West Family Tree

Stories...
Wayne was a mechanic in the Air Force during the Korean War. He told several stories of his stay in the military, one of which being that as a "West" he had to wait until the very end of the line to get his paycheck and wishing that his last name was Adams or something. On the other hand, he could then stand at the front of the line and collect debts from his buddies as they got paid. One fellow in particular wouldn't pay, time after time and one time Wayne got upset, whipped out his pocket knife and threw it. It miraculously happened to stick in the wall near the guy's ear and the guy quite soon afterward made good on his debt. Later Wayne heard two black fellows at the base talking to eachother and one said "You watch out for that West, he's a knife fighter." He never was anything of the kind, but being rather tall, lanky, and sun-tanned, one could get the idea that the Texan was someone out of the Old West.

Another story he told was being on kitchen duty at the base. Everyone was required to get up when the bugle sounded and rush into the kitchen to help clean up. The last person would have to wash the pots and pans: a job that no one seemed to want. Wayne would stay in bed an extra five minutes and finally come sauntering into the kitchen. "West!" the sergeant would yell, "You get the pots and pans!"
"Oh no, please sergeant, not the pots and pans again!"
"Yeah, it's the pots and pans for you." and he'd fold his arms with a smug look.
Wayne thought it was the best job since you got to stand in one place instead of running all over, sweeping floors and wiping counters. He never let the sergeant know that, however!

Wayne had really flat feet, when he got them wet on pavement he could suction them off the concrete. For this reason he couldn't march in the military.

His cousin Linda tells of the time that she and Wayne went out riding horses together. They came across a buck that had tried to jump over a deer-proof fence and had gotten his antlers entangled. While he was struggling, Wayne, being the daredevil that he was, decided he was going to cut its throat. Somehow they managed to get it loose from the fence and came back into town with the deer hanging over the horse and people saw this deer with its throat cut and wanted to know how he'd managed that!

Another story that Wayne told was when he was in school and all the Seniors seemed a bit stuck up and would treat the Freshmen like dirt. So sometimes the Freshmen would climb into the Seniors bedrooms when they weren't there and take all the drawers out of their dresser, turn the dresser upside down, insert the drawers, and then turn the whole thing right-side up. The net result was that when the Seniors came back to get some clothes, they would all fall plumpf! Right on the ground.

Wayne said that one time a fellow from the city came out to the ranch wanting to go deer hunting. He didn't think he'd get anything anyway so they let him go. A short while later he comes back yelling "I shot a little deer! I shot a little deer!" Wayne thought "Oh no, he got Bambi!" But it turns out it was an armadillo. I guess the guy really was a city slicker after all.

When he was very young he was given a quarter every week on Saturday (he thinks his mother just wanted to get rid of him for the day) and he had it all planned out: 5 cents would go to tithe, 5 cents would go to popcorn, 5 to a drink, and 10 cents for the movie. During the war effort though, they raised the price of the movie to 11 cents. He showed up back at the house and when his mother asked why he was back so early, said it didn't fit in his budget. From then on he was given 26 cents a week.

He and his friends used to go to the movie theater and watch Tarzan. The theater would go all out with jungle scenery every time the new Johnny Weissmuller movie came out. They would sit in there and wait until the next showing so they could see the short before the film again and try to figure out how the guy was going to get out of this or that cliffhanger predicament. Then they would all go outside and play Tarzan. Wayne got to be Tarzan because he had the best Tarzan yell. Then they would argue over who had to be Cheeta (the chimp) and especially who had to be Jane.

I remember Grandpa talking about how much he loved working on his grandfather's farm. He apparently was told by his mother that if he wanted to go down there for the summer, he would have to get there himself so he hitch-hiked. He picked up smoking there. His grandfather was rolling a cigarette and grandpa said he would like one, so he tried it and the next time he was in town he bought himself his own tobacco pouch.

He and his grandpa would work in the cornfield and he said they would put the tractor in low gear and then work their way down the row, plucking corn and tossing it in as fast as the tractor went.

He was a very funny man, I remember many of the jokes he told (often racial) and how he decided one day to put a hat on the ground and flip cards at in from his chair to see how many he could get in before Grandma thought he was crazy. He also said that he wished he had holes cut in his eyelids so he could watch TV while sleeping.

When we would visit him, he would drive us around the mobile home park in his golf cart, which was great fun especially because it was so quiet and yet so fast! He managed the mobile home park and would drive it around checking up on things.

Apparently, as he was dying, he did say he was frightened of death but to the end his hope was in Christ. My father was holding his hand as he expired and says, though he's not charismatic or anything of the sort, he could feel grandpa's spirit seem to leave him even as his body was still struggling and he finally died. He died of colan cancer, something he fought for many years, far beyond his doctor's expectations. He always did say laughter was the best medicine and made light of any situation, even having to use a bag when his colon was removed.

I was there at the burial at Prairie Point and put in a shovel-full of dirt and then my father and Chandler finished the job. He was cremated and put inside a wooden urn that my father had made on his lathe. He was a good Christian man, big-hearted, full of laughs and hugs and a good grandfather. - Logan West