The Wit and Wisdom of Murray (UT) Native and Longtime Botany Researcher Dr. Calvin McMillan

 Some of my Murray (UT) native Father's favorite sayings and words of wisdom that he often shared with me during my childhood in Westlake Hills, Texas:

---"Anything worth doing is worth doing well."

----"Never put off until tomorrow what you can get accomplished today."

----"One of the reasons I like New York Governor  Nelson Rockefeller as a Republican Candidate for President is that he is so rich that no one could possibly  bribe him. He would refuse all bribery attempts."

-----"It would have broken my mother's heart (in Murray, Utah) if I (son Calvin McMillan) had left the Mormon Church during her lifetime. I decided to continue in the Church out of respect for my Mother (Mrs. Alice Mae Pugh (maiden surname) McMillan).”

---"Back in the 1920s or 1930s I saw women being held in chicken coops in Utah!"

---"I like the optimism of the Mormon Church. If you don't immediately go to Heaven in your afterlife,  Mormon theology states that you can work your way into Heaven through diligent effort."

----"The reason your mother (Iowa native Mrs. Phyllis Delores Gardner (maiden surname) McMillan) always eats with her mouth open is that she was raised in a big family with two brothers and two other  sisters on a farm in Iowa. She had to eat very fast in order to get her share of the food at the dinner table at their farmhouse near Iowa City."

----"During my days in the U.S. Army stationed in the USA throughout, the most memorable  accent I ever observed was at a military base in New Jersey. That New Jersey accent is very entertaining!"

---"When Phyllis and I drove her Iowa farmer father, Russell Gardner,  into California for a visit there, he stated emphatically that all of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range should be dynamited and turned into productive farmland. Russell Gardner's emphatic belief was that the mountains of California served no purpose of any type  and were a complete waste of potential farmland."

---"Your mother and I chose a Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco, California, for our wedding site. We chose that church exclusively because we liked its architecture. Theology of that church has nothing to do with our decision to get married there."

---"After Phyllis and I got married, we decided to go for a compromise religion. Her background was with the United Methodist Church, mine was with the Mormon Church. So we decided to join a Unitarian Church as a compromise."

----"Your mother loves being outdoors so much that one day when we went camping together in California I had to warn her that she was sitting so close to the campfire that sparks flew onto her shoe.  ‘Yes, but it feels great,' your mother replied."

---"You ask why I don't attend the local Unitarian church on Sunday. I prefer to commune with nature on Sundays."

—“When your  mother was employed in the Herbarium of the University of California at Berkeley and I was a Doctoral Student in the Botany Department there, she wore my resistance down by treating me to outdoor picnic meals with her on a frequent basis. Phyllis  was very aggressive about pursuing me as a prospective marriage partner, and eventually I gave in and agreed to marry her.”

—-“During my childhoood in Murray, Utah, my sister Evelyn and I loved to tease a girl in our neighborhood named Marguerite. We would  frequently shout at her from across the street, ‘Marguerite, Marguerite, Go wash your feet! They stink so bad we can hardly eat our cherries!’”

—-“Your Aunt Evelyn in Nevada always wants to reminisce with me on the telephone about our childhood together in Murray, Utah. I always tell her that I am NOT willing to talk with her about our days together in Murray back in the 1920s and 1930s. I live in the present. That is my focus. My sister lives in the past.”

—-“I don’t pay much attention to actors and actresses, but Shirley Boothe is one actress I did see at a movie theater in Nebraska. The movie of hers I attended in 1952 in Nebraska was entitled ‘Come Back, Little Sheba’. The movie highlighted her great love for a favorite pet dog of hers.”

—-“Your Aunt Evelyn told me on the telephone that she has gained weight and developed some medical problems from it. She tells me that she loves nuts and is eating too many nuts on a daily basis in Nevada.”

—-“My favorite neighbor in Murray, Utah, was a female immigrant from Sweden. She was an ideal hostess who always kept a fresh pot of coffee on her stove that she would offer to each of her visitors.”