Revelation Insights

My Conversion Story

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. Lyle Albrecht

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Series Code: RIN

Program Code: RIN000020


00:59 Thank You, good evening. Welcome.
01:01 Well, the journey we'll share together tonight is
01:04 certainly my favorite.
01:07 I'm going to introduce you to the family.
01:10 I'll show you the smartest grandkids in all the world.
01:16 Exercise my bragging rights.
01:19 Let's go.
01:24 There they are.
01:27 Beginning on your right is our eldest, that's Tammy Lynn.
01:31 In the middle is Terry Lee.
01:34 On the left is... I'm sorry, in the middle is Troy Lyle.
01:38 I knew better when I said it.
01:41 And then Terry Lee, the boy who passed away
01:46 last September.
01:50 Well, I'm going to show you where we raised the kids.
01:52 When I go to Florida and other places, of course,
01:56 this is more meaningful, I suppose, than it will be
01:59 for you folks from here in the Northwest, but Boise
02:03 is our capital city, of course, from Idaho.
02:07 And our home for 26 years was north and just a touch
02:12 to the east, a little place called Garden Valley.
02:16 And in the center of Garden Valley, there is a little town
02:19 called Crouch and I've always wished that before Hee Haw
02:24 went defunked they would have saluted my home town.
02:26 I could just hear it, "Hee Haw salutes Crouch, Idaho.
02:31 Population 81 during the tourist season. "
02:34 "Salute. "
02:36 Ah, there is the place in the winter time
02:40 there in Garden Valley up on the side of Garden Mountain.
02:44 And then I think we have a backyard view, there it is.
02:48 We would have to get the backhoe out often
02:51 to dig the windows out and dig into the back door.
02:55 And oft times, the kids would ride the snow machines
02:57 right up over the house.
02:59 There's some fat guy shoveling off the boat shed there.
03:02 And here is the camp trailer. Can you see it?
03:05 It's in there somewhere.
03:08 We would often get as much as 15 feet of snowfall.
03:11 Never that much at one time, of course,
03:13 but as much as 4.5 or 5 feet of snow.
03:16 And this is the view from the front yard in the summer time
03:21 looking up at Garden Mountain.
03:23 About 5 miles distance, actually.
03:26 By the way, you get there on the roads.
03:28 Not that far as the crow would fly.
03:30 And here's the same scene in the winter time.
03:35 Often in the winter time, the snows would come and
03:39 the flakes would be so large and the air would be so still
03:43 you could hear the snow flakes hit the ground.
03:47 I've told folks of that before and they find it
03:49 hard to believe, but I tell you it's the truth.
03:52 You really can.
03:53 And it was a really nice situation here
03:58 when the storms would move in, to curl up beside the wood stove
04:02 with a good book and a good bowl of beans.
04:06 Maybe some fried Idaho taters.
04:09 Now these are Elk.
04:10 Beneath the ground up here, there is hot water
04:13 and we'll see more evidence of that in a little bit.
04:16 I went down to the Philippines and I showed these pictures
04:20 down there and I said to the people, "These are moose. "
04:24 Now I knew better but I just misspoke.
04:26 And the people said, "Oh, moose? Uh-huh. "
04:29 And here are quite a few more where they've been feeding
04:32 them in the winter time.
04:33 Now please don't get the idea this is our backyard.
04:36 This is a hot water swimming pool owned by the folks
04:40 of the subdivision.
04:41 And there are tennis courts that have hot water running under
04:45 them, and 9 holes of golf, and then across the road another 9.
04:48 I'll begin to show you then, the kids over the years.
04:52 There's our eldest again, Tammy Lynn and her three girls
04:56 and their daddy, Robert.
04:58 And there she is again, Tammy and Robert.
05:02 This then is Terry, our boy who passed away,
05:04 and his wife Brenda.
05:05 We went up to Canada, British Columbia, Canada
05:09 to hold meetings like these several years ago.
05:12 And Terry had been home for the summer recuperating
05:18 from a really bad car accident and he wasn't completely healed
05:23 at the end of the summer so he went with us up to Canada.
05:25 And he met this girl and it took me 10 years to get him
05:29 back to the states.
05:30 They married up there and then moved back over
05:34 to eastern Oregon just a few years ago.
05:36 There he is.
05:37 I've had folks say to me, "You know, he reminds
05:41 me of Tom Selleck. "
05:42 And I always say, "But he's better looking. "
05:44 And there's our baby then with his wife,
05:47 Troy and Tammy Lorraine.
05:49 We named our kids Tammy Lynn, Terry Lee, and Troy Lyle.
05:55 And then this guy, Troy, goes off and marries a girl
05:59 by the name of Tammy Lorraine.
06:00 Now what are the chances of that.
06:02 There are Troy and Tammy again.
06:05 And here is their first baby. That's Kayla Renee.
06:09 Before she was born, I said to her parents,
06:13 "If it's a little boy, would you please name him Lyle?
06:15 And if it's a little girl, name her Lyla. "
06:19 And they did just like you're doing, they laughed out loud.
06:22 And then the baby came and they named her Kayla.
06:24 Now you tell me how Kayla is better than Lyla.
06:28 Pure prejudice, don't you think.
06:30 There she is at about 2 years.
06:33 These kids have the biggest brown eyes you have ever seen.
06:37 And a little after this, her baby brother came.
06:40 There's ole Matthew.
06:42 Mat Man, I call him.
06:43 I tell him, he's like batman but better.
06:46 Now I want to tell you about this little guy, particularly.
06:49 All of these kids are smart, I mean really brilliant.
06:52 And their mom is really smart, and my boy is no dummy.
06:57 He's a Registered Nurse.
06:58 And I credit Peggy for the intellect that came from
07:02 our side of the family totally.
07:04 But at any event, this little guy has an IQ that's
07:07 almost off the chart.
07:09 And he was in school down in Kennewick
07:12 and the teacher would give him assignments
07:15 and he'd have the morning's work down in 15 minutes.
07:19 And then he was after all of the rest of the kids, you know,
07:21 and the teacher would say, "Matthew, if you don't settle
07:24 down, I'm going to have to send you to the principal.
07:26 You must settle down. "
07:27 Now this kid has had a grown-ups mind
07:30 since, I don't know, he was 6 months.
07:32 I mean, he just thought like an adult and never met a stranger.
07:38 And if he would meet you, he would call you
07:42 by your first name.
07:43 He'd meet you and hear your name once and he'd have it down
07:45 for the rest of his life, I suppose.
07:48 But at any event, he would call you Bill or Sam
07:51 and his folks would say, "No, that's Mr. "
07:54 But he never got over it.
07:55 So at school, his principal was named Tom Smith.
07:59 And his teacher said, "If you don't settle down,
08:03 I'm going to have to send you to Mr. Smith. "
08:05 Well, he acted out again and she said, "Alright Matthew.
08:10 You go to the principal and don't you come back
08:12 until he tells you that you may come back. "
08:14 So in about 15 minutes he was back.
08:16 "Did you go to see the principal?"
08:17 "Yes ma'am, I did. "
08:20 "Well how was it?"
08:21 "Oh," he said, "I think Tom feels a lot better.
08:23 Any time he's feeling down, I'll be glad to go
08:25 talk with him again.
08:26 He's better now. "
08:30 And then Peggy and I bought an old 5th wheel camper trailer
08:36 in Kennewick that we were going to take back over
08:40 to our mountain place in Baker, Oregon.
08:42 And I had not a hitch to pull it with, didn't have a
08:45 5th wheel hitch in my pickup.
08:47 And so I parked it behind the Adventist church over in
08:50 Kennewick and just a stones throw from there
08:53 was Matthew's school.
08:54 And one noon hour, the teacher caught Matthew with
08:57 two or three of his little friends headed out the gate.
08:59 And she stopped him and she said, "You can't leave
09:01 the school grounds.
09:02 Where are you headed?"
09:03 He said, "I was going to take my friends over to see
09:05 my grandpa's camper. "
09:07 "Well," she said, "you can't leave. "
09:08 She said, "Maybe after school, your mother can take you and
09:11 your friends over, but you can't leave the school, not now. "
09:16 She said, "Is that the camper over there?"
09:17 "Yes. "
09:18 "The one right behind the church?"
09:20 "Yes, that's my grandpa's. "
09:22 "Well," asked his teacher, "does your grandpa work
09:25 for the church, or something?"
09:26 "Yeah," he said, "my grandpa's the Pope or something. "
09:30 "Some of my good friends call me the Little Pope,
09:32 and you may if you like. "
09:34 There he is, ole Mat Man.
09:36 These are my parents.
09:37 My dad, he's gone to sleep in Jesus
09:39 and my mother's not a bit well.
09:42 But there they were in happier times.
09:44 Oh, there's a new member of the family from not so
09:47 terribly long ago.
09:48 That was Peggy's baby.
09:51 There's grandma, my mother, and I think Troy
09:55 riding in the tubes behind the snowmobile.
10:00 In the summer time, we would ride in the boat or
10:03 on our motorcycles.
10:05 And in the winter time, on the snow machines.
10:07 This is Payette lake, for those of you that might be wondering.
10:11 We would, traditionally, when the kids were teenage,
10:14 and even after that, spend about a month up in and around
10:18 McCall fishing and swimming and boating and just
10:21 having a good time.
10:22 There's some kind of a creature from the Black Lagoon, I guess.
10:26 Kind of scary looking.
10:29 On occasions, we would strap our sleeping bags
10:32 behind our motorcycles, throw in some granola or something,
10:36 and then take off into the back country and be gone maybe
10:39 for 2 or 3 days seeing the wild country and just having a
10:43 wonderful fellowship together.
10:45 Now I need to explain this picture to you just a bit.
10:49 Peggy had gone off to see here mother over in eastern Oregon,
10:53 but Troy and I were involved in some building project, as we
10:57 often were during the summer time.
10:59 And we didn't go along with Peggy.
11:03 A couple of days later, we finished our job and
11:05 my boy Troy said, "Dad, let's hook the boat on behind the
11:09 pickup and just through the tent in the back.
11:12 We won't need to take the camp trailer or make two trips. "
11:15 He said, "Let's go fishing and camping and water skiing
11:20 and have some fun up at McCall. "
11:21 I said, "One condition, son. If you'll do the cooking. "
11:25 He said, "I'll do the cooking if you'll do the dishes. "
11:27 So we shook on it and took off.
11:29 This is the morning after the night before.
11:31 Does that look like a happy camper?
11:33 Sleeping on the rocks, and about the 3rd or 4th burned
11:37 grilled cheese sandwich, you know.
11:39 If you think this guy looks like he has indigestion,
11:42 have a look at my cook.
11:47 So Troy said, "Dad, let's call mom and see if she won't
11:50 come and cook for us for a day or two. "
11:51 And we did and she did, and then we had some fun.
11:55 Now that boy, Troy, our last, grew up on the road
12:01 in a camp trailer, and then in a bus.
12:03 His mother was his teacher until he went away to boarding school.
12:07 And he would work at meetings like these operating the sound
12:10 machinery and the public address and recording, and all of that.
12:13 And I would pay him a little bit.
12:14 And every fall when we'd hit the road again, he'd make
12:17 me give him a raise.
12:19 And he saved his money like a pension, or something.
12:23 And I asked him one day, "For what are you saving your money?"
12:25 He said, "I'm going to buy me a fat fendered Ford. "
12:28 Well, this is the fat fendered Ford after we worked
12:31 on it about 5 years.
12:32 It's not quite finished yet.
12:34 1953 Ford and we put, let's see, a 500 cubic inch Cadillac engine
12:41 that we punched out 30,000 and then bolted it up to a
12:45 9 inch Ford rear end.
12:47 The only problem we have now is trying to idle away
12:50 from a stop sign.
12:51 Hey, that's a drawing of Lyle's first car.
12:54 That's a 1950 Ford Crestliner.
12:57 I'll tell you more about that after a while.
13:00 I think, ladies and gentlemen, we have the privilege
13:03 of living in the most beautiful part of the world.
13:06 I have been, as the song says, everywhere.
13:09 Hank Snow sung it, but I lived it.
13:11 And I've been everywhere.
13:12 About 62 countries and all of the states, nearly.
13:16 But there's nothing quite like the Pacific Northwest.
13:19 It is so beautiful.
13:21 And I want you to join me in keeping it pretty and lovely.
13:24 We have so much to be thankful for.
13:27 We're going to discontinue our travel just now.
13:32 It was 108 years ago when my grandfather, John Albrecht,
13:36 came to this country from Russia with two sons, teenaged.
13:41 In the old country, he'd buried a wife and a little girl.
13:45 His forbearers had gone there at the invitation
13:48 of the government to teach the Russians how to farm.
13:53 But after a couple of generations, there came a
13:56 Czarina who knew not the Germans.
13:59 And their lands were taken from them and it was at that time
14:01 that there was a great migration of the Germanic people
14:06 from Russia, and from Germany for that matter,
14:08 to the United States.
14:10 John Albrecht and the two boys came across the Atlantic Ocean
14:14 and landed in New York City and matriculated through
14:18 Ellis Island like hundreds before and many, many afterward.
14:22 After they'd passed all of the tests, health and otherwise,
14:25 they asked, "Where is this land that's available
14:28 according to the Homestead Act.
14:30 Where is this free property?"
14:32 And someone said, "Mr. Albrecht, if I were you,
14:35 I would take my boys and go to North or South Dakota
14:39 or somewhere along the border of the two states. "
14:42 And so, John loaded the boys on the train and they traveled
14:45 west into Nebraska and then turned it north.
14:49 And somewhere on the border of South Dakota,
14:52 they got off the train and John bought a horse and a wagon.
14:57 And they loaded their few things in and continued to move north
15:01 until they came to the border of North and South Dakota and
15:05 the little county of Campbell and the little town of Pollock.
15:13 John went down along the Missouri River and with a
15:16 hatchet, he cut some Willows and from those he made stakes.
15:21 Beside the wagon, he drove one.
15:23 And then he turned north and walked up the banks of the
15:26 Missouri on the east side for several hundred yards,
15:29 and there he drove another stake.
15:31 And then he turned toward the east, walked several hundred
15:33 yards and drove a stake.
15:35 And then turned toward the south and drove another,
15:37 and then back to the point of beginning.
15:39 And when he got back to the wagon, he and the boys stood
15:42 up in the bed and viewed the landscape.
15:45 Here was their opportunity, here was their chance
15:48 in the promise land.
15:49 But one day, John left the boys in the fields and went
15:52 into the town of Pollock and into the bar.
15:56 He began to ask the question, "Does anyone have an idea
16:00 where I might find a wife?
16:02 My boys need a mom and I need a cook and a wife.
16:05 Anyone have an idea?"
16:06 And someone in the bar said, "John, if I were you,
16:09 I would go over to Bowdle.
16:12 I understand the Jacovo family has a niece that's recently
16:15 come over from the old country.
16:16 You might check her out. "
16:17 And so the next day, John hitched up the horse
16:20 to the wagon and went over to Bowdle, South Dakota
16:24 and found the Jacovo place and asked, "Is it true
16:27 you have a niece?"
16:28 "Yea, yea. "
16:30 "Well, can she cook?"
16:31 "Well, John, why don't you stay and eat with us and see. "
16:33 Evidently, he was impressed because after the dishes
16:36 were done, he asked Christine to marry him and she said, "When?"
16:40 He said, "Tomorrow. " And she said, "Yea. "
16:44 The next day, he took Christine home.
16:47 And she, not only did the housework and the cooking,
16:50 but when she had a bit of free time, she went out into the
16:52 fields with John and the boys and did planting
16:56 and did harvesting.
16:57 And as the family grew and prospered, so also
17:01 did the ranch, and vice verse.
17:04 Before too many years had gone by, in addition to the two boys
17:08 who'd come with their dad from the old country,
17:09 there were 14 new Albrecht's.
17:14 Of course, now they'd long since outgrown the old soddie.
17:17 But with God's blessing and hard work, they were able to
17:20 build for themselves a two-story farmhouse with screened in
17:24 porches on all four sides where the kids could sleep
17:27 during good weather.
17:31 They had the first rubber tired tractor in Campbell county.
17:35 And there is some debate, some say, "No, the first
17:38 indoor plumbing was down at the gubernatorial
17:41 mansion in Pierre. "
17:42 Others said, "No, it was at the Albrecht farm
17:45 up in Campbell county. "
17:47 I'm not sure. It doesn't matter.
17:49 I know this, that many a neighbor and many of the
17:52 folks from the little town of Pollock would, on Sunday,
17:55 crank up the Model T or hitch up to the buggy
17:59 and go to the Albrecht farm.
18:00 They wanted to see a couple of things.
18:02 They wanted to see the indoor outhouse,
18:04 and they wanted to see John flip the switch and watch the
18:07 electric lights come on inside.
18:10 One day, the two older boys came to their father and said,
18:16 "Dad, if we're going to stay ahead, we need to
18:18 upgrade the cattle herd.
18:20 What we need is a registered bull. "
18:22 And grandpa John said, "Boys, if we make some money
18:25 when we sell the grain this fall, we'll go buy us
18:27 a registered bull. "
18:29 And the boys said, "Dad, the wave of the future is credit.
18:32 The neighbors are already doing it.
18:34 If we're going to keep up and keep ahead,
18:35 we could go now and the banker would give us the money.
18:39 We could get the bull now and upgrade the herd. "
18:43 And John said, "Boys, surely you remember from the old country,
18:46 we don't spend money we don't got. "
18:48 But the boys were influential.
18:51 And so John reluctantly went to the bank, signed papers
18:55 he could not read, was given cash with which he immediately
18:58 went over to the livestock auction and bought a bull.
19:01 Tied him behind the wagon and led him home and turned him
19:04 loose in the fields.
19:08 Six weeks later, the stock market crashed.
19:13 And a few months after that, the banker came asking for money.
19:18 And John said, "You know we got no money.
19:21 We're like all the rest of the neighbors.
19:23 But I'm an honest man.
19:24 Soon as I have money, you'll have your money.
19:26 Just be patient with me. "
19:29 And the banker said, "We can't go on like this forever. "
19:33 I want you to hold that thought in your minds and let me
19:36 tell you about a visit that I made in search of my own roots.
19:39 I was holding meetings like these in Bismarck, North Dakota
19:41 and when our day off came, Peggy and I and our boy Troy
19:45 drove down to Campbell county and found the little town of
19:49 Pollock and drove right to the end of Main Street.
19:52 You must, at the end of Main Street, stop because the
19:55 Main Street itself stops.
19:56 And you must either turn right hand or left.
19:59 And I saw at the stop sign, pointers that went this
20:03 direction and this.
20:05 One said, the Van der Hoeven's this way,
20:07 and de Slava's that way.
20:09 And then one said, Albrecht Bay this way.
20:12 And I parked and ran to the nearest house and
20:14 knocked on the door.
20:15 And I asked the gentleman, "Tell me about Albrecht Bay.
20:18 What's that all about?"
20:19 "Well," he said, "there was an old pioneer who came from Russia
20:22 by the name of John Albrecht.
20:23 And he built a ranch house down there.
20:26 And now," he said, "of course, the river is dammed.
20:30 Down at Pierre, there is a dam.
20:31 But where the ranch house use to be, that's where we
20:34 dock our boats, so the name Albrecht Bay. "
20:37 I said, "Was that John Albrecht with a lot of kids?"
20:40 "Yea," he said, "yea that was the guy. "
20:43 I said, "Did you know him?"
20:45 "Not well," he said.
20:46 "I was only a kid myself. "
20:48 "But," he said, "we had the grain elevators and we
20:51 bought his grain.
20:52 And I always heard he was a good honest man. "
20:54 I asked, "Is there anyone else still alive around here
20:58 that might have known him personally?"
21:00 "Yea," he said, "Go down to the pharmacy and see Mr. Lovo. "
21:05 So I went down to the pharmacy, and inside I found behind the
21:10 counter, a lady and I said to her, "I'd like to meet
21:13 Mr. Lovo, if he's in. "
21:16 She called out, "Mr. Lovo, please. "
21:18 And he came out of the back room waddling.
21:20 He was about that high and he was about that wide.
21:25 And he had real thick glasses.
21:27 And I introduced myself.
21:29 I said, "Mr. Lovo, my name is Lyle Albrecht.
21:32 And I understand you may have known my grandfather, John. "
21:36 "Yea, I knew him good," he said.
21:38 "Knew him good. "
21:40 "Well," I said, "I want you to tell me all about him. "
21:42 "Well, what I can say. I don't know.
21:45 He was good man, I guess. I don't know. "
21:49 "Oh," he said, "what I can say to you about him.
21:52 He was just a short fat little German. "
21:54 Now somehow I had the idea that my grandfather, John,
21:57 was tall and broad shouldered and narrow at the waist.
22:00 I said, "Mr. Lovo, maybe we're not reading off the same page.
22:04 I'm talking about the John that built the farmhouse out where
22:08 they dock the boats now and homesteaded there
22:10 and raised a big family. "
22:12 "Yea, yea. Yea, same one," he said.
22:14 I said, "Do you mean he was like you described, short and... "
22:18 He said, "He was a short fat little German
22:20 about like you are. "
22:28 I said, "Could you tell me where he's buried, sir?"
22:31 "Yes," he said, "go to Mount Hope cemetery up the main road
22:34 and about half way on the right hand side, there you
22:37 see the family plot. "
22:39 And so I went there with my son, Troy.
22:41 And I found the grave of my grandfather, John,
22:43 and some of the other children who died prematurely.
22:47 And I knelt there beside the grave and prayed that on
22:50 the day of the first resurrection, I'd have the
22:52 privilege to be caught up together with my grandpa John.
23:01 A few weeks after the banker's first visit, he came again
23:05 with a demand.
23:06 He said, "I can't carry you on credit any longer.
23:09 You haven't even made a payment against the interest,
23:12 let alone the principle. "
23:13 And John said, "Yea, but as soon as we get money. "
23:15 And the banker said, "That won't work, John. "
23:18 And a few days later he came again and took, not only
23:21 the bull, but all of the cattle and all of the farm machinery.
23:27 And when he left with the cows and the equipment, he said,
23:30 "It's not over yet, John. "
23:32 And a few days later, he came back with the sheriff
23:34 and an eviction notice and took the section of land
23:38 and the farm house and the whole thing.
23:43 John Albrecht did come to this country with nothing
23:45 but calluses on his hands and a dream in his heart.
23:48 With a lot of hard work and prayer and faith,
23:51 he built what, for him and his family, was an empire.
23:54 And in just a few days, for reasons he would never
23:56 understand, he'd lost it all.
23:59 And it was more than he could stand and he died
24:01 of a broken heart about 6 years before my birth.
24:08 When he died, he left nothing but unpaid bills
24:10 and hungry mouths.
24:13 And one day, a couple of the older boys from the
24:16 second marriage came to their mother, Christine,
24:18 and said, "Mother, things are better out west.
24:22 We're going to take the old Model T pickup and we're
24:25 going to go out west and get jobs and we'll make money
24:28 and we'll send it back to you. "
24:29 And my dad at age 15 overheard this conversation
24:33 and he went running up and he said, "I'm going to.
24:35 I want to go with you. "
24:36 And the older brother said, "No, Walt, you're going
24:38 to stay right here.
24:39 You're nothing but a snot nosed kid.
24:40 You're going to stay right here. "
24:41 And my dad said, "Look, if you'll let me go along,
24:45 I'll ride in the back, I'll be no problem,
24:48 and if we have any flat tires, I will fix them all. "
24:52 Now that was a bargain too good to pass by.
24:56 Now I love old cars and antiques.
25:00 It was Ray Charles who put it to music.
25:03 He said, "I love antique autos and old Eldorado's.
25:11 When I was pastoring in Weiser, Idaho, I found a
25:13 1936 Chevrolet and I bought it and began to restore it.
25:17 And I was having some problem with the knee action
25:19 on the front end.
25:21 And I knew my dad once had one and knew about it mechanically.
25:24 And he would often come over with mom on weekends to hear
25:28 me preach and to spend a day or two.
25:30 And so I asked him one Sunday, "Dad, would you come out
25:33 in the back and look at my old Chevrolet?"
25:36 "Not now, not now. "
25:39 And so I let it slide.
25:40 It happened another time or two, and finally one day
25:43 I confronted him.
25:44 I said, "Dad, what do you have against old cars?
25:47 You won't even look at my antique Chevy. "
25:50 And my dad told me about the strip in the back
25:52 of the Model T.
25:53 He said, "En route between South Dakota and Idaho,
25:57 we had 15 flat tires and my brothers made me fix every one.
26:01 Jack it up by hand and take off the tire and take it apart
26:06 and take out the tube and patch it and put it back in
26:09 and put it on the wheel and pump it up and put it back on.
26:12 Don't talk to me about old cars. "
26:16 When the three Albrecht boys arrived in Idaho, it was the
26:19 fall of the year and the fruit was hanging heavy on the trees
26:22 and they immediately got jobs in the fruit harvest.
26:26 They were given two or three big meals a day
26:29 and one big silver dollar each at the end of every day.
26:32 And they stayed there in the Caldwell Marsing area
26:36 until the fruit had been picked.
26:38 And then they asked around, "Where might we go?
26:41 What might we do throughout the winter?
26:44 Do you have any suggestions?"
26:45 And one fruit farmer said to the Albrecht boys, "If I were you,
26:49 I would go to the Camas Prairie and get a job feeding cattle
26:53 during the winter.
26:54 They may not be able to pay you much, if anything at all.
26:56 May not pay you but you'll have good meals and you'll
26:59 have a good warm place to hang out for the winter. "
27:02 And so the boys loaded into the old Model T and drove to the
27:06 little town of Fairfield near the ski resort of Sun Valley.
27:10 In the bar, they went and asked, "Do you have any suggestion
27:14 about a rancher that might be able to give us jobs?"
27:16 And the owner of the bar said, "Boys, if I were you,
27:20 I would go... " and he told them a name and gave them directions.
27:23 And they went and the rancher said, "Yes, of course.
27:26 I can put you to work feeding, I can't pay you much.
27:29 But you'll eat well. "
27:30 And he said, "We'll go into town a couple of times a week and
27:33 have a few beers and shoot some pool. "
27:36 It happened that there was a son of the rancher
27:40 the same age as Walt, my dad.
27:43 And so the three Albrecht boys and the ranchers son
27:47 would, in the morning, get up early and go out and pitch
27:50 the hay off the loose stacks onto slips or sleds
27:54 in the winter time.
27:55 And then take it out through the fields and throw it off
27:59 to the hungry cattle.
28:00 Break the ice on the ponds and creeks so the cows could drink.
28:04 And then, nothing else to do until or unless it was a real
28:08 bitter winter day and they'd do the same thing
28:11 in the evening time.
28:12 And at least once a week, and sometimes more,
28:15 the rancher would take the boys into the town of Fairfield and
28:17 into the club cigar store where he'd buy them a few beers
28:21 and they'd play some poker or shoot pool.
28:26 When the spring came, the two older Albrecht boys
28:28 learned that there were good paying jobs on Swan Island
28:33 in the Portland, Oregon area in the ship building business.
28:36 And so they left Fairfield Idaho and went to the Portland area.
28:40 But Walt stayed behind.
28:42 He'd found a family and a boy his same age
28:45 who was much like a brother.
28:47 He put up hay that summer and fed cattle the next winter.
28:51 And the next summer, he was putting up hay when at the end
28:54 of a long day, the rancher took the two boys into town
28:58 and treated them to some beer and some poker games.
29:04 The owner of the bar came over to my dad and he said,
29:07 "Walt, I've been looking for a bartender. "
29:12 Walt was 17 years of age now.
29:15 "I've been looking for a bartender for a good while. "
29:18 And he said, "I think you're the guy that I want.
29:21 Everyone likes you and you have such a wonderful sense of humor,
29:24 and you'd be in out of the heat in the summer and
29:28 out of the cold in the winter, and I could pay you more
29:29 than you're making on the farm.
29:31 Would you come to work for me?"
29:33 And Walt said, "Mr. Hutchinson, evidently you don't understand.
29:36 I'm not even old enough to be in here, let alone old enough
29:39 to be a bartender. "
29:40 But the boss man said, "Don't worry about it.
29:43 No one ever comes, and if they do, I'll take care of it.
29:45 Come to work for me. "
29:46 And so my dad went to work tending bar at age 17.
29:51 Having lived through the depression, he developed
29:54 an attitude that he took to his grave.
29:56 You don't waste anything.
29:58 If you take it on your plate, you eat it.
30:02 He said, "It seemed such a waste when the loggers or the ranchers
30:05 would come in and order up a beer and say,
30:07 "Walt, I want you to put a good head on it.
30:09 I don't want half a mug of foam. "
30:13 Seemed such a waste to watch the foam spill over the side
30:16 of the mug and go down the drain.
30:18 And so over the drain he placed a can, a metal can,
30:22 that would capture the foam and it would return to liquid.
30:25 And he always had a beer, then, to share with his buddies.
30:28 And by the time he was 20 years of age,
30:30 my dad was a confirmed alcoholic.
30:37 At about the time he turned 20, he began to notice
30:40 a girl in the little town of Fairfield.
30:43 And she'd just been a kid when he arrived, but suddenly
30:46 she was a young lady,
30:49 and pretty, and her name was Virginia Cox.
30:54 But she was very different from Walt in many ways.
30:56 She was native as her forbearers had been
30:59 for generations.
31:00 And more than that, while Walt had no religious background,
31:03 she had come from a family whose roots went way deep
31:09 in a religion that's very prominent in southeastern Idaho
31:13 and over in Utah.
31:15 The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints.
31:17 Your friends, the Mormons.
31:20 And when Walt and Virginia began to date, her parents
31:24 began to show their nervousness.
31:27 They said, "Virginia, don't get serious about Walt.
31:31 He's not a Mormon.
31:32 And more than that, he's an alcoholic.
31:35 He's great and a lot of fun, I know, when he's sober.
31:37 But he's an alcoholic. Don't get serious. "
31:39 But over family objections, Walt and Virginia married.
31:43 About a year and a half later, there came a baby boy
31:46 whom the named Lyle.
31:47 Three years later, there came a baby boy whom they named Max.
31:50 Two more years and baby girl whom they named Diane.
31:54 At about the time Diane came, there came a
31:56 business opportunity.
31:58 The county was going to allow, not only beer and wine, but
32:01 also whiskey and mixed drinks.
32:03 And my dad saw the opportunity.
32:05 There was a building one block off Main Street
32:08 that if remodeled would make a wonderful night club and bar.
32:13 And so he went to a rancher and made with him an agreement
32:18 that if the rancher would put up the money, dad would
32:21 oversee the construction and they would be partners
32:24 in the bar business.
32:25 Now my earliest memories, ladies and gentlemen,
32:28 are of the refurbishing of that building into a night club.
32:34 I need not even close my eyes and I can see the
32:36 recessed lighting that glowed in the tops of the glass topped
32:42 coffee tables, or cocktail tables we called them then.
32:46 There was over stuffed furniture around the peripheral
32:48 and in the very center, there was a dance floor
32:52 with dance wax upon it.
32:55 The boys were just coming home from the war that had ended.
33:00 Lyle, about 4.5 or 5 years of age, would be stood upon
33:04 the bar by the G.I.'s and taught some dirty little lyric or song
33:10 and as soon as he could repeat it, they'd buy him a Coke
33:12 or an ice cream cone.
33:14 By the time I was 6 years of age, I had a sewer mouth.
33:18 And I'm not proud of that.
33:20 It was only the gift of God that took it from me.
33:26 My mother would take my brother and sister, leave them with
33:32 grandparents or with an aunt, her sister, while she
33:37 tended the bar or tended the tables.
33:41 When school was out in the afternoon and other kids were
33:43 going to their farms or their homes in town, I would come
33:46 back to the bar and stay there and be entertained by the
33:51 attendees until about 6 o'clock when mother would take me
33:55 by the hand, go by grandparents place or by her sister's place
33:58 and pick up brother and sister, take us home, feed us, bath us,
34:01 and put us to bed.
34:03 Dad would close up the bar at about 1 o'clock.
34:07 By law he was required to do so.
34:10 Then he'd begin to sweep up after he'd pulled the blinds.
34:13 For tomorrows business, he would get ready.
34:16 But without exception, there would come a knocking
34:19 on the door and he'd peak through the shutters and
34:20 there were some of his very best friends.
34:23 "Open up, Walt, open up.
34:24 We'll have just one drink, we'll buy a bottle.
34:27 We'll play a few hands of cards. "
34:29 And so my dad would open the door, get a bottle,
34:33 and with the boys, go to the back room,
34:35 and there he'd spend the night drinking and gambling and
34:38 losing everything, generally, that he'd made during the day.
34:43 At about daylight, he'd come staggering up to the front door
34:46 to our little home.
34:49 Back then no one locked their door.
34:51 He would come inside and become abusive.
34:55 Some folks drink and get happy and others drink and get ugly.
34:59 And dad, tragically, was in the latter category.
35:03 Mother put up with it for quite a long while.
35:06 And then one day, she decided it was time, perhaps,
35:10 to put an end to it.
35:11 So she went over to her parents place and said,
35:14 "Walt's and alcoholic and he gambles and drinks all night
35:17 long and then comes home and is abusive,
35:19 verbally and often physically, and I'm sick of it.
35:21 For the kids sake, I'm thinking I ought to divorce him.
35:23 What do you think?"
35:24 And my Mormon grandparents said, "Don't, Virginia, don't.
35:28 You made your bed.
35:31 One day he'll find a spiritual need.
35:33 One day the bishop will be able to relate to him.
35:35 One day the homeroom teachers will be able to share with him
35:39 and he'll become a Mormon.
35:41 So just be patient. "
35:43 And mother was patient and it only got worse.
35:49 And one noon when dad sobered up and was getting ready to go
35:52 back to the bar, mother laid down the law.
35:56 She said, "Walt, if you can't come home sober,
35:59 please don't come home at all.
36:01 You come in and the kids run and hide.
36:04 You're abusive and fearful. "
36:09 And my dad made a speech he'd made, I'm sure a dozen times
36:12 prior and always meant, "I'm sorry, I'll be home on time
36:14 tonight and I'll be sober. "
36:17 And she said, "You'd better because if you don't,
36:20 you're going to find the door locked.
36:22 And you can just turn around and go back to the bar
36:25 and sleep it off on the cot in the back room. "
36:27 And dad again said, "I'll be home sober and on time. "
36:31 And he was sweeping the floor that night after business
36:34 when the knock came and the boys said, "Just one hand, Walt.
36:39 Just one drink. "
36:40 And against his better judgment he opened the door and with the
36:43 boys and a bottle went to the back room and spent the night.
36:46 And the next morning, a bit after daylight, he came
36:48 staggering up the little pathway to our front door
36:51 and reached out, as he'd done a thousand times prior,
36:54 to open it but mother had kept her word as well
36:57 and the door was locked.
36:58 And like it was this morning, I can hear the war that
37:02 raged through the glass.
37:03 Dad on the outside cursing and turning the air blue with
37:06 rotten epithets, and mother on the inside shouting back through
37:09 the glass, "No, I told you no more.
37:11 You just go on back up to the joint and sleep it off. "
37:14 And after about 3 minutes of this talk fight, my dad
37:18 doubled up his fish and put it through the glass
37:20 in the upper half of the door, reached in and unlocked,
37:23 and came in and it was ugly.
37:31 Two days later, there came a knocking on that same door.
37:36 Where the window had once been, there was now a piece of
37:39 cardboard box taped in its place.
37:42 And because she couldn't see through to see who was outside,
37:46 mother asked, "Who is it?"
37:48 And a man said, "It's Brother Hayes with Christian books. "
37:52 Now back in that time and place, anyone that introduced himself
37:55 to you as "brother" or a lady introduced herself as "sister",
37:58 you knew they were Mormons because 92% of the community
38:01 was Mormon, and that's the way the brothers and sisters talked.
38:04 And so mother took off her apron and through the cardboard
38:08 she said, "Just a minute Brother Hayes. "
38:10 She fluffed up her hair a little bit, dusted her dress,
38:13 and then opened the door and in came a gentleman
38:16 with a little satchel.
38:17 He placed it on our little chrome dinette and opened it
38:21 and pulled out some children's books.
38:23 Uncle Author's Bedtime Stories.
38:26 "Wouldn't you like to have these?"
38:28 And mother said, "I don't think so, not now. "
38:32 He put them away and reached back into the valise and
38:34 pulled out what I still call, "the doctor book. "
38:37 It was called, The Modern Medical Counselor.
38:41 In the little town of Fairfield, we had no hospital.
38:45 It was 36 miles to a hospital and to decent medicine.
38:49 And so he showed my mother, "This is what you do for
38:51 snake bite and this is what you do if you're bleeding here.
38:54 This is what you do for pneumonia.
38:55 Would you like this book?"
38:57 And my mother said, "Yes, I would but I have
39:00 a couple of problems.
39:01 I don't have any money here.
39:04 And even if I did and bought it without my husband's permission,
39:06 I might know his displeasure. "
39:09 She said, "Why don't you show it to my husband.
39:11 This you may do, take it up to Walt's bar,
39:14 they're just one block off Main Street, and show him.
39:16 I'll bet he'll buy it. "
39:17 And so Brother Hayes put the books back into the valise,
39:20 went out to his car and drove up to Walt's Place, parked,
39:24 took the valise, opened the door and walked right inside.
39:27 Now I don't promote Christians going into a bar, but not a day
39:31 goes by except I thank God that on that day
39:33 ole Brother Hayes did.
39:36 He didn't just push the door open and call in,
39:39 "Walt, could you come out for a minute?"
39:40 He, as we said in beer parlor parlance, went inside and
39:45 bellied up to the bar.
39:47 And he opened his valise and pulled out the doctor book
39:50 and showed my dad.
39:52 And my dad asked one question, "How much?"
39:56 And when he was told, dad opened the till and took out the cash
39:59 and just kind of tossed it across the bar.
40:02 And ole Brother Hayes wasn't just a salesman.
40:06 He was a literature evangelist in the finest sense,
40:09 and more than that he was something of a
40:11 barnyard psychologist.
40:13 I think he had no more than 7 or 8 grades of formal education.
40:17 But God had given him wisdom and a love for people.
40:21 And so while he was writing his receipt, he said,
40:23 "Walt, do you know anything much about the Bible?"
40:27 And my dad sarcastically said, "Well you can look around and
40:30 count the bottles and know I'm not a scholar, can't you now. "
40:34 "Oh," he said, "I know enough about it to know the Mormons
40:36 have it all wrong, I know that much. "
40:38 And ole Brother Hayes picked upon that.
40:40 He said, "The next time the bishop comes by,
40:42 how would you like to be able to open the Bible and show him
40:45 what the Bible says?"
40:47 And my dad had a flash, mental revenge.
40:51 "How could I do that?"
40:53 Brother Hayes said, "You just sign this card.
40:55 I'll put it in the mailbox for you on the way out of town. "
40:58 And dad signed the card.
41:00 And about two weeks later, there came from
41:03 Box 55, Los Angeles California, a manila envelope
41:08 with three Bible guides.
41:11 What is that address, by the way?
41:13 The Voice of Prophecy.
41:14 The oldest continuest religious broadcast in the
41:17 United States of America, originated by dear old Richards
41:19 and followed on by his sons and now by
41:22 Lonnie Melashanko, my buddy.
41:24 I had the privilege, by the way, of being an evangelist
41:27 for them for 3 years.
41:33 The night that the lessons came, dad, instead of going into
41:36 the back room with the boys and the bottle, brought
41:38 the lessons home, sat down at the chrome dinette
41:42 and opened the Bible, emptied the coffee pot and filled an
41:46 ashtray with ashes and cigarette stubs, and filled in
41:50 all three lessons that night.
41:52 And when he finished the last one, he put a PS,
41:54 "Send me more lessons.
41:55 Save me time and yourselves as well. "
41:58 A few days later, there came a thick envelope.
42:01 And that night, my dad came home and filled out
42:03 a bunch of lessons.
42:05 You know what happened to him.
42:07 The Holy Spirit of God took control of his life.
42:11 And those habits that held him in a vise grip for years
42:14 and years fell away.
42:16 That filthy mouth was cleaned up over night
42:18 and from that day until he died,
42:22 I never heard him use a slang word.
42:26 And tobacco habit, 3 or 4 packs a day of Lucky Strikes
42:30 or Camels, and rolling Prince Albert in between,
42:34 gone overnight.
42:36 And alcoholism that had held him in the enemy's grip,
42:39 gone instantly.
42:41 No one had to convince me of the power of the Holy Spirit
42:44 and the word of God.
42:45 I saw it in my dad.
42:50 And he began to take brother and me fishing
42:52 and while we fished, he talked to us about Jesus.
42:57 "He's coming back but we need to clean up our lives and change.
43:00 That's why I don't drink or smoke any more. "
43:07 Then he began to explain to us one day that he discovered
43:10 in his Bible study that the Lord's Day was not Sunday,
43:14 but rather was Saturday.
43:17 And he began to keep the Sabbath thinking he was
43:19 the only one, perhaps one exception that he knew of.
43:23 The only one that was observing the Saturday Sabbath.
43:31 The cupboards were now completely bare.
43:33 I can remember mother calling me for school now,
43:37 "It's time to go to school, son, get up.
43:39 It's time for breakfast. "
43:40 I'd sit down at the table and there on a plate
43:44 were two sections of soda cracker and a little puddle of
43:47 brown Caro syrup.
43:49 That's all we had in the house.
43:51 And that was nearly gone.
43:53 And mother said to my dad, "I'm going to take that 50 cent piece
43:56 and buy some flour and things so we can make some bread.
43:59 And my dad said, "Not with that.
44:00 That's not ours, that's God's money. "
44:02 And he went and picked it up and put it in his pocket.
44:05 And the next day he went to church and put it in
44:08 a tithe envelope.
44:10 And while he was in church, some saint filled the
44:13 back seat of the car with groceries.
44:22 And when they got home, there was in the mailbox
44:26 a little note from the Idaho power company.
44:28 "Come in for a job interview, Walter. "
44:32 And so on Monday he went to the power company.
44:36 And the man said, "We've been looking for a long time.
44:40 I have read your application.
44:42 I've, for 6 months, been looking for just the right man and I
44:45 believe you're the one. "
44:48 My dad said, "There's just one think, sir.
44:50 I can't work on Saturday.
44:54 It's not that I won't, it's that I can't.
44:56 It's one of the ten commandments. "
44:58 "Oh," he said, "if there's a power outage, if there's
45:00 some problem, if the power goes out, I'll be glad to work
45:03 all Friday night and all day Saturday for nothing, no charge.
45:06 But for the ordinary mundane things, I can't come in
45:09 on the Sabbath. "
45:10 And the boss man leaned back, he said, "That's a problem.
45:13 There's no way I can make the other men come in on Saturday
45:16 and give you the Saturday's off.
45:17 That won't work.
45:19 But I want you, Walter.
45:21 I'll tell you what I'll do.
45:24 I'll give you one Saturday off and then you come in the next
45:27 and the next off.
45:28 You come in two Saturday's a month.
45:30 How about that?"
45:31 And my dad said, "No sir, I can't. "
45:38 And the boss said, "Walter, I'll go this far.
45:41 I shouldn't but I'm willing.
45:45 You come in one Saturday morning a month,
45:49 just once a month.
45:52 And you hit the time clock and then you go into the back room
45:56 or in the restroom and hide out for a few minutes
45:58 and then leave and go to church, do whatever you want to do.
46:01 You just come in for a few minutes once a month.
46:05 You'll do that. "
46:08 And my dad said, "No sir, I can't. "
46:11 And the boss straightened up in his chair and he said,
46:13 "Let me make sure that I understand you, Walter.
46:16 You told me that you don't have anything to eat at home and
46:18 the kids don't have decent shoes and you won't come in here
46:22 for 15 minutes once a month on Saturday?
46:24 Is that what you're saying?"
46:25 And my dad said, "Yes sir, I guess that's it. "
46:27 "Good," he said, "you're hired.
46:30 For months and months, I've been looking for an honest man.
46:34 Our men have been stealing from us out of the yard.
46:37 And if you won't violate the 4th commandment,
46:40 you won't steal or let anyone else ever do it either. "
46:42 And my dad got the best job he ever had.
46:46 And after a few years, 2 or 3 only, he was able to
46:50 put a payment down on a little farm between
46:53 Payette and Weiser on the Idaho side of the Snake River.
46:56 And now I was a teenager.
46:58 And we would chase water all during the day and
47:02 dad would be in town.
47:03 He'd set the water in the morning, we'd milk early
47:06 in the morning, and then he'd go into the power company
47:07 and put in 10 or 12 hours, and then he'd come home.
47:10 And we'd put up hay by the moon light and milk cows
47:13 until about midnight.
47:15 And then fall into bed and then start about 4:30
47:17 the next morning.
47:19 And too much of a good thing is a bad thing
47:21 and after about 3 years on that program,
47:23 my dad's health broke.
47:26 I was now 15 years of age.
47:29 He went into a doctor in the little town of Payette.
47:32 And the doctor said, "Walter, if you're going to get well
47:34 quickly, you need to go to a warm dry climate.
47:37 I would suggest somewhere down around Phoenix, Arizona. "
47:41 And so my dad got together with mother that day and they
47:44 talked it over, and at the dinner table that evening
47:47 they made an announcement, "We're moving to Arizona.
47:50 We're going to have a farm sale and auction,
47:52 and we're moving to Arizona. "
47:53 And I said, "Goodbye. See ya. "
47:58 In addition to working on the farm, I'd been working in
48:00 the fruit harvest to earn enough money for my first automobile.
48:03 And when I had a few hundred dollars saved up,
48:04 my dad said, "I'll help you to buy a car.
48:07 I know where there's a 1948 Ford 4-door Sedan,
48:10 one owner, good shape, and I believe you have enough
48:13 money to pay for it. "
48:14 And I said, "No thanks, dad.
48:16 I've already found my automobile and it's not a 1948 Ford.
48:21 It's a 1950 Ford, not a custom, not a club coupe,
48:25 but a Crestliner. "
48:27 The sport model of the year.
48:28 They only made a very few of them.
48:34 And so I purchased my first automobile.
48:39 What the factory hadn't done, some really wise
48:42 young man had completed.
48:44 He'd lowered her down until it barely cleared the tracks.
48:49 And put on the rear end of it, a continental kit, a real one.
48:54 And real twin aerials on the fenders.
48:58 And then he'd taken the chrome off of the hood
49:01 and off of the trunk and lettered it in.
49:03 And then best of all, he put 12 inch fiberglass pack
49:08 cherry bomb mufflers under the thing.
49:11 Oh, oh I tell you what.
49:13 I was never big enough to play basketball or football.
49:16 I was a pretty good baseball player and nobody cared.
49:19 And back then, if you didn't have at least two stripes
49:21 on your sweater, you couldn't buy a date.
49:23 If, on the other hand, you were a letterman and your face wasn't
49:25 one big zit, you could go with the prom queen.
49:27 But I couldn't, you see.
49:29 And then I found my equalizer.
49:34 Yea, my customized 1950 Ford Crestliner.
49:38 And so I would drive that thing to the school parking lot
49:41 and when the last bell rang, I'd make a mad dash for the lot
49:44 and fire it up and come around and park right in front
49:47 of the main doors and put her in neutral and mash the accelerator
49:51 and here they'd come, like ants out of an ant hill for sugar,
49:54 the beautiful little Idaho girls.
49:55 "Lyle, could I ride with you? Would you take me home?"
49:57 "Yes, you here and you here and you here.
49:59 I'll be back for you. "
50:00 And in that context, my folks said, "We're going to Arizona. "
50:03 And so I said, "Goodbye. "
50:06 And I stayed in Payette, Idaho and went to high school.
50:11 And about Thanksgiving time, my mother sent a card
50:14 and in the card there was a check for 30 dollars.
50:17 She said, "We want you to come for Christmas. "
50:20 Now I'd been to Boise a time or two.
50:22 I'd been across the Snake River bridge into Ontario a few times.
50:26 But that was about the extent of my journeyings.
50:28 Go to the big city of Phoenix for a few days?
50:31 Alright.
50:33 Mother said, "I want you to bring all your clothes.
50:35 I want to be sure that they're all in good order. "
50:38 I should have caught on.
50:40 "Oh and by the way, dad said to take your car,
50:42 He's made arrangements for you to park it in
50:44 the Bassford's garage.
50:46 But he said to be sure and drain the radiator and the block. "
50:50 Now I should have picked up on it.
50:53 You've heard about folks that don't quite know
50:55 what's going on.
50:56 I wasn't even suspicious.
50:59 And so I did as they described and put my things in a little
51:03 suitcase and I caught the Greyhound bus and I rode for
51:06 most of three days to Phoenix, Arizona.
51:09 And I got off and my family was there to meet me.
51:12 And I knew no one else.
51:14 And all during those holidays, my folks were softening me up.
51:18 "Why don't you stay here?
51:19 Why don't you go to school here?
51:21 There's a Christian school right out here, high school,
51:23 and they'll teach you to fly.
51:25 It's called Thunderbird Academy. "
51:26 I said, "But my equalizer, my Ford is up there a thousand
51:30 miles away in a garage. "
51:32 And my dad caught on, he said, "Son, if you should happen
51:35 to get a date," I'm pretty sure that's the way he said it.
51:38 Least that's the way I remember it.
51:40 "If you should be lucky enough to get a date,
51:43 maybe I could loan you the family car from time to time.
51:46 Now at that time, my dad had a 1956 Pontiac hardtop.
51:51 And if you'll remember those days, you remember that Pontiac
51:53 was one of the fastest things around.
51:55 "Alright," I said.
51:57 And so the first of January, I went out to Thunderbird Academy
52:00 and registered and matriculated and I knew nobody.
52:04 And the first ones to welcome me and take me in
52:06 were the wrong kind.
52:09 And I got in with a fast crowd and I was way over my
52:11 head and I knew it.
52:13 And I was homesick for Idaho and for my Ford.
52:17 And as soon as spring came, I got a job.
52:19 School was out and I got a job in a boat shop and earned
52:21 enough money for a ride on the bus back to Idaho.
52:25 And there I ran down, left my bags at the bus station,
52:30 ran down 6th Street, and there I opened the garage door
52:35 and rolled my '50 Ford out, lifted the hood and filled the
52:40 radiator and put the battery charger on her.
52:43 And while she was charging, I washed her and waxed her down.
52:47 And then I cranked it up and those glass pack mufflers
52:51 sang my song and I knew I was home.
52:54 If you want to know absolute pure unadulterated joy,
52:58 ladies and gentlemen, you drive, during the happy days,
53:01 your '50 Ford down Main Street and you stop right in front
53:04 of the rock and roll radio station, KPID Payette, Idaho,
53:08 and now you put her in neutral and mash the accelerator
53:11 until the windows in the radio station begin to rattle
53:15 and you hear your own pipes on your radio in your car.
53:19 And the disc jockey said, "Guess who's back in town.
53:22 Lyle's here. "
53:23 And all of my boyfriends and a lot of girlfriends came
53:26 down to Main Street.
53:27 I was home.
53:28 But I had some bad habits.
53:33 Someone phoned or wrote or called my folks, I don't know.
53:38 But they told them, "Lyle is going down a bad road full born.
53:42 If you care, you better come back. "
53:44 And so they sold out and moved back to Payette, Idaho.
53:47 And I moved back in with my family and I had these habits.
53:53 And my dad said, "Look, there is a Christian school
53:55 over at Caldwell, it's called Gem State Academy. "
53:57 And I said, "I know your worries dad, and I know where
54:01 you're headed here.
54:03 But I'm never going to leave my Ford.
54:04 I will not go without my Ford. "
54:07 And so my dad called the principal and then he hung up
54:10 and he said, "The principal says you may bring your Ford, but
54:12 you must give the keys to the boys dean. "
54:16 I thought about that long.
54:19 I had keys wired glued magnet, I had a dozen sets of keys.
54:22 Give the dean a set of keys? Not a problem.
54:23 And so I loaded up my few things and went to Gem State Academy
54:27 with my '50 Ford.
54:30 And I was only there days, I think, when I caught a
54:34 vision of loveliness.
54:37 Oh, there were pretty girls in Payette, and some pretty ones
54:40 down in Arizona, but this girl was something else.
54:44 I mean, she made Dolly Pardon look like a little boy.
54:50 But more than that, she was sweet and good and funny.
54:55 And I began to ask around, "Who is that girl?
54:57 What's her name? Where's she from?"
54:59 "Oh that's Peggy Hopkins, she's from over in Baker, Oregon. "
55:03 "That's not so far away.
55:05 What is she in, what does she talk about?
55:07 What are her interests?"
55:08 "Well, she loves horses. I know that.
55:11 She has her own quarter horse and she draws pictures of him. "
55:13 I said, "That's it. "
55:15 And so I made my way up to Miss Peggy Hopkins.
55:18 And I said, "I'm Lyle Albrecht.
55:19 I'm from just over at Payette, not so far from where you live.
55:22 And I understand you like horses. "
55:24 She said, "I do, we have a cattle ranch and I have my
55:27 own quarter horse. "
55:28 I said, "What a coincidence.
55:29 My dad and I have an Arabian ranch.
55:32 What do you know. "
55:33 "You do?" "Yea. "
55:35 "Well," she said, "we must ride together.
55:37 Come over and we'll ride together. "
55:39 "Alright," I said.
55:41 I had no idea what side you got on.
55:45 But I was willing to learn, I'm a fast study.
55:47 I went down to the barns and I took a crash course
55:51 on horse riding.
55:53 And I remember the man there said, "I have one question.
55:57 Tell me, which style do you prefer?"
55:58 I said, "What do you mean, I want to ride horse style. "
56:01 "Well," he said, "there's English style and then
56:04 there's Western style. "
56:05 "Well what is the difference?"
56:07 "Well," he said, "the Western saddle has a horn. "
56:09 I said, "That's the one for me.
56:10 If anyone gets in my way, I'll blow the horn.
56:12 I mean business. "
56:17 And I made that riding appointment.
56:19 And I began to work on that girl, convinced her that she
56:22 couldn't live without me.
56:26 And when we graduated, we married.
56:28 I don't promote teenagers getting married.
56:33 But if I had it to do over again, I'd do it
56:35 just the same way.
56:37 Maybe sooner.
56:40 It's been the light of my life.
56:43 The mother of my babies.
56:47 My constant companion
56:51 for lo, these 37 years of ministry
56:54 and vagabond living.
56:59 I spoke to you a few Sabbath's ago about the importance
57:02 of the home and the family.
57:05 And I had something in my notes to share with you and I
57:08 forgot it so I'm going to tell you right now.
57:11 That girl that I met so long ago
57:14 has made an agreement with me,
57:18 not only are we spending a lifetime together,
57:22 when we pass away, if Jesus doesn't hurry back,
57:26 we're going to be cremated.
57:28 And we made the kids promise to mix us together.
57:36 Would you pray with me.
57:39 We thank you, Lord, for Your mercy.
57:46 We thank You for Your deliverance.
57:49 The power of the gospel to change lives completely.
57:55 Thank You for what You've done for my family,
57:57 my dad and my mom.
58:00 I thank You for Peggy
58:04 and our kids and grandkids.
58:08 May we spend eternity together with them
58:11 and with all of these that we've come to love here as well.
58:14 In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.


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Revised 2014-12-17