Europe

Archer

March 1976

Couples return from Europe

taken from the Rexburg Standard Journal

By Myrtle Clay

Archer Correspondent

Archer – Mr. and Mrs. Afton Hansen and Mr. and Mrs. Jess Sutton recently returned from a trip to Europe. In London, England, they had had 24 inches of rain in three months. Bright yellow forsythia, daffodils and crocus were in bloom everywhere. They rode the subway and visited landmarks in London including Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Thames River, Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace, Museum of Natural History and Windsor castle.

They also took a two hour bus drive through the countryside to the Canterbury Cathedral where services were being conducted. They visit at the sex bedroom Ponday home built in 1600. The barns had thatched roof and the farming operation included about 160 acres and had 80 landlords. They stayed in Kent and saw a stained glass church. William the Conquerors brother was the founder and the first vicar was sustained in 1142

They flew to Paris and saw the Louvre with its famous paintings and works of art and the Eiffel Tower, Joan of Arc statue, Military academy built by Madam Pompadour, Napoleon's burial place and other places of interest. They also went to the agricultural exposition which is the biggest in the world.

They went to Montreux, Switzerland, the Castle of Chillon, Interlaken and visited a farm in the Seminole valley. They rode a ski lift to the mountain top but because of the clouds couldn't get a clear view of the alps. They said people are not allowed to build any buildings that would detract from the quaint atmosphere of the country and that they do not have any unemployment.

They went to Bern and Weisbaden, Germany. They said Germany, just like America, is highly industrialized. Many of its buildings were destroyed during the war and new modern buildings built in their place. They spent all one day visiting farms and farm homes. They mayor of one city invited them to the city hall and told them about their area. They said downtown in the middle of the city was a barn filled with cattle, pigs and a horse. They said the most outstanding cathedral they saw was at Cologne. When they left Germany they rode a boat down the Rhine River and saw castles built high on the ledge above the river.

In Holland they took a boat ride through the canal waterway system and toured a windmill. The giant press wheel inside the windmill was pressing peanuts to render the oil for cooking and the residue for animal foods. They also saw wooden shoes being make. The farm they visited had only been reclaimed from the sea for 10 years. They spent one morning at the worlds largest flower market. There were acres of green houses in Holland that supplied the flowers.

Returning home, Mr. and Mrs. Hansen flew to St. Louis to sped several days with their son, Dale Hansen, and his family while Mr. and Mrs. Jess Sutton flew to Idaho.

Hawaii

                                                                         In Feb. 1978  Ruth, Afton Hansen Jess and I went to Hawaii. Spuds weren’t a good price but Jess knew how badly I wanted to go. We toured five islands in ten days. The weather was perfect and I thought I would like to spend the winter months on the Island of Maui. Jess laughed and said, “You can’t be away from home for two weeks without getting homesick.

                         One night the hotel notified us that we were to call home. We were terrified. Our first thought was our sons and grandchildren. We knew something was wrong. It was Stanley, Jess’s brother, calling. He told us that Rachel, (Jess’s mother) was in the hospital with cancer. I will never forget that night. Jess and I sat on the edge of the bed and cried and talked. Rachel hadn’t been feeling well but we never thought it could be cancer.

     The doctor said that Rachel only had a few months to live. She lived over a year but it was endurance rather than living. I think if the choice had been mine I wouldn’t have had the surgery Rachel, had. I hope I would have the gumption to say “no to treatment”, if I had cancer. I wrote that in 1978. When I got cancer in 2005, I had chemotherapy and radiation. It was hard for Jess to see his mother suffer. Rachel was deadly ill with chemotherapy. Toward the last she was on morphine and had terrible hallucination. The hardest thing on earth is so see a person you love suffer. The family gathered around her bed and prayed that she could be released. She died that night, March 1979.

Jess in the Hospital

                                                         When we got home from Europe Kent was playing in an Explorer Olympic tournament. When his game was over Jess couldn’t stand up. He couldn’t breathe. Some men from Archer helped him outside to fresh air and I took him to the hospital. The doctor said he needed to stay in the hospital but Jess wouldn’t. He wanted to go to Idaho Falls to Dr. Krantz, who immediately put him in the hospital. Jess’s lungs were filled with fluid. His heart wasn’t strong enough to move the fluid.

      I marveled that Jess had gone to Europe when he was so sick. I have wondered through the years how many things Jess did that I wanted to do, when he would have rather stayed home. Jess was only in the hospital for a few days but he was never well after that. The doctor started talking about surgery, to repair the leaky valve in Jess’s heart. Jess set his jaw and said he would not have the surgery until it was a matter of life or death. The doctor warned him he had to have the surgery while his body was strong enough for surgery.

Super Good Guy Award

Europe

March 1977

   My dream had always been to go to Hawaii and Jess promised me when spuds were $10.00 field run we would go.   Spuds were a good price that year and when we read about a European farm trip we went there instead.  Adding to the enjoyment of the trip, Ruth and Afton Hansen went with us.  The Rexburg newspaper even printed the details of our trip, so that shows you that few went to Europe.  

   We spent two days at London, England, one day at Kent, England, three days in France, three days in Switzerland, two days in Germany and three days in Holland.  I could write a book about sights and experiences we had.  Jess was sick on the trip.  One evening a group decided to go for a walk.  After walking around the town and headed back, Jess had trouble breathing.  We told the rest of the group to go ahead and Ruth and Afton stayed with us.  Jess rested for awhile and then was able to walk again.  He spent the next day in bed. 

Fitness for Life

  The winter of 1976 I took a Fitness for life class at Ricks.  It was a turning point in my life.  The first thing we timed, how long it took us to walk or run a mile.  I had to walk most of the way.  We had a choice of various things to do, to improve our physical fitness and we had to do it four times a week.  At first I walked five miles in an hour, but I didn’t have an hour to lose so I decided to run two miles.  That wouldn’t take as long.  At the end of the class we again ran or walked the mile track.   This time I made it in decent time.      We weighed each class and my weight did not change.  Jim Lamph measured us for body fat.  He said mine measured the same as a gymnast.  I hadn’t lost any weight during the running because my body had not stored any fat previously.     I decided a long time ago I wasn’t going to be fat. 

People say that I am lucky that I don’t gain any weight.  I’m not lucky, I work at it.  I watch what I eat, and don’t eat any sugar when my Levis get tight and I drink a lot of water.  

  It took me eight months to run two miles without stopping.  At first I would run the distance between two telephone poles and walk for three.  Later I walked one and ran one.   The first time I ran one mile I had the feeling of floating.  I had a high from running.    The next year I didn’t run for 5 weeks and when I started again it took me a week before I could run two miles.  I am angry at myself when I don’t take time to run.  I enjoy it.  It is my time to meditate and sort out my emotions.  It is impossible to be discouraged or blue, when I run regularly.

Flood Help

   

When I heard about the flood, I knew there soon wouldn’t be any electricity. I completely filled the bath tub and many containers. We never did run completely out of water but we did pack water from the canal to flush the toilet. We had an auxiliary power plant run by gasoline, that we used to unload spuds at planting time. It was in great demand by the dairy farmers who did not want to milk their cows by hand.

We did everything we could to help. Jess sent in a tractor and Ruth and I took clothes home to wash. It was frustrating we couldn’t do more. I baked bread every other day and took it to friends who still couldn’t use their kitchens. One of the worst things was the personal records and personal treasures that were destroyed. We tried to dry some of these papers. It was a long time before the area was back to normal.

Archer ward had a supper every Saturday night for the flood victims. Kendall Davidson would pit roast beef, potatoes, carrots and onions and the ladies in the ward would bring salads and homemade bread. The crowd was tremendous. People who had worked all day scrubbing mud, would come out for a good home cooked meal and a chance to rest and visit.

Teton Dam

Whenever 1976 is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind, is the Teton Dam breaking.  The day started out as an ordinary day but around noon, Jess came in excited.  He had heard on the radio the dam had broken and he knew he needed to get his airplane out of the hanger and onto higher ground.  I drove him straight to the airport and as he was taking the plane out of the hanger, a group of men stood there talking.  One of them told Jess the water wouldn’t get high enough to flood the airport.  Jess had seen what happened when a canal broke or the river was high and he knew the airport would be covered.  One man wasn’t convinced but Jess finally talked him into moving his airplane.  Later that man thanked Jess for insisting that he move his plane.  The airport was totaled.  Hangers were destroyed by the logs, that rammed into them.  Our own hanger had to be rebuilt.   

  Jess flew up over the surging water and said it rolled and boiled as it destroyed everything in its path.  After Jess had his airplane safely in Idaho Falls, we came and got our family and drove over the dry farm to Rexburg.  We parked up above the college and watched the water standing all over the city.  It was a sad sight.  There were houses moved off their foundations, dead cows, uprooted trees and debris over everything.  Later that night when Jess heard how high the water was in the river by Idaho Falls, he worried about the airplane so we drove down to look the situation over and thought of moving the plane farther south but decided it would safe.    

    An announcer, from a main newspaper, sent a helicopter to fly over the flooded area and give reports of the damage.  The announcer kept saying Ririe flooded, instead of Rexburg flooded.  We were listening to the report on the radio and smiled, knowing many people would be excited thinking the Teton Dam water had reached Ririe.  Little did we realize that Randy, who was on a mission, in Korea, would get the report about Ririe and all telephone lines were down and he couldn’t phone home.    

Fourteenth Branch Relief Society President

 

One Sunday morning in August 1973, I had all the Atkinson family coming for dinner. That wasn’t a big thing, but I felt impressed to stay home and not go to Sunday School, I thought it odd at the time, because usually I went to church and had a big crowd come and it wasn’t a problem. This Sunday I felt impressed to say home. There I was in Levis with my hair in curlers, when Dale Steiner knocked on the door. He asked if I was Randy’s Sutton’s mother. When I answered yes he said he needed a Relief Society President for the Fourteenth Branch Relief Society. He said he didn’t know me but he knew that the mother of Randy Sutton would be a good President. Randy was Seminary President for Madison High School and Dale was in charge of the seminary program. I thought that was one of the nicest compliments a mother could ever have. I laughingly said, “The Lord told me to stay home, but he didn’t tell me to put on a dress or comb my hair.”

This was a fantastic experience. I didn’t know where to start or what to do. I did a lot of praying. My counselors were college girls whom I had never met but there were excellent. We held our meetings in the Seminary building. I had 144 girls I was responsible for. Since I had never had a daughter of my own that was a learning experience. We had wonderful programs. We had homemaking days on Saturday right at the apartment complex so it wouldn’t take too much of the girls time. One day we taught them to make bread, one time Chester Nelson gave me all the wealthy apples I could pick and each apartment cooked something with the apples and we ate the results. We made two quilts. I got so I could step inside an apartment and tell if the girls were living as they should or if they had problems. With six girls to an apartment, there were challenges. I know it was the Holy Ghost.

A Stake President’s daughter, from California told me she had been forced to go to church all her life and now that she was here, she wasn’t going to church any more. I would go to see her each Sunday morning, during Sunday School and she would look guilty and her boyfriend would leave. I bore my testimony regularly and secretly hoped she wouldn’t come back, after Christmas. After Christmas, she was totally different and never missed a meeting. Later when she sent me a wedding announcement, she thanked me and said I was the one who changed her life. I never knew what I did. The girls who were married in the Temple all sent wedding announcements but those who weren’t didn’t.

This job required many trips to Rexburg and a lot of time and all day Sunday.  Jess was good and always came to Sacrament Meeting with me in town.  In fact Jess was always good to support me no matter what I was working at.

Fire

     While Tom was in college, he purchased a small Ford car from Blair Bybee.  It  got good gas mileage but it needed some work done. When Tom left on his mission, Garth started to repair the car in the garage, at the house.  Garth had a diesel heater going, to warm the garage.  Soon open flames erupted and the heater was on fire.  First we tried to put out the fire by throwing a wool blanket over it but then it exploded.  I called the fire department and Garth and I pushed the car out of the garage.  Garth was as cool as could be.  He said the car would burn or explode if we didn’t get it outside.   It seemed like it took hours for the fire engine to come.  I phoned the warehouse and all those men came and carried everything out side.  The house was completely filled with smoke but the fire didn’t enter the house.  There is a solid cinder block wall between the garage and the house.  The firemen chopped a hole in the kitchen wall before he decided the fire wasn’t in the house.  They soon had the fire out, but the smoke damage was terrible.

        Jess had gone flying with Jack and didn’t come back until night.  I was to meet them at the café in Rexburg to give them a ride home.  Someone ask Jess how much damage the fire had done and Jess ask me if the house was still standing and if anyone was hurt.     Garth had burned his ears, hand and arm but nothing that required a doctor.  Kent stayed with Stan and Pauline, Randy, Jess and I went to my folks and stayed for three days.     

      Everything was covered with insurance, they paid to have things cleaned professionally.  After it was all over, I knew it was the best thing that could have happened.  Our family of six sons managed fine with just one bathroom but now with married sons and grandchildren a second bathroom was a necessity.   The insurance even paid to tear down the old garage and back porch.    We had Monte Merrill come to bid the job.  He said he would rather just do the work and then pay him.  He said it would be the cheapest for us.  We trusted him and he built a bathroom, porch and double garage.  The luxury was that we had new cupboards in the kitchen and a book case in the back bedroom.  We probably would never have made the change without the fire.

Sewing

    I became enthused about sewing, now that I had three granddaughters.  I visualized making all their clothes, so Jess bought me a sewing machine.  I took two different sewing classes.  Double knit fabric was new on the market.  It was considered the ultimate in material because it didn’t wrinkle and didn’t fray, but it was expensive.   Little did I realize that twenty years later no one wanted it.    A size ten fit me perfectly.  I bought material and sewed like mad.  I had some of the most expensive dust rags in Archer.  I also had the hall way shelves, full of fabric. I had purchased on sale.  I even ordered two hundred dollars, worth of remnants and sold them from my house.  I never did that again.

      I did a lot of sewing for Berneice Neilson.  I even made her and Bessie Wilcox dresses to wear to the Temple.  I loved sewing and then one day I looked in my closet and there were many things I had sewn and never worn, I never sewed for myself again.  Randy and Tom were dancing with the M.I.A. and needed bright colored shirts, trimmed with rick-rack.    I also made Dyle Erickson’s shirt.  The next year they needed pink vests and I made several of those.  Just a few years later sewing became boring and I quit sewing.

Jeannie

 

The state had a program for unwed mothers.  They ask me to take care of a girl named Jeannie, until her baby was born.  Jess said it was OK if I wouldn’t lend her any money or drive the car.    I worried about the influence she would have on Tom, who was two years younger.  I shouldn’t have worried Tom was shocked by her language, attitude and values.  To us she seemed like a hippie.   I wanted to share our values with her but she was the boss and set in her ways.  When she complained about something then it became her job to do that chore.   Her biggest complaint was that I took care of grandkids too much.

She loved Jess.  The minute he came home she practically sat in his lap and wanted to visit with him.  After supper, Jess would take the newspaper into the bathroom, to read.  She was supposed to go to a monthly support meeting with other unwed mothers.   She only went to one meeting and didn’t stay long.  She came out and said they were a bunch of sniffling spoiled brats.  I was thankful Jess was busy with farming and taking lessons and studying for his instrument rating.    

  Jeannie read the Lamaze book about how to have a baby without pain.  She informed me it was ridiculous how women cried and carried on

during birth.  She had read the book and knew how to do it without any fuss.  I smiled when she begged for pain medicine after the first real pain.   I had never seen a baby or even an animal born so Dr. Passey thought I should have that experience.  I nearly fainted and I will never do that again. 

Jeannie wanted to continue to live with us after Eric was born but I said, no.  Now it was time for her parents to take care of her.  I drove her to her mother’s home and sat in the car for over an hour, while she talked to her mother.  Her mother finally agreed to let her come home.    Jeannie stayed in contact with us for many years.  She had a difficult life, with many heartaches  and her only baby, Eric, died at 17. 

  Later that year I had another girl come and live with us.  She was only sixteen.  She had no manners or social skills.  She wouldn’t eat with the family she ate in her bedroom.  She told me she had never eaten with a fork before.  I tried everything I could think of to help her but she was home sick and wanted to go home. 

Flight to Chicago

: Norm and  Leola Neiderer went with us in the airplane on a trip to visit the brokerages that we sold spuds to. Before we got to Wyoming there was a black cloud that didn’t look very big. Jess started to fly through it and all at once the plane was pulled straight up in the air. We bumped our heads on the top of cab and then all at once we fell straight down. The instruments went crazy.

      We visited Garth and Jolene in Denver, then on to St. Louis Missouri, Indianapolis and Chicago. It was seven below, when we left Chicago, with a strong head wind, and the wings started to ice up, so we had to land at Rock Springs. Norman had worn a Stetson cowboy hat, the entire trip, but when he stepped off the plane, his hat was gone forever.

       When we got to Palisades , the ground visibility was limited and Jess didn’t know which canyon to fly up. We had only gone a short way up one canyon, when Jess pulled the plane straight up and said, “That canyon is not the right one.” I could see Jess’ face turn white, before we got back high in the air again.

Ricks College

I had planned on going back to school, after Kent started school but couldn’t, because of being R.S. President.  Now was my opportunity.  I knew I couldn’t start until the winter semester because we were busy digging spuds most of October.  I started by taking a night class, Composition and English, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  The next winter I registered as a full student.  I arranged all my classes on Tuesday and Thursday.  I shouldn’t have signed up for a two credit piano class.  I didn’t have time to practice an hour a day.  I was lucky to just get the studying done I needed for the other classes.  My music teacher was super depressed.  He told me his troubles and wanted advice.  Now 2013, I wish I could take piano lessons.  I know the basics but I have no techniques.   

        I took a class on current affairs.  The teacher wasted a lot of time.  He told us to subscribe to the U.S. News magazine.  Then he was going to wait for our magazine to come and study it.  It was two months before the magazine came.  I had spent good money for that class and I didn’t want to waste my money.   My best class was vocabulary building.  I have always read a lot so I knew the words but now I knew their deeper meaning.  I still find that fascinating today. 

       My English class was the only one, I didn’t get a straight A.  There were only seven of us in the class and competition stiff but I enjoyed the class.  My history class was perfect.  David Crowder was the finest teacher.  When I took my first test, I was heartbroken. I only scored 65.  I later learned I had the second highest score in a class of fifty.     My Religion class tests were hard.  I soon realized that every question could be answered from my class notes, so I memorized them.  After scoring a hundred on several tests,  Mr. Stucki ask how I prepared for the tests.  The best lecture he gave was on polygamy.  There were more women than men who had joined the church and many men killed during the persecution.  How much better for one man to care for two women, than a woman to struggle on her own.   Since Jess died, I realize how lonely it is, to live alone.  Polygamy failed because many involved were not living with Christian love for each other. Reply Forward

Toastmistress

   I joined the Toastmistress Club in Rigby.  We practiced our talks on each other and then had one chosen to represent our club at the State Meet.  My talk was,” What are the three top priorities in your life?  Every place I went I ask this question.  Most LDS gave the same answer.  Church, family and the third thing was where their heart truly was.  Jeannette Sharp said, “If it wasn’t for my wheelchair wouldn’t be able to get out of bed.  A young student, who was a convert to the church, said, “Jesus”.   A non-LDS said, “Work, sports, family”   I didn’t win.  Each talk had a time limit.  Mine was too short.  I talk too fast when I am nervous.    

  .    Jess was having trouble breathing and he went to about six different doctors.  They all said his heart was bad and gave him heart medicine.  He was getting worse.  He found some relief when he went to Dr. Woodland who suggested that part of Jess’s problem was that his thyroid wasn’t functioning properly.   He couldn’t prescribe medicine but he made him an appointment with Dr. Krantz.  Dr. Krantz was fantastic.  He was our family doctor from that day on.  He treated Jess like a personal friend and always had time to sit and visit about the farm.  Several times Dr. Krantz phoned Jess for advice on a farm he had just bought.

Newspaper Article about Gwen

NEWDALE WOMAN HAS A ZEST FOR LIFE  

Published in Rexburg, Standard journal in 2000.

  Gwen Sutton Robison of Newdale is not a typical senior.  At 76, Gwen is the picture of health.  She eats lots of fruits and vegetables and whole wheat bread, gets lot of exercise and is bursting at the seams with energy.  She rides her bike to the Post Office, claiming it’s easier and a lot faster than getting in the car, to go just one mile.  She loves to run and loves being outdoors working in the garden.  When she’s inside she likes to play the piano, read and work on her computer.  She hates shopping.   

       Her family is the most important thing in her life.  She is devoted to them and has family get-togethers at her home about every three months.  “When we are all together there are about 85 of us.” Gwen says.  “It’s a lot of fun.  Everybody brings a potluck dish.  We all help out and just enjoy being together.     Gwen has always been a busy lady.  Her pet peeve is “people who waste time”   Gwen took college classes at night for many years.  “You are never too old to learn and grow.”  She says.    In 1994, Gwen’s children gave her a computer for Christmas.  “At first I didn’t want it.  I told them I would never use it.  I had my typewriter and I like it just fine. “Gwen says.  But curiosity got the best of her and soon she was working on her computer and liking it.  Now she doesn’t know what she would do without it.  She uses her computer daily, updating her journal, sending letters to her missionary grandsons and writing family histories.  Now she says, “You can have the kitchen sink but you can’t have my computer.”   

      She has four computers in her home.  There is a computer down stairs that is used primarily to play games by grandchildren and neighbor kids.  Her husband Clair Robison uses his to record patriarchal blessings.   Gwen wrote a book about her mother and is writing a journal about her family which is now in the fourth volume.   All the journals are spiral bound.     Each Sunday she writes a letter about what is going on in the family during the week and e-mails it to about 18 different people, including her six sons, married grandchildren, missionary grandsons and close friends.  Her family motto is “Make every decision in the light of all eternity.”  “We are going to be held accountable for what we do here”, Gwen says, “There is a lot to do.”        “The greatest people are those who get up every morning and do the best they can regardless of their circumstances.”   

Gwen was born in Rexburg in 1924, a daughter of Millie Lake and Thomas “Att” Atkinson, of Lyman.  The family moved to California, then returned to Rexburg in 1935 pulling a four wheel trailer with everything they owned behind an old Dodge car.  Gwen was 11 at the time and remembers vividly what a horrible trip it was.  It is engraved on my soul.     She attended grade school in Lyman and graduated from Madison High school in 1942.  She married Jesse Sutton, of Archer, right out of high school and they moved to Portland to work in the shipyards for one year to save up enough money to put a down payment on a farm.    They both worked full time as welders for Commercial Ironworks of Portland.  The company sent them to school to learn to weld and Gwen was among one of the first woman welders for the company.  Their welding jobs were on merchant ships and aircraft carriers.  Gwen liked to weld on the stainless steel flight decks best of all.  She got the chance to christen a merchant ship, the SS Victor C.Vaughn.  Gwen and Jess both worked part time jobs.  Jess worked in a cannery and Gwen worked in a laundry.  It was the first time income tax was taken out of their wages.  “We all thought we were special, to donate to the ward effort with our income taxes.”    During that time Gwen and Jess lived on $5.00 a week in a trailer house back of a friend’s home.  They ate a lot of vegetables that Gwen would pick up as discards from the neighborhood grocery.  At that time gas was 10 cents a gallon.  They saved the rest of their wages for a down payment on a farm.  They achieved that goal in one year and bought a farm in Archer.  They came home in March of 1944, in time to plant the crops.   

        They lived in Archer for 48 years and raised six sons, Steve, Lee, Garth, Tom, Randy and Kent.  They raised potatoes and grain on the farm and were among the first to install a sprinkler system on the dry farm.  The whole family helped out on the farm.  Gwen moved sprinkler pipe right along with the boys.    The boys are all grown now.  Steve farms in Lyman, Lee and Garth live on the family farm in Archer.  Tom is a physical therapist in Pocatello, Randy lives in Archer and is a certified public accountant.  Kent farms in Archer.   Jess died in 1980.   She married Rex Jensen from Burton and lived there for two years before he died.    

       Gwen married Clair Robison of Newdale in 1993.  She met him, when they were both serving on the Madison Memorial Hospital Board.  Clair had a handicapped son, J. Wendell, who is 51 and Gwen had a foster daughter, Barbara Baty, who came to live with Gwen in 1989.  “Clair and I were meant to be together, I had Barbara to care for and he had J.Wendell,  We made a good family.”  Says Gwen.     Gwen has served as Relief Society President four times and she has served in stake Relief Society Presidencies twice.  She served a mission in Arcadia, California in 1985.   

       Clair started to keep a journal, when he was in high school and kept it up except, during the time he was Bishop and in the Stake Presidency.   Gwen filled in the missing years and compiled a hard bound book for him.  “He read it over and over again,” Gwen says      Gwen sys she loves living in Newdale, “There are good people here.  There is no class distinction.  It’s a wonderful place to live.

Scouting

       Relief Society didn’t meet for lessons during the summer months I knew I needed to be released to be with Jess and I was released May 1967.  If I had just waited a few more months, Jess was a different person when he started taking thyroid pills.  I didn’t quit serving my special widows.  I was always responsible for them.  I was immediately called to teach the eleven year old scouts in Primary.  This is still my favorite church calling.  (2013) I was well versed in the scouting program.  All five of my sons earned their Eagle Award.  I had two meetings a week with these boys.  On Sunday mornings we had a spiritual lesson at the same time Priesthood meeting was held.  Wednesday, after school, we would work on scouting.  I started many boys on the path to Eagle  The scouting program was completely changed the six years I served there. 

        One of our requirements was to take a five mile hike.  I told the boys to wear hiking clothes to school.  I had our lunch ready and picked up the boys and headed for the river bottoms.  I drove as far as the old store and the voice said, “Don’t take the boys hiking” I stopped the car and told the boys how impressed I felt that we shouldn’t go hiking that day.  I could tell they weren’t very happy but we ate our lunch and talked about requirements we were working on, and then took them home.  Several times I had been told by that small voice something I should do or not do while scouting.

 

Gwen continues to love Scouting.  She also served in the Cub Scouts in Newdale, when she was married to Clair. She was the Den Chief and they let J Wendell be her assistant.  It was the first time he had been in scouting.  You can tell by the look on his face that he was pretty happy about it

.At age 88 she is still serving in cub scouts in the Archer Ward.  She currently serves as the Troop Committee Chairman, and is in charge of all Board of Reviews, and Court of Honors.

She has been awarded the Trial Blazer Award, and the Lifetime Service Award.  She has helped shape many boys lives because of her dedicated service.

She has five sons who are Eagle Scouts, 15 grandsons, and to date 5 great grandson who are also Eagle Scouts.

 

This picture taken when she received the Life Time Service Award.  Steve was her escort, with Lee, Randy, Wyatt, Zach, and Jeff attending.  All of who are Eagle Scouts.

Jess’s Airplane

     Jess started taking flying lessons and wanted to buy his own place. When he started talking about it, Jack Holder, a bowling friend from Rigby, wanted to buy one too. He couldn’t afford to buy one alone so he suggested that the two of them share one. They went shopping and finally in Las Vegas they found just the plane they wanted. When it came time to sign the papers for it, Jess told the salesman he would just write a check for it. It cost $33,000.00. The salesman was dubious and said we couldn’t take the plane, until the check was verified. Jess suggested he could phone the bank in Rexburg and they would OK. the check. When the salesman phoned, Warren Widdison talked to him. Warren told him that he didn’t care what the amount of the check, was it would be good. I wish you could have seen the look of astonishment on the faces of Jack and the salesman. Jack assured Jess that as soon as we were home he would pay his share of the cost.

    We had to get the car back home and it was decided that Jess would drive to Nephi, Utah and Jack, Evie and I would go in the airplane. It sounded good but when we landed at Nephi, it was an unimproved airport and we had no way to get to town. We figured if Jess drove 60 miles an hour he would not be in Nephi for two more hours. Jack hailed a man down and asked him to take us into Nephi. As we sat in the café leisurely eating, we saw Jess drive by. He must have broken all speed records to get there that fast. Jess went right to the airport and we didn’t have any way to get back to the airport. Jack stood and asked if anyone in the café, would take us to the airport. A man volunteered and was Jess surprised to see us. He was wondering how he was going to find us. Evie and I drove the car back to Idaho.

We took some interesting trips with Jack and Evie. If you want to fly you have to have extra time to do it. It seemed every time we went somewhere the weather would change and we would have to stay for a few extra days. We flew to Portland, Oregon to get some new radio equipment. Jess wanted the finest in case he ever had trouble, he knew he would not be able to walk out. It took two extra days to install. The second day it started to rain and freeze and we were stuck for two more days.

It seemed every time Jack took the plane he had trouble. Once out around Salmon, he became frightened of the weather and the mountains and landed the plane in a pasture. Finally after flying the plane for a year, Jack decided they couldn’t afford to pay, for their half of the plane. He never offered to pay for the use of the plane, for a year. Jess was secretly relieved. He could afford it and wanted it to be his. He loved his Beechcraft Debonair and I was grateful Jess had his dream realized. I honestly believe that his happiest hours were the hours he spent flying. The doctors were amazed that Jess never had trouble breathing, when he was in his airplane. The reason we started the chicken business, many years before, was so Jess could learn to fly.

1966 A Dream Come True

 

A dream came true and yet a nightmare began. I had always wanted the wall between the kitchen and front room taken out. I also wanted the basement finished. As we talked to carpenters about taking out the wall, they said it couldn’t be done because it was a joist bearing wall. We ask Grant Burns if he would come and finish the basement. I told him what I wanted and casually mentioned how disappointed I was that they couldn’t take out the wall between front room and kitchen. He said it wouldn’t be a problem, it could be done. I was delighted. I wanted a room big enough to set tables the length of the two rooms and I wanted to be able to watch TV from the kitchen table.

That is when the nightmare started. Grant set up his saw in the middle of the kitchen and started to tear down the wall. I had sawdust everywhere and in everything for four months. I vowed I would never again remodel a house, while I was living in it and yet after the fire, in 1970 and we had to remodel. I was grateful I had a place to live. I cooked for Grant and men that helped farm. Grant was fun to have around and Arnold Briggs, my sister’s husband, was working shift work and came to help. The new combined room was perfect and the basement walls had a smooth surface.

     Christmas Dinner in the New Room

Garth Ran Away From Home

   

  This summer was difficult and Garth ran away from home. I thought everything was going OK and I was giving all my attention to Jess, who was having trouble breathing. We were taking him to two different doctors, at this time and I was trying to help out on the farm. Garth was quiet and didn’t say much. I guess he thought he was being left out. One Sunday afternoon, we couldn’t find him. We went to the basement and his clothes were gone. Garth had boxed up his things and left. Later in the day Jess’s mother phoned and said Garth was there. We went over and talked to him and tried to get him to come home. At first he said he wouldn’t but he finally did.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. Just when you think things are going smooth is when something goes wrong. After that, Jess tried to include Garth with the farming operation and decision, instead of just the older sons.

Lee’s Accidents

 Lee had a series of freak accidents.  One night he was driving out toward Hibbard, on icy roads.  The car ahead of him made a U turn in the middle of the road and Lee hit him.  Lee was cited for driving too fast under the road conditions.  That was unfair, you shouldn’t make U Turns on a main road. 

   After the Basketball season was over, Jess and I had gone bowling.  Lee went to the church to play volleyball with his friends.  He fell down and shattered his wrist so Bennet Orr took him to the hospital.  After Dr. Hoffman set the wrist, he thought Lee should stay in the hospital overnight.  Dr. Hoffman told Lee he would phone and tell us, so we wouldn’t worry.  When we got home from bowling, checked the boys and Lee wasn’t home.  I never slept a wink and I was about frantic by morning.  I debated about calling the police but the voice within me said he is alright.  Early the next morning, I phoned Bennet and ask if he knew where Lee was.  The Dr. had tried to phone us until 11:00 and then given up and gone to bed.  

  Lee had played football, basketball and baseball, did track and had never been hurt.  Then he went to the church for a fun game of volleyball and shattered his wrist.    It seemed every time Lee turned around that summer he was hurt.  He was cutting grain along the fence between us and the neighbors field a piece of barbwire came loose and flipped up and severely cut his face.

      When Lee went to Denver to Automotive school, he batched with a group of boys from this area.  In the second letter he wrote home he said, “I didn’t know food cost so much and that clean clothes didn’t grow on hangers.”  I have learned that your sons do not really appreciate what you do for them until they move away from home.      

Kent in First Grade

         Kent didn’t like to get dressed in the mornings.  He liked to wear his pajamas until noon.  I usually dressed him just to get the job done.  The day he was to get on the bus and go to the first grade, I told him that if he didn’t dress himself he couldn’t get on the bus.  He dressed himself from that day on.   

       I had always said that when Kent started first grade, I was going to attend Ricks.  I was still serving as Relief Society President and we were still in the chicken business.  I knew I didn’t need anything else to do.  

      Lee was a senior in high school and Garth was playing ball.  Our main entertainment was to take the entire family to all the games.  We did many interesting things as we traveled.  All the boys had to learn the Morse code, which was a requirement, for scout rank advancement.  We would send and receive messages, sing songs, work on math and did mental quizzes.   

      

      The year Lee was a Senior, Madison had an outstanding basketball team and won district.  When they went to Boise for state tournament, we just knew we would win state.  The first game was held in the afternoon and no Madison cheering section.  The other team had their entire student body, to cheer them.  Madison had total silence, when they scored a basket.  We lost that first game to a team that never won another game and we won all the rest of ours.  Because we were in the loser bracket we could only take second.  That was a heart break for all of us.    Lee was having trouble with his legs. His leg veins would shut off and his legs ached.  He tried to run for the track team.  The coach told the team it was silly for parents to come drive them home, after practice, they should run home.  Lee took him literally.  I thought the coach just meant the boys in town.  Lee tried to walk home or hitch a ride and his legs were bad.  After basketball season Lee’s legs got better and he never had any more trouble. Reply Forwar

Christmas Trip of 1964

     During the Christmas holiday we took the boys to California for a trip.  We knew it would be the last year we would be able to go as a family.  We didn’t know Steve wouldn’t go with us until the morning we left.  We opened our presents Christmas morning and went to Jess’s folks for dinner and then drove to Nephi, Utah.  Electricity was cheap and most of the homes and towns were brightly lit.   There weren’t any freeways so we drove right down main street, of every town.  Even in Salt Lake City, the main traffic went down second west.  The lights were gorgeous.   

  The second night we stayed at Carol’s in Nevada and then to Jess’s sister Genny in Los Angeles.  Genny was wonderful, the Sutton girls had learned hospitality from their mother.  They are gracious and have a way of making you feel at home.  Genny’s husband wasn’t working and he took us everywhere.  The highlight of the trip was Disney Land.  Jess and I were kids again for a day.  When we were on one of the rides we looked down and saw the Seth Ricks family.  Lee and Heddy had been dating for a year.  Needless to say Lee and Heddy took off and we didn’t see them again, until it was time to go home. 

   We went to Marine Land and Lee tried surf riding, in the ocean near El Segundo, where I grew up.   Lee tried riding a skate board.  That is the first time I had ever seen one.    One day we went across the border to Tijuana, Mexico.  We didn’t stay there long.

Kent would be starting first grade the next year.  I had brought plenty of work books for him to do, while we raveled.  Heedless to say he did his school work, under a great deal of protest. 

  .

Ross Byrne’s and Loren Grover Farm

 

Jess knew if he didn’t invest the money, he made that first year on the Summers place, he would have to give most of it to the government for income tax. First he went to Ross Byrne. Ross agreed to sell him the land above round top for $250.00 an acre. Part of this was state ground that Ross rented. We paid the same amount for ground that Ross did not own. Second Jess went to Loren Grover to see if he would sell the adjoining ground. Loren was excited, he wanted the money. Jess went to Russell and Wesley Grover and they wouldn’t sell, but they would rent the ground.

It was an awesome venture. Buying the ground and then putting a sprinkler system on it was risky. We had enough money to get the venture started. Four farmers drilled wells that spring beside us, Howard Allen, Ed Covington, and Russell Grover. We were the only one to get water.

Jess practically lived on the hill after they started drilling the well. I had never seen him that excited about anything. He wanted a twenty inch pipe for the entire depth of the well. We didn’t hit good water. Then the drill bit went off on an angel and one day when things were going badly the well driller went down the well casing on a rope to survey the situation. Finally they reached the depth that there should have been water. We had drilled deeper than planned.

It was the last week of June. We were being held up with the electricity being ready. The buried main line had been installed and all the lines were in place and it was the first week in July. The huge pump was turned on and there wasn’t enough water, only a few gallons a minute. I don’t know about Jess but I was sick. Jess and I drove to the bottom of the field and just sat there. We didn’t want every one feeling sorry for us. The well driller back flushed the well by turning the pump off and let the water run back down the hole. They did that twice. Then with a mighty surge the water came. We had a good well. The well was dug deep but the water came to about 700 feet which would be the pumping depth. Jess and I didn’t have time to celebrate. He was busy now getting the sprinkler system running smoothly. That night we lay in bed a long time counting our blessings and the success.

Pipe Moving

  1962  

  Burt Webster had put a sprinkler system on his dry farm but had never raised spuds.  We rented a hundred acres, Stanley Sutton and Warren Walters of Newdale, rented about the same.  We had to buy extra machinery and didn’t have much money to run on but Jess knew that a new sprinkler system and new ground he could grow beautiful spuds.  He was excited but also worried.  Steve, Lee Garth and I all moved pipe and used that money to pay our summer expenses. 

   I enjoyed moving pipe.  When I ask Steve in 1987 what he thought about moving all that pipe he said he had always enjoyed moving pipe.  I enjoyed going up early in the morning.  The world is gorgeous that time of day and the valley shimmers like diamonds.  I didn’t enjoy coming home and feeding everyone breakfast and trying to keep the washing done and the house clean .  Later in the afternoon we would go back up and weed spuds.  

  One day Garen Young came to help move pipe so they could go camping.  He was heavy and sunk clear to his knees in the mud.  One time Mike Robison moved the pipe the wrong way.  We had to move it 36 rows instead of the usual 17 and had to straighten it out before we could turn on the pump.

Tom’s Pipe Moving Memories   

I have many fond and not so fond memories of pipe moving, when we started our pipe moving career on the second year at the Webster farm.  Randy would take one end of the pipe and I the other and with Mom’s help move a line.     I remember many of the old cars we used to drive but most especially the Studebaker, without doors or brakes and the old push button Plymouth we had to push to get up the hill above the three cellars.  When I was 12 and had my own lines to move I was the slowest and always got the easiest line.  Mom would frequently go with me and shine the car lights on the pipe at 5:00 am so I could finish early enough to get to a practice or a game. 

Sometimes the ground was so wet that you would sink up to your knees and moving pipe in grain that was as high as your waist and you couldn’t find the end of the pipe.  A few times we moved pipe in the snow. I remember all of us jamming into the car, after moving the Summers place, to go move pipe on the big pump.   

I remember there was a rattlesnake by an old tractor parked by the big pump and I thought I would nonchalantly run to my brothers, who were coming, and tell them about the rattlesnake.  They said they had never seen me run that fast before. I guess a little adrenaline helps on occasion.     We had to load the pipe on a pipe trailer to move back to the other side of the field  and getting the tractor stuck because I got to close to the wet rows.  

How grateful we were when it stormed and we got a few days off, from moving pipe.  That really was a vacation.  If a pipe broke, you had to move all the pipe, an extra move up.  Happiness was at the end of the season you only had to move once a day.  All the pipe movers would stay for the season  so they could get the extra one or two cent bonus.    

   The first year that we hired Spanish workers to move pipe, on only the first or second day we took them to move pipe, a woodchuck crawled into a pipe.  They were trying to get it out and couldn’t lift the pipe high enough, so I decided it wouldn’t hurt for me to help them.  We certainly should have looked up, instead of putting the pipe into a power line.  I remember being tetanized as the pipe grazed the wire.  I felt like my entire body was exploding and fortunately it threw us all off.  All three of us had burns but I know the Lord was watching over us or it would have been tragic.  Later that year a father and two sons were killed when their pipe touched a power line. 

   Moving pipe helped build character and perseverance.  Among our pipe movers were Dyle and Val Erickson, Brad Young, Rodney and Bruce Call Clifford Weeks and many more.  Pipe moving could certainly teach you humility and patience, along with frustration.   It was a good way to grow up and I am grateful for the great heritage that I have had and the opportunity to work with my brothers for my growing up years on the farm.

Expanded Chicken Business

     The chicken business was making good money so we expanded the chicken business and now had chickens in the long shed that had originally been built as a cow shed.  When chickens were old and not laying good, you sold them and replaced them with baby chicks.  A few days before Kent was born,  Orville Wylie came all alone, with the truck and crates to haul away the chickens.  He thought Jess or some of the boys would be there to help him.  Usually they brought two men to help empty a coop.  Jess was busy getting ready to dig spuds and the boys were in school.  I had no choice except to help him.   

      The chickens were caught with a wire hook.  The person catching would make a quick snag as a chicken ran by.  The snagging wasn’t any problem but being nine months pregnant was.  Each of the 800 chicken caught had to be loosened from the hook and lifted to a crate.  I caught and crated my full share, while Orville carried them to the truck.  It was hot and I was wet with perspiration, we didn’t even quit for lunch.  He was as anxious to finish as I was.  Years later he was still telling people about that day.   

       I think Steve and Lee had the hardest job.  The chickens roosted on 2x6 boards that were over wire netting.  The dropping under each roost had to be cleaned out regularly.  We didn’t have any mechanical  way to do it.  On the bottom floor we could back the manure spreader in to load it and haul it out.  On the other two floors we had to carry each shovel full to the west door and throw it out.  If you didn’t keep coops clean the ammonia smell was terrible, plus you always had a fly problem.  We hired Elsie Hill’s two oldest boys to come on Saturdays to help Steve and Lee but our boys worked the hardest and did the bulk of the work  One of the hardest things for Jess to do was shovel.  The motion across his chest shut off his breathing.  

Sunday School

     I began teaching the twelve year olds in Sunday School and was soon on the Sunday School Stake Board.  This made it difficult to visit my assigned ward once a month but the hours were different so I didn’t have to leave my class too often.  Once a month all the ward teachers, in that age group came to a Union Meeting and we were to give them ideas how to teach the lessons for the following month.  That was easy but I hated to give a talk each  month in a different ward.  I challenged the class to read the Book of Mormon and the first one to read it, I would present them with their own book.  Many in the class accepted the challenge.  It has been a thrill, through the years, to feel close to the kids I taught.  

      When Bill Squires reported his mission he said that while in the mission field someone asked him a question and he didn’t know the answer.  All at once, in his mind’s eye, he could see me standing before the class and answering that question.  I often wondered if the things I taught had been remembered.     

       This was the first I became acquainted with Rex Jensen.  He was in the Sunday School. Presidency in his ward and when I went to Burton to visit he always had time to visit and joke with me.   Who would have thought that I would eventually marry Rex.

2nd Farm

     Uncle Irvine Byrne wanted to sell his 120 acre farm, which is the farm where Lee and Garth now live. (2013)  The three men wanted to buy it but the only way to get the money was for Jess to mortgage our home place, which was paid for.  It was considered a big risk.  Jess knew we would need more than the 60 acre home place, to raise our family.   Jess and I were hurt when Rachel wanted Stanley to have 2/3 and them not have a share.  We only farmed together for a few years.  No one wanted to be boss.  Jess would go to his Dad’s and wonder what they were going to work on.   Stan wasn’t married and liked to sleep late.  Steve and Lee were big enough to work.  We  soon divided the machinery and we took over the payments on the farm.   It was wonderful for Jess to be his own boss again.     Jess was having trouble breathing and some times we would stop the car and Jess get out to walk around and get some fresh air.  I can’t believe that from this time on, over 22 years Jess had trouble breathing.

Little League

       Rexburg had little league baseball teams.  I thought our country boys should be able to play in their league.  I organized a team and was the coach of Archer’s first team.  I would put the entire team in the car and go to the games.  We had most of the boys Steve and Lee’s age that wanted to play and we won our share of games.  

 

    I served as P.T.A. Pres. that year.  I didn’t want to do it.  I would rather have worked in a church calling.  I told them I would do it for one year.  Attendance was poor at the P.T.A. meetings so we got some interesting lectures and worked to get the report cards changed.  They were rated A.B.C. etc.  Different school in the district had report cards similar to what we use today and we wanted it for our school.  A child should not be compared with the class but his own progress.  

JFK

     November 19, 1963 I was mixing dough for the six dozen rolls, I had been assigned to bring for our bazaar dinner. I never listen to the radio in the day time, I liked to sing or memorize poetry and pray about who needed me. Arnold Briggs drove up and told me Pres. Kennedy had been shot. He died at 12:30 M.T.  I was  shocked. My first reaction was that we should cancel the bazaar. I knew we couldn’t do that. The ladies of the ward were busy baking and preparing for the dinner and cooked food sale. I immediately prayed about what to do. I felt comfortable that we should continue as planned. We had a good attendance but it was a somber crowd. We were all heartsick that our President had been killed. The only ones who criticized me for continuing with the bazaar, were two of the older sisters.

Relief Society Challenge

       I was sustained June 2, 1963 and this was a challenge. I wasn’t mature enough to know all the things I needed to know. I relied on the Lord and He taught me. I am not a visitor. When Erma Magelby, who had just been released as R.S. Pres., came and told me the things I needed to do and who needed me the most. She told me my counselors could take care of the meetings. My responsiblity was to care for the sick and the widows. How could I do regular visits with a three year old. I decided that rather than make lengthy visits I would make short visits. This worked for me. Kent was content if I didn’t stay too long. Some of my closest friends resulted from these short visits. Esther Mae Boulter’s husband was dying from emphysema. One day his face was blue as he struggled to breathe. Esther Mae said, in all sincerity, she would be glad to trade places with him, so he could have a normal life.

Artella Schneiter’s husband was injured in a car accident and paralyzed from the waist down. When her husband needed a blood transfusion, I went to donate blood. The nurse couldn’t get a sample of blood to determine my blood type. She told me to never give blood, I didn’t have enough for myself. I was way to thin at this time.

Glen Sharp was crippled with arthritis and was in and out of hospitals. When he died, Jeannette had health problems of her own, she had multiple sclerosis and soon couldn’t walk and had constant pain. I would scold her for not eating right. I took her leftovers from my house. I ask her what she had eaten that day. She said she just opened the fridge and ate whatever she needed to eat, before it spoiled. I scolded her regularly for not eating right. Now 2013 I open the fridge and eat whatever is there. I never quit being her R.S, Pres. From 1962 until she died in 1986 I either visited her or wrote her a letter every day. Tom was working in the nursing home, where she was living and he would read my letters to Jeannette when the nurses didn’t take time to do it.

Naomi Clements cared for her mother, Margaret Ann Briggs, who was in her late eighties. Naomi and Leonard treated Margaret Ann as a queen. When cancer was discovered, the doctors said it was risky to operate on someone that old. She requested the R.S. sisters to come to Naomi’s house and pray for her. I will always treasure the spirit I felt, as we all knelt around her and prayed. She made a complete recovery.

The Bishop told me to go to a family and see if they needed a welfare order. I was amazed. The husband had a good school teaching job and they had just built a gorgeous new home. The wife was my age and we were good friends. The Bishop told me to pray about it. I still didn’t know what to say when I knocked on the door. I knew I wasn’t going to ask her if she needed food. I soon felt impressed to ask her. She started to cry. She didn’t have any food in the house to feed her family that night. They didn’t have any money or any credit. She filled out an order and I drove straight to Ucon, picked up the order and delivered it before her children were home from school.

I soon learned how greedy some people are, especially those who move in the ward and want a welfare order the next day. One lady didn’t want hamburger, nothing but steak, only butter and expensive things. When we quit taking her food, they soon moved out of the ward. Every year at Christmas, we would take a special order to the widows to fill out, but not one of them would do it. I knew some of them really needed extra food. We would make up an order for each of them and take it to them but they didn’t want to accept it. They would say, “Someone else needs this more than I do.” Later they told me they appreciated the ward helping them.

Our first big home making lesson, was going to be on personal appearance. We had it at night so the ladies could bring their daughters. We had a beauty operator scheduled to give the demonstration. I left home the usual time to deliver eggs in Idaho Falls. When I arrived at the last store, there was a message for me to call home. I was terrified thinking that one of my sons was hurt. Instead the lady who had agreed to do the demonstration decided not to come. Marjean Weekes had called all the beauty operators she knew, but none would do it on such short notice. The name of Ellen Marie Luthy flashed in my mind. I didn’t know until I got home that she had accepted. Her demonstration was excellent and she and I both knew the Lord had blessed her.

Relief Society Calling

     I was teaching the 11 year old boys in Primary and enjoying every minute of it. I felt I had the wrong church job. My Patriarchal blessing told me, I would be a leader among my own sex. I was thinking about this, as I was coming down the stairs at church, when the voice within me, told me I would soon be working with the ladies of the ward. I didn’t dream I would be in Relief Society.

We were busy cutting potatoes, when Bishop Munns extended the call to become the new Relief Society President, of our ward. I told him I would ask Jess and if it was alright with him I would do would do my best. Bishop Munns was amazed I accepted on the spot.. I believe you should never turn down an assignment from the Bishop, because it is really from the Lord. I knew I wasn’t qualified but I also knew I would work hard and the Lord would help me. I have heard some people say they were called by desperation not by inspiration. I have been in a position to call women to serve and I know the Lord helped me find the right person.

What a uncomfortable time. I was cutting potatoes, had six boys and Kent was only three. We were still in the chicken business. I had a regular delivery to the stores in Idaho Falls and occasionally extra delivery if a store ran out of eggs. Bishop Munns said he would like me to choose my counselors so we could be sustained the first Sunday in June. I would cut spuds all day and at night mentally think of the women in our ward who would help me. Many nights I spent more time on my knees than in bed. Bernice Weekes’s name always came to my mind but that was impossible, she was working full time. The Bishop too was concerned. When he called her she said “Yes”, immediately. She had quit her job just a week before, she felt impressed that she should stay home with her only son.

I choose Marjean Weekes as the homemaking counselor, knowing with several young children it would be hard for her to attend extra meetings. She was perfect and the call came at a time in her life that she too needed this special spiritual experience. Our R.S. Presidency felt the spirit of the Lord as we chose ladies for other positions.

I

Building the Cellar

 

We had to build a cellar.  The first day of June we went to Island Park and started getting out trees.  We peeled all the logs as we felled them.  The big ones were used for the beams and the huge ones were hauled to a sawmill for the finished lumber and sheeting.  It was easy to get the trees cut but it rained every day and the mosquitoes were terrible.  We had Dean Skinner's camper to live in and everyone else slept in tents.  It was good to cook on a tiny stove rather than over a campfire, for that many.  Carl Grover worked for us that summer and he knew how to do everything.  His wife Melva was a jewel.  She would drive back and forth and bring us groceries.  She took our wet clothes to the Laundromat to dry, so we had dry clothes each morning.  It took us two weeks to get the logs out.

    When we tried to dig the foundation for the cellar, it was full of lava rock.  Earl Wilcox blasted it out for us.  It was a good place to build a cellar, several times beams were replaced but it finally collapsed in 2012

    May men in the community told Jess he was crazy.  The ground was too steep.  He would never be able to dig the spuds.  We had a gorgeous crop. the best looking crop in the entire valley we thought.  There wasn't a weed in it.  Since Jess and the older boys were building the cellar I hired Berneice Neilsen and her kids to help me weed.  I didn't move pipe that year, they had enough help without me.  I did help nail the sheeting on top of the cellar.
     In the middle of August, disaster struck.  There was a severe frost and the spuds never grew after that.  There was a slight breeze blowing up the Snake River and up the hill and our spuds didn't freeze but continued to grow. We had some of the largest spuds grown that year.  Stanley didn't plant until the middle of June and it froze in August.  He only had as little pile of spuds in one end of his cellar.  Most farmers spuds were like marbles,  It was the shortest crop on record.  We had our new cellar completely full. We sold the first part of the cellar for $3.00 and the last ones for $6.00 field run.  That was fantastic.  It is unbelievable what one fantastic spud year can do for your finances.

Car Miracle

Jess had bought an old green Plymouth car from the State Highway Department.  We let the pipe movers drive it, to move pipe so you can imagine how dirty it was.  I had planned on driving the good car to Stake Sunday School Leadership meeting.  At the last minute, either Steve or Lee needed the good car.  I tried to clean the old car but that made me late.  My mother taught me that an Atkinson was never late.  When I got to the corner by the store, the voice within me said, "Go Home".  I thought, I haven't got time.  Again the voice said, "Gwen, go home."  I immediatley thought that something was wrong with one of the boys so I went back.  I was driving too fast and when I got just to our house and slammed on the brakes there wasn't any brake.  I  sailed right up over the bridge and the car didn't stop until I was by Irvine Burns's field.

    I now understood why the voice within me told me to go back home.  The next place I would have needed the brakes would have been when I tried to stop on the main highway at Winder. Highway 91 was a busy road, before the free way was built.  I would not have been able to stop the car, at that corner and could have hit another car.

    Later, when Jess looked at the brakes he said the brake line had broken.  What a blessing that the brakes hadn't gone out, when the pipe movers were driving down a steep hill. I have always been grateful that I heeded that voice within me and that I was living so the Holy Ghost could guide me.

Boating Fun

One winter, when we were in Las Vegas, with Dean and Marva Skinner, Jess bought a boat,  Dean was amazed that Jess could just write a check for the entire amount.  The next summer we would all work really hard so we could take off Friday evening, pitch a tent on Little Elk Creek on Palisades.  No one fished but we all water skied.  We would stay Friday and Saturday night and come back early Sunday, for the boys to go to Priesthood meeting.  This was a fun time of life.  All we were farming was the Sunnydell place and home place. Looking back I have regretted growing spuds on the dry farm.  Never again did we have time in the summer to do fun things.  At first we would not move pipe on Sunday but then the electrical company assigned us which day we had to shut our pumps off.  On the other hand because of the dry farm our boys all had the backing to do what they wanted for their life work.  I know the Lord guided us in the decisions we made.

Of the Boating Days Lee Wrote,

“Probably about 1959 Dad and Mom went to Las Vegas in the winter time for a few day’s vacation.  To our great surprise and delight they brought home a Boat.  It was only a 14 foot boat with a 40 hp outboard motor but it would pull a water skier.  We had so much fun with that little Boat as a family , we would go up to Little Elk Creek-a wind protected portion of Palisade Reservoir, camp, water ski, and have a great time.  We also would go to Island Park Res, and even went on Easter Sunday the first year to Dairy Land Fun Farm, by St. Anthony to try and learn to water ski.  Boy was it Cold.

We had to quit going boating on Sunday, but I’ll never forget the great times with that little Boat.  Steve and I also used to take dads old ‘55 Green Ford pick-up up in the field above the 3 way check and pull each other water skiing on the canal.  You could only go about 1000 feet.  You had to  go straight-couldn’t turn but had a lot of Fun!”

Randy’s Broken Leg

     Randy started school, when he was six.  He was three years behind Tom because he had missed the school deadline by twenty four hours.  I tried to get the school board to let him start early because he could already read.  Tom would bring his papers home and Randy would read them.  When Randy started school, the teacher said he could read better than most of the second grade so at Christmas break they advanced him to second grade.
 

The first year we farmed the Summer's, place we  had seed spuds left over that we had cut in the Webster cellar.  We didn't have a cellar yet.  LaVar Grover wanted to buy the seed but wanted to look at it first.  Jess and I took the three youngest with us and went up to the cellar.  While we were visiting, Tom and Randy climbed some pallets, that were leaning against the wall.  The pile slid down and trapped Randy.  His leg was broken.  I felt badly about it.  I had left him, while I cut spuds and then when we were all finished and I was taking care of him, his leg was broken.  I wonder how many mothers have regrets similar to mine.  Randy remembered his Dad driving carefully over the dry farm roads to Rexburg to Dr. Hoffman, since each bump caused more pain.

     The bad things about it was that Randy couldn't go swimming all summer.  The boys enjoyed swimming and it was a must. You couldn't become an Eagle scout without passing the swimming and life saving merit badges .  Randy said (1987) said he remembered chasing the boys around the church gym with his crutches.  One day he and Milon Neilson were playing in the end of the chicken coop and Milon put sawdust down his cast.   He was in misery with the itching.  We spent a long time with a clothes hanger getting the saw dust out and Randy didn't complain the next day.

     The Primary had an around the block parade and Randy was David chasing LaMar Wilcox with a sling shot.  I thought Randy was walking pretty good, for only having the cast off for a week.  A friend said he should be walking better than that.  He would probably have a limp all his life, my heart ached.  When I prayed that night, I ask the Lord what I should do so Randy didn't limp.  The little voice inside me, reassured me that his leg would be normal.  It was only a few weeks later that he was walking without a limp.

Farming on the Hill

 

 Jess had a tremendous gift of foresight.  He could see that if you took certain steps today,. It would lead to certain outcomes tomorrow.  We was not a man of many words, but his words when he did say something were well thought out and were truly words of wisdom.  In addition to being a visionary man he was not afraid to take chances.  He had been a small-scale valley farmer most of his life, when in 1961 he took a chance and leased some irrigated potato land on the Rexburg Bench from Bert Webster, which we only farmed for two years.   

  WE now had equipment for that many acres, so Jess started looking for ground and when he couldn’t find any to rent he went off on his own.  Bill Summers owned the ground above Lee’s house and it was summer fallowed which meant that every year you had to leave half of it unfarmed.  Bill was a jewel of a person and told Jess he could.  Jess was risking everything he had by investing in a pump and sprinkler system.  If we didn’t harvest a crop of spuds we would lose everything.  Jess had confidence he could do it.  He designed his own system and due to his previous record he didn’t have any trouble borrowing the money.

    We couldn’t afford to drill a well so we pumped out of the canal and ran a pipe line up the hill.  He put in an irrigation pump in the canal just by Lee’s house. Had mainline installed up the hill and planted half the acreage to spuds while Mr. Summers farmed half of it in grain.       It was a miserable spring.  It rained and rained and we cut all the seed by hand  by May 31 we had our 180 acres planted.  The heavier valley ground could not be planted until the middle of June.