Mom's Story School Years (Part I)

School Years (Part 1)

            Without a doubt the next six years were our hardest.  Bill had studied physics in college and loved it, but was undecided what career he should follow in such a field.  He didn’t want teaching, but we knew he needed more education for whatever he decided.  So after the Christmas holidays he went to the “Y” leaving Jim and me with my folks until he could find housing for us. Those were lonesome weeks without him, and even though it was good to be home with my folks, home was not the same anymore.  Home was with Bill.  In the spring he was able to get us a little house for a few months. 

            We spent the summer of 1946 in Coeur d’Alene working for his father.  Granddad Ericksen had to have a hernia operation, so after the operation and while he was recuperating he and Grandma Ericksen took a trip back East to visit their son Frank, while Bill and I operated the oil business.  It was a hard summer without any income, and when the summer was over and we returned to school our finances were very tight.  However, we had made a wonderful decision that summer, Bill had decided to go into Dentistry.  It came like a revelation after visiting with some young men from the Naval Base near Coeur d’Alene.  We felt sure it was the right thing for Bill to do.  By saving our GI benefits until we got into Dental School, we felt we would have enough to see us through, but not enough to keep us during the coming school year.  Bill had the equivalent of three years of college but by changing his major, it would necessitate him taking an extremely heavy load to get the requirements he needed.  Earning a living for a family had to be sandwiched in also. 

            As we had no place to stay at the “Y”, he decided to go ahead and find an apartment.  Leaving Jim and me in Wyoming with Louise and her family while he went ahead was hard for me.  I wasn’t used to the ranch life but I wanted to do all I could to help Louise with her many tasks.  During the three weeks I stayed there we washed bedding, cleaned house, and I did mountains of ironing and mending.  For October conference Royal and Louise took Jim and me to Salt Lake to meet Bill.  By this time he had found a job playing in a dance band, two, three, sometimes four nights a week; and he had found an unfurnished basement apartment in Orem for us to live in. 

The heat in the apartment was a wood cook stove and heater, and it was difficult for me to build fires with the fuel we had, so I was cold a lot of the time.  We purchased a second-hand pair of bedsprings for $15 and I put them on boxes and covered them with Navajo Rugs, until Bill made enough to get a $15 second-hand mattress to go on them.  Finally when we were able to buy an old iron bedstead, we felt we were pretty cozy. 

The furnishings for that little apartment came one by one as Bill was able to scrape together the money, but I soon had it attractive and comfortable for us.  I was alone so much at night and I had a fear of being alone.  I could imagine stealthy footsteps on the stairs.  I was always so grateful when Bill came home usually at midnight or 1:00 in the morning. 

            Bill was simply wonderful during those years of struggle.  Doggedly he conquered his tasks, both at school and on the home front.  We only had one car, and he had that so I was left afoot.  Orem was miles long with only a smattering of homes and businesses along the street.  I would take Jim in his stroller and walk miles to the grocery store or other shopping I needed to do. 

Bill’s courses at school were difficult, as he was trying to cram in requirements he needed for Dental School in one year.  I remember how difficult it was for him to write term papers, so he enlisted my help, bringing the reference books home for me to glean the ideas for his subject.  Finally, when the rough draft was completed he would read through my work and delete and cut out unnecessary parts to please him.  By the time we had the final copy ready to hand in, it was a masterpiece.  Sometimes he made A’s on those papers.  I was able to help him on all his term papers even when he got into Dental School until his third year.  When he brought his Histology paper to be written, try as I might, I could not understand the subject, so we parted company as far as our team effort on writing was concerned. 

            In the spring of his senior year at the “Y”, the school moved in some two-story barrack buildings called Wymont for married student housing.  We were one of the first to move in.  How happy I was to be close to neighbors and that wonderful school.  Often I would attend the Devotional Assembly.  Jim loved all the little kids in the neighborhood, and even though he was a little runaway, I loved living there.  It was a bog hole when we moved in and didn’t improve much during the remainder of the year.