Grandma Beck and "thank goodness for Jasper!"

11/29/09

Grandma and Jasper: The Friendly, Talking,

Saber-tooth Tiger

In 1948 Idaho and Utah had one of the most severe winters ever remembered in the mountain States. It was so cold; however, it was the great quantity of snow that caused the most problems and which even now, 61 years later, people who were alive that year still remember that cold snowy winter and talk about it.

Punkaman and his father, Avery T. Beck, got lost in the snow that year in the New Field, east of Crowleyville, Utah, but that is a different story and must be told on a different occasion. This story is about South-Central Idaho in the little farming community called Filer, Idaho. Filer is west of Twin Falls and is in the Twin Falls County. The County Fair is held in Filer and this is the major attraction for this small city.

Dean and Vyla Call lived in Filer, Idaho in 1948 with their 2 children: Marilyn (age 5) and MarDean (age 3). Dean M. Call was a farmer, and he also worked for the Rogers Seed Company. Vyla was a stay-at-home mom who also did a lot of work outside on the farm in feeding the livestock which included cattle (4 milk cows), sheep, pigs and chickens. In the spring, summer and fall, Vyla and Marilyn would also work in the fields doing the hard work. Even as a 5 year old child, Marilyn could often guide the work horses when they pulled a wagon because Marilyn’s dad could yell “Getty-up” which the horse knew meant to walk and to pull. He would yell “Whoa-there” which would make the horses stop. All Marilyn had to do was hold the leather reins which were like long small ropes going from the horses' bridles which included a metal bit in their mouth. The horses also had leather blinders, which hindered the horses from seeing the driver and whatever loads were put on a wagon or sleigh. So when 5 year old Marilyn held the reins and her dad would talk to the horses, the horses thought that Dean was the driver, since he was the one that gave them their orders. In this way, Dean could walk alongside the wagon and either load or un-load hay or other things. Marilyn liked helping her dad, and it was fun to hold the reins for the horses. Marilyn liked to work, even way back then 61 years ago.

In the winter of 1948 Dean would hook the horses up to a big home-made sleigh which he had made and would haul the milk from their 4 milk cows in big metal silver cans up the hill to the railroad track and down to the main road where a big milk truck could pick up the cans. This was because the farm road to their little farm house was blocked with deep snow. Below is a picture of a horse hooked up to a “one horse open sleigh” which is like the one Grandma had, except her sleigh wasn’t a store bought sleigh like in this picture.

At age 5, Marilyn was a big helper as she sat on the big home-made sleigh holding the reins to the horses. The big work horse stood in the snow hooked on to the sleigh with a harness. In the picture below, you can see a horse hooked up to a sleigh. See how the horse is hocked up and note that there are blinders on his eyes so it is hard for the horse to look back.

Marilyn was happy to be helping her dad, and she sat carefully on the sleigh as her dad loaded the big heavy cans of milk. Even then, she just seemed to know that it was important to work hard and this meant working hard outside and inside for her parents and herself. She did not mind being out in the cold, even if the cold made her nose and her cheeks rosy red.

.BANG, BANG, BANG! Marilyn’s daddy Dean yelled and he yelled loud because he was trying to carry two big cans of milk at once to put on the sleigh, and he tripped upon a rock under the snow and dropped one can on the other making such a load noise! Then one can of milk had the lid come off and about 10 gallons of precious milk was spilled on the ground and that was why Dean yelled. Now he couldn’t sell that milk and the family needed the money!

The big horse jumped! The noise of the cans hitting each other was such a loud thunderous noise to the horse, The horse couldn’t look back at what caused the noise and then when Dean yelled, the poor horse thought he might get a whipping and so when he came down on his feet from jumping at the noise, the horse took off running. Marilyn was standing in the sleigh, but when the horse jumped it jerked the sleigh and Marilyn fell down in the back of the sleigh. She was still holding the reins, and she pulled as hard as she could and yelled as loud as she could to the horse to “Whoa, WHOA, WHOA-THERE”! The poor horse was afraid and terrified and was running and racing even in the deep snow. The horse was so frightened that all it wanted to do was to run away from the fearful noise of the milk cans and the loud yells of Dean.

Marilyn was also frightened for she was fearful that the sleigh would tip over, and she would get hurt, or she was fearful that the horse would run into a barb-wire fence which would cut the horse up pretty bad and maybe it would cut her up as well. Marilyn’s dad was also frightened for his little girl, for the horse and the sleigh for he knew that when a horse gets scared or "spooked" as it is usually called almost nothing will cause a spooked horse to stop running until it is out of energy. He knew this horse had a lot of energy.

Marilyn had heard of Jasper, The Friendly Talking Saber-tooth Tiger, from her cousin Lynn and had told him that she “didn’t believe a tiger could talk.” As the sleigh rocked up, down and forward after the runaway horse she decided she would try the silly thing that Lynn told her to do in order to call for help from Jasper. She didn't know what else to do..................

Sticking her tongue between her fingers she made the strange and peculiar sound: “Whew```plew~~~~~PLEW~~~~~” as the sound and spit came off her tongue, she immediately felt the sleigh slow down, and as she sat up the whole sleigh stopped.

A horse with a harness pulling a sleigh A horse harness is a type of horse tack that allows a horse to pull various horse-drawn vehicles such as a carriage, wagon or sleigh. A harness may also be used to hitch animals to other loads such as a plow or a canal boat.

At first Marilyn thought maybe the horse had broken the harness and run away leaving the sleigh, but as she adjusted her winter cap, she saw the horse had just stopped and was breathing hard with heavy sighs and big blasts of air bursting out from his nose and mouth in the cold winter day. Standing beside the big horse was a huge tiger, almost as big as the horse with two long white Saber-teeth sticking out of his mouth. “Oh my goodness sakes alive, 5 year old Marilyn could hardly believe her eyes. Her cousin Lynn was telling the truth.”

The horse and the tiger were evidently talking with each other. Jasper was talking to the horse and got him to stop and to calm down.

Then Jasper spoke to Marilyn: “Are you okay Marilyn?” asked the huge Tiger. Marilyn didn’t talk; she just nodded her head up and down signaling “YES!”

Marilyn heard her dad running toward her and Jasper quickly said: Marilyn, you know how to call me, please do so whenever you wish. . . And when you are a mother and grandmother, tell your children and grandchildren to call me also.”

Now, I think Marilyn called Jasper several times in her childhood. You’ll have to ask her about those occasions if you want to know about them. . . I just know that some of them are scary………………

Merilee and Jasper

Merilee meets Jasper in a prickly pear bush.

It was summer time in 1967. Cute little Heidi was just a few months old. Mark Andrew had just turned 2 years old a few weeks earlier and Merilee was about 3 ½ years old. She was about the age of Anna, Brinley, Anson, or Tanner. Grandma Marilyn was almost 24 years old (a little younger that Joshibear is right now) and Punkaman was 29 years old, which is almost the same age as Emily is now.

Our family lived in Missoula, Montana in a big old house which the Church owned and had partially remodeled closed to the University of Montana campus. Downstairs was an office for Dad/Punkaman, a small lounge area, and a nice large classroom which could sit almost 80 students. Part of Punkaman’s assignment with CES was to have his family live in the Institute building. Besides the Institute work with the college students, Punka was also assigned to start and maintain early morning Seminaries from Great Falls, Montana and throughout the west-central part of Montana... In this area, the Church had the Kalispell Mission District with many branches and three Stakes: Great Falls, Helena, and Missoula. Besides the Church Education work, sometimes Punka worked at the J.C. Penney Co. selling men’s clothing. Grandma took care of the kids and looked after the Institute work and Institute students when Punka wasn’t around or available which was often.

From the small lounge, there was a swinging door which gave access to the old apartment which had not been remodeled. The apartment had a large old fashioned kitchen, and an old fashioned bathroom with a large old tub. Furthermore, the bathroom door did not lock. The small hall outside the bathroom door could lead you directly to the swinging door into the Institute area if you went west, or if you turned north you could go into a small front room with a small comfortable sofa, one chair, and a small coffee table. There was an outside entrance from this front room. From the hall, you could also turn north and go into a small bedroom with a couple of old dressers, one small clothing closet, and a double bed and a crib for baby Heidi. (At night, we would put Merilee and Mark to sleep in the bed and then when it was time for Punka and Marilyn to go to bed, Merilee and Mark would be moved into the front room to sleep on different ends of the couch.

From the same hall, you could go south into the kitchen, or up steep and narrow stairs to a large upstairs room, and also an enclosed screen porch area. We rented the upstairs bedroom to two young college students: Rob Keltner and Farris Khalill. Rob was an inactive LDS boy from Wyo. and Farris was from Detroit, Mich.

On Sunday, we would have the student LDS Branch meet in the Institute classroom for Sacrament Meeting, and then they would meet in our kitchen, bedroom, and front room for Sunday school classes, and Relief Society meetings.

Almost all our LDS students lived in the dorms, for having come off the farms and ranches in Montana; they seldom could go home on weekends for they lived too far away. Once a month on Fast Sundays, they would miss the one meal served on Sunday at the College luncheon area. Therefore, we had a full meal for about 50 kids each first Sunday, which Marilyn supervised and did most of the cooking.

During the week, students often came over to visit with Marilyn and the kids, often staying after classes to visit and study in the class room or in the lounge often feeling free to go through the swinging door into the apartment to talk with Marilyn, get a drink from the kitchen, or use the bathroom.

Consequently, if the weather was nice, Marilyn and the kids would join me; we would lock our apartment and frequently ride around delivering Church Educational supplies to early morning Seminary teachers and/or see Priesthood Leaders about problems regarding the Seminary programs.

Other times, we would just take the car and ride around, just to get away from the constant press of LDS students wanting attention, to talk and hang out at the Institute. It was such an occasion that we put Merilee and Mark in the back seat of our yellow/brown ford station wagon. It was 1967 and cars were not required to have seat belts. Marilyn held baby Heidi on her lap, and I drove. There are so many pretty places to ride around Missoula: West of Missoula is a federal smoke -jumping school and a number of lovely horse farms. South is the Bitter Root area alongside the beautiful Clarke River named after the Lewis & Clarke Expedition. Many small farms with cattle, sheep, and always horses, even some domestic buffalo could be seen when driving south of Missoula. There are many fishing holes and hiking trails about. In the fall, it is a popular area to hunt deer, elk and occasionally Moose and Bear as it is in most of Western Montana.

It was a Thursday, and number college students were at the Institute building where they would study for their college classes and often they had Friday tests to prepare for. But always they especially seemed to enjoy visiting with their friends and with Marilyn and the kids. We decided to take a little pleasure ride.

Heidi was such a cute baby, most students loved to be with Heidi. She always had a big smile. Merilee was a precocious and bright little girl who loved to talk and the students: both the boys and the girls loved to spend time with her. Mark was pretty quiet, but on occasion he would be engaged with the students, especially if they would read him a book or look at pictures with him. Marilyn was shy in those days, but then it would be an effort, and emotionally draining, to have the University students always in your apartment. Marilyn was not much older than many of our students, and she was younger than some, although she had three little children.

So about 3:30 PM, the three little Beck kids went with Marilyn and Sherman in the car for a little ride. We drove south of Missoula and then off the highway road and on to a gravel/dirt road. We saw some cows and other farm animals, and then we went into the hills and Punka stopped the car along the side of the road while Marilyn changed baby Heidi. Merilee and Mark wanted to get out and play and since there were no cars, we said it was okay. They played for a minute at the base of a little trail, which wound up the small hill next to the road.

“May we hike up this trail?” asked Merilee as she adjusted her little pink sweater that she was wearing. She and Mark started up the crooked and twisted trail before they even got an answer, but maybe they knew that Punka would say: “Sure!” which he did. Marilyn said: “Be careful.” The trail was well used because away from the trail was a heavy growth of prickly pear bushes, and they also had some had red flowers on these sticky plants. Both people and animals would want to avoid getting stuck on these prickly pears and so they would use the trail path.

People and animals made sure they used the trail because they did not want to get stuck by this prickly pear patch for those stickers could hurt.

Up to the trail went Merilee quickly and Mark followed her more slowly. They were so happy to be out of the car. Marilyn was in the car nursing the baby Heidi, and Punka stood by the car looking at the two oldest children walking up the trail and enjoying the sun here on the foot hills south of Missoula.

By now, Merilee had hiked up the trail about 50 yards and Mark was slowly following her and both had big smiles on their faces and were enjoying themselves.

“Merilee" Punka yelled. “That is far enough, please turn around and come back down” was Punkaman’s instructions. Merilee turned around on the trail happy to obey her dad when she stepped on a loose little rock on the trail and down, she fell off the trail and into a huge prickly pear patch. “OH HELP ME! OUCH,OUCH, OUCH!” she yelled and into the sticky prickly pear bushes she went. She landed right in the middle of the prickly pear bushes and her sweater and clothing was caught in the stickers. Some of the stickers were also sticking into her skin.

“Please, Help” yelled Merilee. “Oh my goodness……………..” said Marilyn as Punka ran up the trail wondering how he could get into the patch of prickly pears and save his eldest daughter. Then in the middle of Merilee’s screams of pain and hurt, Punka was about half way up the trail, when he saw and heard Merilee put her fingers over her mouth and made the Jasper sound: “Plew~~~~PLEW~~~~PLEW~~~~~” Merilee’s little face was sad with tears because the prickly pears' stickers were hurting her so much. Then before Punka could get all the way up to the trail from where Merilee had fallen off into the prickly bushes, a flash of yellow and brown ran down the trail from above and jumped right into the prickly pear bushes, gathering up Merilee with one scoop in his big two front teeth. It was Jasper! Jasper picked up Merilee just like he did Princess Sari long long ago in the jungle so that the elephant foot would not mash her. His big fangs picked up Merilee by her clothing and did not touch her skin at all.

Merilee was so surprised and happy that she stopped crying even though some stickers were still in her clothing and some stickers still stuck in her skin. Jasper jumped out of the prickly pear patch and his skin was so thick that the stickers didn’t even stick him or hurt him in any way.

Jasper jumped back on the trail and ran right past Punka and Mark, who were on the trail and put Merilee on the hood of our car at the bottom of the trail. He smiled at Marilyn and then winked at Mark and Punka and said something to Merilee, and then he was gone in a flash.

By the time that Punka got down to the car, Marilyn had put baby Heidi on the car seat and was around Merilee soothing her and telling her everything would be okay. Punka got to the car and gave Merilee a big hug, and she frowned and said: “Daddy don’t.” Marilyn said: “Sherman, there are still stickers in her skin and you are hurting her.” And then Marilyn carefully removed Merilee’s clothing except her panties and sure enough, there were about 10 stickers still in Merilee’s skin. Marilyn held her tight while Punka pulled the stickers out. It was hard to pull some of them out because they were in so deep in her skin, but Merilee was brave and Punka was strong. Marilyn was loving and Mark Andrew was amazed.

When all the stickers were out and Merilee was in her mother’s arms, Punka asked Merilee “What did Jasper say to you?” Merilee said: “He told me to be brave when he first jumped into the prickly pear patch” and then when he put me on the car hood he said: “Merilee, you will be okay now because your mom will take care of you, but always call me if you need me. ”

Later when we got home, Marilyn and Punka was talking the situation and Marilyn said that she did not know that Merilee knew about Jasper and how to call him. Marilyn asked Punka if he had told Merilee about Jasper the Friendly Talking Saber-tooth Tiger. Punka said:”no, he did not”, and then Marilyn wondered how Merilee found out….

Neither Merilee’s mom nor dad knows how she was smart enough to call Jasper; if you want to know the answer you will have to ask Merilee herself. The only thing that Marilyn, Sherman, Mark and baby Heidi knows for sure about that day is that they are happy Jasper came and helped Merilee out of a STICKY SITUATION BECAUSE SHE WAS REALLY STUCK.

The end………………………………… 11-22-09

(The next story is how Jasper saved Mark when the Beck family lived in Tempe, Arizona and Mark was abandoned at a big Kentucky Fried Chicken Store. ”Oh my, what would the Beck family do without Jasper?”) Oh yes….. and then Heidi Jo in the White Mountains in Arizona and wait until you hear about the 4 year old Michael Aaron on a Mexican beach with a 4 year old Mexican beauty princess………………..Thank goodness for Jasper……………………………..