[first pass LKA]
[Matheson collection / Simon Alva Matheson / LaKay's My Dad_0002 ]
     We were never rich, but I never remember being in need.  We grew
vegetables in the garden, raised rabbits, and a dogey lamb Uncle Rass
brought in from his ranch across the desert provided a playmate for us
during the Summer, and meet on the table during the Winter.  Milk came
from one of a succession of "Brownies" which Dad milked and cared for.
At least one was so well-trained she would come running to the gate when
she heard Dad approaching with the milk bucket.  And there was usually a
cat (which Dad considered a stray, but we girls thought was ours) on
hand to catch the stream of milk Dad would aim their way.  One of our
Brownies was so gentle we girls could ride on her back, and that was
great fun.  When she fondered on early Spring grass and bloated, she was
butchered and the meat put in our freezer locker, but none of us could
sit down to a meal which included beef without asking "Is this Brownie?"
So I think the meat was eventually given to one of the Uncles.  

Dad always had time for us.  One year he built an entertainment
center for us on the small lot east of the house.  It included a
telephone pole swing, bars, a merry-go-round, and maybe a slide.  It was
great fun, and all of the neighborhood kids enjoyed it with us.  I
wonder now if part of his reason for building it was not to try to get
me more socially involved with the other kids.  I was always very shy,
and a total book-worm, and it was very hard for me to relate to the
others,  We all enjoyed this equipment for a couple of years, until kids
from all over town started showing up to use it,  sometimes quite late at
night, and the folks became worried about the liability if someone got hurt
 there.  Then it was taken down.

     Dad will always be tied in my mind with the great our-of-doors.  He
loved nature, and the mountains.  For many years he was not active in
the church as far as attending meetings went.  He said that he could
worship much better in God's great Cathedral.  He never objected when
Mom went and took us kids, except that he would have liked to have us
with him on his excursions, and sometimes we went.  I always said I had
never traveled (except for one trip to the San Francisco World's Fair in
1838 and a couple of visits to Wyoming when Grandma Barnson lived there)
Outside of 50 miles from Cedar City, but I knew the area near-by better
than any of the kids.

Dad was an excellent hunter.  Not that he enjoyed killing anything,
but he had the knowledge and intelligence to always get his deer.  In
the Fall in Utah,  the deer hunt is the big thing.  Al of Dad's brothers
and their sons and other relatives would gather together and make up a
party to go hunting.  They always came home with their full limit, but
Dad usually had filled up far more than his won tag.  He had the
patience to sit and study the figure our what the deer would do.  He
would go into the area and scout it out and figure out where the most
likely hiding places were, then sit and watch them until the other
hunters tramping all over the place would scare them out,  and he could
 pick them off.  I don't think some of them ever figured out how Dad got
so many, and came back to camp the least tired of all of them.  He may
have told them, but few people have the patience to do it Dad's way.

Dad's life was never easy.  He has always had health problems, with
a bad back, and a very touchy stomach.  But I  have rarely heard him