The Snowflake Years - 1950s

The Snowflake Years – the 1950s

            My health was real poor during this time; the worry of school and finances had taken its toll on me.  I had had several miscarriages and was very disappointed that we were unable to have any more children.  Jim was six this year. 

Jimmy and Folks

            We came to Arizona to take the State Board Examination, thinking all the time we would go back to Portland to live, because we loved it there.  However, Mother and Dad were planning on a Mission and needed someone to take care of their place while they were gone.   So after we passed the State Board, we decided to stay in Snowflake at least until they returned in two years.  That was in 1951, and we are still here. 

            I must tell you a little about the State Board Examination.  Bill had studied very hard for it --up early and late at night.  We set up a study room in the basement and I would ask him review questions and try to help him where I could.  The examination was held at the State Prison in Florence, using prisoners as patients.  We were so strapped financially, Mother had to write the $50 check it took to take the exam.  Dr. Trueblood the chairman of the examining board saw the “Leonora S Rogers” signature on the check and asked Bill about it.   “She’s my mother-in-law,” said Bill.  “That woman was been corresponding with me for years to get a Dentist in Snowflake…I’d almost assure you a passing grade just to satisfy her,” replied Dr. Trueblood.  But Bill earned his passing grade.  He was a little late getting to the Prison and all the other applicants had selected prisoners to work on.  Only one big black man was left for Bill.  But again, the Lord had heard our supplications, and was mindful of my fasting, and this patient could not have been better and more cooperative.  He seemed to sense what passing that exam meant to us.   In September 1951 we had word Bill had passed the exam.  Already patients were lined up for him to work on, as there were no dentists for miles around. 

This photo was published in Snowflake's Centennial History by Albert Levine

            Before Dad left for his mission he helped us fix up three rooms for an office in the old Bank Building with $1500 we borrowed from the bank on his signature.  How we worked.  We were mighty proud of our new expensive equipment in those newly decorated rooms.  One day Mr. McEvoy, the banker came up to have Bill work on his teeth.  My, did I make those rooms shine before he came.  I helped Bill in the office for a while, but we soon found that we stayed better friends if we did not work together all day long.  We made a pact:  He’d take care of the Dental Business and I’d take care of the other business.  This has worked well for thirty years and we have had no disputes. 

            Again, Red had an overseas assignment and Mayola moved to Snowflake while he served in Japan.  She took over the operation and remodeling of the Chapel Village Court, which Mother and Dad owned.  I did the washing, ironing, and handled the operation of the yards and gardens around this big place.  We could really put out the work.  She stayed about a year then went to Japan to be with Red. 

Marsha Preston

            During the year Mayola was in Snowflake, Louise let her daughter Marsha come to live with us and go to school here.  The long winters in Wyoming and the deep snow made it difficult for Marsha to get to school.  She was just a little older than Jim, so they became life-long friends.  Later, when Marsha was in the 7^th grade she spent another winter with me.  She is like my own daughter. 

            On August 28, 1952, a day I shall always remember, Uncle Jesse Smith, who was the Stake President, came into the office and took Bill and I into a back room.  There he called Bill as the first Bishop of the Snowflake Second Ward.  Snowflake Ward had a membership of nearly 700 people and had never been divided in 78 years.  Elder Delbert L Stapley was the visiting authority.  Uncle Jesse asked me to serve him dinner on Saturday evening before conference.  We visited, but not once did we tell him of our desire for more children.  We had exhausted all possibilities with doctors whom we thought could help us.  However, when Bill was set apart the next day, Elder Stapley promised him that our family would be increased and that we would be able to have more children.  Those in the room who heard the blessing were touched and I was overwhelmed!  This was one of the great moments in our lives.  Two year later, after an operation, I was able to conceive again. 

Elder Delbert L Stapley

            During the time Bill was a Bishop was probably the happiest nine and a half years of our lives.  Any thought of leaving Snowflake had left our minds.  We felt the Lord had directed our paths to this wonderful little town, and this was where we were to serve.  Many important events happened during these years.  President David O McKay visited Snowflake for our Diamond Jubilee on July 24, 1953.  We entertained many important people such as the Governor of the State, Secretary of Agriculture (Ezra Benson), and many Church officials.  These were extremely busy years for me also.  I served in nearly all the auxiliary organizations.  But, the most important event was the birth of our darling little daughter, Mary Ann, born December 15, 1956.  How can I explain the ecstasy?  The entire ward rejoiced with us.  During tithing settlement that year, every person wanted a peek at that promised child.  It was too much, and I was foolish, as Mary Ann contracted pneumonia and only through our faith and prayers were we able to save her precious life.  Eighteen months later we were blessed with another beautiful daughter, Christine, when I was age forty.  I idolized these little girls.  No other single thing has meant so much to me in my lifetime, and I feel eternally thankful for these two lovely daughters.  There were twelve years between Jim and Mary Ann, but they have always been the best of friends.  Jim was as thrilled as Bill and I and he has been a protecting and loving big brother for his sisters. 

Mary Ann

The Ericksen family

Mom's Story School Years Part 2

School Years (Part 2)

            On June 8, 1947 Bill graduated from BYU.  He made excellent grades in spite of all he was doing to earn a living for us.  He sent three applications to Dental Schools around the Northwest.  He was rejected at Seattle and San Francisco, but he was given an alternate position at the University of Oregon in Portland.  Over 500 applicants were vying for positions that year at Oregon.  It did not look like we would get in, but late in September we got the letter stating that he was accepted.  I was elated, ran around the neighborhood waving the letter and singing, “We’re accepted, we’re accepted!” 

We had about a week to get packed and enrolled.  That was all it took for us.  We purchased a second-hand two-wheel trailer and loaded it to the hilt with our gear, Jimmy’s high chair on the very tip-top.  That trailer almost proved to be our down fall because when we were high in the mountains of Idaho, we had a flat tire and the spare tire would not fit the rim on the trailer, so Bill put little rock pebbles around the tire and cautiously rolled into a garage in a little out-of –the way town.  Luck was with us, we found in the attic of that old garage, a tire that would fit.  The Lord blessed us so much during that time and answered our fervent prayers. 

            The Ericksen grandparents insisted on keeping Jim while we went on to Portland.  Housing was at a premium.  A kind Stake President helped us find our first place to stay.  Finally we found lodging in the home of a Mrs. Cameron, a widow with an invalid daughter, and we were able to bring Jimmy from Coeur d’Alene.   Grandma wanted to keep him, but I was too lonely.  I cannot tell all the problems confronting us during this period.  Bill’s studies were completely absorbing, and the GI Bill only covered the tuition and books with little left to live on, so again I went to work.  I didn't want to leave Jim, so I found a job at the Volunteers of America Nursery School.  I taught there all four years we were in Portland, and Jimmy was able to go with me.  It was a lifesaver for us.  The Volunteers of America was not to Jim’s liking at all.  A policy, which prevented a Teacher-Mother from being in the same room with her child, caused a great deal of trauma for Jimmy.  Even the playgrounds were separate and little two-year old Jimmy stood at the fence with his arms out stretched to me, crying for me to come to him.  It was terrible for him and also it tore my heart out.  Later, when he was in the three-year old group I taught the four-year olds and he often broke away from the teacher and came crying into my room.  It was no wonder that I developed colitis and suffered terrible tummy aches.  But, we both survived. 

            Housing was tight.  We moved so many times I can’t count them.  But, we were saved by a hair from the Van Port flood, which wiped out hundreds of homes and some loss of life.  During the war the government had built a city of two-story houses for employees who were working in the shipyards there on the Columbia River.   These houses were flimsy and run down and they repulsed me.  The day of the flood was Memorial Day and many people were away from home.  We had spent the day driving out around the Columbia River to see the flood and had just left the Van Port area when the radio announced the break in the dike.  The mighty Columbia gushed out spilling mountains of water over the flimsy homes.  It was as if they were matchboxes in the angry fury splintering and breaking up over the first bombardment.  We had made up our minds that Memorial Day, that we would move into Van Port as there did not seem to be any other place.  Another day or so and we would have been involved in that terrible flood.  The Lord blessed us constantly. 

            We tried to accept any Church assignments that came to us and there were many.  I was in the Relief Society Presidency and Bill in the Sunday School.  Later I served as a councilor in the Stake MIA Presidency.  One interesting incident while Bill was the Sunday School Superintendent occurred when he asked for a man who was virtually inactive to be his councilor.  He had been this man’s home teacher and saw a great potential leader in him. This proved to be the turning point of this man’s life and he grew in the Church and was given many important positions, even that of a Stake President.  We made wonderful lasting friends during those years in Portland. 

            Time and space will prohibit my telling the many activities we engaged in to make a living.  Every summer the endless quest for a job occurred.  He worked one year in a noisy, steamy cannery,  another time for the railroad,  one time he was a night clerk at the Prince Albert Hotel,  and one summer we came to Snowflake and operated Mother and Dad’s motel.  They let us have every penny we made off the Court during those seven weeks.  We went back to Portland with $600 in our pockets.  We felt so rich!

            In June 1951, Bill graduated from the University of Oregon Dental School.  Only he and I have any idea the cost in hard work and worry that came with that degree.  For his graduation I bought, with Mother’s money, the first new dress I had had in the four years we were in school.  I had made a beautiful little blue suit from an old pair of pants for Jimmy and he looked adorable.  I was very proud and happy.