I, Wayne Harrison Tippets, was born July 20, 1930 in Georgetown, Bear Lake County, Idaho, to Joseph Maurice and Hannah Emmorette "Retta" Wixom Tippets. I was the 12th child and seventh son to be born into this loving family. My brothers and sisters were Lucile, born 24 June 1909; Nellie Elvira, born 19 November 1911; Alice Maurine, born 21 November 1913; Ray Maurice and Reed Joseph, born 12 May 1916; Mildred, born 1 February 1919; Gene Wixom, born 26 December 1920; Mary LaRue, born 21 March 1923; John and Joseph, born May 6, 1925; Thad Ricks, born 10 October 1927; Wayne Harrison, born 20 July 1930; and Lewis Allen, born 29 August 1933. All were born in Georgetown except for Lewis, who was born in Preston, Idaho.
In May 1934, during the depression, we lost our farm in Georgetown and moved to the Ogden, Utah area. Lucile and Maurine were married by this time and living in Afton, Wyoming. The rest of us were raised in this area and have all remained here except for Lew, who has lived in Oregon for the past several years.
In writing my life story I have chosen to do so by subjects instead of chronologically and hope that whoever reads this will know that I love life and people and that I thank my Heavenly Father for the experiences that I have had.
Written by Wayne Tippets starting in 1999
What I Do on the Sabbath
Well, today I got up at 8:00; for there is no church until 1:00 p.m., so I slept in. Last year I would have had a ward council meeting starting at 7:30 a.m. But then church started at 9:00 a.m. For the coming year church will start at 11:00 a.m. and our schedule will change again.
I went for a half hour walk. Usually I am gone longer but my knee is giving me trouble lately, so I am limiting my time. After I got home, I listened to the tabernacle choir sing; then came to the computer to do this typing for a while, and then will attend our meetings. After church no telling what I will do. As a rule, the kids come out in the evening and we will do everything from playing games, to just visiting. Usually Terry brings Mildred and Lester out with his family. We will eat toasted cheese sandwiches, ice cream and pie, homemade ice cream, or quite often we will have root beer floats.
When we lived out in Kanesville and our meetings started at 8:00 a.m., I would have to be down there for executive meeting at 6:00 a.m. and would usually walk down there – three and a half miles. I would leave home at 5 o’clock and made it on time every time. The bishopric would usually pass me up and ask if I wanted a ride, but I would tell them no because I had plenty of time. It was kind of rough in the winter, for sometimes the roads were a sheet of ice and it was tricky walking that far without falling. A couple of times I did fall, but did not get hurt. People would have picked me up if I had wanted them to, and sometimes I would call them for a ride, but not very often.
Special Date
I guess it would have been May 10, 1952. I had a date with Barbara Dee Todd. We went, with Kenneth Gomm and Dotty Appolonie, to the White City Ballroom to a dance. Mildred and Lester might have been there also. I don’t know who the orchestra was or anything else except that while we were in between dances, I asked her if she wanted her school ring back and she said yes. I told her she could get it out of my pocket. She put her hand into my pocket and pulled out a diamond engagement ring, which I took and put on her finger. She let me put it on her finger and then, by George, she gave me a hug and a kiss before we went back to dancing.
I was somewhat surprised that she would accept it that easy (not really), for she knew what she was getting into. Well, partly she knew. I honestly believe if she had known then what she would be faced with from that time on, she may have really put it back in my pocket. But I am sure glad she did not do that, for that little ring has brought me untold joy for the last forty six years and will continue for the next forty six millenniums I hope. Maybe longer. She told me later that when she got home she went in and woke up her parents and showed them that ring and her mom said "Are you sure?" And that was it.
Any Unusual Visitors We Have Had in Our Home
Off hand, I cannot think of one in our home, but I can think of one I had in Gene’s car one day. Gene had purchased a chunk of ground at 36th and Wall Ave., right after the war. It was before I lost my vision and I didn’t have a driver’s license yet, but I went out to help Gene build some fence and he needed something from home, so he told me I could take his car and go home to get it for him. On my way back, I had stopped at the red light at 25th and Wall and had pulled clear over to the right so I could get ahead of a slow truck in front of me and as I stopped the door to the passenger side opened and in climbed this dirty looking hobo. He said "I sure appreciate the ride," and I was too scared to tell him I hadn’t pulled over to give him a ride, so I took off down the road with him. From there until we got to Gene’s place he told me his whole life history. Just before we got there, he pulled up his pant leg and showed me his wooden leg. It was a mess; it had holes in it. It kind of impressed me. When I pulled over to let him out, he asked me for money, but I told him I didn’t have any, so he got out and walked off down the road, wooden leg and all.
One story that I can recall: early one morning a knock came on our back door and it was an Indian asking for food. My mom fixed him some victuals and he sat on the steps outside and ate them. He really appreciated the meal. I sat by his side but he didn’t want to talk to me. I was probably nine or ten years old, and I guess he thought I was just a pesky kid. But I had never seen a real, live Indian up close before. But he sure enjoyed the meal. Mom did this numerous times for the decrepit and forsaken folks. I guess she had been there before and knew some people who had been hungry and forsaken, and felt sorry for them.
My Experiences with Boy Scouts
I started scouting when I was twelve, and although I did not make progress beyond first class and maybe not even that, I learned a lot, including Morse code, wig-wag (which was Morse code by flag signaling) and some first aid. I had some experiences "out in the wild." We played different games to do with scouting and such, but most of my time in Mutual was spent playing basketball, for I thought it was more fun. I feel different now for I could have been an Eagle Scout if I had put forth the effort, because the chances were there for all of us, but no one in our troop made Eagle, to my knowledge.
We went out on some over-nighters, including down to a swamp in West Warren or someplace like that, and the mosquitoes were terrible. As a matter of fact our Scout Master had his two boys down there with him, and his wife and two boys were completely eaten up. We just goofed around.
Another overnighter was spent just up on the foothills of Ogden, but we played capture the flag, which was a rough and tough game and some kids got hurt. We were playing against another scout troop and it got bad, but we lived through it.
What I remember most is the year I had the opportunity to go to scout camp. This was fun and I learned many things . This will take some time to tell, so I will start the morning we left on the bus to go up to the Monte Cristo Camp grounds, clear up on top of Monte Cristo.
On the way up there, the driver looked out his window and saw a coyote, so he pulled off the road to let us all get out and look at it. It was clear up on top of a ledge, hundreds of yards away and it just sat there on its haunches and every once in a while he would let out a yip or whatever a coyote does to attract attention.
We got up to camp and picked out our campsite. Ours was right next to a clearing, which later was chosen as the main area to meet with the other troops, and a pole was planted there to be used as a flag pole. S. Dilworth Young was the professional camp leader for about two hundred scouts from the Odgen area that was there. Because we were camped so close, we had to be out of bed and ready for the flag ceremony by 7:00 a.m.
I believe it was the year after this camp that S. Dilworth Young was called to be an Apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but this year he really took on the task of teaching us everything that he could about the outdoors. I could never have learned more in six days than we did that week with him. That is, if we wanted to learn.
There were a lot of squirrels in our camp and I decided I would set a snare with string to catch one. I had it all set, then left for a few minutes; when I came back some of our troop had taken the string and cut it in small pieces and left them in a pile. I guess they did not want me to catch any squirrels in a noose.
In later years, Thad and I went up there with our .22s and shot many squirrels. Not just there, but all over Monte. Now I would not have the nerve to shoot anything, but it was fun then and I was a good shot; this was before I lost my sight. One day when Thad and I were up there driving around, we looked up in a tree and there was a great big chicken hawk or an eagle. We stopped and on the count of three we both shot and it dropped down. To this day we have both felt like that was the worst thing that we could have ever done as kids, because that great big bird lying there under that tree with two bullet holes in its chest made us feel terrible. We never again shot another one of those.
Now back to scouting. We did not have tents, so we would be sleeping in sleeping bags under the stars, so S. Dilworth Young showed us how to dig a little place in the ground that our hips would fit into and made it contour to the shape of our body. It sure did help. Another trick he taught us was to open our sleeping bags up in the day when it was hot, then roll them up tight and when we would crawl into them that night they would still be nice and warm. You better believe it works.
The first night we all gathered around Brother Young’s campfire and he told us stories. The one I remember the most was "The Windago." When he finished the story, many of those boys were so scared that they hurried to their campsite, got their sleeping bags and brought them back to his camp where they spent the rest of the night. Our troop was tough and slept in our own camp. I might remind you that our camp was right next to his anyway. I remember that we made fun of Brother Young because he brought his Beauty Rest mattress to sleep on. I guess he had a right to, because he must have been in his sixties or so.
We cooked our own meals and I cannot recall anything that I had to eat, but we cooked over an open fire. Chuck Rhode was our scout master, but was unable to go to this campout so Bill Poole was our leader and he was the best on earth. He only had one arm but he could do anything anyone else could do. One side note here is that when I was in my teens, Bill Poole was a boss down to the UIC Railroad and I worked for him part time, shoveling coal and sand. It was hard work but we made sixty four cents an hour. That was a lot of money in those days. In the winter we had to shovel the snow off the coal and sand before we could unload the open railcars. They burned the coal in some of the engines; they used the sand to sprinkle on the tracks to give traction when they were slick.
Back to scouting again. Anyway, Bill Poole was our leader and a really good one. He liked us, too. We played capture the flag with other troops and one kid got his collar bone broke when someone tackled him, so that ended that game We went on a couple of long hikes while we were up there, and boy, with two hundred kids walking along a dirt road you can imagine how dusty it got, and the dustier it got the more they stirred it up just to make it miserable for those in the rear. We must have hiked five miles or so, and then had no shower facilities when we got back.
Brother Young had us cut a branch off of a pine tree and we used it to shoo the flies away; and also that if you got a small pebble, washed it off good and kept it in your mouth, it would keep you from getting so thirsty.
The next day we hiked along a different road and found a sheepherder’s camp clear back in the mountains. It was amazing to talk to him, living up there all alone with his sheep and his dogs. We also found a spring of good, pure water, and watercress growing in abundance. Bill Poole told us that it was good to eat, and I still like it.
Every evening, Brother Young would tell us more stories around the campfire. Another one I remember was about an old trapper that lived up near where our camp was at Monte Cristo. He would go out every day checking his traps; evidently one time he must have gotten attacked by a bunch of wolves for they found his bones the next spring with carcasses of eight wolves that he had killed. But they finally killed him.
We stayed on Monte Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then at 5 a.m. Thursday morning we started hiking down to Camp Kiesel, twelve miles away. We hiked along the road until we came to a path that led to the camp, possibly two miles away, and Brother Young told us that he was going to take his time and if any of us wanted to take all day to hike with him he would tell us a lot about nature and wildlife and other things. Would you believe that only five, including me, out of those two hundred boys wanted to walk with him? I was excited for this opportunity and it was very enjoyable.
We finally reached Camp Kiesel in the afternoon. Now we had cabins to sleep in, but since we were the last ones there, all the cabins were taken. However, there was one building left that they had used for storage and they told us if we would clean it up, we could use it. It was the best cabin of the bunch and was close to the waterfront.
The first thing we did was to head for the lakes to go swimming. There were two small lakes, one for boating and one for swimming. Our turn came later that afternoon to go boating and the other kids in my group told the man in charge that I couldn’t swim. After I sat on the bank watching them, I went and asked the leader how come I did not get to go in the boat. He told me that since I couldn’t swim I couldn’t go in the boat. Of course, I told him I could swim and he made me show him. I had to swim one hundred yards without stopping. This was the "cat’s meow," for I could swim for a half hour without stopping. The other kids were upset when they heard that I had passed the swim test. Now they would have to take their turns watching from the bank, so they told me I would have to do all the rowing by myself. But I enjoyed it. Finally they decided they wanted to row also.
This was the only time in my youth I ever went to Scout Camp, because it always came at cherry picking time and I had to work.
My Experiences as a Scout Master
It was about 1969 when our Kanesville ward was divided and we became Kanesville 2nd Ward, that I finally had a chance to serve as something more than a Home Teacher. About two days after the division, I was called to serve as the first counselor to Gerald Rasmussen in the Elders Quorum. Before the week was out I was asked to be a Counselor to Richard Watkins in the Young Men’s Presidency. Of course, I couldn’t do both jobs. But as time went on, no one would accept the calling of Scout Master, and because Terry was a new scout, I told them I would fill in until they could find someone else. I also told them I would not do it unless I could always have another adult along with us for our activities, and they always came through. I did double duty for about a year and half, until I was called to be Elders Quorum President.
There were nine scouts in our troop, ranging in age from 12 to 17 years. Some had never had any experience in scouting; camping, cooking and such, and so we learned together. Luckily I had a couple of older scouts, Steve Tippets and Craig Toone, that were so good to work with the younger kids, and with me.
We decided to have one overnighter each month, year around. Our first camp out was down in Hull’s pasture about three miles straight west of our house. It was early in the spring and the bugs were not out yet. As they tried to start their fires to cook their supper, they had a pile of large branches and used lots of matches without success. Finally I got them to make kindling and put the small sticks on bottom, start the fire, then add the larger pieces. One thing I always told my scouts was that I would not cook anything. I would eat what they cooked and we had some food that was less than desirable, but we survived the ordeal and didn’t lose too much weight. Eventually we learned a lot about scouting and nature, and had a lot of fun.
A week later the whole scout district met at this same place, probably a hundred scouts and leaders, and we had competition troop against troop. Things like climbing ropes, sit ups, jumping ditches and such. We won our share mainly because of Steve and Craig. It was a good start to our troop’s experience.
Our next overnighter was up North Fork in a wilderness setting. We had to hike down a steep hill to our camp site, and I had Uncle Dick come up in the evening and talk to them. He came in his full uniform and told us about the different kinds of trees, bushes, birds, etc. we all learned a lot from him. Thank the Lord for people like him, who have gained a knowledge and are so willing to share it with others. He always said “If you take the “outing” out of “scouting” you have nothing.”
After opening exercises each mutual night, we would go down to the scout room and learn knot tying, first aid, Morse code, or other things that would help us progress in scouting. Then we would play a game of some kind. The combination kept the boys interested and good, but they were boys and did their share of goofing off.
One time, the district scouts all went out to Antelope Island for a campout and had competition between troops. We did well again. Later, as a single troop, we went out there and camped a few times, before the bugs got bad. We would have different contests between the kids, and we also played football out on the flats.
Our first organized scout camp was at Camp Bartlett in Idaho. That was really a learning trip, but a very good trip and our kids came back with lots of merit badges. Bishop Beaton had told us he would take us up there and stay the first night if we would go down to the Stake Farm and haul hay that morning at 5 a.m. While I was packing all their gear, he took them down to the farm and worked their fannies off getting the hay hauled. While they were hauling hay, Chris Lindgren and Kent Brown got in a hassle with each other that lasted even into our camp.
The first thing we did after arriving at camp was have swimming trials so we would know who could and who couldn’t swim. All of them were good swimmers, so we got to take the canoes, row boat, and kayaks out, plus swim in the lake. It wasn’t a very big lake, but it was nice.
The second day, Chris and Kent finally got into a fist fight. I just let them fight it out for a while, much to the dismay of Rudall Willey, who was with us that night. After they had slugged each other a few times, I stepped in and stopped them. Then I told them both to go get the “honey bucket” and clean the toilets that had been assigned to us. After that they got along fine. I guess they didn’t want to take a chance on having to clean toilets again.
One day, Kent Brown, Chris Lindgren, and Mike Bingham thought they would pull a fast one over on me. Instead of going to their conservation service project, they skipped it and went and played somewhere. I searched for them and finally found them on the other side of the lake, and boy were they a mess. Dirt from one end to the other. I asked them where they had been and they told me they had been working on conservation. But I knew different. In the first place, I don’t think they could have gotten so dirty working on their project. Mike finally said “I told you he wouldn’t believe us”, and they finally told the truth. They got to clean the toilets again that night.
There was a group of underprivileged boys up there from the Marshall White Center in Ogden. They were a bunch of mean troublemakers. Scott Toone was walking along the trail one afternoon when three of them caught him. The two biggest ones held him while the other one started beating him. He finally broke away and ran back to camp. I told the leaders of the camp that if that group stayed, we were going home. They had had other problems with that group and so they sent them home.
Another time, we hiked up to Malan's Basin on Mount Ogden. We went with J. C. Hansen and his troop from Kanesville 1st Ward. It was a hard hike up the mountain with full packs on our backs and J. C. and I ended up carrying some of the smaller kids’ stuff. We had to carry in everything except water because there was a beautiful stream of good, clear water running down through the basin. This basin is the one you can see from the lower Ogden valley, known as Waterfall Canyon. It is a beautiful area up high on the mountain. After we got camp set up, we hiked out to the edge overlooking Ogden and it was so pretty looking over the city and recognizing different landmarks way below us. I did not find out until after we were home that about dark, Steve and a couple of the other boys had hiked back out to the edge and lit some fusies and held them up so that their families could see them. A fusie is like a large firecracker that doesn’t pop, but the flame is bright and just keeps going for some time. I am afraid that if someone had seen them and reported it to the authorities, thinking that someone was in trouble and needed help, we would have been in trouble. But it all turned out okay and that is what makes kids and life interesting.
Another time, I had only four boys who wanted to go to summer camp, so I asked J. C. if we could go with his troop. I think he only had about six boys going, so it turned out great. I had coached most of the boys in basketball and baseball, so I knew them and they knew me and each other.
On another overnighter, we went up to our stake camp on January 2. We set up camp in the lodge there. This was an experience that we will never forget. Bob Christensen was the other leader with us. We got up there about three in the afternoon and got all of our gear into the lodge, and then went sleigh riding and tobogganing on the hills up North Fork. The kids were dressed plenty warm and as long as we didn’t get wet we could handle the cold, but it was two degrees below zero that day and cooled off at night. J. C. had his troop up there at the same time, but they were tough and slept out in snow caves, which I believe was warmer than in the lodge because it would not get colder than the snow and that would be in the twenties above zero. Either way, it was cold, and his troop was cooking out in the open, so that would be worse.
Anyway after eating supper we went for a short hike down the middle of the road and then we hit the sack. We kept a big fire going in the fireplace and had our double sleeping bags next to the fire as close as we could get them. As long as we stayed in them, we were warm. But our food was on a table and everything that could freeze did- eggs, milk, water, everything. We tried to play ping pong, but the balls were so cold that they would break after a few hits. Still, I think it was one of the most fun overnighters we had.
One time we had an overnighter training session in the gully below the scout office in South Ogden. Some of the training was in the building and then we went down in the gully and trained on how to handle knives, hatchets, axes, first aid, and some conservation, among other things. It was very good. The kids and I all enjoyed it.
Bob Stevens was called to be the assistant Scout Master and did a very fine job, but when I was called to be the Elders Quorum President he was called to be the Scout Master, but for some reason he did not last very long, just a few months later he quit.
WHAT WAS MY MOTHER’S BEST TRAITS AND WORST TRAITS
Offhand I cannot remember any bad traits my mom had and I am entirely honest in my opinion. Her best trait was to study and know something about everything under the sun, for she seemed to know a lot about many things. I will start by telling of her intellectual traits. During the war KLO radio station had a contest on why we were proud to be an American. I did not know how to approach this subject so I asked my Mom if she could help me write an essay and enter this contest. She sat down with me and between the two of us, mainly her, we wrote one out and sent it in. Would you believe that week I had my name read over the radio where I had won first place. I received a real genuine leather football. It was the best one Wilson made. My brother Thad decided he wanted to do the same thing, so that week she helped him write an essay also. Doggone if he didn’t win first place for that week and also received a football just like mine. This may have been a little bit crooked but as long as we helped I felt okay in winning it.
I found a book one time and was reading it. When she saw it, she took the book and read a few words and threw it in the fire and told me to find something decent to read. How she could tell that it was a bad book I will never know, for she only glanced at it and made up her mind to get rid of it. I had only started reading it, and it had one sentence that said when this feller got out of prison he was going to find him a prostitute. At that time I did not know what one of those was, but she sure did. The book was called Jarnigan. It probably wouldn’t be bad by today’s standards.
LaRue and LeRoy were having problems one time and he told Ma that LaRue did not love him. Ma came right back at him and told him that LaRue loved him too much or she would not put up with his shenanigans. From then on they got along better for quite a while.
One day during lunch some of us were throwing an orange around the school room and I went to throw it out the window and sorta hit the window frame and splattered that orange all over the sill just as Mrs. Yates came walking in the room. Boy did I get a Scotch blessing. I cleaned up the mess and was sent to the principal’s office. I sorta got to feeling sickly and went home instead. My mom got a phone call from the principal saying that I had done something very bad and was supposed to report to his office, but I hadn’t showed up there. After hanging up the phone my mom asked what had happened. I told her and she said that that was not anything to get kicked out of school for. She told me to go back to school and apologize to the authorities and tell them I would not do it again.
One time I stole a deck of cards from Newberry’s Store. I wrapped the cards up in a small package, put my address on the package and Clarence Bassett’s return address and put a cancelled stamp on it. then I gathered the mail that day and showed mom what I had got in the mail. She looked at it and asked me where I really did get the cards from. She made me march right back to the store and pay for those cards, for it did not fool her for one moment. I never tried to trick her again. Ma and Pa were very frugal and very wise. They raised 13 kids without ending up in the poor house, and I can’t remember ever going to bed hungry in my life.
To my knowledge Ma never did use a cook book. She just did everything out of her head. She mixed bread just about every day.
She told me once that no shoe lace tied in a knot was impossible to untie, for they could be untied if you were diligent enough.
Ma always made sure we had a good Christmas and Thanksgiving every year. She made sure we each had something nice for Christmas even if she had to sew it, which she usually did. Oh what I would give to see a shirt that she made for me, or a pair of pants or something else she would do for her kids.
Ma did not like to see us brothers fight each other, and when we would she would dive in and get between us, taking a chance of a wild blow missing one of us and hitting her. Although it never happened, it could have. One time Gene called her spook and she slugged him in the side with her fist. I believe it must have broken one of his ribs, because he moaned and groaned for a month. He never did call her that again. Good going Ma, he deserved it.
She would get upset every time any of us bought a car, for she always thought we paid too much for it. She was always teaching us to be frugal and not waste money.
Although Ma and Pa were not regular attenders at church she made sure that we always had clean clothes to wear to church and always encouraged us to attend our meetings. I remember that when I was put in the Deacons quorum presidency I never told her for a week or two, and she was really hurt to think that I hadn’t told her, but she was very happy that I did get chosen and gave me all the encouragement to do a good job.
During 1947 I had 5 operations on my eyes for detached retinas and was in the hospital 3 weeks each time. One time when she knew no one was coming to visit she rode the bus up (transferred once even) even though her heart was really bad.
I remember that one night after one of my operations when I was still flat in bed, this gal came to see me. she was kind of overbearing and even climbed up on my bed and was kind of relaxing, no laying down, but was too close for comfort and so Mom decided to send Dick Stump, my cousin, into the bedroom and just sit there and visit with me until she left. It didn’t take long before she decided to leave. Good going Mom.
Ma never did learn how to drive a car, but she could have. What kept her from driving was once she was driving down the road and sorta took her half of the bridge out of the middle and scared a neighbor and so she never got behind the wheel again.
Of course Ma really hated to see five of her sons go into the war and I know she prayed all the time for their safety. She knew they needed all of the loving letters they could get and she would write to them all each week I think. I do not know what she wrote but am sure it would be something uplifting and encouraging. She was proud of those boys and the five stars that hung in our front window during the whole war. The first to serve was Reed and Gene in the army and then Ray for a short time, and John and Joe were both in the navy. She worried so much about them that I believe she let herself get run down and got pneumonia that left her with a bad heart, from which she never recovered. But I am sure she never let her sons know she worried about them, but boy was she happy to see them come home on furloughs and then finally for good. She even had Joe’s buddy Clarence Taylor living there, and when they would come home on furlough he would come to our house instead of going to his own family. He would send letters and start them “Dear Mom” and sign them “Your son, Clarence.”
Ma felt really bad when I lost my sight and she blamed herself. She said it must be something she had done and the Lord was punishing us in this way. But I knew better so did everyone else, but she took the blame for it.
She would help me with my homework whenever she could. I remember having to write an essay and she helped me write one about Eighteenth Street. I received an A+ on it.
DESCRIBE YOUR BEDROOM WHEN YOU WERE A TEENAGER
When I was a teenager during World War II, I had a bedroom mainly all to myself because my brothers were all away in the war. I painted my bedroom red, white, and blue, including the walls, ceiling, and the door. This was to show that I was patriotic. The shape of my second floor bedroom was different because the roof sloped on both sides of the room and was flat for a space in the middle. I painted the walls red, the sloped part of the ceiling was white, and the flat part in the center was blue. The door had panels and I painted each panel a different color, red, white and blue. The window and door frames were about 6 inches wide and so I painted a strip about 2 inches wide of each color red, white and blue. Everyone that came had to walk upstairs and look at my “patriotic room”. I thought it was neat and it stayed that way until I got married. I even bought my own paint and did the painting by myself. I think I even painted my chest of drawers red, white and blue. But not the floor.
In my room I had the bed right under the window. I had two mattresses, which made the top of the bed even with the bottom window frame. I had a dresser, which I kept my junk in, and a cheap wardrobe type of thing which was made out of cardboard with a rod going across it which I hung my pants and shirts on. I probably only had a couple of pairs of pants and maybe four shirts. I kept my BB gun and flippers under the bed.
When the war ended I shared the room with Reedy Pie. He got the bed and I had an army cot with no mattress. I would tie down the corners of the quilts and sheets so I would not have to make the bed except for when I washed the bedding. It was neat to crawl in from the head of the bed and snuggle down, then in the morning I would crawl out the same way. I slept with my window open summer and winter. In the winter I had an electric blanket that kept me warm even though the window was wide open.
There were 16 stairs leading to the upper floor and we would take two or three steps at a time going up, but coming down we could make it in about two leaps. Sometimes I would slide down the rail and hit every step with my feet, making a big racket. To this day I cannot understand how our mom put up with all of us boys. But I think she liked us anyway.
DESCRIBE SOME OF THE ACTIVITIES WE DID AS YOUNGSTERS
Mainly our activity was built around sports of one kind or another. Basketball, football, some softball, and marbles. I would take two marbles to school each morning and bring home a hundred or so. I would take a taw to put in the middle and then I would go to town winning marbles from the other boys. I was a good shooter while I could see.
We played “hide and seek”, “kick the can”, “blind man’s bluff”, “cops and robbers” with rubber guns. The guns were actually wood but they would shoot rubber loops cut from old tire inner tubes. We also had pillow fights and played a lot of card games, and of course we had some fighting amongst us.
I recall one day when Thad did something that made me mad so I picked up a rock and pegged it at his head. He ducked just in time but it went right through the windshield of his Willy’s car. That made him mad and he took off after me. He caught me and was going to lay me low, but I told him not to blame me for that broken window. If he hadn’t ducked it would not have broken the window. He started to laugh and did not whip me. Good thinking on my part.
We did a lot of hunting for deer and squirrels, which were abundant up on Monte Cristo, and we were good shots. I remember one day Thad and I were up there and we hiked down a road and found a water trough for sheep and around it was hundreds of squirrels. We just sat back and picked them off one at a time until it wasn’t fun anymore. We possibly ran out of shells too.
In the summer we would go swimming at Lorin Farr Park every morning, except when we were picking fruit. After the war we would go up to Pine View Dam and swim almost every night after work.
Let me go back to basketball. We had an old barn in our backyard. In fact, we had two barns, each with a big loft in them. In the barn in the northeast corner of our lot we had hung basketball hoops and that is where we would play. Our friends would come over and we spent many hours playing basketball there in the top of the barn, and quite a few of the kids that played there actually played on the school teams.
As I remember now, I would say that our “court” was probably about 25 feet long and maybe 15 feet wide with an uneven board floor. The basket on the north end was a little bit smaller than regulation size for it was homemade out of steel banding and mounted on a small backboard. But it was solid. The basket on the south end was even smaller and didn’t even have a backboard. The end of the barn was the backboard and the basket was mounted about six inches higher than regulation because there was an open window (with chicken wire over it) right below the basket. Because of the size of the hoops it was hard to make a basket, but it also taught us to be really good shots.
To get up into the loft of our “barn gym”, we had to climb up a ladder and open a trap door to climb through and then we would shut the trap door and this made our not so level floor. On each roof slope we had a light bulb for light so we could play day or night, and sometimes we would play until 11 or 12 o’clock at night. When there were a bunch of us playing up there, anyone on the outside could see the barn sway back and forth, but from up there those of us who were playing didn’t notice the swaying. We couldn’t put much of an arch on the ball because it would hit the slope unless we were shooting straight down the middle in the high part of the roof.
The roof leaked and after a snowstorm we would have to brush snow over to the trap door and push it down below. Sometimes it would be so cold that we would play with gloves on, but we never would wear our coats because they would hamper our movement. I do not recall anyone ever getting mad while playing in our old barn. It was just plain fun, even though I’m sure we fouled each other a lot.
What was fun was when others were up there playing and there was snow on the ground. We would stand out and throw snowballs in through the screen window below the one basket, but you better be sure that they would do the same thing when you were the ones up there playing. It made the floor slick, but no big deal.
TIED TO THE TREE
I had 5 brothers and 2 brothers-in-law that served in the military during World War II. Ray and Reed served in the Army, Gene served in the Air Force, Joe and John were in the Navy. Lester Gomm was in the Army and Leroy Brown was in the Coast Guard.
When they came home, Reed and Gene had started smoking. Reed soon stopped but Gene smoked the rest of his life. One day I was upstairs in my room and Gene was sitting on the lawn right below my bedroom window, smoking. I decided to put his cigarette out. I got a bucket of water and holding it out of my window, I dumped it on Gene. I laid back on my bed and was laughing hysterically when I heard someone running up the stairs. Since there was only one set of stairs, the only option I had was to go out the window, which was approximately 15 feet above the ground.
There was a trellis with vines growing on it that was against the house right there. There was also a narrow ledge a few feet below my window sill. Somehow I let myself down from the window sill to the narrow ledge, then to the trellis, then jumped the last 4 feet or so to the ground. While Gene had run up the stairs, Reed and the other brothers had stayed on the lawn. Reed grabbed me and Gene yelled, “Hold him! I am going to beat him.”
My brothers had been in the military and had been trained to kill. That worried me, but Reed said, “That won’t do any good. We’ll teach him a real lesson.” 18th Street was lined with big beautiful trees, three of which was in front of our house. One of my brothers got a rope and they tied me spread eagle to a tree, put the rope around my neck and threw it up over a limb and pulled it up tight. Then they raked up some dry leaves into a pile between my feet and struck a match to it. I remember saying, “I repent!” but they set it on fire anyway. It was getting pretty warm.
About that time a neighbor, Mrs. Miller, came by with her arms full of groceries. She said, “Wayne, do you want me to call the police?”
I told her, “No, I kind of deserved it. I think they will put the fire out.” Now it was my brothers who were laughing hysterically. Then they got the hose, turned the water on, and held it above my head. It ran down me and put the fire out.
Most of the time my siblings and I got along pretty well but one time I got mad at Thad for something. He was standing by his car and I picked up a rock and chucked it at him. He ducked and the rock went through his window. He started yelling and coming at me and I said, “If you hadn’t ducked, it wouldn’t have broken the window.” He began laughing and I breathed a sigh of relief. Thad and I were always pretty close. When he planned to do things with his buddies, if I wanted to go along he would let me go, even if it meant that there wasn’t room for all of his friends to go with him.
SCHOOL BASKETBALL
When I was in the 7th grade at Mound Fort Jr. High, I played intramural basketball, meaning we played other teams within our own school. This gave me some good experience and practice so that when I was in the 8th grade I tried out and was chosen to be on the school team and play against teams from other schools in the Ogden District. Mr. Peterson was our coach. We played Central Jr. High, Lewis Jr. High, and Washington Jr. High. I also made the 9th grade team the next year. Mr. Aaron Van Horn was our coach.
At the beginning of 10th grade I tried out again for the school team, but because I had been on the team every year I thought I would automatically be chosen so I didn’t play as hard as I could. I was cut from the team. Mr. Van Horn tried to tell me but I didn’t pay attention. That year they took the city championship.
SOME LESSONS HAVE TO BE LEARNED THE HARD WAY!
“TIDBITS OF WISDOM” by Wayne Tippets (1986)
Love is like sawing a board with a two man saw. You have to work in perfect harmony to get the job done.
Love is like a grandmother clock. It isn’t much good unless you get it wound up once in a while.
Love is like a new carpet. It needs a lot of tender and loving care.
Love is like taking an ice cold shower. It is a shock to your system, but it wakes you up.
Love is like fertilizer. You have to spread it around before it does any good.
Love is like stormy weather. Sometimes it is miserable, but still necessary to produce our crops.
Love is like walking along the canal at 3:00 a.m. in the rain; scary, but invigorating and beautiful.
Love is like stubbing your toe in the dark. You should have removed all obstacles before you advance, and then proceed with caution.
Love is like your testimony. You can’t see it, you can’t hear it, you can’t touch it, but in your heart you can feel it and you know that it is there beyond any doubt.
TELL OF SOME IMPORTANT PERSON YOU HAVE MET OR ASSOCIATED WITH
While serving a mission on Temple Square with my wife, Steve Young, quarterback for BYU and the San Francisco 49ers, was on the Square one day and I not only shook his hand but I got my picture taken with his arm around my shoulder. My camera wouldn’t work and he offered me $5 to go across the street and buy a roll of film while he waited for me. But I had my own money. But he was so friendly and cordial. We got the picture and I had it enlarged and put in a frame in my living room. I’m proud of it.
Another person would be Elder Gary Coleman, who is now a general authority, but was our home teacher and also our friend. He had been a mission president and so when we decided we would like to go on a mission we talked to him first to see if he thought we would be able to serve a mission. He said, “Of course,” and the rest is history.
I also was invited by my friend, Barney Chapman, to go with him to Salt Lake to a special open house to see the Governor’s Mansion when repairs were finished after the fire. While we were there I also was introduced to and shook hands with Larry Miller, the owner of the Jazz basketball team. And of course I also met Governor Mike Leavitt and his wife, and Weber County Commissioner Anderson, and others that I didn’t know. It was a great evening and we toured the mansion with Governor Leavitt.
While I was the president of the Ogden Chapter of the Federation of the Blind, I went with a group back to Washington D.C. and was able to meet, in person, Orrin Hatch, Jake Garn, Jim Hansen, and other senators and representatives. It was a great experience.
TELL HOW YOU LEARNED TO DRIVE AND SOME DRIVING EXPERIENCES
Well, to tell the truth, I started driving when I was no more than 14, which was two years too soon as far as the law was concerned. But I had some older brothers, mostly Reed and Thad, who let me drive. As a matter of fact, I think I drove more miles before I turned 16 than I did after, for I lost my vision a month or so after I turned 16 and got my license to drive. Reed and Thad would both let me drive all the way home from Star Valley, Wyoming, or from the top of Monte Cristo, or duck hunting. And I think I was a good driver, although Thad, when I would do something wrong, would slug me on the shoulder, hard and so it taught me to do it right. Reed told me I was inconsistent because I would go 50 mph and then slow to 40 and then speed back up again. I remember telling Thad that I would give him my lunch if he would let me drive. And he would, most of the time anyway. But it was worth it to get to drive. Once in a while, Pappy would let me drive along the canal when he was the water master, but not too often. I think the reason Thad let me drive so much was that he wanted to shoot his flipper out of the window instead of driving. When I drove with Pappy I would drive exactly like he did, such as every little while I would push in on the choke to make sure it was clear in, and I never did drive over 20 mph with him and I watched both sides of the road.
I got in my first wreck on the 25th of April, 1946, on a Sunday. I had gone to visit my girlfriend and saw two of my buddies in the park across from her house so I went and talked with them and they asked me if I would take them home to get some money. As we were coming back, someone had turned the stop sign one fourth of the way around so it was facing endways to me. I didn’t see the sign and as I went through the intersection, a car hit my left front fender and the girl’s knee was cut. I took her up to the hospital and they put 10 stitches in her knee. When I got back from the hospital, the cop had a ticket written out for me. He had written it for reckless driving, failing to yield the right of way, and driving without a license. I talked him out of everything except driving without a license, as I was only 15 years old. It cost me $5, which was hard for me to obtain. We each fixed our own car.
Clunk (Clarence Basset) and I bought a car together once. It was a 1936 Hudson Teraplain and we paid $235 for it. Clunk drove all the time except when I had a date and he didn’t. Then we bought a 1948 Frazer, but after that he went into the service and so I had to drive all the time. But I only got into one accident after that.
When I met Barbara I told her if she was to get serious with me she had to learn to drive, and so I taught her how to drive. She still tells everyone that she was taught to drive by a blind man, and it is true. And she is as good a driver as there is.
I quit driving when I got in a wreck going to work out to Utah General Depot. It was on Dec. 10, 1953, and it was snowing and the roads were slick. A car had stopped right in the middle of the road and I could have stopped if the roads had been dry but I slid right into him and the boss knew I had trouble with my eyes so he wrote the Drivers License Bureau and they requested that I come take an eye test or send in my license. Barbara sent in my license and I quit driving. Well, most of the time I didn’t drive. I did get stopped by a Highway Patrolman that lived not far from us and he told me that if he saw me driving again he would pinch me. This was in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s and I haven’t driven since except in the yard around our store.
DESCRIBE ANY SERIOUS ILLNESSES YOU HAVE HAD
Well, this is sort of hard, for I haven’t had any serious illness as far as life threatening goes, but I will tell about the problem that changed my life completely. I was sitting on top of the world and everything was going my way. I was on the school basketball team and was a whiz in math and I think a good worker. When I went to bed one night life was great, but when I got up the next morning, I could not plainly see the houses across the street.
I had turned 16 in July, got my driver’s license in August, and everything was fine. Then about the first of September my life changed dramatically. I was starting my junior year at Ogden High School and I didn’t want anyone to know I couldn’t see. I didn’t even tell my parents for about two weeks. I went to see Dr. Rushmer, an optometrist, and he told me to go home and soak my eyes in hot packs for a couple of days and it should be okay. I did this but it didn’t help so I went back and he told me that it was beyond him. He told me to go to my family doctor, which I didn’t have one, but my mom went to Dr. Anderson, so I went to see him. He examined me and did some tests, but found nothing wrong so he sent me to Dr. Glen F. Harding, who did all kinds of tests on me and he could not find what was causing the problem. He gave me a prescription for some strong vitamins, which I took, to no avail. I even went to see Dr. Pack, my dentist, to see if there was something wrong with my teeth that would cause this. I had a couple of teeth fixed, but of course that had nothing to do with my eye problem.
About 6 months later, Dr. Harding sent me to see a Dr. Stuart Wright, a neurologist in Salt Lake City and he checked me out and sent me to St. Marks Hospital, where they removed the fluid from my spine and replaced it with a dye so they could x-ray my spine and see if there was a problem there. There wasn’t, but it sure gave me a terrific headache for a while. He had absolutely no patience. When he examined me he told me to look at a picture on the wall and I thought I was but he got angry when I wasn’t looking the way he wanted me to and he would grab my head and turn it, and was really ignorant to me. I really begrudged paying the $575 for his bad attitude plus $100 for the three days in the hospital. Now remember, this was in 1947, and all he did was give me a bad headache. That was a lot of money, especially when the only way I had of earning money was picking fruit in the summer and working shoveling sand and coal at U and I Railroad for 64 cents an hour. But I had enough money saved that I paid both bills – begrudgingly. It was a whole year from the time I first couldn’t see, that Dr. Harding, after having other doctors consult with him, came to the conclusion that it was a detached retina in both eyes, which was very unusual, and hadn't ever happened before to their knowledge.
So being just two weeks into my senior year at Ogden High School, Dr. Harding decided to operate on me the next day, which was the middle of September, 1947. I would be in the hospital for 3 weeks and then go home in an ambulance so I could still be on my back with sandbags on both sides of my head, then spend 3 more weeks flat on my back at home.
I don’t know if I should tell about the operation or not but I guess if you don’t want to read the next part you can just skip it. I entered the hospital the night before the surgery so they could take blood tests, give me an enema, shave my eyebrows, pluck my eyelashes, etc. They did this to both eyes even though they would only operate on one half of an eye at a time.
They took me down about 8 a.m. and gave me some anesthetic but not enough to put me out because he said I needed to have control of my senses while he operated. I don’t know why. In the operating room he put some kind of gadget in my eye to prop it open and they he put some kind of liquid in it. Next he deadened it with a very long needle and finally he started to operate. First he had a very skinny knife type of thing. When he had the eye out of the socket (I think), he asked the nurse for something and he saw she was having a bad time and he told the head nurse to get her out of there and get someone who could take the sight of the operation, and I guess she did. Afterwards in talking to this nurse, she said she had witnessed hundreds of operations, but just knowing I was fully awake and could see what was going on, it got to her. I told her it had gotten to me, too, for I told the doc that if he could do something so I could not see him operate, please do it. So he put some kind of ointment over my eyeball so it made things dim. That made it better for me.
He was using a machine which, when he put a needle into my eye, an electric shock went through the eye into the retina and was supposed to re-attach it. Every time he penetrated the eye with the needle, it sent the shock and made a buzzing sound. I counted 132 buzzes, and that was for one half of an eye. This was a process that had been developed 9 years previously. Before that, nothing could have been done to save any of my vision. I was blessed. It took him two hours to operate and the anesthetic ran out in an hour and forty-five minutes and I started really hurting, but the doc said there was nothing he could do so I should just do my best and he would hurry as much as he could. Somehow we got through it, but I was fully awake and felt every stitch he put in my eye during the last few minutes. Although every operation I had after that I worried that it would happen again, but it didn’t. After he was done he bandaged both eyes because if I moved one eye the other would move also and that would not be good. He operated four different times on the right eye, but only once on the left because it was too far gone and surgery didn’t any good for that eye, so basically I had no vision in that eye.
For the next 6 weeks, I was flat on my back with sandbags on both sides of my head with the bed flat and I was not able to turn, only a little bit on my side. I always slept on my side so that was hard. It was hard also to use the urinal all the time and the bedpan. The bedpan I would only use at night when everyone else was asleep and that didn’t make the night nurses happy. I could feed myself some foods but most of the time a pretty nurse would feed me. Probably because I wanted the attention. Just kidding. What was most embarrassing was having them give me a bath every morning. Of course, part of it I could do myself.
I did some teasing of the nurses while I was there. Imagine that! I had a ring that squirted when I would squeeze a bulb in my hand, and although I couldn’t see where they were, I could hear them and I actually hit one of them once in a while. One of them did not think this was funny and she reported me to the head nurse, who came in to talk to me. I asked her if she would like to see my ring, but she said, “Not now.” She asked me to be good and she left in good spirits. I never did show it to Dr. Harding. He was a very serious man and would have been upset.
Dr. Harding would get upset when he would come in to change my bandages because quite often they would be loose around the edges where I would scratch. For an ornery man he was good to me. Well, not ornery, just strict, and he knew I was not apt to mind my own business all of my life.
I had a radio in the hospital with me and would listen to the World Series, but when I would turn it to General Conference instead of the ball game the other men in the room would get upset. One night the nurse asked me if I wanted anything else before she turned out the light and I told her “A shot of whiskey.” Soon she came back and told me to open my mouth and she put something in it, which I don’t think was whiskey, but it sure tasted bad. To this day I am not sure if it was whiskey or not, but if it was, it is the only time in my life that I have tasted any kind of liquor.
For my meals they would bring the menu around to be marked and I would tell them to draw a circle around the whole thing and put double on it. At night they would bring me at least four half pints of milk for my snack through the night. They treated me good.
I was always in a ward with other men. Some was good and some not so good. One even died in there but I didn’t know that until after. One had a disease that caused them to amputate one leg, and then an arm or another leg. That would be awful. That made me realize that I was blessed to just have trouble with my eyes. Thanks, Lord!
After spending 3 weeks in the hospital, they would take me home in an ambulance. The doc told me to make sure they took it easy and not hit the bumps hard. I told the driver that and he said, “Do you want us to have the siren going?” I told them sure. I was kidding but they took me serious and all the way from 24th Street and Harrison Blvd., they drove not over 15 miles an hour, but with the siren going full blast, and when we got home everyone had heard the sirens and came out to watch them carry me in the house on a stretcher. That only happened for one of my surgeries, though.
When I got home I slept in the back room downstairs, and before surgery I would hook a cowbell to the transom in the dining room so that when I needed someone all I had to do was pull a string and the bell would bring someone to help me. My mom, bless her heart, would be the one to wait on me, and she had heart problems, but she would fix me something to eat in the kitchen, carry it into the dining room where she would sit down and rest, then into her bedroom where she could sit on the bed and rest again, and then into my room where she could rest again. But I never heard a word of complaint. To make it easier on her I would have them bring me a gallon of water in the morning and another empty jug, and at the end of the day the full one would empty and the empty one would be full. I told her to just fix me simple things to eat and for the most part she did, but sometimes she would fix something special for me. But that was too hard on her so I didn’t want her to do that.
I had fixed a board that would go across my bed. I would have someone put a typewriter on it and that is how I learned to type. I had already learned where the keys were before I lost my vision. This kept me busy as I would write stories, letters, and just practice. I was a better typist then than I am now because now I try to type too fast and so I make mistakes. My wife is always telling me to slow down and do better, but that is easier said than done.
After 6 weeks the doc would take the bandages off and for a week I would wear a pair of black glasses that had a little pinhole in the middle so that I would just look straight ahead. For the next two weeks the glasses had a little larger hole in the center. This was my only vision spot. Then I would have to learn how to walk again because my feet would be so tender. The reason for the pin holed glasses was so my eyes would look straight ahead and not look down or to the side, because the retina might become detached again. As soon as I recovered he would put me back in the hospital to do the surgery on the other half of that eye and everything would start all over again. This happened five times that year, four times on the right eye and only once on the left eye because it was too far gone.
Let me tell you, after being off your feet for 6 weeks they would be as tender as silk and my balance would not be very good. For a few hours I would walk back and forth in the house until my eyes and feet got used to being up. It was not fun, although I had nothing else to do so I would walk for hours at a time it seems. I was very diligent in getting my strength back after each surgery, though. It was a very difficult thing to go through but I am so grateful that they could save 5% of my vision for me and that for these many years since then it has stayed the same. I just wait for the day after the resurrection when I will have perfect vision once again. My mom passed away between the 4th and 5th surgeries and so for the last one, when I left the hospital, I went to Joe and Joyce’s and they took care of me. I really appreciate all the care, attention, and love they gave me. I also appreciate the help that all of my family has given to me.
NAME AN OUTSTANDING TEACHER
When I was going into the 10th grade at Mound Fort Jr. High School, most us wanted to get Mr. Stevens for our math teacher and most of the ones who wanted him got him and we were delighted. But in the second week of school, Mr. Stevens was promoted to be the principal of an elementary school and so we got another teacher, Mrs. Peterson. We were disappointed. She was not very good looking. In fact we thought she was ugly, tall and thin, but very smart. In just a few days we did not see her as ugly anymore. Of course her physical appearance did not change but her personality won us over in a big way and she became our favorite teacher. I can’t recall what she did specifically, but in a short time she had us eating out of her hand. I don’t suppose she was any better than Stevens, but she knew how to teach and I really enjoyed her. We would have walked to the moon for her. Of course, math was one of my better subjects anyway.
WHERE WAS I WHEN THE FIRST MAN LANDED ON THE MOON
I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing, but it was on my birthday so it should have been important to me. I don’t even remember right now what year it happened, but now my birthday, July 20, is called “Moon Day”. I do know that they planted Old Glory on the moon that day. It must have been in a frame or something because it was outstretched all the time and not dangling, but that might just be from the lack of gravity.
TELL ABOUT A TRIP YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WENT ON THAT WAS MEMORABLE
The only one that I can remember with my folks was one day we were driving up to Star Valley, Wyoming, just Clarence, Mom and I. We were just a little bit past Geneva, Idaho, almost to the Wyoming border and we passed 4 or 5 girls walking along the road. As we passed them I hollered out the window, “Do you want a ride?” and they yelled back, “Yes.” Clarence was driving and he stopped and started backing up. Those girls climbed through the fence and started running out through the hayfield as fast as they could run, and it really made my mom laugh. She laughed for five miles before she could stop.
I also can remember going with my parents to pick huckleberries up Copenhagen Basin in Emigration Canyon when I was young.
Another trip I remember a few years ago, was taking Pappy Todd on a trip. He loved baseball but had never been to a professional game, except for a farm team in Ogden. So for Father’s Day we gave him a ticket for a San Francisco Giants game in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. We took him, Marilyn, RaNae, Brad and TJ with us and went up through Idaho, across Oregon to the coast, then down the coast to see the ballgame on July 2, and got back home on the evening of the 3rd of July. This was after he had had his strokes so he was in a wheelchair. The hardest part of the trip was that he never seemed to have to go to the bathroom when it was convenient, but most of the time he needed to go to the bathroom when we were out along the highway with nothing but the side of the road. Except for once, we stopped at a little park with a visitor center and rather than get the wheelchair off the top of the car, I ran to the visitor center to see if by chance they had one. She said, “No, but we have a hand truck,” so I ran back to the car with that and took him to the bathroom on a hand truck. But we got him there in time. We are so glad that we took him, even though it was a hard trip. We still all enjoyed it, and he really enjoyed the baseball game.
In 1972, when Brian was a year old, we took another trip with Mom and Pappy Todd. At the end of school we had let Lynette go to California (Travis AFB) with Don and Ann Hoyer for a couple of weeks. Then we left Brian with Don and Vannette and the rest of us went to pick her up in Pappy Todd’s Plymouth. After picking Lynette up there were 9 of us in the car. We went north from San Francisco up along the coast of Oregon and back through Idaho. It was a wonderful trip and everyone got along very well with no arguments or anything among the kids. We waded in the ocean even though it was really cold. We just rolled up our pant legs and with our coats on, we just waded right in. The motel in Eugene, Oregon, had a swimming pool, and the kids and I went swimming, while other people, including the caretakers, were sitting around the pool dressed in winter coats, even though it was June.
A fun vacation we took with just our kids was when Don Hoyer offered to watch the store for a couple of days and we went up to Cottonwood Lake in Star Valley. We had the whole campground to ourselves. It was so peaceful and we saw a lot of wildlife, including beaver in the lake and eagles soaring in the air.
NAME SOME GAMES YOU PLAYED WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD
One game we played was Kick the Can, where one person hides their eyes while everyone else runs and hides, then while the seeker searches, the hiders try to sneak in and kick the can before the seeker sees them and kicks the can.
In the winter we spent a lot of time playing chess and Monopoly. We also played different card games, such as Muggins, Go Fishing, Smut, Casino, Old Maid, and such. Later my brothers and brother-in-law taught me how to play poker, which really upset our dad.
We also played Anti I Over the pig pen and of course basketball, football, and some baseball, and flew some homemade kites in the spring. We also played Hang Man, Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Red Rover. Because we lived in the city we also went to the movies quite a bit, and in the summer we would go to Lorrin Farr Park and swim, until we could drive, and then we would go up to Pine View Reservoir and swim. And of course, I loved to make and shoot flippers.
WHAT DID YOUR GRANDPARENTS DO FOR A LIVING
They were all farmers, first in Perry, Utah, and then moved to the Georgetown, Idaho, area. My Grandfather Tippets got shot when my dad was small, and although he survived he was not able to do a lot of work after that, but the family farmed together and he was able to help some. In Idaho the squirrels were so thick and bothersome that they would have to poison them with strychnine and still they could not control them. I believe most men were all around repairmen in those days also and were able to do their own carpentering, mechanics, and blacksmithing.
My Great Grandmother, Alice Jeanette Tippets was a doctor, the only one in their community and surrounding area. She went to Salt Lake for 6 weeks training under Dr. Shipp, and she was able to do whatever needed to be done, from delivering babies to reattaching her grandson’s toe so that it grew back on and worked fine for the rest of his long life. She also ran a store in the front of her home.
However, I never did know any of my grandparents as they had all passed away by the time I was born, or as was the case with one, when I was about 2 years old.
MY SECRET FOR HAPPINESS
Well if I told you what my secret for happiness was it would not be a secret anymore, would it? So I will leave the secrecy part out and just tell you what my feelings are towards happiness. I do not think that happiness has much to do with wealth, social position, or good looks. To be happy I think you have to be trustworthy so that others can take you for what you are, say and do. For instance, if you tell someone you will do something or be someplace that should be the way it ends up. Like if you tell your bishop that you will get your home teaching done you will get it done and if you promise your kids to take them somewhere you should do it and this I believe is one of the most important things you can do to feel happy. Don’t just tell them yes because you believe that is what they want to hear. Another thing that makes me happy is to show my loyalty, not only to my family, church, and community, but to my country, and all good things. When I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, I mean every word of it.
To be happy I believe that you should be helpful to those who need help and encourage those who think they need help and act like they cannot help themselves. Help them to see that they can do things that they may not have thought they could do. I would like to be remembered as a person who did help others out, whether it was physical help, spiritual, or even financial help if possible, or someone that they could come and just talk to when that is what they need, like my wife, who is so compassionate toward anyone, including everyone.
I also believe it would make me happy to encourage others to do their best and not give up. I have seen some dads, instead of showing their kids how to do something, they did it for them. Sometimes it is better for us to fight our way through a big problem than it is to give in and let someone else do it. Like if I had wanted to, I could have gone on welfare instead of fighting my way through all those years of fighting city hall and others, trying to, and succeeding, in my business and supporting my family, and I am proud that we did that without begging for handouts.
It makes me happy to be called a friend. Like when I was living out in Kanesville I was asked to talk at a funeral for George Peterson, a 90 year old man whom we had befriended. On the funeral program it said, Wayne Tippets, a friend. Cliff Anderson, a neighbor here in Pleasant View, told us that we were their only friends and they loved us. When we went on our first mission, Cliff begged us not to go. He wanted us to stay here. He said, “I won’t be around when you get back.” We got home in February and he died in June and I had the opportunity to speak at his graveside service. They were good friends to us and we tried to be good friends to them. Another older couple we befriended were the Victors. They lived in Karol’s Mobile Estates and I was assigned to be one of their home teachers. Brother Victor hadn’t been to church for 57 years, but we worked with him and became his friend and eventually they were sealed in the temple. We were among the very few people invited to go with them to the temple. What a blessing and honor.
I have made it a habit to say, “Hi” to most everyone I come in contact with, whether I know who they are or not. I guess I just like people. I remember years ago we went to Indiana to visit Don and Ann Hoyer for a couple of days and we went to the Methodist Church with Don on Sunday and as I normally do, I went around shaking hands with everyone we met and Hoyer leaned over and whispered, “We don’t do that here,” but I kept on doing it anyway. I guess he forgave me.
I would like folks to think of me as being kind. Sometimes I have a tender heart but sometimes I seem to have a cold heart, especially to those who are abusive to others. I would also like to be remembered as being obedient, first to the Lord, then as a citizen in my country and community. Another thing that would make me happy would be for others to see me as being cheerful. President Hinckley said that it is good to be happy and cheerful and be able to laugh at ourselves and with others. Life is too short to let things be too serious. I was once told by a member of our mission presidency to never lose my sense of humor. It is so nice to see smiles on folk’s faces, although I cannot see if they are frowning or smiling. I think they are all happy. I guess that is one advantage of not being able to see their faces, then I don’t know what they are doing.
TELL OF YOUR TALENTS AND HOBBIES
I guess one of the talents that runs in the family is the ability to figure out a way that will make a job easier or better than ordinary. What I am thinking of mainly here is something like with my impaired vision, I had to improvise when sawing a board. I came up with a way to saw it straight by measuring and putting a nail in the board and then nail another board the distance from the edge of the skill saw to the cutting blade and run the edge of the saw along the board so that the blade cuts along where the imaginary line is, thus following with the edge of the saw and it usually comes out pretty close and straight. Also, to hammer nails, I put my finger on the head of the nail and with the other hand I bring the hammer down, moving my finger just in time so I don’t smash it with the hammer.
I have been told that people are my hobby. I love people and can strike up a conversation with strangers very easily. Also, I enjoy most sports, and I love to read. Of course, my reading is done by listening to recordings of books sent out to me from the Library for the Visually and Physically Handicapped. I especially enjoy biographies, autobiographies, Louis Lamour western novels and church books. I am so grateful that books are available for me to borrow and enjoy.
CHURCH CALLINGS I HAVE HAD
First of all I was blessed on September 7, 1930. I was baptized by Ronald F. Dransfield on July 26, 1938 and confirmed at the same time by Edmund G. Jenkins. I received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a deacon by Raymond Sanders and on August 10, 1947 I was ordained a priest by Fred M. Carroll. When I was a deacon our newly remodeled church, on about 17th and Kiesel, was dedicated by Apostle David O. McKay and I was the deacon assigned to pass the sacrament to him. I felt very privileged and honored.
On December 18, 1949, I received the Melchizedek Priesthood and was ordained an Elder by Thomas O. Smith. Elder S. Dilworth Young ordained me a Seventy on November 6, 1973, and Carl G. Fowers ordained me a High Priest on January 27, 1980, and at the same time set me apart as the High Priest Group Leader in the Kanesville 2nd Ward.
My very first calling in the Church was to be in the deacon’s presidency when I was 12 years old. Since then I have served as a Home Teacher constantly since age 14, Elders Quorum counselor, Elders Quorum President, Seventy as well as one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy in the Hooper Stake, Sunday School counselor twice, Sunday School President twice, Sunday School teacher for the Member Missionary class and the Gospel Essentials class, Scout Master, Cub Master, and Cub Chairman, High Priest Group Leader twice, Nursery Leader along with Barbara. I have served 5 Stake Missions, one with my wife. With my wife we served a full time mission in South Dakota, a full time service mission on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, and a part time service mission (one day a week for 6 years) at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. I have also served as the Ward Activities Committee Chairman for several years. I have had some wonderful experiences as I have served wherever I have been called.
Our first full time mission was to the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. We served on the Rosebud Indian Reservation as leadership missionaries from February of 1992 until February 1993. I was called to be the Elders Quorum Group Leader and Barbara was called to be the Relief Society President and asked to have Homemaking Night once a week because it was to bring women in. Consequently she was busy but I didn’t have much to do, making it a very hard mission for me. I felt that I was not doing what I was sent to do, as most of the pressure was on her. We did have other assignments also, such as trying to find people who had previously been baptized and were on the records, but their whereabouts were unknown. We would take the list with us and as we would meet people we would ask if they knew any of these people. There were several names on the list that we were told they had died a long time ago. A few had moved away and many of the names no one knew. There were a few that we did find and some of those started coming to church. One name on the list, Cedric (Iyotte) Jones, had moved to California but while we were there he moved back to St. Francis with his wife and step-daughter. Cedric and I became close and he came out to church quite a bit, but he was an alcoholic, as many of them are, and though he went through treatment several times he always returned to his alcohol and drugs. His wife eventually left him and returned to California. I asked him once about how much of his government allotment he spent on alcohol and he said, “At least half, and sometimes all of it.” At this time he was receiving $675 per month. He was also receiving commodities and would give us peanut butter because we were making a lot of peanut butter sandwiches to give to the Indians when they would come to the house asking for something to eat. I am certain that he and I knew each other in the pre-mortal life and we had a great “brother” relationship. He passed away after we had come home, but I am sure we will meet again in better circumstances. I was able to do his temple work.
Our second mission was to Salt Lake Temple Square from March 1995 to April 1996. This was a wonderful opportunity and experience. Besides giving tours we had many other assignments, including assisting in the Legacy Theater, welcoming people at the gates, picking up the mail and bringing it to the office, etc. Barbara and I also received the assignment to be in charge of and keep a good stock of supplies, like pens, paper, tape, markers, computer discs, or whatever was needed. We also received the appointments to have their child baptized in the baptistry in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. Barbara would call them as their date grew closer to confirm their information and give them an assignment for the service, such as baptism talk, prayer, etc. Then on the appointed night, Wednesday or Thursday, we were in charge of the services and I had the opportunity to conduct these services. Six children could be baptized at each service. This was a great experience, one we really enjoyed even when we had to stay late after our regular shift ended. I also enjoyed giving personal tours, and the young Sister Missionaries started calling me the Personal Tour King. I also served as District Leader over some of the Senior Couple Missionaries for several months. We were a new district and chose the name “Enoch’s Angels.”
While we served on Temple Square we had the opportunity to see some behind the scene places, like behind the Tabernacle organ, up in the roof of the Tabernacle, where we could see the rawhide strips that held the trusses together, along with the wooden pegs that were used as nails when the pioneers built the building. We could also see the horsehair that was put into the mortar to strengthen it. On our last day there we were taken clear to the top of the tower in the Assembly Hall. We had to have permission from security to be taken up there by one of the maintenance men. 132 steps up and the same coming back down, When we first arrived to serve on Temple Square, our Mission President, President Witt, took the four new couples to dinner in the temple and we ate in the dining room where the First Presidency and the Apostles eat. The last night we were there he took all the missionaries who were finished with their mission and were going home to dinner at the Inn At Temple Square. Nice, but the first one was more impressive.
Our next (and final) mission was at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. We served every Monday from February 4, 2002 until Feb. 25, 2008. We were there from noon until 5 p.m. doing tours or serving in one particular place for an hour at a time, such as the back of the auditorium, in the Art Gallery, or several other places. It was fun. When I turned 19, I talked to Bishop Sanders about going on a mission. I had saved my money so I could serve and support myself. He told me he had already contacted the authorities and they said because of my vision – or lack of vision – I would not be able to serve a mission at this time. We both shed tears and then he said, “Wayne, I promise you that you will serve a mission sometime in the future.” I certainly have and I have loved every one of them.
SPECIAL EXPERIENCES
A few years ago I was assigned, with my companion, Bob Carress, to go home teaching to a couple in the trailer park, Erland and Afton Victor. She was our ward organist but he had not been to church for 57 years, since he was 15 years old. The first time we went to their home he answered the door but when we told him we were the home teachers, he kind of grunted and disappeared into the other room. Soon she came to the door and invited us in and we had a nice visit with her. This was repeated each time we went there for the next few months. Then one evening in the summer when we arrived there, they were sitting out on the porch. Immediately Brother Victor got up and headed toward the door, but I had noticed something attached to the edge of his boat and I raised my voice and asked him what it was. He came back and explained to us that it was something he had made to hold his fishing pole, and how it worked. Then he sat down with us for our message. The next month and each month after that, he would be the one to invite us in and then he would stay for the message and visit. Then came the time when I asked if he wouldn’t like to have his wife with him forever, not just in this life. Of course he said he would. We explained that the first step would be for him to start attending church. The next Sunday I walked into our priesthood classroom and someone told me that Brother Victor was sitting on the back row. I broke all records in getting back there to welcome him there.
A few months later, during a PPI, I told the bishop that I felt Brother Victor was ready to be ordained to the office of an Elder. A couple of weeks passed and nothing had been done so I told the bishop that since this was a stake ordination that I would take it to the Stake President. The bishop called Brother Victor in that week for an interview and then recommended him to the Stake President, who approved the ordination. I had not been told when this would take place so the Sunday they planned to ordain Brother Victor I was out of town. The High Councilman was standing there waiting to perform this ordinance when Sister Victor spoke up and said, “We want Brother Tippets to do this. Can we wait till next week?” They did and I was very privileged to be able to ordain Brother Erlan Victor to the office of an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A few months later I received a 7:00 a.m. Monday phone call from Sister Victor. She said they had had their interview with the Stake President the night before and “I am standing here in my living room with a temple recommend in my hand.” She started to cry and so did I. I was his escort through the session and one of the witnesses for their sealing. While we waited in the Celestial Room to be called in for the sealing, two women came up and asked if I was Brother Tippets. When I said “yes”, they both hugged me and started to cry. They said they never dreamed that they would see the day they would be in the temple to be sealed to their parents. What a wonderful day and wonderful experience with two wonderful, special people.
About a year later, after Stake Conference where Brother Victor’s name was presented and approved for advancement to a High Priest, I again had the opportunity and privilege of ordaining him to that office.
I have always loved ice cream. When I had my five operations on my eyes and had to lay quietly with sandbags by the side of my head to keep it from moving, Bishop Sanders would visit me in the hospital and always would bring a quart of ice cream for me. Then after 3 weeks in the hospital, the ambulance would bring me home for another 3 weeks in bed, and I would have one of the kids, niece, nephew, or whoever was available, walk over to Paramount Dairy, about a block away, to get me ice cream.
After we were married, I would tell people that “We were in this really beautiful room and someone said, ‘Who likes ice cream?’” I said, “I do.” The man said, “I now pronounce you man and wife!”
One Sunday a lot of the family had gathered at Mildred’s and Lester’s and we had homemade ice cream. My brother-in-law, LeRoy Brown, brought me in a big bowl, heaped up and handed it to me. I said, “Wow! Thanks!” and took a big spoonful. It was mashed potatoes.
(Picture of Wayne with 3 gallon-sized buckets of ice cream in his arms) It was probably the first part of July 2011. One day he started to worry that he didn’t have enough ice cream. Telling him didn’t work so I had the girls bring it all in. He agreed that it should be enough “for now.”
TELL OF ONE OF YOUR UNCLES WHO HAS INFLUENCED YOU
Well, most of them have, but I think Uncle Dick McBride probably influenced me the most. He was Barbara’s uncle and the first time I met him was shortly after we got engaged and had just started to build our house. He was a building contractor and my brothers and I had the footings in, but then we needed help. Uncle Dick would come over after work every night and on weekends and would help sometimes until 11 o’clock at night. He would bring his own tools and sometimes even lumber or other things. We didn’t have the footings square and so he readjusted measurements and the house became 6 inches larger than originally planned because of it. He not only helped with the carpenter work, but also the wiring, plumbing, sheet rocking, and everything that it takes to build a house. The only pay he wanted was for us to take him and Mamie to supper up to Maddox. When we went he even picked up the tab and wouldn’t even let us pay for that. In later years, I tried to help him out as much as I could, but no matter how much I helped I could never repay him for all he did for us.
In later years he had several surgeries for cancer and life kind of went downhill from there. They adopted two children, Gary when he was eight, and Rex as a baby. Mamie had open heart surgery when Rex was about 3 years old, and she died on the operating table. Gary went to live with some other people, but Uncle Dick raised Rex by himself. Later when his cancer returned and he couldn’t work for quite a while, we helped keep him in groceries and gasoline. We were grateful to be able to finally do something to help him.
He was a great Scoutmaster for years and taught his scouts many things about life, not just scouting. He even came up to our camp one night when I was Scoutmaster and taught my boys about scouting and nature.
MY OCCUPATIONS
When the family first moved from Idaho to the Ogden, Utah, area, Pappy and the kids got a job picking fruit for Campbell’s and Story’s out in North Ogden. They picked cherries, apricots, peaches, and apples. When I was 5 or 6 years old, Pappy asked the farmers if the family could have what I could pick up off the ground. They agreed and we took them home so Mom could bottle them. As I got older I was able to pick and get paid like the others.
We also picked for H. A. McFarland in Ogden, who would later be the principal of Mound Fort Junior High where I was a student. I would pick fruit all summer and save the money until time for school to start. That money bought my clothes and got me through each year of school. I picked fruit until I lost my vision when I was 16. Since I couldn’t see the fruit on the branches, obviously I had to quit. When I was in my early teens we also topped onions for a Greek farmer in Riverdale for a couple of years.
UIC RAILROAD (UTAH-IDAHO RAILROAD)
After I lost my vision when I was 16, Bill Poole, who was in my ward and worked for the UIC Railroad, hired me to load coal and sand onto the train. The coal, of course, kept the fire going to create steam to run the train. The sand was used in the winter and was put on the tracks just ahead of the wheels to give traction. The sand was in a contraption just in front of the wheels and would drop onto the tracks just ahead of the wheels. I even got to “drive” the train for one trip from Ogden to Preston, Idaho.
UTAH GENERAL DEPOT
I was hired on as a laborer when I was 17 years old. Legally I had to be 18 so I lied about my birth year. I was paid 91 cents per hour. A year later I applied for a different position and had to fill out another paper but by then I was legally old enough so I put the right year on the form. I was called in to settle the discrepancy and one of the personnel wanted to fire me for lying, but the Lieutenant in charge said, “He is old enough now. That’s all I care,” and I was kept on as a processor-packer and was paid 94 cents per hour. Later I got a raise to 99 cents and then to $1.25 per hour before I was caught in a reduction in force and received a medical discharge in January 1958. This came at a time when we were expecting our third baby. Our retirement was $130 per month. I had worked there for 10 years.
After I retired from the government I worked at several different places. One job was making wooden boxes. I also worked for Alan Jackson, the contractor that Uncle Dick worked for. I just did odd jobs around the construction site. But soon each boss would worry about the liability and say they couldn’t keep me on.
Finally I got a license to sell door to door. I would buy brooms, brushes, door mats and other things made by the blind at the workshop in Salt Lake City. Later I added Fuller Brush line to my list and then other items as I felt that I could sell. Even Knapp Shoes for a while. I would just load products into the car, load up the kids and Barbara would drive along the street as I would go door to door. Sometimes we could get someone else to drive me. Barbara’s sister, Jeanie, my nephew, Theron Haddon, my brother-in-law Les Gomm, my niece LaRay Basset and others.
When we were expecting our 4th baby I knew we had to do something else. That is when my plans to open a store began and Wayne’s Country Variety eventually was opened.
PLUSES AND MINUSES OF HOW, WHEN AND WHY I OPENED UP WAYNE’S COUNTRY VARIETY STORE
Due to a Reduction In Force at Utah General Depot in 1957, I found myself without work and a way to support my growing family. We were expecting our third child at this time. I had received several RIF letters and had been able to move down the ladder and keep my job, but now I was at the bottom of the ladder with nowhere to go but out the gate. I had tried to transfer to Hill Air Force Base and had gone on several interviews but they always told me that because of my limited vision I could not do the work. My boss offered me a Medical Retirement opportunity and now I gladly accepted it. One hundred thirty one dollars a month was a lot better than nothing. So after 10 years of working there I was let go.
I was also selling cars on the side with my brother, Joe, and a short time previous to this I had purchased a new 1957 Chevrolet for a customer and then he changed his mind and did not take the car, so we had decided to keep it for ourselves. We had made three payments on it but still owed $1900. Luckily we had financed it thought the Federal Employees Credit Union and our contract had a clause that said if I died or received a medical retirement the loan would be paid off. Which it was. Soon I was offered $1900 and a 1951 Buick for it and much to my wife’s disappointment, I sold the car. I felt that we needed the money right then more than we needed that car.
I continued to search for work and even was accepted by two or three companies, but as soon as they would find out about my low vision, they would say that they could not use me. Finally I went to the Workshop for the Blind in Salt Lake City and asked if I could sell the brooms, brushes and other things that they made there. There was another blind man in Ogden that was selling their products, Arnold Carlson, but they told me I could sell anywhere except Ogden City, so I purchased some items and went to work. Each morning we would load the car with our products and kids and choose an area to work that day. It might be Roy, or up in the Valley, or anywhere else, even Brigham City. We did this winter and summer and didn’t do too bad, but when we were expecting our fourth baby I knew we had to do something else. I had gotten to the place where I would buy 10 dozen brooms at a time, but quite often when we would get to Salt Lake City to get some more supplies they would say that I could not have that many because the Lion’s Clubs had first priority and they needed to have enough for them. This made me have to make the trip to Salt Lake City more often, cutting down on the time I could be out selling as well as adding to the expense.
I was still trying to find a different job and finally Rehabilitation offered me a stand in the basement of the City and County Building in Ogden. It was a small stand that sold candy bars, Twinkies, cigarettes, etc. If they would have moved me upstairs, which was the jail, I would not have been more confined. The stand was at most eight feet long and four feet wide. I met a lot of fine folks but I only lasted there about three months. It was too confining as well as the fact that I couldn’t build up the business more than $100 per month and that just was not enough to support my family. So I gave it to a fine man, Conrad Salveson. One interesting note is that many years later, after I had closed Wayne’s Country Variety, and stands had changed to vending machines mostly, I asked the people from Rehab if I could take one of them and they told me no because I didn’t have enough experience. Politics!
Now back to selling brooms. Once in a while I could find someone else to drive for me, like one of my nieces or nephews that had a driver’s license. Barbara’s sister Jeanie even drove me sometimes one summer. But for the most part we would just load the kids in with us and go. Usually one of the kids would walk along with me and when I sold something they would run back to the car and bring me a replacement. I really did not mind selling, but in the summer it could get pretty hot and in the winter pretty cold, not just for me but for those in the car also. But we survived. It helped not to have a house payment or rent to pay.
Most of the people were very kind and supportive. Sometimes they would take hold of my arm and help me down the steps or something. I didn’t like that but I knew they were just trying to help me so I would grit my teeth and thank them. Sometimes I even had humorous things happen. One humorous thing happened one day when I was selling out in Clinton. One gal was out working in her front yard dressed in short shorts and a halter top. She said she didn’t need anything. Then my tongue got twisted and I said “you’re pretty well stacked huh?” I had meant “stocked”. I would have been okay but she started to laugh and so did I. She ended up buying a few things from me and even gave me an order to deliver a couple of weeks later. Another funny experience happened when I was selling in Clearfield one day. It had taken a couple of minutes for the lady to answer the door and when she did she was dressed in a bathrobe and said she had been in the tub. I told her I was selling items from the Workshop for the Blind. She said she needed a broom and as she reached for it she let go of her robe. She didn’t have anything on underneath it. I guess she thought I was totally blind.
When I started selling brooms in 1957 I paid the workshop $1.45 for a six-tie broom and I sold them for $1.95 each. Several years later we needed some extra cash at one point so I bought some brooms and went out to sell them again. This time I paid $5.00 and sold them for $7.50, a better profit but times have changed and people just don’t use that kind of broom much anymore. But selling brooms served its purpose for us when we really needed it.
We sold brooms for over three years and then decided we had to do something else to make a living, so we decided to build a double car garage by the side of the house and open a convenience store. I thought if it didn’t work out at least we could use the garage. This we did and called it Wayne’s Country Variety and opened for business on August 20, 1960 when Lynette was just a few days old. We didn’t have money to stock the store so we would go out and sell brooms in the morning then use what we had made to go to the Cash and Carry Wholesale and buy a half case of an item or two and go home and open the store around 3:00 p.m. and be open until 10:00 p.m. We had bought an old fridge from Barbara’s grandmother for $25 which we used for the dairy products and we used our old card table for bread, etc. from Wonder Bread Bakery. This way of opening a business would not work today, but it did for us at that time and the neighbors were so good to give us a chance. They would tell us some things they used and that is what we would buy for stock.
When I first opened the store in August of 1960 I had two reliable customers, June Beeton and Margie Christensen. They would come in and buy what they could from me and then go to the supermarket and buy the rest of what they needed. I give these two ladies a lot of credit for helping me get started and for supporting me. It was good when we finally were able to stop selling brooms and things from the car and open the store from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. and even later than that if someone needed anything, like ice cream at midnight for a party a customer was having, or gasoline for someone who had run out of gas in the middle of the night.
In the beginning, I sold the large loaves of bread for 12 cents and the small loaves for 7 cents. Milk was $1.10 a gallon and when I put in gas pumps in 1968 I paid 20.9 cents per gallon and sold it for 24.9. at my peak I paid $1.25 and sold it for $1.30. We bought most of the eggs we sold from a couple of different farmers who would take it out in trade, which helped us both. We would have to wash the eggs and sometimes even clean them lightly with sandpaper before we could sell them.
As business got better I built a gondola and put groceries on it. As it filled up with groceries I would build another one. Eventually, I bought some used shelving that I used, and whenever I would hear of a store that was upgrading their own shelving I would buy their old and upgrade my own. At different times I bought used shelving from Hull’s Store in Hooper, Smith’s Store in Roy and finally some nice metal shelves from K-Mart in Ogden. We purchased a nice glass case from the Workshop for the Blind. It had a light in it and a couple of glass shelves above the bottom shelf and we used it to display candy, much of which sold for a penny.
Once we decided it was going to be successful, we replaced the overhead garage door with a window and the wooden entry door with a glass storefront door, used of course, from a paint store that was remodeling. We purchased a used dairy case and a pop cooler from a store that was closing in Syracuse. We purchased some used carpeting from Weber State College. As we could afford it we would buy better adding machines, coolers, or whatever we felt would make an improvement. We even bought an intercom system that connected the house and the store. That saved us all a lot of steps and time.
As time went on and business picked up, we would need more space, and so we would add on to the size of the store. Except for laying the block walls and the cement floors I did my own carpentry work. It may not be perfect but it is still standing. Our first addition to the building was another room onto the south end or back of the original. We doubled our space. Now it is 24 feet by 48 feet. I think it was about 1970 that I tore out the wall in the middle of these two rooms and put in more shelves and also put pegboard around on the outside walls. At this time the state helped me purchase the wood for the shelves and also bought me a new cash register. They also gave me $500 worth of groceries to help stock the shelves. This really helped and probably moved us ahead by five years. I appreciated the help. They also bought some new readouts for the gas pumps because our old one would not register the price over 99 cents per gallon. Then I put in some automatic readouts that could be read from inside the store. This saved me a lot of time and especially money, because I caught some people that would put in some gas, then reset the pump and finish filling the tank, but only tell me about the last part. The new readouts prevented them from resetting the pump. Now it had to be reset from inside. We did have a few customers who took advantage of the fact that I could not see very well, but for the most part we had wonderful customers who were helpful as well as honest and I loved and enjoyed them. And the same goes for the salesmen. In fact, it was one of our bread delivery men that helped to teach some of our kids how to count back change.
We got our groceries from Cash and Carry in Ogden until about 1975 and then we ordered from Associated Grocers in Salt Lake and they would deliver them to our store in a Semi. That was in addition to the bread, dairy, pop, chips and a few other local deliveries.
This was when pop came in bottles instead of cans and every night the returned bottles had to be separated by companies. That was one of the first jobs our kids learned to do. They had to learn which bottles belonged to the Coca Cola Company, Pepsi Company, Bee Hive Bottling Company, Dr. Pepper and others. They learned fast and did a good job. The kids also would fill the pop cooler at night at a pretty young age. This really helped me, but it also helped them. Our kids learned responsibility as well as how to work. Their bosses today tell us that they are good workers.
When I decided that I could sell a lot of gas I went into the County and put in an application to put in gas pumps. They accepted the application, but then came, what to me, was a conspiracy to put me out of business. Soon five members of the planning commission pulled into the yard one day, sat there for a couple of minutes and then left without even getting out of the car. I went to their meeting the next week and they told me they needed more time to think about it. When I went back to their next meeting they gave me another paper to fill out and get signatures of property owners whose property joined my own, and also the names of property owners within a thousand feet of my property. I got the signatures of Lester Gomm and Joe Tippets as the only property owners that joined my property, and I wrote down the names of the others and turned it all into the commissioners. They said their next meeting was in two weeks and they would let me know their decision then. They sent me a letter advising me to be at the meeting at 4 p.m. but when I arrived there a few minutes early I was told that they had already voted and had turned down my petition. I asked the zoning commissioner, Graham Sherra, why I had been turned down and he said it was because I had forged Bill Hodson’s signature. I told him that I did not need Bill’s signature, only his name as his property did not adjoin mine. I asked him if he would please get the papers out and let’s look at them. He shut his book, put his hand on top of it and said it had been turned down and there was nothing I could do about it. One of the other commissioners said “Mr. Tippets, you do have an out, because the decision was not unanimous. One of us voted for you.” Commissioner Carver said that they did not want to set a precedence of letting stores spring up wherever they wanted to. My answer was that my store had been there for ten years and will be there for many more years. It was my only source of income and I did not figure on going broke. Then Commissioner Murice Richards stated that it was not a store that they would allow on Washington Blvd. I said that it was not on Washington Blvd., it was just a small country store that I ran with the help of my family and that the customers didn’t seem to mind. Bud Favero added that it was a hazard to pull out on the road from it, that I only had one driveway. I said “How many driveways do I need? I already have two.” Commissioner Bud Favero, who lived a couple of miles west of us said that he would stop into the store on Friday and talk to me, that they would discuss it and have their decision made by then. This was on July 5. I waited until August 15 and still had not heard any more from them so I called Lloyd Berret and asked him to come and install the pumps. I had Wayne Reese dig the hold for three two thousand gallon tanks. After the tanks were in the hole Les Gomm brought his tractor up and pushed the dirt back into the hole. Because the water table there is so high the tanks were in water and as he pushed the mud back into the hole it raised the tanks right out of the hole. I had the gas delivered and filled the tanks full, then tried pushing the mud in again. Again it pushed the tanks up out of the hole. Once again we dug the mud out and my brother Joe delivered a load of gravel and dumped in the hold before pushing the mud back on top of that, and this time the tanks stayed down. It is higher in that spot than the rest of the property, but that is okay.
While we were working on the installation, the county building inspector, Al Coveo, drove into the yard and really let me have it. He came into the store where I was waiting on customers, walked in front of the customer at the counter and said “What is going on out in that yard?” I said I was installing gas pumps and would be selling gas in a few days. He started yelling and swearing and taking the Lord’s name in vain and said that I was breaking the law and he wanted me to take them out right now or I would be dealt with. I said “Mr. Coveo, Bud Favero told me six weeks ago that he would be here on the 5th of July to let me know what they decided. He never did come so I assumed that no news was good news and went ahead with the work.” He said “Don’t you dare bring up Bud in this situation you ‘blanket blank blank’---.” At this time I went around the counter, in front of my customers, and asked him to please leave my store. He said “Not until you let me know that you will get rid of those pumps.” I grabbed him by his shirt and firmly escorted him from the store and said “I will not have you using that kind of language in my store or in front of my customers.” As he climbed into his car he yelled “Tippets, you are going to find out that the laws in this county have teeth in them.” I yelled back, “Coveo, you’re going to find out that I am an American citizen.”
In January the sheriff drove into my yard and handed me a summons to appear in court for trial in two weeks. I was very nervous but when they called me up to the stand I told them that I did not have a lawyer and I could not afford one. They said they would furnish me with a lawyer. When I went to his office in the Eccles Building he was drunk, but I told him my story and he said he would try. They set another court date and he told me I did not have to show up. That he would take care of it. I did not feel comfortable with that so I asked Mildred to go in to see what was going on. She said that when they called my name no one came forward. So I called the court and asked for another trial. In the meantime I talked to Roland Hadley about it and he suggested I call Richard Richards, a lawyer he knew. We went in and told him what was going on and he said he would take the case and that he would do it free of charge. Two weeks later we went to court again. Before the trial started Richard Richards met with the county attorney and Al Coveo outside of the courtroom for about 15 minutes. When the bailiff called me to stand the County Attorney got up and told the judge that they had decided not to have a trial and to let Mr. Tippets have his gas pumps. The judge said that this was a serious misdemeanor against Mr. Tippets and that he was willing to hear the case, but the attorney said he was sure this judge would find me guilty but that we would take it to the state and the county would lose down there. And so my case was dismissed. It was a very nerve wracking time for us all, but I believe in working for whatever it is you feel is right.
Eventually I was able to get my property rezoned to commercial and expanded my business instead of being on welfare like many handicapped people.
A couple of years later I added two more gas tanks, bringing my capacity to 10,100 gallons. But this time we knew how to put the tanks in the ground and keep them down.
Then there was the State and County Health Departments. Some of them would come out every month to inspect my place. They would park their car right in front of the door where the customers would have to go around it to get into the store, then come in with their white gowns on and their flash lights and inspect every nook and cranny. I asked them if they couldn’t please park over on the side of the lot and amazingly they did. Usually there was only one person but sometimes two people would come together. They would spend about an hour, then leave me with a report of what was wrong and what I had to do about it. One month one inspector said I had to put contact paper on all of my wooden, painted shelves. I did. The next month a different inspector came and said I had to take the contact paper off and paint all the shelves. It seemed as though they each had their own set of rules and just made them up as they went along. I said that I had just put the contact paper on and was not going to take it off already. He said I had to. As it turned out I found some nice metal stands and shelves that had just been removed from another store. I bought them and replaced the wooden ones. That solved that controversy.
I used to sell a lot of penny candy, which I had displayed in a glass case. The inspector said that I had to wear rubber gloves to count out the candy. Then he added that I would have to use a new pair of gloves after each customer’s purchase of candy. It wasn’t long before I stopped selling penny candy. Now I don’t think there is such a thing available, but kids have more money to spend now than they did back then.
One inspector wrote me up for having cases of groceries stacked on the floor instead of on the shelves. I told him I had just got an order in and I was working as fast as I could to get them out of the cases, mark the price, and get them on the shelves. He said I could only bring one case up front at a time and when that one was priced and on the shelf, then I could bring one more case out. I don’t know where they got their training, but I could not see what harm was caused by setting a case of canned goods, or such, on the floor for a few minutes. Just one more dumb thing they did to harass me. Then one day one of the big shots from the Health Dept. a Mr. Swartz, came out with papers in hand, ready to close me down. After inspecting the store he said that he couldn’t see anything that would cause him to shut me down. Someone had told him that it was terrible and should be closed, but he said, “I have been given false information.” I asked him who had reported this, but of course, he wouldn’t tell me.
Another time one told me that the milk cooler had to be cleaned. I asked him to show me where it was bad. There was dust in the fan in the back. He was right. I removed the cover from over the fan and cleaned it.
One time they came in and saw that I had some garden seed left over from the year before. He told me that I could not sell it. It may not germinate. He did say that I could send one package of each kind in and have them checked. It would cost me $3 per package for testing. I asked him what Porter-Walton would do with the seed if I sent them back and he said they would repackage them and send them back out for sale. That didn’t seem right to me, so I taped a package of seed to each bottle of milk and gave them away, and they couldn’t do anything about it.
Welfare recipients or low income families could get food stamps to help with their grocery purchases, but there was some items that were ineligible for food stamp purchases. One day a man from the Food and Drug Department came out to check us on this. At the time he came Lynette was waiting on customers. She was probably about 12 years old at the time. He watched her for a few minutes. After the customer left he told me that she couldn’t wait on customers anymore because she was too little to know what items could and could not be purchased with food stamps. I told him to test her, so he got a basket and put 20 or 30 items in it, some that could, and some that could not be purchased with the stamps, then brought it up for her to “check him out”. For instance, they could not be used to pay for corned beef because it is not canned in the United States, and of course, they could not be used for cigarettes or other not-food items. She did a perfect job and he said he guessed she could do it. The other kids could have done it just as well as she did, but she just happened to be the one working when he came in that day.
I asked one inspector once if they spent as much time inspecting the supermarkets as they spend inspecting my little store, and he said no, they didn’t have time for that. These are just a few of the problems that I had but we overcame whatever tried to stop us and we were in business for 35 years before we closed the store up to go on our first mission.
REAL ESTATE
Sometime in 1988 I decided I wanted to get my license to sell Real Estate. I started inquiring about what I would have to do to get it. I went to Salt Lake City to the State Real Estate Board.
The only thing they could say was all negative. They said there was no way that a blind person would be able to take and pass the tests and do the work. I asked her if she was telling me that I couldn’t try. She said no she couldn’t say that but I would just be wasting my money.
I signed up for the class, paid my money and began. I really studied hard. There was a lot of words and phrases that I had to know the meaning of. Soon Arnold Stringham, the teacher said he just didn’t know how to teach me. I told him to just out loud whatever he wrote on the board. A short time later I told him I was going to quit. It was his turn to say “No you’re not. I want to shake the hand of the first blind Real Estate Agent in the state.” So I continued on. I took the test at the University of Utah the same as everyone else but I was in a room with a reader, the only two people in the whole room. The test was in two parts, National and State. I passed the National but had to repeat the Utah State part. I passed it on the second try, received my license in March of 1989 and started working at ERA Webber Real Estate in Ogden.
The first year I sold just enough to pay for the classes and my license, but the second year I made $17,000, more money than I had ever had in a year. Of course I had to have Barbara with me to do the driving and do the paper work. She did not enjoy doing this but I really enjoyed it. We took time out for our mission and a short time after we came back and started selling again. Pappy Todd had some problems from his stroke and he came to live with us again for a while. Barbara couldn’t help me and him so we were not doing much with Real Estate. Dave Webber told me that they needed my desk for someone that would work and make money. We transferred our license to Golden Spike out in Sunset. We worked for a while with them but Barbara was hating it more and more so I quit the business.
HISTORY OF WAYNE TIPPETS By Wayne Tippets
This bit of probably worthless reminiscing was started one June 30, 1991 just as the LDS Tabernacle Choir started their broadcast of their Sunday morning program from a town in Russia.
MOST MEMORABLE CASTLE ON EARTH
The day we moved to this home at 360 18th Street as I remember was a warm day, May 19th. Evidently our Mom and Dad had made the deal on the house before we had seen it. It seems like we gave $1200.00 for it, which at this time was a very lot of money. It was incomprehensible to me that there was that much money in the world, for at this time I could not recall having anything bigger than one thin dime in hand at a time.
I recall walking in the house for the first time with my older brother, Thad. We walked into a very large front room with these very high ceilings. Next we walked into the dining room, which was equally as large, then into the kitchen, about the same size. Although in this was an old wood burning stove, which I am sure had cooked many a fine meal for numerous folks.
In the opposite corner was this great big sink, about large enough to sit in and bath. There was not much cupboard space and it was not adequate, for Pappy soon built in new ones. I remember looking up at the ceiling and noticing two small windows right next to the ceiling, to let more sunlight in, I suppose. We later found that we could climb on the lower roof of the house and look in on whatever was going on in the kitchen, probably to make sure dishes were done before we came down.
Walking back into the dining room we found two doors. One was to what we found out they called a pantry and it was large with shelves going from the floor up to the ceiling all the way around, and on one end was a window which I figured went to nowhere. We later found out that by climbing up the shelves, it would open and we could climb from the pantry into what we used as a clothes closet. But on the closet side, there were no shelves to climb down from so we had to let ourselves down as far as our arms could reach, then drop down to the floor.
The other door in the dining room led into this clothes closet and it also had two doors. From the one, we cautiously walked into a large room which I decided was a bedroom for it had a great big clothes closet which I believe reached up to the ceiling with just enough room on top to store a few things that never got used much. The other door in the closet opened up and all we could see were a few stairs that led into utter darkness and we were not about to venture down them stairs right then, but later found that it was a small cellar with a few shelves and these were full of dozens and dozens of bottles of fruit and jam that previous owners had left there. Some bottles were very, very old, for they had domed glass lids with metal rings on top to serve as a pressure seal. I remember tasting some of the preserves later and they were very, very tasty.
This cellar was later enlarged by us shoveling by hand the sand and dirt out of a small hole on the east side of the house until we had an area I would guess to be fifteen by twenty feet in size.
In the next door behind this master bedroom was another bedroom. Like the rest of the house, it was high-ceilinged with a light hanging down from the ceiling.
These two rooms were used at first by my brother, Ray, and his wife to live in. it seems like they stayed there for maybe a year or two. I am sure they never had a place to stay, so Ma and Pa let them use these rooms to help them out. I remember they had a stove in the back room, but I cannot recall a sink or anything else in there.
Outside the door on the north of this room was a back porch which had two rooms in it. one we used as a wash room and the other for everything from storage to bedrooms, and at one time as living quarters for Mildred when she moved in with us for a little while.
We walked into another door from the porch and it led to a flight of stairs, which seemed to me that they went clear half way to the moon. Later, us boys found that we could take two steps and go from the top to the bottom.
On top of the stairs there was a whole bunch of more doors. The one on the left had already been spoken by Gene for his and Thad’s room, and the one on the south was Nellie and LaRue’s room. The one on the west had this old, old bath tub on long legs and in this room, Joe and John slept. Then, on the North was the larger of all the rooms and this is where, while Ray and Edna were living downstairs, Ma and Pa slept, along with myself and Lew. There were two large beds in this room with about two feet between them.
There were two other doors, one on each side of the stairway. These were both, I guess, attic spaces although guests and boarders were to sleep in them, for they were that big, although the ceiling tapered down, so it never had much head room.
Out of both of these small rooms were a window just large enough for us to crawl out through and get out on a roof, for the rooms were on the back of the house with a roof fit between them. The first day we were there, Thad and myself got up on this roof and decided it would be fun to jump down to the ground below. Of course, Thad had to go first and after he jumped, he told me before I jumped, that it was not as much fun as we thought, and he said to me that I had better not jump. I would have done and maybe would have hurt myself, for it was not a week or so later that my little brother, Lew, either fell or jumped and broke his arm. Although, later we did jump off it lots of times.
The house only had one source of heat other than the wood burning cook stove in the kitchen and it was an old Heatrola in the front room which burned most of the time coal, but it did a good job. The bedrooms downstairs or upstairs never had any heat that I can remember other than small transoms in the wall next to the ceiling where hot air could get from one room to another.
Bedrooms upstairs never had any heat except for in the room with the bath tub was a transom in the floor coming from the dining room where, if opened up, it would heat that room very good but we were not allowed to use it except when we snuck it open, for most of the heat would come right up there and would rob downstairs. But it made it handy to holler from upstairs to downstairs when we needed to communicate, and which later when I had operations on my eyes, that is where I hung a cow bell with a string running into the back bedroom where I had to lay after each operation for three weeks flat on my back. I could pull on it and let Ma or whoever was there know I needed something.
It was very cold to sleep upstairs on very cold nights. There is only one night, though, that I got so cold that I had to do something, and not having any more quilts that were not being used, I got so cold that I finally found a board about two by three feet that I put on top of me and you know that kept me warm and I could go to sleep the rest of the night. It was the same board that was used later for a foundation for our punching bag that we had set up down in the cellar. I know that if I had let my Mom know that I was that cold, she would have felt real bad and would have taken one of her quilts off her own bed. But I survived and things like this made us tougher. And in all those years, I cannot recall any of my brothers complaining about being cold, so we all must have just learned to get along with what we had.
I forgot to tell about the glass in all the windows and doors downstairs. They had the prettiest colored stained glass that has ever been done and although a few of them were sort of broken by a stray rock or ball, most of them are still intact today thanks to Reed and Ruby and their care.
The house had a very steep roof, but I recall climbing up and down every inch of roof. You could not go up without climbing up against the edge of shingles, and while holding on to outside edge of the roof, work yourself up the slope. If one of the shingles had come loose or we had happened to slip down the roof, we would have dropped I would guess about twenty feet to the cement below. And I will guarantee there was not one edge of that roof that I had not tried. Looking back, it was dumb, dumb, dumb. And if any of my kids had tried that I would have murdered them or something.
After I got married, I remember John re-shingling it and I don’t know how he did it. I don’t think he would try it now.
Out in back were two large barns, both full of stuff that was left there by previous owners. The one on the west was at one time partitioned off for a manger, I am sure for milking cows. The other was a work shop and it was our toilet which we used until Pappy got one put in the house, which was probably a couple of years later. He put it in the room joining onto the kitchen and in the other end was where we kept our coal and wood. On top of it was just stuff.
(Written by Wayne’s wife, Barbara)
On this 23rd day of November, 2011, I want to attempt to write the last chapter of the mortal life of Wayne Tippets. He had physical limitations but refused to let them control his life or limit his goals and activities as far as he possibly could control, which was most things.
He has shared in his own words many of his activities and feelings. Without detracting from what he has shared, I pray that I can share my own observations and feelings.
First I will share just one experience that impressed me as to his determination to fulfill his responsibilities. When he served as Elders Quorum President in the Kanesville 2nd Ward in the 1970’s (I think), our stake had a dairy farm which included raising hay to feed the cows. The Elders of each ward had the assignment to irrigate the fields. When it was our turn to irrigate he said, “I can’t ask anyone else to do what I won’t do.” So I took him down to the farm and left him. To irrigate, they would flood the field. Of course he couldn’t see where the water had reached so he took off his shoes and socks and walked down through the field barefoot so he could tell where the water was. I can’t even imagine walking barefoot through the stubbles of a hay field but he was willing to do whatever it took to fulfill his assignment. That was the way he lived his life. Plus he worked very hard to provide for our family, and he did a good job. We weren’t rich as to the things of the world but we had what we needed and were very comfortable.
In 1981 he decided we needed to move. I had always lived in Kanesville, and it took me a long time to adjust, but we moved to Pleasant View on March 1, 1982, and we have loved living in Pleasant View as much as we loved Kanesville. In 2002, Terry and Lynette bought our home in Kanesville and that helped.
In 2003, as we were serving a mission in the Conference Center and Wayne was a volunteer at the Hill Aerospace Museum, I noticed his right hand was getting pretty shaky. He was also shuffling his feet as he walked, but he refused to go to a doctor until a guest at the museum asked him how long he had had Parkinson’s Disease. When he got home he asked me to make an appointment with a doctor, and on April 25th, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. There is no cure but they prescribed some pills and they really helped the shakiness. He did really well for quite a while.
We ended our mission in February 2008. I could see that the disease was progressing and I knew it was time to quit. It slowly progressed to where it was getting harder for him to walk. He had his left knee replaced on February 25, 2002, but now the right one was bad. It was replaced September 29, 2008. It was harder to recover this time because of the Parkinson’s and we got a walker, one with a seat on it. For the most part he used it from then on because without it he would fall. Eventually sometimes he would fall even with the walker.
We decided to take a short trip before things got worse, so in March 2009 we drove up to the new Twin Falls Idaho temple, attended one session, got a motel for the night and came home the next day. Everything went well and we enjoyed ourselves. Then in September, again he wanted to “go somewhere” so we went up to Star Valley, Wyoming. Then we decided to go on to Yellowstone. We spent the night in Jackson Hole and went on to Yellowstone the next day. We hadn’t been there for several years. We just chose places to stop that had pretty easy access and we did fine. It was so good to do something different and to relax a little. And we made some good memories.
In 2010, Wayne started developing Parkinson’s Dementia. At first it wasn’t too bad, and would come and go. As it progressed, it started affecting his speech so that it was hard, and sometimes impossible, to understand him.
In February 2010 we got a wheelchair. He did not want to use it but soon realized that it was much easier for both of us. Of course, around the house he still used his walker and we still walked out on the street every day. Some days we didn’t walk as far as other days and sometimes before we could get back home, he would get tired, sit on the seat, and I would push him the rest of the way. It just depended on how he was feeling and doing that particular day.
Wayne was proud when Terry was called to be a Bishop. Wayne was able to stand in the circle as Terry was ordained and set apart. He stood next to President Charlesworth, who later told Terry what a privilege it was to stand next to Wayne and that he could feel the Spirit coming from Wayne.
It was so hard for Wayne emotionally when Thad was put into a nursing home, but I would take him to visit Thad. Even though they didn’t talk much he was anxious to go see him. We did that until it got harder for me to take Wayne, and Thad no longer recognized us. It was also hard for him to accept the death of several of his family members in the past several months. His brother, Joe, passed away November 25, 2009, then his nephew, Kenneth Gomm, May 18, 2010, and his brother, Lewis, on November 24. It continued on in 2011 when his sister-in-law, Beverly Tippets died January 3, and then his niece, Theda Bassett, on July 3. When Wayne passed away on September 9th, it left Thad as the only sibling still living. Thad passed away on October 6, 2011. Now Grandma and Grandpa have all 13 of their children back together.
But to go back to Wayne’s story. It got to the point that I didn’t dare leave him alone and it was hard and tiring for both of us to take him if I had to run errands or something, so the kids would come and stay if I had to leave. And then one morning as I was helping him out of the shower, he was actually out of the shower and he fell backwards into the tub. I don’t know how he avoided getting really hurt with any of his falls because some of them were hard falls. This particular fall into the tub, he barely missed hitting the faucet. That day I called Weber County to see if there was a program that provided help for me to take care of him. They started sending someone to help him shower and then someone to just stay with him on Fridays for 2 hours so that I could attend a caregiver class. That was great and I really learned a lot of things that helped me care for him better and in an easier way. This started on March 18, 2011. About this same time, our kids got together and assigned themselves each one night a week that they would come and help do whatever needed done. That helped immensely and we enjoyed their visits while they were here. Also. My sister Jeanie was also a great help and support at this time, spending many hours here with us. Some ward members also helped by bringing in a pot of soup, etc. as the disease was progressing more rapidly.
Finally Dr. Van Christiansen said it was time to call Hospice in to help. I resisted at first because I thought that meant that death was very near and I thought we were doing ok. But when he said ‘NOW’ I decided I had better do it. I checked out 2 or 3 companies and on June 10, Hearts for Hospice came and signed us up for their services. What a wonderful blessing they were. Crystal was the CAN that would come and give Wayne his shower, help him dress, etc., and get him in his chair in the living room. She was wonderful. So sweet and gentle and she would kid with him, which helped him relax, and we all loved her. Elaine was the RN who would come a couple of times a week unless she was needed more often. Jan was the Social Worker and Carla was the Spiritual Leader/Chaplain of the group.
And then there was Camille Savage, another sweetheart. Camille was a music therapist. She came once a week and played her guitar or our piano and sang. At first Wayne would sing the songs right along with her. He really enjoyed it, as we all did. She would sing the old songs that Wayne knew and loved. Songs like ‘You Are My Sunshine’, ‘Red River Valley’, ‘Home on the Range’, ‘God Bless America’ (he would really book out that phrase), ‘Silver Haired Daddy of Mine’, and a lot of the hymns, just to name a few. It was so good to see Wayne come alive with their singing. His singing was about the only time we could understand his words.
Another fun memory was in the evening before we would get him ready for bed, Pat would pull him out of his chair, hold both of his hands and they would sing and ‘dance’ the ‘Hokey Pokey’. Many evenings he would ask us to call Marilyn to come play the piano for him, so she and Brian would come over. These were the good times for him and for us.
As the disease kept robbing Wayne of more and more of his life, we had to make some more changes. He had even quit singing, and communication became almost non-existent. On August 1, Hospice ordered a hospital bed to be brought in. We set it up in the living room so that he could be involved with everyone as much as possible and be comfortable.
I was sleeping on the couch so I could check on him several times a night. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. on Friday, September 9th and he was still the same, but when I woke up again at 5:30 a.m. there was a change. I knew that death was very near. I pulled my chair over and just sat by him, held his hand, told him how much I loved him and just talked to him. Pat came upstairs about 6 o’clock. She called the kids and they all came over immediately except for Terry, who was already at work. He decided to wait until the nurse came about 8 o’clock.
Crystal, the CAN, got here about 7:45, about 15 minutes earlier than usual. She came to the back of the bed and took his other hand to take his pulse. At 7:55 a.m., she said “he is gone.” For all of his struggles, his actual passing was very peaceful and easy for him.
Wayne’s viewing was Tuesday night, September 13, and his funeral Wednesday, September 14. I never dreamed that so many people would come. What a wonderful tribute! Wayne was such a people person. I always said “Give him 10 minutes with a person and he will know their life history.” He loved people. I think people were his hobby.
I am so grateful for Wayne and the 58 plus years we spent together. He worked so hard to support us financially and everything else. He loved to quote the Scout Law, “A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent.” He tried to live by this law.
My words are so inadequate when I try to express my thoughts and feelings but I love him, appreciate him, and look forward to the day when we can be together and never to be separated again.