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.