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Monday, May 12, 2008

My Missionary/ No adult supervision

OK, I didn't go on a mission (dang girls) and I don't know all the do's and don'ts to being on a mission, but I'm not exactly sure what Elder Huntsman is doing here. Is he baby sitting? Is he pushing an empty stroller? Is there something besides a baby in the stroller? (It is Australia after all) or is there something that Elder Huntsman has not told us about his mission?

At any rate it was great to hear from him on Mother's Day. Even though the first attempt to contact us was at 5:45am. Australia is 17 hours ahead of us and Tyler's math skills were not turned on. We talked to him for a little while and then convinced him to go to bed, it was 10:45pm there and to call us back when he woke up. That worked out much better.

To give a report, he is doing great. No headaches even though he is back out in the "bush" and his spirits are high even though he is in an area that is only a branch and there are only 30 people at Church, which they have to have in a converted mental ward at the hospital.
 He is getting a little "trunky" with only months left, but he is so driven that he knows the time will go by faster than he wants it to. We are trying to get all of our dates together for when we are going to get him. There is a lot of coordination that goes into that with the Church Travel Agency. We are very excited about being able to see him, less than 5 months.

The small town that Tyler is in has only a thousand or so people in it and he says it reminds him of Kanarraville, Utah. For those of you who don't know where that is, it is just before you get to Cedar City going north and it is where my mom was raised.
 My kids have spent a lot of time there. It was while Tyler was telling me about the town he's in and and how small and rural it was that I got to thinking about the summers in Kanarraville as a boy.
 All I can say is " Where was the adult supervision?"
 There are quite a few stories to tell from those infamous summers, many of them are historically documented, see flood of 1974, (that was not all my fault).
 One quick little story from the summer of '75. I was 13 years old my cousin Tony was 12. We were bored out of minds. Parents should not let mischievous 13 year olds get bored. Bad things will happen. We had run out of things to break. We had climbed every tree and let loose every caged or penned animal.
 When my father drives in from Cedar City with a present that he forgot to run by my mother...............FIREWORKS! These were not the wussy fireworks of now days. There was no such thing as "Safe and Sane". There were actual explosives in the package. Who can remember M80's? There were 4 of those! Did you know they were waterproof? If you dropped them in the irrigation ditch they wouldn't explode until they were under the road.They were a 1/4 stick of dynamite.  Cool! Where was the supervision?
 Here is where it gets good. There were "Bottle Rockets". Remember those? So named because they were a rocket on a long stick, that you put in a bottle and then lit and swoosh! Up into the sky and POW! We had 24 of these. The first 12 went as per the instructions. Then the wheels started turning. Surely you could launch them from other objects than just bottles? The next 10 were launched from posts, door frames, mailboxes and the back of one very mad pig. Then sheer brilliance. What if you broke the stick in half and through it after you lit the fuse? It would fly in whatever direction it was facing when it ignited. So Boss!
Crap! Only 4 left, the first three went like clock work. Spinning through the air and then zoom! off they would go and POW! The last one? Not so good.
 If any of you have ever been to a rural farming area, you notice that everyone has a field growing something. You also probably know what "summer wheat" is. It's about two feet tall dry yellow grass. Are you getting the picture? My mom's uncle had a 2 acre field of border to border "summer grass". The last "bottle rocket" no lie. To this day I ask Why? Why? As it shot towards the field I remember trying to run and catch it. Do you know how fast dry grass burns? It went like a shot then burnt for 2 hours. I can still remember the sound of the bell from that old fire engine. They couldn't put it out. It burned from road to road to fence. I can still remember the smell after the flames tore through the chicken coop. No not fried chicken, burnt chicken poop. There was a picture of my dad and all my uncles with soot on their faces, smoke behind them and me and my cousin sitting in the cab of my dads truck. We were grounded for most of the summer. I ask again. Where was the supervision?
Talk to you later


2 comments:

Kathy's Boys said...

Love hearing about Tyloy and once again a great
story. So then what happened.....?

steve said...

very funny. i think i had too much supervision. i don't have any cool stories like that. i missed out i think.

steve

 

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