Oral History Program Deon Rasmussen Harvey Interviewed by Lorrie Rands 20 November 2015 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Deon Rasmussen Harvey Interviewed by Lorrie Rands 20 November 2015 Copyright © 2018 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii 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. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description The World War II "All Out for Uncle Sam" oral history project contains interviews from veterans of the war, wives of soldiers, as well as individuals who were present during the war years. The interviews became the compelling background stories for the "All Out for Uncle Sam" exhibit. The project received funding from Utah Division of State History, Utah Humanities Council and Weber County RAMP. ____________________________________ 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 This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Harvey, Deon Rasmussen, an oral history by Lorrie Rands, 20 November 2015, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Topaz, Utah 1942 Jacob Rasmussen, Deon’s father, outside the family dug-out in Delta. circa 1940s Deon Harvey 20 November 2015 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Deon Rasmussen Harvey, conducted on November 20, 2015 in her home in Sunset, Utah, by Lorrie Rands. Deon discusses her life and her memories involving World War II. Also present for this interview is Deon’s granddaughter, Jana Cannon, as well as Deon’s husband, Dennis Harvey. LR: Okay, its November 20, 2015 we are in the home of Deon Harvey in Sunset, Utah talking about her life. Present is Jana Cannon and I am Lorrie Rands conducting the interview. It’s about eleven o’clock and I’m so excited to be here with you. DRH: It’s good to have you. LR: So let’s just start with the simplest of questions, when and where were you born? DRH: I was born April 13, 1934 in LaPoint, Uintah County, Utah. My parent’s names were Jacob Merrill Rasmussen and Virgie Ellen Blackburn and I was the first of a pair of twins. I have a twin sister, my name is Deon and her name is Veon and we’re still twins. I’m going to add this for you just because we’re twins who married brothers, so our names are still the same exactly. LR: Wow! So growing up in the Uintah Basin where you were born, what city was that? DRH: LaPoint, it wasn’t a city just a country town. LR: LaPoint, okay I thought you said that was the county. What was that like growing up in the middle of the depression? 2 DRH: Well because that’s when we were born we weren’t even aware of the depression part of it at all, we’ve learned about that later, simply because we had everything we needed. Living on a farm we never went without water, we never went without food, and we never went without any of the necessities of life. My mother could sew. She was an only child so when Veon and I were born she was really thrilled about that. So was her stepmother because they both loved to sew, when the women in town heard there were twins, they were surprised but realized momma would need more clothes for us. They came and each one took one or two items home, copied them and soon there was a new set of clothes. We never realized what a depression was until I was probably eight years old. The only thing I can tell you that may be related too it was that there wasn’t much Christmas. My folks had a way of making that so special so it was us not a problem for us. We didn’t know we were poor, we had everything. There were times when we grew up later on that we realized we were poor and there were things that’s we would have to do without, but that’s wasn’t very long. It really wasn’t. LR: Okay, what do you remember, so you were about six when Pearl Harbor happened, or were you seven? DRH: Let’s see, 1934 to 1941, seven yes. LR: Right, what do you remember about that incident? If it changed your parents, do you remember the date? DRH: Yes LR: Can you talk about that a little bit? 3 DRH: We had radios then and when it happened of course we got the first news of it on the radio. We were crowded around the radio, I mean my mother and dad because it happened on Sunday and we were just home from church. So we were all there. I think as a seven year old girl, the only thing I really thought about was how those poor people in Hawaii had to deal with all of that going on in their lives. LR: Keep talking. DRH: We were so young we didn’t realize it was going to affect our lives in the very near future. Actually my dad has not been able to get into the service, because he had a heart murmur and so he was rejected, but that didn’t keep him from working. He was able to do lots of things. He was working in the WPA program which was a government sponsored program, cooking and serving school lunches at the LaPoint Elementary. We three oldest girls enjoyed seeing our dad at lunch time. The war started in December and I think it was February or March when he received a letter in the mail. He had been called into the service and was to report to Delta, Utah to serve as a carpenter and was told to help build an internment camp just northwest of Delta, Utah. We didn’t know at that time exactly what that entailed except that we knew very quickly our dad was going to be gone. That much we had learned from just the war news going on, that our dad was being called away from home. In February it’s still very cold in the Uintah Basin, anybody that lives out there knows what winter is like and the 1940’s is when my memory starts. Dad was gone for a couple of months. We were from a family of girls. My mother was 4 pregnant with the fifth girl at that point, so it was kind of hard to let daddy go. There was my older sister, Clythella who was ten years old, then Veon and I were seven and LaWanna who was five, then the baby who was not yet born. So mamma was going to be left with the whole farm and everything there, but daddy’s brother told him he didn’t have to worry they would all help out. He was enlisted so he had to go, he had no choice. When he got down there and they told him all the plans, he would be working on everything at a place called Camp Topaz. This camp would intern Japanese people who lived on the west coast. The camp was located in the desert North and West of Delta. When he got back home, he let us know all the details. We didn’t know that it was going to affect our lives for the next four and a half years. It was interesting to us, and we looked forward to it because my dad liked to travel so we usually took short trips. Every once in a while we’d go on a short trips and he loved doing that. He loved showing us things that was around us in the Uintah Basin. It was about the limit of our going until this happened and then we really left home. Our dad said we’d all be moving down to Delta. LR: So he went there initially on his own and then he would take you all down with him later. DRH: Yes he discovered that he could actually bring his family down too. We already had a beautiful new home. Our dad had built it. He was a carpenter, he could build anything. He often said he was master of? JC: Jack of all trades. 5 DRH: Right, but master of none. That simply meant that he’d never gone to school for any of that. He learned from his childhood. Their needs were met by the family, like pioneers. I don’t know if our mom was okay with moving. At first it was being left with the whole farm to take care of with help, she probably had five or six cows to milk, but now she was going relearn it and move away, plus take a new baby and find a new place to live. ReNae was born thirteenth of June 1942 and it was decided to wait until she was a little older before leaving. We left LaPoint about the end of July. I can’t tell you exactly when because I don’t remember, but we moved in with a Model A ford and a trailer that my dad had built. Somebody else went with us, but I don’t remember who. The only thing my dad was able to find for us to live in was a dig out where he and been living already and gave him time to prepare it. It was larger than most we had seen before. LR: A dugout!!! DRH: Yes on a farm in Sutherland and it was a comfortable little thing. We are familiar with dugouts because we used those kind of things to store our vegetables in the winter time. This one had been built especially for that, but it had shelves, it had stairs, it had a door, it had everything. It just didn’t have windows. That’s where we moved to and of course we had a tent too. So we four older girls slept outside in a tent all the rest of that summer. We were excited because this was truly a big thing in our lives and we made the most of it. To me it was the biggest jump in life, and our dad made sure we all enjoyed it as much as possible when he would have Saturday and Sunday off so we traveled. Of course we went to church on Sunday morning and then we would go visit places all around Delta. So I got 6 really acquainted with Delta and remember I’m only eight years old at this time. It made an impression in my life that I’ve never forgotten. We got acquainted with canned milk at that point in time, it became a steady thing for us, and we loved it. My dad had a bad stomach so he had to be careful what he ate, so canned milk became one of his things and it became all of ours too. I have a younger sister who can’t drink that milk or look it in the face today because of that particular summer. There was a hayfield there and some cattle that were all fenced away from us, but the big trees, were on our side of the fence. We lived in a little town to the north of Abraham. Our twice a week trip for mail was always exciting if there were letters from home. Those trips for mail were fun because mother could drive the car, we girls just had a ball. We waved at every house we went by if anybody was home. My Memories of Delta and the surrounding area are very vivid and we had the chance this last summer in August to visit there again. Our granddaughter married a handsome tall boy from Delta and we went to their reception. While there we went to the new Topaz Museum. Whenever we’ve gone through Delta, we haven’t been through there very many times, but it’s been a place that I’ve always enjoyed going back to because I have so many to me, wonderful and fun memories. We were only there for four months, from July to November just before Thanksgiving. LR: So you’re talking about how vivid these memories are and how they stayed with you? DRH: They have. 7 LR: So kind of break it down into something small, what are some of your most vivid memories of that time? If you could take two to talk about here, what are two of the most vivid memories of that time? DRH: I really need three, first living in that dugout until it got cooler and we knew we had to go to school, we then moved to Hinckley and our younger sister started school there. While there we shared a home with two brothers that were sheepherders, living in the area was tremendous but the next thing was when the Japanese people began to arrive. My father, who was a supervisor by then, said, “They finally had enough camp housing ready.” They had to put it together so quickly, he was always disappointed in the buildings. He just couldn’t see how anyone could live in them, but they were told they had to have it done by a certain date which they did. That day we the Japanese people were coming in on the train the 9th of September 1942, I think, we went to Delta and stood on the bridge over the railroad tracks. We weren’t allowed any closer there were soldiers everywhere, helping watching. We watched as all of those Japanese people got off the train and climbed into pickup trucks and big covered army trucks with all the belongs they were allowed to bring from California, don’t know what area. For some reason I thought they would be excited to get to camp. We weren’t allowed in the camp so we didn’t know what it looked like except what our dad had told us. I thought it was like where we lived, grass, trees, but it wasn’t. We’ve learned that afterward. It was a memorable time for me, watching them unload from the train and into the trucks with boxes and household goods that they had brought with them. When they were all loaded, people and goods in 8 trucks, they all went together under the bridge and then north to the camp. We followed the last truck until we got to Sutherland the same way as I do or why it was such a big deal for me. LR: Looking back now with the perspective, why do you think that was such a memorable thing? Why do you think you still remember it so vividly, that moment? DRH: Because it brought back to me, the announcement that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. At seven and a half years of age I didn’t even know where Hawaii was and why it was so important. Our dad tried to explain that it was a navy base with lots of ships there that were bombed and sunk in December. Then he gets orders to help build a camp in Delta, Utah to house Japanese people. It took some explaining to understand why they were coming to Utah. They were coming from California which, to me was like Hawaii, with warm summers, palm trees, warm weather, all of it, your mind just grows with each thought. To see now what they were coming to, which I still thought was a little village out here in the desert, to me it was a wonderful place. One of the things I do remember after they got there and before we left in November was my dad telling us how they pitched right in and made those places like home. They had flowers growing in and around the camp area. He couldn’t believe how industries those Japanese people were. To me they didn’t fit the things we’d heard about the war. The Kamikaze planes, all the rest of it, the boats, and everything else that has happened in Hawaii just didn’t fit with the people we were looking at, that they were now growing flowers and they had 9 brought with them seeds to grow vegetable gardens. They had made the hot desert into a lovely little town. We even found out that they were truly Americans. To me they weren’t Japanese they were just Americans who happened to be Japanese. We’ve learned in the last seventy odd years that were wonderful people and so many of them stayed right here in Utah. LR: Lets kind of keep moving, okay, so you were there for four and a half months and then you moved in Bountiful? DRH: Yes we moved to Bountiful. LR: And why was that? DRH: Because that’s where they transferred my dad, he was still under contract to the government as a carpenter. Hill Field had opened and they needed housing for people to live in that worked on the base. He started out building cinder block apartments. They were just long building that had several apartments in each row. There are still some there I think but I could be wrong. Cinder black was a new type of building materials. He worked there from November 1942 till they finished that project. A little more than a year I think. He was transferred to the Naval Base, which is now known as the Freeport center, where he worked the remainder of his time. Our first concern was a place to live. My uncle Darol, who was my dad’s brother, lived in Bountiful found us a place to live. We shared the house that we lived in, we had two rooms on the west side of a small brick home, the other young couple two rooms on the east and we shared the kitchen and they had the front room and we had the large bedroom and bathroom. But we had roll away 10 beds that were put up in the daytime. We had a place to live in, next was where to go to school. All of us girls finished that year at Stoker Elementary. LR: What elementary? DRH: Stoker Elementary, near the center of town. We shared two houses that way and finally settled into a full house of our own (rented that is). We were glad for the extra space and stayed there until the war was over in August 1945. But they didn’t release our dad until Feb or Mar 1946 at which time we moved back to LaPoint. Some more memories of living in Bountiful. Christmas was always a special time for my parents, especially dad. He was working at the Naval Base in 1945 and they used shiny colors material that looked like oil cloth to pack parts in that they shipped out. He would bring home the clippings, so we girls made Christmas ornaments out of them and hung them on our tree. We cut stars, bells, trees, all kinds of balls. I still have one of them in my cedar chest. Another memory while living there was the food stamps. Everybody had food stamps even the children. I still have a book with my name on it and some stamps in it. LR: So they gave stamps to the kids too? DRH: Yes! Our mom kept them all and she used them for groceries. There was even stamps for gas. If you had a car to drive you were allowed four gal’s a week, but if you drove it to work then you could apply for more and they would give it to you. Third memory has to be the Bamberger train which we rode many times to Salt Lake, and to the Great Salt Lake for swimming. Other times we went north to Layton to visit relatives that were living there. We loved those trains. Fourth 11 memory could be the movies. My dad had built a movie theater in LaPoint in 1933. They showed silent movies black and white, so when we got to Bountiful we were allowed to go to the movies. We were old enough to do that on our own so every Saturday and sometimes Sunday was movie time. A lot of my remembrance of the war was from the movie newsreels. That’s when I think I realized and felt sad about the Japanese people living in Delta and what they had given up because of who they were. Back to the movies, so many of them were about soldiers and lots of them had sailors and decided that’s who I was going to marry and I did. LR: So when your fathers time was finally up, I mean you guys had moved so many times in that amount time were you excited to be able to go home. DRH: Yes. LR: And what was that like actually getting back in the LaPoint and being home? DRH: Exciting, it really was. We were going home. A beautiful home was waiting there where we left it and would be when we got back. I thought we had one of the most beautiful homes in LaPoint. But when we got home my dad had decided to remodel it. My dad could build anything. Electricity, plumbing, the whole bit. That house he literally built with us girls. We had helped him even before we left. We were not allowed to stand by and watch. We knew how to saw lumber, pound nails, and paint and wallpaper. He taught us how to do everything. He didn’t have any boys so we became daddy’s boys as we learned how to farm. We irrigated, we planted gardens, we rode horses, we followed behind plows, we forked hay and we milked cows. When I got married my husband promised me that I would 12 never have to milk another cow and kept that promise. We were glad to be back in LaPoint where family was, especially my mother’s side. We were back in our own house which we remembered beautifully and it was wonderful to be there. We went back to friends and cousins we knew before and needed to get reacquainted. We enjoyed going back to that part of our lives. By this time I was twelve years old and had done a lot of growing up. It wasn’t the same after living in a big city. While in Bountiful, all three of us girls worked on the farms. In the veggie fields where we would pull and bunch onions and radishes. We picked green beans, picked and ate raspberries. The money we earned helped pay for some of our clothes. We enjoyed that. Our mom, because we were twins, always kept us dressed alike as much as possible, so now she didn’t always have a choice. Because of the movies we girls had seen, I wanted a navy pea coat because that’s what the sailors always wore. Veon and I both got one. When we moved home in March of 1946 it was still cold and those coats felt good. We actually moved into the house on my mom’s birthday March 26th. March meant school again so we started back to LaPoint and to finish up our growing up years there. LR: So where did you finish school? Were you done with elementary school at that point? DRH: No we weren’t. LR: Okay! We still had to finish the sixth grade and also the seventh and eighth which were taught at the elementary there. Our older sister, had been going to Bountiful Dr. 13 High, so she went to Alterra High near Roosevelt to finish her 9th grade. We had been home about a month and was getting settled in. Our mail was delivered by the mail man in his truck about noon each day. We always tried to be out front when he dropped the mail sack off. Mom got there first and we stayed on the front porch. We noticed another car coming along behind him and we were curious as to who it might be. It slowed down and stopped when it reached our house. Mom discovered it was a good friend she hadn’t seen yet. She had passengers in front and in the back seat wearing a sailor suit. We climbed on the fence and stared at him. He had a coat on and his hat. Mom and her friend kept talking, but we girls were checking out the sailors, he was uncomfortable with us girls hopping at him, so he pulled his hat down and snuggled down in the seat. Now remember that I liked sailors. Didn’t know at that moment who he was, but he was related to the woman driving the car. I didn’t know it then but I had seen the sailor I was going to marry. LR: Really? DRH: Yeah! LR: So you married a sailor? DRH: Yup, I married a sailor. LR: How fun. DRH: He entered the Navy in December 1943 and served on a ship and served on the Pacific Campaign. When the war ended his fleet took marines to Japan when America occupied the city that was hit by the second atom bomb. LR: So there is quite an age difference then? 14 DRH: Yes, there is 9 ½ yrs. between our ages. LR: Oh that’s not too bad. DRH: Didn’t know it at twelve, but when I and Veon started dating, at fourteen, we got reacquainted at the school and mutual dances. Then when I was fifteen we started dating and got married when I was sixteen. LR: Okay where did you get married? DRH: We got married in Salt Lake City at the Salt Lake Temple. Because Veon had started dating Dennis’ brother Jay, we decided a double wedding would be fun and so we twins married those two brothers the same day, June 6, 1950. Next for us was the honeymoon, which we went on together. And I’ll explain why, my dad had borrowed both back tires and wheels from our car. So that left us with only one car, Jay’s car. We had decided to go to Yellowstone, because we thought June would be a good month to be up there. It was like going on a date or a vacation, and we had a lot of fun together. We’ve had many twin things in our lives that we still enjoy to this day. We’ve stayed twins mostly because of the admonition our mother gave us when we were young. She said “I was an only child, and you were born together, you will always have a friend if you want it that way.” We’ve been just that ever since. LR: That is fantastic. DRH: Yes it is and we have been close all the rest of our lives because our husbands were brothers. LR: So where did you end up going to high school? DRH: We went to Alterra High School for two years, our freshmen and 15 sophomore years. That ended our schooling for the time being. When I got pregnant so soon after we got married, he promised me I could go back to school someday and we let it drop there. Many years later after eight children, it was my turn. We see an ad for adult education, checked into it and started me on my way. I started going to Clearfield High to get my GED. I was told of another additional program at Hill Field sponsored by Weber County Schools. Because Dennis worked there I was able to get into classes there from nine to twelve noon. I was going to Clearfield Tuesday and Thursday nights, depending on the teacher. It tickles me and I used to smile because I was going to the High School where my eight children have graduated from. LR: Okay DRH: I felt at forty-eight I was a little old, but I really enjoyed it. I did so well at Hill in all my classes and passed my GED test at the top, all because of a sweet teacher named Sandra Fielder. When the classes were almost over, she took me aside one day to ask me if I would do something for her. She and the lady in charge of adult education in Weber Co., Mrs. Renstrom wanted me to give the graduation address. I was floored, that’s scary I told her but she assured me they both thought I could do it. Sandi told me she would help me with the talk and even gave me a book that told me how to do it and I still have my clue book today. She also said because my grades on the GED test came back so high and I know you’re a Mormon, plus I know you're right about the talking. Yeah, but when you’re a relief society president you’ve got a book in your hand with everything 16 you have to say written on it and when you give a talk it’s not quite the same deal you’re asking for.” She said, I still know you can do it Deon. So I told her, I guess I’ll try it. I went home and told my husband and I think he was just as surprised as I was. I should include here that I would be talking two counties of adult GED graduates. Nervous I was. Our class of twenty-nine included wives of Airman from Oriental countries and of course some Hill Field workers. When Sandi told the class, they all clapped. That made me feel a lot better, because I felt I had some extra friends whom I cared about. More credit is due here. My good supportive husband had stayed home with my three younger boys at that time. He took care of them and all their needs while I was in school, from January to the end of May. I appreciated that and it made me more determined to do the best I could. They chose a song that I had used as the title of my talk called My Turn. I had waited all those years to finally get the chance to go back to school. Yes, I gave that talk and walked the stage to get my Diploma in 1982; thirty years late but just as fulfilling as if I’d gotten it when I was eighteen. LR: Fantastic DRH: It means I’m somebody. I’ve done something and I’m a graduate. LR: I can tell Deon. DRH: When I walked across that stage my whole family was there, my older sister who had done the same thing, my twin sister, and the younger sister too. LR: Let’s rewind a little bit, after you got married at sixteen, did you leave LaPoint? DRH: Yes. LR: Where did you move to? 17 DRH: To a little town named Tridell just two miles north, where he was born and raised. LR: Tridell? DRH: Tridell, that’s the way it’s spelled too. T-R-I-D-E-L-L. LR: Interesting that’s in Uintah? DRH: It’s in Uintah County, yes. LR: How long were you there? DRH: 1950 to 1953. Dennis and his brother Jay were going to buy their Grandmother Harvey’s farm but it fell through, we leased it till the lease ran out. We had a herd of cows we milked and Indian leases away so we had to sell our own cows and move. We had two children by then, our son Paul two years old and a daughter Joann, who was six months old. Jay had already decided to quit farming and came to Hill Field where he found a job, he told Dennis, why don’t you come out here and find a job. So we did and Dennis found a job within a few days, so we knew we had to move. We moved in April of 1953 to a small apartment in Roy, Utah then in November to Layton just off Hill Field Road, in a larger apartment, where the Layton Hills Mall is now. We stayed there and happened to have another little girl we named her Pamela. Now we needed a bigger place. Jay and Veon had bought a brick home in Clearfield. There was a lot building of houses going on and we decided to look into buying a house. We tried for one of the brick homes, but could not qualify for them. We kept looking and found these homes in Sunset that we liked and could qualify for, so we bought this house. It was still being built and we had to wait till it finished. Our move in date was May 18 of 1955 and we’ve been here ever since. We had three neighbors who moved in the same week we did. JC: Do you remember how much you paid for the house? DRH: We’ve been ask that by a lot of our grandchildren, we paid $10,850. LR: Wouldn’t that be fantastic. DRH: And our house payment was what? Seventy-six dollars? DH: They were sixty-four dollars a month. LR: Oh my goodness! DRH: It was less than our three room apartment in Layton. LR: Isn’t that fun. DRH: We had a whole house and a yard. When we say that our grandchildren and great grandchildren look at us and say “you did what? How?” LR: Yeah it’s hard to fathom in today’s economy. DRH: Yes it’s hard to believe now. LR: So you’ve been here a very long time. Let me ask you this, growing up in Sunset you must have seen a lot of changes around you during that amount of time? It can be the smallest thing, just some of the changes you’ve noticed. DRH: Sunset is a compact little town, it’s what? Five miles long maybe, Dennis? DH: No its two miles long, from Roy on the north and Clearfield on the south and a half mile wide, freeway on east and train tracks on the west. LR: Oh this is a tiny little town. DRH: It started growing with all the new homes being built and the families that were moving in. They put in the new city building and a volunteer fire department even 19 a city government with a mayor and small council. Other needs were now recognized, such as an elementary school. Most of these people were Mormon and now it required a larger church building. A larger grocery store was needed and a gas station. The young families that were here had grown, so another elementary was built. We now have three elementary schools, first was Sunset, then Doxey, and last Fremont, and also Sunset Jr high that had been enlarged. All of our eight children went to the Sunset schools and Sunset Jr High, then on to Clearfield High where they all graduated. A few years back we got a new Smith’s store because the Winegars market was moving to West Clearfield. We have noticed a decrease in population had started. Families had grown up like ours, with children getting married and moving away, others went on missions, then got married and moved away or to college. Some families felt the need for bigger homes, so they moved. This left quite a few empty homes which were bought by smaller families again, but some families had become like ourselves, empty nesters. Now it still fluctuates. Young people move in and then after two or three children they look for a larger home. These homes only have one bathroom and that isn’t enough when they have a couple of children. When we moved in most of the people were Mormon and so with just the little green church where the seven-eleven now sits just wasn’t big enough for all the members that was moving in then so we required more church buildings. The stake center was built and also the first and five ward chapel was built. The last chapel on 1800 North was the second and third wards building. When we meet friends at funerals, stores and weddings, they’ll ask “are you still in Sunset?” We tell them, yes and 20 we like it and our house is just right for us now. We may be older, but we can still take care of it and there’s no stairs. We raised our eight children here and I guess we should name them all. The oldest is Paul, JoAnn, Pamela, Bruce, Dawn, Craig, Ryan, and Burt. LR: You said early that six of your kids were here at one time, that’s still a lot of kids running around. Do you have any fun stories that you’ll share? DRH: Sure, with a big family like we had there’s bound to be lots of stories. Our two oldest daughters were already married when the two youngest boys were born. Stories, yeah, every family will have them, probable enough to fill a book but I’m going to share just one, because our house has a unique feature. LR: Okay. DRH: We have what we call a railroad track in our house and it’s because it’s easy to get through the house. We have this L shaped living and dining room area with a hallway that connects it to the bedrooms and the kitchen. There was no door there then so our oldest girl, who would have temper tantrums if she didn’t get her way and I was getting tired of that. All I needed to say, was you can’t have it or you can’t do it and she would start screaming and running around our railroad track. I was getting ice from the fridge to add to a full pitcher of water, she went one way and I went the other, when we met I the hallway, down she flopped and we never had that problem again. I know, I had a floor to mop but the peace was worth it. LR: I love that story JC: She has a lot more stories, but we’re running out of time. 21 LR: I just want you to know we’ve been doing this for an hour and a half. I just want you realize how easy it is to talk. DRH: I can see that and I’m sorry. Your time is valuable so we can stop anytime. LR: No, let me ask you this. It sounds like to me you’ve spent most of your time being a mom. DRH: Yes, that’s true. LR: It sounds like it’s something you thoroughly enjoy. DRH: Yes, it was and still is. LR: So what are some of the experiences that you think shaped and helped you become the mother that you were to your children and the grandmother that you are? Was there something specific that shaped you, I know what I’m trying to say, my words aren’t working. Do you understand my question? DRH: I think so, let me answer this way. All of us come from families and we learned from our parents. I watched my mother and my father as we grew up. We were a close knit family because when you live on a farm you’re away from other people. So a lot of your needs you take care of yourself. My parents were good parents, however my mom was a disciplinarian and it didn’t take much to upset her. She had grown up with a stepmother and four step brothers. Now she had six daughter. Her stepmother was a wonderful cook and so was she. She tried her best to keep us as girls and daddy was doing his best to make sure we could work on the farm. He was away from home so much, so he needed us to learn that too. He was a carpenter and away from home during the day. Lots of time 22 when he came home he would take over and stay up way late to get his share done. Our children learned not only from me but from Dennis’ side to. I wasn’t doing this all by myself, I had a husband to help. Now we’re grandparents and great-grandparents and find there are still teaching moments. We’ve learned there’s a time when you’re in charge and a time when your kids are in charge and also a time when their kids are in charge. I hope through watching them that we’ve taught them the right things. If we have done a good job, it’s simply because we relied on Heavenly Father's, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and their help many times. Through illness, sicknesses, marriage, weddings, divorces. We’ve had all of that and we just know when they’ve been there because of our faith in them. LR: Let me ask you this final question and it might be a difficult one to answer, but if you had to sum up in a few words. What do you think your legacy would be? DRH: My legacy? LR: Your legacy, or if you need to, the legacy of your family. If you were going to share something with your grandchildren what would that legacy be? DRH: I think it would be the same thing my mother told Veon and me when we were younger. She was an only child, she had no one to visit or play with, until her dad remarried a woman with four boys. Before her mother died and her father remarried, also before she started school, the only other people in her life were adults on her mother’s side of the family. She said to us, “Remember that everyone you have around, the people you love and associate with, you should 23 always be at your best. Even though there will be trials you will have to face or life with, you should always try. Remember those are your friends, they’re your sisters and brothers and you should treat them as you sisters and brothers. It doesn’t matter who you’re with, it should be the same. Always remember you have someone you need to watch for, and in the same manner they will watch out for you.” That’s what I hope I’ve left behind for them. Most of my kids will tell you and the grandchildren too, that grandma always has a story she can tell you always with a smile, because we never see her without a friendly smile, a welcome hug, and never leave without the same. If you’re doing the right thing they will always be your friend and you’ll be living the kind of life our heavenly father wants us to live. When we go back, he will ask “Did you try?” and you can say, yes I did, and he will say I know you did. LR: Can you think of any other stories, there may be other things we’ve left out, but we’ve used up your time. I’m grateful that we had this time together to share what we have shared. But I have one final thought to add, if I could Lorrie. It came as a Christmas gift from a sweet daughter-in-law, and its fits the way our family feel about our life together. All 117 of us, which includes their spouses, thirty-five grandchildren, sixty great-grandchildren, and five double great-grandchildren. Our family is a circle of Strength and love. With every birth and Every union, the circle grows. Every joy shared adds 24 More love.” LR: True, Well I love what you have shared. DRH: I just hope it all makes sense. LR: It does absolutely. You don’t need to worry about that.