Happy Birthday, Pop!

On November 14, 1909, Pop took this picture of himself in front of his family home in Randolph, Utah.  He loved taking unusual photos.  He cut a lens cap in half, covered up the right half of the lens, set the timer on his camera, made a snowball, and ran into what would be the left side of the photo. Then without winding the film, he moved the lens cap to the left side, threw snow on himself, set the timer, and posed on the other side like he was a victim of being hit by the snowball he himself had thrown. In other words, he deliberately took a double exposure.  

Pop was the father of my mother. His real name was Archibald William McKinnon. However, when my sister was born, he said he was too young to be called grandpa, so he decided to have us all call him Pop.  He was 100% Scottish and was very proud of it.  He lived up to his Scottish heritage by being very frugal in his younger years and also by playing golf every day if work and weather permitted.  He also loved baseball; shortstop was his favorite position.  He also played the clarinet and loved listening to classical music.  

Pop was truly a self-made man. His father died when he was only twelve, so he took on a lot of the family responsibilities trying to help his mother with his younger brothers and sisters.  After graduating from Utah State University in Logan, he moved to Price and started working as a bank teller for $5.oo per week!

The above picture was taken one year before he married Ella May Empey, whom I affectionally called Grammy. When they were married in 1910, they were so poor that they lived in a tent house until they could save enough money to buy a house. However, by the time my mother was born in 1913, they were living in a house on Price Main Street. Other than his house, Pop never bought anything unless he could pay cash for it.  

He was not only intelligent and hardworking, but he had an ample amount of good common sense and was very personable. Because of this, he eventually worked himself up to becoming President of the Carbon Emery Bank.  Pop felt that as president he needed to make everyone, who worked for him, feel that they were important no matter what position they held, so after arriving at the bank each morning, Pop always made a point of personally saying hello to each employee from the bookkeepers in the basement to the tellers and loan officers upstairs. However, Pop never let his position in the community be an excuse to act act conceited or bossy.   He always lived just like he was an average guy, who walked to work, had only 3 suits in his very small closet, and drove the same car for 10 years. 

I never heard my grandparents raise their voices at me or at each other.  A very calm and serene feeling always permeated their home. Instead of calling me Bonnie, Pop always called me, "Sweet Doll."  He was like Randy; he simply adored children.  He always said that "Babies came first."  The first car I ever drove was his 1950 Cadillac, then his 1960 Cadillac, and finally, his 1963 white Buick Riviera.  He was a very calm driving instructor even though he often called me a "California Driver" if I started going too fast .

Everybody in town loved him.  They called him Mr. Mac at the bank and his friends called him Arch.  When my grandmother had a stroke, he brought her home and paid for nurses to be with her 24 hours a day.  When Pop found out that one of the nurses did not have a washing machine, she was surprised when he bought one for her and had it delivered to her door the next day.  Although he didn't go to church, he was a true Christian in every sense of the word.  When he heard that our Bishop didn't have enough money to by an organ for our new chapel, he gave them $5,ooo so they could buy a pipe organ like we had in the Price Tabernacle before they tore it down.  This was a lot of money because one could buy a brand-new car for $2000 or a very nice home for $10,000 in those days.  

When I was in elementary school, and girls would ask me if I had a boyfriend, I would just smile and give them Pop's initials saying that they were my boyfriend's initials.  Who needed a boyfriend when I had a grandfather as wonderful as Pop?  Every Friday night, I would watch the Friday night fight (boxing) with Pop and Grammy, sleep at their house, and then every Saturday afternoon, I would watch baseball, football, or golf with Pop.  As long as I lived in Price, I visited Pop and Grammy every day of my life except for 3 weeks in 1960 when I had a severe case of the Asian flu.

I will always remember one special gift of love that Pop gave me.  I was about 3 or 4 and was having trouble falling asleep in Grammy's back bedroom. 

"Pop, I can't go to sleep," I called.

"What's the matter Sweet Doll?" he asked.

"My feet are cold."  At this point I thought that Pop would just give me some of his nice big socks to put on my feet and legs, but that's not what he did.

He put his big warm hands under the covers and held my little feet in his hands until I fell asleep.  I will never forget that.  At the time, it really surprised me that he would take the time to stay with me that long-- holding my feet until I went to sleep.  As a teacher, each year when we started talking about Christmas and giving, I would always tell my students about what Pop did and how that was one of the best gifts I had ever received.

Gifts don't have to be wrapped up in pretty paper with a fancy bow.  

Sometimes the best gifts are simply when one gives of his time--when one gives from his heart.

Pop, I am hoping that Heavenly Father has allowed you to look over my shoulder while I have been writing this because I miss you dearly, and I will always treasure every moment I spent with you and learned from you. I don't think I ever told you how much that meant to me to have you warm my little feet by holding them.  You gave me many wonderful gifts--but that is the memory of you that I treasure the most. 

I will always love you, Pop!