Cannon Family Stories

By Todd Cannon As I remember it there were a lot of trees in the yard of the Maryland house.  The Fall that we were there when Karl was 4 and I was 3 I remember Karl and I "helping" Dad rake the leaves up.  Dad would rake leaves into a big pile then he would bury one of us in the leaves and say things like "Where is Todd/Karl? I don't see him anywhere. Maybe he went back inside with Mommy."  Then the one in the leaves would pop out of the leaves  and shout "Here I am!"  Dad would rake the scattered leaves into a pile again and we took turns doing this over and over.  I never remember the leaves actually getting bagged or burned or whatever it was that Dad would eventually do with them.  Probably because it happened after Karl and I really did go "back inside with Mommy." Years later thinking back on this memory it occurred to me that this was not the most productive way for Dad to get the leaves raked up.  I have always been grateful that...

By Todd Cannon Going to St. George at the end of each summer for the Chicken Harvest was always one of my favorite things.  This first year we went I was given the job of  "Grim Reaper" as Dad put it. I would catch the chickens, chop off their heads, and then hang them up by their feet on loops of twine so that Dad could skin them. The first few years when we were all home we had plenty of people to help and Doug would often stretch the necks of the chickens out for me so that I had a good target for chopping.  As time went on and fewer of us were able to go Doug started helping inside with Grandpa cutting up and packaging the chickens before they were put into the refrigerator. I loved my job.  I got to be outside with Dad.  Catching, chopping and hanging up the chickens seemed pretty easy work.  But after a few years I started to feel a little guilty.  It was really only by luck that I got the outside Grim Reaper job and poor Doug was inside doin...

By John Cannon When we moved to Maryland for my postdoc at Georgetown, for some reason I decided not to bother getting haircuts. Perhaps they were too expensive or something. My hair is curly so it didn't hang down like Todd't would if he let his hair grow; it was more like Karl's hair is now. One day I got a ruler, stretched it out in the back and measured 4 inches. We were attending the Capitol Ward there and the Elders Quorum president called me to be the EQ teacher. Later I learned the reason they called me. All the EQ presidency were politically conservative, so they wanted someone with more liberal leanings to help balance things out. I had long hair, so obviously I was politically liberal. This is one of my fond memories of our time in the Capitol Ward.