Welcome, millions, perhaps billions of faithful podcast listeners. We are your host, Jason Kimber and Dave Simmons. We'll bring you along with us as we share life stories from our experiences living in small towns, or in Jason's case, an unincorporated community. That's true, along with genius suggestions for solving the world's problems and a whole lot of laughs.

This is the Small Towns Podcast. Well, hello once again, everyone to, uh, Jason and Dave's podcast. We are until somebody Changes our Mind, calling It right now, tales from any town u s A and by any town, I mean Grouse Creek, you guys. Um, we've talked a little bit about Jason Hales from the Metropolis Yes. Of Grouse Creek, which, um, when Jason grew up there had only about a hundred people.

Of those a hundred, how many you figure you were related to? That's a fair question, Dave. Um, I would say at least 60 of them. People You call cousins, I guess? Oh yeah. A lot of cousins. I get a lot of cousins. How did they all end up there? How did everybody get there? That's a great question. Um, gosh, that's, I mean, Kimber's, they've been there from, maybe not day one, but, well, maybe day one really close.

My great-great-grandfather, we could jump right down this genealogical rabbit hole if you'd like. I didn't realize that your dad was even born there and Oh, yeah. For some reason I thought he moved there because of the job he got with the BBL m Ooh. But it was the other way around, actually. He wanted to stay there.

So he got a job with the BBL M. Exactly. And you traveled quite a bit because of that. I see. Yeah. So it's a little interesting, but that's where he wanted to be. So, do you have any idea who the first Kimber was there? Charles Kimber Sr. And then, which is my great-great-grandfather. And then obviously then there were children.

Everybody kind of stuck around in Grass Creek. Yeah. And, and there was just so many, uh, you know, small town, everybody is related in some way or another. Mm-hmm. You know? Could be an in-law, but how did your mom meet your dad? Oh my goodness. All these rabbit holes, my dad, GR Creek is so small that there's only a school K through nine.

Mm-hmm. So if you wanna further your education, you gotta move away. Yeah. Further your education after ninth. Yeah. If you wanna get, you know, secondary education of 10th grade, you gotta move into this big city, which, For all of us incidentally, was Malta, Idaho, wrapped over high school. Go Trojans. And uh, my dad lived with a family there and went to high school and my mom was from Malta and that's where they met.

Okay. What you ended up doing as well? I did the same thing. Yes. How far of a drive for you guys was it to Malta? Oh, it was a good, uh, 65 miles, and again, to sound even more so, 65 miles when the pass was open in the winter months, uh, you, you couldn't go that way. You couldn't go over the mountain. And so it was about 120 mile Wow.

One way. Did you say 120 mile? One way. Mile. Mile. Okay. It was 120 miles, you know, 120 miles. Okay. So Jason went to high school in Malta, Malta River High at Raft River High School. So if you're related to say 60% of the people in town, I would imagine then, then that your prospects of finding a spouse aren't great unless Oh yeah.

Unless you're willing to marry your cousin. Exactly. And I'm not opposed to that. I think you are. I am opposed to that. I'm just kidding. Yeah. I mean, that's not gonna happen, you know? So, uh, obviously as thankful to meet Heather here in the big metropolis of Logan, you came to Utah State University for college.

Good thing You did fine. Heather. She's a, you got a good one there. Hey, you're married up and I still got that wall pulled over her eyes. Which is, which is fitting because I am a shepherd. Yes, you are. She more stories there, you know, I don't know if you're anything like me, but isn't it getting harder to find gifts for every single look?

I, I'd give her the world if I could, but we got birthday, Valentine's Day. Christmas. You got an anniversary. Mother's Day. I'm running out of ideas. I know. We've got to tread lightly though, because we would give, I mean, you, you also, you married way up. My wife is the most sweetest person for anybody that knows Suze.

When I tell this she'll, they'll be like, yeah, you're absolutely right. I asked her what she wanted for Valentine's Day. Huh? You know what? She told me? What? Put $20 in my Roth I r a? Are you kidding me? And that's true. That's what she thought. If I was to buy her a box or case of toilet paper, she'd be over the moon about it.

She's just that kind of person. So anybody says, when I lament about a holiday coming up or Valentine's, I'm like, I don't know what to do. She just wants maybe a case of toilet paper. And people say, no, she doesn't. She wants something nice. She doesn't, she really wants something practical. And actually she doesn't want anything at all.

Well, I don't know what you do in situations like that because that is, I, I'm gonna be bold and say that that is a bit of an anomaly and I'm lucky for it. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. But, It's interesting, every, every single holiday, every single tradition that we partake in, if you will, every town, every city is, is very different.

And of course, um, grouse Creek, we, we have our own set of unique holidays and traditions. What was the strangest one you ever had happen? Or, or that maybe you were a part of that? Maybe you wouldn't like to share, but let's be honest, it's coming out. Yeah, I'm for sure gonna share it. Uh, and it's funny because I didn't, I didn't realize that this was a real issue.

Now, now obviously as, as I get more into the, uh, details of this story, there were times when I was in the thick of it that I was questioning, what are we doing? What are we doing? Is this really happening? Obviously, there's gonna be a lot of cultural references in, in every story that we tell Dave. Sure.

But I'm gonna zero in on Mother's Day here, if you will. Um, Mother's Day, not too many years ago now. I was not married to Heather. That's imperative to this story too. It, I believe it's very imperative. I believe because she may not have married me. No. And she would've had a valid reason not to. Yes. And if I had been married, probably shouldn't have participated.

But in Grass Creek every holiday, whether like mainly mother's. Day, father's Day, things of that nature. Easter at church, we would have a special program and it would be typically held during the Sunday school hour. And I, I realize I'm gonna be throwing out words here that maybe not everybody's familiar with, so I'll try to describe as much as I can.

But, but it would be a program during church, during our regular worship services, but the focus would be in this situation, mother's Day. And so the program would, would just simply be in an effort to pay tribute to mothers and wives and just the, the wonderful women in our life. So I had been. I was at college, Utah State, so you know, my mid twenties and I got a phone call from one of my favorite people in this whole world.

Dave, I, I kid you not, her name is Marge and I love her dear. Bless Marge. Oh, I love her. She is just a sweet lady and, and I hope she's listening. I hope she's listening. Uh, Marge is truly is, in my mind, she kind of epitomizes Grouse Creek, if you will. Mm-hmm. Um, she's just one lady that is, I just love her to death and she.

Is involved with all of the celebrations, all of the activities. She really helps to make grass pick what it's, so she calls me up, and this is gonna be maybe on a Monday or Tuesday. She says, Hey Jason, this is Marge. Hey Marge. She's like, uh, you gonna be home this weekend, uh, for Mother's Day? I said, yeah, I sure am.

She's like, would you mind, um, singing a song for the Mother's Day program in church? Now, loyal listener. I, I'm not a great singer. I, I like to sing. I'm, I'm happy to sing. And I think maybe the talent pool, maybe marge's kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel there. But happy to help where I can. So, and, and, and maybe compared to everybody else in Grouse Creek, you might be the top of the barrel.

Who know? Well, I don't know about that. Hey, don't sell yourself short. You got a golden throat. Thank you. Yeah, that's the nicest thing anybody ever said about me. But of course I said, yes. You don't tell Marge no. So I said, you bet, Marge. What are we singing? She's like, well, um, I'll get the music for you. I just want this Mother's Day program to be honoring all the women and all the relationships in our lives.

So, you know, mother, husband, and wife, all these things. We need to make sure we include all those things. I don't know if it's 'cause of the name Marge, but can I assume Marge is a grandmotherly type? She is. She is. In fact, I'm guessing this is, yeah, she's, uh, probably in her seventies. Okay. At the time this story happened, I said, you bet Marge, I'd love to sing.

What are we singing? And she kind of skirted the issue. She's like, oh, you know, I've got it. I'll give the music to your mom. 'cause my mom was gonna accompany me on the piano. Mm-hmm. And, uh, I said, okay. And, uh, she's like, actually, I actually kinda had it in mind. As a duet. So she's like, would you and Carol mind singing together?

And Carol is Carol again, a cousin. Okay. Love her dearly first cousin. Uh, gosh, I could get us there, but uh, you know, it's a couple cousins, maybe once or twice removed. Okay. Well delightful lady. Delightful lover. One of my best friends. Okay, so you're singing a duet then? So I'm 20 with mid forties. I'm a guess mid forties.

Okay. If that's wrong, Carol. I'm so sorry. Maybe it was late thirties, but, but we're right. How, how do you even know when you're that young? Yeah, everybody older than you is a hundred. Exactly. Yeah. And I'm listening A duo with Carol and Carol's got a beautiful. Forth. Okay. So I'm happy to be kind of paired with her.

Sure. I'm like, this will be nice. Again, I can't get, I'm like, Marge, what are we singing? She's like, don't worry. Your, your mom will have the music. Could you meet me up at the church on Saturday morning for rehearsal? Do you think Marge knew though at that moment what song was gonna be sung or said? Yes.

Okay. A hundred percent, yes. Okay. I mean, she knew. She knew and I love her for it and I do also love her. This is a church program, but we're not taking this halfheartedly, we're having rehearsal. This is taking place as part of the worship services. Absolutely. Okay. So it's not like we're gonna do this the Saturday before?

No, it's not a community party. Okay. This is at church. This is at, got it. But I get up there on Saturday the morning of, you know, the morning before to practice and, um, My mom is playing the piano, and I'm, that's a familiar tune. A little more contemporary than what I'm used to hearing in the chapel. Sure.

But I like it and I'm like, what is it? No, no. I'm like, okay, yeah, I know that. And, uh, it's the great song. Can I have this dance by the incomparable Ann Murray? And sung Yes. In sacrament meeting. Yes, in in your worship services. In my worship service. I mean, it was beautiful. So I'm, I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, okay.

I mean, that's the first red flag, Dave. I mean, the first red flag I'm thinking, I don't, don't really feel like a church song, you know? Um, but you're too nice to say, yeah, we're not gonna do this, and we're gonna, and we're gonna honor. Obviously I'm gathering, I'm putting two and two together. We're gonna honor the institution of marriage.

Okay. I mean, it seems beautiful. It sure does, but it does. This is an only in Grouse Creek story. Yeah. So with that, let's just run through it once, just right off the top. Now I'm familiar with the song. Listen, I was country when country wasn't cool. I liked Yeah, music. Well, when you're on that dirt road for that long, you gotta sing some Ann Murray.

So my mom starts to play, you know, And, um, we start to sing. Of course, I don't have it memorized at this point. I mean, I had it memorized again. That'll be ridiculous, you know, and it's, I'll always remember the song they were playing the first time we danced, and I knew now that's tender. Yeah, that's tender.

Again, you're still not associated with the sacrament, you're not associating it with the traditional worship services that we take part in. Yeah. I'm standing right next to Carol behind the. Behind the pulpit? Yes. This is still in rehearsal. Still in rehearsal, okay. As we sway to the music and held to each other, I fell in love with you.

I mean, listen, the lyrics are beautiful. Well, maybe in the right context. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We jump right into the course. Could I have this dance for the rest of my life? And then, oh gosh, Dave, I scratch my head here. Could you be my partner every night? Oh. And up comes the second red flag. Yes. And I'm like, um, just soldier through, Jason.

Just, we're gonna be okay. Sing, we're gonna be fine when we're together. It feels so right. Could I have this dance for the rest of my life? And I'm thinking, I'm like, okay mom, stop, stop, stop, stop. I'm like, Marge, um, should we be singing the song at church? She's like, yes, Jason, why wouldn't we? This is a beautiful love song.

I'm like, well, it is. I mean, it is that I love Ann Murray. There's nothing that she doesn't sing. I mean, that woman could sing the phone book. I love her. And I said, well, um, when we're together, you know, could you be my partner every time, every night when we're together? Yeah. Feels so, so right. And I said, I don't know.

And she's like, Jason, don't be fresh.

I said, I'm not being fresh. She puts you in your place. Yeah. And I, and I love her for it. I just like, I don't know if we should be singing that, but, uh, NE's probably a good point to, um, bring up that Carol was actually married to Steve, who is my cousin, but he's also my bishop. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I didn't realize that he was also the bishop.

Yeah, he was the bishop and my bishop and, and a great man. This means that Steve needs to Okay. This program. Well, I mean, I think traditionally, yes. Maybe that's, but Marge is in charge of the program, so we're gonna, we're gonna what Marge says ghost. Exactly. And she's always, I mean, her, her talent is impeccable.

I'm like, okay, we can do this. We can do this. We run it through a couple times. And I'm feeling good about it. I love the song and I am just talking yourself into this one. Yeah, we finish up, we're getting ready to leave and uh, Marge is kind of giving us some last minute instructions. You know, make sure you're here a little early and wanna do this.

And I'm like, or I mean, we're gonna just stand up for our time to sing and go up and not like I'm waiting stage. Right? Yeah. There is no stage. Right. We're leaving the chapel and March says, Hey Carol. Almost as an afterthought. Do you still have your wedding dress? Oh, we all know where this is going. Yeah.

Carol's like, yeah. Yeah, I sure do. And uh, she says, Jason, uh, did you bring your suit home this weekend? I'm like, yeah. I mean, 'cause that's what I'll wear at church. And she's like, awesome. She's like, okay, Carol, you wear your wedding dress. Oh my goodness. Jason, you wear your suit. Ugh. What we're gonna do, Carol, you'll enter in, so there is a stage, right, stage right back of the chapel through the door.

Jason, you enter back door, stage left and our chapel is set up with just a, a center aisle. Well, you don't need many people. So we just got two banks of chairs center aisle. Oh Dave, Sunday morning rolls around and sure enough, Uh, it finds me waiting in the hallway for my cue with butterflies with butter.

I'm so nervous. You're just about to get married. I'm so nervous. I'm not sure. Maybe we did. I'm so nervous. So nervous because as we rehearsed, my mom started to play the music, and of course, the moment she started to play, I entered, you know, staged left Carol enter, staged right fully garbed in her wedding dress.

Full regalia. Full regalia. I'm in my best suit. Only thing I'm missing is a er. I really should've had a er. I would've probably made you probably should. That shoulda better. Probably. Marge dropped the ball on that one. She did. You know, Hey, next year, for sure. Yeah. So, so we walk towards each other. We meet each other at the very back of the chapel, at the back of the row, you know, the aisle.

And we arm in arm, we sachet as the betroth wood. That's what you do when you're be trolled. We sachet up the aisle at that point, Carol breaks off to the left. I break off to the right. We come up the stairs on the podium. Yeah. To get behind or you know, stage the pulpit. Yep. To get behind the pulpit. And at that point, of course, we timed it impeccably.

Yeah. And my mom was just a perfect piano player. Good thing you had that Saturday rehearsal, thank goodness. Yeah. And at that point, we're able to start singing our song now, I mean, the only thing that would've made this more awkward is if I would've like, just looked her right in the eye while I sang. Oh my goodness.

But listen, it was kind of tender. I, I find all sorts of issues with this thing. Well start, there are multiple people that need to be questioned in this thing. You, first and foremost, the multiple red flags that popped up weren't enough and you just were able to just skirt 'em aside and say, I'm going through with this wedding essentially.

Marge, we love Marge. Of course he, yeah. I mean, I've never met Marge, but I don't know. I moore's the lover. I've said 1,010. Well, I'd like to meet her and, and, and if I do meet her, I'll say, you know what? That was a great idea. Lisa, what's her name? Carol, who you're married to, you didn't realize you're married to.

Carol. Carol. Carol Didn't see anything wrong with this either. Hey, I'm gonna slip into my wedding dress. I'm gonna sing with a young man. That's 20 years my. My junior. We were good friends. I think you're married and yet her husband is down in the audience or was he behind you? You he understand. He understand.

'cause he is the bishop. I can actually feel his eyes just bearing. I bet. I mean, I I didn't think about that until just now. Shouldn't Steve, is that who he was? Shouldn't Steve have said, um, maybe we shouldn't be singing this song or, look, I know I'm not much of a singer, but I'll take Jason's place. No, nobody that ship itself too late.

Too late. We were going, I mean, the show must go on. You can't stop. Ain't no party like a Grouse Creek party. And to be singing Anne Murray at the pulpit, there's a lot of things wrong with this whole story. And then you're sashaying arm in, arm up the aisle and then breaking only to meet for your final song before being married.

Oh, I tell you what though buddy. We crushed it. You mic dropped. If you could mic drop. Yeah. I mean, everybody stands up and applauds. I've got a few questions for you. Okay. I mean, I think they're obvious, and I think I know the answer, but based on your reaction, nothing like this happened in the Providence.

What? No. Providence Fifth Ward. That didn't, that wasn't, no, no. I mean, you just have somebody, Sharon in South would walk around as she was trying to teach us to sing and yell at us. Okay. Okay. She would, she would get after us if we weren't singing well enough. But no, I, but you have Mother's Day programs that.

No. We'd give them, we'd give them a Snickers or something and all the mothers stood up after the, after the meeting was over and we'd hand out a flower or, well, listen, this is okay. Well, we just took it to the next level. This was dinner and a show, Jason, that isn't the next level. There are many, many levels between handing out a little.

Flower and you getting married to a person that's already married 20 years older than you singing Anne Murray at the pulpit. I understand where some of your hesitation comes from, Dave, but all I'm gonna say, if Marge were to ask me again today, you'd do it again. I'd do it in a heartbeat. Can we hope it was Heather, your singing with your actual spouse?

I mean, I'd be open to that, but if Heather's never really liked a limelight much, you like scoot over, I got a song to perform. I'm gonna crush this. I, I would sing and I'd be thinking of her, if that helps at all. Uh, no. The only thing that would make this worse is if Steve was in the audience and instead of behind you and you're making eye contact with him as you're singing with his wife.

Yes. As we swayed to the music and held to each other, I fell in love with you. And then you bite your lower lip. Could you be my partner every night when we're together? Oh, that's very, I mean, It feels so right. And then then bite your lower lip and then And look directly at him. Now is when we need to cue our exit music with the banjo.

Yeah. And wrap this one up. Yeah. There's nothing anymore. No. Folks, this has been the podcast of Tales From Any Town U Ss a. Thanks again, folks for listening to another episode of The Small Towns Podcast. We're pretty sure we've changed your life for the better. If not, well, we'll try again next time.