Keith & Becky Young family history

By Keith and Becky Young
July 1996

Keith

Keith was born 5 December 1922 to George Wallace and Rose Victoria Atkinson Young. Keith grew up on the farm and learned to do the chores expected with increasing age. As Keith grew up in Perry, all of the family attended church regularly during the years I remember except dad. He had attended sporadically during the tenure of the bishop while I grew up. In former years he had been very active. He attended regularly when he left Perry. While we were small, mother wheeled us in a baby buggy to Primary. The roads had been graveled and later oil was applied to the gravel to make it a better surface. We went to Primary directly from school at Perry Grammar School. We had a class one night for genealogy and another for MIA. I started my book of remembrance while taking these genealogy classes.

We boys shared two beds upstairs in a room. Its only winter heat was from a stovepipe passing through the room, some up the closed stairwell, and through the floor beneath the upstairs bedroom. In the summer the nights were very warm but we did have a screened window on east and west sides to pass through any breezes.

As the boys in my family grew, it became in turn their job to take and get cattle from the pasture. I took the milk cows to pasture and returned with the horses so the older men and Dale could go to work. I ate breakfast while the men hitched up the horses for the day and got the equipment ready. Mother fixed a farm breakfast of smoke cured ham, scrambled eggs toast and milk. I enjoyed riding the pony both bareback and with a saddle. The saddle made a lot less sweating on a hot day. Trying to cut cattle was a challenge. Each spring we had our own roundup for branding and dehorning. The horn buds of calves were treated so the horns wouldn't grow but some still did. There were some cattle bought or others still needing dehorning. Some of the cattle squirted blood from their horns after they were sawed off onto the board fences. Black gun powder was used to stop the bleeding but it didn't work very well.

In the winter we fed cattle from a stack of wild hay put up during the summer. We rode a horse down after school to the fields. It was a cold ride on stormy days. You knocked the snow off the stack, dug the hay out, and carried it out in piles for the cattle to eat. We nearly always had a dog and you enjoyed petting him on the stack while you rested. In the summer he was always scratching for fleas but he was never allowed in the house. I gained a better appreciation for fleas when we had a dog and cats in the house in Torrance, CA. I would have been a lot more sympathetic for the Perry farm dog after the Torrance experience. One time we came home after a two week vacation to Torrance with the house closed up. All the fleas had hatched in the carpets and the fleas were hungry.

Our Perry farm consisted of half dad owned and half Uncle Bert owned. After Bert was fatally injured, his property was willed to Dale and we continued farming it as before. Irrigation began in June. We had four streams of irrigation water to tend. One each from Porter and Walker springs, the town water from the canyon for the gardens and trees around the house, and the well water on the highway for the upper orchards. The town water alternately came at either six am or six PM and lasted for eight hours. It needed careful tending to get row crops, fields, and all trees watered in the eight hours. The streams in the field didn't need to be watched very carefully. They were set at dusk and changed in the morning and during the day time. They ran in the winter and some in the summer pastures to furnish water for the cattle.

The springs, especially Walker, were warm and never froze. The watercress grew all winter and the ducks would fly in at dusk and out in the morning. They were always fun to watch. I tried hunting them but no one ever gave me any lessons and I was a pretty poor shot. One shot near the ponds and the ducks were gone. Hunting pheasants without a dog to get them up was nearly impossible. During the hunting season, their colors blended with other marsh grasses and they were almost impossible to see.

Utah nights got cooler in mid September and the colors came to bushes and trees on the mountains. We usually had a melon patch to sell melons on the highway. After the first freeze, melons were not salable. It was OK to go, break them open and eat the choice heart out. Later the cattle finished them off. Some melons, honeydews, and cants could be saved in the grain bins and eaten at Thanksgiving. It took till Dec. to get cold enough to freeze them there.

We kept about ten milking cows, some cows that only the calves milked that were quite wild, a couple of pigs, and two coops of chickens. About every third Saturday in the winter time, the chicken manure had to be scraped out and hauled away to the orchard. It was very rich and really made for big peaches. The cattle manure was good for hauling to the fields any warm day. The manure in the milking barn had to be wheelbarrowed out every night to a pile and fresh straw from the stacks brought in to bed the cows down in their stalls. I still milked two or three cows while going to high school. The milk was put in ten gallon cans and hauled to the road in a two wheeled milk cart or with a sled when it snowed.

The cold let up in February and March brought warmer winds that were good for kite flying, a sport that I enjoyed. In April, it was warm enough to plant melons and other crops. We used wagons for hauling hay and dirt. A bob sleigh was built with a wagon box but had runners two inches wide and was pulled by two horses. We used harrows, plows, drawn by two or four horses and one horse cultivators. Once I turned too short and turned a harrow over on the harness tugs and singletrees with a team of four horses. The horses were frightened, but I got them quieted down, righted the harrow, and continued on. Land was plowed, wheat sown by hand, and harrowed in to cover it. A disc harrow was used to cut out weeds for summer fallowing.

Dad had kept buggies in sheds from the earlier days. We got them out in the summer at times, hitched up a horse and rode in style. I don't remember any of our cars before the model A. We got to drive when we had a license to do so. Mother had always enjoyed having lots of flowers. I find that this has been true of most of the women in the ancestry. Our house was about 250 feet from the road. Mother grew peonies along one side and roses along the other with two or three large single red hibiscus. The peonies were in blossom in time for memorial day the end of May. It was the custom to gather everything that was in bloom and take it to decorate graves at the cemetery. There was the peonies, bridal veil, snowball bush flowers, lilacs, and others, We occasional also went to see the graves in Cache Valley where mother's ancestors and relatives were buried. The roses bloomed during June and gave the walk down the lane a beautiful appearance and lovely perfume to enjoy.

We always had a large garden and grew onions, bush beans, carrots, beets, corn, several types of melons, cantaloupes, honeydews, etc. There was always lots of fruit from the trees of all kinds, gooseberries, raspberries, and several kinds of cherries. We sold the sweet cherries at our fruit stand and the sour cherries to the canneries. We sold all kinds of melons, cants, and peaches at the highway fruit stand. Apricots were a favorite.

Supper during the summer was of homemade wheat bread, milk, radishes, green onions, cheese, and ice cream. Mother would take the very ripe apricots, puree them, and mix them with rennet to make refrigerator ice cream. The milk was whole with the cream skimmed off for making ice cream or for cereal. Our suppers were more like a break- fast meal we eat now. Mother always baked her own bread. The slices were thick and fresh bread and jam were a great treat. Breakfast had to keep you going at hard work until noon. A cooked big meal at noon and a light supper was the usual pattern.

Two pigs were raised during the summer, one killed in early December and the other later. The pigs or beef were hung on the back screened in porch where it was cold enough to keep them. Hams were smoked for longer storage. A choice steer was also killed for beef. A part of the meat was kept in a frozen food locker later in Brigham City when they became available. We raised barley, oats, rye, and wheat. The wheat was taken to Brigham to process into cereal and flour. The folks had purchased an early horse drawn McCormick reaper that cut the grain and tied it in bundles with sisal twine. We would follow the reaper and stack the grain with heads up for it to dry. Later the grain was hauled and made into a round stack for threshing. The heads of grain bundles were placed inside of the stack for protection. Each bundle was carefully positioned in the stack.

The professional thresher crew of three or four visited every farm in turn to do their threshing. You gathered the neighbors to feed the grain off the stacks to the thresher conveyer belt. Grain came out in pipes and was bagged in burlap bags. These weighed about 75- 100 lb. You hoisted them to your shoulder and carried them to the grain bins usually 75-100 feet away.

The large threshing crew was fed a heavy dinner of roast chicken, potatoes, gravy, vegetables, pie etc. We always had mothers very excellent dinner as a vital part of the schedule. Preparing dinner kept the women busy in the kitchen getting it all ready for 15 -20 men. Water tubs were set outside to wash off some of the dust and dirt before eating. The threshing engines of my day were large gasoline powered tractors. They turned a large belt drive wheel and a belt of rubberized canvas about 50 feet long turned the belt drives for the thresher. The tractor also pulled the thresher from place to place. The early tractors had large cleated steel wheels.

During my youth a large part of the time was spent in harvesting the hay for the cattle. The alfalfa was cut three or four times a summer. We cut all hay with a mower drawn by two horses. The mower had an oscillating knife about five feet long with triangular blades of three inches length on it. The mower knife had to be sharpened at noon and evenings for the next session. This was done on the foot turned sandstone grinding wheel. The hay was allowed to dry a day after cutting and then raked into windrows for hauling. The horse drawn rake gathered the hay and you tripped the rake to form a row of hay.

Later you went along and broke the windrow into piles so they could be loaded on a wagon for hauling to the barns or stack. The wild hay stacks in the field were left open with some spoilage of the top hay. Usually only wild hay was stacked in the open. The alfalfa was put into the barn. A derrick with a trip fork lifted the hay from the wagon to the stack. This fork was suspended from a loop of steel cable and had four or six teeth each about 30 inches long. The steel cable was pulled by a horse at the end of the barn. A trolley first allowed the hay fork to be pulled to the top of the barn then carried the hay inside along the roof of the barn on a track to where it needed to be dumped for proper stacking. A yank on the trip rope dumped the hay. When it was dumped, all the loose leaves and dust filtered down. Those with hay fever problems had difficulty. The stacker distributed the hay to keep the stack even. The better hay was fed to the milk cattle.

We had plenty of sports type activity. We used simple skis with just a strap across the toe and with ski poles you could make good cross country progress. We used skis to go to school when the snow was deep. Small ice ponds offered skating. The distant large lake gave lots of room for skating. The water over it then was not very deep. A dam in recent years made a deep lake. A group could always get a game of hockey going. It was never very organized. Our old Perry ward building did have a small basketball court in the basement. With music activities, I never played much basketball. Besides I never was agile enough to want to do all the practicing required. There was also baseball in the spring on the school grounds. Younger boys enjoyed playing a game of marbles.

There was a tradition of mountain hikes for Easter to celebrate spring. A favorite summer activity was swimming in Porter springs. It was about shoulder deep. Swimming was always in the nude. It was cold enough that not much swimming was done before mid June. The muddy pond was too dirty for girls with their long hair. Later, the town put in a public swimming pool. It was much nicer and even had a diving board and swim suits required.

I used to work on airplane models when I could get the time. In summer it was after lunch while the family took a two hour rest. We had more time in winter to work on models or whatever. I learned much about building the airplane models from Blaine Barnard, an older boy in Perry.

While a boy we had a large tricycle I inherited. It had thin hard rubber tires with wire spokes. I used to put on goggles and even got up to the main highway, the only smooth cement we had, and rode it. We had little traffic in those days. Later, I learned how to ride the girl's bicycle. I rode it once with a group to Garland to my uncles, Joseph Atkinson, for a 50 mile scout merit badge. The folks bought us a boys bicycle with balloon tires, aluminum shiny fenders, and tire rims. This was much enjoyed. We didn't have much scout activity. The troop never went on a camping trip. I got up to about a Life badge. I was asked and served as deacons quorum president and later taught a Sunday School class with DRoss in it.

About the fifth grade, we had a chance to take music group lessons at the school. My older brother had played the clarinet and it was my choice. The band instructor was A. B. Caseman. He visited all the schools and taught high school band. Later, a Mr Hansen came to teach high school orchestra and choir. I played in the band and played a solo each year in the high school music contest. If you did okay, you got to go to the state competition. I played "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" for my freshman year. Finally got to be first chair of the band clarinets the last year of H S. I played a year or two in the orchestra. The folks paid for some private clarinet lessons from Mr. Hansen The band used to go to the local Garland wheat and beet days parade, the Ogden Pioneers days parade, and once to Pocatello ID. We were a marching band. We went early spring mornings to practice marching drills before school. A former military man did the drilling. Each spring we played three band numbers in the music contest and marched for the marching contest. The best bands in the state got the highly superior or just superior ratings. We usually did very well. We played for all local football games and some out of town games. I played in a small group of about eight for local basketball games.

About my sophomore year, the Lion's club sponsored a trip to Oakland for the band. It was an International Lion's club meeting. We really got hot coming down the interior of CA from Reno and froze in San Francisco. We got to go across the new suspension bridge just finished in San Francisco. We rode in high school busses and spent one night in Winemucca. We also took a trip to the Uintah mountains to Vernal UT to another Lion's club meeting. They fed us small fried trout for dinner that were delicious. We stayed there overnight.

For my final year high school solo contest, I played Rigeletto. It was beyond my capabilities and I managed to forget part of it during the state contest. It was an answer to my prayers and I gave up thoughts of music as a career. I did play clarinet the first year at Weber Jr. College and got $25 per quarter for helping in the music library work. We played at football games and concerts but no marching. I frequently played solos in church meetings and some community meetings. Velda often was my accompanist. My first year at Weber, I was part of a group that helped to put on weekly assembly shows. We worked out skits sometimes in connection with a committee. With the coming of the war, my second year at Weber, I didn't play in the band and really got into the engineering studies. During the winter months, I boarded with a family in Ogden and came home for weekends.

I attended Perry Grammar School, Box Elder Jr. High and Sr. High School, graduating in 1941. I attended Weber Jr. College in Ogden UT and obtained an AA degree in June 1943. I was always at church so blessed the sacrament often for either Sunday School or Sacrament Meeting held in the evening while at Perry. I was ordained an elder 7 March 1943 by my father, Wallace Young, before going off to school at the University of Washington.

Dad was ordained by Rulon S. Wells who was ordained by Brigham Young. After going to Weber College, the folks arranged for me to go to Salt Lake City and take a six week National Youth Administration architectural drafting class. I was able to get a job doing architectural drafting in Clearfield UT after completing the class and earned $40 per week learning to draft wartime storage building plans. With a double hernia, I wasn't drafted for military service. The farm was not my choice as a career. You were always so tired it made it difficult to think. Most of the work was very repetitious and I never saw any challenge to it. I attended the University of Washington in Seattle from October 1943 to February 1945. We had a lot of navy V12 students in my engineering classes. I found the transition from Weber to the large school very difficult and worked hard to get C's at first while I had been on the honor role for A's at Weber. I also worked part time at the University wind tunnel to help pay for the schooling. The model was set up in the tunnel, the giant fan turned on, and when every thing was just right, you pushed the button, and took a picture of all the instrument gages. Later after the film/negative was developed, you took a magnifying glass to determine the reading on all the meters for each picture. Then you plotted the data by hand and lettered in the titles and legends. This convinced me not to be an aerodynamicist. It really is much different now when it is all done with computers. The University wind tunnel was used by Boeing and companies all over the West coast. It was a slow airspeed tunnel used for propeller aircraft. I came home after winter quarter when Dale was drafted to help run the farm.

When the war was over, they announced at October General Conference that they would now send out missionaries. My papers were submitted and I was sent to New England States in November 1945. It was an expensive mission, but my folks did not object. We had an excellent crop of sweet cherries that helped pay for the mission. The excellent cherry crop was unusual. Frequently a June storm came and split the cherries and they weren't any good enough to sell. The train ride to Boston on a Pullman sleeper took us through the slums of Chicago. It was an astounding sight for me. I had never seen anything like it. The mission headquarters were at 100 Brattle St., Cambridge. Most of my time was spent in Vermont with a few weeks at first in Cambridge and some time later in Western Massachussetts. My mission president was William Reeder, a former judge from Ogden and later S. Dilworth Young. The areas were heavily Catholic and converts were few. I spent two cold winters in Vermont. This gave me a lifetime preference for warmer climates. Details are given in my missionary journal.

Boy Meets Girl

Returning home in November 1947, I had hernia surgery and recovered during December before returning to Seattle. I went to the University Ward where I lived while attending the University of Washington. Church activities were a welcome thing to feel so much at home. Becky was one of the Gleaners in the firesides that were held. We had a large group of the university students, workers in Seattle, and military people stationed nearby. Becky took the lead in parties and was very talented. She could play the violin and the piano. She and her parents always sang in the choir. Choir was something I much enjoyed. I had never been in one before but could read music and had learned to sing from attending church.

In October 1946 Becky was called to the Spanish American mission field which at that time covered all the Spanish speaking people in the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. We corresponded during our missions and she accepted my proposal for marriage via the mails. The hot humid climate of Brownsville, Texas had made her ill and she was transferred to Roswell, New Mexico where it was just as hot but a much drier climate. She received an early release (18 months instead of 24) to return home to get married. She took a trip to Mexico in March 1948 with a missionary companion and her companion's parents. She came home in late April and I finished my BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering attending U of W from January to June 1948. I had gotten a job at Boeing before graduation. We didn't wait for my graduation ceremony but left for Utah in the Ballard's car. They had purchased a used Cadillac town car from a friend in the funeral business. It was a spring of much rain and we had to detour far East to miss flooded bridges on the Colombia river to get to Utah.

 

We were married at the Logan Temple 17 June 1948 by El Ray Christiansen, the temple president. He later became a general authority. He asked,"Were we related to Brigham Young?", No; "Related to church Ballards?"; No. I often wondered if that was why we got the temple president to marry us rather than a regular sealer. The day before our marriage we helped my brother Ross out on the old family farm by driving tractor and dad Ballard by choice held a small plough to plow out irrigation ditches in the orchard. He was very bothered by a severe case of hay fever which lasted several days so that evening and at our wedding reception at our house in Brigham the next day he had difficulty staying awake because of the hay fever medicines he took to try to stop from sneezing. These medicines at that time made you drowsy as a side effect. I hadn't known he had hay fever that bad. Many of our relatives and Perry acquaintances came. We honeymooned at Utah's Parks, Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks, Zion, and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Becky sang me all the Spanish songs she knew.

We then left for Seattle I believe on the bus to start work. We also had a reception in Seattle and from both of them received very many gifts. We still have the stainless steel Revere Ware pan set with a copper coating on the bottom. Our first married summer in Seattle was a wet one. It rained a fine spray nearly all summer long. I began 1 July 1948 at Boeing in the wing design group; soon tired of that and got transferred to B54 controls but the contract was canceled. It had a longer wing than the B52. Later I went to B47 bomber controls. They let everyone off work to watch the first B47 flight with jato rocket pods. The extensive white plumes made a spectacular sight.

Becky went back to school at the University of Wash. She had a miscarriage but was pregnant again soon. Her mother came down with Gillian Barre Syndrome which left her partly paralyzed. Becky quit school to take her mother to therapy each day. She never got those last fifteen units to graduate. She has taken a great many more units since then, but those last few had to be at University of Washington for a degree in Sociology. My folks sent us some money which helped us to purchase a 1946 black Dodge sedan. We never appreciated anything more. We had a small basket-bed to carry Kay in that fit between the car front and back seats and Kay went everywhere with us. This would never have been legal in 1990 because they now require special car seats.

The Seattle Stake called me to be Elders Quorum President for the University Ward. Our former bishop, Wid Payne, was then Stake President. The quorum included the elders at Bellingham 100 miles north. We did get up to see them once. It was 100 miles of busy two lane road. We lived near Becky's folks in a house rented from a friend of Becky's dad. He had built it during World War II of used materials and it seemed he made no angle in the house exactly true. Kay, our first child, was born on Christmas day in 1949 in Maynard hospital in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. She was born the first Sunday we were able to meet in the new Stake Center we all had worked on. It was also the new home of University Ward. It snowed four inches and froze the pipes at our small house when Kay was born. We lived with Becky's folks for a few weeks. Becky got a breast infection which made it difficult for the baby to nurse. That summer we drove to Brigham City to show off the new baby.

In the fall of 1950 we moved to South Seattle and purchased a home. This was to avoid the long drive through Seattle to get to work and back home each day. Whenever it snowed a little bit the drive through Seattle seemed to take forever. The new house was a three bedroom brick home with a half acre lot and cost $11,500. It was planted in blackberries and strawberries which we enjoyed. We bought a small four cubic foot freezer and rented a freezer locker in the neighborhood. We enjoyed the berries and part of a beef we bought while living in the country. I was still working for Boeing when I came down with multiple sclerosis. My leg was affected first. It felt numb like when you restrict the blood flow except this time I couldn't get the feeling back. I could not tell where my foot was in walking. Later it affected my fingers and I couldn't tell if I was carrying anything or not.

They were changing a branch to a new ward in South Seattle and I was asked to be in the bishopric. A Brother Jensen was the bishop. Apostle Lee ordained me a High Priest, set me apart for the bishopric, and promised me that the numbness would go away. The neurological specialist at the hospital next day diagnosed it and hospitalized me. Father Ballard and the Stake Mission President, Ralph Hill, came and blessed me. After a week in the hospital, I was well enough to go home. In another week I was ready to go back to work. The effects of MS gradually went away over a period of about five years. The diagnosis was based on "you've got something but have no other symptoms that can be found like tumors." Years later doctors say it was just misdiagnosed. It was plenty real to me and I have had no effects of it since it went away. This has been remarkable since my sister came down with MS at age 50 and soon went nearly bedfast without remission. She has suffered so many years with it now. The neurologist said MS was rare in warmer climates.

I could never get over colds after the MS and we decided to go south. Resumes sent to southern California got me a job at Ryan in San Diego. We lost a little on our first house since we had been there such a short time. I quit Boeing in April 1951 and drove to San Diego with as much as possible in the back seat of the Dodge car. Ryan paid to ship the rest. Becky stayed with her parents until Larry was born 10 May. Becky soon joined me flying down with the two babies and her mother. I rented a home overgrown with trees and bushes in La Mesa. I did a lot of inside painting, much brush trimming, and it gave us a home a half block from a main street. We later bought a two bedroom home on Spring Street at the foot of a hill a few blocks from the rental. Aircraft/ factory liaison work was good for me physically. Each day I walked the facility checking out manufacturing problems.

Later I quit and went to work for Convair across the airport from Ryan. In 1995 My sister, Clarice, handed me a box of letters we had written to mother and she had kept. Most of the following is taken from those letters which also helped us to remember events. Becky wrote my folks in May 1951 saying a baby was still coming and I had been gone three weeks. Jay, her brother, was training in Georgia and had been called away from his mission to go into the military. One evening Becky's water broke and there was a lot of blood. Becky's father fainted at the sight and so it was Paul, her younger brother, age 14, who drove her to the hospital. He had learned to drive trucks, tractors and cars while working for an uncle in Wyoming the previous summer. Her mother was still partly paralyzed and couldn't drive so she stayed home with Kay. I believe it was about a month later that Becky and her mother flew down to LA with Kay and baby Larry. I drove up from San Diego to meet them but it was slow going with the early morning beach fog.

Meanwhile in La Mesa it was getting to 90 degrees. I was working one Saturday a month at Ryan. Dorene had gotten engaged. A letter says I had discussed buying the home with the Bishop and he thought it a good investment. I described construction of house in a letter to the folks. We had been paid off fully from our Seattle house we sold. [Paid $11,500 for Seattle house.] We owed only $559 for a debt on furniture. I made $416 per month plus overtime. On 5 August Larry weighed 15 lb 2 oz at 10 weeks.

By October 30 with help from my folks by a $3000 loan [we agreed to pay back at $100 per month. Letter of 15 October gave sketch of the two bed room house floor plan, and another letter with plot plan]. We bought a house on Spring Street and had moved in. It had been listed at $11,900 but we got it for $10,600, with an FHA loan, 4.75 % on a $7,600 mortgage. It had a separate two-car garage on a slight hill back of house. I was feeling better each month from the MS. Becky's folks sent her some money and we bought a used upright piano with it. We planted new trees on the property in the spring. La Mesa ward that we were in was nearing completion of a new ward building and we worked some on it. The ward asked me to serve as a home teaching clerk to keep the percentages up. I got to see a lot of families teaching those that were not going to be seen and new families so I would know who to assign them to. The Bishop's staff especially enjoyed pot luck dinners with the bishopric, clerks, and spouses. Everyone was solicited for their ideas for ward improvement. This LaMesa church has been sold now.

We had some cousins, the Stokes, our only local relatives we knew, who lived in Point Loma/San Diego. The ocean beaches were delightful for swimming. San Diego had only about 600,000 people then. Where we first rented, the lady had large avocado trees, guavas, and other kinds of sub tropical fruit. It hardly ever rained and if it did it was usually at night in the spring. LaMesa got to the 90-95 temperatures in summer and I enjoyed the warm sunny climate after the cool rainy Northwest. Becky missed the trees and cool weather especially when it got above 90 degrees.

19 April 1952 letter tells about spring flowers in bloom. We took two dozen calla lilies to church for Easter in the new building. At Easter, Kay saw the eggs, toys, and wanted to know where the Christmas tree was. Kay could sing" Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam. " Ryan got a new contract to build more C97 transport pods for Boeing and this was where most of their income came from. Ryan was famous for building Lindberg's plane he used to first fly the Atlantic solo. Ryan was subcontracting to Boeing, making airplane parts, and drone aircraft. They wanted someone who could read Boeing blueprints. After a year of not much at Ryan, I went across the field to work for Convair who had lots of overtime while Ryan had none. At Convair I worked on two versions of an F102 jet interceptor with a delta wing. The first version weighed too much so it was completely redesigned as the f102. It later became the F106. I also worked on a delta winged fighter/seaplane. A preliminary model took off and landed on retractable skis. The military version grew so heavy with the armament that it was too low in the water to keep the seas from the engine. The project was then canceled. Convair later became General Dynamics owned by a Texas firm. Convair started making the ballistic Atlas missile in another plant but I never worked on it.

8 May 1952 Becky had a miscarriage the previous Wednesday, she was two months along. She was in the hospital 24 hours after it happened. This was her second one. Our used Dodge car needed a new radiator and a new ring job. I was considering changing jobs to work for Convair. Dorene was getting married but with two babies and old car, we felt we couldn't go to Utah until next summer.

6/7/52 We spent decoration day with Vernon Jacobson, Becky's uncle and his wife, Oleah, in mountains East of San Diego. I believe they showed us the grounds of the Mt Palomar telescope. Becky was asked to serve as YWMIA manual counselor in our ward. Becky was hostess for $10 per plate church dinner to pay for new church building for 8-10 couples at a table. I was back doing design work at Ryan instead of liaison. We were working on a jet that had nozzles that could be rotated so as to take off vertically. Unfortunately the thrust was not sufficient to include enough payload to make it worthwhile. Later Convair did the same with a propeller aircraft that was to take off vertically but it also had too little thrust. Years later the British did make a jet that could take off and land almost vertically. Larry was just learning to walk. Becky had an offer from someone in the ward to drive her and two children to Salt Lake June Conference. I planned to take a bus later on June 18th and Becky returned by car with her folks sightseeing on the way while I guess I came back by bus. On our return our car had water in the oil so I repaired it. Becky's uncle, once a mechanic in Alaska, was technical advisor for my doing the car repairs- a complete engine overhaul. We used the Ballard's car while they visited as I worked on our car.

27 July 1952 The Ballards left and a few days later Fae and Eddie (she is Aunt Alta's daughter) visited us with their three children. They are now living in Barstow having moved there from Wyoming. We enjoyed beach trips with the visitors and our own family, We found the beach nice and cool while the weather was hot in LaMesa. Also there were more church dinners. Sept 1 We received pictures taken at the wedding from my folks.

26 January 1952 Planted out some garden stuff and it was coming up. Becky's folks moved into a different house near Greenlake.

7 January 1953 Becky wrote a letter to thank the family for Christmas presents. She tells how the children tipped the tree over and broke half the ornaments. She tells of presents the children got. Becky was expecting again in early April. Her mother planned to come down to help. Keith had been working for Convair the last three weeks beginning at 7:00 am and home at 5:30 with a nine hour workday. 31 Mar 53 Mother made and sent a new baby quilt for us. Harry Wright and Mildred, a sister of Becky's mother, came to visit bringing Mother Ballard and Sheila. We gave a buffet supper for seventeen relatives. The man who lived next door died leaving widows living on both sides of us.

6 April 1953 letter by Becky tells of Roger's birth at 4:10 am, our second son, April 7, 1953. He weighed 8 lbs 7.5 oz. Becky's brother, Jay, came to visit us a few days and Roger was sleeping all night by late April. The ward dedicated our new La Mesa ward chapel with Bishop LeGrande Richards doing the honors. Velda had a new baby in March and Dorene in June so mother had three new grandchildren in three months. Dale graduated in June with his Ph.D. in Agronomy and they moved to Jenkinsville PA.

28 June 1953 Convair gave me a $25 per month raise so I now make $75. more per month than when I started at Ryan. Roger was doing fine sleeping a lot. The ward was divided once and plans were to do it again. 30 July Becky wrote to tell how busy the three children kept her and with my overtime and church work, I hadn't had time to write.

17 August 1953 my father had had a small stroke. I had insulated our house ceiling with rock wool bats. Roger now weighed 16 1/2 lbs and was 26.5 inches long. His birth hernia had nearly disappeared.

6 January 1954 We wrote the folks to thank them for their Christmas presents and Convair had given me another raise before Christmas. A cousin and his family, Heber Stokes Jr, had moved into our ward to work in Chula Vista. We took a trip to Los Angeles and stayed two nights with friends. While there we saw Forest Lawn Memorial with the Last Supper art, the Griffith Park Planetarium, the new Los Angeles Temple, and the flower covered floats in Pasadena the day after the parade.

8 February 1954 Apostle Kimball and Preston Nibley attended our Stake Conference. A desert wind gave us 80 degree temperatures. We took Heber and his wife Mary to a High Priests fireside and a cousin, Grant Young, was visiting here. I was back to 45 hours of work per week and was working on F102 Airplane series. It was my church job to assign ward teachers to new families/members and we got 90% visited each month according to my letter. We occasionally were asked to spend a day working at the church welfare farm in Perris CA. We also held dinners to help buy the farm that originally belonged to Louis B. Mayer and was his horse farm. We continued to raise hay and oranges at the farm.

28 April 1954 Jay, Becky's brother plans to be married in June. We were enjoying the spring flowers in bloom especially sweet peas and ice plant. Roger walked at an early age and now nothing is able to keep him in our yard and does he get into mischief!!

17 August 1954 Becky was pregnant with Joy and having difficulty with bleeding from the placenta being over the opening so Becky had to lay down as much as possible [with three small children]. No lifting, washing, ironing etc. At first Keith took the children to Bishop Evans home where sister Evans watched them until he could come and got them after work. Later we hired a woman to stay with Becky. When school was out, we had a high school girl (Barbara Bates) to help out. She would fix dinner, then we would eat and I would take her home. The week Barbara Bates had to go back to school, Becky got worse, her mother flew down from Seattle to help, and a tiny barely 5 lb. girl was delivered by C-section about 6 weeks premature. We named her Joy because that is what she brought. They had me give blood so it would be available if Becky needed it and found my weight was down so much they weren't going to take my blood. Joy grew rapidly and by the time she was 6 mos. old, one would never know that she had been a premature baby.

16 September 1954 Becky wrote a letter to mother. She had baby Joy and was home from her caesarian section when Joy was four days old and weighed five lbs. I took three days of vacation to help care for them. Becky's mother and Shelia came down to help us.

4 October 1954 My father had been ill and now had to take insulin. Joy was growing well and doing fine. Keith was still working nine hour days but Mother Ballards help gave him time to plant more grass and other things in the yard. We heard General Conference on TV.

27 December 1954 We thanked my mother for all her Christmas presents she had sent including temple aprons. Larry got a bigger tricycle and a cork popgun, Kay a doll, and a red wagon from Grandmother Ballard. The ward choir presented a cantata and Becky sang in a duet for it. We had some Seattle friends over for a Christmas party and Later Becky's aunt and uncle, Olea and Vernon. I had now been at Convair three years.

11 February 1955 We had taken a job for Convair to work in Alamogordo NM. to do test work for missile firing to prove the F102 could fire the missiles under all conditions without damage to the airplane. My job was to be in charge of all changes for an airplane, engineer any fixes or minor repairs, and advise the crew on what was needed to keep it flying. There was supposed to be lots of overtime. We rented a trailer and towed it behind the car with as much stuff as we could take. I left Feb 21 and drove our car. We rented a house first in Tularosa later in Alamogordo.

12 February 1955 I flew home and we loaded things on a moving van and towed a trailer behind our car. We got to Tucson, AZ to stay overnight and came the rest of the way next day. We camped out in the 3-bedroom rented house in Tulerosa with the things we had brought in the trailer until the furniture arrived a week later. We left our piano and big davenport with friends and rented our La Mesa house. We later moved to Alamogordo with a three-bedroom house just two blocks outside of city limits so we had to go to the post office to get our mail. As of 2 April Kay brought a note home on her last day of school in California saying she had been exposed to chicken pox. She came down with it and then the rest of the family except Becky. Keith's headaches were memorable but the children were not very sick. I could go back to work when the pox left. That summer Becky took the children on the train to visit in Seattle -- an epic railroad journey via San Francisco with our four small children. She didn't realize part of it included a ferry ride across San Francisco Bay to Oakland. Keeping small children in control kept her worried. She visited some relatives in Eugene OR, and her parents in Seattle. After her visit, she came by train to Brigham City and I drove up to meet them. While on the train in Idaho, there was an accident on nearby tracks, and she was delayed fourteen hours. Getting milk to feed baby Joy was a problem. We planned to visit in Brigham City and Salt Lake, take a trip to Yellowstone, and go to Lovell WY for a family reunion and then return home.

August 1955 About the only tree that would grow in Alamogordo was a Chinese elm. The constant winds literally wore the leaves out beating them against the branches. The only grass that grew was Bermuda and I planted it in the front yard. When the wind blew, dust was everywhere. Red skies meant the wind came from Texas. The rented house had rotating crank windows. The house could be full of dust by the time you got them all cranked shut. Sudden wind storms were frequent. The main rains came in the summer. After a week of rains, all of a sudden you noticed the ground almost moving and it was found thick with baby toads. Polliwogs grew in every puddle. The children gathered them in pans. We did manage to buy a larger TV. When they changed the ward leadership, Becky was teaching in Sunday School and Primary. We both tried to sing in the choir depending on how the children behaved. I was asked to be a second counselor in branch pres. A few days after this reorganization, the branch president had a heart attack as he was climbing around the hot hills one day and was in a coma for a week. The El Paso High council fasted and prayed and he awoke that day. President Eisenhower had an attack about the same time but was never in a coma and did not recover as fast as branch president Bagley did. Becky was able part of the time to hire someone to help her. I had to take a company trip back to San Diego for a week in Sept to learn about a new airplane coming for testing and enjoyed a swim in the ocean. I also visited the renters at the house. I was sustained the first Sunday after I got back from San Diego. We counselors had to run things until Pres Bagley got better. The landlord sold our rented house and by Nov we bought a new house in Alamogordo town limits, put up fences, and planted trees. It was a few blocks from town and close to Kay's school so she didn't need to be taken or ride her bicycle. The first counselor moved away and I was sustained as first counselor. We took the children to the nearby mountains and cut four Christmas trees.

29 December 1955 Becky wrote Kay was now six and the kids had a nice Christmas with dolls, cradle, doll buggies, sweaters, and mittens for the girls. The boys got trucks, a steam shovel toy, records books, and clothes. Mother had sent us temple clothes. I was putting up a new fence around the yard. Becky sent her grandmother an electric blanket and one to my father. Dad was having trouble with his feet as a diabetic. The LA Temple was completed while we were in NM. We had pledged quite a bit toward it as San Diego was in that district. The pledge followed us to NM and we paid it. The overtime quit and we grew tired of the desert. We couldn't get our old job back so I sent resumes out and got a job with Northrop in Hawthorne CA. Northrop would pay for moving our furniture. We left for San Diego in June 1956. The branch gave us a farewell party. President Bagley tried to get us to stay and thought we could get other local jobs. We had purchased a Ford Station Wagon for cash and each drove a car to CA. We had a cylindrical water evaporative cooler that fit in a window for each car and these helped a little. We stayed overnight at Las Cruces and Gila Bend. The desert was still plenty hot. How nice it felt when we picked up the first effects of ocean air as we descended out of the mountains to San Diego. We visited the house we had rented out in LaMesa and put it up for sale. We also sold the house in Alamogordo at a profit of $200 and free rent for six months. We rented a three bedroom house for a while when first in Torrance on an area that was slated to be a freeway.

Dale was born 16 September 1956 by Caesarian section. He became very ill with asthmatic croup while I was at my father's funeral in Dec. A second attack after I came home left him gasping for breath. X-rays taken during Jan and Feb showed his left lung inflated and the right one was not. The second x-ray showed some improvement but all wasn't right. Kenneth Bogan, a nearby neighbor and high priest, came and we gave Dale a blessing before taking him to the UCLA Children's Hospital a special group to treat this type of illness. He was there for a week with all kinds of tests. The first day he was kept in a plastic cold steam tent. X-rays at the hospital showed his lungs as normal making this a documented miracle. Dust still bothers him but he has not been bothered severely by asthma except when he went with me to work on harvesting broom corn in St George and while in college when he worked a summer haying in Ruby Valley in Nevada. We soon purchased a home and modified it to add two bedrooms with a nice sunny patio. It was in the Wilmington area now called Carson at 2120 W. 222nd St. We were at first a part of Torrance ward, later the Wilmington ward. Becky served as relief society president for about a year while we were in the Torrance ward. We purchased a used 35 mm camera in 1956 that required a light meter to get good color pictures. Later mother bought me a better one on a trip to Hong Kong with a built in light meter. We have a fairly good record of our trips and the children as they grew up. The camera was stolen early on Roger's mission and returned to him when he left for home. It was broken internally though. We finally replaced it while in San Jose in 1984. Letter written about Nov 1956 - a day's vacation was spent traveling to San Fernando valley and it was 75 degrees at the beach in Santa Monica where we ended up. Becky's folks expected to come for Christmas.

26 October 1957 Becky had made curtains and drapes for the windows in the new home and I made a large table out of a slab door with maple plywood finish by adding metal legs. We used it in our house in Torrance and covered the top with Formica. It became the laundry sorting table in Springdale. Dale was getting good at crawling and liked the fireplace which was okay since we hadn't had a fire in it as yet. We had put in a patio and a sandpile for the children with grass in front and back yards. It was still warm at 80 degrees. We planted red Bouganvillea over the trellis-covered cement patio. It could be seen through the sliding glass doors and made a lovely sight.

2 January 1958 We wrote a letter to my folks thanking them for the quilt they had made. Becky's mother and Dad came for Christmas and Paul and Lynn from San Diego. Jay, Doyne and baby Nancy also came. We had all of Becky's family here to total 15. I took a weeks vacation. Becky and I sang in a cantata the Sunday before Christmas. The Ballards went on to San Diego and Jay and family back to San Francisco on Christmas day. Friday we went to hear the 200 voice Mormon choir sing the Messiah with orchestra. Ballards drove back from San Diego for it and returned to San Diego. For New Years, the Ballards had a friend who had a truck agency in Pasadena and they and we got to sit on the truck bed where the parade turned 90 degrees and see the 2.5 hour Rose Parade. This was the only time we have been to the parade in person. Traffic was heavy then. Becky's folks were going to Los Angeles Temple tomorrow and then home. My folks sent us shirts for Christmas including a quilt and Dorene sent us some clothes for the family. Becky's brothers gave us blankets so now we had plenty for the five beds.

27 January 1958 Roger was to begin kindergarten next week and Becky planned to go back to school at a local college. I was also taking a school class in electronics at a local Jr college. Spring 1958 We planned to go to April Conference in Salt Lake. Becky's brother Jay had been laid off in San Francisco.

July 1958 Mother and Velda had returned from a trip to Europe. Our new stake center of 25,000 sq ft is supposed to be done by September. We planned to take a trip to Yosemite.

1 October 1958 I had moved to work in an air cond. building for the first time in LA It once in awhile got up to 100 degrees. I had spent a day on 600 acre church farm near March AF Base planting cauliflower.

12 January 1959 We only had our family for Christmas and things go easier without a large group. Paul and Lynn had gone to Salt Lake for Christmas. Dale was at the age where he wanted all the toys and broke several. I had made a trampoline out of canvas and steel pipe etc. that our children and the neighbor children enjoyed. The family sent us many lovely Christmas gifts. We went to San Diego for a three day visit that we enjoyed with friends there. Keith had made several trips to Edwards Air Force Base helping to do test work on T-38 Canopy for Northrop on a rocket sled test track to check the canopy ejection and then a pilot dummy ejection. At about 1000 ft per sec., the air exploded the plastic canopy when it was ejected. Brian was born 6 March 1959. He had no muscle tone to even try to stand and wouldn't wake up to be fed. The pediatrician never told us he had Down's syndrome. He was given a special blessing by Keith and Fred Naylor who was in the bishopric. Brian from then on had muscle tone and would eat. We discussed it with Becky's mother and she came to see us and confirmed he had Down's syndrome at her first look. We learned that Apostle Lee was coming to Los Angeles for a Stake Conference. Since he had ordained me a High Priest, we went to a local stake conference on Saturday and asked him to give Brian a blessing. He said he had no more authority than we and really blessed us as Brian's parents to take care of him. Brian was enrolled in a Kennedy program at the LA Children's Hospital and had the best of care all the time we lived there.

30 July 1959 Mother sent me a special self winding watch. I had started working for STL and was getting a secret clearance. We were doing work for Air Force to select best boosters and fuel/engine systems to get satellite payloads into orbit. Mother and Dorene had come for a visit that summer.

20 November 1959 letter from Becky to mother. Becky's grandmother had died previous Monday. She had been in a nursing home with Alzheimer disease, had some strokes, and was in a coma. We were planning a Christmas get-together for Becky's family in Seattle. Christmas about 1960 We took an airplane trip to Seattle with all the family and met with the rest of Becky's family to total 19. Most of us took a trip to the snow 80 miles north. Also visited all the church people we knew attending wards there. Paul was killed the next summer. I flew home two days before the rest of the family to get back to work.

29 March 1961 Brian was getting his tonsils and adenoids out. He was now walking and climbing. The Children's Hospital said his IQ was about 70. Becky's folks were moving to Salt Lake by July. We bought a small used car, a Renault that was fun to drive but later gave us much trouble. We had decided to sell our house and build a new one in Torrance and found property in south Torrance near where our bishop had located a potential lot to build. We bought a 1/3 acre lot with a loan from Keith's folks and contracted to have a house built. The plan joined a three and a two bedroom house together. Our bishop had used the plan and we liked it. We modified his plans and drew the house plans to include a storage room under the south end of the house. The living room was large with sliding glass doors. We moved into it in Feb 1962. Paula was born 8 October 1962.

We listened to General Conference on Sunday but in the evening, Becky had enough pains that they decided on a caesarian and Paula was born 9:05. She weighed 5 LB 5 oz. but had Hyaline membrane problems that gave her difficulty breathing even in the incubator. Early next morning Bishop Weaver went with me to give her a blessing. She rapidly improved after that. We had sent Brian to stay with Grandmother Ballard on labor day weekend. Becky was doing fine. Paula had no signs of Brian's problems. The RH negative factor has never given us any problems. Our house was across the street from the grade school on 2120 W. 238th Street. Our backyard bordered the town of Lomita and we were in the Lomita Ward. The children could hear the school bell and get to class on time. Becky and Kay searched for and purchased a medium sized grand piano the family all enjoyed. We even developed our own family orchestra and played in the ward and were selected to perform for stake talent nights. We enjoyed the new home, held lots of church gatherings there, and had relatives in for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. With three bathrooms and all the other rooms, it took a lot of work to keep house and yard up. [Becky had relatives by the name of Eyre and Erskine both with large families. We enjoyed many good times with them].

Becky was busy in Torrance working in Cub Scouts, Sacrament meeting music director, and a year as Relief Society President. Keith served one year on the Stake Senior Aaronic Committee and ten years on the High Council [HC alternate 1959]. From 1964 until 1970, Keith was in charge of the stake genealogical program, temple sealings for our stake, and the stake high priests program. This left Becky to get the children ready for Sunday meetings and transport children to all their activities. Continual training on the High Council by church leadership enabled the best ideas to be tried at home. I believe all the children benefited from the church service and leadership training. We regularly held home family evening. The promise was that if we did, our children would remain in the church and they have.

All of the large family was a real challenge for Becky. She was always teaching the children. She constantly asked them questions. If the answers were not known, she looked them up in the encyclopedia or other books. She discovered Dale was faking reading and soon helped him learn to read. She had read the children stories as soon as they would sit on a lap. I worked for Northrop for three years until the T38 trainer and F5 fighter projects were completed. The work always goes to almost zero then. A new company, Space Technology Systems, STL, was forming a new division nearby and I decided to go to work for them. It was to eventually become a government corporation.

10 May 1962 Mother was chosen as "Mother of the Year" in Brigham. Becky wrote to congratulate her. Becky's folks were coming for a visit. We were enjoying our new house and trying to get things planted and fences up. We planted Bouganvilla, a rose garden, and put in planter boxes around the east side of the house. Becky has a woman coming over one day a week to help her keep the large house and work conquered. Another letter just after Easter and Keith's Mothers 75th birthday.

9 August 1962 Kenn Whitesides had been operated on for a tumor. Our boys came down with mumps which canceled our vacation summer trip. Becky was expecting again and heavy on her feet. House construction bills were all paid off. Kay is learning to play Violin and piano, Larry trombone, Joy on piano, and Roger on clarinet. Our Torrance home was about five miles from the beach and we enjoyed many happy beach days with the children. About every other year we took a summer trip to Utah and the other years visited a national park. We purchased a tent trailer and towed it with the ford. Later we bought a six passenger dual cab truck, put a camping unit on it, and towed the tent trailer. We enjoyed camping this way for several years. We took Becky's folks with us in the camping gear. Kenn Whitesides was said to be quite ill. Tumor removal and stroke during the operation to remove the tumor left him quite handicapped. The Atkinson genealogy book was published. Mother was a major factor in getting it done with Helen Cowan doing much of the typing.

13 November letter from Becky said new baby Paula was small but growing nicely. She has very dark hair and light lashes and brows. All of her breathing difficulties have gone. Brian was still with Becky's parents in Salt Lake City and the plan is to keep him until Christmas. Cost for hospital and increased taxes made finances short.

19 December 1962 letter tells Ralph Erskine family moved to Wilmington ward and stayed with us two nights. Becky's folks coming for Christmas. Becky's mother got Brian toilet trained which will be a big help. I was assigned to genealogy for my high council assignment. Kay was accompanist for school chorus to entertain parents. Kenn was able to return to work. Paula now weighs eleven pounds. 30 Jul 1963 Letter of Kay to mother says we were coming to visit in Utah 16 Aug. and go on to Yellowstone park 26- 30 Aug. and home 2 Sep. Letter 13 Sep 1963 says we got home after trip okay. We thanked my mother for her care. Larry had a weeks camp out with scouts. I was attending classes on Welch and English Genealogy. Had classes started in MIA in 4 of 6 wards on genealogy.

6 December 1963 We had taken a weeks class from Brother Gardner of Salt Lake on English research who was part author of a book on the subject. I received $100 patent award and picture in co. paper from TRW Systems Group. James Whitesides and Erskine family came for Thanksgiving dinner. Kay attending early morning seminary at 6:20 am. We were purchasing a 1962 Studebaker Lark station wagon and were selling the Renault. Keeping MIA gen. classes going in the wards took lots of time. Letter to mother tells she and Clarice were going on a trip to China and Asian area. Becky's folks came to visit us and we took the family to see the planetarium in Griffith's Park. We had all the children play a piece on their instruments for Becky's parents and took them to a ward dinner. They are finishing a four-plex apartment to live in so dad will have less yard work.

23 April 1965 Paula had had her tonsils out. Becky was having ulcer problems. She had done much sewing for Easter. House taxes now $864 for a year. Becky's folks now fully ordained temple workers living in their four-plex with two bed rooms and selling their big house.

August 1965 Family without me went on a camping trip to Yosemite with scouts. Becky went camping with the scouts nearly every year. This was usually to the Sierras. They dropped the boys off and met them later after the boys had hiked several days overland. The family hiked to the bottom of Grand Canyon one Easter except for Paula who stayed at the top with the non hikers. We were sponsoring a stake genealogy class for the youth for mornings and don't remember how many sessions. We all flew to Seattle for a family Christmas reunion the year before Becky's brother, Paul, was lost at sea near San Diego. All her family were there. Another special trip was to Utah then to Eugene, Oregon for a family reunion with Becky's mother's family, the Jacobsons. Becky had made us all either shirts or dresses of the same blue printed material. Becky's parents, the Aunties, and most of the family attended. We moved into new buildings for Aerospace or STL to work. We were also into framing the stage for the new Torrance stake center. My High Council job in genealogy kept me busy.

I worked for STL from July 1959 until October 1960 when part of the company was converted to a government funded company called Aerospace Corp. I went with this company as employee #139 and worked for the same boss as at STL. All the work was either secret or confidential so I could not tell the family what I was working on. We did lots of space booster configuration studies that led to development of the Titan II series using two solid rocket boosters 120 in. diameter attached to the liquid booster second and third stages. I believe I made the first conceptual drawing of Titan II ever made. It was an exciting time when the US and Russia were competing about getting new satellites in the air. We got to watch new launches on color television. A major design project for me was configuration of an infra red sensor satellite to track firings of missiles anywhere on the earth. The contract was won by TRW. We tried to design things just like any other contractor using the design requirements. The air force then had our designs and our solutions to problems we found to check out contractor designs. We got all the inputs from our specialists in all the fields required to make a design. I left the design part and went into project management for design of a space station. This continued for some time until it was obvious it wasn't going to be funded for several years. It was a military applications space station.

10 Jan 1966 Mother Young wrote us of the family Christmas Eve get-together. A big turkey, rolls, whipped potatoes, yams, salads, and plum pudding was on the menu. Rose Ann, DeEsta's girl was Mary with plenty of children for the other Christmas play characters. Christmas dinner was at Velda and Oleen's. Velda read the Bible story from Luke and the children passed out presents and gifts. The dinner table was set for 24 with all the Christmas goodies. Mother thanked us for a robe we sent, Dale gave her the book, "The First Three Thousand Years," Mother had a group over for supper on Sunday evening. Dale had come from New Jersey and took several out to a restaurant dinner before returning home. Adele had stayed home and was trying to sell their home. Ross had a back operation a month before and the people at Thiokol kept urging him to go to work again which he did. Oleen spends a day in Salt Lake City each week working and Velda usually goes with him. Joel is going on a mission in May. Keith Crane had to have an operation on his knee but is back to work with a cast on it. Mother was able to get to the temple often and had done four names in her two last trips one week. She was also helping at the old folks home for some to paint meaning she helped them hold the brush, select the colors, etc.

20 January 1966 DRoss, my brother, was still having trouble with his back. Becky hadn't been feeling well but was now doing better. Larry was soon to get his Eagle badge in scouting about March. Mother had sent us a colorful pillow for Christmas among other things. We had a regional Genealogical Conference with many new things and procedures. We had an open house at new Stake Center. Alma Sonne will dedicate it next Sunday. We had used a large church in San Pedro for our stake meetings. Becky was organizing an LDS Stake Orchestra for children and leading music for ward sacrament meetings.

14 March 1966 Elder Sonne had dedicated the stake center. An early warm spell had our flowering peach tree in full bloom. Becky was very much better. Roger had qualified to be a Star Scout. Becky had her orchestral group play for special MIA evening. We were going often to do research at new Los Angeles Temple library. Looking back, I believe I could have stayed at Aerospace Corporation the rest of my career. I stayed with them for seven years, long enough to get vested for a small pension. The pension funds value went to almost nothing with a recession in 1969. The desire for more income [children to college and missions] and wanting to get back into hardware design helped me to make the decision.

April 1966 Kay did the best of Torrance High School in the National Merit Scholarship contest. This enables her to go to USC in south Los Angeles for her last year of high school. Kay and Larry graduated from Torrance High School. Kay attended the Univ. of Southern California for her last high school year on a scholarship and later graduated from UCLA. Kay married Gary DeLoach 7 September 1968 in the Los Angeles Temple. She worked to pay the bills while he finished medical school and interned in San Francisco. Kay completed a degree in Music while at University of San Francisco. She later got a Masters degree from BYU in Sociology. 1 Aug 66 We with mother's help had completed the four generation genealogical sheets. We were leaving 24 August to go to Utah. This trip would include using a motor home owned by Father Ballard's relatives and going into the Uintah Mountains. We have some pictures of this trip but had little luck in catching any fish. Mother had given us one of her paintings she called one of her best.

Larry and Roger were on a scout trip that included hiking to top of MT Whitney after climbing many of the local mountains in the area. One had to get accustomed to the high altitude to avoid being sick. Joy had been at camp for a week. Becky was taking a singing class at El Camino Jr. College nearby. We attended three days of BYU education week classes. Fresh corn from the garden was very tasty.

12 September 1966 We had been to Utah and worked on genealogy in the Salt Lake library filming some pages of work others had turned in.

11 December 66 We sent a tape recording to Mother and family for Christmas. We had bought a special tape recorder to tape music for the children's concerts.

20 December 1966 Becky had sung in some Christmas choral groups at El Camino. She presented some songs at school she had learned before music teachers, led the music for sacrament meeting, and was getting ward choir program ready for next week. Joy and Dale were in school Christmas programs, as was Kay and Larry in a band concert. Roger has tonsillitis and was getting tonsils out after Christmas.

6 January 1967 Kay wrote a letter thanking my mother for a quilt for her trousseau.

27 July 1967 I had changed companies this year for work leaving Aerospace Corp. We had taken a trip to see Dorene and Keith in San Jose who took us to see the local sights and we took their boys to see San Francisco. Larry went to the Boy Scout World Jamboree seeing Seattle for two days, Vancouver, BC and then on to the Canadian Rockies and home via Glacier Nat Park in Montana. He was chosen to represent the LA Area Boy Scout Council. We were planning to hold a stake Gen. youth seminar for five days 9-12 in late August. Rogers noisy group of drums, guitars is playing music between road-show acts one evening. They practiced in our basement. High Council had served pancakes for breakfast on 24th of July with watermelon later after the games for several years. Becky was going again to Tooulame Meadows in Yosemite with scouts for a week. They camp while the scouts hike. Once they hiked from Bishop CA to Yosemite through the mountain passes. A later letter says Becky still ill with asthma and colds since it rained nearly every day while they were at camp. During this period the church actively had families take Indian children into their homes for the school year. Our first boy was Ned from Peach Tree Springs AZ. He was very athletic and liked to wrestle. His first day at grade school, he challenged all to wrestle and beat them at it. His dad had taught him how.

After having the Indians, we took in foster children to increase the family income. They were much more trouble than the Indians. One teen age girl used to sneak out of her bedroom window to be with her boy friend. Another boy went 30 miles inside of Mexico with us on a vacation trip after Christmas with Becky's folks. We stopped at San Diego Zoo coming home. He took off, never told us, and called his dad to come and get him. Meanwhile, we had all spent hours trying to find him and concluded he had done something like he had. They then sent him further away from his dad. He believed his dad would like to have him live with him in his remarriage, but this was only the boy's idea.

13 October 1967 We graduated 94 from our stake youth genealogy class. We hook up an antenna and picked up KSL on a rebroadcast of conference sessions using a timer to turn it off and record it. Kay is enrolled at Dominguez State college. Letter tells of Paul and Kay's desire to get married against our wishes. We gave him missionary lessons in our home and I baptized him. He was in her classes at USC last year. Becky is attending two days a week at Long Beach State College. Roger in 9th grade and Paula in kindergarten. 23 DEC 1967 Becky's bro., Jay, had visited us, Ned's two brothers came last night [our Indian placement student]. His father came also and they all stayed in a motel and Ned went home with them. This was against the rules, and he never came back. Another year a young girl named Patti came from Flagstaff AZ. Roger was the last who was the same age as our Roger. Kay, Joy, and Becky played a trio in church last Sunday on organ, cello, and violin. Larry and Roger are in a special singing group at school and have presented several programs. Larry has given several reports on his trip to the world jamboree in Canada. He took slides on camera mother got for me in Hong Kong. Larry also got his Duty to God Award. Becky had had some more ulcer trouble and it seems to be cured up for now. [Brian was at a foster home for six months in Costa Mesa]. Brian was now staying at a foster home after spending three weeks in the state hospital. Had been working on English genealogical research.

Christmas letter says Dale was learning to play the clarinet in the school band. Becky gave up her classes at Long Beach since she wasn't up to walking the great distance from the parking area to the class area. She teaches a primary class of six year olds, is chorister for Sacrament meetings, and directs the ward choir. We got a new Indian girl to replace Ned.

18 March 1968 Mother wrote us Uncle Dell, her brother, had died after a long illness. Our shrubs and flowering peach were in blossom. Mother sent us a deed for three cemetery lots in Brigham next to her plot. The family played in the stake music festival: Larry, trombone, Roger-sax, Becky violin, Joy cello, Kay piano, and Dale on clarinet and I on Bass clarinet. Paula and the Indian girl sang "Love at Home" while we played the piece. Becky never could get a choir president to help her so offered her choir leader resignation and it was accepted. We had a fire in our new stake center due to an overheated pulpit raising-lowering motor. Someone had left a book under it and it never shut off. A lot of smoke damage that kept the stake busy cleaning it up. We gave Kay money to buy a blue Volkswagon to get her to school. Mother had a small stroke in Brigham. We planned a trip to Utah in June.

8 May 1968 Kay got engaged last Sunday to Gary DeLoach. She has been student teaching in the Watts mostly Negro area. Gary later changed his name to Paul Hamilton. Paula back in school after having her tonsils out.

22 August 1968 Mother Young had written she thought she better not come for Kay's wedding Sat Sep 7. Becky was having an operation.

5 September 1968 Kay didn't want to be married in the temple but we urged her to do so. In an interview with the Bishop, he told what he could say in ceremony he conducted. She finally decided the temple was best. Gary hadn't been in church for a year [lacking 16 days] he needed special permission from Salt Lake to be made an elder but got the permission. Becky made Joy, Paula, and herself wedding reception dresses. Larry and Roger repainted several rooms of our house where we planned to have the reception. I took wedding pictures and bought some special equipment for it. Ward ladies are doing the catering. Kay will go to Dominguez this fall and next year to UCLA. The temple was open for one day and there were 60 temple marriages.

5 January 1969 Joy and Dale wrote they had a very good Christmas.

8 Jan 1969 Becky had the children prepare thank you notes for gifts that mother had sent including the National Geographic magazine. Paula got some jewelry and at age five loves to play dress up and is learning to read in kindergarten. Joy got a sweater. We were getting a nine year old Hopi girl next week to stay with us for school. Mother sent me a deed for wheat land in Clarkston. Becky had a severe case of Hong Kong flu and said it hurt worse than her 175 stitches in her operation. Gary and Kay doing okay. Gary works nights at Avis Car Rental and part time in school. Becky added that she felt better. Roger reorganized his band and makes even more noise. Paula caught on how to read over the holidays and has now read two 200 page books. We thanked mother for her Christmas gifts.

7 April 1969 Dross was to have an operation on his back. Dale had paid us a short visit. We bought a used crew cab truck and planned to go with scouts down grand Canyon hiking to bottom during the Easter holidays. I climbed stairs at work and exercised but had to walk backward down a lot of the hike when my leg tendons/muscles that hold you back gave out. The heavy back packs didn't help Becky's small toes were almost bleeding. Snow on the ground at the top where we left Paula and hot at the bottom of the canyon. Bathrooms almost non existent with too many people at the bottom. Kay and Gary came out to dinner. He is working as a computer operator trainee at Northrop. Larry and Roger got a chance to sing under direction of Roger Wagner Choral leader. They had a group of 20-30 from each high school and they thought their group sang the best. My brother Dale came on a 6:00 PM plane and we took him to catch another at midnight at LA Airport. The summer of 1969 Larry graduated from high school and got a job at a coin laundry repair place. They take the machines apart, refurbish them, reassemble them, and Larry makes sure they work or fixes them. He was able from then on to repair machines where ever he was. Kay is going to summer school at UCLA, Roger got a job at McDonalds and the rest of children are in summer school. The Ballards flew down and we went to Yosemite Nat park. There was four times the normal snow pack so the falls were wonderful to see. We took our camper and towed the tent trailer.

7 November 1969 Larry had an opportunity to join the Air Force Reserves and will be sworn in 23 October. A colonel who lived in our ward told him how to do it and avoid the draft. He will be going to Lackland AFB in Texas near San Antonio. He will come back after six weeks training to March AFB near San Bernadino. He will learn how to service air cond. units in aircraft. The Ballards bought a new camper and want to come for Christmas to try it out. We keep inviting Mother Young to come and stay for awhile with us during the winter but no luck. Kay and Gary will both graduate from college next spring. In March 1967 I decided to go with TRW Systems Group, a restructured STL. The TRW stood for Thompson, Ramo, & Woolridge, three major owners in the co. I worked in their preliminary design programs on satellite designs for three years. We worked a year on a mars survey satellite but lost and a lot on earth resource satellites. In 1969 the government stopped funding all space work. I was laid off from work in May of 1970. We won a contract we had done the preliminary design for, a nuclear radioisotope thermoelectric generator. A plutonium cask at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. generated electricity to power a satellite that could not use solar cells because of its polar orbit. After the hardware design, they would not let me get back to preliminary design. Within a few months, the whole nuclear division of the company I had been forced to join for the project was wiped out and I had no job.

6 May 1970 Larry had finished his active duty and applied for a mission but probably won't be called until August. We were looking at other ways than engineering to make a living. We attended several franchise shows. Gary was talking of accepting a scholarship to San Diego University for being a dentist. There were virtually no jobs to be had in engineering in 1970. The normally half inch thick LA Times want ads got down to half a page for jobs. I could find no job so we investigated franchises. We first thought of fabric shops to use Becky's expertise. We visited many of these in LA and they indicated you had to know the value of the goods you bought within a penny/square yard to succeed. There were many Jewish shops in LA. We finally thought of trying to run or establish a trailer park. This would use my farming/engineering skills and help from the family. We investigated one for sale in Farmington NM. We took Roger, an Indian boy, home to Phoenix on our trip. He had lived the school year with us. After returning and before the medical insurance ran out, I had a hernia repair operation and they couldn't stop the bleeding. The operation was identical to one the same Dr had done in 1960 except on the other side. Becky drove me home by noon, but my scrotum filled with blood to the size of a small football. They readmitted me that evening and drained the blood all night long. The brethren came to administer to me and I again remained among the living thanks be to the Lord. It was found I had polycythemia and the doctor put me on disability pay. He hadn't waited for blood tests to be done before doing the operation and felt guilty about missing this diagnosis.

24 June 1970 A letter Becky wrote tells of the operation and I was still draining out blood. They took the blood and gave me back the gamma globulin. There didn't seem to be any engineering jobs available and I had 20 rejection notices to show for it. We were investigating St George and Farmington NM as possible new business sites. The Farmington Trailer Park was $100,000. 5 Jul 1970 Medical tests were over and I had an enlarged heart, kidneys, and liver to handle the two times normal blood I had carried. We were going to Salt Lake to check on property for trailer parks. We had tentatively sold our Torrance house and had been painting the inside. We had studied local trailer parks to get acquainted with them.

19 July 1970 We stayed in Salt Lake for awhile to look at property and decided there was too much competition in Salt Lake City. Land was expensive and many new large trailer parks were nearly finished there. We went on to St George. We put down $1000 on 7.5 acres of land next to Zion park pending zoning and getting water for it. I had an opportunity to become a real estate agent there. We stayed in a small temple apartment - very crowded for our family with spill over into the camper for sleeping. Keith moved there during the summer living in the temple apartment. The Torrance High Priest Group Leader, Brother Lambert, brought over his painting crew to touch up the kitchen at our Torrance house where the ceiling had been damaged from small earthquakes that moved the two bedroom part relative to the three bedroom part of the house. Becky sold the house. We had paid about $25,000 for the house and $7000 for the lot. We sold it in 1970 for $38,000. By 1976 it was worth $76,000.

2 August 1970 I was still living in the temple apartment with a swamp cooler. We had been to Springdale Ward, applied to the town for water, and I was trying to design a trailer park. House sale hadn't gone completely through. Was applying to get a real estate sales license. Becky's folks were coming down to look over properties we were interested in. We then went in their camper to Cedar Breaks and enjoyed the cool weather. We drove back to Cedar city and I took a bus to St George. I decided to put earnest money on 40 acres overlooking St George. It is property Bloomington group wants in their development but they won't deal with present owner. I was planning to return to Torrance to move to St George so property must have sold. We had started to buy a house in St George. Larry was called to go to near Leeds England on his mission. He is supposed to end his reserve duties 29 August and farewell talk 30 August. It will be a farewell for all of us.

6 September 1970 I drove a rental truck from Las Vegas to Torrance to bring back household stuff. The ford station wagon transmission went out but Larry and Roger replaced the bearing so we could pull tent trailer with it. Got everything loaded including a 14 foot trailer to tow with truck. Got everything loaded on Sat., gave the Sunday evening service where all except Paula talked including Kay and Gary. The family sang one song and the girls and Becky another song. We shipped the grand piano to St George. We left after church and drove all night. Gary came along to drive. The Studebaker, truck and trailer, ford, tent trailer, and camper [bought in 1968], tent trailer, and moving van made a real caravan heading for Utah. We unloaded Monday, August 31. The boys drove me to Salt Lake to take the state real estate exam. I slept in back of the ford as they drove. We got to Ballard's and slept some more, I took the exam and we left at 6:00 PM to return to St George. The Ford transmission broke again about midway back near midnight and we couldn't find another. I called Becky's Aunt Mary since we had no phone. With her deafness, tow bar got confused with crow bar. When Larry came in the truck with the crow bar, all decided to sell the Ford for junk. It had about 120,000 miles on it then. We had to return the truck to Las Vegas or pay another $85.00. I passed the salesman real estate exam. The family lived in the small temple apartment and the camper a few days until we could buy a house. We bought a house in St George at 611 South 100 West St. near the temple and sold it after moving to Springdale. It looked like we would be able in time to get water for Springdale property. We were able to get into new house in St George soon. The family was able to buy the property in Zion Canyon, and designed and built an overnight campground across the river from the National park in 1971. We constructed a four bedroom house of precut cedar logs and two other buildings as well all to our designs. The business was slow to pay out. I got a job painting one winter in St George.

13 September 1970 Real Estate License arrived and I started trying to sell real estate. Becky and I looked up ownership of most of the vacant property in St George center part and then wrote letters to owners to see if they would sell it. Very few were interested in selling. Larry was learning his missionary lessons. We were able to keep Larry on his mission without any help because he had worked in Torrance repairing washing machines and had saved $1746 including some gifts received to finance his mission. Expenses were about $100 a month and people including grandparents sent him money. He leaves for mission home 19 September and will go to Leeds, England on 23 September. I began taking treatment for blood condition with a St George doctor.

10 October 1970 I hadn't sold any real estate but we were still trying to sell property to Bloomington. Springdale applied for permission to put in a big new well. If they get permission, we can get water for our trailer park. Decision by January. Larry had reached England and Kay and Gary went to San Diego for his school. Roger made a position for himself using his Torrance drum major experience to be drum major for Dixie High School and helped organize the band. Bishop wants me to be scoutmaster. That would be a new job for me. We took ward scouts on a trip to Snows canyon. Bruce, Dross boy was also going on a mission. The disability plus unemployment helped pay the bills for about a year. No definite cause for the blood condition has been found. I have had to have blood tests about each six weeks since then. Roger graduated from Dixie High School while we lived in St George. The city got approval for a new well and was building a million gal storage tank. We could go ahead with our plans. We drew up the plans for the park and got approval for our park water drainage system with its storage tanks, the electrical systems, and water systems.

21 February 1970 We had gotten the house basement in, some of the irrigation piping put in and had problems with a rain washing dirt around the new foundation. The 10x60 foot van with the parts for the precut house of western red cedar logs and two sheds arrived and with the help of Joy, Roger, myself, and two truck driver helpers, we got it unloaded and stacked. We were tired. We were near selling the 40 acres to Bloomington. We investigated a water treatment plant that would enable us to have 150 instead of 75 spaces. Roger was in a wrestling tournament where he won two and lost two matches making him fourth in the region. By May of 1971 we had sold Bloomington property at a profit and were building on our campground and gotten up the shell of the bath shower-laundry building. We were partly open by about end of June and had a caravan of aluminum covered trailers come in. Our coarse sanded roads still needed to be used to get them settled in.

24 August 1971 Larry was half through his mission. Karl and Sandy Lambert came to see us at our park. He was High Priest Group Leader who brought his paint crew over to paint our dining room ceiling when we were trying to sell the house and would not take any money for it. I had taken Busulfan chemotherapy last fall and the pills seemed to make me feel better able to work the long days at the campground. We all miss our Cal. friends. I took the Utah general contracting license test and passed. Our campground business and business at National park was slow. Brian stayed in CA with his foster family. By end of August we were only taking in $25 per day. The family sent $150 to Larry for his mission. We lost the check and don't know if we found it. Roger was working in a local business and will have enough money to go to Dixie College.

13 September 1971 We had a long letter from Larry telling of a baptism, describing a row house, and other things. Keith was doing some local contracting on a building now he had a contracting license. We had few trailers into the campground for October deer hunting but advertised for winter trailer residences. Roger left to stay at the dorm in Dixie College.

20 October 1971 Becky was in charge of PTA enrollment for the Springdale school that had 45 students in six grades. Keith was working as a painter on an apartment complex in St George. Painting was a lot less work than running a wheelbarrow or carpentering lifting plywood sheets to second floors or holding large floor joists in place while they got nailed. We were applying for a small business loan from the bank but never got it. Dale and Joy seem to like the Hurricane High School. We got advertising in the travel guides for next year. We had a light coating of snow on the local mountains. Cold air came off the snow covered hills into the canyon. We received a lot of apples and fruit from local people. Sun comes up late and sets early in canyon but it is still light to work.

11 November 1971 We had a three hour meeting in the St. George Temple with all the general authorities in a solemn assembly including a sacrament meeting. They covered all the vices in the area especially horse racing in St George and liberalizing liquor laws. With all the wood available in Springdale, we were looking for a wood burning stove. The Clyde Hardins moved their two trailers into the campground. Larry was having troubles with colds. Roger was playing the drums for Dixie College, and wants to teach band or music for a career. Becky's folks had bought a condo unit on Land drive off of 36th West and were living there. I was doing some drafting for the Hurricane hydroponics group and painting where I could find work.

12 December 1971 Dross had brought down the wood/coal stove we used to have in the living room of the Perry house. It will help keep us warm here. We had installed only electric heaters that were expensive to run because of the high cost of electricity. The house sale in St George was completed. Still trying to get engineering jobs at Martin in Denver and Thiokol near Tremonton. Gary was switching to medical school and it looked like he could start next fall. Kay wasn't feeling well and now these many years later her stress diseases probably had to do with Gary more than anything. Becky, Joy, and Paula sang as a trio in church. Roger is enjoying college. We were discussing whether to sell the campground. Had been talking to an expert in Beaver, UT and he said we were doing okay but it would take six years to really start to make money.

6 January 1972 A letter to thank mother for all the entertainment for Christmas. They gave us a 30-06 rifle to hunt deer with for Christmas. We had installed the wood stove in the kitchen. Mother and Becky's folks sent money to Larry to help him out [$300] or enough for three months. Roger had gone deer hunting that fall and got two deer with one shot. He had only a license to kill one so came and got Larry a license for second one. It was a real help for us with our financial situation.

20 January 1972 Joy was in charge of the ward classical music festival with Becky's help and it kept them busy. It was a low of 40 and high of 62 for weather. Becky had a good case of flu, her ulcers were acting up, and she had back problems. Becky was teaching three students piano. We had talked to KOA, United, and Red Arrow campground franchises. All wanted a lot of money to join their group and we would have to remodel to make the buildings look like their requirements. Kay was feeling better and her problems were lack of calcium and hypoglycemia. I got a firm no from Thiokol on an engineering job.

20 February 1972 We had a nice long letter from Larry. In Springdale the leaves were coming out for spring. Bumbleberry enterprises was sold to a group from Salt Lake so we had a group of three nice new families join the ward. The original owners had decided to sell up to 51% of their business to get financing but co. sold it. I had been trying to do some income tax work for people to add to our income as the painting had slowed down in St. George. I was still sending out engineering applications. The national park wasn't keeping track of visitors so their free camping hurt our business. They will begin to charge 1 March. Our camping experts said we should join KOA [Kampgrounds of Ameria] but we didn't have the $10,000 fee and money to make our building look like an A-frame. Larry was only getting electric heat for 8 hours then 4 hours off due to a coal strike. No news from Kay and Gary.

8 May 1972 We had been on a trip to Brigham City. Larry had been transferred to a new area on the West Cost called HUll/ Beverly. Business was slow so far. Mother had given us some iris that we planted along our entrance and they were coming into bloom. Joy got a scholarship for Cedar City College.

17 July 1972 We have had three weeks at above 100 degree temperature. Pres J. Fielding Smith passed away. We had been talking to Crazy Horse Campgrounds about their franchise and had an offer from a Mr Marchant of Cedar City to merge with his Cedar City KOA and adjacent mobile home park. We would lose control of our property. Our business was doing much better.

11 October 1972 Larry gave his homecoming talk and several came from Brigham City. Joy was the organist, Larry, Joy, Roger, and Becky sang a quartet number, "Praise Ye the Lord Our God." Paula sang a solo, "I'll Serve the Lord While I am Young", followed by short talks by Becky, Joy, Roger, and Larry. Dale didn't want to sing or talk and stayed home to run the trailer park. My mother now is 85 and doing well. Keith went to Cal to find work and called from Kay's. He had some solid job offers and was doing some design work for a company. I saw a DR in Cal and he seemed to get my blood back in balance. Later I got an offer to work at Thiokol on a temp. basis. The Cal jobs paid $7.68 per hour while painting locally gave $3.50 in St George. I went to Brigham, stayed with my mother and slept on her couch in the living room while working at Thiokol.

6 March 1973? I had lost my temp job at Thiokol in Feb and arrived in Springdale on 25th. It is still pretty wet and soggy with some snowstorms. We began to mark out spots for new trees and water lines in the lower field to get them in before it got too dry. Larry was to have National Guard duty for four days in March. We did our income tax for the year. The deer ruined several of our trees rubbing their horns and barking the trees and there was shower building maintenance to do. A little spring green grass was growing. We are trying to sell the property.

23 May 1973? None of the engineering jobs applied for came through. We had worked out a sale to Crazy Horse Campgrounds but the attorney never got on the deal in the time limits and the company backed out of it. Dale was washing dishes at Bumbleberry and Roger had applied for a mission call. Larry had two weeks of guard duty at Dugway UT in June and later at Vandenburg AFB. His duty assignments overlap. A sister in the ward, Dolores Terrell, was injured with a broken neck returning from St George to see the Doctor. Husband drove too fast for a rain slicked spot and she was thrown from car [no seat belt on]. She had an infection they couldn't clear up with the St George doctor. In spite of all the special care, she later died. She was a very sweet and wonderful person. 26 June 1973? I had been to Salt Lake and found a job managing a mobile home park that was new. It would be even worse than the campground with no assistant managers. The gas shortage was limiting travel so we were not very busy. Roger gave his farewell mission talk last Sunday. The deal to sell to Crazy Horse had fallen apart.

24 July 1973 Roger was learning Spanish at BYU mission training center. Larry was a big help to us at the campground and kept the books. He had taken accounting in college. He went on a two day trip to Lake Powell with friends. Dale was still washing dishes for the local restaurant. I had the hint of a promise of work in the fall again at Thiokol.

3 August 1973 Roger was still learning the missionary lessons in Spanish. Paula went to 4H camp at Pine Valley Mountain area. Mother was getting me to go see DR Last, the doctor in Hurricane, rather than the ones in St George. She and I found DR Last in Hurricane much more helpful. Business is down all over town and is being blamed on the gasoline shortage. We don't have any gas shortage here but they do in Los Angeles.

14 August 1973 We had eight bus loads of boy scouts, 323 boys overnight. We are doing 25% better than last years business. The Nat Park Service made most of the camping at national parks free and this hurt us for the fall. Joy is going to the Navajo Indian Reservations. At Kayenta next week for four weeks in a live teaching-practicing situation. The children speak English only while in the classroom and Navajo the rest of the time. We had gone to Cedar City to see "Much Ado About Nothing". Joy and Becky had canned 25 quarts of apple sauce and were doing pickle relish. We had quite a few apricots earlier from our tree. Becky was having trouble with her back but had lost weight in the summer months with all the work. Roger will go to mission field about mid September. Linda, Ron, and Family came for a visit. Neighbors have given us lots of fruit and vegetables.

28 August 1973 There is lots of fruit to pick up but canning jars are in short supply. We were working on getting in water systems for the lower fields. No firm job offers yet for this winter. With the free camping at the nationa park our daily income was $26 gross. Joy called from Kayenta and it takes mail a week to get there. She is one of two teachers for 40 children. Roger says that due to the Chilean revolution, it is more difficult to get missionaries into the country. Paula is president of her school class. They have 18 students total, the lowest ever. Becky writes we had sold the campground. That fall I got a job back at Thiokol and went there again to work. I came home for Thanksgiving. Becky was so depressed], I packed she and Paula up and took them to live with me in Brigham. We lived in an upstairs apartment of my mothers. Dale stayed in Hurricane with friends to graduate from high school in 1974. The older boys and Joy loaded up a moving truck with some of our possessions we needed and brought them to Brigham. We had to sell the grand piano which broke Becky's heart. We traded it for a small upright. The truck/camper stayed there with the business and we sold the tent trailer. Becky got a job doing commercial sewing in Brigham City. Her arms and shoulders needed a massage most evenings to keep her pain to a manageable level.

We entrusted the campground to a couple who had lived on the campground and seemed to be good friends though not members of the church. They managed it until it was sold but sued us for over $100,000 in 1976 since we had sold the campground to someone else. They claimed we had made a promise to offer them the first chance to buy it but we had not and they had nothing written they could ever produce to prove otherwise. We had kept careful copies of all our correspondence with them which proved very valuable. We fought this in the St George County courts for several years and though our win was decisive, we were out about $6000 attorney fees and they had no money we could sue them to get. They finally admitted they were just bluffing to get the campground for almost nothing. Spring of 1974 Because of the low pay at Thiokol, Keith quit them in June 1974 and worked job shopping that summer in Tulsa, OK and the fall in Kalamazoo MI. I reached Tulsa soon after a tornado and the damage was impressive. Becky stayed in Brigham awhile and later moved to Salt Lake near her folks. The upstairs apt in Brigham was very hot in the summer. She got a job with the Church Welfare in West Salt Lake. Brian stayed in CA so only Paula was with Becky then. Larry, Joy, and Dale went to Southern Utah State College at Cedar City. Roger also joined them there when his mission was over. Larry, Roger, Joy, and Dale all met their spouses there. I was taking Myleran tablets for chemotherapy. My hemoglobin was 21.7. [In 1996 I have been between 6.5 to 7.5]. Larry is doing the accounting for us and is a big help in the manual work.

30 September 1974 Letter from Kay saying they are coming up for visit at Christmas. Gary in medical school and she is working as a secretary in Los Angeles for medical school. Gary had changed his name to Paul Hamilton.

23 October 1974 Letter from Kay tells of their trip to San Francisco to investigate possible internships. He liked anesthesiology and they had some openings for the next year.

26 October 1974 I had been working in Tulsa OK. since June but job was ending the first of November. Becky was living in a condo near her folks and working in church welfare. She drove her folks truck to work. She had two bouts of flu and her back was still giving her arthritic pains. Roger transferred from Punta Arenas to San Antonio, Chile. He was working in the mission office and that kept him very busy.

1 December 1974 I wrote a letter from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Roger was in mission home working mainly as a financial clerk. I was job shopping working on hydraulic cylinder analysis and the job was going well.

7 January 1975 Becky since Paula's birth had suffered from depression. She developed an ulcer and we believe while lifting a large Dutch oven on a scout trip, acquired a hiatal hernia. The combination became acute in December 1974. I had come home for Christmas but Becky had been quite ill. I flew home to be with her and she struggled through the weekend. We made a trip to Brigham City to see the folks and had Christmas with her folks on 26 December. I flew back east and Becky worked the 26th, 27, 30 and 1/2 day on 31. She thought bed rest would help but it didn't. By Thursday, Becky couldn't stand or get to the bathroom. Her folks helped and then took her to the doctor's office in Bountiful. Her blood was only 20% of normal so she was bleeding somewhere. They put her in hospital across the street and gave her transfusions one in each arm plus glucose and cared for her for three days. They planned to operate fixing the hiatal hernia and probable ulcer. The company where I worked let me call her every day on their Watts lines. While in Salt Lake I did some interviewing, and returned east. Within two weeks a job in Salt Lake City was confirmed. I had gotten a job in Salt Lake beginning 20 January.

4 February 1975 Becky had her operation and was feeling well enough after their post operative physical to go back to work. I quit my job and drove across the icy roads in Jan and worked in Salt Lake during 1975. The high plateau in Wyoming was ice all the way. Trucks packed the snow and it never melted. We traveled in an informal convoy and if someone got off the road we helped to get them back on. I or we took a trip to Cedar City to see the family and business in Springdale. Larry taught the priesthood class. Dale was in a Peter Pan play at college as one of the boys. He rigged the cables to make Peter Pan fly. My new job in Salt Lake is stressing large pipes 50-100 inches in diameter to pipe smelter gasses and dust systems. They piped the copper smelter gases to remove dust and sulfur. It turned out to be a fairly interesting job.

19 June 1975 Joy had picked a wedding date for 31 July at Salt Lake Temple. The reception will be at the condominium clubhouse where Becky, I, and her folks have lived. DRoss' son, Boyd, gave his homecoming address in Brigham City. Larry graduated 5 June and got his Air Force orders. He will spend three months at Vandenburg AFB near Santa Maria in California then the next three years in Cheyenne WY at Warren AFB. Dale was said to be in Kanab working on a summer theater project. Roger would be home soon from his mission. Becky had two wisdom teeth removed but needed to have one dry socket treated again, it helped and this improved her ability to sleep at night. Sometime in the summer we bought an old ford sedan in Salt Lake. We used it for many years and left it with Kay in LA. Later Paula came to stay with Kay and they both used the car to get around. Larry was married to Elaine Hansen on 13 August 1975 in the Salt Lake Temple. Elaine's family lived near Salt Lake City. Larry joined the Air Force after graduation and went to serve as a Lt in California and later in Wyoming. Elaine lived with him when it was possible.

21 July 1975 Roger got home okay but had lost a lot of weight. His home coming will be next Sunday. Joy's wedding plans were going ahead. They were going through the 8:00 AM session, a wedding breakfast at 3:00 PM, and buffet supper at 7:30 PM. Larry was keeping all the machines in a Cedar City laundromat in good working shape. Kay had an operation to remove infection in an ovarian tube. An IUD caused the infection and left her sterile. Roger needed to finish a couple of classes at Dixie College to graduate and found a job at K-Mart store. Joy married Scott Ted Jolley 31 July 1975 at the Salt Lake Temple. Scott was from a small town called Angle in southern Utah. Scott got his doctorate from BYU in chemistry. He had several offers and chose to work in Cleveland OH for Lubrizol. They moved there in 1981 and have lived near Kirtland OH in the town of Mentor since. Larry and Elaine were married on 13 Aug 1975 at the Salt Lake Temple. The reception was held at Elaine's home in Salt Lake City with Larry in his uniform.

9 January 1976 Becky's letter to Mother Young tells Keith was working on a temp job for six weeks in Erie, Penn for General Electric train that made trains for AMTRAC. He was laid off the Salt Lake job on short notice just after Christmas with nearly all the group. The family had been to Salt Lake for Christmas. Kay and Paul took Brian back to CA and Joy and Scott left on 26 December. Roger and Dale went to Cedar City on the 30th.

16 December 1976 Letter from Keith to his mother. We had attended a Christmas party at Velda and Oleens. Becky was feeling quite well. I was hoping to get a job in the west after this temp one. Becky sent me a nice warm down coat and this helped with the cold weather that comes across Lake Erie. After working in Erie, I came back to Salt Lake but could find no work there. I later did get temporary work in Downey CA doing stress analysis on the space shuttle.

About 1 January 1976 Mother had a heart attack and a stroke but had sent us a beautiful quilt for Christmas. Elaine, Larry and Michael had been here copying information I had on genealogy. She and I made lots of xeroxes and she took them home to put on the computer. Dross had been in an auto accident but wasn't injured. Brian at 18 years old would now begin to work part time in a sheltered workshop. The Rose Parade came between rainstorms that made it a beautiful clear day. Dale wrote his grandmother to say they had baptized two people on Christmas day and another on New Years. She had sent him a gift.

15 April 1976 I was in Los Angeles living with Kay and Paul. I had gotten a job and had been working two weeks at No. Amer. Rockwell in Downey for a job shop co. on the shuttle flipper doors doing stress analysis. Becky was running the welfare shoe department by herself with her boss out ill in Salt Lake. We were able to sell the campground but couldn't close the sale because of the Hardin's lawsuit. About May 1976 I was staying at Kay's and enjoying the LA weather. Kay lived in the Huntington Park area and we enjoyed visits to see the Huntington Gardens, an estate left by a railroad magnate. They had a lot of rare manuscripts and beautiful gardens. Paul kept pretty busy with medical school.

June? 1976 We must have obtained a job since we were planning to move to Downey and I had visited two of four wards there.

21 June 1976 Becky wrote in her letter that Paul had graduated from medical school 28 May. Becky flew down for the event and I was living with Kay and Paul. While she was there, we went apartment hunting mainly in Downey. Becky then took bus to Cedar City where Joy graduated with honors on a Friday. She also visited with Dale, and Roger. When Becky got back to work they had just had the big Teton Dam flood in Idaho. After a few days of long hours, Becky collapsed at work, and it was back to the hospital in Bountiful. They found a little bleeding from her ulcer but cauterized it and she expected to be home soon. She had bed rest for a week to get feeling better. Elaine was expecting a baby and they were living in Cheyenne WY. Becky hoped to take a trip with her folks to Seattle and didn't plan to move to CA until July or August.

27 June 1976 Becky was better. I had been looking for an apartment in Downey and found one on the busy Imperial Highway. I planned to fly to help the boys bring a truck load of furniture to Downey on Jul 5th with Roger's help and he and the ward will help to unload it before he goes back to school. Becky had been busy supplying shoes and boots for the Idaho Teton Dam flood. Becky did go on a trip with her folks before coming to Downey. When Becky came we visited wards in Lomita and Torrance where we used to attend and saw a lot of old friends. The Bill Mathew family invited us to come to dinner and we caught up on where their children were. Bill had been out of work for over six months. We were looking into buying a house and discovered our old house in Torrance had doubled in price since we sold it. Larry and Elaine had a baby boy, Michael, on 9 July.

August 1976 Becky had moved to Downey and started work at Bradley Plastic Bag Co. She was first assigned to do bookkeeping but later to take phone orders and check stock. Roger had gotten engaged and planned to get married 7 October. Dale was leaving for the mission home 10th of October. Kay and Becky sang a duet in our new Downey 4th ward. Another week and all three of us spoke in the meeting. We are in Kay and Paul's stake. Becky was a substitute chorister. Paula intended to start school at Downey High School. She has been practicing the flute and hoped to get in the band. Paul is doing emergency medicine at Los Angeles Hospital. We had sold the campground and now had the problem of getting the Hardins to leave. They were suing us for ownership of the park. The family had brought our stuff or most of it from Springdale. Becky's folks had been visiting here and later Joy, Camille, Susan and Roger. Baby Camille was adorable. Joy returning spent overnight with the Ballards and they took her down to Provo. Roger was working on an electric car powered by a small gasoline motor. Lacking money and much engineering training, the idea finally died. Father Ballard is still having trouble with his heart. Rex Eyre very ill and going to Mexico for special treatment. We have lots of remodeling to do in the house we bought in Downey. Floor coverings to install, kitchen remodel, enclosing a porch, etc. I flew alternate weekends back to Downey and worked to finish the remodeling. Roger married Susan Diane Garvin

8 October 1976 in the St George Temple. Susan had come from Chicago to do radio broadcast work at Cedar City and was attending the University. She had joined the church while in Utah. Roger got a job teaching band in Snowflake AZ and they lived there until 1982.

18 October 1976 We had been to Utah for Roger and Susan's wedding 8 October in the St George temple. We held a reception for them that evening at the condominium in Salt Lake where Becky had lived and her parents still lived. Dale must have had a missionary farewell and went into the mission home the day after the wedding. We had visited in Brigham City. Both Becky's and my job seemed to be doing fine.

24 November 1976 Roger, Susan, Joy, and Scott were coming for Thanksgiving to Downey. Becky is choir pres. and having some luck at getting a choir started. Carter had won the election and we expect many things to change. Dale in the mission field had lots of families to teach. We were trying to encourage the family to do gen. research and we publish a monthly letter. Paula was doing well on the flute and did get in the high school band. She had made several good friends.

December 1976 Family letter mentioned that James Whiteside had a new baby called Kennen Lee Whitesides born 6 Jun 1976. Joy was also expecting. They plan to go to BYU next year for Scotts advanced degree. Scott got a deer during the hunting season. Mother and father Ballard were planning to come to CA for New Years. Jay, Becky's brother, now lives in Fremont, CA. Kay sang in a chorus of Los Angeles California State University Christmas program and sang one of the five solos. They are trying to decide where to go for Paul's intern work. Roger and Susan give the appearance of being just married. Susan is working at the Coleman Company in Cedar City. Roger is trying to get his college work done to graduate. Dale was on a mission in Alabama. My brother Dale was going to stop at the LA Airport on his way to Australia and we did get a chance to visit with him. Joy, Scott, Roger, and Susan came from Cedar City to visit us at thanksgiving in Downey. Keith's job on the space shuttle is winding down and would be over in a few months. It did appear the B1 bomber program was going to continue. Becky was working taking orders at a plastic bag factory and having arthritis troubles with her back. We were learning a Christmas cantata for Downey Third Ward. Mother sent us a quilt for Christmas. We had Kay, Paul, Paul's mother, Paula, and Brian at our apt for Christmas dinner. Becky had found that the drug, Motrin, was good for her arthritis but very bad for her stomach and gave her bleeding troubles.

5 December 1977 Becky wrote a long letter. Larry and Elaine had twin daughters born 15 Nov 1977. Christy weighed 3 LB 2 oz and Cheral weighed 1 LB 5 Oz. They flew them to Denver for special care with a pediatrician and two nurses and tons of equip. No one had known they were expecting twins. Elaine had no problems. Christy had breathing problems and died 3 1/2 days later. They buried her Tuesday 22 November in Richfield UT cemetery with a graveside service in her maternal grandparents plot. Cheral breathed okay on her own but she had a heart defect in that the blood was not pumped to her lungs so she was a "blue baby". They did open heart surgery 30 November but it didn't seem to do much for her except her color was better. She had not been able to eat they thought because of the heart problem. She hadn't regained her birth weight and they never found any food that would agree with her. She eventually starved to death and was buried near her sister. Becky got a choir together and we presented a cantata. Kay was in the Southern California Mormon Choir and they sing Handel's Messiah each Christmas. She sang with them at the new LA music center and got tickets for us to attend.

Spring 1977 I was applying for a new job at North American Rockwell and other places. Roger in Cedar City and Larry in WY are both now serving as Sunday school Superintendents. It was very cold in WY.

28 March 1977 My mother was using a walker and wheelchair to get around. Becky's father has been having fainting spells in Salt Lake and one of the aunties was ill and living with them. Joy was to have their baby blessed today but we were not able to be there. She stayed with her mother-in-law in Antimony a week. Joy and Scott were singing in the St George temple rededication. Kay was coming to see us in Downey. We put some money down on a three bed room house in Downey that needed a lot of fixing up. I was now working in the main plant of North American Rockwell on the B1 bomber program doing stress analysis on the fuselage where cutouts for equipment were made. Dale is still in the mission field. Brian was now staying with us. His foster parents quit the business.

17 April 1977 Becky's birthday today. Our loan to buy the house was approved. The band director at the Cedar City college quit; Roger had planned to have him be a mentor for music training. Susan had a miscarriage in early April. Joy and Scott will go to BYU this summer. Kay and Paul were looking for an apartment in San Francisco and will move there in June. About May I was asked to teach Book of Mormon class for Gospel Doctrine in the ward. Oleen and Dale were also teaching it I believe. Our Dale was enjoying his mission.

3 July 1977 We had moved into our house on Lyndora in Downey. Kay and Paul were in an apartment in San Francisco. Roger was working part of the summer on the campground with the new owner. Joy and Scott were now at BYU. Pres Carter was stopping the B-1 bomber program and North Amer. was laying off 6000 including me. Mother and father Ballard went with Jay and wife to Hawaii and stopped in to see us on their way back. Kay and Paul were loading a moving van for San Francisco. Mother Young is much better and able to get out and garden.

1 August 1977 Becky wrote about my new temp job working for Atomic International in Canoga Park. I was doing finite element stress analysis on atomic containment vessels. It was 45 miles to go to work each way and I left at 6:30 am.. Going to job on the freeways wasn't bad but worse coming home with all the traffic. We bought an old cheap 71 Toyota Corona but had to put in a new transmission and lots of brake work. Joy and Scott at BYU and Roger doing extra time at college for student teaching experience. I continued interviewing for permanent jobs and found one working for FMC Corp. in San Jose. I began working in October 1977 in San Jose and began looking for a house to buy in a good school area- one we could afford. I stayed at least two months with Keith and Dorene.

21 August 1977 We were able to sell the Downey house at a profit. Becky writes we had lived there only nine months when escrow closes in January 1978 . Becky, Brian, and Paula joined me in San Jose in March 1978 and we lived in a motel until we finished a house purchase in San Jose. Not having to make the trips to LA to see the family and finish the house rework was a blessing. The San Jose house cost us $56,000 and that was all we could qualify a loan for. A church friend in the mortgage business helped us get a loan at 7.5% which was wonderful. Property prices in San Jose had doubled during the 1977 to 78 year. FMC paid the costs of moving and temporary motel rent.

21 March 1978 We had moved to San Jose into a house we bought. We were in the 13th ward, the ward where Keith and Dorene used to live in. We had a lot of remodeling and maintenance to do on the house. Paula liked her new high school, Camden. We enjoy the ward choir led by Merlyn Leetham. I and another fellow were doing nearly all the stress work on the new Bradley fighting vehicle made by FMC. We have planted several fruit trees, a tangelo and the yard has a lemon tree. Paul and Kay are in San Francisco and will be down to have dinner with us. Dale still baptizing people in the mission field. Becky tells of a remarkable visit of the spirit while she was in Downey. I was in San Jose. She was sitting in a chair and was enveloped by the spirit. The spirit would answer any question she had concerning her life, her relationship with the church, gospel questions, about her family, where to live, what to do, and how to go about her life. Information was given her in a few minutes, repeated several times during the day and the following week. The spirit told her that life was worthwhile and that God did always have her in mind. As to work and where we lived, it didn't matter as long as we lived righteously. The later times with the spirit were without the feeling that someone was present as at first. The precious letter is reproduced in full. She has rarely been depressed since this experience.

13 August 1978 We were enjoying our garden produce including fresh corn. Dorene had not been feeling well and it was finally diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. We were putting in new cabinets for the kitchen. Paula was at girls camp for a week. There wasn't any summer school because of a new law cutting taxes. Becky's folks were moving down here to see if it would help dad's heart. He was flying down and relatives were bringing the furniture. Dale would be home from his mission in October and Roger and Susan were moving to Snowflake AZ to teach music. Joshua had been born 28 July and weighed 8.5 lb. Paula and Becky had been finishing a quilt started by her grandmother Jacobsen. Becky and I had given talks in church and Paula and Becky had played a duet the week before that.

20 September 1978 We enjoy visiting with Becky's brother's family in Fremont. Larry had been in the hospital with pneumonia and convalesced at home a week. Jay had flown to Salt Lake and flew back with dad as part of their move. I went to see a couple here who knew of a couple who wanted to sell their mobile home in Scotts Valley. They described a small lake and nice trailer. We went next day to see it and liked it. Mother Ballard came the next week and she liked it too and decided to buy it. The unmobile-mobile home had about 1400 sq ft. It is by a small pond and patrolled by black geese. Jay also approved. Dad Ballard came and stayed here a week while the moving was accomplished. While here he had pains in his chest and the Dr. thought he might have a tumor. We got some of the ward high priests over and they gave him a blessing. The pains eased off and he could walk further than he had for quite awhile. More tests in three weeks found the tumor greatly reduced in size. Don't remember tumor ever mentioned again. Becky's folks like their new home but it is quite a ways away for us to visit. Firs, cedars, and redwoods are nearby. Paula enjoys her high school band of about 30 persons. Becky drove her folks to Yreka to a family reunion and they had a nice time in their camper. We planted a mulberry shade tree on the West side of the house. We were planning a family get-together for Christmas after Dale would be home.

12 November 1978 Dale had come home from his mission. He stopped in Salt Lake to see Larry, Elaine, Joy, Scott, and their children. He went to see our local church employment organization and got a job working for a firm that places temporary toilets in San Jose. We were looking for the family to come at Christmas time. There were many things to get done on the house before then. Paul works 3-4 days at a time in Modesto traveling back to San Francisco. Dorene invited us to come for a buffet dinner the day after Thanksgiving. Jay, Becky's brother, invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. His folks, Kay, Paul, and the rest of us will make a big group. My job was going fine. Becky drives for Avis, and the church gets paid as a fund raiser. She drives cars to Monterey, San Fran., And local areas. Roger is teaching school in Snowflake, AZ and had bought a new house.

December 1978 Becky's father passed away. He was bringing the mail in, climbed the mobile home steps, and fell dead. It was obvious to mother he was dead and could not be revived. We went to Draper to bury him at Christmas time. A service in a West Valley funeral home was held. A subsequent letter tells how our family all got together at Larry and Elaine's home in Hill Field for Christmas and took lots of pictures.

April 1979 Five page family letter. Paula writes that their Camden school choir had saved their money and took a trip to Los Angeles to Disney Land. She called her Downey friends and they met her there and had a very good time. Kay was living in San Francisco but took a trip to Kansas City and the Univ. of Missouri. She had a tornado go through a town she stayed at [Grand Island in NB that took off the upper motel floor of the one she stayed in]. She met lots of people, heard lots of choirs, and visited with Aunt Adele and Uncle Dale. They took her to see Liberty jail and the temple lot in Independence. Kay planned to go to Kansas City for summer school in choral music for an advanced music degree. She later completed a music degree at University of San Francisco while living there. Paul had been working in Merced and they had difficulty talking to each other since he seemed to live at the hospital working 270 hours per month. He later asked for a divorce and confessed to living with a nurse. Paul decided the church wasn't for him. The bishop suggested reconciliation but it never worked out. He had used the threat of his suicide if things didn't go his way. It was Easter Sunday time and everyone sang in some sort of choir: we, Becky's mother, Kay, etc. Becky had sung a one page solo in the cantata. We all had gone on Saturday to the Ballard's new home and worked on the yard except Jay whose back didn't let him do it. All enjoyed a picnic lunch and a trip to the beach. We have our own garden planted with many gladiolus and plan to get out dahlias soon. Our campground lawsuit with the Hardins was proceeding. Larry had passed his Captain's board. He was in charge of getting all the computer word processing equipment for the Hill Field base. Dale was in Georgia working on building and selling swimming pools. Joy and Scott still at BYU. Joy was watching some children to help the income and caring for Camille and Robin. All had enjoyed April Conference.

23 February 1979 A five page letter summary was sent to all the family. Roger and Susan were expecting a baby by October. Roger will have a job teaching school in Snowflake for another year. They hoped to go see Susan's folks this year. Paula tells she has been very busy musically. She will be singing in the temple pageant in July which meant a lot of rehearsals. She sings in the ward youth choir, and ward choir, and the school jazz choir. They were practicing for a spring concert. Scott published his first research publication in an English journal. Joy's wisdom teeth were coming in and she was busy with her own and tending other children. They had taken a trip to Angle and enjoyed a dance they attended. Larry had been on a training trip to Mississippi. Michael got very excited when he recognized his dad getting off the returning airplane. Larry thinks he will have to spend a year in Korea without the family beginning in May of 1980. Elaine is taking classes in interior decoration and children's clothing. They are expecting a new baby in early August. Dale was up to visit with them and had seen Roger and Susan. Dale decided he didn't want to go back to Cedar City but preferred University of Utah for more schooling.

The Bishopric asked Mother Ballard to be ward Relief Society President. She wrote that she had to attend a 7:30 AM meeting with the bishopric meaning up at 5:30 on Fast Sunday. She would have stayed at church to write letters and read but was caring for her little dog who likes as much attention as a child. She was enjoying a mobile park clubhouse singing group who got together on Sunday evenings. She enjoyed visiting with Becky and Jay's families and a recent home family evening on Brian's birthday. Brian at a mental age of six liked his presents. Mother Ballard drives over and we go to the temple together on the first Friday of the month. She stays with us overnight and returns home the next day. She was quite lonesome without dad but the Relief Society job kept her busy enough not to have too much time to think of it. Becky has been over for long visits and sorted out clothes and things the Aunties who both had died had left and their families didn't want. They had some special depression time [1930-1934] dishes she gave to Becky as keepsakes. They used to be given away in boxes of oatmeal etc.

Becky writes the daffodils are out and fruit trees in blossom. Paula got all A's in her classes at School and never has gotten a B in her 2.5 years at Camden High. Keith was having to have almost monthly phlebotomies so is going to watch his iron intake. They have been adding iron to foods to help nutrition but it doesn't help him when they supply 45% of daily iron needed in cereal. Becky had been making booties for all the new babies in the ward. She has also been making shawls for special church friends. Aunt Velda sent a letter with a clipping about her being Brigham City mother of the year. The newspaper article gives a good summary of her family, what they are doing, and her own interests. She belongs to the Book Lore Club, and is a member of the Sunflower Daughter of UT Pioneers group. Mother Young had been chosen for the honor a few years before. Keith's brother, Dale, wrote that his company was being taken over by FMC Chemical- a branch of the co. Keith works for. They want to move people back to New Jersey but Dale in his 60s would prefer to retire. He still lives near Kansas City and started doing consulting. Kay planned to go to a graduate music school in the fall.

14 May 1979 A long five page family letter. We had heard from everyone. We enjoyed strawberries, onions, cabbage, and lettuce from the garden. Larry had been made a captain and they were living in Clearfield at Hill AFB. Dale was in Atlanta working at selling and constructing swimming pools. He was enjoying doing missionary work part time. Scott wrote from BYU . He had been down to Angle helping his dad irrigate. They have lots of rainbow trout in the steams and caught 60 while in Angle and bottled some of them. They get trapped in small pools from the irrigation water. Joy stayed in Provo to tend Robin, Camille, and her other baby sitting children. Becky wrote of her troubles sitting in a line to get gasoline. It was the time of the great gasoline shortage. On the 7th of May we had a 22 lb turkey and helped Jay to celebrate his birthday, with his family and mother. Grandmother Ballard baked the cake. Roger's high school band in Snowflake got a superior #1 rating in state contests. He was doing some computer programming for a pig farm in town. There was no summer school money and this hurt the income.

Keith's mother was in intensive care at a hospital overnight. Her heartbeat was irregular and so she had stayed with Velda and Clarice in turn but now was at home and gardening. She was no longer able to write. Dale met Stacy at the University in Cedar City. They were married civilly 21 Mar 1981 by the Bishop in Kanab where Stacy's family lived and we attended. They were sealed 27 April 1982 in the St George Temple. Dale and Stacy went to work in Georgia helping a mission friend build swimming pools. In July 1981, they decided to come to San Jose where Dale joined Becky in taking a job training to sell securities for Waddell and Reed. They stayed with us. Stacy worked at the Flint Center Theater and for other local companies. Kay met Richard McChesney while at University of Southern California in LA getting a doctorate and they were married in the LA Temple 5 September 1981. They lived in Los Angeles where Richard worked for the IRS until Kay finished her degree. She then got a job near Pittsburgh PA teaching college. Richard was able to transfer to Pittsburgh, and they bought a house there.

President Kimball in 1979 General Conference urged everyone to keep a journal. The family gave me a nice binder that Christmas and I have kept a journal since. Paula attended Camden High School and graduated from it. The following year, they closed the school and sold it. She won a President Kimball Award with all tuition paid at BYU. She was afflicted with depression, missed a lot of classes, and could not maintain the grade required to keep the scholarship. She quit school and went to work in LA living with Kay and Richard. She was called from there to go on a mission to Spain in Barcelona. We went to Paula's mission farewell in LA in early March 1984 and then we took Paula to the mission home in Utah April 4, 1984 where she entered the mission home 8 April 1984. She was released for her health [more depression] returning in Spring of 1985. She and Becky both have been helped by small amounts of special medicines when they get depressed. After returning from her mission, Paula again went to Los Angeles staying with her sister Kay and Richard. She later came to San Jose and finished her first two years of college. She met a fine young man, Gardner Crosby, in the singles ward soon after coming here and they were married 17 January 1987. Kay and Richard had their adopted son sealed to them the same day at the temple. All the family members were there. It was a beautiful clear day with a brisk wind. Paula and her husband moved to San Francisco and she completed her degree at University of San Francisco in 1989. They moved to Los Gatos in September 1989. She was doing chemical analysis for Syntex, a chemical drug-pill company.

Another episode in the family history was trying the financial planning business in 1982. After Becky and Dale took financial planning training from a company named Wadell and Reed. They found little support from their company. In February 1982 we learned of a new firm starting up here. One of the Salt Lake people starting the company was Sister Cropper's brother, one of our ward friends. We heard their story and it sounded pretty good. Becky and I went to Utah to investigate it and we were very impressed. Becky and Dale were allowed to use part of the Cropper's insurance office in San Jose while Brother Cropper helped to get the business up. When we told Roger, he was very excited and his pay had been so low, they could hardly afford to heat their small Snowflake house. Against our wishes in such an untried venture, he sold his home and moved here. He was excellent in sales and soon wanted to open our own office which we did. In 1984 Roger, Becky and I managed to sell enough, with several others in our office to get a trip to Brazil with Susan also going. It was a wonderful trip taken in January 1984. It was their summer and swimming was enjoyable in Rio de Janiero. We also took a trip to Brazilia, and a trip to a city near Rio where the royalty had lived. When we returned, the business rapidly went down hill. The government decided to deny the use of tax credits that had been allowed for many years. With their court delays, you couldn't fight them. Later crooked managers the Salt Lake firm dealt with took funds to be set aside to buy equipment and squandered the money. The government was quick to declare the tax advantages in default and assess back claims.

In April of 1984 when we visited Becky's mother, Zella, she was afflicted with dementia so it was doubtful she could live alone. Her adopted daughter was trying to help her. By May she was bad enough we had Jay and Doyne, Becky's brother and his wife, bring her here to live with us. Becky left the business to care for her. Her mother deteriorated quickly. She could get out of bed but not get back in without help. By August she was completely bedfast and didn't know who Becky was. She was fully incontinent. Becky had a county health nurse come in three times a week to help with her. She remained bedfast, gradually getting thinner, and curling more tightly in a fetal position. Becky blended food to feed her but it was difficult for her to swallow. We continued to help Roger keep up rent on the business space, equipment, and his house rental. The losses began to get high. Dale and Stacy left the business and they went to Salt Lake so Dale could get more theater training. Stacy found work making stained glass. This had been their hobby while here. Stacy's employer was a Buddhist and converted her to it. Dale found work in the church's Promised Valley Theater. He also worked at bringing an old house up to livable standards. He found the leader of the theater organization to be corrupt. The church realized it also and discontinued the theater. Stacy requested a divorce and Dale returned to Georgia and worked for a while on swimming pools. Dale and Stacy were divorced and Dale attended University of Utah for a 2nd degree in engineering, went back for summer in Georgia, and back to school at University of Oklahoma in the fall of 1989. Roger took a job working in oil well management/development in Colorado Springs CO.

Becky's mother passed away the night before we were all to go and help Roger move to Colorado Springs. This was in 1986. We delayed long enough to make burial arrangements in Salt Lake City, shipped her coffin by air, and we went on to Utah. We held a service in a mortuary near where she had lived and buried her in Draper next to her husband. We continued on to Colorado in three vehicles, got Roger and his family settled, and flew home. Mother and father Ballard were such wonderful people. We were so disappointed when she could no longer talk to us when she came to live with us before her death. Roger soon found the man he was to work for was not honest, had no money, and he was left to try to find work. Roger finally got a job teaching high school music at Gunnison UT in the fall of 1987 where he continued until December 1989. Becky was asked to help a young sister, Sallie Mattison, who moved here with two young girls and had recently joined the church. She was a wonderful person but had some health problems to get straightened out. We became good friends and we kept in touch while she attended the San Jose State University. She appeared to be an excellent possible wife for Dale. She was graduating from San Jose State University in December 1989. We offered to pay Dale's air fare home for Thanksgiving to meet her. It took and they were married in January. We were able to direct Dale to a job [we were working in the regional church employment office] and he planed to work a year until he can get residence established before going back to school. Sallie now has a job in journalism, her college major, working for a Los Gatos paper and we acquired a lovely daughter and two lovely grandchildren. They are one happy new family. They later had two children and Dale kept getting fair paying jobs. In 1995 they moved to Riverton, UT. Sallie kept her San Jose Job but sends the result in by fax and e-mail. Dale got a job working for Salt Lake schools keeping their computers working. The job ended in late June of 1996.

Joy, Scott, and their family still live in Kirtland, Ohio. Roger and Susan still live in American Fork, Utah. Roger quit teaching school music December 1989 because they couldn't live on the pay. Roger then worked for a new company selling diatomaceous earth and pyrethrum. It is a nontoxic compound that kills bugs. They could never get any financing for its production. They moved to American Fork July 1990 after living in Salt Lake for awhile. He got a local computer job as a temp in Orem, later another temp job where he commuted to Phoenix AZ, and in 1995 got a job keeping the e-mail system working for the church in Salt Lake.

Larry and Elaine have lived in many different places. He spent a year in Korea. They lived in Wyoming, Mississippi, Virginia, and three years in Albuquerque NM. They moved in 1989 to Sterling VA. They then spent two years in Guam and enjoyed scuba diving to see the beautiful sea creatures. Larry was in Rome NY where they were closing the USAF base. They were assigned in 1995 to move to Tinker AFB in Norman OK. They preferred the warmer climate. Kay finished her doctorate at University of Southern Califormia in Los Angeles May 1986. She and Richard moved to Pittsburgh PA in 1987. She changed jobs to teach at the University of Pittsburgh but due to cutbacks, her job was terminated. She had interviews for teaching at Boston, BYU, Indianapolis, and chose St Louis where she began July 1990. Richard has been working for the IRS in Pittsburgh and transferred his job to St Louis. They got the baby adopted, sold their home, and moved to St Louis June 13. Joy and her family except Scott went with them to help with the unpacking. We called them June 17 and it was 100 degrees and 95% humidity. The air conditioner was getting fixed June 21 but they had some small air conditioner working.

Keith retired February 1989 and since then Becky and he have served on a two year church mission locally to do employment placement. In S. Jose he has served 3.5 years on the high council and the rest of the time in high priest leadership, stake employment specialist, or as high priest group leader for our ward. We were called on an eight mo. mission to work in the regional welfare warehouse helping to distribute church welfare goods. Keith has kept a journal of our experiences from 1970 to 1976 and a new journal since 1980. We had a 7.1 earthquake on 17 October 1989 and only lost three jars of fruit and a few other minor broken things. The doctor finally found a chemotherapy in 1989 that seems to control my making too much blood without draining off blood when the spleen gets too enlarged or the white and red cell count goes too high. A side effect, gout, still gives occasional problems.

In November of 1990 Kay came down with pneumonia and asked me to come and care for them until she got feeling better. We left our welfare warehouse volunteer job and I flew to help Kay. I helped do laundry, fixed meals, did shopping etc until mid December when I came home. We were worried about her and planned to spend some of next year helping them and getting their old house fixed up. In January of 1991 we let Dale and Sallie rent our home and we bought a camper truck. We left in January, went to East of LA area where it was warm at Desert Hot Springs area and to St George in January It was very cold in parks north of St. George until we found an apartment/motel room to live in St George. We worked with Clarice a few months to get started on the Young family history. We looked at property and bought a view lot there. We left after Easter cantata was sung March 30 and went to see Indian ruins in AZ and then to St Louis where we stayed with Kay and Richard until late May. Kay who had been ill with pneumonia the previous fall, appreciated us taking over for laundry, shopping, and cleaning. I also put in a lot of flower gardens for her. We then went to Joy and Scotts, took the little towed car and went to see Larry for a week near Washington DC at Sterling but it was 95 degrees all week so we stayed mostly visiting just them and enjoying their air conditioning. Returning to Joy's we continued east to Boston and got to Maine for awhile. We went west through New York, saw the Hill Cumorah pageant twice while our truck transmission was being fixed and went on to Joy's and back to Kay's. During the trip, I wrote a book on the the early Christian church.

We stayed at Kay's helping them until mid December, went to see pageant at Nauvoo and took another trip to show Nauvoo to Paula. We left for home via New Orleans, through Texas and stayed at Las Vegas for a couple of nights. We got to Clarices for Christmas and stayed with her until March. We spent a month at her Brigham home helping and then went to Provo in May until the end of August. Spent summer with Becky working at the Family History Center and I worked as a volunteer for F.A.R. M. S. I helped work on a book that reviewed all writings for and against the Book of Mormon. They sent me a copy in 1996. We then went to Wyoming to see Becky's relatives and on to Vancouver BC. We returned via the Olympic Peninsula, Eugene OR and eventually home. We lived in an apartment for the winter until Dale and Sallie could find a rental place. Sallie was expecting and it seemed best to keep them living in our house until baby was born. We then began to repaint and remodel our house and sold the motor home. In 1989 East Berlin allowed unrestricted travel to the west opening the iron curtain. Our lifetime has been an exciting time in history. We still live in San Jose as of July 1996.