looked familiar, especially the cabinets and wood closets.  In the cabinets and closets I would see dad's woodworking and style in them.  The closets and cabinets were made the same way as the closets and cabinets were in our Hyrum basement bedroom and the ones dad made in the garage in Hyrum.
Outside of the  house was a well house, some sheds, a parking area, a garden area and some gas-tank stands.  I felt like I had seen them  before and I could se dad's work in them.  Around the town, we saw the church, A&W (now a Mexican restaurant), and old restaurant and parks.  Once again, they all looked familiar to me--like I had seen them before--but I have no memory of them.
After our trip to Othello there have been many times I wish I could have talked to dad again about the farm and equipment that I saw there and what he used on the farm.
I have wondered many times what my life would have been like if we had stayed on the farm.  Being the son that likes to build things and work with my hands, I probably would have ended up being a farmer just like my dad was.  Since we left the farm, I have gone to college and and graduated just like my dad die.  (I even have a Masters Degree like him.)  Ironically I went in the same field that dad started in--Industrial Education.  After dad started college he changed his major to English and Library Science.  Even though I may be the family's worst speller/reader (dyslexia), I write a lot of my own stories and share them with my school classes.

Old Combine

Tractor on which Sara tipped over

Our home in Othello

Hiawatha school in Othello