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Show September 11,2013 i IMP&N QGO S TI M K S , . , 3 V the stories that now dominate our sibling reunions. Tommy was the older of the two and while he appeared quiet and innocent, I learned that he delighted in getting Casey to carry out his wild and usually dangerous ideas. He has ad-mitted to being the ring-lead- er and likened Casey to the robot in Lost In Space that would do anything it was commanded. He was like a little puppy, ea-ger to do Tom's bidding, and no amount of pain could divert his loyalty. So with a willing accom-plice, Tom thought up ways to inflict pain and not get in trouble. Like the time he con-vinced Casey to put a sleeping bag over his head and ride down the driveway on his bike. When Casey hit the apple tree and was cold-conke- d, Tom fell to the ground laughing so hard he lost control of his bladder. (Mom would not approve if I said he wet his pants.) Did this teach Casey a les-son? Sadly no, and that was only one of the many "tricks" Tom taught his younger brother. When they were 10 and 12, our parents went to Europe to get Brant from his mission and they employed teenager Gail Mat-thews to "babysit". They loved her because she spent hours talking to her boyfriend, which gave Tom and Casey time to get into all kinds of mischief. One day they were bored so Tom decided to siphon gas from the old Ford truck, not having a plan for it's use, but figuring the ideas would come in time. They both knew the power of gas because Dad used it to burn the pruned fruit tree limbs, keep the weeds cleared in the ditches, and start a good fire when camping. They got about a gallon in the cherry picking bucket and the ideas started to flow. Tom sprinkled gas on the gravel driveway then threw a match on it to create a small flame. That apparently wasn't exciting enough, so he poured gas on his and Casey's back bike tires, put a match to them and off they rode with flames chasing after. Gail was bliss-fully cooing with Jeff, oblivious to the arsonists in the front yard. We lived out in the farm country, and one or maybe two cars in an hour would go down the road, more likely it would be Nyle Wadley on his tractor so traffic was of little consequence to kids on flaming bikes. With that adventure extin-guished, Tom went for the big one. a match in the bucket. He put it in the road, which seemed the safest place, and threw the lit match into it. There was a whoosh and the flames went so high Tom was sure the house would catch on fire while black smoke filled the air and could be seen for miles around. That he and Casey didn't catch fire is a testament that angels had their work cut out for them. When mom and; dad got home, they were puzzled, as was Gail, as to why the lawn was burned in circular patterns in the back yard. The tell-te- ll signs of plastic army men had been removed after they met their demise in the "war", but one particularly large burn mark was never spoken of until years later when Pat took Casey to Ja-pan for a surprise visit to Tom. As they sat around the ta-ble, laughing at the tales of their youth, Pat got serious and asked if they knew what had happened to her first-editi- Ken and Bar-bie dolls. The two brothers be-came silent, exchanging guilty looks across the table and Casey solemnly told of Ken's untimely death as he was being burned to "Granny" continued on Page 9 by Geri Taylor However did my brothers ; survive childhood? Some of my siblings and ' I got together last week for a sort of reuniontell the stories again, ' I grew up with a sister and four brothers ' who were typical boys. They : dismantled, burned and other--' wise destroyed anything they got their hands on, Of course, this is from a girls point of view so I'm sure they would argue their transformation of toys, etc. were an improvement. They also learned how to fix things so ' mom wouldn't find out they had broken them. The exploits of the two youngest brothers were most definitely inspired by their older ones, even though neither Tom nor Casey were born when Den-nis set John Swensen's dairy barn on fire, and they were way too young to remember a BB Brant shot into the quivering flesh of the steer pinging onto the plate during Sunday dinner. I just know they didn't get their crazy ideas from their sisters, at least not from me. We were all adults before hearing of the many "adven- - tures" of the Monson brothers and marveled that either one , of them survived childhood. I know our parents went to their '. graves never knowing most of - ii umrni pi minimi ' i" ' '. 'i1 ri ;T"rr-p r": t t " "' :.'' Grant William Ellis April 27, 1944 - August 26, 2013 x ' ' v. - - -- 1 ii loved fishing at Utah Lake and Strawberry Reservoir. Many thanks to the staff at Danville and their many years of love and support of Grant. You were family to him, you are special people. Thank you. Before Grant's dad died, he went a lot of places with the Senior Citizens, like Hawaii. Grant had many friends and always remembered the ; "oldies" of Pleasant Grove when they passed on. Grant set a great example for us all to follow, never complain-ing and taking what he got in this life and doing the best he could. He was preceded in death by his parents and older broth-er, Max Ellis. He is survived by broth-ers, Louis Ellis and wife Bertha Ellis, Don Ellis and wife Arlene Ellis, nieces and nephews, Jimmy Ellis, Joy Ellis Sidwell, Cindy Larkin, Tammy Ellis Rowan, Carol Ellis Zierse and Becky Ellis Marshall. Graveside services were 'j held Tuesday, September 3, : 2013' at 11 a.m. at the Pleas- - ; ant Grove City Cemetery, 500 North 100 East, Pleasant Grove. nally found the place that he fit in and was happy. He loved to work, collect pop cans, have a cup of coffee with his friends, and best of all, sweep the floor at the P.G. Pool Hall for a beer and to talk with friends. He injured his shoulder and was unable to put his fly-ing saucer ride up himself at the carnival. He was lost. He joined up with Danville Em-ployment and Care and was able to find some work. He later had heart prob-lems and was told he would die if he didn't stop drinking and smoking. He quit it all, no more pool hall, beer, smokes with friends, and he stopped walking around. That is when people started missing him. But, still he was there, you just had to find him. We miss his smile and good attitude against a lot of odds. The older Pleasant Grove City Police officers would watch out for him and give him rides when he needed one, even put him to bed. What great people they were to help him. That kind of service is not seen much anymore. Grant Grant William Ellis "Buddy Grant" Grant William Ellis, 69, of Pleasant Grove passed away Monday, August 26, 2013 in Lehi. Grant was born to Del-be- rt James Ellis and Marjo-ri- e Blood Ellis on April 27, 1944. He grew up in "Monkey Town" Pleasant Grove and ev-eryone from Pleasant Grove knew Grant and loved him. He was the town Icon, al-ways seen walking the streets and offering everyone a smile and a "Be Pretty Good". .The love of his life was the Melen-de- z "City of Fun Carnival." He loved that job where he fi- - Raising Gardens and Families V Y: k i Apparently our garden has become a bit of a community conversation piece. It's fairly easy to spot. If you are driv-ing on the East side of town between the Battle Creek and Grove Creek canyons, it's hard to miss. In fact, it's come up on multiple occasions with mul-tiple people, almost always in a positive way. Which is ironic for two reasons. First, we never set up to make it an example, and second, it almost didn't happen. Both my wife and I were raised in families that had big gardens. I remember being about 14 years old when my parents decided they were go-ing to have a garden. We 1,700 square feet. For some families that's a small garden. For our family of three kids it was huge. My dad or-dered several yards of top soil and it was my job to spread it around. I then got to oversee the layout of the garden and the planting. We put in the usual vegetables; rows of broccoli and cauliflower starts, lettuce, car-rots, radishes, 10 tomato planxs and too many zucchini plants. "A beginning gardner plants two zucchini plants, because he thinks one might die. An experienced gardner plants one zucchini plant, be-cause he knows it plenty. A master gardner doesn't plant any zucchini plants, be-cause he knows he can get all the zucchini he wants from the beginners and the experienced gardeners." We watered our garden throughout the summer and I remember the pride that I had when we used my produce at the dinner table. Of course, I also remember my dad correct-ing me when the carrots came up and the rows zig-zagg- all over and were about two inches apart. But that was the point of learning. My wife's family also had big gardens growing up. They were more experienced than we were so their harvest was a lot more consistent. Being the thirteenth of fifteen children, her family was also a lot bigger than mine. Her memories are of hoeing bean rows; knowing that "Bliss" continued on Page S by Rodney Bliss "I noticed your garden is com-ing in well." "Huh?" "You live in the house with the big garden on the side, right? The one with the 'A Frames' holding up the beans?" This might not seem like a strange comment if it was com-ing from one of my neighbors, but this was a conversation with one of the business own-ers in Pleasant Grove. Although we've been friends for years, I had no idea he even knew where I lived. Don't Call Me Old l"' ";'.'-- ' J s It- , I ' ' i '. i ! I I V - muni -- ' J in mil tively short. I have my religious convictions, and those seem to solidify as I get older. I lift heavy objects by bal-ancing instead of sheer muscle, but that is mostly because all my muscle was sheared. I don't know anything more about rear-ing children than I did before I got them, except I am darn good at making bottles and burping babies. I know to pay tithing and taxes first, then bills, and then buy a perennial or two for my garden, and that brushing one's teeth is not really as extracur-ricular as the film strip led me to believe. A few more things I would like to have passed on, in no particular order. I would like my kids to have learned a few useful things just by living with me. Things like... Put grampa's stuff away, and then teach your kids to put grampa's stuff away unless you want to keep buying stuff. It's best not to put much stock in what people say. Everyone talks. What they do and who they are is much more impor-tant. You can't rescue anyone who doesn't want to be rescued. Referencing "Saturday Night Fever" is lost on the young. Whether it's Chef Jacques Pepin in New York City, or Chef Boyardee in the kitchen, time spent with those you love is yummy. Old is relative. Don't base the worth of someone old on whether or not they can pro-gram their own phone. Most of all, age has taught me not to go too fast, that being kind to people is something that matters more than having to be right, and that the skills you de-velop while apologizing to peo-ple will never be time wasted. Everything else is secondary. Now, let's warm up a can of mini-ravio- li, I'll go get my teeth, and we'll boogie to the BeeGees. by Davison Cheney I am older than I had an- - ticipated I ever would be when I was in high school, where I was young, beautiful and wore a size 32 swimsuit. Frankly, other than the young, beautiful and size 32 thing, I find that I don't care about aging as much as I thought I would. Don't get me wrong ag- - ing bodies are for the birds. Be-- ' lieve me, there was a time when j. it didn't take me the entire Walk- - ing Dead commercial break to i bend over and retrieve a baby pacifier from under the couch. No, what I mean is that be-cause I am old, there are things about which I would no longer give a hoot. Not incidentally, I made a deal with my sister years ago that if I ever wore black socks with anything, she would help me buy the farm. For her part, j the catalyst was hair dye; If I ever saw her with roots half an inch or longer, I would do the same for her. Now that both of these happen on a regular basis, we should follow through with our pledge and send each other to our collective maker, but neither one of us cares! Priorities have changed. Nor do I care that I either wear, or in turn don't wear, the most stylish of clothing. If it was good for the golden age of disco for getting down in funky town then it is good for generation I was the guy who turned up the collar of his Lacoste Polo shirt. It was just the right shade of pink, which complemented my stylin' tan. Skin cancer? I'll be dead waaaay before that, the young me thought, so pass the Ha-waiian Tropic oil and play that funky music, white boy. In my defense, I was a moron. What I know now that I didn't know then a primer for those who are aging or think-ing about aging, or not thinking about aging but doing it any-way. Now that I am five-is- h years shy from ordering from the senior menu at Denny's, I can't think of much in the way of advice for anyone, but I would like to go back in time and smack some sense into me at age 22. If I recall, I thought I knew just about everything then. I knew what my signature would look like when I was asked for an autograph. And I knew there would always be money. (Pause for hysterical laughter.) Currently, the list of things I know for certain is rela- - Senior News Pleasant Grove Jacobs Senior Center, 242 W. 200 S., Pleasant Grove Activities Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Bingo Friday at 1 p.m. Movie Monday at 10:30 a.m. Exercise Class Friday at 10:30 a.m. Exercise Class 1st & 4th Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Health Clinics MENU Thursday, September 12 Pork Rib Sandwich Friday, September 13 Roast Turkey Monday, September 1 6 Chicken Alfredo Tuesday, September 17 Macaroni & Cheese Wednesday, September 1 8 Chicken Sandwich Lunch served promptly at noon. Call between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to make appointments (801) 785-28- 18 Suggested $2 donation. Meals funded by State of Utah Dept. of Human Services, Mountainland Assc. of Gov., and Pleasant Grove City. Call the day before for reservations. |