Search This Blog

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Pebble


Shawn Trauntvein
Friday, January 23, 2009 4:24 PM

The Pebble
I remember going on a hike up behind Kenilworth with Dad. I was small. I remember hiking to where there was a large metal object behind a chain link fence. He explained that this was a fan, and that a large ventilation shaft went down. The fan was large, and somewhat interesting in itself. But besides that it did not seem of particular interest. You could not really see the shaft opening, because it was enclosed by the fan, but the shaft was apparently fairly deep—you just could not tell that. What made the fan and shaft more unique and interesting, was its ability to preserve life of the miners in an otherwise inhospitable environment. But the mine had long been closed, the fan was not running, and all we had was a description or story. Then, I remember him finding a pipe sticking out of the ground, a little off to the side and outside the chain link fence. The pipe was about an inch in diameter. We could look down the pipe, but there was not much to see. He then picked up a small pebble and dropped it down the pipe, and told us to listen. As I began to focus, I could hear a slight pinging sound. The pinging sound resulted as the pebble bounced back and forth on the walls of the vertical pipe, gaining speed, and the pitch growing higher as it fell far below. The pinging wasn’t loud, but if you were attentive you could hear it over the breeze. As we listened, eventually all of the sound would just stop. We all took turns finding a good pebble and dropping them down the pipe. In each case we struggled to get our ears near the pipe, and as we listened we could hear the pinging for quite a while, and though I was too small to translate time into distance, the evidence was enough to trust his assessment that the pipe went deep.

This reminds me of Dad in more way than one. To many, he may not have seemed particularly interesting. You could not tell what his purpose necessarily was, unless he told you. As you learned about his work and what he did in the church, that made him more interesting. Still, there are other principals and other Bishops and Scouters. But what ran deeper than all of that was his testimony of the atonement and resurrection of the Savior, and his testimony of the restored gospel. You could not tell those in just looking at him, they are enclosed in him. But what has softened my heart, and added infinitely more interest, is as I have tried to crowd near him with my siblings, and be attentive and not distracted by the noise of the world. Then, as I listened and watched, I could tell from his actions, as he bounced back and forth making small corrections, and gaining speed, that his purpose centered on his testimony, and that it went deep—so deep that it would reach beyond the mortal, and into eternity.


Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 11:28:01 -0600

Shawn wrote: Kirsten asked us to send some memories of Dad over a year ago. I do not know if she was able to put together what she was working on. She probably already did, so you probably already have this. But as I was looking through old email, I found this and wanted to make sure he knew how much I love him, and both of you. Not much, just a bit of prose, but it represents a cherished memory and an aspect of his character that I have recognized. I hope I haven't spoiled something that Kirsten may have still been doing, but probably not as this is fairly old.


Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:40:48 -0600

Kirsten wrote: I only had four responses... so I haven't compiled it yet...

Sorry.

Kirsten

Shawn wrote: Oh, I am sorry. I was cleaning out some old email. I should have asked you first. That would have made sense to do that first. Maybe Mom can not show it to Dad until you finish.


Wednesday, April 28, 2010 3:53 PM

No biggie, Shawn.  I think it's good for dad to see.  I don't know if I'll ever finish getting the responses.  I'll try again after this weekend. 

Kirsten






Neighborhood Watch


Hi Leonard,
     
Colleen told me you have been checking up on me.  Thanks.  I am OK, even though I feel lousy.  Like Colleen said, when I am in the back bedroom, with the door closed, I don't hear the phone.  Hopefully, I will be able to get over this cold, or flu, or whatever it is by next week, so I can get back to the Temple.

Russ Bender

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

HeHeHe

With time, women gain weight because we accumulate so much information and wisdom in our heads that when there is no more room, it distributes out to the rest of our bodies. So we aren't heavy, we are enormously cultured, educated and happy. Beginning today, when I look at my rear in the mirror I will think, good grief, look how smart I am! Ladies If you agree with me, send it on. :D This made me laugh!


From Al to Myrna:

Silly older women are the result of such rationalizations. It is even true of younger women.

This does not apply to older and sophisticated gentlemen, such as Leonard and myself.

Love you as you are.
No strings
al

Al Pitts 
Manufacturing Engineering 
Ph. (206) 544-3098 
alan.r.pitts@boeing.com 
M/S 4F-14

Monday, April 26, 2010

Uncle Charles on Television

Grammy's Gleanings: Uncle Charles on Television

Shawn: I attached the PDF of his interview. (Myrna opened it and published it at this site and also at Grammy's Gleanings.)


Subject: Uncle Charles tells one of his experiences on Untold Stories on KUED 7

UTAH WORLD WAR II STORIES FEEDBACK

Logging to the database and sending email...
   ... successfully!
Thank you, Myrna, for your feedback!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Robbery


Saturday afternoon we left our home about 4:15 p.m. We returned home about 11:45 p.m. As we came into our home from the garage, we passed the back door, leading outside. I turned the knob on the door and it was unlocked.  I thought maybe I had left it unlocked, so I locked it. About fifteen minutes later, I checked the front door and it was ajar so I locked it and we went to bed. 

The next morning I was sitting in the front room reading and Myrna, my wife, called to me to come back to the bedroom. She told me that the reason the doos were  unlocked when we returned home was that we had been robbed. She showed me her drawers and how her clothes where sticking up and had been gone through. My drawers had also been rifled. She showed me  that my jar of quarters was missing. It was totally full. The burglars left the  decorative lid. 
When we realized we had been robbed, we called and Officer Wes Dudley came over. We were telling him that we could not see any evidence of a forced entry, when Myrna stated she could see how they got in. She pointed to the front door and we could see the groove in the door where they had pried it open. Then we could see the pry marks on the door casing and how the burglars had totally destroyed  the receiver.

Later on that morning, after a city police officer had gone, I went to my sock drawer and found they had taken three pair of Docker socks that I had purchased about a month earlier. They were black socks and had  Docker written across the toes.

On Monday, an officer came an took finger prints. Today, Monday the twelfth, we are to go over to the police station and give them our finger prints. Some of the prints Officer Burt Wright got looked pretty good. Hopefully, they will not be ours. The same night our house was broken into another home just three blocks from ours was also broken into and they lost a jar of money, a $100 bull and other items. A travel trailer was also broken into and many items, such as a flat screen television, were taken. As of now the only things we can see missing at our home are the money and the socks..

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Myrna and the Alligator Ride


From: OrCutter@aol.com
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:09:30 -0400
Subject: photos
To: mandlht@msn.com

Hi Myrna,
    I just thought I'd tell you that I will mail you the original of that alligator pic, plus any others Mom had that won't mean anything to my sister.  I cropped the one I put on FB because the only way I can get the pix onto my computer is to take a pic OF the pic with my camera.  I can scan the pics but can't seem to send them from that area of the computer to my Kodak Easyshare program that has an automatic upload to FB...... I need a computer geek! So the print I took was too dark.
    
Anyway, I'm sure there will be a few pics that are more 'your' family than 'mine' and I'll set those aside & send them when I get a few.  Unfortunately, I am prone to doing SEVERAL projects at once, which means that everything takes forever!  I tell myself to try and do one thing at a time & just get it done, but that never seems to work... something else always takes precedent over whatever I started...... but I'll get there eventually..... I hope.  I'll email the whole pic to you now also, but when I told my hubby that it was my "Grandpa Gilbert' at the end, next to Aunt Vivian, he said "you mean that black man"?  cause I couldn't see to lighten him up without loosing all the detail in everyone else.  I'll send it in a minute & snail mail it later.
   
Take care, hugs, Toni

In a message dated 4/14/2010 12:39:48 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, mandlht@msn.com writes:

I so appreciate the photos. Your digital copies are so special to me that I can't even express my gratitude. I am ever so grateful for your sharing them with me. 

It is so wonderful of you to think of sending the original photos to me. It is such a special gift. I only wish I had someway to repay the favor. I do have a scanner and I have Photoshop so that I can scan and send photos. I could even zoom in on your Grandpa Gilbert and send a photo of just him back to you after you send the photo to me. 

You are a thoughtful and considerate person. I am grateful for that. My offer still stands to pay for the postage on items you send me. I know this project is taking a lot of time and I appreciate all you do.

Toni Jackson 4/14/10
To: mandlht@msn.com

That's OK.... I'm just glad we got back in touch before I gave everything away.  I have a night-stand type cabinet of Mom's that was full of their photo albums & I just took the whole thing when the folks died.  I've never gone thru' all the stuff inside except for a couple of items.  The album I'm working on is just one of several, although it's probably the one with the most old time pics of anyone you would want to see. When I'm done with this one, I'll look to see if there are any others that would be of interest to you.  I'm happy to hear that you enjoy the pics.  My kids may appreciate it all more at some point, but at least you and I knew the people in the pics, and they really didn't know any of them except my Grandma Jessie just a little.

I'll try to finish up the album sometime soon......  Hugs, T.






Friday, April 9, 2010

Missing High School Paintings


Superintendent Kirk Wright:

I am writing this letter in response to what Chief Morgan said,”that any one who has a knowledge of the paintings should write a brief description of them, so it could be established that, at one time, the school owned them. Then he could proceed with the investigation.”

1. The Fallen Giant, painted by Floyd Breinholt was purchased by Sam Newell.
     It was a painting of a large pine tree that had fallen in the forest.

2  Two paintings by Salsbury: One was of two Indian horses, a colt and two women and a child and, two, a red rock scene, both purchased by Sam Newell

3. Ghost of Crede, painted by Dean Fausett and purchased by Sam Newell.
     It was a painting of an old mining town in Crede Colorado.                         

4.  Two paintings by Max Blain of Ephraim, Utah. Both paintings were     
      water colors. One was of a fall mountain scene with it’s splendor of colors. I don’t remember the subject   matter of the second water color.

5.  The VietNam Wall  Was a print of the VietNam Wall in Washington D.C.
      With some ghostly figures, with their hands on the wall.  Purchased by
      Leonard Trauntvein.

6.  Harward painting which was hanging in the counselor’s at the old high school, which is now the Juab County building.

7.  A mountain scene by Rosco Grover (1952) is still sitting on the floor, in the
      conference room, at the high school.

Mrs. Newell remembers when her husband, Principal Sam Newell, purchased the paintings by Brienholt and Salsbury. Leonard Trauntvein, and his wife, Myrna, remember when the Fausett painting was purchased. They traveled to Price, Carbon County, and picked it up. The two Max Blain paintings were chosen by Jim White and Leonard Trauntvein in Ephraim Utah. After they were framed Leonard traveled to Ephraim and picked them up. The VietNam wall print was purchased by Leonard Trauntvein when he was at a conference in New Orleans.

Sincerely
Leonard Trauntvein

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Shawn Talks About Burglary


I am so sorry that happened to you. (The second burglary.) I am glad you found the ring.

I should have strengthened your entries the first time this happened. What broke up, the door jams or the door? Usually it is the jams. We could make that much harder to break through by putting in heavier strike plates (thicker and taller) for the deadbolt and running 3 to 4 inch screws back through the jam right into the studs. Steel doors or steel core doors are also usually harder to break in, and especially if they have steel jams. You can also put a screw in the top of the frame of a sliding window, so that it cannot be lifted out of the track without removing the screw (since most windows are made to lift out of the track). If the front porch light was off, we could also do something to make that come on always  at dark, so that neighbors might be able to see them.

Shawn

Subscribe