233. WAYNE AND BLAINE ECKMAN'S 84TH BIRTHDAYS! # 109 REVISITED.

TODAY IS WAYNE'S AND BLAINE'S 84TH BIRTHDAY.  I'M RE-POSTING ENTRY # 109, AS I WILL BE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL SOON TO BE WITH HIM.  BUT HE IS SCHEDULED TO COME HOME THIS AFTERNOON.  HE WILL HAVE SEVERAL PROBLEMS WHICH WILL HAVE TO BE FOLLOWED UP WITH DOCTORS.  BUT WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL HE HAS RECOVERED AS MUCH AS HE HAS.  THIS WAS FIRST POSTED ON MARCH 1, 2014.

These are pictures through the years of the identical twins, Blaine D and Wayne D Eckman.  Blaine was about 15 minutes older than Wayne, and born at home.  Read of them first in blog # 3.  Then their father Roy Waldamer Eckman's story is in blog # 93.  Their mother Gladys Dayton Eckman is told about in blogs #106 and #107.  More of their lives will come in the future.  This is a record of photos through the ages! 

Some of them have been in previous blogs, but it is nice to get them together here, chronologically.  They were born on September 18, 1930, and Blaine passed away suddenly at age 68, on March 19, 1999, and Wayne is now 83 years old, March 2014.  Joyce is still living, in St. David, Arizona, near their daughter Janise Wooten.

Some are copied from our book, and I will rewrite the captions, as they are hard to read.  Above it says "The twins about the age of the Turkey incident, and Ronald about age 1.  They had been to the barber!  When they were 4 they let   lot of neighbor's turkeys out of their pen, and they went all over the neighborhood, causing quite a bit of havoc!

Wayne and Blaine out stomping in the hills, about age 7.

From left to right, front row, Wayne, Ronald, Blaine, and Shirlene.  Back row: Ruby and a neighbor.

Wayne and Blaine, about age 10.

                                           Wayne on left, What a hairdo?  Blaine on right.

Blaine, Aunt Jennie (Wallin, Roy's sister) Wayne, about age 15.

Blaine left, Grandma Gladys Eckman, and Wayne on right.  About 1950, just before missions, I think.

 Priest's Quorum.  First row from r to left, Blaine, Wayne, Richard and Rodney Hasler.  Two sets of

    identical twins in one ward!  Richard married Pal's friend, and they introduced Pal and Wayne on a blind       date when they got home from their missions -- in August of 1953.  Blaine was married in 1953 after              their missions, and Pal and Wayne were not married until they got home from the Army in Sept. 1955.

                            Blaine, left, and Wayne right, senior pictures in the Granite High yearbook.

Wayne, Tom Taylor, and Blaine -- Ronald must have been taking the picture.  Those four went on a road trip to Idaho after Blaine and Wayne graduated from high school.  This is a cartoon photo -- for fun!

    Another picture taken on that same trip to Idaho.  That trip was a highlight to boys who hadn't had                 much chance to travel before their missions to Sweden, 1950-1953.  Wayne still calls Tom Taylor at              times -- he lives in Salt Lake City.

                                              Same trip to Idaho !  They must have really had fun.

Blaine D Eckman, missionary picture to Sweden 1950.

                                 Elder Wayne D Eckman, 1950, missionary to Sweden picture.

This was a "Christmas Card" the twins sent home while on their mission in Sweden, 20 years old.

Wayne and Blaine worked one day together on their missions, and a family they met that day later joined the Church.  A funny thing happened that day -- They knocked on a door, and the lady that answered had a bit too much to drink.  Then the next day Wayne went back to his area, and Blaine saw the woman -- this time sober.  She said, "I just need to ask you one thing -- yesterday were there one of you or two of you?"

Blaine D Eckman, army photo, about 1955.

                                                Army photo, Wayne left, and Blaine right.

                                     Wayne, army photo, 1955, sent to Pal while writing to her.

Wayne, left, and Blaine in "civies", (civilian clothes) while in the army, when they were attending an LDS servicemen's retreat conference in Berchesgaden, Germany, in 1954.

The two of them acting out when they both graduated from Utah State University, then called the Utah           Agricultural College, in June of 1959, with their Bachelor's Degrees.  Both became teachers.

                                              Brothers and best friends, Blaine left, Wayne right, about 1970s.

Wayne, left, Blaine, right, sitting on our couch in the gold brick home, about 1988.

An article that was printed in the Spectrum, St. George hometown newspaper about the twins, about 1992.  Wayne and Pal had lived in St. George about 10 years, and then Blaine and Joyce moved here.  Someone got mixed up when they saw one, and then the other one a few minutes later in another part of town!

Blaine, left, Arlen Craghead, best friends from high school years, and Wayne, sitting on the love seat in our condo at Shadowbrook in St. George, about 1997.  Arlan and his wife (second) still come to visit us here when they pass through St. George.  This may have been the last picture they had taken together, as Blaine passed away suddenly on March 19, 1999, from what was diagnosed as an abdominal aneurysm..