Finding Grandpa Mouritsen

My Grandpa Mouritsen died in the spring of 2000, a little over a month before I married Jeanell. He had suffered a stroke many years before that, and so all of my memories of him also included the halting way that he spoke following the stroke.

Grandpa's life was hard. His own father died of appendicitis, exacerbated by being hit in the side by a baseball, before Grandpa was even born. Just before he turned four, his mother married a widower 18 years her senior (could have been worse, Jeanell), and they moved from Bennington, Idaho to Draper, Utah, which is where Grandpa would grow up, very poor, and with a stepfather who didn't treat him well.

As a teenager, he was famous locally for his dog Tip, whom he had taught a variety of tricks, and who went everywhere with him. In the summer of 1934, Grandpa and Tip were in Idaho, where Grandpa was working with the sheep. Tip ate some poisoned meat that a rancher had left out. Seeing that there was nothing he could do, Grandpa shot Tip and buried him at the origin of Pruse Creek and Crow Creek, northeast of Montpelier.

Several months ago, my cousin Stephen shared a newspaper snippet from with me, and asked if I was aware of the information the snippet revealed. I was not. The snippet was from the December 17, 1935 edition of the Salt Lake Tribune, and revealed that my grandpa had pleaded guilty to stealing a scarf.

Neither of us had heard this story, and initially it was nothing more than a curiosity, but as we looked at the dates and the information we had been told about Grandpa, we started to wonder if the version of events we had been told was not accurate.

We had had been told that Grandpa went to BYU on a football scholarship, but that the program was cutback after his freshman year, causing him to lose his scholarship, and since he did not have other means to pay for his schooling, he was forced to withdraw from school and work. Ultimately, he would only attend one quarter at BYU.

When we realized that the timing of the scarf theft matched up with what would have been the end of the one quarter he attended BYU, which was also when and where he first met my grandma, we wondered if he had instead been expelled due to the theft of the scarf. We imagined an alternate version of events where Grandpa had met Grandma, who grew up in better economic circumstances, and wanting to get her something for Christmas, but lacking the means to purchase anything, he resorted to stealing the scarf to give her, but was caught, and was expelled when the incident became public. As a result, he was never able to get a college education, and our fathers would also grow up very poor. This was our theory, but we needed to see if we could find some evidence for it.

I began to question whether he had played football at all, or if he had, if there had ever been a scholarship. I noticed that he had waited a year after graduating from high school before enrolling at BYU and that seemed odd to me, if he had in fact been given a football scholarship.

We started searching BYU's archives that were available online and found proof that Grandpa had in fact been a part of the football team as a halfback. And evidence that at least freshman football changed at the time in that they no longer competed against other schools. While no mention is made of the Depression being the cause of this change, it at least somewhat matches up with the story that football was cutback, causing him to lose his scholarship.

Still wanting to learn the truth about Grandpa's departure from BYU, I reached out to my friend Natalie (Tripp) Ipson, who works at BYU. She directed me to the university archivist, Cory Nimer, who I emailed, asking if he could direct me to any information about the end of my grandpa's time at BYU. Mr. Nimer was incredibly helpful and was able to find a letter my grandpa had written to Franklin S. Harris, who was the president of BYU at the time, as well as President Harris' response.

(Franklin Harris became the president of BYU in 1921, before he was even 40 years old. He was the first person with a PhD and the first monogamist to serve as BYU's president and is credited with transforming BYU from a glorified high school to a true university and his efforts to modernize BYU and promote academic freedom led to its finally being accredited in 1927).

The letters satisfied me that the theft of the scarf had nothing to do with Grandpa's departure from BYU. The story we've been told about the football program being cut and Grandpa losing his scholarship is probably the true one. Questions remain that we were unable to find the answers to. Did Grandpa pay the fine or did he spend time in jail? Did Grandma know about the theft of the scarf, and was the scarf to be a gift for her? And why did Grandpa sign his name "Glendale H. Mouritsen" (as far as I know, he does not have a middle name, and I have no idea what the H would stand for)? We may never know.

Researching Grandpa's life gave me a new appreciation for the trials he grew up with and the challenges he faced and helped me to know him in a way I didn't before.

Dating Jeanell (the high school years)

In the spring of 1993, Jeanell's relationship with my good friend Dave ended. They had been dating (or "going out") for more than a year. I don't remember exactly when or how it happened, but at some point over the next couple of months I became interested in her. It really hit home when I heard that she was interested in another friend and hearing that felt like a gut-punch. Fortunately, that relationship never materialized and at some point Jeanell and I became mutually interested. My one distinct memory from this time period was me taking a few friends home from school or some activity and strategically taking Jeanell home last. I don't remember much of what we talked about, but I'm pretty sure I said something like "I want to like someone, but there's just no one to like." (Mr. Subtlety here).

In the prior months, I had been kind of liking my friend and neighbor Ashley. I don't know that either of us felt that we were in a relationship, but we had been hanging out a little bit. That May was the series finale of Cheers, and as everyone knew that I was a huge fan of the show, Ashley had planned a Cheers. party to watch the series finale. But by the time the party rolled around, Jeanell and I were liking each other. I believe we did go to the party, but we didn't stay long.

In the early days of our relationship, we hung out with my friend Aaron and Jeanell's friend Amie, who had also recently started liking each other, mostly at Amie's house in the Old Church Subdivision. As school wound down, there was a Friday night that Aaron and I were supposed to meet up with Amie and Jeanell at Amie's house. But Steve Young was coming to Grantsville High School to make an appearance and Aaron and I were going to attend that first. But Steve ended up being very late and finally we left and at least to my recollection we never saw Steve. I've told this story before but this was the night that Aaron and I each told our parents that we were sleeping over at the other's house to give us some cover for a late night. We finally made it to Amie's, but Amie and Jeanell were not too happy with us because we were so much later than we planned. But ultimately they forgave us, and played for us the dedication they had done for us on the radio ("Turning to Journey now, and a dedication to Richard and Aaron, from Amie and Jeanell, it's 'Open Arms' on light FM100", I still have the recording).

We hung out for a while, but finally as it got later, Aaron said that we'd better go and we left (as it turns out, just in time), and headed to my house. As we pulled into my driveway, the headlights panned across our living room window to reveal my mom sitting in there, and knew something was up. Found out that someone (never found out who) called my house very late and asked if I was there, and my parents decided that meant I was somewhere I wasn't supposed to be or at least not where I'd said I was, and my dad had gone to look for me. But things timed just right to where we were able to say we'd been at Aaron's and had just left to come to my house, and were going to sleep out on the trampoline.

Later that night, Jeanell and Amie sneaked over to my house and woke us up on the trampoline, and that's when Jeanell and I had our first kiss (I was later told it was too forceful, but I did eventually improve).

Our relationship went pretty well over the next month or so, although we were apart for at least a week of that as I went to football camp and Jeanell went to Alta (the improv theatre camp that some of the Esteem Team members attended). At the beginning of July, I went with Jeanell and her family as her brother Cam participated in the All-State football game, but by that point, Jeanell had cooled a bit on our relationship and shortly after that outing, she broke up with me.

At that time in Grantsville, we did a 24th of July program each year, and since Jeanell and I had been dating, we were partnered up for some of the dances. Now that word got out that we had broken up, the program directors wanted to make sure we still wanted to dance together. We both said that we did and ended up getting back together anyway just prior to the program. That night was also the first time I remember being aware of Brad's interest in Jeanell, as he sent his little sister Rachel up to Jeanell to say "My brother thinks you're gorgeous!" while I was standing right there next to her. (While I didn’t appreciate it at the time, I have to admit this was a baller move. What was I going to do?)

Jeanell and I remained together the rest of the summer. At one point, I went to a football seven-on-seven competition at Snow College and at some point while there the conversation turned to if we would let our girlfriends drive our cars. I remember Brad saying "I would let Jeanell drive my car..," and Brad's friend Dano, who is also Jeanell's cousin, trying to cover by saying "yeah, G'neil Givens" (who was a few years older than us). I was not fooled but have laughed about that several times over the years.

By the time school rolled around again, Jeanell was again not sure about our relationship and she broke up with me again right before school started. At this point, I was angry, and went out of my way to ignore her and/or make it clear I did not like her. She ended up checking into the same Seminary class as me and when she first walked into the classroom, I loudly declared "Ohhh, this used to be a good class." Later, I was walking down toward the football field for practice, and she ran and caught up to me and asked, "Why do you hate me?" to which I replied, "Oh, I know, I should just love you."

Not too long after school started, there was a back to school dance (I'm not sure when school started that year, but the first football game was August 27 and I'm guessing this dance was either that same night or the next night. I do remember it was at the tennis courts at the elementary school). Still upset about the breakup, I was determined to have a great time and I did, dancing up a storm. I had bought tickets to Cats and had planned to take Jeanell for her birthday, but since she broke up with me, I asked another girl if she'd like to go instead. I don't know if Jeanell was impressed by my dance moves or if she just decided she might still like me, but toward the end of the dance, she found me and asked if we could talk. We left the dance together and made up. The next Thursday, she rode to Gunnison with my parents for our next football game.

Since we were back together, I had to cancel the invitation to the other girl to go to Cats, which I cowardly did through another friend. Over the next few weeks and months, things were good. We went to Cats (and Village Inn!) on September 11, 1993, on what we consider our first official date. I went over to Jeanell's house and helped paint the kitchen while we listened to John Michael Montgomery sing "Life's a Dance" on repeat the entire time. Jeanell left a treat for me in our van during football practice and thought she'd lock one door to make me think I'd locked the keys in the van, not realizing that pushing the lock down on the driver's door would lock all of the doors. She could see the school parking lot from her house on Deseret Circle and looked out the window later that night to see my van sitting all alone in the parking lot. We watched the movies "Benny and Joon" ("500 Miles" from that movie is a song we consider as one of our songs, but our official song was "Please Forgive Me" by Bryan Adams) and "Pure Country" together. We'd get cheese fries at Nettie's and listen to country music on the radio in the Komfort Koach ("Chattahoochee" is another of our songs from this time). I went to a Soelberg family gathering at Mark and Lisa's place on Park Street following my record-setting rushing performance against Juab. We went to the Halloween dance together, albeit not in costume. Jeanell asked me to Morp (via the Soelberg's marquee. I answered by having Teryl Hunsaker, who announced the football games, call her out after or before a drill team performance and tell her that yes, I would go to Morp with her).

On November 6, 1993, we lost our final football game against Beaver. Later that night, Jeanell and I were watching Saturday Night Live at my house. Finally, it got close to when she needed to be home and I took her home (for whatever reason, we had my Grandma Nalder's white Ford Taurus at the time and that's what I drove her home in). We made out for a while in the car before she went in and things maybe went a bit too far. The next morning, I decided that we were getting too serious and this time, I broke up with Jeanell. The break-up was painful for both of us. I remember Jeanell bringing me a few of my items, along with a letter, and a mixed-tape (which I still have, Side A: Please Forgive Me and (Everything I Do) I Do It for You by Bryan Adams, In This Life and Let It Be Me by Colin Raye, Lately by Jodeci, Glory of Love by Peter Cetera, I Cross My Heart and Last In Love by George Strait, End of the Road by Boyz II Men Side B: I Love the Way You Love Me by John Michael Montgomery, Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire by David Foster, When I Fall in Love by Celine Dion, I'll Be There by The Escape Club (also our Prom theme), Open Arms by Journey, Somebody by Depeche Mode, Love of a Lifetime by Firehouse, and Only Time Will Tell by Nelson) and sitting on my bed listening to the tape and reading the letter and just sobbing.

(As an aside, this is an area that I struggle with as I look back on it. Within the Church culture I had been raised in, I felt what I now consider to be an unreasonable amount of guilt over this. It's not that I think teenage kids should be having sex, but when it's talked about in the Book of Mormon as being "most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost," that seems a little over the top. I also struggle with the need of such sexual sins needing to be confessed to priesthood authorities, particularly in the case of young women confessing to older men. I'm not up to speed on what the current rules are but I hope they've changed).

We were already planning on Morp, which was the next Saturday, and determined that we'd still go together. We doubled with George Tripp and Kim Stookey. We ate dinner in the conference room upstairs at the store. After the dance, we went and sat in the hot tub at Jeanell's Uncle Mark and Aunt Lisa's house. I'm not saying that things went a little too far again on this occasion, but I'm not not saying that.

So we continued, officially broken up, but effectively still interested in each other. Somewhere in this time period, Jeanell asked me to be here promenade partner and while Jeanell was gone on a family vacation to Disneyland, I sneaked into her house to both answer her for promenade and to ask her to Prom. To answer her, my mom made her a quilt (which we still have) and sewed some letters to spell out "YES." To ask her to Prom, I recorded myself singing my own lyrics to the tune of Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving Song. "Jeanell, I really like you a lot. If you were fry sauce, I'd be your tater tot." (I don't think I intended that to be sexual).

Jeanell returned and accepted my invitation to Prom, but as we got to Christmas, it was the beginning of the end. By that time, we were both officially and effectively broken up. I believe Jeanell had started hanging out with Brad again in the days after Christmas. While it seems that there were times that we were friends again over the next few months, it seems we also drifted further apart. At some point, Jeanell "unasked" me from promenading and asked someone else and so then I was asked by someone else to promenade. I decided I still wanted to take her to Prom, but our friendship had dried up and by the time Prom rolled around we hadn't spoken for some time and were both interested in other people.

Prom was a big deal, but not quite the extravaganza it has become. I went and took the ACT the morning of the Prom (as did several other Juniors). When I returned home, I decided I'd play a little joke and called Jeanell and told her I was sick. She understandably did not like the joke and hung up on me. I quickly called her back and apologized and said that I had been joking. Prom itself was pretty good. We went and ate at Five Alls on Foothill Boulevard. During the dance, my promenade partner asked if we could take a picture and while I was gone doing that, Brad asked Jeanell to dance and I returned to find them dancing, which didn't make me happy. But we made it through the evening and ended the night watching a movie together (can't remember what movie it was, maybe "Some Kind of Wonderful"). I gave Jeanell a hug goodnight, not knowing that would really be goodbye.

I had had some feelings rekindled and called her the next day, I think hoping maybe that our relationship could continue, but it was too late. Jeanell had moved on. By that fall, she was pregnant with Devin and in December, she married Brad.

That chapter of our life together was over.

Halloween Dance

Why yes, I will

Morp

Smiles all around when picking Jeanell up for Prom

More smiles

Final shot as we prepared to depart in the limo

The official Prom photo

Everyone having a great time

 

Dad

This past Thursday, July 11, 2024, my dad would have turned 75. On that occasion, his beloved wife and the majority of his posterity were able to gather at the home on Eastmoor Drive where we grew up, enjoy some pizza, cake, and ice cream, and reminisce about my dad.

My mom, Jeanell, and sisters- and brother-in-law recalled their first meetings with him and first impressions. About how he could sometimes be intimidating, but that the intimidation was balanced by his goofy sense of humor. My mom talked about meeting him at BYU when she attended a Sunday School class he was teaching and being impressed with his knowledge of the gospel. Jeanell recalled how he would bang on the wall if he had gone to bed and we were being too loud in the family room on the other side of that wall. Jeanell also remembered coming to our house after my youngest sister McKell was born and how my dad was so tender and protective of his long-awaited baby girl.

We talked about his numerous sayings: "Nice to see me," "Pardon the growth," "Drive safely, the life you save may vote Republican in [whatever the next election year was],"Patience is a virtue, possessed by few, especially when it comes to you," and "I've told you a million times not to exaggerate!"

We talked about his relentless optimism and enthusiasm. How he always was convinced that he lived in the best ward in the best stake in the best community and that his kids attended the best high school. He also believed that he worked at the best temple (the Salt Lake Temple) and we wondered if he ever would have been able to realign his loyalties to the Deseret Peak Temple. (My mom related how my dad had asked President Hales years ago if there would ever be a temple in the Tooele Valley, to which President Hales had responded, "Not in your lifetime." When a temple was announced for the Tooele Valley, my dad, who was still alive at the time, went back to President Hales and asked if he knew something my dad did not. Apparently he did).

Alan reflected on how my dad was very introspective and always seeking to improve himself. Alan's example was that he had seen my dad get physical with me (which I do not recall), and then felt bad about it and decided that would not be him and improved. I remember as a young child, one of my dad's expressions was "Good Godfrey!" until I pointed out that you couldn't say "Godfrey" without saying "God," at which point I never heard him use that expression again. My dad was one to make schedules and lists of goals or tasks he wished to accomplish. Right up until his death, he went to the gym five days a week.

(I don't ever remember my dad getting physical with me. The one related memory I do recall is when Scott and I were very young, before we even moved to Grantsville. We had been misbehaving to the point that we were both to receive "bare-bottomed" spankings. I remember sitting and awaiting our punishment, but when the time came, he just lightly tapped us both on the butt and that was the end of it).

My dad preferred teaching and quoting scripture to anger and yelling when correcting his kids. (There were exceptions. We all remember an occasion when he had asked us to mow the lawn before he left to work and when he returned to find the lawn still un-mowed, said in a very stern voice, "I am mad. I am damn mad." Since my dad rarely used the d-word (at least at that point of his life), that was enough that Scott had the lawnmower started and moving across the lawn within two minutes). Alan told a story at my dad's funeral of a time when a few of my brothers (certainly not me) had watched a movie my dad felt was inappropriate, but that rather than chewing them out, he turned to the scriptures, and the story of Joseph who was sold into Egypt and avoiding temptation.

We talked about some of our favorite memories. I remembered how as a young teenager, in a late night conversation with my dad about feeling frustrated that my basketball skills were not improving, he asked if I wanted to go shoot baskets right then, which we did, with him rebounding for me until well after 10 PM. My dad was also supportive of our own efforts at self-improvement and I remember many early mornings when he would take me to a church gym to shoot and work on my skills.

Brent recalled his favorite memory of my dad catching Brent and Kevin mooning each other, but was unable to contain his laughter, to the point that he had to go and get my mom to reprimand them.

My dad could begin laughing uncontrollably, sometimes at the most inopportune times. When my Uncle John blessed his youngest daughter Emma, he asked my dad to give a blessing on the food at the gathering afterward. But something struck my dad as funny and try as he might, he was unable to compose himself. My mom had to intercede and finish the prayer.

My dad could be tender-hearted and at different times was fairly easily moved to tears, but invariably, a few seconds after he would begin to cry, he would burst into laughter.

My dad had his flaws, but I do believe he was a force for good in this world. I believe he had a positive influence on many, many people and that his impact and legacy continue on.

I love you, Dad. Happy Birthday!

Eastmoor

My dad, who began his career as a teller at First Security Bank, accepted a job as the manager of the Zion's Bank branch in Tooele sometime in early 1983 and decided he wanted to move closer to his new employment. My dad's job was in Tooele and I believe my parents focused their search there, but never found anything they felt right about. So they expanded their search to Grantsville.

Toward the east end of Grantsville, there was a fairly new development, on a street that had been named Eastmoor Drive. The street ran south from Main Street, maybe a quarter mile east of where Main Street intersected with Highway 112 (the Tooele Turn-Off), which ran southeast to Tooele.

(Eastmoor lay in a section of Grantsville that had been known coloquially as Stringtown. There were few houses along Main Street on the east end of town in a "string." Stringtown ran from Willow Street east to the turn-off onto Erda Way, more or less. Matthews owned the land east from Willow Street to the Family Dollar. Alex Johnson owned everything south of Main from Family Dollar east to the turn-off to Erda. The Ratcliffes owned North of Main from the Booth Farm east to Vern Fawson's. And then Fawsons owned on the north side from Vern's east to Tooele Valley Meats).

The street was distinguished by the red brick walls that ran east to west along Main Street and then curved south around the corners of Eastmoor, terminating in large brick pillars with streetlights atop them. My parents found a red-brick house on the corner of Main and Eastmoor, on the east side of Eastmoor. It had originally been lived in by the Reber family, but they had moved and were selling it and my parents knew it was where they would raise their family.

(Eastmoor was developed on land owned by Verl Johnson, by his daughter Tanna and her husband, Bob Hicks. It was Tanna who chose the name Eastmoor. I don't ever remember seeing or knowing Bob, but it was a name we all knew. At some point one of the neighborhood kids was sitting on the wall bordering our property and my mom told them to get down, which they did. But then when my mom went back in the house he climbed back on the wall and told me defiantly that only Bob Hicks could tell him to get off of the wall).

When we moved to Granstville in June of 1983, there were only four homes on Eastmoor. The house my parents had just purchased on the northeast corner, Johansens (Christy, Rachel) next to us on the east, then Tripps (G.A. (at the time), Jake, Jeff) on the west side of the street across from Johansens, and Proctors (Teresa, Lori, Andrew) across the street from us on the northwest corner.

Behind us on Main Street lived the Youngs (Vicky, Bobbie, Danielle, Lucas - not long after we moved in, Danielle, who is around my age, was celebrating a birthday. I heard what sounded like a good time from my backyard and so climbed up on the wall to investigate. Mary, (Danielle's mom) saw me spying and invited me over to the party, such a kind gesture to the new kid that I remember to this day) and a couple houses east of them were the Henwoods (Chad, Bill, Angela). These are the houses that initially made up what I would call our neighborhood and the kids that I would play with throughout my childhood.

The street would grow over time, but looking back it was pretty gradual. Bolinders (Michelle, Aubrey) built a home south of Tripps (they would later move further south and to the east side of the street and Garry's mother Dorothy would move into the home south of Tripps). Johansens moved pretty early and Archers moved in south of us. Later Sandbergs (Ashley, Brock) would build a home south of Archers. Over the years, the Wells, the (Kendall) Sandbergs, the Lloyds, the Lees, Mary Toone, the Boulards (Nick, Rachel) would fill out at least a good portion of the street to what would become 130 South.

But initially it was mostly fields and dirt hills and there was a small grove of trees (known by us simply as "the trees") south and east of Eastmoor where we'd go and play and explore.

Riding bikes to Handy Corner was a common activity and I recall on one occasion riding there with Andrew Proctor. Along the way, we passed by a kid in his front yard along Main Street and for whatever reason the kid started yelling at us "f***ers!" I had never heard that word at the time, but could tell from the kid's tone that it was some kind of insult so I did what anyone else in such a situation would do and yelled it back at him. Andrew, who did know the word, and also knew that I shouldn't be saying it, immediately put his hand over his mouth in disbelief. But I continued shouting back and forth with this kid until we were out of sight.

I never had a BB or pellet gun, but I'd go to the trees with Chad and Bill and their guns and they'd shoot birds and we'd then go and find them and catch them and take them home in a box or something. I doubt that ever ended well for the birds. I also remember catching a muskrat and having it in a box and we'd take it up into the playhouse in Henwoods backyard and block off the door and then let the muskrat out and sit on the chairs and pull our feet up so it couldn't get our feet. Not sure what we were trying to accomplish, other than maybe a tetanus shot.

I have another memory of accompanying Chad, Bill, and Big Bill to hunt pheasants in the fields south and southeast of Eastmoor. My family were not hunters so it was a new activity for me and as we crept quietly through the fields, I started to whistle. After a few minutes, Big Bill turned around and asked, "Who's whistling?!" I guess that wasn't helping with the element of surprise.

(I didn't know this at the time, but Big Bill had initially been married to Jeanell's mom's cousin Kristine and they had a son, Craig, who was Jeanell's 2nd cousin. I would also later learn that Big Bill brought back the body of my friend Aaron's uncle Richard Craig (but known as Dude), who was killed in Vietnam).

Night games were a frequent occurrence on Eastmoor. Annie-I-Over, Kick-the-Can, and Capture the Flag are the three I remember most distinctly. And our house seemed to be the typical location where these games were played. I think these are pretty typical and established games, but for Capture the Flag, we'd run a hose across the middle of our backyard and a good part of the game would consist of extending your arm over the barrier and trying to get someone to grab your hand at which point you'd pull them across to your side so they'd then be in jail.

We would also play whiffle ball and football in our backyard with the neighborhood kids. I don't know at what point it started, but my dad and Al Chatwin would take a bunch of kids from the neighborhood as well as Al's sons Scott and Peter and go down to the city park where we would play tackle football. I don't remember anyone ever getting seriously hurt but on one occasion Sam Hulet wandered over from his house on Cherry Street to play with us and his glasses were broken somewhat quickly.

Pretty early on my dad added a basketball standard to our driveway, and though there was a slight slope, we would spend hours and hours both shooting baskets and playing basketball games. Epic games of Guts were also a common occurrence.

Justin Richardson, who was a few years older than I was and lived across Main Street, would come over and practice his bike tricks on Eastmoor. I never really learned many bike tricks like Justin could do, but I remember riding bikes on the street with him while he would ride and perform all kinds of tricks (standing up on the bike while it was going, bouncing on a single tire, etc.).

One year my parents got us a trampoline for Christmas. I still remember my dad getting emotional about it when they told us because I think it was a stretch for them financially. There was snow on the ground when we went outside to see it and under the trampoline you could see a large divot in the snow because my dad had done a "bummer" on the trampoline after getting it set up.

After that time, trampoline games were added to the neighborhood fun. We'd play crack-the-egg of course, but we also invented a game we called "The Blob" where one person would start out as The Blob and they had to stay on their knees and they would try to grab and pull the other kids down. If you got pulled down, you became a part of The Blob and joined in trying to pull people down. But the kids who were part of The Blob had to stay in contact with each other.

I think Bill broke his leg on the trampoline and I know I slammed my shins on the frame attempting a backflip, but given the number of kids and the amount of time that were spent on that trampoline, there were remarkably few injuries.

I'm so grateful my parents found that red-brick house on the corner. Eastmoor was a pretty great place to grow up.