Farmer Tan

Wayne, Keith, Scott, Ronald, Eugene, Brian, and Eldon Greenwood

Farmer Tan  (16 August 2019)

Hi Kids! Finally, I have my blog access back- it was nice of Curious George to relinquish control!

I hope you all had a good visit with Evelyn and her parents. I’m assuming that mom let Evelyn leave with Candace and Trevor? But maybe that’s not a safe assumption!

Since life is all about learning to make good choices I thought I’d share a few choices (some better than others) that I made growing up. Let’s start with the picture of me weeding in the garden. I wasn’t always excited when my mom would ask me to “go weed a few rows in the garden.” Sometimes I probably didn’t weed as carefully as I could have, missing a few weeds and getting a few pea plants, but I am grateful we had a large garden. Choosing to weed… good choice!

Roger weeding in the garden.

Learning to treat my family well didn’t always go great, but I do have photo evidence of a time that I brought my mom a bouquet of dandelions… good choice!

Lyle, my mom, and I. Notice the bouquet of dandelions for my mom.

I didn’t make a lot of financial choices on the farm. When my parents would occasionally pay us some money for our farm work I would pay my tithing and put most of the rest in the bank, saving a small portion to spend. But I do remember some choices, like buying snacks and football cards a few times at Toolies (Bancroft’s corner store). I also remember the time I stayed after school to help prepare our class homecoming parade float (I know… that’s awesome that we had class homecoming parade floats!) and purchased three sodas in quick succession from a soda machine at the side of the street. I remember thinking it tasted so good that I got another, and then another until I could feel the soda sloshing in my belly. That’s when I chose to stop… good choice!

Another choice we could make was whether or not to wear a shirt. Very few people ever saw us on the farm so nobody cared, except for the times when my skin was fried and I had to swab myself with vinegar… learning opportunity!

Swabbing sunburns reminds me of today’s theme song, Farmer Tan, as originally sung by the North Gem High School show choir. This marvelous choir, headed by senior bass Wayne Greenwood and freshman tenor Roger Greenwood toured the nation (ie. went to Washington DC) to perform Great Balls of Fire, Celebrate, Farmer Tan and many other musical masterpieces.

Since you can’t directly experience today’s theme song as Wayne and I sang it during the summer of 1991, you’ll have to just imagine how awesome we were while listening to other musicians like Pump Boys and Dinettes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4JyLz_jN9E

Roger and Keith taking a break from weeding the garden with Trap and Trigger at our feet. (I am not sure how this picture relates to the theme song, but I decided to include it anyway).

As luck would have it, I first serenaded my future bride on this trip to Washington DC during the 4th of July festivities of 1991. Your mother was staying in Washington DC for the summer with her father who was deployed to the Pentagon as part of the Gulf War (which repelled Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait). She may not remember all the songs that I sang, or even if she saw me there at all, but it almost seems that someone orchestrated putting two small-town Idaho kids in the same city at the same time. We had to have been within a few hundred yards multiple times since we both watched the fireworks and participated in other July 4th festivities. It is even possible that she saw me perform and talked to members of my choir. If so, maybe that planted a subconscious seed that helped her say “That would be fun!” almost exactly eight years later!

I had many opportunities to make financial choices during this trip to Washington DC. I thought I got a great deal on a large $3 ice cream cone until I told my friend how much I had spent. I also purchased an amazing GUCCI watch from a street vendor for probably about ten or twenty dollars- turns out it might not have been authentic… learning opportunities!

I also had some great clothing purchases. I went to Hard Rock Cafe, but instead of eating there I just decided to buy a hot pink shirt for $17 with “Save the Whales” emblazoned on the back. I hope your mother saw me wearing that shirt with my sleeves rolled up… I think I looked pretty great. But my most questionable purchases were a black tank top and a pair of white shorts from street vendors. At least one of them, and probably both, had the really awesome Georgetown University Bulldog logo on it.  I don’t know why I chose those articles of clothing, but I am very grateful that cell phones with cameras did not exist in 1991. Otherwise I’m sure there would be a photo of me exiting the airplane in Salt Lake City with my skinny white legs extending from my white shorts and my skinny farmer-tanned arms protruding from my black tank top. Your mother might have questioned marrying the boy in that picture… definite learning opportunity!

And I think I learned my lesson. Your mother will confirm that when we spent a weekend in DC this past February that I did not buy any questionable clothing. And kids, I must admit that we had a wonderful time, even without you, and even if we almost froze to death! What a blessing that we got to do that together… great choice!

And look at the picture below of your mom and I during our trip alone to Joshua Tree National Park… another great choice!

Kids? What kids? I don’t see any kids…

But when it comes to choices, I made my best choice twenty years ago in the Idaho Falls Temple!... best choice ever!

Happy Anniversary Marci! I love you!

And I love you kids too!

Love, Dad

Best Choice Ever!