“You Can't Sluf Ward Choir Practice!” (Part 4 of 5)

Dad interviewed his children occasionally. He’s usually had a little bag of peanut M & Ms and he’d take each child one by one out to the car. He’d take notes on a white 3 by 5 index card. Sometimes he also used the card to get a piece of food out from between two teeth. (Dad always tried to accomplish more than one thing at a time.) He would ask about our goals. Our aspirations. And our dreams. Dad was a master at issuing what I call now, “righteous bribes.” He often said, “Okay, I’ll give fifty cents to anyone who can memorize this scripture.” or “Whoever can say the books of the Old Testament in order and by memory, I’ll take them to see the movie, Fiddler on the Roof. One time in an interview, he challenged me to do better in school and to read the entire Book of Mormon. He said, “If you get these grades and read the book, then I’ll buy you a Heathkit oscilloscope that you can build.” I did what he asked and Dad ordered the oscilloscope and I put it together. Dad troubleshooted it when I finished it and it worked.