A New History Post

Life isn't very exciting these days, especially the loneliness of whatever Sharon is going through with her illnesses and seeming desire not to be supportive of me at this time, so I have tried to offset the potential depression by throwing myself into other projects. Accordingly,  here is another installment of my history.  I know its late but I needed to do this, and I can go to bed now without thinking about everything else and sleep for awhile.  Anyone can still visit me if  so inclined.  I'm not really contagious and there are gowns and gloves at the door for protection.  HELP!

Q: What physical characteristics, personality traits or skills have you seen run through generations of our family?
A: Probably the most recognized characteristic is height.  In our immediate and extended family, I believe I was one of on the tallest.  Most of my adult life I measured 6 ft 6 in.  My father, who was the tallest person of his siblings, measured 6 ft 3 in.  He was much taller than his father, Grandpa Parley Jensen, but I believe earlier generations were known for their height.  All of the male sons in our family grew to between 6 ft and 6 ft 6 in.  Even our daughters are tall.

Another physical characteristic has to do with hair.  As background, Grandpa Laney was bald as early as I can remember and my mother suffered most of her life with female pattern baldness which she kept hidden with a wig.  I don’t even know when she first started wearing a wig, nor do I remember how or when I became aware that she always was wearing a wig.  I have always been grateful for my father’s good hair genes. But many of my sons inherited their hair genes from their mother, which causes early graying and some hair line recession.  Scott and Brent had very handsome and interesting gray highlights as part of this genetic trait.  The girls probably don't want to be part of this subject.  Christine went gray very young, as had her mother, Kathleen Miner Anderson.

The other characteristic that comes to my mind is intelligence.  I feel like I got skipped, but I do fairly well on some tests, especially beneficial on entrance exams such as the ACT, GMAT, and LSAT.  However, my memory doesn’t function as well as I wish it did.  In fact, my memory is the main factor that influenced my career choices.  More on that later.  Christine was very intelligent and learned early in her life to do what needed doing as early as possible, the opposite of procrastination.  I’m afraid I am the master of procrastination.  Our children, however benefited from the better example of their mother; she taught and exemplified a love of learning, and her intelligence combined with her ability to get things done quickly and efficiently were some of the  keys to success for our whole family.  I see those qualities continuing in the next generation as well.  Add to that the great abilities of the spouses chosen by our offspring as well, and the next generation can only be even more successful in all their endeavors.

One other area I think of in this category is a love for woodworking.  Great Grandpa Denmark built or helped build many homes and buildings, as did Grandpa Parley.  Christine’s father, Wally Anderson, built a structure behind his home in Lenox, CA, which was famously known as “the Building,” which housed a large garage, kitchen area, storage facilities, and especially bedrooms for a large family to have enough room and space to continue to grow.  I remember the love and skill I saw my father put into many projects such as a monkeypod table and large cabinets he built for stereo speakers.  One year in Hawaii we worked together as a family to cut out and paint bigger-than-life snowmen out of plywood, which won a competition for outdoor Christmas Displays at Schofield Barracks, the very large Army post where we lived on Kirby Street, on the island of Oahu.

While I have not been as skilled as he was at fine finishes, such as the table and cabinets my father built, I remember many projects I worked on: two sets of bunk beds I hurried to finish in 1985, when we had just returned to our Texas home from Germany and Mark, Brian, Kevin, and Scott needed beds and drawers to store their clothes, a play kitchen appliance, toy cupboards, shelves, baby crib and highchair, a large set of stacking boxes to use imaginations, blocks cut from various lengths of 2X4's and painted bright colors, also for imaginations, and who can count how many pinewood derby cars we built over the years!  Not made of wood, but equally fun were the “bells” we made from metal ½” conduit, played mostly at Christmas but adaptable to any season.  Eric has been the son I see this trait most adopted by, but I think all of our family have some of it, especially when its pinewood derby time.