Glimpses into the past

To really understand people one needs to experience the circumstances that form the personalities.  You will not be able to do this because times have changed.  You cannot fully understand what circumstances played a part in the development of their characters.  We all have to go through some of the same experiences that test and try us, but the backdrop is different.   

Thus to understand my mother and dad you must know about horses and buggies and dirt roads.  There were coal oil lanterns to light the homes and later the refined Coleman lantern.  Candles burned to light some of the homes long before electricity became commonplace.  Even when I was growing up there were places where electricity was not part of the household.  When we visited my aunt and uncle in Soda Springs, Idaho they did not have electricity.  Wood burning stoves and also coal-fired stoves were present in our home at times even until I was in high school.   

They grew up with Saturday night baths in a little round galvanized #2 tub with water heated on that wood or coal stove.  Many times two or more people used the same water with a little clean hot water added to take the chill off.  We took baths in that round tub in the early days of our stay in Lander, because we did not have a bathroom.  We had no bathtub in the house, but only a shower about half way into my junior year in high school. The bathtub came well after I was gone from home.  I learned to appreciate indoor plumbing and electricity from these experiences.

Radios were scarce and the variety of stations to listen to at a minimum, but they listened to good music and were interested in the arts.  I have probably seen more ballets our mission in Moscow that they have seen in their entire lives, but it was not because they did not have the desire.   I remember that they would listen to a radio program and try to guess the name of the song that was playing.  If the announcer did not give the name of the piece dad would often call the radio station to inquire after the name and the composer. 

I remember going to the opera house in Denver on the streetcar and we saw our first opera, Carmen with Risa Stevens (a famous soprano of the day).  They listened to the opera on Saturday afternoon on the radio.  Even though the culture was not as readily available to them where they lived the desire was there and they taught it to their children.   

Dad bought a 45- rpm record player and we listened to Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.  The first recordings that I bought with my own money were compositions by Tchaikovsky; Caprricio Italian and the 1812 Overture. This was the introduction that stimulated my desire for good music and the arts. This introduction to the arts has always governed my choices.

Today with the miracle of television they were able to enjoy those things that were denied them in earlier years.  They did not have a television set when I lived in their home.  

I still remember and sing some of the songs from those operettas. They will always hold a special memory for me.  We enjoyed some lighter entertainment also, my brothers and I memorized the Spike Jones records as well as others that Dad bought and we used to perform them at family functions.  You are spared today because I am not around most of you..

Dad and mother were born into less than affluent circumstances.  Every one of their grandchildren and great grandchildren has more wealth than they had for all of their lives as children and until most of their children had left home.  As a result they were like most of the people of their day.  They made their own clothes.  They made soap.  They made and baked their own bread.  They ate out at restaurants very little.  They butchered their own meat, raised chickens and sold eggs and they raised gardens with vegetables and berries.   

We had a large garden in Denver on land that we tilled by hand.  The produce was bottled and also eaten fresh.  A man who had a store in downtown Denver owned the land.  When the garden began producing it was my job to bicycle downtown and take him some vegetables from the harvest.  Not many people today would look for a vacant lot to raise a garden.  We even had a chicken house and raised chickens and eggs when I was going to high school in Lander.   

They worked long hard hours for very little money when they were growing up and then when I was finished with high school and got a summer job with the Bureau of Land Management I earned more money in a month than my mother did.  Perhaps that is the reason that I enjoy working and have an appreciation for the affluence that I enjoy.

They sacrificed their convenience and income to support me and their other children to obtain a higher education.  They were unselfish in their support and were pleased that their children could better themselves in the educational fields. 

I did not obtain all my education in school.  My parents were proactive in their children’s education. I remember sitting at the dinner table and dad would have us mentally add, subtract, multiply and divide a series of numbers and then at the end ask us the answer.  My parents drilled me on my spelling words, until I knew them.  My parents stimulated my desire for learning and education.  We read books together, one of the common family activities of the day.  One can never be too appreciative of that influence in one’s life.

From my earliest days the church has always been central to our family life.  As far as I know that was the case with my parents before I came into their life.  I have never known a period of inactivity in their lives as members of the restored gospel.  My life growing up was centered in church activity.  There were many meetings in those days and we attended them all.  In Denver we went to Stake conferences in the high school auditorium and after the meeting the people would line up to shake the hand of the general authority who visited the conference. 

The church was relatively small in those days.  We were acquainted there with people who were later called to serve as general authorities.  John H. Vandenberg who became the Presiding Bishop lived in our ward with his family.  Victor L. Brown who also became the Presiding Bishop lived in Denver, as well as Gordon B. Hinckley who also lived in Denver and was acquainted with my parents.  Elder Joseph F. Merrill of the council of the twelve came to Denver and ordained Dad a high priest and had dinner at our home on his visit there. 

Dad always went to general conference and they attended the June MIA conference as well.  We read the Book of Mormon as a family, seated around the table after supper.   

Strangers who came to church were often invited to our home to eat Sunday dinner and we often had the full time missionaries to our house to eat whatever food we had on hand.  We always seemed to have something to feed them.  From this background I learned to keep the church and the gospel foremost in my life and to be hospitable to those who were strangers and to enjoy the scriptures.

Our food was simple.  We had the basic foodstuffs and our ability to prepare them was limited by the times in which we lived.  When they would find some new way to prepare food or cook some new dish, my parents would adopt it into their repertoire.  Bread and milk was not an uncommon dish in our home and milk toast was reserved to be eaten if you were sick.  I suppose that was stimulus for me to develop my interest in the kitchen and in food.  My mother was patient and let me learn to bake cakes and do simple cooking tasks.  I still enjoy cooking. 

Life for them has, as for all of us, been sprinkled with disappointments and frustrations and unfulfilled dreams.  They have not generally shared those with their family.  

I was ambitious for my father.  I wanted him to advance in the government employ and as I understood it at that time he reached the level that his education would allow him.  I thought that he should go back to school and get a graduate degree.  As it was, he blossomed where he was planted and made lemonade of his lemon in life.   

I once asked him if he had any disappointments in his lifetime and he said that he did, but he never enumerated what they were.   

He has kept a faithful record of the proceedings of his life.  Perhaps one day we will have enough time to read the volumes that he has produced and discover what those bumps in the road of life were.  Keeping a faithful record is one attribute that I have not quite mastered as yet, but I am working on it.

The lady bicycle rider

The other day I was driving downtown and came to an intersection and proposed to make a right turn. I was in the right hand lane at the corner.  Next to me blocking my path was a lady on a bicycle. She was so far out in the lane that she blocked my egress. The light was red so I could have turned right but she was so far out in the lane that I was unable to do that.

We were there for quite a while then she ran the red light and crossed the street.  I thought that this might be a good subject for an essay.

The lady on the bicycle was more interested in herself than anyone else. Had there been a police office there, she would have received a ticket for running a red light.

Just the other day, a young high school girl was killed by a woman who ran a red light at an intersection. I have seen drivers run red lights here in Utah and pedestrians cross when the light is red. This is a symptom of egocentricity, caused by our affluence and disregard for our fellow men. I call it the ‘me first’ syndrome.

Throughout history we find that when people become affluent they become more self-centered and insensitive to those around them.  They become less aware of their surroundings.

The Pharisees in Christ's time were of the opinion that they were the only ones that mattered. Just like the lady on the bicycle, oblivious to anyone around her and to any traffic restrictions. Although there are ordinances in some states that allow bicycle riders to go through red lights, the reasoning is; because they are too impatient to wait 2-3 minutes for the light to turn green.

So we inconvenience others because we do not want to be inconvenienced. I have noticed the same lack of concern in the grocery parking lot. People do not want to be bothered by returning their shopping carts to the place where they picked them up.  Often I have had to move a cart in order to park my car so my vehicle won’t hit it. 

We are so concerned with our own selves and what we are doing, that we pay little attention to those around us and the impact of our actions on others.  Christ taught us to love one another and serve one another.  We can never see another persons needs if we keep admiring ourselves in the mirror.

Veneer and living on borrowed light

When I was on my mission as a young man in Germany we lived in a room in the Niehoff's home in Goslar. One day I needed to press my suit and borrowed an iron from our landlady. We did not have an ironing board, so we used the wood table in our room. In order to press out the wrinkles in the fabric, I used a damp cloth over the pants. This produced a small amount of steam. The pants looked nice, but when I removed the cloth under the pants, I was dismayed to find that the wood under the pants was buckled. The table was not solid wood. It was veneer. The glue that had held the veneer to the underlying wood had been softened by the heat and steam and as a result the thin layer of wood that made up the veneer had buckled, warped and cracked.

Veneer is usually used to cover wood with imperfections to make it appear as if it were top grade, high quality wood. Often it is now used to cover particleboard or pressed wood or plywood to give it the appearance of solid wood.

When we had our kitchen remodeled in our home in Lander, I wanted the cabinets made of solid oak and for some reason, the carpenters used particleboard with a red oak veneer. We had a number of the drawers later break down and have to be repaired, because the particle board broke down and would not hold the nail or screw.

You may ask, "What does that have to do with anything today?"  There are some members of the church who I call nominal members. They have been baptized and attend church. Some are active in their wards and attend the functions. Others have a hit or miss attitude. Some are completely disengaged. Some only attend at Easter and Christmas. These people wear the veneer of membership. As with the wood some veneer varies in thickness.  The pressure or heat that is required to strip away the veneer of discipleship varies much the same as with wood, but the strength and durability of this product is inferior to that of solid high quality wood.

Just like the members of the church, there are some woods that stand up to pressure, steam, heat and wear. Heber C. Kimball taught that there would be tests and trials come upon the saints in the latter days. He was quoted as saying that we would not be able to live on borrowed light. This means that if we did not have a testimony for ourselves that the church is true and are living the commandments, we will not be able to withstand the pressure, trials and temptations that will come when Satan will send forth his fiery darts and his shafts in the whirlwind.

Since I started this post there have been events that have occurred in the church that, like the pants pressing example above, have stripped the veneer off some members of the church exposing their friable testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They probably are much like the sower in the parable of Jesus. The seed was good when it was planted. The soil in which the seed was planted was the factor that made the difference in the outcome.

Trials and tests will come in this life. If we are solid in our testimony of Christ, as solid wood, then we will pass the test. If we are grounded and rooted in the gospel, then the seed planted in us will grow and be productive.

My dear grandchildren do not put on a veneer. Be solid wood. Do not let the heat that will come to divert you from the spirit of the Lord have any effect. Be good ground so the seed that is planted in you can grow to a tree springing up into eternal life.