Biography of my Pappy, Joseph Maurice Tippets written on this date, Dec. 30, 1992, while Barbara and I was serving on a mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
This may contain some errors in it but I am writing this as good as I can remember Pappy. In reading this if I had made some mistakes, please forgive and correct them to the things as you remembered them. I cannot recall anything that took place while on the ranch up in Georgetown, Idaho, so you others will have to fill those in for me. I sure hope you all will take time and do the same unless you already have done it. Which if you have, will be even better for maybe if we all write down what we remember of our two parents and then get them organized, it would be a super great biography of them. Remember one thing. We are all getting older and soon we will not be able to do this for already four of our beloved family has already left us and maybe what is not written on earth may not be written in heaven. One thing at least, it is a beginning.
Pappy was born in Brigham City, Utah, on January 9, 1883. They soon moved to Perry, Utah, and from there, the Lord sent them to Georgetown, Idaho, to homestead a farm up there. In May of 1934 the folks lost the farm because they could not make the payments on a $3000 loan that Pappy had taken out on a steam thrasher, and we lost a section of ground 640 acres. Plus the house, machinery, some of the livestock. In other words, they lost everything except what they could load on a trailer when they came down to Utah. The first house we lived in I cannot remember nothing at all except it had a sort of an overhang that they drove under to get from road to house. From there we moved to 226 29th Street, which was a tough neighborhood. But we was tough too from fighting each other, I guess. Just kidding there.
Pappy worked at WPA at this time and he got us jobs working for Story’s picking cherries, and although I was only 4 or 5 years old, Pappy had me picking cherries also, for he believed we all should help. He did not work on WPA every day for I recall him picking with us, and even though he was not there we all knew we had work to do and we all done it, I think. He was a hard worker at WPA and earned his $48 a month, most of the time helping lay sidewalk in the North Ogden area.
Pappy was very frugal in spending money. Buying flour, for instance, when it was on sale for 50 cents a sack of 50 pounds. And buying, it seems like, at least a dozen bags at a time, for the pantry was stacked high with it.
Pappy used to buy fruit that was a little bit too ripe and bring it home for Ma to can and it used to make her kind of unhappy, I think, to have to drop everything and take care of it there and then. But she did and it sure did taste good in winter.
I think Pappy did not appreciate Christmas, for it seemed like Mom had to do all of it. Except the day before he would bring home a bunch of candy that he bought for about nothing, for us. Which was okay for I do the same thing myself even today. What does it matter whether you buy it a month before or the day before, as long as it is there for kids. In those days, though, it was smarter than today. From Riverdale, Pappy moved us to Kanesville and here they built a house in two weeks, which cost $200, and it was not a bad house and it is still being lived in by someone today, although it has been remodeled a few times. But it was built okay. He had some sheds or a barn he built also, sitting east of our house out in back.
One time I heard a couple of shotgun blasts in the middle of the night and the next morning we had to drag two dead dogs clear down to the bottom of the field and bury them alongside a deep ditch. They was chasing our cows and Pappy could not put up with that. So!
Pappy evidently brought down his team of horses from Idaho, Prince and Chub, who used to run away while plowing. It happened one day while Pappy was walking behind them plowing the field. We was standing there watching him plow when all at once they broke away and started to running and Pappy jumped out of the way and ran over to us and made us get out of the field so we would not get hurt. Soon the two horses got tired and stopped their runaway. Pappy got the plow hooked back up and continued plowing the field. I do not think he got mad at them. As a matter of fact, I cannot recall Pappy ever cussing anyone or anything. I do not think swearing was even in his vocabulary. And I am sure there were hundreds of times that he could have done it and the Lord would have forgiven him for doing it. Being a farmer and also having 13 kids and not cussing is about unheard of, but Ma nor Pa ever did cuss to my knowledge. His main statement for when he did not believe anyone was listening was he would say “Rabbit tracks.” Which I guess is close to swearing but is not.
Pappy knew how to use a razor strap and not only to sharpen his razor either. He knew how to use it to good advantage across our rear ends when we needed it. Which in my case he did not whip me as often as I probably needed it. When Pappy was shaving with his straight edge, I tell you, we had to be perfectly still, for if he slipped it would be the strap used on us afterwards so we was good when he shaved, guaranteed.
While in Kanesville, we raised sugar cane and, boy oh boy, was it good to break off a stalk of it and suck on it all day long. And he would harvest it. I do not recall how it’s harvested. Probably a stalk at a time, and then would take it down to Hooper and have sorghum made out of it. It was kind of sticky and messy and gooey, but I guess Ma used it to cook with and such. That is the only thing I can recall raising in Kanesville. We had to drive down to Kanesville school to get our water to drink, wash, and stuff with. We would ride on the running board of the Chevy and hold the milk can on the running board as we drove. It was only a mile or so, though.
In 1935 we moved to West 17th Street in Ogden. (See Ma history for details.)
In 1936 we moved to 226 29th Street. On 29th Street, we was crowded, but not bad. It was a bad move for us but we did live there two or three years though.
In 1939, Pappy moved us to 18th Street, which was a grand old house. Two story and at least six bedrooms. And a good neighborhood, good ward, and good schools, for our good family. And this is where we all grew up. Younger ones especially.
Pappy was always proud of his family and used to say he had a ton of boys. And with him, he did have a ton of boys. But that ton is dwindling although not because of our weights going down but our numbers are going down.
When the war started in 1941, I believe Ma and Pa knew that some of their sons would have to go and defend our country, and sure enough five of them did. Ray and Reed in the army, Joe and John in the navy, and Gene in the air force. Also two sons-in-law, LeRoy in, I guess, the army, but he was on a ship a lot in Italy. And Festus (Les Gomm) in the army CB’s (construction battalion.) They was very proud of the five blue stars in our front window. First was two and they bought a banner with two stars on it and then the other three went and so being hard up for money, they bought another one that had three stars on it and it was proudly displayed in the front window. And we was all very proud of our brothers who served in services to defend our country. Ray had five kids when he was drafted, although he only stayed in for nine months.
Pappy was a very patriotic man. Although one time two recruiting officers came to talk to my brother, Thad, after the war, trying to talk him into joining up. This was right after the war and when Pappy came home and walked into the house with those two gentlemen there, I think their first mistake was that the room was filled with their cigarette smoke, and that did not set Pappy in a good mood, and when they jumped up and welcomed him with a big handshake, that too was okay, but when they told him that they would like Thad to join the army, he sort of hit the ceiling, and we had high ceilings, too.
I can remember those words as if they were spoken yesterday. He said, quote, “I think all of you are a bunch of know nothings and the higher up you go the worse you are.” And he asked them to be like a tree and leave. And for some strange reason, they accepted his suggestion and they sort of left in a big hurry and never did come back. And Thad did not join the service, for who would not leave when they was called crooked and the higher you was the more crooked you became. I was so proud of my Pa that day. He would have taken on the whole United States army right then and, by George, he would have won. He was, to my knowledge, never so upset in his life as was he that beautiful day in spring. I think Pappy missed his sons while they was away for those four or five years. Good going, Pappy. I think the smoking is what set him off the worst. Although their arrogance did not help out.
During the war, Pappy worked at 2nd Street, Utah General Depot, and you will never believe what he did. They was painting some kind of camouflage fences and he would hold a board in front of him to catch the overspray of paint, and I tell you, his shoes and his hat was caked with tons of orange paint. But not a drop was on him that I can recall. Years later, I talked to a man while I was working at 2nd Street and he asked me if I was Pappy’s son and I told him, Yep, and I was proud of it and he said you should be for he was one of the best doggone workers he had ever had the opportunity of working with, and plus he never did cause anyone any trouble. Just did his work and that was it.
I believe it was in 1943 or 1944 all of his sons came home to go deer hunting with him and when Pappy asked for the week off, the big boss told him no, he could not have it off, for they had work to be done and Pappy asked him, “You mean my sons are all coming home to go deer hunting with me and you will not give me that week off?” and he said, “No, you cannot have it off.” And pappy said, “I am going with them and there is no way you can stop me” and so he quit right there and then. The boss did not think he would and offered his job back to him, but Pappy told him no sir. But he did go hunting with us and we went out to Park Valley and it was great. Although we only got one deer it was so good to be with all of us boys together. All seven of us, because Ray did not go. Pappy did the cooking and I hunted with Pappy each day and we climbed over the highest mountains and down the deepest valleys and he never missed a step. He carried his 4570, the big elephant gun. Of course, that would have only made him 61 or 62 years old, which is what I am now and I think I could hike up most any mountain with most anyone. Reed drank beer and wine then but not one drink while we was hunting, that I knew of. I think he knew Pappy did not approve of it.
Pappy got a job as a boilermaker at the railroad when we got back home and he stayed there until just before or right after Mom died. Then he quit and never did go back to working for wages after that.
During the war he was also Watermaster of the Ogden Bench Canal Company and he hired me to work for him. He was a strict boss, not one better care than he would anyone else who might be working for him. We kept our own time and never did he let me take one extra minute on card that I did not deserve. Although when we had to work in poison ivy and stuff like that he would let me claim an extra half an hour once in a while. But he did a good job on that, too. How I wish I could walk up and down that canal with him and have him talk and tell me of things I did not appreciate him telling me about at the time, for we spent many hours together at that time. He would even let me drive some of the time but, boy, I drove carefully and slowly.
He always insisted on us all saving money for he said you will find it will come in handy at one time in your life. And it sure did. Although I do not think Pappy ever did have a bank account he wanted us to have one.
Pappy let a lot of boarders move in during the war. I would guess at least 50 total living with us at one time or the other. And it used to upset him when they would never bring Mom their sugar ration stamps. They would leave them at home for their own family and we would have to share ours with them, but no complaint to speak of from Pappy.
Pappy always enjoyed us participating in sports and although I do not think he ever did go to watch any of us play, he watched us in the front yard while we was in the alley playing. And it made me play a little bit harder just to know he was watching us from the front porch. One day when I threw a football through a neighbor’s window and went and told him about it and told him my father would put in a new one. He did, and no questions asked, for he was sitting there watching when it happened. And I think he was proud of us for running right to the house. He met the old feller as he was coming out of the house to see who did him dirt and he was not upset at all, and Pappy fixed it in good shape and things was fine and we still played there, although I was happy that I had gone right over and told the old bachelor, and Pappy told us that he was also glad that we did. While I was there, the bachelor asked me to come in and he showed me dozens of carvings that he had made on wooden cigar boxes and they were beautiful. A high class work of art. From then on he and Pappy always talked together on the old man’s porch many times, although Pappy had a hard time understanding the feller for he was a Norwegian and still could not talk English very good. But Pappy told us to be more careful while playing ball in the alley. And we was. But many times Pappy came to my rescue in repairing things that I had done wrong. I guess not only me but he helped all of us make amends to wrong doings we made.
Pappy was a very frugal man saving when he could. He built a duplex to the side of our house and did it mostly by himself. This would have to have been when he was in his seventies. And he did a good job, too, except he had a flat roof and it leaked so he poured a cement slab on top of it and this did not work. In the first place, I do not know how he got the cement clear up on top but he did. A number of his kids lived in it and then he moved out of the big house and moved in it himself and seemed to be happy there, although it was always damp from the roof leaking so much.
Right after the war we had a ’29 Chev that he dismantled and put a box on it and made probably the first motor home in the U.S. And it was a very good idea and he had it fixed so you could drive it okay except for one thing. He had moved the steering wheel up to the front where he could see, but he could not figure how to move the clutch and brakes up there, and so he had to move the steering wheel back and it was difficult to drive it sitting back away from the window so far, but we did use it a little bit. Later Gene took it out to Promontory to live in while he raised his turkeys, but truly it was the first motor home ever built.
My honest opinion of Pappy and his ability to invent things is if he had the money and amenities, he could have been a great inventor, such as Edison. He was ahead of his time in many things, and most of his boys picked up on this trait except one.
Of course Pappy in his lifetime had been a farmer, a blacksmith, a truck driver by contract, a carpenter, a plumber, an electrician, a mechanic, a false tooth repairman, a handy man with his pocket knife to remove slivers from your hands, an inventor, a creator of delicacies in preparing foods, a painter. He had driven buses, he had been a guard during the war. One incident in regards to this guarding. One night during the war he was guarding a railroad bridge in West Warren when this colored man came up to the bridge. Pappy told him to halt and the man did not. Pappy repeated it and he still kept on going, so Pappy had orders to shoot if anything like this happened and so he drew a bead on him but the gun did not fire for some reason and he pulled the trigger but the gun didn’t fire and the colored man disappeared into the darkness on the other side of the bridge, and Pappy did not go after him. But nothing happened to the bridge and I really believe the Lord had a hand in the gun not firing for it was loaded and a new rifle. I am sure Pappy was glad it did not fire also.
He was also smart in math and science and could read a person’s thoughts like a book. Pappy was not an idler, well, until he got in his 80’s when he could not move like he would like.
Pappy was as good a Church member as there was although he was not a regular attender at Church. He did have a true testimony of the gospel and encouraged all of us kids to attend and read and study and participate. Not once in my whole life did I hear him tear down the church in any way, shape or form. He sort of ridiculed some of the members in Georgetown for things that may have taken place up there but never did I hear him nor Mom say one bad thing about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not once.
I do not recall either Ma nor Pa ever participating in the church as far as giving talks nor holding any responsible positions in the Church. I am sure they did but not to my recollection, but this is not to say they was not strong members. It just means they had no desire to talk in church and I would be better off if I had the same attribute, for one person, smarter than me, said once, “It is better to stay still and let folks think you are a dummy than to open your mouth and remove all doubts.” But that is not the reason why they did not participate.
When we would come home from church Pappy would always ask what took place and how we did while there and when we gave talks in church and such they was so happy that we did.
As a matter of fact, offhand I cannot think of many things that Pappy could not do, but that is the way they had to be for they could not hire anyone to come do the work that they could do themselves.
He always wanted us to save some of our money but never be sponges. And he used to ask me every once in a while if I needed any money for anything. There was only one time while I was growing up that I ever asked him for money and I had a date and no money and he asked me if I needed some and I told him a couple of dollars would do but he took out a five and gave it to me. I cannot remember ever paying that five back. Maybe I did but maybe I did not.
Years later when I had my store there would be a deal on sugar or something and he would give me a hundred dollars and tell me to take advantage of it, and so I did and then pay him back later. He was a stickler in this regard. If he loaned anyone any money like that, he expected it back and rightly so.
When we first moved to the house on 18th Street, Ma and Pa slept upstairs in the same room as did Lew and I. In the north room. That is until Ray and Edna moved out of downstairs, then they moved downstairs. And if I can remember, there was 19 steps going up and 2 coming down. Pappy, I think, used to get upset when we came down in two steps, but never did cuss us.
One thing Pappy used to do each summer, a couple of times anyway, was to take the back seat out of his car and go to a farmer’s place where they had peaches or pears or any other kind of fruit and buy as many as the car would hold and then haul them up to Star Valley and Maurine would call everyone up there and they would come and buy that fruit from Pappy and it would make him so happy to do that. That is where the term Happy Pappy came from. I am not sure he ever got paid for all them or not, but he just did it because he wanted to help and this made him feel good. And Maurine always got rid of all of it for him.
I think that some in the family thought Pappy was a task master and maybe he was, but I myself cannot think of any one family that I have had the privilege of knowing that so many turned out so good in so many ways. It is an honor to belong to this Tippets family, and I must have done something right in the here before to get the privilege to be born of such goodly parents as I, and I am eternally grateful for them for teaching me as good as I would learn how to be good and do things right.
Pappy used to like to go get cars with Joe when he went to Denver and one time he even went back to Kansas City to get them with us and it was quite the trip. There was Pappy, Joe, Reed, Barbara and myself and I think Thad went. I do not recall very much of the trip except we stayed in a motel in Kansas City and Pappy got to snoring so loud that Uncle Reed went and slept in the car so he could get some rest, although I did not notice it that bad, but maybe I do not remember that bad either. Pappy drove a Cadillac all the way, and very seldom got behind so that we had to wait for him, and that is tough to do in a caravan. How great would it be to take a trip like that again. Maybe in the next life. He did like to drive though, especially big Cads or Buicks or Chryslers. He was king of the road and sometimes he acted the part too.
He told me one day that when you stopped at a stop sign you only had to wait until three cars passed and then you had the right to go. I do not think he was serious but I told him, “Pappy, that is the way it was in horse and buggy days but not now unless you are tired of living and want to end it there and then.”
He would like to drive out to my store and if it was cold he would sit in his car on top of the gas tanks and just sit there for some time and then he would get out and come into the store or house. One of his most favorite things to do was to sit in a chair in front of the store and visit with the customers as they came in and out of the store. He was at the height of his glory then and most folks was anxious to talk to him also, for he talked good old common horse sense.
One day Barbara had the idea of bringing him and her Grandpa Todd out and let them visit with each other for they was both in their upper eighties at the time and they sat there and talked and talked and talked. And they had never met each other before that time. It is too bad we did not have a tape recorder at that time and record their conversation. It would have made a good book, I betcha. And it seems they both died the same year too.
He tells of shooting squirrels up on his ranch and killing seven with one shot, which sounds kind of far fetched, but he said he did and if he said it happened, I will not argue with him, for they was that thick up there. He said he would buy 10,000 rounds of 22 shells at once. I did not ever buy that many at once and I sold them. Of course, that would only be ten cartons, 200 boxes. That is a lot, is it not?
He went pheasant hunting with us one time and we seen a big rooster and he said let me see that double barreled gun and he took it and walked out and waded through the weeds and when the pheasant flew up he let it have it with both barrels at the same time, and he got the pheasant all right, but he had his finger in between the two triggers and when he pulled the triggers it sort of smashed his one finger and it bled some. When we got back into the car, he said, “I never have done that before,” and started to laughing about it. I know he did it by accident and did not mean to pull both triggers at once but later he told me how to shoot the double barrel without doing what he did. By the way, the pheasant was hit so dead center with both barrels that there was no meat worth saving when we skinned it out. He hit it dead center with both shells.
One time Pappy went deer hunting with Les Gomm up on Monte Cristo and they got snowed in and had to walk out and Pappy must have been in his sixties and of course Les was in his twenties or thirties and was also in good shape and Pappy was a little bit overweight and had a hard time keeping up with Les, and Les was in a hurry to get out before it got worse, and left Pappy to walk alone and it just about done Pappy in trying to keep up with him and he never did go hunting with Les alone after that. I cannot recall what happened. I think someone gave them a ride and I suppose they went and got the car later in the year. Anyway, I do not think it is still up there.
It was told to me once by someone that Pappy, while herding sheep one year not long after they was married, learned how to smoke, and when he got home he lit one up and Ma seen him and she said, “Morr, I did not think I would ever see you smoking,” and she was really disappointed in him. And he answered and said, “You will never see me smoke again either,” and he did not ever smoke again to my knowledge. And he encouraged all of us not to smoke or drink, although some of us did. Which does not make one better nor worse than the other but Ma nor Pa liked it a bit, and never did allow anyone to smoke in the house nor in the car.
Most of us brothers about every year would load Pappy in the car and we would make a trip up to Georgetown and that was one of the best things in the world to do. One time we took Uncle Aaron, maybe more than once, and another time we took Uncle Lee Prescott along and it was so good to hear them talk about the old homestead. We would visit the cemeteries and other things and the old place where we had our house, and I used to stand there on the ground and wish I could turn history back and live there once more. But like everything else, time does not back up. It keeps on going on and on and on. We have to get what we can out of the time at hand and years from now I can see me doing the same with my sisters and brothers, thinking why did we not do more things together when we was all here on earth. For we are very fortunate to have had each other to grow up together with. But is seems like we all have our own families, which we spend time with now and this is what we should do, but it is so neat to get together with them each month and it would sure be good to go up to Georgetown each year like we used to.
In regards to politics if I remember right they used to cancel each other out, Ma and Pa. I know that that is what happened one year and they was not going to vote even, because Ma said no sense in doing it for we just cancel each other out. But they did anyway. Pappy used to say he was Republican until Herbert Hoover got in and then he switched and Ma never did say which she was. Evidently she leaned towards the Republicans but maybe that was just one year and maybe just one president. No one knows how we vote when we get in that booth. Except my wife. She marks mine.
I know Pappy liked FDR and so did Ma. So take it from there. Myself, I think we have only had three good presidents in the last 50 years and one was Roosevelt and one was Kennedy and one was Reagan. I am just putting this in for argument sake. Vote however you want. I do not care, as long as you do not vote for any republican nor any democrat. You notice I do not capitalize either one. They do not deserve it nor neither do I.
I recall one time I got upset at Pappy. It was after I lost my vision and it was just before my first operation and Pappy did not want me to have the operation. He said his eyes went bad once and he just rubbed them with a warm rag each day for awhile and they got better. He said you do not need this operation and he was sincere, for he had faith that they would get better. But I guess I did not have as much faith as did Pappy, for I told him that if I went completely blind, when I could not see to get around by myself, that I would not be on this earth one week. And I think he knew I meant it, and I stormed up to my room. I did not want to go blind nor did I want to go against my Dad and not have the operation for legally I could not have done it, for I was only 17 at this time and could not do it without their permission. But he followed me right up to my room and told me he was sorry for saying what he did and if I wanted the operation he would support me and pray for me also. For he said I know how valuable eyesight is to all of us. And that is the only time in my life that I can remember Pappy saying he was sorry and that he would pray, although I am sure he prayed all the time but my memory does not place any time nor circumstances. But he did support me and came up to the hospital to see me a number of times and took care of me at home when Ma was not available and could not do it. He did not fix my food as good as did Ma but it was edible and he did the best he could and he was there to help, which is the most important thing of all. And to this day I do not know why I was not more grateful for everything that Pappy did for me, for I really think he pampered me more than he did the other kids, and I deserved it less than did the other kids.
One thing I cannot figure out though. I missed my whole senior year in high school and neither Ma nor Pop ever did say one way or the other of me getting my diploma. Although I did have a good job at 2nd Street and maybe they figured that a diploma did not matter for as far as I know neither one of them ever did graduate, and they knew maybe more than did the teachers know, as far as getting along in those depression days and later.
Maybe Ma and Pa disagreed once in a while. Only one time I can recall it though. Me and Lew had gotten into a fight and of course Ma took Lew’s side and Pa took my side and was discussing it amongst themselves with us standing by and all my Mom said is, “Morr, they are your sons and they are my sons and we love them both and maybe they are both wrong.” So guess what, Pappy willowed both of us, and we deserved it, I betcha. How much closer together could they have worked than that. Ma was a thinker though. She was as intelligent a woman as ever walked this earth bar none. And I am not prejudiced at all, just that is the way it is. No argument necessary.
When we would get in fights Ma would dive in and try to stop them right now and she may have got hit by a wayward blow once or twice but she hated us to fight and Pappy would just stand back and let us fight and then he would tan both of our hides for fighting. He used to say, “I will knock you down and then beat you for falling.” And it sure nuff did scare me.
Now about Barbara and Pappy and how they got along. About the second or third time I brought Barbara around, Pappy said, “Wayne, you marry that girl. She is a very sweet gal and you will never find a better one than is she.” And I think Barbara could sense that he loved her like I did, and he got mighty unhappy when I abused her. And many was the times he cussed me up one side and down the other for teasing her. Barbara tells about one time when she had her body cast on after breaking her back and she was sitting on the couch and I stood back and was bouncing this rubber ball off of her chest, and my goodness she said he got so mad at me he could have walloped me a good one right then but she could not feel a thing, but he still got mighty unhappy at me. And this happened many times where he got after me for mistreating her for I guess he did not want to take a chance of me not getting her.
There is only one other brother that I can recall that Pappy had told his son to go after that woman and that was John. When Colleen was chasing him he told John, “You treat that woman good and you will be happy.” Maybe John does not even know this, but he did. And would you know he was right in both of our cases. I got the best one and he got next to best country girl.
Pappy, when we started building our house in Dinkyville, he would tell me how to do things and most of the time it was the best way but once in awhile I did not listen to him either. But one thing, he was happy we was building our house instead of paying rent.
One year the stake asked me to irrigate the stake farm of corn and I had Pappy take me down and he would show me how to do it an easier way, but only one problem. When I was alone I could not see how far down the field water was going so I had to take off my shoes and wade down each ditch to see how far it went, and this sure made it take a long time to do. When Pappy seen what I had to do he said, “Wayne, there are others who can do that in a tenth the time as you can and do it better for they can see, so spend your time doing something else for them.” And so I told them I could not do it no more. And they was upset at me but he was right. And the leaders never did know the real reason why I did not fulfill my assignment of that summer. Although one day one of them stood and watched me doing it that way and I guess he thought I was just dumb.
All of our kids loved Pappy and enjoyed going into his house on 18th and visiting with him and he would always have some ginger snaps for all of them and still ginger snaps are some of their favorite cookies. He stayed all night with all of us a number of times but he was always anxious to get to his own home but he would always come out again.
Pappy never did have much money although when he died he had $700 in his wallet and that is all he had to his name. It made him happy to be able to carry around that much money and although he very seldom spent more than a few dollars at a time, he still carried it with him. It was too bad that he could not have had some of that money while Ma was alive so they could have enjoyed things like they deserved, although neither one ever did complain for want of things. Material things was not that important to either one.
Pappy only got at maximum $75 a month Social Security and he had to pay all of his bills with it and live and still saved some money and do not ask me how he did it for that is only two bucks a day to pay for everything.
Pappy enjoyed going up the canyon on picnics although he would not hike around at all, for he said he had gravel in his knees. He used a cane the last few years of his life. Not a walker but just a cane. I will have to tell you a story about that cane. One day this neighbor boy, Chris Lindgren, was up home and he was teasing our girls one day and must have hurt one and made Pappy mad and you should have seen him chasing poor Chris around that yard with his cane raised above his head and I think he would have made a hook on the other end if he would have caught Chris. But he did not, and it made Chris quit doing it so much. But it looked so neat watching Pappy chasing him with that cane and that day he did not need it to walk with.
He really did miss Ma when she died. I do not think he thought he would miss her as much as he really did, for all we men take our wives too much for granted and think we can get along without them. But he did fine after the hurt got initially over and he settled down and continued on the best he could. For in most cases one or the other of us has to do the same after our spouse passes away. I couldn’t and wouldn’t even try to get along without mine if it had happened to me. I would throw in the chips right about then too. That is if I had my choice, which none of us have that privilege of naming the time nor the place. And it is a good thing.
I will never get over the opportunity I had to go hunting huckleberries with Ma and Pa up Emigration Canyon one year. They both trooped up and down those mountains just like they were a couple of teenagers. This must have been just before the war started, for they really seemed to enjoy being up there and it was hard work for huckleberries grow right on the ground and you have to bend over all the time. But boy did Ma make good pies out of them.
I used to ask Pappy for his opinion on just about each and every thing that I did after I got old enough to do my own thinking, in my mid twenties. And I took his advice on most occasions for they was good sound suggestions whether it was something do with my store or my family or just plain life.
One statement he made stayed with me all of my life and that was, “never, never stand still, for that is nothing but leaving you in a rut, and a rut is nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out.” And especially when I was starting my store and years after that also. If you see a chance to improve yourself go for it, for that is the only way you will accomplish anything in this life is work for it and the harder you work the better it will come to you. I, at the time, was wondering whether to add on to my store to handle feed. I asked him about it and he said, “What do you think about it?” I told him that no other store within five miles of me carried it and I was out in the middle of farmers who used it.
Pappy said, “Let’s sit down and do some figuring.” And he said “Tell me what this building is going to cost to build it.” I told him with me doing all the work except laying the block, $2500 for a building 348 feet long by 20 feet wide. He asked how much the payments would be on that amount. I told him $80 a month for 3 years. He then asked how much do you think you can make on it? I told him I did not have any idea but should make around $100 a month on it anyway.
Then he had me figure what expense there would be in maintaining the building, which was hardly any at all for it would not be heated nor even wired. Then Pappy said if it does not work out, what would you use the building for, which I never had an answer. But he said, “Now you tell me if it would be a good investment or not,” making me do my own thinking. Of course I told him it would be a good investment for it would bring me in a lot more than payments would be on it. This is the way he always encouraged us to do ourselves better than we are doing, move ahead, not stand still or go downhill, plow forward.
One day my wife told Pappy, “You sure have spoiled Wayne.” And quick as a wink he replied, “And you have done nothing at all to change it either.” And so ended the conversation. You can believe that or not, for I do not see how a person coming from a family of 13, regardless where he sits in the family, cannot be spoiled very doggone bad, for we all had to work together to make it a good family and thanks to our fine parents, we did a fine job. Well, most of the time. Sometimes it is normal that the youngest ones do have more because there is not so many to provide for and the parents had acquired more to give them over that period of time. But not spoiled in the sense that is looked on today’s kids. I do not think anyway. Ma and Pa was very fair as far as I could tell.
Pappy had many of his own personal idiosyncrasies. Like putting sugar on his tomatoes. Also having the radio on loud enough to be heard wherever he was in the house. Checking each and every tire before he would get into the car, brag up his kids and grandkids saying when someone would ask him how many he had and he always would answer, “Who knows, for some days it changes each day and sometimes more than once a day.”
NOTE: When Pappy died at the age of 88 years old he had 179 direct descendants, and although they had two sets of twins together, there was not another set in the whole bunch and to this day, twenty some odd years later, still no more twins. Pappy was glad to have twins. Ma said she would not wish twins on no one. Or that is what I heard she said. I cannot substantiate that statement, for it sounds kind of far fetched to me. But twins are twice as much work and the Lord was smiling down on them when I was born and I was not twins. To think of two like me would be grounds for the Lord to come to the end of the world right there and then. And well He might.
I cannot recall either one of them ever tearing down anyone of us kids in any way, shape or form. I think they figured that each of us had a hard enough battle, that we did not need that extra burden of them finding fault with their descendants. Although I am sure they did not approve of some of the things that all of us did, they still loved us as does the Lord when He sees something we do wrong. But just encourage us to do better and learn from our mistakes, and work forward to our own exaltation. Ma and Pa both have it made in the Celestial Kingdom, for they did go through hell here on earth and they deserve their place in the top glory of the Celestial Kingdom and I will fight whoever disagrees with me, for I think I would have all my family behind me in this fight, or in front of me as the case may be.
I could only get Pappy to attend one of my kids’ blessings and it was sure an honor to have him stand by my side in the circle as I gave the baby a blessing and to feel the touch of his hand on my shoulder and squeezing my shoulder a couple of times when I knew he was agreeing with what I was saying by that slight touch on my shoulder. It was about like I would think the touch of Jesus on our shoulders would be when we do good. To my recollection I have never before nor since ever had this feeling come to me as it did that December morning. But although I pleaded with him at all other such things he would find some excuse to not come. I do not know why he would not come.
Pappy enjoyed a bowl of clabber all the time. You younger grandkids will have to ask your parents what clabber is. I tasted it but cannot tell you I liked it. I think they call it yogurt nowadays except they have added flavoring to it now, and they pay good money for cartons of it where Pappy it was just a side offering of said items. Regardless how hard he tried though after Ma died, he could not make bread nor biscuits as good as did Mom.
I would guess about two or three years before Pappy left this world, Thad purchased a wire recorder and it was quite the invention. I borrowed it from him one time and decided I would get Pappy to tell his story on that wire recorder and for two hours I tried to get him to tell me about his boyhood and such, and all he would say was “They have it written down and that is all you need.” But I finally decided to sort of trick him and so I said, “Pappy, just tell it to me and I will try to record what you tell me later.” And so he said that it was okay if I turned the machine off. And so he started to talking and I slipped my hand over and flipped the recorder on unbeknown to Pappy, and he was telling about his Grandma Alice Jeanette Tippets and I got about five minutes of it and he saw the machine going and so I rewound it and played back what Pappy had said and he was impressed. He opened up then and gave me a couple of hours of his life. And at the end he took $100 out of his wallet and said, “You go buy me one of those machines and tell all the kids you have it for it is for all of them to record their own stories on it.” Then he made one statement that really got me to thinking. He said, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could have a tape of my grandma and things that she had done while a doctor in Georgetown. It would be priceless.” And well it would be. Even to have our own mother on it would be precious. But alas, things like wire recorders was not even in Edison’s mind then. But brethren and sisters, it is not too late for you to do it for your progenitors.
If Ma and Pa could see some of the computers and fax machines and other fabulous things that blow my mind away, they would be amazed. Pappy told me once that in 1900 it was proposed to Teddy Roosevelt to close down the patent office for everything that was possible had already been invented. Pappy did not believe it.
When Pappy was 85 years old he was taking some stuff up to Star Valley. When going up Logan Canyon he sort of missed a bend in the road and went off into the bar pit and did dirt to him and to his Chrysler and when we received a call from the highway patrol about it, I called Reed and he and Barbara and I drove up to Logan hospital to see him and he had a cut on his forehead but that was all. But his car was kind of ruined underneath.
I do not know if one of us called the drivers license bureau and requested that they call Pappy in for an examination but they did and all of us was hoping in our hearts that he would flunk it. But he did go in and Joe went with him and doggone if it he did not only pass the eye test but also the written test and when he took the little man for a ride he did it okay too and the man told Joe that there was nothing he could do about it for he passed everything in good shape. And so they had to issue him a drivers license, and this is a credit to Pappy for being able to do that. But for some reason we did not let Pappy buy another car although he was after Joe all the time to get him one. But between all of us we took him enough places that he did not miss driving anyway. But we all know if he had wanted to bad enough he would have had him a car regardless what we said or did. But he was resigned to the fact that he was getting too old to react like he had to do to drive. Although his eyesight was still keen.
Whenever we bought clothes for Pappy we would have to buy the biggest size possible. 50 in pants and 19 in shirts, but as big as he was he got around very fine and not all the time could we buy his clothes big enough.
I remember once both Nellie and LaRue got into one pair of his big overalls. NOTE: of course this was when they was young and trim. Not saying they are still not but they were younger and trimmer then. 50 years does things to all of us.
I think Pappy always shoveled his own sidewalks even up to the end and mowed his own lawn most of the time, once in a while one of us boys would go do it for him but not too often.
I cannot ever remember Pappy tearing down any of his sons-in-law nor his daughters-in-law although I am sure there was times when he could have done or should have done. But I guess it was hard enough for a couple to make it without someone taking sides and making it more difficult than ever to get along. He did not like anyone who did not like him though. If they showed a dislike for him he would not have anything to do with them whatsoever. He would never ask for clemency, nor would he offer any when someone was bitter towards him or his. And he did not like anyone to cuss or to swear around him nor his house. He told me the only reason anyone swore was because they did not have enough smarts to talk right, and was trying to show their intelligence by swearing but instead it let him know that they were incapable of talking in a way that the Lord would approve of.
This next is a true story also. One day I was a singing to my soul’s content kind of loud and kind of off key as the best I could do, but it was kind of influencing him the wrong way and he hollered at me to come in and so I did and he said, “Wayne, why don’t you go see if the Singing Mothers will teach you how to sing somewhat better than you are doing.” To this day I still love to sing but still folks think I am sort of singing my last death song. If he only knew how I would have liked to have a good voice so folks would enjoy my singing instead of not enjoying it. I guess though, Pappy, a deaf person would have been tickled to hear my singing.
Pappy did have a good voice, though, unlike mine. As a matter of fact all of the family except me did have good voices, and some even sang solos and duets in church and did a good job. But Pappy did not discourage me to quit singing so much as he did try to encourage me to sing better. Sorry Pappy, singing is one thing that practice does not help. You either have a good singing voice or you do not have one, that is all there is to it. I cannot remember if I kept on singing or not. Probably did. I cannot remember if Ma had a singing voice or not. I think she had one about like me, for her mom told her once to just move her lips in acting like she was singing in church. Which was a terrible thing to say. And maybe it never was said.
A young fellow same age as I came out to our ward and talked to us one night. His name was Oren Walker and he told of going home teaching to Pappy’s house and how much he loved going there, for it was a joy, he said, to go there and listen to the advice Pappy would give him and tell him how proud he was of his 13 kids, and the things that he had accomplished in his lifetime.
When Pappy was, I guess, in his early eighties, he acquired diabetes and the doc told him and us kids to not let him have any sugar at all nor anything that had sugar in it or we would be sorry. He would come out to our store and ask for his Royal Crown cola and I would not let him have it so he would have the kids go get him one and of course, they would bring him one. This would upset me for I was just following the doctor’s orders. But when he did not get any he would get upset. But I figured it was better to have a live Pappy than it would be to have a happy dead Pappy. One day I thought I would fool him and brought him a drink of diet RC cola in a glass and handed it to him and he told me thanks and took one sip of it and poured the rest of it on the ground and told me never to bring him any of that crap anymore. It did not fool him a second. I never tried that again.
When we was in the hospital in Star Valley the day that Pappy died, I told the Doctor Perks what I had done with the pop and kept away from him and he told me that I did my dad a very big injustice by not letting him have that one RC each day. He said his body craved it and one would not hurt him one little bit. As a matter of fact he said it would do him good probably. So you see another time I was a jerk to the one person who had done so much for me and I made him suffer a bunch because I was too stubborn to realize what I was doing to my dad. I guess anything done in moderation like that would not hurt a person. It is when they drink bunches of it that does dirt.
Pappy enjoyed his grandkids and especially when they achieved something outstanding like Eagle Scout or even advancement in the priesthood or straight A’s on their report card. I recall each time I sent Roger, who was on a mission in Samoa, some money and asked Pappy if he would like to he would pull a twenty out and hand it to me and tell me to send it, for Pappy liked to help everyone out he could, especially the ones who was trying to help themselves do things, but he would also chastise us when we did not do our best or work our hardest at accomplishing matters.
Pappy never talked of his own dad and mom so much as he did his grandpa and grandma. Her being a doctor and him being a hard working father and grandfather, and how squirrels was a terrible thing on the ranch and how strychnine was used to poison the animals. But it didn’t seem to do much good.
I remember the last time I seen Pappy as he got in the back seat of Maurine’s and Leslie’s car to go up and spend the winter with them. It was Thanksgiving time and he acted so happy to go to their house and the next time I seen him was in a coma in Maurine’s home. We had received a call from Maurine that Friday and said that he had had a stroke and they had the doctor out and he said it was a bad one and for us to come right up there. We arrived early in the afternoon and he was breathing all right, but he had lost his voice and his ability to swallow.
We took him to the hospital and he just kept getting worse and we asked the doctor if there was something he could do to help him out and he said we can put life support on him but it would be just a matter of time for it was bad. We knew that Pappy would not want us to do that so we told him no. We all knew as we gathered around his bed, that Pappy was trying to tell us something for he kept waving his arms and trying to talk but no word would come out.
Having lost his ability to swallow, his mouth got so dry and rash that it started to bleeding and we would swab it with some medicine that the nurses gave us and it seemed to stem it some but not long. We stayed right there with him, most of us during the night, and in the morning Maurine called and told us to come home and have some breakfast. Ray and Edna stayed and about nine in the morning Ray called and said that Pappy had stopped breathing and thus ended the life on this earth of one of the most loving men ever to walk on its ground. One who helped without being asked, who accepted his life for what it was worth and made the best out of it. One who in those 88 years, if records could have been kept, would have many books filled.
Epilogue of my Mom and my Dad. I mean our Mom and our Dad.
It may be said according to the 13th Article of Faith that if anything good, praiseworthy or of good report is due we seek after those, but in our parent’s life they did never seek for any of these glory things but if anyone deserved it they certainly did. Whether it was in doing good or good doing they did as good as any two parents could have done.
In the past I have heard different ones say they did this or they did that, that was not right. But when we are growing up and yet not grown up we tend to look for faults in others, and it is usually the ones we find fault with are the ones who are trying to do the most for us and it has been said by someone smarter than I that a parent can do 1000 things right for their kids but let them slip up once, just once and what do we remember? Not the 1000 good things they have done but that one thing that they did not do. But that is human nature and now we are finding out that our kids are looking at us the same way as we looked at our folks. And if we can raise our kids and have them only think of a few things that we can recall that they did wrong over that period of time that is not bad. Not bad at all and I really think even if what was done was wrong, the Lord will forgive them and if the Lord will forgive them, by George, so should we and remember the wrong no more. For what good does it do to look at the negative things of life? We who do that, in my estimation, are wrong, very, very wrong. For there is so much good in all of us, and all we have to do is look around us and find how much corruption and mistrust and heartbreak there is in families today that we are probably the most fortunate 13 kids that ever was born on this earth to have been born of such fine parents as we were.
I do not think that Ma nor Pa ever made any big splashes during their lives like being mayors or bishops or even served on jury duty, but we are not all sent down here to serve like that. The majority of us are sent down here to love and serve and live God’s commandments the best way that we can and that is the way I feel towards our Mom and Dad. They never, in my life, that I can recall, ever got up and made great speeches, nor did they build great dams, or help discover or invent things to help others out, but what they did do is have a true testimony of the divinity of our Savior and His teachings and they tried as hard as they knew how to teach us, their kids, to live the same as they taught. And their sermons was spoke to us kids in front of the sink as the girls helped their Mom do dishes or out under the clothesline as they helped hang tons of washing. Or just sitting in the front room at night and discussing the days’ happenings with them. And in the case of our Mom having her tell of things that she had read for she was a great reader of great books and she had a good memory of the things she did read. And her statements like ‘a stitch in time saves nine’, or when she did not like what or how someone was acting of if a person was unfriendly she would call them “buttermilk”. And that as far as I know was the worst thing she ever said towards anyone. And my Dad when he did not believe anyone, the worst he would utter would be “rabbit tracks”.
They probably never traveled as much in their whole lives as do some of us in one plane trip, but still they had knowledge of most every place on the face of the earth and the people who lived therein.
It was said by one of Mom’s neighbors how come she had so many kids and she wisely answered to this lady, “You know all of my kids. Which one would you suggest that Maur and I could have got along without?” And she meant it with all of her heart and Pappy felt the same way.
I cannot recollect Mom nor Pa ever giving me a hug in my life. But that did not mean she nor he did not love us, for they did and some families just do not do things like that, for I am the same. But this does not show that they do not love us. That was not the custom in their family to show their love in this way.
Their love was shown in when we asked them to come watch us play basketball or participate in school plays or have them help us with our homework, or when we got into trouble. They would find the cause of the trouble and if we was in the wrong we would be told by them we was wrong, but if we was right they would back us up all the way. This was not to show others that they was wrong, but to teach us if we thought we was in the right not to give in to pressure and let others have their own opinion, but to rely on our own God-given abilities to not back down but to hold to that iron rod and not let other folks seek after the truth themselves. For instance, like my Mom told me one day, many folks in Jesus’s time thought He was not the Christ but still He was and though both He and many of His prophets were put to death for their beliefs did not mean that they was not right. And even today many hate not only Mormons but other religious believers. Not that they are wrong but they go against someone else’s grain and these will take our free rights away. But she said do not ever let this happen. Never give into pressure, but make sure you are in the right for she said there is always two sides to every story, and unless we are sure that we are in the right do not carry it further.
NOTE: The above statement may not be the exact words that our Mom used in telling this but the thoughts as far as I can remember are pretty accurate.
I really believe that Ma and Pa was ready to meet their maker for especially Mom had been so sick for so long and unable to do things that she wanted to do and had been doing, that she accepted leaving her family here on this earth and joining, not only her parents and grandparents but hundreds of her gone-on-before friends. And although I never did hear either one of our parents bear their testimonies in church, they did it in many other ways to us kids, for they both had a deep knowledge of the purpose we have living on this earth. And oh, what a wonderful feeling it will be to be able to meet with them again and report of the things both good and bad that we all have accomplished on this earth. For those two gave us this opportunity to come to this earth and gain a body and well it would have been if they would have stopped after having three or four children and thus maybe the rest of us would still be waiting for the opportunity to gain a body so we could continue on in the Lord’s plan for us.
But they was willing to sacrifice their time and especially our Mom each time she gave birth to another child she entered into what could have been the end of her life. With their many abilities they could have been wealthy people with not so many of us to raise but I believe each one of us kids was their jewels, their pearls of great price. And I believe that when the Lord said the purpose of life is to ‘bring to pass the eternal life of man’ and no other glory comes before this I do not think.
One more thing and I will end this narrative. Many a time when I have done things both good and bad I felt that Mom and Pap was standing right in the room with me watching and waiting for us to make the right choice. But not to interfere for they too realized that we still every one of us had our own free agency and they did their duty in teaching us which was right and which was wrong, and this was where their responsibility ended, for they left us each with the capabilities to know when we was doing right and when we was doing wrong. And when we did right there is always that good feeling that we have and it gives them that good feeling also.
Once more, I would like to express my love to my Mom and my Dad and to all of my brothers and sisters and the joy it is to belong to such a good bunch of brothers and sisters as we belong to. And now that we are all in the twilight of our lives and many of us may only have a few years left on this earth, oh what a pleasure it has been to be around all of you and how happy we are all when we are together and I will do my best to appreciate that love all of you have for me and my family and the love we all have for you all too.
What a joy it will be to present Barbara to our Mom and see how happy she will be to see that I have selected such a fine girl to spend the rest of eternity with. Not only her but all of our ancestors. And like my brother Reed says, “From now on.” And that is a long, long time.