When we would swim in the pond, Harold was often there, just quietly making sure that we girls were okay. I admired Harold's swimming ability, because if I remember correctly, Harold could not float. I couldn't float either. But the difference was that Harold could swim like a fish, underwater, and didn't let the non-ability to float keep him from having fun in the water. I am quite sure that on one of my near-drowning episodes, Harold was there to help get my flailing body back into the canoe.
Harold liked to do a lot of things that I was not good at and was afraid to try, like most sports, and shooting, and firing off rockets. I liked to watch when the boys would do those kinds of things. Harold was so smart, and in Taber it seemed like the smart boys weren't good at sports and all the jocks were dumb, but Harold could hold his own in both worlds.
Harold didn't care about what other people thought of him--he didn't change himself to suit their opinions. He was very comfortable with himself and who he was. Like, he carried a lunch box to school right through grade twelve, because he liked his food to be in good unsmashed condition and his drink to be cold, and even though it wasn't "cool" to carry a lunch box, he did it because he wanted to. Kudos to him! He had courage and confidence.
I remember having some fabulous adventures with Harold and Perry when the Walton cousins were there, and we would all get together and do things like climb trees and get bird's nests so we could hatch the eggs under the lights and watch the babies, or use the dogs to dig up the nests of mice, or throw the cats in the pond. These were outside of the scope of my usual activities, and seemed very wild and exciting to me.
When John got the Imsai computer, all of the cousins would spend hours in the basement at Uncle Clyde's house playing that space game--was it Star Traders?-- and the computer, though fast and amazing for its time, was so slow that we would have ping-pong tournaments while we were waiting our turns to play. And who could beat Harold at ping-pong? Not I!But my best memories of Harold were when I was a young adult. One year, it happened that I didn't go back to BYU for the winter semester. I was the only child at home in the Arnold Conrad home, and Harold was the only child at home in the Clyde Conrad home. Who would have ever thought that Harold would be my best friend for about eight months of my life? But he was. We did everything together: went to movies, young adult activities, just hung out together playing computer games or talking. It was fabulous!
One night Harold and I were playing some games that Harold and John had been working on, like probably Snake or something, and others that I can't remember the names of. We were in that bedroom by the kitchen in Uncle Clyde's house, and there was no clock in the room, and of course this was before computers had little clocks in the bottom right hand corner. The phone rang, and Uncle Clyde answered it. I heard "Hello, Pearl" and then "Myrna, it's for you." I went to the phone and my mom said "Do you have any idea what time it is?!" She was really upset. I turned and looked at the clock, and it was past two in the morning. Harold and I had been ensconced in front of the computer for five or six hours! (Of course, Uncle Clyde was still up doing his puttering and inventing, and he hadn't noticed the time either!) It was just very interesting to do things with Harold, and the time would fly.
At the same time, Harold was in the ward Sunday School presidency. It seemed like every Sunday, someone would call to tell him they couldn't teach a class, or give their assigned talk or prayer or the scripture (what did we call the Sunday School scripture? There is a word--I can't remember what it is!) and then Harold would call me and ask me to do one of those things. I got so much experience being in front of people! It was a great confidence-building time for me, and I appreciate so much that Harold extended those opportunities to me.
After I was married, and we moved to Canada in 1983, both Harold and John were so welcoming to Bruce, and so helpful to us. We tried to help back, especially at harvest time, but I think that we were never able to tip the scales so that our service to them equaled their service to us.
It seems that life is full of demands on our time, and that I have not been able to spend the time with my cousins that I would like to. I am so grateful for the spontaneous reunion of August 2008, when the ten of us in the Clyde and Arnold Conrad families got to spend some very precious hours together. I am so happy to have those memories, and the pictures that Karen took as souvenirs, and I am so glad that I got to see Harold so happy and comfortable with himself, as he always has been, even with poor health and eventual death staring him in the face. Harold has been a fine example to me my entire life, and I am so happy that he has been a part of my life.
