Thad Ricks Tippets biography, July 9, 1992, written by his prodigal and mostly worthless brother just younger than him and part may not be what really happened so treat it as so.
I guess Thad is the first one of my family that I can remember the most of for it seems like we got along better than any of the rest of my brothers and I did, for he seemed to be more forgiving than did the others for when I got into trouble he mostly forgot me. I mean forgave me.
He was three years older than was I but only two grades ahead of me in school, for he for some dumb reason flunked the first grade in Dinkieville when we lived out there, but mentally he was 15 years ahead of me and still is. And I am losing ground on him and have since day one.
Thad and I had two things in common. He could do anything and do it right and I could not do anything and did nothing right. True statement. I guess it was in Kanesville is when I first remember doing things with Thad. We used to walk down along the ditch bank and shoot our flippers and anything that was to shoot at. I must have been five and him 8 years old at the time we lived there. I remember going to school with him one day and sitting in what I recall as a large room, probably their rec hall or whatever they called it 57 years ago, and the teacher standing on a little platform talking to the class. It had outside toilets, one for each, side by side. Well, a few yards apart facing away from each other.
The next place was on 29th Street, 226 29th Street, just a couple of houses above Lincoln. We had a lot of fun here for we had a vacant yard in back and used to play there all of the time. Thad and Gene and Lou and myself slept in the same room on the northeast corner of the house, it seems like.
Thad was always big for his age and I was always little. One day at school these two other brothers picked a fight with Thad and myself and so they followed us home and right in front of our house we was going to fight them. I told Thad I would fight first for I was always in fights it seemed like. So right in the middle of the sidewalk we squared off and I swung a haymaker and caught that little squirt right on the mouth and split it open and the sight of his blood ended the fight for the other kid right then and Thad never got to fight. That is the only time in my life that I can remember Thad ever even getting close to being in a fight. I am sure he did but I cannot recall any of them. I guess I did the fighting in our family.
When we lived on West 17th Street, I cannot remember much there either except when our house burned down. Thad and myself stayed at a neighbors’ house. Pledger, I think was their name. I think maybe John and Joe stayed there also.
I think the reason why Thad never got in any fights, he was always bigger than any other kid his age and so they just left him alone, and he was not a trouble maker either, like someone else I know. One day he and I was down the street a little ways and threw a snowball at a window and the feller came out and boy, was he mad at us for hitting his window with a snowball. Thad told him we all was sorry and would not do it again and we did not.
I remember Thad telling me that one of his teachers smoked and I did not believe him that a woman would smoke, would lower herself that much. Next year I had her and I wanted to see if she did smoke and so me and my buddy Joe Cope followed her home one night after school and sure nuff between 27th and 8th on Grant, she did light up a cigarette and we was amazed at that sight. I could not believe it for there was a woman smoking and once more a school teacher. This was a history making event and we had news to tell all the kids in school the next day. I do not know how Thad found out she smoked, but he knew. Maybe he followed her too.
From 29th Street, we moved to 360 18th Street. This was a big, big house and it was 1939 and I was just going to get out of 3rd grade and Thad was getting out of 5th grade. We moved in the first of May and so we finished that year at Pingree, same one we had went to. Thad and I rode our bikes from 18th Street every day to school. It was a mile and a half there and it seemed like a lot farther than that.
One day a week, Mom would give us each a penny and we would stop at a store and buy either two jaw breakers for a penny or some horehound. Thad could have left me to come home alone for he could ride a lot faster than I but he never did. He took care of his little brother.
Thad, the first day we got there got up on the roof of the porch in back of the house and it was about 10 feet off the ground and we decided we would jump off it and so he said let me go first for I would have done just as fast as he did but he jumped and I was getting ready to and he said, “Wayne, maybe you had not better jump, for it is not as fun as it looks,” and so I did not. Next day our little brother, Lou, who was 6 at the time jumped off and broke his arm. Maybe he fell. Anyway he broke his arm doing it.
Thad and Gene was the oldest that slept together, well Gene was so he got the pick of the rooms upstairs and they chose the one the east of upstairs, which was my favorite. I do not know why for my room was bigger and better, but Thad’s seemed to be more homey for me, but I do not think I ever slept there, maybe in later years a few nights but not many.
Thad and Gene always slept together and John and Joe and Lou and I. And Nellie and LaRue and Ma and Pa. Ray was married and Reed had gone in the Army. No, Ray was in CCC, then he got married. Anyway, it came out even although while a little bit when Ray and Edna lived with us Ma and Pa and Lou and myself slept in the north room upstairs, but not for long. Maybe a year.
Thad started 6th grade at Mound Fort and I was in 4th grade and Lou in 1st there. John went to 9th and Joe to 10th grade when we moved there. Thad was like I said, bigger than the other kids his age and one day a newsman came out to the elementary and took pictures for some reason of kids coming out of school and of the whole bunch you could see Thad way above the kids. Of course he was in 6th grade and one year older than his age group.
Mound Fort Elementary was on the south end of the building and the Junior High was on the north end and so the next year Thad moved just down the corridor to junior high. We all still rode our bikes to school.
We had a barn in our backyard and played basketball in it and that is how Thad got so good at it. Well, plus he also had a natural ability to be good at anything he tried. And maybe one reason why I was a little bit better than the other kids was I played against him and had to learn to shoot straight for I only got one shot with him there to get the rebound. He was always on all of the teams, even made second string varsity in 9th grade in football and basketball both.
He could hit a softball a country mile but only played baseball one year at Mound Fort and not at all up to Ogden High. I do not know why. In football he was fullback, plus he called the signals and ran the plays. He did good in 9th grade and started to doing good in 10th grade but the 3rd game he blew his knee out and could not play anymore that year and did not even try to play football up to Ogden High.
One night at a football game he threw a pass and the kid on the other team intercepted it and got a large head start on Thad and he took off after him and caught him clear down to the other end on about the 20 yard line, and the other kid tried to dodge him but Thad tackled him and the other kid never played the rest of that game. I guess Thad really hit him sorta hard. For Thad was a fast runner, too, and when he carried the football and hit the line a couple of times the other line softened up a little bit for him. He was big and he was strong and also smart, but he had the heart of a saint.
I will tell of all the rest of the things he did athletically now and then go back to other aspects of his life later. One day they talked John and Thad into playing softball for the ward and it was over by Paramount Dairy and it had been raining hard and Thad was pitching and John played right field. I do not know why I remember dumb things like this, but one time just as Thad pitched the ball he let a big stinker that could be heard a mile away and I guess it scared the kid so he struck out. Right after that, a ball was hit to John in right field and in chasing after it he fell in a water puddle, a big one, and could not stand up so he started to crawl to get the ball, which was close to him and he would slip and fall on his face and get upon his knees and after it. Again he would go and then fell again. I have never seen a kid so diligent in trying to get to a ball as was John that time. I do not know if the kid got around to home or not, but that was the funniest game I had ever been to. I think we did lose. But it was not because my two did not try their best to win. I cannot recall either playing ball again for the ward.
In them days football players who was good played both ways on offence and defense, and Thad played safety on defense. In the middle of the year, the kid that played halfback on the team, Dick Devaluit, got burned to death and it really affected Thad for he was a very good kid and Thad liked him a lot. What happened was Dick was working on a car in his garage and this no account neighbor kid, who smoked, came in and lit up a cigarette and threw the match in a pan of gas right by Dick and caught him on fire.
They took up a collection the next day in school to give his family and Thad was taking it up and I remember him going around, not asking them, but saying, “How much do you want to give to Dick’s fund?” And everyone that I could tell gave something to him. The football team never did do much after that, of course. They lost Dick and Thad both and that was all of their backfield, mostly. As a matter of fact, they tied all the rest of the games but one the rest of the year. The cheer they made up was Tie Them, Mound Fort! Tie them!
He was also center on the basketball team and at the first of the season they made up a cheer and used Thad, who was captain of both the football team and the basketball team. Yay Thad, Yay Tippets, Yay, Yay Thad Tippets! Instead of hollering Rah, Rah, Rah 15 times. It did not catch on that good, though.
If I remember right they did take City Championship in basketball the year he was in 10th grade. After he got his knee hurt he had to wear a brace while he was playing and it still flipped out on him during the game once in a while and I was always watching his game and I would have to go down and pull on it for I was the only one that knew just how to pull and twist it at the same time to get it out. Even Coach Horne could not do it and it made me 10 feet tall to get to go out and do it during a big game. And he would get up and would be just fine until it flipped out again. I am sure it hurt all the time but he was tough and never let it bother him. I think he was the high scorer at least half of the games.
He in his 9th grade played about half of each game in basketball. Coach Horne, when he retired had a large article in the paper about the players he had coached and they asked him who the three best players he had ever coached was and one was Thad. So that tells you how good Thad was.
Thad was not a dirty player nor was he an ornery player and neither did he get mad at someone when they fouled him or was dirty with him. I guess he figured he was above that and did not need to show off by losing his temper like a lot of players do. He just played good old basketball and did his best. I believe he was a good example for other youngsters to follow. I know he was one to me. I always tried to do the things that I saw him do and usually never went wrong.
One day we was watching a football game at the stadium and these three fellers was sitting right behind us and they had been drinking and they was swearing and a cussing every play and finally Thad turned around and asked them to not swear so much and one of them said, “You just try to make me quit.” Thad could have took care of those three plus three others just like them and when he saw they was not going to change he said, “Let’s move to another place,” and as we was leaving this one feller said, “You might be big, but I shot Japs bigger and meaner than you and you do not scare me at all.” Thad did not even stop to acknowledge his words at all, but we just moved on down the row a ways and went on watching the game.
While out to Mound Fort, I was boxing one day at noon and I got a bloody nose and so had to quit and this Red Van Workman said, “Thad, put the gloves on with me while no one is boxing.” They boxed around for a few minutes and then Red happened to hit Thad a purty good one and so Thad just lowered the boom on him. When Red got to his feet, he threw one glove down to one end of the gym and the other down to the other end and said, “That is enough for me.” And that was that. That is the nearest I had ever seen Thad get into a fight. He always signed up to box and wrestle during intramural bouts, but no one would ever fight him. But they did me and wish they had not.
While Thad was on the school team, I was on the 8th grade team and we practiced together and it was fun to sit on the side and watch them older kids get in and play. Pretty often Coach Horne would let the bunch of us get loose under one basket and have a free for all. I did not stand a chance with 20 kids bigger than me so I stayed out by the foul line and hoped the ball would get to me and I would shoot from out there.
He always looked so sharp with a school uniform on with warm ups on and then took them off to play ball. I think his fame went to my head for I always told everyone around me that that was my brother down on the floor playing center. In the paper a lot of times it said Rugged Thad Tippets was high point man or did this or did that. I do not know what they meant by rugged.
He always had a bunch of kids around him all the time, both boys and girls. All through school he always got straight A’s and never had to work for them at all it seems like. I recall he built a jig saw in 10th grade out of wood and he still may have it. I think he knew more about those things than did the teachers and it did him good stead in his later life.
During the war we used to go up on Monte Cristo hunting squirrels and I hate to admit this but I was a better shot than was Thad. Now I cannot even see the end of the barrel. It seems like when he went somewhere he always took me along even if he had to leave one of his buddies home to take me, which made me feel important.
One time we went skiing and took some of his friends along and after we skied all the day long, him and two of his friends decided to ski down a shortcut across country and this other kid and I drove the car down. Well, he did and I was not old enough. Maybe if I had of been driving we would not have run off the road. I was shooting my flipper out the window of the car and there was a box on the side of the road and I was going to shoot it and this kid swerved so I would miss and went out of control and slid into the bar pit.
Thad and Alvin waited a long time and finally they decided to hike back up and see what had happened to us. They hid their skis and caught a ride up part way and we was waiting for the bus to come down and pull us out but Thad said, “Oh baloney, we can pull him out ourselves,” so we got behind it and in front of it and back and forth until we worked it out in the road and took off. Needless to say, he was a little bit upset.
He broke his leg one year just a goofing off playing football up to Green’s. I was not there but I remember him doing it.
He was good at everything but I could beat him most of the time in ping pong and horseshoes. And one time we went up to Weber College and decided who was the best shot with a basketball and I cannot remember who won. I think it was close.
One day we was up to the dam swimming and Thad always took off and swam across the lake and this one day I was sitting on the bank of boat docks waiting for him to come back and this feller came up to me and asked me if I knew who that was swimming clear out in the middle of the dam. I told him it was my brother. He said if I was him I would never be swimming out there without a boat or life jacket on. I looked up at him, who was a kinda skinny unhealthy looking feller and said, “If I was you I would not do it either.” He gave me a kind of goofy look and walked off shaking his head. I do not know what he was thinking. Maybe wishing he was big and tough, so he could.
Thad got so good shooting his flipper out the window of the car that if there was a bottle along the road he would hit the neck one time and the rest of the bottle next time as we passed.
I cannot ever recall him telling my ma or pa no for anything. He always minded them on everything.
On the high school track team, he threw the discus and he won most of the meets except down to BYU a colored feller beat him out, a one from Nevada. They had a picture of him one day in the school paper throwing discus and it said, “Thad Tippets, a unior” without the j in the paper. I always called him a unior for a while after that.
He tells of a time on a bus going up to Logan and a feller was out on a tractor and he had his flipper and someone dared him that he could not hit the feller on the fanny with his flipper and so Thad unthinkingly, I think, showed them he could. He got in no trouble over it for the farmer probably after he got back down on the seat thought it was a bee stung him. I did not think Thad would do something like that but that proves to you he is human. And does not do everything according to what is right. I would have done it but not him.
While he was playing ball up to Ogden High, the Globe Trotters used to come here a lot and they would ask him to be usher and I would get into all the games free. And they finally got a little bit tiresome watching them. Maybe if I had to pay it would have been funner. I cannot ever remember ever having to pay for anything up to Ogden High while Thad was there, which is not good nor is it bad either. Sometimes he had the job of making sure no one got into either locker room who was not authorized and he would tell me to keep an eye for someone sneaking in there so I did and I caught a couple of kids trying to get into the girl’s dressing room. That is where the visiting men’s team dressed.
Thad could take 100 lb nail keg of nails and lift it up above his head without stopping to rest halfway. The only one I have ever seen do that. All of us, well most of us, could do it but we would get it up halfway and then had to get under it and lift it the rest of the say.
He only went to school one year at Weber College and then I am not sure, I think they got short on money and had to give up his education or his job or maybe his wife. I do not know the reason why he discontinued college. He could have been a professor if he had wanted to or a doctor or an honest lawyer. Or maybe even a machinist.
He played on their basketball team while he attended Weber. I can only remember going to a couple of his games and I do not think he started either one of those. Maybe he did. Competition was tough up there. It may have been the year I was in the hospital having all those operations on my eyes. Or maybe not. Cannot recall. Old Timers' Disease, I think.
Thad taught me to drive a car also. Whenever he told me to do something or I had made a mistake or goofed up at driving, he would hit me on the arm and so that is how come my right arm is bigger than my left arm for it got toughened up by him hitting me. I really must have made a lot of mistakes learning how to drive for it was always tougher than the other. When we would go somewhere, I would talk him into letting me drive. Now remember this was during the war and I was only 14 years old or so. But I used to, especially when we went somewhere when we took a lunch. I would offer him one of my sandwiches if he would let me drive. And he would take me up on it and I am not sure if he was hungry or just did not want me to get fat.
I will tell a little bit about Bev now. I went to school with her. I think she was a year older than me but in the same grade. I cannot recall her chasing him like other girls did, but she is the one that got him and she has born him eight good kids. And most of them are very friendly.
I used to get upset at her for when Thad would come and see us she would sit out in the car and lean on the horn sometimes for 5 minutes until Thad would give up and go home. Ma would go out to talk to her and she would never come in the house so she would have to go out to talk to her. And this was when Ma was getting very sick, but Ma wanted to be friends so that is what was necessary to do to get acquainted with Bev. I cannot remember Bev ever liking me at all and I do not know why. Other than I was a little turkey all the time. And why should she be different than anyone else in the family. Like I said on all my other histories, I was a donkey that could not get along with anyone.
I did not mean to be this way but Thad and Spug Gomm was the only two that could understand where I was a coming from and how to take what I was a saying and doing to make other folks mad unintentionally. But some reason even dumb things, she would not like me for some reason.
Her son, Randy played for an orchestra and he asked me if he could put an ad in my front window of the store advertising it and I told him sure he could, but after he did it, I looked at the name of it and it was SYN Incorporated and had when and where they was playing at. I did not like the name of it displayed in my window and so I folded SYN over and just had the rest and when Randy seen it he said that was okay but when Bev seen it she was completely annihilated and would have killed me if she could have done and nothing anyone could say could change her mind and she tore it down out of my window. I thought I was doing Randy a favor but in the long run made her an enemy. For quite a few years after that she would not speak to me at all. I would have apologized if I had thought I had done anything wrong but I did not think I did, for it was my store and was doing him a favor.
She was a very good cook and always had fine stuff to eat but would never eat anything anyone else had fixed. One night we had a family party and Barbara had made some chicken pies and when we got ready to serve them, I told everyone that the chicken had died and she would not eat one because she said she didn’t want to eat a chicken when it had died. I’m sure she had eaten lots of things that had died. I would hate to see her eat them while they was alive.
I dated her little sister, Joyce, one time. I took her to a girl’s dance and she was a very sweet little gal but somehow or other she did not like me and I only could get her to go with me once. Maybe I asked her to marry me too soon. Just kidding.
Bev used to never mind sleeping out under the stars when we went camping. I went to Yellowstone with them one year and it was a lot of fun. I cannot recall if she got mad at me at all. Maybe not or I would have remembered it, but we slept in a tent every night. I think I slept under the stars on the table at least one night I did, but I did sleep in the tent one night for I can recall a bear walking right past our tent and seeing the outline of it in the moonlight outside our tent.
We did catch a lot of fish at Yellowstone that year. On the way home, we stopped and got some gas and their dog, Ginger, got out and they did not know it for a few miles and so we turned around and went back to find it. I thought that it would be hopeless for it had been a half an hour, but as we was about a mile away from the station at Alpine, here came the dog running along the road toward us and it was after dark too. I really think they thought as much of that dog as they did their kids. It was a good dog, though. I cannot blame them. Thad sorta fell to sleep coming up the other side of the long pass this side of Star Valley and if he would have went off the road we would still be rolling down the hill, and that has been 35 years ago.
He did not get sleepy the rest of the way home. It woke us all up. I cannot recall how come I went with Thad there. I guess he asked me is the reason.
One day we all went rabbit hunting and we stopped at a spring to get a drink of water. I should not even tell this story but it really did happen and I am ashamed of myself for what happened but no one will ever know if I do not tell it now. While we was stopped there, we all had our shotguns and this was before I lost my vision. It was pheasant season also and thus I had my .22, not a shotgun, and this pheasant flew up right in the middle of where we was standing and we all turned around and shot at it. As I shot, I could not have missed Thad over a few inches and I got scared to death for I could see where my gun shot and it was not too far away from his head. It was just a little while after that that I lost my vision and I always thought deep in my heart that the Lord diverted that bullet from him and to teach me a lesson he caused me to lose my sight. I would rather got killed myself than to hurt anyone, let alone my brother. And that thought has always been with me. Maybe that is why I have always thought so much of Thad for I deserved something worse than what I got. If that really is what happened.
I do not think I ever carried a .22 gun after that. And when I did go rabbit hunting, I was always clear off by myself and then most of the time did not shoot for I thought someone would be at the other side of the rabbit. I do not think I have been rabbit hunting for 25 years and I loved to go, just for the chance to be around my brothers mainly. I went deer hunting with them a number of times but never did carry a gun after that. To this day, I do not think Thad really knows how close he came to meeting his maker because of me. Sorry.
Thad has owned a number of farms in his time. He bought one up in Eden or Liberty, in Ogden Canyon, and had it a couple of years or so and then sold it. I do not think he made any money on it, though. It was not good for much. Before that, he bought one out to Willard Bay before they put in the lake and I do not think he farmed it either. And they bought it condemned for the lake and before that he bought one in Slaterville or Merriet. And they bought it for an industrial park. I think he may have made a little bit on it but not much. And the same with the one in Willard Bay. I think the next one he bought was up to Benson and one at Newton and one at some other town up in Cache Valley and I think he still has all three of them and maybe all three are part in the soil bank.
He recently built a log home on the big one that is 300 acres. And he did farm it for quite a few years. I do not know how he kept up with it all plus worked a full time job. Evidently they must be all about paid for too so he has not done badly by them. I cannot think of any others that he has bought besides those.
He tried to get me to buy part of the one up to Newton but I could not do it then. He has worked hard on them. He built a big metal building up on the one in Benson.
One year on our way up to a reunion in Star Valley we met him in Montpelier and Terry and I rode up through Georgetown Canyon to Star Valley with him in his jeep and it was a mighty interesting drive. Kinda rough in spots but we made it in good shape. Barbara took our camper up around the main road and met us at the park or Maurine’s house.
He, like myself, has never been without a flipper when we go anywhere. He makes them out of welding rod and buys rubbers for them already made. I brought a half a dozen with me on my mission where I am right now on the Rosebud Reservation.
Reedy Pie, when he was in the bishopric, asked Thad and Joe and I to talk in his ward a couple of times, and Thad always gave the best talk all the time. Anyway, I thought he always did.
He has always driven old rattle trap cars until lately but they seemed to get him around all the time without any trouble. He has got some of them up to his farm in Cache Valley sitting a rusting away, but he is not the only one. He bought him a new truck and bought Bev a new car in the last few years.
One night a year or two ago, he bought an electric generator from me to have at his cabin and he was working up there one day and it was cold so he had the door just about shut and somehow or other he just about sold his farm that night. The last thing he remembers was in his cabin and the next thing he was in the hospital in Ogden. He had got suffocated and lost consciousness and with him in this stupor he had driven his truck down to Ogden and went in the house and Bev knew there was something wrong so she had him get in the car and she took him to the hospital and that is where he was when he woke up the next morning. He does not recall anything that happened from the time he was sawing a board till in the hospital. The Lord must have been on his shoulder that night.
Not much later, he rolled his truck when he went to sleep at the wheel and never got hurt up to his farm. Be careful, Thad. Do not try the Lord too many times.
It is odd and very peculiar that one month after we had lost Lynnete, Scott, his second boy, was coming down Ogden Canyon and failed to negotiate a curve and ran into a truck and they lost him exactly one month to the day their funeral was apart, on the 30th of May and 30th of June. He, like I, will never get over it and it has been 17 years.
He has had some trouble with his kids just like we all do and some of them have not lived the way he would like them to, but they have their free agency like you and I do also. But that does not mean he does not love them all the same, for he does.
I think Scott must have been around 20 some odd years old. In 1989 him and his girl went to Hawaii with us and it was so much fun. I think Thad spent most of his time snorkeling. He loved it as did we all. And also body surfing. And we seen all the sights possible also. He even hiked up on top of Diamond Head with us. I beat him, though of course. He stopped and took pictures with his camera along the way and I just hiked. It is a tough hike, but it was worth it. Good thing we had an iron rod to hang to on the way up and down or we would have got lost in the dark for there was tunnels and such along the way. But Thad said if you clung to the iron rod like the Book of Mormon said you would not lose your way. And it was right.