Mart E. (Gardner)

The only day I'm booked, is this coming weekend, December 14. Just let me know when and where. 

David Lynn

The 19th Mart. We want Shauna to tell us where.

Congrats Susan Hardy Stutznegger, let us know where your mission is.

Dennis Sorensen

Linda Schardine

Dennis,

Keep the funny stuff coming, we all need that.

So sorry to hear Kerry~~we will all be pulling for you, Hang in there!!

Dennis Sorensen

You have to watch this clear to the end.  Merry Christmas everyone.  Dennis

Charles (Chuck) Gividen

Wow Dennis, what a poem he recited.  It brought back a flood of memories of my own job experiences.  I remember responding to an accident where there were multiple injuries.  A little girl, who was unhurt but scared and confused, was quietly crying.  I remember taking her in my arms and giving here a stuffed animal, one of many we carried in our cars for such occassions.  She took that animal and hugged it ever so close.  That was an emotional moment for me, as I had three little girls at home waiting for me to come home.  

I remember so vividly of being dispatched to a home in the foothills; a home which was situated next to a canal.  It was in July, on a very hot day.  I was told that a mother had called to report that her little 3 year old daughter was missing.  When I heard that I thought the worst.  When I got to the house the mother came running out of the house, in tears.  She also had called some neighbors to help search for her little girl.  I told the mother and her neighbors to search the canal bank up stream, while I would search the canal bank down stream.  I just knew that I would find this little girl drowned in the canal, snagged on any number of branches and bushes that hung over the bank into the water.  Needless to say, I was scared as to what I would find.  I was about 200 yards from the house, walking through some brush, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  I turned and could barely make out some clothing.  I worked my way back through the brush toward the clothing.  As I got close I noticed that it was a little girl, the girl that was missing.  She was sound asleep.  It appeared that she had gotten hot and tired, crawled back into the brush and curled up on the dead leaves and went to sleep.  I gently scooped this sleeping little girl up in my arms and started to walk back to the house.  As got near to the house the mother saw me and started running toward me.  Needless to say she was crying quite a bit, and probably thinking the worst.  As she was about 50 feet from me her little girl woke up from her sleep and sat up in my arms.  That mother took that little girl in her arms and cried, and cried, and cried.  Needless to say, I too was wiping large drops of tears from my own eyes.  What a precious moment.

We all have so many things to be grateful for, big and small.  All we have to do is look for those things we should be grateful for, and we will find them.  We can find gratitude in the challenges we all face.  It may be hard to do, but we grow from those challenges.  I know it hurts to loose a loved one; I too have experienced that with the loss of both of my parents. I sometimes think about my loss and how it still hurts.  However, I celebrate with a smile and a laugh the memories I will always have at the lives they lived.  I am so grateful for that.  

Sorry about rambling on, but I needed to share this with you.  

It sure is good to hear from all of you.  Another thing to be grateful for.   

UTawna Johnson (Witney)

My goodness, Dennis! That is good. Thank you!

David Lynn

Great people in this world and especially this class. Thanks for sharing, yours too Mart.

Mart E. (Gardner)

I'm sorry but work has requested me now. I will need to try and make it next time. I will be in Salt Lake from 11:00 to 12:00 that does not give me time to make it. 

Mart E. (Gardner)

Dennis and Chuck, the poem and the story of the little girl bring good memories back to me too. Thanks for sharing. Over the past few years I have enjoyed the same strong emotions when going to some boater’s aid.

Here is one of my stories I would like to share with you in return. It’s a hot day in July at Strawberry Reservoir 2006 when Glenna and I were on patrol for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliry, and received a call that a boat has sunk in the Renegade area.  We proceeded to the area at top speed. Arrived on site we found a number of recreational boats and one boat nose up in the center area. The first thing was to find out how many where on board the now mostly sunk boat and account for them. Over the PA I asked who owned the boat. A man on board one of the other boats replayed he was the father. Next I asked how may where on the boat; to which he replayed five (5). Calling for a head count we got reports back from the mother and two kids on board other boats. It was then we learned the two (2) year old was missing. All members of the party had on PFDs so we did not think she had gone down.

A second patrol boat arrived on seen about this time and we start looking for the missing 2 year old. It was noisy with boats running and people yelling and calling for the little girl. Again on the PA I asked everyone to turn off the engines and be quite. In just seconds we heard the crying of the girl coming from the nose of the boat floating nose up in 65 feet of water. She had been pulled into the bow of the boat as it filled with water. The farther jump in and pulled her form the boat.

A few hours later we had all members back to the marina and had pulled the boat in to. That’s when we got our payoff, the mother and father both came over, crying and total us how grateful they were for the USCG and us. I would like to say it’s just another day on the job, but it’s why Glenna and I spend weekends at Strawberry all summer. 

Daryl Tucker

Cool stories, Chuck and Mart. Thanks for sharing them. 

It looks like lunch tomorrow is going to have to be postponed. I've got a business client lunch meeting at the same time and talking with Dave, he has a family lunch that he should probably attend.

Sorry, Dennis! The holidays get pretty jammed up with "events." Let's set a lunch date for January, after the rush is over. We'll all be looking forward to a chance to get together then.

Kate Robertson (Schoening)

To all the friends I hold dear to me most....class of 1969 - I have not been able to keep up with things of late, this time of year is always crazy with work and family things, but is overwhelming for me this year.  I'll get through it all, just like always, but I need to tell you all how much your friendship means to me!  The holiday's always bring a rush of emotions that can't be denied and remembering my youth, which you are all a part of, and the simple meaning of Christmas, is filling my heart tonight.  Christmas has become so commercial and gifts so elaborate that I just had to take a minute and remember a simpler time.  Does anyone remember the Christmas Eve movie and bike give-a-way that Berg Mortuary did every year?  It came back to me so vividly today, even the feeling of anticipation when you came out of the theater and it was getting dark and there were only a few hours before bed.  And, only a few hours till Christmas.  I want to feel that again!!

I remember getting my first bike, my first pair of ice skates, my first doll - there were no ipads, iphones, video games - Chatty Cathy was about as close as we came to any form of  technology.  Our parents spent less than a hundred dollars and some years less than $50 dollars......and tried to make as many things as they could - now you can't get by without hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars to cover Christmas, and it never seems enough.....and then "poof," it's gone.  Remember laying your stuff out on Christmas and leaving it out for days so you could show your friends and remember the feeling you felt when you woke up on Christmas morning.  Remember nativity scenes on neighbors lawns!!  Last year I drove around for hours trying to find a Nativity Scene.....never did, and I'll bet this year is the same.  Remember that simple string of lights that we helped to put up on the front of the house, nothing designer about that........and it felt good!  

I am feeling simple - Berg Mortuary movie, going carolling with my friends, anticipating my one or two gifts from Santa and appreciating all of it.  Playing simple board games all day on Christmas, riding my new bike in the snow and hoping that everyone would be out to see (no helmet, sometimes no gloves) being stupidly cold and not evening knowing it, savoring every single minute of that day.  Now it seems like that's all it is....one minute, and that minute is rushed.  To quote a recent movie line.....5-minutes ago, I was 17 - what?? 

I just needed to take the time to be a little nostalgic tell all of you thank you for the memories and thank you for the friendship.  I may not always be in touch, but I always remember!  I hope you and your families all have a very Merry Christmas and enjoy the simple things.  Sending lots of prayers love and yuletide warmth, especially to those who have lost loved ones!!  Smile big on Christmas and remember that simple Springville time, savor the time with your families and give more hugs than gifts.

Love you all! 

Kate

UTawna Johnson (Witney)

Thank you, Kate. Your words brought some tears to my eyes as I wandered back to those days. It really was such a wonderful life!  Oh, to have at least some of it back.

Charles (Chuck) Gividen

Kate, you could not have said it better.  I too have been having those feelings about my growing up.  Sometimes it is terrible to get older.  I sometimes wish I could be a kid again and live those wonderful memories that I have, expecially around Christmas.  We still have Nativity scenes here, out in peoples yards and businesses.  They always say that Montana is about 10 years behind everybody else.  

Again Kate, thanks for your words....you said it best.

Merry Christmas to all of you; and remember the reason for the season.

Chuck

Mart E. (Gardner)

We are never too old, young or involved with the times to stop and take a walk down memory lane. In my home it was just my mother and three sisters. Mom was on State support so money was something we did not have. Christmas was never missed or cut back with help from my uncles.

When Glenna and I start out we made a plan to never-never-never charge anything for Christmas. She too came from a home with little funds for such things. To this day we have kept our word. It takes a lot of planning and saving to make it each year with five kids of our own. But today as we see how our kids are doing their Christmas what we did is played out in most homes.

More than just showing how to spend money on others we tried to teach our kids how to give love to others, keep the home happy and do more as a family. Don’t get me wrong, we had the newest video games and at one time we had a computer in each room of the home seven in all.  

Daryl Tucker

Thanks, Kate, for bringing back some great Christmas memories. Thanks to the rest of you, too, who remind us that it isn't the magnitude of the gifts that's important, but the spirit of giving and the message of the season. 

Kate's descriptions were perfect, so I won't add anything to them, but do you remember playing in the snow during Christmas vacation? We had a slope behind our house that became a great tubing hill and some kind soul in my neighborhood (usually Guy Chesnut) would allow us to rope our tubes on  the rear bumper of his car and tow us around the block. Of course, we were indestructible as kids, so no one ever got more than a slight bruise and a lung full of engine exhaust. When we got a little older, we occasionally got a ride to the Maple Canyon sled run and I don't think there was anything more thrilling than that!

I hope you all have a great Christmas Season and the very best New Year, ever!

David Lynn

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE. (Even Eric at Disneyland). Hope you all have a great year in 2014. Who'd have thought? I should have combed my hair or wore a hat.

Charles (Chuck) Gividen

I just felt that I needed to share these two stories with you:

1.  True Story:  There was a grandpa and grandma who lived on a farm in Idaho.  Their children and grandchildren decided to spend Christmas with them.  Well, Christmas Eve was not going so well, because everybody was either watching TV, playing computer games, or arguing with each other.  Nobody was communicating with each other.  Each person was in their own world.  There was a lot of arguing and complaining among the children.  It seemed that nobody was really happy. 

Well, in the middle of all the unhappiness that was going on in the house, the power went out.  Now everybody got upset.  They did not know what to do.  However, grandpa and grandma, being the people they were, were all prepared for this.  They brought out the candles and oil lanterns and set them around the livingroom.  Needless to say everybody gravitated to the living room because that was where the light was.  Grandpa and grandma were quite creative.  They got everybody to playing games, singing, telling stories, and pretty soon they were all laughing and having a great time.  Everybody had a great evening.  In fact, to this day they all say that this was the best Christmas they had ever had.   Well...................after everybody had gone to bed and were sound asleep, grandpa went to the power box in the house and switched the power back on.   You see, grandpa recognized the problem, and to fix it he just shut the power off to the house, forcing everybody to get together.   Smart grandpa.  Sometimes I think that we too need to "shut the power off" so that we can get back to the basics of Christmas.

2.    True Story:  I have some friends who would get upset whenever her children and grandchildren came over, because they were always on their cell phones, i-pad's, computers, and other electronic devices.  Nobody every talked or interacted with each other while at the house.  It was frustrating to the grandparents.  So, one day when the family were all going to visit, grandma waited at the front door with a basket.  When each family member passed by she insisted that they put "all" of their electronic devices into the basket.  There were a lot of complaints from the children (who are adults) and grandchildren.  However, grandpa and grandma stood their ground.  Once they got over their withdrawls by not having their electronic devices, they then really started to have a lot of fun together.  Oh, by the way, the basket of all of their electronic gadgets were locked up and grandma had the key.  Nobody was going to take that key from her.

UTawna Johnson (Witney)

Love it, Chuck!!!!

Jan Allred (Carter)

Merry Christmas my friends!

Linda Schardine

UTawna Johnson (Witney)

What a great Christmas gift, Linda. Hang in there... you have my thoughts and prayers for the strength and courage that you all need.

David Lynn

Hang in there Linda. We are with you.

So, lets all give a bucket list item or goal for next year. Mine is to not hit every #%*(()) red light. I might have to move to Montana to do it.

Charles (Chuck) Gividen

Hey Dave, 

Rememeber, Montana is about 10 years behind everybody else.  We are still trying to figure out which color should mean stop and which color means go.  We still have not figured out what the yellow means.  We have been thinking of mixing the red with the green to creat a color that means "slow down", unless you are in a hurry, then you can ignore that color.  Soooooo, about all we have are stop signs you can hit! or cows, or elk, or deer, or bear, or moose, or mountain goat, or wolves, or the neighbors dog. 

UTawna Johnson (Witney)

Or Dave, you could move to Monticello, UT where there is one stop light in town that lasts about 30 seconds... they have an awesome golf course, and Moab is 45 min. away. Pretty sleepy little town.  :)