Hay Baler

     One of my biggest regrets was that I weaned Garth too early.  I weaned him in October so I could pick spuds with Stanley, after our own were finished.  The most I ever picked in one day was 500 sacks.  I could pick faster than Stan but he lifted all the baskets to dump.  We needed money that year and every thing I earned went right to the bank to pay off the loan, we had taken for the summer expenses.  Prices were low and Jess didn’t want to sell anything to pay the note.  

      Jess decided to buy a hay baler.  They were expensive but he justified buying it by baling for the neighbors.  One week it had rained and every ones hay was down and ready to be bailed.  Jess usually didn’t work on Sunday, but he thought he had better this Sunday because of his neighbors hay getting ruined.  He had trouble with the bailer and when he tried to crank it, the crank slipped and hit him on the knee.  He thought he had broken his leg but only bruised the knee.  He said he knew he shouldn’t have been working on Sunday and that was the last time he bailed hay on Sunday.  

       I would take the three boys with me and we would clean up the hay at the turns and run errands and do what we could to help.  Jess took a job at Terreton bailing hay and stacking it.  I went with him and cooked for the crew and lived for six weeks in a dirty shack of a house.  It was a good time to just enjoy my sons.  It was difficult but we survived.  The men would shoot pheasants, as they came home from the field and I cleaned them and cooked them.   

       That winter, Jess got a job in Montana, baling hay out of a stack.  It looked like good money but it was a disaster.  It was cold and the machine kept breaking own.  I was home trying to take care of the cows.  I didn’t lose any calves while he was gone.   The farmer he was working for killed a moose that had been bothering the hay stack.  He didn’t want the meat so when Jess brought the bailer home,  he brought the moose meat.  He was worried when he was stopped at a check point but they only looked at the baler and let him go through.  I don’t usually like wild meat but this was good and lasted us most of the winter.

Jess did a big bailing job near Firth.  He thought it odd that neighbors balers were sitting in their yards and yet Jess got the job.  When he finished the hay the farmer said he would pay Jess in a few days.  He never did pay anything.  This ended Jess's money making venture.

Garth

  Garth was born July 4, 1950. 

Jess and I liked to walk to the river on Sundays.  This time we decided to go on the holiday.  We could walk up through our own fields and look at our crops.   We would sit at the edge of the river and visit and then walk home again.  Steve and Lee were big enough to enjoy going with us     We hadn’t walked very far and I knew it was the day Garth was to be born.  Again the baby would come early. 

     Jess’ sister, Zella was expecting two weeks earlier than I was and  Kyle was born that morning.  Garth came early and again our third son was born at the maternity home. Zella and I were in beds side by side, but I was sitting up feeling slim and back to normal, when a friend came to visit.  She looked at me and asked when was I going to have my baby.  I will never forget my reaction to that statement.  It might be interesting to tell that Zella’s first baby was born on my birthday and my first child was born on her birthday and then we both had babies born on the 4th.    Garth was beautiful, healthy, contented baby.  He had huge adenoids and tonsils and had to have them removed, before he was a year old.  This was a fun time of life.

 

  We had three sons and were only farming the valley.  We had time to enjoy life .

 

 

YWMIA

     YWMIA stands for Young Women Mutual Improvement Association.  I was call to be the President. June 15, 1947.  I had a growing learning experience.  I had a lot of enthusiasm but little know how.  I wish they would make you a counselor for a year before becoming a Pres.  I was green and made many mistakes but I felt the Lord helping me and I didn’t have any great disasters. 

    There was a General Board member attending the first Rexburg annual M.I.A. conference.  I felt the Spirit of the Lord as I entered the church and I knew I was doing the work of the Lord.  Steve and Lee were babies and I couldn’t have done it without Jess’s full cooperation and my mother and Rachel.

    Bessie Wilcox was the Stake M.I.A. Pres. and I will always be grateful for her support and suggestions.   The girls had until their 25th birthday to earn The Golden Gleaner award.  It is comparable to Eagle Scout for boys and requires a lot of work.  Bessie encouraged me to earn the award.     As I finished my last requirement I decided to write my request for the award.  It was late at night.  Jess and the boys were asleep.  In the letter I wrote my testimony.  I was full of the spirit, after all the things I had read and studied, for the award.  As I signed my name and turned off the lights and started to walk across the kitchen floor I heard overpowering music.  I had never heard anything like that before.  My whole body felt lifted and tingly.  I have never doubted from that moment on, that the church was true.  The Lord does care about us and knows what we are doing.  I can still shut my eyes and after 60 years again remember that glorious experience.

                                                                     Rose Evening 1948  Gwen President

Building the House

    The winter of 1946-47 was extremely cold.  Our shack of a house was cold.  There wasn’t any place to get warm.  The house had originally been a one room log house.  Four lean to rooms were added after.  None of them had any insulation.  We could have the thermometer read ninety, in the front room by the wood burning stove and freeze water on the floor.  Jess was sick that winter with yellow jaundice Lee was a tiny baby and Steve running around on the cold floor.  Jess was determined to build a new house.  

      We drew plans as our winter entertainment and by spring knew just what we wanted.  Jess’s mother was a big help, insisting that every available corner had a cupboard built.  She knew the things she didn’t like in her own home and made sure we didn’t make the same mistakes.     Jack Stacy was an excellent building contractor.  We contracted with him to build our new house for $9,500.00.  We had that much money, if we sold all our beef cows.   We had enough money to build the house but had to borrow to buy the furnace.  That was the first time we had ever been in debt for anything, except the farm.   Jess always wished he hadn’t sold the cows.  We should have borrowed for the house and kept our cows.  We had good quality cows and never again had top quality cows.

Jess's dream at this time was to get $50,000.00 dollars in the bank.  He figured we could live good off the interest.  That shows you money had a greater value then.  Jess also said if we had a hundred head of cows we could sell the calves  each spring for enough to live on.  He wouldn't have to buy more ground.

Busy summer  

Needless to say it was a busy summer.  Lee was learning to walk and I was trying to paint and run errands for the farm and house.  One day Lee fell on a guy wire, at the edge of the garage and severely cut his wrist.  Jack Stacy drove my car and I held Lee’s wrist together to stop the bleeding as we rushed to the doctor in Rexburg.  It was a close call.  All at once the new house didn’t seem so important  

       We had another disaster that summer.  We were at my mother’s house and my mother had put some diesel fuel in a pop bottle to be used to start fires.   Steve went on the back porch and thinking the bottle had pop drank some..  He chocked and we knew he was in trouble.  I drove a hundred miles an hour to Dr. Hoffman and it was a wonder we weren’t both killed on the ride.  The doctor gave him some medicine and kept him there to watch him.  I never criticized any mother who has a child killed or hurt in an accident.  Every one of my six sons could have been killed in an accident growing up.  I am grateful that none of them were ever killed or crippled from my mistakes.

Lee Henry

 

  Lee Henry was born December 23, 1946, at the same maternity home, where Steve had been born.  The other babies born earlier were a couple of days old and went home for Christmas, but Lee and I had to stay. Lee was a beautiful baby.  His hair was long and over his face and the doctor wanted to cut his hair.  Lee was a contented baby.   It was lonely and I thought it was the worst Christmas I had ever had.  The day after Christmas, when it was time for breakfast, I could smell bacon.  I was hungry.  When the breakfast tray came there wasn’t any bacon.  I ask the lady in charge if she had forgotten the bacon and she replied she only cooked enough to flavor the eggs.   I still think of that sometimes when I smell bacon cooking.  

      During the war,  you couldn’t purchase anything made with metal.  We had received a Montgomery Ward catalogue.  It displayed a portable sewing machine, but underneath was written, “not available”.  We decided to order it anyway and sent the check.  We never heard anything back and the check wasn’t cashed.  While I was in the maternity home, the sewing machine came and Jess put it in front of the Christmas tree.     I was released from the maternity home, after eight days and was going to stay with my mother.  It was cold and I wanted to see Steve.  Jess insisted that we go home first.  I was out of sorts.  I didn’t want to go to that cold home.  Jess instead and I stepped inside the door and saw the sewing machine. I know it was one of the best Christmas presents ever.  I had Lee Henry and a sewing machine.   That sewing machine was still in good condition but it was misplaced when I moved down from Newdale.

Idaho Falls Temple

 

  We had donated money to pay our ward’s share of the Idaho Falls Temple.  I took my Grandpa and Grandma Lake to tour the Temple before dedication.  My Grandpa Lake never learned to drive a car.  He would walk to Rexburg when he needed something.  He had to walk from the Rexburg cemetery road.   Jess and I also toured the Temple later.  Since I w as nursing Steve, he toured the Temple twice before he was a month old.      The Temple was dedicated Sept 24, 1945.  Jess’s sister Zella, his mother Rachel, Jess and I, all attended together.  We only had tickets to sit in the basement but I was grateful to be there.  It was a thrilling spiritual experience. 

     We had never been back to the Temple, since we were married in the Salt Lake Temple.  After the I.F. Temple was opened Jess and I attended regularly for a few months.

Steve

We had chosen the name, Steve, for a boy and ,Cynthia, for a girl.  I never was able to name any of my children Cynthia Sally Sutton.  Steve was born Aug. 28, 1945.  It is easy to remember his age.  I was 20 when he was born.  How proud we were of our first son.  We took more pictures of him than all the other 5 put together.  I wish I had taken more pictures of my sons when they were little and had written their names on the pictures.  I have several I don’t know which son it is. I had to stay in the maternity home for ten days.  They told us if we got up for anything, our insides would fall out.  I was so weak I could hardly walk to the car so I  went to my mother’s for a few days.

World War 11 ended and I didn’t get in on any celebration. There was dancing in the streets and we knew that it was the war to end all wars.  Jess went with Dale Clay to celebrate.  Jess was only gone a few hours and came back home.  Dale drove our car but brought it back later.  Dale always borrowed our car for his dates.  One night he totaled our car and sent two men to the hospital.  Dale never made any attempt to pay for the car.  Cars were not built during war time and we had to buy a used Nash, which was the worst car we ever owned.

 
Late one night, Jess came in from irrigating and said he had never seen Steve with his eyes open so we woke him up to play with him.  That was the only time we ever woke up a baby just to play.  In those days you were supposed to feed a baby every four hours and not one minute sooner.  Steve would eat for a few minutes and then go back to sleep.  He would wake up in a couple of hours and want to eat again.  The doctor said the worst thing we could do was feed him too often.  After a few nights of listening to him cry, Jess said that was ridiculous, so we put him in bed with us and fed him when he cried.  It worked and Steve slept all night.

Our First Son

       Jess and I both wanted a baby.  We had been married over two years.  I went to Dr. M.F.Rigby for an examination to see why we didn’t have a baby.  He said there wasn’t anything wrong.  I just worked too hard.  I needed to relax and slow down.  You can’t believe how many times in my life I have received the same advice.  I was nervous about going to the doctor for the examination so I took my mother with me.  It  It wasn’t long before I was expecting and didn’t have any morning sickness.  We had a good winter and Jess and I played checkers and enjoyed each other.  No TV then. 

      Jess worked to exhaustion each summer and after the fall work was done, Jess always went to bed for a few weeks to get rested up.Jess had been irrigating long hours and had changed the water to a new set about midnight.  When he came back to the house, my labor pains had started.  I was three weeks early and I didn’t know what to do.  We didn’t sleep the rest of the night.  We phoned Jess’s mother and she advised us to go to the doctor when the pains were five minutes apart.  It was 8:00 when we went to town.  They checked me into the maternity home, which was just an old house by the 4th ward church.  As soon as they checked me in the pains stopped.  We waited all day and finally took a long walk around a vacant lot.   Jess was exhausted but he stayed with me all day.  Soon the pains started again.

In those days Ether was given at the last few minutes to ease the pain.  Ether was soon discontinued because the babies were getting too much and their breathing was impaired.  I learned a valuable lesson from taking ether.  I had always thought that this life was the important life.  Under ether, I realized that this was just a short stop over, on the eternal scheme of things.  Instead of taking ether and being out for a few minutes, being out was the real thing and here on earth was the short stay.  Ever since that experience, I have realized that this life with all of its cares and worries isn’t the important life.  As soon as Steve was born, I looked up at Jess and asked him if he was alright.  The doctor was amazed that I was concerned about Jess at that time.

Church Callings

My first calling was Primary organist when I was 12.  I couldn’t play very well but I was the only one who could come in the day time.  We had Primary right after school.  I even taught a lesson a few times.    Aunt Vivian Atkinson was ward organist but really sick, when pregnant.  I played the pump organ the best I could.  What really scared me I had to accompany a quartet of men, when they sang at funerals.     It was war time and all the men were gone and I was the Gleaner teacher in MIA.   This was all the girls 17 and over.  Since there were no boys around and nothing much to do, we had a large group that attended regularly.    We had lessons and produced two different one act plays.  We presented them at Archer, Lyman and Independence wards.   We earned money and bought candy, soap and personal articles and sent them to Russia.  The mailing charge was more than the cost of the articles mailed.

     My next job was Pres. of the MIA.  This was easier.  I had more to help me.  Every summer we would take all the girls, over age 12, to the hills, camping.  We loaded all our supplies and girls in Stanley Erickson’s old truck and went up Kelly Canyon where we

 

 

 

set up camp.  We didn’t have any  man help for the rest of the week.  It didn’t scare me then, but it would now.  The best part was that Isabelle Nelson volunteered to stay with us and be responsible for the meals.  She was a fabulous  dutch oven cook and we had wonderful meals.  I don’t remember what we did for activities but I do remember how happy everyone was and no personality clashes.

flskjhen

Our First Furniture

Furniture     The first furniture we purchased, after out bedroom set, was a blue davenport, without springs.  Metal was being used for the war and not furniture.  That davenport was just like sitting on a rock.  We also purchased our first electric stove.  You will never know how grateful I was.  Now, I didn’t have to build a fire in the wood stove, every time I wanted to cook or heat water.  There were few that had electric stoves, in the country, at that time.  Jess was good to me.

Farming in 1945

   

                     Canal by Jess and Gwen’s old house, where Eric lives now.  

        Farming in 1945 was easier.  We planted half the farm to grain, instead of all potatoes.  It was good we did, because that crop of potatoes didn’t bring very much money.  Jess still didn’t like the way the upper place irrigated and said as soon as he had enough money, he was going to move the canal from running diagonally across the field to straight down the fence row.  This would eliminate diagonal shaped fields.       There weren’t any government programs to help you.  You paid all the expense.  Uncle Arthur Niederer told Jess he was foolish.  He would never make enough extra money for the cost of moving the canal.   Jess told him maybe not but it would save a lot of work and raise a better crop.  After it was done, the fields were square and even.  Now everyone thought Jess had been wise.  Jess had the rare ability to realize what the end results would be, from the actions taken today.

Volunteer Extraordinaire’

 

A well deserved tribute!     This appeared in the Post Register, October 31, 2012 .   Mom goes to the nursing home  at least 3 times a week to visit her Hospice Clients.  She has also been to many homes, and other care facilities.  She tries her hardest to lighten their days.  This is just one of the things she does to help people during each day.  Many lives have been touched by her love and generosity!

Building the Cellar

That first summer was really busy.  There wasn’t a spud cellar on the place and Jess had planted the entire farm into spuds.  Jess and Lillis went up above Kelly to get the logs.  Lillis had a truck to haul the logs down.  I don’t remember what we used for sheeting but we covered the top with willows, cut from the canal banks and then covered the willows with straw and then dirt.  I cooked for the men who came to help build the cellar.    By this time it didn’t bother me to cook.     We wouldn’t have been able to build the cellar if we hadn’t received  a  refund from the income tax withheld from our wages in Portland.  This was the first time that taxes were withheld from your pay check.   The amount of the refund wasn’t enormous, but if we hadn’t received it, we wouldn’t  have been able to build the cellar.    We had enough money saved to buy our spud seed.  Fertilizer wasn’t used in those days.  You just hauled out barnyard manure. 

     That fall when the spuds were dug we had an excellent harvest.  They were a good price and we sold part of them to pay harvest expense and saved the rest until spring.  They brought us enough to pay for the ground before expenses.  Mrs.Johansen, who we bought the farm from, came and said that since we had made so much money we ought to pay them more for the ground.    We had good farming years and bad years but that was a turning point.  Now Jess had money to buy a tractor and some machinery.  He was the youngest farmer in Archer, at that time and had the biggest tractor.  The first thing he did was sell the milk cows.

First Year of Farming

We had enough money saved to buy our spud seed.  Fertilizer wasn't used in those days.  You just hauled out the barnyard manure.  We had to buy hay that spring for the cows.  Jess hated to milk cows.  There was a milker that came with the farm but when Jess bent over to hook the milker on the cow, it shut off the flow through his faulty heart valve and he felt that he was smothering.  After he had irrigated all day and ate supper, he hated to go out and milk the cows.  I hated to walk up the ditch bank, after dark, to get the cows but when I saw how tired Jess was I would go and get them.  It wasn't   long before I was milking them all the time.  Jess hated to get up in the mornings.  I was a morning person and could hardly wait to get up and get going.  I didn't realize it at the time, that it was because he was tired all the time with his bad heart.  You need to remember that most of the farming was done with horses.

  Jess's Dad bought a small Ford tractor the first year we farmed but it was mostly used for plowing.  We didn't have equipment to use it for much more.  The other farmers marveled at how much that small tractor could plow in a day.  Soon neighbors would hire us to plow for them.  We would plow all night.  It was good money if the farmer paid you, after you did the work.
The milk check was enough to pay for the telephone and electricity and what we needed for the farm but not much else. One day some of our friends wanted to go to a show.  We didn't have any money.  Jess offered to borrow from his parents so we could go.with the group.  We decided not to and never went any place that entire summer.  We could stand on our own too feet.  I am the same today.  I hate to ask for help.

Buying the Farm

     It was war time and there wasn’t any man power, in Idaho, to dig potatoes.  The last week in September,  Jess and I took a leave of absence from our welding jobs and drove home at 35 miles an hour, the speed limit at that time .  Lillis drove the tractor and dug the spuds out of the ground and dropped them to the ground.  Kids and the family picked them up and put two baskets in each sack.  I picked spuds all day and then after I would help Jess load the last load out of the field.  I  wasn’t strong enough to lift the sacks to the truck but I could drag the sacks to the front of the truck.  When the truck was loaded, we would drive to the cellar.  I would drag the sacks to the edge of the truck and Jess would walk a plank to dump them in the bin.  Jess was feeling good at this time and his heart wasn’t bothering him but he was exhausted, when night came.  We didn’t make any money but we had come to help Jess’s Dad.     I will always be grateful that we did come home, that fall.

 

Bishop Olof. P. Johansen was getting too old to farm.  His farm hadn’t been farmed properly for years.   He wanted $10,753 for sixty acres, two horses and a little worn out machinery, plus everything else on the farm  It is the farm where Eric Sutton lives.     Lillis mortgaged his farm, to help us make the down payment and we assumed the mortgage that Bishop Johansen had on the farm.  We had saved a lot of money while we were welding  in Portland.  We had enough saved to buy seed and house hold expense.     .

  

Ship Christening

I was welding at Kaiser when I was chosen to christen the ship U.S.S. Victor C. Vaughn.on Sept. 12, 1943.

I put all my salary into ward bonds. They drew good interest. My pay check was less that five dollars, we were saving for a farm. One lady from our shipyards was to be chosen to christen a ship. I was the one selected and i know it was because of the amount of saving bonds I was buying.

Jess's parents and my parents, plus Rachel's sister Mary and husband Arthur Niederer, drove to Portland for the grand occasion. Gas and tires were rationed and it was a sacrifice for them to use their gas stamps to come. They all stayed in Mike and Millie's house and our trailer. A chauffeur in a limousine came to pick me up. He presented me with a dozen long stemmed American Beauty roses. When it was time for the christening opening ceremony our relatives hadn't shown up. They had stopped to eat at a slow cafe and were late. Never before had a private car driven down to the launching dock. Jess's Dad drove right up to where the ceremony was to take place.

  The man in charge told me to swing hard or the champagne bottle would not break. He hadn't reckoned with an Idaho farm girl. I hit the ship so hard that the bottle shattered, dousing us all with champagne. After, a banquet was held at the main office building with speeches and honors.. They presented me with a silver jewelry case. The folks had to leave the next day to go back to the farm. It was a busy time of the year for them.

Rosie the Riveter

   

Jess soon went to work, with Mike Hunt, at Commercial Iron Works, which was just a mile or so down the road and on the River. They taught Jess how to weld. They remodeled ships to make them air craft carriers. I went to welding school, and bought welding gear and a helmet. I became proficient at vertical welding and passed all the tests, to become a certified welder. I was hired by Kaiser ship building plant. I had a long bus ride to get to work but pay was the same for both of us, $71.76 a week. We both worked the graveyard shift so we only worked seven hours but got paid for eight . The plant ran twenty-four hours a day.

Jess and I decided we could not keep saving $20.00 bills, we would now be making big money and we would need to open a checking account. The first check I wrote was to the grocery store near our home. Instead of signing it Mrs. Jesse L. Sutton, I just wrote Mrs. Sutton. The grocer ask if I had signed the check correctly. I told him I thought so. When I ask Jess, he told me the correct way to sign the check so the next day I went back to the store and told the grocer the mistake I had made. He said he had held the check knowing I would be back. We were living on $5.00 a week, that included gas and groceries, so you know I was buying only the bare necessities. We had brought potatoes, carrots, bottled fruit and meat from Idaho. Usually when Potato harvest was over I was very very thin and looked like I was starving. The grocer told me he had just sort the fruit bins and wanted to know if I wanted what he had pulled. That started my business of getting over ripe things from the store. The grocer continued to save things to give me.

Portland Or Bust!

The main highway was only two lanes and narrow.for our trailer.  Part of the way we drove right along the Columbia River.  The bridal wreath and spring flowers were in bloom and the air was filled with the fragrance of flowers.  In Portland the roses were all in bloom and the climbing roses were half way up the telephone poles.

We picked up a young boy, who was hitch hiking and stayed in the trailer at his home near Portland the first night.  I was not prepared for the traffic and size of the town.  To me it seemed gigantic.  The boy knew how to find 82nd north so we missed all the heavy down town traffic.

 

Max Oakey's mother and her husband Mike Hunt were living in Portland and we parked our trailer back of their house.  We didn't have to pay any rent or electricity we just had to take Mike to work each day.

Temple Sealing

   There were seven of us in the car 1943, when we left home, to go to the Temple in Salt Lake City.  The Idaho Falls Temple wasn't built until 1945.  We were pulling the trailer.  Grandma Emma, Rachel (Jess's mother) and Rachel's sister-in-law Ida Sutton.  At the last minute two of Rachel's friends wanted to go to Salt Lake with us, Ivy and Pearl Weekes.   We parked the trailer at a camp and we slept and ate there for two nights.

We were prepared to go to the Temple to be sealed.  Everyone went except Grandma Emma and Ida.  They weren't members of the church.

The Temple wasn't what I expected..   I wore my graduation wedding dress and Rachel had made me a long sleeve blouse to wear over it.  I was nervous and didn't know what to do.  I was impressed with the spirit that was there and the beauty.  I treasure the memory of Jess and I kneeling over the Holy altar and knew we would be together for ever.  Mark Austin married us June 11, 1943.  Jess and I left the next day for Portland.

New Car

 

1938 Pontiac

Jess had purchased a 1933 red Ford convertible car when he was working in California.  He had overhauled the engine and had it in good running condition but it wasn’t heavy enough to pull our trailer to Portland.  Now he was ready to move to a heavier car.  We took our twenty dollar bills to Idaho Falls and bought a conservative, brown, four door  1938 Pontiac.  Jess counted out the bills with a smile on his face.  It was a real bargain at $675.00..  The car had been well taken care of and we never had any trouble with it.  The biggest mistake we made was when we traded it off years later.

Temporarily Back to Archer

 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of an old drag line that is down by the head gate by Randy’s house.

 

 

 

 

We were back in Archer with our trailer house parked on the front lawn of Jess's folk's home.  We slept there but took all our meals with the family.  This was hard for me after having a home of my own.  Jess worked as a dragline helper and soon learned to operate the machine.  He made $6.00 a day, which wasn't much, after driving truck for the government.

When the canals and ditches were all cleaned, there wasn't any work for the drag line so we decided to go to Portland, Oregon,where fabulous wages were being paid, welding  in the ship yards

 

I wanted my Patriarchal blessing before we  moved so, Jess's sister, Genevieve, and I drove to Charles Thomason's home, in Burton.  No one told me to fast or do anything to be prepared for the blessing.  We sat in the front room of an old farm house and the blessing was given May 30, 1943.  I wrote down Genny's blessing and she wrote down mine.  I have treasured that blessing through the years.

I was told, in my blessing, that I was highly favored of the Lord, in the heritage, of my immediate ancestors,.  This privilege has become mine by reason of my obedience in my pre-mortal  state.  I  was Blessed that in my home I would eventually have a fullness of joy.   That I will become a prudent and competent household manager and a leader among my sex.

$20.00’s in a Suitcase

Jess soon found work driving truck at Clearfield, where the government was building an army facility.  He had to join the union but was making $85.00 a week.  He worked ten hour days and drove thirty miles to work.   I was working shift work at the radio plant and we didn't see much of each other but we both had week ends off.  We saved our money and lived as cheaply as we could.  Jess wanted to buy a farm.

Each week we would cash our checks and get twenty dollar bills.  We kept them rolled up in a suitcase, in the closet.  We didn't lock our apartment and we didn't worry about it being stolen.  A married girl living next to us was sick and needed medicine and didn't have any money.  She borrowed twenty dollars and brought it back the next week, when her husband cashed his check.  I didn't even worry that she knew we had money in the closet.

In the spring Jess's job was finished and he wanted to come back to Archer to help farm.  A man who had worked with Jess wanted to sell his eight ft. trailer for $225.00 and his Maytag washer for $25.00.  We paid cash for both of them.

Our First Christmas

 

 

It was Christmas time and we managed to buy a few gifts to send home to the family but we were totally broke.  We didn't have any money to buy each other a gift.  The day before Christmas the plant where I worked gave us each five dollars as a gift and I bought Jess a dollar wallet.  We purchased a small tree and a few ornaments.  We didn't have money to buy gas to go home. We received gifts from home but we didn't open them until Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve there was a light snow falling and we bought some chocolate covered doughnuts, at the bakery and them walked through the park by the old court house and talked.   I think that first Christmas cemented our marriage.  We were on our own and could manage without help from home.  Neither one of us had ever been away from home for Christmas.  I am grateful now that we shared that choice experience.  It has been a sacred memory.  Jess and I talked about it often as we relived the things we talked about and the emotions during that difficult time..

First Welding Job

 
     I was lucky and got a job at the factory welding electric filaments on a device about as big as my hand.  Three of us applied and two of us were hired.  The nice thing the city bus picked me up a block from where I lived. To take me to work.
    Again my competitive nature took over.  They told us the highest number of grids that had been welded in one day and I knew I could weld more than that.  The first time I set a new record I worked through my lunch break.  After I did that for several weeks, I could weld more than that and still take a lunch break.
     I was still living at the boarding house but when Jess came from the desert, where he was working, to Salt Lake he couldn’t stay in the boarding house so I moved into a private home.  This didn’t work out either.  I had to eat all my meals out and there wasn’t a café up there on the avenues.  I only stayed there a week.
  Jess didn’t like working out on the desert and living with a group of men.  He quit his job the week before Christmas and moved back to Salt Lake.
     Everyone warned us we would  have a hard time finding an apartment but we found one the first day we looked.  3rd south and 3rd east and only had one room.  The couch made out into a bed.  We shared a bathroom with four other apartments.  It was close enough to walk to town and I could catch the bus to go to work.

Off to Salt Lake

Moving to Salt Lake 1942
     I picked up spuds all fall and made what I thought was a lot of money.  We were in good shape financially when spud harvest was complete.  Jess didn’t want to work in a spud cellar all winter and there weren’t any other jobs so Jess, Dale Clay and I drove to Salt Lake City on my 18th birthday in the cold red convertible.  We had a hard time finding  a hotel room that first night.  It was war time and Soldiers stationed at Fort Douglas came to visit before their loved ones were shipped out.  Jess always felt badly he couldn’t join the army.  Because of his bad heart he was rated 4F.
     Jess couldn’t find work in town but there were several men from Archer who were working out in the desert at a chemical plant.  Jess and Dale went to work there.
     I found work as a waitress at Walgreen Drug store as a waitress.  I couldn’t afford to stay at a hotel so I stayed at a boarding house on State St.  Two gracious elderly widows ran the boarding house and there were only ten boarders and the food was fantastic.  I shared a bedroom with  two girls my age, who were looking for work.  We searched the want ads and decided to go to a radio tube manufacturing plant.  I wasn’t making very good money at Walgreens.  I lost five pounds the one week I worked there.  People were always standing in line waiting to be served and it was a hectic rat race.

Cooking

 

I didn’t know how to cook, but Jess did. I had always worked outside and my sister Marva helped cook. The first thing I did was go to my mother and ask her how to prepare a meal. I wrote down her instructions. She told me to peel the potatoes and put them on to cook half an hour before we were to eat. We didn’t have much meat during the summer months because we didn’t have fridge. We ate a lot of scrambled eggs and Jess liked them. Our vegetables came from every ones gardens and I was suppose to put them on to cook at a certain time too. I didn’t try to make bread or do any baking.

Wilcox’s had a huge orchard by our house and I decided to make an apple pie. I worked all afternoon and had the house hot from the wood stove to heat the oven. When I took the pie from the oven I tasted it and promptly took it outside and buried it. Jess’s friends were in the army and when they came to visit we took them out to dinner.

First Home

 

    

 

I wonder if all newly married couples were as unconcerned as we were, about where we were going to live.  After the honeymoon, we stayed with Jess’s folks, while we looked for a place to live.  We decided not to buy a two room log house from Mattie Erickson’s brother.  Rachel thought we ought to buy it and move it by their house.  We finally decided to rent a little two room house across the street from Wilcox's, (across from where Jan Wilcox lives).  I thought this house was fantastic, it had electricity.   My folks didn’t get electricity until after I had been married two years..  It was called the honeymoon cottage, since so many newly weds rented it.  I didn’t have an electric stove but I had a two burner electric hot plate to cook on so I didn’t have to build a fire in the cook stove for everything.  We went down to Jess’s folk every Saturday night to take a bath and Rachel washed all our clothes since I didn’t have a washer or any running water.  We packed all our water from a hand pump outside and had an outhouse.

   ***** August 27th would be our 70th wedding anniversary.  I can still remember the excitement we felt when we moved into that first little home!!!

Wedding Reception

    The next Sunday  after we were married my folks held an open house for us at the Sutton home.  My folks paid for the ice cream.  I was amazed at the people who came.  The day was gorgeous and people came and stayed and visited.  Jess's folks gave us the round oak table
that her mother had given her when she was married and six matching chairs, they had purchased.  Kent has the table in his home now.  Jess's grand parents gave us silverware that we used for over thirty years and a quilt. My folks gave us money and we bought a bedroom set, with a dresser and chest of drawers all for $125.00.  That was a lot of money.  Most of it is still being used.  I kept a list of the gifts and there were three sets of dishes, nine sheets, twenty-six towels, three bedspreads, five blankets and many small items.

     It was tradition to give a wedding dance and we did that the following Saturday night at the Archer school. It was

free to those who came and we paid for the orchestra.  We were broke for a long time.  We had drawn an advance on Jess's wages to pay for it.

1942 ….. Grain Field to Marriage

That summer I thinned and hoed beets and potatoes and also rode derrick horse, turned hay and shocked grain.  The grain was cut with a swather, which tied and laid the bundles of grain, on the ground.  We would stand the bundles up with the grain heads to the sun where they could finish drying, so they could be hauled to the thresher.  Much of the grain had thistles in it.  We didn't have much for shoes or socks and no gloves and yet we handled those thistles because we knew it had to be done and we were the only ones that would do it.  Jess was working long hours farming for Ronald Hill and was so tired but we still tried to get together to just talk and be together.   One Sunday two days before Jess' twenty second birthday, we took a picnic lunch up Kelly Canyon.  Jsss gave me a diamond ring and we were officially engaged.  We planned on being married on my birthday,Nov. 21, when I would be eighteen.  By August we decided to get married and August 27, 1942.  We wanted to get married before grain harvest, which was followed by potato harvest.  I am ashamed to admit I had no desire to get married in the Temple.  The Idaho Falls Temple wasn't built until 1945 and none of my friends and I ever talked about Temple marriage.  How could I have taken 3 years of Seminary and never had a desire for the Temple?

   I didn't realize until after what a financial burden this placed on my parents.  They didn't have any money.  They sold some pigs, that weren't big enough to bring top money.   Mom and I went shopping for me a going away dress and  I thought every thing was too expensive.  My mother finally in exasperation said, "Quit looking at the price tag and pick out one you like."  I picked a green velvet two piece dress that I loved and wore for years.  It was a long time before I had another new dress.

     

WE were married at Jess's parents home by Bishop Sterling Magleby.  I wore my graduation dress.  Jess's mother served a wedding dinner right after the ceremony for both families.  Rachel had bought red glass plates and gave them to us after the dinner.
We only had three days for a honeymoon.  Jess had to be back to work Monday.  We went to the the finest hotel in Idaho Falls, (Bonneville).Friday and Saturday we spent at a hotel in St.Anthony.  We visited Jess's friends in Ashton and my grandpa Atkinson and his new wife, who were living in Chester and made grand plans for the future.

 

 

Wedding Picture

High School Graduation

 

I graduated from seminary after three years.  I learned more from those classes that has helped me through out my life, than from any other class.
     It was 1942 and I was ready to graduate from High School.  I didn’t have any money for a dress and I wouldn’t ask my folk to buy one, they didn’t have any money either.  I missed the last four weeks of school and thinned beets.  I purchased a three tier white organdy formal.  It fit perfectly.  It didn’t even need shortened.  I was glad later I had chosen a white dress because it was also my wedding dress.  I had it until 1987 and it still fit perfectly but I lost it in one of my moves.   I have not changed dress sizes in all the years since.
    The night I graduated Mom didn’t have any way to come to my graduation so she went with Jess and I.  My Dad and none of my brothers or Marva went, we didn’t have a car.  I had my hair fixed at a beauty shop and it looked terrible.  We took Mom home after the graduation and instead of going to the high school dance we went to Riverside Gardens. Jess gave me a watch, which would have taken a months wages.

Interesting use for a little black dress!

      Jess picked me up after school and we went to Ashton to pick up a load of seed potatoes.   The spuds were in sacks and sitting against the wall of the cellar.  Jess and I loaded all those spuds alone.  He lifted them on the back of the truck and would drag them to the front.  It took a long time.  I had worn my good black dress,  and it got really dirty. Girls had to wear dresses, no pants and boys had to wear dress pants, no levis or work clothes. We stopped in Ashton on our way home and it was 3:00 a.m. when I got home.  Again I was grateful that my mother understood and didn’t  even scold me.  As I look back now I think my mother lost a lot of sleep over me.

 

 

       I doubt Mom’s dress looked like any of these!

      Once again Grandma Millie was amazing!!

      I bet after than night Jess knew he had quite a find!!!

Meeting Jess

  

  I I dated a boy during my Junior year of High School.   He was fun and had a good car.  I went with him to a church basketball game at Archer.  There was a tall, dark, good looking boy playing on the Archer team.  I had never seen him before.  I was seated next to Dora Burns and ask her who he was.  She said he was her cousin and would introduce me, after the game.  Jess played spectacular and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.  It was love at first sight.
     He phoned several days later and I accepted a date, for the next night.  When I told my mother who I was going out with, the next night she said “no” he is too old for you.  I didn’t have a number to call him back and I didn’t know what to do.  When Jess came to take me on the date, Mom took one look at him and said it was alright for me to go with him.  We went to a show and just talked.  He was so easy to be with.  He didn’t have much to say but I jabbered steady.
     We didn’t date long because as soon as harvest was over Jess and three other boys went to California looking for work.   They found work in a factory and all lived in a boarding house.   Jess wrote once a week   Jess bought a red convertible car that the engine was ruined.  He and his friends overhauled it and had it running by Christmas so three of them drove back for the holidays   . Can you imagine riding in a convertible in the winter, with no heater?
  

    We only had one date during the holidays.  We went to Riverside Gardens to a dance, in his Dad’s car,  when it was forty below zero.  After the dance, we went to Rigby to eat and the car froze up and wouldn’t run.  Jess phoned his Dad to come and get us.   Jess’s  Dad walked to his brother Charles house and borrowed his car and started down to Rigby to get us.  That car froze up and Jess’s Dad had to walk back home.
     Jess and I sat in the café until it closed and phoned his Dad again.  It was after 2:00 am and his Dad hadn’t come.   He didn’t have any way to come and get us so we sat in the lobby of the hotel the rest of the night.  Jess offered to buy me a hotel room but I didn’t think that was right so we half slept in the lobby and no one bothered us.  As soon as the café opened in the morning we stayed there until his Dad came around noon.
     I had no way to let my folk know where I was.   When I got home my mother didn’t even scold me, she trusted me.  There was magic that night and Jess decided not to go back to California.  He left a good easy job to stay home and sort potatoes.

They did love that convertible!!!  Was Jess handsome or what!!!

The Dating Years

 

 

We started dating young.  In the winter time  we would go is to the
Archer or Lyman dances on Friday night  once  a month.  In the winter we would go by sleigh, wrapped in blankets, when it was really cold.  If we got too cold we would get out of the sleigh and hold on the back and run along side.
When I was a junior in High School  I dated a fellow that had a nice car.  In the winter, our lane down from the main road, was often drifted full and many dates walked me in from the main road.  One fellow assured  me his car would drive the lane and not get stuck.  I told him I wouldn't get my Dad out of bed, to pull him out, if he got stuck.  We got stuck and I just got out of the car and walked home alone.  I never did know how he got his car out but he never ask me for a date again.

In the summer we could go to the movie theater.  Often a group of us girls would each put in 25 cents.  That would buy the movie ticket , a hamburger and some for gas.  Our favorite place was the Dill Pickle Inn in Rigby  I was never able to furnish the car but I always had money.  I took care of my money.  We would also go to watch either  Archer or Lyman wards play M.I.A. basketball.   That is the way I met Jess.

Flowers, Flowers, Flowers

   When I was young, 11 to 17 there was a huge yellow rose bush right out my east bedroom window.  Because it was in the shade it bloomed for a long time.    When my Grand mother Atkinson died there was a beautiful vase of long stem yellow roses.  The family gave them to me and I brought them home and dried them.  They were in my bedroom for a long time.   Now the Holy Hock is my favorite flower.  Several reasons, it comes up by itself every year and has deep roots, so it requires little water.  It also blooms for a long time.

When I first moved to Newdale, in 1993, the yards were huge and a mess.  The first thing I did was haul rocks from the hill to cover up the hill just out the front door.  I pulled weeds and planted flowers and had a huge garden.  If you remember the spot in the gutter east of the front lawn was beautiful, after I hauled in fresh dirt and planted packets of wildflowers.  I made the mistake of hauling manure from Munn's livestock place and got a lot of weed seeds.  Our house was on city water and so very expensive to irrigate that huge yard..  I was getting left over fruit from Albertsons, at this time and I shared with the Mexican pipe movers, who moved pipe around my house.  They would run the pipe down through my yard any time they had water near and pulled the end plug to let that water soak my yards..  They were very good to me.    It really hurts to go by the house that I left, 6 years ago, and now see most of the lawn and all the huge trees on the west, dying from lack of water.

The yards in Archer needed extra work.  When Hilary lived in this house, she came to my house in Newdale and got flower starts from my yards,  to plant here in Archer.   The biggest improvement I have made in my Archer home was just this spring.  A neighbor who needed moeny and made extra money by,selling junk, came and totally cleaned up old roofing etc..  Jill and Lincoln came the day we emptied out the old shed.    Steve comes twice a year and fertilizes my lawn and until last year, Kent's family, mowed the lawn.  I love my Archer house and yards.. 

These are all from Grandma’s Garden