JamesHoag.com

About every other year, in late August, we would all go on vacation to Utah to attend Education week at BYU. We did this many times. I don’t think we got out there every year, but we did a lot of them. We had a big yellow Chevy Surburban with a large area in the back. With the help of Paul Day, we built a playform that fit in the back of the truck. The platform was about a foot off of the floor and we could store our suitcases under the platform and then the kids could play around on top of it. We attached some old carpet to the platform, throw in a bunch of pillows and it was like a big bed. You could lay back there and sleep or just watch the road go by.

The platform made our trips a whole lot better. Education Week really only benefited me and Karen, but I hope the kids enjoyed it, too. They usually stayed at somebody’s house while we went to class. They were nice trips. It took us about 2 whole days to get out there. We could camp along the way or stay in motels. We would sometimes go up to Preston, Idaho and visit the Bodily’s. Their son was a missionary who served in North Dakota when we lived there and for some reason, we had kept up a relationship with his parents. They were an older couple who had a house just outside of Preston. We could usually count on staying one night with them and that saved us money.

There are a few things I remember about the Bodily’s. I remember one of the kids riding on their tractor and having a good time (David or Matt – not sure which, maybe both). I remember the good meals she served us. That was great after being on the road for two days. I also remember that President Ezra Taft Benson who was a prophet of the church was born and raised just across the road from their house. One time Bro Bodily and I were standing out by the road and Pres Benson’s brother came by and stopped and talked to us. That was kind of cool. For someone from Minnesota who never met anyone special in the church, that was as close as I had ever come to meeting the prophet.

Education Week was always fun. I am remembering other things from education week trips. I’ll try to cover those next time.

Dad

One of the few times I really felt good about something I accomplished was when I built the playhouse in the backyard. I was reading the paper one day and they had either an ad or an article (I don’t remember which) that showed the playhouse and listed all the materials you would need to build it.

I showed the article to Karen and said “I think I can do that – at least I’d like to try.” Keep in mind that I’m pretty inept when it comes to making things. I’m more of a thinker than a doer, so actually building something was a real stretch. I took the list of materials and went to Menard’s which is a lumber store a few miles away. They are kind of like Home Depot and I believe they are still in Rochester, although the store I went to is no longer there.

I showed the list to the salesman and they got everything. I was driving the Suburban then, so everything went into the back and I took it home. We picked out a place in the backyard where it could go and I started working on it. I don’t know how long it took, but it was really fun building it. It had two levels with a kind of deck on the second level. You got to the second level via a little ladder that was attached to the wall. You climbed the ladder and then went though a little hatch-way that you could close after you were on the second level. This was so you didn’t fall back through the hole.

Anyway, I think the kids loved it. I remember Kristy played on it and I’m not sure about everyone else. It was there until we moved away from Eyota. The next time I visited Eyota after moving west, I drove by the old house and they had rearranged things and the playhouse was gone. It was probably pretty ratty by then anyway.

There are very few things in my life that I can point to and say “I did that”, but the playhouse was one of them. It’s always cool to actually build something with your own two hands.

Dad

One of things we did which I look back on with fondness was going to school concerts in which my kids participated. I’m not so sure I was that excited about it when it actually happened, but today, I remember them as fun experiences. Every year, it seems, we had a Christmas choir concert. (They might have been called “Holiday Concerts” to be politically correct) You kids probably remember this better than I do, but I remember that each class would take it’s turn and come on stage (or they might have been positioned somewhere around the gym) and then they would sing their song(s).

It was cool because sometimes the kids would dress up in costumes. We would get so excited when we could point out one of our kids. I think all of the kids got a chance to do this several times.

Matt was in high school choir and one year they did a concert. I think they got extra credit for doing solos and for taking part in other types of numbers. Matt and his friend Bryce Dody (I think I spelled his name right) sang the song “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” which was done by Billy Joel. It was very cool and the crowd really liked it. I think Matt may have missed a career move there.

Another of my favorite activities was working part-time at KFIL-FM in Preston. Of course, Mike being the program director was a key factor in me getting the job. But, he made me interview and everything. I cut a demo tape of me talking to see what kind of “mike” voice I had. I had worked briefly at KBYU-FM in Provo while I was going to school, so this wasn’t completely new to me. I did the demo tape and he hired me. I mostly worked on week-ends when they needed a replacement. It was a really fun job. I would be a DJ professionally if they paid anything. But you remember how poor Mike was. Most DJ’s are that way. I got paid something like $7.00/hour. But I didn’t do it for the money. I did it because I loved it. It was fun to learn the equipment and say the lines knowing that people all over the area could hear you.

One Saturday night, I particularly remember. Mike had told me we had a ticket (just one) to a “Little Jimmy Dickens” concert that was playing in the area in the near future and I should give away the ticket to some lucky caller. So, a little later, I said into the mike: “I’ll take the fifth caller for a free ticket to Little Jimmy Dickens”. Sounds professional, right? Well, I did not get one call, let alone five. So, I played a couple songs and waited a little while – nothing. So, I got on the mike and said, in effect. “Guess what, folks, we’ve just found another ticket to the Jimmy Dickens concert. Caller two will get the ticket. Hurray and dial carefully.” Well, you guessed it, I got nothing. No one called.

I told Mike the next day that I tried to give away the ticket but didn’t. He laughed and said he would find someone around the station to give it to. I wish, now, that I had taken it and gone myself. But, it’s tough to use just one ticket. Maybe if I’d had two, things would have gone different. Or maybe nobody listens to KFIL.

I worked for KFIL for several years off and on. After I left Eyota and moved west, commercials with my voice played on KFIL for several years. I don’t think there are any today, they kind of died away as thay changed them and got new sponsors. But, I made my mark on Preston and KFIL. Me and Mike, the great DJ’s.

Dad

One of the fun things I used to do during the late 80’s and early 90’s was to DJ for the dances at church. Once a month, we would have what we called “Super Saturday” when all of the stake would get together and have meetings. The meetings lasted most of the day and then in the evening, we would have a dance. I’m not sure if doing the dances was an actual calling or if we just agreed to do it, but Mike and I worked hard on having a nice dance and playing music that the kids would like but was still music that was appropriate to be played at church.

Mike and I would have meetings with Brian Cragun who was over the dances on the stake level. We would discuss certain songs and decide if it could be played or not. If it had any swear words or explicit sex, it was out or sometimes a song would be banned because it was just so horrible. The question we asked was what would the dancers be thinking when they heard this song. Would it be uplifting and good thoughts or dark and/or evil thoughts. Some songs were banned just for the message they carried even though they weren’t bad in and of themselves.

As Hip-Hop got more and more of a hold on American pop music in the Nineties, the job got harder and harder. I was worried that we would get to a point where we wouldn’t be able to play any of the new stuff and the dances would become “oldies” dances.

But, being the rebel that I was, every once in a while, I would have a song that I liked so much that I would violate the rules and play it anyway. One that I really remember was “Money For Nothing” by Dire Sraits. It is one of my all time favorite songs but some of the words are just not appropriate for a church dance. But one week, I played it anyway, just to see what would happen. Wouldn’t you know, a girl (not an adult) came up the stage where I was seated playing the music and asked me if I thought that was a good song for church dances. I told her to go away and stop bothering me. But, I never played it again.

Doing the dances was great. I had all the music and I think the kids liked it. When I quit doing it in the 90’s, Mike took over for awhile. One time after I had left Rochester to move west, Mike told me someone had broken into the closet where we kept the music and had stolen all of the equipment and all of the tapes that we had spent years compiling. I was just sick. All that work, gone. Mike started building it up again, but it would never be the same. I would love to meet the person who took all our stuff. They would have to drag me off of him.

Dad

Karen found a copy of a Visiting Teaching booklet that was put together this past spring. She re-wrote a little about my hospitalization in 1977 and scanned it in for me to include here, even though it’s out of order, time-wise. Thanks again to Karen for her help in writing this story.

A great service was done for our family in 1976-77. Many of my visiting teachers have been outstanding but this experience comes to mind at this time. Not only my visiting teachers, but also the RS president, many sisters in the ward and even people in the neighborhood became involved.

While living in Eyota, Minnesota, Jim/Dad was diagnosed with an old-fashioned type of pneumonia (which is unpronounceable!) shortly after Christmas in 1976. It hit him hard and he was hospitalized for six weeks.

Kimberly Sue was age 13 months and I was expecting another baby, Katy in April. David was age 6 and Matthew, 9. Worry about Dad’s health and recovery, daily trips to the hospital in Rochester to visit him, shoveling snow out of our long driveway during a Minnesota winter, getting back from the hospital in time to pick up my kindergartner (David) from school at noon, keeping food in our children’s tummies and the weariness of a pregnancy all took its toll.

As I look back I was pretty healthy. Guess I needed to be to handle all of that! Visiting teacher Adele Swift called to check on me, arranged for meals and tended Kimmy or arranged to have sisters tend her during visits to Jim. Neighbors like Mr. Anderson, shoveled our driveway. One sister (Nancy Judd) even brought us a TV to use because ours needed repairs. She thought we needed stress relief, l guess!

One of the most thoughtful and generous acts of compassion was Bishop Max Welker called a prayer circle of the priesthood in our ward (or branch) to meet at the church in Jim’s honor. We know that was a big factor in Jim’s recovery. Heavenly Father was looking over us.

The RS president Cathy Reynolds called often to see how we were doing and told me what was going on in the ward to keep me grounded and give me perspective. It’s easy to become consumed with your own problems when husband, daddy and bread winner is out of commission. She shared other members’ happenings which opened my eyes and kept me from looking inward so much.

After 5-6 weeks of hospitalization, it was good to have Jim home. After a while he went back to work part time. Then Katy was born April 6 and soon after he was back to work full time. What a four to five-month period!

It was one of the most beautiful Aprils when Katy was born. Our yard had lush, green grass and we enjoyed warm sunny days. That’s an early Spring for Minnesota.

Or maybe it was my attitude after having family back together and realizing how blessed we were.

Dad