I started this a long time ago and never finished. The impetus of this post was bumping into a fellow named Malcolm, who had been in a YSA ward with Miriam.
Malcolm
I went to Walmart to get an oil change a few months back, and started talking to a technician, Malcolm. There was some kind of delay and so I was asking him some questions. He then paused and asked if I knew someone named Miriam with the same last name as mine. Well, of course!
Lori Altice invited the remainder of the Benge Family Singers (or whatever we call ourselves) to perform at the family night for the "Empty Nesters" in the ward: all the couples who no longer have children at home. Everyone here agreed to prepare, even with Rachel being gone a lot. (Thank you, children!)
So, we started to work on some of the things we done in the the past and some things the children were working on. Susie put together a fun little program, roughly sketching out the music trajectory of our family.
On December 21, 2024, the Benge Family hosted the annual Nielson Family Candlelight Dinner at the meetinghouse across the street from our home. Susie had a great idea: treat everyone like a VIP at a dinner show. Susie enlisted our children to do the show and be the staff ... and they were terrific!
We drank "mocktails" and mingled, pre-show,
to background music provided by Josh Larsen (Joshua B.'s friend).
I started this post way back in, if I remember right, late June or early July after the Layton Temple dedication and the beginning of my work there as a temple worker. And now I am watching General Conference on the morning of October 4th, 2024. While watching and listening to the beautiful music (shout-out to Brother Eich, who I just saw singing ☺), and realized I should finish this post! I got started, but distracted.
Prison physician and psychiatrist (and writer that I have enjoyed), pen-named Theodore Dalrymple, said the following:
Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
I think it is true, and thought I would put it here as a reminder amongst what I hope are mostly things more joyous and close to home in this blog.
... and the bartender says, "sorry fellas ... this ain't a granola bar".
That one is courtesy of Enoch, via Amazon Alexa.
I haven't had time to clean up the last of the old home movies, which I really really really want to do. But, in the meantime, I thought y'all should here Esther sing "Almost There" at a concert at the elementary school. Enjoy!
Here are some photos and short videos from our annual Valentine's Day party. Thank you, everyone, for a truly wonderful time!
My Great-Grandma Kate -- Kate Martha Warwood -- married Myron Whiteley in 1910. Grandma Vera was born in 1920. The following video is the only one I remember seeing of her, and it is nice to see them together, too. The end of the video also has my Grandma & Grandpa Walker: Erma (Winn) and Franklin Vernon Walker. There is another video of Grandma and Grandpa Walker visiting our home in 1969, along with four other old videos. Enjoy!
Seven more silent, three-minute Super 8 movies of my family in the 60s & 70s.
I am putting these on my YouTube channel playlist called 1960s & 1970s.
Let's start with the coolest thing first: Esther's car's splendid slo-mo wreck:
Elder Benge helped me get started digitizing some of our family's old Super 8 film, as well as some of the Digital 8 cassettes I have yet to record. So far, I have 12 of the old Super 8 three-minute reels done, spanning 1968 to 1977. There are more to come.
Today, I uploaded all 12 videos to Youtube, and I share them here. Each one has information in the description about the time, who is in them and what is happening, so I won't duplicate that information here.
I also uploaded, as a bonus, part of our Valentine's party in 2008, where we had many wounds (especially Gideon) trying to slay a dragon. (I, the King, just couldn't stop laughing.)
I heard he passed away from a Facebook link from his daughter, but couldn't find an obituary. I remembered to look again this morning and found it, and I am sad to have already missed yesterday's funeral.
... so his parents grounded him. He is currently doing okay and conducting himself properly.
(Badum Bum!)
I heard this as a "dad joke" and that I could ... amp it up.
You probably saw my little Marco Polo post about Lucy and Rachel, and Lucy's participation with Excalibur at the high school. I thought I'd share the performances, in case you are interested. Measure Me, Sky! made me tear up both times I heard it! Thanks to Lucy and Rachel for recording their performances while I ran Joshua to his tournament. I was then able to be there for the Excalibur performance.
This video of NHS's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (with Rachel, Enoch and Esther) apparently only works if signed in with my Google account. But, I think I will keep it here in case we ever want to find it and watch it. I have a copy saved locally.
I started this post weeks ago, as there seemed to be a lot of awesome things happening, and yet a lot of miserable things, too. And I was thinking about how negatively we often view the world or our circumstances. Complaining is natural. But, it may blind us to realize how good life is, and how blessed we are.
Watching Rachel, Enoch and Esther were great in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Bravo!
I've had two friends reach out to me about productions I was in years ago, and I'm thankful they did, as I have something to show!
There are so many rules about publishing things with children, and don't dare say a thing about the other three youth in this lovely quartet, of which Joshua is a part. The microphone on the left had really high reverb and sounded very distant and tinny, so the balance was way off. Still, it sounded good, especially for a junior high group!
