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

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.

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.

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.] 
   

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.]

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.]

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Charlie Wardle: Mission to Sapporo

This is a story I wrote for school while my younger brother, Charlie was on his mission, so probably about 1980.  I wrote it for an English writing class.

My Brother

My brother, Charlie, has now been on a mission for about a year.  He left in June of last year, less than a month after he graduated from high school.  He is in the Japan, Sapporo Mission.  He has had some interesting experiences on his mission, including being able to go to Tokyo for the dedication of the temple where he was able to meet President Kimball.  He also has been able to enjoy missionary experiences, being able to baptize people into the church, live closer to God, and get to know a new people as if they were his own.  Also a great challenge that has come to him is being able to learn a new language.

My brother is three years younger than I am, but he is an Inch or two taller than me.  Not only is my brother taller than I am, but he is also much more muscular and has a much better build than I do.  He played football in high school (which I didn’t) and consequently lifted weights much of the time, resulting in his muscular physique.

I have long respected my brother, not for his physical size, but for his spiritual size.  One day I ran across his journal.  The things my brother wrote impressed me and gave me some insight in how close my brother is to the Lord and how hard he tries to follow his religion.  His journal indicated that he prayed every day.  It also gave some indication as to the strong beliefs my brother has as well as his strong desire to do good. 

This strong desire to do good was evidenced to me by his entire personality in the months before he went on his mission.  It seemed like religion became the focal point of his life.  He was always trying to act, or talk like a religious person. 

Even the friends Charlie went around with were an evidence of his religious conviction.  In his sophomore and junior years of high school he ran around with a slightly unruly crowd, but his last year of high school his best friends were Marty Smith and Jon Thomas—two of the most religious people (in the sense of going to church and trying to live good Christian lives) his age who lived close to him.

Whether Charlie’s change came truly form his heart, or just from his appearances, I’m not totally sure; but if I were question on the matter I would say it was truly a change of heart.

Charles James Wardle

This is a pictorial essay of pictures I have of my younger brother who was born 1/28/1961.

First birthday

Hyrum

Charlie and Marvin, Sara's wedding

Carlie and Marvin, Ammon

Dianna and Charlie

Charles, Dad in background

Charlie, Marvin and Wufford

Home from his mission to Japan

With the Buff girls, Krista, Kathy and Geneve