LESTER and his father ARLIE CONLISK

My wonderful and talented parents. Always doing the impossible and inviting others to enjoy it all. My dad, Lester Conlisk, was an incredible man. It is hard to start to speak of him because it is so wide and various. Pick a subject and he had some input into it. He had only a high-school education but he was incredibly smart. He had a sense of humor, told stories, and had a quick response to any quip.

He memorized many sonatas and published prose. He could recite them, at will. He could draw animals on paper or your back, and did even on my own children's backs. He could wiggle his ears, nose, eyebrows, and blow smoke out funny. He studied under a magician as a child and could do many slight-of-hand tricks--including draw a quarter out of your ear or a flower from his coat. He was a hunter and fisherman.

He hunted for animals to catch and donate to the growing Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It was located outside of Tucson, near the Old Tucson Movie site on the north back-side of the Tucson Mountains. As a child we would go there every week-end. Lester was the Mayor of Old Tucson, before it became a movie set. He enlisted trick riders, indian tribes to dance, musicians to play for square dances, Jaycees-to act out shoot-em-up scenes in the streets, the women (Jaycee-ettes) to bake pie and pastries in the pie shop and other stores for food, art work, carvings, jewelry and caged animals to study.

The indians built bread ovens near the square-dance site, to sell for the onlookers. Of course, there was a 5 and dime store to pick out souvenir's and get some food. He would have us collect the glass coke bottles and turn them in for a cold drink. Each week hundreds of families would come for a picnic-type fun event. Lester put a donation box at the front gate and families put their donations (of any amount) in them. He would take the donations and buy clay, straw, and dirt to build the adobe bricks. Then he would take the bricks and construct old looking buildings. The original spot, called Old Tucson, was a fallen wall of adobe bricks. The entire rest of the city, including the famous church, water tower, and street buildings were built by Lester and his Jaycee friends. It was like a family project. all of them had children and they wanted a safe place for them to play. The buffets were huge lined with parents and children.

As a child Lester enjoyed the wealth of his parents. He had opportunities that most men only dream of -- and these came about because he thought everything through and worked hard. When no work was available except ditch digging, Lester dug ditches for money. He would work longer and harder than the other men, who would complain about their circumstances, and the boss would pay him something extra.

Even as a young child, when his parents would send Lester off by train, to visit cousins in other cities, he would remember what he was told and then he did it correctly. His mother put a string around his neck with his stop location on it to be sure he didn't get lost. She called him 'sonny-boy'; his friends called him 'speedy'. He grew tall late in life. He was very short in high school. The basketball team teased him about his height. He said it made him tougher. My mother, Verna, also grew late in life. She grew from 5'2" as a young student to 5'5" tall after she reached age 21. Even her size 5 shoe size changed to a larger size. Verna had legs and long hair.

During the depression his family, like others, ate from their gardens. They had planted turnips and onions and potatoes. He said he would have gotten tired of eating them but the alternative was to go hungry. He also ate bread with milk on it for breakfast cereal. He said eating hard bread, or wheat grains, will keep your teeth hard and strong. He had no cavities until he was about 74 yrs old. The dentist said his teeth were so hard he broke several drills trying to fill the small cavity.

His mother, Blanche, bartered with neighbors - that means you trade one item of equal value for a different item that you need. Blanche would baby-sit the neighbors children and receive eggs, flour, butter, or meat. She would weed someone's garden for part of their produce, or help pick fruit from trees and then help them can or bottle them for receiving a few bottles for her family. When she lived on the farm she would take her home-grown garden items to the store and trade them for other items that she needed to make supper.

Blanche would also take out the stitches of old clothes and either make a new item or use the cloth for a quilt square. Blanche was an accomplished pastry chef. She could put on a great spread that would cause you to lick your chops! She would mop the floors every day and always have the beds made. He home was immaculate. When someone had a birthday, friends and family would travel to their home with homemade foods or constructed items that they thought the person would enjoy. It was all about sharing and finding happiness in the little things. She had a big heart and gave away many things to others, as she got older. One person came with two empty suitcases to get her share, when Blanche lived with my father. Blanche loved jewelry. The bigger the diamond the better.

Arlie was busy and educating himself, all the time. Back in those days they had a mud-room porch so you could get out of your dirty shoes, hang up your coat, even wash up before dinner (supper). The men would come home and expect hot food on the table. Women didn't work outside of the home in offices or factories back then, until the War.

Arlie was an inventor. One of his inventions was a harmonica that played all the wind instruments in an orchestra. Why, Arlie said, any one could play the harmonica - even kids!
I have some newspaper articles about this invention. He studied all the time. He learned about crops and rotating crops for the best yield. He would buy up a failed farm and turn their crop all under, then plant a new crop for sale. The yield would be superior. He also planted with the moon. Plant above ground seed-crops when the moon is reaching full. Plant below ground crops when the moon is dark with no light. This is a secret that people have forgotten. I even personally called the scientist that found Pluto in our universe and asked him about the plant cycles and he said YES! Planting crops with the moon will bring the greatest yield.

Arlie (born 1886) became a real estate investor. Then, because of the farmers complaints, he became a lawyer. He had a lawyers license in 7 states. He didn't stop there. He was a Medic in the Army-Aircorp in WWI. He was a pilot (like his son Lester Abraham Conlisk). During the 1918 Flu epidemic Arlie used homepathy remedies to cure the soldiers. These remedies he learned from his grandmother Mary Williamson Thompson, she learned from her father, Levi Williamson (died 1892). Arlie saved many lives, however, the military wasn't happy, due to the fact that their standard prescription was to take 2 asprin and call in the morning.

Arlie and cousins also ran the wheat combines across the plains of America, during harvest seasons. They obtained the huge machines and made arrangements with the farmers to cut.
Arlie liked the nice things of life, because he worked very hard to obtain the finances to purchase them. His wife, Blanche, however, said he had a stubborness and temper that caused their marriage to crumble. You can guess that Arlie wasn't home every night, like most husbands. He was working or studying. Back then, the man got the divorce. The woman didn't have the rights.
The vote came in the early 1900's for women. Women before that, couldn't even own land.

Arlie built large buildings, office buildings, hospitals, telephone buildings, electric buildings. He and Lester built houses, too. when Lester was 16 years old, he decided to tell companies that he was Arlie and he built two large buildings in San Antone,Texas. Once they were comleted (he said it took lots of work and learning) he could give his own name for the contractor of the buildings he would build. Lester built most of the beginning of Tucson, Arizona. He started in 1944. He checked out Tucson for opportunity and climate, and moved his family there in 1945. He and Arlie built San Manuel, Arizona. It was there that Arlie died in 1954. Lester worked with several partners in his building career. He also had his own contracting buisiness and had Sidney work as his Superintendent. It was Lester Construction Company. Lester's other son, Lester Charles became an Accountant. Lester A. always wanted his children to assist him in running his business. Sidney was the only one who worked with him.

-I'll continue this story on the next blogg -