Vignette about Grandpa Parent

Uncle Vernon Parent sent this small snippet about Grandpa Joseph A Parent's life:  

Growing up dad would explained to me when others had treated him without integrity, and explain his firm understanding that no one could mistreat a man who honored his priesthood and not face divine corrective action.  Later when the individual would reap his reward, dad  would point out to the inevitable consequence of the individuals less than honorable actions.  It made an indelible impression on me, and I have striven to follow the example of my father.

Dad was only 58 when he moved to Crescent City, California, and from his youth he had cut and fashioned timber  products, so he may have had thoughts of following his uncles into the logging  industry, but many years of long hours tending his hardware store, developing severe veracious veins, and his more recent months of infections and total sick bed confinement, left him unable to venture out into the rough activity of the woods, so dad had to settle for a job in the Crescent City plywood mills.

After suffering allergic reactions for an extended time interval in the mills, he was finally incapacitated and sent to San Francisco for testing, which revealed that he was allergic to almost everything in the plywood mill, from the glues to the wood dust etc.  He was promptly fired from his job.  With a wife and six children still at home dad was in extreme need of a job when he took a job as a night watchman at a local mill.  The dad's supervisor knowing of dad's need for his job, and sensing a vulnerability put the squeeze on dad suggesting that his job depended on a his maintaining a good reputation, to keep his night watchman's job, which would be true if he would supply the supervisor a bottle of liquor a week that he then would be assured of a good report.  Dad was insulted that the man would even think to destroy his integrity, and told the supervisor as much in a polite way.  Needless to say the man soon claimed to find dad asleep on the job and fired him.  Dad's family experienced some hardships because of dad's integrity, but the family quickly adapted, while the supervisor  was himself soon laid off and did not prosper!

Parent Family - Move from UT to CA, 1952

My uncle, Vernon Parent - August, 1952 when the Parent family moved from Vernal, UT to Crescent City, CA

J. A. Parent Family, October 1959

Note from my Uncle Vernon Parent, written December 11, 2006:

Looking for unused Christmas cards I found this photo of myself, ready to depart with our Parent family and all our belongings for California, August 1952. As you can see we traveled in a 1941 6 cylinder ton-and-a-half truck that Joseph and I bought for $15 at a junk yard in Ogden, UT. Not as seen of course, for the bed and aluminum top was from a similar truck that we purchased for $25 with no motor. I guess we should add the cost of the large mill file for $3.50, and $0.70 package of plastigage we used to file down the connecting-rods so we could get the motor quiet enough to run properly, plus motor oil and gas. The sides are made from flooring removed from the old Baize building (Our current 136 Vernal Avenue property) that Dad wanted for the house he was building in Crescent City, CA. 

The cab over hang was filled with remaining used tires and wheels from the second truck, along with hydraulic jack and tools for emergencies. The truck operation was truly a miracle, as it got the impossible mileage of 21 miles to the gallon, and it didn't expire until we reached the hill above Crescent City. The towing charge from there to our lot, was more than we had invested in the truck, so we pushed the truck to the edge of the hill, and we coasted down to the edge of town, where we used a chain from the 1946 Dodge Coupe to pull it onto our 735 Eldorado Street lot. One of the rear tires, had developed a bump such that it wore the lug bolt holes oblong and partially wore through the lug bolts, and the motor connecting rods finally gave out a mere 5 miles from town. We had bicycles and other items wired to the sides (Okie style), and saved room between the mattresses and aluminum shell top to sleep in comfort at night. We used the truck to store items in, while we boys slept in the same 6 man tent we had used in our logging expedition up on the Uintah National Forest, when Joseph and I logged the dry timber and green lumber for our 155 West 100 North, Vernal, Utah, home. Dad finally gave the truck away and it was used for many additional years by a Crescent City, CA, local handy man.

Parent Family and more - Crescent City 1966

This photo was taken in Crescent City, California, on 7 September 1966. It includes the Joseph Anthony Parent family with Mary Porteous, Aunt Vesta, Aunt Leota, and Aunt Geneva.

Ed and Vernon are on the back row. Mary Porteous, Vesta Boyer, Lila Bringhurst, Joseph A. Parent, Margo Bringhurst, Dorthea Parent, Valoie Sax, Marilyn Peterson, Leota Lewis, and Geneva Gilbert are the middle row.  Mary's son and DeWayne Parent make up the front row.  

(My dad, Edward, was 25 in this photo and married my mom about 9 months later!)

Joseph Parent Family Photos from Crescent City, CA

October 1959

Keller Street house under construction.

Grandparents with Bringhurst children

Grandma Parent cooking in the Keller St. home.