I grew and had my first birthday party with Uncle Lynn and Aunt Elaine. We had cake, which I made a mess with. Mom and Dad liked to drive everywhere and explore. They said that I liked going with them to see new things. When we moved to Sandy Mom got a job working at the telephone company. I stayed with a lady named Beverly Wintel. I later met Beverly after I was married and had some kids of my own. Of course I did not remember her but it was nice to meet her. Soon after moving to Sandy, Dad was called to be the counselor to Bishop Robert C. Swenson. On the 16th of Feb 1970, Grandpa Anthony Morelos Brown (Mom’s Dad) passed away. Mom always said that if I died in my youth, he would be the one that would come and get me and through my life I often though of him in this light. Also during this time Mom and Dad discovered that they were going to have another baby (Shannon). Grandma Brown (Nellie Weiler Brown) decide that she wanted to sell the house so we moved to a house in Sandy, just west of state street. We lived in that house for three or four years. This is the house that I have my first memories in. There were some people that live up the road a few houses by the name of Ewell. They had a boy who was my age named David. I remember spending hours at each other’s houses playing with the dogs, bow and arrows, hid and seek etc. Those were great days. Through the years Dave and I have kept track of one another and are still friends to this day. While we lived in that house, Sharlynn and Tanya were both born. I don’t remember those events, but I remember from pictures that they were there. Also during this time (1972) Grandpa and Grandma Olsen (Lorenzo Marceal Olsen and Pearl Nessen Olsen) sold their farm in Howell Utah and moved into a trailer park in American Fork, Utah. There are just a few memories of their home in Howell but I mostly know them from AF where they lived for 27 years until they passed away.
In September/October of 1973, we moved from Sandy to Kearns. I remember a lot about living in Kearns, we lived very close to the church and were able to walk to and from. We also lived near Moms sister, Sue and Paul Pearson. Their home was about a mile from where we lived. I remember walking to their house thought a weed-infested field. Sue and Paul’s kids were older than we were so we really didn’t get along much. I remember throwing things over the back fence of the Kearns house into the neighbor’s yard (we were not suppose to do that but we did it any way). One day we were playing in Grandpa Olsen’s canoe and discovered a huge black widow spider. I remember we ran around and screamed with excitement, fear and anticipation of Dad coming home to kill it (which he did fairly unceremoniously). The next-door neighbor kids were all older than we were. I do remember that one day they had caught a large catfish. It was swimming in a pool in their backyard. I don’t remember what they did with it. The boy that lived there had a room that was painted purple. From that point on I decided that when I grew up I would have a purple bedroom as well. It has never happened. There were two life-altering events that happed while we live in Kearns and they both happed at church. The first one was that I got a bloody nose and had to sit on the couch during class. I remember being embarrassed and disappointed that I missed class. The next one was having an ear-ach so bad that I cried. We had a dark brown fridge that I always thought was very ugly. Kelli and I went back to that house years later. It had not changed at all. It was interesting to fill in my childhood memory holes with a newer vision of the home we lived in. We only lived in Kearns for 5 months before the next move.
