[NOTICE: EVERYTHING IN SQUARE BRACKETS SUCH AS THIS IS MODERN EDITORIAL AS I TRANSCRIBE WHAT IS WRITTEN IN MY JOURNALS]

[Notes Prior to November 1978 ]

Did the Beatles write "A summer song"?

"Where are you from?" - a cut low

When someone swells your head, your arm breaks, your buttons pop off, and your hair thins out. (Sam) [subsequent editorial:] BABES

["Oh Babes!!" was a common expression used when someone was being over dramatic or over anything. I used it on myself here because I thought my saying was corny. My family called me Sam. Names in parentheses following these quotes are the people quoted.]

Truth is not reason. Reason is the little things that lead us down the road. Excuses for not doing the right thing. (Dad)

All the things in the world, all your talents, all the inventions, cannot get you back to your celestial home. All you can do is get down on your knees. (Dad)

It takes complicity to make a joke good. Simplicity makes it stale. This applies to the caption. (sam[, on the subject of cartoon humor])

[I don't know what I meant]

Do the means justify the end? (Dad)

Is your short goal in line with your long one?
Man takes cigarette. Short, instant pleasure. Doesn't get to keep it. Negative future results. Mom prepares big meal. Meal lasts short time. (Family remembers joy.) Family is united (long goal) Analyze your goals. (Dad)

The more you wait, or the farther you get down the road, or the more you sin one sin, the bigger the load you must drag back up to the cross roads. (Sam)

Draw the daily planet! No TV after 10 o clock! I sure hate making rules!

Friends criticize you when there is peace in their heart, not when it is full of contempt.

Sunday NOV 5 78

I may v wrote that second to last statement but I didn't know how true it was.
I have recently dropped a 5 year load. That's a heck of a long time for this stage of life. I wonder what high school would have been like without my weight. Im jumping ahead.
I am Scott Roger Sam Scoville
I was born into the best family for [on?] this earth and its history. I also was blest with the most rich, magical, and wonderful childhood of anyone to ever hit the earth. Figuratively speaking, I am now 100 yrs. old. (Technically Im 18) I am presently depressed. I hate school and my need for Sandras companionship is putting my sanity to the test. What is dating good for? My wrestling elbow is getting tired and it would take a year to write it all down so I Im going to sleep.
I think if I have my patriarchal maybe it will help me decide whether or not to become and elder. The only thing holding me back is the garments bit. I love to kick around in shorts and the team would probably rib me about it. but babes. Yesterday I rode my cycle over the mountain into Midway. I went cross-country-motorcycle-skiing. When I got back I was riding a mud cake. Im learning how to fence. Quite boring. Dave keeps telling me Ill be at least a stake President. Wot th'?

- JAN 79 - The "Dane" is actually almost 18 at this time [marginalia. The date could have applied to the paragraph above as well.]

A 15 year old Dane (girl) is coming over to stay with John this spring. Im going to Denmark on my mission. I sure hate the way girls complicate pre-mission life. Im so lonely, yet ID hate to have one waiting for me. Oh heartache. I could sure cope mentally with wrestling a lot better with a companion. Id have to get rid of some shirts being an elder. Their going to bless Mom now. (Bishopric and Dad)

Approx. last week of July 1987
This is a retro-write of something quite memorable to me that I thought was in my journal but now I don't see it in there: I was taking a drawing class, a 5-hr design class (as in industrial, architecture, etc, etc) and a mythology class for summer quarter. Russ' family arrived while I was up at school one day. Somehow, Becky met me up there. She had a friend, Matt from MIT that was doing summer work at the Merrill engineering building. So I guess she had been up to see him and then came over to the Park building to meet me. We talked a while and then decided to go home. I was on Anne's old Schwinn with the 1952 or so license plate. This was just prior to my purchase of my Raleigh mountain bike. I had not seen Russ' kids for a good while. They may have been out for a visit since my mission though. But this time, the girls were getting grown up. So we decided Becky could ride Anne's bike down the hill from the U to 1801 and I would jog along side in my bare feet and shorts. So that's what we did. It got me nice and warmed up and oiled. When we got there, I came into the kitchen and saw Polly and Jenny and with Becky there, I had to exclaim something about all these girls and where did they come from that were so pretty and I didn't know who they were or something like that. Becky came up to school other times during their few week visit. I purchased my Raleigh while they were there; I may have picked it up on and for my birthday (Aug 5). I let Becky use it and showed her how to lock it when at the U to capture the front wheel and the seat. She almost got it; it looked like it was locked up the way I showed her, but it wasn't locked up at all - at least some parts of it. I was spending a long day working in the design studio one day; when I finally came home, I discovered Polly had been baptised while I was gone. As has always been the thing with me, I didn't know about the date or the time even though it had probably been mentioned in my presence. Russ tachi brought a bunch of nice mountain bikes with them on this trip and since I was buying mine that was the prevailing theme during their stay - that and Polly's baptism and just having them there at such an exciting time of life for me and the girls. Chris and Ben were still young and the same as ever - just not quite so small. I have since decided that 1964 and 1987 were my funnest years as far as just having fun - even though neither of these years coincide with my best friends being around much plus it was after Browning Singles Ward had dissolved. But 1987 was the closest I ever came to getting my clothes and hair right and fitting in somewhat while at the university 24th ward. It was a big year for having a new mountain bike and for dating. And it's when I met Sharon.

Wednesday, 2 September 1987
It's the beginning of September. I got an A in my 5 hr. class (I think), and A- in my 4 hr. class, and a B in my 3 hr. class. Got a 95 on the final. Thanks to Him. When I was writing in the blue ink up there, I was in sacrament meeting, sitting by Theresa. She became quite friendly since then.
Today is Wednesday. I've been here at Bullfrog, Lake Powell since friday. Monday I tried to ride my bike to the Burr Trail. I rode all day and barely made it back here (didn't make it to the Burr Trail proper, I don't think) for lack of water. My body has never taken such punishment for one day. Mom and Dad followed me in the Buick and Dad bent up a rim and his tranny oil pan leaks a bit, lost a hubcap, and generally bent up the bottom, exhaust, etc. All I had was my water bottle. I left on my bike a few hours earlier than them. They were supposed to go till they caught up with me and then mess around and catch up to me again, etc. This was all a big sacrifice for my benefit just so I could ride my bike on the trail. At a point not too far along when I was just beginning to get ever so little thirsty, I came to a wash across the road. I wasn't sure if I should go on because I didn't know if they would go through it and I had noticed that my rear tire had a slow leak. I crossed the wash and rode to the back of the thing I drew and hiked back to the cliff in front to see if they were coming [150-300 ft high red cliffs of a butte paralleled the road after it crossed the wash - for about a 1/2 mile - ramping down to nothing - the road paralleled the cliffs until they diminished - then it made a hairpin turn such that dad would look straight at me after making the hairpin if I were standing at the high end of the butte which was above the wash - then the road curved to the right and passed by the low end of the butte - I had left the road at this point and hiked to the high end of the butte to watch for the car coming to the wash - eventually it came - I had not time to make it back to the road where I had left it because it would be me boulder hopping for a half mile vs. the Buick driving on a road for a half mile to the same point - so I ran as far as I could and when the Buick turned the hairpin and was facing me I jumped and danced wildly waving my white shirt over my head but they did not see me]. After a while they reached the wash and Dad got out and hollered. I was waving the whole time and was in plain sight if you would just take time and look. I hollered a bunch and I figured he saw me cuz he got in and crossed the wash. We were about a mile apart. I ran along the top of the cliffs while he drove by and screamed for him to stop but he couldn't hear. I sprained my ankle. He came around the bend and up towards me when I reached the other end. I did a dance and all that, but he didn't stop. I had been so happy to see them, I drank half my water. He didn't see me, and he didn't see my sign in the road. I was thinking how like the movies I had seen this was! A man later offered me a Pepsi and I declined. I barely had strength to get home. [I pressed on after them - away from camp as far as I dared until it started getting about halfway through the day - I stopped and rested a while under the shade of a rock and debated which would be wisest - to stay all night under the rock or head back soon while I still had some water in me - by and by I started back - this was the trip where I first learned to get along without toilet paper - The man who offered me the Pepsi was pretty taken aback when I refused it - he had no water - but I was not about to drink any Pepsi despite the danger - actually, I may have been better off without the pop anyway - on the way back, as soon as I got to where I could reach the waters of Lake Powell by going a short distance from the road I did so and found some boat campers on the beach - they allowed me to drink melted ice with floaters from their cooler - this is what saved me - as I made my way back to the road through the tall vegetation I saw the Buick pass by going toward camp - it was a long ride yet for me and I knew it was up to me since the Buick had already returned and missed me - the road was well wash-boarded and my kidneys were really feeling it - I rode as close on the edge of the road as I could, craving smoothness - the water had kept me going but I was by no means fresh or energetic - I was not having a good time] I saw them pass me again going back. How like that movie! For the most part it was fun. When I reached the lake, I bummed some people that were camping there - they let me drink the water out of the bottom of their cooler. As I was just getting back to the road, the folks went by. Man was I beat. Never thought I'd get on that bike again for a long time, but I felt good next morning. [I remember the sight and the feeling as I finally made it back to the campground. I coasted in standing on one pedal on the left side of the bike toward the water spigot and jumped off and let the bike crash and took a drink hoping I would revive and not ache so much but it didn't happen - I ate hot stew from a can from mother but still felt all out of whack - it wasn't until I laid down in the tent and went to sleep that the aching subsided - as I went to sleep I tried not to picture the cursed yellow bike that I felt I could not look at for weeks to come - as I read and rewrite this account and am reminded of what Dad went through that day, pushing his car and all, I seem to appreciate more his love and concern for me and lack of care about his car in comparison - no telling how worried he and mother actually got - if they ever got worried they didn't show it - it wasn't what they believed in and it wasn't their style - yet they well knew the danger I was in - yet they also knew Who was looking out for me - they stayed out all day looking for me and then left it to God to see to it]

The next day [Tuesday the 1st] was fine. Mom looked like the angel she was. She had been truely celestial all the time and especially yesterday. Somehow, it was her day. She was calling the shots. But Dad wasn't doing everything she said. And I was ribbing her a tad. We bought all this food and then went swimming. She even bought a hat. She bought carefully. Then we went down on some sandstone that went into the water. She stood when she should have crawled. I told her so. [I told her there was very slick moss down near the water's edge and for her to get down and crab walk but just then dad slipped on it while walking right beside her and fell, knocking her down too] There were a lot of "should haves". Anyway, she didn't even get to swim Dad slipped and fell and knocked her down. She wrenched her lower back and not the hip as bad, and broke her right femur diagonally. I watched her fall. It was quite violent. She almost got her head. We got her up the hill. She did most of the sweating. I did a lot of breathing in her ear. We got her in the buick, Dad on her feet, and me leading her backwards with a cowboy ride [referring to a wrestling technique - I was pulling her backward as we were both in a sitting position and I had my hands hooked under her arms from behind, at least, once we were in the car]. I held her close all the time and used my legs to keep her knees from falling over when we drove. I knew it would be best if I could hold her all the way home, but later after the shock, we decided have me stay at camp while Dad drove her to Salt Lake in just under 6 hours. Bravery and endurance and FAITH and guilelessness and love are culminated in on word spelled, ETHEL VERNICE PETERSON SCOVILLE [looks like 4 words, doesn't it].
The best word for faith is MOM.
The best word for courage is MOM.
The best word for endurance is MOM.
The best word for guilelessness is MOM.
She is a true viking.
Anyway, holding is the best replacement for pain killer. Remember to hold someone in pain instead of what you are doing. [I applied this for myself a few days later when I popped my eardrum and filled my head with Utah Lake and had Sharon come and sit by my bed while I had my agony]
So I fasted till now, wednsday, must be about noon. I'm waiting for Dad to come back and get the trailer [I had driven down in the Scout days after Mom and Dad had set up camp with the Buick and trailer].
I had hoped that what power I could sacrifice through fasting would go to her leg and her mind. They made it quick and slick to S.L. anyway. We put her garments on for her to go. I drove a ways in the scout to make sure they got gas ok.
[I never said nothing but I don't mind saying it now - getting mom into the car and discussing what to do next, I was earnestly making it as comfortable and safe for mother as I possibly could - in my zeal, I forgot that this was my Dad's girl to whom I was so attentive and I began to sense, just a little too late but not too late that my dad was starting to get a little jealous and I backed off]
She is in the LDS Hosp with tubes in her and they will put pins in her leg.
There is a nice couple across the way with a little girl. I was strongly impressed to approach them. It was tough but I did it, and the subject of the church came up. I hope to speak with them again. It went well.