Farnsworth Family Memoirs: Happy Birthday, Grandpa Farns!

Happy Birthday to Grandpa Farnsworth today! He would have been 80 years old!

Something cool from the Book of Mormon is when the Savior visits America after His resurrection, some of His apostles ask Him that after they have lived to the "age of man" that they can return speedily to be with Christ in His kingdom.

This is how the Savior responds in 3 Nephi 28:3 "And he said unto them: Blessed are ye because ye desired this thing of me; therefore, after that ye are

seventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom; and with me ye shall find rest."

Grandpa Farns was 72 years old when he passed away. When he was first diagnosed with cancer and knew that it probably wouldn't get better, the first thing he said was, "I get to meet my Savior."

Grandpa was a great example of someone who believed in Jesus Christ and was a true disciple.

He lived a life of service and was always quick to notice a job that needed to be done (whether at home or for someone in the family or for a neighbor) and was there to help and get the job done well.

I heard back from a lot of you and it has been so much fun to hear all the memories you have about Grandpa! So here we go!

This picture is from David Salofi.

Grandpa was holding Baby Loafie and getting in a little nap himself.

These are just a couple of pictures from Grandma and Grandpa's mission to Boston.

During their mission we got a letter or an email from Grandpa. He told us that one day he had been working on a project for someone and was in his grubby clothes and hadn't shaved or cleaned up but someone they knew needed a ride to the hospital.

So Grandma and Grandpa got their friend and drove to the hospital. Grandma went back with their friend and was gone for a while so Grandpa sat in the waiting room and started dozing off.

He was woken up a little while later by the security guard, who was asking him to leave. Apparently in Boston they get a lot of homeless people who find a spot to rest in the waiting room and because of Grandpa's grubby attire he was mistaken as a homeless guy just looking for a quite place to rest. :)

Grandma and Grandpa always got the family together for all kinds of fun things. The next few pictures are from the Christmas when they took the family to Utah and we went to Hogle Zoo and ended the day at "This is the Place Heritage Park".

This is Grandma and Grandpa with Dave and Hali getting some frozen custard.

Remember when Grandpa memorized the garbage truck routes on their mission and would go out before the garbage trucks came and pick out anything that was being thrown away but still looked useful? He came home with an entire trailer full of things that he'd accumulated during their mission.

Just getting some chores done on the Farm.

This is a memory from Shelle:

"I remember Dad Farnsworth always helping us remodel, it seems like, every house we lived in. He was always willing to serve others and help his family. I love and miss him very much.

I also remember him doing the... oh dadoot doot dancing with the little Grandkids like puppets. They loved it."

Grandpa was always helping people with home projects!

This is from Malia:

"I don't really have a specific memory with grandpa, but some general memories are playing/ hanging out in the shop with him, building little things with him, how he always stuck his tongue out to one side whenever he was working, and, of course, train rides/ sitting on his lap while driving the train. Oh, and how he would always slobber from laughing so hard while telling / reading jokes!"

Here's one from Ron:

"One of my favorite childhood memories of my dad is going to his shop at Robert Stuart Junior High School. Often times it was to help him with projects he was working on like sanding and staining furniture he was making but he always taught me how and gave me time to use the other tools. One of my favorite tools to use was the lathe. I liked to take a scrap 4x4 and turn it into a miniature baseball bat.

These trips to his shop typically included time to go to the school gym to shoot a basketball, jump on the trampoline, get candy from the vending machine and sometimes Mom would stop by with a bucket of KFC chicken.

Many years later when I had opportunities to visit dad at the district office he enjoyed introducing me to his colleagues then we would go to Burger King to get hamburgers. Dad loved whopper juniors! Another stop we would sometimes make was Steve's Shakeout to get peanut butter and banana milkshakes.

I'm so grateful for my dad and the things he taught me, the fun times we had together, and the love he showed to our family. I miss him and wish he was here to celebrate his 80th birthday! Hope you all get to enjoy a plate of hamburger and beans and a warm piece of peanut butter cake for dessert."

This is from Maddie:

"It’s hard to choose a favorite story with Grandpa but one that I cherish is how it took me a few years to understand what he meant when I would say “see ya later” and he would reply “thanks for the warning!” Hahaha!"

This is one that Ian sent and I definitely agree with! ;)

Ian: "When he introduced The Standards to your birthday party."

That was a magical birthday made possible by Grandma and Grandpa!

Grandpa with baby Cody Goff during Brad and Heather's wedding reception.

Grandma and Grandpa were always so supportive of their grandkids. They made it to all kinds of dance recitals, ball games, concerts, baptisms...

These are some poems Grandpa sent to us while he was on the mission in Boston.

This is from Dillon:

"Once I was out in the pasture up across from the swimming pool chasing Aunt Shelle’s goats around and just not being nice to them. Grandpa walked by and saw me and yelled at me: “Get your a%# outta there!” I got out and Grandpa talked to me. “I don’t think Aunt Shelle gave you permission to be chasing her goats around.” I went home after that. Later in the day Grandpa came over and talked to me. We sat on the step on our patio and he told me he was sorry for swearing at me and if he ever did again he would give me 50 bucks."

** I asked Dillon if he ever ended up making 50 bucks and he told me,

"He swore at me later on but I think he had forgotten his deal because it was a while later. I remembered but I didn’t say anything 😂😂"

Grandpa was a great bass tub player! One summer while David and I were staying with Grandma and Grandpa we went downstairs to watch a practice session of "The Rim Rock Balladeers". During one of their more lively tunes, Grandpa was dancing and plunking away hard on his bass and the string snapped. It threw off his balance and he took off on a horizontal head-long run trying not to land flat on his face.

None of the guys in the band seemed to notice but once he got his feet under him, he looked around and noticed David and I across the room silently laughing. He got a huge grin on his face before he resumed his place with the band.

David and I and sometimes Kelani and Malia used to go spend several days at the Farm every summer. It was like taking a little break and having some time in paradise.

I always remember waking up in the basement and hearing Grandpa's heavy footsteps across the upstairs floor. It was also normal to hear his booming voice calling out, "Ginger?" during some point of the morning when he was trying to find Grandma.

This one is from Heather:

"My memory of grandpa is when he “pissed a squeach”

There were peaches on the ground around the tree and he went to say that he squished a peach, but it came out wrong!😂"

This is Jana's:

"Grandpa would say prayers when we would come visit and always get confused and say, “We’re glad we could see Jan and Ronna - Ronna and Jan...”

Grandpa was famous for mixing up words without meaning to. He gave us classics like watching "Peter Potter" (Harry Potter) or the movie "Saving Ryan's Privates" (Saving Private Ryan).

I also heard from someone that he was known to say, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

Kelani shared this memory:

"I also remember one time when him and Grandma stopped by after the temple when they worked at the Boise temple and Grandpa was holding one of my toy baby dolls and did the “ra ra ree, kick him in the knee! Ra ra, rass! Kick him in the other knee!” With my doll’s legs. Haha!"

Another story Kelani wanted to share was from the winter before Grandpa passed away. He was out in his shop fixing a ping-pong table and Kelani and I walked down to see him. He had half of the table upside down so that he could tighten the legs on it.

While we were with him he had us take some rags and clean off the dust that had gotten all over the table.

He was drilling something and Kitty Kins the cat jumped up on the table and kept getting in his way. Pretty soon he grabbed her, set her outside the door, closed it and came back over.

"Now watch this," he told us, "She'll come right back in through that hole over there." There was a little opening on the other side by the big garage door.

Sure enough, she was back in soon and right back in his face as he was trying to work. He took her back to the main door, and repeated the whole pattern.

We caught on pretty quick that this was a little game Grandpa and Kitty Kins played on a regular basis.

At one point she was rubbing herself all over Grandpa, trying to get him to pet her. An idea struck him and he grabbed her with her front legs together in one hand, her back legs together in his other hand, and he folded her around the leg of the ping-pong table and started dusting it off with her.

Kelani and I laughed so hard!

These are from Keith:

"There are lots of fun and funny stories about dad. But I ended up thinking of a time when we went to a Saturday Priesthood session, maybe stake? Anyway I was probably about 13 and you know how excited a 13 year old old would be about sitting in a chapel on a Saturday night, in church clothes, for 2 hours! So I was resting my head on my hands, face pointed down. Part way through the meeting dad put his hand on my shoulder. I knew he loved me. I am grateful for all the meetings, home teaching, service project dad had me go to. Certainly would not have done those things on my own accord. He was/is an excellent person for helping all his children through example."

"I was thinking of dad the other day when I saw some field mice. This was probably in 2011. We we moving some wood, long boards, and when we got to the last few that were touching the ground we noticed that mice would be under the boards and would run when we lifted the board. So on the last board dad says, wait a minute. Then he goes and gets one of the farm cats. He is restraining the cat on the ground while I lift the last board. How could this go wrong? Cat+mice=good entertainment. The moment of truth arrives, I lift the board, 3 or 4 mice scurry in different directions. Dad lets go of the cat, cat walks off totally uninterested in mice dinner. Dad raises both hands in the air and say "dammit"! Of course I was the only one laughing. He was probably less disappointed when he found out Santa isn't real than on the day, the cat didn't care!"

Grandma and Grandpa were able to be involved with the events surrounding the dedication of the Twin Falls temple in 2008. We were there with them the day it was dedicated and we couldn't keep Grandpa off the golf carts! It wouldn't have been so bad, except we all know how Grandpa liked to drive...

You could always count on Grandma and Grandpa to be there for big or not-so-big events in the family. They just tried to make everyone a priority no matter what was going on.

Grandpa was called as a Temple Sealer in 2008 during the dedication of the Twin temple.

He was able to seal Becky's family, Liz and Jacob, and Ben and Kim during his time as a sealer.

Grandpa watching out the window of the airport, waiting for the plane to land that was bringing Ben home from his mission in Argentina.

Grandpa's famous version of "The Night Before Christmas".

From Mo:

"I remember his fun shelf of collectibles and odd little nick-nacks he had in his office. I remember he drank pickle juice which I love to drink pickle juice too, and he always complimented me when I played the piano. I felt very proud."

It's true - I remember opening the fridge at the Farm and finding a jar of shriveled up, dry, home-canned pickles sitting there without any juice left in it.

The night of the viewing for Grandpa's funeral, after the viewing was over, a bunch of us went to Dairy Queen in memory of Grandpa. He was well-known in the family for his love of the Butterfinger Blizzard there, and especially for taking members of the family there for a treat.

There was a big group of us and things got kind of hectic as we tried to get the order right for everyone.

But as soon as the order came and everyone had their treats, we discovered there was one leftover, an un-claimed Butterfinger Blizzard left. I think I know who it belonged to. :)