What Did I Want To Be When I Grew Up

Late fifties and early sixties were "changing times." ....In lower school, the teachers that inspired me the most were the ones that encouraged that spark of sheer desire to solve difficult problems....It wasn't but a few days into the (Computer Science) class before I realized this was the subject for me.  It was so fun, I forgot the time of day. I spent hours and hours hanging around the computer labs working on those first programs.

Continue reading
  1619 Views
  4 Comments
1619 Views
4 Comments

Dear Diary.......What a weekend!

Dear Diary.......What a weekend!
What a grouse weekend! I went to stay at Coralie's house for the weekend, after school on Friday. Mrs Bevan calls me her 4th daughter now as I spend more weekend time at her house than at mine! We all went down to West Beach Surf Lifesaving Club for the Surfie...
Continue reading
  538 Views
  3 Comments
538 Views
3 Comments

Love Lifted Me

Love Lifted Me In the late 1930's , when I was somewhere around seven or eight years old I had a friend named Jimmy Cargill who had an older sister about the same age as my sister Frances. Her name was Neva and, like Frances, she played the piano. But unlike...
Continue reading
  1249 Views
  2 Comments
1249 Views
2 Comments

The End of an America

The “Cat” climbed the steep West Virginia mountainside as effortlessly as if it were cruising across the plains of Kansas.   Its builders called it a Model D-8 but to the pipeline construction crews it was just a “Cat”.   Whatever it was called it was the most powerful crawler tractor made by...
Continue reading
  1115 Views
  1 Comment
1115 Views
1 Comment

A Cabin For Four

The spirit of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn was alive and well in my small hometown of Caney, Kansas during the `40's.  We boys wandered the woods, shooting at, but seldom hitting, small animals with our .22's.  Or, we climbed the “Shale Pit"; skinny-dipped in "Smelter Pond", and tested our courage...
Continue reading
  1228 Views
  2 Comments
1228 Views
2 Comments

On My Own….

On My Own….
  I graduated from Bear River High School in May, 1962 and had received two scholarships through my activities in Future Farmers of America (FFA).    One was a Union Pacific Scholarship and the other dealt directly with agriculture, as I recall.   My intention was to go to Utah State...
Continue reading
  1312 Views
  2 Comments
1312 Views
2 Comments

My teenage years were chlorine filled...

I spent my teenage years at the pool - swim practice every afternoon and 2 mornings a week before school and on Saturdays (when we were not at swim meets).  My goal was to represent the US at the Olympics - 1984.....  200 meter breastroke and either 200 meter Individual medely...
Continue reading
  1354 Views
  2 Comments
1354 Views
2 Comments

My Earliest Memory of How NOT to Act

My Earliest Memory of How NOT to Act
              We lived on Rockland Street in Natick, Massachusetts.  I was the youngest of the first half of a large brood of Cormiers.  Because there were four other children ahead of me, I learned to avoid being disciplined by paying attention to what was meted out to my older siblings.  But, one particular day,I was in...
Continue reading
  1488 Views
  6 Comments
1488 Views
6 Comments

Bits & Pieces continued 2 - Growing Up on a Turkey Farm

Bits & Pieces continued 2 - Growing Up on a Turkey Farm
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Turkeys and noise - When turkeys hear a noise almost the whole herd will all gobble at once.  (Click on the audio above to hear the turkeys).   Growing up on a Turkey Farm in Moroni, Utah Normal 0 false false false...
Continue reading
  5253 Views
  3 Comments
5253 Views
3 Comments

Seeing is Believing

Seeing is Believing
Seeing is Believing                   In the late afternoon of a hot summer day, a friend and I were enjoying the shade of a huge oak tree while we watched the heavy traffic speed along the highway.   We were absorbed in busy conversation when we noticed a car reducing its...
Continue reading
  1287 Views
  0 Comments
1287 Views
0 Comments

A Trip to the Molasses’ Still

A Trip to the Molasses’ Still
A Trip to the Molasses’ Still   The smell of wood smoke filled the air.  It seemed to have some peculiar drawing power, which caused my curiosity to be aroused.  I gave in the urges to find where it was coming from.  Finally, I spotted the place and on arriving at...
Continue reading
  566 Views
  0 Comments
566 Views
0 Comments

Moving Out of Cades Cove

Moving Out of Cades Cove
            Moving Out of Cades Cove                    It was the day of our first move and everyone was busy getting their belongings together.   My few homemade play things were fondly stored in a badly worn black satchel.   The main articles of household furnishings...
Continue reading
  1661 Views
  0 Comments
1661 Views
0 Comments

My First Job

My family consisted of 10 kids. It wasn't easy for my parents to offer allowances. But, they did whenever they could. So, I would take out trash or rake leaves or things like that to earn my 25 cents a week. Does that count as a first job? Or, I suppose...
Continue reading
  1507 Views
  0 Comments
1507 Views
0 Comments