Personal History

 

Discovering what I wanted

    This is the life history of Kevin Paul Barnard, written by me, myself, and I.  I have chosen to entitle this personal life history “Discover what I wanted” because that is the best way to describe my life thus far.  Often, I thought I knew what I wanted and then the Lord would show me a new and better way to live.  Quickly, I change my mind and discover what it is that I really wanted in the first place.  Enjoy the read, and I am glad that you have decided to get to know me better.  I must warn you, I am just an ordinary guy, so don’t be surprised if what you read consists of several mundane tasks that most everybody does.  Hopefully you will also be able to see between the mundane tasks and pick out some of my “hidden talents”.
     I, Kevin Paul Barnard, was born June 4^th 1988 at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center (EIRMC).  This is located in Idaho Falls, Idaho and the locals call this hospital “Err-Mack”.   At the time my parents, Paul Mark Barnard, age 25, and Teresa Mecham Barnard, age 23, lived near the Snake River in a rental home just off the Yellowstone Highway on the south end of Idaho Falls.  My Dad really enjoyed Jet Skiing.  He had two stand-up Jet Skis.  Julie, my older sister by two years started bossing me around at an early age and she did not stop until I later went on my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at 19 years old.  I also have two younger brothers, Kent Price, who is just under four years younger than me, and Keith Grant, who is nine and a half years younger than me.
     I do not remember much about being a little boy.  However, I do remember my mother telling me that my first words were “screwdriver” and “vroom vroom” (what I said for snowmobile).  If you are wondering how I ever managed to say screwdriver before cow, or an easier word, I am too!  My mother made me a stick horse and I rode that pony everywhere.  My favorite toys to play with as a youngster were my toy tractors.  My Mom used to get tired of me because I would insist on playing right underneath her feet.  She would constantly have to coax me into playing in the living room while she worked in the kitchen.  I must have really just liked to show off.  I had a really fun childhood and loved playing outside with my dump trucks and other toys as well.
     I remember my Dad when I was very little was about 5’ 8” and had a pretty hairy chest.  My mom was about 5’ 3” and very skinny.  As a small boy I always remember her having a perm and shorter hair.  I think that it was a late 80’s early 90’s fad.  My parents loved Christmas time and us kids were always very spoiled.  We got several gifts from Santa, Mom, Dad, and each other.  I used to get kind of frustrated because my parents would put code names on our gifts under the tree.  Instead of having our names on the gifts, there would be names like Rudolph, Penelope Penguin, Morris the Moose, and others.  They would not tell us until Christmas morning what our code name was.
     When I was about five years old, I was bothering my older sister Julie.  She had her dolls set up on the hearth in front of the fireplace at our home on Taylor Highway in Shelley, Idaho.  I believe it is 1300 N (the road), the house is about a mile east of the Yellowstone Highway.  Being a very stupid boy, I decided to tease my sister and play with her dolls.  This caused Julie to be very upset.  She grabbed my right arm from behind and pulled me backwards; this dislocated my shoulder.  My parents took me to the doctor and he put my arm back into place.  Looking back, I think that Julie got the worse end of the deal because Grandpa Mark Barnard gave her a good scolding while he and Grandma Leona were watching Julie during my trip to the doctor.
     When Julie and I were a little older (I would guess I was about 8 or so), my Dad got us some sheep to raise.  I think we raised them a few years in a row but only one pair of sheep stand out in my mind.  I named my lamb Skip and I think Julie named hers Ann.  We got these bumb lambs and bottle fed them from the time they were little babies.  I would check on the lambs after school.  We would lock them in their little shed when we were not around because leaving them out in the fenced area unsupervised always turned into a chase the sheep game.  One day when I came home from school, Ann the sheep had gotten tangled up in some twine hanging from the roof of the little lamb shed.  I got there just in time to see Ann finish strangling herself to death.  It made me cry.  It was the first time I ever saw the life leave a living thing, I felt really bad that I did not react quicker and get a knife and cut her down, but I was in shock when I found her.  Soon after Ann died, Skip was gone too.  (Skip ended up in the freezer and eventually on my Sunday dinner plate).  Julie and I learned how to be responsible as could be expected of kids our age and successfully kept some sheep alive long enough to make good meat if I remember right.
     My father had his Contractor’s Electrician License that he got by going to some night classes.  He serviced and trouble shot Center Pivots on farms and serviced submersible home water pumps.  Before I was of age to go to school I used to ride around in his service truck all day.  It was my job to run to the truck and grab him the tools that he needed.  I quickly learned the difference between a 5/8” and 3/8” end wrench and learned the names of all of the tools he used.  Stripping pliers, meter, dikes, lineman pliers, channel locks, crescent wrench, etc.  This type of hands on experience has benefited me my entire life and I want to be sure I create that type of learning opportunity for my children in some way, shape, or form.
     I do not have a whole lot of memories from elementary school that stand out at the moment.  When I was in second grade my teacher, Mr. O’Brady, taught us Morse code and we had little transmitters that we could use to send messages to another student.  It was a fun time and I have forgotten almost all of it by now.  Another time when I was is first grade, it became school policy to not allow the children back inside the school house during lunch break.  The teachers would not let you go back inside, even to use the restroom.  I remember having to go poop really bad and not knowing what else to do.  There was a little log cabin on the play ground for playing in.  I went in there when no one was looking and did my business.  I did not have anything to wipe with so I remember being very embarrassed of my stench the rest of the day.  Later on they cut several windows in that log cabin, (I wonder why they did that?).  I was very quiet at a young age and did not make much noise.  I always secretly enjoyed school but did not want to look like I liked it because to my Dad and Grandpa Barnard, school was lame and going to work was a lot better.  My Grandpa Barnard had better than 16 horses at his place and I would help my Dad feed them.  I think at about 6 or 7 years old I felt like the coolest kid in the world because my Dad would have me drive the four-wheeler while he pitched hay out to the horses from the little trailer I pulled behind the four-wheeler.  I enjoyed riding the horses whenever occasion would permit and learned how to saddle a horse by myself when I was about 12.  My Grandpa Barnard was always trying to teach me how to be a tough cow/farmboy and to work from dawn until way past dark; he still works hard.  My Grandpa Sherman Mecham was a coach and school teacher, so he was always asking or telling us things about history, taking us on bike rides, and teaching us how to play sports like basketball and football by the rules.  He taught me how to dribble a basketball and do a crossover to get away from a defender.  He also taught me how to follow my shot and get my own rebound.   A lot of technical basketball was learned on the concrete pad out behind Grandma June and Grandpa Sherm Mecham’s house in Firth, ID.
     Ever since I can remember, we had snowmobiles and jetski’s.  My Dad always drove a diesel pickup for pulling trailers and so he could have a vehicle with a lot of power.  My Dad was very partial to Ford trucks perhaps because his brother in law (Tom McLean) worked high up in Ford and gave him really good deals on new Ford pickups.