(Thanks to Lois Cutler for transcribing this history.)
Birth in St. Charles Idaho
I was born on the 8th of December 1916 in a house built by my father in St. Charles, Idaho. My father is Louis Hyrum Booth born July 16, 1885 also in St. Charles, Idaho and my mother is Phoebe Price born July 7, 1886 in Paris, Idaho.
Brothers and Sisters
I came into a family of two brothers and one sister. My sister Phoebe Christina was the oldest then my brother Louis WinNeera (named for a Maori family in New Zealand where my father served a mission for the Church. Then there was my brother Robert Price Booth who was next older than I. When I was 3 ½ years old my mother gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, born July 30, 1919. The boy was given the name Avard William and the little girl Rhea. I have still a memory of these two babies crawling and climbing on my back for a horsey ride around the kitchen.
I forgot to mention such a small event that when I was 3 ½ years old the twins were born to my mother (Rhea and Avard) and thereby making me no longer the baby. I guess it was nice while it lasted but I very soon faded into the back ground.
Home in St. Charles
Now a little bit about my home as I remember it. As I said it was built by my father and was not completely finished inside. The front porch was never built except for some steps and of this date a porch was never added. There was no inside plumbing or running water but a well with a pump stood just outside the back door and a few steps. A great stove for heat and cooking kept the kitchen cozy and warm and lent comfort and security to all who lived there. There was a large kitchen, a dining room and a parlor which were reserved for company and Christmas. Upstairs were three bedrooms, one for Momma and Papa, one for the boys (all of them), and one for the girls (all of them). Not like today, a room for each child. I think this was a good thing to make for a closer relationship between brother and sisters and a closer family togetherness.
St. Charles is a very small town, a farming town and I have many fond memories of my very early years here which are kept alive because of my desire to visit there at least once a year to see my aunts, uncles and cousins.
A few memories I treasure are of rolling hills with abundant wild flowers which my sister Christina took me for a walk to gather. I loved these special treats. An old threshing machine stood abandoned just across the street where we spent may hours of many days playing and crawling around and in and out of. Muddy streets were also part of my memories since there was no pavement of any kind in this small town. I got stuck in the mud many times going across the street to play with friends.
I had a broken arm twice during my childhood in St Charles. The first happened by simply falling of y mothers lap when a visiting cousin was chasing me. Another when I guess I was five and we were riding horses bare back around the yard at a friend’s house close to home. I was on the horse alone when it began to trot and I began to slip. I was afraid of pulling the horse on top of me so I let go and slid off and there I was a broken arm again. Can you imagine a five year old pulling a horse over with her weight?
For a period of time my father was “Justice of the Peace” in the county so we had a car, an open air Ford.
Very soon after I turned five, my daddy left us at home and went to Salt Lake to find work. Also when I was four or five, my brother Robert became ill with Polio and for many weeks he was in bed in the front hall since there were no bedrooms downstairs. I spent much time playing on his bed but none of us got the disease.
My dear brother Bob never walked normally again but thank the Lord, he did walk and was later to have surgery and braces which made it much easier. He married and lived happily many years but died in Portland, Oregon at an early age.
Move to Salt Lake
After my father found a job at a cabinet shop in Salt Lake, we began to pack to come to be with him. I recall living for what seemed to me a long time, like all summer out of boxes until we were able to move to Salt Lake. Our new home was at 447 West Center Street, an apartment terrace on the westside of town somewhere near my dad’s work. His first job was at Fetzer Lumber and Cabinet Shop. We lived at this pace through my eighth birthday and my baptism in the font at the Tabernacle and through the Salt Lake 19th Ward. I had some special experiences that I particularly remember at this home. I started school here at Washington School and went to first and second grade. I also had a very frightening experience here at this school during the summer months. There was a man who came to the playground where we were playing in the sandpile. He began talking to s, my friends and I, making friends at first and then began talking about vulgar things, although I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t know what he was talking about until he “exposed” himself to us. I knew then, and became very frightened and told him I was going to get some of my toys in another sand pile and I ran home and told my parents. Fortunately my father called the police and the man was found coming near my home and I’m afraid he may have been looking for me. The man was arrested and charges were pressed and after a court hearing where I had to testify, the man was sentenced to 6 months in the jail for vagrancy and child molest. This had a very strange effect on me and my child mind.
We used to go swimming in the swimming pool at the school during summer school and I remember some fun summer classes. I never had the opportunity to go to such a summer school again.
During my second year of school we moved to 563 First Avenue in a big two story duplex. I had many fond memories of our life in this house. It was pleasant and sunny and I had many friends here. I also broke my arm for the third time here. We were trying to scare the “little kids: about an old haunted house. I guess I scared myself a little and jumped off a shanty and broke my arm quite badly. My main thought when I saw my crooked arm was for my mamma to “bless” it. I guess she did but it took the doctor to straighten it and put it in a cast.
One interesting experience at this house was an explosion from a grease fire in the oven which blew out nearly all the wind in the house. Momma was rendering some fat for making lard in the oven and it caught fire. I learned never to put water on a grease fire. When the explosion filled the rooms with fire and broke both the windows even upstairs. We all had singed hair but otherwise no damage to us or the house.
It was in our home on 563 1st Avenue that we attended Longfellow Elementary School. Mostly happy days here at the school.
While at 563 I had a little boyfriend named Jimmy Kirby who used to take me every night during one summer for a frozen sucker at the drug store about a block and a half away. He was a rich boy who lived in the apartment house next door. His daddy was a Dr. Kirby.
While we lived at this address, my brother Bob went into the hospital for extensive surgery on his crippled legs. He stayed in the Shriners Children’s Hospital. Some Shriners had seen him selling papers and sponsored his stay in the hospital and paid all his expenses.
75 L Street
After two or three years we bought an old house on 75 L Street and moved here where we lived until we all married and my parents passed away.
From L Street I finished my elementary school and while in the fourth grade a new little sister was born. She was a beautiful little blonde curly haired girl and I loved her very much. Of course I was a “built in”, willing baby sitter. I was 12 years old when Stella came and this was a pleasant surprise for us , also a “total surprise” to me. Children were not as knowledgeable about these things in those days. At least I was totally naïve about the whole thing.
Christina’s Death
Shortly after my baby sister came, I was in for another surprise. I came home from school one day and there was a beautiful peach chiffon and lace dress hanging in the dining, living room. It was my beloved big sisters’ wedding dress. I remember how crushed I felt not only to know that she was going to get married and leave home but that no one had cared enough to tell me about it. I remember how I ran into the bedroom and cried and cried. I loved her and had felt closer to her than I had felt ever to my mother. She had time to be interested in me and we had always slept together.
Christina was married to Rodney Gunnerson and he was a fine man. I liked him very much. On the day of the marriage, I was a bit surprised when mother did not go to the Temple with Christina because she said she had to stay home with the baby. A family friend Carrie Linford went for mother. I could not understand this because I tended Stella most of the time anyway. After the wedding a dinner party was held at home but I wasn’t allowed to sit at the table. I had to tend Stella in the bedroom. I wanted so much to go to the party. This wedding day was on April 7th 1928. Three months later on July 15th Christina died. She had had a very bad heart since the 1916 flu epidemic. This death was really one of the great tragedies of my life because of my great love for this “perfect” sister and friend. I admired her so very much. Chris had been sick for so long and had come so mother could care for her. We were unable to go to the park for the 4th of July as we always had done for a picnic but mother had said we would go on the 24th if all was well. We went on our picnic on the 24th because Chris died on the 15th. What a task this must have been for mother and daddy to take us to the park.
I recall the day of the funeral I just couldn’t leave the top of the casket so they just piled the flowers in around me. I wanted to be near her just as long as I could. The funeral was beautiful and she was buried at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park in Salt Lake City.
And now to the business of growing up.
One teacher I remember very fondly from fourth grade and I’m ashamed to say I can’t recall her name, but she was especially kind to me and I was not accustomed to such attention. One Christmas she invited me and my little sister Rhea and my brother Avard for a Christmas party on one afternoon before Christmas. The teacher and her sister lived with their mother in a nice house on the Avenues.
We had a very nice band and then the Christmas surprises-a box full of candy and goodies and the real surprise of all a real doll house. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. There were presents for the twins but I don’t remember what they were. What a Christmas that was!!
My Junior High School experiences took place at Bryant Jr. High. I had three very close girl friends. Afton Vance lived across the street from me and Marjorie McKay lived on “J” Street just a city block away and Erika Thule, a German girl, lived on South Temple on the way to school. We were quite a clan of very different types of girls but we became very close for a while. Erika’s parents worked at a bakery and we traded the cake in every lunch. I liked the very fluffy bakery cake and she preferred my home made (tough, coarse) it seemed to me, cake. We were both happy.
In my Junior High I began to find that I made friends rather easily, to my surprise. I even seemed to be aware that some of the more refined, “rich” girls were nice to me. I was even invited to some of their parties in their lovely homes. I did fairly well in school especially in algebra and geometry, English and music. I took some fairly strong parts in some plays and music productions. I seemed to be able to memorize quite quickly and I guess some of the “ham” in me began to surface.
I had one boy friend who attached himself to me quite a bit and I guess I wasn’t that ready for him. We used to have dances in the gym during our lunch hour. We girls danced together to learn to dance and I began to have a problem avoiding this “boyfriend”. I guess I didn’t appreciate quality at that time. He is now a member of the Presiding Bishopric of the church, Bishop Joseph Wirthlin. (Later a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Bruce)
When I graduated from Junior High I had to make a decision as to which High School I wanted to attend and since my two brothers had gone to West High I decided I wanted to go also. It was a long way to go but since East High was the only other choice and had a reputation for being a “snob” school, I decided on West High. My three friends went to East but I thought it smarter to try and be a “larger fish in a small pond” than a “very small fish in a large pond.” These were depression years and my parents did not have much money for clothes and things. I had to work for my own money, tending and also house work. I felt that I had become a little too closely identified with these three girls and now was a chance for me to be on my own. I had a cousin who would be going to West so we went together and I learned to love her. This was Doris Rich a cousin on Dad’s side of the family.
My years at high school were very good. I had lots of fun, lots of boy friends and met many new friends which I’m sure I would not have had at East. My friends were most all of the “upper bracket” so to speak and were school officers and very fine kids. Many of them have done great things of worth in the world. My senior year I tried for second lead in the school opera and almost got it but because of my “military walk” I lost to a girl who really played the part much better than I would have. I got another part and had just as much fun. We became very good friends, my competitor and I. Again I say my High School days were some of the happiest in my life.
I had a boy friend during my first year of high school who I guess was my first love but he was not the right kind of a boy for me. He did not go to high school and he had some bad habits. I’m sure my parents worried through some sleepless nights over the situation. I’m sure my dad was the wisest man alive in the world in the way he broke up the association and I learned much from his love. PATIENT PERSUASION.
Living during the Great Depresssion
During the depression years my brother Lou was living away in Boston studying music. He was called on a mission while in Boston and came home to prepare for this. Money was very scarce for us and we ate beans and potatoes until we all started to itch for (because of) an unbalanced diet. Even though money was very scarce, I was very happy and had some good friends and good times. I wore “hand me downs” all through school and was lucky to have a dress of my own for graduation because I worked and bought it. These were hard times but also some of the happiest of my life.
After I graduated from High School with honors, I went to work for a lady who was a librarian and was living with her mother. They were fine people and former neighbors. Sister Muir, the mother, had a stroke and could not be left alone. Her daughter Myrtle had to work as she was their main support. I spend the summer taking care of her in her home.
Her dad’s first heart attach
While I was at work one day, I got a phone call from mother saying my dad had just been brought home with a heart attack. I was so upset and though I was just a few short blocks from home I could not leave Sis. Muir alone so I had to wait for Myrtle to come home. When I finally got home I went into see my father and will never forget the terrible grey color of his face and to see how weak he was. We, of course, could not afford to have him in a hospital so mother cared for him at home. He remained very ill and bed ridden for 3 months. Neighbors and friends of my folks helped a great deal. Many of Dad’s friends sat with him during the night so that mother could rest. I soon had to give up my job because Lou was on his mission and Christina had passed away, I had to help my mother take care of family and all the other things to be done such as washing, ironing and tending Stella and generally helping all I could. This was a very sad time for us all. Dad’s company helped by paying some portion of his salary and I’m sure many neighbors helped also by sending money for Lou’s mission and bringing groceries. Some I remember like Wilford Young and Sister Wallace.
Dad recovered and was again able to return to work. We weathered the next couple of years through hard times which were to me more of a challenge than hardship. I had one new dress and during two years of high school and that plus a pair of white shoes. I was able to bring home money I earned baby sitting and doing house work. The dress I bought was special for school dances and for Easter to to be kept nice for graduation, dress and shoes. That is a far cry from these days.
Graduation From High School and After
The summer following graduation from high school I went to work as a dental assistant-no experience necessary. I worked for a Dr. Warren Hardy, members of our ward. He was a very fine dentist and I received excellent training. I nearly fainted when I saw and assisted during a first extraction but soon became quite tough. I soon had an opportunity to move up and worked for a dentist who had a clinic (with) two or three chairs. This meant more money and more experience. After a couple of years things began looking up and I was now 18 years old and though I was having a very good time and was very busy singing in operas and having many boy friends. I began to feel it was time I ought to be doing something serious with my life. I wanted to be called on a mission but that was out until I became 21.
Meeting Farron
Lou came home from his mission and I dated some of his older friends. I also had a fairly steady friend who was beginning to talk of making serious plans. At this point I realized these boys were definitely not the men I wanted so I began to pray for the Lord to help me make up my mind what to do or else send someone else into my life. I was asked by a friend to bring our sextette to sing at a ward out in Cottonwood. Her boyfriend was a returned missionary and president of the mutual in Cottonwood 1st Ward. We sang on the program and had such a lot of fun and were laughing and having so much fun as we usually did. I was not aware at all of the young man who came for us and took us home until he called me a week or two later and asked me to go to a special fraternity party. I was to be a very nice affair so I went. The evening arrived and the young missionary, Farron Cutler, picked me up at home and we had a marvelous time, flowers and favors and everything. I wondered a little what my girlfriend would say but what the heck, she had dumped my brother Bob for this boy and his car and money. On a lovely summer evening after a few dates Farron asked me to marry him. This was the funniest thing I’d ever heard after so few dates. I just laughed at him. I was sure he couldn’t be serious. A short time later he let me know that he had meant what he said and since he was going away for six weeks to ROTC during the summer I would have time to make up my mind. I was now 19 years old and getting up there, so I really began to think a bit more seriously and to pray more fervently to know what to say and do. We wrote to each other for six weeks and as time was running out, I began to try and think if I could even remember what he looked like since I was to meet him at the airport when he came home. I REMEMBERED!
Will you marry me?
One weekend Farron suggested we take a picnic and go for a ride. I had a strong tendency to get car sick and struggled very hard to not show it. After we had our lunch, we headed toward home. We started down some canyon and it began to rain and became a real cloudburst. Farron stopped the car, pulled over and said “perhaps we had better get out of this narrow canyon. Then he turned, looked me in the eye and said, “well, will you marry me”? . Faced with only two alternatives, I nodded my head and said umhum. Farron would not accept that. He made me say “yes”, so I did and then he said “Yes what?” I then said: “Yes I will marry you.”
We had a fun summer and I got my diamond in the fall. We set the date for April during spring break. Winter went, spring came and all was set for our marriage. Farron got the flu and was not able to go with me for my Endowments. My mother and Dad went with me. A couple of weeks before April 7, 1937 a couple of problems arose such as R.O.TC. Inspection was set on April 7. Farron talked to the officers about our problem. At inspection the entire R.O.T.C. company was told about our plans to marry on that day. Since we had rented the Temple and all the apostles (Brother Widtso) he was excused from inspection. We will never live that down. After spring break and a honeymoon in California with a black eye he received when he dove for the bed and pillows covered an iron bar on which he hit head and blacked his eye.
I met Farron through my music activity and we were married in 1937-April 7/ Farron was still in college and graduated in June of that year. It has always been a joke between us that I was supporting him through his college because I was still working. On my salary it was a big joke. He was supported through money left him when his parents died when he was 12 years old. We had a little two room apartment upstairs in a converted house on 9th East but we were happy and it was a cute apartment.
First home
Our first home was a little apartment on 9th East just south of 13th South in Salt Lake. It was upstairs and had two rooms and a large bath and storage room. We bought a studio couch for turning into a bed. Our living room and bedroom were nice and roomy. My parents gave us a little kitchen set at the cost of $13.00. Mother saved the money I’d been paying for my keep-$3.00 a week. We loved our little apt. home and were happy there for 9 months. Farron graduated in June with Estelle his sister. It was quite a day-a happy one. His friends and associates thought I was keeping him in school as they had to get a job before they could marry. After school was out Farron went to work as an accountant for a dairy his Uncle Frank, his guardian, had begun. He hunted for work at many places and the only place asking for a degree was “Woolworths”, a five and ten cent store. After a couple of years later he went to work at the Federal Reserve Bank at the Salt Lake City branch. After 3 years of apartment living we made plan to build a home out in Cottonwood very close to his Aunt Zola and Uncle Court who raised him after his parents died. My father helped with making plans having our first home built on Highland Circle. It was five rooms and later a garage and also later a barn and chicken coop. We were very happy there.
We were married three years when we bought our acre of ground out in Cottonwood and built a pretty little five room house. My father helped us by acting as supervising architect and the contractor claimed he lost money on the deal because he was forced to abide by the specifications and I suspect he really did loose money. He didn’t know y Dad. We went out one weekend to see the progress of the house. The house was up to the square and room studs and everything was done in inferior lumber. Dad made them tear the whole thing down and start over with #1 lumber. The contractor signed a contract and Dad insisted he stick to it.
Getting pregnant with Ron
Four years had passed and I was not able to get pregnant. The doctor examined me and said he could not see any reason why I was unable to conceive. He told me to send Farron in but Farron refused to go. In the very near future Farron had an acute appendicitis attack and had to have on operation. Within a month after this I became pregnant. His poisoned appendix had been the culprit all along.
We had our first son on January 29, 1941. He was sick when we come home and we had to take him back to the hospital with pneumonia. He was home again with a week. He was such a cute little boy and made me very happy. All my long desire for a little girl to dress in ruffles and ribbons and bows was forgotten. A little boy in overalls and an old straw hat fishing in an irrigation ditch with a willow from a tree, to me was the greatest blessing one could ask for. We used to go walking -winter and summer with a wash basket and a shovel to make us both happy. In the summer the basket was tied to a red wagon and in the winter tied to a sleigh for the snow. Happy days.
World War II and Farron’s deferment
Before Ron turned one year old we were faced with a country at war. Farron was called to report for duty and exams. If he had been taken he would go as a Captain since he was a First Lieutenant in the Reserve. If he had to go to war he would not have been home for his little son’s first birthday. We did a lot of praying and fortunately for us he was discharged due to “server and incapacitating hay fever.” My, what a relief. The U.S. did enter the war and the public was faced with many shortages of food stuffs and metals which were necessary to sustain an army.
Life on the farm
It was in this house that our first little son, Ronald, came to live with us two years later. Ronald was born January 29, 1941. He was ill when we brought him home and had to take him back to the hospital with pneumonia at two weeks but he got well soon and was with us again. I was so happy with my life as wife and mother. Our work increased as we began the life of “Frontier Farmer’s”. We bought a cow, a pig, and some chickens to help feed our little family and soon another little son came by to keep Ronnie company and me on my toes. Ken was born August 4, 1943.
The Cutlers bought a cow to help us to have milk, cream and butter which I made in an old wooden churn. We planted a garden and raised chickens and even a couple of pigs for meat. This all was possible because of our first little home at 4850 Highland Circle where we bought an acre of ground. MY father helped us in this undertaking by acting as supervising architect. The only thing we did not take his advise on was insisting on double forming of the foundation. After it had been poured he thought we should have insisted that the builder do that. That was the only thing we had any trouble with. My father was a builder and a very excellent one at that. He had built many homes in Bear Lake, Idaho area. He was then employed as an architect and draftsman for Morris and Merrill Company since he had a bad heart and he was not able to do the physical work.
We had a very happy life on Highland Circle. We raised our three son’s there in a country atmosphere. They learned to work and help with the gardening.
Singing throughout her life
The first time I remember singing in public was at the age of 4 or 5 years for a Christmas program in the St Charles Ward in St. Charles, Idaho. I sat in a rocking chair with my dolly and sang a “Oh Hush Thee My Baby”. I guess this was the beginning love for singing. In grade school, after moving to Salt Lake, I began singing in special little choruses. The first teacher who seemed to take an interest in my voice was Mrs. Godbey. She was a short little lady with a bad back but she gave me some confidence. I really needed some. My life at home was not one to make me think I could do anything. I had a real inferiority complex as a child. When I started junior high school at Bryant Jr. High School, I began to become aware that I had an identity and I took special music classes. I had a part in the school Opera but I can’t remember what it was called. It was probably written by one of the teachers. When I went to high school, my musical life really began. I was admitted into the Loreli-Crystaline chorus under the direction of Walter A. Wallace a very fine musician about the age of my father. I learned more voice training under his direction than at any other time in my life. Each chorus practice was a voice and music lesson. We were never allowed to sing out until we were as nearly perfect in performance as he felt we could be. I enjoyed this experience as much as any in my life. I listened very hard and tried to do just what he told us because I realized that I would never be able to afford voice lessons.
During my high school years I sang in the chorus of two Civic Opera’s during the summer months under the direction of J. Spencer Cornwal. I took the lead roll of two operettas in the ward. One was H.M.S. Pinnafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. The name of the other was not as familiar and has slipped my mind. I sang a secondary lead in West High’s presentation of “Melinka of Ostripare, a Russian story musical. Toward my second year for 2 or 3 years later we organized a sextette. Frank Barnes,was a drummer, who played in the orchestra that played for a ward musical that I starred in. My parents were not one bit happy about my association with this older man or this project but there was nothing for them to worry about. He was a dance band drummer and that didn’t helphis image any. Anyway, he and I organized a fine group and we sang many, many places. Frank acted as our agent and manager and was good to us all. The members of our sextette were Jean Keddington, Marcice Crosby as altos, Edith Fiisher and Bernice Vowles as seconds. Violet Crowther and me as sopranos. Our accompanist was Margaret Bourne. We remained together until we began to get married and this broke up the old gang of mine but we will never forst one another.
When we finally moved out to Cottonwood my song took another direction.
Highland Circle Life
Farron was called to be a counselor to Elder James Faust when he was made our Bishop. This was another challenge and a great blessing to us. We soon had to sell our cow cause I couldn’t learn to milk her no matter how I tried, (but not very hard.)
We finished our little white house on Highland Circle and lived there for about fifteen years and added 3 cute little boys to our family whom we enjoyed and loved very much. As has been written, Farron worked very actively in the church for all these years. He was Elders Quorum President, Stake Sunday School Superintendent, Stake High Priest President in the Cottonwood Stake and was asked by James Faust to serve as a counselor to him in the Cottonwood First Ward Bishopric. This was a wonderful experience for our whole family and I’m sure all our testimonies increased.
Second home on Highland Circle
One summer Aunt Zola and Uncle Courtney went to California to the funeral of a half sister. They decided to live there since Uncle Court was now retired from his job in Salt Lake. The emptied the old house of every thing but memories. After all this was really the only real home he had many memories of. We rented the old home for Aunt Zo and Uncle Court. They did not take good care of the house and this was very worrisome for all of us. One day we received a letter from Aunt Zo asking if we would like to buy the old home and fix it up. We made an offer that I was sure they wouldn’t accept. I hoped not. We were surprised when our offer was accepted for $15,000 and we were stuck. Of course we would have to do considerable remodeling and since we were young and didn’t know that it couldn’t be done we started the work of tearing out and down and in six months we did it.
Our two little boys, Ron 10 and Ken 7 were very happy with our project because they loved the old homestead very much. This became a family project and a BIG ONE. Farron tore out all the rotted old floors and were advised we must excavate 18 inches below the floor joists?? Well that summer two little boys excavated that entire project with shovels and a wheel barrow. Workers later said it was impossible to believe if they hadn’t seen it done.
We tore out bricks to make doors and archways. We lowered 12 foot ceilings to make 8 and 9 foot ceilings. We added 3 bathrooms, closet and cupboards I couldn’t fill. We made a large picture window in the Parlor and added a beautiful fireplace with windows on either side.
We were very fortunate to have a friend by the name of Mel Going who was a very fine builder and knew how to do the things we suggested even to changing the very steep stairway by making a landing and turning the top five steps backwards. If I wanted a closet somewhere he knew just how to do it. We came over one evening to tear out bricks where we wanted a door and the workmen made a frame for a door. Each morning I went over to the house and told Melvin what I would like to be done and “presto” it was done.
Bell’s from the other side of the veil
A little incident that might be of interest to you is the morning when Farron went over to the old home to begin working on tearing up the floor in the front hall. As he rode a bike along the road he heard a bell ringing in the Old House. He says he was very nervous about going up the drive to the house. As he got closer the bell became louder and it definitely was coming from inside the house. As he found out, there had been a bell installed in the bedroom (our living room) for when Aunt Zoe and Uncle Court were living with Grandma Bagley. The bell had been wired to the upstairs bedroom so that if Grandma Bagley needed help she just had to push a button somewhere in her room which would alert Aunt Zo. During our tearing out floors and such, some how that bell wire had been activated and cause the bell to ring. He said it was very hard for him to go in the house because, even as a young man, he had weird dreams about it for various reasons.
Well to complete this episode in our life, the house was finally completed enough for us to move in just before Christmas. While I was working in the big house, Farron, Newell Kiehre, and James Faust had secured a truck to move some of the heavier furniture so they brought the fridge, the stove and all my kitchen equipment which I did not want yet but here it came and soooo!!! We were moved in for a week before Christmas whether I wanted it or not.
While living in the old house we had many happy times and used every inch of those nine big rooms and three acres of ground. Joe Raymond, a farmer and dairy man, farmed most of the 13 plus 3 acres of ground surrounding the house.
Raising Corn – Cutler Corn
The year Ron was working to obtain his Eagle Scout Award, he planted on acre south of the house into “corn”. Ron had contacted Doug Cutler for details of what type seed and how to care for it, spraying, watering, etc.
The Farron Cutler Family gave the Doug Cutler family a run for their money. We too sold Cutler Corn. The boys took little red wagon loads of corn over to the subdivision to sell it. Bruce did this and Ron and Ken set up a stand out by the big gate to the property.
During the years we were living at this location James E. Faust was made over Stake President and our old ward was twice divided.
Rural to Urban
A large subdivision was built to the south of us and this was a very frustrating for us. A large Cottonwood Mall was built to the east of us and our country living was definitely changed to a urban area and we were definitely not happy about our situation. During the years we spent at 4920 Highland Circle we sent Ron to Ireland and Scotland on a mission, then Ken received a call to the London England Mission. This meant that we had two sons on a mission for a period of one year. Bruce was in Jr. High School so it was necessary for me to go to work. Since I was not trained for anything but homemaker and dental assistant I applied for sales clerk at the new mall and was put to work the day I applied. I felt I could still be close and available for Bruce if he needed me. It’s for sure I never made a great deal but it did help some for little extra expenses. (SIDENOTE: You will be sorry you made me write this cause my hand cramps on me again and you are going to have a hard time reading it!!!)
When Ron came home from his mission we were so very happy to have a family again. It was very happy two weeks then we were to experience a very trying year. I guess to test us all some more.
Ron’s Accident
After Ron had been home just two weeks, he was asked by a man in the ward if he could come to work to remove some steel (concrete forms) from a project on a building in town so he went to work the next day. The morning was not over until I received a phone call from our Bishop notifying me that there was an accident at work and Ron was at the LDS Hospital. I went immediately to the hospital. I was too upset to drive so I called Avard and he came to pick me up and take me in. I called Farron but he could not leave the bank until they were able to transfer custody of the vault., Nothing had been done when we arrived. I saw Ron as they were taking him to a room. Nothing had been done except to enter him at the hospital. I didn’t know who to call as his was a leg injury-almost severed-plus other injuries. Avard knew an orthopedic surgeon. Avard called him and within a very short time the Doctor came and shortly Farron was there too. This was the beginning of the most difficult trials of my entire life. Ron’s leg was almost completely severed just above the knee. He spent four months in the hospital in traction then was put in a huge cast from his chest to his feet.