Thursday, June 24, 2010

a part of my will

this is an excerp i think. from my will. be sorry for those who have to sit through it... cause.. geez. how many funerals do they have to attend?
maybe you're bored already. well, feel free to not read.


I want to be cremated. A funeral is fine, a viewing, or whatever, but that’s just going to make it more expensive.
I realize our government doesn't like ashes spread.
But I would like mine spread anyway. The government means nothing to me on this point.

Spread some at the canal up the dirt road from the Peterson's on 4oo south in Wellsville. That’s where we used to spend the summers swimming. I floated down that canal countless times. We picnicked there as kids. My soda exploded on the way up from the vibration of the bicycle on the gravel. It made a hole in the paper sack, but didn’t ruin my sandwich.

Go up the road a little farther, to the kerrs gate. Spread a little there. It’s where Gideon poked my eye pretending to be a werewolf so we could both ride faster down that hill as scared kids. That’s a day or two after lucky showed up, panting on a Friday, hiding in the shade under the truck.


Spread some at the Wellsville dam. That’s where sarah and I had our wedding party. I wore a holed up shirt. She wore a dress. I grilled on the bbq my friend josh made for me out of a barrel. It’s also the first place… well, I won’t finish that sentence. It’s the place we used to fish as kids. Power bait is supposed to work well there, or worms. As kids we used salmon eggs. the fish always knew which ones were on a hook. Caleb sunk up to his thighs there, and we had to ride home in the back of the station wagon with the back door open. It’s the place I learned how to skip a rock.

Spread some on top of the wellsvilles. Where my and my friends always camped. Clear at the top. In that little bowl with the pine tree’s. put the ash where, if it were a person, it would have a view of the whole valley.
Go to tony grove in logan canyon. Hike up it, like you’re going to white pine lake. Hike over a hill to your right, and walk until you find the end of the stream. It’ll be a watering hole in the canyon called bunchgrass. Spread a little ash there. It’s the place sarah scared off that moose that walked feet from her. We sat there together, in the first year of our marriage, while she was pregnant with Charlie during the archery elk season.


Put some more in the wellsvilles. Right under the first bowl, where the juniper and apple tree grows. We had picnics on easter there, as a family.
Sprinkle just a touch on maple rise. The place we would go on the fourth of july to watch all the fireworks in the valley.


Put a little on the banks of these bodies of water: Cutler dam. Newton dam. Porcupine. (someone go to the silver mine on the church property, and see if that little wood building is still there. Finish carving my name if you can find it). Mantua lake, benson marina. And a little on that little river called clay slough where we shoot carp. don’t put a speck on Hyrum dam. There are some good memories there. Most of them make me sick to think about.


Drop some at willow park. Actually, across the street. One or two tree’s in. that’s where Liz and I went, and ate on our brand new quilts. We ate Arby’s. that’s a place I’ll never forget. I’ll watch over that spot, if someone could please make sure there’s ash of mine there.


Someone will have to leave cache valley at some point. Throw a little ash at rendevouz beach in bear lake. Where we used to have a family reunion every year. My fondest memories of most of my family are there. I remember riding in the back of the old blue ford ranger f250 lariat under a camper shell, that was stuffed with supplies we would need.


Go to the place I used to live. Where my dad left home the last time. It’s where I started my family. It’s the place I lived when Charlie was born. I had my most intimate moments there. I failed at my first shed there, and built my first chicken coop. they’ve replaced that now though, with their own chicken coop, made from my failed shed.


Go to boise, out to eagle, and get lost on some back road going nowhere. My dad an I rode there together I’m sure. Sprinkle a little bit of me out the window. And think of me riding there, with my dad before we’d go back to my apartment and sit in the hot tub while salmon cooked on the grill. I’ve never felt more free.


Some of the most miserable time I’ve ever had was at a place called pebble beach. It’s out in the dessert in the outskirts of boise. There are a couple hooch’s there. Put a little… but only a little of me there.


Just off the freeway, there’s an exit that is blacks creek road. Pull off there, go across the railroad tracks, and where they dump a bunch of trash a couple yards later, put some of me there. We used to shoot whistle pigs there. And rabbits all hours of the night. That’s the first time I ever did anything with Nate, really. Lila got mad at me, because nate couldn’t hear for a couple days.


Put a little in the hay loft at grandma’s house. And some at the swimming hole behind uncle toms. Throw a little in the fields that used to belong to uncle Limon, Kay murray, and vern Anderson. My first job was moving sprinkler pipe for them. Put some in the swamp in uncle toms field, where we got the back hoe stuck.


Go out to Clarkston. To vandells property. That’s where I camp sometimes, where I was camping when I shot my first buck. I’ve made a lot of memories there. While you’re at it, put some across the street from tony’s grove turn off. Where we camp during the elk hunt. That’s the same place Josh, and Gid, and I took Josh’s kids camping for the first time. Where he introduced me to those eggs you hardboil, wrap in sausage, roll in crumbs, and fry.


Find where the disc golf course used to start at usu. Put some there. We used to work off a lot of hangover, and talk out a lot of problems, and shoot a lot of shit around there.


To montpeliar. Anywhere really. Mont is Boop. If you go there, drive through, and go to Afton. It’s a beautiful place where I really enjoy my time when we visit sarah’s grandparents.


San angelo? Yes. Put some there. Across the street where that building burned down. We walked on glass, and jumped from trailor to trailer. We found tadpoles behind that place, and caught them. We put them in the bird bath so we could watch them grow. Birds ate them. We used to think that house was haunted. Gids fault really. He would tell us he woke up and saw ghosts here or there. A headless one walks through the grandfather clock. One with chains did this or that here or there. We would vacation there every summer for the hottest two weeks of the year. We would swim a lot of the time. I have a lot of very fond memories of everyone in my family down there.

If you have ash left… bake into a cake, and eat it.

4 comments:

oralia said...

gross! do i HAVE to eat it?

aw, those are all way awesome memories! I think about them from time to time (well, the one's where i was involved). You know it's a good memory if more than one person remembers it being as great as you do.

This made me sad. Don't ever die, please.

Joe said...

well... feed it to baxter, and claim you ate it.... but i warn you, you will not absorb the super human powers that come with eating another human. and baxter will become YOUR master...muahahahahahaha


ps. i'll die when i please.

Sarah said...

geez jos. how much ash do you think there will be? you best be a gettin fatter to make up that much.

The Jensens said...

I loved reading this. I feel like I know you a little more now. And I agree with Sarah... your gonna have to get REALLY fat! What happens when they run out of ash half way thru?