Paul J Ekins

  Dad had white hair when he was little, but brown when I knew him, and brown with a little gray starting when he died.  As a small child he had a pet chicken named "Ducky".  Ducky was his best friend, until he became dinner.  Grandfather grabbed the wrong chicken in the dark and realized to late that it was Ducky. 

   He had a dog I think it's name was Zip, that would ride on the back of his horse when riding.  He lived in the town of Hinckley during the school year and Sutherland on the farm in the summer.  I remember him saying that the flies were so bad that his mother waved a dish towel over them so they could eat. Grandfather was one of the first in the area to own a model T ford, dad said if it got cold before they moved back to the family home in Hinckley his mom would heat bricks up and place them on the floorboards, wrap up the kids in quilts and head home.  

    Dad told stories of heading sheep, and his brothers. He hated mutton, maybe to many years raising them. I remember him telling me that grandfather owned a prize team of horses and they could out pull all other teams in completion.

  When I listened to Glen Campbell's song of "A Witchata Lineman", how he rode the line between Delta and Nephi checking the lines. Mom said dad was once challenged to a pole race. Dad got into his hooks, was up and down, before the other guy got his hooks on. Dad was very good at his job, but he never had the blessing of his mom. Dad was suppose to be a doctor. He had bedside manner with all us kids, mom use to say he was wonderful when any of us were sick or hurt.  When I was in my teens, I was sent to feed the dogs( in Dugway dogs were not allowed at home when in heat, that had to go to a shelter) I loaded the food into the back, got in the front seat, reached around a closed the door with my fingers inside.  I made it into the house and to the bathroom and when mom came in the seen all the blood she got upset, Dad came in told mom to leave and helped me stop the bleeding.  I can thank him and his Carbolic Suave for  not having any scars on my legs. I was riding a Cutting horse at my cousins and he scrapped my leg going though a gate. When I made it back to Grandmothers they wasn't much left of my outside skin, dad cleaned me up, salved me, and wrapped it up. ( No scar )After dad's accident grandmother Ekins never remembered him. When the family visited, she didn't recognize him, his picture was missing from the family piano. It must have been hard on him.All we could figure is in her mind she lost her son to the electricity that he loved. Edward was just a baby when he was burned. He was cleaning insulators at the substation and received 44,000 volts. They say he live because his body became a circuit and didn't end in his body. He spent months in the hospital, the only white on his face was the squint lines by his eyes.  He laid in bed with his hands in acid to eat the dead skin off, after that they were able to graft skin from his leg onto his hand.  They said him would never use the hand again, and never be able to return to the profession he loved. He used his own routine and began to make a comeback.  He took a ball, and practice until he could close his hand around it, then he got a smaller ball. When he mastered that, he taught himself to crochet, this enabled him to get his finger back to working with wires, he went back to work.  The doctors were amazed, however they said the outside of his body was healed, but only time would tell the damage on the inside.  Doctors say dad had Alzheimer Disease, I think we saw the effect of the 44,000 volts, an alcohol to cover up the lost of memory. 

(Added By Anna on 1/12/2009)

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• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 30 2017, 4:19:13 UTC