Brad Langston: My name is Brad Langston.
Lanny Langston: I'm Lanny Langston. When I heard StoryCorps was coming to town, I thought I'd like to talk to my dad and hear more about like, how I became to be who I am. My dad, Brad here, raised four boys by himself for several years.
I remember him making pancakes that were as big as the dinner plate. I remember one time when I was probably 10 or 11, I was being especially naughty in the car, and he said, I'm going to kick you out if you don't shape up. And he did, and then he drove off, and I was like, "He's going to come back." And he sure didn't. And I literally walked five miles home.
Brad Langston: Lesson learned.
Lanny Langston: Lesson learned. Why don't you tell me a little bit about growing up in Hurricane, Utah?
Brad Langston: Yeah, yeah. In those days, darkness was the time to go home, and I had my first Stingray bicycle, so me and my friends biked all over town. Yeah, I don't remember my parents ever checking on me. We just roamed town and came home when it got dark.
And I didn't have a single friend who was not a Latter-day Saint, not one. I'm going to guess that Hurricane was 95% an LDS community. We have a activity in our church called Primary. So on Wednesdays, right after school, we'd walk straight to the church and go to Primary. And I had a girlfriend from the time, literally, like 5 or 6 years old. We would sit next to each other on church pews and fold our arms, and then we would hold hands ....
Lanny Langston: The opposite arms reached over and ... you were hiding beneath reverent arms.
Brad Langston: Exactly. I've often wondered if our teachers knew what was going on?
Lanny Langston: Yeah.
Brad Langston: Unfortunately, we all got a .22 for Christmas when we turned 12. Used the word unfortunate, because me and my .22 shot thousands of sparrows and thousands of rabbits. Guns were in the back of everybody's pickup: rifles. Nobody gave that any thought, yeah, whatsoever.
Lanny Langston: It's an interesting mindset, different time. Yeah, Grandpa Langston was a interesting character too. Like, when I was probably 8 or 9, we were visiting, and I got a sliver in my finger and I couldn't get it out. And my grandpa's like, let me see that. And so I give my hand over to him, and he whips out what must have been like an 80-inch long knife out of his pocket, and I immediately start trying to pull my hand away. And he's, "Just give me that hand. It's not gonna hurt!" And I keep trying to pull it away, and he like, turns the knife around and whaps me on the head with the handle of the knife. And he's like, "Hold still." And he just literally, like a surgeon, popped it right out. Didn't even feel it. Then quite often when we were out at the ranch with Grandpa, but I was probably 11 or 12, and he's like, "Just drive home from the ranch."
Brad Langston: He did make a concerted effort to make sure his kids can drive. My first driving experience: 8 years old. And he said, "Brad, you're gonna drive the truck back." And he got it going in second gear, and said, "I'm jumping out, and you scoot over and drive this truck." I'm balling up a storm to no avail.
Lanny Langston: Yeah!
Brad Langston: He jumped out. I scooted over, and he had told me, when you get there, just push on the brake. Don't worry about the clutch, and the engine will die. That's what I did, and it did. That's maybe a little bit of a story about facing your fears, you can do things that you absolutely do not think you can do if you're forced to do them. And Dad was pretty good at that.
