Pictures and Memory Lane

Dan and our dad John Gilbert Nielson, Dan is just a little younger than me.  I remember how we used to jump on the bed and play Indians and cowboys on the make believe horses which were the bed front board rail and the bottom of the bed rail.  We would ride on them and get shot down on to the bed, by the make believe and invisible weapons.  Once we accidently broke our mother's Vase in the living room and we were afraid we would get into trouble, so we decided to run away.  We gathered up the pop bottles and I'm talking late 1950's early 1960's.  We put them in a bag and headed down the road.  We were living on a farm in Idaho on land that dad won in a lottery after World War II.  He had around 123 acres in Idaho and our nearest neighbor was probably a mile or so away.  We trudged along and that sack of pop bottles got heavier and heavier.  We were probably not more than 3/4th a mile down the road when our mother pulled up in the car and we gratefully climbed in with our heavy burden.

John and Mazie Alexander Nielson with their tenth and last child. I am glad my mother and dad had my baby brother, Mark.  I feel that our family was truly blest because we all loved each other.  Yes, money was tight and we did not have a lot of the material things of life, but we had what we needed and we never went hungry.  My parents worked hard to provide for us.  My mom worked a couple of times outside the home, when we were in Idaho and once in Arizona.  For the most part she was a stay at home mother.  That was a huge sacrifice, but we all appreciate it. We learned alot about prioritizing family first.  Dad worked hard and sometimes he was gone for weeks at a time; He started his own business and called it; Rocky Slopes Fire Prevention Company.  He would travel around the United States, cleaning and fire-proofing such places as Ramada Inn Restaurants.  I did miss seeing him more often, but his sacrifices for his family did not go unnoticed.

This picture is Gregory____________. Myself, and brother Leland.  We were living in Chandler, Maricopa, Arizona at this time.  My brother Leland and I were close in age and I felt like he always looked out for me as I grew up.  He taught me how to drive.  By the time I was old enough to get my permit, the school we were going to had just decided to not teach driver's ed and so he was my alternative teacher. I used a manual to learn how its done and took my test at the DMV offices.  We were living in Phoenix, Arizona at this time and Leland and I were attending Maryvale High School.  Okay, i this picture we were not even close to being old enough.  We still had to move to Idaho, then back to Mesa, Apache Junction, and then to Phoenix.  We moved a lot when I was young.  I was always having to make new friends in new schools.  Sometimes that was not easy.  But now I look back and realize that I had several adventures along the way!