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..