Posts by Calvert F Cazier, PhD, MPH
What was Dad Thinking?
In 1939 my father was starting his senior year at Star Valley High School when he had the brilliant (or perhaps bizarre) idea. He decided he was going to sleep outside in a tent all winter. He grew up on a farm in Afton, Wyoming where it was not uncommon for the winter temperature…
Read MoreLittle Sister Meets The Mouse
I remember hearing that the best way to catch a mouse was to shine a light in its eyes, which would paralyze the critter thus making it easy capture. Supposedly, this was more efficient than a mousetrap. One night my parents went out for the evening leaving my sisters and I home by ourselves.…
Read MoreThe Six-Year Old Hero
In October, 1926 a terrible accident occurred which changed the lives of the entire Call family. On this particular day the mother, Ann, was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Little Lois, not quite two years old, came in for a drink of water. Her mom was busy and didn’t see her standing on her…
Read MoreSitting At Grandma’s Feet
I loved visiting Grandma Call and listening to her stories. I will share a few things I learned at her feet. She painted a picture in my mind of her father flooding the pasture every winter to make an ice skating pond for her family and friends. I felt I was there when she…
Read More“Live to Live or Live to Die” –The Jed Nield Story
Jed Nield is a man who has earned my respect. He is a rodeo competitor (a team roper), a father of four children, and manager of a 13,000-acre ranch in Idaho. Why is Jed so impressive to me? After all he is not the only person with these attributes, and in fact there are…
Read MoreMilk Buckets Are For Milk, Not Rocks
Dr. Worthen was the country doctor who operated on my elbow after I fell off a horse and dislocated it. When he took off the cast he suggested to my grandmother that I carry a milk bucket full of rocks around the farm. He explained this would help straighten my arm. The torture began as…
Read MoreThe Snowshoe Hike
When I was younger I was a boy scout, and I have positive, fun filled memories as well as memories of drudgery and mental torture. I learned from both. My most vivid scouting memory occurred when I was 16 or 17 on an overnight snowshoe hike to a cabin belonging to an uncle of one…
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