American Lifferths

Salt Lake Tribune: Decline in home prices, sales persists along Wasatch Front

2009-07-29T02:13:00.000-07:00

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Decline in home prices, sales persists along Wasatch Front
Housing » Dwellings at $250K and below begin to sell better; higher-priced properties still in limbo.
By Lesley Mitchell

The Salt Lake Tribune

Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:07/28/2009 08:04:34 PM MDT

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Two years into the Wasatch Front's real estate downturn, the home-sale market is showing some signs of improvement.

In the market for homes listed at $250,000 and below, some sellers have been entertaining multiple offers. Some properties are selling within days or weeks. In June, sales in Salt Lake County were up 5 percent, compared with June 2008.

But on a year-over-year basis, things don't look as good. In Salt Lake County, 2,534 single-family homes changed hands in the second quarter, a 4.3 percent decline from the same period a year ago, a report released Tuesday shows. Median selling prices also are below last year's levels; they're off 5.3 percent, to $236,000. Prices are off 7.4 percent from a peak of nearly $255,000 in the second quarter 2007.

Year-over-year declines in home sales and values are signs of a market mired in downturn, for sure, but "the numbers are good, considering where we've been," said Ryan Kirkham, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors.

The mix of good and bad news begs the question: Has the real estate market in Utah's most populous county bottomed?

Most agree it all depends on price range.

Appraiser Rick Lifferth of Layton isn't convinced the residential real estate market has hit bottom. "But I do see some stability in the market of lower-priced homes, especially the $150,000 to $250,000 range. And they are selling in a shorter time frame. I see that as a very encouraging sign."

Complicating matters, though, are rising foreclosures in Utah, he said, which ultimately tend to put downward pressure on prices and prolong the downturn. "Foreclosures are a major concern," he said.

Realtor Rob Aubrey agrees. "For the most part, the $250,000-and-below price range has bottomed out."

In that price range, well-priced homes generally sell very quickly, and many sellers, unlike those in higher-priced homes, don't have to take huge markdowns to get their properties sold. And unlike higher price ranges, there are buyers with the means and financing to make a purchase.

Buyer Kelly Evans, who recently closed on a three-bedroom, one-bath bungalow near Liberty Park, began looking for a home priced at $200,000 or less in March. Since then, she said she has seen a number of homes in that price range sell within days of hitting the market.

"There are a lot of people ... looking for deals," Evan said. In fact, the home she ended up purchasing had two offers, including her own.

Evans' Realtor, Tony Fantis, said multiple-offer situations are becoming more common in lower price ranges. Combined with other encouraging trends, this leads him to believe that the home-sale market is poised for a recovery. For example, on a quarterly basis, sales in Salt Lake County increased a whopping 75 percent from the first quarter to the second, he noted.

Aubrey said the market is less active above the $250,000 range, depending on the area. Above $500,000? Still little action. And those homes priced at more than $1 million? In many cases, it takes price reductions of hundreds of thousands of dollars to get those homes to move.

"That [segment of the market] is a pure buyer's market," he said.

Much of the same dynamics are at work in surrounding counties. In the second quarter, sales in Davis County were off by 10.2 percent, with median prices declining by 4.1 percent from last year's levels. Utah County's sales are up nearly 15 percent, although prices continued to slide, falling by nearly 10 percent.

Among all the Wasatch Front counties, the median selling price increased in only seven Zip Code areas, the Salt Lake Board said. Only one of those Zip Codes is in Salt Lake County: West Valley's 84119, which increased 2.1 percent year-over-year.

lesley@sltrib.com

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_12930242

Mormon Times: Interviews with Dennis Lifferth

2009-06-28T15:26:00.001-07:00

The economic downturn weighed heavily on the minds of members of the General Welfare Committee of the LDS Church at a meeting about a year ago. Dennis R. Lifferth, managing director of Welfare Services for the church, remembered the meeting that included the First Presidency, Quorum of the Twelve, seven presidents of the Seventy, Presiding Bishopric and Relief Society general presidency.

The following are a 4 part series including interviews with Dennis R. Lifferth.

Part 1: Welfare: Helping the bishops
Part 2: Welfare: Self-reliance isn't selfish

Part 3: Welfare: Finding employment

Part 4: Welfare: The Power of cooperation

http://www.mormontimes.com/around_church/general_authority/?id=7812

Deseret News: A lucky drive through WWII France

2009-02-23T20:17:00.000-08:00

Art Lifferth, 86, holds up a copy of Stars and Stripes declaring the war over in Europe. He and a fellow airman drove behind enemy lines unknowingly. (Tom Smart, Deseret News)

Photo courtesy of Art Lifferth Art Lifferth, seen in Europe in World War II, was dropped in the wrong spot in France.

A lucky drive through WWII France
By Lynn Arave
Deseret News

Published: February 22, 2009

Perhaps some World War II comedies like "McHale's Navy" and "Hogan's Heroes" aren't so farfetched after all.

A war story from more than 64 years ago told by a Utah veteran is steeped in almost comical ignorance and just plain luck, and serves as a previously unwritten footnote to the official end-of-the-war history.

Art Lifferth, 86, of Bountiful, who served in the 98th Squadron of the 440th Troop Carrier Group in Europe during World War II, recently pulled out his journal to share his experiences during the last months of the war.

His story and others like it are outside the accepted war histories. But Lifferth's tale, probably impossible to verify now more than six decades later, adds mystique to what is one of the most romantic events of World War II — the liberation of Paris.
A corporal in the U.S. Army Air Force, Lifferth helped staff cargo planes that delivered supplies to troops.

One day, probably Aug. 24, 1944, the plane made a typical landing at an airport in Europe, he said.

Lifferth had helped unload a jeep when his commanding officer suddenly yelled for him and Lt. Walter L. Myers to drive the vehicle southwestward to Le Mans to rejoin their division because the plane had to get airborne and there wasn't time to reload the vehicle. "They wanted to quickly get all of the planes out," he said."

What the two men didn't know was that "they had landed us in the wrong spot," Lifferth said. They were actually behind German lines at the Reims Airport in France. Military headquarters had made a serious mistake.

"We didn't know that we were behind enemy lines," he said. "I guess our commander thought we were expendable."

Lifferth and Myers had a map but no weapons. Checking the map, they realized they could save time by taking a shorter route to Le Mans through Paris. Le Mans is about 90 miles southwest of Paris. (Le Mans had been taken by allied forces just days earlier on Aug. 8.)
"We had a good time sightseeing," Lifferth said.

The two were wearing their Eisenhower jackets, but not their dress uniforms.
When they drove through Paris, residents frequently cheered them and acted like they were heroes, Lifferth said. But they still didn't realize the potential dangers. Fortunately, he said, they encountered no German military.

"We didn't know the city had not been formally liberated yet," Lifferth said.

About eight miles outside Paris, he said, he and Myers were shocked to see a wide line of tanks thundering toward them. They were soon relieved when they saw U.S. stars on the metal behemoths. Their jeep ended up stopping directly in front of Gen. George S. Patton Jr. and the Third Army.

"He couldn't believe that two Air Force soldiers in a noncombat jeep had upstaged him in Paris," Lifferth said.

"All he seemed to do was know how to swear and he used every profane word in the military dictionary," he recalled. Lifferth said the general chewed him and Myers out for being behind enemy lines with no weapons and no good reason for being there. "He was very crude."

"We drove away while he was still talking, with a smile and a salute," Lifferth said.

In the ensuing days, newspapers around the world reported that Patton and his men were the first Americans in Paris after the long German siege that started in June of 1940. But Lifferth said he and Myers knew better.

The official Paris liberation celebration was Aug. 25, 1944.

American novelist Ernest Hemingway, a short story writer and journalist in the war, claimed that he "liberated" Paris by entering the city ahead of the Allied forces, taking over some of the bars at Paris' largest hotels, letting champagne flow freely and thus liberating the residents.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705286650,00.html

Daily Herald: Eagle Mountain Councilman blogs the good, bad and ugly

2008-12-13T07:35:00.001-08:00

Friday, 12 December
Eagle Mountain Councilman blogs the good, bad and ugly
Caleb Warnock - DAILY HERALD
CRAIG DILGER/Daily Herald Eagle Mountain blogger and city council member David Lifferth - Friday, December 12, 2008.

Looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly in Eagle Mountain? One councilman here has a blog for you. Over the past three years, DavidLifferth.com, owned by the city's namesake councilman, has drawn nearly 300,000 page views from 84 countries by tracking all things Eagle Mountain.

Lifferth is hoping more elected officials will follow his lead into cyberspace.

"People just like someone who is going to be open about government," he said. "If I was not on the council, I would want someone who was in the know to blog and talk about things."

"This blogging that I have done consistently for four years now has forced me to read, understand, and explain the good, the bad, and the ugly here in Eagle Mountain," Lifferth wrote in a recent e-mail to his fans. "I have been praised for my openness and candor while at the same time I have been threatened with a half dozen lawsuits for my openness. This openness and candor caused the readership of my blog to been massive."

Lifferth said his site "has frequently been the most read Web site in all of Eagle Mountain and surrounding areas. My Web site frequently had more page views than Eagle Mountain City's site, the local newspapers sites covering Eagle Mountain, blog and forum sites, and any of the developers' sites."

All this attention is one of the best things that could happen to city government, he said.

"The quote from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis comes to mind: 'Sunlight is the best disinfectant.'"

Lifferth said one of the highest compliments paid his site came from a friend who said "the bad guys fear your Web site."

Lifferth is not exactly a cyber newbie, so to speak. He runs about 30 online sites, earning money from advertising on most, if not all, though he does not make money from his site dedicated to city politics, he said.

To draw readers, he makes sure his posts are enticing. Take this recent example: "Reagan Caused Global Warming," a post which documents why, in Lifferth's view, a significant cause of the statistical increase in average global temperature has been the reduction in temperature reporting stations in the former Soviet Union" and Reagan's role in that.

Getting 500 hits a day, Lifferth's most lucrative site is surprisingly -- not political at all -- it is a James Bond fan site, 007BondMovies.ning.com. He also runs JunkScience.ning.com and PonyExpress.ning.com, to name a few.

Lifferth said he tries to have fun with his sites. During his interview with the Daily Herald, he surprised this reporter by bringing up a photo on his Web site of this reporter perusing a competitor's weekly newspaper during a slow moment in an Eagle Mountain City Council meeting. Lifferth said he took the photo from the council dais during the meeting using his cellphone. This reporter never even knew the photo existed.

"You've taken some jabs at me and once in a while I want to take some jabs back," he said with a laugh. "... I do think I have fun with my site. I have a playful attitude."

Jokes aside, every elected official should consider blogging as a way to give information directly to the public, he said. At least several Web sites allow anyone to set up their own blog for free, so getting started is easy.

"I think elected officials should talk about what the issues are, and why things are happening," he said, noting some elected officials in Utah Valley are starting to follow suit, including council members from Payson and Saratoga Springs.

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/292207/17/

Dave Lifferth on ESPN2

2008-10-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

ESPN2: Dave Lifferth on ESPN2

Many people know me as a Rabid Soccer fan, but few have ever documented this on video. This is a frame from the 10/09/08 broadcast. I was an enthusiastic spectator and came home hoarse from enthusiastically supporting my team.

Last night was the Inaugural Game for Real Salt Lake at the new Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. ESPN2 covered the game in a nation-wide broadcast.

One of the first video sequences of the new stadium was of me, David Lifferth, yelling and clapping with enthusiasm. Shortly after this video was shown, I had 4 members of my family text me on my cell phone telling me that they had just seen me on ESPN2.

The new Rio Tinto stadium is an amazing athletic venue. It remindes me of the world-class facilities that I have been to in Spain and England. It is every bit the outdoor equivalent of the Delta Center is polished state of the art facility. The "Jumbo Tron" is crisp in high resolution and very close to the fans.

The game ended in a disappointing tie, RSL 1-NY Red Bulls 1. Real needs at least one more win to ensure that they are in the playoffs.

Dennis Lifferth quoted in Newsweek/Washington Post

2008-09-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Dennis Lifferth quoted in Newsweek/Washington Post

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/undergod/2008/09/the_churchs_silence_on_the_eco.html
Church Silence on the Economy
I've been waiting for a week for at least one major Christian denomination to help us gain some spiritual or even scriptural insight into Wall Street's moral failings, first brought to our attention by Brother Alan Greenspan in 2002.
"An infectious greed seemed to grip much of our business community," the then-Fed chairman told Congress. "It is not that humans have become any more greedy than in generations past. It is that the avenues to express greed had grown so enormously."
Since Wall Street began melting down last week, the only avenue of greed the major Christian denominations have felt called upon to inspect this has been the one that leads to their church pensions. Good news, clergy and lay employees of the United Methodist and Episcopal churches. Your pensions are safe. No word on how your parishioners are doing during the current housing/credit/debt crisis, and not a hint of rebuke for the free enterprise faithful who caused all of this grief, but your billions of investment dollars are being looked after.
"The greatest challenge is assuring participants that we have a disciplined process, that we're adhering to that process and that they should ignore short-term fluctuations in stock prices," said David Zellner, chief investment officer for the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits, which claims to be the largest faith-based investor in the U.S.
"In light of the recent market volatility, the Board and staff of the Church Pension Fund want to reassure participants in the Clergy Pension Plan that the Fund's financial condition remains very strong, with assets well in excess of liabilities," the Episcopal Clergy Pension Board reported.
Last time I checked, assets and liabilities were not how the church measured its work or worth. Greed is still one of the seven deadly sins. Covetousness hasn't been amended out of the Ten Commandments. Depending on your interpretation of scripture, Christianity either strongly cautions against or forbids charging interest and accumulating wealth and debt, not to mention gambling.
So why aren't the leaders of our major Christians denominations saying anything about the economy? They've had plenty to say during the past week about other pressing moral issues. Catholic bishops remain focused on abortion. Southern Baptist leaders continue to condemn abortion and defend Sarah Palin, and National Baptist Convention leaders fretting about aging congregations and applauded Michelle Obama. Presbyterian leaders expressed concern about gun violence, Assemblies of God about hurricane victims, Lutherans about poverty, United Church of Christ leaders about peace. None of them said anything about Wall Street.
Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did express some concern about how the economic crisis might be affecting the welfare of others, but only to remind LDS about the church's own welfare program "based on the principle of self-reliance."
"If you build self-reliance in people," Dennis Lifferth, managing director of the LDS welfare program, explained on the site, "everybody grows; it is the essence of the welfare plan. Lives can be changed by personal interest and attention."
Self-reliance. Personal interest. Everybody grows. Sounds like capitalism to me, but at least LDS is acknowledging the situation, and offering some guidance.
I'm not saying our religious leaders should threaten to withhold communion from the greedy sinners responsible for the economy's going to hell in a financial basket, because that might include just about all of us. I know I've taken advantage of lower interest rates, mortgage refinancing, home equity growth (remember that?), stock options and other little 'trickle-down' perks we get during the bubbles.
I'm not even saying our religious leaders should withhold endorsements from candidates whose policies, votes or views encourage the sort of risky business that blows parts of our economy into bubbles that burst all over us. Those are people we've all voted for.
I am saying that the best moral analysis of these financial failures shouldn't come from Alan Greenspan, who arguably is as responsible as anyone for our growing indebtedness.
Jesus said nothing about abortion, homosexuality or pension plans (although he did say not to worry about tomorrow). He had plenty to say about money and moneychangers, greed and wealth, and the root of all evil. He had good news for the poor, not for investors.
As "On Faith" panelist and nondenominational leader Jim Wallis wrote, "The behavior of too many on Wall Street is a violation of biblical ethics . . . It's time for the pulpit to speak -- for the religious community to bring the Word of God to bear on the moral issues of the American economy. The Bible speaks of such things from beginning to end, so why not our pastors and preachers?"
Why not?

Lifferth-Dorius Runs NCAA Regional Qualifying Time In 3,000 Steeplechase

2008-05-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Senior Stacie Lifferth-Dorius ran an NCAA regional qualifying time with a 10:21.11 in finishing third in the 3,000 meter steeplechase at the Oregon Twilight meet Friday. Lifferth-Dorius improved her WAC-leading time by over three seconds.

Lifferth-Dorius Runs NCAA Regional Qualifying Time In 3,000 Steeplechase Friday At Oregon Twilight

Senior Runs Fastest Time In WAC This Season, Second-Fastest In USU History Behind Her Own School Record
May 9, 2008

EUGENE, Ore. - Utah State track athlete Stacie Lifferth-Dorius was the only Aggie competing at the Oregon Twilight meet Friday evening at Oregon's Historic Hayward Field at Eugene, Ore., but she made it a solid performance in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, finishing third with an NCAA regional qualifying time of 10:21.11.

Lifferth-Dorius, a senior from Layton, Utah (Northridge HS), was the top collegiate runner, finishing behind winner Carrie Vickers of Asics (9:51.08) and second-place Lesley Higgins of NYAC (10:12.18). She bettered her previous season-best and Western Athletic Conference-leading time by over three seconds. Lifferth-Dorius' prior best time this year was a 10:24.56 on April 25 at the same track, but due to an improper set up of the steeplechase barriers, her time did not count as an official NCAA regional qualifier.

Friday's time for Lifferth-Dorius is the second-fastest in USU history as well as her personal second-fastest time behind her school record clocking of 10:10.89 run last year.

Lifferth-Dorius is the two-time defending WAC champion in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and she will defend her title at the WAC Championships next Wednesday-Saturday, May 14-17 at Boise, Idaho and hosted by Boise State. The women's steeplechase is scheduled to open the running events on Friday at 2 p.m. (MT).

For more information on next week's WAC Championships, including ticket information, go to www.wacsports.com.
-USU-

http://utahstateaggies.cstv.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/051008aaa.html

SS George Washington

2008-02-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

I put some of this information together for last years (2007) German Dinner. The details of the ship that EE and Gretchen Lifferth immigrated on in 1921 to the U.S.A. has a fascinating history.

This is the history of the SS George Washington ship from EllisIsland.org. Click here to go to the SS George Washington page on EllisIsland.org:

Built by A/G Vulcan Shipyard, Stettin, Germany, 1909. 25,570 gross tons;
723 (bp) feet long; 72 feet wide. Steam quadruple expansion engines, twin
screw. Service speed 18 1/2 knots. 2,679 passengers (568 first class, 433
second class, 1,678 third class).Two funnels and four masts, reduced to one
funnel 1943.

Built for North German Lloyd, German flag, in 1909 and named George
Washington. Bremerhaven-New York service. Interned at New York at the
start of World War I in 1914. Seized by United States Government, American flag,
in 1917 and renamed USS George Washington. Also Bremerhaven-New
York service. Transferred to U.S. Shipping Board, in 1920 and renamed George
Washington. New York Plymouth Cherbourg Bremen service. Chartered to United
States Mail Lines. Laid up U.S. Shipping Board, in 1932. Laid up at Patuxent
River, Maryland until WWII. Transferred to United States Navy, American
flag, in 1940 and renamed Caitlin. British transport but returned due to malfunctioning boilers. Transferred to U.S. authorities, in 1941 and reverted to George Washington. Panama and New York, then US Army transport service. Completely destroyed by a fire at Baltimore; wreckage scrapped in 1951.

Size Comparisons

To get a comparison of sizes between the SS George Washington, I put several landmarks of interest together.

882 feet - Titanic

723 feet - SS George Washington

305 feet (including base) - Statue of Liberty

1,472 feet - Empire State Building

Here are several photos that I have found of the SS George Washington, also known as the USS George Washington and the Caitlin.

Lifferth Soccer Obsession

2008-02-21T20:16:00.000-08:00

This is a fun video that I put together at few years ago. Our lives pretty much revolve around the sport of soccer.

Lifferth Family Photo collection from Lisa (Lifferth) Brown

2008-02-21T15:56:00.001-08:00

Photobucket Album

Click on the photo to open the photo album.

Amanda's Article in July 2000 Friend

2008-02-21T12:49:00.001-08:00

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=21bc9fbee98db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=f29494859a4bb010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

Friend » 2000 » July
Trying to Be Like Jesus Christ

“Trying to Be Like Jesus Christ,” Friend, Jul 2000, 48–inside back cover
An Unusual Birthday
By Amanda Lifferth, age 9Cedar Pass WardLehi Utah South Stake
And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God (Mosiah 2:17).
Amanda Lifferth, “An Unusual Birthday,” Friend, July 2000, 48–inside back cover
I wanted my ninth birthday to be special. I love learning about the colonial times in America, so I decided that I wanted to have a colonial-theme birthday party with my friends. I planned everything for the party, but I wanted to have some kind of an activity that colonial girls would have had. My mother and I thought about it for a while. Then my mother told me that our ward was collecting quilts for the Church’s Humanitarian Center. She suggested that my friends and I tie a baby quilt to contribute with our ward’s other quilts. She explained to me that the quilts are sent to those in need throughout the world. I thought of a baby or small child somewhere who may not have anything to keep him or her warm during the cold winter months. I became excited about making this quilt.
My mother took me to the store, and I picked out the fabric that we would use for the quilt. I wanted to find the perfect fabric for this gift of love I was making for my birthday. I found some that was soft and warm. There was light-blue striped fabric for one side and light-blue floral for the other. I imagined a baby somewhere snuggling into the soft warmth of my quilt. A sister in our ward let me use her quilting supplies and offered some words of advice for putting the quilt together.
Finally the day of the party arrived. We did normal party things for the first hour, and then our attention was turned to the quilt that was set up, ready to be tied. Since my mother was concerned that my friends might not stay interested in the quilt long enough to finish it, she explained what it was for. My friends caught the vision and became excited to provide a quilt for a small child somewhere.
After my mother showed us how to tie the quilt, we had a great time working on it together. When it was time for the party to end, no one wanted to go home! My friends called their parents to see if they could stay longer and finish the quilt. We were all so excited and thought that we would even like to make more if we could. We stayed another couple of hours working on the quilt. When we finished tying it, my mother bound the edges.
The following Sunday, my mother took the quilt to Relief Society so that the sisters in our ward could see it. My friends and I feel good when we think about the service we gave. We know that when we serve those around us, we are serving Jesus and following His example. I will always remember my ninth birthday as one of the most special of all.
[photo] From left to right: Kelsey Bradshaw, Mary Nott, Amanda Lifferth, Anna Nott (in front of Amanda), Krystal Bailey, Erika Lindsay.

Margaret S. Lifferth's LDS General Conference Address

2008-02-21T12:44:00.000-08:00

Margaret S. Lifferth General Conference Address in October 2006.

Click here to read her talk: http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-646-27,00.html

Photos from 2008 German Dinner

2008-02-21T12:37:00.001-08:00

Photobucket Album

Let it Snow at the Ampitheater in Eagle Mountain

2008-02-21T12:27:00.000-08:00

This has been a big snow year in Utah. This is a video that I made of a day of playing in the snow at the Eagle Mountain ampatheater.

WorldVitalRecords.com company video with Lifferth photos

2008-02-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

This is the recent company video that we did at WorldVitalRecords.com. It contains several Lifferth family photos. Can you identify which ones are my family's photos?

Aunt Yvonne's Sausage Dance

2008-02-21T12:19:00.001-08:00

In an annual Aunt Yvonne Moore embarasses herself in front of the extended family. Here is the latest event from the 2008 German Dinner .

Oaklie's first photos

2008-02-21T04:16:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday, February 18, 2008, I was able to bless my grand daughter Oaklie at church. We are in the Mt. Airey ward and Bishop Barney was accomodating enough to let us bless Oaklie on a Sunday other than Fast Sunday. We had my parents in town for the German Dinner and it worked out well.

The original plan was to have Doug, Oaklie's other grandfather, bless Oaklie. However, it was determined that since we were blessing her in my ward that it would be best if I did.

Here are photos that we took after the blessing.

[Great Grand Parents and Oaklie. I think that is a yawn and not a scream.]

[Same hair style, same furrowed brow.]

[Charley, Cassie, Oaklie]

[Group Photo]

Here is the video compilation that I did of Oaklie's birth and first photos.

Karl Harwood's video on Gotha Germany

2008-02-21T04:02:00.000-08:00

Below are the 3 parts of Karl Harwoods video on Gotha Germany including his interview with Wolfgang Lifferth. I had to break the video up into 3 pieces becuase YouTube will only support 10 minute video clips. This is the video that was shown during the Lifferth Family German Dinner program in 2008.

Part I

Part II

Part III

I loved the Johnny Cash soundtrack to the video. I grew up in Tennessee and heard a lot of Johnny Cash music. I know that Karl is a Cash fan and the sound track of the video worked well.

At first I thought that Karl had found some music by a German singer that did a good Johnny Cash impression thathad translated the lyrics in to German.
Part I

I googled and found out that Johnny Cash had served in the US Air Force in Germany in the 1950's as a Morse Code Decoder on Russian Army transmissions. One of his claims to fame is that he was the first American to discover that Joseph Stalin had died. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash

Folio's "Information Democracy" Video

2008-02-21T03:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX9lfnyZD9E

I worked at Folio Corporation from 1990-1994, just a few months shy of 5 years. I started work there while I was still going to BYU. Much of my professional career has been influenced by my work at Folio Corp.
We had the slightly audacious slogan "we don't want to change your oil, we want to change the world." This was a play on the Jiffy Lube campaign, at that time, that said the opposite: "We don't want to change the world, we just want to change your oil."
Folio, in the late 1980's and 1990's created information sharing technology that has never been equaled. At that time their products were DOS, Windows, Mac, local network, CD, and floppy disk based. When the internet began to attract its first significant use base, Folio released a very weak attempt to migrate their technology to the web. Folio has been bought and sold several times and has lost all of the passion and spirit that many of us had in the 1990's.
The internet has exceeded Folio's reach and made information readily available to almost anyone world wide. However, there are still significant features that Folio had pioneered ten to twenty years ago that you still can't do and probably never will be able to do on the internet.
The following video was prepared for the 1993 Folio Industry Conference. We would hold these annual events in the early days at Snowbird, Little America, and later at the San Diego Convention center to hold the thousands of participants.
James Earl Jones, the famous African-American actor, narrated the video. He filmed this for us when he was in Utah filming the movie "Sand Lot." Many people know him as the voice of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. He played a significant role in the civil rights movement in the 1960s and is one of my favorite actors. I think that I first saw him as a child in "Roots" the epic African-American genealogy mini-series written by Alex Haley.
At Folio, I shared an office with Kevin Wade. He and Mark Allen where the primary developers of this "Information Democracy" video. It demonstrates the urgency and passion that we all had about making information available to the world.
As the video describes, information tore down the "iron curtain." Information overthrew dictators. Information is the strongest liberating weapon for oppressed people.
This video is 14 years old and yet it still brings tears to my eyes every time I see it.
I had family members who were oppressed and lived behind the iron curtain. When the Berlin Wall was torn down as documented in the video, my relatives came to visit us in America. They thanked us, the US, for our role in freeing and democratizing Eastern Europe.
The video was recently released to former employees at a Folio employee reunion held at Thanksgiving point a couple of years ago. I was thrilled to get a DVD of the video.
I hope that you enjoy the video as much as I do.

I thought of this video as I recently saw the video that Karl Harwood made of Gotha Germany and the interview that he did with Wolfgang Lifferth. Wolfgang described what it was like living in East Germany and behind the "Iron Curtain." He also described the events surrounding the time that the Berlin Wall came down. That event is documented in the "Information Democracy" video.

Repay the previous generation by contrinbuting to the next

2008-02-21T03:46:00.000-08:00

I heard a parable by Dr. Laura Schlessinger's show about 10 years ago that has stuck with me. It was how you repay your parents or relatives from previous generations by passing the favor on to your children or younger relatives.

I was happy to be able to pass along some appliances to a younger cousin and his wife and children. The appliances were used but in good condition. They seemed very grateful for the gifts. I saw the gratitude in their eyes and it reminded me of the gratitute that I hve experienced from the generosity of older relatives.

Mary and I receive so much help when we were starting our family by Richard, Karl, Wes and others. I was amazed at how generous they were. They were not weathly (well maybe Karl) but they wanted to help out in so many ways.

It sure feels good to "pay it foward."

Lifferth Family German Dinner 2008

2008-02-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

I wanted to give a report of the 2008 Lifferth Family German Dinner.

This was our largest German Dinner in the 33 year history. This year Ernest (Ernie) Lifferth and his family were the organizers and did a wonderful job. There was a shirt design contest and the winning design is being modeled by Daren Lifferth:

I uploaded my photo album to photo bucket:

http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/hh204/dlifferth/Lifferth%20German%20Dinner%202008/