I started school 1n 1927. We were st111. 11v1ng 1n the one room shack near Arthur Pierce's. My first teacher was MisP Irene Andersen. My timidity was as bad as lt could be. I clearly remember refusing to talk to my teacher. Miiss Andersen taught me in the second grade too. By then I had grown a little bolder, I would even answer questions, In the spring of 1929 we moved to the place a mile and a half south of Malta. We kids thought it was a real treat to have a house with four rooms. We played with Earl and Sirl Kossman who lived
across the road.
In August I was baptized in the creek behind the house. I can remember going to be confirmed. I wore a pair of white striped overalls.
In the third grade my teacher was Miss Crathorne. Miss Gladys Smith taught me in the fourth. I liked Gladys for a teacher. About Christmas time that year the schoolhouse burned down.I can remember the time clearly because we had all boughten each other presents and they were burned with the schoolhouse. We felt worse over the presents than our place of learning. 'tor the rest of the year we wentto school in an old warehouse. During the summers and after school, Golden and I were kept busydoing chores, helping clear the land of sagebrush and other workaround the place. It helped a lot to make us healthy and strong.
Early the next year, we moved into a new brick schoolhouse. We really liked the new building with its steam heat and new desks. That year, 1931, I was in the fifth grade. My teacher was Miss Etta Jones. About this time I began to read everything I could lay my hand's on. I loved to read. I was fascinated by the many things I could learn from books.
Dad was the janitor for the new schoolhouse so we kids got plenty of exercise on the end of a broom handle. He got fifty dollars a month for the job. In the sixth grade I had my first man teacher, Shirley Barlow. Near the end of that school year,1932-33, we went down to Grandpa Hulet's place in Peterson. Dad stayed to take care of the place.
Mother needed a rest.All summer we ran aroundwith Uncle John's kids. I herded cows with Jay for a lot of tghe time. I can still remember how good the milk, bread and buttger and fresh vegetables tasted when we came home at night.. In the fall we went back to Malta
In October of that year I was ordained a deacon by the stake president John A. Elison. In the seventh and eighth grades I had Henry Belnap for a teacher. He really made us study. Her is a picture of our eight grade class as you can plainly see I was the "runt' of the class. Third from the right ie the author. I was 13 years old and would be 14 in a few months. I graduated from the eighth grade in 1935.
Golden and I had startedto work out on jobs away from home . Our first Job consisted of driving derrick derreck horse from seven in the morning untll six at night at one dollar per day. We also helped load hay wagons. With some of my first money I bought some tools because l loved to make things. I could seldom get material enouh to do as I wanted.
In my first year in h1gh school, I had as teochers , Leslie Sudweeks, Silas Young and Emily R. Mangum. I took Enel1sh, Algebra, General Science, Ancient History and Chorus. Mr. Young taught me my favorite subject, General Science.
On the 12the of April 1936 I was ordained a teacher by Joseph Harper.
Ephram. Miller took t•ook Young's place next year. He taught me English and Agriculture. He maintained very good order in his classes. Mr. Sudeeks taught me a business course that year. In my Junior year, Mr. Miller was made prircipal cf the High School. That year he taught Physics, my favorite subject.Mr. Alfred B. Hart taught me English and shop. I liked Shop because I could get all the material and tools that I needed. Mr. Joshua T. Evans taught me Scciology and Band.
In 1937 or thereabout Dad bought a 1925 Chevrolet Coupe for $12. He hadn't had a car of any description for about eight years, That Chev' took a beating, It usually had a rod going out. We were always taking it apart to put in in rods and pistons.
This year a craze for building "CRYSTAL SETS" hit me hard. I spenta lot of time building thelm and obtained some remarkable results with some of the circuits. I strung up a 200 ft. airiel of telephone Wire. When conditions were good l spent hours adjusting the "catwhisker on the crystal, straining my ears for a sound in the earphone and twirling the dial. I got some stations over a thousand miles away. KNX in 1os Angeles and some stations in Old Mexico and New Mexico, and also a station or two in. Canaca were heard on a clear cold night when the air was fairly crackling. My ears got sore from wearing the earphones for long periodis. I ripped old radio sets apart to get the parts for my sets. I don't
know why Mom put up with all of my junk. I heated my soldering iron by sticking it in the stove.
Golden and I were w&rking for $2 per day, when a job was available, During haying time we ran wagons. we got pretty good with the "Jackson Fork" (or so we thought) but we could never do as well as Dad who had long ago maastered the art. The Church bought the Keogh place and put five missionaries fresh from the mission field on it to run field on it to run the place. During a hay baling job I ran a "slip" to the baler. My work seemed to please one of the men, D. Ray Robinson who afterwards got me to help him on several Jobs.
In my last year of High School, Mr Miller again taught me my favorite subjects, Chemestry Geometry, and he really helped me to areciate a flee teachrer. Mr Hart taught me English and Vr Evans taught History and Band. During High School we had to buy our own books and supplies.
On October 2, 1938 I was orcdined a Priest by Bishop John O. Smith
For most of the time we went to school, we walked the mile and a half to school and at most times maintained excellent attendance records, Here are sme shots taken at the time l graduated from High school. They were taken in front of Sanders store in Malta, Idaho.
Dad was the Ward Clerk when this certificate was made out. The writring on the front is not his but that of the Bishop. Dad's writing is on the back of this one and on those for Deacon and Teacher.
After I graduated from High School, Dad, Glden and ! worked in the timber cutting down trees for a church project. We cut them down, cut them into lengths, and hauled them to a loading dock. then trucks hauled thew to the sawmill, After the project was over we went to Bridge and dug a well 20 ft. deep on our place there. It had about 12 ft. of water.
I figured that I would never get tc school because 1 couldn't see the cash.
That fall I wrote to D.R.Robinson in Flllmore, Uah where he was running a place for a lawyer from Salt Lake, named Hansen. He replied ta that he had a job for me. I worked with Dad all winter doing odd jobs around the place, We went to the hills and cut two hundred pine poles, and brought them home and made a corral, the last of March 1940 I left home for the first time and went to work for Ray in Fillmore out in the little section known as Flowell because of the great number of flowing wells. When I arrived there I found that Ray had another hired man named Sam. Here is a shot ofand J.H.G. Sam had one bad eye. He said a rope had broken and hit him in the eye when he was a cowby. He was really an artist with a rope.
There was a new Case tractor and some very good equipment on the place. Ray just about let me do everything with the tractor. I took the best of care of it. There were few days I didn't do some job with it. I did plowing, harrowing, leveling and I cultivatged the forty acres of sugar beets several with the tractor cultivator.
The place had eight flowing wells on it much like the one on the preceding page. The water was stored in ponds similar to the one shown below· When enough water had accumulated it was released and run down ditches to be used for irrigation. The wells were shut off all winter to save water and were opened April l. Watering kept someone busy all the time for when one pond was emptied there was always another filled. Ray did most of it bu' Sam and I had a few weeks of 1t.
Early in the summer Rayswife went to Salt Lake so we batched. During haying I got well acquainted with Harold Hatton. I ran across his brother Milton in Hollywood and got well acquainted with him too. I was paid $45 per month, I saved most of it, About all I bought all summer was a camera,a few rolls of film, a palr of Levi;s' ,,and a few show tickets.
A few days before I came home, Ray and I went over and looked at the old volcano crater on the west side of the valley.
We looked all over the cinders and lava rock,
l'he lava had run for miles out over the country. The cinders were very honeycombed and light.. They had many different colors some were blue,
red, purple and green, The cinders made some fine insulating material. Ray was going to Salt Lake to get his wife and baby son, so I went to Salt Lake with him. From Salt Lake home , I rode the bus. This was in the last' part of August.
When I got home I helped the folks put up the last of the alfalfa seed.Dad, Golden and l started painting the church welfare storehouse add had a pretty good start when I suddenly decided to go to school at Logan with Heber Zollinger. I went to Logan with Heber and his Dad. Just before going I was a bit undecided about going. The folks told me later that Aunt Elearore and family had come along thirty minutes' after l left and wanted one of us boys to go to Nevada to work in the mines. Being rather short on cash I would have gone to Nevada if I had been a half an hour later in leaving.
Heber and I stayed with his Aunts Ella and Annie neddo in Providence. Bennion Lloyd, Heber's cousin also stayed with us. "Benny" worked with his brother in a radio shop.
For the first quarter Heber and I took the same course "Radio Enginering". Our subjects were Radio Physics, Radio Code, Radio LAB, Elementary Electricity, Algebra, English, and Militaruy or R.O.T.C.
Fortunately we both got jobs on NYA or we would never have made it for more than the first quarter. We worked in the "Old Main" and did verything from scrub lavatories to pulling the flag from the tower at the end of the day.
During the winter quarter, Heber changed his course and I kept on in Radio, Radio Physics, Radio Lab. Algebra, Code, Physicloey, English and' ROTC were my subjects. I liked the course a lot. I could hardly find time to do all the studying I would liked to have done. Heber and I bought a couple of old bicycle!! for $7 apiece. We rode them to and from school. The few miles proved to be beneficial exercise. Here ls a snap of Heber, and a snow man we rolled up c.luring the winter quarter. We milked cows in the barn behind Heber to help pay us living expenses. We milked them only at night. During spring quarter, Code, Ritdio Physics Radio Lab, Machine Shop, English, Trigonometry, and ROTC took up my time, Code consistecl of learning to take International Morse Code. In Physics we learned theory and in Lab we learned to build and repair radio sets, In Machine Shop we learned a little about hand tools and did some work with lathe drill press and other power tools. In ROTC we marched around in our uniforms for an hour two days a week, did some practicing on the fundamental operations of a 155 mm. gun and anti-aircraft gun. We also had a class
in army rules and reguiatlons. Here ls a shot of me in my ROTC uniform. It was taken during the spring quarter er in the sprlne of 1!?41. I went home at Thanksgiving and
Christmas. At Christmas time Kent wanted me to go to California to work in an
aircraft plant. I didn't have enough ready cash or I would have gone with him.
Kent and his brother Merlin went to Los Angeles and got jobs at Lockheed.
At the end c-f school, Golden, Mom and the klds came down ln the '36 Chevrolet
which ha.d been purchased during the winter, and took me and my belongings home,
I will always remember the fine hospitality I enjoyed at Neddo's that winter. Electricity had just been brought into the valley but the folks dldn't have lt in the house yet. I worked around the place helping the folks with the haying and otherJobe around the pace. It was a rather wet spring and the hay took a long while to dry out. One cay Arvil Beyler and Fred Shill came home from Los Angeles ehere they were working in an airplane plant. Their plant hae Just gone on strike so they took the chance and came home to see their folks in Malta.With $15 and high hopes I went back to California with them in their ':34 Chev. Upon arrival in Los Angeles l stayed with the,m for the first night. They were staying with Joe,Luana and Lawrence Bcr�ett. When I got up �he nghtt mornlng to my suprise there was Kent lying on the front lawn waiting for me. Kent said to figured that I would come back with them. We piled lnto the model "A" Ford and went to 3641 Seneca Avenue where he ·was staying 111th his sister Myrle and her family. They took me in and make me at home. ,Kent and I sharered a room. The treatment I received there was wonderful.
On July 21, 1941 I started to wook for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation at Plant 1 In Burbank. I worked Graveyard Shift or from 12:30 till 7:00 in the mornings. Kent workerd that shift. Lockheed had sent me to school for five day$ the week before. I co.me from school an accomplished "riveter The place was really strange to me for the first few weeks.The chatter of the rivet guns and the whine of the electric motors made speech almost impossible. I was put to work handing Boom Doors on P38's. They are the doors which cover the landing wheels when they ere retractected. l work at this job for about three months then l was transferred to the Emenage or tail scctbon. There I worked on the "Jig" fitting upper and lower fins and countersinking the fins and horizontal stabllizer to the boom. After countorsinking, we drove in flush head phillips Screws''. using power screw drivers to do most of the screwdriving. It was the best job on tho line as far as I was concerned, I liked lt so well that l stayed en the Job for more than a year and a half, with only a few weeks off. Jobs such as fitting rudders, elevators, tips and other jobs on the tail.
Lockheed claimed the 38 to be the fastest in the world. One did 780 m.p.h. in a power dive over England. Released figures stated that they do "better than 400 m.p.h. on level flight." The closest to it is the 2000 h.p. "thunderbolt." I did 725 m.p.h. in a power dive.
One week before December 7, 1941, I was transferred from graveyard to "Swing". they were discontinuing graveyard in our deparement. "Swing" was from four in the afternoon until 12:30 in the morning. Kent got days by soe lucky manuever.
I worked with nearly every type of human there is. Some of the fellows were really high class but ogthers were of the low and rather repulsive nature. One of my finest pardners was a 65 year old negro. At first I didn't like the idea of working with him but soon found that I could improve my view on a lot of subjects by listening to him an his simsple but good philosphy of life. "there are two things that a man must observe when he gets married," said he one day after we had observed the questionable actions of one of our co=workers, "he has got to decide to go to work and to leave other women along if he wants his marriage to be a success."
Simple philosophy? If the world could just practice those few short words it would be a much nicer place in which to live.
On the 14 day of February 1942 I registered with Draft Board 225. In the national lottery mu number was 1815 which netted me the number of 10661 with the local board. I aplplied to Lockheed for an occupational deferrment and to my surprise I was granted a deferrmentj on the 22 of June 1942. It was good until Dec 22, 1942, or for six months.
After my first year of work I got two weeks off for vacation, one week with pay and one week without. I took it in August and went home to see the folks.
While I ws there Golden bought a odel "A" Ford for fifty dollars. I thorooughly relaxed and enjoyed myself by putting up hay and doing odd jobs around the place. Dad took me as far as Salt Lake on the way back. Mary Dawn and gloria came along. Barbara Sanders came with me back to LA. She had been visiting her grandmother and grandfather in Malta. Hollywood Ward proved to be the high spot for recreation and church for Kent and I. Being on Swing my activities during the week were limited but I really made up for it on Sunday. I took advantage of everything they offerred by going to Sunday school, Priesthood Meeting Sacrament Meeting and Fireside Chat. It was in Priesthood meeting that I really began to grow spiritually under the excellent guidance of a most wonderful teacher, Brother C.B. Stewart Sr. He really opened my eyes to a lot of things. His example and teachings are something I shall always remember. He had a series of "Gem Thoughts" which he taught to us. He tired to get us to learn at least one each Sunday. Here are a few that I have written down in a little notebook because I think they are so good and useful...."Attention is the mother of memory". "This above all, to thine, own self be true, and then will follow as the night the day, thou cans't nit them be false to any man"...Shakespeare. "A man is like a piece of steel, When he loses his temper he loses all usefulness..." "Live with wolves and you will soon learn to howl" "I complained when I had no shoes untill I saw a man who had no feet." Tell me whom you go with and I will tell you what you are." "A strong man and a water fall channel their own Path. Example sheds a.....