Howard

My early memories of Howard are of him learning to walk.  With so many older siblings, he had plenty of opportunities to try.  He was very unsure of himself, and though he could stand, he wouldn't take the steps without someone to hold his hand.  So, we tricked him.  We got a short stick--maybe 10 to 12 inches long--and had him hold the stick infant of him with one hand on each end.  One of us would hold the stick in the middle.  As he took a step of two, then we would let go of the middle.  With the stick held out in front of him, he would walk.
   Howard was two years older than Sam, but smaller.  So, Howard always needed to assert his superiority.  Sam was a loyal and faithful puppy who was always just happy to be included.  My younger siblings seemed to come in pairs: Eileen and Lil, Howard and Sam, Lucy and Jonny.  So, many of my memories of Howard are tied up with Sam.   We shared a bedroom for much of our childhood.  I remember trying to sleep with two little boys in the room who were in no way ready for sleep.  Even with the lights out, the boys wouldn't settle down.  I'm sure that I barked at them a few times.  Eventually Mom or Dad came in and gave the boys what for, and then I was able to get some shut eye.
   Not long after that, Dad built a triple bunk bed.  Sam and Howard shared the bottom bunk, about a foot off of the floor.  Joe had the middle bunk, about four feet off the floor, and I had the top bunk, about three feet from the ceiling.
   Howard had a few more wild oats to sow that Sam.  He hung out with Mark Donaldson (whom he nicknamed "Uckun") and a kid named Stireman.  The City of Orem and just built a new high school, Mountain View.  (The students wanted to name it "Rocky Mountain High" but the admin wouldn't go for that--I don't know why.)  On the night of the new school's first prom, Howard and his buddies decided to moon the prom.  Sam was brought along, who knows why.  At midnight, as the prom let out and kids were defending the school steps to their cars in the parking lot, the boys sped into the parking lot, which was still just gravel.  The black top and not yet been laid.  Howard was mooning from right side of the truck and Sam from the left.  Marco from the passenger window.  The practice in Orem was to have a patrol car visit the parking lot at the time of dance dismissals.  The boys, who weren't into the "dance" thing, hadn't thought of this.  When Stireman saw the cops, he panicked and pulled a hard U-turn to exit the parking lot.  Sam was thrown into the truck.  Howard was thrown out.  With one hand holding the side of the truck, his bare buttocks skipped along the gravel.  The ER doctor removed a good handful of it.  The arresting officer said that he'd never seen so much moonshine in the back of a pick-up before.
   Howard had a wonderful Young Men's president who kept him interested and active in church activities, and when the time came Howard served a mission in Virginia.  After his mission, Howard went to California to work in structural steel with our cousin, Scott Bennion.  Howard started as a grunt hauling rebar.  Eventually he was running the crew.  Not long after that he learned how to run the company.
   On a couple of occasions Howard visited us in Pleasant Grove.  On one occasion we went for a picnic up Provo Canyon.  I think we have that in a home movie.  Howard told me that he was learning how to use a CAD program to create plans for structural steel projects.  Although he never wen't to college, Howard never stopped learning his trade.  Eventually, he would be hired by Pacific Coast Steel as a Chief Financial Officer responsible for bidding major projects.
   So, Howard has not struggled for money like many of the rest of us have.  He was in a position, at the passing of our father, to build a home for Mother, connected to Lucy's home, where Mother lived out her days under the care of a loving daughter.  In the bargain, Lucy's  home was renovated, and the home built for mother became Lucy's in recompense for the personal care Lucy gave that allowed Mother to stay at home.
   Howard is now retired from the steel business, but I'm not sure what he does with the extra time.  I see him with a Scout group, and doing other recreational things with his boys.
  Of my siblings, he is the only one not declared "of Ephraim" by a patriarch.  His place in gospel lineage is in the tribe of Manasseh.  I am not sure of the significance of that.  Only I can say that it will not mean he will not be part of the family in the next life.