The Life Story of Audrey Melissa Wardle Chase chapter 4, part A: Married Life, Teaching School, Having Babies

 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

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.

The Life Story of Audrey Melissa Wardle Chase chapter 3: Teaching through Engagement

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

When school started, I moved to Bates which is west of Driggs, up against the hills. I lived with Erma and Wesley Wood and their little boy. They lived in a two-room house with a full attic, set against a hill so that the front of the house had high steps and the back none. They were fun and I liked them. My bedroom was in the attic where one end had been partitioned off, but not finished. There was a door opening, but no doors, and a window. The only heat was from the chimney of the kitchen stove whose fire was allowed to go out each night. The room was on the south and Erma and I made it an attractive place. I paid them $10 a month for board and room. My salary was $60 a month for eight months. There was no water nor bathroom nor no electricity. The first thing Erma did with the money I paid her was to buy a radio so we had music. Wesley farmed with his father who lived nearby. The school was a little two0-room building. Fred Miller taught the upper grades. I taught grades one, three and four. There were no students for grade two that year. The school had no electricity and only outside privies. Each room had a huge round heater for heating. I had fourteen students. The school was a place of enchantment. I loved the kids and really worked hard at teaching them. Fred Miller helped me so much. I became very fond of him. He had a wife and three little red-headed boys. There was a County School Superintendent who visited all the schools in the valley to help and check up on each teacher. The first visit was frightening, but after that they were welcome. The students walked to school or rode horses. My room was an attractive place. I kept the stove stoked with coal and wood. A lady who lived nearby cleaned the school. While the young people of the community reached high school age, they moved to Driggs to attend school. They would rent a room in someone’s house, batch during the week and come home on weekends. Wesley Wood had two sisters who did this and I spent lots of time with them on the weekends. The church was about a mile from the schoolhouse and everyone attended it on Sundays. It was a single large room with benches which could be moved. We had frequent dances and parties there. We’d push back the benches, pile them on top of each other and have plenty of room. Everyone came. The babies were placed on safe spots in the benches. The little kids played and danced until they were tired when they joined the sleeping babies on the benches. Someone played the fiddle and someone the piano. It was fun! I didn’t think there’d by any fellow, but there were. Two young men were herding sheep for the winter in some field near the school. Wesley had a cousin who lived in Tetonia and Erma had a red-headed brother named Howard who worked on a dude ranch in Jackson Hole. When they learned there was a girl at Wesley’s they kept coming for extended visits. Once Howard stayed for six weeks. They were both fun. The boys in the sheep camp had a covered half sleigh. They’d come and pick up the Woods girls and me and we’d go down to their sheep camp. We’d make oyster stew and play cards. We skied a lot. We’d build a big fire and everyone who could see it would ski over. I learned to ski fairly well, but could never learn to stop, so I’d just sit down when I got to the bottom. I sprained my ankle quite badly once. We would also have all night parties. Someone would start out in their covered sleigh to pick everyone up. There’d be a lighted lantern inside the covered sleigh. I could watch the sleigh coming. From miles away, making occasional stops. Everybody took food. When we were all collected, we’d go to someone’s house. Sometimes we would have let them know and sometimes we surprised them. One of our favorite places to go was to the home of Wesley’s married sister. They had a little two-room house and there would usually be about a dozen of us. As their children fell asleep, they were laid in the bedroom somewhere. We’d sing, talk, dance a little, make candy, pop popcorn, play cards and other games and anything else that entered our heads. It was a crazy time! When morning came we’d go home. There were also fellow in Driggs and Victor where frequent dances were held. I’d go to Driggs and stay with Aunt Rose who always welcomed me. It was worth going to have a bath in a tub! There was a fellow who was a butcher in Driggs. He had money and a car. He often took me to Bates. I didn’t care for him, but used him as a means of transportation. I went home to Pocatello for Christmas. When I came back a dance was on. This fellow persuaded me stay and then he’d take me out to Bates. By the time we started home a blizzard had started. We never made it all the way. When the car finally stalled, we were in Bates about three miles from the schoolhouse. We got out and battled the blizzard about 1 ½ miles to a house. I thought we’d never make it. I was wearing high-heeled shoes and silk hose. When we reached the house, no one was home. We broke in and built a fire and spent the rest of the night there. In that time and place that was what they would have wanted us to do. In the morning we just stayed there. The blizzard was so bad no one could move. Monday morning I went to school. It was terrible, the icy cold and the big drifts, but I finally made it. I still just had those high-heeled shows. The fellow got his car towed back to Driggs, leaving my suit case at the house we had used. I’d never go with him again. The blizzard wasn’t his fault, but he was an uck guy. That was the last time a car was able to travel over the road until I left when school was out in May. I skied to school most of the rest of the year. We’d go to town in a sleigh. Wesley would put hay in the bottom with quilts over it. We’d heat big rocks in the oven of the stove, wrap them in gunny sacks and put them in the sleigh. Then we’d get in, all bundled up, and cover up with many quilts. Only our heads would stick out. The horses knew the way. Right after Christmas the men went to town and securely stuck willows in the snow along the side of the road. Then the road could be followed even if it had a new foot of snow on it. These willows stuck up about four or five feet. Before spring, the men had to go along and place new willows because the old ones were almost buried. The new willows lasted the rest of the year, but there wasn’t much of them showing by spring. Travelling the same route all the time built two hard tracks for the sleigh runners. The horses always found them. If you got off, you went down and down and down. The snow was between four and five feet on the level that year. There were many blizzards and it was bitterly cold. It got down to 35 degrees below zero and stayed there for weeks at a time. My bedroom could not be warm. I just left my window open all winter. It was no colder with it open than with it closed. When I went to bed, I wore heavy flannel pajamas, a heavy robe, heavy sock and slippers. I had many quilts beneath me and so many on top I could hardly lift them to get out of bed. I slept like a top. I loved the cold and snow. One nice side effect, I lost ten pounds. Anytime I’ve lived in the Basin I’ve been slender. Sometimes over the weekend I would go to Victor and stay with Uncle Grant and Aunt Delilah. They’d always be going to a dance in that end of the valley and would take me with them. I had such fun at the Daniels’ home. Aunt Lile made the best pancakes in the world. Aunt Lile and Uncle Grant loved each other, were full of life and it was neat to be around them. Grandma and Grandpa Wardle lived up the canyon from Aunt Lile and Uncle Grant. I went to see them. We had never been close but I got to know them better. Finally, spring came. Mr. Miller and I took out students on and end-of-year picnic. I had decided to not come back to Bates for another year. How I hated to leave all the dear friends I’d made and especially my students. I’ never forget Fred Miller! All year I had been paid with warrants. The school district had no money, but they would get some from taxes. Meanwhile, the bank advanced money to them in the form of warrants, which looked about like checks. The district paid their expenses with these. Then when their money came in, the bank was repaid. I had half my warrants uncashed when school ended. So I cashed them in for $240. That’s the only time I saved half my pay checks! My dad had picked up an old car and the family decided to come and get me. It made a great trip for them. On the way home two tires blew out. I was the only one with money so I had to replace them and pay other expenses. I was glad to get back to Pocatello. That summer I went job-hunting again. Some teachers were needed at Inkom and I applied. The trustees interviewed many applicants. Finally the narrowed it down to about twelve. They had us all come out to be interviewed the same evening. They called us in one at a time. It was a real inquisition. But the men were nice and didn’t really mind. They hired three teachers and I was one. My big problem was that I looked very young. I was hired to teach a combined third and fourth grade at $90 a month An interest cause in my teacher’s contract stated that if I married during the year that I would immediately lose my job. I lived that summer with my parents in Pocatello. I got a job working in a little sandwich shop in Pocatello. I was amused by my boss, a fellow named Jay, because he so much enjoyed seeing a teacher do menial work. He wasn’t unpleasant, just crude and ignorant. This was the summer I met Ellis Chase. Louis still thought I was on some kind of probation, but I didn’t. Karl Hale had been my dear friend for about 3 ½ years. We had so much fun together, even dated once in a while. One day Karl came in for lunch and brought Ellis with him. He introduced us and the first thing Ellis did was ask me to marry him, in that busy place, before all those people. I thought, “What a smart a--!” I took an instant dislike to him. I told him off. To tell the truth, I didn’t think that was a joking thing. He always insisted he’d have gone through with it, that he knew I was the one for him. I never felt that way. I could probably have been just as happy with Louis. Anyway, I’d run into Ellis at dances. I danced with him because he was such a wonderful dancer. In fact, I dated him because I liked to dance with him, though not as well as Reed Coffin. Most of the young fellows I knew belonged to the Junior Chamber of Commerce. They always had lots of fun activities. They were planning a big dance at a big dance hall in Inkom. Ellis asked me to go. We were going to double date with Karl who had a car. In the middle of the afternoon Ellis called me. An old girlfriend he had dated when he lived in Rexburg had come to town just to see him. I told him he had better take her to the dance and he was relieved to agree. But I was so angry I could have killed him. I called Karl to tell him and blow up. About an hour later, a Junior College friend who had been out of town for a couple of weeks and just returned, called and asked me to go to the dance with him. We too would go with Karl. Karl picked up his date, Ellis and his date, the other fellow and then me. That was a satisfying moment when Ellis realized I had a date and would be in the same car! I got paid $.25 an hour at my job. One of my most precious memories was the result of my job. No children in our family had ever had a bike. It was something totally out of reach. But my brother Wilford always dreamed of one. Most of his friends had one. He went to Victor to stay at Aunt Lile’s and Uncle Grant’s and play with his cousin Grant Jr. While he was gone I got him a bike for his birthday. He got back the day of his birthday. I had put the bike in his bedroom which was a tiny room down a long hall at the back of the house. I told him there was something in his room. He dashed back there. I’ll never forget his face as he wheeled out that beautiful new bike. At $.25 an hour, it took me most of the summer to pay for it, but it was well worth it. When school began, I moved to Inkom and lived with the two other new teachers who had been hired. One girl I especially disliked. I liked the other girl, but looking back, I can see that she got her kicks causing trouble between the first girl and me. I didn’t really care. It was a place to live. I spent a lot of time with another young lady teacher at her house. I loved my school and spent a lot of time on it. I had learned so much from Fred Miller and my first year of teaching hat I was able to do a much better job than the previous year. I usually went home to Pocatello for the weekend. There were lots of neat guys around and always something going on. Sometimes I dated Ellis. From the time I started high school until I married, I seemed to be on a constant high. I had more fun than anyone else, no matter where I was. Sometime, I’m sure, I was too exuberant, but I had such good times I just wanted more and more. My friends said that wherever I was is was fun for everyone. That winter, for the first time in my life, I went to some nice shops and bought clothes I liked. I bought quite a few pairs of shoes from Ellis who worked at Terrell’s Shoe Store. Ellis wanted us to marry, but I was having such fun I didn’t want to marry anyone. I didn’t want to be held down by anyone. Besides, there was Louis who sent word to me of when he’d be back. I wanted to check him out before I made any decisions. But mainly I just didn’t want to marry. I really had never wanted to. I wanted no strings on me. My folks were living in Pocatello, but they yearned for a farm. I had saved a big share of my money during the year. My dad looked for a farm to buy. He found a wonderful farm at Riverton, west of Blackfoot. It was down near the river and very fertile. The only thing wrong with it was that it had a lot of morning glory on it, but that could be killed. It had a nice little four-room house and all the necessary outbuildings. I had enough money for the down-payment, $350. You could really buy a farm with that much down in those days. They moved there in the spring in time to plant crops. I really think the time they spent on that farm was one of the best times in their marriage. Ellis kept after me. He thought we were foreordained to be together. I never did. Anyway, he was such a salesman he wore me down. We decided to be married that summer. He wanted to buy me an engagement ring, but I wouldn’t have it. I didn’t want anyone’s brand on me. I’d always thought engagement rings were dumb. Besides, I might decide not to marry him. After school was out, I went to Blackfoot and worked on the farm to help my folks. I thinned and hoed beets again and worked in the hay. I enjoyed those long, hot days in the fields.

 

The Life Story of Melissa Audrey Wardle Chase Chapter 2: High School and Teacher Certificate

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

The summer after I graduated from high school I worked as usual in the beet fields with my father. The family decided to move to Pocatello. Mama and the children moved to Pocatello in time to get the children started in school. Papa and I stayed in Lincoln and topped beets to support the family. We lived-in a tent in a beet field until along in November. I did not have money to go to college. The money I earned and had earned in the beet fields when I worked with my father always went into the family fund. I didn't need it and times were so desperate that I was glad to help. If I needed a little money was given to me. Overall, it was a family effort to survive. The fall was wet and miserable. We were still topping beets in the snow. We had no car. The tucker who hauled the beets was an especially nice man. He had moved Mama and the children to Pocatello and ws going to take Papa and me down when we finished our work. But I had a problem. The previous summer a boy with whom I sometimes danced had twisted my arm behind me and taken my class ring. I had been unable to get it back. I had worked so hard to earn it and treasured it so much that I was not about to leave it forever with a fellow I didn't especially like. So I asked the truck driver to take me to the boy's home to get my ring. When my father learned about it he went wild to think I'd let someone have my ring. He began to beat me. For about the past four years, since I was about twelve, my father had beaten me frequently and badly. He usually used a razor strap which was nearly a yard long and was made of two separate pieces of leather, each about three inches wide and one fourth inch thick. He had beaten me for everything and nothing. For instance, he always told me I had to be home from a school dance that let out at 12:00 by 12:15. It was impossible. After the dance everyone went to a little store across the street for ice cream. Then we'd start home. The kids who lived closest were dropped off first. Each stop took a few minutes. I never got home by 12:15 and I always got a severe beating. He'd really lay into me, with Mama crying and trying to stop him. Each time I went to a school dance he'd let me go, but would warn me what would happen if I were late. I'd try to explain to him but he would not listen. So each time I knew what I faced either that night or the next morning. He would also begin beating me for nothing. I realized, even then, that he beat me because of his pressures and frustrations during those trying years. He never touched anyone else--just me. But he beat me horribly. However, when he started to beat me over the ring, I'd had it. I was able to convince him that he'd never see me again if he touched me. Meant it. He never beat me again. But when Wilford go to be about twelve he started on him and beat him until he left home. I did get my ring back. I've never really held the beatings against him. He was having a bad time and had to relieve himself some way. I always just thought, what a stupid way. I'm sure I'd have had more affection for him if he hadn't beaten me so much. If I've been too easy with my own children, those beatings were probably why, plus the fact that their father was a very gentle man. Anyway, we got to Pocatello and it was a bad time. There was no work anywhere. Papa went toward for the Works Progress Administration, a government project Roosevelt had started to help the unemployed. He worked with a pick and shovel on bridges, buildings and other civic projects. I too worked for the W.P.A. I worked in an office at a busy-work job. I checked the list of meant eligible to work against those who showed up. What I took eight hours to do could have done in an hour. I worked there three months. Then I couldn't stand it any longer. I had a friend, Fern Harris, who did housework for a family and she found a better job so I took over her job. At the W.P.A. I had been paid $12.50 a week. My new job paid $4 a week plus room and board. There was a woman who worked away from home, her husband and two children in the early grades of school. I slept in the basement and except for two or three evenings off each week I worked all the time. The woman fancied herself a lady. I was truly their servant. I was not permitted to eat with them. It was really rather funny because the lived in a little four-room house which was very plainly furnished. Her husband was 10 or 15 years younger than she. He was nice to me and always treated me as a gentleman would. She did have an old dirty man for a father who had a dozen hands, but he wasn't around very often. The children were nice. I had almost total care of them until I read them to sleep every night. I did all the work. I had no affection for any of them. I had made a few friends. What we usually did for fun was go to each other's homes and play cards. Sometimes we went to a movie. But I had little free time. When fall came I quit my job and started college. I had less money than I'd had the fall before, but the bursar let me pay what I had with the agreement that I'd pay the rest as I could. Imagine that today! I had always wanted to be a nurse. After I had graduated from high school I had gone to L.D.S. Hospital in Idaho Falls to see about admittance. They couldn't accept me until I was 18 and that was too long to wait. So I decided to become a teacher. I was 16, soon to be 17, but the college was there and I had decided to become a teacher. Elva and Paul stopped to see us. Elva was teaching in the Basin. I confided my dreams of college to her and she gave me $.50 to start my college fund. That was a lot of money in those days. I lived at home the first year. It was a great year. I made some dear friends. My uncles, Norval and Orrin, started school the same year, both of them in the teaching program. I went to the Institute and it was so neat. We did so many fun things and there were so many boys! I was crazy about most of them. My classes were fun. I was truly inspired by dear, old Ethel Redfield, my teacher. My grades were only average, but I was too busy to study a lot. I got another sort of government subsidized job. I cleaned the bathrooms in the boys' dorms. All my friends envied me. My boss was a wonderful old lady named Mrs. Walters. She always went to the dorms with me and did other work while I cleaned the bathrooms. We always went at about eight and worked for about two hours. Then I attended my classes. She was a true friend and helped me a lot. Once when I had to have a coat I got a job working at a creamery. A manager there was the older brother of my dear friend Karl Hale. I worked from four until twelve each night for two weeks and was able to buy the clothes I needed. I was on the girls' hockey team and loved it. I especially liked my P.E. classes. J. Wiley Sessions was the head of the Institute and the only teacher. I loved him and his wife. They were good and taught me so much. I loved to dance and we danced a lot. Every Tuesday after mutual we danced at the Institute. Every Friday we went to the Third Ward and every Saturday we danced somewhere, usually at the University to the Stake House. We had dance programs or would make them. I always had my program full before the second dance was over. Had more fun than anyone. Therewere so many people that I liked to dance with that I would only give a fellow one dance. Except for two fellows. I always went the first and last dance with th fellow I went with. And then Reed Coffin. Oh, fun Reed! I dated him a little, but he was just a friend. But we danced perfectly together. He was about three inches taller than I, slender, and with coal black wavy hair. I was very blonde and loved bright clothes--red, green. The contrast between us made quite a sight. I always saved two dances for Reed. Reed and I worked at Penny's together for a while. I was a terrible salesperson, but the manager, Mr. Denny, moved me around so he could keep me on. He knew I ended money desperately. My folks moved to Salmon at the end of y first year in college. I stayed with Aunt Lucy and Uncle Vernal for a little while. I dearly loved Aunt Lucy and she helped my many ways. When school was out I went to Salmon and go a job washing dishes in a cafe. Everyone there was good to me. In the fall, I returned to college. I lived in a little apartment with my dear friend, Effie Moyes, from Murtaugh and another girl Effie's folks forced on us. I'm afraid she didn't have much fun. Effie and I wanted a good time and she didn't. Sometimes we had little or nothing to eat. Our folks had sent fruit and vegetables with us. The parents of the other girls sent them money, but mine had none to send. Thank Heaven for Mrs. Walters and the others who helped me with work. One time we had nothing to eat for two days and felt we were starving. I got the other two girls to walk over to Aunt Lucy's with me. She couldn't imagine what we were doing in the middle of the afternoon. When I explained, we all pitched in pitch in and cooked a big meal right in the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes we got up very early and wend out and stole milk that had been left on doorsteps. We'd take it home, empty out the milk and then take the clean, empty bottles to the store and trade them for bread. We only did that a few times, but we did it. At the end of the first semester, Effie went home. I had no place to stay so I went to Aunt Lucy's and stayed with them. I did my student teaching this semester, nine weeks at Washington in the first grade with a wonderful woman, and then nine weeks at the old Lincoln school in the sixth grade with another wonderful teacher. I learned so much. I walked across town several times a day, about three miles one way. I still had my job with Mr. Walters. I often went home to get lunch for Aunt Lucy's children. In fact, she took a trip to California for a couple of months and I ran the house with everything else. And I still had fun. Most of the time, especially at a dance or on a date, I just felt as if I were sizzling inside and ready to explode. I was enjoying life so much I never ran out of energy. I had more fun than anyone else. My folks had lived in the Fifth Ward before they moved to Salmon and I made some wonderful friends there. We had great times. There were two Ellsworth brothers , Reed and Dean. I dated them both a little and danced with them a lot. They had a younger brother about 14. He'd always come to the church dances and hang around and finally ask me to dance with him. I liked him so I danced with him. Years later, after I was married and had a child, if he was at a dance where I was he always asked me for a dance. By then he was a tall, dark, handsome young man. Talk about casting your bread on the waters! I began going with Effie's cousin, Louis Adamson, while I lived with her. He was 6' 3" and I was 5' 3". We looked sort of funny. But he was such fun and a real brain. We planned to get married. But still there were all those other neat guys. I just had to cheat a little. For months, I went to a movie with another old boyfriend I liked, Clyde Lewis. Then the next afternoon or evening I'd go to the same with Louis. I thought he'd never find out, but he did. About the time school was out he told me he was going away to work for Morrison Knudsen. If I'd settle down we'd be married when he came back. But that was too long a wait for me. I meant to, but there were too many neat guys around. By the time he came back I'd met Ellis and decided to marry him. Louis was killed on Wake Island when the Japanese attacked. I still feel affection for him. But he should have let me eat my cake and have it too. School ended and I had a teacher's certificate and a Junior College Degree. The depression was ending, but jobs were few and far between. I had no way to go looking for one. Mama wouldn't let me go alone, so we hitch-hiked around the area looking for a job. I'd find an opening, then write and make a appointment. Then Mama and I would hitch-hike there. I finally got a job at the Bates School in Teton Basin. My biggest problem was that I looked about 16, but I was really 19. I worked that summer at an A&W root beer stand in Pocatello. My folks had moved back just before school was out.

 

The Life Story of Melissa Audrey Wardle Chase Chapter 1 part 2: Family life, dolls, sheepherding,

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

We spent lots of time in the hills. Papa would go to get wood or logs for building. The trips were always work trips. We went in a big wooden wagon, whose wagon box had been built by Papa. The whole family would go. If it was a trip for a day to pick huckleberries, choke cherries or service berries we didn't take too much with us, just quilts, hay, water and a lunch. The lunch usually consisted of fried chicken, bread and butter, potato salad, garden vegetables and a cake or cookies. If we were picking huckleberries we took along cream and sugar so we could have huckleberries for dessert. We children sat on the quilts spread over the hay which the horses would eat at noon. Papa usually had a spring seat for him and Mama. While Papa worked, the rest of us would spread over the hillside picking berries, eating them and laughing and talking with each other. If we stayed overnight, we'd take more food and enough camp quilts to sleep in. Mama would have made these quilts from old scraps of denim and wool. We'd cook over a campfire and then sit around it talking, telling stories and singing, with the horses tied to the wagon box chomping their hay. When we went to bed we'd snuggle between several quilts and get close to each other. The mountain nights were always cold. We'd lie and listen to the wind in the pines and quaking asps, and look up at the brilliant stars and the moon. We'd whisper until we fell asleep. In the morning, we'd roll up quilts, pile them in the wagon and go wash in some icy stream. Breakfast would again be cooked over the campfire; hotcakes or bacon and eggs, or both, with cocoa to warm us up. Then back to the berry bushes again. If papa had come for wood, he'd pack the wagon full. chain the logs on and let us perch high on the load for our return trip. We'd all get home tired and dirty. My brother, my sisters and I all love the mountains. It must be because we have spent so many fun times there. Even today, I'd rather take a sleeping bag, go up in the hills and camp out than anything I know. We'd sometimes go to the hills with our relatives and that would be even more fun because even more kids would be there. On the 4th or 24th of July the church or town would often have a celebration in the mountains, usually in Teton Canyon. Our mothers would bake and cook the day before. Then, on the day, we'd dress as for Sunday, get in our wagons and head for the canyon. There we'd spend the day. Long ropes would be hung from the trees to make swings. There would be speeches and sometimes a band. All day long there would be all kinds of contests and races for everyone. There would be an enormous dinner around noon with everyone offering their best food. It would be laid out on long make shift tables with make shift benches running down both sides. Everyone liked to eat the specialties of other people. There was always lots of home-made ice cream and wash tubs filled with ice and watermelons. About sunset all the wagons would load up and head for home. Sometimes the celebrations would be held in Driggs with a parade ending at the town square across from the Stake House. When I was about eleven years old, President Heber J. Grant came to Driggs for stake conference. I got to listen to him, be near him, shake his hand and have him talk to me. Meeting this prophet of God made a lasting impression on me. At about this time two brothers and their families moved to town. One, named J. Leo Paul, became my Sunday school teacher. He had a contest for our class. There would be prize for the person who wrote the best composition on "Why I Believe the Book of Mormon to be true." I won. The prize was a leather-bound copy of the Book of Mormon with my name engraved in gold. It was by far the most beautiful book I had ever owned. I still treasure and use it. We went to Saturday afternoon movies. They were looked forward to all week long. We usually had a dime to get into the movie and a nickel for candy. You could get a sack of candy for a nickel. The movies were silent, with words appearing at the bottom of the screen. I remember seeing Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. I saw the movie Ramona there in the old Driggs theater. There was always a news reel and a short or two. There was always a serial, a continued story. Only a little was shown each week. It always ended in a situation from which no one could escape and then we had to wait until the next week to see how it turned out. Someone played the piano during the movie to provide "mood" music. Christmases during my childhood were wonderful! We'd get a tree from the nearby hills, erect it in the front room and cover the stand with a dish towel or sheet. For decorations we would pop popcorn and string it, string cranberries, make colorful chains of paper and make ornaments from anything available. We would also have some tinsel and a few "boughten" balls. We clipped little candles on the tree and carefully lit them. We made many of our gifts, but the girls aways had a "boughten" doll and Wilford something comparable. We'd have clothes, ribbons and treats. Mama had always sewed something special for each of us. And each us always got a book. In fact, each of us always got a book for his birthday as well. No matter how short of money my parents were, they always found a little for books. Melissa and Wilford both loved to read and so do all of their children. We used to pick peas in the winter and spuds in the fall to buy our school clothes. School was dismissed for two or three weeks in the fall and kids could stay out longer if the wanted to. Verla Byrne and I usually picked spuds together. One fall when I was in about the seventh grade, an older boy had an old car. He would load it down with kids and we would head for the spud fields. We took our lunches and stayed a long day. We would pick for one farmer and then move on to the next one. That year I earned all my school clothes. They included a rust colored coat with yellow sheep fur around the neck and cuffs. I ordered it from the catalog. Most of the clothes we bought were ordered from a catalog. What fun hours we spent with the "wish book." After they were old we cut them up for dolls and to use in doll houses. Last of all, they were used to clean the coal oil lamp chimneys and for toilet paper. We moved into one house where someone had left an old bookcase. Mama gave it to Lula and me to use for a doll house. It had five shelves. The top shelf had a mirror inset in the back and a lot of ornate carving around it. We used this shelf for a bedroom with a dressing table below the mirror. We had a tester bed, tables, overstuffed chairs and everything imaginable. We decorated the entire house like a Civil War mansion. We built a kitchen on the bottom shelf, then a dining room, a living room and a library. We papered the walls with samples from catalogs. We made rugs and curtains. Mama had many scraps and she let us use what we wanted. We used match boxes, all sizes of spools, pieces of wood, tin boxes, anything. It was beautiful. We had little celluloid dolls about six inches high whose heads, arms and legs would move. We made elaborate costumes for our dolls, even parasols. We spent endless hours playing with our house and dolls, but the most fun of all was the building and decorating. The summer that I was twelve my father went to Rockland to work in the harvest. My Wardle grandparents lived there. Papa took Lula and me to their home and left us for a two week visit. We went down in an old touring car. Mama had made us identical cotton dresses with white ruffles around the sleeves and pockets. Grandma was so good to us. She made big sheet cakes and many other good things. Orrin had a lot of little trucks. The three of us spent lots of time playing with them, building roads, farms etc. Grandma had a lot of old clothes she let us use for dressing up. It was a fun time. I had some wonderful teachers in Driggs School and other schools I attended. When I was in the eighth grade my teacher was Frank Knight. He was also the principle of the school. I respected and liked him and learned a great deal from him. During the year my father decided to go from Driggs to Salt Lake where he could get a job in a body and fender shop. So I didn't get to finish the year and graduate with my eighth grade class. My father really wanted all his life to live in Jackson Hole. My mother refused to move there because she didn't think it was a fit place to raise a family. Perhaps that was why Papa was always moving. The next place always looked better. In my first nine years of school I attended eleven schools. I can't see that it hurt me academically, perhaps because I could read well and I'd try hard. I'd always hate to leave my friends. But at least, I made lots of friends and learned to adapt easily to new situations. My poor mother didn't have it so easy. The houses into which we moved were usually little two-room houses with no water or bathroom. Often they were infested with bed bugs. I have seen her work and clean, putting kerosene to kill the bugs into every crack, to make the places habitable. She'd just get it cleaned, make it comfortable, live in it a few months or a year and then have to move and start all over again. My parents loved each other, but there was always lots of jangling between them. They did their jobs as mother, father, husband and wife well, but they jangled a lot. I don't remember this so much in my younger years as I did after I was about twelve. When we moved to Salt Lake we had a nice four-room house with water and a bathroom. The school said I'd have to go to seventh grade. I guess they thought Driggs would have been a poor school. But in the tests they gave me I ranked near the top of their eighth grade so they let me finish the eighth grade. We stayed in Salt Lake that summer of 1929. Verna, my last sister was born there. During the Summer I sold cakes and rolls. Every morning, except Sunday, I met a truck where I filled with goodies the basket that had been issued to me by a bakery. I had a route which I followed until my goods were sold. I received a percentage of the sales. It was rather fun. I had a second cousin, Everett Peterson, who was about my age, who lived nearby and we attended the same school and church. We had fun together. We went to Saltair several times. We would ride little open-sided cars ut to the pavilion. Then we'd spend the day riding a little and watching a lot. One time Everett found $12 an he and I used up every cent of it. What a day! We had a ninth grade graduation exercise when our school ended. Mama bought new cloth and made me a beautiful peach colored dress. As I remember, this period was about our only affluent time. About the time school ended Papa lost his job. The depression was here with a vengeance. We were forced to move back to Victor and another little two-room house. These little homes always became warm, clean loving homes. The only job my father could get was on herding sheep. Lula and I went with him as camp tenders. We herded sheep on the south side of Teton Pass, a little south and a long ways west up into the high mountains. Mama was left in Victor with three little children. At the camp we lived in a tent. We Dug a little trench on the high side of the hill so the rain water would be carried off. However, we had sudden, frequent thunder showers which nearly swept us away. We would place bedding and supplies high as possible on up-ended boxes. We too would perch on boxes as the rain ran in a stream through our tent. This was a wonderful time. Lula and I took care of the camp and did the cooking. I was 14 and she 12. I rode an old mule named Jenny, Lula rode a big old horse, and Papa had a good horse. We rode all over the mountains. Whenever Jenny got tired she headed for camp. I could not stop her. We had a couple dogs to help with the sheep. We had been there half the summer when Papa became very ill. It looked as if he'd die if he didn't get help. Someone brought us supplies about every two weeks, but they had just been there when Papa got sick. I had to go for help. I rode Lula's old horse, starting early in the morning. I had to find my way down out of the mountains, then north to Teton Pass, over the pass and finally home to Victor. I was a small girl, rather thin and frail looking, with two long long blonde braids. I looked very young. My biggest problem during the day was the cars I met. They all stopped me and wanted to know what such a little girl was doing up on the pass all alone. When I reached home it was long past dark. I must have been on the road about nineteen hours. I called to my mother who came out and helped me off the horse. I could not move then and could scarcely move for the next couple days. Someone went off for my father and got him out to a doctor. He got better, but our sheep-herding was over. When it got time for school to start, we moved to Lincoln, east of Idaho Falls. Papa worked in the sugar factory. We lived in another little two-room house with no water, on the edge of Lincoln in what is called "Doll Town." I started school as a junior at Ammon High School. I had taken all the classes I needed to enter as a junior except algebra. The principal, Mr. Magleby, could so no reason to keep me back a year for one class so he taught me algebra in his spare time. Once a week I went to him. He checked my week's work and gave me another's week's assignments. At 14 and 15, I was rather young to be a junior. All the other students were from 17 to 21. I did alright in my classes, but I was really too young to be in the class I was in. Lula started the seventh grade in Lincoln School. The fact that I had started school at five and she at nearly seven and that I had skipped by sophomore year of high school put us four years apart in school. It was hard for her. I loved my two years at Ammon High. It was by this time that I had been in eleven schools in nine years. I entered Ammon High School in the fall of 1930 when I was 14 years old and graduated in the spring of 1932 when I was 16. It was the longest time I had been in one school and how lucky it was that those two years were my high school years. I had wonderful teachers. Archie Williams, a young unmarried man, taught all the English classes. He instilled in me a life-time love of literature. He was small and wore glasses. He gave me a good foundation in grammar. He had me learn "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, a poem I've never forgotten. He directed our plays. Even today I think of him with gratitude and affection. He opened my eyes to many new ideas and different kinds of literature. Floyd Anderson taught all science classes. He was a tall blonde jock type. All the girls were crazy about him. He had a lovely wife and several little boys. During my senior year he was killed. He fell on a harrow which had been left upside down in his back yard and the teeth pierced his body. It was a tragedy for all of us. The third teacher who influenced me was a young lady whose name I have forgotten. She had black hair, worn in rather a mannish cut-quite different in those days of long hair! She taught business classes. I took both typing and shorthand from her. She taught me a never forgotten lesson. One day we were to have a shorthand test. I studied hard for all my classes and got good grades. This time I had not studied so I decided to cheat. I made notes on some small pieces of paper and kept them in my palm. I used them. When I got my test back it had been fold lengthwise and had a big "A" on the front. when I looked inside, down on the bottom, she had written, "Audrey, this is a good paper, but I think you could do just as well without the notes." I nearly died because I adored her. I never mentioned it to her, nor she to me, but it was my first and last time of cheating. In my own teaching, I have used this technique I learned from her. We moved into a larger, four-room house with water and a bathroom. We would sit around the kitchen table, after supper, and read or study. I had a real problem with Papa. He especially loved to read history. As soon as we sat down, he took my book to look at for a minute. Sometimes I never got it back! There was so much to do at school. Our student body numbered only about 130 so everyone knew everyone else well. We did everything together. We put on plays and operettas. We had debates and speeches. We had sports. I was running center on the girls basketball team. I was little and quick. When I graduated from high school I was 4'10" tall, but I had started to get little plump. When our boys' ball teams played another school all travelled in the bus to support them. We had a bobcat for a mascot. We kept him in a cage in the furnace room. When we travelled to a game we took him in a carrying case. Whoever sat above his cage always got their legs scratched. Our bus was driven by a man named Oscar. He was tall and fun. He took us to games too. In the winter time the school bus was a sled because the roads were impassible. Weather was much more severe then. There was so much snow! I remember climbing to the top of the snow thrown up at the side of the road by the snow plow and being able to reach higher than the telephone wires. Ivy Field was my best friend. I often stayed overnight with her. Her father was a very prosperous farmer. This was really the depth of the depression. My parents were so poor I don't know how we survived. What my parents must have gone through! Papa would work the sugar beet run and then do what odd jobs he could. The two summers we were in Lincoln he contracted to thin and hoe huge fields of beets for different farmers. I worked side by side with him, all day, every day but Sunday. Lula helped too and my mother walked to the field and worked when her housework was done. Lots of times we'd take home the beets we had pulled up on our thinning and have them for supper, with gravy over bread and fruit Mama had canned. We had a cow. In the winter, Lula and I pulled a wagon up to the beet dump and brought home a wagon-load of pulp for food for the cow. It smelled terrible and made the milk taste like beet-pulp. One time we had no flour and no money to buy any. I know my parents were frantic. As we sat around our kitchen table after supper there was a knock on our back door. When we answered it, there in our little lean-to porch, was a 50 lb. sack of flour. We never knew who brought it, but suspected a dear old couple who lived in "doll town." But what a heaven-sent gift! Mother still made over old clothes for us, but we always looked good. I worked in the fields at harvest time picking spuds and topping beets to earn money for school clothes. I earned my class ring this way. I think it cost $7.50. If we went anywhere we walked. We walked all the time to Idaho Falls and back. In the winters, my legs above my stockings were frost-bitten most of the time. Girls couldn't wear pants. In the summer time, there were dances at different churches and two big dance halls, Wandamere and Riverside. I loved to dance. Because we had no car and no way to go anywhere my parents wouldn't let me go on a date, in the summer, unless I took Lula and one of her girl friends. They didn't think it was fair for me to go when she couldn't. How I hated to tell a fellow I could go, but I'd have to take my sister and her friend. Surprisingly, I still had dates. Lula had no fun. She'd just ride to the dance, sit on a bench and talk to her girl friend all night and then ride home. She was totally out of place. I was so nasty to her in an effort to make her too angry to go that I have always been bitterly ashamed. My folks were just trying to be good to her, but they created such bad feelings between us that we really drifted apart. But in spite of no money, my high school years were fun. When we graduated there were about 32 students in our class. About four of them were older fellows (23) who had dropped out of school and then come back. We did all kinds of things to make our graduation special. We wallowed in our grief. We even had a "sob" assembly." I had no money for a graduation dress. Papa loaded up Verna's old buggy with the tools he had used in Salt Lake and some other things. He pushed it to Idaho Falls and sold it at a second hand store. Then he walked home with some money. Mama and I walked to town and selected a beautiful boughten dress.