JandA4

Monday, April 8, 2013

My Dad's Favorite Things

My dad loved 4-Wheeling in the mountains
He loved his 4-wheeler
He always carried a pistol on him just in case a bear or a cougar came upon him while 4-wheeling.
He would go with friends or alone if no one else could go.
One gorgeous fall day,  Jeff, the kids and I all went with him up Spanish Fork canyon.  He took us to a meadow where the infamous Ted Bundy had carved his name in a tree.  We found it and ate lunch in a meadow by it.  That day is a great memory.


 He loved Nancy with all his heart.  
He loved my mom at one time
He also loved Shirley Barney until the day he died.
Shirley was his childhood sweetheart.  She waited for him while he was on his mission.  When he came home, she confessed that she had had intimate relations with another man.  My dad never asked if it was once or numerous times.  He was ready to forgive and move on and marry her, but then he thought, "Hey, all that time that I was gone on my mission, I never once did anything to defile myself or her.  Why should I accept anything less from her?"  So after a heartfelt breakup, he moved on.  But he always loved her "clear to the bone".  He wasn't twitter pated and his heart didn't skip a beat when he saw her anymore, but he always loved her.  My dad and I had a conversation about her and my first love just shortly before he died.  We shared similar feelings and I really came to have a new understanding for him and for his past.


He loved the Navajo people
He loved the Navajo language
He loved the Navajo culture
He loved his friend John Brown, who was an original code talker in WW2.
John gave my dad his rifle.  He loved that rifle.  John said that his family would just fight over it and then they wouldn't take care of it.  So he gave it to my dad.  Just before my dad died he gave that rifle to Glen.  

He loved the movies: Dumb and Dumber
Napoleon Dynamite
The Princess Bride
and Lean on Me
and he could and would quote them.

He LOVED the TV shows: Gold Rush
Frozen Planet
Fox News
The Beverly Hillbillies
The childrens cartoon Fog Horn Leg Horn
and the British comedy Are You Being Served?

He loved building Nauvoo style out buildings and sheds.
He had the "La Chateau of the Honkey Dude"

The Crap House

and The Trading Post

He loved talk radio - especially Paul Harvey
Glen Beck
Sean Hannity
and Rush Limbaugh

His favorite music was: Tom T. Hall
Buck Owens
ABBA
Celtic Thunder
Josh Groban.
 He didn't think there was a prettier voice out there than that of Josh Groban.

He loved quaking aspen trees
He loved his coi pond
He loved kayaking
He loved boating
He loved canoeing
He loved playing volleyball
He loved landscaping
He loved rifle shooting and was a marksman
He loved going to the mountain man rendezvous
He loved the grand kids  
He always quoted the scripture that says, "multiple and replenish the earth that ye may have joy and rejoicing in your posterity"
He always said how he did have joy and rejoicing in his posterity.


He loved Maple Nut ice cream.  If he knew that there was some in the freezer, he simply could not leave it alone until it was all gone.
He loved pineapple upside down cake
He loved fry bread
He loved squash of all kinds and often gave me some from his garden.
He LOVED mashed potatoes with butter, salt and LOTS of pepper
He loved potatoes in general - hash browns - fried - scalloped - mashed - baked - augrautins - etc.
I guess that's where my total love of potatoes comes from.
He loved Joseph Smith history
He LOVED the Utah Jazz basketball team

He LOVED his childhood dog Chief and was most excited to see him when he passed on.  He was going to see him first and then his parents, brother, and other family and friends.
Chief was his best friend, his companion and protector.  

He loved the gospel.  He wanted to be baptized and for some reason his bishop was too slow to get around to it and his parents didn't really push it.  So one day when he was 18 years old, he found out where they were doing baptisms and he showed up and was baptized.  I'm sure that bishop was surprised to see that my dad was baptized without him knowing.
He went on his first mission to the Navajo Indian Reservation in New Mexico when he was 23 years old.  He was gifted with gift of tongues and spoke Navajo fluently.
He and Nancy served in Navuoo Restoration Mission.  She worked in the office and he did construction work on buildings.  He even worked on Carthage Jail.  Jeff and I went to see them on their mission.  He toured us all around.  He showed us the exact spot where he worked in the jail.  They also performed in the evenings singing and playing handmade instruments along the Mississippi River as part of their mission.
He and Nancy served again on the reservation.  My dad studied and studied his Navajo language and went all prepared----only to find out that they all spoke English now!
He and Nancy served 2 more missions both at the church cannery.  He LOVED the cannery mission.  He loved the people he served with and they all became dear friends.  There were so many of them that came to his funeral.

He was a great guy that I sadly didn't take advantage of.
  I'm so glad that when I became an adult I decided to put the past in the past.  The last decade and a half of his life was the best part of him that I ever knew!

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