Stories From My Life

It's not surprising that surgery would be on my mind today. Therefore I thought it might be of some interest to record the surgeries I've undergone. I define surgery as the doctors do as this list is taken from a hospital printout. September 1973 - repair finger broken after playing York Catholic in freshman football. I had attempted to block a punt and the blockers protecting the punter broke the middle finger of my left hand. In those days, such a repair involved a general anesthetic and an overnight stay in the hospital. Most memorable were 2 things: I missed the Bobby Riggs / Billie Jean King "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match, and I threw up everywhere from the anesthesia. Today such a repair would be outpatient. January 1980 - the same surgeon, Dr. Eagle did exploratory surgery for my right knee. This was an early application of arthroscopic surgery. He discovered multiple tears in cartilage but did not repair anything because, at that time, they didn...

This past week has been pretty ordinary. Caroline started work, Kevin and I continued working from home, and everyone continued the process of moving in. Having access to my walkers and rollator has given me greater mobility. The house is shaping up. We purchased a sofa/bed that should be useful (once it's delivered). We put up some storage bins and tried to connect some speakers I was given for my 10th anniversary at WWT. Unfortunately I have everything needed to hook up the speakers except an amplifier. Crud. Susan and I went to the movies for the first time in quite a while. It was very enjoyable - The Art of Racing in the Rain. Jesse, Rachel and the babies came down to visit yesterday. What a treat. There is talk abut Jesse taking a position that would allow him to live nearby. I confess I like that idea. This morning's sacrament talks were on repentance and very well done. I thoroughly enjoyed them. I then attended priesthood for what I believe is only the 3rd time...

We had the greatest cat in the history of the world when we were little. Our home in Red Lion had 2 floors plus a basement. Because the house was built on the side of a hill steps were required for every door except the basement and front doors. That means that there were steps on the side of the house and out the back door. This little detail matters later in this story. We lived at the corner of E Elm Lane and whatever that street going up is Retard was named because of the crazy things it would do. It used to sleep in the middle of the floor, where the sun shone through; would awaken from what appeared to be a dead sleep, run around the first floor of the house, flip in the air and land where he started and go back to sleep almost immediately. Another of his favorite tricks was to crawl under the afghan that draped across the back of the sofa. Joe was still pretty young. When he heard that cats have 9 lives he wanted to experiment. So he started throwing Retard off the top...

The last 2 days have been wonderful. Yesterday morning was delightful as Susan and I stayed in our room until late in the morning. A wonderful, relaxing morning. I'm not sure we even bothered to get breakfast. In the afternoon we went furniture shopping with Natalia, Maverick and Khloé. Afterward we had burgers at a new burger joint - a place Caroline and Kevin had frequented earlier. While Susan and I were inside asking some final questions, the children were outside patiently waiting. Kevin and Caroline drove by. So she called Susan to ask why her children were outside of a furniture store - alone. It was a funny moment. The burgers were great by the way. A pretty simple route from our home to the chapel. Then today we went to church; Susan had the closing prayer. We sat near the front so she'd have a short walk. Just before the meeting started I had a bloody nose so I scooted in my scooter around the front pews, all along the far side, basically the whole way around...

My junior year in high school I played football, swam, and competed in track. My events in swimming were usually 3 of the following: medley relay where I swam butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 individual medley, 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle or the freestyle relay. Oh yeah, I also swam the 500 freestyle. Red Lion High School pool Swimming was new when I went to school. The pool had just been built and my freshman year was the 1st year we had a swimming team. That resulted in some controversy because freshman weren't allowed to compete in varsity sports, yet there I was on a varsity team. By my junior year all that controversy had worked itself out and freshmen continued to compete on varsity. My younger brother Joe was pretty good at events I wasn't. He was our best backstroker, a very good breatstroker and a good freestyler. But since he is 18 months younger, I always had the advantage over him. That is until a race late in the season. We were competing a...

Yesterday started with a doctor's appointment in Meridian. After getting ready at the Marriott I managed to pack everything but my Kindle. Fortunately today I received a call that they had found it and Caroline, who is working in Nampa, will pick it up on her way home. A Kindle Fire, similar to the one I left behind Anyone who knows me knows that I always have the Kindle with me. It serves as my bookshelf with probably 200 books in it, an audio bookshelf with probably 50 audio books, my Gospel Library, multiple research volumes, a means of quickly finding things on Amazon, and a web browser. I use it far more than I use a phone or a laptop for personal things. Speaking of phones, in order to get a change of phone number from my employer I am obligated to request a 2nd line and 2nd phone which will be issued with an Idaho number. Once I receive that phone I can discontinue the first and transfer the number back to my original cell phone. That sounds great EXCEPT I have to p...

Today is a bit different as I'm typing this in Boise (Meridian to be exact). I have an appointment in the morning with a doctor I intend to keep despite our living in Kimberly. Courtyard by Marriott in Meridian I left home this afternoon after doing everything I could for my employer. Susan was busy with a couple of young men from the neighborhood arranging the garage and clearing out her office of boxes so that she could set it up. When I left it was starting to take shape - shelves on the wall, tables laid out, office chair in place, etc... The hallways were cluttered with what used to be in her office. I've been assured my scooter will have room to operate by the time I get home tomorrow. Yesterday was a great day, starting with a great morning and continuing into the afternoon and evening. I've taken to taking baths at night with epsom salts - magnesium in the salts relaxes one just before bedtime, and it reduces pain. We're blessed to have a large tub with 2...

This morning my work schedule was light so I headed off to the big city with Khloé and Maverick. We went to our bank to deposit a check, Walmart to acquire some very important items for Khloé - cupcakes and icing for Family Home Evening. Once we made those very important purchases we went to Wells Fargo to pay back Jesse some money we owed him when my nose started bleeding. Trip over. I decided not to risk our last stop which was to be a stop at Best Buy in Twin Falls. On our way home Khloé saw a fire in the distance. Since we could see flames we drove over to see if we could be of assistance. Once we got closer we realized it was likely someone burning weeds, although it was a lot of weeds and the fire was as high as a house. We considered the possibility that it might also be a barn, but since it wasn't a house, and we were limited in what we could do anyhow, we turned around and came home.

One summer our stepmother decided that boys needed to know how to cook breakfast. It was a great idea. So she came up with 4 breakfasts that we would learn to do in a rotating fashion over summer vacation - eggs, pancakes, french toast, and oatmeal. Occasionally oatmeal was replaced by Cream of Wheat which I greatly prefer.

On Friday I was fortunate to get an almost-immediate appointment with a dentist. He was recommended to me by someone helping unload our 4th and last truck of  belongings. That person also happens to be our bishop. I've often avoided doing business with Latter-day Saints because it can confuse relationships. Here in Idaho, that' going to be more difficult, so I called. They had just had a cancellation and squeezed me in that slot which required me to drop everything and leave. The urgency of the matter is 2 broken teeth. The complexity of the matter is my recent heart surgery as it is advised to avoid dental work for 12 months. Pretty simple, huh? What followed was the most thorough dental exam of my life - x-rays, 3-D images, photographs (yes simple digital photographs). They took about 3 hours with me on a day they were supposed to leave early. It was pretty amazing and most of the service was free. I suppose they will charge for the x-rays and 3-D to my insurance, but the...

Today our stake presidency was reorganized. Since we are new, we know none of them although the Stake President who was just released is in our ward. The visiting authorities were Area Authority Seventy Henry J Eyring and General Authority Seventy Matthew L Carpenter. Henry J Eyring Elder Eyring told a few stories from his life and a couple from his father's but his primary message was that there are great blessings in keeping a journal. This is my attempt to follow that counsel. Matthew L Carpenter Elder Carpenter endorsed that counsel and noted that he sends out an email to his children as the way of keeping his journal. That's where I got the idea to add this to the blog. My intention is always put Journal in the title so any reader may choose to read (or not), knowing what's in there.

In the spring of 1971 I was finishing 6th grade in Mrs. Sprenkle's class at Mazie Gable Elementary School. As part of the end-of-year festivities there was a big "track meet" where boys and girls of the different age groups were entered into different events by our teacher. I'll be forever grateful to Mrs. Sprenkle for entering me into one event that day that changed the rest of my school days, and helped me discover one of my talents. The only events I remember competing in that day were the 75-yard dash and the softball throw. Prior to that I never thought I'd had any athletic talents (other than tether-ball) because I didn't have the speed of my friends, all of whom were smaller. I struggled playing basketball as it required speed, agility and jumping all things I wasn't good at, especially at the age of 12. I had 2 things I did well that I knew of - tether-ball and kickball. That's why that day of the track meet mattered. I was nervous ...

I graduated on June 7th, 1977 from high school. Before the month was out I had moved out of my parents' home, never to return except for a few visits. So at the age of 18 years and 4 months I was on my own. Horn Field in Red Lion where graduation took place I needed to work since I was a fan of eating, both then and now. I also like having a roof over my head and clothes on my back. I even wanted gas for my 67 Chevy Belair so off to work I went. Mine was just like this. I drove 1100 miles to Covington, LA. I was so tired that when I filled my car with gas in Covington I put diesel in instead (in my defense it was the same price). Not a great start to my career! Covington is just east of Hammond I stayed in the living room of a girlfriend Leslie, and worked on a spec house with her father, before the whole carnie thing was ready to go. After a few days there, Leslie's sister and brother-in-law were ready to go. We were going to work 2 booths that they owned. ...

Cape Cod Aunt Quackie was an original. Born in 1913 in Fitchburg Massachusetts, the same town where my father would be born 16 years later. She was my grandmother's younger sister, the 5th girl and 8th child in a family of 11. The daughter of Andrew and Johanna Wahtola, she was the 2nd child born in the United States. She was a lot of fun with a great senae of humor. Quackie's father - Andrew I don't recall how she got the name Quackie since she was born Sylvia Maria. She had one child, Nadine, whose birth has been a bit of a mystery. When I knew Aunt Quackie, her name was Sylvia Hamaleinen, although she was a single woman and Nadine's name was White. I found 2 marriages for Aunt Quackie during the same year in different towns on Cape Cod while doing a records search but the man was not listed. My guess is her first husband was a White. We were told was Nadine's father was killed in World War II before she was born so he probably died soon after her concep...

Our high school put on musicals every year for which we were renowned. My freshman and sophomore years we had a couple of professional-class singers, one male and one female. That was perfect for the typical love story musical. Bill Anderson was a year ahead of me and the girl, whose name I forget, had a career performing in New York. The two of them had very impressive voices, very, very mature for high school kids. This is the main entrance to my high school. The auditorium was just to the left of these doors. Mr Spanogle and Miss Buffington were the sponsors and directors of the musical. I believe Miss Buffington coordinated just about everything except the play itself which Mr Spanogle directed. I was part of the choir. Later, during my junior and senior years when they decided to put on class plays because all the good singers had graduated, Miss Buffington later chose me as the male lead twice and directed both plays I performed in - Annie Get Your Gun and Pillow Talk. ...

I was a difficult child for teachers to teach. At least in our generation, my behavior was unusual. Today perhaps it'd be more normal. I remember my 5th grade teacher, Mr Willson, my first male teacher, said "Rauma if I don't paddle you this year I'm going to feel cheated". He never paddled me. I knew how far to push it and never went over the line. Plenty of my friends got swatted but not me. Mazie Gable Elementary - Red Lion, PA On Fridays he'd choose a Student of the Week. That person could go into the teachers' lounge and get a soda out of the soda machine there. The machine was old-school where one pulled the bottles out of the machine after putting 5 or 10 cents into it. Exact change only I might add. Those machines couldn't make change. I then went back to class and drank my soda. It looked like this pretty much. One might ask how a problem student like me knows so much detail. It's because I decided to stop acting up abou...

Growing up we always had gardens. Adding in the fact we lived in the country we had access to every vegetable and fruit grown in the area. We would harvest our own home-grown food, buy bushels and bushels of fruits and vegetables, and pick cherries originally from our friends the Bakers and later the Reinebergs (friends who were close to one of the Von Trapp Family children of  The Sound of Music  fame). The Reinebergs' orchard looked like this in the spring. My stepmother always had a small patch of rhubarb next to the house that was probably not more than 10 feet square. It was surprisingly productive and we not only ate many rhubarb pies each year, but frequently there was enough rhubarb left over to freeze. A word of advice - never eat rhubarb without plenty of sugar nearby. My recollection is that it's very bitter. One thing I've never bothered to look into, it was grown on the side of the house, an area that was not exposed to the sun very much. I guess they n...

Everyone knows that teeth are important - how else would we chew yummy things like marshmallows, ice cream, or cheeseburgers? Nevertheless I've had mixed results with my teeth. First, the good part. Until I was 18 I never had a cavity! That's pretty much all I have. In case you were wondering what their numbers were. My problems began when I was 8 years old. Despite never having played baseball I decided I wanted to play. One of the neighborhood kids, a year older than me, named David Miller was also on my team. He came to our house and asked if I wanted to practice. You see, he wanted to be a pitcher so he asked me to play catcher. I squatted down as I'd seen catchers do; Dave wound up and threw a fastball - right above my glove hitting me squarely in the mouth. Being 8 years old I ran into the house with blood streaming everywhere where my parents informed me that I'd broken one of my teeth, #8 or #9 to be exact. Off to the dentist I went. Nitchkey Field whe...

Countryside in Strinestown area When Joe and I were young boys we loved going to our Aunt and Uncle's farm in Strinestown PA. At the time they farmed about 90 acres with much of it being pasture for their herd of cows. They had a stream on their property, fruit trees, a garden, pigs, chickens and lots of hay and silage. Strinestown, York County, Pennsylvania near the Susquehanna River Uncle Doll and Aunt Helen had 3 boys - Dean who was my age, Troy who was Joe's age and a younger brother Carson. They had their chores every morning and evening but in between they had a lot of time to play. This blog post is about one of those times we were playing. Their farm looked a lot like this one It must have been the late summer or early fall of the year because we were playing out behind the barn in a pear tree. The tree was literally next to one of the pastures, defined by electric fence that ran next to the tree. The 4 or 5 of us had climbed the tree and were eating pear...

Our Senior Class play was Annie Get Your Gun but not the musical version. I played Frank Butler and Sheila Brady played Annie. She had acted in community theater for years and boy did it show. She was on a completely different level than her counterpart - me. Whereas I was focusing on lines and hitting my marks, she was adding in all of the little things that an experienced actress would - nonverbal things like smiles, smirks, and other body language types of things. Newspaper article announcing the play. My brother Joe was an Indian as there were not enough seniors who wanted to participate. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show is touring the country. One of the featured acts is sharpshooter Frank Butler, who at each stop challenges the town's best sharpshooter to a shooting competition. In Cincinnati, he goes up against his equal, in the form of - a woman, Annie Oakley, an uneducated, unsophisticated, naive, country girl who has never ventured far from her home in rural...

When I was 14 years old my parents paid for me to go to Philmont Scout Ranch. Philmont Scout Ranch is a large, rugged, mountainous ranch located near the town of Cimarron, New Mexico, covering 140,177 acres of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. Sangre de Christo Mountains It was a great trip. It started with a train trip from south central Pennsylvania to Cimarron via Chicago. We had to transfer trains in Chicago and there were several hours of layover there. Being 14 years old, full of energy, and not really knowing better several of us started walking around town. Nothing happened but it probably wasn't the smartest thing for a country boy to do - walk around a major metropolitan downtown area with no adult supervision. Upon arriving in Cimarron we took a bus to the Scout Ranch which seemed like it was maybe an hour away. We put our gear in base camp, a bunch of permanent tents with beds and mattresses although we relied on our sleepi...

My junior year in high school we put on a play appropriately named the Junior Class Play. The cast was supposed to be made up of only juniors. Some years that was possible and some years performers were borrowed from other classes. That year we put on Pillow Talk a stage play previously turned into a classic movie starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day. The story is a of a playboy composer and a single neighbor who share a party line. In 1959 when this film was made party lines were quite common. The home I grew up in had a party line until my teens. When your phone is on a party line multiple neighbors share the same line and you have to learn how to make sure someone isn't already on a call before starting to dial. In this play the 2 main characters don't like each other face-to-face but when Brad Allen, the Rock Hudson character, catches her on the party line he disguises his voice and has some fun romancing her. For reasons that are probably a mystery to you, I was ca...