Stick Horse, by Len Mills

 

Hello Again,

This week I'm back to the Len & Deanna branch of the tree.  It's always a hard decision on which story to choose to share.  This time I chose one that takes us back to the 1940's.  After receiving this story from Uncle Len, it dawned on me that this happened before most of us were alive.  And in fact, Uncle Glen is the only other person in the family to have been present.  On one of my visits, I asked Uncle Glen what he remembered about this story and you'll see a fun footnote with his comments. 

This story is a tribute to Mothers.  In particular, our Mother and Grandmother, Lorna.  It definitely brought back other memories of her and also the times my mother was a ministering angel to me.  If this stirs any memories of mothers, grandmothers, mother figures, or fathers too, let's get them in the book for our posterity to read some day.

After going through my mom's photo collection and a fair number of Facebook accounts, I have concluded that I do not have any pictures of Uncle Len or Grandma before she married Grandpa Mel.  What would it cost me to get someone to send pictures of when our parents were young?  Do they exist?

Email, complete the Mills Family Book of Faith Form or call me at 801-414-9048 for a phone interview.

 

 

Stick Horse

 

By Len Mills

1943 Near Miller Creek near Price, Utah

 

I was about 2 years old. I should have drowned, ha ha ha, but I didn't, thanks to a wonderful Mother. This is how it happened. Mavin, Glen and LaJune were going for a walk. We lived at Miller Creek, which is south of Price Utah. It was in the spring and the canals were overflowing with the spring runoff. When my siblings started out, I followed them. I thought I was as big as they were. They stopped and made me go back. Mother happened to hear them and she said, "Let him go with you." So off we went. We had to cross a bridge which had a pretty good-sized hole in the one-wheel track. After we crossed the bridge, I was riding my trusty stick horse and was having a hard time trying to keep up. They got tired of waiting on me, so they made me tie my stick horse up to the fence. I don't remember where we went but when we came back Mavin and Glen kept jumping over the hole in the bridge. It looked pretty fun to me so of course I wanted to try it myself. Just as I went to try it, I remembered my horse. I wasn't about to leave it tied up there, so I went back to get it. LaJune watched me and when I got back to the bridge riding my stick horse, I made a big jump to the side of the hole thinking that I had plenty of room to clear it. I didn't make it, so I went back and tried it again. I just knew that my horse could make it easily. But instead of clearing the hole I ended up in the middle of it. I don't remember what happened after that but the next thing I remember I was waking up in Mothers bed. I would have had to go under the bridge which had a big log beam to hold the bridge up. I went down under the beam and was floating down the canal. Thank the Lord for a caring big sister who ran and told Mother. She came running to my rescue.[1] She ran up the canal and jumped in and caught me. When I woke up in Mothers bed I wondered where everyone was. I was the only one in the house at the time, so I went looking for the others. I found them all outside on the south side of the house, where the sun was shining, talking with the neighbors. I couldn't figure out why they weren't inside taking care of me. When they saw me, they got all excited and started saying, "What are you doing out here? You should still be in bed." Well, I guess I took them at their word and have been trying to stay in bed ever since. I must say I am getting better at it.

 

 

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[1] Note from Valerie – It dawned on me as I read Uncle Len’s story, that Uncle Glen was the only one still alive that could fill in the missing gaps from when Uncle Len was swept away and unconscious.  After hearing Uncle Len’s story, I asked Uncle Glen what he remembered.  He added that when Len’s stick horse did not make the jump and fell into the canal, he (Glen) followed Len as he was swept down the canal which seemed like it was 10 feet deep when in actuality, it was probably 3 feet, but deep enough to drowned a pre-schooler.

 

Mom came, swept Len out of the canal and got some water out of him before taking him to the house.  Everyone was so relieved that Len survived that day.