Personal HistoryApril 27, 1929 --Compiled by Marge and formatted online |
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Childhood School Chores Holidays Teenage Years and Friends The University My Mother |
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 MY HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME (Shift key + click to listen) Whenever I hear the song of a bird Or walk by our lilac tree, I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world Heav'nly Father created for me. He gave me my eyes that I might see He gave me my life, my mind, my heart: |
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| Favorite scriptures: D&C; 45:3-5 | ||
History
In my father’s memoirs, he wrote that I was given the nickname, “Farina,” when I was born. She was a little colored girl in the movies back then. This was because I had darker skin at birth than my sister, Jerry. I was called Margie in school, and sometimes teased with the name, “Magpie.” I don’t think I was named after anyone in particular, but my favorite aunt was named Eleanor. Perhaps my middle name, Lenore, is after her.
One of my very earliest childhood memories was going on a trip with my family to the ocean in California. This was in February of 1932. I was age 3 at the time, Jerry was 4 years old, and Mary was a baby. My dad and mom had $25, and they decided to take a vacation. Prices were really cheap then, so my dad said. Gasoline was 11 cents per gallon, and butter was 14 cents a pound. On the trip, we lived on hamburgers that were six for a quarter. My mother loved the ocean and would have lived right by the ocean if she could have. Dad and Mom had an old 1929 Erskine car. On the drive to California, I remember how my mother had to keep getting out of the car and walking with me, because I got so car sick. We would drive for a while and then we had to stop. We would drive for a while more and stop again. I think we walked half of the way. We stayed in a cottage on the beach that was rented for $6 a week. Grandma and Grandpa Amott and their family went with us, and so we split the cost of the cottage. It would have been a very simple and plain one compared to beach cottages now days. The earliest home I remember was at 1743 Princeton Avenue on the east side of Salt Lake City. It was a brick house of classic style, with a steep pitched roof and gable over the front door. In 1930 they paid $7000 for it. We didn’t live there very long though, because my father lost his job in 1933. It was during the depression, and we lost the house, car, and all our furniture. We moved a couple times, and then in 1934 Dad bought the house at 2436 South, 7th East. It was pretty run down at the time. Dad had a contract with a neighbor, Sister Olson, to purchase the house for $1,800. It had a big lot, maybe a quarter of an acre, and the house sat back from the street. The south portion of the house was of wood, and had been moved to this location. Later an adobe brick addition had been added. There were two stories and a big around porch. When Dad finally paid off the house and got the deed, it had Parley P. Pratt’s name on it. (The wood portion of the house had belonged to him at one time.) This house is where I remember living for most of my pre-marriage life. When I think about it now, it was a beautiful house, but my dad wanted to modernize it. He took off the porch and lowered the roof. We gave up two upstairs bedrooms for that! I remember one day we had a really bad earthquake. It was during the time Dad was remodeling the roof, so the house was unstable. My mother had us play outside all day, and for several days after, because of aftershocks. The upstairs of our house had three bedrooms. My parents’ bedroom was in the front, and Jerry’s was in the back. Mary and I had the middle room, and shared a double bed. In the bedroom, I had a dressing made table out of orange crates. Grandma Amott helped me make a skirt for it. I liked how you could look out of the upstairs windows and see the whole block. I longed for Jerry’s room though, and a room of my own. Her room had wallpaper that was lavender, pink, and grayish, and it had little fairies in caves and trees all over it. I used to love to lie in that room and look at the elves and fairies. When Jerry got married, I finally got her room. I was going to the university by then. I went shopping with my dad and bought the cheapest wallpaper I could get on sale. It had red cardinal birds and peonies on it. I think it must have been the ugliest wallpaper in the world. Later, when they tore our house down, and I saw it before it was all down but exposed, all I could see was that cardinal and peony wallpaper! The upstairs of our house had a door at the top of the stairs. In the winter we kept it closed to keep the heat downstairs. So the bedrooms would be very cold. Sometimes my mother heated bricks and warmed the bed by our feet. When we were little and shared a bedroom, I’m afraid I was mean to my sister, Mary. Even if we were freezing to death, I would tell her, “This is my half of the bed, and this is your half, and you better not lay one finger over the line!” One time she broke into tears and sobbed, “Margie, I love you—why don’t you love me?” I feel bad about that now. In the back yard we had a vegetable garden, a chicken coop, plus our play yard. We could go out a back gate and into an alley. The other part of the yard had a pergola, lawn, a barbecue, a pond with water lilies and goldfish, and a bird bath. This is where we’d have outdoor parties and things. Mary’s wedding was held there. In front of our house were trolley cars that ran to town. Dad would always ride the trolley to work. Later it became a bus route. Our neighbors to the South were the Harwood’s. They had a daughter named Joyce, who was my age. I told her where babies came from and got in a lot of trouble. My mother never talked to me about things like that. Jerry told me, and I was so excited to know that I couldn’t bear to not tell my friend. Her mother came over and was so angry! The next house down was a house with a grocery store attached. The Rowland family lived there. They had two sons, Glen, who was my age, and Oscar, who was Jerry’s age. (I see Oscar Rowland in Church movies all the time. He is usually playing a blind man or a leper.) My mother would send us to the Rowland’s grocery store, often two or three times a day. Every evening, she would decide what to have for dinner, and then send us to the store to get what was needed. We could get a quarter pound of hamburger, or a pound of butter, for something like ten cents. My mother had a small change purse and she would give us a few coins out of it. There was a candy counter at the store, and if we ever had a penny, we could run over and buy something. My dad built a playhouse for of us in our backyard. It was made of refrigerator boxes, which were a heavy board frame with sides of thin wood (not cardboard). The whole front of the playhouse was open with railing on the sides, and a board floor making a porch. We played every day in that playhouse, and always be something different. Often it was a school, or a hospital, and sometimes we played store. In those days, a clerk at a store like Penny’s would put the money from purchases in a little bag. It would be run up on a wire to a person sitting up high by the ceiling, in an office. We set up a similar sort of thing in our pretend store. One time we tied strings to every little part of the insides of the player piano (Dad had “remodeled” it), and we played telephone operator. Frequently our playhouse was converted into a theater. We strung a curtain across the front, and set up chairs on the lawn for our audience. I can remember walking to the library in Sugar House—which was quite a walk—to check out books with little plays in them. In the upstairs of our house was a big attic where we would store things and our dress-up bag was there. It was full of things that were so much fun, like old lace curtains and dresses. We could find all kinds of things to use for costumes and curtains for our theater. There would be sword fights and fancy ladies, and we would perform for our parents and friends. We had a patchwork of cement slabs just outside the back door of our house and sometimes we would take chalk and draw rooms all over it. We played with dolls and doll houses (that’s probably why I still like them so much). I was big on paper dolls, too. There was a swing in our backyard and we had a sand pile we played in. Once, I was really mad at Jerry for something. I chased her through our backyard, running as hard as I could, and trying to catch up with her. I exceeded her speed, caught up with her, and pounded her on the back with my fist. My mother saw it all, and we were both sent to bed without any supper. She was so mad at us, but then she felt bad and brought us something to eat while we were in our beds. Most evenings, I would go through our back gate into the alley, and to a field where a pony named Pie-Eye lived, (he had a black ring around one eye). All the neighborhood kids would gather there, and we’d play baseball and other games. I particularly liked baseball since my dad played. I was pretty good at it, too. My sisters weren’t as interested in baseball. I remember many times walking home after dark, down that dark alley, and never feeling afraid. My best friend, Iris, lived on the other side of the block and the alley was the quickest way to her house, too. We had a piano at home, and I took piano lessons from Rita Tibbs for years and years. I’d get on my bike, ride up to about 17th South, and have my piano lesson once a week. She was an excellent piano teacher. Jerry and Mary took piano lessons, too. For all the lessons I took though, I never was very good at playing the piano. One of my fondest memories was when my dad would come home from work on a Friday night, and say we were going to Mirror Lake. Dad had rigged up the car so that the running board held a cabinet he’d made. Inside, it contained everything we needed to go camping. It had a place for enamel dishes, a hand towel, the salt and pepper, etc., everything except perishable items. So we could be gone it seemed, in just a few minutes. I don’t remember that we had sleeping bags, but we did have a lot of quilts that my grandma made. She made quilts out of old, used wool clothing. We went to Mirror Lake many times. It was our favorite place to pick up a go to. I remember one particular time; it was pouring rain when we got there. I don’t know how Dad got our old canvas tent up. He dug a trench all around, so the water would run away. We were very cozy and dry, as long as we didn’t touch the canvas of the tent. When I think about it now, I realize that we went camping because it was all my parents could afford. As a child I didn’t know any different, I didn’t know there were rich people and poor people. I thought everybody was like us, so you never felt sorry for yourself because you were poor. We didn’t need anything better than that. There was nothing that made me happier than to find out we were going to Mirror Lake! The elementary school that I attended was called Columbus School. It was four long blocks away from where we lived, and we always walked. I can picture it so clearly, and I can remember almost all of my teachers’ names. In 1st grade my teacher was Moiselle Renstrom. She wrote songs for a children’s song book which I have, with a record. She was a great teacher that I remember well. In our classroom we had storage closets where we would hang our coats. The doors slid up and down. There was one really mischievous boy named, Loren Jamison. One day Miss Renstrom got mad at him, put him in the coat closet, and pulled the door shut. In 4th grade I had a teacher named, Miss Lyon. (All our teachers were “Miss” because teachers couldn’t be married in those days.) My dad thought I had the best penmanship in the world, but I got a NS in writing. An ‘S’ meant satisfactory and ‘NS’ meant not satisfactory. Dad was so upset about the grade that he went to the school to talk to my teacher. In 5th grade I had Miss Johnson. My best friend, Iris, and I were the teacher’s pets. We would stay after school to decorate the bulletin boards, correct papers, or do chores for Miss Johnson. We thought that was so great! She was a really pretty lady, and we just loved her. She always gave us good grades. In 6th grade my teacher was Miss Rand. She looked like a grandma, but of course she wasn’t. Most of the kids laughed at her and were mean to her. She really wasn’t a very good teacher and I never connected to her like the others. At the beginning of 6th grade, we had an assembly where it was announced which of the students would be privileged enough to have an assignment for the school year, (like the traffic police boys). All of the assignments were announced, and the only job left was the bell ringer. This was the most prestigious job of all. I had not been named for any job, although some of my friends had been. I felt sick that I wouldn’t be called to do anything. Finally the name was announced for the bell ringer job, and it was me! I never imagined I would ever have that job. The bell ringer left class early, and rang a buzzer for every period to change classes. Before school started, at lunch time, and at recess, the bell ringer would also ring a big hand bell in the front of the school, and then again in the back. I had never considered myself important in any way before this event. Next I attended the articulating unit, which was 7th and 8th grade combined. This was at Irving Junior High in Sugar House. I remember a teacher I had there named Miss Benz. She was a little eccentric lady, but she really knew how to teach grammar and English. Anything I learned about that, I learned from her. I went to 9th and 10th grades at Irving Jr. High, and then two years of high school at South High. When I graduated from high school, I was unmatriculate, which meant I was lacking some science credits needed to go to the University. Right after graduation, I went up to Canada to help my Aunt Eleanor during her pregnancy. I was influenced by all of the wonderful young people I met there, and I decided I wanted to go to college. So when I came back from Canada, I went to West High School for half a year to complete the one or two classes I lacked. Mary and some of our friends went to West High with me. Every year without fail, we did spring and fall cleaning. We did it before Mother got sick, and it was such a ritual with us, we did it even after she was sick. It was a great big house, and we cleaned everything. Dad would clean all of the walls with wallpaper cleaner. We would wash woodwork and everything else. It was always a big job. For a while at first, we had a hired girl that helped my mom during the day until we got home from school. Then Dad would be home at about five o’clock. He really had a big load, and we all had to help. As a result, we learned to work. Monday was wash day; Tuesday we did ironing, and so on. I remember coming home from school on Mondays and going down into our spooky basement to do the laundry. We had a ringer washer that Grandma Amott had taught me how to use. Once my arm got caught in the ringer all the way to my elbow. It hurt because it squeezed so hard. I was lucky, because people would sometimes lose fingers in the ringer. We helped with fixing meals too. I remember making a cake once, and thinking that if I put in more baking powder, it would come up really high. I put in so much that it was bitter and nasty. I learned a lot of things like that, the hard way. I got interested in looking at recipes and trying different ones. We would bottle tremendous amounts of food, especially peaches. Sometimes our friends would come help us do the canning, because we couldn’t go play until it was done. I remember all of us sitting around the table, and slipping the skins off peaches. My mother would schedule the various rooms of the house to be cleaned every week, and she’d rotate the jobs. It really bothered me, because I would do an immaculate job and want to keep it that way. Jerry and Mary would do a less perfect job, and I would have to follow after them. One time, I got the opportunity to choose to either help my dad work in the garden, or do house cleaning. I jumped at the chance to help in the garden. I remember our garden in great detail, so I think I must have been weeding it a lot. It was a large garden and it produced a great deal. It fed our family. I loved working in the garden back then, so I think that’s where I got my love of gardening from. I don’t recall that Jerry or Mary ever worked in the garden or wanted to, and to this day they have no interest in gardening. We had chickens, and we raised a Thanksgiving turkey, so we never seemed to lack for food. When my brother Rick was a baby he slept in a baby bassinet in my parent’s bedroom. During his afternoon naps, I would have to sit next to the bassinet and jiggle it until he went to sleep. I sat down below the bassinet where he couldn’t see me, and when I thought he was asleep, I would crawl quietly towards the door. So many times, just when I would reach the door, he would cry out, “WAAAAHHHH!!!” Then I would have to go back and jiggle the bassinet again until he finally dropped off to sleep. I remember having to do this many afternoons. Our family tradition was to spend Christmas Eve with Granny and Grandpa Curtis. Granny died in 1936, and I was born in 1929, so it was actually only a few years we were able to spend with them. They had what I thought of as a traditional English celebration of Christmas. We had dinner on Christmas Eve consisting of a big beef roast, Yorkshire pudding, plum pudding, and all the trimmings. We exchanged gifts. It was always a fun family event. The tradition of having a dinner and celebration on Christmas Eve has carried over into my own family. One Christmas that stands out in my mind during those years. We came home from Granny and Grandpa’s house. It was probably around midnight, and Mother said to us, “Oh, you’ve got to go right upstairs! Don’t anybody peek in the front room, because Santa’s already been here!” I wish to this day that I had looked, but I was a good little girl. I didn’t peek, and went right up to bed as I was told. After Granny Curtis died, we spent Christmas Eve with Grandpa and Grandma Amott’s family. Much of the time it was at our house on 7th East, because our home was larger. It was always a lot of fun, too. Grandma Amott usually made plum pudding with hard sauce, something I loved. Our Christmases were always fun. When I think back on them though, I’m sure my family was short of money. We wouldn’t ask Santa Claus for very much. Every year, my mother would make new clothes for one of our dolls, but usually we wouldn’t get a new one. We had a custom of getting a “last” doll, and I kept mine. We would always get a book for Christmas. We would have new flannel nightgowns to wear, made by Grandma Amott. Our presents weren’t very extravagant, and often they were clothing we needed, and a toy or game. One Christmas, I asked for something I wanted (now I can’t recall what it was), and didn’t get it. I was so naughty! I cried and was mad. My behavior ruined Christmas for me, and probably for everyone else. We would spend Christmas morning as a family. Friends and family would visit. Then at a certain time in the afternoon, we would leave to go visiting. That was an important tradition and something we liked to do. We would visit Uncle Fred and Aunt Florence. I loved seeing what Aunt Florence got, because she’d get fancy clothes, slippers, lingerie, and all sorts of elegant things. One year, Uncle Fred wanted to give Aunt Florence new diamonds. She showed us her five (or however many) carat diamond. It was a fancy wrapped box with carrots arranged in it. We would have some of Uncle Fred’s fruitcake, which was really good fruitcake. It was a white fruitcake that he made a month or two before Christmas. They would have nuts and candy too, which we rarely had at home. So it was a special treat for us. For Thanksgiving we always went to Grandma and Grandpa Amott’s house. Grandma was the best cook of Thanksgiving turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, pie, and the rest. I wish I had learned how to make everything she made for Thanksgiving dinner. Everything I’ve ever tried to make since, I’ve always used her as my standard of perfection. I’ve never been able to make apple pie or pie crust to equal Grandmas. She was a wonderful cook. My best friend from kindergarten through high school was Iris Miller. We were inseparable. She lived on the other side of the block from me, and I was always running over to her house, or she to mine. Her mother was kind to me, too, and on occasion she invited me to things with Iris and her, since my mother couldn’t go. I remember how sometimes I would help Iris with her chores. We would shake and shake her feather bed. It had to be fluffed before the bed could be made. Our ways separated after high school, when I went to Canada and to the University of Utah. Iris served a mission. After we were both married, we made a few contacts with each other, but then I lost track of her. I was a good bicyclist and enjoyed riding. One day, Iris and I rode our bikes all the way out to the Great Salt Lake. It was a long way, and even harder and longer coming back. Another long trip on our bikes was to Harriman (west and south of Salt Lake City). Iris’s grandparents lived out there. As we were getting close to our destination, we came to a place in the road just covered with big, black Mormon crickets. The road was solid with them for 30 to 50 feet. We had to quickly ride through, all the time praying we wouldn’t have to stop. I remember the crickets crunching under our bike tires. I’ve never seen anything like that, before or since. We stayed at Iris’s grandparents’ farm for about a week. Iris’s dad picked us up and drove us home. Iris had a friend named Don Clark. He found out that I had never been on a date, and had never kissed a boy. He invited me to The Rainbow in downtown Salt Lake. It was a place where the big bands played. That was my only date in high school. I never went to my prom or anything. I missed out on the social activities because I had to work. When I got out of high school and went to the Grand Canyon and to the University, I dated quite a bit then. I had a boyfriend, although he didn’t know he was. His name was George Beardneau, and he was the cousin of a friend. He used to walk past our house on the way home from school. I would wait and watch for him to come by. I thought he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. He never knew I felt like that about him. Every year as a teenager, I would go MIA Girls Home in Brighton. Jerry and her best friend, June, and my best friend, Iris, would go too. We loved to go there. We always went on a moonlight hike; we rode horses, and did crafts. I remember having a little bit of money one time and buying candy bars, which was something we didn’t have very often. It seemed like a real novelty to me at the time. The lodge we stayed in while at Brighton was a wood structure, and eventually it burned down. On one midnight hike in Brighton, we were going up a mountain trail to a lake that we wanted to reach by sunrise. We came upon a coyote that was caught by the leg in a trap. It looked so tragically sad in its eyes that I’ve never forgotten it. I think it was trying to chew its leg off, so it could get away. Another time at Brighton, I was on a runaway horse that was making a beeline for his home. I remember tree branches hitting me, while I hung on for dear life. It ran right into the barn with me on its back. Fortunately, I ducked my head down lower than the horse’s head, so I avoided being knocked off. That experience is very clear in my mind, and it was scary. Jerry was a year ahead of me in school. She had a friend named Pat Doyle, and Pat’s brother owned the ski resort in Brighton. He would take Jerry, her friend June Okland, and Pat up to the resort with him on Saturdays. He went up to open the ski lift. It was a much more primitive lift compared to now days. In fact, skis and boots were primitive then, but they worked. It was a ‘T’ lift that you would straddle and it pulled you up the mountain. Sometimes there would be enough room and I would get to go, too. I was absolutely at Jerry’s mercy, whether I got to go with them or not. So many nights I would lay awake worrying, because Jerry wouldn’t tell me whether I could go or not the next morning. It was torture for me! I had a blue parka that I wore when I went skiing. I was pretty daring, and Pat’s brother called me “The Blue Streak.” I loved skiing with a passion. (And I was a better skier that Jerry). Jerry had a job at a department store called Keith O’Brien’s. She sold shoes there, and was making pretty good money. So she could buy the clothes that I couldn’t. I would shop at good stores, but because I couldn’t afford the regular priced things, I would find something on a sale rack. It was usually pretty ugly. In high school, if you didn’t wear Jantzen sweaters and Joyce shoes, you felt like you were just nothing. I don’t think I ever owned any of these name brand clothes myself. I would beg Jerry to let me wear some of her clothes. She would tease me at times about that, too. She wouldn’t tell me if I could wear something of hers or not until the last minute. If I could borrow one of her Jantzen or Dunkirk sweaters, I would be in 7th heaven. I would feel like I was dressed so beautifully. If she wouldn’t let me wear one of her sweaters, then I had to wear one of my old, homemade things. Joyce shoes were the other popular item. I don’t think I ever owned a pair of them either, but I sure longed to. I went to early morning seminary some of the time that I was going to South High. It was hard to get there early in the mornings, because it was a long way away from my home. I never did graduate from seminary. Part of the time when I was young, seminary was held in the wards on Monday night. On Tuesday night it was Mutual, and on Wednesday, Primary. Everything was spread out through the week. Our Sunday meetings were spread out through the day, too. We had Sunday School in the morning and Sacrament Meeting later in the day. My favorite movie star as a teenager was Alan Ladd. I thought he was the greatest thing in the world, and I saw all his movies. I also liked John Payne, Tyrone Power, and Gregory Peck. I liked Katherine Hepburn and Joan Fontaine. All of the old time movies that my children now watch were popular in my day. During the war there were lots of war movies. My friends and I would go the movies fairly frequently, but not as often as most people did. Hit Parade was a program on Monday nights. They played the current musical hits, beginning with number ten on up to number one. I always listened to Hit Parade. My favorite singer was Vaughn Monroe. My boyfriend, David Hinckley gave me an album of Vaughn Monroe’s before he left on his mission. I played it all the time while he was gone. When I wanted to learn to drive, my dad wouldn’t teach me. He had a bad experience teaching Jerry how to drive, and was very protective of his car. He would ride the trolley to work to save his car for other uses. When Dad was teaching Jerry to drive, he had a blue Ford car. Jerry turned into the driveway, but didn’t make a sharp enough turn. She went up onto the neighbor’s lawn and hit a poplar tree that was lying in their yard. Dad about had a fit! That was the end of our driving experiences. I don’t think he taught any of us girls to drive. Driving cars back then was harder than now, because there was no power steering or power brakes, and only manual transmissions. Later on my boyfriend, Dave, let me drive his car. It was on my honeymoon trip to Yellowstone though, where I really got experience in driving. Richard didn’t know how inexperienced I was. He didn’t realize he was putting his life in my hands while he slept and I was driving. I went to Canada after I got out of high school, because my Aunt Eleanor was pregnant. She had many miscarriages before, and she really wanted this baby. The doctor told her she would have to stay down and rest a lot. I went up to help her. Grandma Amott was my traveling companion on the bus, and then she returned home. I stayed there for about six months. I remember how cold it was there. When Grandma and I got off the bus in Lethbridge, it was 30 degrees below zero. You had to put a scarf or something over your mouth in order to breathe, the air was so cold. I’ve never been anywhere that cold. It started as a very good experience because I loved Eleanor. She had always been my favorite aunt. I loved spending time with her, seeing her house, and helping her. They had two little girls at the time, Melissa and Mary Lou. They were cute little girls and it was fun being with them. Eleanor and I would go shopping once in a while. I remember stores with beautiful China dishes and figurines from England. There were all kinds of beautiful wool things. It was a treat for me to see such beautiful things. We were just like girlfriends, and were so happy to be doing things together. Going to Canada was also a great experience because of the people I met there as well. There were so many outstanding young people that I got to know, and who became my friends. They couldn’t have been more accepting of me. We sang in a chorus that performed at various places. I had never had an opportunity to do that before. (Jerry and Mary had told me I had a terrible voice, so I had never dared sing like that before.) I went horse back riding with a friend named Renee and others. Renee’s father raised horses. There were Church activities and parties for the young people. The LDS people banded together there, more than anywhere I had experienced before. Their social lives seemed to be centered around the Church and its activities. On Sunday nights, the Bishop invited all of the young people to his home. He had a recreation room in his basement, and they had food to eat. We played records and danced. It seemed to keep all of the young people together in a wholesome environment, and happy. It was a wonderful experience that I’m glad to have had. Part way through my stay in Canada, things changed though. Besides helping Eleanor, keeping the house up, and fixing meals, I was also working for my Uncle Wayne, Eleanor’s husband. He was a dentist and I worked at his office. He had me work more and more for him, and I wasn’t home helping Eleanor when she really needed me. I think I was getting really homesick, too. So even though I loved Eleanor and the friends I had made in Canada, I felt it was best that I leave and return home. When Eleanor had the baby, I left for home. The first job I ever had was at a potato chip factory on 7th East. I was pretty young. It was before I was in high school. There was a big container we stood around, and we used a scoop to put potato chips into bags. We couldn’t eat them, even though they were freshly made! I think I got ten cents an hour for that job. Later I worked at a punch factory putting punch in little envelopes. All of the time I went to South High School, I worked at Dunford Bakery. Because I worked, I never got in on the social activities at school. I worked selling the bakery items, and I worked behind the scenes putting the cookies on trays, frosting cakes for the decorators, and that kind of thing. When I was attending the university, I worked as a cabin maid at the Grand Canyon one summer. To get a job at Bryce, Zions, or the Grand Canyon, you had to have an “in” with someone who could get you the job. A friend of Jerry’s had a connection with the management; I think the railroad managed the parks then. Jerry and all her friends got jobs in Bryce Canyon working as waitresses. I wanted to do that so bad. You also had to be talented; to sing, dance, or play a musical instrument. They performed every night and entertained the guests at the resorts. I didn’t have qualifications along those lines. Jerry found out they were in need of cabin maids though, and they needed them early, before the season started. I applied for the job and got it, but I had to get out of my school classes. I had to finish them early and take the tests. I worked hard at the Grand Canyon. We had to open up the cabins that had been closed all winter, and then we did the cleaning when the season began. The girls’ dormitory there was full, but because I was older, they let me and three other girls live in one of the tourist cabins. They were very outstanding girls and we became good friends. Two of the girls were from Provo and were attending the BYU. One of them had a boyfriend on a mission. They were a very good influence in my life. Two of my roommates were waitresses, and the other was a cabin maid like me. The waitresses made good money, so that was the more desirable of the positions. By the end of the summer, I got promoted to a waitress. Living there for a whole summer, I got to love the Grand Canyon. I would see it in all different weather conditions and times of the day. One day off, we took a hike down to the bottom. It seemed very easy going down. We hid cans of juice along the way that we planned to drink on the return trip. At the bottom was a big pumping station with plenty of water to cool off in. Afterwards, we started back up, and it was one of the hardest things I ever did in my life. It was not nearly as easy as coming down had been. About half way to the top, one girlfriend told the rest of us to go and leave her to die, she was so tired. But we urged and pushed her on. We were practically crawling by the time we finally got to the top. We couldn’t go to work the next day or maybe for several days, because we were so stiff and sore. It was quite an experience. While going to West High, I worked at another bakery. It was called West Side Bakery. I didn’t really like working there. It was old and not very clean. One day, I tipped over a big rack full of sweet rolls. I wasn’t my fault it fell over, it was because the rack was so rickety. I got fired, but I was glad to be done there. One day as I was walking to Sugar House, I passed a house that had a “Help Wanted” sign in front. Maybe there was a sign on the house that said Utah Ceramics as well. Somehow, I had the gumption to go in and apply, even though I didn’t know exactly what the job was. I was hired and it was such a blessing because that job paid my way to the University of Utah. At Utah Ceramics, I painted ceramics on piece work. Some of the pieces were pictures done something like a comic strip. In time, I painted nicer items like figurines. I used to have a figurine that I had painted of Alice in Wonderland. We made bride and groom figurines too, for wedding cakes. The owner gave me one as a gift that I used for my wedding. One day in Castle Valley, I knocked it off the shelf in my closet, and it broke into a million pieces. I felt so bad. There was a lady who also did painting at the ceramic shop. She was a Jehovah’s Witness, and I never liked to get into discussions of religion with her. The owner’s nephew, a returned missionary worked there, and he would often start discussions with her. Every time you would tell her anything plain out of the Bible, she would say that’s not what it meant. I remember how frustrating it was to try to talk to her about the Bible. I worked at Utah Ceramics for a long time, even after the ceramic shop was moved from Sugar House, closer to downtown. The move was convenient for me because I could get there more easily after classes at the University. I attended the University of Utah. I had to work and paid my own way. My father said he would pay for my brothers to go to college because they had to make a living, but if any of his daughters wanted to go they would have to pay their own way. My brothers never went a day, but Jerry, Mary and I all went. I was the only one to graduate. It seems like I spent a lot of time riding buses while I went to the university. I took a bus to get there, a bus to get to work, and a bus to get home. During my last two years, I majored in Home Economics. Dr. Virginia Cutler was the head of the department. She was a wonderful person and extremely creative. I learned so much from her. She encouraged us to keep learning all of our lives. She wanted us to have an upholstery class, so she would go learn from an upholsterer, and come back and teach us. I upholstered a chair for my project. We would have fancy dinners where we would learn not only about cooking and preparing food, but about serving and entertaining. We had things like finger bowls with little flowers floating on the water. I studied, worked hard and got good grades, especially in home economics. I joined a sorority while at the university, although I had really never been very excited about belonging to one. Because Jerry belonged to Alpha Delta Pi, they made a big effort to recruit the younger sisters of members. Two friends I had at the university also joined the same sorority, and it put more pressure on me to join. So finally I did. It was expensive to belong to a sorority, and I didn’t like that. They had meetings and activities, but I felt like a fish out of water. I never participated much, or spent much time at the sorority house (many of the girls lived there). I didn’t feel like I had much in common with those girls. They played Bridge, and I learned to play although I wasn’t very good. Many of the girls did things I didn’t approve of like smoking and drinking beer. After a while, I decided I wanted to drop out which was pretty much unheard of. Sorority members usually didn’t get out until they left the university. So I became something of an outcast, actually. After that, I joined Lambda Delta Sigma which I enjoyed much more. It was the LDS equivalent of a sorority or fraternity. I had much more in common with the people there. There were fun activities, and at a Lambda Delta Sigma roller skating party is where I eventually met Richard. About this time, I started dating Dave Hinckley (he was a cousin to Gordon B. Hinckley). I met him because he was in our stake. He was on the basketball team in Fairmont Ward. My dad coached the basketball team for our Nibley Park Ward. So at times, Dave was on the opposing team. He was a very good person. We started dating before he left on his mission. He was called to the New England States Mission, which was the same mission Richard was called to. He served in Nova Scotia, but he and Richard were never companions. They did have some contact with each other though. Dave and I had an understanding when he left that I would keep dating while going to the university. He didn’t want me to be deprived of dates and social experiences. He said he hoped I’d still be there though, when he returned. I went to the train station to see him off. There were many people there from his ward, and lots of girls. He hugged me and told me goodbye. I wrote to him during his mission and he wrote me. I knit him argyle stockings and sent them to him, and lots of packages with goodies. When he finally came home from his mission, he was home two or three days before he called me. That was a mistake, I suppose. I was devastated and mad, so to get back at him, I went out with other people. That’s when I met Richard.
My Mother, Myrtle Hazel Amott top
My Father, Charles Arnold Curtis top
When my Grandmother was a young mother, she became very ill one night and Grandpa called the doctor to come. While the doctor attended her, a neighbor came over to help with the children. She told the three little girls that their mother was very ill and suffering a heart attack, and that they better get down on their knees and pray for her or their mother would be gone before morning. They knelt down and prayed for her, and their mother recovered. She told her family that while she was so ill and unconscious, she saw her mother-in-law who was dead and in the spirit world standing at the foot of her bed. She held her arms out to Grandma, but told her not to come to her, that it was not her time yet. Grandma remembered this vividly and spoke of it to loved ones the rest of her life. Heavenly Father hears and answers our sincere prayers, and His guardian angels, who are sometimes our departed loved ones, are nearby watching over those who love and follow the Savior.I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, the second oldest in a family of five children. I worked at Dunford Bakery while attending South High School and graduated in 1945. The following year I attended West High School one-half year to get extra science credit (as I had decided to go to college). Then I went to Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada for six months to assist my uncle who was a dentist as his dental assistant. In 1947 I started attending the University of Utah. I worked at the Utah Ceramics - painting ceramics - and paid for my college education myself. I majored in Composit Home Economics which also gave me a teaching cetificate. In 1951 I graduated and secured a position teaching at the new Bountiful High School. I taught cooking classes and also supervised the students' home projects during the school year and the summer. I taught adult cooking classes at the school in the evenings. I married in July of 1951 and after completing my first year of teaching, I began raising a family. I have five sons and three daughters, my youngest is now eight years old. During these years, I was involved in the LDS Church in a variety of teaching and leadership positions, some in the Relief Society - requiring homemaking skills and also in other capacities. I supervised the Relief Society Nursery for three years - making it a real nursery experience for the pre-schooler. Also, I was involved for many years in the development of the Meetinghouse Library - a center for visual aids for the teachers in the Church. During this time I subscribed to many magazines and took every opportunity to learn new skills, crafts, and especially developed my hobby of cooking for family and guests. In 1973 the opportunity came to work outside the home as a gift buyer and later as ready-to-wear buyer for the Junior Dept. and also foundations and lingerie at LaRie's, a local ladies clothing store with four branch stores. I attended local and California buying markets each season; this gave me experience in office procedures and working with sales people. This was a very full time job and I decided I was to involved for my family's welfare, so in 1975 we opened an Antique and Handmade Gift Shop as a family project utilizing the considerable talents of many of the family. We had a large collection of antique furniture, some of which we restored and also had a very unique handmade gift shop. My artist daughter and myself were the main contributors and we sold patchwork pillows, aprons, dolls, stuffed animals, tole painted articles, and much more. Doll houses and furniture were also an important part of our business. These were made by my husband and one son and finished and decorate by myself. We also sold handmade articles of others on a consignment basis. In Fall of 1975 we found ten acres of good land in a beautiful valley and decided to change our life style to a beautiful dream we had always had. In Salt Lake we had crowded our small yard with a garden, many fruit trees and even chickens, but we were continually frustrated that we didn't have more land. We decided to "sell all" and make this great change in our lives. For the past year-and-a-half we have been modern-day homesteaders experiencing many trials and labors of pioneering. Starting with land only in June of 1976, we now have electricity, a well, a log building, fences, over 100-new-tree orchard, pastures, a very large vegetable garden, strawberry patch, other berries and grapes, a Jersey cow, goats pigs, chickens, sheep, turkeys, ducks, septic tank and drain field, animal shelters and even a play house and swing - all of which we have done as a family (except electricity and well). We make r raise all our own bread, cheese, butter, vegetables, meat and will eventually be nearly self sufficient. Our goal is to produce enough pure food for ourselves, to provide our children with opportunities to see the wonders of nature, to value family closeness, and the opportunity to learn what work really is. We are well on our way to achieving this. Marjorie C. Stucki 11-26-77 Chapter 1 June 1976 June 4th - Friday
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