The Carters

Verna & Ken

	Kenneth Goodliffe Carter & Verna May Seely
	Alfa Jean Carter & Bryan Kent Carter
	Kenneth Goodliffe (K.G.) Carter, Jr.

Here are the four Carters in the mid-1940s: K.G. stands front and center, flanked by our cousins John McLain (“Clain” then, John now, at left) Seely and Doyle Seely.

Behind, left to right: Alfa Jean; Uncle Grant McLain Seely (Mammy’s sole younger brother, father of Doyle and Johnny, and the tallest and funniest of the five “Mad Seelys;” Ken; and Verna.

I’m guessing Aunt Margaret Pack Seely, the only one missing out of the two families, took the picture.

Alfa Jean, Cynthia, Kent, Carla Jean, Verna, Kathleen, Ken, Ken Jr

Ken and Verna with their descendants, on a visit circa 1956: Cindy (later Green) was born in late 1954. Not sure who was visiting whom where; doesn’t look like Park Valley.

About the same time (1956 or so), we came visiting from San Bernardino. Yes, this is the ranch in Park Valley.

Can’t say I recall who actually bagged this beastie (except that it wasn’t I; probably Pappy). But I did pump a round into the corpse (so’s I could say I’d shot a coyote) and then took part in this dude-ranch photo-shoot. Retained the tail in Berdoo until it got wormy. Called it “President Tailer.” Yes, pretty embarrassing.

Brent, Pappy, defunct coyote, fearsome self

Me, Verna, Ken

I look older here—maybe 1957. Guessing it’s at Elwyn’s place in Brigham City, with Christmas decorations. Not clear what, if anything, my sophomore semaphore signified.

Almost a decade later (1966), and in many ways a whole world later, on our way to Boston and Harvard, Valerie and Rick and I, traveling in company with Pappy and Mammy, stopped at the Crow Reservation in South Dakota to visit Verna and Ken who were serving as missionaries there. They arranged for us to be guests of the Crow Nation at a real pow-wow.

And then in 1976, eleven-year-old Rick and I stopped to see them on a business trip, soon after they retired to Logan, Cache County, Utah. Rebecca (then “Becky,” not yet “Muffin”) was brand-new that summer, which may explain Valerie’s absence.

Rick was into “The Fonz,” in those days; one would have to look fast to catch him without at least one thumb up.