When I was a little boy...

I was born in the Holy Cross hospital in downtown Salt Lake City on May 25th 1961. I was 21 inches long and not quite 7 pounds. Really a skinny baby. I lived in our family home in Magna Utah until I moved out to be on my own. My parents stayed in that home for almost 50 years. That home had a long history. It was build by the Utah Copper company as a home for their workers. It was built on what was know as Magna row on the hill just below the copper mills. My parents purchased the house for $300. The catch was that they had to find a lot to put it on and had to pay to have it moved. The biggest expense was the moving of the house. That is why we lived in Magna. Our street was a great place to grow up. For most of my childhood all the families on the street were the same. We were surrounded by farmer fields which provided may day of "expoloring" for young boys. I remember catching tadpoles and even carp and catfish in the ditches. We played baseball in one of the fields. Dale Richards was the farmer who basically turned over one corner of his field over to us to play in. My childhood was filled with family. We would visit both sets of grandparents almost every Sunday. There were always many family parties with aunts, uncles and cousins. All of my grandparents were wonderful to me. I always felt their love. I have so many happy memories of those visits. Every Christmas morning we always looked forward to the grandparents coming over so we could show them all the wonderful things that Santa had brought us. Sharing that excitement with them was as important as anything we ever received. Christmas Eve was the big Crosby family party. The highlight of which was always grandpa's bag of presents. Grandpa Crosby always had something really special for each of us. A few that really stand out for me were my AM radio. It was really cutting edge for the time. Speaking of cutting edge, the year each grandson got a pocket knife was one where many of us learned what a sharp edge could do to a finger. I also remember the year that the girls all got little jewelry boxes that he told them were to keep "the family jewels" in. He laughed and laughed, but we had no idea why that was so funny. Christmas day always included dinner at Grandma Brackens.