My Parents
My mother, Venna Gifford was born in Woodville Idaho where her
parents had a farm near the Snake River. They didn't have any insulation
in the house and the children slept upstairs. She remembers taking hot
potatoes and heating up rocks to put in their bed to keep out the cold.
She woke up many mornings with frost on the ceiling. They bathed once a week in
a metal tub. Because she was the youngest, she always had to go last and
she said she hated getting into that gray, cold water. She enjoyed riding
horses. Their family moved to Firth when she was in third grade and she
loved it because she made friends quickly and felt like she fit in.
Because they lived in town, instead of out in the country she could go play at
friends homes and walk to the store. This home also had insulation and
was nice and warm. Grandpa Milo bought a grocery store in Iona, Idaho and
they moved there when Mom was in Junior High. She really enjoyed living
in Iona and made many friends there. When she was in high school, her parents
sold the grocery store and bought a restaurant in Idaho Falls and moved to
Idaho Falls. Venna didn't want to change schools, so she arranged to ride
to school each morning with one of the teachers at Iona High
School.
My father, Larry Rockwood was born in Iona, Idaho. His
grandfather, Amos had homesteaded dry farm acreage in the foothills 20 miles
east of Iona. Amos sold the dry farm to my father's father, Warren
Rockwood and the irrigated farm in Iona was sold to Uncle Bruce Rockwood.
My father grew up between Iona and the dry farm and he still loves going
there. He was a farmer and rancher all his life. He raised cattle
and grew wheat, alfalfa, barley and rye. My father enjoyed all kinds of sports
and was on the championship basketball team when he was in high school, where
his nickname was "Red" . . . a little for his hair and a little for
his temper.
Mom and Dad met in high school, but didn't start dating until
Venna and her friend Lisa Walker met my Dad and Floyd Gifford (Mom's brother)
and some other friends at the Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot. They spent
the day playing carnival games and riding the carnival rides. The boys
asked the girls if they would like a ride home and everyone piled into Larry's
car. A policeman stopped them on the way home because they had too many
people in the front seat.
My parents married on January 5, 1950 and lived in a little
trailer in Iona for about a year. They purchased a one room
"basement" house around the corner from Warren and Ethel Rockwood in
Iona, where they lived until 1954 when they purchased a home in Ucon,
Idaho. My mom really loved that Ucon house. It was huge compared to
their little basement home - it had three bedrooms and a bath upstairs
and another bedroom, laundry, storage and coal furnace downstairs. It had
a huge yard and was irrigated from the canal across the street. We loved
irrigation day because the lawn would be flooded with water and we would splash
and run and play in the water. My parents always had a huge garden.
We also had chickens and a milk cow. They pretty much grew or raised
nearly everything we ate. In 1957, Venna and Larry purchased 10 acres of
land a mile east of Iona, where they began building a new home. They did
not get a loan, they paid cash for everything and did most of the work
themselves. They hired out the things they could not do, such as plastering the
walls, which our friend, Kenny Davis did. We moved into our new home the
summer of 1958. We didn't have carpet or curtains for a few years.
Mom "painted" the press board floors to make it look
better.
Larry farmed, and raised Hereford and Black Angus cattle.
To make extra money he refereed high school basketball games in the
winter. He once refereed a game when the Harlem Globetrotters came to
Idaho Falls. During the game, one of the Globetrotters didn't like one of
Larry's calls, so this tall black giant bent down, picked up my Dad and put him
on his shoulder and ran down the court, playing basketball carrying my dad with
him. The crowd loved it! Larry and Venna square danced for years
and were on bowling leagues. They had a group of friends that played
cards together every week on Friday night. Dad liked to fish and hunt. He
loves being outdoors and exploring the back roads. Venna took an oil painting
class and began painting landscapes. She is a talented artist and has
done many paintings for family and local businesses. She and her friends
restored the Old Rock Church in Iona where they could paint and teach painting
classes. Venna loved water skiing and would go every chance she would
get. One autumn, Mom and Dad went fishing up at Palisade and at the end
of the day, Venna decided she wanted to water ski back to the docks. So
she put on her swimsuit and skied past lots of fishermen who were dressed in
their warm jackets, hats and gloves. She just loved skiing that much and
she never had a wetsuit, or she would have probably skied year round!
Venna worked side by side with my sister Linda and I when we were old enough to
pick potatoes. We did this every year to earn money for school clothes
and spending money. She later worked for the Idaho Sugar Beet company and
worked in the scale house where the big trucks came in to be weighed before
dumping the sugar beets to be processed. She also was a Pink Lady for
many years and enjoyed working in the hospital where she enjoyed learning a lot
about medical treatments and purchased books to learn even more.
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