23.02.2018 Views

Mercedes SUV1

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Day 8<br />

Start a Journal<br />

My grandpa, Bill Hurst, was a journal writer his entire life. His journal was<br />

quite simple. He just kept a small notebook in the pocket of his pearl snap<br />

shirts and jotted down a short description of the things he did and the<br />

people he did it with. This is something he did pretty much every day for<br />

his entire life. He also kept extensive diaries of his time as a forest ranger<br />

in the Wasatch Range.<br />

About 12 years ago, my grandpa took all these diaries and daily journal<br />

entries and began to write his memoir for his children and grandchildren.<br />

The finished product was a 500-page behemoth filled with stories from my<br />

grandfather’s life. Here’s just a few of the interesting things I learned from<br />

reading it:<br />

• My grandpa met my grandma by hitting on her while she worked as<br />

a telephone operator.<br />

• My grandpa helped pay for college by playing pool.<br />

• He worked as a sheep herder during the summers in high school and<br />

college. He gives a very descriptive account on how castrating sheep<br />

is performed. He did it just like this.<br />

• He has a scar from when he was hit by a car while racing his horse<br />

through the streets of his boyhood town. The horse died.<br />

• As a boy, his family traveled by horse and buggy.<br />

There’s more. Lots more. But while the stories are interesting, what I<br />

found more interesting was the commentary my grandpa gave on different<br />

events in his life. In these moments, he passed on some insights and lessons<br />

on what it means to be a man. My grandpa’s memoir is a treasure trove of

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!