Cultural Artifact Analysis

Ashley Halverson

Bonnie Moore

English 2010

24 April 2014

Cultural Artifact Analysis

     As a military brat, my family has always been my anchor through the many moves and changes I have been through. When you come to a new place where everything and everyone is unfamiliar, it is extremely important to hold onto the people that know and love you. No matter where I was, I had my family as friends to help me along.

      It was very exciting to look back at my family’s history as I collected cultural artifacts from my parents, siblings, and self. It is easy to take the experiences and adventures we have had for granted, but this project forced me to look at them a little closer and appreciate the opportunities I have had. In our travels, we have seen so much and met so many people. Each new thing has helped to define our family and the futures that lie ahead for us.

      Many of the artifacts alluded to our family’s strong sense of pride and patriotism. As my father has fought in wars and done his duty to this country, we have each come to appreciate the rights and privileges that we have as citizens of the United States of America. We love to celebrate these rights, especially on the days set aside for that purpose. The Fourth of July is one of the biggest parties held in the Halverson household. In my holiday tradition/custom cultural artifact, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Pancakes,” I detailed how we celebrate this holiday with breakfast food and togetherness. We gather with those we love and respect and enjoy the day that marks the independence of our country. In this way, we demonstrate who we are as a family and share it with others.

     Likewise, the feelings and attitudes that my family members hold towards one another are obvious in many of the cultural artifacts. Just like so many other families, we have our problems, our spats, and our differences. We do not always get along with one another. But when we come together with positive attitudes and the desire to love each other, we have so much fun. In the informal photo from my artifact “Christmas Eve with the Jenkins,” we sit close together as a family, joking, laughing, and enjoying the time we have with our father during his two-week R&R from his deployment in Afghanistan. “BB Between the Eyes,” a family legend, is often told at such events as a popular and funny story, especially since my siblings and I never had the opportunity to meet my dad’s father. “The Troll in the Sock Drawer” demonstrated the history of pranking and play that my family holds so dear. Though we are serious when it comes to matters of our country, we have so much fun when we are able to do so.

     I wouldn't trade my family for any other group of people in the world. They are silly, sappy, loving and hard-working. We fight and we forgive, we love and we live. I have had the opportunity to look into our history and come to love them even more. I know that I am more resilient and strong as a result of my connection with them. I am capable of anything with them by my side, no matter where we are in the world.

This I Used to Believe

Ashley Halverson

Bonnie Moore

ENGL 2010

17 April 2014

Bubbles and Beliefs

As children, we often form beliefs and understandings that, later in life, we discover to be false. We learn that our parents, not Santa Claus, leave presents at the base of the shimmering Christmas tree. The Tooth Fairy, for whom we once left pearly baby teeth beneath our pillows, becomes a silly and somewhat embarrassing memory. The monsters beneath the bed and in the closet are suffocated by the courage we gain in our adolescent years and the debris of a messy room. We stop wishing on the first star we see as the sky grows dark because those wishes never seem to come true. In my own life, I have held all of these beliefs and more. They made my childhood a magical time, full of memories and experiences. Many of those memories came at the hands of others. For instance, my parents took the time and energy to create my childhood wonders, and for that I am thankful. Others, I am less inclined to be thankful for. Thanks to the efforts of my teenaged neighbors, Rachel and Perry Ward, I once believed that I could breathe underwater. As one would expect, I eventually had to amend this belief.

Because of my father’s position in the United States Army, my family enjoyed the opportunity to do a great deal of traveling throughout our lifetimes. We lived in Lupburg, Germany, when I was seven years old. Lupburg is a small town in the heart of Bavaria, or Southern Germany. Our townhouse was located on a sloping street, one of a dozen other military houses. Like many of the other places I have lived, the neighborhood constantly changed as people came and went from one Army post to another. My five-year-old brother, Joshua, and I constantly looked for new friends to play with in the neighborhood.

Rachel and Perry Ward lived right next door. They were a few years older than my brother and I, but they did their best to tolerate us, as we were the only other kids on the street. We looked up to them, knowing that their age and wisdom far outweighed our own. Perry referred to us as “midgets”, priding himself on the few inches he had over us. Rachel used her cleverness to make us feel small. I believe she was the mastermind behind most of the pranks they pulled on us. She once led me to believe that the fog that hung heavy over the mountains was actually a spider’s web, and that the residential tarantula, a creature the size of a house, would sneak down at night to kidnap children and drink their blood. She and Perry were certain that my name came next on the menu. I did not sleep for a week afterwards, fearing the hairy limbs of the spider that would surely reach through my window that night. It was not kind, but what they told us next could have truly led to disaster.

I have always loved the water; swimming, splashing, playing, relaxing. Give me a puddle and I’ll make a day of it. During this particular summer, my parents set up a medium-sized kiddie pool in the backyard. My brother and I spent hours in it every day. Occasionally Rachel and Perry would stop by to see what we were doing, to splash us or tease us about the childishness of playing in a kiddie pool. One day, while Joshua and I were getting ready to swim, Rachel and Perry came over to us, giggling quietly. With a smile plastered on her face, Rachel said, “I know something about swimming that you guys don’t know.” Intrigued, Joshua and I begged her to tell us the secret. She finally gave in. “I can teach you how to breathe underwater.”

Flabbergasted, but curios, I wondered if such a thing could be done. Breathing underwater was for fish, not humans. “That’s silly,” I said. “We don’t believe you!”

“Well, then I guess you don’t want to know how to do it.” Perry smirked as he sneered the words. And the two of them turned to leave.

“Wait!” Josh and I both fumbled for their attention, and with grins they came back to the side of the pool. “What do we have to do?”

“If you can hold your breath underwater for twenty seconds, you can breathe in it. Perry and I do it all the time.” Rachel crossed her arms. “What are you waiting for? Try it.”

I gulped and looked at Joshua. He bounced up and down, ready to go for it. So I nodded. “Okay, let’s do it.”

We took a few last breaths, then plunged our heads beneath the water. This will be easy, I thought to myself. I had practiced holding my breath plenty of times before. Twenty seconds passed, and with excitement I inhaled deeply. Cold, metallic hose-water immediately filled my lungs. I jumped up, coughing and sputtering, and heard Joshua doing the same. Rachel and Perry were holding back laughter. “That wasn’t long enough!” they shouted. “You have to try again!”

Once we had regained our breath, Josh and I tried again, somewhat reluctantly. Twenty seconds passed, and the result remained the same. I became lightheaded, my stomach sloshing from all the excess water in my system. “Why isn’t it working?”

“That was too long. It has to be EXACTLY twenty seconds.”

We tried, time and time again, nauseated by the taste of the water and nearly drowning from the liquid in our lungs. Rachel and Perry just laughed, never telling us that it was all one big joke. Eventually they left and we gave up, exhausted by the attempts. For months after that, I tried again and again, whether it was in the bathtub or back in the kiddie pool, discovering with each attempt the sheer impossibility of the feat. As the years passed, I had many more experiences that caused me to rethink this idea that I could breather underwater.

At the age of twelve, I lived in Hohenfels Germany. We often visited a huge swimming complex a few towns over, one with tube slides, whirlpools, diving boards, and a wave pool with a giant floating island in the middle. The water grew deep there, but I still kept swimming out and climbing aboard to ride out the waves. Once, my family and I went to the complex with a few family friends. I was the oldest child there, and I took the responsibility very seriously. I did all I could to keep track of those who were old enough to swim on their own, but still young enough to get themselves into trouble. Three or four of us were out in the wave pool, climbing on top of the island, when the sirens went off, letting us know that the waves were about to begin. They lapped against the side of the island, then began to beat upon it, causing Delaney, a girl just a few years younger than me, to lose her footing and fall into the churning water. I knew she wasn’t a strong swimmer. Terrified, I jumped in after her. I found her bobbing in the water, barely keeping her head above the surface. I knew that, no matter how long she held her breath, she could not breathe underwater. If she slipped below, she might never come back up. I grabbed on to her, fighting to reach the shore. The waves just pushed me back, pulling me farther and farther away from safety. Delaney was dead weight in my arms, exhausted by the fight. The wave cycle had at least three minutes left, and they were the longest three minutes of my life. Just when I was certain that we could not keep up for another second, the waves stopped and the water calmed. I hauled us to the shore and collapsed, shaking, thinking of how useful underwater breathing could have been. Twenty seconds below the surface, then a breath. It could have been the end.

I went on to join the swim team in middle school, then continued at my junior high in Rhode Island. Being a part of the swim team became one of the hardest things I have ever done. I was constantly challenged, worn down by constant practices and exercises. I spent long hours at the pool, my lungs burning from the effort of each and every stroke I took in the water. Air was essential, something I longed for while I pushed myself to my limits. At times like these, I wished with all my might that I could breathe underwater. Then I would not lag behind the faster swimmers who sped ahead in spite of being somewhat younger than me. I would reach the end of the race first, rather than straggling in after everyone else had already finished. I wanted to be a hero for my team, but no matter how often or how hard I practiced, I could not seem to outswim the competition. This further proved that I could not breathe underwater, though the skill would have been quite handy throughout my time on the swim team.

In spite of my struggles on the swim team, I continued to love the water and the time I spent in it. When I turned sixteen, I took the Red Cross lifeguard courses and began my first job as a Picerne Military Housing Neighborhood Pool Lifeguard. As part of our training, we watched a fifteen minute video about the drowning of a young boy at a YMCA. The video contained the surveillance footage from the pool, detailing the events that led up to the tragedy. The on-duty guards were late to work, inattentive, and distracted by their personal issues. As a result, a child lost his life. He slipped below the surface and remained there, unnoticed by the lifeguards and other patrons. For those of us preparing to start our journeys as lifeguards, the video was terrifying. If we slacked off or got distracted, disaster could strike. These people we protected could not breathe underwater. They live and they die, and sometimes that fate rests in our hands. As my summers at the pool passed by, I learned a great deal about the responsibilities of guarding the patrons of the Fort Rucker pools. I saved the life of a boy very similar to the one in the video, and though I never met him again, I know that he had the opportunity to live his life because of the decision I made to be the best lifeguard I could be, underwater breathing abilities or not.

Rachel and Perry Ward did not know how much their prank would affect the rest of my life. I realize now how silly it was to think that I could possibly breathe underwater and I know that I am lucky to have lived through their immature hazing. I believe that the experiences I have had since then have occurred for a reason. Because I once believed I could breathe underwater, I am now more attuned to the knowledge that people are not invincible. They are limited, imperfect, and fallible. But, in contrast to what I have learned about mortality, I have also learned about strength, specifically within myself. When I saved Delaney, I put all of my effort into doing something for someone I cared about who could not help herself. When I joined the swim team, I learned to push myself in spite of the pain and difficulty that I faced as someone who was not great at competitive swimming. When I became a lifeguard, I learned about responsibility and how to selflessly care for others, even when they took my labors for granted. No, I cannot breathe underwater; but with each breath I take, I learn something new. I continue to grow and change, becoming stronger each day as the years pass by.

Group Project

#SaveJosh: Excessive Computer Use and the Family Saving Solution

Blake Buchanan, Ashley Halverson, Austin Jelitto, Gemma Koontz, Natalie Miller

Biographies

The stork dropped Blake Buchanan off in Ogden, UT, where Blake joined the Buchanans as the youngest, and favorite, brother. His family now lives in South Weber, UT, because they wanted to “get away from it all.” As a Mechanical Engineering Major, Blake uses the computer a lot for homework, but most of the time he just watches Netflix. Buchanan’s biggest pet peeve is when girls are wearing yoga pants but not doing yoga. This is in part because it’s impossible to know if they were just at yoga class or on their way there. Being a tall man, Blake sympathizes with giraffes, which are his favorite animal.

Ashley Halverson made her entrance into the world in Ansbach, Germany. As part of an Army family, Ashley lived in a many different, mystical lands. The Halversons currently call Fort Rucker, AL, home. Scott Halverson, Ashley’s dad, is the Inspector General for the NATO Forces in Afghanistan at this time. Presently, she is a sophomore majoring in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing. Ashley’s biggest pet peeve is bad smells, which somewhat contradicts her love for caribou. Ashley sort of enjoys using her computer time to watch Netflix, do research, watch funny cat videos, and write many, many essays.


Austin Jelitto was birthed in West Point, GA; but that didn’t stop his family from moving to Centerville, UT, where they now reside. Austin is majoring in Engineering but is open-minded and willing to look into other fields of study. Dragons are reportedly his favorite animal. High on Austin’s pet peeve list is the NASCAR off-season. Austin is moderately computer literate and uses them sparingly, mostly for homework and sports updates.

Natalie Miller hales from Lindon, Utah which is merely a stone’s throw from her birthplace of Orem, UT. Because of her decision to major in Human Movement Science, with an emphasis in Exercise science, she chose the Snow Leopard as her favorite animal due to its strength and ability to camoflauge itself in the snow. Like most people, one of Natalie’s pet peeves is when those around her “hint” at things and don’t speak their minds. Ironically, we’re not sure what she meant by that. In regards to computers, Natalie gets sick of them very quickly, but sometimes she doesn’t have a choice but to use them to do her homework. At the end of the day, when the dust settles and the leaves have fallen, Natalie wants all of her fans to know that she puts her right shoe on first every day.

Gemma Koontz may be best known for being the heart and spunk of Menden, UT, where her family currently lives, but she was actually born in Rapid City, South Dakota. Koontz has lived all over everywhere while being raised in an Air Force family. Her father, a security forces specialist, works for the Pentagon. You would never guess it from looking at her, but Gemma really dislikes it when people talk to her while she is reading. Not counting horses, owls are Gemma’s most preferred animals. Gemma is currently studying History at Utah State University. She is following in the footsteps of her two older sisters, who were also Aggies.


Audience Analysis


As technological advancements are made, we, as a civilization, embrace new and exciting opportunities. Readily available information allows for strides in societal evolution. However, each story contains two sides. As computers become standard in each household, the family

faces different challenges and negative implications arise. To evaluate the effects of these complications, as well as address the benefits, we have chosen a traditional family as our audience; the Halverson family.

At the heart of most families lies a love story, and the Halverson family is no exception. Karyn Halverson, maiden name Esplin, grew up in modest circumstances as the daughter of an Idaho potato farmer. Her family moved around the gem state quite a bit while she was young, but she eventually chose to leave Idaho and attend college at Utah State University. Karyn held a position as a dispatcher for the college’s police department. There she met her future husband, Scott Halverson, who worked as a security guard and was enrolled in the university’s Army ROTC. After a short courtship the two were married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple and Karyn became an Army wife. Military service carried the Halverson family all over the country and abroad. While living in Germany, Karyn gave birth to their first daughter, Ashley Coral. In North Carolina, Joshua Trent, their first son, was born, two years younger than his sister. Four years later in Arizona Taylor Anne came into the world, completing the family. Karyn and her husband raised the children to have traditional values, a love for their country, strong religious

convictions and great respect for their fellow men. Love and laughter flourished in their home, no matter how often the location changed. As Karyn loves to say, “Home is where the Army sends us.”

Growing up without the modern conveniences of technology that they now enjoy, Scott and Karyn continue to learn what role these inventions play in their family. Colonel Scott Halverson has been deployed all over the world. This means the Halversons endure months at a time without being physically together. Because of recent advances, the family is able to use technology to close the emotional distance between them. Karyn spends a few minutes every night on “Facetime” with her husband. She owns an iPhone and hosts a very successful Facebook page. Fostering relationships is not the only result of technology in the Halverson home, however. Computer use became a topic of tension within the last year, as 17-year-old Joshua’s grades began to slip because of too much time spent in front of the monitor. Although she finds satisfaction and joy in technology, Karyn feels anxious about finding a solution to the negative effects of its overuse on her family. As an audience, she welcomes an increased understanding of the effects of computer use and how best to help her children succeed. Joshua possesses an equally receptive attitude to learning more about the implications of his minor addiction. He recognizes that he spends more time than necessary in cyber-space and would be more efficient if he limited his usage.

As a college graduate and third-grade teacher at Fort Rucker Elementary School, Karyn is very intelligent woman. Due to his advanced placement, Joshua attends college courses through his High School. The intellectual capacity of these two main sources, as our audience, allow us to use dignified and scientific language.


Exec Summary


As technology evolves and the availability of electronic resources increases, worldwide usage of computers grows as well, specifically within the home. American teenagers and young adults are deeply affected by this growth. Videogames, social media, online homework programs, and many other such activities have sucked these generations in, distracting them from the world that exists beyond their glowing screens. The time spent on computers has many effects, both positive and negative, on the cognitive, social, and physical abilities of an individual.


Cognitive


It is believed that computer usage can improve multitasking skills, decision-making, critical thinking, language development, and math skills, depending on the mode in which the computer is used. For instance, studies indicate that the imagery and movement in certain action games can “provide them [children] with ‘training wheels’ for computer literacy” (Princeton University). This means that the skills that the games teach to children will be helpful to them later in life when they use computers in a workplace atmosphere. However, the use of computers may also be detrimental to the cognitive development of the teenage/young adult mind. As a result of the violent nature of many videogames, it has been suggested that videogames may make users more aggressive outside of the games. In a study on this topic, researchers discovered that high school students that played violent videogames were much more likely to lose self- control and to become aggressive (Whiteman). This worrisome discovery shows that computer usage in teenagers/young adults can truly cause serious flaws in cognitive abilities.


Social


Time spent on a computer also has huge effects on the social capabilities of teenagers and young adults. Social media is huge in today’s society. Through pictures, links, statuses, and games, individuals can connect with one another in spite of any distance between their devices. Nevertheless, this connection is superficial; all that one sees is what shows up on the monitor. By wasting time on computers, teenagers/young adults miss out on real-world social interaction. Rather than getting out and meeting people at public events, people often choose instead to stay home and watch the world go by from the comfort of their electronics. Smartphones, which are essentially portable computers, make it even easier to miss out on the experiences that life has to offer. Instead of communicating in social situations, teens and young adults tend to fiddle with their devices, rather than attempt to start conversations with new people. Though humans are more connected than ever before because of advances in technology, they are also much more alone as people choose to view the world through digitized windows.


Physical


Physical health is also largely impacted by the time that teenagers and young adults spend on the computer. It is common knowledge that obesity is prominent in American life. Having computers in the home influences individuals to choose the internet and other components of computer capabilities over other more active undertakings. Many teenagers and young adults would prefer to stay in and scroll through Facebook and/or Instagram than go out to the gym or just to enjoy nature. This stationary behavior can lead to obesity, which can then cause high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and various other serious health concerns. Prolonged exposure to computer screens also has very negative impacts on an individual’s eyesight. Straining one’s eyes to see a computer screen, rather than adjusting for comfort, can eventually lead to a need for glasses or other forms of vision correction, which can be a very costly issue. Musculoskeletal problems can also be caused by extended amounts of computer time, as most

people do not practice proper posture while using computers in the home. These issues, along with many others, pose a high risk of poor health to those who devote too much time to electronic devices.


Proposal


Appropriate time constraints must be placed on computer use in the home in order to counteract the adverse social, cognitive, and physical repercussions that occur as a result of spending excessive time immersed in technology (Developmental, Impact, Liffick, Subrahmanyam). But how should a family go about setting such limitations in a world that has become so dependent on computers? We have come to believe that this dependency may actually be the key to creating balance between personal computer usage and family life.

Parents in contemporary society often pay their children varied amounts of money to do their chores. However, this often causes those pre-adolescents to grow up believing that they are entitled to compensation for things that they should be doing without monetary motivation. This sense of entitlement is a plague within the recent generations, increasing the desire for instant gratification and decreasing ambition. We have discovered a method which could motivate teens to do chores, finish homework, and accomplish other worthwhile goals in addition to limiting the time that they spend on the computer.

Parents are able to access the security components of a Wi-Fi router and adjust them as needed fairly easily (Mitchell). A parent could utilize this ability in order to improve the lives of their loved ones. We suggest that parents change the Wi-Fi access codes each day, then use the password to encourage their children to be productive throughout the day. In Megan Garber’s article, “Sorry Kids, Want Today’s Wifi Password? Do Your Chores,” there is an image of a handwritten list of chores that a parent has compiled for her children to complete before they will be allowed to access the internet. By doing this, parents teach their children about time management and responsibility. They learn that hard work and sacrifice is required before fun times can be had. It is “a set of rules that treat Internet access as carrot and stick rolled into one” meaning that it is both a reward and a possible punishment (Garber). If the teen completes the assigned tasks, he or she will be rewarded with the password. However, if he or she were to fail

to complete that day’s tasks, then the consequences would be his or hers alone.


So what makes this so different from rewarding teens with cash for chores? Rather than paying them for a task that they should have already done, this makes the reward a privilege to earn instead of a right that is inherently held (Children Addicted). The internet is highly motivational as well; teens desire to check on their social media networks, play games, and be entertained by all that the World Wide Web has to offer (Jelitto). Knowing that the sooner they complete their assignments, the sooner they will be able to access said resources, is most likely enough to persuade them to accomplish their goals successfully.

We also suggest that, once a teen has received the Wi-Fi password, that a limit of two to three hours of internet time be set (Children Addicted, Ghose). Any length of time beyond that amount is excessive and may cause damage to the still-developing physical, cognitive, and social capabilities of a young adult (Developmental, Impact, Liffick, Subrahmanyam). A timer of some sort, whether it be a simple kitchen timer or an application on a cell phone, would be more than helpful in this endeavor, as it would emit an audible and unnegotiable signal to end the teen’s computer time (Matte). Having the computer in a public place would also make the monitoring

of internet usage simpler and less stressful for all those involved (Children Addicted). This will also prevent pre-adolescents from accessing sites and pages that the parents may deem inappropriate for viewing.

These restrictions are particularly apt to reduce the risk of adverse effects upon teens and young adults, as well as to improve the atmosphere within the home (Developmental, Impact, Liffick, Subrahmanyam). As chores are completed, homework is finished, and internet usage is wrapped up at a reasonable time, families will have the opportunity to use the time that is left over to bond with one another and grow as a family unit. Time together is priceless and will infinitely benefit those who value its importance and seek it often. By applying a system of time constraints on computers, negative consequences will be avoided and the benefits will flourish.


Works Cited


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The Troll in the Sock Drawer

CULTURAL ARTIFACT – Prank

Ashley Halverson

Informant: Scott Halverson

Facebook Chat

27 March 2014

Title:

“The Troll in the Sock Drawer”

Genre:

Prank (with supporting photo)

Informant:

Colonel Scott J. Halverson was born and raised in Rupert, Idaho. He is 45 years old. Halverson attended Utah State University and graduated from the school’s ROTC program. He holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Technology. As an Apache Helicopter Pilot in the United States Army, Halverson had the opportunity to live in many exciting places, such as Rhode Island, Arizona, and Germany, to name a few. He and his wife and three children are stationed in Fort Rucker, Alabama, though he is currently deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Inspector General for the NATO Forces. This year-long deployment will end in June 2014. Halverson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He enjoys fishing, boating, flying, and hunting. I am his oldest daughter.

Context:

This Halverson family prank began in 2001 and has continued ever since. It is because of my father’s position in the United States Army that such a prank was created, as it allowed us to find souvenirs that were as odd as a hand-carved wooden troll. As children, things like trolls, monsters, ghouls, and ghosts are terrifying to behold; our family was no exception to this rule, and so the troll was brought into our lives at the perfect time for it to be completely horrifying. Contrary to what my father says in his account, we Halverson children are indeed still fearful of the troll, even though I am now nineteen, my brother, Joshua, is seventeen, and my sister, Taylor, is fourteen.

Text:

Scott Halverson 4:41am:         So in 2001 I had the privilege of attending the NATO winter survival course in Norway.  The course took place just above Lillehammer where the 1994 Winter Olympics were held.  It was a great course and I had a great time learning to survive in the snow.  Apparently I was pretty good at it and for my skill in the snow I was selected by the Norwegian instructors as the distinguished graduate of the course.  My prize was a hand carved figurine in the form of a Norwegian Troll.  The Troll stood about 8 inches high and had a red felt cap on its head of scraggly grey hair.  Like Trolls you would picture it had a huge nose and eyes that really seemed to stare at you no [matter] where you are [in] a room.  It was pretty much one of the ugliest things I’ve seen but I really liked it as a souvenir from my time in Norway.  When I got back to Germany, where we were stationed at the time, I proudly showed off the Troll to my family.  At the time my kids were six, four, and not quite one.  They immediately identified my prize as one of the creepiest things they had seen which then gave rise to the terror of the Troll.

Scott Halverson 4:43am:         If I remember correctly, my son was the one most freaked by it so I would sneak into his room and place it somewhere he’d see it when he went to bed or woke up.  Sometimes it would be in a drawer I knew he had to open or on a shelf he was going to need to get to – or on the desk at the foot of his bed staring at him while he slept.  I’d be back in the living room watching TV and hear Joshua yell from his room “DAD!!!!!” Truth be told - I probably would have been freaked out by it when I was his age too.  It only took a few times before he started threatening to destroy it.  I, of course, still cherished it as a prize and really didn’t want him too.  Troll found his way into the girls’ rooms over the years.  None of the kids seemed to appreciate it as much as I did.  It’s been through several family conflicts where the kids would hide it from me until I threaten to ground them and then it would miraculously show back up.  Finally, due to the threat to the Troll’s existence in our household, I found a semi-permanent home for him in the drawer of my tall dresser.

Scott Halverson 4:44am:         I’m pretty sure now it doesn’t bug them as much as it did 13 years ago.  I think they still give me a reaction because they know I like to have fun with them.  Still – every once in a while – the Troll will sneak out of the drawer for a night raid into one of the kids’ rooms and they’ll provide me with a cursory “DAD!!!!” and then go hide if [it] from me.  It’s the little things in life that make parents smile.

Texture:

Minor edits have been added to the text in brackets. The manner in which my father writes is very similar to how he talks, though he was aware that the story would be recorded and may have embellished his words a bit. The troll itself is proof that we have done a great deal of traveling and enjoy collecting tokens from the places we have been. The fact that my father knew we feared the troll, yet still hid it around our home, provides evidence of his humorous relationship with us and the way that we interacted on a daily basis.

Meaning:

The troll is only one of the many pranks my family has pulled on one another, which gives great insight into Halverson family life. My family loves to laugh, and we will go to great lengths to bring laughter about. With my dad in Afghanistan, our home feels a little emptier without the echoes of his warm laughter. It is important to my mother and siblings that remember things like the troll in order to help us make it from one day to the next, always moving toward the return of his laughter.

  

Ashley Halverson

Utah State University

Professor Bonnie Moore

English 2010-0035

12:00-1:20
Spring 2014

My Family Tree

As an Army Brat, I have always been far away from my extended family. This caused my knowledge about my ancestors to be quite sparse. I knew that there were ways to discover more, but I never felt the need to seek that information out for myself. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I know that genealogy is extremely important. But I had always assumed that someone else in my family had already taken care of doing the research and that my help was unnecessary. But, as I began to undertake this Family Tree project, I realized just how many gaps had been left unfilled. For the first time in my life, I became excited to be the one doing just that.

My family on my father’s side originated in Norway. They then immigrated to the United States of America in the late 1800s, moving throughout the western states before settling in rural Idaho as farmers. Likewise, my mother’s family immigrated from Scotland and England in the early 1800s, settling in Utah with the Mormon pioneers. In fact, my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Jonathan Holmes, was a bodyguard for the prophet, Joseph Smith. Jonathan’s daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Holmes, called the prophet “Uncle Joseph” and was raised in his household so that her father could protect him. Before Joseph Smith was martyred, he gave Sarah a small tin box that is now passed down to the first daughter in each generation. She also recorded the prophet’s final words to her, which were “God bless my little Sarah; you shall yet live to testify to my name.” In spite of the persecution that my family faced during this time, they did live on to testify of the gospel and its truths.

Having learned so much more about my family through this project, I feel a closeness to my ancestors that I previously had not possessed. Sometimes I get caught up in the struggles and drama that I face in my own life, thinking that I am alone in my endeavors. But these men and women, who survived the world of their times, have already been through the trials that I face. I can look to their examples, borrow their wisdom and experience, and keep learning and growing. I will continue to fill the gaps in my family history, and I will not be afraid of the future when I have so much strength in my past.

BB Between the Eyes

(Left to Right: Robert "Red" Halverson, Albert "Grandpa" Halverson, Duane Halverson and Earl Halverson)

CULTURAL ARTIFACT – Family Legend

Ashley Halverson

Informant: Scott Halverson

Facebook Messaging

3 March 2013

Title:

“BB Between the Eyes”

Genre:

Family Legend

Informant:

Colonel Scott J. Halverson was born and raised in Rupert, Idaho. He is 45 years old. Halverson attended Utah State University and graduated from the school’s ROTC program. He holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Technology. As an Apache Helicopter Pilot in the United States Army, Halverson had the opportunity to live in many exciting places, such as Rhode Island, Arizona, and Germany, to name a few. He and his wife and three children are stationed in Fort Rucker, Alabama,  though he is currently deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan as the Inspector General for the NATO Forces. This year-long deployment will end in June 2014. Halverson is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He enjoys fishing, boating, flying, and hunting. I am his oldest daughter.

Context:

This story is often told when Halverson’s family comes together, which does not happen very often as a result of the distance between them. In regards to safety, it is a story Halverson enjoys telling in order to increase safety awareness. I asked Halverson to share this story with me after having heard it from him several times over the years. Because he is in Afghanistan, our conversation was held through the Facebook messaging system.

Text:

09:57pm Scott Halverson: So when I was a kid my dad gave me my first BB gun. It wasn't a Red Rider but it was still my first gun that actually shot something out of the end. When my Grandpa saw me with it he said "Scott you better be careful with that thing and don't shoot any of the glass lying around here." Grandpa had a lot of antique colored glass jars and bottles around the farm that would shatte [shatter] when shot with a BB gun. I told Grandpa that he didn't have to worry because it was "just a BB gun". That's when he called me over and sat me on his lap and asked if he could look at my new BB gun. He looked at it and sat it down and told me his story: He said, Scott, when I was a kid we all had deer hides that we had collected from past hunting seasons that we dried in the son [sun]. On the non-hairy side we painted red targets to shoot at. My friends and I would get together with our "BB guns" and one guy would walk down range with the deer hide held on his back and the other kid would shoot it for awhile. Then we'd swap out and the other kid would hold it on his back while we shot. One day, when it was my turn to hold the target I grabbed the deer hide and walked down to where I was supposed to be shot. I stood there and stood there and nothing happend. So I turned around to see what was taking the kid so long which was exactly when [he] shot. The BB hit me in the head square between the eyes. "It hurt like hell!" Blood started to trickle down my nose but I didn't want to tell my parents what happend so I told them I had been hit with a rock. A fraction of an inch to the left or right and I would have lost an eye. As it was I got a BB stuck between my eyes.

10:00pm Scott Halverson: I wasn't sure I believed him so I asked -"Really Grandpa?" and he said "Really" and he took my finger and put it in the spot directly at the top of his nose, centered between his eyes and moved my finger left and right and I could feel the BB THAT WAS STILL THERE rolling around under my finger. He taught me one of my most important lessons regarding guns. They are all dangerous, no matter how small or how big. Until I was old enough to know better I would often ask my Grandpa if I could feel the BB because it was kind of cool to know it was there.

10:01pm Scott Halverson: Love you Ashley. I hope that's what you needed.

Texture:

Halverson wrote out this family legend while sitting in his office in Afghanistan. Because I am familiar with the way my father types, it is plain to me that he was trying to be somewhat humorous as he told the story. Halverson is someone who is used to speaking with his hands, so the limitations of typing the story were probably a bit irritating. When he felt his grandpa’s forehead, he showed his shock at feeling the BB by typing in all caps.

Meaning:

This exchange between my father and his grandfather was obviously important to both of them. For my dad, it was an exciting and funny experience with a person he looked up to. For his grandfather, it was an opportunity to share knowledge with his grandson in order to keep him safe. To me, this is an amazing story that I greatly enjoy listening to. We often forget that our parents were once children as well. Hearing about this interaction reminds me of that fact and teaches me that I must enjoy the time I have with family while we are together.

Ashley Halverson

Utah State University

Professor Bonnie Moore

English 2010-0035

12:00-1:20

Spring 2014

Christmas Eve with the Jenkins

Ashley Halverson

Informant: Myself

Karyn Halverson’s Facebook Page

17 February 2014

Title:

“Christmas Eve with the Jenkins”

Genre:

Photo

Informant:

My name is Ashley Coral Halverson. I am a nineteen year-old female. My father is in the military, so I have spent my life moving around the country and overseas. Though my family is currently stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama, an Army Post where most of the Army’s helicopter training takes place, I am currently attending college at Utah State University. I am Caucasian, of Scandinavian descent, and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am currently unemployed as I focus on my studies. I enjoy reading and writing, which has prompted me to pursue an English Major with an emphasis on Creative Writing.

Context:

This picture was taken on Christmas Eve, December 24^th, 2013. It is tradition in our family to have dinner with Uta and ElRay Jenkins in their home on Christmas Eve, and we have done so each year that we have lived at Fort Rucker, Alabama. This Christmas was special in that my dad, who is a Colonel in the US Army, was home on R&R from Afghanistan. My mother took the picture, so she is not included in the photo, but my father, Scott Halverson, my brother, Joshua Halverson (17), and my sister, Taylor Halverson (13), are present. In this picture, we are seated on the couch in the Jenkins’ living room. The next day, my mother, Karyn Halverson, posted it as her “cover photo” on Facebook. I then saved it to the hard drive of my computer in order to use it in various projects and Facebook posts. While on my mother’s Facebook page, the photo received 62 “likes.”

Text:

Texture:

This photo depicts the obvious closeness between my family members. This picture was not posed; we were already sitting like this when my mom told us to smile for a picture. We were squished together on a two-seat couch, enjoying having our dad home before he had to leave again, excited for Christmas Day. The love we feel for one another and the gladness we felt at my father’s homecoming is clearly visible in this photo.

Meaning:

This photo will always remind me of the opportunity I had to spend time with my father and the rest of my family. He is still in Afghanistan and will be until June of 2014. As such, this picture was taken during a precious moment that we all shared. Christmas is one of our favorite holidays; now that I am in college and my father is away, it is the only time that our family can come together as a whole. In spite of the distance, this photo reminds us of our love for one another and the belief that we have the opportunity, as a family, to be together forever. 

Ashley Halverson

Utah State University

Professor Bonnie Moore

English 2010-0035

12:00-1:20

Spring 2014

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Pancakes

Ashley Halverson

Informant: Myself

Logan, UT

10 February, 2014

Title:

“Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Pancakes”

Genre:

Holiday custom/tradition

Informant:

My name is Ashley Coral Halverson. I am a nineteen year-old female. My father is in the military, so I have spent my life moving around the country and overseas. Though my family is currently stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama, an Army Post where most of the Army’s helicopter training takes place, I am currently attending college at Utah State University. I am Caucasian, of Scandinavian descent, and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am currently unemployed as I focus on my studies. I enjoy reading and writing, which has prompted me to pursue an English Major with an emphasis on Creative Writing.

Context:

As a result of my involvement with this tradition, I was able to collect the record of this event from my own memory. This tradition is something that my family had continued to participate in for as long as I can remember. My mother, Karyn Halverson, my father, Scott Halverson, my brother, Joshua Halverson (17), and my sister, Taylor Halverson (14), are all involved in this tradition. It brings us together as a family every year.

Text:

Every year on the 4^th of July, or Independence Day, my family comes together to celebrate the day that our country received its freedom. Because of my father’s position in the military, this holiday has become very important to us. Even 238 years later, my father still fights for our freedom through his various deployments to the Middle East over the years. We also choose to share our celebrations with those that we care about. On the 4^th of July, we hold a brunch with many of the friends we have found during our time in the military. Waffles, pancakes, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, hot syrup, orange juice, milk, and many other delicious breakfast foods crowd the house and the plates of those who join us. We pray together, thanking God for the freedoms we have and the safety we are blessed with each day.

Texture:

When I talk about our Independence Day Brunches, I am always a bit nostalgic. Now that I am at college, I am not certain that I will always be there for the celebrations as my life continues to develop. I am also very proud of my heritage and my father, so my memories are filled with a sense of pride when it comes to talking about my family and our customs.

Meaning:

This custom is an important to me because it is not only a fun holiday, but also a representation of my family and the things that we stand for as Americans. My dad is currently serving in Afghanistan and I miss him every day. Remembering the time that we spent together on the Independence Days past reminds me of what I have to look forward to when he comes home.

Ashley Halverson

Utah State University

Professor Bonnie Moore

English 2010-0035

12:00-1:20

Spring 2014

Doughnuts for Santa

Family Holiday Tradition

Doughnuts on Christmas Eve are a traditional part of a Halverson/Esplin (my mother’s maiden name) Christmas. Because we are a military family, our houses change every few years. But the kitchen remains a place of conversation and fun. Each year, we gather together with friends and family in the kitchen of our home. There, my mom and I take the dough that has been rising for the last few hours, punching out the rounded shapes with cups and using medicine bottles to cut out the holes in the middles. My dad then uses an oil cooker to fry the dough into nearly perfect circles. The doughnuts are then glazed with a sweet frosting. All the while, our guests are in the kitchen, talking and laughing while we cook. The process is almost a form of entertainment within itself, and the product is delicious. We repeat this event each year, leaving out a plate of doughnuts for Santa instead of cookies. This tradition is something that I will pass on to my own children.