Dad's Story Part 14

Great Falls, Montana

-1929 – 1933-

            Great Falls, Montana is a little “jewel” of a city in north central Montana on the south bank of the Missouri River.  When we lived there its population was about 30,000.  The city got its name from a large falls in the river east of the city.  A large hydroelectric generating plant at the falls provided an abundance of cheap electricity for the city and for a large copper refinery across the river from Great Falls at Black Eagle.  The refinery belonged to the Anaconda Copper Company.  Besides producing near pure copper ingots by the electrolytic process.  They also made copper wire. 

            Great Falls’ domestic water supply came from a large spring just east of the city near the bank of the river, called Giant Springs.  The flow of this spring was constant the year around, and had a flow of thousands of gallons per hour.  There was a fish hatchery at the springs. 

            The countryside in this part of Montana is very barren of trees.  The low rolling hillsides are covered with grass and wild flowers in the spring and early summer, but there are no trees or brush except along the banks of the river.   

            The first house we lived in was on about 15th East on Central Avenue.  It was a new house.  I believe we were its first tenants.  About all I remember of this house was that it had a furnace that was controlled with a thermostat, which was a very new invention at the time.  I also remember that there were no lawns or landscaping around the house, and the following spring Dad worked very hard to get a lawn started around the house. 

 a new invention:the thermostat

            We learned during our first winter in Montana what 40 degrees below zero temperatures are like, and that the wind blows very hard and drifts the snow into ten to fifteen foot drifts.  We soon learned the necessity of keeping ears, fingers, and toes well covered or they would freeze in a very short time.  And when they did become frost bitten the thawing out process was very painful. 

 

Dad's Story Part 13

Graham-Paige automobile

          My grandfather, James A. Gilbert stayed with us a part of the time that we lived in Spokane.  Grandfather Erick Henry Ericksen died in December of 1929, and the summer after his passing away, grandmother Ericksen and Jerry came to Spokane to visit us.  Shortly before their visit Dad had bought a new car, a four door Graham-Paige.  He bought it from a car dealer in Opportunity, Washington, which is a suburb east of Spokane.  Dad was very proud of this car, and it was the finest one we ever had.  Dad took a two-week vacation during the summer of 1929, and to help “break-in” the new car we decided to take grandma and Jerry back to Mt. Pleasant.  The car was pretty well loaded with three adults, two teenage boys, and my brother Frank, who was nine years old, and Frances who was one and a half years old.  Everything went along beautifully until we got nearly to the Utah border.  Then just a few miles north of Preston, Idaho, as we were going up a slight grade on a very twisty road – a big green car coming down the hill and around a blind curve suddenly appeared on our side of the road.  In order to avoid a head-on collision, Dad quickly swerved off the road and into the ditch.  The car tipped over on its right side, but since we were not going very fast at the time, the car was not too seriously damaged.

 Mother and I were the only casualties.  We were both sitting on the right side of the car.  I received a couple of deep cuts on my left elbow and third finger.  Mother’s right leg and hip were injured, but not broken.  Several people stopped to help us and rendered first aid to Mother and I.  The car that forced us off the road, did not stop, but sped on down the road.  The car was put back up on its wheels, and we were able to drive on into Preston, Idaho where a doctor sewed up my cuts.  I’m sure the Lord was protecting us during this mishap.  If Dad had not reacted so quickly, we could have all been killed.     

            While we were in Utah, Uncle Ralph Ericksen, who played in a dance band in Salt Lake, helped us pick out a used alto saxophone.  My first formal music training had begun in Lewiston, Idaho, where I had been exposed to piano lessons for about two years.  For some reason or another I did not enjoy practicing the piano and as a result my progress on the piano scarcely got off the ground.  I remember spending a lot of time trying to convince my Mother that I should be spared the agony of continuing my piano lessons.  She finally gave in after I compared my piano lessons to the drudgery of scrubbing clothes on the washboard, which she was doing at the time I thought of that argument.

       Another musical adventure that I had while we lived in Lewiston was with a Hawaiian steel guitar that we ordered from a magazine advertisement.  The “deal” included self-instruction lessons, which I worked at diligently for several weeks.  My interest in this so waned as I was not destined to be another Alvino Ray.  

Shortly after returning from our trip to Mt. Pleasant, Utah with Grandma Ericksen and Jerry, Dad was transferred from Spokane to Great Falls, Montana.  There he was promoted to assistant division manager of the Continental Oil Company.  This was in the late summer of 1929. 

 

Mom's Story Part 16

ANDREW LOCY ROGERS FAMILY

In the picture:  Left to right:  seated - Clara Gleason, Thora, Andrew Locy, Clara

standing - Chase, Alvirus, Leroy, Marion, and Andrew.

**A quote from Biography of Marion Rogers by His Wife Leonora S. Rogers pg.89**
"August 1919 marked the beginning of a new venture for four Rogers boys (Chase, Marion Alvirus and Leroy).  They formed a company known as Rogers Brothers Road Contracting Company with Chase as manager.....  (For many years) they built many roads in Arizona."

Horse team with Fresno scraper

During this time (early 1930s) my Dad was just realizing that he could no longer compete with the new wonderful road-building equipment coming on the market with the immense tractors and dirt movers, so seeing the handwriting on the wall, decided to get out of the business of road building with horse teams and fresno scrapers.  However, his brothers remained and the next year or so took heavy losses on some of their contracts.  They mortgaged their homes and land to pay the debts, but Dad and Mother picked up the mortgages from the Bank and paid them off through their hard work and saving habits.  Later, when Dad and Mother were on their mission and the lands were finally paid for, Dad returned the deeds to the homes and lands back to his brothers with no interest or payments.  It was a magnanimous gift of love.  This gift was given just a few months before Uncle Bige’s death.

            In 1932 it was the height of the depression and there was very little money available.  Dad was faced with the problem of sending children to college.  This was one of his dreams to give each of his children a college education – something he always longed to have.  So, in his creativity he started a milk route into Winslow, a thriving railroad town sixty miles west of Snowflake.  He used his family car at first for a truck, taking a few cases of milk and fresh garden produce but gradually the business grew to a point that a company was formed to take milk into both Holbrook and Winslow and the same truck hauled milk to both places.  He bought the milk from local farmers who had formed a cooperative organization. What an effort this business was for my father, getting up at three or four o’clock in the morning to get to Winslow then running madly for several hours delivering the milk to his customers.  After a day like this he would drive home just to pitch into the never-ending tasks of getting ready for the next day’s run.  Rain or snow, heat of summer, Sundays and holidays, the milk had to go.  Mayola and Scully were good to help him as long as they were home.  Mayola drove the truck and Scully ran the milk.  Often I was pressed into service to run the milk.  I remember how tired I was when the milk was delivered and I climbed into the truck to head for home.  Dad had several accidents during the sixteen years of service (from age forty-five to sixty).  Some were too close for comfort, but the Lord protected him and he prospered. 

Maeser Bldg at BYU

            Mayola started BYU in 1931.  I remember Mother sending her the huge amount of $15.00 per month.  On that allowance, it left no surpluses for clothing.  I suppose it was bleak at times.  However, one of Dad’s customers was Mr. Greaves, who owned a shoe store and paid Dad in shoes for the family.  They weren’t what we liked particularly but at least we were shod.  The pretty shoes seemed as though were always a half size too small for me, so I suffered a lot with sore feet and corns.  I’m sure my pride entered into the picture too, for I had big feet.