Blue hydrangeas

A while back I went to a Relief Society Enrichment Meeting and Scott was teaching basic gardening skills, something I completely lack. We joke that I kill silk plants, I have actually, I thought they were real. Anyways, I had just bought some blue hydrangeas for the front of our new home over on Lana St. I wanted to keep them blue and they were starting to turn purple and pink. I wanted blue to match the house, no other color would do. I knew you could control their color by the level of acid in the soil. So when I asked him about what to do he replied with a tease, calling me a control freak. So true! We laughed about it, a lot. So, I went out and bought something to change the ph balance but I never used it. He was gone, and I couldn't bring myself to turn them back blue. So, in his honor, I let those hydrangeas turn their natural color which were pink and they stayed there until we put the house on the market. Every day I walked out of the house and passed them on my way to the car I'd hear his joking tease and laughter. It always made my day. To this day I don't look at hydrangeas and not think of him. We have a little widow in our ward that has latched on to me and she entered some flower arrangements in the fair here, and she gave me her blue hydrangea arrangement when the fair was over. I told her the story and she said she could just tell I'd love blue hydrangeas. Something whispered it to her. :)

Jenne Dearden

Earthquake Camping.

I've got a what I think is a great story to share. It was probably 1993 when Scott was the scoutmaster of troop 264 and I was for troop 164. I arranged for 264 to come to scout camp with us at Camp Chawanakee at Shaver Lake. Scott came. We had a campsite right next to the water, and Scott's tent was closest to the water. It was a raised wooden floored canvas tent with very heavy metal bed frame. We put Scott in the tent away from us because he REALLY snored. We also noticed that he was a very sound sleeper, all of which, we thought, would make for a great practical joke. One night we (all the boys and I) decided to lift Scott's bed and carry it out into the edge of the lake so that when he woke up in the morning he'd be out in the water. The problem was, between the weight of the bed frame, and Scott's not too svelte personal frame, coupled with the fact that 12-13 year old boys don't have much muscle, we couldn't get the bed totally off the floor for more than an inch or two at a time. I had the end with his head. You could only get 3 boys on the other end. So I'd lift, and they'd kind of drag the bottom end, which was closest to the lake, across the floor a few inches, with the foot of the bed kind of bumping along the floor. Every time we tried to move him he would snort a couple of times then settle back down. Then when we finally got his foot end of the bed off the wooden floor, the boys dropped that end! HE NEVER WOKE UP! After trying to move him for about 15-20 minutes we only had him half in and half out of the tent, with his bed being at a pretty good angle because of the raised wooden floor. The boys decided that they didn't want to do it anymore because it would take them an hour to go the next 20 feet, so we decided just to leave him there and see what he said in the morning. So he wakes up and we're sitting around the morning campfire. He comes over an asks us if we felt the earthquakes last night. We all look at each other and smile and everyone chimes in, "We sure did", "Man it really shook us", "It seemed like it lasted for minutes", etc. He just shook his head and said, as I recall, "Well it was big enough and long enough to shake my bed half way out my tent!" Again everyone chimes in, "No way", "That's amazing", "It must have been bigger than we thought", etc. Scott said, "You should come see". Then he asked a couple boys from his troop to help him move his bed back into the tent. We all went over and I have to admit that the boys were great at not laughing and giving it away. I thought for sure he'd bring it up at the daily scout leaders meeting, but he didn't. I figure he thought that if no one else brought it up then why should he. I don't think he ever found out. He never spoke to me about it again. But I know the boys talked about it for years.

Kevin Richards

Its a small world

(this is from last november 2009)

Its kind of a cool story how i found him.

Harrison was at his first semester of school and dales son was harrisons neighbor . They met talked a little bit. A famous quote that we could always hear from dad was

"Its a small world but a big church."

I added dale on facebook and i sent him a message kinda telling him my idea of getting stories from people.

Hey
So i have been thinking a lot about my dad lately and was wondering if you had any stories that you remember of you and my dad. Dad use to tell harrison and i bed time stories of him when he was younger. i remember one of them playing in someones back yard in santa cruz, maybe it was your house. it had a huge hill and the persons house was at the bottom of the hill. He said they would play a lot there. I was thinking it would be cool to hear another side of some dad stories. also do you know if there is a high school reunion coming up? you guys went to Soquel High School right? i remember going to a class reunion with him once and he showed me his ffa sign and how he was the first one to start it up there. when you get some time it would great to hear a story or two. thanks a bunch.

Zac

In return he sent me This.

I wrote a 3 page novel about your Dad and it disappeared. I must be over 50. Do you think your Dad would do Facebook? Me either.

Yeah that was my house we played wiffleball baseball. I have lots of memories of your Dad. He was always giggling. A little shy around the ladies until he scored with Amelia Souza our Senior year who became the homecoming Queen, so Scott was the King. I did not doubt his talent with the ladies after that. I hope I taught him a few things in that area.

My third son I named after your Dad, Scott Thomas Hendrickson.

He invited me to play on his ward basketball team as the token non-member right before he left to North Carolina. Back then you could only have 1 nonmember on the floor and you had to attend Sacrament 1 x/month. I played 2 years while his mission and became close with a player Jon Hopkins, who's dad was the bishop. He was a rebel, 4 years older. Got his act together, went on a mission to Ireland at 24. I wrote both he and Scott. He's now a Stake President in Oregon. Loved playing hoops there.

Scott's Mom (Dorothy?) was awesome. She was a large lady and man could she cook, wow, loved hanging at Scott's house. She was active, Rags was not, but he was cool. Sad day when the accident happened that killed her. Scott was driving, think they were on their way to youth conference in Utah. It was the summer before our Senior year. I think he was 17. My brotherRoy and I saw Scott at the hospital. He did not remember a thing. He was really beat up. Rags was devastated. That was the second time I stepped foot in an LDS chapel. Ist time ironically enough was 4 years earlier at Randy Peck's funeral. He was Scott and my Little League Coach. Probably the greatest athlete ever to go to Soquel High School and one I admired. Killed in a car accident too in Utah after the Utah Univ freshman football season where he led them (QB) to an undeafted season. He was 19. Don't know if he had any mission plans. Randy's Mom, Marge, was our high school secretary. She was never the same after that and now not active. I communicate with her occasionally.

Scott was always the catcher and me the pitcher on almost every baseball team from age 11-18. No one like to be catcher but he did. Loved to get dirty. Not a great arm and could not hit very well but boy did he have the quickest catch and release in the league. No one stole on him. He as like the team rah-rah guy too. Always up, always positive. He would get hit in the nards or the fingers off wild pitches and foul balls all the time. He would just come up to the pitcher's mound, grimace, grab some dirt, and rub it on and get back to the plate. He was awesome.

Scott an a cute girl (Cindy Pace) down my street introduced me to the church. We ended up dating for 5 years. We broke up after I joined the church my Junior year at BYU. I went there to play.....baseball.

The church has been a huge blessing in my life. My son Tyler just return from his mission, Drew is currently on his. When I ran into Harrison last summer @ BYU-I. It was a moment I will never forget. He lived next door to Drew and the 2 never knew their Dad's had quite a history. He wanted to know about his dad's youth, like you, and I wanted to more about his Dad life.

I owe a lot to Scott. He was a great example of perseverence, overcoming hardship, enduring to the end, and faithfulness.

I miss Scott. I miss his giggle. I'm sure you do too.

All the best,

Dale Hendrickson