Oral History Program Thelma Page Steed Interviewed by Derek Hinds 21 May 1997 i Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Thelma Page Steed Interviewed by Derek Hinds 21 May 1997 Copyright © 2014 by Weber State University, Stewart Library ii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. Archival copies are placed in University Archives. The Stewart Library also houses the original recording so researchers can gain a sense of the interviewee's voice and intonations. Project Description The Weber State College/University Student Projects have been created by students working with several different professors on the Weber State campus. The topics are varied and based on the student's interest or task for a specific assignment. These oral history assignments were created to help Weber State students learn the value and importance of recording public history and to benefit the expansion of the Weber State oral history collections. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management All literary rights in the manuscript, including the right to publish, are reserved to the Stewart Library of Weber State University. No part of the manuscript may be published without the written permission of the University Librarian. Requests for permission to publish should be addressed to the Administration Office, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, Utah, 84408. The request should include identification of the specific item and identification of the user. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Steed, Thelma Page, an oral history by Derek Hinds, 21 May 1997, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. iii Abstract: This interview took place on May 21, 1997 in Clearfield, Utah at the home of Derek and Stacy Hinds. This interview was focused on the life and experiences of Thelma Page Steed, a long-time resident of the Clearfield area. DH: Thank you Thelma for allowing me to meet with you today. I am excited to talk to you about the experiences you have had growing up and living in this area. I appreciate your willingness in letting me learn about your past. TS: Well, I don't mind talking to you, I just hope I can remember enough things to make this interesting for you, I don't want you to get a bad grade on my account. DH: Don't worry about any of that stuff. Let's just talk about what it was like to have lived in this area for so long. Why don't we start out by getting your full name and, if it is okay, your birthdate. TS: My maiden name was Page. My full name is Thelma Page Steed and I was born in between Syracuse and Layton. I guess back then they were not sure where one place ended and the other began. I was born on December 26th, 1912. My husband's birthday would be on the 24th of December. He was two years older though. Like I was saying, I was born out in West Layton on a small farm. It was about 35 acres and we had some cows, chickens, and things like that. We would grow some of our own crops and also use the meat and eggs from the animals. DH: Did you like growing up on a farm? TS: Yeah, I liked it but Father made us work very hard. We had lots of fun though. We rode horses because we did not have bicycles. When we had finished our chores we would 1 play games like kick-the -can or hide-and go-seek. Games that none of the kids play anymore. We really did have a good bringing up. Even though my Father was busy, he would still try and make time to take us to dinner or to the park or things like that. My Father was a good man and he loved us kids a lot. My Mother died when I was five, so my Father became both Father and Mother to us kids. He did everything for us. He would do all that needed to be done out on the farm, and still would have food ready for us for our dinner. He also made sure that we made it to our primary meetings and our other meetings. A lot of times we would get together as a family after our meetings and sing hymns around the organ. My Father would play and we would all sing. He was a very good father to us. DH: So, was your Father a member of the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)? TS: Oh yes. He was a member of the church. We are Mormons from way back. He was married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake before they had finished the Salt Lake Temple. I know that my father was also at the dedication of the Temple back when it was first completed. He had gone there with his mother, but his father was on a mission and could not be there. Yes, they were all very involved with the church. DH: Now where did your father's family settle when they arrived in Utah? Was it out in West Layton where you were raised? TS: No. They first settled in Bountiful. In fact, Page's Lane in Bountiful is named after my family. My Great Grandfather first moved there with his new bride around 1868 or 1869. I am not exactly sure of the dates but I know it was before 1870. I belong to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and you cannot be a member unless your family came 2 before 1870. I am sure it was around 1869. The area out there and out here has really changed since I was a kid. I remember cooking for the hayman and the thrashers who would help my father, I must have been only thirteen or so. I remember one day that I needed something for the meal and my father was out in the fields so I told my brother to give me the keys to the Model T Ford so I could go down to the store. He was not going to give them to me until I told him that Father said to give them to me, Father had not though. I went and got the key and got into that Model T. I really did not know what to do when I got in the car. I remembered that Father had to crank it to get it running. I cranked it one time and it snapped back on me and hit my arm. It sure hurt, but I was not going to give up. I cranked it again and got it started. I drove up and down the yard for a few minutes to try and figure it out, and then I went down to the store. That was my first experience with that old Model T. DH: Did you get in trouble for that? Did he ever find out? TS: No. I never did get in trouble for driven Father's car, and I sure never told him that I had driven it to the store. DH: So now how many brothers and sisters did you have? TS: I had five total. One brother was still born. I was the second to the youngest, having a sister just younger than me. We never really got into too much mischief because we all had to grow up so fast after losing our mother. It seemed like I had the responsibility of keeping the house clean and cooking the meals. I don't remember how old I was when I had to first start, but I know that I had to stand on things just to get to the bread and stuff. I remember being twelve and thirteen and cooking for whole groups of men who were helping father on the farm. 3 Conversation goes on for a few minutes. DH: Do you remember hard times on the farm? TS: I know that my father, years later, told me how hard it was after mother died. He had surgery before mother died, and then she passed away not to olong after. Between those two things, it wiped out the savings they had saved up. He managed though because nearly everything that we needed we got from the farm. I also remember the depression. I had only been married to Ronald for a year or so, and we began to feel it out here. We never did get like some who had it rough. We had our tough times, but we seemed to always have enough food to live on. Ronald was out of work. It sure was hard to come by back then. I remember that he had to take a job made by the government, the W.P.A. I think it was called, killing mosquitoes out at the lake. They created jobs back then to help people out. He sometimes got a little money for the work he did, but mostly it was just food for the work that he did. I don't know if you want this in your paper, but a relative of Ronald's was put to work making toilets for the people. We built us an outhouse for our backyard. DH: You mentioned your husband, Ronald. How old were you when you were married? TS: I was seventeen, almost eighteen, when I was married. We were married at the Farmington courthouse in 1930. We were not married in the temple until 1962. I was very active in the church, but Ronald was not too active. None of his family ever seemed to be too involved with the church. We first met each other while I was with another young man. I thought Ronald was a better catch, so I said good night to the first boy, and started visiting with Ronald. I never did see that other boy again. 4 DH: After you married Ronald, where did you settle down? TS: We moved into the garage of his parents’ home in Clearfield. Little by little we made that place bigger. Eventually we got it to the point where it was a house and we could have a family. I have lived in that house for over 67 years now. It is the only place that I have ever really known other than my father's farm. I thought about leaving after Ronald died, but with all of those memories, I just could not leave. DH: Having lived in the area so long, I am sure you have seen lots of changes. What things do you remember changing that really made a difference in your life? TS: I remember first getting running water and a bathtub and toilet in the house. That sure was nice to have in the house. I did not like having to go out to the outhouse. I think that all happened around 1941 or 1942. I also remember getting a washing machine. I thought that it was nice to have one of those in the house. Interview is not recorded for about 4-5 minutes. DH: What do you think of all of this technology that we have today? TS: It is amazing to see it all. I remember thinking that a bicycle was the greatest thing in the world. Now, they have spaceships that travel to other places. It is all so amazing. I remember being a young girl and my friend and I would get free admission to the movie theater in Layton if we would pump the peddle to the organ so that there would be music for the movie. The movie house showed silent films, so we would provide the music. I can't imagine that happening today. DH: What was expected of you after you had gone through your schooling? Did you have the opportunity to go to college or pursue a career like many women today? 5 TS: We were expected to get married a raise a family. I can't remember any of my relatives or friends ever going to college or trying to get a job like that. I never heard of any one doing that at that time. We were taught that it was very important to be a wife and a mother, so that is what we did. I never had a desire to do things like that. I was happy being a wife and a mother. DH: What do you remember of some of the women's organizations that wanted more rights and powers for women? Were you interested in those kinds of issues? TS: I had heard of them, but it seems like they were not in these parts. I don't think that I would have done much in those groups, I was pretty happy with what I had. DH: What important days in history stand out for you? Do you remember what you were doing when historical events occurred? TS: I'm not very good with dates any more, but I do remember a few things. I was walking down Washington Blvd. in Ogden when they announced on some sort of public address system, that President John F. Kennedy had been killed. I remember feeling so terrible that he had been killed. DH: How about when man first walked on the moon? TS: Oh yes, I remember that. That was very exciting for us. We sat around that radio and listened to it happen. We did not have a television that showed a lot of stuff. It was very hard for us to believe that it was possible. Yes, I do remember that. DH: Did you and your family get to travel much? 6 TS: We did not get beyond this part of the United States. I did not like to stray too far from home, so no, we never did much traveling. I think we went to Hawaii once, and that was very hard for me to leave here. I just liked staying in one place. DH: I know that you must be getting tired Thelma, so I will end this now with one last question. You mentioned how much you enjoyed being a wife and a mother. Would you say this is your greatest accomplishment in life? TS: Oh yes, it is what I am most thankful for. I am thankful that I was raised in the church and that I had a good family who I loved very much. I am grateful that we were sealed together in the Salt Lake Temple as a family. Yes, I am very happy with the way that my life has turned out. DH: Thank you Thelma for meeting with me, that was really exciting to hear about your experiences. TS: I just hope that is good enough for you. I'm sorry if I rambled. Interview ends. 7