Vern Dale Stocking AKA Vern Daddy Papa
Childhood and family
On March 3, 1927 Vern
Dale Stocking was born to Burdette Ruben and Mary Frances in Hayburn, Minadoka
County, Idaho. He grew up in the lower Snake River Valley, which he said was
also called the Magic Valley for its fertile land, some of the best farm land
around, great for growing potatoes, sugar beets, and beans. When asked how was
his life as he grew up he responded that, " he never grew up but he would
just get older" .
To help him just get
older he had four brother and three sister. Winona, Utana, J.A., Lamoyne,
Eileen, Doyle, and Earl. From the time he was six he and his family lived
across from the Snake River where they were able to climb through the trees and
bushes without ever having to touch the ground below. In the Spring and Summer
they learned how to swim and in the Winter they learned how to ice skate all on
the Snake River. Sometimes to brag with
friends he and his brothers would go swimming before Easter. One year a friend,
his brother J.A. and he decided to go a couple weeks before Easter, much sooner
than they ever had before, but they didn't brag about it this time in fear that
their parents would find out.
First
time to Soda Spring he was 12 and they went to get a load of sheep. They
stopped in McAmmon it was the first time he had eaten in a restaurant, 4 years
later they started to take cattle through Soda Spring to some cousins who lived
near Blackfoot. He never liked the
soda water at Soda Springs but for some reason he always felt like he should
drink it.
Baptized in a Lateral, a large irrigation ditch because they didn't have
baptismal fonts at the time there were four or five others baptized the same
day.
Living on right on the
Snake River meant there were a lot of magpies around, the magpies would get on
the sheep and start to peck at the sheep and would keep pecking till the sheep
was dead. Because of what the magpies would do Papa and his brothers waged war
on the birds. One day they found a nest high in a tree so his brother decided
to climb the tree and set it on fire, but he could not climb down fast enough
and ended up having falling parts of the nest hit him on his way down.
His parents were very
kind and considerate but also strict when needed. When asked how often did he
get in trouble he said "only once or twice a day" then went on to
tell about one day he and J.A. got into a fist fight to which they got
a good licking for. Most of his childhood was spent during the depression so
they had no money but his parents always made sure that they had plenty to eat,
which was easier because they were farmers, and plenty of love. Because of the
love they had they did not suffer as much as others, he described it by saying
that "they learned to be happy with what they had and never really felt
like they needed more." His father still made sure they had manners and
respect to those around them by teaching them to always be cheerful to those
they met and always say good morning to others. His parents where the kind of
people who always paid their due debts. At one time one of the children got
sick so they had to go to the drug store to get medicine, but they did not have
the money, two cents, in order to get the medicine. The owner of the store let
them get the medicine with the promise from them to pay off the debt. A few
months later the family was in two and needed flour but only had two cents, so
instead of getting the needed flour his parents went and paid off the debt that
they owner feared would never be paid. Then the family went home without the
flour or any money. But his parents still found a way to provide for the
family. At times people would be driving
on the road they lived on and end up getting stuck in the mud, not being able
to get out the people would go to the closest house which was Papa's. No matter
the time of day his father would always go get a team of horses together and
pull the cars out of the mud. One time after helping a man out the man turned
to his father and handed him a bill for this help. Once he got home and in the
light he pulled the bill out to find that it was a $20 bill and not a $1 which
he thought it was.
His teenage years were
spent in the area called View, previously called Mountain View. They lived
about 12 miles from the river , and one day his father wanted him and J.A. to
take the cattle from the river to an area that is six miles from Burley. Their
father gave them the directions and they were on their way. But because they
were not used to the canals in that area they ended up far past the area they
were meant to be. Their father ended up finding them in the city of View and
eventually they got the cattle where they were supposed to go, but instead of
getting their at two in the afternoon they got there at eight at night.
School
He was never one for
school, he would rather be outside doing things instead of staying inside coped
up. He learned to read, write, and his numbers
that's all that mattered to him. The first school he went to was a two room
building with 6 students in total. Later when they moved to Springdale which is
about 4 miles away from Declo. There he upgraded to a four room school building
with about 50-60 students. To get to school some days they would hook a welsh
pony to either a bugee or a sled depending whether it was summer or winter.
While on the way home from school one day Papa and two of his siblings
were riding the welsh pony past a solid row of black walnut trees. Something in
the bushes ended up scaring the pony making him side step. From the side step
the three of them fell of the pony landing in the same sitting positions as
they were when they were sitting on the horse. The only thing he got out of
high school was the ability to weld which he later took and got a job from.
Military
When he was 17 years old
World War II was happening and instead of being drafted into one of the
branches of the military he enlisted into the navy. In World War II men were on
a reserve status which meant they stayed a duration of 6 months after war, but instead he was there
for a duration of a year. With that year he was in the navy for a total of 16
months. most of his time was spent on a
ship of some kind. Right before the atom bomb was set off he was on a ship
ready to invade Japan through the coast line, but because the bomb ended the
war the ship landed at a dock instead. During the time before and after that he
worked in the machine shop on board. The ships would unload in Japan then head
back to the Philippines. There they would transfer to a smaller ship to head
back to the states where he was transferred to APA then back to the Philippines to bring troops back through the
Panama Canal to Norfolk. They took a train from Norfolk back to the west coast.
The special thing about the train ride was the fact that they never had to get
off the train and switch instead their car was just put with another train and continued
on. Once out of the military he went home where he farmed with his father in
Gannet.
Mission
He went on to serve a
mission in Hawaii. Back then he said it was much more village like and less
city. Also it was one of the few missions where they were able to go swimming.
HIs very first companion was a Samoan man who he is still in contact with
today. Unlike most missions where they would go out and find non members and
baptize them his was spent finding inactive members, which there were a lot of
because of the war. Most of the in actives they found were either Polynesian of
Japanese. While out him and his companions tried to learn the Hawaiian and
Japanese languages but every time they tried the people would just answer them
back in english.
life after mission
He returned to his
father's farm in Gannett but it was a different farm than they were used to. he
ended up being a lot more busy working on the farm than he was used to. He was
still active in the church do the things that he was supposed to do but with
the amount of work on the farm and trying to get callings done in church he was
too he could not find time to study in which lead him to lose his testimony for
a time. (while telling this he added "don't worry I got it back").
During that time he
learned a story about one of his social studies teachers at Burley High School.
She had won an essay contest about a Sifer in The Snow. It's was about a boy
she had known of. The boy was treated like nothing so later he believed him
nothing leading to his sudden death when he all of the sudden fell into the
snow dead. Papa was 25 when he saw her next and she would not admit that he was
her student because, according to him, she did
not want to admit to her age.
He worked on the farm
with his father for the next 6 years, and during that time he would go to
California to find work in the Winter.
Courtship with Nana
During one of the times
he was down in California he met Marcia Hillam (Nana), who later became his
wife. They meet at a priesthood meeting where the men were supposed to either
bring their wife or a date. Papa came with another girl and Nana was set up
with one of his friends. Even though she was his friends date he called her up
and they ended up going out to lunch that Sunday afternoon. She later told him
how when she got home that day she went to her mother and told her that she had
just met the man she was going to marry. From that day they spend time together
in between his work. Two or three weeks later they were engaged. For his
proposal he took a deer tag that he was not able to use for a deer in hunting and punched out one of
the E's and turned it into an A so it read "DEAR" instead of
"DEER", and when she said yes he put the tag around her wrist. She
wore it for a while until she had to go back to school. He then took her to
Ferndale, a little park in Los Angeles where he "officially" proposed
to her with an actual ring. A few weeks
later he had to head back to Idaho to work on the farm so during the time in
between then and the wedding Nana and her mother went and visited during the
Summer.
Marriage and life
They were married on
November 16, 1956 in the Los Angeles temple. (a year after it was dedicated,
Nana was a part of the choir that sang at the dedication). Nana would joke
about when they first met by saying how the guy that she went on the date with
for the priesthood meeting ended up excommunicated for things he had done and
she went off and got married in the temple.
At the wedding papa's
best friend, Merle, came down where he met Nana's sister, Elsie May, who he
ended up getting married to later. So
his best friend became his brother-in-law, making his relationship with his
in-laws easier.
After getting married
they moved up to Idaho where they took over his father's farm in Gannet. They
were not prepared for that and their crop failed within the first year. While
living at that farm Nana and Papa had their first child, Gladysue, she was born
in 1959 on Baseline Road in Gannet. When Nana started to go into labor Papa
took her to the hospital and got her all checked in then he went home to milk
the cows because he had not arranged anyone to come and do that for them. By
the time he returned Gladysue was born, cleaned up, and Nana was back in her
room. With his first child he learned that the reason why we have children is
to educate us.
Even though they were
faced with that trouble they picked themselves up and ended up moving to
Hailey. While in Hailey they were able to live in a house on the church grounds
which took care of that expense that they would have had to take care if not
for that help. During that time he was looking for work. A man who had worked
on the ski lifts up at Sunvalley and a man who had just had some sheep with
lambs both died that year, giving Papa both of those jobs to help them through
that time in their life in Hailey. Most of his time was taken us because of
those two new jobs. He would sleep for an hour then watch the sheep then sleep
some more until his shift was over. After the sheep he would go to Sunvalley to
work at the ski resort from 8 am - 2 pm. Because they worked during lunch it
was provided for them. In order to save some money he would take the bananas
from the lunch home for Nana to mash up to feed Gladysue.
After sometime they were
able to by a 25 acre farm in Hailey. He loved that farm . There they grew hay
and grain, and had about four cows that they milked and sold the milk. It was a
nice little homey place to call their own. (If they still owned that farm today
they would be neighbors with many famous actors) While living on that farm Nana
and Papa had their second child, Patty. Yet again Papa missed the birth of one
of his children. This time he was at work and when he came home there was another
baby girl. As much as they loved the little farm, in 1960 Papa was offered a job for the Cache Valley
Breeding association which took them to Meridian.
They lived there for
about three years during which they had their third and last child, Karen. At
that time Papa only got ten days off of work and because Nana wanted to go and
visit her parents he did not make any arrangements to take a day off for when
Karen was born thus with all of his children he was gone for the births. Later
when he told Nana about why he did not take the day off she told him that it
was a lame excuse.
After six year of living
in Idaho they left and moved to California. Papa was guaranteed a welding job,
the same job that he had when he met Nana.
California
Nana was never a fan of
the snow to which Papa responded that if green was the best color angels would
wear green instead of white. But in the end she won and they came to
California.
Always being a country
boy moving to California was difficult for Papa. He was not used to the city.
He preferred the country life and farming but he loved supporting his family
more.
At first they lived in Panorama City (2 years) then later moved to Van
Nuys (still Panorama City) that was where they spent the main part of their
family and raised their children.
When his youngest
daughter was in 5th grade her school had a farm which Papa worked on. That year
the school had to get rid of the farm, homes were found for all the animals
except for a three legged goat, so they took her in. Papa made a little pin for
her and took care of her. As she started to grow up when she would go to butt
someone she would run up lean on you then butt you with her head.
Every summer the family
would go up to Idaho and stay with his parents. That way he was able to escape
the city life and get back to the country.
Between 1980-1992 Nana
and Papa had seven grand children. In order they had Aaron, Patty's son, Kevin
and Spencer from Karen, Wesley from Gladysue, Jessica from Karen, Melanie from
Gladysue, and finally Dianne from Karen.
Years later they moved
in with their youngest daughter, Karen, and her family in Palmdale, California.
Because of that decision they were able to be a part of their grandchildren's
lives. Throughout that time they went on may trips across the United States
each time bringing little trinkets back for the grandchildren. On random trips to the grocery store he would
get little treats like gummy bears for the children.
During the majority of
his life he took care of his wife. One of the reasons why they moved in with
their daughter Karen was because of Nana's health. Papa could take care of her
on his own but it helped a lot to have others there to help as well.
As time went by he has
started to slow down and it moved from him helping to take care of his children
and grandchildren to his children and grandchildren taking care of him. Though
he could not move around as much as he could before he would still find ways to
help. Once Nana past away he turned his service to helping those in the ward.
If there was ever a girl who could not afford to go to prom he would pay for
them. Or if a member was out of work he would ask them to do little jobs for
them to help them by.
Also with his spare time
he has become a missionary through and through. He is able to bring up the
gospel to anyone. For a while he had a member of another church stop by the
house and they would discuss religion for hours, most of the time Papa doing
the talking. He was also a man very easy to love. After sometime started to get
harder for him to go to the drug store to pick up his prescriptions so
sometimes his daughter Karen would go for him and each time the pharmacist
would ask if everything was alright with him and to tell him hi for them.
Just like every grandparent
Papa always had (and still does) an seemingly unlimited amount of candy. Lately
that candy has become M&Ms. A few years ago he received a mason jar candy
dispenser that a brother-in-law of his made. The perfect candy to go inside
that dispenser was M&Ms . No matter what it is always full. It got to a
point where one of his grandchildren Dianne took on the job of filling the jar,
mainly so she always had some M&Ms to eat. When it was time for he to go to
college she would joke about how she was going to take that mason jar candy
dispenser with her to school. Without her knowledge Papa contacted his
brother-in-law to see if he had anymore of those dispensers, which he did. So
as a new home gift he gave her a box to open when she was moved into her new place and in that box was the candy
dispenser and two giant bags of M&Ms that came with the promise always
making sure that there would be candy in that jar.
Through out his life he
was always there to love and support those around him and as he still lives he
continues to do so.
