Earth

When we were staying at Geoff Ponds cabin in October of 2011 I noticed a poem carved into the chimney at the side of the cabin and realized that it was a poem that Grandpa David Smith had written.  I thought I would put it on this blog and share it with any of you who haven't read it before.  It has a very profound meaning that seems to get more important to me as I get older.  I never got to know him as an adult and that is one thing that I wish I could have experienced.  I believe that he was a most honorable man, friend, husband, father and grandfather. A man of integrity and love of fellow man.  I look forward to meeting him on the other side and 

Earth

Perchance some people say of thee

I would that thou were not;

That thou hadst never found a place

Among the worlds of God.

And would that they had had the the chance

To fashion thee I know 

And set the tender grass and flowers

Where now resides the snow.

Plant daisies where the thistles grow

Have roses stead of rocks,

Turn winter into springtime

Change vernal equinox.

And cause they do not so

They deem it just to balk

I thank thee Lord that I am here,

That I've been blessed to know

In order for the ship to sail

The wind must first needs't to blow:

That things which often make us sigh

Are means by which we grow

And thus O Lord I'm grateful for

The two, both night and day,

For the deserts parching winds and sands

Which teach me how to pray.

And may I never be so small

That I would thee minimize,

But make myself to fit the mold

Which thou on earth devised.

David Smith, Idaho Falls, Idaho

In Kenneth's own words, part 17 (final post)

(2001) A Tragic Year

Evan bought a cabin up at Wanship Utah and all the family could go up and have a wonderful time. On August the 5^th 2001 he was out with his children and they stirred up a nest of wasps and he was stung to death, he only lived about 5 minutes. In the meantime we were worried about Jeanne because we found out that she had cancer and she fought it for two years. It was a very valiant fight. But she lost that fight September 5^th 2001. The strange thing about it was that both Evan and Jeanne died at 1:20 in the afternoon, exactly 1 month apart. Since then, it’s been a very lonely time.

I taught school down here. I received my graduate credits in Special Ed, so shortly after we got to Salt Lake, I applied at Jordan District and I was able to go from the various schools where they needed help in that field. I taught at Midvale Middle for a whole year, because they couldn’t get a teacher there, to take over the BD unit. Then I helped start the LD unit in Bingham High School and I taught there a lot over the six years that I subbed. I taught at all the high schools in the Jordan District and all the middle schools and a few of the elementary schools and I enjoyed every bit of it. Finally in 1991 I found out that I had Prostate Cancer and I had to have the Prostate operation and shortly after that we were called into the temple to work in the Jordan River Temple. I just got started there and then I found out I had to have a hernia operation, so I had to take a little leave while I had it and then I’ve been working steady since the spring of 93 and I’m still going there in 2004 at the end of this message which is in November of 2004.

(2004) A Wonderful Life

We’ve had a wonderful life. We have 30 grandchildren. Lana has six, Ron has 3, Valerie has 4, John has 2, Sheryl has 5, Evan has 2, David has 4, Mike has 0 and Emily has 4. We have 9 great grandchildren. Valerie has 5 grandchildren, Lana has 3 and Sheryl has 1. We enjoy our family it’s a wonderful experience to visit with them. Ron has a wonderful new wife, Kathleen Brady and they were married in the temple and she has 4 children and 5 grandchildren and of course he has 3, so it makes quite a family for them. We recently had Thanksgiving dinner with them and she is a wonderful cook. She is a wonderful addition to our family. I have had a good life; I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. Most people say they would like to live their life over again, I don’t think I would, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve had and that is good enough. I’m looking forward to what is beyond. I don’t know how long but I’m looking forward to enjoying life up till the end. I recently had heart surgery and I have to look forward to a aneurism in my abdomen which they will correct in a couple of weeks and I hope everything goes well there (It did). I still have a few things to settle in life, I haven’t got my farm settled the way I’d like yet but I hope to do that in the next week or two. I have some regrets, not that I can correct now, because it’s in the past, but I hope eventually I can overcome them. Our family is growing. Out of the nine children, eight of them have been through the temple. We were able to buy a home here in Salt Lake, in 1983 but we didn’t move down until 1986. Evan lived in the house and made the payments until we were able to move down. It’s been a nice home in a nice area we have wonderful neighbors and friends. In fact we’ve enjoyed our associations in what ever ward we’ve lived in whether it was in Yreka California or Hamer or Yukon, Idaho or down here in Riverton Utah. We’ve lived here for 16 or 18 years, I can’t remember how many in the same home. We’ve been through six ward changes and three stake changes but we’re still going strong!

In Kenneth's own words, part 16

I will now summarize some important information about our children that I didn’t cover before this point in my history.

Lana, our oldest daughter, graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition. She completed training as a Dietitian, while living in Denver Colorado, where she met and married Don Shultz. He had served as a U.S. Army nurse during the Viet Nam war, became a Physicians Assistant and currently owns his own ambulance service. He had been a Lutheran but he joined the church after he met her and he said he hadn’t had a moments rest since because they made him Elders Quorum President shortly after he was a member and then he went in the Bishopric for several years and then on the High Council and now he’s Bishop. They have six children, Jason, Jared, Darcie, Dianna, Darren and Daniel. They also have 3 grandchildren.

Ron served an honorable mission In the New York Cumorah mission. Following his return he served in the Navy during the Viet Nam War and he met a girl, originally from Cannes France, but he met her while he was stationed in Boston. Her name was Danielle Favay and they came out and were married in the Salt Lake Temple. Then he finished his naval service and came out to Salt Lake to live. He had a good job with a computer company and as Danielle knew several languages she got a job with Beehive Machinery International and so Ron got a good job there and he made good money and he was very successful for a number of years but they finally ended up in divorce. He later married Kerry Ferguson, and they had 3 children, Tyson, Justin and Kristin. Unfortunately that marriage failed as well. He has since married a wonderful woman named Kathleen Brady and they are very happy.

Valerie graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation Therapy where she met her future husband Darel Nakai a Navajo, and a wonderful man. He served this country as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Viet Nam war. He returned from the war and graduated from BYU with his bachelor’s degree in Accounting and received an MBA from Utah State University. He has been in the Stake Presidency twice and on the High Council and in the Bishopric. He currently works for Northrop Grumman in Layton Utah. They have 4 children, Maureen, Melissa, Madeline and Edmund. They also have 11 grandchildren.

John moved to Salt Lake for a few years and became a Journeyman Drywall finisher and made good money until the housing bust in Salt Lake in the late 1970’s. He then moved back to Hamer and got a job as the new Janitor and bus driver for the Hamer Elementary. That is where he met and married a girl by the name of Tammy Anderson and they live in Hamer, in our old house up there they eventually bought it. They have two girls, Kelsey and Kylei.

Sheryl attended BYU for a year where she met her future husband Hugh DeHart. She was able to have a wonderful experience, where she went to Switzerland with her best friend, Lisa Anderson for six months. She lived in Interlaken and she was able to get a job there and work while waiting for Hugh to return from his mission. When he got home, they were married. Hugh’s mother taught at the Y. Hugh currently works in Sales for Wing Enterprises and is also serving as a Bishop in their ward. They have 5 children, Matthew, Adrian, Dane, Heather and Devin. They also have 1 grandchild.

Evan was a very independent person. He never wanted any help and he made his own way, pretty well. He worked for several people in our area (Hamer) and then he moved to Salt Lake and started with Larry Miller, when Larry Miller first started in the car business. In fact he sold the first car for Larry Miller. They did very well. He later managed and was a part owner with Larry Miller, of a used car dealership on State Street in Salt Lake City. He married Dorothy Sinfield and they had one daughter Haley. They were able to adopt another boy Austin and they are both the same age.

David served an honorable two years in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission. He returned home and attended Ricks College for one semester where he met his future wife Andrea Hill. They both transferred to BYU and were married a year later. David earned his bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical (Design) Engineering and he has worked for The Boeing Company as a Flight Test engineer, ever since. He has served in the Young Men’s Presidency, Stake Presidency and High Priest Group leadership. They have four children, Nicole, Sean, Troy and Olivia. He’s done a wonderful job.

Mike graduated from High School and moved to Salt Lake and worked installing stairs and railings. He got a job laying carpet for Summers Carpets, where he still works. He has a side carpet business of his own. He is married to Julie Malstrom. He has two goats and two geese and three cats.

Emily was able to get a year of college in while we were on our mission. She later married Glade Walker, who is a wonderful person. He wasn’t active when she married him, but he became active and they went through the temple a year later. They have four children, Connor, McKenna, Riley and Ethan. Emily works at the Copper Hills High School and supervises the nursery. Glade is an Assistant Manager for Smith’s Marketplace. They have a wonderful family.

In Kenneth's own words, part 15

(1982) Retirement and Mission

I retired from teaching in 1982. At that time they had an insurance agency there that had failed as the agent hadn’t been honest. He had been caught pocketing the premiums, so they fired him and they needed somebody to take his place. They wanted me to take over that insurance agency. I was able to retire, I had taught long enough and was due for retirement but I could have taught three more years. But anyway they wanted me to take it over so I did. It was a wonderful experience. I sold insurance and took care of the agency for five years and then I just got it on its feet where it was making good money and the Bishop called us on a mission in the fall of 1985. We were called to the Oregon Portland mission. We left on our mission the first of January of 1986. John and Tammy moved into the house while we were gone and so we filled our mission in the Oregon Portland mission but we spent our whole mission in Northern California in Siskiyou County. A strange thing happened the mission presidents wife and I had been in the mission home together when I went out. When we first got to the mission home in Beaverton Oregon, we spent the whole evening going over old pictures and stuff, then in the morning, President Larsen sent us clear down to Northern California and mother griped all the way down. She said “If you hadn’t a been so friendly to his wife he wouldn’t have sent us so far away”. But anyway, we had a wonderful time there. We had so much fun that we felt guilty. We were on leadership and inactives and we visited all the inactive families, but we kept finding more that weren’t even on the records. They all wanted to visit with us and have us come out to dinner, but they were perfectly comfortable not being active. But we were able to activate a former Bishop and his wife. When we went back a year later, he was teaching the High Priests and she was Relief Society President. Anyway, we had a reason for going down there. I told you about Lamar Sayer earlier, anyway, we hadn’t heard from them for, oh, nearly 30 years. So we got down to Yreka and I looked up the inactive list and there was Lamar and Mary Sayer so we activated them. Lamar and Mary never really took a job in the church but they did become active and come to church. We didn’t have too much luck with a lot of the others. They were glad to have us come and visit, but they didn’t become active. One incident I’d like to tell about. We were told not to go to this family because, they were not only inactive, they had joined another church and didn’t want anything to do with our church. So, you know me, I had to go out and try it, so we went out to visit and walked up to the door and he saw my badge and he says, “Go away, I don’t want anything to do with you, stay away from here we want nothing to do with the church”. So, I said, “Well what are you doing with all those wagon wheels you’ve got in the garage”. The garage door was open and I could see the wagon wheels. He says, “Oh I want to show you”. So we went around there and he polished those wagon wheels up and made coffee tables out of them and the axle part stood up through and he’d make a bowl out of it, and it was quite interesting. And so he showed us all about it, and he said, “Would you like some garden stuff”, “yes”. So we went out and he gave us carrots and tomatoes and cucumbers and really loaded us up and all the way out to the car he put his arm around me and walked out to the car with us and he says, “Now you be sure and come back when my wife is home”. And so it is interesting, you never know when the opportunity will come.

(1986) July End of Mission

We had such a wonderful time, like I say we felt guilty. Time went on and our mission came to a close and we had Mike come out and live with us the last three months of our mission and he was able to get a job out there and he attended church and we enjoyed having him. He’s a cheerful person. Anyway we finished our mission in July of 1986. We should have finished in the end of June, but anyway, we were working with a lady that was going to be baptized and so we didn’t want to leave before we baptized her so we stayed longer and I baptized her toward the end of July. And then we came home, and of course, John and Tammy were living in the house and she was expecting a baby and so we couldn’t move them out, so we moved to Salt Lake. I bought this house in 1982, but Evan was living here until he got married, about 1986 sometime about there. We moved in and lived here ever since. We went back to the mission field on a visit one time. A year after we had left and saw how everything was going there and just had a wonderful time, people were so glad to see us.

In Kenneth's own words, part 14

(1954) Summer in Salt Lake

I took 19 hours that summer and worked at Continental Bakery an eight hour shift. I started college at 7:00 and got through at ten minutes to four. It just gave me enough time to run down to 4th Street to the bakery, get my whites on and get ready to start at 4:00. Then I worked from 4 till 12. Then I’d come home and I’d try to do a little studying, get some sleep and be ready to go to school again at 7:00 am, which I did all that summer. We had Saturday off; I didn’t go to the bakery until 12:00 Sunday morning and worked till 8:00 am Sunday morning. So then I’d come home and take a shower and go to church for Priesthood meeting and Sunday school. It made it a little difficult, I still went to

church but I mostly slept through, I must admit. We had Sacrament meeting in the evening then and so by that time I was generally awake for that. But it was interesting because I was a High Priest at the time and our High Priest quorum had several of the professors from the University of Utah and also Aldus the President of the University of Utah was one of our High Priests. So it was quite exhilarating, so had I been awake, I could have really enjoyed that meeting. Any way, I completed most of my junior year at the University of Utah and then we returned home.

(1954 Fall)

We came back to Hamer and I was called right back into the Bishopric. Before we went to Salt Lake, in the summer of 1954, I had been the Principal at Roberts Junior High and Elementary, and I had also taught the music in the High School. So after we returned to Hamer, I transferred out to Terreton Elementary and taught there for two years and then I transferred back up to Hamer and I was there till I got my degree, finally in 1957. During that time Sheryl was born on August 22nd 1955 and Evan was born on January 15th 1957. Then they called me out to Terreton to be the principal of the elementary school for three years. We knew that Valerie was about ready to come in to regular school, we had her out at Gooding at the school for

the deaf. We had John out there for half a year. He was able to get by in regular school so we thought we’d try it with Valerie. She was an exceptional girl and she did very well. She was able to get along in regular school very well. Anyway, I transferred back to Hamer so I’d be there if she needed help, but she didn’t. Melvin Hansen quit his teaching job there and went to selling something. So I took his place at Hamer from 1960 to 1979. During that time we finished building the house, we put the whole farm in. That first year back at Hamer, David was born on November 17th 1960 followed three and a half years later by Michael on May 30th 1964 and finally Emily on August 14th 1967. Jeanne and I received an inheritance from the settlement of her fathers estate and so we were able to buy the other one hundred and twenty five acres which gave us two hundred and thirty acres.

Because Cooks wanted ten acres where the house was so I didn’t get that but I had two hundred and thirty acres which I still have and we made a wonderful farm out of it and it is still making fairly good money. In 1979, Reese Sanders retired and I took over as principal for my last 3 years. I served in bishoprics with five bishops during this time and I sat on the stand for twenty-five years and took care of all you kids in the audience. After that I was called to be a stake Heber Barzee.

In Kenneth's own words, part 13

(1945) Marriage

So long about the first of August, we started talking about marriage. So we got engaged on the first of August and set the date for December, when I’d be out for Christmas vacation and we’d have a little time. Well, mother Smith decided that we better get married right away, because Dale and Harlan were home from the service at that time. She wanted them home when we got married. Before we knew it the date was set for the 8th of August and we got recommends for the Salt Lake Temple. So we came down to Salt Lake and President Smith and his wife and Harlan came with us and so we got down here and the temple was closed so we had to go back to Logan. You had to have a recommend for each temple then. We didn’t have it but fortunately her father had already been set apart as temple President in Idaho Falls, so he got us in. There were fifty couples married that night and we got to the temple at 7:30 pm and didn’t get out till 12:30 am and my cousin Don Ellis, whom I had never met was getting married that night and Iris Peterson from the mission (I had met her in the mission). She was marrying a returned missionary there that night. It was just like old home week! So we were married that night, August the 8th 1945.

We stayed in the New Ute hotel I think it was, that night and then we came back home and we had an apartment on Water Avenue in Idaho Falls. I was teaching at O. E. Bell and selling cemetery lots after school at night and so we got by fine. I had my car paid for; I bought a car when I first got home from my mission, it was a 1941 Ford Sedan. That was another thing, I sold my car that I had before I went on my mission, so I could go on a mission, but the guy didn’t pay me until I got back. So I used that money and put some with it and bought a car. So I had a nice car when we were married and we got by fine and lived there in that apartment, a nice little apartment. Then along about, oh, the middle of April I was out to Smiths and his hired man had quit with the crop only half in. So he was desperate and he said to me, “You’re a farmer, why don’t you go out and put the crop in for me”. So after school and on weekends I finished putting the crop in and then he had nobody to run it, so I had to run it and I was there three years. I finished up that year of school and then I didn’t sign up the next year because I had to be on the farm. So three years later he finally sold the farm and bought the land out at Hamer. He bought Joe Landins big section. Ab Landin wanted to sell his One hundred and twenty acres that was adjacent to it. Well, President Smith talked me into buying that hundred and twenty, so I went up to Dubois and saw Harry Horn and he was getting loans through Connecticut Mutual. So I got a $10,000.00 loan and paid for the place.

During this time our oldest daughter Lana was born on May 14th 1946, nine months and 8 days after we were married followed by Ron, fifteen months later in August 16th of 1947 and Valerie 19 months later on March 19th of 1949 and then John about twenty months later in July 8th of 1951. We moved out to Hamer in 1949, and the first night we went to church out there, they called me to be ward clerk. A short while later, in 1951, I was called to be the Bishop and I served until 1954. We were living in the teachers apartment behind the school there in Hamer, and Reese Sanders saw me one day and he says, “Schools getting ready to start right away and they need a teacher at Roberts, why don’t you apply”. So I did and I got the job. I was Principal of the junior high and taught the music in the high school. So I drove back and forth to school and we, in the meantime, were working on getting our house built on the farm. We had the basement dug and had the basement floor poured and the walls up on the basement. So we decided to just go ahead and finish the house. We built the house including the roof, but we didn’t finish the upstairs. We built a double car garage and everything but we lived in the basement and finished the basement. Valerie was born with a hearing loss and so we were taking her to various places. Mother was taking Valerie down to the University of Utah for some special training during the summers and she went down for two summers alone and the third summer she said she wanted me to come with her. So I asked for a release from being Bishop and we moved to Salt Lake in 1954 and I signed up for school at the University of Utah.

In Kenneth's own words, part 12

(1944) Back Home

I went to work for Ren Ward sorting potatoes on a potato sorter for a while. I worked for him all that summer. I was drafted the minute I got home, both Harvey and I were drafted, we went down and reported that fall, but they didn’t take me they took Harvey he had to go. But they sent me home and put me in limited service. Then they found out that I had been a school teacher and they figured that was war related and so they got me a job. That’s the only job teaching school, that I didn’t have to look for. So I started teaching then in Idaho Falls at O.E. Bell Junior High, and I taught there for two years. Three or four years before a lot of kids had quit school before they graduated from the eighth grade. Well the Superintendent passed the law that all the kids had to pass the eighth grade so they rounded up twenty-five of those mavericks and that is who I taught that year. Some of them were fairly old. Some of them were nearly as old as I. Some of them were eighteen, nineteen, but they all had to finish and I got them through the eighth grade. Some of them hadn’t learned how to read very well or do math. It was fun, really fun! I had one incident. One older boy, he must have been about twenty, because he had two younger brothers that were in the same group. I had to let them out, (a lot of them out) for five minutes in the morning and five minutes in the afternoon so they could go across the street and smoke because they couldn’t smoke on the school grounds. And he was one of them, Sam Waddell. And I’d like to digress just a moment, because later on when I was down here (Salt Lake, Utah), during my junior year at the University of Utah, during the summer, I was working at Continental Bakery in the evenings and going to school during the day time. And I came out and the rear wheels were leaking oil. So I had to take it down to Streeter Chevrolet and oh they needed a lot of work all the gaskets were gone, they had to fix it up. So when I went to pick it up, the bill was only $11.00 and I said, there is something wrong here, this isn’t right and they said, you’ll have to settle that with the head mechanic, he made out the bill. So I went back to see the mechanic and it was Sam Waddell and he said, I’ve been waiting all my life to get even with you. He said, “You changed my life. You made something out of my life”. He said, “I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write and then you took me in and taught me all those things. So, you didn’t charge me and I’m not going to charge you. That’s just the cost of the gaskets”. So, I got that done and it sure helped; besides we didn’t have a great deal of money. Now, getting back to where we were, I taught that year, that group and the next year, I taught regular school. I taught seventh and eighth grade math in O. E. Bell Junior High.

(1945) Courting

During the summer, I met my wife, Jeanne Adeline Smith. This Glenna Crowley that I told you about in Detroit had come home, to Idaho Falls, because her husband was in the army and had been sent overseas. So he got sent overseas and she went home. So she invited me over for dinner and invited Jeanne over also. I was engaged to a Jean Gerard right after I got home from my mission. I met her and we were engaged for about three or four months and then we got to discussing having children and she didn’t want children. I met with her one night and I said, “I wonder if we ought not break off our engagement for awhile until I can get better established and we can see if we still feel the same way”. So we did and I got my ring back. So then I started going with a girl by the name of Mauna Rich, her father was Stake President in Black Foot. But anyway, I was going with her when Glenna invited me over to dinner and Jeanne was there. I took her home from dinner and we talked awhile and were able to get better acquainted. I knew the Smith family, because Lamar Sayer and I had been very good friends and his father was in the temple presidency with President Smith. The temple wasn’t opened yet, but they were already set apart as a presidency. So I was there with Lamar several times, and David Smith and his wife would come over and visit with the Sayers. So I knew them and I taught Joanne and maybe even Laprele, I can’t remember which, in school. And I knew Kay, because our auditorium was better than the high schools, so the high school would hold their entertainment in our gym/stage. So I met Kay, that way. But I had double dated with Carole and Forrest, so I knew them. And I also double dated one night with Lowell Bishop and he was with Rayola. So I knew Rayola. But, anyway, I knew the family fairly well. And then I went about my business. I was painting for the school district that summer and so I was busy and had a good job and a good place to live and Jeanne called me two or three times and had me come out to dinner and various things and we got to going together.