We always ate together for breakfast in our specific spots at the kitchen table before we went to school and in the summer months. When we were working in the fields after our noon meal we would always go in the living room and lay on the carpet because that part of the house was soft rock so the walls were very thick and that kept it very cool in the summer and very warm in the winter. Dad would let us lay there for only 15 minutes before we had to go work on the farm again.
When I was growing up, dad would come wake us up about 4:30 or 5:00 am to go out and do chores. And we knew that you couldn’t eat before the milking was done and that was the same at Christmas time, we couldn’t open any presents until the chores were all done. My Mother, had a way to teach us things. When I would come home from school, particularly in the winter months she had something hot for me to eat, like a bowl of soup or chili or something like that. And then while I was eating, she would teach me what it was, that she was trying to get me to understand. For example one year she decided to teach me how to lead the singing. Well, in my mind, that was way below my dignity. Because boys just didn’t learn how to lead the singing. But she kept after me, and the first branch I got in in the mission field I was asked to get up and lead the singing. I was grateful that my mother had spent the time to teach me how to lead.
