Do you have any allergies?
Not really, when I was a teenager, I bought a wool jacket, and it made my arms itch terribly and I’d get welts on my arms. I was eventually diagnosed with a wool allergy. It wasn’t bad and all I did was wear long-sleeved shirts with that coat. The wool was very rough and I’m fine if I wear a finely woven wool jacket. Like a wool suit. In reality, I know I have dermographic skin and I believe I was reacting to the rough wool.
Here is the definition of dermographia:
Dermatographia is a skin condition characterized by the development of raised, red welts (wheals) in response to pressure or scratching.
The doctor who figured it out took the cap of his pen and wrote his initials on my arm. Within two minutes his initials were a raised welt on my arm that looked remarkably like a scar. Dermographia can be quite fun, especially if you’re bored. It does itch though so I don’t do it often. As I’ve gotten older it isn’t as pronounced either, but it was amazing as a teenager and young adult.
Have you ever ridden a horse?
I started riding a horse as a young teenager at the Lybbert family reunions in East Castle just north of Waterton. I have ridden quite a bit since then.
What gave me the most confidence on a horse was one time the kids were riding their horses into this deep pool in the creek. My horse refused to go until Uncle Lloyed came up behind me, slapped the horse on his rump and yelled, “get on in there” or something to that effect.
The horse reared up on his hind legs, pawed the air and then jumped into the pool and swam to the other side. I stayed on the horse, and I’ve never been too worried on a horse since then.
In times of trouble in your life, who did you turn to for advice or help?
For the most part I don’t ask for advice or help. That is probably a bad weakness but with big decisions or serious trouble I just keep it between me and the Lord. I don’t remember ever talking about my career or problems with my parents. Now that I’m married, I do of course talk to Lisa about things that affect us as a couple, but my personal problems, worries or concerns I keep to myself. I guess my answer would be that I turn to the Lord. I take every decision, fear, or concern to the Lord.
Have you ever had a serious illness?
Not that I remember. I’ve been pretty healthy. I should clarify that by saying that without modern medicine I would be blind and deaf and crippled.
I had surgery to correct my strabismus (eyes), I had surgery to replace my stapes (ears), and I had surgery to fix my meniscus (knee).
What is one of the craziest things you’ve ever done?
I’ve done so many crazy things that I would have a hard time picking one. I guess I would have to say that putting touch powder it a guy’s locker in high school. I picked that incident because that would probably put me in jail if I did it today. Let me cut and paste that story from an earlier post.
By far my favorite touch powder story is Jeff Gregson. Jeff was a bully who tormented me mercilessly in high school. By the time I got to high school, most people had matured to the point that no one teased me anymore and life was for the most part pretty good. The one exception was Jeff Gregson.
Jeff was still quite immature, and he loved to tease me every chance he got. To make things worse, he was very popular and always had the prettiest girlfriends. One bit of satisfaction is that his girlfriend ended up marrying a nerd in the end. Kind of like Lisa did, she was very popular in high school. I digress.
I decided to get my revenge on Jeff in the only way I knew how. I took a huge piece of my touch powder to school. Understand that a piece of this stuff the size of a BB will scare the wits out of you. Something the size of a pea will make your ears ring. I took a piece the size of a marble. During math class I asked to be excused, and I put my little bomb into Jeff Gregson’s locker.
After class I rushed out into the hallway to relish in my revenge. For my kids in California, when I say hallway, I'm not talking about the outdoor "hallways" that we have in our schools, this is indoors, it's dark and dingy and lined on both sides with metal lockers from floor to ceiling. They are crowded with so many people that you have a difficult time wedging your way through to your next class. The noise is also deafening with everyone talking.
Amid this chaos, Jeff opened his locker door and threw his book up onto the top shelf where my surprise was waiting. The explosion was extremely loud and greatly magnified by the rows of metal lockers that continued to resonate long after the initial shock wave.
Everyone went deathly silent, and the only sound was the sustained high-pitched ringing that was in my ears or perhaps it was coming from the rows of metal lockers. As the high-pitched ringing sound began to fade away Jeff broke the silence with a very loud "HOLY SH*T".
Cardston of course was a Mormon town with at least 90% of the students being Mormon. That exclamation just added to the shock on everyone's faces. It was one of my proudest moments, but unfortunately, I didn't dare claim credit for fear of reprisal. I will claim credit now; I scared the crap out of Jeff Gregson.
Do you like to dance?
I love to dance. When I was a freshman at BYU I audited a ballroom dance class. I did it for fun and not for credit. Since BYU had twice as many girls as it did men, they would take any guy who would go, and were happy to have me even if I was only auditing. I learned a lot of dances but the only ones I remember are the waltz (which I already knew), cha cha, tango, Latin hustle and swing dancing.
I made sure that each of my kids learned how to swing dance and they all still love it.
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