Father Mother ~ Grandpa Grandma

Conversation Between Gene Covington & Noel Rentz

Noel: I am chuckling at the stories you managed to send to Little Joe about when your mom was being pursued by two men and the smelly feet. I had no idea that some of my correspondence with you was being published in there. It was exciting because I just don't have the energy to rewrite anything.

Gene: Yes, you have to be careful what you send to me, or Little Joe or to the family in general, cause we'll grab it and splatter it all over the front page for all to see. And, of course, if its bad, I'll always confess and say that Noel did it. :-)

Noel: Oh how I cherished the times of my youth with grandma and grandpa. Grandma Florence had a great sense of humor. When Judy and I were married in 1964 in the Idaho Falls Temple, we spent our honey in Yellowstone National Park and came back through Salt Lake to spend the night with Grandmother. That night, when we went to get into bed, we found that she had short sheeted the bed and poured a box of corn flakes in it.

Gene: I think all would agree that among their memories those with Dad and Mother are with the best. Another part in the Historical Sketch of Mother and Dad refers to how their differences led them to being the ideal couple for instilling a rounded out education in life for their children. Maybe the only two things they had in common was their love for their family and their senses of humor. Mother did love to laugh and it didn't matter if the joke was on her or over something or someone else. I'm sure it was their wit that got them through so many hard times during their lives.

Noel: Sometimes I get in trouble at church because I can't stand things too boring. I remember my first wife coming out of her chair and straight at me one day when I was Bishop and was up at the microphone comparing the herd of cattle across the street from the church to the Relief Society gossiping. She was quite upset till she saw everyone else thought it was funny. I owe that unplanned bit of trouble to Grandmother Florence. The Relief Society President got to where she would bake me special cowpie cookies, a cow tie and blanket. Many still approach me at church and say they see the Relief Society meeting out in the field across the street.

Gene: That is funny and is probably what will mark you as the Bishop they most loved and appreciated. No one likes any kind of a leader who has a holier than thou attitude. You have always had an insane sense of humor and will always be in trouble. While at first it might have made ME wonder how in the world you became bishop I can now realize the fact that God does work in mysterious ways -- no just joking. God knows that among the serious he also has to have serious ones who can relate to the peasants like me. So he made some good bishops and other better more human bishops like you. I'm sure you revile in the good friends and congregation that remember you for all you goodness (or do I mean in this case badness). Just as Little Joe does in the accomplishments he has had with his students, and I in my past little leaguers, crews and boy scouts.

Noel: Still have a bad habit of taking an ink pen on sundays and drawing mustaches on the kids faces. Some of the mothers say their kids would not come to church if they couldn't get a pair of glasses drawn on them.

Gene: I kind of remember you doing something like that to me to. Then dressing me up in long johns painted up and sending me out in public there in Realto. Ya haven't changed a bit.

Noel: This funny bone comes from grandma, also I hear grandma Pectol had quite a warped sense of humor too. I can't believe some of the tricks she use to play on people.

Gene: I wish I remembered more of Grandma Pectol. I remember going to her home next to the store where we lived in Torrey to visit her. She always, always served little boys tea and fresh baked bread with cream and sugar on it. She did the same after Grandpa Pectol died and she moved to Loa. She lived in a little home next to the one room school where I attended 1st grade. I'd go see her after school and get my little boys tea and bread with cream and sugar on it. and, I remember Grandpa Pectol's funeral in Torrey and visiting her in the hospital in Richfield where she was being treated. But I have no memories of the stories I'm sure she must of told me while I ate my snacks. If you have any of those stories written down please put them on the web or mail them to me so's I can.

Noel: I remember when Gene and I were always in trouble for doing something stupid as kids.

Gene: Yes, they knew it was a mistake to put us together, but it never stopped them. They were probably hoping we'd do ourselves in so they wouldn't have to put up with us anymore.

Noel: I have been told by my mother recently that Butch Cassidy use to attend the dances at the Big Apple. She also stated one of the gang retired and lived right across the street from the Torrey store.

Gene: That makes sense to me. That's where Little Joe lived in the basement house right across from the old store. I knew he was bad, but didn't realize he was part of the Butch Cassidy clan. :-) Actually, I was in Salt Lake when the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid came out and took mother to see it. She spoke of times when Butch Cassidy would come into the store when she was a girl.

Gene: I really enjoyed the stories you posted about dad. Drinking from the Dog dish. Reminded me of all the cold water baths he and I took in the watering troughs of the horses and sheep up there in sheep valley and also in the water catch tanks. More than once we put our mouths in a stream next to our dogs or horses and drank along with them. Don't think he ever once thought of the livestock carrying germs or being any dirtier than the rest of us animals.

And, one instance of the silver dollars has stuck in my memory. As you recall Mother was always much more careful with the dollar than Dad. One year on the last day I could stay with him up on the sheep herd because of the school year beginning we were up exploring. Dad with his gigercounter that was always with him looking for uranium and other metals in the ground called to me Hey Gene come here, he said. Look what I found. He then pointed to a big silver dollar laying next to a fallen aspen and told me I could have it. He also cautioned me to be sure and tell my Mother, if she ask, that we found it. Later, I realized it was so she wouldn't know that he was giving money away. These things kinda rub off on a person I guess. Here in Hawaii they have the Menehune. As you may know, the Menehune are little little Hawaiian people rarely seen. Kind of like leprechauns. Every time I go to another Island and come back I bring a small something to the kids and when real young they believed me. I would tell them a Menehune came up to me and told me to give this to "name" when I went back home. I think this is a fallout of that trait of Dads of making "his kids" happy.

There are many lessons in life that our parents teach us. Unspoken lessons, but lessons none the less. We as parents must make sure we live our lives in a manner that in every way exemplifies the way we would like our children to live. Because, Dad could of just as easily taught me to be a dead beat dad or to steal that silver dollar from another. I am grateful for the parents God gave me. How fortunate we are to have come from such a wealthy family, wealthy in love and spirit. I know, as Lababe told us, we didn't come from a material rich family, but, while growing up I never felt we were lacking in anything. Dad, June, and Mother, Florence, provided with everything needed and more. We, members of our family, are so fortunate to have been provided with June and Florence and other ancestors who gave us such a strong "right" course to steer our lives in as we journey through this phase of our being, here on this earth.

Love,