Service to others

Mom and Dad were always involved in service. When we lived at the farm we had to haul all of our culinary water. Dad made arrangements to get water from Rob Faucet. (no joke) A man who lived on 500 south just east of Main street. Dad paid his water bill to be able to fill up our barrels there. I know Rob would not have had water if it hadn't been for mom and dad. We even had to fill our water barrels there after we had a home in town. We had an old silver single axle trailer at the farm. I think Dad had moved it from over by the black rock pond. The trailer was like a small travel trailer and a man dad picked up at Rob Faucet's named Foot came to live in the trailer. He was there to help with the work and to watch the farm whenever we were gone. I don't know how many years Foot lived there but he always had meals with us. He was a stray that needed a hand.
After Foot left there was an old wooden shed across the street from the house in St. George. It was a home at one time but the windows were all broke out and it was falling down. One day a man moved in and of course Dad had to investigate. This man was who we knew as O B. His real name was Orsal Bowers Covington. He was moved into the trailer and dad got him a job at the feed store cleaning up the grain that would spill on the floor. They had a deal that they would raise pigs with the grain and sell the pigs and split the profits. So O B ended up at the table. After he got his money from the pigs, he was gone. After complaining he had been shorted of course.
The next one I remember was a young man who stopped at the lodge in Beaver Dam when we lived there. He was a draft dodger or at least that is what Dad always thought. He ate at the table and helped around the place for a couple of weeks. Dad bought his tool box which was really just junk so he could get gas and move on. Looking back we never went hungry but I think we lived close to the poverty level but Mom and Dad would do whatever they could. I don't know what influence our family had on these people but they at least left our home with an understanding of the Gospel. I don't know why I need to write this stuff but this blog keeps me up at night. I wake up and there is something I need to put in this blog. Please forgive my poor language skills and poor explanations but I know when moved by the spirit I must act even if I don't want to.

We found this fun picture of Grandpa Jones and LeGrand visiting while laying on the trampoline.
It was taken in August 1996.

It was 15 years ago yesterday that Mom left us. I'm glad she didn't have to hang around and suffer through some of the things incident to old age but I sure miss her at times. She kept me up-to-date on all the happenings in the family- births, deaths, graduations, marriages etc. as well as the latest on the people I grew up around.
She had a thing about eating things that were blue. She said, "Nothing that you eat should be blue". I guess the reason she left us when she did was because she must have gotten word that they were going to put blue M&M's in the package. Within the year after she died there were blue M&M's. She would have been miffed about that.

Star Quilts

Grandma Jones used to make quilts with a star pattern on them. I remember playing underneath the quilts and also helping to tie them. She had a saying about stiching on Sunday. She said whatever you stiched on Sunday you would have to pick out with your nose in heaven.

Last picture I know of Mom and Dad

This picture was taken March 19, 1994 at Nancy and My wedding, before mom passed away in May.

Mom use to tell about her sister Mildred braking her arm cranking the old model T. She use to reluctantly tell about the first time she drove a car. She was going to mutual and missed the bridge and ran the front tire in the ditch. She was all embarrassed because her dad had to get a tractor and pull her out. Maybe Jim or Paula remembers the details of that story better and could share it.

I remember the first and only time I saw Mom ride a horse. We were at the farm and Dad had put the cows in the pasture and he had a horse tied up at the house so we could jump on and drive the cows out of the alfalfa so they wouldn't bloat. That was usually my job but I was gone for some reason and when I came back here was Mom on old Ginger coming back from driving the cows out of the field. I didn't even know she knew how to ride a horse much less drive cows. I was all amazed but she didn't want to talk about it. She liked to keep things like that secret like knowing how to milk that way Dad wouldn't ask her to do it.

Dad, Ray and I had been up to the head of the ditch where we spent a lot of time trying to get the water from the virgin river to run down the ditch. We had the team, Doc and Bill and the hay wagon. We had hauled a big load of tumble weeds up and used them to hold the sand so we could dam off the river. It was late afternoon and we were headed home for lunch. As we came up the hill by what we called the flat here came the tractor. It was Mom coming to get us. Mom driving the tractor who would of thought it. The road up there was really sandy and Dad had got after her for trying to get there with the pickup. He didn't want her up there alone stuck so she just brought the tractor. She got on the hay wagon with Dad and Ray and I drove the tractor back.

Little things

These are some of the little things I remember about Grandma and Grandpa. When I eat before we say the blessing I often think of Grandma and what she would say about that. She would tell us to open our mouths while we prayed so that the food inside would be blessed. When I buy soft batch chocolate chip cookies I remember Grandma. I open the bag and smell inside and it take's me back to Grandma's kitchen in Littlefield. I remember her always having M&M's and cheetos in yellow tupperware containers. Grandpa grew the best melons ever. I'm always a little disappointed when I eat melons because none of them can compare to Grandpa's. He had a gift for growing them.

Happy Birthday dear Wanda!

When I hear the phrase "an elect lady" Wanda is the lady that comes to mind. Here are a few words to pay tribute to her on her birthday:

• Wanda was always happy
• She loved and cared unconditionally
• She always put others before herself
• Her family was very important to her
• She was a great seamstress!
• She and her daughter, Amy were best of friends
• She had a strong testimony
• She was extremely organized
• She was very artistic
• She had many talents and great ideas ~ I'd always call on her to help
• She had a way of listening and really hearing what you said
• I always looked up to her
• She was like a big sister to me
• She was a good mother

I miss you!

If my memory serves me right today is Wanda's birthday. I hope her kids will leave a tribute to her on these pages. I have alot of memories of her and especially at the house on east greenway. She was the one that seemed to have it all together and remembered where she had put it. In fact, I was always intimidated by her and I think that is probably why. She had a plan and went to work at it. She was always so organized and wanted to be in charge. She certainly was the oldest child. We're getting short on sisters and I miss them.

I wanted to share these pictures. When dad came to Missouri to live with us this is one of the things he brought with him. They were in a double frame that folded together. When the dementia set in and dad started running away he would take these pictures with him.

As far as dates - On the back of the picture of Mom in her handwriting it says "1950 ?"

There is no date on the picture of Dad.

I really noticed a striking resemblance to Dustin when I looked at the picture of Dad.

More than I have ever seen in my life!

When we were first moving or thinking of moving to the Farm in St. George. I was with Dad on a visit. He took me way out south of town toward the Arizona strip. When we had gone what seemed like a long way we came across more sheep than I had ever seen in one place in all my life. I figure I started the 2nd grade when we moved to St. George so I must have been about 7 years old. We stopped and I couldn't figure out why we were there. Dad was always good at keeping me in suspense by not saying much about what we were doing. I think we were driving in an old red Dodge pickup and we stopped in the middle of this herd of sheep. We got out of the truck and were looking at the sheep or at least that is what I was doing and Dad started yelling. Pretty soon someone was yelling back. I looked up and here came an old man with a yucca stem in each hand using them as canes to walk. It was my grandpa Jones (James Simkins Jones). He was out there in the middle of nowhere herding sheep. That is about my first memory of Grandpa Jones and if my calculations are right he would have been about 84. He could really truck along over the rough terrain with those canes.
Ray reminded me of a sheep story that dad use to tell one of the few I remember. Dad was herding sheep and was down in the Cedar Pockets area where the freeway goes through now. I think he was herding what they called the dries. (sheep that had weened their lambs) Dad liked to herd the dries because once you got them settled down away from their lambs they were ready to rest and feed along slow and they stayed together pretty good on their own. Dad had the sheep bedding down somewhere close to the mouth of Sullivan canyon. During the warm spring days they would feed up the river and he would bring them back at night. Dad found a book in the sheep wagon a western. I never knew Dad to do much reading but he said he was walking along reading the book. He was on the North side of Cedar Pockets going up a ridge. He liked to get up above the sheep so he would be ready when it was time to turn them around and head back to camp. As he went up the ridge all at once he heard a buzzing noise first right in front of him and then all around him . He was surrounded when he looked up out of his book. He said here were rattle snakes in big balls all over the ground. More snakes than he ever saw in his life. He said the only way out was to walk back the same tracks he made when he walked in. He said he never did much walking and reading after that.