From the Allen Family History.

EARLY YEARS

I was born November 13, 1917 to Henry Heber and Reda Ricks Allen, the fourth daughter, but fifth child in this family. I was born in. Banida, Franklin, Idaho while the harvest season was still going strong for threshing wheat. I was only a. few months old when my folks moved to Swan Lake for a short period and then soon after I was a year old we moved to Cove, Utah. My earliest memories are of Cove. I have sketchy memories of playing house in an old beet wagon that was in a buggy shed. What fun Carma and I had! How Roland would tease! One time he told us that he had a tunnel from just outside the kitchen door to the hay loft in the barn. If we wouldn't be good he threatened to put us in the tunnel. We really believed him. I remember the tree that grew close to the front porch and how much fun we had climbing onto it. Helping in the beet fields was another thing I remember. My job was to clear a spot where the beets were thrown as they were topped. It must have been a job to keep me busy and out of the way of the other workers. I remember one day becoming ill and being taken to the house. A doctor was called to check out Eunice and my fevers. Eunice was the baby and when the doctor came he undressed her on the table. I didn't like that idea so I hid under the couch so he couldn't undress me. I had Chicken Pox.

Dad and Mother had a blind friend named John Broawley, who would come to the house once in awhile. Mother would scramble him a plateful of eggs and feed him. He would put me on his knee and ask how I was--I would answer, "Fine!" he would. then say, "Fine as frogs hair?" Oh, how he would laugh. It took a while to figure that one out. Another friend was Janey Laker. She was a weaver. Once in awhile we would visit her. Her huge loom fascinated me. It was almost magic the way a rug would grow under her experienced hands.

One more memory stays with me--the smell of the beet pulp that was fed to the milk cows. How I hated that smell. We moved again to Swan Lake when Dad bought the Frank Hendricks farm at the mouth of Stockton Canyon. I was somewhere in my fifth year for I started school that fall in Swan Lake before I turned six. The ride from Cove to Swan Lake was another memory as Mother and the smaller children rode the train while Dad, Roland, and Dorothy drove loads of furniture. This was my first train ride. What an exciting time we had!

SCHOOL MEMORIES

I started school before my sixth birthday because of my birthday being in November. The students in my grade were Woodrew Sorensen, Wayne Millard, Ellis Gambles, Martel Thomas, Weldon Millard, LaVell Henderson, Margaret Sorenson, Leota Matkin, Clarice Thomas and myself. From my commencement program as we graduated from the eighth grade we had picked up a few more students. We took state prepared exams at the end of the eighth grade and if you didn't pass the test you took the grade over. Memories of this time include a solo I sang in a primary program. It was "Sweet and Low" and that was my first and last singing experience. I remember black-button shoes and how I was teased because I would not or could not get every button hooked. I carry with me another remembrance of those times in the form of a sear on my right hand, third finger, from a glass taw used in playing hop scotch.

Most of school was an adventure and I liked it--once in awhile the kids were unkind and teased so I was hurt too. My memories recall my first teacher, who was ill part of the year. She would tie a boy and a girl's head together and make them sit in front of the room if they whispered. I also had my mouth taped together with adhesive tape for whispering. I loved running and jumping games. We played games at recess that children today know nothing about. "Guinea" was one I especially liked. Marbles was also very popular. I remember even making my own marbles from clay. If they were thrown too hard they would break but we could always make a new batch and set them in the sun to dry again.

I had my first and last birthday party November 13, 1930. It didn't turn out well for me at all. I invited all 10 of my classmates. Two boys got together and bought a garter belt for me. I was so embarrassed as I opened the box. It was way too big besides! They thought it was a fine joke but it took me a long time to forgive them. It snowed that night, too, the first snow of that season. I'm sure thought it was to punish those boys.

I was the first member of the family to go to Downey to high school. When the high school classes were discontinued in Swan Lake, the older members of the family went to Logan to high school. They lived with Dad's mother and father, Grandma and Grandpa Allen. I had to find my own way the two miles to Swan Lake from our house to catch the bus to Downey. In good weather I walked or rode a horse. In winter I usually rode a horse also and more than once, Mrs. Ida Hadley would meet me at the road and have me come in to thaw a bit before she would let me get on the bus.

I was not very popular in high school with the boys but I had a lot of friends. Teachers seemed to give me jobs of importance or responsibility. One time, Miss Barns, the Home Ec teacher, put me in charge of a banquet. Another time I was to carve the turkey. I named the Home Ec. Club, the Gi-Ho-E Club.

One memorable snow came while I was still in high school. I remember how high the snow was piled along the sides of the roads. One time we had a flat tire so that old black bus (first bus in the District). We climbed onto the snow bank, then onto the top of the bus while waiting for the tire to be fixed.

I always looked forward to summer, for Mother's sisters always sent some of our cousins to spend the summers to help on the farm. We had such fun, with Herbert and Joel Fletcher, Bill Larsen, Jay, Wendell and Paul Bastow. Bill was my age so he was a special companion. Jay wasn't with us as much as Wendell, so Wendell also became a good friend. Once Bill, Wendell and I went to the top of Oxford Peak on the 4th of July. Mother took us as far as she could in the car and then met us again as we came down.

In high school I was active in speech and drama as well as athletics. I lettered in basketball and enjoyed playing on the team. I also did some long jumping. Once I was given the lead in a three-act-play but was talked out of it by the director. So I played the mother instead of the grandmother. It proved a good part and I learned a great deal from Florus Ballif, the director.

Times were hard and money was hard to find or earn. One summer I stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Allen to help with what I could while Grandma was so ill with gallstones. I had always dreamed of going to college but when the time came I just couldn't make it. I found different jobs. One time I worked for Colonel Brown in Logan as a day maid. That lasted a week. I had applied at the Bluebird Restaurant so when they called I was glad for the chance. I worked in different areas, from dishwasher to helping in the candy factory for the rest of that summer and fall. Mother wanted to go to California and wanted me to go with her so I quit my job and went along.

I was seventeen and started to see how big the world really was. Aunt Irene was most kind. She took Mother everywhere and I tagged along. We went to a club that Amelia Earhart had spoken to the week before. (I've always wished that it could have been one week later so I could have met her.) We saw "Gumps," the big department store, "The Russian Tea Room", "Fisherman's Wharf", the big fresh produce market in Oakland that covered over a block, Muir Woods, plus crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and visiting the Historical Center and the Zoo. She introduced us to artichokes and other vegetables we had never heard about. I will always be grateful to her for making me feel so welcome when really I was in the way. To this day, I think of Aunt Irene when I use or smell Ivory soap. This was the soap she used and its fresh, clean, smell makes me think of San Francisco. We went in February, were there about five weeks and returned the middle of March. This was Mother first trip to her sister's so she was given every consideration. I just happened to get in on it. I guess I have always felt a little guilty about it. One day we watched them hoist a section of the Bay bridge into place.

When we returned from California, Dad and Mother decided that if I would care for some baby chicks they could send me to college with the egg money. I was glad to stay home in the folds of my family. We had a new coop especially for the brooding of the chickens. I almost lived in it. I slept with the chicks to keep the underground furnace at a constant temperature while the chicks were really small. I worked hard but it was fun, too. Many times I dreamed about my dream coming true--I was going to college!!! I wanted to teach.. I had always wanted to teach. But What? I decided to prepare for home economics. I reasoned that if I had to drop out I would be that much better prepared to make a good home of my own. Ruth Fletcher helped me pick my classes for that first semester. I was advised to get as many requirements out of the way and then I'd be free to take electives. I took what I could get. Many classes I wanted were filled and I had to substitute but I ended up with a full course and had to work more at homework than I dreamed possible. I did not date a lot but enough to make school interesting. Cora Bowers and her brother, Bill, became good friends of mine. Cora later taught in Grace and Thatcher. Bill died an early death--ulcers I believe. Bessie Gill, Opal, and I lived together on what is known as the Island, somewhere about 2nd East and 2nd or 3rd South. We had many good times. Before that, Opal and I lived with Grandfather Allen. Then we rented a room and a closet in the building north of the old Post Office on Center Street. The closet we used as a kitchen and curtained off a corner of the room for our clothes. The bathroom was down the hall. We were really excited to move into the back of a real house on the "Island".

During the summer of 1937 I returned home and worked around the house. On July 27, 1937 I received my Patriarchal Blessing from Benjamin W. Henderson of Arimo. Opal, Theo Hadley's wife and I went together for our blessings. Another major event in my life occurred that summer as Luwenna Guinigar, a high school friend, talked me into going to Pocatello to college. She wanted me to room with her. She was quick to point out that we could get a certificate for teaching at the end of the year. (Idaho gave provisional certificates after two years of college if you met certain requirements.) I thought it was worth a try so the next year was like starting over again. We roomed with Carma and Deonne Peterson from Blackfoot. We had a basement apartment on 5th so we were able to walk to school. I hadn't taken Freshman English at Logan so I had to take both freshman and sophomore English at the same time. I almost didn't make it. I switched from Home Ec. to Elementary. I'm sure I would have made a good Home Ec. teacher but I have loved being an Elementary Teacher.

After receiving my certificate, I applied to teach at Treasureton, Cleveland, and Grace. I was offered all of them but chose Grace because I thought I'd have only one grade, the third grade. When I applied in Grace it was a wet, rainy day. I remember I was wearing a red straw-Turkish-type hat. I worried about getting it wet so took it off until I got to the door. I applied to Stanley Harrison as well as some of the trustees. As I left the old grade school building I started to run. One foot hit the wet wooden bridge over the irrigation ditch and down I went. I rolled completely over and was covered with mud all the way around. Mother and Aunt Leta Adams were waiting in the car. They helped me up and we headed for Nellie Johnson's Beauty Parlor. She helped me dry off and then proceeded to brush the dry mud from my suit. Thanks to her kindness I was almost as good as new.

When I started to teach that year (1938-39), Norma Smith (Ray), Ardis Swartz, and myself were all new. Doris Jones, Helen Mack, Frank Taylor, and Stanley Harrison comprised the rest of the teaching staff. I ended up with all of the third grade and 10 second graders from Norma's room. The next year I had all 42 kids of the first and second grades and not one offer of help. Also at this time I was a counselor to Lois Peterson in the ward MIA. I loved teaching and tried a lot of things. I taught for three years in Grace: 1938-39, 1939-40, 1940-41. I knew I would soon be married so I went home to be with my folks the next year and taught in Swan Lake 1941-42.

Sometime in the spring of that last year in Grace, I went with the teachers to Bancroft to roller skate in the gym. We were playing whip and I was on the end when someone came at me from the side. Well, I slammed into the wall. Result? I was taken to the hospital in Soda Springs. The doctor wouldn't come in the middle of the night and he didn't even have time for me that next morning. It was when lunch was brought in to my roommate that I asked for my clothes so I could go for help--then I finally got some attention. After the X-ray showed a crushed vertebrae, I received a lot of attention. I was in the hospital about a week before I was allowed to be taken home. Mother and Dad rented Rao Weaver's panel truck to take me home. I had to remain on my back on a canvas frame for six weeks. This frame was 18 inches high in the middle with head and feet down. Some of those memories of being in bed were good, others awful. Mom was busy and I just added to it. I tried to read but would get headaches. Once one head ache was so bad that the bed seemed to roll end over end. I would cling to the frame to keep from falling as it seemed to turn. No wonder, I was reading, "Les Miserables".

Howard was a regular visitor. Once he came when my hair was in tiny braids as Negro children sometimes fix their hair. It was awful how my hair would get! I wasn't to get off the bed for anything. Carma would come home once in awhile and help Mother wash it. Oh, how good that would feel. Howard and I planned to be married in the spring of '41 but Brig and Vera were married then, so we decided to wait until the next spring. I decided to teach in Swan Lake and live with Mother and Dad. They built a new home in the spring of 1942. It wasn't quite finished when we were married (May 20, 1942) so we went on a honeymoon to the Canyonlands of Utah. When we returned we had a trousseau tea in the new house. I still have the list of guests and presents we were given. Howard and I moved into the old home in Thatcher. Mr. and Mrs. Young moved to Logan when Brig and Vera were married. Howard bought a stove and a used refrigerator. They used them for a few months before we were married. When we were married Brig and Vera were building a new home. Until it was finished, we lived together in the old house (about 5 months). By that time, I was pregnant and glad to be by myself. Vera and I had a lot of fun those first few months. We cooked together, ate together, played in the wheat, watched new animals being born and so on.

FAMILY LIFE

Dale, our oldest, was born June 11, 1943, a little over a year after we were married. Glenn Allen came along August 9, 1945. Robert Lee followed on June 26, 1947 and Carol was five years later on June 15, 1952 (Father's Day). She was a special gift to him.

When I went into labor with Dale we drove to Pocatello with Dr. Koehler. He was tired and tried to sleep in the back seat of the car. I had several hard pains so I'm sure he didn't get any rest. The baby came before the nurse finished getting me ready. What a lovely child he was! Glenn was born under Dr. Charles Johnson's care in Soda Springs. Two boys now, our cup runneth over! Rob was under Dr. Herron's care who also helped with Carol. He gave me the very best of care. Howard and I were so proud of our family and still are.

We didn't have much money in those early days of our marriage but we were healthy, had plenty to eat and were busy trying to get enough to keep shoes and clothes on the kids. We worked together as a family and played together, too. Prayer always played a special part in my life so it was with joy that I taught the children to pray at bedtime and at the table. Looking back I know we had some hard times but now they are hard to remember. I knew I loved Howard and that his love was for me alone. That was enough.

The year 1949, was an exceptionally long and cold winter. We were snowed in two or three times. It was hard to keep the little ones in day after day. We worried about one of them getting sick and not being able to get to a doctor. The Lord blessed us though, we stayed well and found things to do. I helped the children sew quilt blocks to keep them busy. They would cut the strings and stack the blocks. It was fun for them to just play in the scraps. Our oil heater really had to work overtime that winter.

Grandpa and Grandma Young would come and help in the summers when it was time to care for the hay. After Grandfather Young's death (July 1949) Grandma was without someone to care for, so she would spend time with each of the children. How our children loved her! She would help with whatever there was to do. The dishes and darning were her special tasks when she was with us. I learned a lot from her. It seemed that she was there when I needed someone. I think I loved her as much as I did my own Mother.

When we could, we started a new house. It was a long wanted dream. We started in 1950 and did a lot of the work ourselves. Terrel Pack helped us with. the foundation and roughing. Rao Weaver helped with the finishing work. How we loved our new home. We moved in just before Christmas in 1951. Before everything was fixed the way we wanted it to be, we had a new arrival to our family. Carol was born the following June. Howard was so proud of her and the boys were so kind, I had fears we would spoil her rotten but she has always been a joy to us.

CHURCH ACTIVITIES AND ASSIGNMENTS

My first Church job in Thatcher was Theology teacher in the Relief Society. I was released July 1, 1945 because I was expecting Glenn and was quite ill. At that time, Berdean Harris was president of the Young Men, I was sustained as president of the Young Women's MIA. On September 5, 1948 I became the Relief Society work leader and was released April 1, 1951 to serve as second counselor to Allene Hogan in the Relief Society, being sustained July 29, 1951. During this time I also taught the Junior Girls in the MIA. On July 13, 1952 I became Relief Society President of Thatcher Ward. I had been asked to take the position before Carol was born but waited until after her arrival. Myrtle Manhart and Phyllis Barthlome were my counselors.

We were serving when the old church was torn down in 1952. The ground breaking for the new church was May 3, 1952 and during the fourteen months of building, Relief Society was held in different members' homes. May 2, 1953 was the first meeting the Relief Society held in the new building and what a wonderful feeling that was. I was released June 12, 1955 after Howard's call to the bishopric. I felt that we both couldn't be that involved, with our children as young as they were. It didn't seem that I was to be without a job, however, for I was called the same year (1955) as Stake Relief Society Work Director.

From 1964-67 I was MIA Stake Drama Director. In 1967 I was also given Stake Speech Director. I served until 1968 when I became 1st counselor to Joan Murdoch in the Stake MIA. This was really a growing experience for me. I wrote the Stake MIA Centennial play about the past presidents. We also sponsored a Centennial Ball which was a great success and a lot of work. I was involved and went to camp with the girls for 10 years or more, part of the time while Carol was involved in her camp training.

I've served a great many years in the Sunday School Organization. First as a teacher of small children and later with the freshman age kids.

BACK TO SCHOOL

Carol was about five when I made up my mind to go back to teaching. It was a family decision. I didn't plan to make a career out of it. So 1956 found me at Thatcher Elementary with a combination of 5th and 6 grades. I was swamped with the material to cover--but I enjoyed teaching. I taught seven years in Thatcher then moved to Grace Junior High to teach Junior High classes and High School Art. I was there four years then had the 6th Grade in the Junior High Building. During this time, Dale would often drive me to school, as he was in high school. About this time I became active in Classroom Teachers and served as 5th District Vice-President and President. A great opportunity awaited as I was elected president of the State Department of Classroom Teachers. I became close with Sara Kuglar from American Falls who preceded me the District and State offices.

I attended two National conventions, one in Seattle and one in Detroit, a regional convention in Tacoma, Washington, and went to a national workshop in Muncie, Indiana earning two college credits for participation there. The Convention in Cobo Hall in Detroit was really memorable. I was on my own in a great big city. I guess I did a little growing and a lot of learning. I enjoyed meeting the important people that held responsible jobs just to find they were as common and kind my next-door neighbors. In 1963-64 while I was President of the Department of Classroom Teachers in the State of Idaho, I had to travel throughout the different districts in Idaho and take with me the other guests from out of state. I had the good fortune to travel with Dr. Lawrence Dirthick and Anita Ruffing. Anita was the national leader for the Department of Classroom Teachers and Dr. Dirthick was the NEA (National Education Association) speaker. He had been President Eisenhower's advisor for education. Sara Kuglar was IEA president this same year and was a lot of help with these people.

When I left the Jr. High, I returned to teach in the 5th and 6th grades in Thatcher. It was five more years before the next move. Howard and Brig sold the ranch in 1972 and we bought the Lawrence Burgin home behind the elementary school. I was able to get a job in the second grade and taught there three years. About this time, Howard was beginning to feel much better and his heart problem had straightened out, so we decided to go on a mission if they would take us. Our call came through in March but we had to wait for two weeks after school was out so we could have time to get things in order. After returning to Grace from Texas and the mission field, I asked for a. job in the schools again. I taught the next two years in the 6th grade. Teaching active sixth graders was a real job so when spring arrived I was ready for retirement. Howard was restless and needed me home with him. I taught a total of 26 years, retiring in 1979.

HOBBIES

I have tried my hand at a lot of things, some have been successful, others have not. I started making wedding cakes when Carol was a baby. I made many cakes over the years, at least 200. Once Carol reached her little hand up to a finished cake and took a handful. I had left it too close to the edge of the table.

I tried my hand at weaving rugs, painting pictures, gardening, studying wild flowers and trees, quilt making, quilting, sewing, and related homemaking arts helped us survive some of the slim years.

I have also worked as a 4-H leader in three counties: 10 years in Franklin, for 2 years in Bannock, and 15 years in Caribou. I was a faithful county fair worker for several years and was women's chairman the fall Carol was a baby.