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Reunion number 15 has come and gone. Here are a few
happenings as seen through my eyes. My grandson Steven and I left my house
in St. George at 6am Saturday morning; to pick up hamburger buns at the
bakery. Well they weren’t ready so we had to wait-but we still arrived
at the ranch about 8am.
We saw more wildlife than usual on our trip out.
Several big hawks, many rabbits and a few coyotes. The next day we saw an
antelope chasing a coyote. It was out in the back and they were some
distance from us, so were soon out of sight. We wondered if it was a case
of a mother protecting her young-as it sure looked like the antelope meant
business when it chased the coyote out of our line of sight.
Max’s and Jamie’s were already there when Steve
and I arrived-having come on Thursday or Friday. Brad, Chris and their
children wee also there. Chris and Brad had put some neat sign on the
front of the ranch house; thanks kids-I really enjoyed them!
More and more people started arriving and we had
dinner around mid-day. After that people just kind of did their own thing
for a while. There was a golf tournament. I can’t remember who the grand
champion was, but if it’ important to you ask Miss Ashley Jade (gigi)
Iverson Wiscombe…she knows! There was also a treasure hunt put on by
Mary and Jamie, which the kids always really enjoy. And we had our usual
candy jar guess, which was won by Stacey. She shared the spoils with all,
so by Sunday evening her gallon jar was empty.
We had the usual four wheelers, three wheelers,
motorcycles, and four-wheel drives—going all over the place. But Tessa
was the most original, she brought a horse. Can you imagine bring a horse
to the ranch, Brad? Good for you Tessa, it was nice to see hoof prints on
the trail again!
We had a government
‘pogg’ sympathizer out there. I got my first clue when I was
reprimanded for trying to sell fixed raffle tickets without a license. I
swear I didn’t know they were fixed, and as for a license; as they say
ignorance of the law is no excuse! Now Bob got it for an illegal
fire-works display, without a big enough audience! And Ferg—well let me
tell you he’s in clear up to his neck for—illegal campsite, no
impaction test violation, improper flag flying, camping to near a tree
which might offend an owl, off road driving, and no campfire permit!
I
don’t know how the group I was with squeaked by without another warning,
when we drove up to Daddy Noaks grave; then out in the back and over hill
and dale. We may have crossed a road a time or two-but mostly we just
explored in Cyle and Stacey’s new Explorer.
Some of us figure that Ferg is in so deep that we
ought to do something to help him pay his fines. We’re thinking of
having a yard sale! Anyone wishing to contribute contact your reunion
committee. Heck, we didn’t even get our famous Ferg Sunday morning
breakfast. Guess he must have lost his food-handler permit also!
Gol dern!!
Late Saturday afternoon we started our program as
some of our performers had to leave for town before dark. (The BLM had
left Quail Dugway torn up so bad, I needed an Indian guide to get across
it< and some of us just didn’t dare tackle it after night)
However if I do say so Harley and I put together a
swell program. Garn had promised to a poem if Hal and Terrie would come to
the reunion and bring baby Alec along.
So they did---and he did! Garn did an excellent job
on the poem, which was very appropriate for our reunion. It stirred
bittersweet memories in my soul.
Then Hal and Terrie sang for us, and Hal had a couple
of poems, which were very good,
Then came the dancers, yeeeeeehaw! Merna and Lorene
clogged, they were great. Brett (Shamane’s husband) gave use a dance
number and he was also super fine. Alan, Pamela, Peggy, and Shamane did a
real cute routine to, “Achy Breaky Heart.”
Tiah Radlee and Jason played the keyboard, and all did a swell job.
Music just seems to drip out of Radlee’s fingertips!
Half of the Maxwell’s sang the Arizona State song,
and Amber sang a solo. Good job group!
There was a reading by Paul (which was written by
Garn) it included a presentation to Boyd of a sculpture that Garn and Cyle
had made for him. Did you get all that folks?
Anyway it was nifty. Then Garn, Hal and Nita sang the
theme song, but of course…What else?
There were golf awards and quilt block awards given out. Pamela,
Linda, Marge, and Max’s family were the recipients of the quilt block
awards. Linda wasn’t there so her newly wed daughter Paige, accepted for
her and made a very fine acceptance speech. Barb accepted for Marge, and
also gave an academy award thank you. Nita who accepted for Maxs family
and Pamela for herself—just gave us this look like,
“you gotta be kiddin’, the least you could have done was made
it an cash award!” Oh well, maybe better things next time ladies!
Then we had the tee-shirt contest, which I certainly
hoped to win! After al I had
on my best ranch tee-shirt. It had gotten a few red splashes on it earlier
as I was stirring Boyd's beans, but that only gave it more real ranch
character! Even if the
splashes didn’t add too much, they were pretty well concealed by the,
“solid gold” chain that Evan Boyd gave me to wear. He had
gotten it from the great treasure hunt. I thought I was a front runner for
sure! Oh well. Harley’s won.
I thought they should have let Paul hang the plack on
his wall—because as they all looked super fine, Paul’s outfit was
quite smashing! In fact I lost my senses and voted for him against myself!
No wonder I lost, that one vote would have probably put me over the top.
Then we had the auction; it was fun with Paul as the
auctioneer, Tina had framed some pictures of Mom and Dad, when they were
young, and sent them to the auction. Although she couldn’t come this
year the pictures she sent were very special. I bid on them, but they soon
got out of my range. Boyd ended up buying them, and he brought them over
to me not long after the reunion, and told me to take care of them for
him. Now when he came with things for me to take care of for him that
always meant I bought these for you. He’s one of the good guys of the
world; he just doesn’t know it!
Pamela’s husband Alan bought the prayer that Lee
had sent. We all thought that it was neat, but Alan just loved it. I think
it caused some of his Danish blood to bubble to the surface.
After all the bill was paid, we made some over a
thousand dollars on the quilt, books, and auction. I still vote for a
permanent roof over the patio, and new rain gutters. I guess time will
tell.
Suppertime, Max was head cook for the
hamburgers—and of course there was hand churned ice cream. After that it
was dance time. Paul played tapes through his sound system. Didn’t seem
like we had as many dancers this year-though some did get out there and
boogie around for a while. Paige, Paula, Nita, and some others line danced
for a while. Tessa is a devoted fan of line dancing, as she hung in there
until the last note was played. She’s a real cowgirl too. Now what more
could you ask for than to be a dancer and a cowgirl?
If seemed as if Lisa, Kelli, and their friend Brianna
from Cal., also enjoyed the line dancing.
Bob and Nicki came quite late Saturday night. Boyd
had already gone to town for the night; so they found a bite to eat and
spent the night up at Camp Ohno.
Boyd had taken Kurt and Paula to the Grand Canyon on
Saturday (Kurt was so impressed that he wrote an essay about it) and he
took Bob and Nicki on Sunday-so he was kept busy being Canyon guide.
Three carloads of people went to Oak Groove, Quaken
Asp Valley, or someplace like that on Sunday afternoon. Paige and her new
husband Bret M. were among that group. Bret carved his initials on a tree,
so maybe he plans to come back some day. I think his first Iverson reunion
was a bit of a culture shock! But they all said they had a good time up on
the mountain, wherever they went!
Now let me tell you about Saturday night sleeping
arrangements. Remember last year it rained and there were wall to wall
bodies in the house? Well this year after all has settled down about
12:30am I am the only one in the whole house. I don’t know if that was
by accident of design!! At first I thought that my younger granddaughters
and their friend were going to sleep in there. But at the last minute they
decided that things would be better in the van; and they must have
been-because they had a good giggling session that I let go on about an
hour, before I gave them the word that the campfire had been turned out!
They are all good kids, and giggling is half the fun of being a
kid, if I remember correctly!
I found out afterwards that Garn and Barb-sleeping in
the Explored, and Cyle and Stacey-sleeping in a tent on top of the cistern
hill, didn’t spend a very comfortable night. They might just as well
have been inside, as there were plenty of empty beds. Next time we are
going to have to do a, “Goodnight John Boy”
bed check!
Garn, Barb, and myself were the first ones up Sunday
morning. We could hear the coyotes howling off to the North. It was a
sound that brought a little nostalgia.
The ranch was nice and green, but the ponds had very
little water. What we need is a good gully washer to run a flood down the
pond ditch.
We had lots of babies there this year. This was the
first reunion for Garn and Barbs grandson Alec, although he is a big boy
now. Chris and Brad had their new baby boy Mason, who Evan Boyd calls Tree
(your guess is as good as mine!) Lorene was there with her baby Logan,
Shamane and Brett with their baby Jake. Dick and Cheri were also there
with their new baby Kaitlin; Mike and Debbie, with Karissa and new baby
sister Sierra, and last but not least Tris and Bonnie had their baby
grandson Jacob with them. They
all were just cute, cute, cute!
Next year we can look forward to at least four new
ones that I know about; Jamie and Shauna, Kevin and Tina, Alan and Pamela,
and Paul and Anita.
Seems like we had very few babies there for some
years, but we have a real crop of young ones coming up now. Must be
something in the air—did you hear that Stacey and Susan? Paige you just
ignore it and go to college! Hope you three don’t mind me teasing you a
bit, it’s only because I can’t think of anything else to write.
Harley and I thought it was a good reunion. We want
to thank all that helped make it a success. A special thanks to Max’s
and Garn’s who always hang in there and help to the very end.
See you
next year. Love Carla
PS Kevin and Tina got a
baby brother for Seth on June 28, 1993
Included in this newsletter was an essay by Kurt
Hawkinson about a trip to the Canyon with Boyd in 1993: Kurt's
Canyon Essay.
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