Rex Catmull

              Dr. David L. Crowder Oral History Project
Rex Catmull - The Depression in
Idaho
By Rex Catmull
December 5, 1974
Box 1 Folder 21
Oral Interview conducted by Kym Nelson
Transcribed by Victor Ukorebi April 2005
Brigham Young University- Idaho
2
KN: This is oral history. My name is Kym Nelson and I am interviewing Rex Catmull on
the title of the Depression. Mr. Catmull where were you born?
RC: Idaho Falls, Idaho.
KN: And how long have you lived there?
RC: I left Idaho Falls when I was just a baby. We moved to Burley, Idaho.
KN: And where’d you move from there?
RC: Well, I finished high school in Burley in 1936. Then I worked in various places in
Idaho. I have been in what they call the Civilian Conservation Corps. Then I went to
College and then to the service, and then to Utah; and then I moved to Rexburg about six
years ago.
KN: Where were your parents born?
RC: My parents were born also in Idaho Falls.
KN: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
RC: How many brothers and sisters do I have living? I have one brother and two sisters
living.
KN: Okay, what is your occupation?
RC: My present occupation is owner and manager of the Rexburg Apartments. I am self-employed.
KN: During the Depression where were you?
RC: During the depression 1929 I wasn’t a teenager. My dad owned a bakery in Burley,
Idaho and I remember during 1929 I was quite young and my dad was approached by a
group that said if he didn’t sell to him that they would get another bakery. He sold to
them and the next year the depression hit. It also forced them out of business. It was
quite hard for our family for at that time we had six children in the family and my father
was seeking employment.
KN: What did the kids do for work? Did they do anything?
RC: Yes. In those days why it was mostly farming work although, we lived in the city
area of Burley. The kids picked potatoes to help. Different than what it is today. At that
time they paid only 2¢ cents a sack. You would go along straddling a harness with an
open sack between your legs and go down the spud rows and put the spuds into the sack
and by the time you got it filled up and you made 2¢.
3
KN: How much did you average then a day?
RC: Some only made a dollar by the end of the day. If you started early in the morning
and worked ‘ til late at night you got $ 2.
KN: Did your mom do anything to help you? Did she do any sewing or cooking or
things like that?
RC: Mother had her hands full taking care of the young family and father was doing
various chores around for some of the merchants. And helping part- time in another
bakery.
KN: Was food pretty cheap?
RC: Food was very reasonable. Like I say you could buy 100 lbs. of potatoes at that
time for about 30¢.
KN: Well, how much was gasoline?
RC: Gasoline was around 28¢ a gallon. Of course, sugar at that time was very
reasonable, about 5¢ a lb.
KN: You said you lived in the city and so did you have to pay rent or did you own the
place you lived in?
RC: We were purchasing our own home. A frame home, but a very modest home. It
was located just west of a nice city park, and we weren’t too far from the city center. Of
course, at that time it was a fairly small town of a little over 2,000. Times were difficult,
yet it seems that the people would help one another and there was plenty to eat. I
especially remember families getting together and having, not been concerned about
prices because they say they put on some big feasts and at the same time why there was
more visiting among the relatives and friends than I notice today. People enjoyed the
outdoor recreation and fishing and that too, even though cars aren’t as nice as what they
are today. It was very difficult for young people to think of college because there wasn’t
the GI Bill, or grants or scholarships. Quite a number of young men rode the rails half
the time. You get in or under the freight car and ride the rails, looking for work. It was a
very trying time for employment.
KN: There was taxes, like you pay for your house. Did you have to pay very much tax?
RC: There wasn’t the taxes that we have today like the income taxes, hardly any taxes.
At that time there was quite a problem with the presidential race. In 1932 President
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that there would be a chicken in every pot, there would a car
for everybody, and he promised everything. Once he got in, why he did create a number
of considerable federal jobs, but we did notice an erosion in the purchasing power of our
4
dollar. That they say he could bring the country out of depression. At that time I went
into, this was in later years. I graduated from high school, I went into Civilian
Conservation Corps. This was a government program for young men to go into the forest
to build roads and clean out the timber and help to provide recreational facilities. I was at
Salmon River in French Creek, Idaho and we received $ 30 a month, board and keep.
KN: Did you send any money while you earned home?
RC: Well, I saved $ 125 in about six months. I came to Ricks College in 1937 and that
$ 125 was enough money to see me through, at that time we had quarters instead of
semesters for three months. I was able to go two quarters, six months to school. It
provided for my tuition, my food, and my lodging. At that time we lived in the building
that formerly was across from Taylor Chevrolet just west- that was recently torn down last
year.
It was somewhat of cooperative house. The girls lived in the upstairs part and the boys
lived on the lower floor. The kitchen became a cooperative area where times they would
bring meat, potatoes, carrots, and the boys and girls under the supervision of the cook,
would prepare these meals and act as waiters and waitresses. Of course, at that time
Ricks College only had an enrollment of 300 students. But when school was finished I
went to work on a dry farm in Swan Valley area, and I worked for a dollar a day and my
board. I would work about 14 hours a day, long days. I had enough money for the fall
semester.
Then economy began to pick up because of threat of war in Europe. I graduated from
Ricks College in 1939 and quite a number of people were heading to California to work
in the air craft industries. It seemed pretty eminent that war even in 1939 that war was
about to be thrust upon America, because they were tooling up for the war industry and
this, of course, brought the nation out of the Depression.
KN: When did the Depression really start? Well, like in your family when did it?
RC: The Depression actually started in the latter part of 1929. October of 1929 is when
the stock market crashed. I can remember how they, in the early 30’ s how they were
slaughtering animals because they had a surplus of them— pack them in a trough and
bury them over. They had as surplus of grain, and had a surplus of commodities. It was
a difficult time for the farmers as well as for the people in the city.
It was costing considerable sums to produce the food, considering what they were being
paid for. They didn’t have a world- wide problem of hunger at that time as we do today.
I can remember in high school only one student had an automobile. He had an older car
that he fixed, but things were such financially why parents of the students or the students
themselves weren’t able to find enough money or work for enough to buy themselves a
car. It was strange that I should remember that one student having a car. He was a good
friend of mine. He now owns an auto wrecking yard in Burley, he’s done very well.
That car started him on to acquiring more wrecks I guess.
5
It was interesting to go over the time I spent in the Civilian Conservation Corps. I hoped
to have enough money to send me to college so I had to go to work. We were building a
road up the Salmon River. It was from Riggins, Idaho and the other end. Why they were
building a road from Salmon, Idaho down the Salmon River towards conjunction with
our camp. In 1939 when war seemed eminent they discontinued the building of the road.
It never was completed. It would have been a tremendous scenic road. Beautiful area.
But today with the Environmental Protection Act, why such roads wouldn’t be permitted.
Of course, that road never will be completed. It is still possible to go to Riggins up the
Salmon and then take off from what called French Creek up to Switch Back and over to
McCall, Idaho. If you get a chance to make that trip it’s a beautiful ride.
The Depression, they say, was such that people seemed to be more close knit at that time
than they are now. Actually with the phenomenal growth of Ricks College, at that time,
there were only the two buildings at Ricks College. The Spori Building- what do they call
the other one now?
KN: The Auditorium?
RC: No, the old stone building.
KN: I don’t know.
RC: Well, it’s where our gymnasium was, that one still in the top of that building. Ricks
College was quite famous for its basketball teams. They never did have a very strong
football team ‘ cause we didn’t have big students, but they did have a tremendous
basketball team. And I can remember them. I would have played with them, but I broke
my wrist and so I never did. We had some crowds at the basketball games that shake that
whole building down. I often wondered how it ever withstood the tremendous attendance
they had in that small gymnasium there.
KN: Did a lot of banks around your area close?
RC: Oh yes. I remember my dad telling me about the banks. There were some people
which were hurt very seriously with the banks that closed down. They had confidence in
the banks. My father was able, with planning and purchase of some kind, he was able to
withdraw. I think he lost $ 1,000, but he withdrew most of his money. He was going to
make a purchase for something else. So we were very fortunate. Quite a number were
hurt with bank closures.
KN: Did he buy any land with the money or anything with it?
RC: No it just helped to keep the family together on paying the mortgage. But I can
remember how the school teachers, even when I was in the early 30’ s, I can remember
how they kept talking about script. They were paid in what they called warrants.
Warrants were issued to them as a check for salary. They weren’t good ‘ til it was
6
determined that there was enough money in the treasury or the county or taxes to cash
those checks. Sometimes why they had to discount them in order to get their money. In
other words, a school teacher at that time was lucky to make $ 70 a month, or even $ 50.
KN: What would you say would be the luckiest guy in the deal as far as work, or what
kind of work?
RC: The man that seemed to be envied at that time was the postal employee or the man
that had two years as a government employee. He didn’t have to worry about getting his
as salary or tickets, money came. The postal employees, that same, very fortunate. My
folks encouraged me to get into postal service. I took the test and I passed. I was
supposed to receive my appointment before I left for the service, but a married man took
over and so I went into the service.
KN: Do you think war helped the economy quite a bit?
RC: Well, I don’t know if the war helped the economy any. I think there would have
been a way out of it. I don’t know all the ins and outs of the economic thing about the
tariff barriers and the trade restrictions and everything else that were created.
The other day— I don’t think we should oppose those restrictions on other countries, but,
of course, there are some right now that are hurting the cattle industry and the milk
industry so on. I think as a whole, why people seemed to be in a sense more spiritually-minded
than possibly they are today because they were very thankful for what they did
have.
KN: Did your dad have to pay very much on his house payments monthly?
RC: No, at that time interest rates weren’t as bad as they are right now. We did have to
dip up sizeable down payment in order to make the house payments to obtain the house.
It was a little more difficult to finance the mortgaging like you do now. The bank wanted
more security where as today why, the government protects the banks. The lender seems
to be protected more today. We had some good times when things were tough and tight.
KN: Did your dad buy your house before the Depression or during it?
RC: No dad bought the house before the Depression.
KN: How many years?
RC: I remember we moved from one house to the one I recall— grade school, Jr. High,
high school. He bought it— it was about two years before the crash came 1929. It was a
nice house, a two story house. It was frame, like I say a nice home.
KN: Did the government have any other programs besides the one you talk about?
7
RC: Oh yes. At that time they had what you’d call the WPA and PWA which is what
they call Works Projects Administration and the other one was Public Works Assistance,
where they would give men out of work employment; and often times they would have,
oh, city improvements projects or maybe they’d build a new courthouse or office or new
government building of some kind. Or they might even work on the Bureau of
Reclamation, where they have them cleaning canals to provide for even flow of waters.
There were numerous government agencies that would provide employment for these
men who were out of work. There used to be a standing joke about it where they’d
remark at one time that seven- day WPA project that they’d want to take a picture of the
men working and they had to take a still photo of it because nobody was moving! They
were all standing around leaning on their poles, shovels, and rakes. At that time quite a
number of men- it sometimes hurt some men’s pride to accept a job with the WPA
because they wanted to be self- sufficient, they didn’t want hand outs, but they didn’t have
any choice they accepted WPA work gladly.
The pattern of things changed when Hitler came into power and started to overrun
countries in Europe. America began to tool up for war, and quite a number of men
started going into defense plants. The war actually was declared December 7, 1941.
Prior to that though they say why our government was helping Great Britain and France
by building tanks and bombers and ships and anything to help their allies. I spent four
years in the service, quite a number of my friends were killed, and to this day I still
wonder why I was spared.
They say that there couldn’t be another depression, but they possible could be wrong
because sometimes history repeats itself. Time will run back as someone once said. Of
course, this is where the church admonishes its members to be prepared, and have a
year’s supply of food. Now some things I do have— you can understand why we need to
be prepared.
In summary like I say… I got, the other day I got a hold of a record here that[‘ s] not the
kind of music they play now- a days. It’s called Glenn Miller, it’s one that was real
popular ( play record) just before the war and this type of music seems to be coming back
today. How do you like that kind of music?
KN: Sounds like from the twenties.
RC: This ones Tommy Dorsey and Arty Shaw. Doesn’t that music make more sense that
your rock- n- roll today?
KN: I don’t know! Did you think during the Depression the music guys who made
music and records would make money too?
RC: No, not like they do today, because you have the technical and logical things you’ve
got today like your T. V. at home, your FM and AM radios, your stereos and hifi and
things like this.
8
KN: During the Depression did you have a refrigerator and a stove and everything?
RC: Oh yes.
KN: Electric stove or gas?
RC: During the Depression we had an electric stove and we had a electric refrigerator.
We had plenty of food items. We really appreciated the help we got from friends that
were farmers. We had quite a number of people growing gardens. Everyone had a
garden.
KN: What are your plans in the future?
RC: My plans, I don’t know. That is very difficult to determine. I have the Rexburg
Apartments. Now they used to be the old Idamont Hotel. It had quite a reputation and
we’re changing it over to apartments, and realizing the old hotel was not… On my own
personal standpoint I appreciated people— when we first took it over six years ago we
had problem with the people using it as the lost weekend. They’d get drunk, come in and
sleep it off, fall asleep in bed with a cigarette almost burn the hotel down with matches
catching on fire.
The experiences we’ve had here with drunks and transients has been enough to make
another story. You have to be pretty patient with both the drunks and some of these
students are difficult to get along with now, but the students are certainly a much better
group than what we had in those. As I say it had quite a reputation. We are changing and
improving it— the Idamount Hotel to Rexburg Apartments and making it off limits to
people that smoke and drink and carouse.
You ask me what my plans to the future are. I hope that within a few years why I can turn
it over to some young man that is interested in it for providing good college housing for
Ricks students.