Dad's Story Part 15

Willis Ericksen- High School Graduation

Great Falls, Montana

-1929 – 1933-

           I started my freshman year of High School in the old high school building near downtown Great Falls.  I remember enjoying Freshman English because it consisted of mainly reading English literature.  We read a lot about Roman and Greek mythology.  I also took algebra, which was very difficult for me.  The other classes I took that year have mostly faded from my memory.  

Great Falls High School

          During my sophomore year of high school I had the pleasure along with about 2,000 other students, of breaking in a brand new high school building, which was a marvelous structure.  It was a two-story brick building.  On the west side of the campus was a modern football stadium with grass turf and floodlights for night games.  This was the first high school in the state of Montana to have a lighted football field.  On the north end of the school building was the double gymnasium that had a large folding door that divided the area into two full size gyms for boys and girls PE classes.  With the doors open there was room on the north and south side for bleachers in addition to balcony seating for basketball games on a court that ran east and west.  On the far south end of the building was a beautiful auditorium that could seat over 2,000 people.  The stage and lighting equipment were the finest and most modern available.  There were footlights and overhead lights with banks or red, yellow and blue lights that were controlled by a huge switching and mixing panel where the different colored lights could be mixed to make all different colors of the rainbow.  This auditorium was as good as any theater in the State. 

            Another outstanding feature of this building was its mechanical arts department.  There was a fine mechanical drawing room, a wood working shop, a tin (or metal) shop, an electrical shop, a print shop and machine shop.  During my three years at the school I took three years of mechanical drawing, one year of electric shop, and one year of machine shop. 

            During our first year in Great Falls, I started taking
saxophone lessons from Mr. Richards who had a boy’s band that practiced at the YMCA.  At this time music and the band was just a sideline with Mr. Richards; his main job was with the Great Falls Tribune Newspaper.  I soon was good enough to play alto saxophone in the Great Falls Boys Band.  

        The music department had a large room for the band, and another large room for the orchestra.  The school hired Mr. Richards the first year the new building was opened, to direct the high school band.  So I played in the band the three years that I was there.  I started off on the alto sax, and the last year I played the school’s baritone sax.  The band played at all the football and basketball games, and each year we prepared for a big band concert that was held in the auditorium.  We worked on this all year long and it was really good.  The special numbers like the saxophone sextet I played were all memorized.  There were also instrumental solos, trios, duets, etc as well as the numbers played by the entire band.  There were no high school marching bands in those days like they have today.

12th Grade report card

            The other subject that I remember taking besides the one already mentioned were English, two years of French, history, physics, geometry, advanced algebra, and trigonometry.  I had to go to summer school after flunking my sophomore English composition class.

 

Christmas Memories

                               DAD' S  CHRISTMAS  MEMORY  FROM  GREAT FALLS

We lived in the new house on Central Avenue for a little more than a year.  Then we moved to an older and larger house on 3rd Avenue north across the street from a large hospital.  The house had a coal furnace in the basement and it was my job to carry out the ashes every day after school.  

 There was a big bay window on the west side of the house, with a window seat over the hot water radiator.  One Christmas evening we went for a ride to see the Christmas decorations and left a large three inch diameter candle burning in this window which was visible from the street that ran along the west side of the house.  The house was on a corner lot so there was a street on the south and west side of the house.  While we were gone the heat from the radiator caused the candle to tip over against the curtain and set it aflame.  Fortunately someone saw it immediately and called the fire department before too much damage occurred.  

 

                           MOM'S  CHILDHOOD  CHRISTMAS  MEMORIES

Christmases at our home were always special too, with dad often acting the part of Santa, in the old red velvet pants and coat and a cotton-batting beard.  The house was always decorated with the red and green garlands from one corner of the room to the other.  

 

 

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.

Dad's History Part 12

8th Grade graduation  (Willis seated on far right)

The Eventful year at Spokane, Washington

                            
         I don’t remember what time of the year we arrived in Spokane, but it was in 1928 and probably in the late spring or early summer.  The school I attended in Spokane was the Jefferson Elementary located on South Grand Ave not very far from where we lived.  I was in the eighth grade, and remember that most of the girls in the class were at least six to eight inches taller than the boys.  I was one of the shorties.  For eighth grade graduation the girls all had dresses made from the same pattern, some were a pastel pink and some were blue. 

The most memorable part of my school year was my “wood-working” or shop class.  We had a very good “Manual Training” teacher from whom I learned a lot about how to properly use wood working tools.  During the year I made a very beautiful walnut stool.  The legs and sides had handmade mortise and tenon joints, and it is solid to this very day.

 School dances were held occasionally and this was about the only time in my life that I cared much about dancing.  I probably took and interest in dancing at this time because of a cute little blonde girl who sat across the aisle from me in school.  I don’t remember her name, but she was short (about the same height as I was), and she is the only one I remember dancing with. 

I went out for basketball, and baseball during my eighth grade year, but because of my small, immature stature spent most of the games as a bench warmer.  At this time of my life, my eyesight was still pretty good and I didn’t have to wear glasses, so I enjoyed sports and was an enthusiastic participant even though I didn’t set any records.

I continued with my scouting activities while living in Spokane, and was a member of Troop 53, which met, at our schoolhouse.  During the summer of 1929, I spent a week at scout camp on Diamond Lake.  It was there that I received my 1st Class badge.  This was one of the biggest thrills of my life up to that point.  I felt a great sense of accomplishment, because I had worked hard to pass all the tests leading to this goal. 

During our year in Spokane I had a paper route.  I delivered the afternoon paper, called the Spokane Press.  The route was in the neighborhood where we lived, and I had about thirty or forty customers.  It was a relatively small paper, so we folded all the papers into a little square so that we could throw them from the sidewalk to the front porch of our customers without getting off the bike. 

Spokane had a YMCA, which I joined.  This is where I first learned to play ping-pong, and shoot pool.  The “Y” had a good swimming pool and an instructor that taught swimming and lifesaving.  It was here that I started on my Jr. Red Cross Lifesaving program. 

 

Mom's Story Part 15

 

We had a little movie house, which was located in the same building as the Old Social Hall and in the same building as our present Theater.  There was a large stove in the southeast corner of the room, and during the winter months it was heated to red hot, those sitting too close were too hot and the rest of the room was too cold.  Every Saturday night there was a show, but I can hardly remember seeing one complete movie without having a break down in the projector or the lights going off.  When the lights went off the entire audience could cry, “Come on, Muder!”  Mr. Muder of Shumway operated the Grist Mill, which furnished the electricity for the area.  Two shows I loved were “Ben Hur” and “Sign of the Cross”. 

 I could imagine myself as the beautiful actress. The movie actors of the day were Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.  Clark Gable was just becoming popular as was Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy.  I dearly loved Jeannette McDonald and wanted to become a singer just like her. 

Clark Gable

Nelson Eddy and Jeannette McDonald

 

There are two amusing incidents connected with the Show House I’d like to tell.  The seats were folding chairs and of course, the kids all tried to get on the front row.  One night after returning home, Roscoe was not with us, so Mother sent us over to Brother Avery’s to get him to open the Show House.  After turning on the lights we checked every row, and along toward the front we found a little boy stretched out on the floor asleep.  But it was not Roscoe it was Leslie Ballard.  We continued on a few more rows toward the front and we found Roscoe stretched out on the floor asleep.  Two little sleepy boys headed for home in embarrassment.  

The other incident involved my sister Mayola.  She had come home from college with her hair a beautiful red color.  She explained to Mother, who was shocked, that it was just henna and would soon fade.  However, Mother was humiliated and insisted that she wear a hat all during the holidays.  At the Saturday night Show, Mayola took off her hat in the darkened room, but as usual the film broke down and the lights came on.  Someone in the back whispered loudly, “Look! Mayola has dyed her hair.”  Mother indignantly turned and said, “No, it isn’t dyed, it’s just henna-ed!”

This building was used for the movie theater

Snowflake Social Hall today