When the Generations Connect in Unusual Ways.

Daddy was the youngest of a large polygamous family. Many of his older half-brothers had moved to Idaho before he was born so we never met them.  Grandpa owned sheep, like his father before him. By the time, Daddy came along, Grandpa had given all his sheep away to his older sons. Not one sheep left for Daddy. He herded for his older brothers, and earned every sheep he ever owned. He homesteaded, leased BLM land, and acquired land through hard work to run his sheep. In the early years, they ran the sheep on Cedar Mountain during the summer months. They wintered on the Arizona Strip. Later he ran them on the Sands in the wintertime and up in the Oaks during the summer. Mama took her first babies and camped on Cedar Mountain in a tent or sheep wagon all summer long.

Roland Esplin’s wife, Vilate, wrote:

Sometimes in the summer months, Amy would go up and camp in a tent and stay with Lynn.  He really appreciated having her with him.
     One spring, Lynn had his own sheep taking them to the summer range.  They had separated the sheep in the corrals below Mt. Carmel. Lynn was on a horse herding his sheep and leading a packhorse. Roland was herding his father's sheep. He was taking sheep for pay while herding his father's sheep. Amy and her three children, Shirley, Lucy and Lynn James, who was just a baby, were riding in a wagon while Lynn's father was driving the team.  LaVoy (Roland's brother) was driving the team that pulled the wagon my two children, Gwenavere and Garn, and I were riding in. We stopped about halfway up there and ate our lunch under some trees. I can still remember the delicious pickles your mother had made which she shared with us. We, in turn, shared some of our food with her. When we arrived at the ranch, I had a house to go to.  Amy was going to spend her summer in a tent. (Now we know why Mama wondered why we thought going camping was fun.)

Later, Daddy would go out to the “herd” for three or four days at a time; come in for a day or two, then go back out. In the summertime, some of us kids would go out to the herd in the Oaks with him for three or four days at a time.

My brother Lynn, who was 14 years old when Daddy died, wrote: “As a businessman Daddy was very successful. His entire ranch was paid for, starting from nothing just fifteen years before. He had no debts. He took sheep for wages from his older brothers and then bought four homesteads, Alvin "Tink" Spencer's, Howard "Howdy" Spencer's, Earl Sorensen's and Joe Jorgensen's.”

“As Daddy told me about his youth, he encouraged me to work hard and to set high goals. I learned about his philosophy of life, his hopes and some of his dreams as he encouraged me to prepare to be a man of integrity and worth. He said that he believed that every person should work hard and become very good in at least one thing, maybe even better than anyone else.  As I learned more about him I often wondered what that one thing was that he excelled in, he seemed so good in so many ways.  Was it his skill with horses?  He trained horses and had the reputation in Orderville of being able to ride any horse.  A number of old timers in Orderville have told me he wouldn't have a horse anyone else could ride.

“Maybe it was his love and care of all animals. He always had the best trained sheep dogs. His cows and horses and sheep were always well selected and well fed. He took great pride in caring for his animals.

“Daddy's physical ability could have been his greatest achievement. He could walk farther, longer and faster than anyone I knew. He kept a sharp axe and cut mountains of oak wood for our wood stove at home. He was always carrying fifty pounds of salt on his shoulder out to the most remote places on his range so the sheep would do better and they would not congregate around the water so much. One time when a mountain lion got in our sheep and killed over thirty lambs in one night he got the local lion hunter who had a ranch about ten miles away to come with his dogs to hunt it down. His name was Jack Butler and he had a ‘dude’ with him. They got up early in the morning and started out to find the cougar. I was quite young then and had to stay in camp and didn't get to go but I could hear the hounds baying for a long time as they left in the direction they thought the cougar would be. By mid-morning they were back. The hounds had got the scent of the lion and they and my Dad on foot, had started out in pursuit, leaving the other two men and their horses far behind. The hounds treed the cougar in a small pinion just under Jimmy Creek Point but it soon jumped out again and started running up the rocky hillside. Daddy shot the cougar before it reached the top.

“One of Daddy's old friends, Willard Meeks told us about an incident that happened when they were at the herd together. Sheep can run quite fast, especially downhill.  Weathers are larger and stronger and can run faster than other sheep. Anyway Willard bet Daddy that he couldn't catch a big weather they had in their herd as it ran down the bottom of Birch Canyon. Needless to say he lost the bet.

“Uncle Lawrence tells the story about one time he and Daddy met in the Head of Earl's Canyon and talked for a while. They parted and Daddy rode his horse on down the­ canyon. In a few minutes Uncle Lawrence heard Daddy yell for help. He hurried down to where Daddy was. He had broken a rein or hackamore rope or something and lost control of his horse. He was sitting on the horse, keeping him in check by holding onto a large oak tree. It was his strength against that of the horse.

“I guess the thing I remember best about Daddy’s physical strength was trying to keep up with him as we looked after the sheep, checked the coyote traps, and did other chores on the sheep ranch. Sometimes I thought I would never make it back to camp. I think he wanted me to exert myself, to have to try hard, to work hard. One time after our horse ‘Ole Brownie’ died at Bob Creek, I had been bugging him for a new horse when he said to me, ‘You are a man now, and men have to work for what they get.’ Daddy wanted his children to be successful in life and he believed very strongly in hard work, honesty, integrity, and self-sufficiency. He thought a man should stand on his own two feet - be independent. Taking good care of your body and keeping physically fit was a good way to help accomplish this, he felt.

“I was never quite sure what Daddy felt his successful area was, I wasn't sure for myself either. To a young boy it seemed he could do anything. I wanted to work hard and be like him.

“Anyway back to May 1947. Daddy had spent the winter on the Arizona Strip taking care of 5000 sheep belonging to Roland Esplin and himself. The winters are terribly cold when you are out like that all the time. A small ‘Sheep Wagon’ was his home. One other man was also there. His job was to take care of the horses and move the camp. In spite of the cold and other hardships Daddy remained healthy and strong and didn't have a cold all winter long. He came home in mid-April for a month vacation before the sheep came up to the summer range.

“We had bought two horses from Chirs Heaton the fall before.  My favorite, the one I claimed right off was a three year old gelding named Skip.  He had been ridden only once and was not very large because he had not received good care.  When we went over to get him, Daddy put a hackamore on him and legged me on.  Before I could even get hold of the rope he started to buck and quickly threw me off.  I learned another thing about my dad that day as he immediately helped me back on our new horse.  This time I stayed on and after riding around the corral for a few minutes Daddy sent me along the trail through the creek by­ the little field to the barn on my new horse, while he took the pickup around the road. I was very proud and somewhat apprehensive as I rode Skip home.

“I did not get much time to ride Skip that fall and by spring he had forgotten everything so Daddy was spending a lot of time riding and working with him during his month vacation. He would ride him up to the high school track and sit on him and watch me workout. I had won second place in the quarter mile at the BYU Invitational Track Meet earlier that spring and we were both excited about my prospects in track.”-- Lynn James Esplin son of John Lynn Esplin son of John James Esplin son of John Esplin, whose cottage we visited in Scotland.

His nephew, Roland Esplin whom Lynn James talked about above, the oldest son of Daddy’s older brother, sold his sheep for one million dollars back when a million dollars was worth a million dollars (around 1950).

So that is the family history behind my story:

As it happened, our son Brooke was scheduled to play his French horn with the Utah Symphony in Abravanel Hall on his grandpa’s birthday. (It would have been Daddy's 93rd birthday--March 21, 1997). It seemed a long ways from the sheepherd to symphony hall; yet I think Brooke would be perfectly happy at the sheepherd and I think Daddy enjoyed good music. 

By coincidence, it appeared the concert itself was in Daddy’s honor.  They played The Cowboys Overture; then the Suite from The Big Country, and On the Trail from the Grand Canyon Suite.

The featured guest artist was seventy-two year old Chet Atkins, the country-Western guitarist credited with single-handedly rescuing country music and bringing it into the modern era with his eclectic tastes and sensitivity to the new recording technology, some of which he invented.

There was foot stampin’ and clappin’ and yahooin’ I didn’t ever think I’d see the likes of in Abravanel Hall. 

To end this western evening, we all joined in singing America the Beautiful.

Tearful on many levels.

The Sheepherder's Grandsons - 1994 - Eddy & Brooke

Ed Said:

“I got two favorite brothers

and one favorite sister.

How lucky can I be?

Ed, Brent, Jeanette, DeRay, Brooke, Amy Hugh August 3, 2017
 Plus I got two good parents.”

Old Fools

CHAPTER 1 - The Phone Call  

 Ed & I are playing Rummikub when DeRay takes a phone call.
   "Hi, Grandpa, do you know who this is?"
   "Isaak?"
   Then he takes it off speaker so we can only hear his end of this very serious conversation.
   "Are you listening?" Brent asks. "Sounds like trouble."
   He talks for quite a while; first with Isaak and then with the Sergeant.
   "What's that all about?" we ask when he hangs up.
   "Can't tell. It's a secret."
   "We can keep a secret."
   "It seems that Isaak is in jail."
   "For what?"
   "He was doing something and someone got hurt so they were on their way to the drug store to buy some band aids and the kid who was driving ran a red-light. The cop stopped him and smelled marijuana (2-1/2 pounds) so they are both in jail. The bail is $4,000 and they won't set a court time until they have the money."
  Brent said when a friend of his landed in jail, he called the Department Head to bail him out and Jerry told him to sit in jail until the hearing. "If the hearing is this afternoon, it won't hurt him to wait in jail." 
   "Drug charges are serious," Brent reminds us. Of course, they tested him and he is clean. The kid who was driving said he loaned his car to his brother yesterday. You never know on drug charges what the judge will do. Isaak doesn't want his mission president to know but they can handle these things. Brent thinks Isaak needs a lawyer. 
   So we call Verla. She isn't home. We call Bryan's law office and no one answers. Finally, DeRay texts Verla, who is in a movie with her grandchildren, and gets Bryan's cell number. He texts him. Bryan, who must be in court, texts back that he will call him within 20 minutes.
   Thinking of poor Isaak sitting in a holding tank and realizing that we will get the $4,000 back after the hearing, knowing that he is innocent, DeRay decides to follow their instructions. He drives to Target to buy two gift cards for $2,000 each. They won't take a credit card. They have to have cash. Before he leaves, he calls the Sergeant back and asks to talk to Isaak but he is only allowed one phone call.
   Why didn't he call his mission president? Why didn't he call his folks with his one phone call?  I think his parents should be involved. They would know what to do.
    This is too much for Grandma.
    To distract myself, I get on the computer. DeLoy (who lives in Santa Barbara) has written a note about my blog so I answer him back and blurt out the whole story because I know he won't tell anyone. It's a secret. There will be nothing on Isaak's record after he is released.

CHAPTER 2 - Exposed

     DeRay has already left for Target when DeLoy calls. "I don't think it was Isaak on the phone. It's a scam," he says. "Don't send any money." Brent checks on the computer, "IT'S A SCAM! IT'S A SCAM!" Why didn't we think of that?
    DeRay doesn't answer the phone when I frantically try to call him before he makes the transaction. I'm scared stiff. I call him again. He answers. "It's a scam." 
   "It didn't sound like Isaak, but he left at age 18. It's been more than a year. He's a man now. When I checked the area code, it wasn't Tucson, Arizona, it was Alberta, Canada," he bemoans when he comes home. "And when Sergeant Davis or whatever his name was answers the phone, why didn't he say 'Tucson Police Station'?"  Hindsight.
    Bryan called him back and said that isn't the way bail works, and explained it to him.
    The reason DeRay didn't answer the first time is because as he sits in Target's parking lot with the engine running, he decides to call Brooke. Brooke calls the Mission President - not until after he called Elizabeth and gave her a heart attack. Isaak was sure surprised to find out he had been in jail all morning!
    I call DeLoy back to thank him profusely for saving us $4,000. He writes back: "I would tell Issak so he can tell the mission president to alert other missionaries or their parents.  I think I would also call your district attorney, or adult protection department, etc." I reply: "DeRay called the Davis County Sheriff.  When you think about it, you realize that it has nothing to do with Isaak or his mission president or his parents." DeRay was the one who assumed it was Isaak because he knew it wasn't Jonathan. "Hi, Grandpa, Do you know who this is?" "Isaak?"

Three more times, the "Sergeant" calls back.

I tell him that I will report him to the police,
and hell will freeze over

before they get any money.

Brent was talking to Jan on the phone:

"Mom just told the crooks off," he tattled.

When Isaak left on his mission,

Karlton inherited his cell phone.

When Karlton calls, it always says "Call from Isaak".

Knowing missionaries can't call,

we're already a little jumpy

when we get a call from Isaak.

.  .  .To further justify our stupidity.

"Where are you?"

"When is your birthday?"
"How do you spell your name?"

"What is your mother's maiden name?"

One of these simple questions would have saved

hours of worry and frustration.
And never ever tell strangers about the time
you were arrested for setting off a firecracker,
even if you think it is your grandchild.
DeLoy was aware because he got a call
about his grandchild awhile back.
When he went to the bank, they told him
they thought it was a scam.
He called Lindi who verified Shane was in school that day;
not at a wedding reception or whatever.

Brooke tells his side of the story in a letter to his kids:

Now I come into the story about the time that Grandpa is sitting in his car outside Target...he’s just about to go into the store and buy 2 $2,000 gift cards to send to some crooks and I get this call:

Grandpa: with a conspiratorial tone in his voice, “You’ll never guess where I am”

Me: “You’re right”

Gpa: “I’m in Centerville”

Me: “What a coincidence....so am I”. I thought he wanted to come visit or take me out to lunch or something.

Gpa: “I’m not supposed to tell you this but I’m going to anyway.  I talked to your son and he’s in jail and I’m going to help him.”

 I’ll stop the blow by blow there because I can’t really remember every word any way but by this time my mind is racing.  The story doesn’t sound quite right....where was his companion? Why would he call grandpa and not me or his mission pres.?  Why would he be alone in a car with one other unless he was on a split?  Why would the guy on the split have drugs if he’s a member?  But a couple of things rang true as well.  Isaak would be out helping someone.  Weird things do happen like that...And finally the fact that grandpa had talked to him.  He had heard his voice.  If I’ve talked to someone I know instantly that it’s them...at least with family members.  Wouldn’t dad have known his voice.  It all came so quickly that I didn’t have time to think...scam or whatever but I did tell dad to hold off and I would call the mission office.  So, I hung up with dad after he talked about lawyers and court dates and long term problems and how Isaak wouldn’t be able to keep it secret anyway and that’s what finally convinced dad to call..These must have been some convincing scammers.  

 Now the next phone conversation.  I find the mission office number and dial it.  Elder West answers and I quickly explain that one of his missionaries is in jail and I need to talk to the mission president and find out what is going on.  I’m sure Elder West’s head was spinning at this point. He assured me he would text Pres. Browning and get back with me.  I hung up and called your mom and only told her a little of what I knew and the first words out of her mouth was to ask if it was a scam.  I hadn’t thought of that but she had heard of it and was on top of it, luckily otherwise a call that her son was in prison would have been even more of a shock.  

 By this time dad had talked to mom and discovered that it was probably a scam and in the middle of that conversation the call from Arizona came in.  This time I think it was the mission pres. But I can’t be sure because I didn’t give him time to identify himself.  I told him quickly that I believed my dad was being scammed and that there probably wasn’t anything to worry about on his end.  I explained it briefly and he agreed.  He told me when he got word he immediately tried to call Elder Higham but hadn’t yet received a response but that he would call me back when he knew for sure.  I hung up, relieved.  I called your mom back and we talked it over for a bit and then I got another call from AZ.  Pres. Browning had finally got in touch with both Elder and wanted to let me know that they were both shocked to have spent time in prison without their knowledge.  We had a nice little chat (he’s a good guy)...he told me that his first month on his mission isn’t like getting his feet wet but his whole body and that he’s very impressed with Isaak and his growth on his mission and he is looking forward to getting to know him better.  And thus ends the panic.  

When I told the story to Alan (my co-worker) he simply said, “You know the moral of the story is that your dad would do anything for any member of your family at a moments notice”. I think that’s a nice moral to the story.  That’s grandpa in a nutshell...

CHAPTER 3 - Innocent

Isaak writes how he found out he’s in jail:

Now as we were wrapping up District meeting we got a text from our Mission President saying "Elders. Please reply that you get this and give me a call asap." Now when you get a text from your Mission President like that instantly you freeze a little bit and your brain rushes off into the many possibilities of why he wants you to call him. But I had no fear because I just gave a training on having no fear. So Elder Higham texted him back and then as soon as the meeting finished we went and called him. Elder Higham had the phone and so when they answered he said "hey President!" and he said "Elders, you might laugh about this, but Elder Hugh, are you in jail?" another moment of being frozen, then I said "Not that I know of" he said "oh good, if you were I was hoping I would have received a call from you much sooner. So it was a scam like we had thought" Then he proceeded to relate why he had asked. Apparently some scammers thought they could trick my grandpa but he's way too sharp for any of them and figured it out. So instead of forking over $4,000 he listened to the promptings of the Spirit that I'm sure guided my family and they made just enough calls to figure it all out before anything truly bad happened.
    Anyways I didn't know much other than that they had tried to get $4,000 from my grandpa and that I had been in prison all morning. We then went back out into the hall of the church and told the District what had happened and we spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out what on earth I'd been sent to prison for. We figured soliciting or trespassing was probably what happened. But yeah. Pretty crazy stuff. We thought it was interesting that my family was being very scared at the same time that I was giving a training on "Fear not" Luckily we all pulled through and got a good story out of the whole thing! Plus now I can say I went to jail on my mission! 
   Have a good one! I'll try to stay out of prison this week! Elder Hugh

CHAPTER 4 - Epilogue

Brent writes in comments: Scammers are smarter than you are, and better at what they are doing than you are, and they get the chance to talk to dozens of people every day, honing their explanations and responses to objections.

By contrast, you only get to talk them once, and you don't even know you're being scammed.

In short, just don't talk to strangers on the phone. There is no reason to--that's what voice mail is for.
Even before this, we had promised ourselves that we would not answer "anonymous" calls. When "Isaak" called and was in so much trouble, DeRay said he thought to himself, "I'm glad I answered this one." Oops.

     I’ve heard of these scams too. I’ve talked about them with my visiting teachers who both have had calls from “grandsons” in an accident who needed to be bailed out; Verla and I were just talking about scams on Saturday; she almost got ensnared in one. She had to close out all her bank accounts and start over. I remember DeLoy’s story of the bank saving him. But when you receive a call from a grandson and in your mind’s eye, it’s him; you don’t think SCAM. You think Grandchild. Looking back, yea, you see signs but at the moment of distress, your mind blocks everything else out. They know this and that’s why they are successful. Jeanette
               Remember: DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS ON THE PHONE. 
    Verla said, "I thought you weren't going to tell anyone and now you write a blog." I changed my mind. I agree with Isaak, it's too good of a story to not share, even if we are exposed as old fools.

Musings

Some garbage cans stink so grossly on garbage day, I muse, as I ride my trike in the early morning before the truck comes around; and some don’t stink at all.  The ones that don’t stink have pizza boxes overflowing and other signs of fast prepackaged food. You learn a lot about your neighbors by noticing their garbage on garbage day. Since we have a compost bin and a recycling can, our garbage smells like kitty litter, dried tree branches, and weeds.

I feel sorry for people who don’t swim, I think every time I go to the pool. I don’t mean swim, swim or swim fast or good; I mean move around in the water, stretching and pulling, rolling and curling. It’s an openness and looseness that is felt in no other venue.

Today we made a new friend. She has been a fixture at the pool for as long as I can remember. Until today all she did was scowl at us. She’s likes to swim with “Mr. America” (as we secretly call him because of his amazing physique and swim prowess), who has been our advocate since day one. He admits he looks out for us and will save a lane for us while being aggressive with others. She won’t relent. When he suggests they let Eddy swim by the edge in the lane he likes, she hisses, “We were here first.” It’s like she’s our #1 enemy at the pool. Today Dr. Wall gave up his lane so we could swim together which left him and our enemy swimming in the next two lanes (Mr. America is back visiting his folks in the mid-west this week). They are competitive swimmers; they swam hard and fast today. At 1:40 when they close all by one lane for lap swimming, she moved over into our lane. We were through and got out. She smiled at us. I smiled back. “Did you have a good swim?” she questioned. Did she talk to us? “Perfect today,” I reply, “you two sure looked good.”  “We had a ball,” she admitted as she dove in. And that was our first conversation in ten years. Friends are better than enemies. They make your heart dance.

Ed says vehemently that he will not go swimming today as he reluctantly goes up and puts on his swimming suit. He’d already been over that way for a doctor appointment and he did not want to go back.  After our swim, he says, “Now to the bad part” insisting he does not want to go home where he asserted he would never leave in the first place.

In other good news, August 1, and I’m feeling very encouraged about my knee status, even though we paid too much, didn’t have professional care, with no follow-up (oxygen shots, laser, massage). When I stop and feel, I realize my knees don’t hurt (much). I’m getting more mobility. I practice going up the stairs with one foot in front of the other. Slowly. Holding on. It doesn’t hurt, even though I think it’s going to. I think I’m convinced that stem cells are as miraculous as they claim. Those undifferentiated gems are doing their job. I love this day and age and research and medical miracles.

  

Happy Brent & Amy got home from their river adventure, each taking over 2,000 pictures of full rainbows, rivers, otters, blue herons, camp sites, canoes, hieroglyphics, granaries, sheer cliffs; not to mention their own watercolors.

Brent's Outhouse at Ruby Ranch

I Do Things My Way

If you haven’t had the glorious privilege of singing church hymns with Ardean playing the piano and/or leading the singing, you may not know how joyful singing the hymns can be. Electrifying, to put it mildly. I remember the time he was wearing a tie with the piano keyboard. Wanting to get one for Brent, I asked him where he got it. Years ago, we loved to go to his free Pop Concerts in Salt Lake City. He’s been around a long time, a true legend, but I didn’t know his story until he died.

I first read the article in the Tribune:

Ardean Walton Watts — former associate conductor for the Utah Symphony and University of Utah music professor — has died, his family said Saturday. He was 89.

Watts, a longtime pianist, died Friday surrounded by his family after suffering complications from heart failure, his daughter Mitzi Watts Busath said.

"Ardean Watts' influence will continue to flow through the hearts, minds and actions of his wife, and growing family which now rivals the number of keys on his keyboard," the family said in a statement. "Ardean brought to our notice everything from the microscopic wonder of mushroom spores to the grandeur of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony."

Watts was born in Kanosh in 1928 and was raised in Idaho. He returned to Utah for college, earning a degree in music theory from Brigham Young University in 1952. He also served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New England. He married Elna Brown of Bear Lake, settling in Salt Lake City. The couple had eight children.

Maurice Abravanel, the symphony's conductor for more than 30 years, hired Watts as a pianist in the 1950s, a job he kept for 22 years. Near the halfway point in his tenure, Watts became an associate conductor, serving in that capacity for 11 years.

Abravanel and Watts were dear friends who for years spent each Sunday morning talking while Elna Watts attended church, Carolyn Abravanel said.

"It was a very special love affair between he and Maurice," she said. "I hope there is a heaven and, if there is, that Maurice is welcoming him and probably yelling, 'Bravo!' "

Abravanel said her husband, who died in 1993, mentored and depended on Watts during their years together at the symphony.

Watts was a loyal friend who had an animated personality, was a great storyteller and became a "musician in full spades," Abravanel said.

"I am going to miss him," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

For more than three decades, Watts was a professor in the University of Utah's music school, where he "taught virtually every class offered, instructing generations of students," a department website says. He developed three courses in the use of electronic synthesizers and one on "electronic music and modern culture." He twice received the university's distinguished teaching award and chaired the ballet department for five years, a news release from the Utah Symphony says.

In a statement Saturday, Utah Symphony and Utah Opera President and CEO Paul Meecham expressed sadness over Watts' passing, noting that he helped shape the classic music landscape in Salt Lake City for decades.

"His passion for not only the orchestra but for ballet and opera made him a fixture on the performing arts scene," Meecham said. "He left a lasting legacy on the arts in Utah. We will miss his warm presence and enthusiasm at our concerts from his favorite perch in the second tier."

Watts was the founder of the University of Utah Opera Company and, for 13 years, was its artistic director, producer and conductor, a news release from the symphony states.

For 20 years, Watts played a role in producing full-scale operas in the U.'s football stadium with the Utah Symphony and the theater department.

Watts will be missed by Utah's community of mycologists. A mushroom expert who founded the Mushroom Society of Utah, Watts was renowned for his knowledge of various species, founding club member Don Johnston said. Watts was a prominent figure in the club's annual late-August foray, sitting patiently for hours at a table with a microscope and reference books, helping club members identify their bounty.

"That's one of the things he enjoyed about mushrooming," said Johnston, who called Watts strong willed and gregarious. "He loved people and had many, many friends."

Some Salt Lake City-area residents may remember Watts as the unofficial greeter at the City Creek Center mall. In 2012, when City Creek opened, Watts took to sitting on a shady bench near the stream that runs through the mall, greeting shoppers and trying to engage them in conversation.

"Little kids are good. They'll come up and break the ice sometimes," Watts told The Salt Lake Tribune in a 2012 story, adding that he had adopted a Taoist approach to the exercise. "If it doesn't happen naturally, forget it."

Watts also served Utah's arts and outdoors communities through much of his life. He served on the board of Hawkwatch International and was the music director and principal conductor for the Ballet West orchestra from 1966 to 1984.

****

Then I listened twice to a podcast with Doug Fabrizio (and watched a video on going mushroom hunting with him).

In honor of his death, Doug replayed it again this week:

“I’m curious – I guess that was a gift I was given. Nobody likes to hike with me because I don’t go anywhere.”

“Mushrooms are the perfect symbol for my philosophy of life. I have a love of wild unruly things. I prefer weeds to flowers.” (Much to his wife’s consternation.)

Re his epiphany, he was traveling on the bus to Denver with the Utah Symphony. It was 3:20 PM. He was 46 years old. Doug asks him to repeat the story. “I explain it differently every time. That’s what I have in common with Joseph Smith. I keep changing my story. I was given permission to let go. Everything caved in. I could assent or resist. I sat there as my whole Mormon belief system melted away. I knew I was going to be a different person for the rest of my life.” “Were you sad?” “I felt exhilaration by the prospect of freedom. Leap into the boundless and make it your home. I love that freedom.”

“What about your family?”

“I celebrate with them honestly. I’m the prayer-sayer at Thanksgiving. I know how to pray Mormon. It may not always be what they expect.”
    When asked if he believes prayer helps, he told of when his wife was critically injured a few years ago, when a truck hit her as a pedestrian. He said much of her front brain had to be removed. "It helped her when she heard the people in Japan were praying for her; it made a difference." Their daughter was living in Japan and had her LDS congregation pray for her mother. 

They wouldn't let him put a sign up, so he had this shirt made.

This interview was about three years ago. It may have been while he was at the City Creek Mall. Doug asked him how he felt about dying. “Actually, I'm happy to have the gift of another day. I go not screaming; I go not kicking. I hope I go smiling.”
    When Doug asked him about his belief in some of the doctrine, he replied: "I celebrate the mystery."
    That's where I feel akin to him. Sometimes I don't think we know all we think we know about the hereafter and life after death and that's OK. Celebrate the mystery.

Additional excerpts from an interview about 20 years ago in his own home:

James W. Ure, editor

Ardean Walton Watts

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
—Robert Frost

Not all of his performing has been classical. He was leader and conductor of dance and show bands at Lagoon, Saltair, and the Rainbow Randevu in Salt Lake City in the 1950s. He was a Grammy Award nominee for best classical performance-choral in 1962, when he prepared the University of Utah Chorus to record Honegger’s King David with the Utah Symphony. Ardean is active in Rotary Club, was a member and chair of the Music Committee of the YMMIA General Board of the LDS church (1958-74), and was appointed to the Utah Arts Council in 1987, serving as its chair in 1993-95. He has been president or a member of the board of the B. H. Roberts Society since 1987. He was also the founder of the Mushroom Society of Utah, and is a member of the board of Hawk Watch International.

Describe what kind of a Mormon you are.

First of all, I’m an historical Mormon. I was raised in the church, and I’d say that most of my habits of living, the way I think, and my values have been inherited from the Mormon tradition. I don’t repudiate them in any way. I consider the church essentially a human institution. As a human institution, it stacks up very well against other human institutions, like the Democratic Party, the Elks Club, etc. I think that the big problem that many people have is that their expectations are too high because the church claims to be a divine institution. I have lowered my expectations to the extent that I can still smile a little bit once in a while when it comes to the church. I think they do a great deal of good for individuals of all ages. In my ward they nourish old people in ways that are very often rare out in the world. And they do the same for the very young. We used to be very good in the field of youth programs, but I think we’ve slipped somewhat where that’s concerned. There are many programs sponsored by religious and secular societies that probably do as good a job as we’re doing in that area. But I’m still amazed at how many good things happen, and they’ve happened in my family, and I personally feel they’re worth investing in. It’s just that I don’t believe that the officers are called of God, and I’m under no obligation to believe what they say.

That’s unconventional.
It sure is.

You have eight children?
I do.

You’re married to a woman who is a …
A strong believer.

You were at one time a strong believer?
Definitely, until about age forty-five.

What happened?
A moment of grace came into my life, which I can describe more specifically, but it’s not worth the time. It was simply a moment when I realized that change was possible, and I wanted to make it. I wasn’t dissatisfied. I’ve never been persecuted by the church. Nobody hurt me as a Mormon. I did dislike Boy Scouts, and I wasn’t a good one as a result, but I have an Eagle Scout in my family, so obviously I’m not against Boy Scouts. It just didn’t work for me. That event (the moment of grace) happened at 3:20 in the afternoon.

Please describe it?
I was reading a book, and the name of the book I know, but it doesn’t matter. The idea occurred to me that in order to be a better person, I would have to be more receptive to what I thought were God’s messages for me. And so I said, “I’ll do whatever You want if I know it’s You speaking, and hang the consequences.” And that was it. Everything caved in within a few minutes, and I had to start from scratch to build a new faith.

A genuine epiphany.
I think it was. I consider that the most important, single moment of my life.

Was it a freeing moment?
There was no lead up to it at all. It was just, Wham! And I did respond in the way that I said I would.

What were the first things you did?
I was on my way to Denver with the Utah Symphony. The first thing that I did was to decide to buy a pair of roller skates—pretty irrational. The second thing was I felt compelled to read a book which in my mind at that time was forbidden. That book was one I had run across when I was a missionary in New England and had more or less put into a file to be dealt with some other time. The next morning in Denver I was waiting on the library steps when it opened, and I spent two days nonstop reading that book.

What book was that?
It’s a book called Oahspe, and it’s doubtful that you’ve ever heard of it. It’s a mystical book, and dates from the middle of the nineteenth century. Its content was startling to me, although I can say it has little impact on me today. (He said in his interview with Doug Frabizio that this man had a similar experience to Joseph Smith and it made him realize that many people could have the same dealings with God. He thought Joseph Smith was the only modern one.) It was a catalyst, and it did accelerate the process of flushing out the old and making room for the new. It happened very, very fast. Most of my library I gathered during the period immediately following that event when I felt I had to fill in the blanks. Generally Mormons are not encouraged to study all faith systems seriously, but I had to. So I became a voracious consumer of literature about religion. I’m at least four things. I’m a father and husband, a musician, a naturalist, and a religious nut. But I don’t own a church. I make up my own theology to fit the need.

You’re very spiritual, aren’t you?
I don’t know what that means. I’ve succeeded in erasing the line between what is spiritual and what is not. I think every human activity has the potential to be a spiritual act—an act of worship, an act of thanksgiving, of rejoicing—or the opposite, damning and hellish. I choose to make life experiences, as much as possible, fun and glorious. That may be spiritual to some, but it’s not a conventional way of looking at spirituality. They wouldn’t buy that in my ward, but they wouldn’t buy it in a lot of other places, either. My modes of prayer and worship are so many that they’re indescribable and constantly changing. (He said in the interview with Doug that he still has all his Mormon values. He doesn’t smoke or drink or any of the others things some do when they leave the fold.)

When I was tracting in New England as a missionary, people would often say, “I’m very open-minded but I’m not interested.” Bam! We’d walk away and I’d remember saying to myself, “Yes, they’re so open minded their brains are falling out.” One could say that about me perhaps, but I have my own solid convictions. I have a very strong belief system, but it is unconventional by Mormon standards. I care little if there’s a hereafter. I find most descriptions of God uninteresting. I believe in doing compassionate things and having fun. That’s about it.

How does that impact your wife and children?
My children are close to each other and to my wife and me, very close. It’s inconceivable that we do important things without sharing them. We have four families who live here in the valley, and we have four families from sea to shining sea. And I’m good friends with all of them. We do much better than tolerate each other. I respect their religion and they reciprocate. I encourage them to be good Mormons if they believe that way.

So I do have strong values. I’m grateful to various religious traditions who’ve articulated those. People have done that, and they continue to do that today. I wept when Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa, and he brought together a cabinet of his enemies. I think he’s a prophet to our world. In my sense of a prophet, he’s showing us a very lofty way to live. Prophets are wherever you find them, and I think there are a whole lot of them to learn from.

Not everybody should do what I do. You have to have a certain disposition or personality to make your way alone where the religious enterprise is concerned. I certainly wouldn’t advocate that anybody follow me. I enjoy people who grow their own because we get so many new ways of looking at the world, whereas when we get institutionalized, we are encouraged to all think similarly or to not think at all. Maybe I wouldn’t have done it at another time in my life. I think that what happened to me was appropriate when it happened, and probably shouldn’t have happened earlier—for reasons I don’t know.

What do church authorities make of Ardean Watts?
I don’t know, but I can imagine. One of my friends who became an apostle told me that he thought that my epiphany was from the devil. My response was that if I pray to God and God allows the devil to answer, then he’s not my God. On the other hand, I had a number of other interviews with the brethren at the time that were very positive; some were quite understanding and said things like, “Well, you’ll probably be back some day when you wake up out of your funny dream,” which is better than saying that it was the devil. One former general authority friend responded, “I understand where you’re coming from.”

May I make a request? Would you play something for me?
No.

You won’t?
No, I’ve never played the piano well enough to match my standards. Now, for the first time, I’m playing for my own pleasure at home. I don’t do it excellently, so playing in front of anybody makes me ill. The only exceptions are a few family occasions when the family understands, and occasionally I support others as soloists.

Fair enough.
I do find ways of contributing musically. For instance, I’m on the search committee to find a new conductor for the Utah Symphony. I dig into that with my heart and soul. I do things my way. I do everything with passion. My life is full and varied. Tonight I’m taking my first scuba diving lesson. I’m going to the Yucatan Peninsula next winter to have that experience for the first time. I’ve snorkeled a little bit in the Caribbean and in the Gulf of California. Never done the deep stuff, and I wanted to do that before my body and mind deteriorate to the point I can’t.

So you plan to be certified?
I’m going to be certified by Christmas.