I was born September 24, 1922 at my family home in Garfield, Idaho. I was the 7th child of a family of nine children. My father was John Henry Peterson and my mother, Florence Mary Jeffs Peterson.
We lived in a two room house with a lean-to on the south. Dad had a 20 acre farm he owned and he rented 160 acres from a Mrs. Godfrey who lived in Idaho Falls. Of course we had pigs, chickens, sheep, and cows but no goats. Dad didn't have enough pasture so in the summer time we would herd the cows along the roads. This was a very boring job but did provide time for day dreaming. I also became expert with a "nigger flipper" (we could call it that in those days). Many a little bird died because of my skill.
I, also, spent time helping with the hay. My job at that young age was leading the derrick horse. Hay was brought in from the field in wagons and then unloaded, and put on the stack with a Jackson Fork. Leading that horse up and back all day was worse than herding cows. I remember one day I went out with my brothers to help load the wagon. I was driving the team and at the front of the wagon was a ladder that we went up as the hay was being loaded. That day when the wagon was loaded one of my brothers decided to put one more bunch of hay up for me to sit on. Well that bunch of hay was full of ants and they did a job on me. To this day I kill every ant I see because of what their forefathers did to me.
My best friends at this time were Max and Rex Groom. They were also my cousins and we spent a lot of time playing games and climbing trees in their barnyard. I never went in their house or played in their yard as the yard was full of flowers and their mother was a mean woman. I know because she was my Primary teacher and she wouldn't let me graduate from Primary 'till I had learned every Article of Faith.
I spent so much time playing with those boys and never seemed to have to work that their father called me a "transient." I went home and asked Dad what that meant. I never did find out what it meant cause my Dad just got mad.
Life was different in those days. We had no electricity - no indoor toilets - we drank water from the canal that ran in front of our place. Carrying water for Mother to wash with was a pain. On Saturday whether we needed it or not, we took a bath. A round tub was set in the room and we all took turns. Hot water was added as needed and the last kid didn't get very clean water but it was deep. Drinking water was set on a stand in a 12 qt. bucket with a dipper in it from which we all drank. This helped to spread the germs to everyone equally.
We lived about 3/4 of a mile from the church and school. There was no school bus so we walked or rode a horse. As I liked to get up late, I always ran in the winter - it helped keep me warm.
Sacrament meeting in those days was at 7 o'clock at night. I still remember riding in a sleigh in the winter when roads were closed and as there were no snow plows that was most of the winter.
I wouldn't want my posterity to think that every one lived like we did. As city folks had bath tubs and indoor toilets and hot and cold running water. Today they would probably call us "poor white trash."
When the depression came along we at least ate good as we had our own meat, eggs, butter, milk and bottled fruits. We had dried corn and we traded wheat for flour.
About the time I was 12 years old, my dad and older brothers, Spence and Floyd and sister, Sylvia and her husband John Rasmussen decided they needed more land. A Mr. Sweet who owned Sweet's Candy Co. in Salt Lake City had land for rent in Mud Lake which was about 35 miles away. They rented 160 acres just east of the Terreton Store and 320 acres 3 miles to the west by the desert also 160 just west of the Terreton Store.
There were only two homes there so Mom, Golden, Harvey, and I stayed at Garfield and took care of the 20 acre farm. The next spring the Matson family moved from one of Mr. Sweet's farms so Dad rented the 160 acres and Mother moved into another 2 room house with a porch, but only after Mr. Sweet promised to build her a new home. The promise was kept and a year or so later we moved into a new home with a kitchen, living room, dining room and two bedrooms. It even had a bathroom but no plumbing so Mother used it for a pantry. We kept the little "two holer" out back.
I remember my first day at school in Mud Lake. At lunch time some of the kids said, "Come on we are going into the field and play games." They were really playing hookey. We ended up about a mile from school in a big dry canal. We played spin the bottle - as I remember if the bottle pointed to a girl we were supposed to kiss her. I was scared to kiss the girls. Boy , was I dumb! We waited till after school was out to go back but the teacher was waiting and made us make up the lessons we had missed.
Mud Lake was hay and grain country and we started haying in the middle of June and quit the first of September. Slips and chains were used instead of a Jackson Fork. The slips were made out of two poles with boards across which made them close to the ground and easy to pitch hay on to. The chains were laid on the board platform under the hay and then hooked to the cable on the derrick. Then the whole load was pulled up at once. The usual wage for working 9 or 10 hours in the hay was $1.50 to $2.00 per day. I usually worked for my Dad or brothers so I got nothing.
When I was about 15 years old my Dad, who had about 250 head of sheep, decided to spend the summers herding sheep and let my brothers run the farm. We put our sheep with several other farmers' sheep and herded them to Sheep Mountain about 90 miles away. Dad and I spent the summers there and that's a great life if you like sheep more than people.
When I got home I shot my whole summer's wages of $45.00 on a bicycle from Montgomery Wards. I had a lot of good times on that bicycle and some bad. One time I hooked it on the back of my brother Spence's car. It was night and I didn't want to ride home in the dark. He said he'd go slow but after about a mile he forgot I was there and speeded up to about 35 miles per hour on a graveled road. The bike started shimmying and threw me off. I was not only skinned up but also very mad at my brother.
I spent two years riding to Roberts high school in the back of a pickup truck with a canvas top on the back, 8 or 9 students usually rode in it. I earned my school letter in track. Getting up late had helped to make a runner out of me. I got passing grades by sitting in the back of the room with smart short girls in the desk in front of me. My 20-20 vision also helped.
My best friend at this time was Bus Love, and we spent a lot of good times together. One summer we took his dad's pickup and spent a week in Yellowstone Park. We had a great time. Stephen Baker went with us. We called ourselves the "Three Musketeers." Bus' Mother, Maggie Love thought we should develop our talents a little so she organized a quartet with the help of Ted and Larry Adamson. Thanks to her I learned how to sing parts.
I spent most of my summers working for neighbors in the hay and grain, also in the spring I worked for sheep men in the lambing sheds. In the winter I shot rabbits and sold their hides. If I had been a better shot I would have made more money. About 20 rabbits was the best I could get with a box of shells. The dried and stretched hides were worth about $1.00 a pound. I saved my money and bought a horse and a fine saddle, even a 9 shot .22 pistol. I would be a cowboy for sure. But horses were too slow so a year or so later I sold the whole thing and bought a Harley 74 Motorcycle. which I kept until I got married. It was great to take girls on as the only thing they had to hold on to was me. The problem was the summers were too short.
One of the things I enjoyed the most was playing my old guitar in a two man orchestra. Just Louis Anderson, who played a steel guitar, and I started together playing at a place called Lidy Hot Springs. It was war time, but people loved to dance and it has since amazed me to remember how many people gathered at that very out of the way place to dance and some to get drunk. At one o'clock the dance would end unless someone passed the hat to gather more money to pay the orchestra to keep playing for another hour. Sometimes it would be four o'clock in the morning before we quit. This did not make me a good Sunday School attender. But then it was no worse than when I was younger and dated this girl that loved to kiss, it was often later than 4 am when I got her home. The difference was I had sore lips instead of sore fingers. Louis Anderson married her later. He sure got second hand lips.
That motorcycle was great for one thing - it got good gas mileage but then my ration card only gave me 4 gallons of gas per month. So my brother Floyd's gas barrel kept me going. Just imagine me in a black leather jacket, black leather cap that buttoned under my chin, goggles, and black leather gloves riding this beautiful cycle with a large seat, saddle bags and a windshield. People called me that "wild Peterson kid." My Dad said I would never amount to a "hill of beans" and he was right.
Courting girls on that thing was cool, in fact sometimes downright frigid. Rigby, Idaho was the place I spent most of my Saturday nights and those early morning rides 35 miles or so home were not pleasant, but then I had my love to keep me warm.
My brother Floyd got me a farm deferment that kept me out of the army for a year or two. But I think some one wanted me gone and reported to my draft board. So I got a letter of "Greetings from my friends and neighbors" telling me to report for my physical - which I passed, darn it.
Well in the mean time I began dating a school "marm" named Phyllis Matson just because of a bet with my brother. He bet I couldn't kiss her on the first date. He won the bet but I wouldn't give up. I had no money for a ring so Golden and I headed for the Upper Snake River Valley to work in the potatoes. We got a job working for Herman Sargent who had 20 Ricks College coeds picking potatoes and I had a "steady girl." Oh, well!
Anyway Golden and I went to work hauling potatoes from the field to the cellar. Our day started at 9 a.m. and ended at 10 or 11 p.m. for six days a week for $5.00 a day. Well, when i was through I had enough money to buy a $66.00 diamond ring set, and I thought that was a fortune!
The Saturday night after I got done I rode that motorcycle to Lorenzo and borrowed Phyllis' Dad's car. I took Phyllis to the dance at Riverside Gardens, a large dance hall. In those days big bands appeared often there and performed. Large crowds came from great distances to dance - most of the young women wore long satin formal dance dresses. Most of the dances were waltz, fox trot or two step. They were so graceful that it was fun to watch even if you didn't participate. I asked that girl if she would take that ring and being a greedy woman she took them both. I wasn't ready for marriage but then she had a good job and I was leaving for the army soon so we went to the Logan Temple in Logan, Utah and were married a month later.
