Questions about Childhood
1. What is the earliest event in your life you can remember? Tell me about it.
I remember my mom making me take naps at age 3. I hated it. She would lay down with me in her bed and make me think she was taking a nap too, I would always wake up the only one that was sleeping.
2. How did your parents choose your name?
In 1979, the year I was born the Church adopted ( I think) the King James version of the Bible and James started with a “J” to match all of my sisters.
3. Where did you grow up?
La Canada, CA
4. How did you travel or go places in those days?
The Ford Club wagon van
5. What are the names of your brothers and sisters, in order? Do you remember how you
felt and what you did when your younger brothers or sisters were born? How about _____?
I’m the youngest- Jenny, Julie, Jill, Jeanette, Joy, James
6. What experiences do you remember having with your brothers and sisters?
Picking Jenny up from her mission in Oregon, Suit shopping with Juile (for the Mission), Going for rides with Jill in her car, Jeanette dressing me up as Billy Idol for Halloween, playing school with Joy.
7. What kinds of things did you do for fun? Any other things?
Swim, ride bikes, watch TV.
8. Did your friends or family have any nicknames for you? What did they call you? Why did
they call you that?
Jeanette and here friends would call me White Lighting because my hair was so blond.
9. What chores did your parents have you do? How did you feel about doing them?
Take out the trash, mow the lawn, do my own laundry, make my school lunch, vacuum, mop, dishes and the like. One of my sisters paid me 25 cents for taking out the trash….I really liked that.
10. What was Christmas like when you were young?
Love it! Parents really made it special. I loved cutting down fresh Christmas trees with my parents and sisters.
11. Did you have a special way of celebrating birthdays? What special family traditions did you have?
It would be a white cake with strawberry’s on top, moms specialty.
12.. Who baptized you? Who attended the baptism?
My dad. My whole family except I think one of my sisters was serving a mission at the time.
13. How did you feel about school? What did you do well in school? What did you do poorly? Which teachers did you like best?
School was not my favorite. My mom always said I was a good memorizer so I’ll go with that. I was terrible at math. I really liked my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Dixon
14. Did you ever have any unusual or exciting adventures when you were a child? Any
others you can think of?
I loved building with my dad. One summer we build a plane that had a real motor on it. I took it up for the first time and crashed it to the pavement. The plane burst into pieces, I was so sad…It took weeks to build.
15. What was an embarrassing experience you had as a child? Any others?
Accidents…the number 2 kind.
Questions about the Teen Years
1. Where did you live? Tell me about your home.
I live in Beaumont CA. We have a one-story home with 5 bedrooms, which works out really well for our family of four kids. I use to work for the company that built our home, Pulte Homes, and we love it here.
2. What was your favorite activity as a teenager? Tell me about it.
As a teenager my friends and I built a potato launcher and took it to the mountain side to shoot it off…lots of fun.
3. What was school like as a teenager? Was there something you were especially good at in school? What school activities did you participate in?
In the 5th grade I started playing the Alto saxophone. I stuck with it all through High School and my Senior year I was the Drum Major for our marching band.
4. What books did you read? What were your favorite radio or television programs?
Sadly I did not read a lot of books outside of the ones required for school. My wife introduced me to pleasure reading and I love to read with her. My favorite TV shows growing up were: The A Team, Knight Rider, and the Brady Bunch.
5. What was teenage music like then? What was your favorite kind?
I listened to Big Band stuff-Glenn Miller and some trendy stuff like the group “Live”
6. Did you go to school dances? What were they like? How did teenagers dance then?
I really liked dances because I really liked girls! Mostly for “fast” dances I would jump up and down a lot.
7. What home responsibilities did you have?
Take out the trash, mow the lawn, do my own laundry, make my school lunch, vacuum, mop, dishes and the like.
8. Did anything difficult happen to you as a teenager?
Nope, pretty lucky.
9. Who were your friends then? What did you like to do with them?
The Everett’s making stuff, Dena and Rocco Cuccia- swim, Adam Crsoby-camping
10. What made you decide on your career or college or your plans for your future? What goals did you have at that time?
I really wanted to build like my dad but I also wanted to own my own hotel chain.
11. Did you ever like someone who didn’t like you? Tell me more.
Yeah. Once on Valentines day I kept saying “happy Valentines day” over and over to this girl, Kristina, and she never answered. Finally she said “STOP SAAYING THAT!” so…I stoped, a heart broken man of 13.
12. When did you begin to have a testimony of Jesus Christ?What memories do you have of Church meetings or activities?
I developed a testimony at a very young age. I would bear my testimony every Sunday while in my Primary years.
1. What is the earliest event in your life you can remember? Tell me about it.
I remember my mom making me take naps at age 3. I hated it. She would lay down with me in her bed and make me think she was taking a nap too, I would always wake up the only one that was sleeping.
2. How did your parents choose your name?
In 1979, the year I was born the Church adopted ( I think) the King James version of the Bible and James started with a “J” to match all of my sisters.
3. Where did you grow up?
La Canada, CA
4. How did you travel or go places in those days?
The Ford Club wagon van
5. What are the names of your brothers and sisters, in order? Do you remember how you
felt and what you did when your younger brothers or sisters were born? How about _____?
I’m the youngest- Jenny, Julie, Jill, Jeanette, Joy, James
6. What experiences do you remember having with your brothers and sisters?
Picking Jenny up from her mission in Oregon, Suit shopping with Juile (for the Mission), Going for rides with Jill in her car, Jeanette dressing me up as Billy Idol for Halloween, playing school with Joy.
7. What kinds of things did you do for fun? Any other things?
Swim, ride bikes, watch TV.
8. Did your friends or family have any nicknames for you? What did they call you? Why did
they call you that?
Jeanette and here friends would call me White Lighting because my hair was so blond.
9. What chores did your parents have you do? How did you feel about doing them?
Take out the trash, mow the lawn, do my own laundry, make my school lunch, vacuum, mop, dishes and the like. One of my sisters paid me 25 cents for taking out the trash….I really liked that.
10. What was Christmas like when you were young?
Love it! Parents really made it special. I loved cutting down fresh Christmas trees with my parents and sisters.
11. Did you have a special way of celebrating birthdays? What special family traditions did you have?
It would be a white cake with strawberry’s on top, moms specialty.
12.. Who baptized you? Who attended the baptism?
My dad. My whole family except I think one of my sisters was serving a mission at the time.
13. How did you feel about school? What did you do well in school? What did you do poorly? Which teachers did you like best?
School was not my favorite. My mom always said I was a good memorizer so I’ll go with that. I was terrible at math. I really liked my 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Dixon
14. Did you ever have any unusual or exciting adventures when you were a child? Any
others you can think of?
I loved building with my dad. One summer we build a plane that had a real motor on it. I took it up for the first time and crashed it to the pavement. The plane burst into pieces, I was so sad…It took weeks to build.
15. What was an embarrassing experience you had as a child? Any others?
Accidents…the number 2 kind.
Questions about the Teen Years
1. Where did you live? Tell me about your home.
I live in Beaumont CA. We have a one-story home with 5 bedrooms, which works out really well for our family of four kids. I use to work for the company that built our home, Pulte Homes, and we love it here.
2. What was your favorite activity as a teenager? Tell me about it.
As a teenager my friends and I built a potato launcher and took it to the mountain side to shoot it off…lots of fun.
3. What was school like as a teenager? Was there something you were especially good at in school? What school activities did you participate in?
In the 5th grade I started playing the Alto saxophone. I stuck with it all through High School and my Senior year I was the Drum Major for our marching band.
4. What books did you read? What were your favorite radio or television programs?
Sadly I did not read a lot of books outside of the ones required for school. My wife introduced me to pleasure reading and I love to read with her. My favorite TV shows growing up were: The A Team, Knight Rider, and the Brady Bunch.
5. What was teenage music like then? What was your favorite kind?
I listened to Big Band stuff-Glenn Miller and some trendy stuff like the group “Live”
6. Did you go to school dances? What were they like? How did teenagers dance then?
I really liked dances because I really liked girls! Mostly for “fast” dances I would jump up and down a lot.
7. What home responsibilities did you have?
Take out the trash, mow the lawn, do my own laundry, make my school lunch, vacuum, mop, dishes and the like.
8. Did anything difficult happen to you as a teenager?
Nope, pretty lucky.
9. Who were your friends then? What did you like to do with them?
The Everett’s making stuff, Dena and Rocco Cuccia- swim, Adam Crsoby-camping
10. What made you decide on your career or college or your plans for your future? What goals did you have at that time?
I really wanted to build like my dad but I also wanted to own my own hotel chain.
11. Did you ever like someone who didn’t like you? Tell me more.
Yeah. Once on Valentines day I kept saying “happy Valentines day” over and over to this girl, Kristina, and she never answered. Finally she said “STOP SAAYING THAT!” so…I stoped, a heart broken man of 13.
12. When did you begin to have a testimony of Jesus Christ?What memories do you have of Church meetings or activities?
I developed a testimony at a very young age. I would bear my testimony every Sunday while in my Primary years.