Christmas During the Hyrum Years

Tom Smith became and annual visitor as Santa Claus

We first moved to Hyrum in 1964.  We never decorated the outside of our house, but always put the tree in the front window and left the curtains open a bit to high light the tree.  Some years we added the decals you stuck to the tree, hoping they would stay up for the season.  Our first three years in Hyrum my dad was attending school, so Christmas was austere.  Christmas 1966, my dad was away at school in Denver.  Charlie wrote a story about this year.  http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-christmas-story-by-charlie-wardle.html
Christmases 1967 and 1968 we lived in Carbondale, Illimpos, returning to Hyrum for 1969, when I was in the seventh grade.
We had one tradition of being allowed to open on gift from under the tree on Christmas Eve.  It was terrible when you chose clothing or something Christmas Eve.  We were looking for toys or games.  Santa left most of our toys out unwrapped, so we could see what he had brought early in the morning before our parents had gotten up.  

1964

1965

1965 Sara holding FiFi the cat.

1968 Carbondale

1970

1972

1977 (when I was on my mission)

Photos courtesy of Charlie scanning and putting on Ileen Wardle Family group.

Norman Christmas Party

Party at Dianna's was 12/28 Friday after Christmas.  We had a great time with soup and salad bar.  Sheri took chicken noodle and Liz made cheese broccoli.  There was also ham and beans and clam chowder which I enjoyed.  Dianna made home made bread which I enjoyed with Gary's frozen strawberry jam.  Our family was 16 for the party with all our kids, Gary and Angie's family and Mark and Dianna's family and we had quite a crowd.  There were 27 for the gift exchange party.  Two babies did not play.  I scored a chocolate football and Tony a large jar of cheese balls.  He was torn between the two so I got the chocolate for him.  Caleb  scored a edible snake and Sheri a book.  We had fun. Tony really likes Rachel, Gary and Angie's daughter.

My Poetry: Mary and Joseph's Lullabye

Mary:
Hush thee my babe, Hush thee my child,
Hush thee my babe You're tender and mild.
Hush thee my babe, Hush thee my child,
Hush thee my babe You're tender and mild.

Joseph:
Sleep little boy, Sleep through the night.
Sleep little boy I'll keep things right.
Sleep little boy, You've no need to fear
For I am always near.

Both: Sleep little boy, You're tender and mild.

Tony Lost His First Tooth at Age Five

You can see the whole on the bottom

Tony had a traumatic experience in the car today.  He has had a loos tooth, and he pulled it out with his fingers.  This is his first lost tooth, and he was nervous for a couple of minutes, but decided it was OK even though there was a little bit of blood.  He rinsed it in the sink a couple times, and then finally went to bed, thinking it will be better in the morning.

Sky View High School Graduation 1975

I don't remember much of my graduation night, but have these few mementos, a picture from the paper, the program and a picture in front of the school.  I know we rehearsed many days, and I would have been with the choir which sang, "Impossible Dream," "This is our Country" and "Climb Every Mountain."

Christmases in Othello

As I was very young, I don't remember very many actual experiences around Christmas in Othello.  I remember going to larger cities to Christmas shop, Seattle or Spokane.  I remember having to get past or through Mount Ranier with the threat of winter storms and icy roads.  I also remember one year shopping in a big city, and being in the back of the rambler, where there was a compartment underneath for storing things.  We came home knowing our Christmas was under our feet, and not being able to peak. 

Weldon 1954

 We would often travel the other direction for Christmas, Idaho Falls or Rigby were prime locations for Christmas, either visiting my mom's mother in Lincoln (My grandfather passed away shortly after I was born) or father's parents in Rigby.  Sometimes we would have a joint dinner with both sets of grandparents. From the pictures I notice cards taped to the wall.  This is something we still often do at our house.

1960

Weldon is going to hit me

1961

1963 Christmas Day, Lincoln

1963 was a different Christmas.  We were at Grandma Wright's, after a tour of California, San Francisco, Disneyland, Rose Bowl Parade, we would move in with her having left the farm behind us.

A Christmas Story by: Charlie Wardle (Hyrum 1966)

A Christmas Story by: Charlie Wardle
December has got to be one of the slowest months of the year.  It seem like it takes Christmas forever to get here.
Our family always started celebrating Christmas early.  Right after Thanksgiving is over we all start thinking about Christmas.  A week after Thanksgiving, the Christmas tree goes up.
During the evenings of December our family loves to gather around the Christmas tree to watch the lights on it.  With the white snow outside, and all the lights in the house off, except, for the lights on the Christmas tree, the glow on the lights on the tree make the room very peaceful.
It is at this time the family would like to tell Christmas stories of the past.  I was five when this story happened, the youngest of the family.   Our family was living in Hyrum, Utah, while my dad was going to school in Denver.
With my mom being pregnant, my dad was the only one in the family, who could put up the Christmas tree.  For us kids, not having our Christmas tree up was just terrible.  All of our friends had their tree up, but not us.  Some of us kids started wondering if we might miss Christmas this year, because we knew Santa Couldn’t find us if we didn’t have a tree.
We begged and pleaded with Mom several times to put the tree up.  She would just say, “Dad will be home before Christmas, he will put it up when he gets home.”  It seemed like it took forever for Dad to get home.  A couple of days before Christmas Dad did come home.
On Christmas Eve, we as a family went out to buy our tree.  We kids were wondering if there would be any trees left.  Dad said, teasing us, “If we can’t find a Christmas tree, we’ll just have to use Mom’s flower plant instead of a tree.”  All us kids started whining.  We didn’t want a flower plant, we wanted a Christmas tree.
When we got to the tree place, to our surprise, there were a lot of trees left, and they were all half off, which made Mom and Dad happy.  All us kids ran over to the biggest and fluffiest tree there, telling mom and dad we wanted that one.  Mom and Dad didn’t like it though because there was a small part on it with no branches.  We kids begged and pleaded until Mom and Dad bought it.  Dad also fought a few extra branches to cover up the hole.  We loaded the tree into the trunk of the car and headed for home to get that tree up before Santa got there.
When we got home, Dad put the tree in the garage to drill the holes for the branches and spray the snow on it.  We kids enjoyed watching Dad do this.  We made good and sure that Dad hurried so we could get the lights and bulbs on it before Santa got there.
When Dad got done he brought the tree in and set it in front of the big window in the front room.  All us kids grabbed some bulbs to put them on the tree.  But Dad stopped us, telling us that the lights went on first.  Sara, the oldest of us kids, grabbed the Santa Claus face which had a light in it, to put on the top of the tree.  Then Sara, Connie, Weldon and Bill, all the kids that were big enough to reach the top of the tree, helped Dad put the lights up high, while I helped at the bottom of the tree.  We then put the bulbs on the tree, being the littlest, I did the ones on the bottom of the tree while my brothers and sisters did the ones up higher.  Soon the tree was all done.  We all stepped back to watch, while Sara plugged in the lights; the whole tree lit up very bright and beautiful.
We were now ready for Christmas.  All of us went and got our presents we had bought each other, and set them under the tree.
Mom had some nice hot chocolate for us which tasted real nice on that cold winter night.
Whenever we kids could, we would sneak over to the tree to see if we could find a present that belonged to us.  When we found one of our own, we could shake it and squeeze it to try to figure out what was inside it.  When Mom would see us feeling packages, she would say “now kids leave those alone before you break one—and get away from that tree before you knock the tree over.”
Then the begging would start, “Mom can we please open one up tonight?”  We kept on begging until she would give in.  We then had the big decision; which one do I open?  Which one is the best?  We would carefully pick out the one that we wanted to open.  The one that I opened was a GI Joe doll.  Right after we opened our presents Mom and Dad would send us all off to bed.
Christmas Eve was the hardest night there was to fall asleep.  I remember just falling to sleep when I heard a noise upstairs.  I thought to myself, “Santa is here.”  I waited for about five minutes, and then I started for the upstairs to see what I got.  About half way up I heard my daddy say “Back to bed!”  I asked him, “Has Santa come yet?”  My dad replied “No!  And he won’t come until you get to sleep.”  I went back to bed, and lay there until I fell to sleep.
About four in the morning, Weldon and Bill came to me, saying that Santa had come, Santa had come!  Hearing that I jumped right out of bed, ran up the stairs to see that Santa had found our house, and brought us lots of toys.

Thanksgiving Through the Years

My memories of Thanksgiving have become blurred with Christmas.  The pre-Thanksgiving activities were usually at the school, telly the Mayflower story, constructing Thanksgiving turkeys with colorful feathers.
Often a feast at Aunt Audrey's in Pocatello made the day special.  Her home wasn't the largest, be we all seemed to find a place to eat, either in the living room with t.v. trays, or in the kitchen.  There was a great crowd there with many cousins.   Sometimes our attention would turn to football on the telly in the afternoon. 
More recently a tradition has been for my mom's family to gather in Logan at her church on Thanksgiving about every third year.  These are busy days, and fun.  We use one end of the gym for we decorate, while in the other we get a basketball game going.  There is a t.v. set up with a movie.  The Thanksgiving meals are spectacular wit both ham and turkey.  I love ham gravy.  There are vegetable trays and all the side dishes you could think of--bean casserole, stuffing, cheese tray etc.  After the meal we would always take family pictures on the stairs in Grandma' church.  There would be a big group picture and then individual family pictures.

My Life in Theater: Saturday's Warrior Choir

In my first year at Utah State University, before my mission, I had the opportunity to sing in the Logan "Saturday's Warrior" Chorus.  They actually paid us for singing, $5 a night.  Steve Simmons was the choir director.  He was also the director for the USU Choir (not the advanced Chorale) and also taught me private lessons for a couple quarters.  We had a couple long runs in Logan, but also traveled to Twin Falls and Montpelier, Idaho.  They fed us on the trips.  In Montpelier we stayed with local families.  In Twin Falls I think we had a hotel. I roomed with Danny Pitcher.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwDbwCtTWwA&feature=plcp

Joseph L. Bishop: My Mission President

My mission president was the president of Weber State University before he was the president of the Buenos Aires North Mission.

Poetry by Sarah Teasdale

A Cry

Oh, there are eyes that he can see,
And hands to make his hands rejoice,
But to my lover I must be
Only a voice.

Oh, there are breasts to bear his head,
And lips whereon his lips can lie,
But I must be till I am dead
Only a cry.

Sarah Teasdale

 

I think this is my favorite

The Look

  Strephon kissed me in the spring,
   Robin in the fall,
  But Colin only looked at me
   And never kissed at all.

  Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
   Robin's lost in play,
  But the kiss in Colin's eyes
   Haunts me night and day.

"Only in Sleep"

Only in sleep I see their faces,
Children I played with when I was a child,
Louise comes back with her brown hair braided,
Annie with ringlets warm and wild.

Only in sleep Time is forgotten --
What may have come to them, who can know?
Yet we played last night as long ago,
And the doll-house stood at the turn of the stair.

The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces,
I met their eyes and found them mild --
Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder,
And for them am I too a child?

Sarah Teasdale

 

Your Heart Will Burn, Campfire Dance

This is one of the highlights of "Your Heart Will Burn" which he performed as a ward production in 2003.  This dance is choreographed by Tamara McGhie.  Elaine Morris plays violin and Joe Eliason piano.  Mark and Billy Wardle wrote the music.  Performing are Natalia Wardle, Alysa Orton, Jean Juang, Sharon Juang, Maggie Hutlinger, Kimmie Dye, Ashley Orton and Susie McElligott.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE199Q-80Zw&feature=plcp

Duckwater Round Dance

When I worked for the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, I learned there was great power in the round dance.  The step is relatively easy, so this is a dance in which I participated.  But the power of the dance is in a large group forming hands and dancing.  One time I danced with the school children; and on another occasion the entire community participated in the dance.  The music and the step seem to increase feelings of camaraderie.  The times when I participated, everyone held hands and the circle was complete.  This video gives some idea of the music and the step.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT55U8q3kOE

First Year for Bridgerland Youth Soccer: 1976

With who as many people who play soccer now, it is hard to believe  this was not always the case.  My brothers and I did not play soccer growing up, but I was coaching it as a young man.  The article from the Hyrum Crusader does not name me, but if Weldon was doing something, I was doing something.  When Peter Banks moved to our community, he took the initiative to get soccer started, and Weldon was a key part of this.  We practiced at the baseball diamond at South Cache Junior High School.  This was my first introduction to soccer, other than seeing it on t.v.  It was just before I left on my mission.

November 26, 1976: First Year for Bridgerland Youth Soccer
The American Youth Soccer Organization has been introduced to Cache County.
Peter Banks has headed the Bridgerland Youth Soccer, region 131 of the AYSO.  This has been its first year in Cache County.  225 boys and girls played soccer this year.
Teams practiced at least once a week with games on Saturday at Logan Jr. High.  AYSO's motto is "Everybody Plays".
Hyrum based teams did well and earned first place honors in each of three divisions.  In division I (eight and nine year olds) the Hyrum team Sharks took first.  Playing for the Sharks were: Steve Banks, Kamran Preece, Truman Preece, David Bailey, David Wengreen, Mark Wengreen, Craig Jorgensen, Ryan Brown, Burke Reeder, Joey Maloey, Kurt Johnson and Robi Shelley.  Coaches were Weldon Wardle and Leland Preece.
The Eagles, another Hyrum based team, took first in division II (ten to twelve year olds).  Members of that team were: Mike Banks, Alex Bell, Randy Funk, Kenneth Gordon, Tim Harrison, Bret Johnson, Chris Johnson, Kenny Johnson, Scot Jorgensen, Jeff Loosli, David Preece, Ryan Reeder, Craig Whitaker, Todd Windlow and Rick Wood.  Coaches were Peter Banks and Tor Wedde.
Division III (13 and 14 year olds) saw the Dynamos, a Hyrum, Providence and Nibley team, take first.  Players were: Doug White, Corey Smith, Leonard Barton, Chris Checketts, Todd Larsen, Cory Shaffer, Eric Bell, Dewilton Binggeli, Aleck Johnson, Kenneth Campbell, Scot Johnson, Thor Dyson, Robert Johnson, Kevin Banks, Mario Wilson and Dwane Hansen.  Their coach was Larry Sanchez.

We Lost Carol DeBolt This Past Month

Carol Debolt passed away last month.  No obituary was published at her request.  We had been corresponding at Christmas for the past several years.  Last year she had mentioned that she had cancer.  Her illness limited her ability to work.  Most recently she had worked at the stadium in San Diego--I think the Padres.  Carol loved baseball.  She had followed the Pirates, and sometime the took the West trip with them.
Carol DeBolt had lived in Hyrum, kitty-corner from Lincoln Elementary, the corner of Center and100 East, for several years.  She moved to Cache Valley to work with the Home Start program. This was a program related to Head Start, working with preschool children.
Carol had four children, Judy, David, Linda and Ben.  David and Ben participated in Hyrum sports, mostly baseball.  They both played short stop.  Carol was very active in the kids sports.  She and Sister McBride, (mother of Darrus and Robbie) would take it upon themselves to provide meals for us.  They were the team mothers.  They would prepare the meals, and we would eat them is how that worked.  We also had many good times, because it was impossible to always be focused on baseball.  Spoons was a really big hit.  We also played a game of putting flour in a cup and then putting a penny on top.  We would slowly cut the flour away until the penny would fall--something like Jenga.  We had many fun times.
Carol was a great fan of Ohio State.  They played two seasons in a row at the Rose Bowl, and we boys went on a road trip to Pasadena.  We slept on the street to have a good spot for the Rose Bowl Parade.  We watched the game and both years Ohio State lost.  One year the Volkswagon Van Carol drove had issues.  It fell on me to fix the alternator one time with card board pieces, because the garage in the desert didn't have the part.  It got us home, and then died.
Carol was  voice of agitation in the community.  She spoke out for recreational opportunities and fair government. 
The DeBolts left Hyrum for California after I returned home from my mission; probably 1979.  I took environmental science at Utah State with David.  David had continued playing baseball, including Sky View High School, and I heard some university in San Diego. 
Before I went on my mission, I gave Carol a Book of Mormon.  I stayed at their house until early in the morning, building up my nerve to give it to her.  I think she put it with many others she had been given over the years.

Hyrum Lost a Friend This Week: Art Keeley

    http://www.allenmortuaries.net/obituaries/Arthur-Keeley/#/Obituary
    Growing up I was good friends with David Keeley, and consequently spend quite a bit of time in the seminary building where Art Keeley worked.  There were two classes.  Brother Keeley was always there, while the other teacher seemed to have more turnover.  Brother Keeley had a snack drawer where he would sell candy.  Some weeks I would take my lunch money and blow it on candy.
     Going home from school, we had a half hour wait for the bus to come.  So with David we would hang in the seminary building where we played a lot of ping pong.  There were four of us, David, Terril Morgan, Randy Allen and myself.  We also spent a lot of time in Brother Keeley's classroom on the piano.  Randy would really play, and the rest of us would play "Peter Pumpkin Eater" on the black keys or "Chopsticks" or "Heart and Soul."  Some days Brother Keeley would have us help with different chores.  We went in the basement several times storing things or bringing things from storage.
     Some days we over did and missed the bus.  Then Brother Keeley would give us a ride, although I'm not sure he always liked us tagging along.  He had an old white station wagon.  They would have to stop at someone's house on the way where they bought fresh cow's milk.
     Brother Keeley had a good sense of humor and would use it in his class.  I remember he made a game on Jeopardy game on Church History and the question was, "liquor on the top shelf."  The answer was "Hyrum," the town where I grew up.
    At South Cache there was an annual basketball game; faculty verses ninth-grade boys team at the end of the year.  Brother Keeley would participate, sometimes as the ref, with the goal of bringing some comic entertainment.  He would do a good job.
     A few years later, 1981, when I graduated form Utah State, there was a special article in that Art Keeley was graduating with at least a couple of his children, including David.  He had gone back to school to get a Masters in Special Education.  He had developed an interest as a younger son was born with down's syndrome.
     The Keeley family was a large group, and I know I can't remember them all.  Claudia the oldest, and then David, my age, James, Lisa, Kevin and then a few younger siblings. 

Halloween Memories: Carbondale, Ill

Halloween Memories: Carbondale, Illinois
We lived in Carbondale for my 5th and 6th grades.  I was still into trick-or-treating, but the days of store bought costumes was behind me.  Instead I would dress as a pirate.  In the fifth grade, I was a pirate in a play at school.  It was a fun play.  There were a couple witches, and in the end they defeat me by taking my neck bone.  I had to pretend I had no neck bone, with my head flapping back and forth.  At any rate, the pirate costume stuck for Halloween. 
This was a year of “watch out for the big kids who will steal your candy.”  And so in addition to trick-or-treating, there was the need to be on the lookout for those who were too old to trick-or-treat, but not too old to be out looking for someone who would be easy prey.  What a sense of paranoia that caused, because I remember them coming after people and getting them to run and spill candy out of their bags. 
The first year we trick-or-treated up and down our street with all the side courts and streets.  My second year in Carbondale we lived in an apartment complex.  I am sure I went as a pirate again, but don’t remember much of that year.  I do remember a branch party we had close to the Branch Garden.  This had been a Civil War Battle site.  Of course not a big battle, but you could still see bomb craters in the terrain.  We set up a haunted hike and took the younger kids on a hike going past the crater and with other scary things.  It was sort of a creepy area, with over hanging trees.  I helped build a mannequin which we dropped out of a tree at the kids.  One of the older kids ruined everything when he tackled the mannequin.  It was suppose to be the highlight of the hike, and ended up being the low-light because a mannequin on the ground is not near as scary as one hanging from a tree, swinging back and forth.

Halloween Memories: Hyrum

Halloween Memories: Hyrum
We lived in Hyrum for three years, second to fourth grades for me, then moved away for a couple of years; and then returned to Hyrum.  I don’t remember much about Halloween the first couple years, but I was old enough to go with older siblings the first couple years, and then with friends my fourth grade year.  I would go as Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Casper was cool.
Halloween in Hyrum, in those days was accompanied by fire.  It was a time for burning leaves, and kids would always light up the leaves in the gutters.  Sometimes they would also add gas.  I remember one year there was a tire rolling down Main Street, which had been doused with gas and then set on fire.  Hyrum Main Street has a pretty good hill.
In Hyrum at that time, houses were spaced fairly far apart, so in a block you would hit three or four homes.  A block being an eighth of a mile meant to hit a great deal of houses, there was a good deal of walking to be done.  If we had been smart, we would have cut over to Main Street where the houses were closer.  We would go there sometimes, at least around our own block, but mostly we would stay on our street, 100 South.  We would follow that street all the way to Center, and then come back on 200 or 300 South, catching the houses on the East West streets as best we could.  By the end of the evening we would collect a goodly amount of candy, but we would be tired as well.  I remember there was one house who gave full size candy bars.  That was a treat.  Families also gave apples and popcorn balls in those days.  You don’t see those anymore.  Everything is store bought and individually wrapped now.
When we returned to Hyrum I was a seventh grader.  I remember some trick-or-treating, but we leaned to the tricking side.  We would have a bar of soap, maybe a few rolls of toilet paper, and when I was older we would add a bit of gas to our tricking tools.  My cousin went with me one yer.  We put gas on top of a stop sign and lit it.  It didn't burn long however.
Another year we lit some leaves in a gutter.  A police man confronted us.  Of course we denied our involvement, he he made us help him put it out all the same.

Halloween Memories: Othello

Halloween Memories: Othello
Othello is of course where I have my first memories of Halloween.  I can’t remember my costume, but I know one of my first costumes was as a skeleton.  Weldon and I actually had the same costume, but different sizes.  Othello was a rural community, and we lived outside of town.  I do not remember going into town to trick-or- treat.  Maybe my older siblings did that.  Instead we would load into the car, and go so particular people who were friends, but lived far away from each other so there were not a lot of stops for us to gather candy.  Each stop was more a social visit than today’s trick-or-treating.  Some reason, I was always asked to sing.  I think I started singing as early as three-years old.  I would always sing the same song: “I’m a Little Teapot.”  “I’m a little teapot short and stout, Here is my handle and here is my spout.  When I get all steamed up then I shout, Tip me over and poor me out.”  My brothers and sisters liked for me to sing.  It got them off the hook, as it was a common request in Othello to ask trick-or-treaters to sing.  Also they liked it as they said it got us more goodies.  I guess I was good enough that we were all rewarded.

Skinny Dippin' by Charlie Wardle

“Skinny Dippin’” by: Charlie Wardle
One day while we were at Granma Wardle’s in Rigby, Idaho, Dad decided that he would take us boys and some of our cousins to his old swimming hole for a swim.  Since we didn’t have any swimming suits with us, Dad said it would be alright to go skinny dipping.  When Uncle Olsen heard this, (he was very strict with his children) he told his two boys that if they even got a little wet, he’d beat them.
Dad assured Mother and Aunt Verna that his swimming hole was where no one could see us.  It ended up being about twenty yards away from a busy highway.
Dad’s swimming hole was a great big canal with a small ditch that ran along the side of it.  The place where we were swimming had about five great big trees and a rope hanging from one of the trees to swing across.  Dad said there used to be a diving board when he used to swim, but it was gone.
The people that ended up going were Dad, Weldon, bill, Charlie, the two Olsen boys and Danny Green.  The canal we were swimming in was fairly deep, at least over my head, and it was fairly swift.
We would walk up the ditch about thirty or forty yards, then hurry and jump into the canal and float on down the canal. 
We had the Olsen boys at each end of the canal when we were swimming, to watch for cars when we switched from the canal to the ditch; or from the ditch to the canal. 
One time when we were moving from the ditch to the canal, Weldon got up on the bridge that went over the canal, to dive in.  While Weldon was standing on the bridge a car came by.  Weldon didn’t have time to jump in so he just stood there and waved.  The funny thing about it was that the people in the car were Sara and Clyde.  When Sara noticed that the person standing on the side of the road nude was her brother Weldon, her bottom jaw dropped so far that I thought it was going to fall off.
After we got done swimming and put on our clothes, Weldon, Billy and Danny started swinging across the canal on the rope.  The younger Olsen boy [Reed] wanted to try swinging across the canal, but his oldest brother [Ray] told him he better not in case he fell in.  To show his oldest brother that he could do it, he grabbed the rope and started across.  He just barely reached the bank on the other side with his “tippy-toes”.  He was trying to pull himself up with the rope when his grip slipped and in he went.  We all started laughing at him.  When he pulled himself out, his brother was telling him how he had told him that he shouldn’t have swung across the canal on the rope.  He got mad at his brother and pushed him in the canal so they both got wet. 
When we got back to Grandma’s their dad was so mad with them they both had to go sit in their van until their family left Grandma’s.

Malad Baseball Tournament

Malad Baseball Tournament by: Billy Wardle
When we were younger, we like to play baseball, but mostly we coached.  Our baseball escapades gave us the opportunity to go to tournaments in Malad every year.  We also went to other cities, but it seemed Malad was always our favorite.  So much so that the city of Malad always held something magical for me.
    The Malad tournament was held in August every year, usually the second weekend.  It was about an hour drive from Hyrum.  We would go up and camp out.  We stayed in placed like the American Legion Hall, the old hospital, camped downtown; and camped by an old church.
    The town always bustled with excitement.  There was pinball to be played (this was before all the video games came out), a free swim pass to use, a free bowling pass, free movies as well as free prizes from some of the local merchants. 
    Of course there was the baseball too.  Our teams varied in their performance, but we seemed to get better over the years.  It was always more fun to win.  It allowed you to stay more days at the tournament.  It also allowed you to hold your head up high when you ran into kids from any of the other fifteen teams.  It was especially good when you were in a championship game—which happened a few times.

Wolfer by: Charlie Wardle

Wolfer by: Charlie Wardle
    Although our family had lots of pets over the years, Wolfer was our big family dog.  He was almost just like one of the family. 
    We got Wolfer on my ninth birthday in 1970.  Wolfer died in the spring of 1979.
    He was the type of dog that you would call a “mutt”, having about ten different breeds in him.  He was a very colorful, smart, and a very strong dog.
    When Wolf was a pup, the neighbor’s dog, a German shepherd, used to pick on Wolf a lot.  One time, the dog put a great big hole in Wolf’s head, just above his eye.  He had a scar there the rest of his life.  I always felt the Wolf learned how to fight from the dog, because when Wolf grew up, he was always getting into dog fights and won most of them.
    There was on time, Wolf was fighting a big, black lab.  Wolf was beating that dog up pretty good.  The lab’s owner, who was a little boy, was crying, so I went to pull wolf off when the black lab bit me on the leg.  When Wolf saw that, he jumped at the dog and got a death bite on the dog’s neck and started swinging the dog back and forth.  Wolf finally let go and the dog took off down the street with his tail between his legs. 
    Wolfer always kept stray dogs and cats away.  We never had any problems with dogs getting into our garbage.
    Wolf was a very smart dog.  If a door wasn’t shut tight, he could open it.  You couldn’t tie him up, he would always get away.  We went through a lot of chains and ropes that Wolfer broke trying to get away. 
    One time, Clyde (our brother-in-law) thought that he would out-smart Wolf by putting a choke chain on him (a chain that when you pull it, it gets tighter.)  But Wolf out-smarted him.  Wolf would just back out, and the chain slipped right over his head.
    One time, Buffie (our nephew) wandered off to a barn a couple of blocks away from our house.  Wolf, who was watching him, knew he was someplace where he shouldn’t be and came back home, got mom, then lead her to where Buffie was.
    Another time we were swimming at our favorite place at Hyrum Dam called Rocky Point.  Wolf noticed some birds in the middle of the dam on a “thing” the city had out there trying to clean the dam.  Wolf jumped in and started swimming towards those birds.  We all followed on our inner-tubes.  When Wolf got to the place where the birds were, they all flew away.  All of us kept on paddling towards the other side, and Wolf followed.  After we got to the other side, we went back to the side where Rocky Point was at, and Wolf followed.  (We did give him a chance to rest before we started back.)
    Wolf was a very fast runner and loved to run.  Whenever we would go in the car over to Sara’s house, Wolfer would race us over.  Sara’s house was about three blocks away and Wolfer would usually beat us there.
    There was only one person that Wolfer really disliked, and that was our neighbor Marty Smith.  He was the only one I knew of that Wolfer had bitten.
    On night, Marty and some of his friends were toilet papering our house.  Wolfer was locked in our garage.  Dad heard them outside and let Wolf out of the garage.  The first thing Wolf did was he went and grabbed Marty by and arm and held him there while Dad chased the others away.  Marty said that every time he tried to make a move to get away, Wolfer would make his grip tighter and bite down harder.
    Wolfer loved to get bumble bees trapped in the garage against the window.  He would jump up and lick them until the bees were dead.
    Wolf did get into a lot of trouble with the police.  One time he went through some people’s fiber glass garage door trying to get to a dog that was in heat.  Mom and Dad ended up paying for the door.
    Wolfer was the only dog I knew that got tickets from the police.  He used to love to chase police cars.
    Wolfer was the best dog our family ever had.  He’s a dog that no other dog will ever be able to replace.
    [Some of my memories of Wolf include my mom chasing him out of the house with a broom.  She didn't like him in the house.  A few days later for family home evening we were reenacting scenes on treating others with kindness, and a couple us kids pretended to be my mom with the broom and Wolf being chased.
    Another memory is the way he use to chase us when we went anyplace.  He would often follow us to Hyrum square.  Sometimes when we were in the pickup, we would stop and let him jump in the back.  He loved the wind in his face.  But often he would beat us down to the square which was a mile away.] 
   

Weldon Getting Sick by: Ileen Wardle

This story is probably the scariest experience that happened on the farm.  When Weldon was eight he got very sick and almost died.  This story is written by Mother.
All the children who were in school had been vaccinated for small pox and they all had good scab on them.  We thought they were all healed and Weldon went swimming with some friends and he got his scab knocked off. It seemed to be all right.  After church I came home and bathed and put the children to bed.  Everyone was fine.  My husband and I got up early the next morning as we had to take a tractor into Othello to be worked on.  I left him with the tractor at the garage and came on home.  It was around nine o’clock in the morning.  I went into the boys’ room to get them out of bed.  I looked at Weldon, and was horrified.  Every muscle in his body was twitching and his eyes were rolled back in his head.  I went screaming out the door to our hired man who was Spanish and couldn’t hardly speak English.  He came into the house with me and we got a wet sheet and wrapped Weldon in it and took him into the hospital in Othello, Washington.  It was a small hospital with only 16 beds.  The doctor was afraid that Weldon might have some permanent brain damage. 
In the mean time our hired man went and got my husband and our Bishop came and gave Weldon a special blessing.  Jim and I then loaded him into our car after the doctor had shown us what to do to keep him from swallowing his tongue.  The police escorted us 120 miles to Spokane.  When we arrived at the hospital, Weldon started to rally.  They took him into the emergency room and tapped his spine.  They told us he had an acute virus and it was in his blood stream.  I stayed with him for five days in the hospital and he improved every day.  The doctor told us that if he had been under eight, he would have died.  He is now a strong, healthy man, and has never had a sick day since.  He is now a teacher and a coach, and also a father of three children [eventually four]. 
[Billy’s note:  I was the first to see Weldon acting strangely as we shared a bunk bed with me on top.  I remember looking at him very early in the morning and he was twitching and spitting up saliva.  I asked him if he was playing a game and he didn’t respond.  I went back to sleep, but my memory tells me I had gotten up when my mother came home, and I told her Weldon was acting strangely, although I didn’t perceive it as life threatening.  It was her reaction that told me there was a problem.
I went through life thinking Weldon had a concussion.  My dad had taken us to A&W for root beer on a Sunday.  Somehow Weldon had bonked his head against the wall while we were horse playing.  My memory must have been wrong and mixed two things together.  I was five at the time.]

Halloween Scare from my Father

My dad use to love to tease with his black spider puppet, and depending on the age of the child, they could be very frightened by this black spider.  They would always look at thinking it was just a toy, but then not quite sure because it had movement.  Happy Halloween

Hyrum: East Park

This is the photo I took when the lights went up at East Park, Hyrum.  We were so anxious to play on the new field, that first year we marked out a firld in the outfield and played on the grass.  This gave us a fence as the fence was too far for Little League anyway.
This is the article from the Hyrum Crusader November 1976:

There is a bigger story here.  The city had planted grass, which at first seemed to come up weeds, but after after a couple mowings, the weeds gave way and there was a very nice grass field.  In the spring of 1977, while I was on my mission, it fell upon my brother Weldon and brother-in-law Clyde Buff, to take the grassy fields and turn them into ball diamonds.  This they did with a sod cutter.  They had to align the two fields, softball with a dirt infield and full-size baseball diamond with a grass infield.  I am sure it would have been a considerable amount of work and grief to get things just right.  By the time I made it home off my mission, the fields had been in use for a couple of years, and Hyrum had grown up to provide recreational softball teams, and sponsor an adult baseball team--the Hyrum Hornets.

Salute The President: Political Satire

I don't delve into politics much, but since I saw a commercial from local candidate for congress, accusing the Republicans of an attack on the middle class, I had to respond.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioPxwMOM8Qg&feature=plcp

Hyrum T Ball revisited

This is the T Ball article as it appeared in the Hyrum Crusader.  It had some pictures that were not in the previous post.

You can link the other pictures I took here.
http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/10/t-ball-in-hyrum.html

Sleeping at the Hyrum Cemetery

Sleeping at the Cemetery by: Billy Wardle (Some additions added by Charlie Wardle) []
When we were teenagers, my brothers and I and a couple of other friends in our neighborhood decided we would test our courage by spending a night in the cemetery.  I’m not sure who all went.  It seems a friend, David DeBolt was and also a girl, probably our cousin Tammy, buy maybe Connie, and our dog Wolfer.
We selected a site to lay out our sleeping bags at the lower end of the cemetery, past all the gravesites.  I remember had had a hard time getting to sleep, and told some appropriate stories.
[We were all just about asleep when my dog Wolfer, who was tied up to the fence by where we were sleeping, started barking his head off and stepping all over us.  All of us hurried and put the sleeping bags way over our heads thinking that there was someone coming with an ax to chop our heads off.  We were all real scared.]
Weldon and Bill started arguing over who was going to get up to see who or what it was.  Weldon said to me, “Charlie, get up and see who it is.”  I replied, “No, you get up!”  I think Billy was the first one up.  By that time Wolfer had quit barking.  No one really knew what it was that Wolfer was barking at.  Bill thought it was a dog, but I couldn’t see a dog anywhere. ]
We settled back down to bed, and I was sleeping pretty well when Weldon woke me up, announcing we were going home.  We all followed him.  We packed our gear and started walking home, crossing the fence and quickly getting on the road.  On the way home, a strange creature or something come down the road headed straight for us.  I was really scared and almost took off running.  As if got closer, and entered the light from a street light, it turned out to be a tumble weed blown by an early morning canyon wind.

Selling light Bulbs from Charlie's book

Selling Light Bulbs by: Charlie Wardle
One summer in Illinois, we had a big project of selling light bulbs to get money for Weldon to go to the Boy Scout National Jamboree.
It seems like we covered the whole town of Carbondale and some of the outside towns as we went door-to-door selling the lights.
Dad, Mom, Sara, and Connie all took turns driving us around while Weldon, Billy and Charlie went around to the houses asking people if they would like to buy some bulbs.  One time when Connie was driving, she backed into a parked car.  The car she ran into had been wrecked before.  The owner of the car was trying to blame all of the damage on Connie.  I remember Aunt Audrey arguing with the owner of the car and the police about trying to blame all the damage on Connie’s wreck.  I think Aunt Audrey finally convinced the policeman that the owner of the car was lying.
[I remember the experience of going door-to-door, and we did cover almost all of town.  Many places we went were rural, with big dogs.  I was chased more than once by dogs, and developed a fear of big dogs as a result of this.  It seems if you show fear to a dog he is more prone to chase you, so I had a hard time.  Also at one point the car tire rolled over my foot as we were selling bulbs.  It didn’t do any real damage but left some bruises.  This was not the most fun experience of my youth.  However Weldon did make it to the Jamboree, which was held at Lake Farragut, Idaho.  This is where Dad had gone to boot camp for the Navy.]

Othello Memories

My Othello Memories
I was born in 1957, and if I’m not mistaken our family left Othello when I was six, First Grade.  Some of my memories get distorted, but I am going to use this sheet to write down things as they come, and maybe add more later.
There was gravel around our house, a driveway that went all the way around, and we had access to main roads both to the East and the West.  We lived South of Radar Road, just after it passed the canal.  It was that canal which brought life to this area; which had been sage brush.  With the completion of Grand Coulee Dam; much of Eastern Washington was open to agriculture. 
Speaking of the canal, I remember one day going over the canal, and looking down into the water and seeing a dead dog floating along.  I think this had been a year of high water.  We were never allowed to get close to this canal because it was big, and had steep banks.  But it was just north of our house and farm, and created a hill which was also an end.
This was a time when I did not like shoes.  I prided myself on being able to run on rocks.  My feet were pretty hard.  However sometimes not hard enough, because in running on the rocks I often stubbed my toe.  By stubbing my toe I mean I would rip the nail off.  Then my Dad would have to doctor me.  He would use fingernail scissors to cut off what might be remaining.  Then there was hydrogen peroxide and all the bubbles.  This was usually followed by a band aid.
I learned that there are worse things to run on than gravel however.  On one occasion we went with my Dad to help with bailing and gathering the hay.  Dad told me to wear shoes, but I didn’t.  I was left in a field of fresh cut hay, needing to get back to the truck.  Fresh cut hay is much crueler to feet than gravel.  It really hurt and I learned my lesson.
My usual chore was to take the scraps out to the cats.  There were always lots of cats, and we fed them by the can we had for trash.  After a meal, all the scraps would be gathered unto a plate, and then I had the task to walk out and deliver them to the cats.  I remembered one time I was just in a mean mood, and put them into the trash barrel.  It made me feel bad what I had done, but now I look back, the cats probably just climbed in and got them anyway.  At the time however, I remember them looking at me with their big eyes.
We would also tease the dog about food.  We would tie a bun to a rope, and then climb up the clothes line poll.  While sitting on the clothes line we would dangle the bun down like a fishing line.  We would then jerk it up when the dog came to grab it.  This was great fun.  The dog would eventually win, as the bun would break and fall off and then they would have their treat.
Playing house was a favorite activity.  The girls had a play house in a grain elevator.  However we would also play in the alfalfa, which field was next to our home.  We would smash the alfalfa down when it was tall, and make rooms and hallways in this fashion.  (If we got too ambitious in our house making my dad would let us know we were smashing too much of the alfalfa down, but he was OK with a little.)  When it was really tall, you could lie down and not be seen. 
One year a corn field was planted in this spot.  It was again great fun to play in the corn.  You couldn’t smash it down, but it was a great place for hiding.  (See ___for a story of the corn field.)
I remember our cow, which for some reason we would always notice she had gotten out as we were on our way to church.  It was a Sunday ritual to get the cow back in.  I have fleeting memories of the church.  I mom would help in primary.  One day someone accidentally stepped on my hand at church.  The chapel was built while we lived there.
There was a park with a pool which was a favorite place.  Our mom would often take us to the pool.  My dad use to play softball.  He could hit the ball a long ways.  He would also play at home by our house, using the hill of the canal bank as a backstop.  There wasn’t a lot of room, but plenty for us children. 
I had a tricycle which I would ride to the bus stop to welcome the kids home from school.  I use to get bored at home as mom would iron and watch her soaps.  I remember Weldon would often get me to let him ride the trice home.
My favorite activity in the summer was to invade the raspberry patch.  My mom would have to keep me away to get enough raspberries for jam.  I would also take a turn at the strawberries, but my favorite was the raspberries.  We always had a large garden.
We made a potato cellar on a property a few miles away.  I remember the scaffolding that we had inside, and the smell.  There is nothing like the smell of a potato cellar. 
We use to irrigate most of the property with row irrigation.  We would get the water out of the ditches and into the rows using siphon tubes.  It was a skill to get the siphon tube to work, and I had my experience with putting the tube in the water, shaking it, and then letting onside only out of the water, and if you did it correctly it would draw water.  My dad was better than me, but I had some success.  (A few years ago while visiting Grandpa Scoresby in Idaho, Grandpa was using siphon tubes and I took a turn.  I still had the knack.)
Social activities were limited as we lived outside of town.  We would go to people’s houses to visit.  I remember we didn’t go to a barber, but to somebody’s house where he had a tall stool chair and he would cut our hair.  We would also go to Francis Yorgansen’s home and my dad and he would play chess.
It was while staying home with my mom that I watched the funeral for President Kennedy.  Our TV was black and white, but I still was enthralled with the horse-drawn carriage that carried the president, and his son saluting.  That was November 1963. 

Poetry I like: There is no medicine like hope

Words and poems I like

There is no medicine like hope,
No incentive so great
And no tonic so powerful
As expectation of something tomorrow.
                             Orison Swett Marden

Irrigation Ditches by: Charlie Wardle

The Irrigation Ditches by: Charlie Wardle
Our farm had a lot of dirt irrigation ditches that were always caving in.  My dad eventually had concrete ditches put in.
The next two stories are about events that happened around the ditches.  They are told by my mother.
One day, my dad had the whole family out irrigating when one of the big ditches caved in.  To stop the water from escaping, he grabbed some of the kids and stuck them in the ditch where the ditch had caved in.  He then put dirt around the kids to stop the water from leaking out.  The kids had to stay there and form a men-made dam until Dad was done irrigating.

[This story is known as the day Connie saved Weldon’s life.]
The next story happened when we had our concrete ditches. 
One day, Weldon and Connie were pulling some weeds out of the culvert.  (A culvert is a place where the water goes underground.)  As Weldon was reaching for a weed, he fell into the water and started going underground.  Connie grabbed him by his foot and held on with all the strength she had.  Connie yelled for Dad to come help.  She was able to hold on until Dad got there to pull Weldon out.

The Elevator by: Charlie Wardle

The Elevator by: Charlie Wardle
The first couple of days that we were in Carbondale, we stayed in a big sky-scraper hotel.
Connie, Weldon, Billy, Charlie and Dianna were in the love downstairs looking around in the gift shop.  After awhile, we decided to go upstairs to our room.  Weldon stuck Dianna on the elevator and pushed our floor number and jumped out.  You could hear Dianna screaming while the door on the elevator closed.  Luckily, Dad was waiting for the elevator on our floor.

[This would have been after our first year in Carbondale.  We were moving from a rented house to university apartments.  However the apartments were not ready on time, as they were being newly constructed.  The high-rise hotels were actually on campus.  I think they were used both as a hotel and as student housing.  However we had to stay there a couple weeks while waiting for our apartment to be finished.   Dianna would have been two years old.]

Poetry I Like: Hope Pulses Strong

Rochelle Frank

We did our preposition poems yesterday and I had a 7th grader give me the best one I have ever seen.

Out of the dark,
Through the mind,
beyond all thought,

within the heart of a child,
hope pulses strong.

Dalton Haveman

The Family Farm by: Charles Wardle

The Family Farm by: Charles Wardle
When my family gets together, we often tell stories about our farm we used to live on.
    In 1953 my dad bought 300 acres of land in Othello, Washington to start his farm.  When my mom and dad moved there, there was nothing but open land covered with sagebrush.  With no buildings or anything, they started out just like the pioneers did. 
    My mom and dad had two kids when they moved to the farm, Sara and Connie.  While they were living on the farm, they had three boys; Weldon, Billy and Charlie.  A couple of years after they left the farm, they had their last child, Dianna.
    Our biggest crop on the farm was potatoes.  We also had corn, alfalfa, wheat, sugar beets, and a big garden.  I know we had at least one cow named buttercup, who sometimes gave us rides when dad was around.  Weldon often told how he would throw rocks at buttercup to get her out of the field that he was playing ball in.
    We had a lot of Mexicans working for us on the farm, probably because they would work for so little.
    Our family had a lot of real good experiences, and there are some good family stories that happened on the farm.
    I was two when we left the farm in 1963.  I can’t remember anything about the farm, so whenever a story is told, I’m very interest in it.

Santa Clara County Mental Health: Access

Although our program closed, its spirit lives on in our hearts.  Of this picture we have said goodbye to Dr. Hong Pham.  I was able to attend his funeral with Trish.

frnt: Sue, Barbara, Dr Llajavic, Cris, Trish, Dr. Becker, Dr. Hong Rafael bck: Dr Pazdernik, Eladio, Me, Mark.

Of course many were missing. We were pretty much a 24-hour opheration so we could never go out all together.  This is a celebration shortly before we closed.  A great bunch of co-workers.

Moving Experience by: Charlie Wardle

Moving [Packing] Experience by Charlie Wardle
There’s one moving experience that happened when we had everything loaded and were about ready to leave.  [This is Utah to Illinois.]  I grabbed Dale’s key (Dale was a friend of Sara’s)  [Dale Nelson was Sara’s boyfriend before we moved] out of his truck and threw them into the field next to our house.  The worse thing about it was that we couldn’t find them.   We had to “hot wire” the truck so Dale could take a load of furniture to the Deseret Industries for us.
I remember that Dad gave me a big spanking for losing Dale’s keys.

A Moving Experience by: Connie Fornoff

A Moving Experience by: Connie Fornoff   
Our family made a move my sophomore year of school from Utah to Illinois.  We were all in the car with my dad towing a U-Haul behind the pick-up he was driving.  We were crowded and after a few hundred miles, the trip became very boring.  My brother and I kept asking my dad if we could get in the U-Haul trailer and ride.  He said we really shouldn’t because it was against the law.  But after a few hundred more miles he could take us no longer and let us get in the trailer.  We took the cat with us.  The three of us got up on the top of a mattress.  We laid there and talked.  We really enjoyed ourselves, traveling with the furniture, boxes, dishes and what not.  Dad must have enjoyed us gone as well because he let us stay there for quite awhile.  Once when he topped for gas he even opened the door and threw us in a couple of packages of Twinkies.

The Big Move by: Ileen Wardle

The Big Move by : Mother
After graduating from the University of Denver with a Master’s Degree in Library Science my husband, Jim, returned to our home in Hyrum, Utah where we had been living for the last three years.  Jim proudly announced we would be moving to Carbondale, Illinois where he would be a cataloger at the University of Illinois Library.  My first reaction is where is Carbondale?  He gathered all the family together, got out the Atlas and showed us a map of the State of Illinois; Carbondale was at the southern tip of Illinois.  Everyone exclaimed, “It is so far away—halfway across the United States.”  We were all glad that Jim had a new job, but hated to leave our beautiful home and many friends.
The day of the big move came on the 28th of August 1967.  “Boy,” what a lot of work; we had so much stuff to move—things to sort and throw away—trips to the Deseret Industries.  A moving van came and loaded up all the furniture, but we also had a wagon full, the back of the pick-up and the car.  I drove the car with sixteen year old Sara, fourteen year old Connie and 18 month old Dianna.  We also had with us our Siamese cat Fifi.  Jim drove the pick-up with the wagon behind him.  He had with him, eleven year old Weldon, nine year old Bill, six year old Charles and the dog. 
After going through Denver, I began to get a sick feeling as we were leaving behind the beautiful mountains.  We seemed to travel for miles and miles.  We started through Kansas as the sun was coming up in the morning and were just leaving the state of Kansas as the sun was going down.  The children were very restless all through Kansas as all they could see was farm land and windmills.  They made a game out of who could count the most windmills. 
When we arrived in St. Louis, Missouri we took a wrong road and ended up on the east side where all the colored people lived.  We were all very scared as this was a different color of people than we were used to seeing.  All the homes and buildings were so run down and poor looking.  We were still 120 miles from Carbondale.  We were three days and two nights on the road. 
Carbondale was a beautiful place; the trees were so green and moss was growing up the trunks.  Squirrels would run from one tree to another and were everywhere.  The humidity was very high and something we were not used to.  We all felt so sticky and hot.  My hair and the girls wouldn’t hold a curl so we all had our hair cut short.
You never needed to water your lawns or gardens because of the high humidity and when it rained it really poured.  The most beautiful time of all in Carbondale was in the spring when the red bud and dogwood trees would all com in bloom, with their beautiful red and white blossoms.
It was a new adjustment for all of us.  The children met colored boys and girls in their schools for the first time and it was frightening for them and we were there at the time of the civil rights movement.
We were in Carbondale for two years and when it was time to leave we left many choice people and were all grateful for the choice time we had while we were in Carbondale.

Charlie's Blanket by: my Mom

Charlie’s Blanket by: Ileen Wardle
Charlie’s Grandma Wardle made him a baby blanket for his crib right after he was born.  It was blue with little blocks of white lambs.  Charlie really loved this blanket and it had one special corner that he liked the feel of.  You would hand him his blanket and he would turn it around until he found his special cornet.  Then he would rub it with his left hand and suck his thumb on his right hand.  It was always a rough day for Charlie when we needed to wash his blanket.  He would stand in front of the washer and dryer until his blanket was dried.  I guess he was afraid someone would take away his security.  Charlie was over three years old when he finally gave the poor worn out blanket a rest.  I put it away and when we moved from the farm to Utah, I packed it with some of Jim’s navy uniforms.  When he was in the ninth grade he happened to find it.  You would have thought he had found his best friend again.

Water The Flowers by: Charlie Wardle

Water the Flowers by: Charlie Wardle
On the farm, a lot of times when you were out in the field and had to go to the toilet, you didn’t have time to run all the way back to the house to go.  I guess this is one of the ways I got potty trained.
One day after church, as we were walking outside, I had to go to the toilet.  Seeing the flowers outside I walked over to them and pulled down my pants and started watering the flowers.
As everyone came out of Church, they had a nice sight of a boy watering the flowers.  When Mom saw this she turned about four shades of red.  Dad came out of the church and noticed everyone watching me and said, “At least he’s potty trained.”

The Black Boy, My History with Blackface

The Black Boy told by Ileen Wardle

At the farm the kids would often get into things and make a mess of them.  This story is about Weldon.  When he was six he tried to change the color of Billy’s skin who was three at the time.
    This story was told to me by my mother:
    Dad had just finished changing the oil in the tractor, and left the bucket of drained oil in his shop.  Weldon, his friend and Billy were playing around in Dad’s shop, and found the bucket of oil.  Weldon and his friend got a couple of paint brushes, and began to paint Billy with the oil from his head to his feet.  No one knows why Billy just stood there and let them do it.
    When I [mother] saw Billy he looked just like a colored boy; with his black hair and face; he was black everywhere.  I had to throw his clothes away, and use comet on him to get the oil off.

Lost Dianna by: Dianna

Lost Dianna by: Dianna Norman From Childhood Experiences of the Wardle Family, editor Charlie Wardle
When I was five years old my family and my sister’s family went to Soda Springs, Idaho to watch my brother Bill play in a Pony League Tournament.
I was very restless watching the game and so I took my nephew, Buffie, and we went to a little park to swing.  I came back just as the game was over and went to get in the car with my sister and family; but she told me I couldn’t ride back to Hyrum with them and I was to wait for my folks.  I decided I would go back and play on the swings while I was waiting and when I came back I looked everywhere for my folks and couldn’t find them.  I started to cry and some older girls came and asked me what was the matter.  I told them I couldn’t find my mother and dad.  They took hold of my hand and told me not to cry and took me to the police station.  The policeman had me get in the police car with me and we drove around Soda Springs looking for my folks.  I finally recognized someone from Hyrum (The Lundbergs).  They told the policeman they would take me home after we had dinner.  I really was glad to have someone take me home but I felt dumb because I didn’t have any money to pay for my dinner.
When my folks got home they were really surprised because I hadn’t come with my sister and family.  They called to the police in Soda Springs and they told them they had found me and the Lundbergs were bringing me home.  I was so frightened and I never went wondering off again without letting my parents know where I was going.

Sail Boating by: Charlie Wardle

Crab Orchard Lake

Sail Boating by: Charlie Wardle
One Saturday, one of Dad’s friends from the University [Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill] took us boys and Dad sailing.
It was a lot of fun and the boat went pretty fast along the water.
After we were out for about an hour, we stopped to eat lunch.  After lunch I told Dad that Ididn’t want to go back out, and that I just wanted to play along the beach.  Dad made Bill stay with me to watch over me.  Billy was pretty upset about this.
They went back out in the boat.  They were out there quite far and the boat tipped over.  A guy in a row boat had to row out there from the shore to help them.  Everyone was alright.  I was really glad that I didn’t go out with them, because I couldn’t swim at that time.

Billy’s addition:  I don’t remember being mad, but I remember getting pretty bored because it took them forever to get back.  At first there were things to keep my interest along the shore, but after a few hours there wasn’t much new to do.  I don’t remember if I had much sense of what was going on, other than thinking maybe they tipped over.  I have the idea that they had to hold onto the boat until they could get help to get it righted.  I know I had bad dreams about holding onto a boat waiting for someone to save me for a while.  Weldon would be able to give more insight on that because he went with them.

Mother Keeping Track of Her Kids

Mother Keeping Track of Her Kids by: Ileen Wardle
Living on a big farm, a mother had a hard time keeping track of her kids.  The next two stories are about mother trying to keep track of her kids.  These stories are told by my mother.
One day, Billy came up missing.  I looked everywhere for him for hours and couldn’t find him.  Usually when Billy was missing, you could find him in the strawberry patch, but he wasn’t there.
I found Jim, my husband, and told him that Billy was missing.  He got some of the hired hands and we all went looking for Billy.  My biggest worry was that he might have fallen in the canal.  After looking for him for awhile we found him fast asleep in the corn patch.
my version of the same story
http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/01/othello-make-believe-home.html
There was a time when Sara and Connie came up missing.  After looking for them for awhile I found them in the machine shed watching a mother cat have her kittens.  The must have been there for hours.
I was so embarrassed when I saw this and they had so many questions about where those kitten were coming from.  I really had to do some fast explain about birth.

My Thoughts on Wikileaks

 I posted this originally Dec 2010 but thought it needed to be in my thoughts blog.
I think we have entered the world of cyber terrorism.  WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are hurting our country, and putting those who work for our government at risk.  This started with the release of confidential and secret documents.  That these documents would have been carried by any news outlet under the guise of news is appalling.  Sometimes people need to think before they act.  Do you take out everyone's appendix under the guise of medicine?

This terrorism entered a 2nd stage of blackmail earlier this week.  (If you do anything to me I will release more documents.)  It has now entered a third stage of cyber attacks.  The WikiLeaks organization is attacking anyone who is critical of them, or opposes them.  They are thwarting free speech, under the presumption that what they are doing is free speech.

The actions of this group have put many more people than Valerie Plame in the cross hairs of terrorists.  Islamic terrorist (excuse me President Obama) are seeking destroy our county.  They are seeking daily to maim and cripple our interests.  In Julian Assange they have found an ally.  He has been arrested for sex crimes.  Where is the arrest for his crimes against the United States?

Just my opinion on today's news.  The Obama administration has got to be focused on stopping this attack.