I'm going to start writing about my childhood because Julie keeps asking me to and I should write down some of the things I remember. I am listening to conference and remembering another one that I attended in Rexburg, Idaho when I was about ten years old.
Conferences were always held in the Rexburg Tabernacle. It is still standing -- a rock building. The children were put on the steps in front. The steps were across the front just below the podium. We were put there because the place was filled. It was here that I first saw and heard Brother Widstoe. He had a little goatee and mustache. He talked on the Word of Wisdom. I vowed after hearing him that I would always keep it.
I don't know whether that was the time I sang with a group of girls or not. The director insisted that we all wear white -- shoes also. It was a scramble because it was in the middle of winter and no one had nay white shoes.
My mother bought me a pair of white canvas shoes, the only ones in town. Some of the girls just wore their regular shoes because they couldn't buy any white ones. None of us had much money. I thought I was real smart because I was the only one with white shoes.
The tabernacle was right next to the Rick's houses. We used to make mud cakes and cover them with flour and sugar and frosting and feed them to the Rick's kids. They didn't like them! Rexburg was named after Ricks.
There used to be a patch of mushrooms out of town a little ways by the railroad track. They were big and delicious. We would gather tem and my mother would cook them in the oven. She would put them in a pan with lots of butter. We always had plenty of butter, cream, milk and eggs.
Sauerkraut was made and put in crocks. We could go to the basement and get big dill pickles and pig's feet any time we wanted. The shelves were full of bottles of fruit and vegetables. Corn was dried. We all sat outside in the back and cleaned the corn. My grandmother, mother and aunts boiled it for the allotted time and then after being cut off the cob it was put out on racks, covered with cheese cloth, and dried.
A little building was out near the barn in which our meat was smoked. In the fall the pigs were killed, cleaned and smoked. We always had ham and bacon and the feet preserved in the crocks.
I was born in Rexburg, Idaho, 29 March 1909. I was born in an interesting time -- just between the old and the new. I remember Rexburg with no paved streets or sidewalks. We had boardwalks downtown. We graduated to paved streets and cement sidewalks and also from horses to cars. We had one of the 1st cars in town, a buick. Aunt Eliza wouldn't ride with my father -- he drove too fast! 30 miles an hour! He hit a cow once and wrecked his car.
I was born in my grandmother's bedroom. She was a midwife.
My mother had a hard time having her babies. She almost died with Lavina.
It seems most of my memories were about living at my grandmother Hunts.
I remember the 1st airplane we saw. Everybody ran outside to see it. It was such a novelty.
My grandmother Hunt was a tiny person. She always wore her hair pulled back in a bun and a housedress with long sleeves that were pushed back when she was doing any washing. A big apron covered her from head to toe.
Grandpa Hunt had whiskers and was a very kind man. He and grandma were very good to us. I imagine they got pretty tired of all the noise of the grandchildren.
The house wasn't too big. A dining room, sitting room, a parlor and kitchen, two bedrooms on the main floor and two tiny bedrooms upstairs, reached by a little winding stairway.
I don't know how we all squeezed in. My Aunt Matt lived there with her kids and my mother and us four.
Grandpa had a beautiful garden -- all kinds of vegetables and fruit trees -- and flowers. People used to walk by just to see his flowers. They were sent to funerals, weddings, etc. They used to have sheep and we always had a few sheep camps in the backyard to get outfitted -- groceries etc. Every spring the sheep were taken up to the mountains for the summer and brought back in the fall. They were kept out at the "lavies" in the winter. There are extinct volcanic cones about 12 miles west of Rexburg and the sheep were wintered out there. There were some bunk houses, sheds, etc. there. The sheep were sheared there also.
We had a large barn that was full of hay most of the year. It was fun to swing on ropes and fall in the hay or get a book and read out there when it was raining with the thunder echoing all around us.
We had a tree that was really a number of trees grown together which we called the secret tree. We built little platforms with boards and made us offices. Boxes were our desks. We each had an "office" in which we kept salt to eat the green apples when they were ready. We ate new turnips, carrots, radishes -- anything -- washed them in the dirty ditch water! I don't see how we grew up with all the germs -- ha ha.
We didn't need any friends as we had cousins to play with.
We made "play-houses" in the wood shed and coal house out of boxes and gunny sacks. We playes with dolls a lot -- made dresses and crocheted sweaters for them, cooked on pieces of old dishes berries and things for our play food. Ours was a contented life. We didn't have television, radios etc. and didn't need them.
I always like to read. There were lots of books on the shelves in Uncle Steve's desk rooms and on the shelves in the cellar stairway. Tarzan, Louisa May Alcott's books -- books that had been given to different ones on birthdays etc. -- old geography books -- fairy tales -- church books. I read them all. When the library was put in at Rexburg, there were all those books and more. It was really a feast.
Sometimes we would walk out to Aunt Eliza's farm 3 miles out of Rexburg in a little community called Hibbard. Uncle Fred had about forty acres. He planted Lucerne or hay and peas and grain. We went to stretch out in the rows of peas and eat raw peas.
We rode horses and played Tarzan with spears made out of poles with tops made of tin lids pounded to a peak. We would go over near the river and scout around. Sometimes there would be a dead lamb that a coyote had killed. There were always wild horses that we were a little bit afraid of.
We played in the pasture a lot too -- made rafts out of boards and poked ourselves around the slough -- collected birds' eggs and blew them to make necklaces (you made a hole in each end and then blow the middle out and then string them). We collected frogs once and killed them and were going to cook the legs but I couldn't eat them. I kept thinking of the poor frogs.
The train was put behind my grandmothers and every night about 11 o'clock the Yellowstone Special would go through. I still like to hear a train with it's whistle blowing. We would put pennies and nails on the track and the train would run over them and put them in odd shapes.
We were sleeping out under the big trees one night when the Yellowstone Special came thru and discovered we had worms on our bed. We scrambled out and shook out our quilts in a rush! We put our beds out under the sky instead of trees. It is wonderful to be able to look up and see the sky over your head.
Aunt Eliza and Uncle Fred took over Uncle Steve's farm for a few years. It was really fun. A big brick house three stories.... The ceilings were about twelve feet high.
When they first moved there they had quite a time with snakes. A ditch ran around the house and the water snakes used to get in the house. Aunt Eliza went in to set the table once and a big snake fell off the ceiling. They came in the foundation but Uncle Fred cemented it up and they didn't have anymore trouble.
July 1976
I just came back from Idaho. Some friends asked me to go up to Island Park with them. Island Park is about 14 miles South of West Yellowstone. It is such a beautiful place -- trees, flowers, space, antelope... I would like to live there the whole year around, but with my dislike of cold and snow, I would probably be ready to come back.
On the way up, we went thru Rexburg. The road had just been opened after the Teton Dam collapsed and flooded Sugar City, Rexburg, and Wilford. In a way I wish I had never seen it. It was just as if my childhood had washed away.
Grandma Hunt's house is still there, dirt all around it. The doors and windows open, curtains blowing, the coal house and out-houses washed over. A feeling of desolation... All the trees are gone except the cedars in front and they are over grown. Tears started down my cheeks. The house will probably be hauled away as it doesn't look as if it is straight on the foundation. Grandfather built it when they moved to Rexburg from West Weber. That must have been around 1900.
It was such a beautiful place. Trees all around the house, cedars in front outlining the lawn and also the ditch on the south. Fruit trees, gardens, raspberry patch, a big barn, pig pen and chicken coops in back. Now it is all gone. Our stay on this earth seems so short.
Grandmother Walker's house is OK -- it was up higher on the bench. Aunt Lou's house has had water in it but is all right.
My cousin Mark Webster lived in Sugar City, but as his place was destroyed he has moved his family to Rexburg in Aunt Lou's house. I guess a piece of my heart is still left up there in Rexburg.
We moved to California in 1922. After World War I everyone went broke and Papa couldn't find a job. He went to Pocatello looking for work and having only apples to eat for a week he knew he had to find something.
Uncle Walt had moved to Long Beach and wrote Papa to come down. He went ahead and found a place for us to live and we followed. My poor mother with four kids traveling on a train!
We went as far as Ogden and stayed all night with Aunt Matt and Uncle Pete. We should have stayed there the rest of the day because when we reached Salt Lake, we had to wait until evening for the train. We slept in berths and as kids we didn't mind it. I saw my first black man on the train.
We got into Los Angeles and then on to Long Beach where we had our first glimpse of the ocean. There was no breakwater then and the waves dashed upon the wall and often upon the walk.
I am getting a little ahead of myself.
When we were living in Rexburg, I was about 8 I guess. We all got scarlet fever. My dad had a butcher shop and people stopped trading with him. He stayed up at Grandma Walkers and didn't come home but everyone was so afraid that they would catch the disease that they wouldn't buy meat from him. He went broke and that is when we all moved to Idaho Falls. We lived there a few years and then back to Grandma Hunts for a while and then to California.
My dad just didn't seem able to make a living. We lived in 4 different places in Idaho Falls in the few years we were there.
I received my 1st library card in Idaho Falls. They had a big library and I proceeded to read everything they had.
We had fun on the frozen canal in Winter and wandering out in the country in summer... We put on shows in an old barn. There was an old white house that we thought was haunted and we would run in and then right out again screaming at the top of our lungs.
Back to Long Beach...
We thought it was fascinating to walk on the Pike -- look in the beach front stores -- there was one called the "bead store" and it was full of necklaces hanging up and down the isles, all kinds of glass, every color you could imagine and also necklaces from the South Seas made of seeds and shells. We bought us each an umbrella made of paper from Japan. They were nice to have in hot weather.
We moved again to another apartment in a court. It wasn't much. We had a park to play in though.
My mother wasn't well, but us kids didn't know it. I think when you are young you don't realize a lot of things.
We moved two more times again and my mother died in the last one. She had trouble with her heart and it developed into dropsy.
30 June 1924--
We took her body up to Rexburg and she is buried in the Rexburg Cemetery. I was 15 then. Papa went back to Long Beach and we stayed in Idaho all summer. The relatives wanted us to stay there, but we wanted to go back to Long Beach. It was a little rough. I remember one time Mark came in crying. The kids had made fun of him because he didn't have a mother.
We moved again and Papa met Alice and was married. We weren't too happy. I was just 19, and we were used to doing as we pleased so it wasn't too happy for her either.
Eddie was born and all of us just didn't get along.
I met Maynard then. We were coming home from Mutual, and he and some friends were delivering papers to the drug stores. They honked and we honked. We had Helen's uncle's car and then they followed us home. My dad was outside and asked who they were. We said we didn't know.
Next day at school, Maynard came up and introduced himself and asked me what my father said. From then on we were friends.
Lavina and I had learned to dance. Papa had let us take lessons out at Hinchleys -- a dance studio and we would go to the dances once a week -- all the school kids went there. We had some wonderful times. I think the best I have ever had.
Maynard learned to dance and we went to all the mutual dances. Maynard was made M Men president and I was gleaner president.
He was working for the L.A. Examiner and was making good money and had a little Ford roadster. We would go up to L.A. to the big shows and on trips to the mountains. Lavina was going with his friend, Vincent Enzie.
Maynard came to the house one afternoon and said that he was baptized! I was surprised although we had talked about it a lot. That was in June. In July he gave me a ring and we were married by the Bishop the 29th of January 1932. We didn't go through the Temple then because Maynard had to be in the church a year.
We moved to Santa Monica where Maynard and Claire Wilcox had bought an agency of the Examiner.
We became acquainted and had many friends. We met Rip and Essie there, and they have been our true friends ever since.
We were busy in the church. I was president of the Primary, and a councilor in the Mutual. Maynard wasn't too active because of the demands of his work. Every weekend was for the getting out of the papers, boys to sell them on street corners and up and down the streets.
Also William Randoph Hearst had a home there on the beach -- so his chauffeur was up to get the papers after each edition came out.
I hadn't become pregnant and we wanted a baby so I went to the Dr. and found out that I needed an operation which I had and a year later Martha came along.
We bought a lot on 24th Street for $1500 -- 60 x 150 ft? They sell now for $25,000,00. We built a house and four years later David arrived.
The war had started and help was hard to get so Maynard was working night and day. Coming back from L.A. with a load of papers Maynard went to sleep and the fellow driving for him did too and they ran into a light standard. The fellow driving died from shock and Maynard died from bad injuries -- 17 November 1942.
My lights went out. It took me two months before it really hit me. I was panic stricken. I knew I had two kids to raise and not skilled to do it.
The war was on. We were blacked out every night. I couldn't get anyone to watch my children so I couldn't work. The women, and anyone who could, were all working in the airplane factory -- so we lived off my insurance money.
In the meantime I took in Betty, Mark's daughter. He was in the service and she was in a nursery school, so I had three children to look after. I didn't know what to do and my insurance money was running out.
Mark came home from the service and came to live with me. I wasn't happy and one thing led to another and I decided to move to Salt Lake and get a job in the church offices. I didn't realize what a trial that would be, but we lived through it -- selling my house, moving to a strange place...
I started working and kept it up until I retired. I worked at the Genealogical Society. I liked my work, but I would rather be home. For a few years when the kids were all in high school, I cashiered at a drug store at nights until I found out I needed an operation and quit the two job business.
We all survived, but I would never want to live it over again. I still have a soft spot in my heart for California. The people down there are freer in speaking and joking etc.
I can never go back -- there are too many people there now, but I can still think about it now and then.
One of the fun trips I have taken was up to Oregon. I went with Lavon Lavin and Madge Gygi. We took my car and went over Nevada to Reno (This was in 1971). We stayed all night in Reno. I had an experience there. I was sitting in the car waiting for Madge and Lavon to play the slot machines and a drunk fellow came down the street and fell against the car and slid down into the gutter. I didn't know what to do and people were looking at us. Finally a man came along and propped him up against the fire plug.
We went up over Donner's pass to Tahoe the next day and then down into California. The road was a little tiring winding in and out of walnut groves. I thought it would never end until we got to the main highway up California... the coast road. Then we went through vineyards and into the beautiful trees. I fell in love with a small town on that road. It seemed so friendly. I would have liked to have stayed there, but they wanted to go on. (Willits)
We came to a little gift store built right in one of the trees. The road from then on to Eureka was bad, in and out and round about. The trees were gorgeous -- great big red woods, but the road was very narrow and big lumber trucks going in both directions. I was driving all the way and I was worn out.
We stopped in Eureka -- went to a dumb eating place but was glad to get in bed.
The next morning made up for it. It was a beautiful morning and we came to an unusual grove of trees. It was called the Trees of Mystery. They grew in all different directions. We went through them and stopped at the gift shop. I bought a red-wood burl -- the nicest one I have ever had. We also had the best breakfast of our trip there. There was a mountain berry cobbler and it just melted in your mouth.
We went on. I was happy to see the ocean. I have missed it living here in Utah. I would love to live on the Coast. The sound of the waves and the fog are what I love. Tears just rolled down my face when I went out on the beach and stood in the water.
We stayed at Bandon that night -- a very nice motel. We drove on along the coast -- stopped at the seal caves. It was fascinating to see them flapping around on the rocks. They are so graceful in the water.
We went on and stayed at ? for the night and then went to Long Beach the next morning. There is a big arched bridge across the Columbia River. We stayed there (L.B.) that night and the next day drove around and went to the oyster farms and started for home. I hat Portland's freeways. I was so nervous trying to get out of Portland.
We stayed in Baker Oregon that night and came home the next day. I hated to come home. I wish I could go back.
1950's
Another trip I enjoyed was when the kids were still home -- Betty was in Yellowstone and we decided to go up and see her by way of Glacier Park. We stopped in Salmon Idaho for the 1st night. I wasn't too hungry but very thirsty so dined on watermelon. The waitress probably thought I was teched.
It is beautiful in Montana. We went up and over the mountains from Salmon and down into Bitterroot alley -- then up to Glacier. On past the Flathead Lake we saw a sign -- "strawberry crabs" apples and I had to stop and get some. I hadn't had any since I left Idaho.
We stayed on the lake in Glacier that night -- went for a ride in the speedboat.
Martha decided that she was constipated so took some feenamint. I don't know how many, but she was deadly sick that night -- vomited all over me and the bed -- went outside and vomited some more. It was terrible. The people in the next room must have wondered what was going on. I was so worried that she had been poisoned.
We left before daylight the next morning. I didn't want anybody to see us. She was sick all the next day going to Yellowstone. We went down through a canyon that a week later was closed by an earthquake. The Lord was really watching out for us.
We saw Betty and went fishing and then came home. Yellowstone wasn't so crowded then and the new roads weren't built. Bears were all along the road.
July 1976
I went to Colorado with Hugh and Martha. We stayed in a resort place called Aspen Lodge -- near Estes Park. It was a wonderful place -- little cabins -- all modern and beautiful. A big lodge with dining area -- waiters -- nice tablecloths and delicious food -- breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn't feel too good, but I had a good time.
Our one experience before we got there was at a place in Medicine Bow. Hugh had stayed there with his folks about 20 years ago and wanted to go back. It hadn't had a thing done to it in 20 years, and was all falling down. The people who have bought it are trying to fix it up, but it is going to take a lot of money. We nearly froze to death at night, not enough bedding and there were boxes of rat litter stuff under the beds! We had Lasagna and I haven't eaten any since.
We left early and went in to For Collins and had breakfast and then on to Estes.
I always hate to come home when I am in the mountains.
Our last night there a group came in, brought drinks with them and created quite a mess -- hit one of the waiters -- ran around yelling. The managers had to tell them to leave. It was a family reunion!
My life with Maynard was a very happy one. We had our ups and downs -- our fun and bad times. It seems like a dream now -- so long ago.
Maynard was easy to live with a happy type of person. I never had to go without anything. I had a car to drive and the money to go places. I didn't know how well off I was.
We sent to all the big shows in Hollywood and L.A. -- danced in all the nice places. He was so good to me and the kids.
He used to take the kids on the truck to L.A. I would make them a lunch, and away they would go. He never fussed about my church work -- got in and helped when I was President of the Primary -- took kids home etc. (We had to drive the children to Primary) from Santa Monica to Ocean Park.
The day David was born he was so excited he left the hospital to go to work -- pulled open the car door and cut his head and had to back in and have a couple of stitches put in.
He took Martha all over -- to the bank -- places of business etc.
Wherever he was people were happy and laughing. He and Ralph were especially close as they were the same type.
He was very good looking -- had light brown curly hair and grey eyes. He and David are built alike. David has his dimple in his chin but David looks more like my family through the eyes.