I remember when we were small, our parents drove us down to Happy Valley, and they ran out of gas. Tom Rentz & June Covington hiked out and thumbed a ride back to Torrey and didn't get back till the next day. Grandma Florence Covington built a nice warm fire in the pot bellied stove they left behind. We all slept on the hard floor with the bugs, but didn't know any different.

The sound of the creek was also comforting. They had no food to feed us except for one can of condensed milk. They gave us a cup of hot water with a little milk in it and called it little boys tea. As the sun was going down, we went out with Lababe Rentz cause she had a 22 riffle and was gonna kill a deer to get us something to eat. She never saw a deer cause us kids were making too much noise. In the morning they fed us more little boys tea. They told great Indian stories, bear stories, etc. Their stories were true. Most of them are recorded in a couple different places. The ride out of Happy Valley story was a scary one. They were only ages 3 and 4.

Joe T. Covington, son of Junius & Florence, tells a good one about how Grandpa June, as a young man, use to look over the canyon walls down into the wash, watching Butch Cassidy work his horses. Running through the loose sand was hard work. He said that was how he could out run the law, cause his horses were in extremely good shape and could run for a long time.

For year we use to go to temple square and see grandpa Ephraim Pectol archeology & Indian collection in the church history museum on the second floor. Later they moved all of the items to several different place. Grandma Covington use to tell me every time it rained she would find a new set of beads, etc. that washed up down in Capital Reef area. I imagine her kids played with them and lost everything as our kids do today with arrowheads, etc.

For your information I am dropping out of the Presidential race tonight so you will have to vote for someone else. All I asked for was one person over the Internet to sponsor me to the tune of 1 billion, but not one stingy sole came through. Try to stay away from Gore!

Noel Rentz, Grand Son of Junius & Florence Covington

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Also, please remember to screen anything Gene writes prior to your kids reading it. He sort of forgets he was in the Navy for a long time and his language becomes rather colorful at times. Always remember there are many reasons Gene was banished to the Islands. We tried to keep his family
here.

I Remember that trip as well. The main road, around the east end of Boulder was dirt back in those days. When it stormed and I remember some of those mean thunderstorms that occur on Boulder, the road was not a place to be. Especially the small steep, washed out road down into Happy Valley. But I remember that trip as I found an arrow head alongside that little road down into Happy Valley that night. I remember how the cabin smelled of mice droppings. But you'd never find any better tasting water than that from the little spring creek that ran down next to the cabin. Mother was great withgiving children the little boys tea as Noel said. I've been in typhoons at sea that were so bad that we had to be tied to our bunks, but I've never seen a storm that scared me as much as a thunder storm up on Boulder, with the lightening cracking as it struck nearby trees and the thunder constant as we were right where the lightening was landing. Maybe that's what happened to Noel when he was small, he got hit by a bolt up there on Boulder and we didn't know it. That would explain a lot :-)

  I remember a hunting trip with Dad, Ted, and Hal we were hunting right off the road near Happy Valley. I think the first thing Dad taught any of us was how to shoot and hunt. Most people would use tin cans to target practice. Dad would have me use soft drink bottle caps. Consequently we got to be pretty efficient with a rifle. But on this trip Hal took the prize. We jumped three deer. The trees were really close together and it was hard to get a good long bead on any of them but Hal, went Bamb, Bamb and Bamb, all of them on the run and all of them got tagged (:-) or I guess they got tagged), one with Dads, one with Ted's and one with Hal's. license I was too young to have a license at the time). Hal's shooting definitely impressed me that time.

  Grand Mother Florence told me how she remembered, as a girl, seeing Butch Cassidy come into the store in Torrey once in a while. She also told me that as a young boy, Dad, tried his hand at outlawing. Seems he joined a bad bunch (maybe it was some of the Butch Cassidy fans) to rustle some
cattle. The Sheriff and Posse rode right by so close to where Dad was hiding he thought he'd been caught, but they didn't see him. I guess this scared him so much that he never pursued that career. He told Mother this story, I guess, when they were a courtin.

At the same time she was courting you Grandfather, it seems another boy was after her, one that Grandma and Grandpa Pectol approved of and liked better than Dad. But Mother told me she couldn't stand him, mainly cause when they were sitting on the porch she could smell his stinking feet. -- So you young whipper snappers when you're a courting your girl make sure you wash you
feet. Gotta get to work.

Gene Covington, son of Junius & Florence Covington