The Man in the Flying Machine

To say my dad, Olean Parker, had a passion for flying is an understatement!  As a young boy, he liked planes and such.  He told people he was going to be an airline pilot when he grew up.  I would bet many didn't really take him seriously and thought his love for the flying machine was just a normal boy thing.  When he was 15, he was at the county fair with a cousin and they spotted a biplane landing in the weed field just next to the fairgrounds.  This was a barnstormer who, no doubt, had flown in to attract paying customers at the fair.  Dad had a little money in his pocket for the concessions at the fair, so he and his cousin headed over.  They both climbed in the cockpit and the pilot asked them what kind of ride they wanted.  His cousin said, "Take it easy".  Dad said, "Give it all you got".  The pilot must not have heard dad's cousin.  They did loops, stalls, dives, and climbs.  Dad's parents were at the fair wondering what stupid people were going up in that airplane.  They were terrified of flying and would have never allowed him to go, had they known.  When dad later told them he had gone up in that plane, they had a fit and would not allow him to fly again.  That ride just confirmed in dad's mind his love for the air and he knew for sure he wanted to learn to fly someday. 

It was 1966 before dad took his 1st flying lesson.  My grandparent's fear kept him from pursuing his dream sooner, but he finally gave in to his heart and started his quest to learn to fly.  He never become a pilot for an airline company, but he did get his license and purchase a small single engine Cessna 150.  He owned that airplane for about 10 years and gave many rides to his children, grandchildren, and anyone else who would ask, or he could talk into going up with him.  He didn't really need much of a reason to fly, just good weather and time.  I can't say I enjoyed the same level of passion dad had, but I did enjoy it.  I took flying lessons as a teenager and logged enough hours to fly solo (without the instructor).  However, I was not 16 yet and you couldn't solo until age 16.  I seemed to lose interest before I reached 16, so that never happened.

Everywhere we went, we would have to check out the local airport.  Dad's passion/obsession was predictable.  Small county airstrips or large city airports, it didn't matter to dad.  He would be there with his camera in hand to take pictures of any and all the  aircraft they had to see.  I remember the first time they drove to Phoenix to see us after I married and moved away, he wanted to take a "little field trip to Sky Harbor Airport", just to see what they had.  I attempted to explain that it was very large and it wasn't what he was used to.  We weren't going to be able to walk out among the aircraft and take pictures.  He insisted.  Little did I know, there were buildings/hangers at Sky Harbor, before you get to the terminals, where the smaller aircraft are and dad helped us find the entrance to get in there and see them.  He was a determined fellow.  On another trip to Phoenix, we had to drive out to an airfield in the east valley with older aircraft on display.  I never knew it was there, but dad did his research before he came.

In 2009 at age 87, dad's cousin Jim arranged for someone to take him up for a flight around the valley.  Jim's gift to dad has since become a gift to all of us who knew dad's passion.  Jim filmed the flight and the 1st time we saw it was at dad's funeral, 2 years later.  Thanks Jim.

This is the biplane that dad took his 1st ride in at the fair in 1937.

Dad's plane is the red one.  No, he didn't keep it in the front yard.

He and another pilot flew in and landed on the 'old highway'.  I would get at one

end and someone else be further down the highway and we would stop any cars

that might be on the road.  They would then land and taxi in to the yard where

we would get the hose and buckets and wash them.  Then we would go back out and

stop traffic (okay1-2 cars at best) so they could take off and fly back to the airport.

This is the link to the video of dad's last flight.

http://youtu.be/NR02esOg7Ic

Baby Steps, Growing Pains, and Life's Trials

Surely you've watched a baby learn to walk.  I know when mine were learning, there was such anticipation in that first real unassisted step.  There were usually falls and maybe even tears.  I watched the attempts and the falls, never really that far away.  My baby might not have known I was close at hand, but I was.  I would be there to compfort the tears, then I would encourage further attempts.  I knew that the walking was going to happen sooner or later.  I didn't cause the falls, but I knew that they just had to happen and were just part of the learning process.  I could have saved my baby from those falls and tears by avoiding the process all together.  Never fall, never cry, and never learn to walk.  I don't think my grown children would have appreciated that though.  I would bet they're glad, even grateful that I let them learn this new skill of walking.  There's something we know, as the parent, that the child doesn't understand.  We see a much broader picture and know that some things just have to happen in order to learn a new skill.  There's something the child will eventually understand when looking back.  They learn that the process was necessary to move on to the next great thing to learn.

Then there's the growing pains.  If you've ever sat up with a child crying in the night from leg pains, you'll know what I'm talking about here.  Maybe you can ease them a little with leg rubs or medicine, but not always.  And the name, "growing pains", come on--that is truely just a cop out, right?  Just something to call them, because we really don't know.  Well, that is what I thought then.  Working in the medical profession, I've learned something about growing pains since those long nights with the crying child.  The name is real, it is an accepted diagnosis in the world of medical coding.  It is described as pains occurring in the limbs as a result of growth spurts, associated with the ligaments and connective tissue holding the bones to each other.  So there you have it, and would the adult who experienced growing pains as a child exchange their grown body for no pain?  I would venture to say no.  Interesting what we can appreciate in retrospect.

So what is this story really about?  Okay, I'm getting to it.  Life is all about learning and growing.  What if this life is filled with all kinds of growing opportunities, even growing pains.  We might call them trials in life, real and painful.  We might not understand them.  We might just hope they go away.  If we believe in a God, we might wonder why He would allow those trials to happen to us.  We might even wonder why He would cause them to happen and question what we did to deserve them.  What if God is really our heavenly parent, watching over us, there to comfort us and pick us up and encourage us to keep trying.  We may not even know just how close this heavenly parent really is.  As the young child in this learning process, we don't see the final outcome, we just experience the pain at the moment and don't understand.  We certainly don't know or understand just what it is that will be learned.  We don't know how all the pieces fit together and work together, like learning to walk before you can run, or ride a bike.  Or how the connective tissue holding the bones together needs to stretch in order to have a strong upright adult stature.  We just feel the pain. 

I'm no different than any of you.  I have trials in life, we all do, and sometimes they are just plain painful.  Sometimes, like the child in the night, I just don't understand when the pain will go away.  But I've learned something.  It's very close to my heart and I want to share it with you.  I do know that I have a Heavenly Father watching over me, every day.  I know that He is there through every pain.  I know that He did not cause the pain, but there is growth happening and He is allowing me to go through the learning process.  As I have learned these things, something marvelous has happened.  I have learned to love my Heavenly Father.  I am learning to trust Him.  In the midst of pain, I have felt comfort and love from Him unlike anything I have ever felt before.  I would not have experienced that without going through trial and I would not trade this knowledge for anything.  My trials in life will surely continue, as that is what this life is all about.  However, they have brought me to this point in my learning and for that, I am truely grateful.

Me--Through The Years In Pictures

I came across a number of pictures that I thought would be fun to blog about.  That sent me on a search for more pictures.  I didn't think I would ever say this, but thank you Dad, for your obsession with the camera.  My dad has always taken a camera with him everywhere he went.  This was prior to the day of digital.  He had every roll developed and saved every print.  Throughout his life, until a few years before he died, he would put every print into an album.  I can say with assurity that I did not aquire this obsession for pictures from him. In fact, when both Mom and Dad left the house to live in a nursing home and it came time to clean out the house, the photo albums came home with me, but not because I wanted them.  It was because Dad wanted me to be the "keeper of the stuff".  So I have suitcases and boxes full of Dad's photo albums along with older pictures from generations back.  I now can appreciate the value of that and my heart is being turned to the  past through these pictures as I go through them from time to time.  So below are some that I've selected to add to my blog.  Of course, Dad did not take all of these, but his albums did get me started.  So thanks again, Dad.  Just a little disclaimer before you start looking at the pictures:  I do not like cameras and they don't like me.  I don't even like some of the pictures I'm including, but for posterity, here they are.



This is the youngest picture I have seen of myself.
Cute kid!

  



Youngest of 5.  We were so cute!

Lots of drives around Bear Lake.

At Aunt Ramona's cabin in Island Park.  Not a happy group. 

Kindergarten

I remember loving that dress.

3rd grade

About 9 or 10 here
 My oldest brother Charles was in the Navy and Tom hadn't left on his mission yet.

1975
Senior picture
All the senior girls wore the same dress.  Ok, not really, but that's what it looks like in our yearbook.  They made us use the pearl necklace and the "drape" thing to look like a dress.



1975

 Engagement picture

Aug 14, 1975

Wedding picture

1976

Starting a family.

Oct 1976

Ahhh, Chad was about 1 week old here and I had obviously not recovered yet.  Who talked me into this photo anyway?

1981

Family is growing with Chad, Angie and Zac.  I have grandkids that look just like that now.

1983

The day we were sealed in the temple as a family forever.

Yup, same wedding dress.  I planned it that way.

1995

Now with Lynsie--a growing family

This was just before Chad's mission.  When we put him on the plane for his mission, I stood there and watched the plane taxi out (when you could actually go to the gate to see someone off).  As it left, with him on board, I just started sobbing.  I knew my little family would never be the same.  Little did I know what was in store.  We just kept growing even more.

1995

At Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary with 3 siblings, Charles, Tom and Margaret.  Not sure why David wasn't in the picture. 

1995

Me, Margaret, David, Tom and Charles

The 5 of us took many pictures on the front steps over the years.  There were very few occasions as adults that we were all  together again.

1999

Just before Angie's and Zac's missions

We added a daughter-in-law and started on grandchildren.

Aug 2001

Angie and Zac just home from their missions and Ali sealed to us all on this day.  We adopted Ali while both Angie and Zac were away.  Surprise, you have a new little sister.

 Nov 2003 in Idaho

Charles didn't make it down from Alaska for this trip.

2003

We just keep growing.....

2006

and growing.......

2009

and growing!!!

2012

In Idaho for Mom's 90th birthday celebration.  David and Dad both passed away in 2011.

2011

The most recent picture we have had so far.  At this point we  have 17 grandchildren.  Since the picture, have added an 18th grandchild and 1 great grandchild.  Still growing!!

2006

Ok, I know I'm not in this picture, but it is one of my all time favorites of my 5 children.

2011

We tried for a good picture of the grankids.

Don't know how good, but a whole lot of fun anyway.

To be continued.......

Me, Myself and I

It's quiet in the house.  Everyone else has gone to bed and the noise of the day is gone.  I've been sitting here for a while wanting to blog, but nothing is coming together.  I have a list of things to blog about, but couldn't quite get a handle on any of them.  Then the quiet set in.  I sat here for a few minutes, just taking in the silence, listening to my thoughts.  Just the 3 of us, me, myself and I. 

There's Me.....the child.  Doesn't that sound just like a child....me, me, me.   The youngest of 5, so very spoiled.  I'll admit it.  And my older siblings will also attest to that.  They will probably tell you I was the favorite too.  Not spoiled like you would define "spoiled" now days, though.  I may have gotten things I wanted, but I knew what to ask for and what not to ask for.  One year for Christmas, I asked for a portable cassette recorder.  Some of you won't even know what that is.  It cost about $30.  I didn't get it that year, or the next.  But did get it the 3rd year for Christmas.  I also wanted a cedar chest when I was a teenager.  I had been looking at them in magazines and had one of the least expensive ones picked out.  I think about $120.00.  My dad told me he thought he could afford it if we got 3 cuttings of alfalfa in that summer.  Our growing season was only about 3 months out of the year and the norm was to get 2 cuttings.  On a very few occasions, if the good weather would hold on a little longer, we would get 3.  By this time, my older siblings had all moved out and it was just me and dad moving the sprinkler pipe through the fields.  There certainly wasn't anything I could do in that regard to improve our chances of getting a 3rd cutting.  But I think I must have worked with a little more enthusiasm and a little less complaining that summer.  At the end of the 2nd crop, it was obvious that we were not going to get another one in.  I was disappointed of course, but that's just the way it was.  My dad then told me that he was going to buy the cedar chest anyway.  He said there wasn't anything more I could have done to improve our chances, so he was just going to buy it.  I guess that's what they called spoiled in my day.  I learned to sew at a very young age and was good at it.  I enjoyed painting and sketching.  I have to say I haven't done much sewing or painting/sketching since then.  I was good in school, although never liked the writing assignments.  I was confident and recognized by people around me as someone very capable, someone who would achieve much and be successful in life.  There's still a lot of Me, the child in my thoughts.  Some complete memories and some bits and pieces of memories, with a lot of tradition and family heritage thrown in.  That's probably why I love to go home to Idaho and visit on occasion.  It brings Me, the child to the surface for a brief time.

Then there's Myself.......What can I say about myself.  Myself is kind of a lonely word.  It implies just that, no one else, just myself.  It doesn't have to be lonely though.  At times I really enjoy Myself.  No one else to worry about, or think about.  No one else to try to please.  Just Myself.  We all have this, our inner thoughts, our private desires.  Things we don't share, for one reason or another.  Maybe we all have different proportions of the Myself in each of us.  I think sometimes I just want to keep Myself, to myself.  Little scary to put Myself out there. 

Finally there's I....I am a woman in my 50s who is a combination of all things leading up to this point.  I am a combination of the Me and Myself.  I am the future, taking the best parts of the Me and Myself with me into that future.  Learning from, but leaving behind all that is not good from the Me and Myself.  I am a mother.  No, I am a great mother.  I am creative and confident.  I am learning to express some of those inner thoughts so closely guarded by Myself.  I am learning how to be the "I" that I want to be.  I am learning to bring the Me back into the "I".

So, are you totally confused about now.  So am I.  Welcome to my thoughts.