THE DAY WE FLOODED THE MOTEL

Today I am going to share a story about me and my brothers as written by my mom--your Great Grandma Eileen Giberson. "The Day We Flooded the Motel."

In 1960, my parents took my brothers, Todd and MIke, and me to southern California on a vacation. My little sister, Robin was not quite a year old and she stayed with my aunt and her family so that we could enjoy the vacation without a baby. Here is the story by my mom:

"One entire day we spent with Judy, Todd, and Mickey at Disneyland. Richard (my dad) and I did take a dim view of the ride through Senior Autopia (by then freeways were hardly appealing, even miniature ones), but otherwise it was a wonderful day. I guess my favorite item on that particular Disneyland visit was Tom Sawyer's Island. We enjoyed taking the kids because after all they were the biggest ones we had and we didn't realize how small they really were. Now, I can't imagine packing a 2 1/2 year-old halfway around Disneyland--that Mickey was a chunk!---- but then, we were young, strong and didn't know any better.

This picture was taken just a month or so before this vacation.
Richard (Dad), Judy, Eileen (Mom)
Mike, Todd, Robin

I guess things were bound to go wrong at the motel. The manager was a women with not only a hawk nose but an eagle-eye. She seemed to know every going and coming that took place, at least in our case...

I absolutely swear that what happened was not my fault. We were getting ready to go to the beach and who would have expected our water to be turned off so repairman could work on the pipes out in the flowerbeds. When I started to wash the breakfast dishes, I discovered we had not water, cause unknown.

Clean breakfast dishes were certainly not a prerequisite to an enjoyable morning at the ocean so we skipped that little detail and went on to the next. The last thing I did before we piled into the car was to check both kitchen and bathroom faucets, hoping that they were turned off. With little ones around, it was anybody's guess.

Have you caught on? Yes, indeedy--- "as luck would have it" the bathroom faucet was left on full blast! While we were out blithely playing in the sun and sand, the water was turned back on and that tap relentlessly filled up the sink, the bathroom floor and went on to soak a quarter portion of the carpet in one bedroom. The problem was discovered before our return (just how, we dared not ask, afterward.) Our first intimation of trouble was when we drove into the parking lot and the landlady was waiting for us on our doorstep. She would have made a good college dorm mother.

We had the decency to cringe a little when she described, in properly dramatic tones, how the repairman had been forced to drill a hole in the bathroom floor to drain out the water. We waited until she left before we laughed.

(If you've ever lived with a water-soaked carpet, you can appreciate that our remaining four days in San Diego were spent as much as possible in other surroundings.)"

I remember that first trip to Disneyland and the pinkish orange stucco motel we stayed in. In my mind, I always thought that it was my little brothers who were the guilty parties--they being too small to understand to turn the knobs back the other way if no water was coming out. I am sure that I would known better at 5 year old.

PETS

Growing up in Richland we would have kittens/cats now and then. I don't remember any in particular, but Judy and Lynette said they remember names like Happy (who gave birth to Snip, Snap, and Snurr--names taken from a favorite book at the time), Crackers, and Salt, and Pepper.

Lynette with Happy

A cat (maybe Crackers?) at our Richland house

We had a dog once whose name was Tuf. He was part Boston Terrier and not very big. Judy remembers receiving him for her Christmas gift one year. The name came from a math game we played (and it was a tough game especially when playing with the math-smart people in our family.) I remember one traumatic experience--not sure how it happened but I was with Tuffy (I think most of us called him that) in the field across the main road from our street. I don't know if I was taking him for a walk or what, but I couldn't catch him and I was chasing him and calling his name but he wouldn't come and I cried and cried because I didn't know what to do. In my memory I remember going home crying to Mom and she said not to worry. I don't know what happened after that but the dog appeared at home later.

When I was about 14 or 15 we had two kittens that we named Starsky and Hutch after two police detectives in a popular TV show.  Starsky & Hutch  One character had dark hair (my favorite of the two) and the other was blond, so you are right if you guessed that one of the kittens was black and the other was--not blond--but lighter colored, like an orange color. Sadly Starsky didn't survive, but Hutch lived a very long time. They had other siblings with names like Bruno and Cinnamon, all born to a mommy cat named Nephi. Obviously we originally thought she was a boy. Some tried to call her Nephiette after that but it didn't stick.

(above) Great-grandpa Giberson with Hutch. (below) Hutch in his delicate older years.

My lasting memory of Hutch, though, is when I was home from my first year at BYU and working everyday. In the morning, (before my alarm would go off, of course) Hutch would come and scratch at my bedroom window (right above my bed) until I was forced to go to the front door to let him in the house. There was no way to sleep through that scratching, scratching, scratching and the insistent meowing, meowing, meowing...

Grandpa Robert "Ves" Owen

My grandpa's name was Robert Vester Owen although he went by "Ves." He was the 11th of 15th children of Benjamin and Jane Owen. He had a very interesting life. He was born in 1880 and he saw the world change a lot during his life. He served in World War I. He drove a stage coach for part of his life. Mostly he was a farmer and then he worked for the railroad in Portland, Oregon. He didn't get married until he was 40 years old to my grandmother Olevia Purinton Owen. My mom, Eileen Jane Owen, was their youngest child.

Grandpa died when I was only four years old--same age as some of his great great grandchildren are now so I don't remember him very much. However there are a couple of things that I remember very clearly that I want to share with you.

When I was little, we had to drive about four hours to go from our house to our grandparents's house in Portland, Oregon. They lived in on the bottom floor of an old house and to get up to the house you had to drive up a dirt driveway through some trees and rose bushes to reach the house. I have a clear memory of driving up in our car and seeing my grandpa and grandma waiting together on the porch. I remember thinking that they had been waiting all day just to see me. I remember that my grandpa would hug me and I knew that he loved me so much.

My grandparents had a round kitchen table where we would eat great dinners that my grandmother would cook using her wood burning stove. I can remember my grandpa singing after dinner. He was a very good singer, like my mother and aunt were as well. He would sometimes sing for shows at Church and in the community.

My grandfather also wrote poetry. I didn't know that when I was a little girl, but when I was older, my mom gave me a small book with some of his poetry. One of my favorite poems that he wrote was called: "To Robert Jr." which was my Uncle Bob.

There's a race to be won

When the day is done.

And a place,

In the Race

For you.

I am wearing your colors

And hope,

At the end,

To cheer

When I see them come through.

I memorized that poem when I was younger, because even though it was written to my Uncle Bob, I believe that my Grandpa loves me and will be waiting for me at the end of my race....just like I will be for each of you----a long, long time from now.

WELCOME BACK, ALL GIBERSONS--YOUNG AND OLD!

Valerie and I (as we have begun trying to share the stories of our families with our grandchildren) decided that there would be many stories that might be of interest to our extended Giberson family as well.  So we decided to use giberiginal.blogspot.com as a way to share them with a broader audience.  Feel free to add stories of your own.  Contact Valerie or I if you need help with that.

We hope that you enjoy learning more about our family and the many people who went before us.

A PLETHORA OF GIBERSONS: Austin, TX Sept. 2014

In memory of the Longhorns, I'll post this banner...

This is just a sampling of the many Gibersons 

that gathered in Austin because 

of the BYU-Texas game...of course, 

some just live there year-round!

Gwennivier & Sierra 

 Lea & Todd

Ari & Angela

 Thad & Duncan

 Sandy & Valerie

Gwennivier, Sierra, Lora, Ari, Scott & Tillie

 Jordan & Daniel 

 Mikki & Scotty

Tillie

Duncan, Thad, & Ryan

Scott & Ari

 Lora & Grandpa

Saul & Ashley

Jena, Lora, Sierra, Tana & Kaylee

Rick & Linda

 Gwennivier & Tillie

Happy Father's Day!

RICHARD CREIGHTON GIBERSON

Dad begins his life story by writing about three mothers, all who performed a noble and divine role. One gave birth to him, another raised him to be a good boy, and the third was an example of a righteous Latter-day Saint mother. 

But for a boy who had a myriad of potential fathers (biological, adopted, and others who came in and out of his mother's life), he had no dad. Mom said he worried that he wouldn't know how to be one himself. Ready or not, he got the chance with eight children of his own.

The Family: A Proclamation To the World states: "Successful . . . families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and *wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families." 

Recently Sister Linda Reeves of the General Relief Society Presidency said: "The only things that really need to be accomplished in the home are daily scripture study and prayer and weekly family home evening.”

And in 2nd Nephi 25:26 we read: "We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ . . . that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

In all the ways that matter, the answer to Dad's concern is a resounding YES!

Love you, Dad! Thank you for EVERYTHING!

*playing games

Family Flashback!

In case you missed it on Facebook:


After 43 years it's finally been resolved. Scott is in town and was reading from our Giberson family history (RICHLAND YEARS, circa 1971) that he threw a fit because he didn't like the song Valerie was playing on the record player. (David Cassidy's "I think I Love You"--what's not to love, I ask you??) He wanted a family favorite, that we kids loved to dance to. Lance found it on YouTube and played it for Scott. (Alas, no pictures of us dancing, but I think Morgan enjoyed it.)


Click on the link to discover the song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lwmq4uoA3g


ENJOY!


Note: I don't know if all the details of the incident were recorded in the family history, but I think I read them in Mom's journal, so was able to put the pieces together.