I love my dad! He's great! Here is a picture with him and his older brother, Randy, and his father, Al. Dad is always helping us out with computer stuff etc. My dad loves music and singing, and he has a great voice and is never shy in sharing it. Sometimes this would create embarrassing moments for us kids when we were younger. We can all recall one year when we attended the rodeo and they sang the star-spangled banner. Dad sang full-voice, he was the only one you could hear, besides the person singing into the microphone :) Quite a few heads turned in our direction, as we dodged our heads, pretending we didn't know this strange man. Now we are all proud to join in and sing right along with him - and he played a huge role in distilling that love for music within us! Cami conducted an experiment with our father and his love for music one day. She passed by his work room several times, each time singing a different song - Phantom of the Opera, My Heart Will Go On, The Sound of Music, and My Girl. After each time she passed by, dad would pick up the tune she was singing and start whistling it - and it worked every time! We all got a kick out of that! Sometimes we have to remind him to start a new tune, cause he'll get stuck whistling one song over and over, sort of like a broken record :)
My dad has always been a hard worker! One year he earned a trip to
Puerto Rico with his company, and mom had just had Jonathan and couldn't go, so I got to go on the trip with him. I was thrilled! We had a good time together-scuba diving, swimming and playing tennis. One night, at dinner, we were talking with other people that were there, doing the introduction thing - how many people are in your family and all that good stuff. The ladies we were talking with were a bit drunk, and dad was telling them about his family, that he had six kids and such. One of the ladies turned to me and said, "Wow, you're a better woman than I am!" I was shocked, and blubbered something about how I WAS one of the children - his daughter and definitely not his wife! We got a good laugh about it afterward.
I love my Dad! He's always willing to help people out in any way that he can.
I have lots of fun memories of my Grandpa
Israelsen. Both growing up, and especially when I lived with them while attending college for four years. After prayers on the food, grandpa often says "H-
schmocklett" :) We had good times watching
Matlock together at 1:00 after lunch when I'd have come home from my morning classes. He's always "puttering" as he puts it, around the house, and especially up at the cabin. I remember him balancing the little ones on his hands like in this picture and being so impressed. Grandpa
Israelsen is a story-teller, and is well-known in Logan for his Old Ephraim story, his mongoose, and his rattle-snake cowboy hat!
His pet mongoose is a thrill :) One of my favorite memories of my grandpa is with that mongoose. I was taking an Adult Development and Aging class in college and we had to do a project. We had a choice between writing something or doing a presentation. I chose a presentation and invited my grandparents along as guest speakers. They were both troopers and agreed. In the class, we had talked about how pets were a great thing for people as companions when they get older. So, in illustration of this, I asked my grandpa to bring his pet mongoose to show the class. I'll never forget the combined scream of the entire class, as the mongoose "escaped".
LOL! We also talked about how humor is important in aging :) My grandpa definitely maintains his humor!
Cami has also lived with my grandparents to attend college and the memory she shared of grandpa also illustrates his humor. She was having a hard time waking up early for school, so she asked grandpa if he could help her wake up at six. He's always been an early riser. He's nearly always up! She told him that if she wasn't awake by six he could pour water on her head. Well, the next morning she woke up at 5:35, and was coming down the stairs, only to meet grandpa coming up EARLY with a glass of water to pour on her head! Haha, I can just see him doing that!
Mom shared memories with me she had of her dad. She remembers him having a lot of migraine headaches, and that he would always take an orange soda, put peanuts in it and drink that with an Excedrin-who knew that was the cure for migraines! She says that her dad was always called "By Fetch" by all his nieces and nephews because he always said that. A saying she recalls him repeating goes something like "Today is Monday, the next day's Tuesday, the next day's Wednesday, the week's half gone and we haven't gotten anything done! So get up and get to work." She remembers for her birthday when she was a senior that her dad took her and a friend up to the cabin to ride horses, and that she really enjoyed it. She also recalled her dad taking her to work with him. He was a salesman and travelled to different farms. She remembers being really pretty shy, but was happy to go with him.
In her own words, "I can remember many different "projects" Dad had for us to do. We got a water line from the spring to the cabin, we raised bunnies and then ate them, we poured a cement slab up by the barn for basketball, we planted the garden together, we made a bridge over a creek at the cabin, we "harvested" rocks out of our backyard in preparation for growing grass. My dad is very much a people person and talks to everyone. He loves to tell jokes, show people his mongoose, tell people about the elk that ran so hard at the cabin his head went through the cabin wall and his tail was on the opposite back wall, he has stories about the man that got his leg caught in a trap, how he caught the snake on his hat . . . he is a good storyteller and has told the story of Old Ephraim a lot. I can remember getting up very early on the 24th of July and Dad would have a speaker system hooked up to the station wagon and drove through the city of North Logan waking people up for the 24th of July celebration."
My Grandpa Thornton is a hard worker! He was always there whenever we were doing any major construction work on our home! I remember whenever we went to Boise, grandpa would usually make us sandwiches for our trip home - and they were always made with lots of butter! Grandpa loves the Golden Corral or Chuck-a-Rama - and I have lots of fun memories of going there with him. My Grandpa Thornton owns a
snowcone shack, and I have fun memories of going to get
snowcones in the summer and that grandpa's
snowcones are the best around cause he doesn't ever skimp you on the flavoring like some places do! My Grandpa Thornton has also played a huge role in my interest in
genealogy. He's been working hard on his side and was excited when I wanted to start getting involved. Whenever I think of
genealogy, I think of him, and how I want to get more involved!
Cami shared her memories of Grandpa Thornton with me on Father's Day. She says that growing up she hated pumpkin pie, but that grandpa loved it. She says he was like the pumpkin pie master and would always serve the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving - putting on the whipped cream and passing it out to everyone. After many Thanksgivings, grandpa one year put the pie in front of her without asking if she wanted it. Not wanting to refuse or insult grandpa, she figured she'd just take one bite. It was delicious! and now she has a love of pumpkin pie, and she refuses to eat it without the creme - all thanks to grandpa :)
My Dad also shared his memories with us of his father. He remembers going hunting in the fall. They would usually walk together and around noon they would stop and eat Vienna sausages. About 2 pm they would take a target practice into some dirt bank. Every December he remembers his dad putting up the Christmas mural in the chapel. It was an oil on canvas of the nativity about 12 x 25 that hung over the organ pipes in the Boise Tabernacle. In the summer, he remembers going with his dad to the church to show feature films from the projector room onto the 30' screen in the cultural hall below the chapel. The Explorer's charged a small admission to the children of the ward to raise money for their program. He remembers his dad as an Explorer leader, helping the boys build toboggans by boiling the ends of 4" wood slats and bending them around a mold that his dad had built. Dad remembers his older brother, Randy, getting mouthy one time and thinking that he was a "big man". He says his dad got Randy by the shirt front and lifted him off the ground with a challenge that he could try him any time he thought he was ready. He also remembers once when Randy was wearing really short cut-offs and that his dad ripped them right off of Randy as he was sitting on the back steps and Randy walked by. Dad remembers working for five days with grandpa remodeling our kitchen in West Valley, and afterward, everyone going out for dinner on Saturday when they had finished!
Mom says Grandpa Thornton has helped us with all our main building projects. He helped us remodel our kitchen, put on a new deck, and roof our house in Fruit Heights. She says Al will help anyone that he can. He is always giving people the benefit of the doubt. She says he has done a lot on his genealogy and knows a lot of the stories of his ancestors. She remembers all the "Big Al" stops - when grandpa would wait until the last minute at a stop sign to slam on the brakes :)
I am so thankful for my Dad and both of my grandpa's! I love each of them dearly and have been influenced for good by each of their examples. Thanks Dad! Thanks Grandpa Thornton and Grandpa Israelsen!
