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.