** Life History by Garrett Merrick **

(This history has been broken into sections and pictures added to make separate posts in this blog.
They are numbered in chronological order.)

I was born on 15 December 1946, the second of three sons born to Lillian Edith Conley and Charles Aaron Jarvis.  Melvin Charles Jarvis Merrick, my older brother, arrived previously on 29 March 1945.  My younger brother, Kenneth Ray, came along on 10 November 1948.  My very earliest memory is of lying in bed at night, being scared by ghosts in the closet at the end of my bed.  I solved the problem by closing the closet door every night.

Another early memory occurred when we lived in the attic across from Grandma Conley’s house at 50 Ohio Street in Akron Ohio.  I apparently awoke screaming from a very vivid dream in which I had seen a ‘rat’ running across the floor at the bottom of my bed.  I was convinced it was real and would not be persuaded otherwise.  In adult retrospect I realize it could not have been real, as at that time I had never seen a rat and didn’t even know what one looked like.  This one was yellow and almost as big as a cat!

A year or so later from the window of that same attic (I must have been about six) I witnessed the torching of Grandma’s garage by my brother, Kenny.  I was sick and had to stay in, so I was looking out the window when I saw smoke coming from the garage.  I knew I should call the fire department, but I didn’t know how, so I decided to just watch and enjoy the show.  I saw the fire engines come (too late!), smoke, flames, and people running around.  I also seem to remember seeing Kenny sneaking back home across the street.  He confessed to me that had been playing with matches in the garage.  I was glad that I had been sick and couldn’t be blamed for the fire.

We spent a lot of time at Grandma Conley’s during my early years.  She was a tiny, thin woman with white hair.  I especially remember how kind and sweet she was.  I also remember some really fine Thanksgiving dinners, always with cranberry sauce, which I ate once and never again.  We always loved to go to Grandma’s house, a place of love and security.

My other favorite relative was my father’s brother, Uncle Carroll.  He would take us for rides in his car.  He impressed me with his knowledge of which direction other cars were going to turn; I later learned about turn signals and turning lanes.  On one occasion he took us to visit Grandma Jarvis (Bessie) in West Virginia.  It was wonderful: the countryside; the steep West Virginia hills, especially in the morning fog; watching someone milk the cow; feeling free and outdoors; Grandma’s garden; and her scrumptious rhubarb pie.  Grandma was plump - and also kind and loving.  I have no memory of ever seeing her again, though when I was nineteen or twenty, we had some pleasant correspondence.

I never went to kindergarten.  While we were still living in the attic across from Grandma Conley, my mother enrolled me in first grade, so I was a little younger than the other kids, not turning six until December.  I loved my first grade teacher and was proud that she said I was a smart boy.

I attended second grade (I believe) at Hotchkiss school after we had moved to 34(?)  Elm Drive.  My mother was solicitous that first day at Hotchkiss to be sure that I could walk home by myself.  I was confident and assured her that I could.  I couldn’t!  I asked someone for directions that first day, then managed the journey successfully after that.  My Hotchkiss experience was typical of most of my school years: I always did well academically (except for the time that I was convinced that 1/10 had to equal 2/5, though I couldn’t logically perform the permutation), but had few friends.  For many years I thought it was because I started school young.  But, I eventually realized that it’s more likely because I’m not a personality that has many close friends.  I had a memorable baseball (softball?)  game in which I learned that crossing home plate after the third out doesn’t count.

It was fun to visit the old school with Ken when we returned to Akron in August 1990 for Mom’s funeral.  We also visited Elm Drive.  The house was gone, but it had recently been raining, and the corner was filled with a big puddle just like in the old days.  We walked into the high school field behind the house.  We used to cross the field to occasionally swim in the YMCA pool beyond.  We even found the same hole in the fence that we climbed through many times to get into Blue Pond.  We weren’t dressed for going under this time, so we didn’t.  But, as kids, we spent a lot of time in that ‘forbidden’ swamp.  We especially liked to cross over the old buildings debris and play on the swampy cottontail-filled island.  None of us ever drowned, contrary to the warnings of our mothers.  We did pick elderberries which Mom occasionally made into pies.

Probably my most memorable experience at Elm Drive occurred when Angelo, the older and not very pleasant neighborhood paper boy, threw a ball at me.  I wasn’t hurt much at all, but I convinced myself that I was and that my pain justified profanity in reporting the incident to my mother.  She did not agree that profanity was justified and promptly, and forcefully, washed my mouth out with soap.  I became convinced that profanity is never justified.

We also lived on Elm Drive when Mom met and married (a week later), Arthur ‘John’ Merrick, the trash collector.  He took us to a scary movie at the drive-in; I called him ‘Pop’.  Thus began our traveling life.  We soon moved to a converted garage home in Suffield Ohio, right next to another swamp, which we thought was great - another place for fun and adventure; but, it was less interesting than Blue Pond.  We had two collie dogs named Duke and Snoozie (I got to choose the name), two other dogs, and a large doghouse.  We rode the school bus for the first time, had an outhouse, and the dogs on the bed kept us warm in winter.  We weren’t there long before we moved to a two-level house in Randolph.  We walked to school from here the last half of the school year.

Then we packed up the car, and Dad took us to Phoenix Arizona.  We lived a while in the Alhambra motel - with lots of cockroaches and other bugs.  Dad invited the LDS missionaries to teach us.  I believed them from the first, and the family was baptized on 9 September 1958.  As I was approaching twelve and going into MIA in three months, I decided not to attend Primary.  I was told that memorizing the Articles of Faith was a requirement for graduating from Primary, and I didn’t want to work at memorizing them.  So, I avoided the problem by not going to Primary.  I later repented and memorized them in October 1993, only thirty-five  years late.

I attended eighth grade at a school with a Spanish name, while we rented a house from Karl Shurtz.  It was a yellow wood house, with a screened back porch.  I jumped off the roof a lot, and swung on the high swing.  We had fig, date, pomegranate, orange, and lemon trees on the two+ acre lot.  My brother and I built a tree house in the large cottonwood tree way out in the back pasture, with scrap wood we salvaged from a nearby subdivision under construction.  We also spent a lot of time playing in the irrigation ditch across the street.  I was impressed with Del Mecham, my first Deacons quorum president.  I think his dad was the bishop.

I won my eighth grade spelling bee, but was quickly eliminated from the school competition when I spoke too fast and made a dumb error on an easy word (I think it was ‘holiday’).  In the summer of 1960 we moved to a subdivision near Manzanita race track, which had lots of manzanita bushes around it.  I attended ninth grade at South Mountain high school.  I did well, was in a couple advanced placement classes, and ended the year ranked #11 in a class of 600+.  I ran a 7.5 minute mile and did 300+ situps in the annual end of year events.  

Not long after we moved there, Dad got some kind of a good deal on bicycles, and got one for each of us boys.  While riding one day, I was stopped by a man who offered me a paper route.  So, from then on, I bundled and delivered papers in the afternoon, achieving a pretty good aim, and learning how to survive dogs.  It was less fun getting up early Sunday morning to deliver the Sunday paper.  I did occasionally assuage the early morning agony by clandestinely taking the car to pick up the papers, so I could fold and band them inside the house.  I didn’t enjoy collecting either, but I enjoyed having some income.

Ken and I went barefoot a lot and developed pretty tough feet, especially on the hot desert sand.  I learned how to climb down a rope from a tree branch - after getting rope burns the first time;  I never did it that way again!  We also had a small precipice nearby where we jumped off into a sand hill about twenty feet below.

Dad was a wanderer and in the summer of 1961 decided to become a Missouri farmer.  So, we moved to a forty acre farm in Licking, Missouri.  The old house had no indoor plumbing or furnace.  It did have electricity!  It was my job to get up in the middle of each winter night to put more wood in the living room pot-bellied stove, so the fire could make it through the night.  We still needed lots of blankets in the unheated bedrooms.    We collected rainwater off the roof into a cistern for drinking water.  We pumped it out with a hand pump, and occasionally added lime for purifying.

We had a cow, pigs in the barn, and chickens in the chicken coop.  Mel and I milked the cow.  We all played in the hay loft.  The pond and lots of woods also provided many opportunities for play and exploring.  We had an old horse for a short while, til it died one summer.  I constructed a homemade bow and some not-very-straight arrows.  I shot at a chicken with no expectation of hitting it, but we had chicken dinner that night.  I had to do the plucking, of course.  

Mel and I hauled hay for neighboring farmers.  It was a hot, unpleasant job.  For a couple summers I worked for Henry Blankenship in the woods.  He did most of the wood cutting, and I split the logs.  He sold the wood to a kiln for making charcoal.  I would get up in the early dark for breakfast of biscuits and gravy at his and Martha’s house.  I learned the different varieties of Missouri trees, and learned to hate splitting hickory logs; they’re tough!  I was not as big or as strong as some other boys that had worked for him in the past.  And one day he said that I would have to do better if I was to continue working for him.  I knew I was doing as well as I could and couldn’t do much better.  I felt that I could not fulfill his expectations, so I slept in the next day, assuming that my employment was over.  He came and got me, so I guess he decided that even though I couldn’t split wood as fast as his previous assistants, apparently I was satisfactory (or maybe the best he could get!)  I also cut down lots of trees in the woods next to the house, then chopped them up for our winter fuel supply.  I loved working in the woods, summer and winter, and got pretty good with a two-bladed ax.  I kept it sharp with my file.

We had a large garden, and I spent a lot of summer hours weeding it.  On one long, hot day of weeding I drank a full gallon of milk.  But, that was fair, because I did a lot of the cow milking.  We had one or two cows all the time.  One of the cows kept kicking over the milk bucket one morning.  So, I kicked the cow.  So, Mel kicked me.  I didn’t kick the cow any more.  Our cows were usually Jerseys, which give a higher percentage of cream.  We filled a quart jar about 3/4 full, then shook it for a hour or so until we made butter.  I soon became a butter lover and shook a lot of cream in the evenings.

We had dogs, too.  One of them once got sprayed right in the face by a skunk.  He acted like he was about to die; maybe he was.  He was stinky for a long time - outside, of course, since he was no longer allowed in the house.

I enjoyed acting and had some small parts in a couple of the Licking High School plays.  The speech teacher was the director.  I enjoyed his speech class and the dramatic interpretation class that I later took at Southwest Missouri State College (SMS).

I also enjoyed running the mile on the high school track team.  I was not especially fast, but in a school that small (69 graduated in my class), it was not a great challenge to make the team: only three of us ran the mile.  I ran in only one track meet.  I placed third (5:30), but only because the other school did not have a miler, though they did press a half-miler into service to compete in the mile.  So, we three swept the mile race.

Harry Miller and I played a lot of chess at lunch times.  He usually beat me, but not always.  We were also selected to attend a math competition together, along with some others, where he did much better than I did.  My best high school friends were Jim Hagler, Tom Derrickson, and Harry,  along with Herman Hall, Janey Ellis, and Beth Kofahl.

We attended LDS church meetings with the small branch at Herschel Hadley’s home.  Then another member built a new home, and we met there for a while.  I remember meeting in it before it was completed.

Sometimes we played in the pond.  But, I spent many happy hours wandering the woods and fields by myself.  Once I came upon a large stag at close range.  I found a bed of poisonous copperhead snakes in the blackberry bushes near the house.  Not far from there I grabbed a fence post as I crossed the fence, and put my hand into a wasp nest that was on the backside of the post.  It was quite exciting, but the sting discomfort did not last long.  I occasionally got to drive the old pickup truck around the farm.  Once I drove it down to Smith’s store - and met Mom and Dad coming the other way!

I graduated as salutatorian (Janey Ellis beat me) from Licking High School in May 1964.  One of the school counselors helped me get a job as a secretary at SMS and an apartment in Springfield.  I was extremely anxious to leave home, so I enrolled for summer term and left Licking just a few days after graduation.  Mom was quite sad and concerned, but I knew she understood.  I hitchhiked and was picked up by a trucker.  I found my way to 920 S.  National Avenue, where I shared an apartment with a student several years my senior (I think his name was David).  We roomed together for a year, then I shared another apartment in the same building with Tom Tiefke, an LDS friend.  Then I lived with the Ruf’s for two years while Gerhard was on his mission.

I bounced my first check while attending SMS, but very few since.  I was in a service fraternity.  I worked as a secretary at $0.70 an hour for Drs.  Martin and James Pollard in the educational psychology department.  Dr. Wise loved to play jacks, and we did so on occasion.  At a youth conference Mary Ellen and I won a dance contest - Not that I was a good dancer, but because she was smart enough to know that the judges wanted to see a swing, and we were the only ones dancing a swing!

In addition to Hermann and Gertrude Ruf, John and LeMerle Cochran were most supportive to me.  They had me over for dinner occasionally, gave me good advice, and even financed my motorcycle purchase.  I had previously bought a good 5-speed bicycle, and got around quite a bit on it.  The Cochrans persuaded me to buy the motorcycle after I informed them of my intention to ride my bike to Ohio.  I never rode the bike much after getting the motorcycle, so I sold it to Bell’s in Willard Missouri, near Springfield.

Very shortly after buying the motorcycle, I rode it on a trip to Akron to visit my folks.  Mom and Ken had returned to Akron for a supposed visit a year or two after I came to SMS, but we all knew that she had no intention of returning to Dad in Licking.  Mel was also off at college.  Dad returned to Akron sometime later, and they eventually reconciled.  I remember lots of back pains between my shoulder blades on that long motorcycle ride.  While in Akron I visited some relatives, and gave some young ones a ride on the motorcycle.

I chose to enroll in advanced ROTC (the first two years were mandatory) since most of us were being drafted after graduation and the end of the educational deferment during the height of the Vietnam war.  If I had to go, I intended to go as an officer!  However, my ROTC motivation was low, and I was a rather casual cadet.  I rode my motorcycle to ROTC summer camp at Fort Sill Oklahoma.  I did well at camp, especially in the physical fitness events.  I ran a six minute mile, but just barely.

One Christmas I rode the motorcycle to visit the Cochrans in Bakersfield CA.  They took me to Knotts Berry Farm, and we had other good times.  I returned via Phoenix and Albuquerque.  However, heading north out of Albuquerque, I made a poor choice and turned east toward Lubbock TX.  It so happened that this road crossed a 9000 foot high mountain pass.  Unfortunately, it also began to snow when I neared the top!  I struggled slowly on until I came to a small town late at night, where I slept behind a gas station.  The storm ended, but I still had to slowly navigatge  icy roads down to Lubbock.  Heading out of Lubbock I slipped and broke the motorcycle clutch handle.  My traveling spirit broke, too.  I knew some Springfield church members frequently visited Lubbock, so I contacted some church members who knew them and would store my motorcycle until they could haul it back to Springfield for me on their next visit.  A young family named Leuck was kind enough to put me up for a couple days before I rode the bus back.

I graduated from SMS in January 1968, with a degree in chemistry and secondary education, and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers.  On my way to Fort BelvoirVA for my engineer officer basic training, I visited the folks in Akron.  While there I bought a 1964(?)  Corvair and got a bumper rack to carry my motorcycle. Fort Belvoir was green!  It was wonderful.  I experienced a little, though not much, homesickness for the first time in my life, but it didn’t last long.  I enjoyed the three month school.  There was a lot of emphasis on WATER.  I took a Jordanian officer to church once, and had to do some quick explaining when we sang Hope of Israel!

I spent the next year at Fort Benning Georgia - land of the ubiquitous red dirt.  I rented an off-base house with some other young officers, and I bought a Chevy Nova when the Corvair died.  I struggled at learning to be a platoon leader.  Ken joined me after a few months, then took over the Chevy when I departed in September 1969.

On the way to Vietnam I visited the folks, then went to Salt Lake City to do research at the Genealogical Library.  I stayed with the Kalunkis whom I knew from Fort Benning.  Then I boarded the plane at Fairfield CA, stopped at Honolulu during the night, and arrived at Saigon the next day.  I was anxious but excited.  After a couple days at Saigon, I flew to my first assignment at Tuy Hoa, north of Cam Ranh Bay.  My engineering battalion, the 577th,  was building a road which we called I577.  A couple months later the battalion was transferred to Don Duong in the mountains just west of Cam Ranh Bay.  We built a base camp right below the Don Duong dam.  I was the supply officer for several months and frequently traveled down the winding mountain road to transact supply business at Cam Ranh Bay.  The highlight of my supply career was riding in the big Sikorski ‘sky crane’ helicopters to transport large I-beams for a bridge we were building at the battalion’s other camp about twenty miles south of Don Duong.  I also got to fly in some smaller helicopters and a small plane.

I was next assigned to be the battalion’s civilian personnel officer (CPO).  We hired a lot of native Vietnamese to help in our road building.  I was in charge of hiring them and paying them monthly.  I had to travel to Nha Trang, north of Cam Ranh Bay and one of the nicest Vietnamese cities, each month to pick up the payroll.

I occasionally traveled to Dalat, another of the very nicest Vietnamese cities, which was a little higher in the mountains northwest of Don Duong.  The temperature in our area was hot, but it was still a lot coller than down in the coastal areas.  After an excursion to Cam Ranh Bay we always enjoyed returning to the mountains.  I spent my last couple months with another engineering battalion at Phu Bai in the north, near the old imperial capital of Hue.

I enjoyed my job in Don Duong, and nobody was shooting at me, so I volunteered to stay an extra six months beyond my required year.  I also wanted to be a captain, so the promotion and Vietnam tour extension necessitated my signing up for a third year in the army beyond my required (from ROTC) two years.  My extra six months in Vietnam earned me a free transportation 30-day excursion anywhere in the world, so I chose to go to Europe.  I received my promotion orders on the way through Cam Ranh Bay, pinned on my captain’s bars, flew to Saigon, where I spent a day sightseeing while waiting for a flight, then flew to Bangkok.  After a couple hours there, I flew to New Delhi India, the Istanbul airport, then to London.

I saw a play, “Fiddler on the Roof”, visited Stratford on Avon, and other London sights before riding the ferry across the channel and taking the train to Paris.  I rode the subway a lot in both London and Paris.  My French was weak, but sufficient to allow me to get along well.  I saw the Follies Bergere, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, the cathedral at Chartres, many other sights, and loved the Versailles palace.

I rode the train to Frankfurt Germany where I visited some church members who had known the Rufs before they left for the US twenty years earlier.  The finest week of my journey was learning to ski at Bertschesgaden in southern Germany.  I did pretty well for only one week of skiing.  And, boy, did I eat well!  I also took the salt mine tour on the little train, and visited Saltzburg Austria and one of the “Sound of Music” set locations.  I hated to leave but had to head south in order to visit the Pope at Easter Mass.

The train traveled through Switzerland at night, and I viewed the Italian countryside during the day.  I visited the USO near St. Peter’s Square and found a small room in the vicinity.  I had dinner at a nice basement restaurant with two American girls who were teaching in  Germany, whom I met on the train.  I visited the traditional Rome historical sites, including St Peter’s basilica, and attended Easter Mass in St Peter’s Square - along with about a hundred other people.  I arrived early and got a position near the front, where I got a good view of the Pope and the visiting dignitaries.

I took my return journey through Paris and London, flew to Philadelphia, visited the folks in Akron, flew thru Anchorage, Hawaii, Cam Ranh Bay, and back to Don Duong in Vietnam.  After a few more months there, I spent my last couple months at Phu Bai near the ancient imperial capital of Hue.

I spent the last nine months of my military career at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri, in charge of an engineering heavy equipment training company.  We trained operators for forklifts, road graders, bulldozers, and earth movers.  I also took a drafting course.  I attended church at Springfield several times and renewed old acquaintances.  I started orthodontic treatments at Springfield, and then continued the treatments at the Fort Leonard Wood hospital after learning that they had a resident orthodontist.

At the first of June 1971 I packed up all my goods, departed the army and headed west for BYU.  I located a private apartment and began job searching, part of which included taking the postal test.  I enrolled in BYU in civil engineering, but changed to building construction a year or two later.  Lon Wallace was my primary instructor; he was a good teacher.

I found an orthodontist, Dr. Ardon Kitchen, to continue my orthodontic treatment.  I also got contact lenses in late August 1971.  I started working at the Post Office in Salt Lake City on 7 September 1971, while I was still getting used to new contact lenses.  I worked in the Parcel Post Annex by the railroad tracks.  I learned quite a few un-required schemes, did my job well, especially as a caller on the truck unloading belt, on the parcel post carousel distribution, and as an occasional expediter, and earned a quality step increase.

I met Cheryl Anne Groom in early January 1972, saw her several times in January and February.  Around February 25th I called her and said that I had three questions to ask her.  First, when is the Gold and Green Ball?  Second, what time is it?  Third, will you go with me?  She appeared to be in shock, but finally said yes.  We attended the two-ward Gold and Green Ball

3 March 1972.  I saw her most every day after that, and asked her to marry me on 25 May 1972, just before she returned home to California for a month.  While she was gone I bought a home building lot in West Jordan.  She returned in July to complete her last class, and we were married in the Oakland Temple on 23 August 1972.  We lived our first four years in a 10'x50' trailer in south Provo.  Julene was born 15 July 1973, and David on 6 Sept 1974.  We moved to Mapleton n 23 August 1976

I competed for a training job in the Salt Lake City PEDC, and didn’t get it, but during the selection process met a man was was instrumental in helping me arrange a mutual transfer to the Provo Post Office in July 1974.  I had a challenging time working graveyard shift for a year, complicated by hay fever starting to affect me more than it had in the past.

I worked swing shift for four years, did a good job on the markup table - after a weak start.  After I got the job figured out, I wrote a manual on how to do the job.  In October 1979 I competed for and obtained a job as assistant in the Provo PEDC.  Two years later my boss’s position was eliminated, and I inherited sole proprietorship of training in the Provo Post Office.  It has been a great job for seventeen years, and I believe I have done it well.

I graduated from BYU in April 1978 with a degree in building construction.   However, interest rates were so high at this time that not much building was occuring, and having been seven years at the Post Office, we decided that it was not a good time to go into building construction; so, I’ve been at the Post Office ever since.  I also completed an NRI home study course in automobile mechanics about this same time.  I got lazy that first week after graduation and didn’t shave.  We decided that I looked better with the beard than without (no chin!), so I’ve had it ever since - but no moustache (tickly nose).

.In May of 1974 I was sick and stayed home from work.  However, I was well enough to take Sherry on a drive.  Contrary to our usual pattern, we drove south and found ourselves in Mapleton, which we had never before visited; we hadn’t even heard of it.  But, we both felt “at home”, like this was the place where we were supposed to live.  We were not ready to buy or build, but we did purchase a 2.5 acre lot in south Mapleton.  By 1976 we were feeling cramped in the trailer, and on 15 July, Julene’s third birthday, we saw a Mapleton home ad in a newspaper.  We felt impressed to call, and we visited it that rainy afternoon.  Contrary to our established policy of waiting one day before making major decisions, I announced, and Sherry concurred, to Howard and Stella Stevens that “We’ll take it!”  Well, we were seventh in line, so we had to wait a month, while one by one, they each dropped out of the running.  We hand-carried our documents through the bank and Veterans Administration, and got the loan approved in a week.  Ken helped us move into the new house on our fourth wedding anniversary on 23 August 1976.  Julene and David enjoyed stomping around the house in their snow boots which they found in one of the boxes.  Ken and Bev moved into the trailer for a year, then we sold it and bought curtains and a dining set for the house.

Laura was born on 8 March 1980, and Daniel on 9 October 1984.  Sherry’s health was weak during these years, and she struggled greatly for these two.  We decided that Daniel had to be the last child, and, so, went out of business.

We initially attended the fifth ward in Mapleton, then the sixth, second, eleventh (1995), then the third ward beginning January 1996, when the eleventh ward was moved into the new building where most of us could not tolerate the new building smells, such as adhesives.  The new building was still unacceptable by the end of 1996.  We did stake missionary work in the sixth ward, and edited the second ward newspaper, after I served a stint as elders quorum counselor.  I was also second ward clerk for a couple years.  Glen Calder ordained me a high priest on 16 September 1990.  Sherry and I taught Daniel’s Primary class together in the eleventh ward.

In May 1990 I was put in charge of starting up and staffing Computerized Forwarding System (CFS) operations in the Provo Post Office.  This necessitated two weeks of training in Dallas TX in June.  So, we rented a minivan, none of our vehicles being sufficiently sound or suitable for such an excursion, and took the whole family.  The trip was challenging, but fun and memorable.  We visited a nice mall and had a fun dinner with my CFS instructor at a western restaurant.  August and September of 1990 were challenging at work, as I got CFS operations going.

Ken and I flew to Akron in August 1990 to attent Mom’s funeral.  Mel and Kathy did a fine job of handling all the arrangements.  I gave him $500, in hopes that it was an appropriate amount to help with his expenses.  We renewed acquaintances with many relatives, especially enjoying Aunt Peggy, as usual, and Aunt Floy Rollyson Hilbert.

In the spring of 1989 I realized that I was a little overweight and greatly out of shape.  So, I began running.  It was pitiful!  But, I persisted and gradually improved, at the time of this writing (December 1996) having run a mile in less than eight minutes.  I also began running (sometimes walking) in the annual 24th of July Mapleton fun run, running three miles in about 27 minutes in 1996.  I really enjoy having Laura and Daniel ride their bikes or run along with me.  For a couple years we also swam regularly at the Springville pool; I kept track of my distances and achieved my goal of swimming fifty miles, though I never saw my name posted on the pool wall with the other 50-milers.

In December 1990 I bought some skis and boots at the pawn shop for me and David.  We began ungracefully skiing on the south Mapleton hills.  Laura and Daniel brought their sleds; Julene came occasionally; and Sherry skied once with us.  In February 1992 I got brave enough to drive the old yellow van up to Sundance and try skiing on a real slope.  I had little skill, but I loved it!  I took David with me the next season after I was sure that he could perform a snowplow stop.  We also continued skiing and sledding on the south Mapleton hills.  By the next season Laura was ready to accompany me to Sundance, David being on his mission.  I had Daniel take the Mapleton school ski class in January 1994, so he began skiing with me and Laura that year.  I switched to smaller skis (to match my ability!)  on 4 January 1997 and was able to ski much better than previously; I almost looked like a real skier!   We three had an awesome ski day: twenty runs, and we all did very well.

1998 I achieved my goal of running three consecutive 8-minute miles in the Mapleton 24th of

July run.  Then shortly after that, when my knees started hurting a bit, Julene and Cheryl♡Anne helped me realize that my ankles were crooked, which affected my knees.  However, I knew that I needed to continue exercising, so I began fast walking instead.  After a couple years I got to the point where I could walk a 10-minute mile.

1999 In December, the postmaster decided that I had sufficient time to  manage the OSHA

safety program to which we were now subject - even though I had been working nine+hours per day for the last two years.  Cheryl♡Anne helped me realize that it was time to change positions.  I had previously passed over the Self Service Postal Center (SSPC - stamp vending machines) position, but luckily it came up a second time.  I put in bids at both buildings (I like security!)  and surprised a lot of people when I bid off the training job which I had held for nearly twenty years.  During those years I gained a lot of expertise and assumed a number of jobs that had not originally been part of the training job.  I was well aware that my replacement would not be able to do all the things that I had been doing.  So, I prepared instructions for a number of them and attempted to farm them out to other employees.  I trained a couple of replacements in the next two years.

2000 I assumed my new job and office (no longer the largest office in the building!)  in early January.  The job also entailed managing and repairing the parcel lockers around town.  It took me two years to learn the machines and the job and to get everything well organized and running smoothly, especially the parcel lockers where the records were very poor.  I continued studying to pass the Building Equipment Mechanic (BEM)  test.

2001

2002  We got Dan graduated and moved into the apartment with David.  Julene decided that she no longer wanted the condo, so we cleaned it up and sold it in August; the financial records showed that we pretty much broke even on the expenses and proceeds.  I continued as the HOA accountant for a few more months.  We spent a lot of the summer helping David and Amy remodel their house in P. G., plus the big project of repairing and painting our bedroom ceiling and walls, plus some repairing and painting of the bathroom and kitchen ceilings and walls, and some quick painting of the utility room and back stairs.  I continued rewiring, adding an auxiliary panel in the furnace room.  We celebrated our 30th anniversary this year!  David and Amy married on 3 October.

2003 I learned a lot from taking (and not passing) the first BEM test last year, and passed it this year.

2004 I helped Laura and Theon with repainting the interior, and replace the flooring in their

newly purchased house in Salt Lake City.  I removed the old wood siding from our gables and began re-sheathing over the diagonal 1x10 boards.  I hurt my wrists and tailbone when I had a careless ladder fall in July.  I competed in the July 24th run, but I walked all the way.  I shaved off my beard in December when I was called to work in the temple; I was getting tired of it, anyway.  I finished the re-sheathing and began installing the aluminum siding.

2005 Theon and I did cut down all but the very large trunk of  Grandma Laney’s very large

cottonwood tree, did some severe pruning on my very tall walnut tree east of our south porch, then cut down the two large trees between the house and the shed.  I hired Monty Bingham to dig out the roots of these two trees in preparation for extending the driveway around the house next year.  I continued installing the aluminum siding.

2006 This summer’s project was pouring a concrete drive-around from the east end of the

driveway on the north side of the house along the east side of the house to 1200 North .  It was approximately 1500 square feet - a lot of digging, leveling, and concrete pouring!  My skill improved, and my later sections (each about 10' x 10') were much better than my earlier ones.  It was really nice to have the drive-around during the winter.

2007 I went to four postal classes in Norman, Oklahoma between February and the end of

August.  I learned a lot, but it was a lot of time to be away.  In between Oklahoma classes, I worked on completing the siding installation on the gables.  I really enjoyed finishing it after having it uncompleted for several years.  In December Cheryl♡Anne figured out (after probably 40 years) that she is poisoned by potatoes and tomatoes (nightshade family plants).  Her health and strength are greatly increasing each week.

2008 I got in three ski trips to Sundance during the winter, which was nice after having missed

last ski season because I was away so much.  In January I began studying real estate in earnest in preparation for my post-retirement career.  We listed the land for sale, but the economy, especially real estate, is down; so, the chances of its selling are poor.  I registered our PINC Property Investment Company LLC with the state so that we can transfer the house title into it.