Randy

Oct 16, 1955

       I was huge with Randy, but I picked up spuds, most of the day.  Steve and Lee were the real pickers and I mostly held the sacks for them and helped what I could.  Saturday night we only had a few acres left and we weren’t going to have the entire crew come Monday morning to help finish, so we worked late.     Sunday morning I realized that Randy was on his way.  It was about noon when Jess and I started to town, leaving the other boys at my mothers.  Dr. Hoffman had planned on taking his family to Jackson, for a ride.  He stayed, knowing I would need him, before the day was over.

Disaster  averted 

         October 15 was the deadline for school admission.  If you were born after the fifteenth you had to wait until the next school year.  I wanted Randy born so he would be just two school years behind Tom.  Dr. Hoffman wouldn’t start me early.  He said it wasn’t worth the risk.  When Randy was born, the cord was wrapped around his neck and he was blue from the exertion of coming.  If the doctor had started me early, as I wanted, Randy would have been dead or had brain damage.  I will always be grateful to Dr. Hoffman for being wiser than I was.  

The machine they were using, at the hospital, to relax you, wasn’t working.  Randy was the first baby I had that I didn’t have anything to deaden the senses.  It was a wonderful experience.  Randy was the biggest of the six sons and weighed eight pounds and one ounce.     While I was on the delivery table, I ask Dr. Hoffman, when I could go home.  He jokingly said, ‘If you can get up and walk to the car you can go.” I started to get up and he changed his mind and thought I ought to stay for a few days.  I only stayed two nights and was anxious to get home .

Dr. Hoffman  was more like a personal friend than a doctor.  He had one boy and the rest of his children were girls.  His wife was expecting about the same time.  Dr. Hoffman said if I had my fifth son and they had a girl we would exchange babies.  I had Randy and they had a girl but neither wanted to trade.     .

    

New Church Booklet

 

A little booklet  was given by the Gospel Doctrine Class to ward members for Christmas in 1950

The Teachers were W.I. Holley and Mary Liljenquist  President Nora Grover, Secretary Leah Briggs.  I Don’t know who wrote the poems.

                                                 The House Our Fathers Built

On a sagebrush plain, in days long past,

A new Archer Church was completed at last.

And the proud sound echoed with joyous speed,

This will meet every need in word, thought, and deed.

It was hard for such a few

To build a house and pay for it too.

Some gave a nickel, some a dime,

Other gave freely of their time.

But when nineteen fifty rolled round,

There wasn’t a vacant chair to be found.

Suddenly there arose such a clatter

Everyone turned ‘round to see what was the matter.

                   No Room!

 

 

 

 

This Is the House We Built

Guided by faith, we put works into action,

That we might have space, convenience and attraction.

A house of worship and prayer

With room and a welcome for every one there.

The months have been long, our hearts have been light

As we worked side by side and thrilled at the sight

Of a steeple that points to the blue sky above,

A symbol of faith in God whom we love,

May this house be held sacred by those who meet here,

And my those whose kind hands have labored with cheer,

Have joy and rejoicing, satisfaction supreme,

And meet in eternity…..A realized dream!

Chicken Business

 

Being in the chicken business was a change of life.  We bought baby chicks and waited for about three months to get our first egg.  The chickens were all laying good when they got sick..  The eggs had a thin shell and weren’t saleable.  Farmers Feed and Supply, where we had bought the baby chicks, told us what to use for medicine and to just put it in a tank on the third floor and let it go into the water fountains.  What they didn’t realize and neither did we, was that the medicine needed to be mixed thoroughly.   The medicine came out to strong and all the chickens had a double dose of sulfa and were dying fast.  We should have just killed them but we struggled to keep them alive.  They never did lay good again.  Now instead of eggs being sixty cents a dozen they were thirty cents a dozen, just what it cost to produce them.  That was the only disaster we had.  The next batch of chickens really produced and we made a healthy profit.

  We realized that the middle man was making the most money so we started delivering to the stores in I.F. and some families in Rexburg.     It required a lot of work to feed, gather, candle and package the eggs.  People came to the house to buy eggs and wanted to sit and visit for hours and I didn’t have time for that.  I finally figured out a way to get my scriptures read.  I would have Steve read aloud to me while I worked with the eggs.  I thought he would gain a testimony of the gospel that way.
       The bad thing was that we packaged the eggs in the basement.  Once a week Jess would lift the cases of eggs, up through a basement window and I would load them in the pickup.  Jess  had a bad back and lifting up with a case of eggs made his back bend back wards and he had severe pain.  The doctor told him he could be cured if he would sleep in a bed with his knees raised up and take the pressure off his back.  We set up a hospital bed in the front room and Jess slept there every night for months.  Eventually his back pain eased but he had to be careful how he lifted.  I had to stand on a chair with a case of eggs and lift them through the window.  One of the boys would finish pulling them through the window and then I would go outside and lift them to the pickup.

Church Dedication

   The church was finished and we were using it but it couldn’t be dedicated, until our share of the cost was completely paid.  The last few months we were ask to make a monthly cash donation.  It took until Dec. 12 1954 before the money was raised.   I was disappointed when I learned the Sterling W. Sill was the General Authority coming to dedicate our building.  He was a new General Authority and I didn’t know anything about him.

      The dedication was a rich spiritual experience.  The Primary children sang with all their hearts and Jeannette Sharp and several leaders of the ward spoke but when Sterling W. Sill started to speak, it was like magic. The spirit filled the room and his talk was outstanding.  I have often wished a copy had been made of the talk but that was before cassette players were invented.

     Lee turned eight in Dec. and was the first one confirmed in the new church.  It was tradition to have the entire family come for dinner, the day of the confirmation.   My family, and all of Jess’s family came but it was easy to have a big group, when everyone brought something and I had room to set tables for everyone.

This was the last Sacrament Meeting held in the Old Rock Church.  Grandma Rachel is on the far Left in the middle. Steve is the boy on the front row far right, next to Clyde Bybee.

New Church

 

   There weren't enough classrooms in the old church. I was a Sunday School  teacher so I brought my class to my house each Sunday morning and back to the church for closing exercises. Everyone was happy to be getting a new church.

Archer ward was united as we worked together to earn the money to pay for our new building. We put on banquets, where the sisters donated the food. The husbands bought tickets to come and eat the food their wives had cooked, washed the dishes and cleaned up the mess after. We put on shows at the school house. The one we made the most money on was, was a minstrel show presented six times in other wards. We had a magician show that did really well. Zella was Primary President and we served the dinner for the Primary stake conference. We were exhausted as we cooked the food, carried it to Rexburg, set up tables and served the dinner.

I don’t think this would be appropriate today!  Eldon Robison is the first Black man on the back row Left.   Norman B Erickson in the middle and Karl Grover on the far right.   Most of the others are anyone's guess!

Strawberries

   I had a big garden and a wonderful strawberry patch.  I picked the berries the day Tom was born.  They needed to be picked again the third day, when I left the hospital.  I took Tom out to the edge of the patch and wrapped him in a blanket.  I didn’t realize how sensitive the skin of a new born baby was.  When I got back to the house, one side of Tom’s face was a bright pink.  I had left one side exposed to the sun.     Ten years previous, Rachel had sent away for some special strawberry plants. I got starts from her and still had some 20 years later.  I had three long rows south east of my Archer home and planted 3 long rows, in Burton and all the Jensen family enjoyed them.       After I moved, Rex’s grandson said the berries were fabulous and wanted to know if I wanted to pick them the first year after I moved away.  I planted a few by my mother’s house in Lyman, when I lived there.  I wanted to have a strawberry patch, when I got a permanent home again.  

The fall after Tom was born, I stayed at Rachel’s and helped cook for the men.  This was the first year I hadn’t picked spuds.  I realized how much I always enjoyed the freedom of working as hard as I could from morning to night.  That is a pleasure, when you only do it for two weeks out of a year

The Chicken Business Begins

     The winter Tom was born we decided to go into the chicken business.  Eggs were sixty cents a dozen, which was high and wheat was cheap.  Jess figured on paper, that with normal results, he would be able to take flying lessons with the profit.  At this stage of life he didn’t dream he could ever afford to buy an airplane.  He just wanted to learn to fly one.

  We hired Ellis Rice to lay the cinder blocks for our three storied building.  It was huge for the day.  The first time my sister Marva  saw it she said, “I didn’t think you were going to build a church in your back yard.”  Jess and I were Ellis’s  helper.  We carried the blocks to him and mixed the mortar.  Since Tom was just a baby, Jess would get everything ready for Ellis, before he left in the morning and I would help in the afternoon.  It worked great.

Ellis was a hard worker and had the know how to do a good job.  I cooked for him and that was a hardship, but he appreciated it.  

  Ellis started working the first part of January, 1954.  It was the day after I had been sustained as a counselor to Lila Moore in the Stake Primary Presidency.  We were meeting at nine and we were going to select the officers and teachers.  I thought surely I would be back at noon.  Just in case I put some beans on the slow burner and left.  I didn’t get home until late in the afternoon.  Lila Moore, Lucille Ricks and Cleo Johnson and I covered the list of every Primary board in the stake, and after much prayer we made the final decision.  I felt the spirit telling us whom to choose.  I know the Lord cooked dinner that day.  When I got home, late that afternoon I rushed out to see what the men had eaten for lunch.  Ellis said that was the best beans he had ever eaten.  All of my boys know what Jess cooked to go along with the beans, he scrambled some eggs. 

Tom learned to walk at seven months because, while I helped Ellis, Tom was in a walker bouncing around on his feet and he was good natured, with Garth helping to entertain him. Lee and Steve were in school.