again this week

As I drove down hwy 14 this afternoon I was afraid of traffic and congestion that would be caused by the fire that has been burning in thea area. It was really interesting to see all the copters and planes dumping the pink stuff. At one point I witnessed a copter with a long cable and flares attached dangling from the bottom headed up the hill. I guess he was going to start a back fire with the flare to keep the fire away from Acton. To listen to the news, one would think that the fire was burning into the community....not so... just bad reporting. The fire was actually at the top of the ridge about 10 miles to the south. When I got to Grandmas, The fire had actually burned all the way around the north end of the valley from La Canada all the way to Sylmar.

This reminded me of when I was 6 years old. Our family had a small cabin in the Malibu hills that we would weekend at. I remember sitting in the car near the junction of the Ventura Hwy (Now the 101 Freeway)and Las Virgines Canyon road. We had been evacuated from the cabin and with the the fire at our tails we fled to the roadhouse (owned by Spade Cooley-another story). The fire came over the hill and burned towards were we waited and then suddently stopped. We all pulled into Melody's parking lot (resturant down the road) and had dinner. While there the owners came by to check on the customers. I met their daughter Melody (much older than me - she was 15). Her mom was real nice as well and after meeting her dad, we learned that he was a Mormon and a bishop to boot. They lived in Rudolf Valentinos house in the Hollywood hills and the Mrs. talked church with my mom. She told he to call the church and see if they would pick me up and take me to the Mormon sunday school. Wow, this was my first contact with the church and all because of the surrounding disaster. Eventually (six years later) the family was contacted by two stake missionaries (Elder Roberts -best friend don's dad, and Elder O'Rullian) and eventually baptised into the church.

Wow it is amazing how the memories come flooding back with just a little reminder.

As always, Me

this the week that was

JESSIE AND CAMMI CAME DOWN TO SPEND PART OF THE WEEK WITH NANA. THEY SEEMED TO HAVE FUN EVEN WHEN WORKING THE SNOW WEDDING RECEPTION. SUZI CAME IN WITH KAYLEE LATE SATURDAY NIGHT AND LEFT THE NEXT MORN WITH ALL THE GIRLS. THEY HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ATTEND THE OQUIRRH MOUNTAIN TEMPLE DEDICATION TO ROUND OUT THE WEEK.... HOPEFULLY THEY HAD FUN HERE IN CALIFORNIA. JAKE CALLED TO SAY ITS GETTING HARDER TO STAY CONSENTRATED ON HIS WORK WITH ONLY 5-6 DAYS LEFT PRIOR TO RETURNING HOME TO ST. GEORGE. I BET RAQUEL (R2) WILL BE GLAD TO HAVE HER MAN BACK FOR THE TWO MONTHS PRIOR TO THE BIRTH OF THE TWINS.

SHAWN MCINESS SPOKE IN CHURCH TODAY AND ENCOURAGED US WRITE OUR JOURNALS SO THAT THOSE WHO FOLLOW WILL BE ABLE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT US IN OUR DAY AND AGE. SHE READ FROM DAN'S FAMILY JOURNALS FROM THE CIVIL WAR. HERE WE ARE PRESENTLY LIVING THE HISTORY THAT OUR GRAND CHILDREN WILL BE READING ABOUT IN HISTORY BOOKS.

FLASHBACK JOURNAL ENTRY (DELAYED FROM 1963)
I WAS BAPTISED INTO THE CHURCH 29 NOVEMBER 1963 AT THE SANTA MONICA STAKE CENTER. SEVEN DAYS AFTER PRESIDENT KENNEDY WAS ASSASINATED. MOST OF THE MEMBERS OF OUR LITTLE LA CIENEGA WARD WERE MORTFIED AT WHAT HAD HAPPENED. IT WAS ALSO SIX DAYS AFTER MY 13TH BIRTHDAY. ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963 AT FIVE MINUTES TO ELEVEN WHILE IN ART CLASS AT PALMS JR.HIGH SCHOOL, JUST PRIOR TO LUNCH, THE PRINCIPAL CAME OVER THE P.A. SYSTEM AND ANNOUNCED THAT PRESIDENT HAD BEEN SHOT WHILE RIDING IN A MOTORCADE IN DALLAS TEXAS. TWENTY MINUTES LATER THE P.A. CAME ON AGAIN AND ANNOUNCED THE PRESIDENT HAD DIED. I DIDNT KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT THIS... I WAS NOT A KENNEDY PERSON AND HAD SUPPORTED NIXON IN THE ELECTION, HOWEVER LIKE MOST OF AMERICA, WE FOLLOWED THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY LIKE WE WERE OBSERVING CAMALOT IN REAL LIFE. MOST OF THE GIRLS AT LUNCH WERE CRYING AND I LIKE MANY OTHERS I FELT THE LOSS. HIS STRONG LEADERSHIP HAD TAKEN US THROUGH ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT SITUATIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY,(THE CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS) WHEN THIS COUNTRY CAME CLOSE TO A NUCLEAR HOLOCOST. HIS LEADERSHIP AND FACE TO FACE WITH THE COMMUNIST LEADER NIKITA KRUSCHEV CAUSED THE ENTIRE WORLD TO STEP BACK AND THINK ABOUT WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF LEVEL HEADS DIDNT PREVAIL. THE CRISIS ENDED AFTER ONLY TWO WEEKS OF STRESS. NOW OUR LEADER WAS GONE AND WE WONDERED WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT. PRESIDENT JOHNSON WAS NOW THE PRESIDENT. AS A YOUNG JUNIOR HIGH STUDENT I WOULD READ AS MUCH AS I COULD FIND OF THE ASSISINATION AND FOLLOWING INVESTIGATION IN THE YEARS THAT FOLLOWED.