Memories Week #4

1. Tell of a sound you know about from their childhood.
2. Did they have a bicycle? What was it like?
3. Did they have a favorite TV show as a child or youth? Describe it.
4. Describe their first crush (or any other romantic relationship). What was she/he like?
5. Describe a childhood Christmas for them.

"1. Sound? Not a clue.
2. Bicycle in their childhood? Mom in Canada. I never heard her talk about one so I doubt it. Dad as an adult before he was married bought a car and let his parents use it while he rode a bicycle. In fact he was hit by an automobile and ended up with a broken leg.
3. TV show? Come on I didn't have a favorite TV show in my youth. We didn't even get a TV until I was about in my teens. In their youth they hadn't been invented. Favorite radio broadcast maybe but I don't know what it may have been. I can remember as a youth listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio.
4. First crush. Dad? If he did he never spoke of it. Mom? I think she did but I don't remember hearing any particulars.
5. Childhood Christmas? I don't recall them ever telling me about what their Christmas was like. Based on their situations coming from large families and their families economic situation I can't imagine there were many frills as we know them."
-Marvin

"1. Favorite sound: I have no idea
2. Bicycle: I believe mom told me she never learned to ride one. They had a couple of horses or walked where they wanted to go.
3. Favorite TV show: None as a child, it wasn't invented. As adults dad didn't watch much tv (he couldn't hear it well enough to understand what was going on) Mom liked Maverick, and Gunsmoke. I don't know if she had a favorite.
4. Crush: Dad didn't talk about that sort of thing. Mom did like Mickey Taylor, I think that was his last name. She used to say that John Wayne reminded her of him. Mickey wasn't a member of the church and I don't believe he was really interested in the church. In Canada they had a lot of church dances. Mickey would go to those. Mom loved to dance.
5. Christmas: I don't recall dad ever talking about a Christmas as a child. Mom told me once that they used to pop popcorn and string it and put it on the tree. One day Grandma Gibson got after the kids for eating the popcorn off the tree. The kids claimed innocent of the charge. Come to find out Grandma's pet cat was the one that would bat at the strands of popcorn and eat it off the tree."
-Carla

" I remember mom telling of the sound of the chinook winds as they would come off the mountains and blow across the prairie and seem to go right through you. I also remember mom saying her dad always said, “You can call me anything you’d like, just don’t call me too late for dinner!” That’s kind of a sound. I just remember dad commenting how quiet everything went the day his brother David died. I’m sure it was because he was so focused on getting him to help that everything else was out of his consciousness, as he carried his brothers lifeless body down the hill.

As for bicycle I don’t think that mom ever learned to ride a bike. I remember her saying that she couldn’t ride one. I know dad was the one who helped us when we learn to ride, well at least me. He’d run alongside the bike and I remember when I got the balance thing and he let go and I couldn’t hear his work boots running alongside me, I lost my balance cause I knew it was solo and I got scared and stopped. He came running over wanting to know why I didn’t keep going, I was riding the bike. I told him and he said that’s how it was supposed to work. So he got me going again for the last time.

You younger ones are the only ones that this question would work with, as it has always been a part of your lives. As Marv stated, that wasn’t something we had as children. I was probably in school before we got our first TV, so I could answer for me, but there is no way mom and dad would have had a favorite TV show. They were adults and had at least 6 kids before they ever owned one.

As for crushes, moms would have to be Mickey Taylor in Canada. She said he wasn’t related to any of the Canada Taylors, but was from down in the states and had gone up there for work I believe. He was probably the first boy up there that paid her any attention and from the way she talked of him, she was smitten. In fact, being the new comer I believe all the girls were smitten, and mom was excited because he was interested in her and not her friend Laura that always got the boys up there’s attention. I remember mom telling of a girl in Sandy that really had a crush on dad. She was getting ready to go on a mission, so she asked dad if he would write to her. Mom and dad had just started dating at that point, so dad said he’d have to ask his girlfriend. She then slipped him a note saying, “If you have to ask the blonde, forget it!”

The only thing I remember mom telling of Christmas as a girl was a year that someone up there had brought them a whole load of cucumbers in the fall and so Grandma Gibson put them in a barrel in the cellar and made them into dill pickles. They all loved pickles and would just go down in the cellar and pull one out and eat it. She was so excited since she loved dill pickles, because they were able to enjoy them on Christmas that year. I remember mom telling of one year when money was really tight Grandma Gibson hadn’t been able to save a pumpkin for pie that year and so I believe she made it out of sweet potatoes, which they had on hand. I don’t think grandpa and grandma Kunz did much for Christmas, that’s another thing that has gained popularity in our time. In fact, I don’t remember grandpa and grandma Kunz hardly ever having a Christmas tree, so I’m pretty sure they didn’t do much while their children were growing up. Mom and dad I know worked hard though to provide us with a Christmas every year. Probably because it was something they didn’t get to enjoy as children. They probably only got simple gifts like clothing, socks, or something they needed."
-Eileen