The Twelfth Year - 1991

I'm throwing these pictures up just because I have them. I don't really remember much from this year of soccer - I don't even know what year this was (sometime after my tooth got chipped though). If I didn't have this picture I probably would have even remembered being on a team with my sister Risa. I do remember being on a team with Corey Lizaraga (and this could have been the year). His parents are the coaches holding the sign (and Corey is the dark kid right in front of his mom). Corey was a great soccer player - it was in his blood. I loved having him on my team. In a later year he was on another team and I hated him. He scored more goals than anyone any of us knew. Not only that, he always made it into the end of the year AYSO highlight film reel. We went to closing ceremonies one time - I think they were held at the Show Low High School auditorium - and I wasn't in the video a single time. The video played with Billy Idol's "Mony Mony" and to this day, every time I hear it, it makes me a little mad that I wasn't in that video a single time; I thought I was good enough to be in it. But, life went (and goes) on.




By the way, that red-headed smiley guy is Dustin, the kid I would sing Little Mermaid songs with the summer between 3rd and 4th grade and David Miramon (the one who "married" Alexia and I) is the one with his hand on the soccer ball.

Shane Sirois. Shane, Brent Pullin and I were like the three musketeers... especially after school on Wednesdays. Every Wednesday we'd walk from the school to the church for cub scouts. The three of us were among a great minority of LDS boys at our school... our age, that didn't live in the country club. Shane lived across the main road of town from me, then Brent lived about the same distance from him if we cut through the forest between their houses. Shane was in horizons with me, and although he would never admit it, he DID get in on his own intelligence. He was a smart kid - too smart sometimes - and usually not for good. Shane was poor like me. His father died when he was young and he was the man of his house; he lived with his mom, younger brother and younger sister. Shane was a few months younger than me but he was strong and I looked up to him. So when he had the idea to stop by the gas station store on the way to scouts every Wednesday to get a Dr. Pepper I was in... the fact that he always got a free one was nice too. Yes, ill gotten in deed. Dr. Pepper seemed to always be doing that "one in six wins a free Dr. Pepper" - look under the cap - game. So, he would open every bottle in the store until he found a winner (or two) and would buy it then get a free one right then. We'd split the cost of the one we had to pay for - as if we ever needed the caffeine.

The summers Shane and I would spend playing among my grandpa's construction equipment. We always played this on-going "game" - it was really more of a fantasy world - where he and I were brothers. I was the older, brainier yet weaker brother, and he was the younger stronger protective brother. The imaginary setting of this world was usually some sort of battle field. Like most young boys, it's hard to play some fantasy game without guns and killing stuff. I don't think either of us would have ever left that fantasy world we lived in if we didn't have to. But, work and other responsibilities usually kept us from playing very much. I don't think my parents really liked him much either, probably thought he was a bad influence - he was; but he was a good friend. Even when he got around Robbie Hansen and ALWAYS did a 180 on me and acted like he hated me. We had some serious fights during those times - one time, he got me in a head lock and all I could do to get out was bite his leg (the closest thing to me) as hard as I could. He had a bruise the shape of me teeth for weeks. He had a 22 rifle he got from his dad. It was old and probably never cleaned. We took it out shooting once (shooting birds) and it was my turn to shoot. I didn't really know how and I put my face right up next to the hammer - when the gun went off my ears started to ring like never before. I thought I was going to be deaf. I dropped the gun and started to run around in circles holding my ears. Shane started yelling at me (not that I could hear him) and got mad that I dropped the gun. After he assessed his gun was fine and I could hear, we both just laughed about it - he never let me live that one down.

I think the summer I turned eleven (1991) I went with my dad (scoutmaster) and the older scouts to hike the Grand Canyon. We hiked Bright Angel Trail on the south rim; started early in the morning and headed down. We hiked to Phantom Ranch on the other side of the Colorado River and then up the north rim a bit. Then we turned around and headed back up the way we came. Me and two other boys went ahead of the rest of the group - we passed up three mule trains on our way out. The hike took us a total of eleven hours. When we got to the top I started to make dinner for everyone else. Night came while waiting for everyone and I feel asleep before eating. I woke up in the morning and my dad had saved me some of the beef stew I made the night before. To this day, it was probably the best tasting thing I've ever had - it was the hunger affect, the hungrier you are when you eat the better the food tastes.

Fifth grade. Mr. Green's class. Mr. Green lived just down the street from me. He was a straight shooting no bull, no frills, teacher. My kind of guy. Angela Lee was in that class for about half the year. She was also in my fourth grade class. Part way through 5th grade she moved to Taylorsville, UT. As a class assignment we all wrote her a letters. She ended up writing me back and we kept in touch clear up until I enrolled at BYU years later. Lisa Robinson was in that class. She was that annoying girl that was always running her mouth off. Mr. Green didn't stand for it and one day hurled an eraser at top speed across the room at her - just missed to, by an inch. Then he told her "that's once mule." It was his way of saying three strikes and you're out. He ran a tight ship, but one time he had a substitute. Matt Davies decided to try and lead a riot that day and lifted up his desk over his head when the sub stepped out for a second - he just started yelling "together!" Not sure why... but I still think of it every now and again - just a random memory. Near the end of the semester, Mr. Green did an oil drilling game. He had a huge pin board on a table that we got to put dowels in to "drill" for oil. I don't remember how turn order was determined or who won, or how I did, but it was a fun game, and I think he was teaching us math. He was also big into chess. We had a chess club. I think I was the best, I don't ever remember losing - but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.

I think it was that year for Christmas my family went to Mexico with the Whatcotts (their mom was my dad's sister). Both our families had children about the same age. Heather was closest to my age. On the way down she and I played chess - I beat her once with the three move checkmate. It was amazing, but I don't think she was very happy about it - after all, she was (and probably still is) much smarter than me (also a member of Horizons). We went to Hermosillo, Guaymas, Kino Bay and San Carlos. It was a long trip - but SO much fun. I may be getting Mexico trips mixed up in my head, but I think this was the trip we dug up clams on the beach at Kino Bay with John Lofgreen (family friend) and ate them raw - that may have been a trip we took with my aunt and uncle Jim and Tammy Borrego. That was also the same trip that got cut short because by brother Nephi nearly shot his eye out with a cheap Mexican sling shot (really not his fault since it just broke and snapped him in the eye) but still, we didn't let him live that down for a long time, "you'll shoot your eye out!" We ate some street vendor food in Hermosillo. They were some small tostada type food on a soft masa hand pressed patty with a little meat (cat?) and Mexican cheese (is there any other kind down there?) and tomato. Simple, yet DELICIOUS. Maybe the best thing I ever ate that wasn't induced to be yummy by starvation. We even tried to mimic the recipe when we got home - you can't duplicate Mexican street vendor food. Whenever we went to Mexico, we used to always buy fireworks and those nasty little cookies with marshmallows on them (although I used to love them back then).

The more I think about the past (this far back) the more jumbled my memories are... but they're in there.