Everybody Knew Ralph Sharp

My Dad, Ralph LaVar Sharp, loved people. He would get to know everyone he could. When he met anyone he liked to figure out connections. Maybe they were his neighbor's cousin's son, or the  mayor's brother's daughter-in-law. He would remember these connections and it seemed like he never forgot anyone. We used to talk about it a lot. When he didn't come home for dinner my mom would just say he must have run into someone he knew and we would eat without him (which bothered him, but 6 hungry kids had a hard time waiting and there were no cell phones then). As an example, he and Mom went to New Zealand for a vacation and of course, he knew the man at the car rental desk.


So one day, I was telling my sister-in-law about this and she thought I was perhaps exaggerating. I told her if her car ever broke down she should go into the nearest establishment, even if it was a bar, and ask if anyone knew Ralph Sharp from Midvale, Utah. There would be someone who did and that person would help her. She didn't really seem to take me seriously. Some time later, she and her husband took their family to Las Vegas. In the desert  their car broke down. The dad hiked into town while she stayed with the car and the kids. Pretty soon a driver  stopped to offer help and it was the lady who taught in the 'pod' with my dad at Midvale Elementary School. I think my sister-in-law became a believer.

Which leads me to think about how many people come from Malad, ID. It's a pretty small place. Just a few thousand people live there, yet everywhere you go, if you mention it you will find people with ties to Malad. My mom even ran into someone from Malad while she was on a tour in Europe. What's even stranger to me is that my next door neighbor is from Malad and is approximately the same age as my mom and never heard of her or her family. And even stranger.....we're NOT related!!! I have no idea how that could be possible, but we've compared our genealogy charts and can't find a link.

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