Fleeting Memories

Her name was Gracie. In dog years she lived longer than most, but not long enough for those humans around her. She came to our home by way of Colleen Harrison, a good friend of Joy’s. We found out later that she had purchased Gracie from a dog mill. She had spent her first month or two in a cage some place in Missouri or some other God forsaken state. It was at the time that our daughter Rachel had been sent unwillingly to the rainbow bridge, and Joy and Colleen thought that it might be good for Julia to have a little dog for a few days. The dog was left at our house for a few days and she never went back to Colleen. We paid for her and then took her to the vet to work on many of the diseases that she had contacted at the dog mill. She was with Julia and the rest of the family until Julia went to college. She couldn’t have pets at college, so we, her parents, ended up with three gold fish, two cats, two dogs and a partridge in the pear tree. They all had names, but the only o...

When we first started getting computers at Orem High School, the library got about nine or ten just to be in the library. That was a really great thing. After a few weeks, this announcement ended up on the library door and on the main office door “Whoever is taking the balls of the mice needs to replace them.” The old mouse on the first computers had a ball that rolled around on the mat to make it work. After a good laugh in the principal’s office, it was determined that because I was friendly with her and was the newest administrator, I should go and talk to the librarian. She was a good friend. I explained to her that many people were taking her signs in a way she had not intended and recommended that the signs and announcements to each class be ended.   Another story coming to mind is about the marble machine that my father made. The marbles would run from the top down a zig zag route to the bottom. All the young grandkids really loved it. Many of us who were much older lo...

Carl James Stubbs 1964 I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the Vietnam war. It was called a war and people were shooting at each other, but no war was ever declared. It was really a police action, but it sure seemed like a war. Well anyway, because I was on a mission, I received a deferment. When I returned, I was listed as 1A and even though I was a college student, I was to be sent to Los Angles, California to an enlistment center for a physical and mental test. All of those going from southern Nevada were to meet at the bus depot one morning. There were three buses to transport us to California to a large facility for the testing. There were close to ninety of us on three buses. I wasn’t sure that I would even pass, because of my poor eyesight, and the orthostatic hypotension, which means I pass out if I stand at attention. The first night we were all put up in a hotel close to the testing center. I had someone who was supposed to ...