I LIKE PEOPLE

                I LIKE PEOPLE

  I like people, at least the vast majority of them that I have met. Yes there may be a few that are hard to like and probably a very few that are impossible to like. Never the less I like talking to them no matter if they are neighbors, friends, relatives or just strangers I meet on the street in my everyday comings and goings

   And most people respond to your liking them by responding back with a kindly    “hi” or “hello’ or “have a good day.”

   I recall many years ago I said “Hi” to an older man and it started up a conversation that my wife said went on FAR too long. She said she really did not have to listen to his whole life story However I liked talking to him and he seemed to be happy just sitting at the table next to us and visiting.

   






   Another adventure we had in a mall was when we were quite a bit older. My wife and I were walking in the Mall, (we did that quite often) and of course I had said Hi, or nodded my head to a couple of people , and my wife looked at me and said,” do you really think they like to talk to strangers?” Of course I told her yes I did think that was the case with most people. Of course that was many years ago also. I laughed and told her I would prove it to her.

   I asked her to pick any person in the Mall and I would have a conversation with that person. She looked around and picked out an older gentleman sitting on a bench with a frown or perhaps you might even say a scowl on his face, and a cane in his hand. She directed me to him, and said grinning, OK he looks like a good prospect.

   We walked over to him and I asked if my wife and I might sit on the bench with him for a few minutes. He immediately slid over toward the end of the bench ad said, ”of course.”  I told him even we younger people need a rest once in a while. He grinned ‘a little’ and said, “Ya I suppose so.”

   After sitting a minute I asked him if I could ask him a question. He told me of course I could ask but he would not guarantee that he would give me an answer.

   I told him his cane was beautiful and obviously homemade and I wondered if he had made it himself. Well he grinned  and his whole face turned into a smile.

   Of course he then told us how he goes to the mountains or streams close by and gets the material for the canes, and that yes indeed he did make them himself. He went on to say that it gave him something to do, and even if he said so himself, they turned out pretty good looking. It was obvious that he was proud of his canes.

   We talked a little more about job’s, families, cars and a lot of other things, until  my wife said, “I think we better be on our way dear.”  As I stood up the old gentleman was smiling and said, ”If you come walking again and see me, stop and say hi. I have enjoyed these few minutes.”

   As we got a little way down the Mall, my wife turned and looked at me and said, “OK you win.”

   If there is such a thing as a certified people watcher I and my wife should have a certificate.

   When we were first married we did not have much money to spare, after all the bills were paid, and there was no such thing as a TV, Computer, which means we also did not have thousands of dollars worth of Electronic Games.

   So we developed the people watching or animal watching pass-time. We would try and guess what car they were headed for to get in, or what restaurant, or what store they were going to. These guess’s were usually based on how they were dressed.

   One thing we did a lot was to go to a movie at one of the air conditioned up town theaters. Many times we thought we were pulling a fast one, as the movies were played over and over all day and we would stay in the cool theater and watch it 2 or 3 times in the air conditioned building and we only had to pay once.

   We went and watched, and fed, the ducks on the ponds around the valley, and yes we did meet some other young couple doing the same thing. We would talk and laugh at our kids and the ducks and then go home and probably never see those people again, but we had been able to get out of the house, meet some new people and relax, even if only for a short time.

   I especially like teen agers. They are the vitality and hope, showing us what this country can become. They are full of energy, new ideas and have the intestinal fortitude to bring their ideas to fruition.

   Of course just like adults, some (most that I know) are easy to get to know and talk to if we make a little effort.

 










 I recall at one time in my life I was teaching a class if teenagers and I had one that had to comment on everything I had to say. This went on for some time until one day I said, ”Tom, if I study real hard do you think I will ever get to know as much as you do?” His facial features changed about three times in three seconds—first Mad, then a little smile, then a big grin. He then said, “I doubt it but it wouldn’t hurt to try. Well amazingly there were no more distractions in the class and every time I passed him in the hallway, I would tap him on the shoulder and ask him if he was still studying hard. He would always answer back, “yes I am, I do not want you to catch up with me.” Then we would smile or laugh at each other. Somewhere along the line we become good friends.

   I do not recall where I read it but I know it was written by a man named -- Disraeli-- and I really like it. “The youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity.” So I hope the youth of our nation are getting ready to solve the problems that they inherit when the people my age pass on!
      At times I did not know if I would survive my own teenagers until they grew up and I suppose that feeling will go on until we ARE all perfect. And yes I think that DAY will happen.  

   I used to do something that made my wife think I had lost my senses. I never did get in trouble but I got quite a few of “those looks” at times. It was always interesting to wear a U of U sweatshirt to a BYU football game and then sit right in the middle of the BYU side of the stadium. There were people that I thought were just kidding, but I really found out they thought I was doing something sacrilegious?

   One time in Disneyland (where it seemed we went every year for a few years), one of the rides had a sign that said, “you cannot ride this ride unless you are this tall’ Then there was measuring board next to the gage to stand up to and see if you were the right height. It was about three foot tall. I went over to the booth and asked if there was anyone that could ride with my kids because I was A LOT taller than the sign? She looked at me with a funny look on her face, then she started laughing and so did I. She says no one has ever pulled that one on her before.
   

   I like young children, and yes some are easier to like than others. Actually as I have said above, I try to like everyone, but I have a real tender spot for young people. I guess at my age a young person could be anyone under 50, but of course I am talking about pre-teen children. Are they a challenge at times---of course they are, but they are so smart, so inquisitive and so busy, that if you really try to get to know them, you can’t help but like them, And of course my being a grandpa, if I don’t get along with them I can just tell them I have to go home. That works every time.

  For about 25 years I have been keeping what I call “my little black book.” It contains some of the things that my grandchildren have said over the years. I will not mention any names but here are a couple of classics.

   One of my grandchildren came to visit us and while they were here they told me about a new chair they had at their pre-school. They call it a power “seat”. If you are naughty you have to sit on it.  Of course me being the good grandpa I said, “I’ll bet you don’t ever have to sit on it.” They immediately responded, like I had insulted them, with “OH YES I HAVE GRANDPA, A LOT OF TIMES.”
   My wife and I were tending one of our granddaughters and trying to correct her for something she had done and we were not getting very far. We even commented as to how our grandkids might turn out? That all became insignificant when she climbed up on my lap and said grandpa I want to whisper to you. So I put my ear down and she said, ”grandpa I love you.”

   I picked up one of my grandkids one day and he was so skinny I said, “you feel like nothing but skin and bones.” Without a moment’s hesitation he looked up at me and said, “well grandpa you feel like nothing but fat & bones.” “Out of the mouth of babes.”

   Although I like teen agers and I love toddlers, I like a lot of people of all ages. Of course we will never know if we will like them or not unless we do like an old saying—“try it you might like it.”

   Is it strange, a coincidence, or just logical that the people we like the most seem to be the ones who like the same things we do.

   I grew up in a generation where our immediate and extended family, were some of our best friends. I guess that is still somewhat true but not as tightly knit as they used to be.

   I am old and OLD FASHIONED, but I do like people and I especially love my family. SO------ I started a tradition a few years ago to help us get to know each other even better than we did.

   It started off,  by one person writing a letter to any other person in the family. The letter could be on any subject and sent to any family member they chose. They also send along the letter they received. We have been doing it for a couple of years now and in MY TEEN AGE VENACULER, it has been “a blast.”

   I understand the package of letters going around now is about ½ inch thick and has been to 20 or 30 different people, some more than once.

   The only disadvantage I have found is that you only get to read ALL THE LETTERS when the package comes back to you—AND I AM NOT A REAL PATIENT PERSON.

   Well this Blog has wiggled and waggled around for way longer than I planned. However that is how I do my blogs. A person, a thought or idea comes to my mind and ---off I go.

    Enough about people and the fact I like them. I guess I need to go find someone to HUG. (family joke)

WRB 13 Nov 2017

WHAT IF?

                                                WHAT IF ?

    Have you ever just sit and played the “What If” game in your mind. I think older people are more inclined to do so than younger people.

   I do it quite often and even though it is not planned ahead, it is hard to believe that almost always, no matter where you start, what memory or word, it is almost always the same thing that sneaks out of my mind, into my pencil hand (yes I still use a pencil), and onto a piece of paper.

   I suppose that may be because I am an amateur genealogist and I love history,--The older the better.

   And of course being as old as I am, I can remember things that happened long before my extended family, of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and all the “outlaws” that come along with them, were even born.

   Hopefully when they get as old as I am they may enjoy just sitting around, reading my blogs, journals and other writings and even scribbled notes. And if they are like me they will be either laughing or wiping away tears while they do it.

                                                         SO

WHAT IF: Nathaniel Baldwin and Joanna Sanford had not left England in the mid 1600’s and sailed to “The New World of America?” They must have known they would be on the Atlantic Ocean for close to two months, more or less, depending on the weather. They were a well-off family in England, and I have always wondered what would cause them to leave.

   

   WHAT IF: There son Samuel Baldwin and his wife Abigail Baldwin had not survived the harshness of life in the new world? Even as it was, Samuel died young in 1696, at age 41, in Connecticut. They did have a son named Samuel before he died.

WHAT IF: Samuel and Lydia Sperry had not had a son named Caleb Baldwin who married Martha Brown in Connecticut

WHAT IF: Caleb Baldwin and Martha Brown had never met and married in Danbury, Connecticut? What if they had not met and married before one of them moved to New York, State?     

WHAT IF: They had not had a son named Philemon Baldwin, who married Esther Charles after they moved to Ohio.

WHAT IF: Philemon and Esther, had not had a family of ten children in the area if Warrensville & Cleveland, Ohio. And two of their boys met two daughters of “Judge” James Kingsbury, who was a well known Judge in the area and also a very prosperous man in Cleveland, Ohio. “Judge Kingsbury was the father of 13 children. Two of his daughters married two of Philemon’s sons.  Caleb Baldwin married Nancy Kingsbury and Rune Baldwin married Calista Kingsbury.

  The wedding was a double wedding with both couples being married the same day at the home of Judge Kingsbury. As was traditional at that time all of the furniture was moved out of the living room of the house and a big party and dancing was enjoyed by all.

   Caleb & Nancy, and several others in the area of Cleveland, Ohio listened to the preaching of a man named Parley P. Pratt. Caleb and Nancy were Baptized into the LDS Church by Parley in 1830.

   WHAT IF: Caleb & Nancy had not met and been married and traveled to Utah with the Mormon Pioneers?  Undoubtedly they would have stayed in Ohio. As it was they had ten children one of who was Caleb Clark Baldwin who married Ann Eliza Robinson. They went to Utah and eventually settled in Beaver, Utah.

WHAT IF: Caleb Clark had not stayed in Utah? What if he had stayed in Illinois? Would that have changed this, WHAT IF story? Caleb Clark and Ann Eliza Robinson were married in 1837 in Missouri and had 9 children. Their 4^th child was Caleb Hyrum Baldwin. He found Elizabeth Jane Cartwright very attractive and they were married in Beaver, Utah where they spent their entire life.

WHAT IF: Caleb Hyrum Baldwin had not found Elizabeth Jane Cartwright attractive and married her? Unlike some of their forbearers they lived their whole lives in Beaver, where they married and had 12 children.

   Their fourth son was William Ancel Baldwin. He was my Grandfather and the oldest person on my family line that I can remember going to visit and took me to show me the animals and interesting sights at the old Baldwin property in Beaver.

   William Ancel met Estella Paxton, from Kanosh, Utah and they were married in Beaver, Utah in 1905.

WHAT IF; because they only had two children, instead of a lot like Williams ancestors, what if one of them had not been my Father, William Wallace Baldwin?

   William Wallace Baldwin went to Mohrland, Utah to teach school after he graduated from the U of U. Was it a coincidence that my Mother Bertrude  Amelia Day was living there at that time with her parents? From 1907 until 1925 the Day’s had lived in at least four different places.

   And was it a coincidence that the Principal of the school asked Bill and Bertrude to take parts in a school play and Bertrude was asked to play the part of Bill’s Mother? “Birdie”, which is the name she went by all of her life, said that when the play was over, that Bill practically lived at the Day house. They were finally married in Beaver, Utah in 1930.

   Then come along the modern WHAT IFS: ---What if I had not come home on furlough, from the USAF, while Neldona Wickman was living in Castle Dale? She had been living in Tooele with an Uncle prior to going to Price.  What if she had not had a job as a telephone operator, so she could call me several times a week after I went back to Kansas?

   What if the two car wrecks we were in (In both of them the cars were totally destroyed) would have had a different ending?

   There are no what if’s that marrying Donnie was the best thing I ever did.

   What started me thinking about this Blog was what if just one of the above WHAT IFS had not happened what would my life be like?

Would I ever have met Donnie?

Would I have been born?

Would I have been an Englishman?

Would I have died on the plains, coming to Utah with the Pioneers.          

Well there are so many WHAT IFS and so FEW answers.

   Of course I knew that before I started this Blog—but I forged ahead anyway and now here I sit wondering what it all means?

W.R. Baldwin November 2017

SOLITUDE

                                  SOLITUDE

   It may be my imagination, or I may be thinking for only myself, but still I wonder? Does everyone have a special place they go for solitude? I think we, as humans all need and have that sort of a place at one time or another in our lives.

   And who says it has to be that place all of our life? Can a certain place of quiet and tranquility change with our age, or where we live, or any of many reasons as our lives evolve.

   I know when I was in my teen age years I liked solitude, but I also had some special friends and we hung out together. Many time we would just go to one of our quiet places and hang out, laugh and talk. Could that be classed as solitude, or does solitude have to be a quiet time in a quiet place? Personally I don't think it has to be totally quiet, with only one or two people there. I think solitude is more of a frame of mind, and a peaceful frame of mind. 

   I have known people who want solitude because of something sorrowful that has happened to them, however that also might be classified as grief, which seems to be the exact opposite of peaceful solitude. But how many times have you had a person say. "I DON"T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT."
   It seems my favorite place for solitude as a youth was the mountains, and it still is one of my favorite places. There is something special about a quiet time by a stream or a lake that calms me down and helps me relax.

   Does that make me a loner? No, I don't think so. In fact because I enjoy it so much I think it is the exact opposite from being a loner.
   The only thing that comes close (for me) to complete relaxation, laying on the grass by a stream, is laying or sitting in our mountain cabin, with rain pounding on the tin roof. It is so relaxing that it is almost mesmerizing. 
   I recall one time after my wife had passed away, I was having a case of "memory nerves." I did not know what to do with myself so I got in the car ( which both my sister and I have learned calms us down) and just headed south. I planned on going to our mountain cabin to meditate, but I did not make it there. 
   As I was driving past Mona, Utah (a small town in Utah) I saw the Lavender fields, for acres and acres and decided to stop and smell the lavender and to enjoy the whole west side of the valley. It looked like a small purple world all to it's own.
   It kind of reminded me of the old saying to 'stop and smell the roses'. The smell was wonderful and the purple sight was beautiful.
   After sitting in the car for an hour or so, I turned around and headed north, completely relaxed and my mood very much improved. 

   








   When I reached my mid-life crisis time, I found that solitude did not always have to be quiet and that I could actually relax and enjoy myself in a noisy place. I am not sure you can actually call it solitude, but I did find some noisy things relaxing.
   I bought some snowmobiles and 4-wheeler's, for the main purpose of enjoying the cabin all year. Yes it was enjoyable all year. Was there solitude  with those machines running around---yes, it was enjoyable, but I think it would be a --stretch to call it solitude.
   If solitude means being alone , it for sure does not fit going alone, anyplace  at any time on an ATV. (But that may be "fodder" for another blog?)
   As we got older, (and hopefully wiser) both Donnie and I come to realize there really was no solitude and peace of mind, like sitting quietly in a Temple and meditating. I realized that it was not only a great place to sit and relax, but it also was a wonderful place to go and get help solving problems, little ones and big ones. We did not always solve all of our problems, but we usually ended up with peace of mind, and that almost always brought solitude with it.

It is funny how things come to your mind when you sit and concentrate on one word -- like solitude? It brought something to my mind that I had not thought about for years. Donnie always liked pets but she thought pets should live outside (and of course in our younger days that was the norm.) I have always liked dogs, but it was not always easy to have one as Donnie did not want them in the house. However that all changed when a big Dalmatian, named Max, came to live with us for a while.
   Donnie said,"If he barks he is gone! He lives outside! And I agreed to her terms and he came to stay with us. However it only took a couple of weeks for her to agree that it was to cold for Max to stay outside at night. She thought it was OK for him to stay inside at night.
   Well he stayed in the basement at night for a couple of weeks, then he moved into the house, in the daytime, if it was "really cold,"
   Then I came home one day and Max did not meet me at the door. Donnie kind of whispered--I am downstairs. 
   As soon as I got down she put her finger to her lips to "shush" me. Max was laying on her feet sound asleep, and she looked at me and explained  that he was really warm and he had kept her feet warm while she did her crafts and crochet'ed. Of course he had the run of the house after that.
   Why did this thought come to mind when I was trying to concentrate on solitude? I guess because I thought the sight of Max laying on Donnie's feet and her "shushing" me was pure solitude.  

   And the picture below is REAL Solitude. Who do you think is more relaxed--The Grandpa or the baby in the swing?






















W.R. Baldwin 1 Nov 2017