The Short Time I Knew Grandpa Cles

I am guessing that the photograph with me on Santa's lap is from Christmas of '54. I am wearing the jacket--a red plaid one--that I remember wearing when I went with my dad and Grandpa Cles in the trucks to feed cattle.

It was always a mystery to me of why children would sense terror when being close to St. Nick until I saw this picture. The huge white beard, the red suit that I am sure that smelled like mothballs, and the weird glasses were plenty of reasons to feel fear and foreboding.

We won't even talk about the "old people" smell.

















My birthday party in '55 involved my parents and Grandpa Cles and Grandma Liza. The photograph above is from October 27, 1955. Grandpa Cles looks like he is feeling poorly here. It is sad for me to see the picture, knowing he died at 48.

He is only one year older than my little sister Ann in this picture, yet he looks like he is in his late 60's. I will always wish I could have spent more time with him. It seems like such a waste to have known him for such a short time. Not a minute goes by without my missing members of my family who are no longer here.

The funeral program is above at the right and below. There were bad feelings for years about a Reorganized LDS minister who spoke at grandpa's funeral and used the time more for antagonizing Mormon members of the family than for remembering grandpa, who was a Mormon as a child. Grandpa Cles did not attend church, but he was an incredible man, respected by all who knew him for his honesty, his hard work, and his sense of character.

Grandpa used his Sundays to relax before beginning work another week on the farm. Roping and collecting a number of wild horses that ran on the Holmgren place near our ranch was his hobby, and he did that on Sundays. Holmgrens were very happy to have him do it.

They had a bit of trouble when they shot a number of those horses during the 60's. The herd was a problem for cattle ranchers like Holmgrens, because one horse eats many times more than several cows, and in a desert area, that is a problem.