The Dog Named Jack

I like the poem about crows that Elder Packer quoted in his General Conference talk yesterday.  It is called "About Crows" by John Ciardi:

The old crow is getting slow;
the young crow is not.
Of what the young crow does not know,
the old crow knows a lot.

At knowing things, the old crow is still
the young crow’s master.
What does the old crow not know?
How to go faster.

The young crow flies above, below, and rings
around the slow old crow.
What does the fast young crow not know?
WHERE TO GO.

To me, this poem is about the value of experience, the value of history, and the value of things that have gone on before us.  In part, that is why I am writing this blog.....so that you will be able to learn about the past.  And in doing so, hopefully your future will be brighter.  When you get the chance, read Elder Bednar's talk from yesterday's conference session and then ask yourself "How does his message affect me?"

I thought I would write some more about Grandpa Joe Bush (Arthur Phillip Linnebach.)  Did you know that in the older neighborhoods of Salt Lake City, probably 75% of all the curbs and gutters were constructed by his company, A.P. Linnebach Construction.  I'll have to ask Uncle Glen since I do not know if he started that company on his own or if he took over his father's (George Adam Linnebach) company when he retired.  Nevertheless, it was a good business and he was finally able to provide a comfortable living for his family....Grandma (Lois Fae Linnebach) no longer had to pluck the feathers off the chickens that Glen had decapitated.

I mentioned last week that Grandpa Joe Bush was not active in the church, but he supported his family going to church.  Also,  Grandma told me a story of how one winter when there was no cement work because of the cold that he and his men built a new church building for their ward.  All the ward had to provide was the materials.  He paid his men for their time.  That was back in a time when ward members had to pay for their own buildings.  I still have fond and vivid memories of Grandma Ethel's and Grandpa Joe Bush's house on 27th South in Salt Lake City.  In the back yard was a huge (or at least it seemed huge then) shed/garage where he kept all his construction equipment.  It was great fun to go in there and climb all over the tractors and back-hoes.   Next to the shed was his aviary where he kept his parakeets, dozens of them.  I'll never forget the time he was walking inside the cage (it was as big as my living room) and one of the birds pooped on his head and he didn't even know it.  It was great fun telling him and seeing his reaction.....which was in German.

Another of my most cherished memories of Grandpa Joe Bush was his cabin east of Salt Lake City up in the mountains.  It always seemed like such a long drive to get there, but when you are ten, anything over a half hour seems like a long time.  It was a great place, big enough for all the aunts, uncles and cousins to visit at the same time.  No radio, no TV, no computer.  The nightly entertainment was always provided by Grandpa Joe Bush on his accordion.  This is where all the Linnebach grandchildren learned the song about the dog named Jack.  Nearby the cabin was a lake with a beaver pond.  It was great fun to hike up the trail and catch frogs, big ones.  This was also the place I learned to fish which was a favorite activity of the family.  Grandpa Joe Bush had his special rod and reel, but he always brought extras for the grandkids.  One day he rigged me up a special line, special in that the end the line forked into two separate lines, each with its own hook.  Grandpa Joe Bush put worms on both hooks and cast the line out near the logs the beavers had cut down.  The rainbow trout liked to hang out in the shade under the logs.  Then he gave the rod and reel to me.  I don't know how long it was but when I felt the little tug on the line I jerked the pole back....I had one on the hook.  It felt like a big one.  I reeled and reeled til finally the fish was near the shore.  But to my and everyone else's surprise, I didn't have one big fish; I had two fish, one on each line.  No fish story!!!   The only bad thing about catching a fish was having to clean it.  Yuck.

When I was in the 4th or 5th grade Grandma Ethel and Grandpa Joe Bush built a new house way out in the country (at least in the 1960's it was in the country) on 80th South in Sandy, Utah.  They had a huge lot,  big front yard, bigger back yard, 2000 square foot aviary, and even a horse pasture all the way in the back.  The aviary was world famous.  People from all over the world would come to see his pheasants and peacocks and study his breeding techniques.

Let me close with part of the eulogy that my Uncle Cece delivered at Grandpa Joe Bush's funeral in 1969.

"We should all be aware of what the Lord taught and expressed about the Eternal Plan for man and his family. The importance of the family and the unity, therein, is expressed by President McKay when he stated “No success in Life compensates for failure in the home”… Of all the beautiful and wonderful tributes given about Art today, the most outstanding would be his ability and desire to unify his family and keep them close to him. He loved to go fishing and hunting and wherever Art went, Ethel, the Girls and Boys, and many of their friends would go with them. I remember many of those special trips with the family and I know that many of you have gone with them also.

"For almost half of my live I have known Art, and during that time I had never met a man who gained Respect and Love without demanding it, as Art did. He loved life and only took out of it what he was able to put back, and that was a great deal of joy and satisfaction that he shared with others. He had a sense of accomplishment and succeeded in doing many satisfying things. He loved a challenge and met each one with a determination to succeed.

"Art loved to build, and he built and constructed many things...Homes to sell, Apartments to rent, and Boats. He built a lovely, large cabin in the mountains so he and his family and friends could go too and enjoy the beauties of nature & of God.  Art wasn’t a steady church going person but be made sure his children attended their meetings. A more Christian person, I will probably never have the privilege of knowing.

"His love for boats enabled him to construct and race boats. He entered many races and won several with ones he had constructed himself, and at these races would be his family cheering him on.

"Art was a good provider and made sure there was always food on the table. He was a stern father and each one of the family knew he was the master of his house. He didn’t say too much to me when I was courting his daughter, but I knew there were certain rules of the house also, and since I came from a small family I had to learn some of the rules of a large one and one of these rules was that at the dinner table you had better take what you wanted the first time because there wasn’t a second chance.

"Art loved family get-togethers and if they weren’t moving fast enough or weren’t joyful enough, out would come the good old squeezebox and toe taping, music, and songs would soon follow. This usually led Art into teaching the grandchildren new songs to sing. One of the good old favorites was the old Sow Song which the grandchildren loved to hear Art sing and act out. There was another one which we won’t mention, but it was a family joke song, that usually brought a reprimand from one of the daughters.

Art loved music and had a keen ear for pitch and tone, he enjoyed harmonizing with his girls and boys and with his son-in-laws and anyone else who wanted to sing. He loved to listen to barber shop music and Quartets. One of his favorite songs was Nearer My God to Thee.” (end of eulogy)

One last thought.  On December 24, 1969 Grandpa Joe Bush lay in a hospital bed, the only time in his life he was ever sick.  Lung cancer had ravaged his body and the end was near.  The pain medication caused him to come in and out of consciousness.  Late in the afternoon he awoke for one last time, raised his head and focused on an upper corner in the room.  His last words were, "Daddy."  He then closed his eyes and his immortal soul left his cancer-ravaged body to be with loved ones who had come to bring him home.  And probably a short time later the family all sang:

There was an old dog and his name was Jack

And he pooped all over the railroad track.

Then the train came by and the poop flew high

And it hit the conductor square in the eye.



The Hunter




Grandma Ethel, Grandpa Joe Bush, Lori Gritton, Jimmy Rampton



Grandpa Joe Bush

I was finally able to talk to Uncle Glen (Glen Linnebach) today about Grandpa Joe Bush (Arthur Phillip Linnebach - my Grandpa).  My question to him was "where did the name "Joe Bush" come from?  You will laugh at the answer.

But, before I spill the beans, let me tell you a little about his early life.  Arthur Phillip Linnebach was born on 3 April 1900 in Karlsruhe, Germany.  He was the oldest child and only son of George Adam Linnebach and Anna Katharina Kirschenlohr.  He had seven younger sisters.  When Art was about six months old his parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This was during a time in Church history when converts in foreign lands were encouraged to join the saints in the Rocky Mountains.  And this is what the Linnebach Family did.  George, his wife, one son and three daughters left for America in 1907, not speaking a word of English.  They arrived at Ellis Island in New York Harbor on 20 April 1907.  Arthur had just turned seven.  The family was almost sent back to Germany since one of the youngest daughters was sick.  However, the inspectors let them through and they set off for Salt Lake City.  When they arrived they settled in an area with other German converts.  They all set about to learn English.

Growing up in Salt Lake City was not easy for Art, especially his early teenage years.  With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 there was, even in Salt Lake City, and anti-German sentiment.  Art was bullied and teased.  Around the time of his 21st birthday, he left Utah for the warmer and wilder climes of Southern California.  In 1922 he met and married a woman by the name of Ione Crawford.  Having little to no money between them, the young couple moved in with her father who lived on Stepney Place in Inglewood.  The house still exists today.  Their first son, Phil was born there in 1923.  Several years later, they moved back to Salt Lake City and had another son, Laurie.  At this point in her young life, Ione was not cut out for motherhood and abandoned her family.  Phil and Laurie were then raised by Grandpa and Grandma Linnebach.

A few years later, Art met and fell in love with Frances Ethel Jolley (Grandma Ethel).  They were married 1 November 1928.  Their first son, Glen was born the next year, followed by their first daughter, Lois in 1930.  Grandma Ethel once told me a story about Art when they were dating.  She said he never washed his socks....when he needed a clean pair he would throw the dirty pair in the back of the closet and go and buy a new pair.

During his teenage years Art was never active in the church, even though his parents were.  It was said that George Adam Linnebach deducted the tithing from his workers' paychecks and gave it to the bishop.  (He also did the masonry work on the "This is the Place" Monument).  During those teenage years Art picked up two nasty habits, drinking and smoking.  I fear that his drinking may have resulted in the physical abuse of his children.  I know that it resulted and a charge of vehicular manslaughter being filed against him (he was later pardoned.)   His smoking, ultimately, led to his premature death from lunge cancer at the age of 69 even though he had stopped smoking a year earlier.  During his early 30's he worked out at the Kennecott Copper Mine west of Salt Lake City.  He carpooled with his drinking buddies their and back every day.  It was also during this time that he developed a love for fishing.  One of his favorite places to fish was at Fish Lake in northern Utah.  And, this is where the name "Joe Bush" came from.  Art knew the lake well, especially where to catch the largest rainbow trout.  The best place was at Joe Bush Point.  He would catch so many fish there that his drinking buddies from Kennecott who frequently went fishing with him, nicknamed his Joe Bush.  Somehow, that name stuck and when grandkids started to come into the picture, he wasn't Grandpa Art.  Oh no, he was Grandpa Joe Bush.

More on the Linnebachs in future weeks.  Here are a few pictures of Grandpa Joe Bush.



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Shortly after immagrating to America. . . Art is in lower right corner



Art (lower left) Glen, Diane, Lois, Carol



Loved Palominos



About 1920





Arthur Phillip Linnebach - age 50...Grandpa Joe Bush




 

In the Eternities

Right after Mom (Judy Crocket) and I divorced in 1990, Grandpa (Charles Cash Rampton, Jr.) asked me a question for which I did not have an immediate answer.  His question was:  "Who will David, Travis and Kevin be sealed to in the eternities....will they be sealed to their mother or father?"  The matter had been weighing heavily on him so much so that it would cause him to sit up all night in his rocking chair.   I told him I would ponder the matter and get back to him.  There was nothing dealing with the matter in the scriptures.  There was nothing in any of the conference reports that I had access to.  And, since I still has my copy of the Church's General Handbook of Instructions from when I was Bishop, I checked in there.  Nothing.  (I think I was suppose to have turned that in when I was released.  Oops.)  I pondered and prayed for several weeks and then the answer came.  And then I prayed about the answer as it says in D&C 9:8-9.  I had that burning feeling, a feeling of sweet confidence that I had the right answer.  I went and told Grandpa and he seemed greatly relieved and has been a source of comfort to him ever since in light of the fact that two of his other sons divorced.  Want to know the answer?  Here it is:

In the hereafter we are not sealed to our father or our mother.  Rather, we are sealed to both by being born under the covenant or receiving that ordinance in the temple.  This is the great keystone of temple work.  All the other vicarious ordinances performed in the temple, with the exception of Celestial Marriage, lead up the that single and sometimes final ordinance.  That ordinance is the link in the chain of the family of mankind.  This is what the Prophet Elijah was referring to (all the blessings of the temple) when he said if this did not happen all the world would be wasted.  This is what Family History is all about, to see that one generation of a family is linked to the next.  Before the Millennium is over every soul who has lived on the earth will be linked from beginning to end by this sealing ordinance.  And when the last links have been complete, then, as the Prophet Joseph Smith stated, "...the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done."   Hallelujah!! 

Let me be clear (isn't that what President Obama says all the time), I am not saying that children are not sealed to their parents.  They are and divorce has no impact on that.  Children of divorced parents are not resealed to their father and step-mother who may be married in the temple.  The same with a mother and a step-father.  That initial blessing of being Born in the Covenant will always be in effect.

In church we sing the song "Families Can Be Together Forever."  I remember when that song first came out.  That was one of David's repertoire of Primary songs.  He may not remember this, but I clearly do......him standing in front of the fireplace at my Aunt Janet's house in Salt Lake City for over an hour and singing with all his might all the songs he knew to my Grandma Blanche (Blanche Ruby Worthen)  just a few months before she died.  "Families Can Be Together Forever" was one of those songs along with "A Dog Named Jack."  David was five at the time and I'm sure if we asked him what his concept of being together forever as a family was, he would say it was being with his Mommy and Daddy.  A few years later, his understanding would mature to include his brothers, Travis (who he pushed off the slide) and Kevin.  This is the same understanding that Travis and Kevin also had in their early years.  But as Travis returned from his mission and married Lindsay, his understanding of an Eternal Family matured even further to include his wife.  And when Jude was born that understanding of Eternal Families increased even more.  Since Travis and Lindsay were married in the temple, Jude was thus Born Under the Covenant.  That link between her and Travis and Lindsay will never be broken, no matter what.  The same is true for Kevin and Melissa.

In the hereafter we do not know all of the details of what life will be like in the Celestial Kingdom and its three degrees.  Will I live next door to Kevin and Melissa or will they ultimately have their own worlds galaxies, universes or dimensions away.  Since we have been promised that we can be together if faithful,  then there must be a pretty sophisticated method of travel and communication.  And certainly, there will be communion with faithful step-parents.  Details have yet to be revealed.

In summary, Grandpa was relieved that he was not going to be cut off from any of his grandchildren in the hereafter due to divorce.  Children are not sealed to either a father or a mother.  They will always be sealed to both despite the status of the parents.  Even though a temple marriage sealing can be undone in this life, being born under the covenant where the child is sealed to both parents can never be undone.  Take it to the bank!!!

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Here are a few more pictures of Grandma (Lois Fae Linnebach)

Neighborhood babysitter



1955 in front of house on 15th East in Salt Lake City.  I'm 3 and Richard, who Grandma is holding is not yet 1





1957 phot taken by the Deseret News announcing the Ramptons were moving to California.  Grandma made the vests.



September 11th

Happy Birthday, Travis.  Hard to believe you were 16 when the terrorists attacked.  Do you remember where you were that day?  Does anyone else remember where they were?  If so, leave a comment.  I had just arrived at the Raytheon Training Facility in Long Beach for Six Sigma training and had not had my radio on at all that morning.  Needless to say, I was shocked as we all saw the news on a computer screen.  Our class was canceled and I drove back to El Segundo.  There was a line of cars backed up on El Segundo Blvd from the Nash Street entrance past Douglas.  Cars were being searched and IDs checked.  That was the first time that had ever happened.  Before, we just drove into the parking lot.  Ten years later, the ID checks are still going on.  One good thing about it:  the number of stolen cars from the parking lot now is practically nil.  Before, it was several a week.

This week I am going to include some pictures of Grandma (Lois Fae Linnebach) I scanned before I went to Morro Bay.  She was quite the "fashionista."



Sleeveless !! 





Lois, Grandma Ethel, Aunt Diane, Aunt Maureen, Aunt Gwenie (check out the car) photo taken about 1950



 


photo taken about 1950 - check out the white gloves




High School Senior Picture - 1947/48




Photo taken while in High School - she made the suit




Ready for the runway




Lois and Aunt Gwenie




Lois and Aunt Diane




Lois and Aunt Maureen




More pictures to come next week.

Your History.......from a Parent's Perspective

Earlier this week, while reading a history about Grandma (Lois Fae Linnebach) written by her mother, Grandma Ethel (Ethel Frances Jolley) I had an epiphany.  It made perfect sense to me and I don't know why I had never thought of it before nor had I heard anyone else speak of it.  Grandma (Lois Fae Linnebach) had written a short bio of herself at one time which we in the family are fortunate to have.  However, most of it deals with her life after age 20.  That's where the history written by Grandma Ethel comes in, which had she not written, we would have missed out on so much of Grandma's early life.  Did you know she made her own clothes from Junior High on?  Did you know she took candy from strangers or that she was born at home?  We would not have known any of this and more had Grandma Ethel not written "My Daughter Lois."  This got me thinking.  How much of my first 5 or 6 years do I know about?  How much do my sons know about their first 5 or 6 years.  Some good stuff happened during that time to them that they probably don't remember, and if they do, it's only because someone told them:  David singing for Grandma Blanche, Travis getting lost at the Los Angeles Zoo or Kevin getting blood all over the back seat of my 1980 Datsun 200SX (with sunroof and custom horn.)

Conclusion:  I believe parents should write a history of each child from the perspective of that parent:

• Actual Birth...did your mother want to kill your father during labor
• First words, firt steps, first discipline
• Favorite foods and vice versa
• First friends
• Etc.

Assignment:  ask each your parents to write a history of your early life.  Don't delay.  The day may come when they can't.

Here is the history that Grandma Ethel wrote about Grandma.  I will attach some cool photos of Grandma at the end in some of the clothes she made herself.  Tres chic!!!!!!!

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MY DAUGHTER LOIS

by Ethel Linnebach

It was July 24, 1930 and Art had planned to take me and our 15 month o1d little boy, Glen, just up one of the canyons so he could fish.  He loved to fish and it didn't cost anything but the gas and we always had such a good time.

This morning I felt the pain as I was expecting our second child and woke him at 6:00 a.m. and said I guess we can't go fishing today as this is the day we have been waiting for.  Grandma Linnebach had sent me to her doctor.  His name was Dr. John Sharp.  We ca1led him and the wonderful nurse and friend I had had with my first baby.  Her name was Allie Smith.  She was trained to go the homes until the doctor was called in.  I wasn't

afraid this time because I had Allie and I knew what I had to do.  So at 2:00 in the afternoon we had a 7 lb. beautiful baby gir1.  I loved the name of Lois and my beauty operator I had, before I was married, and I liked very much the name Fae and that is where I got the name Fae.

Well, Grandma and Grandpa Linnebach came for dinner on a Fast Sunday, and Grandpa blessed her and gave her her name, he had a hard tine with modern names if they weren't right out of the bible. In those days the doctors came to the house to deliver babies and only charged $35.00. Even that was hard to pay because it was right in the depression and there was not a job to be had. It was very hard for Art as he had been a contractor when we were married.  Grandpa and Art had built our house a year before and let us move in.  Art had brought the plans from California.  We were very lucky to have a roof over our head as some of our friends even camped in the canyons in summer because they had no money for rent.  I made all my baby clothes and they were cute with laces and ribbons.  A man came to the door one day and I let him take her picture in our big chair.  It was the only picture until we were fishing at Fish Lake and she was in a dish pan in front of our tent taking her bath.  I took a few pictures from then on with a small camera I had.

When we lived on 9th East and rented there Glen was born.  I was unhappy because I didn't know anyone and I didn't have enough to do.  So one morning Art said we are going down to Emery and get your litt1e sister Ruby.  We had discussed having her come to live with us and had asked my Brother Evan and Thelma, his wife, if she could and they agreed.  She was 11 years old.  We came home through Manti and I was able to find my mother's old Singer machine at my uncle's place so we brought it home and then I was happy because I had my little sister and I could sew, which I loved to do.

Lois was a good natured baby and easy to raise, but by the time she was 15 months old, I had another little baby girl (Carol Ann).  The first sick spell and scare Lois gave us was when she was two years old.  We had been to Liberty Park to a Linnebach party and had come home, it was very hot.  We had two vacant lots east of our house where Art planted a big garden.  He was out in the garden and Lois was walking up the sidewalk to her dad and I was looking for her.  I called her and she didn't respond when I called so I ran to her and she was out on her feet.  We rushed in the house with her, she had a convulsion.  We had her in the basement cooling her down and a neighbor had me put her in a tepid bath and then I had to run to the neighbors to use her phone to get a doctor.  He was a child specialist and came and I don't remember what we did for her only that I remember he ordered a nurse to stay at our house for a week and take care of her.  It was a terrible scare, she was fine after that.  Next time we had a scare she was in the second grade at Woodrow Wilson School. The school nurse had us take her to a doctor and she had a murmur in her heart.  He had me have her take naps every afternoon for a whole year.  She grew out of it.  But then we had to have her and Glen's tonsils out at the same time.  I took them to County Hospital and both got along alright.  On our street and close by there were several girls she played with and were friends with until they graduated from high school.  There names were Bonnie Manwill, Jane Bebout, Joyce Mines, Ora Lee Lemon and Beverly Eby.  Lois remembers only having one birthday party on our lawn and, of course, there was the cake, ice cream and homemade root beer.  I had her hair cut in a cute little wind blown hair style and that was the only time I remember her having short hair. She always wore it long.

When she was in the fourth grade she got athletes foot from wearing Keds, so she couldn't wear them anymore.  She mostly more saddle oxfords.  One day all the girls were at the Manwill's house and Carol had tagged along, because there wasn't one girl her age on our block.  Somehow they chased her home and she ran into the backend of a car driven by a nice young boy who stopped and took us to the hospital.  She had a big gash on top of her hairline.  She has the scar to this day.  The carnival used to come and set up not far from our house on State Street.  Well, we usually took the children to them but his time Lois wanted to take her money and with here girlfriends.  When we arrived she had gambled it all throwing dimes into dishes.  She was a very reliable little girl and I guess I took advantage of her.  We left her with the children, Maureen was the baby, while we went to Allie Curtis' place to a party.  When we returned home Lois was crying along with the baby who had the earache.  I felt bad.  So daddy blew smoke in her ear and I but warm cotton and oil in and everything was alright.

She tended children for many people.  One was our neighbor Cleo Gosdis who had three or four boys.  She loved Lois and they were good friends to her and our family.  She needed a bicycle so she could get to far away places to baby-sit.  So she earned the $14.00 to buy her first used bike.

She had a candy man who walked past our house nearly everyday and he thought she was a cute little girl and we knew he was alright so we let her take candy from him.  She also had a favorite uncle, Aunt Louise's husband, Uncle Al.  He loved her and thought she was perfect.  He always made a fuss over her.  She looks a lot like Louise now and even her sunny disposition.  Art had to make money where he could so he bought a big brooder and raised beautiful fryers which we sold once a week.  She was in her teens now and she had to come home and help clean the water troughs and pick chickens on the weekends.  She hated it and would cry.  It didn't seem to bother the other children.  She went to Granite Junior High and Granite High School where she matured into a beautiful girl.

She was a wonderful seamstress and made all her own clothes, even in Junior High. When she was in High School she bought fashion patterns and made beautiful dresses and suits.  She attended the University of Utah a few semesters and took dressmaking.

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Lois is second from the left.  Next to her are Aunt Leah and Aunt Melba (Grandma Blache's sisters).  Check ou the cars.



Lois is the second from the right on the bottom row (in a two-piece...shocking). Bonny Manwill is next to her on the end.