Weldon Second Grade Picture in the Paper

 

  The Othello Outlook caption reads: MRS. BUCK'S SECOND GRADERS point proudly to their bulletin board asking all about Halloween. The children enjoy the artwork, and delight in the results of their handicraft as can be seen by their attitudes and poses in the picture.  It was published Nov. 1, 1962.  I was in kindergarten which was held at the high school while second grade was at the elementary school.  Weldon is the second from the left.

Dewey's in Hyrum

 I was frying some left over mashed potatoes and said to myself, I'm making Dewey's hash browns.  Dewey's was the restaurant in Hyrum.  Sometimes we referred to it affectionately as "the greasy spoon" but I think that was affection.  We ate there frequently; not as a family but usually us boys.  Weldon and I loved their hamburger steak which was only $1.25.  However out most significant memory was playing pin ball on the game in the front corner.  Dave DeBolt lived closest, and consequently he was usually the best at the game.  He had figured how to earn lots of free games on the machine.  Sometimes we would go and have a good time.  There would be five of us crowded in the corner, Dave and his brother Ben and myself and my two brothers, Weldon and Charlie.  We had great fun.  

The commercial district were Dewey's was located was all knocked down to make way for the Hyrum museum and library.

I Worked for Hyrum City as a Youth

It started with my older brother, Weldon, and then passed to me.  We worked with the youth sports in Hyrum for many years.  We were also over seen by a city councilman, first Clair Lundberg and then Bruce Darley.  This started with baseball, little league age at first, and then later expanding to pony age.  We had some pretty good teams.  We would organize a local league each summer, and then select from that league an all star team to take to tournaments at the end of the year.  We were not part of any official league in those days, but would use the Little League rule book.  However, sometimes there were other rules put upon us, like not stealing home unless played upon. 
We actually were paid for our efforts, not much, but something to make it worth while.
Eventually my brother expanded into football.  In this we were not part of any league again, but would schedule practice games with other teams.  One year we went to Preston to play, and another to North Ogden.  We also played teams locally, Logan and Smithfield; where they kids had a regular league.  Kids had to purchase their own guards, so sometimes were not very well protected.  What you buy at the store is sort of crap.  However all had helmets.  We had some fun times.
Eventually we also included basketball.  We organized some pretty nice leagues, and one year had a local tournament.  We also participated in Bantam tournaments.  I found a letter from Bruce Darley. 

We always gathered the uniforms, but the bumper stickers were forced upon us.  I think we got them back, but not sure how many we actually sold.  We must have sole a few because eventually we did get a pitching machine.

Weldon's Bad Habit and Was Mom a Racist

When Weldon was young and we lived in Othello, he had a bad habit of eating paper.  He would grab wrappers and throw them into his mouth.  I am not sure if he ever swallowed, but he enjoyed chewing on paper.  He was probably early elementary age, first, second or third. grade.  I would have been Kindergarten age at the most.  Often when we drove in the car, mom would catch him chewing on paper.  I remember on time, in her efforts of trying to get him to stop, she explained how there was know way of knowing who had touched the paper and handled the paper in the process of it getting to him.  She explained that perhaps the people who had handled it may not have been very clean.  Now this is the part I am not sure about.  It seems to me she also said the paper could have been handled by a black man, in her efforts to sway Weldon away from this habit.

Weldon Breaks his Leg

I was watching Granite Flats, and at the end of the header they show an old playground merry-go-round.  It was upon a similar apparatus that my older brother broke his ankle, the first year we lived in Hyrum.  I was in second grade, and he was in fourth, so it would have been 1964, late autumn.
I wasn't there, but this is the story I was told.  He was playing on the merry-go-round with a group of children.  Some how he got pushed off and his leg got caught underneath the merry-go-round.  It twisted his leg and broke it at the ankle.  I was introduced after school as I saw him with a big cast on his leg. 
He was pretty popular with letting people write on his cast.  He also got lots of special attention.

Rachelle,my Niece, is in Deseret News

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865577681/Amy-Donaldson-Running-saved-Payson-woman-after-accident-stole-her-brothers-life.html?pg=all

Amber, Rachelle and Weldon

My niece was interviewed for an article in the Deseret News.  She has been running for her brother who died in a car accident.  She has gotten pretty good at running.  She came to California to run in a Ragnar (relay that takes all night.)
I wrote a couple blogs about Trevor's passing:
http://billywardlefamily.blogspot.com/2010/12/loss-via-automobile-accident.html
http://whilhelmsthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/12/trevors-last-visit-to-california.html

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.

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.

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.]

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.

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.]

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.

Connie Driving the Truck

This is taken from a series of stories Charlie put together

Connie Driving the Truck

This story happened when Connie was ten and Weldon about seven years old.

Connie was always a very daring type of person who thought that she could do most anything.  I guess that is probably why she felt  that since she could drive a tractor she should be able to drive a truck.

This story is written by Connie herself.

As I grew up being a farmer’s daughter, I naturally knew how to drive a tractor at a very young age.  I was always intrigued with the cars and trucks on the farm, and I couldn’t understand why my dad limited my driving to the tractors only.

One day I and my brother for one reason or another were the only ones home.  I asked my brother Weldon, “How would you like a ride around the house in the old red pick-up?”  He questioned my ability to drive, and I assured him there was no worry.  So we both hopped in.  I started it up and off we went.  We missed the house by two feet, and a tree by two inches; and I never understood why the truck wouldn’t turn onto the road I wanted it to, and we ended up stuck in a pile of dirt.  Worse of all I couldn’t get the truck started again to put it back where I found it so my dad wouldn’t now about any troubles.  As I remember, he wasn’t too mad.  He just reminded me that he had told me there is a difference between driving a tractor and a truck.

My addition:  I remember being home, but not being in the truck at the time.  I think Sara was home and she and Connie were babysitting us.  Our farm house was situated with a gravel and dirt road all the way around it.  To the North there was a patch of grass between the house and the road, and beyond that a canal with a patch of sandy soil before the bank of the canal.  It was into this no-man's land that Connie landed the truck.  That old red pick-up was always hard to start, and always made a terrific noise when being started.  It sounded like nothing else I have ever heard.  The closest is perhaps when the belt goes out of a dryer.  I just remember hearing that noise and thinking, as she tried to restart the pick-up, "Oh, Oh, Connie is going to be in so much trouble."