Alta Rosetta Lucy Wolfley Interview

              Dr. Radke- Moss Women’s Oral History Collection
Alta Rosetta Lucy Wolfley
By Alta Wolfley
Winter 2008
Box 5 Folder 17
Oral Interview conducted by Elizabeth Rich
Transcript copied by Elizabeth Rich Winter 2008
Brigham Young University- Idaho 2
Elizabeth Rich: Your name and your birthday? Alta Wolfley: My name is Alta Rosetta Lucy Wolfley and I was born November the 23rd 1923 in Freedom, Wyoming which is on the Idaho side because there’s a state line goes up through the town and I was born on the Idaho side on the Tin Cup Road. My parents were Fredrick and Mary Lucy. ER: How many brothers and sister? AW: My father had lost his first wife and there were three children, living children, when I was born in that marriage and they were Arnold, and Frank and Ella were twins. And then when my dad and mother married I had two sisters and a brother. My brother is younger than me and my two other sisters. Beatrice and Leora are older than me and Dale is the youngest in the family. We lived on a farm and did not have electricity at that time. My parents worked very hard. ER: What kind of farm was it? AW: It was a dairy farm. We milked cows by hand— and I helped milk cows after I got to be about 13 and had to milk every night and morning and did it before I went to school— high school— and we had to. I went to a little school there on the corner from the state line road that turns and goes up Tin Cup and my dad had given that little piece of ground to build the school. I went there my first four years and there were only two rooms and a hall in between the rooms, where they kept the wood, and where we hung our coats. So we had a wood stove to warm the school rooms. I started school when I was five, that November, and when I was in the second grade our teacher moved me and my cousin into the third grade. Then the Wyoming and Idaho schools consolidated and in my fifth year I went up to Wyoming to that school and graduated from the eighth grade there. We rode a school sleigh in the winter time and they had a wagon— a sleigh with a covered top, a canvas top. In the summer we caught the wagon if we wanted or we had to walk and it was about a mile. To catch the sleigh and the wagon, it was about a block from where I lived. Then when I went to high school we had to catch a bus down on the state line road and walk down there summer and winter— or fall, spring, and winter. Sometimes the roads weren’t too good to walk— it was from about here down to John’s. So, I graduated then from high school in 1940. We used to have activities on the weekends and the bus would stay up. After the activities it would bring us home, after the dance of the ball games, and sometimes we wouldn’t go to the ball game, we’d go down and go to the movie in Afton. ER: So really to do anything you had to go out of town?
AW: Yeah, and when I was growing up we put the car in the shed when it first started snowing because we didn’t have snow tires and they didn’t push the roads. So then, we had to go to our church and our different activities in the sleigh. We had church— or Sunday school at 10am and it lasted, I think two hours. Then at night, we’d go back about 7: 30pm or 8pm they would sometimes change the time of sacrament meeting so my dad had to keep the horses in the barn. We had a sleigh that had a cover over it— canvas— so that’s what we went to church in on Sundays. So a lot of times for MIA, or young women’s whatever you call it now, we walked most of the time a mile up to the church house. Then when it was I think about 1936 we got electricity. That just changed the whole world for us because up until then we used the coal oil light to do our studies at night and sit around the table trying to see and I 3
remember when we got those lights, I just could not believe it, it just, ya know, it was like the day light coming. And we didn’t have plumbing in the house either— we had the cold water but we had a well outside where we pumped the water and then after that when the folks built the new house, that’s when we had the bathroom and so on. ER: When was that? Do you remember? AW: Yeah, that was about 1941. And then I got married in 1942. So I didn’t enjoy that very long. ER: So after high school, what did you do? AW: Well, after high school, I just stayed home and I used to tend the kids on Relief Society day because my mother was president of the Relief Society for about eight years, and she was a counselor before that. When they built the chapel over there— we didn’t have that big chapel— she was in the presidency and they used to have so many bazaars to make money because back then, the membership had to produce a lot of the money. And we used to have a lot of celebrations— we had one of the biggest celebrations over there in Freedom, on the 24th of July. The whole valley came and we had the rodeo, the concessions, the horse races and all that, and now they don’t have anything. There was a bank over there and two stores— a little store with a fountain and besides the post office and the blacksmith shop and now it’s all together different because now they don’t have any of that. I got married in 1942, in Idaho Falls. We didn’t go to the Temple at the time. Clyde was going to high school the same year I was. I started going with him, I met him at the dances. That was another thing we did. We had a dance every Saturday night in Freedom and then they had them in Thayne. So that was our entertainment— that and listen to the radio. ER: So how old were you when you met him? AW: I was 18. And then we got married in Idaho Falls on April the 10th, 1942. We didn’t go the Temple until 1946. And so I moved in this house and his brother and sister was living in part of it. They were living over in there. But there was, a door there and they lived on that side and we lived on this side. His dad lived with us on this side because his bedroom was in the back there, and we had ours upstairs and his sister Elma was still in high school and so she lived with us and we lived like that for, I think about six of seven years and then they built a house over there where John’s is and moved into that. We fixed the rest of this up and then in 1946. Nancy was born, and John was born in 1950. Jeff was born in 1954 and Todd was born in 1959. And in 1948, we went to the Temple and had her sealed to us. And six other couples went with us; One of Clyde’s sisters, and his brother besides three friends, a cousin of mine and two other people. We all went down together. So we’ve always just lived here then. Clyde and his brother Larry run the farm. Then in 1958, his brother left and went down to Pocatello, so they had to divide the farm up and he sold some of his portion to one of his sisters— well two of his sisters— and they moved down there and ran a service station and we stayed here. This is where we’ve always been and farmed, and where we built the milking part; it was the first one down here. And we milked 100 head to start out with. We had rented ground all over the place. ER: So what kind of farming was it?
AW: It was alfalfa and barley. And then in the 1970’ s, Clyde built that service station up there in Etna and they ran it for about five years, maybe more. Then John took the farm over and we have helped him 4
since. Clyde was put in as bishop in 1958. He was bishop for about four and a half years and we worked in the church organization, I guess. It was and we were initiators for the initiatory work in the Idaho Falls Temple for eight years. And he served in the Wyoming legislature for 12. ER: What did he do in the legislature? AW: He was on the appropriations committee and one of the others— I can’t remember which one. So we used to go up there every winter for a couple months stayed up in Cheyenne in the same hotel- motel, same room every year. It was a lot of fun. ER: Going back to your childhood, what were your experiences or memories of the Depression? AW: I don’t remember the Depression. It was there, but for some reason, well I probably remember talking about it. But as far as going without anything, I don’t remember that. We always had all we needed to eat and I always had clothes to wear. I never realized that the Depression was such a disaster as it was because we had a garden. Mother bottled peas, beans, beats, and sauerkraut. We also had an outdoor cellar that we put the carrots in. And in the fall we added by several bushels of apples and bottled fruit. We bottled fruit all summer and she did it in two quart bottles instead of just one. And we made pickles and canned corn, so we didn’t go without anything. We had flour, but I remember them talking about the milk crisis going and we didn’t get as much for the milk. But as far as going without anything, I didn’t go without. I never felt that way at all. Something else I should tell you, when I was in school in Wyoming, in the years that I was up there, we would go coasting every year and you didn’t even have to report to school. We would just take our sleigh and walk up there to that knoll in Freedom. The teacher went and everybody went. We’d stay until about noon because the crust would get soft and then we’d come home and go to school. But you didn’t have to report to school, you just reported on the hill if you wanted to go. That was a lot of fun— we did that every year. And we used to have parties; make ice cream— homemade iced cream, usually on Valentine’s Day, and always had a big Valentine’s box. Then we’d put Valentine’s in it that we wanted to give to our friends and then we’d make our own little box to put our Valentine’s in that we got from them. We used to play basketball and played it in the old hall and it was cold because there was no fire in there. But we’d go over there during school for about a half hour or so and play ball. We got pretty good and we’d play the other towns in. I think we didn’t play Afton but we won. We beat most of them in the lower valley but that was a lot of fun. And we’d play softball but we didn’t compete with anybody. We played jacks when we were kids, we would take them to school. The boys would play marbles and we would play jacks. What else would you like to know? ER: What was your favorite subject in school? AW: Let’s see. . . I liked them all except math, I wasn’t good at math I guess that’s why I didn’t like it. Most of them I liked, I liked the history and I liked English. And the spelling, we used to have spelling matches and we learned the times tables in the back of the notebook. They were printed in the back of the notebook and we had to learn all of those starting with the two’s up to twelve and then we would have contests, one with another during math class. They would give us things to multiply, problems, see who could get them the quickest, and they divided us into teams and it was kind of a pressure to see who could get done first and if someone got done before you did, then the next one would go up. 5
ER: What were some of your favorite foods as a child or teenager? AW: Oh, I liked fruit, I always like fruit and I liked pie. Mother used to make a lot of pie and cinnamon rolls and I always liked chicken. We never had a lot of meat like we do now. Some people did but my dad didn’t go hunting that much because there wasn’t as much wildlife in the Idaho area as there was over here. So we used to have mutton, we called it— sheep meat, lamb— because he raised them, we had sheep besides the cows— we had pure breeds and he would take them to the faire. We had canned salmon a lot, but we didn’t have a way of keeping it because we didn’t have electricity at the time. They used to put ice bins out— they used to cut big chunks of ice out of the river and then we had a little shed that we put it in and piled saw dust on it and kept things in there a lot. We also used it for ice cream; we used to have ice cream a lot. We didn’t have a lot of fresh things you know a weekly thing as far as lettuce and celery and all that in the winter time because they didn’t have a way to get it down to the stores on account of not plowing the roads but once in a while they would bring it. I remember one year my dad said, “ What you would like for Christmas?” And I said, “ I want all the bananas I can eat.” So we went up to the store and bought the rest that they had and it was still on the stalk and we brought the stalk and the whole thing home. Mother always made fruit cakes for Christmas and we always had a big Christmas tree and we always went and got it; well, dad usually went and got it. We didn’t have lights then but mother had little candles and she’d light one or two of them for us. They didn’t dare light all of them because they were afraid we’d burn the tree and then we wouldn’t have some. But that was fun and we always had lots of ornaments on it, and we used to play this game of describing something on the tree and seeing if we could guess it with my brothers and sisters. ER: So, with your brothers and sisters, what did you guys do for entertainment?
AW: When we were younger, we used to play out in the snow a lot. We went swimming. When we helped with the haying, we’d help with the horses and all that. My dad always took a nap after dinner— lunch we call it now. There was this swimming pool that wasn’t even a half a mile from us, it was just down to my aunt’s place and it was just along the side of the road over there. It was a big hole and then it kind of went out so that it wasn’t very deep out that way. But right off of the road here was this big deep hole that was over your head and we used to go down there swimming and that’s where I learned to swim a little bit. I never did get to good at it, but we’d go down there while he was sleeping and have a little swim because it was so hot— well, we thought that it was hot anyway. And then something else that my dad used to do was take us down to Alpine to the hot springs. But it’s all covered up with the dam now. He used to take us down there and that was so much fun. It was such a quaint place. I can see it now— this little lady that runs it, her name was Mrs. Deats. She had the thickest glasses, little round ones just like little magnifying glasses so her eyes looked like little round dots and she wore the funniest clothes— long dresses and she was a nice woman and we used to go swimming there. I was pretty primitive; the dressing rooms had a door on them and a partition between them. You could see underneath and over the top of it. It was pretty funny, it was a hot springs that you would run in and run out. It was pretty deep but it wasn’t real large. We had a lot of fun there and we used to go down there too for some of the reunions that we would have. And in the summer my grandfather on my mother’s side had his birthday on the 3rd of July and we used to go down there for that reunion— for the Zollinger reunion and that’s where I was baptized. I was eight in November but you know they didn’t want to break a hole in the ice to baptize me so we waited until we went down to the reunion so I was baptized when I was eight and a 6
half, well a little older than that. In the Logan temple my sister and I baptized for some of the dead. My grandfather worked in the temple so he arranged that and the parents had a session to go through at the same time. ER: What are your memories about World War II? AW: Oh, I remember that pretty good. Well, they started drafting; I remember the day that they announced that— oh how horrible that was. It came over the TV. or radio I guess— well that was in 1942. We didn’t have TV, it was the radio. Then everybody was concerned about what they were going to do. The United States wasn’t equipped to fight, so what they did was they turned all the factories into making clothes for the soldiers and equipment— guns and artillery and stuff— and so you couldn’t buy sugar without a stamp, you couldn’t buy shoes without a stamp. You couldn’t buy any electrical appliances at all without a— well, you couldn’t buy cars or you couldn’t buy anything that you could ordinarily because they took it all for that. And they had a party all the time for everytime one of the boys would leave and sometimes two to three would leave at once. That was after we were married and they’d have it up at the town hall. And then they sold bonds to try and raise money at these dances and there were about 60 boys that went from Alpine and Etna and every one of them came home. There were men that signed up that had families, they didn’t have to go, but there was one fellow here by the name of Dean Humphrey’s, he had five kids and he left. He signed up and went. And they classified them all 1A, 2A, 3A, 4F if there was something wrong with you it was 4F. They usually would leave one son to run the farm to help the father. There just was hardly anyone left as far as young people. Now Clyde didn’t have to go, well his brother didn’t go either. He was finally called to go and they went up to Denver for their physical and for some reason they turned them all down except for one, and sent them back but then the war was about over months after that. Then I remember we started saying, “ well, after the war then you can sign up if you wanted different things.” So we signed up for a refrigerator because we didn’t have one. Later on we signed up for a car because our car wasn’t up and we also signed up for a sewing machine. We got a fridge at the time when we were living together in the house here with Clyde’s brother. They had a refrigerator, so I kept my stuff in their refrigerator until we got one. Then when your time came up to get a car you could take it or you didn’t need to take it. When it was our turn, the one that came up was a real nice Plymouth four- door car. It was black I remember, and it was about $ 1800 or something like that which we thought, how would we pay for that, but we wanted it pretty bad so we took it. Clyde and the dealer had to go to Salt Lake to get it and brought it home. Then I had to go to Logan to get my sewing machine when my turn came. So as it went along you were able to buy things when they started manufacturing again. And then your shoes, you could have so many shoes a year and you had to have a stamp, but it wasn’t any problem. The sugar was no problem for us— you just cut down on it and I know when I canned my fruit, you just put less in and it was really better for you and it tasted okay, you just didn’t use that full cup. ER: What did you do to help with the farm?
AW: Oh, I did everything. I plowed, ran the disk, ran the leveler, ran the bailer, and ran everything. I used to bail all the hay. I never ran the combine; that was about the only thing. We had so much ground rented. We had ground rented from here to Thayne, even down in Alpine. I don’t know how we got it all done. We had all this rented up here one year too, and up there towards Thayne, not all the way into 7
Thayne. It was up there near Crooks farm, we had 160 acres above the road and at least 80 below. Then we had that place down there where they got that farm or that barn down there towards Alpine we had all that rented where those houses are— I don’t know how we got it all done. We had some nice, good machinery though, tractors. I didn’t do any of the drilling, I didn’t drill anything other than that. I raked the hay, bailed— didn’t have to haul it in. ER: When you started having children, how did that change what you did? AW: Well, when Nancy was born I wasn’t doing as much of that because his brother was still here. It was after his brother left that I had to help more. But I helped with all of it, mostly because that was just before Todd was born. So when he was little, I used to take him out on the tractor with me. This is kind of a funny story, but we were farming that ground at the top of the highway up there, it belonged to somebody else. He was in kindergarten and had come home at noon and I had already been up doing some harrowing up on that place. So, here I was watching and here comes Clyde up with the other tractor and some machinery and here comes the pick up. And I thought who’s coming? Who’s down there that’s bringing the pick up? It wasn’t coming very fast but it was coming along and when it got up there it was Todd. He was driving the pickup, he was five years old, and I just about had a heart attack. ER: How did you stop him? AW: Well he stopped; Clyde told him what to do. When he pulled into the field, he just turned the key off and the kid I know was just scared to death. ER: What kinds of responsibilities did your children have with working and everything？ AW: they helped with everything. They helped with all the farming. They milked, John milked the cows a lot being the oldest. If we ever went anywhere he was the one that stayed home and milked the cows if we had to be gone overnight. What was strange about that is that he didn’t really want to go. He had more of the responsibility than the other kids did. Nancy helped a little but she worked off in the summer. She went to Jackson and worked. ER: What did she do?
AW: She worked in the cafes; she did that to earn money to go to college. She didn’t go over there much. Maybe the year that she was a senior in high school in the summer. Other than that, we used to go over and pick her up on her day off and she worked at a café over there for probably two or three years before she went off to Logan for school— college. Then she went to France her junior year with BYU on the study and tour guide. She signed up and she was gone from the first of the year until May. It was kind of a semester. Then they got to go visit Holland and Rome while they were over there. Then Jeff went on a mission and Todd went on a mission. Jeff went to the Ft. Lauderdale mission. Todd went to New Mexico, but it was the Holbrooke, AZ mission and he served with the Indians and had to learn the language which they don’t do anymore. In fact the year that his mission ended they didn’t have them learn that anymore. But you know that language was very important during the war— World War II, because the Japanese couldn’t decipher it and they used a lot of that language in their codes. I don’t think he remembers hardly any of it now but he knew it then. He had to speak it because most of the Indians, the older people didn’t speak English, but some of the kids did. We went down after he came home off of his mission. We went 8
back down there and visited some of his Indian families— they were so glad to see him. This one family had 13 children and the baby was in the little cradle. We didn’t get there until dark to see them. It was way out somewhere, and we drove and drove and drove and they had her in bed so she was strapped on this little cradle board and I thought how can a baby sleep like that? ER: Were there any effects in the 60’ s of the Civil Rights movement in this area? AW: I don’t think so. We never had any, I don’t know if there’s one or two blacks here now but we heard most of that over the TV and the radio. No, it didn’t affect us any because we didn’t have that problem at all. When I was growing up you could say it was 99% LDS and that has changed. There was only the one church here and now I don’t know how many there are. There must be at least six denominations now. ER: Was it just a gradual change from going from predominantly LDS to other denominations moving in? AW: Well, it was as people started moving in from different states. Then they started, it seems like maybe that Catholic Church in Afton and the JW’s— Jehovah Witnesses were probably the first ones that came because they had missionaries that were coming around that wanted to talk to you. We usually always talked to them but I don’t know why they bothered to come, it didn’t do them any good, but they were nice people. And then they started one in Thayne and there’s one in Alpine, I think there’s two in Thayne and there’s one just right up here on the corner. No, it just came because of outsiders coming in. ER: What kinds of callings have you had in the church? AW: I was in the primary teaching the girls for, I don’t know how many years it seems like, but the bluebirds, the larks and the seagulls is what they called them, I don’t know what they call them now. Then I was in the Relief Society presidency and I was the president of the young women’s. I’ve always been a visiting teacher and in Relief Society, and working in primary and young women’s and I taught in Relief Society. Then for about 13 years I was the compassionate service leader. I had to take care of all of the funerals and anyone that had sickness. I had to make sure that meals were brought in or whatever they do and signed up the food for funerals and set the tables and did that for about 13 years. Oh I know, I was the first junior Sunday school coordinator and when they did that they separated the sr. Sunday school and the junior Sunday school. I remember they called me in 1950 because that was the year that John was born and they started this because that is when we got our new chapel and the bishop came and told me that he wanted me to be this. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do you know, we had never done it before, we had never had it before and he said just hold it like you do a Sunday school. So we did that and we finally found a little organ to have in the room and I don’t know how long I was in there as that, but I remember that because that’s when the chapel was dedicated and Ezra Taft Benson came and dedicated the chapel and it’s been added on to since and changed from the original one, that was the year. It was fun and other than that I taught in Sunday school and in classes. ER: What was your favorite calling of them all?
AW: I think the primary. Then when Clyde was on the High Council we were in charge of the senior adults and we planned a few things for them, and of course we would have a dinner every month at the different wards. We planned a dinner or a party once and took them over to Victor over in Idaho to that 9
little play that they put on and then we had a little dinner afterwards outside. Then we had a fish fry up in Auburn at the fish hatchery place and there was a couple of the things we did with them. Yeah, I quite like that, people that didn’t really have a whole lot going for them, singles, I like that. Well I liked the temple assignment as much as any of them. We worked in the initiatory work. And I remember the first day that we went down and they told us that we had to memorize the procedure and I thought how are we ever going to do that because it was quite different and you know, it only took me two times. I was just absolutely blessed because I knew it after we had gone through it twice— and I haven’t forgotten it. I could do it now if I had to. We did that for eight years and the reason we had to quit is because that’s when I got in a car accident in Las Vegas and it took a whole year for me to get over it, so we couldn’t go. ER: What happened in the car accident? AW: it messed up my hip and I still have all that in my leg. I shoved the ball up through the socket and the doctor said he’d never seen a mess like that in all his practice. Why he didn’t put everything in new, I don’t know, he said I’m going to put it all back together and he did and it’s been 20 years. I’ve got a rod down in my leg and a pin and wire. Some people said, “ Well you could have had it all taken out.” But I couldn’t go through that again; it was pretty bad, at the time anyway. So then we couldn’t go because this happened in March, and I came home the first part of June. I was down at Nancy’s all of that time and in therapy and when I came home I was still on crutches. So during all that time, they had to find someone else to take our places and I couldn’t have gone anyway until— well I was still walking with a cane and stuff in December. It was spring before I could walk on my own— or I dared, because you don’t want to go out and walk in the snow. But I had a walker and stuff; so then we didn’t do that anymore and I kind of hated that because I like that it. ER: How many grandchildren do you have? AW: You know, I’ve counted them for forever, is it 15? Well, John has 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. And Greats I think has 10. Ingrid has 3, Allison has 4, and Charlotte has 2 and Aspen— Dennem’s. ER: What are some of your favorite memories with your grandchildren? AW: I don’t know— these kids here have always been real close because they live real close and I see them everyday. It’s always fun to have them come over. Charlotte and Ian and Dennem would always come over and they would always want chocolate milk so I would put them on the stools there and they would have their chocolate milk or ice cream or cookies or something. That was the other thing, when they would come over I could always hear the cookie jar clink if I wasn’t in the kitchen because they always checked to see if there was any. But they would always come over for chocolate milk and I had these three little cups with faces on them because they were Campbell’s kids and Dennem would say now is this a girl— a “ durl”— or a boy and they were all identical but if it was the girl he wasn’t going to drink out of it. So I would have to tell him, let me look at it, no it’s a boy. We’ve gone on picnics and things like that I’ve enjoyed— it’s hard to remember everything. ER: What are some of your family traditions?
AW: Well, on the Wolfley side we always have this Christmas party that they’ve had ever since my 65 years here. It gets smaller all the time because some of them have passed on and some of them have 10
moved away and the cousins not a whole lot of them live here anymore so it’s kind of fizzling out. But at home we always had reunions and had the celebrations. I remember the 24th and the 4th of July and mother would make us a dress for the fourth and we would wear it to the program. Kids wear slacks and jeans now. I always had an Easter dress and one for Christmas— about the times I got something. Let’s see what some of the other traditions would be. Well, she always made the fruitcakes for Christmas. And these little cakes that she made where she would put pie dough in the bottom of the muffin pan and then she put some strawberry jam in and then some cake dough and she baked them and then would ice them. I liked them but I’ve never made them myself for a long time. I can’t think of what other traditions. ER: Have you traveled a lot? AW: Not really, no. Not out of the United States at all. I’ve gone to Las Vegas and probably the reason that I’ve been there so many times is that’s where the kids are. I’ve been up to Oregon, been fishing up there. Nancy lived there- you know where your kids are that’s where you go. When John and Becky got married we went to the Reno Temple, not Reno, which one would it be? Was there a temple there? No it was Oakland because I remember going to San Francisco. I have to stop and think about this because it’s been so long ago. When I was in the primary, they used to take you down; they used to have the primary conference. When I was in the primary presidency— well, I was in the presidency and then I was president. But when I was in the presidency, they took a bus from the valley— that’s when it was all one stake and we went down to Salt Lake, and we went to the Temple, and they had workshops for you. At the one of the meetings on the last day, I guess it was Saturday, was when they introduced that song “ I am a child of God” that was the first time I had heard it and they had a young boy sing it— he must have been a 12 year old, he was just a young kid and I don’t think there was a dry eye in that building, in that Tabernacle. And do you know I never hear that song when I don’t see that kid standing up there singing that song. So afterwards, I was inquiring where I could get a copy of that song because it struck me. They said, “ I don’t think it’s out on the press yet, I don’t think it’s been printed to use.” But I thought that was the neatest song I’d ever heard and that kid, his voice just rang through that building, I never hear it when I don’t think about it. So that was fun, and getting to go to the Salt Lake Temple. That’s the only time I’ve been through it. I was down for a wedding— Dennem’s wedding— but we didn’t do an endowment, so I haven’t been through too many of the temples, which I would like to but there’s so many of them now. ER: What is your favorite thing to do?
AW: I don’t know, I used to like to sew. I used to make all of Nancy’s clothes, even when she was in college. She’d send home the pattern and the material and I’d make it and mail it back to her. I even made her coats. I used to like to do that, but I don’t like to now, I am just not interested in it. I always liked to embroider and I wish that I could draw. That’s something that I always wanted that I could do, and I have a little, but it’s nothing— I still can’t perfect it. I used to like to cook, but as you get older, you don’t care about doing that either— you’ve cooked too much. I always liked to design things like dresses— even when she’d send the patterns, I’d change them a little and when she was little I would fix it the way I wanted to. I like to do outside work; I like to work in the yard. I’ve never been much for one to read and now with my eyes, what I like to do now is crossword puzzles. Your interest change when you get older. I did take piano for a year in school but I never did get too good at that. They used to have 11
group piano so we were all playing at the same time— you wouldn’t even know if they messed up. Imagine ten pianos going at the same time playing different pieces. And then Chester Hill was my teacher up there. Then he went down to Rexburg and taught in the college down there and then he was LDS so he had us all play one of the hymns together. I guess he thought I’d like to hear all one piece instead of ten different ones. ER: What would be your best advice— life advice? AW: Get a good education and go into whatever field you like the best. I guess as far as the church is concerned, get a strong testimony. Marry somebody that has the same ideals, likes, and dislikes— whatever— that you have because it’s hard enough to try and adjust to that without having a lot of interference on other things. It helps that your goals are pretty much the same.