This Story reminds me of “ The Clampetts”…only the Atkinson’s were going from wealth, to poverty… but see if the description of the trip doesn’t sound like the Clampetts to you……Jill
My Dad’s, 69 year old bachelor uncle, Enzley, was about to lose the
Atkinson homestead. It was heavily mortgaged and the mortgage company
wouldn’t refinance because of Enzley’s age. He promised my Dad if he
would move to Idaho to save the farm, he would give him the farm. My
Mom didn’t want to move. She knew the heart ache and sacrifice farmers
endured and the depression was hardest on the farmers..
We couldn’t leave California until the $300.00 we owed at the
grocery store was paid. Uncle Oren paid the bill and begged my folks
not to move to Idaho. He didn’t have any family of his own and he
loved us kids. As we left he was shouting, “You’ll regret it. You
won’t have anything to eat but potatoes and sour milk.”
Mom wouldn’t leave unless she could take furniture. Dad just
wanted to load the car and move. It was May and he knew it was time to
farm. We purchased a four wheeled Hoover wagon to be pulled with a 1929 Dodge. We crammed everything we could and still couldn’t get everything in. We had to leave the couch the sewing machine and other things, it was hard to decide what to leave.
When we started up the hill out of the valley, we wondered if the car could pull the heavily loaded wagon. The Dodge kept going slower and slower until I felt we were going to slide backward. I was terrified. Little did I realize it was only a hill not an Idaho mountain. One of our biggest concerns was our tires were bad so we had packed 2 extra tires. We only needed to use one of them.
We stopped in Ogden to pick up Mrs.Bigler to bring her to her home in Rexburg. There was already 4 kids and a dog in the back seat. I regretted it at the time but Mom explained, Mrs. Bigler wanted to go back to her home and that was her only way to get there.
Our biggest scare was coming down the Sardine Pass out of Logan. No road to Malad at that time. The wagon was heavy and the only way to slow down its momentum, going down hill was for Max to pull on a rope that went out the back window and was fastened to a lever that put pressure on the back tire. We were going down that steep mountain and picking up speed. I started to pull on the rope right back of Max
and the car started to slow down. We were all shaking when we got down to level ground. I was praying all the time I was pulling on that rope
and I am sure everyone else in the car was also.
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