Sharing our Links to the Past
|
|
This series of articles was written by Elsie over a period of three years. Chapters 1-12 were written monthly during 1991 and compiled into one volume for Christmas. Volume 2 (Chapters 13-17) came out in December 1992. Volume 3 (Chapters 18-21) appeared in December 1993. Placing them on the Internet allows for a wider distribution. They are valuable because they contain historical information, some of which is not found elsewhere. These chapters are produced on four pages as follows: 1. My Younger Years Young Adulthood (This
Page) The Young
Family (Page Three) Widowhood
(Page Four) 6. MY SCHOOLING AND JOBS
7. DATING I had some good times with various boy friends and could brag about several proposals. Here are some early experiences with some of them before I met Don and really fell in love. In High School When I was at the LDS High School, I had a crush on a fellow I sat by in class. He was friendly, but when I tried my skill at being coy and winning a little more attention, I found that I had not developed the art of attracting the opposite sex. I was too obvious and straightforward. My Brother Sets the Standard If I needed someone to take me to a school dance, my brother Roy, two years older, would fill in. Because Roy and I were close in age, and we always agreed in our faith and ambitions, he was my ideal. He took pains to correct my grammar and was there and willing whenever I needed an escort. It seemed no boy ever measured up to him. It made it difficult to find someone that lived up to Roy. Elmer and the Broken Leg When I was working at the telephone company, I met Zelma. She had a boy friend named Cliff and they introduced me to Elmer who played the drums in a band. Elmer had a car, and we found plenty to do on weekends when he wasn't playing for a dance. One Sunday we went out to some friends who lived on a farm. As we were wandering around there, the boys saw a rope with a hook on it hanging in the big barn door. One of them said, "Get a hold, Elsie, and we'll give you a lift up to the hay loft!" They went around to the other side of the barn. I grabbed hold, like a dummy, and up they jerked me. I was swinging about 15 feet off the ground when I lost my grip and fell. I landed on my left leg, broke the big bone straight through the flesh, and crushed the small bone near the ankle. My friends did not take me to a doctor but left me at the farm in bed, my leg swelling and burning. To this day, I spent the worst night of my life there, though I am sure they attended me and did the best they could. Monday morning I was taken home and then to the doctor. He set my leg and put it in a cast above my knee. Two weeks later when it was x-rayed, the doctor said it had to be reset. He came to my home, set up the dining room table for the operation, put me out with ether, and after the operation gave me a nice, new cast to wear for three months. Dad and my stepmother Aunt Ada made a bed for me in the parlor and lots of friends came and went. I was about 19, and had saved up enough money to go the University of Utah, but the medical expenses depleted that savings, so I went back to the telephone company. The leg has bothered me ever since, but IÕm thankful that I have had the full use of it. A Boy Named Blondie I had some good times at my cousins' home in Fairview, Utah where we went horseback riding. I met a boy named Blondie. I thought I was really out in the world because this boy often carried a jug of "apple jack" with him. But Fairview was 100 miles south of Salt Lake, and except for one date in Salt Lake where Blondie had come to be a bell hop, I didn't see him again. After finishing at the LDS Business College and getting good work, I was a little more grown up. Earnest and Sterling While at the business college I met Earnest Minor, a good looking boy who was going to the university. He liked me and wanted me for his girl friend, but I always wanted boys who had a good sense of humor and a lot of spark. I really liked his brother Sterling, so my friends and I put on parties to invite him, but it never worked out Mr. Tumbleson I went to California for a vacation and stayed with my sister Ruby in Glendale. I decided to remain there and got a job by going to a typewriter shop and asking my friend Mr. Tumbleson (I can't remember his first name!) if he knew of any jobs. He told me about the Little Church of the Flowers at Forest Lawn. The people there needed a secretary. I worked at this famous little church, where they held weddings and funerals, for about a year. Mr. Tumbleson, about 28, started dating me. He got serious and proposed, but I kept comparing him with my brother, Roy. Even though he took dancing lessons to please me, he was not the one. He also got tired of hearing about how great Roy was, since I kept bragging about the virtues of my brother. And then I met Don. 8. AND THEN THERE WAS DON One day, as receptionist and secretary for Butterfield and Butterfield, a plumbing and cesspool cleaning company in Glendale, Calif., I looked up from my desk to see a tall, good looking fellow coming toward me. He smelled slightly of antiseptic. When I asked him if I could help him, I was rather lost in his smile and debonair way. He said he wanted to know what his next job was to be. I then realized that he was the truck driver and worked for the company. His Little Roadster I think he was smitten, too, because it wasn't long before he asked me if I would take the first ride in a little roadster he had built himself. Yes, I'd take a chance. So the next Saturday, here he comes in his little blue car, built from Ford parts. I had a new light green silk suit on for the occasion. I settled into the two-seater and away we went. It was amazing. It was wonderful. We laughed and exulted over its performance, and over Don, the builder, even though the car was a bit smokey. When I got home (I lived with my sister Ruby and her husband), Ruby exclaimed, "Look at your suit. It's black!" Don said that if I would go with him again in the car, he would have my suit cleaned, and he would put a carpet on the floorboard to cover the cracks. He kept his promises. His Recuperation A few weeks later Don broke his wrist while cranking the car. (In those days you had to turn a crank in the front of the car to start it. There were no automatic starters like we have today). He got time off, while recuperating, and I often found him waiting on the steps of our apartment when I came home from work. He wanted to teach me how to play pinochle. We had many happy times together as we played the game. Ruby and Frank made Don feel welcome in their home. He was still able to drive his car, so he would take me over the mountain roads and we would sit and look over the busy cities below, talking and trying to learn about each other. Our Friends He admired me for my standards as a "Mormon girl," but he had heard that the Mormons were a peculiar people. Sometimes we would go with our friends Julia and Woody and all four of us would crowd into the two-seater. Before long we were going back and forth occasionally with friends in Santa Monica, and this time became the happiest time of my life. My friends included Frances Von Hake, who was Ruby's close friend, Tekla Baker, Inez Von Hake and Julia Deeds. We girls would get together every month or so for a luncheon and chat and sew. "I'll Only Marry a Mormon!" Ruby was pregnant with little Glen and wanted to go back to Salt Lake for his birth. I thought I should go with them. Don said, "Stay here, and let's get married." I told him that I couldn't marry anyone unless he was a Mormon. So we said our goodbyes, promising to never forget each other and that we would write. Don stayed on in California for awhile, then quit his job and moved back to his hometown, Britt, Iowa, where he worked on a farm. We kept our promises, and wrote each other steadily for 14 months. I still have those letters from Don. Frances and Wally read one letter a day to me. There are at least 130 of them. They are full of poetry, romance and adventures, enough to turn any girl's head. He had a serious insight into life and was searching to learn about my religion. A little over a year later, Don appeared at my apartment in Salt Lake. By that time I was living with my brothers Roy and George. I was preparing dinner and heard a noise.I turned around and there was Don standing at the back door. He had that same captivating smile. This was in July of 1928. He was ready to join the Church, and we were married by the end of November. 9. WE GET MARRIED After Roy's mission in Germany, in order to put himself through the University of Utah, he worked for Caldwell and Hall, civil engineers. He eventually obtained a degree in engineering as a meteorologist. George worked to keep the grocery store going after our father died, eventually becoming a builder and contractor. Aunt Ada (my stepmother) was left with four young children, Mary, Edna, Reed, and Vicki, Mary being about 12 years old. Roy, George and I were living in a nice half-house apartment on South Temple. Ruby and Frank had returned to California after the death of their six-months-old son Glen from mastoiditis. Our Courtship For fourteen months Don and I had been writing love letters back and forth while Don was in Britt, Iowa, and I was in Salt Lake City. Now we were together and I appreciated Salt Lake all over again because Don was ever ready to explore and go places. He got a room at a boarding home, and through my brother Dick, was able to get a job at Utah Oil where Dick was a purchasing agent. I was working at Thomas and Thomas, attorneys, as their secretary, and on our free hours, we enjoyed the beautiful autumn months getting acquainted again and talking marriage. I have pictures of us at Memorial Park just down from the capitol building. Although we were mostly going on street cars, I remember one trip to Provo Canyon where we had a wonderful trout dinner with homemade ice cream and cake with some friends who had a car. Don had read the Book of Mormon and studied our religion, and was fully committed to join the church. Converts were not required to take the missionary lessons in those days. I talked to Roy who was contemplating marriage to Leila Cotterell, and my Aunt Sadie, my mother's sister, about getting married before Don was ready to go to the temple. They said because of our circumstances, both needing to make a home for each other, we should get married first. We planned for a November wedding. Many of my friends were in California, but Zelma Sadler whom I knew from my work at the telephone company gave me a shower. George and Roy gave me a beautiful cedar chest. Everything I had saved and accumulated went into this chest for the rest of my life. (Susan has it now). We Get Married It was a meager start, but we didn't know it. We talked to the bishop of the 20th Ward where we had rented a little apartment. Don was to be baptized the Saturday after we were married on Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1928. We were married at Aunt Sadie's . Our apartment was upstairs on Second Avenue and we were in heaven. It didn't matter that I had to do our wash by hand on a washboard, and hang sheets downstairs on a line; we had each other, at last. For our wedding present, Don bought an attractive card table, felt cover, black decorated border, very sturdy, and we used it for dozens of things: honeymoon bridge and games with friends. Then we got more ambitious and rented a home on G Street, above Fifth Avenue, and bought new furniture on credit. I don't know why I didn't keep my good job. In those days when you got married you quit and took care of the home and kids. Roy and Leila got married the following June. I was asked to be matron of honor at the reception, although I was five or six months pregnant with Frances. We did have a wonderful time while we were in Salt Lake: good work, good health, friends, and soon Frances arrived September 26, 1929. She was five and a-half pounds. She was a doll and Don called her Little Cookie. September 1929 was the month of the great stock market crash. We did not feel the effect for several months. 10. WE ARE HAPPY We had a nice rented home, new furniture on credit, Don had a new job, and I was looking forward to our first child and feeling exceptionally good. I had time on my hands, and thought I might get some part-time work. I found an ad needing a social secretary. When I applied, this wealthy lady with a big home on South Temple was satisfied to have me twice a week with her chauffeur taking me to and from work. Now I was earning a little extra money to buy a layette for our baby. I made a few things though I had no sewing machine. I made four blankets from a sheet blanket, binding each with pink ribbon. This turned out to Frances's 'love blanket" or "myto." Strange to say, Frances has since made dozens of these receiving blankets and crocheted edges around them for new babies. Roy and Leila married in June and made their home with new furniture just a few streets above us and we often visited. Street cars were handy, and we were free and in love. Don with his curiosity and adventure wanted to see everything. I did not look very pregnant, and Frances came two weeks early at only five and a-half pounds. This little sweetheart arrived without much ado on September 26, 1929. We were quite oblivious to the fact that the stock market was crashing all around us. Don had found a little used baby bed on wheels and painted it, and it was ready with soft covers and pillows. It was Don's delight every night to get her ready for bed. He put the card table up, laid her on a blanket, rubbed her with his big hands with oil, and powdered, dressed, and handed her to me for nursing. In the winter Don wrapped "Little Cookie," as he called her, like a mummy so her hands wouldn't get out, and the poor little dear couldn't wiggle out or turn over. Our bedroom was so cold with no heat and he worried about her being warm enough. I wanted Frances to have lots of fresh air, so I would roll her out in the back yard for nap. When she came in she had pink cheeks from either the cold or the sun. Don called her "Pinky," then. How the Crash Affected Us In a few months in this happy setting Don was laid off at Utah Oil because he was new and the least skilled. Pretty soon we couldn't pay our rent, and our coal for the furnace ran out. Owners of the Curtis Coal Company were our friends, and they gave Don a job hauling coal. After a few months,. Don was looking haggard. Hauling coal had turned up some old heart trouble, and he had to quit. Pretty soon the furniture company came to take their furniture back because we could not keep up the payments. We moved to a very small apartment, part of a house, and life became a struggle. Frances was healthy, but looking kind of yellowish, so I took her to the doctor thinking it was yellow jaundice. We found out I was giving her too many carrots because they were cheap and I felt she needed lots of vegetables. A friend of Don's said he was opening up a radio shop in Pocatello, Idaho and he would give him a job as a salesman. We left by bus or train as we had no car. Don could do anything. He was a good salesman and made attractive display windows, but the depression had set in and business was slow. By now I was pregnant with Gordon and the radio shop was going broke. George was in California and had
a good job with U.S. Tire Company and wanted us to come and make a home for him. He
thought a friend would also live with us and pay board and room, so I went ahead by train
to California. George and I found a place in Maywood. Ruby and Frank were in Eagle Rock.
Don came in a couple of months and went from place to place looking for work. He stood in
long lines, but found nothing for a long while. We were in a little court of small houses,
and Don was given the job of painting the apartments for our rent. With George's board and
room and the painting, we survived. To Glimpses Chapters 11-16 The Young Family Home Page
| Elsie Gladys Lundquist McNabb |
|
© 1998-1999 Wallace F. and Frances M. Gray. All rights reserved. This Web site may be freely linked. Please send comments and suggestions and report broken links to us at grayfox@sedona.net |