Surviving Childhood

The Burton Reunion this year was held at Canyon View Park in Spanish Fork, Utah. This park is literally located in our stomping grounds as children growing up at the Power Plant. Of course there was no park back then but we had as much fun, or probably more fun than those who now visit the park. The pond where fishing now takes place was where we used to catch frogs and build rafts and pretend that we were Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Nostalgia really sets in whenever I come back here. Thanks, Phil, for choosing Canyon View Park for our reunion this year.

For the program, Phil asked each of us siblings to share a memory of growing up there. As the stories were shared, it became clear to me that it was a miracle we all survived to adulthood. At least four stories that were shared involved danger or a near death experience. We were what would be considered "free range" children in today's lingo and since we lived at a power plant where water is needed to create electricity, we were surrounded by water and danger lurked everywhere!!!

The red brick home we grew up in.

Kent shared a story that took place when he was only about four or five years old and he followed Neal (6-7 years old) and his buddies down to the lower dam area (pictured below) to play. There was a concrete beam that went out over the rushing water and Neal and his friends were taking a risk by walking the beam. Neal cautioned Kent not to try to walk it because he was too young. This made Kent even more determined to give it a try so off he went. It didn't take long for him to lose his balance and fall in. As Kent was carried down stream, he knew he was going to die. He would take a breath whenever possible, but he knew he was headed for certain death. Suddenly, he felt something hit his shoulder and he clung onto it. He then literally felt himself being lifted out of the water by who he lovingly calls his angel. This angel who delivered him from death - no other than his older brother Neal.

Neal's continuation of this story is that after Kent fell in the water, he heard a voice tell him to grab a stick, go down stream, put the stick in the water and wait. He knew for a certainty that he was supposed to do that, so he obeyed. He had no idea where Kent was. He just waited with the stick in the water like he was instructed to do. He was relieved when Kent grabbed onto the stick and he was able to pull him to safety.

Janice shared a story about tagging along with Neal and Kent and our cousin Gerald as they searched for Dad's cow that had gotten loose and was headed up a hilly area where there was lots of sagebrush and rocks. Janice was only about 12 or 13 years old and she was wearing flip flops instead of sturdier shoes for hiking. The boys took off, leaving her behind to climb the hill alone. Slipping, one flip flop fell off her foot and landed right next to where a rattle snake was coiled up under a sagebrush. Janice screamed and the boys came running to find out why she was screaming. She said her leg hurt (probably slightly injured when she slipped). Assuming she had been bitten by the snake, one of the boys (boy scout age...always prepared) pulled out his pocket knife ready to cut her open and try to suck out the venom. She stopped him in time by telling him that she had not been bitten by the snake. I believe the boys kept a better eye on her after that incident.

[This is not the actual snake]

Phil's story took place when he was 23 or 24 years old. Dad asked him if he wanted to do some night work at the power plant. One of his primary tasks was to keep trash, debris, and logs off the screen that went down to the lower power plant. He would put a big metal rake down onto the screens and rake the debris off several times during the night. The water that went through these screens went down a hill for about 100 yards through an eight foot circular tube. If a person were to fall into this, he/she would drown for sure, and others wouldn't know for some time where their body was. Early one morning about 2 a.m. while raking the screen, one of the two metal plates Phil was standing on that was supposed to cover the big hole leading directly to the circular tube gave way and he started to fall down into the water that would lead to certain death. He, fortunately, was able to react quickly by extending his arms to stop the plunge and pull himself to safety. While still shaking from fear and the realization that he nearly lost his life, he placed the metal plate into its proper position and then woke up dad and told him they needed to weld those metal plates into place so they wouldn't slide and allow someone to fall into the water to their death. Phil noticed a couple of years later that it had been fixed and some hinges had been put on it, making it a much safer place to work.

This is where the event took place. Phil was on top of that square cement portion and that was the screen he was raking.

My story consisted of a time when I was about 12 years old and Jane, Patti Mendenhall, and I walked up the spillway to the forebay. We had left our shoes by the road so we could climb easier. After we reached the top, a thunder storm hit and it started raining very hard. We were stuck up there. We couldn't go back down by way of the spillway because it was too slippery and we probably would have been badly injured or even killed. We didn't want to walk the long way via the rough road because of the sharp rocks that could tear up our tender feet. Likewise, we couldn't go straight down the hill because of all the sticker weeds, sagebrush, etc. that would hurt our feet. We didn't know what to do. We remembered that inside the building there was an old crank phone that we could use to call home for help. I grabbed the receiver and proceeded to crank the handle to make the call. Immediately, a volt of electricity went through me and I dropped the phone. This really shook me up. We assumed that lightening must have struck right when I started cranking the phone and my wet feet standing in a puddle of water might have acted as a conduit thus elevating the possibility of being shocked. Having depleted all of our plans for rescuing ourselves, we decided to pray. We had been taught the importance of prayer. We needed Heavenly Father's help. I remember being voice for the prayer and asking Heavenly Father to help us out of this mess we had gotten ourselves into. We knew that our parents were not aware that we were even up there so they would not be coming to look for us. Almost immediately after the prayer ended, the rain stopped. This was a huge blessing, but we were still stranded. As we looked down the hill, we saw Phil walking across the bridge close to where we left our shoes. It was then that we knew Heavenly Father had truly answered our prayer. We whistled really loud to get Phil's attention and yelled for him to bring us our shoes. I believe he was about 5 or 6 years old at the time. Being the good brother that he was, he hauled all six of our shoes up the hill to us. We were so happy that he came to our rescue!!!

The spillway is no longer open as it was 50 years ago so it would be impossible today to climb it or slide down it like we did as children. This is how it looks today. Just imagine an open spillway from just below the bridge at the top to the opening at the bottom.

Jane didn't share this story at the reunion, but there was a time when she had to be rescued from drowning by Kent. She and I had ridden our bikes up to the diversion dam where Kent had a summer job raking the screens. We were about 13 years old at the time. It was a hot summer day so we decided to get into the water. What we didn't know was that the current was stronger than anticipated. Jane got into trouble. The current was sweeping her away from safety toward the water that would spill over the dam. Try as she might, she couldn't fight the current. Kent saw that she was in trouble, dove in, and pulled her to safety. Thank goodness he was around or I could have lost my twin.

The story Neal shared took place when he was 12 years old and had just started Boy Scouts. He was excited to be a scout and was anxiously waiting for mom to take him to his scout meeting. Knowing mom wasn't quite ready to drive him, he told her that he would turn the car around and have it ready to head into town. Mom told him no, but he defied her. After turning the car around, he took his eyes off the road long enough to grab his scout book that was slipping on the seat next to him. This action caused the steering wheel to pull to the right. Unfortunately, he was crossing a bridge at the time. The car went through the rail then fell sideways into the canal. Fortunately, the car was longer than the width of the canal so the car was pinned between the two sides of the cement canal. Because of this, Neal was able to crawl out the driver's side window to safety. He can still hear the scream mom let out while standing on the front porch as she saw the car her 12 year old son was driving go off the road into the canal. I have been curious as to the wonderful conversation that must have taken place between Neal and our parents after that incident. Thank goodness that the circumstances were just right so that Neal survived the accident.

That's all of the near death experiences I can recall right now of the siblings. Seems that Gayle is the only child who didn't try to defy death.  
There are too many stories and not enough time to tell about all the many injuries we received. I will save those for another day. I would like to share, however, that dad had some major accidents while we lived there. One was when he was using a chain saw and the chain broke and sliced into his left upper arm leaving a huge gash. It was a major injury and required about 70 stitches to close it up. He was out of commission for quite a while after that.

Another incident, and his worst injury, was when some hot tar he and another worker were carrying spilled out onto dad and caught his pant legs on fire. Thinking quickly, he was able to douse the fire by jumping into either a snowbank or the canal water (I can't remember which it was), but not before the fire burned him so badly that he had third degree burns on the better part of his lower legs. I remember visiting him in the hospital and seeing how much pain he was in and feeling helpless. I wanted so much to be able to somehow relieve his pain and help him heal. The burned legs were left uncovered for healing and I remember lots of fluids dripping from them onto the bed sheets.

In spite of all these experiences, I would not trade the place we grew up for any other location. We had the best and broadest "playground" than anyone we knew and never lacked for something to do. We would often take off for hours at a time to explore, pretend, and experience life.
After hearing these stories retold at the reunion and pondering our scary near death experiences, I have gained an appreciation for my siblings and the fact that we were able to grow up together without having to attend a funeral for one or more of us. I am grateful that we are all still alive and kicking and can get together once in a while. I guess canal water, rattle snakes, car accidents, and electric shocks couldn't bring us down.  I like to think that we survived all of this because our guardian angels were watching over us. We were allowed to stay on the earth as our missions were not yet complete. I guess we lived so we could have children and grandchildren and bless the lives of many. I am grateful for that. Life is good!