Personal History (1982) - Page 8

... on and proceeded to give and piece together a robot that was two feet taller than the tallest member of my class. To see the finished product in full glory, you needed to stand on a desk and hold him by his shoulders. Mrs. Lewis then made the mistake of praising my accomplishment in front of the others, soon everyone was using her allotment of paper to construct their own friendly robots. Other projects included pictures made of seeds and berries, crayon artwork, snowflakes in the winter, and illustrated books of animals.

The year before, I had begun my acting career by playing the part of February in a school play. They dressed me up like a little heart and I paraded around only to dramatize my part with a few memorized words and a group song. But that little bit of theater had gotten into my bloodstream and drove me and my family to "try-out" for a greater role in the Davis High School musical "Music Man". Dad had been teaching there for a few years and was responsible for the scenery and acting, but the part of Winthrop was musically demanding and approval [for the role] had to come from the board director. Mom and I worked up a little song and dance for the audition and to our surprise I was chosen. We rehearsed [the play] every week and I had to leave school to catch the bus and ride alone to Kaysville. My fellow actors treated me like a star, and even my family let it go to my head. They had a series of songs prepared to praise and tease me. One of the verses went like this, "We're all so sick of Music Man, let's throw it in the garbage can." Music man was their first High School musical that was completed without remaining in debt. It was a great success and well accepted in the community. In the cast party, I was given a cake, a book of bible stories, and the signatures of all the loving case.

Third grade also brought with it cursive, Dad's "birds-n-bees" talk, and a wonderful little dog. Dad always had pets and so we were also blessed with many animals when we were young. We started with cats, but we also had dogs, frogs, lizards, and mice. Our first pet was probably a chicken that was kept in its's own little coop in the backyard. It laid an egg or two in its day, but it didn't have much peace with the neighborhood throwing rocks at him. Then we tried a black dog called "Blacky". He was young and full of energy. We kept him on a rope and that probably made it even worse. We were still young and we couldn't help but interpret his aggressive little barks and nips as being the acts of a ferocious and mad animal. We treated it as poorly as the chicken, and Dad mercifully gave him away. We tried frogs but one got lost and the other soon died. I even remember the heartbreaking funeral that was held at the side of the house. Two months before my brother's birthday, John turned five and was given a beautiful little dog, half Pekingese, and part Chihuahua. Dad had even brought him home in his coat pocket, he was so small. For some reason, John wasn't happy with that present and cried until he thought that it could ... Next Page