Personal History #4 - Kathryn Birgithe Knight

I was born in Provo, UT as the 8th of 9 children to Larry and Jewel Knight. I had a lot of red hair as a baby and I was really cute – I still am actually. We lived in a house on Apple Avenue, which is at the top of a really steep hill, and at the bottom of the hill is Kiwanis Park. I don’t remember too much about that house. I do remember the game carpet and I remember fighting with my mom cause I thought I was too old for naps and so she conceded and let me simply have a quiet time.

I remember playing with Kathryn Hilliam, Carrie Warner and Jenny Oaks – I think they all lived on Locust Lane. I also remember the Hatch boys that lived on Old Willow – they were mean and one time they convinced me to eat dirt. Across the street to the north was an old man named Rhiney Liechty and he owned some horses. I remember that I loved to visit Rhiney and see his horses. When I was older and lived on Oak Lane, I would always take my nieces and nephews on a walk to see the horses on Old Willow Lane.

I remember going to Peter Pan Preschool with Miss Wendy. It was held in a home at the bottom of Apple Avenue. I don’t remember too much about preschool other than I met a lot of the kids I would end up going through school with and we eventually graduated together. Peter Van and Jon-Clair Lindsey. Their dad died after first grade and I thought that was so sad. BJ Chandler – I thought he was cute and was amazed at how tall he was. Melissa Carter, Carrie Warner, Lisa Zumbrennen, Nicole Francis, Marianne Densley, Courtney Clark and others that I’m forgetting.

It wasn’t long after I was born that my little sister was born – about 16 months. We did a lot together. Because there was a seven-year gap between me and my older brother, Dan, my parents thought they’d better have another kid to keep me company. I’m glad they did otherwise I’d be like Liz Collins.

I remember playing with Macy and Molly at the mortuary and I thought it was so strange how they lived on top of a place where dead bodies were kept. I always wanted to be like Macy – I thought she was so cool. I remember Memorial Day and the gathering at the PG cemetery and breakfast, races, and softball games later at the Lindon Park.

When I was four our family moved to Livermore, CA because my dad worked at the Lawrence Livermore Lab doing top secret work or something. I liked living there and I remember going to Sam and Dan’s baseball games. I remember that I had a friend named Arthur and I named a teddy bear after him. It was the kind of teddy bear you can wind up in the back and it plays music. It was in Livermore, CA that Dod Richen came to be. I was (and still am to some degree) a tomboy. I thought my older brothers were so cool and I wanted to be like them in every way so one day I put on a San Francisco Giants jersey and a baseball hat and announced to my family that my name was Dod Richen and my number was 14. I played for the Giants. I guess it was pretty funny because everyone remembers it and my family still calls me Dod on occasion.
I have a few other memories of Livermore. I remember once Sandy threw up at the dinner table. I remember playing with these rings that came off the bottom of our kitchen chairs and one got stuck on my finger and my mom couldn’t get it off. And this seems extreme but I think the firemen came to cut it off and rescue me. I’ll have to ask my mom if that really happened.

We moved back to Provo into the house on Oak Lane before I started kindergarten. Ann Dee and I shared the room in the southwest corner next to my parents. It was the cloud room and I remember staring at those clouds trying to discover recognizable images in them. I’m not sure when my neat freak/OCD kicked in but I remember cleaning that room and organizing it and then loving the feeling after. I love to know that all of my things have a place and that they are in their place. I would also on occasion organize our game closet and produce a list of all of the game pieces we were missing. That closet was located in the sewing room with pseudo mirrors in the wallpaper. I thought it was cool that in that house you could complete a full circle from the sewing room to the hall to the kitchen to the laundry room. I think I ran around that circle lots. You could also complete a full circle from the front hall to the orange carpeted living room and dining room to the kitchen with swinging chairs and a lazy Susan and back to the front hall. I remember when we first moved in I found a Star Wars figurine in the bushes in the front. I think it was Chuey. I remember thinking it was cool and I liked to play with him but I always felt a bit guilty because I knew he didn’t really belong to me.

I remember learning to ride a bike. No one held the back of the bike and then let me go. I remember Dan standing on top of Christine (our white Station Wagon) who was parked in the center of our driveway and I would try to ride this little bike without stopping to regain my balance. Dan would count how many times I could make it around the car.

I remember that a girl who was two years older than me lived across the street named Laura Beal. She was kinda weird and she would always have this dumb little dog with her named Soopy. This was not her dog, it was the Campbell’s dog and I was terrified of dogs and I still am actually. I hated Soopy and he would always bark at me. Laura thought it was funny and so she would say, “Sick her” all the time and I really thought that Soopy was going to sick me. Whenever we played with Laura, I’d make Ann Dee go over there first and then call me at 377-9083 and let me know if Soopy was there or not. Then I’d go over if it was safe. My mom used to make Ann Dee and I take some meat cutting to Susan Ream’s dog. She lived on Briar and that was seriously the scariest thing in the world to me because although she never let her dogs near us they would come to the door and bark when we rang the doorbell and they were BIG dogs. I HATED HATED HATED doing that but my mom was all about facing your fears.
Either that or she wanted to get rid of that extra meat and her two little babies for a bit.

We used to play with Olympics at the bar and the judge would sit at the bar and watch the performances in the large, spacious family room and then give a score to the participants. I was always the judge because I never did figure our how to do a cartwheel. I also remember playing with the intercoms. We’d all go to separate rooms and we could talk to each other through the walls. It was so cool. I liked to use the intercoms to try and wake up Sam and Dan in the mornings but sometimes their volume was down so it didn’t always work.

Personal History #3 - Ann Dee Knight Ellis

The first thing I remember is blue shag carpet. In the Apple Avenue house. I also remember going to Stewart Falls with Dad but the weird thing is I don’t know if my memories are just made up from the pictures. Like the one where me and Katy are playing in the water and I’m wearing a blue shirt with a white collar and Dad’s skinny in a plaid shirt and Katy’s laughing. Or maybe she isn’t. We used to hike up there or hike around. Mom told me once that when we lived in the Canyon Meadows cabin she’d be home with just me and Katy and she’d take us to Vivian Park and take us on walks by the Heber Creeper railroad. Everyone else was down in Provo. I wonder if Mom even had a car. She must have. I don’t remember much about the cabin but I do remember Julio who had a big wheel and lived at the beginning of the road up to the meadows. I think he was mean but maybe he wasn’t. I also remember the time the bat got stuck in the cabin and we all hid under the bed.

Another thing, Old Willow. The little lane by our house with the big holes and the apricots and we could walk down the road to the old Apple Avenue house and to see Rhiny’s horses and feed them apples. When Karen would come over with Holly and Tommy, we’d go on a walk and I’d always think about the OHVs (the Oak Hills Vandals) because I’d heard that in the trees by Old Willow, the OHVs would hang out and decide who they would steal from. There were bike trails all over through those trees and I knew only OHVs would go off jumps like that. One time I was walking down Old Willow to get my friend’s house and I stole a lot of apricots and put them in my bag. I ate some too even though they weren’t washed and there might have been worms in there. By the time I got to the end of the lane I thought maybe I shouldn’t have stolen those apricots but they were all over the road but I did steal them and maybe I was as bad as the OHVs and I should be one of them. One time they stole the purses out of all the Relief Society ladies cars when they were at our house for a progressive dinner. Mom was mad because she made Sam and Dan cut a path through the bushes so the ladies wouldn’t trip when they were going over the Van Wagonens for dinner and she bought a new wreath and she was cooking for days but then it was all ruined because of the OHVs.

That reminds me, our house on Oak Lane was right by a hill and there were no other houses around us and that’s why the tarantulas would come in our backyard and one time a huge boulder fell down into our backyard one day. I think someone is going to say that was there when we moved there but I don’t ‘think so. I just asked Dad and Mom and Leslie if it fell and Dad said it did and they said it could have killed someone and it could have. I could have died in our backyard or got bit by tarantula. Anyway, that was the best hill because we went sledding down it and we hiked up it to get to friends who lived in upper oak hills and we made a hide out at Puppy Dog Rock. I think Joe proposed to Donielle there which was probably romantic for them but was weird because it was Puppy Dog Rock, not love Dog Rock. One time Donielle took me for a root beer float. She got a Tab float.

Katy and I shared the blue cloud room so she put a piece of tape across the middle of the room. This worked.

I also remember Christmas in Livermore. Except I don’t. Was Livermore yellow? And the backyard went into a playground. I used to love to tell people that I lived in California even though I don’t remember it except for when we went on Bart and we saw Little Orphan Annie and I danced in the aisles. Or was it Nutcracker? I actually think that’s one of those stories that people have told me but I don’t remember it. I do remember the Nut Tree and the train and we went there every time we drove to California. And the fairyland and you had to put your key into the slot to hear the fairytales. I liked the big Blue whale one and I saw recently pictures of the place and it doesn’t look how I remember it. I remember the shiny and big and fancy. It’s not so shiny.

I remember when Karen would babysit us and Holly had a Rainbow Brite nightgown with purple trim and one time we made a play up in the quad and it had a real curtain with string and a blanket and we made everyone come watch. I liked popsicles and I didn’t like people combing my hair. Especially Mom because she would just yank and yank at my hair and it HURT. There would be big huge wads of snarls in my hair, chunks, and I did not want anyone touching them. Leave them alone. Sometimes I’d have Karen or Donielle French braid my hair and then I’d keep it in for at least a week. Except they yanked my hair too. When Karen did it I’d yell ouch and start crying and she’d say, Oh quit being a big baby. When Donielle did it I didn’t dare yell so I’d just quietly cry and afterwards she’d notice that I was crying and she’d say, Why didn’t you say something? And I’d say, I don’t know.

I got to be a bridesmaid at Donielle and Joe’s wedding and we got to go to California and wear big pink dresses and hold bouquets and she had a pool at her house. Plus we went to the beach. Did Joe work at the credit union? I remember going to the credit union. The big white one by the stadium and I always got a sucker when we went.

Hmmm, this is not in order and not before I was five? Was hanging out in the Eyring Science Center and eating sandwiches out of the machine and playing the violin for Dad’s classes so he could show some vibration thing and looking out the window and crawling on the desk and that big huge picture of Dad and Karen holding hands.

One time I took violin lessons. Katy was taking from Mrs. Primrose but she wasn’t taking new students so I had to take from Mrs. Grover. I hated group lessons and bowing. I liked playing jingle bells and the fun night at Suzuki camp. I used to lie about practicing. We were supposed to do at least a half hour a day. If Mom was there, she’d sit with us and make us practice every day. She’s say, “again” and “again” over and over and over, trill after trill after trill. Then, if she couldn’t’ sit with us, she’d say, “I’ll set the timer” and she’d take off to the grocery store or something but that NEVER worked. We’d start practicing but then when she left, we’d watch TV. I say we but maybe it was just me. Then, when I heard the garage door open, I’d run and start playing again. I also stole oreos and scraped out the middle and made a huge ball and kept it in my pocket and lick it whenever I wanted but Mom would get mad if she saw the empty chocolate cookies in the garbage so I’d hide those at the bottom of the garbage can. I also hid my pills but that’s later and another story.

In Pre-school I mostly remember going to Mom’s school and running up the ramp. There were no ramps or even stairs at my elementary school. And I liked being in kindergarten and pre-school at the same time. I also liked Dad picking me up and sitting in the booth at the Wilkinson center except the booths were downstairs and we ate in the upstairs because that was the faculty lounge and that’s where we got to eat all the deviled eggs we wanted and I wanted a lot. I sometimes went with Dad to BYU to get doughnuts in the morning. I think I’m running out of steam but I like remembering when I was little because I had a good little time.

Personal History #2 - Cameron Baldwin Ellis

Me as an infant? I was born with a little red ball cap on crooked. And yes, it pained my mother. The doctors had a hard time getting me outta there, so they had to use some device that applies suction… to my head. My mom didn't get to hold me until well after my vital signs were okayed, and she tells me that was so horrible not knowing if I was okay and assuming the worst. But I was huge and healthy but then I got sick and lost weight and seemed a sickly little guy. I was smallest in any group. I defended myself by belittling the bigger boys, hoping they would be on my team or else leave me alone. I was tiny and fast. And strong. I knew I was strong the day my mom called and called for me to come in for lunch and had to come look for me. I was power-sliding around the corner astride my blue and black Big Wheel. Red right-hand brake. I'm all the way down the street and now my mom is standing there waiting for me and I say, "You wanna ride?" She stands on the back of the Big Wheel (the seat is scooted all the way up since my legs are so short, so there's plenty of room for my mom to stand.) I start cranking my little tough legs as hard as I can, and we start cruising. I look behind me to see if she's pushing, but Mom isn't pushing! It's me. I am a big boy. That's probably the same day I got potty trained, learned how to tie my shoes, write my name and say my prayers.
Our backyard was a quarter acre of grass, swing set and garden. I got to stain the fence when I was four. I wore my mom's gloves, which protected my arms from stain up to the elbow. My little fat belly got crescent sunburned where it peeked out. We also pulled weeds and thinned out the strawberries every Saturday. I would chase the neighbor girls around my yard until they would throw plant fertilizer in my eyes. Sometimes I would pull my diaper down and make a mess on the landing. I would fake a nap, and when my mom went outside to tan, I would go watch Sesame Street on our 10" black-and-white TV. Then I figured out that it was scripted and suddenly Grover wasn't so cool. But the Muppet Show was still cool.

Santa brought me a Luke Skywalker action figure with the light saber in his arm that extends for combat. I always thought that is what was being repaired at the end of Empire Strikes Back. I also was confused with the clear reference to baseball in the title. Empire and Umpire sound the same to a four-year-old. But Santa was very good to me and my sisters. We fought. I won. Then I lost. Now I can't really remember how it was to fight, but then I think about being the only boy in the house, and it all comes back. I liked being a Sunbeam, and I would shout BEAM during the Sunbeam song in Primary. Then I would go home and throw our Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas Album against the wall and watch it shatter. But I just wanted to play Frisbee, but we couldn't go out to play. But splintered vinyl is quite the party for one, too.
I loved to shovel snow and ride around in my dad's red Camaro. On Sunday mornings my dad would make pancakes. We always had leftovers, which we threw in the fridge. Across the street lived Sunny, a black lab who we knew mainly by the super-sniffing and dust clouds with his snout sticking out through the two inch gap under the garage door. We got to throw him the cold pancakes and watch his tongue devour them into his sharp teeth. He never pooped on our lawn. Neither did I.

We have all these awesome photos of me, my dad, my mom, and two sisters at Lagoon in black-and-white western gear, and Halloween, and Easter, and ward parties, and parades, and birthdays. Every holiday was a big deal, and man how that didn't stick with me.

Pre 1/2 triathlon

Dear Family,
It's official (according to me). At the family vacation in Park City we will be having not just a 5K but a triathlon. This means we will be swimming 800m, biking 10 (or more) miles, and running a 5K (If I'm the only one who actually does this, I will be very sad). In anticipation of this event, we will be having a pre-1/2 triathlon in March. It will begin at the house in American Fork. We will run 1.5 miles, bike five miles and then swim 400m. I'm already working on the route. If you or anyone you know in this family would like to participate, please let me know. I am trying to get sponsors and I already have Power Gel onboard. I'm very serious about this. NO KIDDING. The end.
Ann Dee

Important Mailing Instructions before Mailing Tommy

The Church's Mail Dept says that we now can only mail a one-sided, single page letter to missionaries, via the POUCH system.

What we do is to write on one side of a single page to the missionary, fold the paper in thirds, so that the long side of the folded paper is 8 1/2 ". Tape the 8 1/2" side and DON'T TAPE THE SHORT SIDES OF THE FOLDED PAPER. Put the 1st class postage on it and Mail Away...

Here again is Tommy's POUCH mailing address:

Elder Thomas Knight Lowell
Guatemala, Guatemala City North Mission
POUCH, P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150
USA

By the way, the Church's Mail Dept gave me a one time exemption to the above rule, when I mailed your letters written at our family Christmas Party. I just taped your letters to a white 8 1/2" x 11 " sheet of paper and mailed them. For those of you that wrote on more than one page, I had to send the separate pages as separate letters (i.e. Letter 1 of 2).

Our family thanks you so much for remembering Tommy. Happy Mailing to you all...

Ron

Personal History #1 - Van Alexander Ellis

My name is Van and I’m almost one. Today my aunt told my mom that I look like a girl because I have tight blonde curls. My mom disagreed. Although I have curly hair and I am really really cute, I don’t look like a girl. The end.

Except there’s a few more things. I was born on December 28th, 2006. I was due on December 22nd. My mom was very large and had to waddle around the last week before I was born. I was a very kicky baby and made sure she didn’t sleep. When it was finally time for me to be born, my mom and dad went into the hospital at 7:00 am and they put my mom on pitocin. Four hours later, after punching my dad only once and yelling things, she got an epidural. My dad had to go into the bathroom after that because he needed to cry and he didn’t want my mom to see. I was born at 7:18 pm and I was 7 lbs even and was 18 inches long. I was actually very good looking from the beginning. Both my mom and my dad had decided that if I wasn’t cute it would be okay. Some babies are sort of squished faced in the beginning but then they grow into their looks. Fortunately, I looked handsome (really—he did) from the beginning.

The first week I was home, my grandparents Larry and Jewel came to stay. Every morning my grandpa Larry would come and take me from my mom and sing so that she could sleep. He sang “Go to Sleep Little Baby” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.” Grandma Jewel made breakfast and helped my mom change me and keep things going. She also told my mom that it was okay if I cried a lot—it was good exercise.

I liked the song “As I Have Loved You” and one time my aunt Katy babysat me while my parents went to church and she sang to me and held me. And one time, when mom and dad were pulling weeds to get the outside ready for my baby blessing, my cousin Holly who was pregnant with my first cousin once removed cousin who is now born and who is named Lennon, well, Holly played with me in the front room of the twin home at 649 N 1280 E where we lived. She took a lot of pictures of me and I was on my belly laughing. My baby blessing was beautiful. My dad blessed me and he wrote some of it down but I don’t have it here. But then after there was a HUGE party and lots of food and my whole family was there.

I rolled over when I was about eight weeks old. We were over at Grandma Jewel’s house and all my aunts were making me lay on my belly. I didn’t like this and would grunt and get really really mad. Finally, I just rolled over to prove to them that they weren’t the boss of me. They all started screaming and that was weird.

My grandpa Mark made me a paper mobile that would spin with the music. I loved looking at it. My mom set it up in the front room and I’d lay under it and laugh. Eventually, when I learned to stand up and she’d put it over the crib, I tore it down. It’s not because I didn’t like it. It’s because I like to tear all things down. I also like to empty folded laundry out of baskets, pull CDs off of CD stands, stand on top of stereos, stick my hand in fire places, and go head first off the Love Sac.

I’ve always been a very alert and observant baby and when I started crawling, I liked to get into everything. I mostly like adult things like screwdrivers and knives and magnets and keys and cell phones and laptops. I don’t mess with toys all that much. My favorite favorite book is Peek a Moo by Marie Torres Cimarusti. I also love Goodnight Moon but it doesn’t make me tired, I just like to turn the pages really really fast. When I was little my mom took me on walks every day and I would look around and sit quietly. Now I prefer to crawl around and not be in the bjorn because it’s boring. I also used to love going in the shopping cart and look around but now I would rather crawl up the shelves. I don’t like to just sit there.

Last summer we went swimming. At Aunt Holly’s pool I kicked my legs like a fish and swam all over. And I love Lehi Legacy Center pool because they have swings for babies. I think I started liking swimming because my dad gives me baths every night and he always makes the water into a whirlpool and splashes me. At first I hated it (Aunt Paulette and Sam and the girls came over the first day I got home from the hospital to show my mom how to give me a bath and I screamed and screamed because I hated the cold) but now it’s my favorite thing to do. When I go in the bathroom and see the tub I start bouncing up and down and singing. My dad even lets the water get in my eyes but I don’t care. I did figure out how to take the handles off the water so he had to take them off permanently so that I wouldn’t turn the water on really hot.

I also eat a lot. I liked peaches but then I got sick of them so I just started throwing them. Then I liked rice cereal or mixed cereal but then that got boring. So then I just started eating whatever everyone else was eating. Even curry or guacamole or pizza or sweet potato fries or salsa or my grandpa’s breakfast stir fry that my mom thinks is too spicy but I like it. Lately I’m into steak burritos. I also LOVE YoBaby yogurt but my mom thinks it’s expensive. And I’m into throwing pretzels and Ritz crackers at people. I go to bed every night at seven and I try to sleep all night. When I wake up, I stand in my crib and yell. Then I eat and then I lay on my mom and rest. Then I get up even if she doesn’t want me to get up and I crawl all over the bed and pull myself up with the headboard. Sometimes, if Mom’s lucky, I’ll sit in the dark and play with her cell phone and let her sleep a little.

I love to play peek a boo. I love to spit. And I can crawl up ANYTHING. I’m like my dad that way. I can crawl up the marble fireplace, I can crawl up the ladder, I can crawl up and get on the chairs, I can climb up and down the stairs (although one time I fell down the stairs because I would go head first to see what was going on and one time my mom was sitting right there and she thought I was fine but then I went for a shoe that was sitting on a stair and I fell and she freaked out and was crying and I was crying but not as long as she was and I was like, why did you leave a shoe there if you didn’t want me to dive for it? So then she and my dad went and bought a fence that I can actually go under and I try to when they aren’t looking but it’s okay because I know how to down now).

I’m a good boy and I watch my mom do Yoga and once my mom tried to make me do yoga and I laughed but then I didn’t want to do it so I didn’t. I only like bananas if I can hold the whole banana and I love kids. I hang out with the Jackson kids on Tuesdays when my mom teaches writing and it’s really fun except when Louisa grabs me and shakes me. On Thursdays I hang out with my grandma and grandpa Larry. Grandma plays funny games with me and grandpa does up up in the sky with me. This is funny and I laugh but only if I feel like it.
In a few days it’s my birthday and I’m not sure how it’s going to be because Christmas is coming and I don’t want left over presents. Also, I have to say, I used to be really calm and just sit there in church. Now I crawl all over and poke kids and eat cookies and spill water and put my fingers in outlets and slime my mom’s dresses. I’m a very nice boy with blond hair and I used to be a chubby bubby but now I’m sort of skinny because I never ever stop. Ever. Next year I hope to get a good job and hopefully start a 401K. I’ll also be going into nursery and I hope to start running. I think that’s all. Oh, and I love to dance.

Personal Histories

I know I emailed everyone a pdf of the personal histories all complied into one but I realize that it might be easier to read them one at a time. I'm going to post one personal history a week so you can read them all at an easy pace and make comments. I think this will be fun - I'm going to start at the end of the document and work forward. So Van will be first.