Most of you reading this probably think you’re awful smart – That you’ve lived through a lot, and you’re ready to go off on your own.

The truth is, you’ve barely just started on your journey through life. My best advice? Ask your elders. They are the key of what to do … or what NOT to do when making big choices. They know it all.

The best thing to do is to lay back, let them tell you their favorite stories and reflect on your decisions based on theirs – at least that’s what I do when I’m with Grandma Laurie.

Some of you possibly know freshman Jaci-Lynn Davison or former student Gavin Reed. These siblings have a grandma like no other.

Laura Davison, 60, grew up in Powell herself and even attended the old Powell High School.

The first year she got into high school, which was around 1973, the FFA class finally decided to accept girl students. Prior to then, they were not allowed to join the class. This was a major breakthrough for this country girl. All her life she grew up on a farm along with two brothers (Dennis and Darrel Carmon) and a sister (Franzell Carmon).

Grandma Laurie thoroughly enjoyed welding, even though she caused some trouble for the former Vocational Agriculture teacher, Mr. Faye Thompson.

“It started with a kid name Brock tacking my locker shut with a welder and I couldn’t get in to get my stuff,” Grandma Laurie said, “So I had to cut my locker open, and then I tacked his locker shut.

“So then he threw a block at me and I threw one back at him and then he did something to me and ran into the office … I picked up one of them big green garbage cans full of wood – WHOOF – and heaved it across the classroom at him. At the same time here walked in Faye Thompson, who was the Vo-Ag teacher at the time, and it was in mid air towards Brock. … we were the only two in the classroom so guess who got the spanking? Well, in them days, Faye used to make the boys bare their butts to get spanking – oh yeah – but I was the first girl, so I never had to pull my pants down to have that Faye written across my butt. He used to swing a long board that had his name drilled into it.”

Although she didn’t graduate (only a third of her class graduated), she made herself a living by traveling on the road with the carnival. This choice resulted in some of the best stories I’ve ever heard, including some awesome experiences

“I started when I was 12 on the carnival,” Grandma Laurie said, “The coolest part about it was all the concerts that are at the fairs, and you get to go to a lot of them [those] concerts for free or sneak in – one of the two – y’know and it was really cool doing that.”

Another one of her favorite activities is camping. Every summer she loves to take the kids up on the mountains. She loves to teach us how to cook food on the campfire. Her father, David Carmon, was a big hunter and camper. He taught her everything she knows.

“My dad always taught us that when we were shooting guns or killing critters, ‘if you’re going to kill it, you have to eat it,’” Grandma Laurie said, “So, we were up camping, and I was dad’s camp cook … one day we’re over there in the thing and we we’re rolling over this log, [and] a bunch of shrews went flying out everywhere.

“Then my dad’s big size 13 [shoe] comes down smashing shrews … that night for supper when everybody was getting their dinner, I handed my dad a plate of fried shrews. He was a little upset about that.”

All of the friends of her grandkids’ love her, too; the family dog, Priscilla, follows her everywhere. Grandma Laurie is such a generous person; I would do anything for her as if she were my own grandmother. I learn something new from her everytime we speak.

There is one thing in this world that we must always cherish – and that is our elders.