Work To &Thru College
No one makes it through college without help from others and I was no exception. Lest someone think that I am ungrateful I want to cover the many who helped me on my way. Many helped but the big three were Jennie, Boyd, and Kathryn. Others helped by employing me and I have listed them in the jobs that I had. I received an honor scholarship from the University of Utah and was given the opportunity to work as I went along.
The first donations to my college funds were the "War Bonds" that Boyd and Jennie purchased in my name. They also purchased "War Bonds" in their name for themselves and used then for a down payment on their "new" home. When ever my parents had the opportunity to show me these bonds they would say that they were mine to go to college. Always telling me that college was important. I had a savings bank that I would count the change and save for more bonds to go to college. Mom started working at Dixon's Dairy Freeze to help pay for the home and college. She would later move to the meat market in the IGA store owned and operated by Roy Rogers. This would turn out to be a blessing for us as she proved to be a source of t-bone steaks for our family. She would buy steaks that were going to be ground for hamburger because they had been discolored and freeze them until we came home. They really tasted good. Boyd almost always worked holidays because they were double time days, meaning that he received double pay for working. The next point was that Geneva had an incentive package that would on real good days provide an additional multiplier, thus it was possible to double your hourly rate twice or four times. Everyone new that holidays were the days that they would break records in production. If you didn't want to work you could take the day off and get paid regular time, but if you come to work you must work.
Kathryn or Kate as the family called her went to comptometer school to learn to keep books. It seems that the family's college funds were just ample to put Shirley through college. I had never heard of a comptometer, but she assured me it was a good field. She did very well finishing up and getting a job at the creamery in Salt Lake City.
When she finally accepted my proposal I invested my "War Bonds" in a wedding ring for Kathryn. We picked out the ring from a catalogue. This turns out to be the best investment I ever made. She worked the first year of our marriage at the creamery even with morning sickness. She said every time they opened the door between the office and creamery she almost lost her last meal. As reported we lived in a 15 ' camp trailer that year. Boyd and Jennie had bought a trailer to help us get by. One day our old Studebaker developed this horrible noise and we thought it was done for but Derayne Roberts(Beverly's husband) was able to find and remove the nut that had come loose and was bouncing around in the universal joint. During the next year our old Studebaker was totaled in an accident. Naomi or Goshen Grandma as she was known received a big bump on her head but saved her grand daughter Cindy from harm. Note: This was in the days before seat belts and car seats. Boyd and Jennie just found us a nice blue 52 Chevrolet to get us around in. Thanks again! After Cindy was old enough to go to Aunt Beverly's, Kate returned to work. Thanks to Aunt Beverly for helping us in Salt Lake City. Kate then worked for Continental Baking Co., which was one of the best comptometer jobs in Salt Lake. At comptometer school she was told that the bakery and oil companies paid the most money.
While awaiting Carla's birth I got a job at Hercules and we traded in the Chevy for a 1962 Dodge Lancer (< $2,000). When I started grad school we had car payments but we had a reliable car. After Carla got older we worked out arrangements for baby sitters in the Village which saved driving to the other side of town.
My stipend from the NDEA came directly from Washington, DC at the beginning of the quarter. This created a feast or fast type of life style except it was one month of feasting followed by two months of fasting. This really forced us to budget our limited funds.
Family and friends were supportive of getting an education, but for nine years. At first everyone told me that it was good to get an education. Soon the question was are you still going to school, and then will you ever be finished? I guess it took another forty years of teaching before I left college. Ruth Good always called my retirement party my graduation. I guess I was in college for ever.
Thanks to all who helped me fulfill my life's goal of teaching in a great University.