Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 30

More Favorites:

TV Show:  All of Bing Crosby's

Song:  "I Am a Child of God"

Color:  Red and Purple

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 29

Question:  Tell your all-time favorites:

Food:  Chicken, chocolate cake or anything made with chocolate.

Book:  Book of Mormon and lots of good books.  "The Work and The Glory"  I have all so far-Book 1-9

Movie:  Ten Commandments,  The Robe, White Christmas, Bells of St. Mary.

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 28

Question:  Tell about the Thanksgiving traditions of your youth.  What foods were on your Thanksgiving table?

Answer:  Turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, salad, pumpkin pies, mince meat pies, fruit cakes.

Carl James Cook-Life Sketch Part 3

Remembrances of Carl James Cook

by his daugther, Janae

1909-1966

           The first memory I have of my dad was on my fourth birthday in 1949. during a real bad winter. Dad and the neighbors took the milk to town on a sleigh. When he came home that day he had a big red tricycle for me. As I remember, it was huge (maybe that's because I was so small).

           I remember many fishing trips when I was very small. We'd all get up early in the morning and it seemed 1ike we traveled forever. I can  remember that sometimes Grandma and Grandpa Cook and Milburn and Verla went with us. Dad always had time to help us fish when we were small. They were fun times. I remember going to Yellowstone Park and seeing all the sites.  

          I used to go with Dad to change the water. I can still see him leaning on his shovel talking with Uncle Abe and me getting teased about eating angle worms with sugar and cream on them.

          Dad broke his leg on April's Fools Day one year and I remember doing more of the farm work than usual. I helped him move siphon tubes. I'd do the bending and picking up and he’d give the instructions. The Ward helped him get his fields ready. I’11 never forget the site of a whole field full of tractors going round and round. 

          Once when I was small, the county had trimmed the trees under the power lines. Dad took his axe and went out to cut the pieces up smaller under Mom’s clothesline. The axe caught the line and fell down on his head. He had quite a cut on his forehead and passed out for a few minutes. I remember going to Milburn and Verla's house after that and Dad getting teased.

          I can see him in the yard working on a Ford tractor, sometimes with Milburn and Dean. I don’t remember ever hearing them argue over the farm work. I can also see him on the tractor digging potatoes as we picked them in the fall. He was a good farmer, a hard worker and I am sure he had the respect of those who worked for or with him.

          I vaguely remember Dad and Grandpa Cook arguing over politics. The only time I can remember Dad and Mom arguing was during income tax figuring time. They used to sit at the kitchen table and do the figuring then take it down to Bob McKay to finish it. Figuring income tax is enough to drive anyone to drink, so I think they did pretty good.

          I can still see us all sitting around the supper table eating what came out of the garden. Dad liked Mom's homemade bread and milk in a glass with radishes and sometimes onions. (Mom liked the onions too).

          I can remember a few times when Dad played the mouth organ and sang "Halleluiah I’m a bum." In the summer we used to go to the drive-in movies a lot. Mom would pack a lunch, sandwiches and boiled eggs, and we ate before and during the movie in our old red Plymouth. Oh! for some good movies these days.

          I faintly remember Dad's heart attack before Loralee was born. He was irrigating and didn't come back for a long time after Mom expected him.  I can't remember who or how he was found, only that he was sick and in the house for a long time. We lived in the old red house then.

Because of this experience, Mom spent many anxious times wondering where he was when he was late.

          I remember how proud he and Mom were when they bought the old piano for me. I was not particularly excited about it at the time, but what a blessing it has proved to be through the years.                When Dad was so sick after getting gored by the bull, Mom called  me (I was working at the site then) and asked me if I could come in and stay with him at the hospital. I wonder now if it was because he was so badly hurt and she wasn't sure he would make it. He never had his full health and strength after that happened.

 In the fall of 1958 as I came out of the high school to get on the bus, there was Dad motioning to me to come to him. I couldn't imagine what he was doing there, but he and mom had a brand new yellow 1959 Plymouth. We had to go pick up the other kids from school too.  He was pretty proud and couldn't wait to show it to us. A couple of nights later the whole family went to church and on the way home a cop stopped Dad. He hadn't dimmed his 1ights because the car was so new that he couldn't find the dimmer switch. The cop didn't give hima ticket, I guess he believed him.

After I worked at the site for a while, Dad and I went car hunting.  He wanted me to buy a bright red or flashy car of some sort. Being me, I couldn't picture myself driving such a car. We settled on a 1958 black and white Chevy. Dad took me to his bank and signed with me so I could get a loan to buy the car and later advised me when I needed some new tires.

I want to tell of an experience that, I had in 1982 on Father's Day.  I know it's not something that happens every day, but it was very real and Clinton agreed with me that it really happened. I remember how Wayne Ward, when asked to play a special number during Sacrament Meeting, 

would always play "Heart Tones", so beautifully. Dad loved the song and wanted me to learn to play it. So we went to Chesbros and bought the music. I never could play it as well as Wayne Ward, but I learned it.  On Father's Day in 1982 (this was during our rough time when we were having trouble with FHA and things looked pretty bad for us), I got up and for some reason had a desire to play that song. I had to hunt through my music in the closet for it. I sat down at the piano (all the kids were outside doing chores) and played it terribly, because I wasso out of practice. Then I played it again. I felt Dad's spirit there. His love was all around me and I knew everything would be alright. It was as if we had sat down and had a good long talk. I will never forgethow I felt at that time.

I can see him sitting in the Ward Clerk chair taking the minutes.

I was proud to see him there. I can remember President Wirkus saying at his funeral, that Carl would do anything for anybody, but talk in church. He may not have been a loud or outgoing person, but the
chapel and cultural hall were filled that day. To me, that says an awful lot. He was known and loved by many people. I always felt he loved me. He always provided for our needs the best he could and was
interested in what we were doing. I just know that he is proud of his grandchildren. I hope that through this history, we are writing that they can all I come to know and love him for what he was - an example

to them.

I know that though he isn't here with us he loves us and is interested in what we are doing and is concerned for us. Sometimes I miss my Dad. I think it would be wonderful to sit down and talk with him. I am looking forward to the time when maybe this will be possible again.

.

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 27

Question:  Share a favorite Thanksgiving memory.

Answer:  Mother didn't write anything on this page but I remember that at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day, she would make a huge fruit salad in her big pressure cooker canner.  Then after dinner, it was put out on the porch to keep it cold.  We could go out any time that we wanted to and get a bowl of salad.  I loved it.

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 25

Question:  What were my other childhood addresses?

Answer:  Lovell, Wyoming
                Menan, Idaho

Dad out shoveling at home in Menan, Idaho

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 24

Question:  What do you remember most about my first month of life?

Answer:  You were a good baby and the pride and joy of our family as we had 2 boys and now 2 girls.

Back row:  Theron, Franklin

Front row:  Lois (me) Joyce

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 23

Question:  What was the address of my first childhood home?

Roberts, Idaho for a short time and then we moved to Rigby, Idaho Route 1.

Home in Roberts, Idaho as it looked a few years ago.  It has since been torn down.  No one has lived there for many years, as you can tell from the picture.

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 22

Question:  What were you doing when John F. Kennedy was assassinated?

Answer:  Getting dinner started. [He was shot at 11:30 a.m. mountain time.  When we were growing up the meal you had at noon was called dinner and the night meal was called supper.]

Mom Share Your Life with Me - November 21

Question: If you have a baby picture of me to share, place it here.

Answer:  Here is the picture that she put in the book of me.

Me (Lois Cook)

Carl James Cook-Life Sketch Part 2

Life Sketch of Carl James Cook

Zelda Irene (Hix) Cook

1909-1966

         On June 28, 1948, his first son was born and named Richard Carl, after having two daughters it made him proud to have a son.  

In late summer of 1951 Carl suffered a heart attack and was laid up for several months, but was able to drive tractor to dig potatoes  in the fall and that made him happy.

On May 23, 1952 another daughter, Loralee, joined the family and on September 21, 1955, another son, Rulan Jay, was born.

In about 1957 Carl was able to purchase 61 acres of ground across the road from his farm located in Jefferson County. The land all watered out of the same Burgess Canal and was purchased for $29,000. The Bonneville property was mortgaged to purchase the Jefferson County property. Farm crops were quite low and this property was much harder to make the payments on. The State of Idaho wanted to buy 25 acres for a gravel pit as they were building Interstate 1-15 and the acreage was sold to the state and the profit helped catch up on the mortgage payments and he also was able to buy a two-bedroom house from Max Brinton and moved it to a partial basement that the family was living in. The top two rooms adjacent to the basement had to be moved away. This house was fixed up and made a very comfortable home for his family. This was the first bathroom they had indoors, they had had hot and cold water before, but not an indoor bathroom.

On April Fool's Day in 1964, Carl and Rick were feeding cattle from a high hay stack on the Jefferson County property when he lost his balance and fell and broke his leg in two places. He was in the hospital for two weeks and laid up for the summer. It was spring time and his friends and neighbors pitched in and prepared the ground for 21 acres of potatoes, they did the job in some 3 1/2 hours. Earlier, another group of neighbors prepared and planted the grain. He was able to help care for the crops and to harvest them.

         On another occasion on September 13, 1965, he had an encounter with a mean bull that shoved him from one farm dike to the other breaking six ribs. The bull knocked him down and he remembered little else. Nevertheless, the bull was sold. He spent a week in the hospital this time.

         In 1956 Carl served as Deacon's Quorum advisor in the Co1tman Ward and in 1958 he was called as Assistant Ward Clerk and later served as Ward Clerk for eight years with Bishop Eldon L. Ward and Bishop Albert Rasmussen. He was released February 27, 1966. After the encounter with the bull, his health was never the same.

         Carl always had time to stop and visit with friends and neighbors. He was proud of his family and always tried to participate with them in their school and Church activities. He had the patience of Job with his children.

         Around the first of April 1966 Carl and Zelda took Clinton Perry and Janae (C1inton and Janae were later married in May) to Cardston, Canada. Clinton was to be the best man at a friend's wedding. Carl had just purchased his third new automobile, a 1966 Impala Chevrolet. Carl and Zelda sorta went along as chaperons but had an enjoyable time.
        He bought his first car in 1949, it was a Maroon colored Plymouth and the second car was a 1959 ye1low push button Plymouth.

        Carl saw his first daughter, Janae, marry Clinton Perry in the Idaho Falls Temple and was very proud of her.            

        On September 21, 1966, Rulan's eleventh birthday, the family had a birthday supper at home and Carl walked outside for a few minutes then came back into the house to see if Zelda needed the car, as it was left on the carport. She told him she had to pick up some other ladies and go to a Stake MIA Leadership meeting. He turned to her and said as he went out the back porch, “It sure is a beautiful evening out there,".

        He went to his new potato cellar that he had been building and where Rulan and Debra Jacobs, a neighbor friend, were playing. Rulan had received some new parts for his bicycle for his birthday and they were riding up and down the potato cellar. A few minutes later Debra came running in the house and told Loralee that something had happened to her Dad and Loralee and Zelda ran quickly to the cellar where Carl was slumped half way up against the west cellar wall. The kids ran to the neighbors for help, but Carl had died instantly of a massive heart attack.

           Carl was a hard worker and raised very good crops, he always grew a good crop of potatoes 

and was always trying to improve his farming operations. He arose bright and early every morning and worked until late in the evenings. In the summer he was always wearing his irrigating boots, keeping the soil just right was his constant worry. He was very fussy about getting them planted on time and harvesting at just the right time. 

        Carl was baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on August 3, 1918 at LaBelle, Idaho.

        He was ordained a Deacon on 2 May 1921 by Winfield Hurst at Shelley, Idaho. He was ordained a Teacher on 3 March 1924 by Edwin Allen at Ucon, Idaho. He was ordained a Priest on 4 April 1927 by Gottfried Stucki at Coltman, Idaho and was ordained an Elder on 15 October 1939 by N.C.A. Jorgensen at Roberts, Idaho.

        Carl's parents both preceded him in death. His father James Edward died on 20 October 1960 and his mother Christina Buchmiller Cook died on 23 December 1964. His brother Virgil died on 26 February 1939 and the thirteenth child in the family was stillborn on 10 September 1930.

             At the time of his death he was survived by his wife, Zelda and four children; Janae, Richard, L      Loralee and Rulan.            

                                               Brother and Sisters surviving were:

                                               Mrs. Agnes Levin, Roberts, Idaho
                                               Mrs. Edna Ririe, Ririe, Idaho
                                               Cleo Cook, Menan

                                               Mrs. Vendetta Wilson, Rigby, Idaho
                                               Mrs. Verla Hix, Coltman, Idaho

                                               Mrs. Lila Christensen, Lewisville, Idaho
                                               Mrs. Leora Fugal, Nampa, Idaho

                                               Mrs. Reva Maas, Terreton,Idaho

                                               Mrs. Melba Maas, Roberts, Idaho

                                               Mrs. Theola Simmons, Terreton, Idaho