Gene A Brinkerhoff

April 6, 2024

Gene A. Brinkerhoff, age 87 passed away on April 6, 2024 at Pershing General Hospital In Lovelock 
You are a great dad. You raised us three girls with a sense of humor and a firm voice. Just ask any one of us, we turned out great.
During your life you saw many new innovations in the world. Being born in 1936, many new and exciting modernization and contraptions came into being — cell phones, laptops, electric pressure cookers, affordable household tvs, computers, and oxygen machines. You tried them all right down to iphones and Apple watches. 
You were born in Flowell, Utah on a farm and had three sisters and two brothers. You were the oldest son.
You and Aunt Gwen (passed away April 2023) always told us you raised the others. Tricks and shenanigans were a way to cope with life. You told us about cleaning eggs in the basement to sell--a lot of eggs. Grandma would try to keep the younger kids out.
That didn’t always work so you set a trap at the door that would drop an egg if they came down there, BUT instead Aunt Gwen got caught in the trap. You still laugh a lot when you tell this story--”She was sooooo mad standing there with egg on her face.” 
You spent some time driving truck here in Lovelock for Fundis Co. The stores of pulling a hill in the pouring rain with the trailers sliding back and forth across the highway just knocking other vehicles off the road were scary.
Vehicles slipping under your trailers and disappearing-still now, as directed, I pass all trucks quickly always expecting one of their tires to blow out or retread to hit me. “Respect those big rigs and don’t expect them to stop on a dime!” 
Farming was your main occupation. You worked hard whether it was for others or for your self. You tried many other money raising efforts along your journey.
Worm farms, hog farms, and field leveling were just a few. We appreciate those extras endeavors that allowed us new Easter dresses and/or Easter baskets. 
For a while there you farmed seventy-five miles out of town. You used to drive the seventy-five miles on a dirty gravel road every other weekend to see us.
That was until summer vacation when we would move out there with you. We really thought it was a paradise in the middle of NOWHERE.
“Go ahead and try to run away. You would probably be found dead before you got to the farm’s boundary gates.”
You provided us girls with the chance to raise and slaughter millions of chickens and the chance to learn to drive tractor, irrigate, and run cows out of the fields.
We even had the opportunity to attend our first honest to goodness barn dance. I was in a newly constructed barn/shop that would take an entire day to run from one end to the other. 
Remember dad when you and mom went to Hawaii? When you arrived back home you threw those deck shoes in the garbage and never again put on another pair.
You did however during the trip learn to love Kona coffee, fresh pineapple, and coconut syrup. You put coconut syrup on your pancakes just a couple of weeks ago. 
Relaxation for you was mostly sitting in your chair trying to think of a “better way”-maybe if I change the field to irrigate from east o west instead of north to south it would help.
Perhaps if I ..... But fishing too was your way of relaxing. Boy did you love to fish. In the end, Pyramid Lake was the place, and all day was the duration. Your new boat was every fisherman’s dream. 
Dad was living in a house without combs or at least that is what you claimed.
Living with four females, you could never find a comb so you kept your hair short and used your hand to rub over your scalp. Dad was a serious man with a great big infectious laugh. If you knew him, you have to agree with that — right.
Wood was another side job to make money. You would order in truckloads of logs from Idaho and cut and split it into firewood during the winter months.
Big huge piles of wood would be in both the front and back yard. But as with everything, people wanted more for less. One of your customers wanted a single, cut and split then delivered.
Okay fine; but, delivery was to the prison. The request came in the form of a letter and delivery had to be on a specific day at a specific time. 
Removing tress was another thankless job, but many a tree in no longer on the horizon in this area. Thanks dad, for all your efforts and wisdom. We love you. 
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than life spent doing nothing.”-George Bernard Shaw 
Dad, you may have started with only three daughters (and one son who passed as an infant), but as leave us, you have eight grandchildren and twenty-eight great grandchildren and five great-great grands. 
Funeral Services for Gene were held on April 13, in Lovelock with burial at the Lone Mountain Cemetery