cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Diane Cluff, Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, Forest and Amy Warner, Ivan and Chell Warner, and Eric and Renee Miner
"Things are starting to slow down just a bit for me. I'm still behind 111 e-mail messages, have not posted the last three Thoughtlets, have a dinning room full of boxes of stuff from HyperMedia Corporation, and a bedroom overflowing with boxes from my mission, Amoco, Mobil, Computer Genealogical Services, The Seismic Acoustics Laboratory, Landmark Graphics Corporation, Walden 3-D, Inc., Dynamic Oil & Gas Corporation, HyperMedia Corporation, Advanced Structures Incorporated, genealogy, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, professional publications, magazines with articles of interest, etc. We had the last PAIRS class today. There is a pot-luck dinner and final meeting tomorrow night. I more than ever think this four month course on relationships is something each of you should participate with with your fiancees prior to getting married. It costs $1,500 each and is worth every penny. I feel like I should pay the fee if you attend all the classes, and yet I worry you won't get as much out of it if you don't pay the fees and show your own commitment. I would appreciate discussion on this point. This course is taught all over the world, and yet I doubt if anyone could present the material as well as our instructor, Dr. Nancy White. I do have Federal Jury Duty tomorrow (which has been postponed twice), our first High Priest Group Leadership meeting Tuesday evening, work in Austin Wednesday and Thursday, Stake Missionary Training on Thursday, and catchup on Friday. And really, it does look like things are starting to slow down a little bit.
On the twenty-forth and twenty-fifth of June I received e-mails from my good friend Rick Hawthorne. They speak for themselves and he said I could share them with you in this forum:
Then on the next day I received:
I have not been sharing the address for Thoughtlets with very many people, and despite the fact they point out a few of my weaknesses as a Father and when I was a Husband I have been pleased with the comments made about this effort. Rick's comments were the most novel of these comments and shared a word which captures what I am striving to do. These Thoughtlets are a novel of my life, being written for you kids one week at a time. I was very pleased to learn Roice passed the Internet address on to one of Paul's friends at Sam Houston State University and to get her comments when she wrote and to me. I am particularly pleased to get comments from you kids about this effort, when we talk or when you send me an e-mail. Hopefully you will grow to find this set of Thoughtlets a useful resource as you sort out the emotions of your own lives.
For instance, I bet none of you ever knew I wore such well worn suits at some stages of my mission a convert would remember them 27 years later. Shortly after I left Ipswich, where Rick and Pat were baptized, I was riding a bike in Norwich and the entire inner thigh on both legs of the green suit wore through. The blue pin-stripped suit had worn out earlier and at that particular time I only had the one suit. This left me with no suit for about a week while I got a new one tailored. I borrowed a suit from a Zone Leader. Mom and Dad were having significant financial trials because of the shutting down of Nelson Meat Packing Plant 1 1/2 years earlier. I had earned quite a bit of money for my mission working at Pan American and at The Red Barn the summer of 1970. However, I was not about to spend anything I didn't have to in order to absolutely minimize the financial strain at home. Grandma Hafen sent my Bishop a check each month. Mom and Dad refused to ask for any help from the ward when the money I had earned in Denver was used up. Pride. I am sure this is one of the reasons I have been so tight with money all of these years.
As my mind wanders to The Red Barn and the summer of 1970 in Denver, Colorado, it focuses my mind on these Thoughtlets being a novel of my life and times. I have driven you kids by The Red Barn several times when we have been in downtown Denver. It is amazing how small decisions can make such a profound change in someone's life. I'm going to take a few minutes of your time and recall leading up to and then the summer of 1970 and the circumstances which ultimately led to the birth of each of you.
When I was deciding which college to go to I was not active in the church. Maybe because Dad went to Utah State University and maybe because my best friend Ray Gardner was going to follow his father's footsteps at The University of Utah or maybe because of the views of the hired hands in the meat packing plant, I had no interest in Brigham Young University. When the scholarships were announced I had Honors-at-Entrance Scholarships at Utah State and Utah. College of Southern Utah (now Southern Utah University) did not offer me a scholarship and so I decided to go up north. The question was whether to follow Dad's footsteps and go to the agriculture college or to go to Utah with Raymond and study mathematics and science. There was little hesitation on the decision since finances were similar in either place.
Ray and I joined the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity shortly after arriving on campus. I will save stories about some of the stuff we did for another time. The key is during Fraternity Rush we decided to join a fraternity and it came down to joining Sigma Kappa Epsilon (Dad's old fraternity) or one with some guys we were really impressed with. I strayed from almost-tradition and Ray joined with me. I was assigned Bob Otis as a big brother in the fraternity. The first quarter I got a 3.5 grade point average and it was the first (and only) time Bob got the Fraternity Big- Brother/Little-Brother Scholarship Award. He was estatic, because he is a good student. Bob wanted to do something to help me and he talked me into going over to his department (Geology and Geophysics) and applying for the most prestigious scholarship in the College: Pan American's four year full tuition and books scholarship. I applied and was accepted. I should also note I got a 2.5 grade point average the next quarter and graduated from college with a 3.07 grade point average.
The summer of 1969 I worked on the farm and in the meat packing plant, as has been described elsewhere. Because of the scholarship and in reaction to pressure from my Bishop, Dan Crawford, to take one of the missionary quotas keeping kids out of being drafted and sent to Viet Nam, I went back to Utah in the fall of 1969. Since Nelson Packing Plant was no longer in operation the following summer and since I had decided I really wanted to serve a mission, I took advantage of one of the Pan American Scholarship options and went to work for the summer in Denver. Pan American later became Amoco Petroleum Corporation. This is how I found myself in Denver for the summer of 1970.
I lasted two days before I was bored to death. Amoco didn't start work until 7:00 in the morning and they quit at 3:30 in the afternoon. I had never known there were such luxurious working hours. Because I knew money was tight with regards to serving a mission, because I had had to give up the last two years of the Pan American Scholarship to serve a mission, and because I was bored, I decided to get a second job. I choose McDonald's which was half-way between Security Life Building and the apartment complex on Corona Street. They turned down my application. I was hurt. However, ever the optimist, I applied at the next fast food place, which was across the street from Mammoth Gardens, the rock concert hall of Denver. I was accepted and this is where I met your Mom, as we cooked and sold hamburgers and french fries.
It is late, I've already written too much for this week, and I have to drive downtown early in the morning, so I will save the details of this part of the novel until next week. Hope you all have a novel week and enjoy each day one day at a time. I love each of you more than you can know at this stage of your lives."