A Tennant Family

It was very hot and dry in Nebraska in August 14, 1934. My Grandmother was attending my mother and when she delivered, my grandmother took care of us both. This was Grandma Flossie Meeker. She and grandfather Meeker lived about a mile down the road, Berwyn, Custer County, Nebraska.

Father, Howard Wayne Tennant
Mother, Jessie Almira Meeker

I -- 1940-41

My earliest memories of childhood are of my first years in school in Berwyn, Nebraska. The school had two rooms. One room had all the grade school 1 thru 7; the other (room) was grades 8 thru 12. Each row of seats was a grade with a play house in the corner of the room for the small children (me, 1st grade). The school sat at the end of Main St on a hill. We used that hill for sledding in the winter time.

My brother Morrell and I received a sled for Christmas one year and the next summer I didn’t think we needed it any more so I traded it for a pocket knife and some marbles. Needless to say, that wasn't the proper thing to do so after I got my bottom beat severely I had to take the knife and the marbles back and get the sled.

On the first of May we used to take May Baskets, fill them with treats and deliver them to friends and people we were fond of. Morrell and I had made a few and dad was taking us to town to deliver them. We were riding in the rumble seat of the car when it stalled on a small hill. My brother and I jumped out of the rumble seat to help push. I caught my foot on something and fell under the car and it backed over me pinning me under it for some time. I was pretty sore and bruised for a while afterwards. (We did go ahead and deliver our May Baskets). While we lived here I was also thrown from a horse while herding cattle for dad. I was hurt pretty bad that time too. They put me to bed for a long while. I also fell out a car door on our way to school, but this time it was in a soft snow bank so I wasn't injured badly.

In approximately 1941-42 we moved to Twin Falls, Idaho. By this time the family consisted of mom and dad, my older brother Morrell Omer, me, my sister (Margaret), and brother (Howard). We moved to Twin with our cousins the Ochsner Family. Two families in one car and an old 4 wheel trailer for belongings (Bad Trip). We arrived in Twin Falls and lived in a small one-room house on grandmother Tennants property. There were six Tennants and six Ochsners (12 in all) in that one room, 9 x 12. I attended grade school at Lincoln School (2nd, 3rd and 4th); moved to Washington Courts and attended Washington 5th and 6th grades. During this period World War 2 was going on and times were hard for everyone. All goods were rationed, gas, tires, Preston, anything to do with automobiles, as well as food-all canned goods and especially fresh meat. Most food was grown at home and consumed there. The gardens were called Victory Gardens as kids we collected string, aluminum, wire, anything metal, paper, cardboard, cloth, nothing was wasted. It was all turned in to help the war cause.

Mom and dad both worked hard during this time. Dad worked days and they both worked nights cleaning a local bakery and mom cleaned houses for other people during the day. I did a lot of babysitting of my brothers and sisters and house cleaning at home. It took all of us to make a living. By this time another brother (Jack) and a sister (Reva Jean) had been born.

I started working in a bean house when I was 12. The work was heavy and days were long but it taught me how to work and not to be fussy about what I did. Once I started working I never had trouble finding a job. I had farmers calling for me to come work for them on their combines during harvest. As kids we did a lot of work on farms during the harvest season the main reason being at that time school would let out for two weeks so we kids could help get the crops in. Since that time the farm jobs have gotten scarce and the population of young people has grown and so when they let the kids out for harvest vacation-too many of them were causing problems in town so they have done away with this school vacation time.

I participated in some sports in junior high but nothing to really talk about. My favorite one to play was soccer and baseball because I liked to run. I also enjoyed track.

I learned from my grandmother Tennant to use what other people threw away. So I spent a lot of time going through other peoples garbage cans picking out usable items (not food). I would pick up an item and my imagination would start to work as to what I could do with it. Seems rather crude, but it was fun. Not only that but it helped me in my different employment to use this imagination of mine.

II -- March, 1951 I met your mother Helen Neilson on the playground at Lincoln School. She and a girl friend were in the swings on the playground next to the sidewalk. I was on my way to the show and I stopped to talk with them. I tried to get a date with mom's friend, (she went with me once, but wasn't interested), so mom and I made a date and then she stood me up.

Just a short while after we started dating, I went off to work in the Stanley Basin at a Dude Ranch. I worked there all that summer, helped build a log cabin, worked with horses and a lot of city folk. I packed people in to lakes and secluded spots for vacations on horseback. It was a lot of hard work but fun and a great experience. I learned a great deal about people and survival. It was especially fun when mom and her friends and my family came to visit me.

III -- Going back a little ways again I remember one time my brother Morrel and I on a Sunday borrowed dad's car and took some friends of ours to Sun Valley. The car was a 1956 Chevy (granddad Tennant’s old car). We were only supposed to go on the other side of town for a few hours. On the way home from Sun Valley we burned the motor out on the car because we didn’t check the oil and it ran dry. We called dad from Shoshone to come and get us. Oh was he mad and mom was scared; she thought we had died in a car crash. After we got home he got a board and beat our bottoms till he broke the board and we couldn't sit down, then we had to tear the motor down and rebuild it and further more couldn't go anywhere till it was done. So we got to stay home for several weeks after that.

After we came to Idaho from Nebraska I lived with my Aunt and Uncle in Hansen and helped around their grocery store and gas station. I had a good time living with them, I ate very well and got a lot of attention. I also remember while I was there, I had a friend stay with me for a couple of days and while he was there we picked all the old rotten apricots from under a tree and threw them at cars in the parking lot and at ones that drove by. Well, we got caught real fast and had to wash 5 cars. Before I went back to Twin to mom and dad, Grace and Mann took me to Yellowstone Park with them. This was probably around 1944-45, I’m not sure. I met my first bear real close. He tried to get in the back seat of the car with me and their dog, Corky.

As a young boy I used to go around Twin Falls mowing lawns to earn money and doing odd jobs for people. I had a school teacher that felt sorry for me because I was so skinny so she would ask me to come to her house to mow the lawn and do other jobs and then she would feed me to fatten me up. I took advantage of that and ate real well there. (Her husband had a lot of money). She was a very nice lady and her name was Mrs. Grey.

The summer before I started working in the bean warehouse I spent the time with my grandfather and grandmother Meeker. They worked as part of a section crew on the railroad. Sometimes they would be in Twin but other times they went out of town and I recall one time I went with them to Logan and Brigham City, Utah. While in Logan one day they allowed me to go to the show. Now you have to realize I never spent time in a movie to see it once thru, it was at least always twice and sometimes more. This time I stayed twice and grandfather did not agree with my methods-there goes another beating. Sounds like I got my share of those doesn't it? Well, anyway I did enjoy this different living experience with my grandparents.

I remember when I was a young man and babysitting my brothers and sisters while mom and dad worked out, I would get the dishes and the housework done and then I would sit the kids down and tell them how I was going to work hard and make lots of money then buy a shiny new convertible and take them everywhere they wanted to go. As I grew older I did buy a convertible but of course it wasn't new. But it was fun just the same. In fact during my life time I have had four of them. Also by this time another brother, Robert, had been born.

When I got acquainted with your mother Helen it was 1951 and I was sixteen at the time and she was eighteen. We dated quite a lot to start and then went steady for about 2 years. Helen's family did not like me at all so things went kind of slow for us for a long time. We decided we wanted to be married but mother Neilson had other ideas because I wasn't a member of the Mormon Church. This was upsetting to both of us so I joined the Marine Corps and soon left for San Diego and Boot Camp. Your mom and I were still in love and still wanted to be married. We corresponded all through boot camp training and when I got home that first time in spite of mother Neilsons objections we packed our clothes, borrowed a car and went to Elko, Nevada to be married. We didn’t stay in Elko though; we came back to Twin Falls and stayed at my Uncle Ians Motel. A week later I had to go back to California and from there to Japan for 14 months, and mom went back to live with her mother till I returned. Mother Neilson warmed up to the situation when Michael was born in October. Even though our marriage wasn't what it should have been, I loved Helen then as I do now and it doesn't take away from the love I feel for Mike, Debbie, Leanne and Dorinda. You are very special people and I love you very much. (Incidentally, my youngest brother Charley was born 18 months earlier than Mike)

When I returned from Japan I was stationed in California (Camp Pendleton) Oceanside. Mom and Mike joined me there and we started living together as a family in 1955. Debra was born in a naval hospital at Camp Pendleton. She was a tiny little girl and we were happy and proud-only it was very, very hot that August. We lived in a small trailer on the base until January 25, 1956.

When I was discharged in 1956, we loaded all our belongings in and on top of our 1949 Chevy two door and headed for Twin Falls and home. It had been raining for some time and was still at it by the time we got out of California our belongings on top of the car was wet even though we had them covered with a tarp. We had forgotten it was January and freezing in Nevada and Idaho and our car didn't have a heater in it. We bundled up Mike and Debbie nice and warm and made a bed for them in the back seat of the car and headed out. I drove and mom scraped ice off the inside of the windshield so I could see. We made it as far as Ely, Nevada before we couldn't stand anymore and stopped for a warm bed and some much needed rest. It was about two in the morning and we were nearly froze. The next day we made it on home and very happy to be there.

We rented a small apartment attached to the rear of a motel on Kimberly Road and I went to work in a service station, from there we purchased a house on 2nd Avenue and I went to work for a contractor helping build the Lynwood Subdivision and shopping center.

From there we moved to Quincy Street and I went to work for 7-Up Bottling Company driving truck. After a while we had a chance to build a house on Sunrise in East Twin Falls. I was to do all the painting inside and out and mom was pregnant with Leanne, so she couldn't help. I would work from 5 in the morning till 5 or 6 at night and run home for dinner and then go to our new house and work till midnight. The night Leanne was born I went home and had dinner and asked mom if everything was OK. She assured me it was so I went on over to the new house to paint. About midnight Uncle Darwin came in and talked for a minute and then asked if I had cigars to pass out for the birth of my new baby daughter. I was so surprised and happy I dropped everything and took off for the hospital. Mom said she knew she was going to the hospital that night but she wanted to get in the new house so bad she let me go on to work without saying anything and had the neighbor man (a good friend of many years) take her to the hospital when she was ready. I got to the hospital and to the nursery and saw Leanne. She was a very pretty girl and special. We loved her and sure was happy.

We moved from Quincy to our new home on Sunrise and I went to work for Safeway Stores in 1959. We were happy with our family and our new home and especially happy cause mom was pregnant with Dorinda. There was a few years there that mom had to work out to help with financial problems and living expenses. She worked at Key Realty. The day finally came that Dorinda was born. I remember it was two nights before New Year’s Eve and we were out to a party with the other store employees and we had a real disagreement over my conduct which I agree wasn't good so I made a bad evening for both of us, but the next day was New Years and a Sunday, things were much better between us and we thought this was going to be it, but they waited another day. We all got to see our new baby on television. They showed Dorinda and mom on the news and pictures in the newspaper as the New Year’s Baby it was quite exciting around town for a while after that. Everyone in town knew her and us. She was pretty special person. We love her very much.

From Sunrise we moved to the red house on 6th Avenue East. Then on to Polk, then to 6th Avenue North, to Boise, back to Twin Falls on Polk, to the red house on 6th East, then the green house on 6th Ave. East, then back to Boise. Both times we rented in Boise was on Agate Street. Then to gain a little more room as the children were growing older we moved to Peasley.

In Boise, I worked for Safeway stores, K-Mart store, driving for Clover Club Potato Chips then started driving truck for Associated Foods; meanwhile we built a new house on Palouse.

Mike and Debra at this time were in high school at Borah. Leanne was at South Jr. High and Dorinda was at Whitney.

In 1972 I became active in the church and mom and I took our family to the temple in Ogden, Utah on December 2. That was the most beautiful time of my life and I'm sorry I hadn't done it in the beginning. At the time we went to the temple Mike also received his endowments to go on his mission to Sweden so when we returned from Ogden, the whole family participated in a Missionary Farewell and Sacrament meeting. It was very nice and we all felt very close.

In March 1975 we were offered the job as caretakers at Pinetop Camp in the mountains 40 miles northeast of Boise on highway 21. We took it and moved our family to the mountains. These times were hard on all of us because of the distance to town and the lack of money, (we were only making $500.O0 a month). Leanne and Dorinda had it the toughest because they had to drive back and forth to school. They would start their journey at 5:00 A. M. and get home sometimes as late as 10:00 at night.

It was also at this time that Debra met, fell in love and married Mark Sorensen. They were married at Pinetop on the lawn; a beautiful setting. They were later married in the temple at Provo, Utah.

We stayed at Pinetop until May, 1976. One morning the girls hit a deer on the road with the car and almost sent them over a cliff into a canyon, so we decided we'd better move back to town before they were killed driving that road.

We moved to Virginia Street in Boise and took up our life in the city again. Leanne and Dorinda continued their schooling at Boise High. I went to work at an Auto Body Shop. Later some close friends of ours called us and asked if we would like to look after their home in the mountains while they went on a mission for the church to Canada. There they were to work with the Lamanites, so we moved back to the mountains to live for 18 months. While we were at this place on Daggett Creek, Leanne left home after graduating, for Ricks College and I went to work for M. W. Markets.

We moved again after 18 months to a 14x70 Trailer on Apple Street owned by Mark and Debbie Sorensen and Helen went to work for Associated Dairies. It was while we were there at Christmas time we were expecting Leanne home from school and much to our surprise the police brought us word she had been in an accident and was in the hospital in Gooding, Idaho. Her cousin was bringing her home when this accident occurred. Luckily neither one of them were hurt seriously.

After we had lived in the trailer a little while Martin and Ann Zachreson were called on a mission with their family to California for 5 years and we agreed to stay in their home and look after it, so we moved to 5696 Plymouth Street. This was Dorinda's senior year in high school so she finished this last year at Capital High.

In July of 1979 we were called by a person closely connected with Pinetop, to ask us if we would be interested in going back there to be caretakers again to get the place back in shape. It was in a bad state of repairs and some of the people involved were considering selling the camp. We felt like they were calling for help so we agreed to move back and do what we could to help out the situation. We moved back in October and started to work. Mom and I both worked very hard together to keep the camp from being sold. Before the first year was up there was no more talk of selling the camp and all the members of the 8 stakes agreed the camp had done a complete turn around and all were happy with our efforts and the feelings of the members of the church had brightened. We sure don't make any money doing this but we sure did acquire a lot of friends. The things that have been accomplished by us here at Pinetop will live long after we have gone. We have put a lot of our hearts and souls into its place, and I would like to say that none of this could have been done without the support of our children. I am eternally grateful to each of them for the many sacrifices they had to make on our behalf and I love them for it.

I grew up in a family that has never shown any kind of outward affection for each other from grandparents right thru to me, so I have never known how to express myself in that manner. I'm sorry for this but that is the way it is, even though I try to react differently it always seems there is something holding me back. I've always had an inferiority complex I could never get over. I've always felt the best way to show my love was to work hard all the time to provide the things my family needed to survive. Due to the lack of education the only way I could accomplish this was to work 2 or 5 jobs at a time which I know now wasn't the right thing to do because it took away from the family the thing that was needed the most; a fathers love, guidance, and outward showing of love and emotions in the home.

I love each one of my children as individuals and as a family and I pray to God that they will take a close look at my life and see my mistakes and try not to make the same ones I did.

I am not proud of some of the things I have done in my life but I am proud of my family and I feel I have come a long way in the right direction from my first existence; not saying my young life with my parents and brothers and sisters was bad, just different because they did not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I do love my parents and brothers and sisters. My mother passed away in August of 1971.

I do feel however, that the life I have today could not have been had it not been for my loving wife and eternal companion, Helen. She has always been a wonderful wife, mother and homemaker and a constant inspiration to me. She is also a very nice looking lady with a beautiful spirit and a personality you have to fall in love with, that's why she has no enemies. She always insists on helping anyone less fortunate than her.

I feel the Lord has blessed me with far more than I deserve. I love the Lord and my family and I pray that those who read this will be able to understand me a little better and the way I do things.

I LOVE YOU ALL - DAD