Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Today I will print Wayne's own story of his birth and early life.  He wrote this to go in our book about his ancestors.  I plan to put more family history in my blogs, and not as many other subjects.  I believe that will be more important for my posterity!  (by Pal)  Personal Record of Wayne D. Eckman I was very fortunate in being born a twin on September 18, 1930, to Roy Waldamer and Gladys Treganna Dayton Eckman.  My twin brother, Blaine, was born 15 minutes before I made my entry into the world.  The custom in those days to a great extent was to call the doctor to the home to deliver babies.  It seems that we were ready to be born before my mother could be driven to the hospital, so we were born in a little green frame house at 6066 South State Street in Murray, Utah.  Dr. Olie Sundwall was the attending physician and the minute he saw us, he declared that there was no earthly chance that we would survive the night, so Dad called ...

This a true Christmas story, from my childhood. The Christmas of 1939, here in St. George, Utah, was going to be quite humble at our house. My father had been in World War I and had suffered off and on with "shell shock", which now is called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He had been in the Veteran's hospital in Salt Lake City during the year, and my mother, Ruth, had given birth to my sister, Mavis, on December 1st. In those days, mothers stayed down much longer with a difficult birth. My mother had been allowed to turn over in bed on the 10th day, and got up on the 17th day, so Christmas found her very weak. My grandmother, Ruth’s mother, was living with our small family, and helping after the new baby. She stayed with us each winter and was a Temple Ordinance worker in the St. George Temple, spending her summers in the cool town of Panguitch, near the beautiful Bryce Canyon in Utah. My parents had followed the admonition found in Doctrine and Covenants s...

This is a continuation of my mother Ruth Allen Miles's life, as she wrote it.  Her life story began in blog # 137, continued 138, 139, 140, 141, and 142.  Her birthday was May 10, 1908, and this May she would have reached age 106!  As Mother's Day approaches, I want to finish her writings in a few more entries.  Often her birthday was on or very near Mother's Day. Her writing continued:       The summer before the government had paid farmers $12 a head to kill their beef cattle because of the oversupply and depression.  They were not allowed to sell the meat but could use it "for their own families."  We went out to Panguitch when Earl killed several.  He gave us 2 veal (young beef) which we  bottled.   That was our meat for a few years.      The next winter Pratt was feeling some better.  Mother was with us.   We had 2 darling little girls and were doing a lot of public singing.   We now...

When Roy Waldamer Eckman was born, all births  were in the home and the doctor had to drive a horse and  buggy from Salt Lake City, about 12 miles away. On the night  Roy was born, (the youngest of 10 children) it was raining hard  and the doctor had to change horses and get a fresh horse on  the way there, as the original horse gave out. Roy was born  on May 19, 1898, at home in Parley’s Canyon, and died  September 19, 1975, in Salt Lake City, at the age of seventy-seven  years.            This was the kind of buggy the doctor had to take to Parley's Canyon to help deliver Roy in 1898. Blog # 86 tells about Roy's parents, and their history, and some of that story involved Roy.   From Parley’s Canyon Roy’s parents moved to West  Jordan when he was 3 years old where they engaged in  farming.   When Roy was almost fourteen years of  age his schooling  was  cut short when his...