Memories of home

In the middle of a busy day of work last Monday, I took a break and checked my phone.  In the middle of a variety of texts and emails about this and that, I got these pictures.

To you, they are simply pictures of people, a temple, a river, Churches and a building.  To me, they are memories of my childhood and I teared up just looking at them.  It was so unexpected, too, which added to the emotional impact.

These are from Richland, Washington, --truly the most beautiful "ugly" spot in America.  I grew up here and felt it was like the most perfect spot in the entire world to be from.  I could go on and on about it, but I have probably discussed it before.

These were sent from Andrea Pedersen Slack.  Andrea and I met in high school in Richland and she was one of my freshman roommates at BYU in 1973.  Andrea was there, helping a friend who had just moved from Houston to the area and she offered to help drive up one of her vehicles.

This is Andrea on the left with one of her friends in front of the Columbia River Temple.  This temple was built long after I moved from there.  It was a sweet moment when I got to attend a session there the first time and now Andrea has also had that experience.

This is our old Stake Center.  It was built in the mid-60's at a time when the Saints were expected to help both with financial donations and also with labor.  I can remember that my dad served as a night watchman and we all cleaned up from time to time in little projects safe for kids.

Columbia High School--"The Bombers"  I thought it was a normal mascot name because I grew up planning to be a "Bomber."  There is still debates now about the appropriateness of the name. I only ended up attending one year and then we moved to Texas where I got to be a Caprock Longhorn and then a Tascosa Rebel (with the confederate flag and everything.)

Columbia River--Richland is a desert with less than 10 inches of rain a year.  The ground was mostly sand and the native plans were tumbleweeds and sagebrush (actually they were sagebrush first and then tumbleweeds.)  It got hot in the summer and was often very windy.  But when you live by two rivers--the Yakima and the Columbia Rivers--you get some amazing scenery, nonetheless.

They have really upgraded the shore along the Richland side of the Columbia.  There is a paved walking trail with benches to sit and enjoy the view.  Andrea found a bench which has been placed there by a family in honor of their parents who we both knew.  That was sweet.

The Jadwin Chapel--the place where I was baptised and I learned most of the lessons of my youth.  We did attend the Stake Center for a couple of years when I was 10-12 years old, but most of the time it was this amazing building.  For years, if I ever had a dream that included a church, it was inside this building.  They don't make very many three story LDS churches in the US any more.

It was in Richland I learned to love clouds (at my mother's knee for sure. She loved nature.)  This is a view of the high school which built on a slope.

Andrea moved to Richland in her early teens and I moved there when I was 2 months old.  She commented that much of what she became as a person was started or influenced by the time in her life that she spent there.  I agree.  I was so lucky to have spent 16 years here being touched by the good people, inside and outside of the Church.  I certainly hope that in the eternities there will be time to find them and thank them each personally for the ways they have touched our lives.  I read recently a meme that stated that we carry traces of those who have touched us so we must be careful of the traces we leave with others.  I know that is true, because there are so many people through simple ways and some not so simple have impacted my life for good.  I still feel those traces in my heart so many years later.  That is why I got tearful, just by seeing some simple photos from this specific spot in the world!

Thanks, Andrea, for sharing.