My Portfolio

  Our family visited my great-grandma and great-grandpa Jensen (my dad’s grandparents on his mother’s side of the family) this past summer, which was really a great experience.  They live in Southern Alberta, Canada and we rarely get to visit with them.  They are both getting quite old and have moved...

Caina tells us about her brother in this week's Story Circle...

On the road …again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Looking Back With Mixed Emotions and Memories   Thanks to the photographic record, recalling a few details of the lavishness of Anh Sao’s house in Viet Nam can be shared with others.  As time passes, it becomes harder...

                This is the first time I got trampled by a bull. I rode it all the way.   I just remember I was getting up and I looked up and that bull was right on me. I flattened right down and he caught my head and stomped on my shirt and...

On the road… again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   These Stones Will Never Wilt   Whenever we return to the Netcong, New Jersey area to visit, my wife Thu and I make a visit to Stanhope Union Cemetery as part of the agenda.  That is where my...

CHAPTER TWO   Starting from the time we arrived at our home on 23rd Ave. in Phoenix, Arizona until we moved to our new home on 40th Ave. This was three years. But before I go on with my life, I would like to tell of two more things that I...

I was 6 years old when my sister, Joyce, was born. Dad used to sit on a chair in the kitchen to hold her until his arms would give out. He'd say to Mom: "you'd better take her now". So Mom would go over and take Joyce from him.  Joyce was...

This is a picture of my father when he started school. It may look like he is already becoming a trouble maker with that cross-eyed look on his face that so many of our kids today show when they are trying to shake things up a bit. But the real story...

A family in flux.  In the last year my family has been in flux.  Through this time family history has been a recurring thread.  On my Mothers side there is a tapestry being created.  On my Dads side that same tapestry is unraveling.  With my daughter, the tapestry is weaving a...

  On Getting The Right Attitude...           No one can make you happy, or unhappy.  You may become that way, but trust me, 95% of the time, you will shape your happiness with your attitude.  And it is only a matter of convenience just how offended you can be about some...

On the road …again!Afghanistan to ZambiaChronicles of a Footloose ForesterBy Dick Pellek   Affinity With Tigers   Blame it on his favorite uncle.  As a youngster in short pants, the Footloose Forester sometimes heard his mother refer to her younger brother as Tiger; and in reality, her brother Elmer carried the...

  Moses DeVere Childs   Excerpt from Perfection Through Sorrow by Bessie W. Stevens           Another large picture hung in mother's bedroom it held a man with piercing eyes. My mother said that they were a deep blue and very kind: Moses DeVere Childs, her father.  ...

"Grandpa, do you really know Sinterklaas?"  This was the question posed to me by Zach, my five-year-old grandson during my visit with his family on December 6th. One of our family traditions around the Christmas season is that Sinterklaas' (Dutch name for Saint Nicholas) makes a visit to the homes of...

After their wedding, Annette and Gerry begin married life in their home in Watson, South Australia, on the Nullabor Plain. The home had large rooms and they decorated and made it their own.  In 1970 their first daughter was born and Annette had to make a decision about whether to stay...

In the 1940 United States Federal Census,almost one year before the birth of Michael J. McLatchy, the residence and family makeup of the Frank B. McLatchy family is enumerated. https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-27865-19788-73?cc=2000219&wc=MMYW-GRZ:1257067259 Frank was working in solicitation at KSL Radio station at this time.  This would have put him on the streets of...

Marion G. Romney    Bruce R. McConkie          MItt Romney            Peter Vidmar    There are many famous or well-known people across the world in religion, politics, business, music, etc. Are you related to any?  I am!  Let me share several from my father’s side...

Ask any Missourian south of I70 what a “float trip” is and unless he is one of our more taciturn Ozarkers he will tell you.  However as a boy living in Kansas where rivers flow muddy and sluggish I’d never heard of a float trip and 30 years later when we...

  Video - Grandma Lucy

Every day in my practice as a counselor, I see how our lives are defined by relationships with others. Relationships shape, sustain and strengthen us.  They give our lives meaning—our very identities. And relationships are still, as they always have been, enhanced by sharing our personal experiences and stories. Several years...

I began my genealogy obsession looking for my great-grandfather, Harry Thurman Mercer. My mom and uncle really didn't know much about his life story as a small boy or anything about his family.  We all believed him to be an only child.  I knew he was born and died in Illinois...