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