cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail., Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"We received a nice valentine card from Aunt Sara this week. Enclosed was Dick Leigh's obituary. I doubt there is one of of you kids who knew Dick. I didn't really know him, and yet he was always there in the background of my life. So I am going to use this week's Thoughlet to type out and share his obituary, and to tell some stories I that came to mind as I read about Dick Leigh and his life:
Dick and Fern Leigh and their kids have always been part of my life. Carolyn was about 5 months older than me, and thus in an older class at school. When we were little they were visiting out at the farm and Mom came in and we both held up our hands and said `Look!' (We had put a black olive on the end of each of our fingers and thumbs and so here were 20 black olives in Mom's face.) When I was a teenager Mom mentioned several times that there wasn't a significant age difference between Carolyn and I. Paul, I guess I wan't as mature as you are about the age stuff. I do remember the look on Carolyn's friend Linda Ence's face when I asked Linda on a date. Of course, Linda's little brother Clint was in my class at school. I never was brave enough to ask Carolyn out. After all she was a cheerleader. And a little bit wild. I remember the buzz when she wore white instead of red under her cheerleading outfit. A few years before this, when Cedar High and Cedar Junior High were both still down at the old buildings across from what was then `the college' and Carolyn and several of her friends were on the track, I was just coming back to gym from getting my allergy shot, and they called me over and were talking to me. There was some kind of comment about how cute boys are with a pimple in the middle of their forehead (I had a pimple in the middle of my forehead at the time.).
Dick was in charge of the Selective Service, which drafted kids to serve in Viet Nam. I remember getting a college deferment. I have mentioned the draft in prevous Thoughtlets (../9728.html and ../9904.html). I remember I was living at Phi Sigma Kappa, so it was my second year of college. I remember I had a physics test, and I was so caught up in the drama on television I could not study nor go to the test until I knew where I stood. I expect part of the reason I didn't go on a mission after my first year at the University of Utah was because I was worried about loosing my scholastic deferment and I did not want to go to Viet Nam. It all became irrelevant when my number came up 340. I remember how upset Ray Gardner was with me, saying something like `you always get all of the breaks.'
On my mission my second area was Ipswitch. This was just a few miles from Woodbridge and Bentwaters Air Force Bases. Steve Adams was flying F-17 jets in support of NATO. His wife, Ann, is Dick and Fern's oldest child. I skimmed my missionary journal and found the following entries:
Those four entries do not tell the story. Ann and Steve are wonderful people. I saw her a few years ago at a 4th or 24th of July celebration in Cedar City, and she introduced me to her daughter. Ann said, `Yes I know, I look just like I did when you knew me in England. However, notice how my daughter has grown up. You got us to get her blessed after she was born.' I don't remember that experience. I do remember how concerned I was as a teenager, working on the farm and in the meat packing plant during the summers, about my tan. I remember using some stuff from Coppertone, which gave you a tan without sun. I remember Ann telling me at a thing our families did together how `dirty' my tan looked. I remember never using that stuff again. Melanie, as I have watched you concerned about your tan over the last few years, I have wondered how much of what we do is tied to genetics.
I didn't know Tom Leigh that well. He was the same age as Tom Gardner and Jerry Carpenter. I believe he was in on the day they cut the cow off of the top of the Top Spot and were going to switch it with the horse on Dick's Cafe in St. George. They had told a lot of people it was going to happen, and so the police posted a patrolman above the `C' on Cedar Mountain with binoculars. They had the timing so good, he didn't look for a few minutes and missed them. They put the cow in a horse trailer and dragged Main with it, and finally put it in the cemetary with its head over the wall. Jerry got in a lot of trouble over this. I think he was the only one over 18.
Marie and Marsha were enough younger than me I didn't really know them. Marie was a year younger than Andrea, and Marsha was older. They lived a few blocks from the Shirts, and so they were in different wards when they were growing up. Still, I found the response interesting when I asked Andrea if she knew them. Small towns are an extended family.
I remember one time bad mouthing democrats, and having Mom, a staunch Goldwater republican, say, `You shouldn't say things about groups like that. Some of our really good friends are democrats.' I asked `Who?' and she told me Dick Leigh. I remember Mom telling me how Dick finally took Fern to Europe, and he had to leave and come home early because the memories were too hard. Once when I went to church on a trip to visit Mom, and we still owned the lot on Leigh Hill, it turned out to be Dick and Fern's ward. When I caught up with them in the parking lot, they both gave me hugs and greeted me like I was their child. In a sense I guess I was. Just this last Christmas, Aunt Sara was telling me about the nice rest home Fern had found for Dick up in Beaver after his stroke. One of the issues of raising you kids in Houston is the depth of concern, support, community, family, and friends is completely different than it is in Cedar City, Utah. Maybe the announcement of Dick Leigh's death struck such a strong cord in me because he represents all that is good about America, heros, freedom, friends, work, business, social life, and tradition. Quiet, in that he seldom said much, no question about his competence, and available if needed. I remember with fondness the freedom to go down Dewey Avenenue and to walk into the Dick Leigh's home, Wendel Jone's home, or Conrad Hatch's home, and feel like I was at home. Partly because Carolyn Leigh, Howard Jones, and Dale Hatch were friends, and mostly because they were my parent's friends.
What did I do this week? I forgot to check the chess game, and Paul you don't have to be so mean about my amnesia. Be kind to me, I'm just getting old! I felt sick most of the week. I was finishing up editing papers and the cover for the May 2000 issue of The Leading Edge. There was a report to write on the RC-SIG for the GSH newsletter. I went to a GSH breakfast Steve Henry spoke at, and we had a GSH Board Meeting. I have been nominated to be a contender for Secretary for next year, and I accepted the nomination. I had a nice lunch with Richard Barren, who used to sell for us at Landmark. He is in a position now where he might be able to help us make Continuum successful. Rhonda presented the CoReExchange meeting on Friday, reviewing company benefits. It was one of the best employee meetings we have had. Yesterday we spent the day working in the yard. Thanks Matt and Rachel. You both did a wonderful job. It wasn't near as easy as I remember last year, when Paul and Alma trimmed the trees. We did get a pretty big pile of tree branches out on the side lawn. I got as cut up on the arms as usual by the rose bushes (../9707.html). It is interesting how some of the rose bushes have thrived, and some, which were the biggest and the toughest, are now barely alive. There is a new baby rose bush, and none of the bushes have completely died since I last trimmed them two valentine's weekends ago. To me this growth and death reflects people, and how we let can let distractions keep us from seeing the bigger picture, and particularly from enjoying the spiritual fruit of life. Roses, like the heros of yesterday, men like Dick Leigh who flew 30 bombing missions over Germany, grow and die. My prayer is that as each of you are in your prime, your blossoms and your example will be pure and sweet and leave a positive impact on those who see and interact with you. The idea being that someday, someone will write or say, `I didn't really know them, and yet he were always there in the background of my life."