BYU - UTAH GAME; A CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Well they are not smiling so much now!

With the knock out victory of the  Utah Utes over the BYU Cougars by forty, count them, points,  things are kinda quiet down there today.

We have been conflicted over whom to root for.. well anyway Mom is.  We had 15 of our 16 living children go to the "Y" and they picked up 18 degrees there including 15 Bachelors, two Masters and a PhD.  I will forever be grateful for what the "Y" has done for my family, However, I cannot bring myself to root for their football team!  All our kids root for them.  Here is a picture of Rebecca, Paul and all the kids  faithfully wearing the colors on the day of the big rival game.  Even the little guy not yet one year old is being indoctrinated!

Paul is one of those rabid BYU fans.  Even though he graduated from the "U", his loyalty to the BYU football team knows no bounds.  He even sat in the "Must", the section of Utah students at the U stadium, waving a big BYU banner and got a little pommeled couple of years ago.. That did not dampen his enthusiasm fpr the "Y".  He and Becca came up from St. George for the game.

Mike and Joseph were there as well including Doug, Douglas, Spence and Nate.  Doug paid BIG BUCKS to get tickets but they all had a good time until the game started and it was downhill with a vengeance for the BYU football team.

You got to remember that Mom and I received our Bachelor degrees at the "U".  In addition, my Dad played football for the "U" in the late '20's.  I grew up seeing him wear his red letter sweater everywhere including deer hunting in New York.  Elder Wirthlin, when he was a teenager, used to go up to the "U" to watch my dad play football.  Elder Wirthlin also payed football for the "U" and became one of their best fans.  So I do not think I will root for the "Y".

I guess I will have to repent a little for all the great Schadenfreude I felt.  BYU has beaten the "U" several times by only a point or two in the last minute and this drubbing was a joy to watch.  Sorry all you BYU fans in the family.

We had a busy Sunday;  I gave the lesson in Priesthood on the Gathering of Israel.  Mom and I gave talks in the singles ward and then there was a blessing in the evening. That work has been busy this last week.

Love, Dad and Mon

SURGICAL REUNION MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

 Dear Family,

One purpose of the trip was to attend a surgical reunion at the MGH.  I had never been there before and it was time to visit old friends.  We flew back on Friday night and took a cab to the hotel.  The cabby took the long way around and through traffic in the middle of Boston and yes it was like old times.

 We stayed at the "Liberty Hotel" which was the old Charles Street Jail built in the early 1800's.  Here is a picture of Mom in front of the Jail Hotel.  It was strange because it was still a jail when I was there.  We used to send drunks over there from the MGH ER.

The reception was there on Friday evening.  We went to register and this gray haired lady comes up and gives me a big hug, "Dr. Wirthlin, we are so glad you came; you are a legend!"  It was apparently one of the nurses I had worked with years ago.  It felt so good to be back among friends and men whom I had also trained, who have since all become pretty big names in American surgery..

 Here is a picture of me and Hardy Hendren, who is still a legend there.  He was professor of pediatric surgery and one of my great teachers.  He took me to Africa with his scrub nurse when I was his resident.  We went to Malawi and did surgery for about six weeks and that was the adventure of a lifetime.  We chatted about our experience there recalling some of the more difficult surgeries.  I reminded him of time he tried to shoot a 'dik dik' with a 30-06 rifle with a shortened stock.  He really cut his eyebrow down to the bone and I helped stitch him up.  In a recent talk to the Brookline Country Club, he talked about the African experience and showed a picture of our last Xmas card at the 50th reunion and it brought a gasp from the audience.

Here is part of the surgical intern group of '62.  There is George May with home I used to go pheasant hunting.  There is Mike Margolies who married one of the nurses and is still married to her.  It was fun to talk with them both.  Mike was a big hard bench biochemistry esearcher at the MGH.  We saw so many friends including John Wesley who ecame Professor of Pediatric surgery.  He is  a direct descendant of John Wesley the Reformer.  His son met a returned sister missionary, joined or church and was married in the temple.  John visit them and goes to church with them.  John was very helpful in getting Doug mitted to University of  Michigan medical school.  Just a great friend!

I was standing in the lunch line and over heard the person behind me ask his neighbor the date of his marriage and he wondered, "Which one?".  There were a lot of marriage casualties to academic surgery in that group.  We ran into one of the successful ones in Mel and Jodie Platt.  He was chief of the East when I was chief of the West surgical services at the MGH.  We chatted and chatted and went to Legal Seafood for a great Boston seafood meal.  Mel is still operating in Dallas.

We had a day of meetings on Saturday and they even quoted something funny I had said years ago.  The presentations were interesting.  We ditched the meetings and took the MTA over to Harvard Square.  Everything was so different.  There was a clambake in the evening and we got our fill of lobsters and steamed clams.

It was so great to see old friends and colleagues after so many years and relive the days of the surgical trenches and battles at the best Hospital

Alles Gute, Dr. Opa amd Oma

WE GO TO CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE

Dear Family,

On Sunday, Becky Christensen, our former great sister missionary who works in Newton Center, picked us up at our hotel and brought us to church.  She did a lot  for us while we were in Boston.  I called her before our trip  and mentioned we wold be in Boston and she started calling around and even arranged for me to give a Fireside in the Cambridge Stake.  She did so much for us.

What surprised uswaswho would get out of the car to greet  us at the hotel.  There was Mary Cox, another one of our great sister missionaries who happened to be in Boston.  She is getting a phd in German economic history at Oxford University in England.  She was giving a paper at a convention in Boston. And then there was Jake Geertsen who rode a bus up from New York City to come and visit us. Jake was with us in the mission home. and now has a degree in hospital administration and works in NYC.  So great to see them all and such a surprise. Here we all are in front of the Longfellow Park chapel that was rebuilt after it had totally burned down.

This was the exact site of that great picture of Mom (seen below), age 22, Relief Society President of the Cambridge Ward standing on the steps in front of the chapel on her first Mother's Day, 1961, hooding her carnation and our new little guy, Roy. (who just turned 50).  That was a blast of memory!

We went to our Priesthood meeting and it was so well done, I was impressed.  Then we went to another Singles Ward where Kristin Green, our former Sister Missionary in Vienna, who was teaching the lesson.  It was an invasion of her class but it was so great to be there. There are four singles wards that meet in that building.  The building has a great cry room that our kids still remember.  Cry room in a singles ward?

After church we all went over to Becky's cool apartment in Cambridge.  It was three flights up and I made it to the top.  Kristin rode her bike over there.

It was fun to visit with Mary Cox again and then she had to leave.  All the time Becky was a picture of whirlwind of energy and activity.  She took people everywhere and started a great Italian soup all the while charging about.

Then a second group entered!  And to my complete surprise, there was Dani Sorensen Tew with husband and two cute children.  Then I saw Yannick Adler and his wife and child. He was my German AP who was such a help in the mission home.  He had been informed by his Sister, Carolin, who is teaching in a German school for German nationals in Boston.  It was almost overload of surprise and joy.  They had driven down from Albany and it was so great to see them.

We had a great dinner with a gourmet soup that Becky had prepared with such skill..  It was great and we had such a good visit.  It was the best Sunday and was not over yet! So here we all are; back row: Becky, Jake, Yanick with wife and little girl. Dani's husband with little guy (who played with my Ipad non stop), front row: Kristin, Mom, Me, Dani and another little guy.

Most of that group left and then Becky took us to the new Stake House in Cambridge near MIT where
I gave that Joseph Smith, Nathan Smith fireside.  There we met more old friends; Gail and Laurel Ulrich, Gordon Williams, Kent Bowen, the Elliots, Betty Mandarino and others.  It was so great!!!! The fireside went well but they could not get the computer to project the power point presentation and there in the shadows of MIT.  Mom thought it was alright.

We attended Elder Oaks broadcast fireside.  We visited and talked to everyone and then Becky took us back to the hotel.  It was one of the best Sundays!

Love, Dad and Mom

BOSTON; WHERE WE LIVED

 Dear Family,

We got back from or trip to Boston and I will tell the details in a couple of posts.  I thought it would be interesting to the family to show photos of where we lived in and around Boston.

We met our Sister Missionary, Becky Christensen, who took us to church and drove us around on the day we were leaving to see all the old sites.  Becky got her Masters degree in Social work at Simmons and is working in Newton Center.  She was a terrific help.

The first picture above is of Holden Green, part of Harvard Housing where we lived from 1960 through 1964.  We started with the apartment on the first floor next to the door.  That's where we were with Roy.  The rent was $70.00 and my income for a couple of ears was $0.00.  When Rick came, we moved to a slightly larger apartment and my salary as a surgical intern in the Massachusetts General Hospital was $77.00 a month because we had children. We had Roy, Rick and Doug when we lived at Holden Green.  This is where Mom assigned me to baby sit Roy when she had to go on one of her Relief Society visits.  I was always dead tired so I put Roy on my tummy and passed out to the deeper stages of sleep induced anesthesia.  I locked the door so Roy could not get out.  Mom did not have a key and I was insensate when she knocked so she had to call the fire department to get into the apartment.  Holden Green was great and there were several LDS couples living there as well.

 When we got back from our two year stint in the US Navy at Pensacola, FL, we rented that old home in Arlington.  It was behind the apartment house on Pleasant Street.  The Bushman's lived over the fence around the corner and the elementary school was through the fence and all kids were chronically late for school.  We lived there for four years.  The house was knocked down when we left but thee is the site.

 When I got on the Surgical Staff at the MGH, we bought our first home on Dedham Street from Gail and Laurel Ulrich.  This is where we had seven more kids and where we kept our two bee hives in the 1/2 acre backyard and was the place of many memories and great fun.  We ,moved from there to Michigan in 1977.  Current owner have added a circular driveway in the front.  Murley's field across the street where the kids played is full of trees.

I thought you might be interested in the Boston Temple which is in Belmont just off Rte 2.  There is Becky standing in front.  She is also an ordinance worker here. There was much "todo" about the steeple, its height and construction.  They have a New England type steeple.  The grounds are beautiful.  When we lived there, we had to make the long trip to Washington to attend a Temple.

I am doing this backwards; this was the last morning of the trip.  It brought back so many memories from portions of my brain that have not been used for many years.  It was so great to see this and we are so grateful that Becky took us around.  More about the trip later.

Love, Dad and Mom

BEAR LAKE, THE GAME AND OTHER STUFF

Dear Family,

Labor Day weekend brought us back to St. Charles, ID. Mike and his family came up Friday night and we had such a good time with them. Saturday morning was the Bear Lake breakfast on the large griddle. Here is a picture of The entire gang with hash browns, eggs, pancakes, bacon, fruit and all the extras. That usually lasts for the entire day.

Mike was a whirlwind of activity. He got one of the ATV's going, got the boat ready and did a huge branch cleanup project. Those cottonwood trees shed branches like dandruff. There was of course th shooting chore. Little Michael, who is eight years old, is a crack shot and had a lot of fun. Thye went to the beach and had a great time. Rayanne prepared the best dinner which included the best bean salad I
have ever had. .

Sunday, we piled the kids in the old '75 Toyota FJ40 land cruiser and went up to church. There were two sessions of about 1000 in each meeting. It has a very rural church flair. We saw a lot of friends and other Temple workers from Salt Lake up there as well. We had a great Sunday dinner together and settled in for a great Bear Lake nap. That evening, I gave a fireside at the Tidwells who have a beautiful place up in the hills just below Fishaven. They had a lot of extended family there and it was neat.

There was a knock on the door and we were so surprised to see Keith and Jannine D. They are are good friends from Bloomfield Hills and are not retired living in Virginia. Jannine read in our blog that we would be there this weekend and stopped by. (So glad someone is reading the blog). She brought her 94 year old mother who lives not far away in Liberty, ID (a left turn in Ovid, ID). She is a Pugmire and knew our little farm there. When she was a kid, she used to pick apples in our back field. It was so great to see her.

Mike, Rayanne, all the kids and Mom worked hard to winterize the place and store everything. We still had time for a little plinking. We blew up some tannerite. We placed them over large stumps of logs and that split the logs rather well as the tannerite exploded. The idea is to shoot the tannerite with a high velocity round. It is not an explosive by itself but does it blow up when shot. There is always the deep horse laugh when it goes off! Mike and Joseph could not help but laugh when they made the shot.

Before we went to Bear Lake, we went to the U of U starting football game against Montana. Here is Opa with his U of U tie and Mary. She totally surprised us by showing up in the box. She came out to run a marathon with Cheryl and Paul. I love these surprise visits from the kids.

Pres. Uchtdorf was in the neighboring box and came over to say hello. He seems to know who I am because he always speaks German with me. The U won!

We went down to Mapleton and I ordained John a High Priest. This was a sweet moment for Emily, John and family. He is executive secretary in his ward and we are proud of him and Emily.

We go to Boston tomorrow. There is a surgical reunion at the Massachusetts General Hospital and I have not been back there for many years and it will be fun to visit old colleagues. One of our sister Missionaries, Becky C., is back there and we will be going to church with her in the rebuilt chapel in Longfellow park. She also organized a stake fireside for me to do in the Cambridge stake. We will see te Ulrichs as well. More later..

Love, Dad

SUMMER GARDENS, A SMALL VINEYARD

Dear Family,

Mom came rushing in with the news, "You have two bunches of grapes on the grapevines!" This was news indeed, not quite as startling as a new grandchild but close.

I was a bit jealous of all our kids grape vines, Cathy has established vines in their Bountiful house. When Al and Paul and family recently bought a little farm in Munis, MI they had an established vineyard. The previous owner was from California and brought in some California wine grapes and they have the best little vineyard. Those grapes also make great grape juice.

So this spring, we went to a nursery and bought three starts, two Concord grapes vines and an eating grapes vine. We dug out an old hedge, worked the soil and got someone to build a very stout support (with visions of hundreds of pounds of grapes growing).

I would check the progress almost daily and it was slow. I gave up on grapes this year as it takes a while to establish the vines. A friend who has a vineyard said to pluck any grapes off this year but it was so great to see some production, I can't bring myself to do it until ripe.

Everyone talks about a "farm gene" in our family. I must say, I did not particularly like the little farm my Dad bought when we moved to Utah because the chores interfered with my studies but it must have had a deep impression because we bought a little farm in Michigan and we had horses, sheep, pigs, a little steer, ducks and chickens until the foxes got them and a huge garden. We never got to the canning phase of things back then but we ate awfully good food in August and September.

The kids all disliked the garden work but now almost each has their own garden, even Cheryl who has these gourmet raised boxes with automatic sprinklers and has a lush garden. Rick bought a little tree farm in the Sierras, Bry bought the farm in Michigan and Al has on her own little farm

Our space in Salt Lake is limited but Mom gets in a garden anyway. The bushes in the front lawn hide squash and eggplants and she has this little 4' x 4' box loaded with tomatoes. Here is a shot of Mom's petite garden. There is a great joy in turning soil, planting seeds or starts and watching things grow. We are following Church counsel as well when we have our gardens.

There has been all sorts of summer fun in the family. I got this picture off Al's blog. Rob and Eva and Jeff and Tammy were back in Michigan to celebrate school reunions and visit family there. There was a summer 'Sound of Music Festival' .

Here is a picture of Eva wearing her mother's Dirndle ( she is from the Voralberg region of Austria) and with the dis in their outifts. There is Peter in his Lederhose and the girls in their Dirndles. They went onstage and she looked like Maria with all the kids. So fun!

We have been busy in our church assignments. Went to a YSA ward conference yesterday and managed to slip up to hear Doug's High Council talk and it was very good. There have been blessing appointments as well so we keep busy.

Bear Lake next week with Mike and his family for the Labor Day Holiday.

Love, Dad

ADAM IS BAPTIZED

Dear Family,

We traveled to Denver to be part of Adam's baptism. This has been rescheduled a few times due to various activities but we were finally able to go over to Denver. I like visiting Roy and his family in Denver, we always seem to have a lot to do and have a really nice time.

The baptism was special. Adam picked Roy and I to do the talks. "Don't you want anyone else to speak?" "No only you and Grandpa" I spoke on Baptism and Roy spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Bishop was caught in traffic and never showed up but talked to someone on the phone and told us to go ahead. Roy baptized and I confirmed and it was very special.

there were some non member there and there was clapping after the baptism which you do not see often. Adam was very ready. He is a really bright boy and was looking forward to this.

There is celebration afterwards. This has escalated over the years. When our kids got baptized and we were watching our pennies, the big treat was to go to Mc Donald's for a plain hamburger and the one baptized could have his own shake. We seem to do a lot more now which of course is not part of the ordinance but nevertheless there is joy all around. We drove Adam to that Crispy Creme Donuts place and he picked out a dozen for the family.

We took him to the shooting range afterward and later that evening went out to dinner. Here is a picture of Alissa with her daughters, Hanna and Lexie. Hard to tell the Mom from the daughters.

Roy and Alissa live in this great subdivision designed by pilots. All have their own airplanes and there is a runway up the middle of the subdivision. There are many hangers attached to big homes. Here is a picture of a plane parked in the backyard. Roy never assembled his hanger. His friend, Jim Pack, landed his plane once on the runway.

We had a great time with Roy and his family and we are proud of Adam.

While we were in Denver, there was action in Michigan. Jeff and his family went back for a visit and Jeff sent this picture from the farm. They had a big barbecue at the farm and this wil look familiar and remind us of the weekly barbecue we used to have almost year round after a day of work on the farm. Here is Sarah, Heidi, Kristina, Mark in the background with his hunting dog,"Gunner der Jaeger". There is Julius off to the side. Boy does that bring home memories.

We are firming up our plans to go to Boston in September. I will do a fireside in the Cambridge Stake.

Love to all, Mom and Dad