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| Kim, Shela, Tia, ShaNell, Kenna & Trent, Talia, Tayt, Kaiya |
Mom had taken us to Nampa for a twirling workshop for Arva. Mark and I were over playing around a big pine tree when 3 or 4 guys came up and started beating up on Mark. He called me for help and one of the guys blocked my way. Mom came out of nowhere and the other guy took off in a big hurry. It just goes to show you, don’t mess with a mad protective mom.
I don’t know if I was here for this one. Dad and mom had stopped at a fruit stand and bought cluster of grapes. Mom was feeding dad grapes as they drove. A policeman Pulled them over because dad was weaving too much. Dad assured the policeman he was not drunk.
It was election day and the car wouldn’t start, dad and mom were not going to slack on their civic duty. The climbed on the tractor and dad drove them into town so they could vote.
Dad always gave 2 warnings when you were not living up to expectations, the 3rd time you received what you had coming. We were a base ball game and I was running around, I ran past dad a couple of time and he told me to stop running around. The third time he held out his arm as I ran past and clotheslined me. He looked down at me and said I told you to quit running around and went back to the conversation he was having. I picked myself up and didn’t run around any more.
Some times we would be “helping” dad with a project. He would be running out of time and patience so he would say go tell your mother she needs you. So we would go and tell mom she needs us and she would find something for us to do so dad could get the job done.
Back before seatbelts we would stand up between the back and front seats of the car when we were driving at night. Dad would turn on the bright headlights with the switch on the floor. He would have us blow out the bright light indicator light on the dashboard. We thought we were so cool.
1962 was a challenging year for dad and mom. It was Christmas time Ann had been in the hospital with pneumonia, Paula (I think) was in with pleurisy , and someone else was in with bronchitis. Everyone was finally home and dad and mom decided we would go to the drive-in movie to celebrate. On the way home we came over the last hill before we got home. We could see a fire and mom said it looks like someone’s hay stack was on fire. As we got closer we could see it was ours. All the neighbors had gathered around the hey stack and the building trying to protect the house and buildings and put out the fire. I think we lost 20 tons of hey and 5 tons of straw. Dad had just sold the hey and hadn’t cashed the check, so he just gave the check back. I took several years to recover from all of the medical expenses but at least we had everything that was important.
We were typical kids and enjoyed picking on each other. Mom didn’t like us arguing so she would sing Love At Home until we stopped.
Dad was driving to school one day when a pheasant flew in front of him and he hit it. Later in the day the city constable came into his office and ask to see dad’s hunting license. Dad said “you know I don’t hunt”, but the constable had him go out to the car. When dad hit the pheasant his head hit the head light and broke it. The pheasant’s head was inside the headlight and the rest of it was hanging down in front of the bumper. They both had a good laugh, dad had bagged a pheasant.
Dad took our white station wagon into town to have some work done on it. It was summer and all the windows were down. Dad when down to pick up the car late in the day. The next day the car smelled like a dead skunk we looked all through the car and couldn’t find any thing. We had to drive to church with all the windows down because the smell was so bad. When we got home we looked again and found a dead polecat in a box hidden in the storage compartment in the back of the car. Mom wrote a poem about it and dad took it back to the mechanic who a fixed the car. He felt really bad and then they had a laugh.
The school had sponsored a fund raiser and there was more money than the school was insured for so dad put the rest of the money (which was more than was in the safe) in a small box and set it on top of the safe. That night someone broke into the office took the small box with all the money in it off the top of the safe and broke into the safe and took the money inside. How’s that for luck.
Mom and dad hadn’t been married very long. Dad was teasing mom, he had his hand out in front and mom got hold of dad’s thumb and dad ended up on the floor. They have enjoyed telling this story for many years.
Once when we were kids it was turn to say family prayer. I decided it wasn’t my turn so I said no. Mom said “ Kim doesn’t want to talk to Heavenly Father who else would like to talk to Heavenly Father?” I said “I do” Mom said “ you didn’t want to so someone else will get to” It was a very effective lesson. I have not turned down the opportunity since.
Kim
My favorite memories of Grandpa and Grandma are many. One of the earliest is getting a bath in the kitchen sink from Grandma, it was a sad day when I no longer fit in the sink. Another early memory is snuggling into Grandma's soft "wings" and listening to her humming, she always seemed to be humming. Cooking included humming, watching TV included humming, cleaning included humming and watching us play involved humming. I also remember the summer she took my sisters, Kaylynn and I swimming at the Burley pool all day for three days. And didn't apply sunscreen once. There were four burnt exhausted girls running around the house half naked yelling because she had put vinegar on our backs to try and take away the heat. To this day I can't use vinegar without thinking of Grandpa with the newspaper up past his ears to avoid seeing us running laps around the house half naked. I remember Grandpa making each of us little individual loaves of bread and how special it made me feel that he had made a loaf just for me. I remember playing in the flooded back yard on irrigation days. I remember using the new twin air mattresses as stair sleds and the new queen air mattress at the bottom of the stairs as a crash pad. I remember sitting on the back porch eating watermellon and spitting the seeds in the grass and then being confused when Grandpa told us not to spit seeds in the grass. Who wouldn't want free watermellon? I remember at least 3 choices of ice cream (chocolate, vanilla or stripes) in the freezer at all times. I remember many nights spent listening to stories recorded by Grandpa and Grandma, I still like listening to them. I remember many years of Thanksgiving dinners and eating way too much food, mostly Grandma's rolls. I remember checking my height on the closet every time I visited (I still like being measured), being button measured, tricked into face measuring kisses and love spanks and Grandpa trying endlessly to teach us to whistle his tricky little tunes. I still love being asked if my name is Stillfriggins. I remember walking into the Celestial room for the first time and seeing Grandpa and Grandma and all my family and thinking, "This is what Heaven is like." Mostly I will always cherish the feeling of unconditional love everytime I came or left and got a hug. If you are with the Merrill's hugs are not optionional. I love how they have managed to create such a close knit family despite the great distances between everyone. I will always remember the strong spirit that permeates their house. They are exceptionally special people and I am proud to call them my grandparents.
ReplyDeleteLove, Tia.