Grandma and Grandpa Wardle

Grandma and Grandpa Wardle by: Billy Wardle
James Wilford Wardle Sr. and Melissa Ann Shaw Wardle

    We seemed to always spend less time at Grandma and Grandpa Wardle’s than at Grandma Wright’s.  I’m not really sure why, except maybe there was more to do at Grandma Wright’s.  We knew her neighbors better and there were kids to play with.  In Rigby (where Grandma and Grandpa Wardle lived) we had a couple cousins; Sally was only a year or two older than me, but still nobody we enjoyed playing with. 
    I do have some memories from the Wardle grandparents though.  Grandpa Wardle had a lot of neat old things—tool, pictures, letters (with stamps).  Sometimes they would talk with Dad about who was who in the pictures.
    We always seemed to make it to Rigby about every trip we made to the area.  There was always a big box of toys to play with—army men and building logs—as well as a set of dominoes in a desk.
    We also played quite a bit of football in the front yard.  There was a park a half block away that provided some fun.
    One summer, Danny Green spent the summer with Grandma and Grandpa Wardle.  As a result, we spent a bit more time there.  We went and saw a movie in the Rigby theater about Gladiators.  As a result we spent a few days playing Gladiators with stick swords.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  At the park there was a concrete structure, like an old water fountain or something, which became our Gladiator stadium.  One time though, Charlie got hit on the foot with a stick and some lady yelled at us for it.
    One time when we visited Grandma and Grandpa Wardle, we stopped by a canal and went skinny dipping.  It seems Mom was mad, but Dad had a good time with it. 
    As Grandpa Wardle got older, we went up there and worked around their place clearing weeds and such things.  It seems often their health wasn’t good.  Grandma Wardle had problems with her hip.
    Once, Grandpa and Grandma Wardle went with us and the Chases to Tony Grove Lake up in Logan Canyon.  On the way home they had some car trouble and Grandpa tried to push his car to start it.  Dad yelled at him to get in and pushed the care with the pick-up.
    We had some good weeks at their place.  Their house was heated with coal.  The stove was in the kitchen and sometimes we brought coal up from the cellar for them.
    They came and spent time with us; Grandma especially after Grandpa died.  I remember we tried to get her out.  She once went with the family to the Capital Theater in Logan.  I guess it was so cold in the theater she didn’t enjoy the show.
    Grandma was eventually placed in a rest home in Pocatello.  We visited once and helped her eat lunch.  She wrote me on my mission that she didn’t like it there and felt betrayed.  She died in the rest home while I was on my mission.  She had been my last living grandparent.