by Don Blackburn
First: memories from the Semester Abroad trip.- Paris was awfully cold in the winter , but loved the mpressionist Museum.
- I remember how I enjoyed the Aswan High Dam, Philae Temple, the Tomb of the Aga Khan, the Botanical Gardens, and the Alibaster Mosque.
- Crossing the Allenby Bridge is still a big memory for me. I’m just sorry that that area is no closer to peace yet.
- I appreciated the peace and serenity of Petra, besides the impressive facades.
- Possibly my most powerful memory was of the Jordanian propaganda that swore that the Golden Gate had been unsealed. Then we drove by it and saw that it was just as bricked up as it had ever been. Remember what Hitler said, the bigger the lie, the more likely people are to believe it.
- The majesty and barrenness of Sinai. We sometimes don’t know how blessed we are!
- Remember the visit by Elder and Sister Tanner, Elder and Sister Franklin D. Richards, and Brother and Sister Robert Taylor, on the boat together with us from Tiberius to Capernaum.
- Remember the fun we had at the Hexagonal Pools and at Ein Gedi?
- Remember when Barbara Rocchi’s parents came to visit? How about when we visited David Ben Gurion?
I will now try to summarize my life of the last 35 years under four
categories: family, work, education, Church. Through it all, my wife and I have not only maintained ourselves but, I believe that we have thrived. We have also been able to help our children grow and get established.
After the Semester Abroad, I went on a mission to Brazil South (Porto Alegre) for two years. JoAnn served in the California Anaheim Mission, and our missions overlapped by six months. We had a tiff by mail and broke off our engagement, but we remained friends and wrote to each other constantly. In fact, I greatly encouraged her to go on her mission. The engagement was back on shortly after she got back home and our love has grown ever stronger with each passing day.
I was commissioned a 2LT in the U.S. Army on 22 April 1976. I graduated with a double major in History and West Asia Studies at BYU on the 23rd of April, and finally married my sweetheart, JoAnn, on the 24th in the Provo Temple. My mother and step-father were able to attend the first two events, but not being members of The Church, had to wait outside during the Temple ceremony. We had a special meeting for them at the bishop’s house the night prior to explain about temples, and they didn’t have to be there early in the AM like the rest of us (which they didn’t mind at all). But they came up just in time for pictures.
After working in Salt Lake City that summer, we packed all of our worldly possessions into a VW bug and move to Columbus, GA. We lived there for 3-4 months and them moved to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The work climate there was so abysmal that all of the officers who were stationed there with me from Fort Benning quit the Army altogether by the end of their 3-year tour. I, likewise had been dealt a career-ending blow there. However, Fort Benning was desperate to salvage at least one of their basic graduates. So, they called me and asked what it would take to keep me in the Army. (We had started all the wheels in motion for me to return and get a Master’s degree and then to teach Jr. Col. or H.S.) But after years of infertility workups, JoAnn was finally pregnant with our first child. We decided that the most stable course would be to remain in the Army. So, we TOLD the Army to promote me to Captain and send me to the Officer Advanced Course.
Our firstborn was Sarah Elizabeth, who was born at Fort Benning 12 Feb. 1980. She has since graduated from BYU with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. She married her husband, Abraham Blakeley, in the San Diego Temple. (He has a B.A. from the University of Arizona in Political Science - they met in a Singles Ward in the Phoenix area.) They currently work in the Wash. D.C. area.
Our secondborn is Caleb Johnathan, born at Frankfurt, Germany on 20 July 1981. He became an Eagle Scout and served a mission in the Salt Lake City South (Spanish Speaking) Mission and had Pres. Hinckley’s son as his mission pres. (Who’s now a General Authority).) Caleb has since joined the National Guard in High School as an enlisted man and served in Iraq (just got back last year). He lives and works in Payson now (and has had quite enough of the military by now, thank you very much.). He married Shannon Smith in the Provo Temple and now has two small sons, Zacky and Kyle.
Our third child is Miriam Esther, born at Fort Irwin, CA on 2 July 1984. She graduated BYU with a BA in Elem. Ed. She married Travis Young in the Los Angeles, CA Temple. He’s finishing up a Masters in Accounting at Weber State and she is in her first year of teaching in Syracuse. They are both finishing up plans to move back down to Southern CA to live and work.
Our last child is Jeremiah Benjamin, who was also born at Fort Irwin, CA on 22 July 1986. He became an Eagle Scout but decided on sales and marriage rather than college. Shortly after her conversion, he married Isabel Hernandez in the Los Angeles Stake Center (a year after graduating high school). They both now work for Radio Shack where he is now the manager of the Beverly Hills store - at age 20! They are also both looking forward to being sealed in the Los Angeles Temple within the next few months.
With regards to work, I took Command and General Staff College courses (it’s like getting an MS in battle tactics) and graduated from that institution while on active duty, but it could not erase the kiss of death I’d been dealt at Fort Sill. I also got an M. Ed in guidance and counseling from the University of Oklahoma. So, after attaining the rank of Captain, I was forced off active duty after eleven years of service. We then went to UCLA where I received an MA and C.Phil. (ABD) in Middle East History (I was planning to teach at the college level). I joined an Army Reserve unit, where they immediately promoted me to Major. That’s how I finished out my 20 years in the Army. So, while a married man with four kids attending UCLA for nine years, I learned how to pinch a penny, repair almost anything, and how to try, try, try! In the end, though, I was working four part-time jobs and having no time to work on the dissertation. I also saw how cannibalistic professors were and how little they got paid. So, for the Army Reserves, I finished A.L.E.D.C. (like getting a Masters in logistics). Which kept them happy and allowed me to finish out my 20 years with the Army and ensure our receipt of mil. retirement pay and benefits at age 60 and Soc. Scty. at age 62/66. JoAnn went to a local JC and graduated with an AND, and now works in a local hospital.
Together, we’ve been through fire, flood, riot and earthquake right in midcity LA as safe as in the palm of The Lord’s hand. We live four miles from the temple, and we’ve had the opportunity to go to a ward with members from Mexico, El Salvador, Uruguay, Nigeria, Ghana, Eritrea, Italy, Tonga, New Zeland, Korea, The Phillipines, and nearly every state in the Union. We had several couples called to our ward from both the USC and UCLA wards, which conclusively proves different colors (blue and red) can live together in peace.
I changed course and got a clear teaching credential and have now been teaching History, Science, and Health at John Hope Continuation High School for over ten years . AND I LOVE IT! COULDN’T BE HAPPIER!! Now I’m doing something that I thoroughly enjoy, getting paid above what a new Associate Prof. would, and have qualified for STRS (State Teachers Retirement System) medical/dental/pay upon retirement. And, after 20 year in the Army and moving 23 times, we were finally able to buy our first house. After we retire in the next`five years, it will give us enough resources to move “back home” to settle along the Wasatch Front.
Other sweet memories:
- JoAnn and I went on a cruise to Hawaii last year for our 30th wedding anniversary, visited her old high school, Punaho, etc.
- Ten years before, our kids bought us a weekend in Catalina, for our twentieth anniversary. which we thoroughly enjoyed.
- I remember how we toured France, Switzerland/Liechtenstein/Austria, the BENELUX, East & West Germany, East & West Berlin (before the downfall of the evil empire). But JoAnn was eight months pregnant with Miriam at the time, which made it difficult to get around.
- I remember watching over my mother until she finally passed in 1998.
- JoAnn and I both buried our fathers last year, so those memories are still fresh & tender.
- They split the Wilshire Ward eight years back and I served for seven years as the bishop of the new Adams Ward. It taught me a lot about just how patient, loving, and forgiving Our Savior wants us to be. We’ve both had innumerable callings in The Church. The one that I think will always be
foremost in JoAnn’s mind was being the Primary President of the Fort Irwin Branch (over half of the branch’s population was Primary age). We had a swamp cooler, and so did the old army chapel, but it was 120 in the shade, and there was no shade. We carried all of our electric fans and bottles of water to Sacrament Meeting, then moved them to the Primary room (Fort Irwin is right next to Death Valley.) Jo Ann also played the organ with two fingers, left right after the sacrament, nursed and changed the baby, then had to be back for the closing hymn. If there was another hymn, Don had to lead it.
- The memories of nine years of taking kids to Seminary (they all graduated). They merge with teaching all four how to drive. I don’t think I’ll ever have positive memories of a clutch again! JoAnn said it was a fair trade for nine months of pregnancy and 18 hours of labor.
- Lastly, my Semester Abroad memories, especially of Brother Meservy and Brother Barrett: how important family is for all else is transitory; likewise, to cherish knowledge, to hunger and thirst after it and to rejoice, and those bits of wisdom that God every so often throws our way; and to value and to try to exemplify patience, acceptance, and forgiveness of all men.
Thanks and love to all! You had a major impact on my life.
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