Kim’s Coming

This is a story about Kim’s birth.  It is taken from the oral history of his mother and my (Sherry’s) memories.  I want to share these special memories with all of Kim’s descendants—those who call him dad and those who call him grandpa.  This is how the story goes:

It all began on a hot 4^th of July day back in 1954. And those days in southwestern Idaho were really hot.  Our family, consisting of mom and dad (Fay and Ardell) and Vicki and me (Sherry), and little Roger, were spending the day with mom and dad’s friends out at the Ted Louder farm in Homedale.

Ardell and Fay (early picture at the Downing place)

Mom (Fay) says: “It happened to be a Sunday.  We all went to the Church in the morning, then we all gathered out to Louder’s to have our picnic and fun after Church.  Everybody brought pot luck.” 

Along about 9:00 in the morning, I commenced having a few pains, but I decided I’d go to the party anyway.  Along about Noon I commenced to think that they were getting pretty close, but I decided I’d wait a while longer.  About two or three o’clock I decided maybe we’d best go home. “

“Well you don’t know Dell when he gets to one of those parties.”

I said, “I think we’d better go home, honey.”

And he said, “Well, just a minute, just a minute.”

“So along about 4:30 we commenced to get home.  I said, “You’d better get those cows milked, because I’m going to go to the hospital.”

“He finally went out to milk cows.  Well, I decided he’d better hurry just a little faster.  I went out to hurry him up and I think he had to turn those last two cows over to somebody else,  Anyway, it was about 8:30, that he got me in to the hospital, and at about 9:15 Kim was born.  It was right in the middle of the fireworks in Caldwell at the city park.”

You could see those bright and colorful fireworks light up the night from the window in Mom’s room.

Kim was born at the Caldwell Memorial Hospital. Kim really came into this world with a bang. Mother called Kim her little firecracker.

               

Happy Fourth

Kim in the yard of the Downing home at about age 2

Mom (Fay) says:  “When we went to take him home, the girls had hunted up a little flag, so we had a little flag put on his basket.  When everybody would come, here was Kim in the basket with this little flag flying over the top.”

In those days, special baby baskets were used as the babies first bed and that was the case with Kim.  That way he could sleep in Mom and Dad’s room where Mom could keep a watchful eye on him.

Mother gave me the job of taking care of Kim.  She said that was going to teach me to take care of babies.  I really did take on a lot of his care.  When I wasn’t available, Mom would take Kim out to the field with her and set him on a blanket at the end of the row in the field where she was working.  He would play with his trucks and tractor toys and would remain on that blanket until she came to get him.  One of our neighbors, Emma Johnstone,, would drive by just to check and make sure Kim was ok.

  

Roger, Ardell, Sherry, Fay, Kim and Vicki

At Sherry’s wedding.

  

I don’t have a lot of memories of Kim because he was just four years old when I was married.  It felt like I was leaving a child of my own. It was hard on me to leave him because I had taken so much responsibility for him and he was a cute little guy.

We were living on the Downing farm when Kim was born and the folks were living there when I was married. They later moved from that farm and several years after they moved, that house burned to the ground.  Mother always said that it would burn down because of the poor electrical work inside and so it did. A lot of our precious family memories were made while living there.

It is interesting to note that after Roger was born Mom had broken a large muscle in her back and the Doctor told her that she should not have another baby.  He said that if she did she would have to remain in bed.  You know mom, there would be no bed for her.  The Doctor gave in but told her that she could not gain any weight.  I can remember her weighing everything that she ate and she didn’t gain a pound.  All went well with Kim’s birth thanks in big part to her will and determination. I’m sure that it helped that Heavenly Father wanted Kim to be part of our family.  We all argued over what name he should be given.  Mom was considering the name Brett but the name Kim won out.

Well that is the story of Kim’s Coming.  He came into our lives with a bang.  Now he has become a loving husband, father and grandfather.  We are grateful for our family “firecracker”.

Ardell and the Beer Story

Ardell tells the following story about a lesson learned. He says that he and Fay learned how to make beer from Fay's brother, Guy. They brewed up a batch of beer and stored it at Dad's mom's home in Blazer. She had a little cellar under the porch and that's where they kept it.

Dell says that somehow a group of kids from McCammon found out about it and came and stole the beer. Ardell was really mad about that. He says that there were about five of those kids. He goes on to say: "Instead of using my smarts, and getting a group of my own, I met them outside and one of the kids was a boxer. He had taken boxing in school. But he seemed to be the ring leader, and he and I got into a fight. The last thing that I remember before I passed out is that at the same time my brother came running out. Howard Williams ran in and told my brother Don that I was having a fight and he better come and help. (Howard was the son of his sister Florence Williams, Ardell's sister) Just as he came out the door, one of those kids....hit me behind the ears with something and I just passed out."

But before I passed out, I heard my brother say something to the effect of, 'Who started it?'...The kids opened his mount and Don hit him in the nose sideways and broke his nose and knocked him flat as a pancake. He reached over and got another one, and then they started to run. I had a welt behind my ear. That's the last I could remember. "They took me home and I lost my bridgework, and my mouth was all cut up, and I can remember my mother getting after me saying I shouldn't be doing those kind of things. If I hadn't made beer I wouldn't have gotten in trouble..." This is their mother:

Fay and Dell Byington Courtship and Poem

In lieu of Valentine's Day coming up, mom and I thought that we would post a poem that Grandma B wrote about her and Grandpa's courtship:

                 An Old Love Story

Twas' at a ball I met him He asked me for a dance.
I danced with him and it was swell Cause deep in "Love" I really fell.
I knew then, that there'd never be Another man so nice as he.
His eyes they are the deepest brown Dark curly hair, his head does crown.
And then began, what seems to me The loveliest romance ever to be.
After I met him at the ball Every week he came to call.
Quite late at night, twas' after dark He drove and found a place to park.
I think I knew that he would say "You're sweet, you know. I love you, Faye."
And long before he spoke I knew That I would say "I love you too."
And there with no one else to see He placed a ring on finger three.
In October of thirty five We decided to take the dive.
It was then a wedding band Joined the ring on my left hand.
Seven years of love and play Have passed by since that day.
Now we have a child age three We're the happiest couple that ever could be.

Dell and Fay Byington

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

Here is the next story....I know that it's been awhile...

This one is about Anker August Kofoed. Anker was a true believer in keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. It grieved him greatly to see someone breaking that commandment, as he knew that if they did they would suffer in some way. When we obtain blessing from the Lord it is by obedience to the laws. An instance happened to show this: One Sunday there was a group of men and boys who did not go to church and were looking for something to do. One of them had a wild horse and they decided to ride it. Anker came by and begged them not to do this on a Sunday. He told them that it wouldn’t turn out right, but they just laughed at him. There was one promising young man in the group who took an oath and said that he could ride anything. He was thrown from the horse and was hurt very severely. He survived and lived a few years, then he took his own life.

Anker August and Ellomine Kofoed

Grandma Byington's mischevious school days

Okay....here is another story....this one is about Grandma Byington (Fay Kofoed Byington). This one is from her book "Kofoed Footprints" book. "In the old school house we had an upper floor and a lower floor plus a basement where the furnace was maintained. The high school kids were on the upper floor and the grade school kids all on the lower floor" "No lowly grade school kid dared to go up those stairs without permission or one of the high school kids threatened us with some dire consequence." "When I was finally up the stairs with the select group we thought it was our duty to threaten the little first graders who dared invade our territory." "One day two or three of us were standing by an open window when one of these little creatures came walking into the room. We threatened bodily harm. When that didn't work we said we would throw him out the window. One of the boys grabbed him. I grabbed one arm and he took the other and we put him out the window. He was kicking and yelling when all of a sudden we heard the teacher coming. The boy who was helping me hold that yelling, squirming bit of humanity, turned and ran from the room. So you can guess who was caught holding that little person out the window." "Of course, I couldn't drop him two floors to the ground. You should have seen that teacher's face when I dragged that kid into the room." "This was the only time I was almost expelled from school. It taught me a good lesson. From that day to this I have never fully trusted the male species."

Lava Hot Springs School

Fay Byington