Jan Grade School Years

One situation I forgot to mention in my last write-up and that was a particular sad time for the family happened when I was a baby. Dad fell into a deep depression and was hospitalized for several months. At that time the regular treatment for sever depression was shock therapy. My mother says they were horrible to watch and wonders if the shock treatments had caused problems during the later part of his life. Since there were three little ones at home and mom couldn’t work, good neighbors and the National Guard help with food and other necessities during this time. Mom said she will never forget and be eternally grateful when the National Guard came to the door with Christmas presents. Dad was not baptized when he was young because his parents were inactive. The bishop at the time of his sickness didn’t offer any help from the church because dad wasn’t a member. To my mother’s credit and strong testimony, she didn’t let it deter her from keeping active in church.



       Jan 1st Grade (2nd row from top)

At the age of five I was able to start school and went in the morning as did all of my friends. I can remember that everyone was mad at one of my friends because she started at the age of four, her birthday was in the later part of September so once she turned five, everyone forgot about it. We had a group of six that walked to school together each day. It was about this time that mom and my best friend’s mother started to work cleaning motel rooms. They worked while we were in school and then were home by the time we got our of school. We lived were we could walk to school and not worry about being hurt. I grew up with the same friends clear through high school. While I was in elementary school we had about 15 girls that lived in our neighborhood and lots of boys my older brother Lyle’s age. Most nights in the summer time were spent playing games. When I was about seven years old mom and dad added on to our small two bedroom house. Dad did a lot of the work himself with the help of his brother’s and friends. We enlarged the kitchen, made a bedroom for Sheila and I and a family room which was nice. This gave us more room and made it so we could have a place for our friends to come over and play.

It was about this time that we bought our first television. It was black and white. On Saturday nights we would watch boxing, on Sunday nights we would watch Ed Sullivan show. I can remember watching the Beatles the first time they were on. We also watched the landing on the moon, and the coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy. I remembering watching American Band Stand hosted by Dick Clark, The Adams Family, Leave it to Beaver, The Munsters, that were just a few of the TV shows at that time. Saturday mornings would be cartoon day, Friday was nightmare night and they would scare us so we couldn’t sleep. I was in the fifth grade when the group of my friends and I started to go to the movies on Friday nights and then we would have sleepovers at some ones house. I can remember when it was my turn and everytime someone would turn on mom and dad’s light in their bedroom because it was right near the bathroom light. It seems like on holidays the sleepover parties were always at our house. There was one Halloween that I had fixed up the family room with spiders made out of egg cartons and spider webs crafted from yarn, during the night the spiders started to fall and it would scare whoever it hit. We would laugh and try to go back to sleep.


         St George Temple

As I said earlier, dad was not a member. When I was seven the bishop of our ward came and talked to dad about becoming a member of the church. They worked with him for awhile, but he told the bishop he just couldn’t quit smoking because he had been smoking from the age of 10. It was a few months later when the bishop stop by and told dad that he had gotten permission to baptize him even if was still smoking, so they set the date. I remember on the way to the church dad took his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and put them in the glove box the car and said, “If they had enough faith in me to baptize me while I’m still smoking, the I would have enough faith to stop.” He did, that was the last day he had a smoke. A little while later I was able to have my dad baptize me and it was very special. Then a few months after that we went the St. George Temple and were sealed as a family. I remember how neat it was and how pretty the temple was. The temple workers took great care of us until we could go with mom and dad. It was a very special time in our family’s life.

For my brother’s birthday my uncle Kenyon, who owned a construction business, laid an asphalt basketball court in our backyard. It was half the size of a regular one. Dad put a street light in the back yard so we could play at night. If it had snowed we would shovel the snow off and then play basketball. I always had friends around and our house was one they would all hang out at. I remember my 10th birthday was a surprise party. My dad told me I needed to go with him to my grandmothers and made me go in my pajamas. When I returned home all the girls were there and we ate a pancake breakfast. They made me stay in my pajamas while we ate. I will never forget because it was so much fun.

Around this time my dad’s brothers, Dean and Gordon ran the livestock auction. Us kids also would go and work for money to help out the family. My job was to take the cows weight, pull number sticker off their backs and put the cows in a corrals for the buyers. One time I was getting the number off of a cow and I was leaning out the window when the cow came over a bite my bottom. It hurt so bad. Even though it was work it was a lot of fun. I think it was more fun because we were all together. It was around that time that Dean died and was a sad time for my family, especially dad.



My sixth grade year I was able to play in the band I started on the drums and after awhile I went to the clarinet. We had a lot of fun in the band and I stayed with it through high school.