IT IS NEVER TOO EARLY OR LATE TO TELL YOUR MOTHER THANKS

When on earth, my mother went by the name of LaVon Harris Jones. She was very close to her mother who came to Moroni with the Mormon Pioneers. That mother went by the name of Eliza Hitesman until she married a Nephi man by the name of Evan Harris, who was born in Iowa City, Iowa, whose parents were on their way to "Zion" with the controlled herd of Mormon's coming to Utah with Brother Young. The early kids of Evan and Eliza were boys, who were taught to fell trees for pioneer homes; blacksmiths, Livery; Harvesting wheat on the Levan ridge; fighting in World War One, then collecting Ice in the west marshes and burying it under ground and straw for summer Ice Cream. They moved from to Nephi to be closer to the school than in Heberville (by Ockey's farm). They  moved to where their second daughter was born in a house next to Salt Creek, southwest of Territory jail on 1st West. Maggie Vera died when young, so they were happy that LaVon came along and she and her mother were very close, especially when her Dad cut logs for the Pioneer Cabin at the park at age 74. He went to church the next day; came home and died. Then Eliza soon died and LaVon was on her own, typing and sending letters. In going through the correspondence, and recalling what my mother told of the family, their was enormous love and admiration between them. Regardless of the time or the day, they would write letters and communication between them, and my heart felt that when I came across the birthday greeting below. My history and love lesson today is never wait until loved ones pass to give them flowers, and never wait til they die to send hand written letters and cards to them. They have all the beautiful flowers in the next world. It is okay to send your mother a Happy Mothers Day card now.

IS IT OKAY TO HIRE SOMEBODY AT AGE 75?

The answer to the question is "Darn Tootin". Today's lesson is not found in a history book, but comes from real life events. We will briefly explain the importance of hiring a person who is not only educated in an established college, but one who has experience on the streets of life. To be more specific, this is the Life and Times of Iris Hemenway, originally from a bad city in a beautiful state surrounded by  water. She was left to raise three little girls on her own. And she did extremely well, working hard and heavily involved with PTA and local affairs. But eventually, enough was enough. She seen enough violence on the streets of life to say "Good ridden's to bad rubbish" . Iris packed her kids and enough clothes and headed west. She landed in the Utah city of Salt, which was a heck of a lot better than the city of sin, where muggings and killings were a daily event. Iris was born with vim, vigor and vitality, so she and  her 3 girls bedded town for a night or two and she picked up a paper to find a job. She went to her interview at the Utah State Prison. Dave Franchina hired her, who became the Warden during the days when there was only 600 people at the Point of the Mountain and 20 or so female inmates. Then  Iris found herself guarding some of the most dangerous men around. She stood about 5 foot nothing, but commanded respect and all gave it to her. She stayed put in Utah and worked through various components of the Criminal Justice System as did I and knew of her truthful and outspoken manner. Then came the day when havoc rained from hell, and inmates were walking out the gates and doors like the Terrace Ballroom used to be. Corrections people were fired and things changed. Next thing was I heard they hired two outsiders to come and and put a stop to what the prison folks were doing. Well, it came down to me as one of three members of a task force to curb the non caring manner of who was let out of prison. Another outsider was Iris Hemenway and a insider who represented the prison, who just wanted to release everybody to save money. I like to play it square and fair, and Iris and I found out we were allies and wouldn't put up with some of the shenanigan's some unnamed prison folks wanted to do. We became instant professional friends and became personal friends later on. I was appointed to a position in the criminal justice system and a part of my job was to appoint a new Judge to rule over prison inmates early, on what was called Drug Court. I hired Iris to come back to work as a Judge at about 75 years old who was a volunteer at the VA Hospital. She run her professional life like her personal life, which was a heart of gold. Fair and Square and nobody could not fib to her. She retired once again, and at age 80 and me 60, we became personal friends. We decided to take piano lessons and invited her adopted granddaughter-Lily to do the same. Once a week, we would practice while the dogs growled and grumbled and Lily had to listen to our swearing when we missed a note. Lily's mother adopted her from China as an infant, a place I had previously resided. We then threw out our first duet concert. Our audience didn't like our playing until they sipped our wine. Iris died later as did Dave Franchina, and his wife. Lily later called me and asked if I would be her adopted grandfather and I accepted and we have been friends ever since. Her family loaned me the piano that belonged to Iris, and I agreed, but only on a temporary basis, as I haven't played since Iris died in a brutal fight with a cancer and her last words was to accept a cancer and not the treatment. Although I was a man, her real man love was for General George Patton, and I assume she and Patton are marching to Heavenly victory as their Troops would go to battle for either one, even to their own death. Long Live Iris and Lily, who graduated from college in Law Enforcement and working in an undisclosed location. Smart and Stunning Lily could have any man in the world, but listened to me and Iris when we told her a dog was better than a man and the first photo is of her and her mutt. Second photo is of me and Lily; third is of me; Iris and Dave Franchina and fourth is of me and Iris hootin it up at a Governors Ball, before one of the four Governors no longer wanted me to attend, even though I continued to be their Constituent Affairs Officer. Yup, I like my women young and with aged refinement!

IF YOU ARE A TOLLEY OR KNOW ONE OF THOUSANDS, I NEED YOUR HELP

Well, it is true!  I am well aged and brain damaged, so need help from one of the thousands of Tolley family members scattered throughout the western United States and Canada. As far was we know, the Patriarch of the United States Tolley family is Wm. Fisher Tolley, who was born in South Moulton, Devonshire, England in 1823. Upon his arrival to Mormonville, Utah, Brother Brigham assigned him to go to Sanpete and Juab County to help build a road between Nephi and Fountain Green. Mr. Tolley was experienced in building roads and railroads in England. With the permission and green light from the Mormon leaders, he was given permission to marry four wives, and had a hay wagon full of kids with first wife-Sarah Warren of Nephi, and second wife-Saran Fisher of Idaho. As the collector of family history, I have thousands of papers and artifacts from their arrival to Nortonville and Nephi since the 1850's. I love history, but not into LDS church Genealogy. So that is where I need to send this letter of nearly a hundred years ago. I keep going through boxes of information I buried a half century ago. I have already given various photos and church journals to the LDS church, and they thought it was better go dish out some of my history to interested family members. Below is the letter and its contents which list various names. If you are interested, I would be delighted to send the contents to any one wants it for research. Good Luck.

NUSENSE-CHAPTER NINE.

 I have found it is difficult to keep track of all the nonsensible writings I have put down over the years, so if I have duplicated some of them, you can laugh or giggle twice.

These are suggestions on how to speak to a woman and be politically correct.

101. She is not a BABE or a CHICK, she is a BREASTED AMERICAN.

102. She is not a SCEAMER or a MOANER, she is VERBARALLY APPRECIATIVE

103. She is not EASY, she is HORIZONANALLY  ACCESSIBLE.

104. She is not dumb, she is a DETOUR OFF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

105. She has not BEEN AROUND, SHE IS A PRVIOUSLY ENJOYED COMPANIONS

106. She is NOT AN AIRHEAD, SHE IS REALITY IMPAIRED

107. She does not GET DRUNK OR TIPSY. SHE GETS REALITY IMPAIRED

108. She Is NOT HORNY, SHE GETS SEXUALLY FOCUSED.

109. She does not get BREAST IMPLANTS, SHE IS MEDICALLY ENHANCED.

110. She does not nag you, SHE GETS ORALLY REPETITIVE         

AND  FOR THE MEN:

111.Seeing other people as the problem-is the problem.

112. Don't panic if someday they say you have a beer gut. To me, it is my liquid grain storage facility.

113. Regardless of how dark life may become, always remember it is the darkest just before daylight              savings time.

114. Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you. Cry........and you have to blow your nose.

115. Culture, Class, Chaos. They are in your DNA. You figure out when to use them-and when to cut               them off at the pass.      

116. For your kids-choose which to be-their hero or villan; their ruler;  their friend or parent..

117. You are smarter than than your kids; they they will be smarter than you; then you will be smarter            than them.  But always remember, your wife will always be the most smart.

118. The only things we can keep are the things we freely give. What we try to keep for ourselves is              just what we are sure to lose.     

119. And our last point is.....Life on earth will eventually end. Time is short. Each of us have                          passengers from time to time, but in reality, we travel alone. No one gets out alive or can keep us            safe all the time. There are parts of our personalities we cannot change or ignore, even when the              price of separation and loss. Eventually, we can find unity, but only within ourselves.            

HONK IF YOU LOVE JESUS

Today is Sunday or the Sabbath for many Christians, so thought it may be appropriate to tell a true story that happened to me. During my life it seems that for one reason or another, my life has been spared on numerous occasions. I don't recall doing anything extraordinary good or evil to deserve that, but quite certain that I have a host of Guardian Angels. Other times, it could just be plain luck. Generally speaking, my blogs are on history, and as such, I go through a variety of boxes that contain things that me or my family have collected since our family arrival in Nephi during the 1850's. Todays story touches a little on thoughts I wrote down during one of my medical recoveries. Over the years, I watch people more than anything. Body language often tells the truth more than their words. I have found that people, places and things may not be as they first appear. During medical recovery, I have a tendency to let things in life slow down, including paying bills; getting out of bed and eating correctly. I even drive slower, but not as slow as Bish Belliston years ago when us locals mistakenly called him "Hazard". In this particular recovery, I had been operated on for a rotator cuff injury. When I was able to drive again, I did so with ease as one arm remained in a sling. I ventured up beautiful American Fork Canyon when it was less traveled by years ago. I was coming down and noticed a yellow VW bug coming up behind me speeding. Although I slowed down and moved to the right so he would pass when it was clear, he chose not to, but got even closer to to me in a dangerous manner. He seemed to become even more enraged like many folks on Utah's notorious I-15 or what I call the urchins' of the Pac-Man generation. Although it was in a dangerous area, he made the decision to pass me quickly, then cut me off and I backed off, slowing down. I only had one arm, so I chose to be a good Christian and let him cool down. Besides I didn't have my badge and gun with me and wouldn't have been good at a one hand fist-a-cuff. He slowed down as if he wanted to duke it out. That is when he put up his right hand and produced one vertical middle finger upwards towards me. I couldn't do the same, but kept my one hand on the wheel. While he kicked his VW in high gear and sped off, I did remember his license plate, but more significantly, was the bright bumper sticker which read "Honk If You Love Jesus". Well, I was attempted to honk back, but that would have have been like being blind walking in to fight a bull. I couldn't help but laugh to myself. His gestures just didn't fit one that was truly Christ like. There are many occasions when people are not what they declare. In nearly 50 years of working with politicians and being one myself, I have often viewed similar body language of those folks. Although many start with good intentions, their behavior seems to dissolve while Jesus didn't.

HERE ARE SOME NEAR RACY STUFF FROM THE 1947 DESERET NEWS

Facts are facts and the truth remains the truth. We are not like the major media as we will just present what we see in front of us then you can decide what ever you wish. Today, we present four interesting pages from the middle section of  the July 19, 1947 issue of the Deseret News. That paper is owed and operated by the LDS church, back then and now. That issue writes about the Redd family of LaSal and Bluff, Utah and of the big sheep herd they had, but doesn't cover a future story where police authorities raided some of those families to collect Ancient Indian Artifacts. In addition, one of Utah's favorite actors and singers was Burl Ives who sang a song about Big Rock Candy Mountain, but if you talk to some local folks of Mona, Utah, you may here a different story of his possible Swanigan's in the Juab County area of the same era. I went through the movie section and about the only actor I knew was Gene Autry, and no he wasn't the star of "I wonder who's kissing her now". Perhaps it is only the ad placement, but right below the photo of 10 daughters of Brigham Young, it writes about the best selling book called "The Lost Sex". Read all about it, but keep your Bible close by.

THIS AND THAT OF BY GONE DAYS-CHAPTER ONE.

Today I have the day off work, so decided to put a bunch of different things on this blog which consists of various things of the past. The first is a handkerchief that was donated to the DUP Museum. It was made by the French people during World War One when America came to the defense of the Allies and given to my mothers brother who fought there. The second and last pages are business receipts of a bygone Nephi. And the one page is the report card for my mother who attended LDS Seminary, even after she graduated from Nephi High in 1928. Never have I seen where a student has an average of A plus. Wow.

IT AIN'T BREAKING NEWS, BUT SOME LDS FOLKS MAY WANT TO KNOW.

Just in case you are a member of the LDS church and plan on going to church, you may want to know this answer for that trivial pursuit game, even if they don't play that game anymore. Always good to know. The thousands of papers and artifacts our family has gathered are all mixed together, so even I am amazed if these historical blogs are going to show Hell, Fire and Damnation or the the day when a TV/Radio guy cared the dickens out of us about the end of the world was at hand, and people were jumping from tall buildings before they would be killed. Anywho, the first page will show the "Church Statistical Report for 1961" and then we will show you a photo of LDS Stake and Bishop Leaders from overseas. In going through the paper I thought I knew about most towns in Utah, but had to do research on changes in the Stake of Uvada, Utah. I then knew my grandfather who know more than I as he was a mule skinner in the area of Iron County, heading a mule team of food and supplies when parts of Nevada was still in the Utah Territory. If you want to take a can of Spam and spend the day, head to Cedar City, then the road west towards Panaca and Pioche, where they hung more folks than the whole Dakota Territory put together. The ghost town is situated between Sheep Springs and a little southwest of Devils Gap. If you get to Horseshoe, you have gone too far, so get the Hell out of there. Now eat your Spam and head back to where Iron came from in cowboy days of long ago.,

NUSENSE-CHAPTER 8

 This will contain a bunch of things I have seen, read or heard of over the past 70 plus years so sharing.

87. How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the psychopath.

88. How does the Catholic Priest get Holy Water? They boil the Hell out of it.

89. What do fish say when they hit a concrete wall?  Dam.

90.  What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long? Polaroids.

91. What do you call a Boomerang that doesn't work? A stick.

92.What do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho Cheese.

93. What do you call Santa's little helpers? Subordinate Clauses.

94. What do you call four bullfighters in quicksand? Quatro Sinko.

95. What do you get from a pampered cow? Spoiled milk.

96.What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? Frostbite.

97. What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches? A nervous wreck.

98. What's the difference between a roast beef and pea soup? Anyone can roast beef.

99.Why don't blind people like to sky dive? Because it scares the hell out of the dog.

100. If you are old enough, don't you wish you could go back in time for a brief encounter with the past. Stroll back in time with me Before the Commodore 64; Internet or Super Nintendo. Lets play Marbles; Kick the Can; Red Light-Green Light; Spin the Bottle; Lunch boxes with Thermos; socks as gloves; Old Maid and Crazy Eights; wax lips, Vitalis, Coke lids with the names of cities on the bottom; running through the sprinkler; Circle Pins and Bobby Pins How about the Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky Bullwinkle, Fran and Ollie, Spin and Marty and all in black and white. Playing cowboys and Indians at the old Holler, climbing trees; tree houses, then tying a wire between soup cans so you could share secret codes. Sittin on the curb, walking on the barrier over the old hollow. How about making forts under sheets or underground huts. Putting up lemonade stands, catching nightcrawlers then trying to sell them. Jumping on the bedlike a springboard, skinny dipping at the pool after MIA. Remember laughing so hard with your friends that you thought you were going to pee your pants. Stomp on a empty carton of Lucky Strikes cigarettes and you could legally smack your friend; Keds and PF Flyers; and those girls had to wear those ugly uniforms. Don't step on a crack or you will break your mothers back. Paper chains at Christmas time; silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington at school and the smell of plaster of Paris. Hiking to the glory holes; Mt. Nebo; catching fish in the fields. How about waiting five minutes for the TV to warm up to the three channels you could choose from. Times up. Back to reality.

PUT YOUR BOOTS ON AS THE 88TH ANNUAL UTE STAMPEDE RODEO IS AROUND THE KORNER

The rumor is true and the words needs to be put out like a wildfire. The 88th annual Ute Stampede Rodeo is set for July in Nephi, Utah, still the rural town of Juab County. Come and see the worlds great outdoor sport with open seating and the nearby carnival for the kiddos. Like last year you could very well see Kaycee Field and the Wright Brothers, which are leading the world in their saddle bronc; bareback and bull riding. This spot is not for the whimps but real toughness, physical and mental. Rural America is being taken away from us, so before the  big city ruins us, come and see the best of the west. Plenty of carnival activities and eateries around and by then we may have a new hotel finished. We honor the animal; the participate and God knows we support our USA and the guardians of our freedom. Come join us and get your calendars marked. We even have a collage of photos of the first Ute Stampede Committee and Juab County has the scenic areas of anywhere in our America.