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| Wendell Gayle Allen (1905-1985) |
Wendell Gayle Allen was the second of four boys born to Albert Silas Allen and Margaret Maria Nielsen. He was born September 14th, 1905 in Hyrum, Cache, Utah. I share a birthday with him and he was very proud that I was born on his birthday. I am also his eldest grandchild. Wendell had an elder brother (Merlin) and two younger brothers (Alton and Clain), both of whom died of pneumonia in childhood.
I don't know much about Wendell's childhood, but it must have been hard on him and his family to see his younger brothers get sick with pneumonia and die. Andrew Thale Allen (age 2) passed away in 1911 (Wendell was 6), and Alton Clain Allen passed away in 1921 at the age of 9 (Wendell was 15).
Grandpa's elder brother, Merlin, never married. He would often come over to see us when we came to visit grandpa Allen. I remember he always used to bring soda pop for us. I always liked to drink a bottle of Sprite that Merlin had brought us at grandpa's house. I remember that Grandpa and Merlin seemed to argue a lot. Merlin picked up some bad habits (alcohol) in the service, but I didn't know about it until recently. Merlin operated a gas station in Hyrum at one time, and my dad tells me about a time that he worked for him and saw him very drunk. This is a side of him I never saw. I do remember that his house was very cluttered and full of junk, and that he used to swear a lot (damn and hell).
Grandpa Allen was quite different from Merlin and maybe that's why I remember them arguing a lot. Grandpa was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all his life. He served a mission to Germany. I don't know much about his mission, but I do remember that I loved the cuckoo clock at his house. I assume this came from Germany. It had a little bird that came out and would "cuckoo" every hour on the hour. It looked something like this:
Here's a picture of Grandpa Allen as a young man, probably about the age of a missionary:
After grandpa returned home from his mission, he married Oda Juanita Larsen November 29, 1933 at the age of 28 in the Logan, Utah LDS temple. Wendell and Oda had three boys and two girls, all of whom are still living except his eldest daughter (Gayle), who passed away in 2008.
Grandpa was a manager over custodians at Utah State University and he operated the sewage treatment plant at Bushnell Military Hospital (later the Intermountain Indian School) in Brigham City, Utah. He was also a temple worker in the Logan, Utah LDS temple.
One thing I remember about grandpa as a child was that he would firmly grab my leg above the knee and say "You've got a stick of wood!". He would also take his grandkids on his knee and bounce them and sing the "Hansa Dansa" song. I think this came from Denmark (through Grandma's family), but I remember him singing it.
He would also do this thing with our toes. He would grab each toe one by one (calling them by name) "Icky Pee, Penny Rue, Rudy Whistle, Mary Hostle, and Old Tom Bumble." Then he would do the toes on the other foot like this: "Tom a Tot, Slick a Pot, Long a Mon, Gulabron, and littly bitty Spielamon" (perhaps this was German?).
Grandpa had a nice home in Hyrum with a big wrap-around porch. He had a large yard and a big garden. I remember grandpa liked to watch the Lawrence Welk Show on TV (I could never understand why). I actually lived in grandpa's house one summer as I was attending summer term at Utah State University before I was married.
I remember going up to Hyrum with my dad to help mow the lawn in his later years (lots of grass to mow). Grandpa passed away at the age of 79 on March 17, 1985 (St. Patrick's Day). I was a senior in high school at the time. He is buried in the Hyrum City Cemetery.
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| Oda and Wendell Allen |
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