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Read More on Page 1 Page 2Dedication Chapter 1 Table of Contents
To Curtis, Sandy, Joe, Cathy, Micki and Barry who have been so good to me all my life and especially in my old age. I love you all. And to my sister, Maxine, who was both big sister and the only mother I knew. And a special thank you to Ralph and Kendra.
I was blessed March 2, 1919 by George Adams and given the name Mernice. A name which gave me trouble all of my life because no one could pronounce it right. Everyone always called me Merneice, or else thought I’d spelled it wrong and called me Bernice. It’s really pronounced as if it is spelled Murness. Mother couldn’t decide between the two names, Maris and Myrna so she combined the two. Dad misspelt my name on my birth certificate, M-u-r-n-e-s-s. We all should have left it that way. Father does know best. We lived in a small house in the southeast end of Monticello. One of my first recollections was of the whole family going to the other side of town to A. B. Barton’s (which seemed like miles, but was only eight or ten blocks) and getting lilac bushes and trees and coming home and planting them. My mother must have had a green thumb because everything grew. I still remember the pretty poppies and irises that bloomed close to the house and the zinnias, asters and dahlias in the flower bed on the edge of the lawn. I can also remember her raising celery in the back of the house in a little box affair with glass over it. Real good celery, too! The only time I ever remember telling my mother a lie was when I was about four years old. I’d had an upset stomach and when I felt better I asked to go up to Grandma Bailey’s. She lived only a block away. Mother said I could go but be sure not to eat any cherries because they’d make me sick. But the sight of all those ripe cherries, just hanging there for the birds, was too much so I really gorged myself. Felt fine too, and when I went home, Mother said, "Did you eat any cherries?" "No, Mother." But pretty soon I got really sick and vomited and vomited – nothing but cherries! I can’t remember whether I got a spanking or not. I don’t think I did because I was too sick, and I guess Mother thought that was punishment enough. I also remember, vaguely, a trip the whole family took to Bluff, where Mother was born, to see her sisters. It was a little town on the San Juan River, the first settlement in San Juan County, and my grandparents were among that group of hardy pioneers who settled it. We had a black Dodge. I think Dad borrowed it from Grandma Bailey. It was really the latest in looks and everything — doors that open and isinglass windows! The only thing was it wouldn’t go up hills very good. On a steep hill it stopped and Mother had to jump out and put rocks under the wheels so we wouldn’t roll to the bottom. Dad didn’t keep the brakes on very good and the car rolled back and over Mother’s poor hand. We kept on going though, and when we got to Blanding someone fixed Mother’s hand. We stayed all night there with another of Mother’s sisters. My dad had a dry farm out on Summit Point about 20 miles east of Monticello and we lived out there quite a lot of the time until Maxine and Jed were old enough to go to school. One year Dad and his brother got a prize for raising the best wheat in the country. Dad had a picture of himself standing in the wheat and it came clear up to his chin. There was a little pond not too far from the house and we kids would go down there and wade. I’ll never forget all of the beautiful blue butterflies that lit on the rocks around the pond. We had a nice saddle horse named Monkey. I was only four or five and was riding him one day when my cat jumped out from a sagebrush. Monkey jumped sideways and I went off sideways too and landed right in the middle of a prickly pear bush-------seat down. Read more in the book. . .
Preface Life with Mother Songs Sung by My Mother Grade School Years Letters to Daddy Junior High School Years High School Years The Boy from The CC Camp Southern Cross Mill Creek Dad’s Favorite Sayings The Kids’ Weddings Harold Goodbye Mill Creek Calendar Journal - Harold 80 and Still Kicking Alone Again P.S. - 86, 87, 88 and Still Kicking Kirk Bailey Appendix
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Cathy wanted me to say a few things
about how I grew up and when I was young and how things were then. She just
keeps after me so here goes some of it. I was born January 1, 1919, in
Monticello, San Juan County, Utah, the third child of Elmer Bailey and Alberta
Perkins. My sister Maxine was four and a half years older than I and brother
Jerald three years older. My brother Kirk was three years younger.