Booklet: A Christmas Dress for Ellen: Thomas S. Monson

This is a story from President Monson, the master story teller.  It is adapted form the First Presidency Christmas Devotional 1997.  Christmas stories always choke me up, and this is no exception.  It is because people are so willing to sacrifice for the benefit of others.  This is about a family living in Canada, who had no prospects for Christmas, or for even having Christmas Breakfast let alone presents.  Mother had sent a letter to her sister living in Idaho with a list of their needs, at the request of her sister.  The citizens of Malad, Idaho sacrificed to meet those needs.  However no package had arrived in Canada.  father had been to town, and stayed until noon checking the railway and the post office.  However, sacrifice was not over.  The packages arrived late Christmas Eve at the post office.  The postman, George Schow, was going to leave the delivery until after Christmas.  However, after prayer, he felt he had to go, even with the snow, and the distance.  His own horses were worn out, so he borrowed horse and sleigh, and took his oldest son with him.  They would not arrive until after 3:30 a.m.  Mother was still awake, worrying about her children.  It was five before they started the trip back to town, to arrive around noon.  They wore the husband's clothes for the return trip after warming theirselves by the fire.  Their own clothing was wet and cold.  This gave mother just a few hours to set everything out for Christmas.  When the children woke they smelled bacon cooking for breakfast.  Ellen was last to wake, as she knew they would have no Christmas.  However, she found a red Christmas dress.
That is what Christmas is about.

Another Hyrum loss: Brother Dorigatti

I noticed the obituary for James L. Dorigatti in the Herald Journal through Facebook.  There was a time I travelled considerably with Brother Dorigatti.  The second year my brother coached at Tintic High School, his son Richard transferred to his school and played for him.  They had a good team and made it to the state championship.  Anyway, often I would travel with Brother Dorigatti in his Pontiac Transam.  One time we travelled to Rich County for a game.  He told me how he had started his career there and the influence he had reducing the number of teen pregnancies.  We travelled elsewhere.  He told of his niece being murdered by Ted Bundy.

I took classes from him at Utah State University.  I took Old Testament from him.  He actually made the old testament interesting.  He was very good at telling stories.

We also maintained a relationship with the entire family, and visited in their home.  Charlie and Richard were the same age.  They played basketball and football together.  His wife Ingrid, worked for the Athletic department at Utah State University.  She would often get us tickets to a game.  I was aware of her tragic death in a three-wheeler accident.  I was not aware he remarried.  The obituary informed me of this.

The Funniest Thanksgiving Bowl Movie

 

Family Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl 2015

Sheri almost makes the play; but not quite.  Miranda recorded this.  One of our funniest family videos.

Turkey Farm

Picking Beans

 When I was fairly young, maybe eighth grade, I took employment during the summer at picking beans for different farmers in Hyrum.  I think my mother or father arranged for the job.  I worked with my siblings.  This was a job where you were paid by the amount you picked.  There were those that were faster at getting the weight, but they were not ver thorough at getting all the beans.  I always worked with pole beans.  I worked at several different fields and for different farmers.  It took a lot of picking to make even a little money.  I am pretty sure this is my first of any type of employment.

Art: Pablo Picasso by Hans L. Jaffe, Harry N Abrams

 

Art: Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso by Hans L Jaffe, Harry N Abrams, Publishers, New York, 1983.
This is the second Pablo Picasso book I have gotten from the library.  I must admit, sometimes I get his art, and sometimes I don't.  He was very prolific in terms of the number of projects he finished every year.  This book seems to have a couple of themes.  One is women with their breasts exposed.  However, these pictures are often done in a distorted style.  The other is the dove of peace. 


If there were a third theme it would be portraits, but distorted to be unrecognizable.

Carbondale Earthquake. 1968

 The earthquake in Carbondale was Saturday, November 9, 1968 at 11:02 a.m.  The epicenter was on the Cottage Grove Fault which was about 35 miles to the east of Carbondale.  This earthquake was one of the most widely felt earthquakes in the history of the United States.  It was felt in 23 states and over an area of 580,000 square miles.  

I remember being outside our apartment in Carbondale when the earthquake took place.  We had a small apartment but it did have a washer and dryer inside.  The washer was off balance and would really shake during the sin cycle.  I thought that it was the spin cycle of the washer when the earthquake struck.  However I realized it was more than this as I was outside where you wouldn't feel the washer machine.  It also lasted longer than the spin cycle.  It was just a shaking of the ground, but not so intense as to be threatening, which lasted about 60 seconds.  .

The earthquake was 5.4 on the Richter scale.  There were no fatalities from the quake.  Although there was some damage.  It was felt in Chicago were some chimneys fell.  The gateway Arch in St. Louis shook.  Most of the damage was confined to Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee.  The city worse hit was McLeansboro.  The high school was damaged with broken windows and cracks in the walls of most of the classrooms.  This is where Jerry Sloan attended school and played basketball.  

Most reactions to the earthquake were similar to mine.  On person said my shoes were shaking, but I was not shaking in my shoes.  

Map from Wikipedia