Thoughts and stories, by Pal

The photo above is my mother, Ruth Allen Miles, about 80 years old. This topic today will be about my mother, born Ruth Allen, daughter of Levinah Emeline Wilson who married John Butler Allen.  Ruth was born on May 10, 1908, the 8th child of 9 children.  Her mother had been a school teacher for a year or two before they married in 1893 in the Manti Temple.                        Their Marriage Photo He was a successful cattleman until a winter in which their herd all froze to death out in the cold Panguitch, Utah, winter weather.  After that he did odd jobs.  One year while shearing sheep he got his eye cut with a horse switching it's tail, and got infection!  With no pennicilyn, the infection spread until it consummed his body, and he died early in my mother's first year of school.  His wife Levinah, my grandmother, was a widow for 37 years, in a time without Social Security or other helps for wi...

  I have been thinking about what to put on this blog today! I think I'll put paintings I've done over the years, until I can remember how to do photos from my phone!  This painting I did for a granddaughter of mine, Brittani, when she graduated from high school.  This is about 16 by 20 inches. Then a few years ago she got married, and I painted her another:   This is of the mountain on the east side of Ogden, and is about 24 by 30 inches.  I added the horses and trees, so it would be more interesting to look at!    I took art starting in junior high school in the 7th grade, through high school, and in my first two years of college, at Dixie College in St. George, Utah.  I have taken several art classes since, during my life. This blog I hope to keep interesting to readers, and I believe I now will copy a poem I read just last week.  I truly enjoyed our General Conference this past weekend.  Our Prophet is President Dallin H. Oaks, who y...

Today, I want to write a bit about my 4th child, Alley Roy Eckman.  He is 65 today, and will retire after this school year!  He is an aid in the school in the seriously handicapped group of students.  He knows how to help them, and is often needed, when they need a man there.  A s Allen was growing up, he loved pets, and had several kinds of animals, some more than one at a time.  He especially liked snakes!  We have a special story about when he worked at a place in the hills where he brought home snakes now and then!  I think it was a water treatment plant.  But he loved to have them in his room, and he would make a cage which he vowed was "snake proof".  One day Delsy went into our bathroom to take a bath, and lo and behold!  There was a snake in the bathtub, curled around the built in rod designed to hold a wash rag!  She came out screaming "Allen!" He rushed out to see what was the matter, and she screamed "There's a snake in t...

2059: I'm starting to write about my son, Wayne, and his wife Julie, and going on their mission to the historic sites in New York, and Pennsylvania.  They leave to go into the MTC on Monday, April 27th, 2026.  Their farewell is on Sunday April 26th, the day before. This is my husband Wayne, and his twin Blaine on the left. in their high school yearbook, probably 1950, as seniors.  Today is April Fool's Day, 2026, 76 years later! Wayne and Blaine were both pranksters! This story happened, probably in the 1960's or 1970's. Blaine was teaching in Las Vegas, and Wayne in the Jordan School District in the Salt Lake City area. Blaine had told his principal, in the school where he taught, that he had been in touch with a Hungarian educator, and that he was coming to visit their school on April 1, 1965? (Whatever day it was that year) and he wanted to check out their school.)  His name was Lirpa Loof!  So the who school was primed to be very polite ad attentive to Lirpa...

  Since I last wrote, a lot of time has passed!  Today is March 4, 2026, and I am trying to remember what has happened in my life here in Fairfield Village, in Layton, Utah. I was given an organ, a small organ with rhythms, an octave of foot pedals, and a bench.  Our branch received another organ to use on Sunday, and the one I was given was stored in the hall upstairs, outside of the Multipurpose room where we held our Sunday meetings.  The administration wanted to have it removed, so they wondered if I would want it.  It was quite bulky, and I said I may want it, and one day they brought it!  I tried to play it one day, and it made my back sore, as I have a slipped disk or two in my lower back.   I decided I didn't want it, and after awhile the men in the branch here came and took it to the DI. Since then I have been able to get my room here organized for an art room, and I want to start using my blog again on my computer! I really am trying to ...