I remember Dad

I remember Dad:

• taking me with him when I was little. He took me to the hardware store, to the Co-op for gas, to the barber shop, and most of all taking me to Davis High football and basketball games.
• when I was older, taking me to see the Salt Lake City Bees play, and to the Rotary Picnics, as well as Bennett's picnics and Father's and sons outings.
  
• taking me to work at Bennett's. I remember the different mechanical calculators, and the card sorting machine, and studying on Senator Bennett's desk. I also remember he had a supply of mechanical pencils with red on one end and black on the other. Sometimes he would buy us a soda or a candy bar. And he would let me operate the elevator. We often had to go up before we could go down so I could run the evelator more. When I was in college, I worked summers at Bennett's on 21st South. I started at 7:30. He started at 8:00. I got off at 4:30 and he left after 5:00. He would drive me in and I would walk or take a bus to the 1st south offices. I don't remember what we talked about but I enjoyed it.
  
• taking me to the stake farm. He would thin beets very fast and come back and inspect my rows. When he couldn't take me, he would make sure I had a ride and meet me there.
• wrestling with us all and it makes me happy to see the photos of him wrestling with my little ones.
  
• getting upset when I didn't meet expectations but I always knew he was proud of me and loved me. I also knew that the unforgivable sin was to treat Mom poorly.
  
• studying on the floor, preparing talks for church. He would be surrounded by books, scriptures and used key-sort card for note taking.
  
• having a ceramic piggy bank that was later replaced by a big glass bottle for change and he would let us count the money in it. It was great.
  
• being a city councilman. At different times he was in charge of Mosquito abatement and the city parks, including the softball fields down third west. Sometimes he would have to go to the field and make sure the lights were turned off. We always went early to see the last part of the game, no matter who was playing.
  
• loving his family. He visited his mother and she came to live with us now and then. We also visited Aunt Altha near Morgan and Uncle Cecil in Ogden and later in Salt Lake. It was hard for him to talk about the drowning of Walter and James but he would and he made sure we all could swim. He loved Uncle Knewel and Aunt Gertrude and was protective of them as a big brother should be. He let me know that even if Uncle Knewel didn't always go to church he was a good man and I grew up to know that it was so.
  
• worried about providing for our family. He worried about debt and wouldn't buy anything on time. I know he bought an encyclopedia on an installment basis because they wouldn't give him a discount for paying cash. He made sure I knew that he had the money set aside. As I grew older, Dad grew more generous and he always asked if I needed money. There were a few times that we needed the help and it was so comforting to know he had my back. It was so hard when he went, I was losing my job and didn't know how to find another one. I lost my job and my safety net the same year.
  
• and Mom bringing us the blue Ford fairlane to BYU for Sandy, Layne and I to use. It was unexpected and so useful.
  
• worring about Bennett's and Mom always teased him that he thought Bennett's couldn't survive without him. It turned out to be true. After he and Richard Bennett left, decisions were made that put Bennett's in jepoardy and eventually it went under.
  
• not writing much while I was on my mission. Like Layne, all I got was the monthly bank statements and sometimes a note on it saying he hoped I was doing well. I knew he was doing this at work because sometimes he would sign it Dad and sometimes Steve.
• loving to watch and more to play sports. He could really pitch softball well, slow pitch or, even better, fast pitch. I wasn't the only one who knew he was the best. Whenever he went to the park, our ward team tried to talk him into playing. He would pitch and when it was his time to bat he would hit and walk the bases. He was afraid of pulling his leg muscle and having Mom find out he played. He could hit the ball a long way. I remember a triple that he hit and he walked, not ran, around the bases. I also remember him hitting a home run through one of the upper windows in the Pine Valley Chapel.
  
• liking politics. As everyone knows, he was strongly opinionated. I liked talking to him about different bills and policies and he understood them quite well. I sometimes questioned his proposed punishments for those who thought differently but we usually agreed that the others were wrong and we were right.
  
• serving in the church. When I was young, he was one of the seven presidents of seventy in the church. I wasn't clear what they did but I knew they were in charge of the part member families. I also saw him serve for years as financial clerk. Later he would serve in as a counselor in a bishopric and later as bishop. He also served as a high councillor.
  
• planninng to serve another mission when he retired. He spent so much time in the office during his first mission that he wanted to serve again he told me. He did but I think he may have done his best work using his office skills as acting director of the visitors center.
• being incredibly proud of Mom. He let us know he felt blessed to have her as his wife.
  
• teaching me to use a slide rule when I was in the sixth grade. I didn't need it then but I wanted to know and he wanted me to know. I used it until they invented and I could afford the electronic handheld calculators--I was in grad school.
  
• coming downstairs to check on us at about 10 pm and turn off the lights. Usually I would pretend to be asleep to avoid problems but sometimes we would talk. He knew I kept books under my bed and would read after bedtime but he usually didn't say anything.
  
• having a hard time with our vacation to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Waterton which was supposed to be followed by Banff and Jasper. The tent was not made correctly and was hard to set up. It was so much better when we decided to stay put in Glacier. He also enjoyed the trip to Quake lake and Yellowstone we took with the Flinders. There was no tents and we had a leisurely vacation.
  
• being very allergic to many things. He would break out into hives that would puff up his face and his eyes were almost swollen shut. He couldn't eat strawberries and had to have a foam pillow, not a feather pillow. Eventually that stage went away.
  
• when I was leaving for Mexico, taking me aside at the airport. I don't remember his exact words but he said that he knew that after this I wouldn't be coming home to stay but I would always be his son and I would always be a part of the family no matter where I was. It was not like him and I was pleased. I am more pleased now, remembering it.
  
• as a man my children don't quite recognize. He was stern and strict with us and that is how they remember him. I guess the difference is that I, like Sharla, always knew he loved us. No matter whether he was angry with us or upset with the democrats, I knew that nothing could stop that love.