Some of the life of Merthan Glenn Ellis
Early days:
Merthan was born to Glenn and Nettie Ellis on the 13th of September 1925.  He was born in their home in Riverside Idaho.  The home that they were living in at the time was the home of Grandma Sophronia Wolfley Ellis.  He was the second child born in the family, first was his sister Ruth Mariam, then Dad, Marilynn, and last was Gerry who is about 16 years his junior.

Dad work hard with Grandpa Ellis on the farm driving the team of horses doing various farming tasks with the team and different implements.  He said that after Grandpa got the first tractor in the county he would plow the field and Dad would follow along behind with the team of horses and the harrow.  He mentioned that Great Grandpa Leo Turpin bought a young team from Horace Elison and sent it to Grandpa Ellis to train.  Dad said the team would continually act up tipping over the harrow and Dad would have to have Grandpa come and help him turn it over.  Grandpa was afraid to have dad ride the harrow for fear the horses would bolt and tip it over on top of dad who was very young at the time.

He would tease Ruth until she was so mad at him she would lock him in his room in the attic.  He would have Marilynn leaver her window open so he could climb down from the attic and get outside.  Ruth would see him outside and could never figure out how he got out.  It sounded like the his little sister was his confidant in all of his antics.   I remember him being a tease to Ruth even when they were grown.  A side note that I remember: During potato harvest all the family would work in the harvest.  Aunt Ruth drove truck one year when mom was pregnant.  At the end of harvest we would all get paid for our work.  Dad wrote out Aunt Ruth's check then signed it "TRY AND GET IT".  She took to the bank to cash it and was madder then a hornet when the teller would not cash it with that signature.  I remember her coming out the farm and I think she was angry enough to shoot dad if she had a gun.  But Dad along with everyone else was waiting for her to come back and had a proper check already made out for her.  That was how Dad has always shown his love through his antics.

As a child he would take care of the farm and the animals.  While going to school he would go home for lunch to feed and water the cows and horses.  Because of that he did not participate in any extracurricular activities in school.  Dad was athletic however, and had learned to box while in grade school. He had a teacher who took a liking for him and taught him to box.  (that brings up a story I will include a little later)  Something that I should include here is that Grandpa Glenn had an immunity to electric shock.  Electricity never bothered him.  One day Merthan was out irrigating and was standing barefoot in the ditch.  Grandpa and Grandma were leaving to go on a trip for a few days, so he went out to say goodbye to Merthan.  He grabbed ahold of the electric fence and kissed Dad on the cheek.  Dad said he could feel a bolt of electricity from everyone of Grandpa Glenn's whiskers.     So he got his teasing honestly from his own dad.

During beet harvest he would drive the beet wagon to the dump. His team was named Chubb and Bally.  They were a strong team and would not have much trouble pulling the wagon up on the dump.  But others teams were not quite able to do it  so he said he would make extra money pulling other teams up on the dump.  That story he has told me often and has changed from time to time with the telling of it.  But this is the latest version.

I am sitting in my daughter (Chalice's) living room waiting for our Granddaughter come home from a party.  It is 10:00 PM at least a hour past my bed time and I haven't done this since my children were teenagers.  Very weird, but I will not be able to sleep until she comes home.  So I am taking minute to write down some thoughts I have been having lately.

This September I for the third fall went to work in the harvest in Idaho.  While there I lived with my Dad and his dog.  I found that I was drawn more and more to Dad and concerned about his welfare.  He has had some financial issues and I felt the only way I could help him would be to take him home with me to Texas and take care of him for a couple of months or as long as he would stay.  I would not force him but only suggest it to him.  A week before I left to come home he said he would like to go home with  me.  So we have him here in Texas with us and we are really enjoying him and so are my grandchildren.

After we got home Mandy's son Ray invited him to a lunch to honor Veterans.  He took him to the front of the class and introduced him as a WWII vet.  There were ooooos and aaaas and an applause to honor his service.  I have been listening to all his stories that he tells of his early life and have heard some that I did not remember hearing before.  So I am going to attempt to capture some of them in writing to share with our family.  I am not sure the best way to do it but I do not want to use facebook, or any social media to I am going to do it hear.

Over the next few weeks I am going to attempt to make regular postings of some of his life as best as I can piece it together.

I have not taken time to post on this site for far to long.  I decided to try and keep it up.  Chris and I are now thinking that in 4 more months we should have been coming home from our mission.  However, as it has gone we came home early only to be envolved with the mission of life as retired grandparents.  We have had a full summer and fall since we returned.  I have been envolved in some  self therapy to strengthen my knee to help it heal.  So far I work out in the pool at a local gym every day.  This has been a real help but has not solved the problems.  My goal is to have something done this year to have a more permanent solution for the pain. 

After an interesting summer with two of Spencer's and Shelly's oldest daughters.  We had a good summer with Sidney and Samantha. They were able to connect with their cousins here in Texas and they had a great time visiting them and playing with them.  Sidney turned 12 while they were here so we had a party with the cousins and family here.  She was able to go to girls camp with Jesica and do baptisms for some of our ancestors in the temple.  I took them home in September to Utah and then spent two months with my parents in Idaho.  I was able to work in the Corn harvest and the beet harvest driving truck.  It back a lot of old memories from my youth and growing up on a farm.