Oh! I went to Dublan and I walked around the block,
and I walked right into the Skousen shop
and I picked a Doughnut right out of the grease
and I handed the lady a five cent piece.
She looked at the nickel and she looked at me.  
she said this nickel's no good to me,
there's a hole in the middle and it's all the way through.
Says I there's a hole in your doughnut too.

This song can be sung as a round.

In the kitchen this morning I suddenly remembered this little song and began to sing it. I don't remember how many years it has been since I sang this song but I remember that we used to sing it when the Skousens Angus and Bernice, had an Ice Cream shop in the little brick building that housed the Ice Cream and Candy shop for the Union Mercantile. The Skousens made the best ice cream that I have ever tasted, even since. They had their own milk cows and separated the cream and put about 3\4 cream and the rest whole milk. They didn't have any artificial ingredients so it was just plain vanilla Ice Cream. They usually served it in cones but you could order it on hot apple pie or eat it with hot doughnuts. The highlight of our Dublan celebrations was to buy a cone of delicious ice Cream. They always took two or three of their big freezers full to sell at the celebrations where ever we had them. Some times at the river or sometimes at the Church grounds.

Brother Skousen rigged up a wooden pulley bolted on the Back wheel of his old car. He would Jack up that wheel and block the rest and with a belt he ran his old fashioned freezer that had a pulley on it to turn the dasher inside and the container on the outside in opposite directions. That Ice Cream was always whipped real smooth and was just hard enough to stand up in a cone. Nothing more delicious on the warm days of the Cinco De Mayo or the 16th of September. If you had ten centavos to buy a cone. Especially after watching the face pulling contest between Uncle Loren Taylor and brother Orson Hawkins. They were both so good that the judges couldn't decide between them and usually it was a tie. Both sides, the red and the green would receive their points for this event. These two competitors were never chosen on the same side because that would ensure victory for that side so they had to be on different sides. Talk about rubber faces they had them and they even had a good start when their face was natural. I used to marvel at the contortions they could put their faces in. I think they practiced for that event year round.

In Dublan in those days for every celebration they divided the town into two sides the red and the green. In every competition the winners were given point for the side that they belonged too. This shifted the competition from personal glory to winning for your side and help the whole team to win. 

I remember every competition included the foot races starting with the 2 year olds on up. At a certain age the girls were divided from the boys in these races to create more winners.

In our age group there were about 8 boys but Wayne Romney and Buddy Taylor were the fastest runners. I always tried to beat them but usually could not. They many times came in as a tie. I was glad when that happened I could get a second place for my side.

I remember Brother Able Hardy was generally the winner at pitching horse shoes. After all he made them. I still remember how he smiled while he was pitching horse shoes. I guess we like to do what we do well.

I remember the Skousen family well, Brother Skousen was a blond, short round bellied little man and sister Skousen was a good sized woman with dark red hair and a ruddy face. Both were very jovial and fun to be around. Bernice their oldest Daughter was tall and good looking with dark red hair. Gertrude, Trudy, was next. She was a Petite little gal with a sunny disposition with red hair and freckles. She was cute with a personality to match. Merl was large for her age and would fight at the drop of a hat. Nobody said anything about her red hair and freckles. Mary was next I remember she could out run anybody around, so some of the boys wouldn't run in the races because they didn't want to be outrun by Mary Skousen. Angus and Agnes were twins and both were blond but there the similarity stopped. Angus was short and round like his father while Agnes was tall and long faced. The youngest was Alma, back then he was a cute little guy with red hair and freckles who later went into the service and had a good military career. A few years back he came down as a leader with an explorer group that we took to the Sierra Madre for a week's pack trip. The Skousens moved away and someone, of Dublan inherited the big freezers but not the ability or inclination to make Ice Cream like the Skousens so I don't know what ever became of the big freezers. Well so much for the Memories of the Skousen Ice cream and the little song we used to sing.

I remember I had a good friend who lived across the street from us. His name of Frank Cardon. He was a quiet little boy most of the time and I remember he used to like to suck his thumb. One Sunday during a special meeting for the parents of the ward I was over to Cardon's playing with the Cardon children. I remember I was sitting in the bed room with Mary and the twins, Wanda and Vilda. Demar and Frank were in the dining room putting on a show for us that we were watching through the doorway. Frank was all dressed up in girls clothes. I remember he had on a pair of bloomers with lots of lace and frills on them and something frilly around his neck. He was in front of the door, or rather on stage for us. He was dancing gaily when a loud Boom!!!!! made our ears ring and suddenly there was little Frank lying lifeless on the floor in a spreading pool of dark red blood. I remember the terror I felt as I fled, jumping clear over Frankie and all of that blood. The next thing I remember was I was crying and trying to tell Dorothy that Frank was shot and lying dead on the floor. She immediately hurried out to the old Relief Society building where the meeting was being held. I next remember the crowd of people going into the Cardon home. Someone told me that they were picking pieces of Frankie's head and brains off the window curtains.

After a few days I remember My father and Brother Cardon asking me to go with them to Casas Grandes Viejo to tell them what had happened. They coached me as to what to tell the authorities. They explained that Probably the 30 -30 rifle was standing up in the corner on the trunk and when Frankie was dancing and shaking the floor that the gun fell down and went off killing little Frank by accident. I told the authorities exactly what I had seen and that I didn't know how or why Frank had got shot and that I could only see him dancing through the door. Afterwards Brother Cardon told me that I had done exactly what I should have done and thanked me for telling my story.

Brother Jesse L. Cardon was a counselor in the Bishopric and later when I became a Deacon he was our Deacon Quorum adviser. He always took us to gather Fast Offerings on his wagon. We would take a Bucket and go into the houses and collect some flour or beans or whatever the people could give for Fast Offerings  We usually collected about a half a sack of flour and a half a sack of beans. Then we would take it out to where Don Candido Carbajal lived with his wife and daughter. They were very old and were unable to work but had been faithful members of the church for many years. I remember that Brother Cardon had me go in with him to give them the flour and the beans. When I saw the tears of gratitude in that Old Gentleman's eyes I felt the Spirit of the Lord and knew that the principle of Fast Offerings was from the Lord.

When we were in about the fourth Grade Lem Hurst and I were in the same grade and very good friends. He was left handed and very good at throwing rocks. He was also very good at spinning Tops and shooting Marbles. We used to compare our winnings after a good marble game with a bunch of the older boys.

One day at school Lem told me that the field next to his home had been watered and was full of Ducks feeding in the ponded water. I went home and got our old 16 gage double barreled sawed off Shot Gun. I loaded both barrels with No. 7 shot and went up to Lem's house. He met me on the street below the field that was actually black with Wild Ducks. As we crawled down the ditch the din of Quacking became louder and louder. When we got to about the middle of the field we stealthily looked over the bank of the ditch to see big mass of quacking noisy Ducks. Lem had his fathers big Long Tom 12 gage Shot Gun. We got ready with our barrels over the ditch bank and at the count of  three there was a loud extended Boooooom!!!!!  That old Double barreled gun went off both barrels at once. It flipped up and hit me just above the eye. A noisy cloud of ducks flew up leaving a swath of dead and wounded Ducks where we had shot. We didn't even think to roll up our pants and were grabbing and struggling around with the wounded ones swimming and ducking under the muddy water. Finally our count was 23 Ducks. I don't remember how many I took home with me but I do remember that I got very tired of picking duck feathers and down for mother to make pillows. My eye was black and blue for a few days from that experience.

Lem and  I were practicing High Jump during recess and after School so that we could make a good showing at field day of the Stake. Lem was very conscientious about practicing everything. One morning on his way to school he decided to practice by jumping the fence surrounding the Farnsworth Home. This fence was about four and a half feet high with a 2x4 on the top to hold up the Hog Wire on the fence. He ran and jumped the fence easily but he came down in the ditch on the inside of the lot. He landed on the side of the bank and fell back into the  ditch hitting his elbow on a rock and giving his elbow a bad break. Word got around School that Lem had broken his arm and that he had a cast put on it by Dr. Stelle. Lem didn't come to school for a few days which is what we expected but then we got word that Lem was very sick. Lem died of blood poisoning. Gangreen had set in and there was nothing they could do.

I don't remember much about the funeral and the burial but I do remember my sense of loss at losing my dear friend. When Sister Hurst would see me at church or other activities she would come and tell me, "You are my boy" then she would put her arms around me and cry softly. I felt like crying also but I didn't.  I realized that she got some comfort out of  holding me and remembering her Lem. His real name was Lemuel, but nobody called him that. To all who loved him it was just Lem.

He told me that he was named after his Uncle Lem Spilsbury  He was very proud of his heritage and it gave him a sense of self worth. His father was Morgan Hurst a son of the pioneer Hursts of Dublan. His mother was Blanch Spilsbury. She was a twin and her twin sister was Bernice S. Coon  Lem was proud of all of his cousins. The Skousen boys Owen, Lester and Greer. The Spilsbury boys Jack, Hym, (Kelly)Dave and Max. The Coons Blanch Lenore, Alma Maurine, Eloise and Bill. He even considered the Youngs the Sloans and the calls his Cousins even though they were really not. He called them Aunt Cecil, Aunt Polly and Aunt Hannah. To Lem they were all family. His own family was His older brother Hal, his sister Bernice, named after her Aunt Bernice, Lem and his younger brother Harry. I hope I have not made too many mistakes on the names I have quoted.

I needed to record some of these memories of Dublan and the people in it. Of course I can't record them all even all of the ones that I remember because it would just take too long . Maybe I can record a few more along as I remember them.