One thing about a Mormon family that you can count on is that they are always busy. Take our family as a case in point. This summer we had NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training), High Adventure Camp (which didn’t work into the schedule this year), Scout Camp (which will be next week for Andy), EFY (Especially for Youth), Girls Camp (which is happening next week and my wife will be a leader), weddings and receptions (which was great because my Brother got married), Family Reunions practically every month, and we try to squeeze in a Family Vacation as well. We have had so many activities that it seems that we haven’t really been together as a “whole” family very often.
Even though our summers are very full of activities, they are all growing experiences that hopefully build character, responsibility and leadership. It also helps teach our children what is like to be away from home and hopefully, in a positive way, teach them to be more independent. That way, our children will be ready to leave the nest when it is time to head off to college.
Next week will be the craziest. I’m planning on traveling up to Scout Camp, Deanna will be helping at Girls Camp, we have a family reunion and we have a wedding reception. After that week, we might be home for a little while just to vegetate and enjoy having our family all together again (if we can keep them from fighting).
As many people know, MormonFamilies and LDS Families do a lot of genealogy. For some reason, genealogy hasn’t really been a focus for me yet in life, however, I do like dabbling a little in family history when it has to do with pictures and audio. That is the reason I am posting this excerpt today.
My Dad brought over a CD the other day and wanted me to copy it for a family reunion we were having in a couple of weeks. He said it had some audio of my Grandpa Carter and Grandma Carter. I knew my Grandpa Carter so the minute I heard Melvin William Carter’s voice, a flood of memories came into my head. I could quickly picture him in my mind and I remembered his mannerisms. As I listened, I then heard a short clip of my Grand Mother Birdie Ione Carter. I don’t remember hearing her voice before. I didn’t ever know Grandma Birdie Ione Carter because she died about the time I was born. I’ve seen some pictures of her but never any audio so this was quite a treat to hear her voice. I have listened to this audio over and over again to get a sense of who she was and to get a feel for her background. It is really interesting to hear her accent. To me she has an Idaho accent. There are certain words that just come with a little bit of a twang and some of the words are slurred together to shorten a sentence. For some reason I always thought of Grandma Carters as a very prim and proper woman which didn’t laugh or tease but this audio shows her more of a fun lady with jokes and stories to color life’s experiences.
I decided to grab a few still pictures of Mel Carter and Birdie Ione and put them together with the audio and uploaded it to YouTube. For those of you who are not related, it isn’t very intersting, but for those of you who are related to the Carter Family, you might enjoy the clips I’ve edited.
A couple of the most famous clips I have added are told by Grandpa Mel Carter about some stories he memorized (recitations) when he was younger. First is his account of learning the Alphabet Backwards, the second is the story of the Cremation of Sam McGee.
Last night out Stake was in charge of hosting our regional multi stakedance. We have a Stake Youth Committee that gets together and plans out each task. The dance we put on yesterday was themed Red, White and Blue. Each ward had an assignment and the Stake Young Men and Young Women presidencies where the chaperons. The dance normally starts at 9:00pm and goes till 11:00pm. Youth generally start arriving around 9:00 to 9:30pm but last night, there was a whole crowed of kids there even before 9:00pm.
There might be some people out there in the world wide web that don’t know that Mormons can dance. One of the wonderful things that the Mormon Church does is to plan and carry out wholesome activities for teenagers. Not only are they fun activities, but they are always supervised so that parents can feel comfortable dropping off their youth and know that they will be safe and that everything will be kept within certain guidelines that reflect gospel principles. Some of the dress standards that are followed are found in the “For Strength of Youth” pamphlet. In our Multi Stake Region, we ask all youth to ask their Bishop for a Dance Card. The dance card simply details out the standards that are kept at the dance and has a signature that states that the young man or young woman will abide by these standards. If someone doesn’t have a dance card, they are generally not turned away unless they are not abiding by the standards.
As I walked around the building (until my feet ached) I thought about how wonderful it was that church leaders would freely give of their time to host and chaperon a dance so that youth could mingle, dance and socialize in a safe environment. As a Father in an LDSFamily, I am very thankful for the youth programs that train my kids and offer them opportunities to socialize, grow and prosper.
