Donald Carlson

Don Carlson was born July 13, 1950, in Trinidad, Colorado, the 2nd of 6 children born to Leland & Elinor Carlson. He spent his early years living back and forth between Trinidad and Drummond, Idaho. His first 2 ½ years of school were in a little one-room school in Drummond, Idaho. When he was 8, his family settled in Parker, Idaho. He attended South Fremont High School, where he was active in band and science. He won a science fair with his project of rebuilding the skeletons of 2 cats. During this time he was active in scouting and earned the rank of Eagle Scout. He worked hard during the summers moving pipe, hauling hay, and spraying bug-infested trees in the Targhee National Forest. He also found time to develop many talents including playing the baritone, harmonic, and accordion, doing ventriloquism and performing on his 6-foot unicycle.

Mission/College/Courting He served a mission to Australia. He loved the country, loved the wild life, plants, and animals. Was a hard working, good, and happy missionary. He always dreamed of going back. And loved the movie “Man from Snowy River”, because it was filmed in one of his areas After his mission he worked for Earl Wilcox cutting trees until he cut his foot, then he got a job running a jack hammer mining travertine. He attended Ricks College. His main mode of transportation during that time was a unicycle. He would even go up and down the stairs on campus while riding his unicycle. He played the baritone in the marching band during this time and received his associates degree in Biology. Dad met our Mom, Janice Ostermiller, during Christmas break at a M Men and Gleaners (single adult) activity. He was the good looking return missionary on crutches (because of his logging accident), and there were 5 girls trying to catch his eye. He asked Mom out the first time right before she was leaving to go to Washington with her brother and she had to turn him down. It took two more times before she could finally say yes in August. They hiked table rock for their first date with Dad’s best friend. Dad’s friend had a date who stood him up, so he brought his little brother. They dated every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after that and were engaged on Christmas Eve in 1972 at the cemetery (the only quiet place in town). Then he left for one semester at BYU shortly after they were engaged, and they spent most of their engagement apart because Dad was in Provo and Mom was in Rexburg. They were married June 15,1973 in the Ogden Temple because the Idaho Falls temple was being remodeled. After they were married, they lived in a 4 bedroom house in Archer until the twins were born the next year in October. After Lisa and Lori were born they moved next door into a bigger house. During this time he continued to mine travertine with a jack hammer, air jack, and dynamite until December after the babies were born. Then he did taxidermy during for a short time during the winter then worked for Sutton Farms. He applied for a job at the site in 1975 and they moved into another house on the Archer bench. He found out that he got the job the day that they brought Wes home from the hospital in October (11 months after the twins were born). He started out in the water pit and advanced to quality assurance. He commuted from Archer to the site until February of 1977. Because financing a home was so difficult at that time, they had both of their father’s cosign at 14% interest and bought a single wide trailer on the property that they now live one in Moreland. In August, their 4th child was born. Do the math. 4 toddlers under 3 and they used cloth diapers. They spent a lot of time changing and cleaning diapers! In the fall of 1979 he started classes at ISU. The following January, he started doing swing shifts at work. He would get up to ride the bus to ISU at 5:00 in the morning, then catch the bus to the site in Pocatello at 1:00 in the afternoon, and finally get home again at 1:00 am. Then he’d get back up at 5:00 and start all over again. Kim was born that spring on the last day of Spring Break. He started his crazy schedule back up the following Monday. There are a few years there that memories are few because they were so deep into survival mode. Erik was born in December of 1982. They finally decided that 6 kids in a 2 bedroom trailer was too much. In April of 1983, their friends organized a “barn raising” and their house was rapidly built on the same property as their trailer. You might be a redneck if . . . . . . . you pull your old house around to the front of your new house and throw a plank between the two front doors to move. Dad was always creative at coming up with solutions to problems. Dad got his 1981 Chevy pickup in 1984. That was when we fell in love with Mill Creek campground in Sawmill Canyon. The highlight of our growing up years were the week long camping trips every summer. Especially in the beginning, many of those camping trips were with our friends the Mechams. We played in the creek, fished, hiked to the lake, and played cards. And Dad always taught us to leave things better then we found it, everywhere we went. We usually spent a good amount of time picking up trash around the campsite before we could head home at the end of the week. He spent a lot of time traveling for several years during this time as he was made a level 3 examiner at work. In July of 1986, lucky # 7 was born, their spoiled baby girl Katie. About this time he was called to be a counselor in the bishopric. He served in two different bishoprics, on the high council, and was scoutmaster for many years, as well as other callings. His favorite calling was serving as a priesthood leader at girls camp. At the top of Amy’s Yearling hike, he commented to her and her best friend that now that they made it to the end going forward, they needed to hike back in reverse and he’d watch the path for them. They giggled and stumbled and felt quite accomplished to make it to the end going backwards. Four years later, when they were Adventurers, he was still watching the path as the girl’s continued their tradition of hiking backwards on the way back down. Their surprise son, Dave, was born in March of 1988 and their family was complete, until the grandbabies started coming. We have many fond memories of our growing up years with Dad. As a scouter, he helped each of his boys obtain the rank of Eagle Scout, and spent many, many hours serving at every service project heard about. Working with Dad was always an educational experience and not just an education about the task at hand. We all believe he knew everything. Dad hated winter. He hated the cold and leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark. However, Christmas was our favorite holiday with Dad. He often took the whole week of between Christmas and New Years. We’d stay home and spend the week watching movies, playing the old Coleco, and setting up the criss cross crash track. He also was known to hook up tubes to the back of his pickup and pull us down the roads on the snow. At speeds that Mom would never approve of. Many of us have so many stories and memories surrounding hunting and fishing with our Dad. We always took Pork and Beans and Spaghettios that we stopped to cook over a fire and eat straight out of the can during the afternoon. And we always took snickers and pork rines. We got into so many crazy, scary situations while hunting, but Dad could always get us out and safely home. We remember driving on roads that should never have been driven, fixing the muffler on the pickup with a tin pop can, and Dad somehow always managing to get us back to the truck after hiking, when we thought that we were surely lost time after time. -Dave’s hunting story -Erik’s testimony story. -Dad drinking from the pond -Almost killed Dad (Tyce story) -Kim in the middle, passing snacks, name that tune. -Stupid glasses story -Tied shoe laces -Glue king, could glue and fix anything. Many of us never knew that there were real appliance repairmen. -Dad always took care of the things he borrowed. And whatever he borrowed, he returned in better condition than he received it. Erik liked it when Dad borrowed his chain saw because it came back cleaner and better than he sent it. -He was a perfectionist in everything he did. Planting a garden was an adventure. We picked rock. Most of our driveway was hauled by hand in buckets with rocks out of our garden. He measured out his rows with stakes and twine. Spacing was always perfect between the rows and plants. During the summer he would come home from work about 5:15 and was often changed into his overalls and outside working in the yard by 5:30. -Dad loved to mechanic in the dark. (Or not). Many a child in our home has spent time holding the flashlight for Dad for hours at a time.

-Many of you know that our Dad loves music and was an accomplished musician in many ways. However he never learned to read music well, because he could play by ear. He played the harmonic, trumpet, accordian, baritone, jews harp, and even knew a song on the piano. We all have many memories of our Dad playing his harmonica while driving on family trips. And our evenings while we camped were always spent singing along while Dad played the his harmonica around the campfire. -He learned to be a ventriloquist as a child, but he would only perform for family and a few church activities. His “dummies” were named Harry and Goliath, and his kids have many parts of his routines memorized. Mom always sat on the front row when he performed, with his note cards in her lap to help if he ever got off track. In 1997, any bit of a hard shell he had came crumbling down when his first grandchild was born. Ariana was born several weeks early on April Fools day, and instantly melted his heart. He loved being a Grandpa and excelled at it, as he did most things in life. Since retirement in 2014, after 37.8458 NRF’n years at the site, Dad’s life has revolved around his Grandchildren and his plants. His grandkids idolize him. He was always willing to give a grandkid a ride on the 4 wheeler. He made boats, and bug containers and was not known for telling his grandkids no. He was often referred to as the baby whisperer. He had a special technique of laying babies in his lap and bouncing and cooing until they fell asleep. He kept the kids favorite shows recorded on the DVR so that when they came over they could sit and watch their shows and snuggle and share a snack with Grandpa, without the commercials. He played so many games with his kids and grandkids. Cards, dice, and dominos were his favorite. A visit at their house usual involved sitting around the table sharing treats and playing games. Outside of grandkid time, Dad and Mom’s favorite times together during their retirement years were spent on the 4 wheeler. Often Mom drove and Dad took pictures. He loved looking at the wildflowers and looking for wildlife. It was made even better when they got to share it with their friends “The empty nesters.” As we have visited with friends, community members, family, and coworkers this week, so many people commented on what a kind humble man our father was. He always had a handshake, a smile, and often a “Dad” joke. And many people told us that they think the thing that drew everyone to him was that he had no idea how good he was. He was the most humble man we’ve ever met.