Chapter 1 A Chapter 1 B Chapter 2. Chapter 3 Chapter 4A Chapter 4b Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8. Chapter 9. Chapter 10
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| Kenneth and Ann |
Ellis and I were married by the bishop in my parents’ living room on June 22, 1937. He was nearly 27 and I nearly 22. The only people there were my family and the bishop and his wife. We were married late in the afternoon. Afterwards we had a banquet which Mama had prepared. My wedding dress was a beautiful dress; white with blue flowers, street length and made of a semi sheer material. I had some new shoes. No one in those days had weddings that were any more elaborate than ours. Ellis had bought me a beautiful wedding ring which cost more than an engagement ring and a wedding ring usually did. Ellis had two days off work so we went to Pocatello the next day.
I never knew Ellis’ father, but I must mention his mother. She was more happy than anyone else, I believe, when Ellis and I were married. He had left home at about 18 and she was very worried about him. There really was no need for her worry, but she worried anyway. She wanted him married. We liked each other at once. She was so happy to have him married after all those years and to a little Mormon girl she like that she could hardly believe her good fortune. She stayed with us frequently. If we had a place large enough, she’d have lived with us. She was a lovely, gracious, educated lady. We came to love each other. We had an apartment near town which belonged to Mr. Witty, a relative of Ellis’ boss. It was an unfurnished basement apartment with four rooms. We got it and our utilities free for taking care of the apartment house and a smaller one next door. Taking care included cleaning when tenants moved. There were seven apartments besides ours. All the rest were large. There was a gas stove and an ice box that used block ice. Amos let us use an old bed. We picked up a few second hand pieces and our apartment was furnished. Ellis mad $125 a month with additional small percentages on certain shoes if he sold them. We really had plenty of money. In fact, Ellis always made good money. We lived in that apartment for about sixteen months. When school started my sister Lula came to live with us. She had been in a nursing program for a few months but didn’t like it and decided to become a teacher instead. Ellis’ brother Nephi, who had recently had a divorce, ate dinner with us for a long time. To my surprise I found I like being married. I didn’t often have my old high feeling, but Ellis and I nearly always had fun. I worked for a few months in the lunch counter at Newberry’s About the first thing I did was become pregnant. I went to wonderful, old Dr. F.M. Ray. The baby was due the first part of June. On May 1, Ellis and I went to a movie. As soon as we got there my labor pains started. I was so stupid I had no idea what it was. I just sat there and cried during the whole movie. When we got out, Ellis could see something was wrong so we hurried home. Ellis and I wondered if it could be the baby coming, but we were sure it could not be because the baby wasn’t due for another month. Ellis was as stupid as I was. In fact, he went out and bought some tea, made it and gave it to me to stop those labor pains. I had heard so many horrible stories about having a baby that I thought I’d have to nearly be dead to have a baby. In between the pains it wasn’t so bad. I could stand the pains and I didn’t feel as if I were dying so I didn’t dream I was about to have a baby. It was a Sunday evening and Lula had been to Blackfoot for the weekend. She came home about 12:30. Because of her brief time in nurses’ training she saw what was happening. She had Ellis call the doctor. He said to bring me to the hospital. I was there not quite an hour when Kenneth Wardle Chase was born on May 2, 1938 at about 2 A.M. He was a beautiful baby and we were both so proud of him. My dad lost his farm after living on it about two years. He got a little behind on payment. A man was sent to see him about it. My dad reacted as he usually did and beat the fellow up. He made that payment, but the fellow told Ellis, “I’d have worked with him, but no I’m just waiting to see him get behind again. When he does, I’ll get him!” Pap got behind and lost the farm. He usually reacted with his fists when anything went wrong. I have seen him lose so many times because of his temper. He never learned to control it and talk things out. As long as he was physically able, he just began to swing. He rented a couple of poor farms and finally bought a poor, rocky farm near Rigby. The good farm was lost by his temper. Ellis and I lived in the old first ward in Pocatello. We had such fun in the ward. Ellis had toured with a group of travelling actors and really knew quite a bit about the stage. He directed a play in which I played the female lead. It was a hit, as most church plays are, especially with the actors. We still danced as often as we could. I taught a primary class and Ellis was active in the elders’ quorum. Lula sometimes baby-sat for us. Ellis was very gentle and rather quiet. He was an aggressive salesman, but at home quite different. But he did have a big weakness. He loved clothes and spent a lot of money on them. He always looked super good. He was 5’11”, slender and with very curly, very dark brown hair. He one day bought two new suits! The suits cost more than he made in a month. Of course, they called for new shirts and ties. He always had lots of shoes. The day of the suits I just sat down and wept. Over the years, he curbed himself a little, but he was a spendthrift and I was a pinch-penny. Ellis insisted that his children and IU have nice clothes too. Before we were married Ellis told me of his heart condition. He had an aorta that did not function properly. It was the result of reoccurring rheumatic fever as a child. In those days no one knew what it was. When he was sick, he stayed home. As soon as he felt better, he was sent back to school. By the time he was 12 or 13 his heart was ruined. The doctors told his parent he would not live to be 18. But he did. In fact, he placed basketball on a team which won the Utah State Championship for their class and year. He worked in the fields and did other hard work. He was still alive and seemed healthy. He was honest with me about his condition, but we both paid little attention to it, nor did we worry about it. Ellis and I were sealed to each other and had Kenneth sealed to us in the Logan Temple September 20, 1839. We didn’t have a car, but dear Brother Joseph Brunt and his dear wife took us. Ellis and I were truly happy to be sealed to each other for time and eternity. Ellis decided he wanted to change jobs. So he got a job selling shoes for Hudsons in Idaho Falls and we moved there. Ellis always left any job with good feelings. Sometimes he be mad or so sick of the same old store every day that he couldn’t stand it. But he always controlled himself and left with a good feeling. He never had trouble getting a job because he was a super good salesman, had a good personality, was always very well dressed, got along well with others and worked hard. During my pregnancy with Kenneth my hair, my one beautiful feature, darkened. Darn Kenneth! However, I still looked very young. One time a man in Idaho Falls asked if his wife worked. He said he’d never seen Kenneth with anyone but the little girl who baby-sat him. They were building the Idaho Falls Temple at this time and we lived nearby. Kenneth was so fascinated by it that he kept running to the construction site. I finally had to get a long rope and tie him to the clothesline. Ann was born in Idaho Falls on March 12, 1940. Dear Dr. Wooley delivered her. The day she was born, I began having labor pains as soon as Ellis left for work. I had a million things I wanted to do; was iron, clean house, cook lunch, etc., etc. In between pain, I did it. I remember that I needed to go to a little store one half block away. I took Kenneth and started out, but I had about five labor pains while I was gone. Ellis came home for lunch. I said nothing to him. I worked all afternoon and got everything done, but one thing. I shampooed my hair and was going to put it up, but the pains were so bad I couldn’t—so I went to the hospital with terrible looking hair. Ellis came home and after a while, when I would, we went to the hospital. That time I was there 45 minutes before Ann was born. I always thought I was better off working and putting off my hospital entry as late as possible. When I went into the hospital, the snow was gone, but the ground was bare and the trees leafless. When I came out, ten days later, the grass was green, the trees in leaf and flowers in bloom. It seems like a special miracle to welcome our little girl. I have never seen the earth like that at that time of year since then. There was never any question about her name. We had even had Ann picked out for Kenneth if he had been a girl. But Ellis, who blessed her, did play on unexpected trick. He blessed her Audrey Ann which was not our agreement. We like living in Idaho Falls. We had lots of fun and lots of friends. We belonged to the First Ward again. We attended church in the old tabernacle. They decided to build a new building on the other half of the land. Ellis spent many nights working there. He also worked in the completed temple two nights a week. He was always more religious than I. My folks had moved to their Rigby farm and we saw them often. We went to the hills with them when we could. Ellis decided to move back to Pocatello and work for Terrells again. We lived in the same small apartment house as Amos and Carol. I was pregnant. My baby boy, Gary, was born dead and by cesarian section on May 1, 1943. The placenta came first and killed him and nearly killed me because I lost so much blood. Carol took Ellis and me to the hospital while Amos called the doctor and hospital. If I’d been a few miles out of town I’d never have made it. Gary was beautiful, big, full term baby with lots of curly hair. I believe that his spirit had entered his body and that he had accomplished his mission on earth. I came so close to dying that I learned it was not to be feared. When you reach that stage, it is pleasant. Ellis soon decided to move again. He thought he’d like to try selling Watkin’s products around Rigby. We moved into a little four-room house. It was here Kenneth started school. His dad bought him a little hatchet to cut kindling. One day he was cutting kindling and I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor. I had warned Kenneth and Ann to stay outside until I was finished. Kenneth called me, rather desperately. After a few calls I went out to see what was the matter. He had his hands over his head and the blood was streaming all over him. The hatchet had turned in his hand and laid his head open with about a six-inch gash. He hadn’t dared to come in the house for fear he’d get the floor dirty. Mean old mother! Kenneth was always such a good boy. He just didn’t do wrong things--ever. I was always so proud of him; his appearance, his school work, his behavior, his actions. He and his father were very close. Ellis would take him down to help him put in windows when he was only three. Ann too was a lovely child. She was always her father’s special delight. She had long, blonde hair which I kept in curls. I loved to sew for her. We were happy with our children. We were even more happy when Dale Wardle Chase was born on September 21, 1944. He was born in Idaho Fall with dear Dr. Wooley caring for me again. The doctor was concerned about the cesarian I had had. He finally decided to let me have the baby normally. There was no point where the pain around the old incision was unbearable. There was one point where the pain around the od incision was unbearable. That was when it might have ruptured, but it still didn’t and everything else went well. He was a beautiful noisy baby. We decided to buy a house. It was an older two-story house with about ¾ acre of land where we pastured a cow. We worked so hard to paint, paper and fix the house up. Carolyn was born while we lived in this house. She was born January 10, 1946 in the Idaho Falls hospital with Dr. Wooley—almost. I delayed leaving for the hospital and we had to drive down from Rigby. The nurse took me directly for the delivery room and called the doctor who was hurrying over. However, Carolyn and I did not wait. When she began to be born, a nurse put her hands on her head and tried to keep her from coming out. She kept telling me I couldn’t have my baby until the doctor got there. I wasn’t about to wait. The nurse made it more painful and more difficult, but Carolyn was born by the time the doctor got there. Ellis’ mother died when Carolyn was about three weeks old. Ellis and I took Carolyn and went to Nephi for the funeral. It was a long tiring ride. My mother tended our other children. Ida Chase and I loved each other. Ellis and I missed his mother. We were so happy with our family and our home. We always had lots of fun. Ellis spent a lot of time playing with his children and helping me care for them. I’ll always remember when I came home from the hospital with Carolyn. The house was spotless and Ellis had a pot roast and vegetables cooking. My mother helped with the children when I had a new baby. She was a wonderful grandmother. Ellis like to tease and play tricks. One time this backfired. We cooked on a coal range. One cold winter evening we were having supper when we realized the fire was dying down and the coal bucket was empty. Ellis took the bucket and went out to the little shed behind the house where we kept our coal. There was a little hallway off the kitchen through which we had to pass to get outside. So there were two closed doors between us when he went out. In a few minutes we heard hi calling for help. The children all wanted to go see what was wrong. I wouldn’t let them because it was cold, icy and dark and because their dad was always playing tricks like that. But after about five minutes when the calls still continued I went out to see what was wrong. He had slipped on the ice, had fallen and was unable to get up. I helped him get in the house. When I got him to the doctor we found his foot was broken. He had to have a caste on it for about six weeks. I’ve always felt a little guilty, but just a little. Ellis decided to go back to selling shoes. He got a job back at Hudsons in Idaho Falls and we prepared to move back there. We had bought our house from a member of our bishopric. When we got ready to sell it we found he was dishonest. We had about 1/3 less land than we thought. We had been using all of it. He was dishonest and we were too stupid to have carefully checked on the property boundaries. The man wouldn’t let us have that little bit of land either. Ellis was so reluctant to cause trouble that he wouldn’t say a word to the man, especially because he was in the bishopric. Not me! I went to his house. He was out in the barn doing the milking with his sons. I told him, in front of his sons, exactly what he had done, how he had refused to make it right, that it was dishonest and everything was compounded because of his church position. I guess I had a little of my dad in me. Anyway, I felt better and he and his sons knew exactly what I thought of him. Idaho Falls was booming and we could not find a place to rent. An older couple we knew, the Tibbitts, let us move into their basement. We had two rooms and they fixed up the bathroom. Our family had grown, our expenses increased and we wanted a home. So I found a job working as a waitress at the Rogers Hotel. I worked from 5 P.M. until 9. Ellis got off work at 5. There was about a half hour when we left the children alone. Kenneth was the babysitter. He was about ten. Mrs. Tibbitts was always home at that time of day. She was a sweet and lovely lady who kept an eye on them for that half hour. I would prepare dinner then walk to work. Ellis would walk home, feed the children and care for them. He would get the children in bed and asleep and then walk down to the café to walk me home. It was about a ten-minute walk. Once again, Tibbitts knew the children were alone for half an hour and Kenneth knew he should get them if there was an emergency. Ellis’ heart was getting worse. He could no longer hike much or dance for an entire evening. I worked at the café with a young fellow who was a waiter in a bar on weekends. They had a really good band. Ellis and I would go there for a couple hours quite frequently. We would go alone. We’d dance and then sit for a half hour. We would drink a coke. My friend didn’t mind because we always left him a big tip to make up for what he didn’t make on drinks. After I had worked at the café for about two years, Fred Miller came in. He nearly died when he saw me working as a waitress. There was really a shortage of teachers at that time. Fred went directly to the County Superintendent of Schools and told him about me. In about two days I had an offer, almost a plea, to teach first grade at Iona, east of Idaho Falls. It meant a lot more money. However, the main reason I went back to teaching was because I could see the great decline in Ellis’ health. In fact, the summer before I went back, Ellis had to lay off work for the whole summer. He had a mild heart attack and could do nothing. After a three months’ rest he went back to work. But I realized then that I’d better prepare myself to take care of my children if something happened to Ellis. I found a nice lady with a child at home and some in school who cared for Dale and Carolyn. I rode to Iona with another teacher. We did not have a car. We had had an old pick-up for a few months before Gary was born. Ellis had to have a car when he sold Watkins’ Products, but except for those times the first fourteen years of our married life we did not have a car and we got along fine. I like Iona and teaching again. We were able to but a nice, new, four-room house. How I loved it! After years at Iona I decided to apply for a job in the Idaho Falls School District. I got one and was assigned to New Sweden, west of Idaho Falls. Dale was going to be six in September. I had been teaching first grade and did not think Dale was mature enough for school. I had seen too many little boys start before they were ready. Ellis did not agree with me. We decided to let Dale attend kindergarten during the summer and let his teacher make a decision as to his readiness. I knew she’d say wait a year, but the stupid woman said yes. I knew she was wrong but I was stuck with my bargain. The Idaho Falls schools were so overcrowded that the first grades were having double sessions. So I took Dale to New Sweden with me. I had only 24 students in my first-grade class. Dale and about four other little boys were not ready for school. To compound my problem, I had a principal who, while a nice man, was a rigid disciplinarian that the whole school was like a prison. Each teacher had to have organized for recess and lunch, everyone marched everywhere in single fil without speaking, no one could speak in the lunch room, every plate had to be completely cleaned, and on and on. He was by far the worst principal I ever had. In fact, the only poor one. The school was grades 1-8. It is interesting that no eighth-grade athletic team won even one game in anything during the whole year. The pressure on everyone was terrible. I loved having sweet little Dale in my class, but I decided any school would be better for him than that Super-regimented one. At the end of the semester I enrolled him in our neighborhood school in Idaho Falls. His teacher had 75 students. She taught half of them in the morning and half in the afternoon. There was no way she could do it well. Dale was appealing and loveable with his blonde hair, blue eyes and infectious grin. She gave him good grades, said he was doing very well and passed him to the second grade, but I knew she was wrong. Ellis was feeling worse. The cold winters was very hard on him. His left arm, chest and shoulder ached unbearably. He worked all the time and not many people knew he wasn’t well. We thought perhaps a warmer climate and a lower elevation might help him, so we decided to move to Burley where he would run the shoe department in Van Engelens’ Department Store. We spent a year in Burley. Kenneth was now in the eighth grade, Ann in the sixth and Dale in the second. Dale was put in the top second grade class. They would not put him in either of the other two classes because they were too full. Nor would they let him enter a first-grade class because they were also too full. Every night he’d run home and want me to begin helping him. He was trying so hard and was so afraid he couldn’t do his work alone. I was furious with the school. I went to the school and told the principal he was going to do something. Dale was finally enrolled in a first grade clear across town. Every morning he walked to the junior high with Kenneth and caught a bus to his school. At night the procedure was reversed. I met his teacher and checked on her first. She was an excellent teacher. She loved Dale. After a few she could see that he was exactly where he belonged. His little body was now ready for the first grade where it had not been the year before. He had a wonderful year! I know dale has always thought he failed the first grade, but he did not. I insisted he repeat it. I knew what I was doing. I don’t believe Dale would have graduated form high school if I had not taken a firm stand. Before leaving Idaho Falls, I had become pregnant. Except for Kenneth and the baby I was expecting all of our children had been planned. We had them just when we wanted them. But this pregnancy was an accident. I was not happy about it. I thought that four children would be all we could support, especially as Ellis’ health was getting worse and I could see that I might be left alone to raise our family. Carolyn was five when we moved to Burley, she would be six in January. Ellis and I felt it would be better for her to stay at home with me rather than go to kindergarten. I had left her for the three years that I had taught school. We felt that a year at home alone with me would be more valuable to her than a year of kindergarten. It was a beautiful year! Carolyn was such a darling. We had fun together. I took her with me every place I went. I was secretary of the Relief Society and took her there with me. She was so good! She was mature and bright. Dale was doing so well in school, but he was having one problem. He became quite sick with a terribly high fever where he had wild dreams. He recovered from the fever, but the dreams persisted. He would go to bed, sleep for about an hour and then wake up screaming. He would be rigid and not know us. If he could tear himself from us, he would dash out of the house. I would take him into the living room and we would turn on the Christmas tree lights to try and snap him out of his dream and then distract him. It was a wrong thing to do because for years he was afraid of Christmas lights. A doctor in Nampa later told us they were not dreams, nor nightmares, but night terrors. They persisted nightly for about three years, but didn’t end entirely until he was about twelve. It was terrible for him. Our last baby, Roger Wardle Chase was born in Burley, Idaho on April 11, 1952. His brothers and sisters picked out his name. He was named for a good friend Kenneth had had in Idaho Falls who was especially good to all the Chase kids. I had a good doctor who gave me good care, but he was also Ellis’ doctor. He was far more concerned with Ellis than with me.
