Larry Anderson - Families and Individuals

Notes

Jay William GUYMON

  Sent by Jeanne Guyman.  5604 So. College, Tempe, AZ 85283.  Tel 480-456-6338.  S/o William Lee Guyman and Ura Geneva Seely.

Life Story of Jay William Guymon

I was born on 26 April 1926 in Orangeville, Emery County, Utah. The only thing I remember about the circumstances of my birth is that I recall seeing the inside of the house and my older sisters and Mother and Dad before I was born.  At birth I wasn’t very big - about 4 ½ pounds. I have recollections from a very early age of playing in my baby bed. It had a pull-up side to keep me in.
I had quite a few childhood illnesses.  I was born with polio.  I still have the effects of it - hammer toes and club feet.  My mother rubbed and wrapped my deformed feet and toes to straighten them which helped.  My mother said I had a blessing but I was not aware of it. I had whooping cough and chicken pox when I was 9 months old.   My mom who was very attentive didn’t think I was going to make it.  I was very ill. When I was just little, about three or four years old, I got into some toadstools and my body went into violent spasms which I remember. After their prayers my parents induced vomiting and the spasms subsided.  I had asthma when I was about 11 and I had it all through my teen years. I took medicine for it but it was still very hard for me to get my breath.  When I was about 13,  I was in  bed about 8 weeks with rheumatic fever. Sulfa and penicillin were not invented until World War II so I did not get the benefit of them.
My mother’s maiden name is Una Geneva Seely, born 26 February 1898 in Castle Dale, Emery County, Utah.  She had worked outside of the home in a co-op store in Castle Dale before I was born.  My father is William Lee Guymon born 25 May 1888 in Orangeville, Emery County, Utah.  He was a school teacher.  Before he was married he had worked in the county recorders office (which recording he did by hand) in Castle Dale. He prided himself on his penmanship. I used to print everything and my dad didn’t care for that.
My brothers and sisters are: Vearl born 1 April 1920 in Castle Dale, Emery County Utah; Ruth Guymon born 23 Mar 1922, DelOra Guymon born 11 January 1925, Duane “S” Guymon born 11 Oct 1929, Uneta born  2 November 1931, Patricia Kay Guymon born 8 September 1936 all of whom were born in Orangeville, Utah. I had three other siblings who were stillborn- Gary Lee in 1923, Gwen  born 18 August 1933 and Karen born in May 1935.
I did not know my Grandpa Noah Thomas Guymon. He was born 18 April 1853 in Springville, Utah and died on 11 Jul 1920 in Orangeville, Utah,  before I was born.  My Grandmother Guymon’s maiden name is Caroline Marie Hansen; she was born 31 Oct 1856 in Holl, Gaarsley, Vejle, Denmark.
Grandma Guymon lived in Orangeville right next to us. This home was owned by Grandma and Grandpa Guymon before his death 11 July 1920. Their son Noah Thomas bought this home and Grandma stayed with Uncle Tom and Aunt Bell in this home until she died 2 Jun 1931.  I did not have many memories of Grandma Guymon.
Grandpa Justus Wellington Seely III  was born in Mount Pleasant, Sanpete, Utah on 30 Jan 1873. His parents and family came to Castle Valley in the 1870’s. My grandfather  and grandmother Seely lived in Castle Dale. My grandmother Seely’s name was Clara Elizabeth Sorensen and she was born 15 Dec 1876 in Vinderslev, Viborg, Denmark. She died 26 Sep 1951 in Dragerton, Carbon County, Utah. Grandpa Seely died 24 Jul 1934 in CastleDale just after the 24th of July celebration.
My Grandma Seely, Caroline Marie Hansen Guymon, lived in Castle Dale until a few months after Grandpa Seely died in 1934. She lived next to her daughter, Aunt Thora, near the center of town near the canal, the water of which was taken out of the Cottonwood Creek. Grandma Seely was from Denmark. For some reason she liked her home to be nice and toasty warm keeping the temperature above 80 degrees. I chopped wood for her. There was a lot of wood on her place which had been an old orchard before she lived there. Her son-in-law Uncle Joe Jamison and his boys would cut up these trees and saw them into 12 inch lengths and I would then split these short pieces into firewood for her. But after I would cut up the wood she would always have pie or cake ready for me to eat. She loved to bake pie. She helped me overcome my timidity by talking to me.
My mother told me that Grandpa Justus Wellington Seely owned sheep which he would keep off in the desert where he spent a lot of time.  He was a prospector for some mining claims in an area of Emery County known as the Badlands and where some notorious outlaws roamed. There were so many good hiding places for these outlaws and that was their stronghold. They would come into Castle Dale and steal horses and leave their tired horses. Grandpa was the town marshall for Castle Dale and sometimes he would take the prisoners from the Castle Dale jail home with him and feed them.
He also had part ownership of a flour mill by the creek in Castle Dale. The flour mill was powered by a water wheel in the creek. He co-signed for someone and they did not pay him back so he lost his interest in the flour mill. I remember we had some great times with Grandpa Seely.  Grandpa Seely was a fine man and I liked him a lot. I remember the day of his death 24 July 1934.  My family all got together at his place for a short while after attending the activities of a 24th of July celebration in Castle Dale. When we got home from this visit we received a phone call that he had just passed away. We were told that he had pulled up a chair to listen to the radio and he fell over backwards in the chair. He was beloved by many people. I was about 10 years old then.
Aunt Thora and Uncle Loyd  Killian lived next door to Grandma Seely in Orangeville. She had two daughters, born in a prior marriage. They had a very fine family. I remember he’d get out of patience with his cows and horses sometimes and would hit them with a 2 x 4 board.
Uncle Joe Jamison was also a favorite of mine. He was a Branch President in Eureka, Utah.  My Aunt Oneta, his wife, didn’t want him to spend so much time away from the home in his position as branch president.  There were many branch projects doing major repairs of the homes of the people in the branch. This took quite a bit of time. In fact the priesthood even built one home for a family.  Uncle Joe was a band and  shop teacher there in Eureka.  Dale, their oldest son, was killed as a lathe they transported fell out of the truck on him.
My favorite aunt was Aunt Ora Meyer.  She was a delightful person. So was my Uncle Cliff.  She and Uncle Cliff lived in Fountain Green in Sanpete County, Utah. She moved to Carbon in her later years. My favorite cousin was LaMar Meyer.  I really liked him. I visited with him in the summer in Fountain Green in Sanpete County over the mountain west of us. I’d help him weed the garden and we’d go fishing in a creek near his home. His father was Uncle Cliff and his mother was Aunt Ora. We’d celebrate the 4th of July together and go to a dance afterward in the evening at Fountain Green. The town sponsored the dances I think. The last thing I heard about him from his mother was that he lived in California and was superintendent of schools there.
We’d have many family get-togethers with my cousins in Orangeville and Castle Dale. I had a batch of them. The oldest was Dale Jameson.  He was the one who was killed in the accident mentioned above.  The next were Que and Reese. I had two cousins about my same age, LaMar Meyer in Fountain Green, Sanpete County, Utah, and  Calvin Seely, son of Earl Seely, who lived in Castle Dale.
In the summer Uncle Joe Jameson spent some of his vacation time from teaching school with us and helped us pile and haul hay. After the days work was over we would go to the creek for a swim. There were places on the creek to have a nice place to swim. My dad had a farm between Orangeville and Castle Dale.
I really enjoyed getting together with my cousins. We’d play all sorts of games.  The kids would play a game of tying  me up and I got good at getting untied.  My cousins would play a trick on me also. They would tell me they were going to hunt for “snipes” and they would invite me to go along with them. They took a gunny sack and started hunting for these snipes. When they got out in the dark woods they’d just leave me holding the gunny sack and run away from me. That is what they called snipe hunting.
For fun in the summer time we’d go up Straight Canyon for a one-day outing and the picnic lunch was prepared ahead of time by my mother and older sisters. We would have breakfast before we left and supper after we got back. While we were in Straight Canyon we’d eat the picnic lunch and play different games and enjoy each others association. At other times we would spend two or three days at the head of Straight Canyon in Upper Joe’s Valley. We’d go hiking and spend time, especially at night, telling stories and chatting. It was much cooler up there than in Orangeville in the summertime.
Halloween was celebrated in Orangeville by my cousins and friends sometimes in a mischievous way. One time we hid a wagon underneath a bridge and it was quite a while before it was found.  There was just a little small stream running under the bridge. Another time we’d raise a small gate to the top of the flagpole. The town marshall followed us around before we did this and told us to have some good clean fun. This was our interpretation of clean fun.
My father filled our cistern two times a year with water to fulfill our domestic water needs.  He built a barn, a stable and corral area, an ice house and granary, a short distance away on lower ground.  During thunderstorms in the summer there were floods which came into the washes near our farm. Mother would warn us to stay out of the wash when there was a danger of flood and if we heard the sound of rushing water we were to get quickly out of the wash.
A tricycle was my prized possession when I was small. It was built so that the large front wheel could be taken off easily, yet it was a sturdy trike. It had two metal clamps which could be pushed down so it would release the wheel.
When I was about three years of age another incident happened which was very vivid. One of my chores was to turn on the water in the corral and fill up the water barrel for the cows. On one occasion  a Jersey cow with a small calf came after me  with her two long horns. We called her Liberty Bell because she was born on the 4th of July. I started to run but she put her head down and  with one horn under one arm and the other horn under the other arm, she rammed her horn into the wood corral fence. I was very fortunate I was small enough and her horns were long enough so that when she caught her horns in the fence, there was a small space between me and the fence. I was unhurt but screaming loudly when my Dad hearing my cries came and got the cow’s horns out of the fence and rescued me.
When I was about 4  years old, I went looking for my Dad and got caught in a barbed wire fence. I was screaming to the top of my voice when my Uncle Lue happened along on his horse. He put me on the horse with him and took me to the house. About seven years later I attended his funeral which was the first funeral I remember attending. I couldn’t understand why everyone seemed so tearful; after all he was in a very pleasant place.  When I was about six years old  the doctor came and took out my tonsils and my older sister’s tonsils at the same time. The ether made me so nauseated. As I was going under I had the sensation of a wheel turning around and my being transported in space. At Christmas time a few small gifts made us very happy. We received mainly clothes for Christmas.
When I was about 5 years old we were in an automobile accident between Orangeville and Price in our Model A car.  Mr. Nielson , a school teacher who lived on a farm near Castle Dale, came by and took us to his home to wait there for transportation. On the way home I wet my pants. I was so embarrassed and my 2 older sisters really bawled me out. My three older sisters were very critical of me when I was young.
When I was a child and needed punishment, it was usually my Dad who corrected me. Sometime my mom did. One time I did something that really aggravated my mother which was most unusual. I thought I’d get away from her by running to the outhouse. But that didn’t work. She turned me over her knee and spatted me good on the behind. I thought my brother Duane had a pretty easy life. I was critical of him because I thought he was faking sickness and I was very verbal at expressing my disgust.  My mother told me that whatever faults my brother had were not as bad as my attitude. This taught me to be more tolerant of his needs and that my approach was completely wrong.
The naughtiest thing I ever did was when I was very small about four years old. My Dad got a new hatchet. I was very attracted to that hatchet. I was cutting in the dirt with it and the rocks  made some nicks in the blade. My dad was very angry when he found his hatchet and he gave me a good thrashing. My mother was worried about my physical well-being and kept saying to Dad, “Will, you’re hurting him.” It taught me that tools are useful and need to be taken care of properly.
On 5 January 1997 we were reading in the biography of Gordon B. Hinckley, about his children and how they reacted to his call to be an assistant to the Twelve Apostles in 1956.  Their youngest one (a 13- year- old)  thought there must have been a mistake in the call.  She just didn’t think he had the making of a general authority.
How different it was with me and my Dad.  I felt he was worthy of any church calling that came to him and although he was a stake high councilman, I thought he should be bishop or stake president.  I remember going with him in some of his ward speaking assignments but I always thought, even though he was a good speaker, the meetings were too long.  My Dad took me ‘most everywhere he went.  I didn’t appreciate it at the time but he desired these times to be teaching moments for me, which they were, but I didn’t appreciate them until later.   One time when I told him the meeting was too long, he reminded me that his talk was actually a little shorter than usual.
My mother was involved with almost every activity in the church, especially in visiting and comforting other sisters in the church;  and especially all sorts of relief activities and projects including making of quilts for each other.  I don’t remember that she held any specific position but she was always there when help was needed.  She helped out at funerals mainly in bringing food to the family and the dinner held at the church for the family.  But she never neglected her family in our needs.  She always did a lot of canning of meat and vegetables and fruits.  The favorite thing my mother would cook was carrot pudding made with red berries which were found growing on the creek bottoms near our house.
My dad in addition to farming and teaching school was a beekeeper. Helping him with the bees was one of the highlights of my boyhood years. My dad taught me how to extract honey.  We had a small house near the beehives where the bee equipment was kept and the honey was stored before it was sold or used. I had beekeeper’s attire like my dad’s. It included a broad-brimmed straw hat with screen wire in front of the face. Gloves were worn along with heavy denim overalls and protective clothing for the arms. Ties on my arms and legs to keep the bees out. We would use a smoker to stun the bees while removing the honey. We would take the filled frames from the beehives; then with sharp heated knife we removed the outer wax layer. We would put the frames in extractors and by creating a centrifugal force we could remove the honey from the frame by turning a handle. We would  put it into a 52 gallon  metal drum. We would then draw it out into 5-gallon cans. I had a very few bee stings and the hurt was quickly relieved by my mother applying aromatic spirits of NHc (ammonia). Vearl got stung on her face and she had severe reactions. The doctor came and gave her a shot to counter-act the reaction. She was in bed for days with her eyes swollen shut. We gathered honey on clear days.
We would keep ice in the ice house all through the summer by putting sawdust over the ice. We took the ice off the ponds during the winter and put it in the ice-house.  We had a grinding stone for sharpening tools. The main item we sharpened  was the mower blades till we got serrated mower blades.
In my early years I traipsed all over the hills on our farm in Orangeville. I found Indian relics and arrow heads on the hills.
I moved with my family to Orangeville when I was in the second grade. This was about a mile and a half away by way of the main road or about ½  that distance through our farm on an old road across Cottonwood Creek.  This used to be the main road  from Orangeville to Castle Dale but a big flood came down the creek bed and washed away the bridge. When the bridge was rebuilt it was put farther upstream and the road was moved. My mother gave us the same warning about floods down by the  Cottonwood Creek as was by the farm, only it was much more dangerous to be in the creek bed during a flood because much more water would come down and cover a much wider area. We could see the flood from a greater distance but there was a greater distance to get out of the path of the flood.
We had a four-wheeled rubber tired trailer which could be pulled with horses or the car.  It had a car hitch for car pulling and a long wooden tongue for when the horses pulled it. We hauled about everything with this trailer except hay.  We had a hay rack for hauling the hay which was pulled by the horses. It had a large wooden rack that would hold more hay. The iron wheels extended above the level of the floor and was enclosed by a wooden cover to keep the hay from falling through to the wheels. The front wheels were smaller so the wagon could turn more quickly.
I remember when my Uncle Tom borrowed my Dad’s new hay mower and the horses ran away with the new mower. My uncle hooked his young untrained team to the mower and he was mowing his field of alfalfa. The mower blades struck a piece of tin which caused the team to bolt. Uncle Tom was bounced off the mower seat and the team headed out of the field and as they were leaving, they went through an open gate which was just wide enough for the mower itself to go through. As the mower approached the opening the mower blade all of a sudden bounced up and the mower went through without being stopped. But farther on the mower hit a solid fence post which broke the casing between the two wheels. That separated the team of horses from the mower. The team ran a short distance and stopped. Uncle Tom got the parts and repaired the mower for my Dad. It was so amazing to me (chuckle) that the mower blade bounced up just as the team was pulling it through the gate. I was the one who witnessed this whole thing. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself.  When I cut the alfalfa  I had a foreboding of cutting off pheasant and rabbit legs. Pheasants would make nests in the hay fields.
A practical joke or prank I played on another person was when I was in grade school. The boys chose me as a pair-off with them because I gave such light punches in boxing. But Blaine Cox was a boy I really disliked so when I got paired off with him I would really fight. His dad and my dad did not get along either.
I remember my dad liked to play April Fool’s jokes. One day he said to me “Son you let the water run over”. What he meant was, we had a barrel which we used to fill for the livestock. We’d turn on a faucet over the barrel to fill it up. Sometimes we’d forget to turn off the water. So when he told me I had failed to turn off the water, I went to turn it off and  he followed me and then said “April Fool”. Another time we were enlarging our basement and Dad put braces to support the house. One April 1st Dad told me that one of the braces had came loose. He acted so distraught that we went down to check it out. When we got there he told me “April Fool”. He was really good at telling April Fool jokes.
Behind the house in Orangeville there was a creek or wash with not much water in it. Over this creek the bridge to the main road led out of Orangeville. One day it was my duty to take the cows out to feed on  the other side of the bridge about two miles. I took the cows back home early this day and my dad asked why I came back so early. I just told him “It doesn’t take all day for me to herd cows.” I was just a little tike then about seven years old.
As a child, I wanted to be a baseball player when I grew up and I practiced a lot with my cousin Glenden. I also wanted to be a basketball player but that did not last long because it was too strenuous for me because of my asthma.
When I was growing up I did not have the fondest memory of going to church. I thought the meetings were too long and I couldn’t get the meaning out of the message in the talks. It wasn’t until later that I understood more about the importance of my youthful choices and my eternal happiness. My loving sweetheart has helped me since we were married to understand more fully the beauty of Heavenly Father’s plan and the importance of preparing myself to return to Heavenly Father’s presence. The importance of the great gift of the Atonement came alive to me that without the Savior, we will be subject to Satan throughout Eternity. I received a sweet comforting assurance that Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father are my two best friends. These messages that were taught reminded me of a very loving Heavenly Father. In like manner the Aaronic Priesthood meetings helped me to understand my Heavenly Father’s interest in me and as officers in the Aaronic Priesthood we were really servants of Heavenly Father. Even though it was the Aaronic Priesthood, we were still part of Heavenly Father’s Priesthood organization. I was a counselor in the deacons and teachers quorums. As a priest I served under the bishop as his counselor.
I enjoyed going to Primary when I was a child. I’d be working out on the farm and I would hear the Primary bells ringing beckoning me to come to Primary. The bell that rang to announce Primary was located on a tower on the top of the cultural hall. To ring the bell there was a rope that was pulled in the cultural hall. This hall was a separate building but it was attached to the church. Originally it was used as a church and then when a new building was built next to it, it was used as a cultural hall.  Eventually the cultural hall was demolished. This hall was used to have Saturday night picture shows.
Going to the picture show in Orangeville on Saturday about 6:00 p.m.  was really a highlight of my early life. The shows were held in the same old church building. I remember the pot bellied Franklin stove toward the rear of the building which provided the heat when it was needed. We always had popcorn to eat during the show. They showed the very best shows, one that would be played in the theaters in bigger towns. There was a small fee to attend. Family tickets could be bought at reduced prices. We had a family ticket and all our family would attend, those of us who were still at home.
In the 1930’s the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration) , one of their jobs was to dig out the tall poplar trees in Orangeville. They had served their purpose and the town people thought they were old, unsightly and large. They dug around a bunch of them in front of our house and a big storm came along and blew them down every which way. One of those trees barely missed our house by about four inches.
One time when I was about 10 years old I was cutting through Uncle Tom’s corral (Uncle Tom and Aunt Bell lived next door to us) and I knew I was in a bull pen and I looked around and couldn’t see the bull so I started across. I looked around again and saw the bull coming after me with his horns lowered - very angry; he came at me full speed. Somehow I scampered over the fence on the other side just in time. How I ever got over that fence before the bull got there I don’t know but my life really was in jeopardy. That was a lesson to me to be more careful where I went.
I was very sensitive to the cold weather in Orangeville. I had to work long hours in the cold shucking corn, changing the irrigation at night, milking cows, etc. When I came in cold from outside, my mother would rub my hands to warm them up.
I enjoyed very much being with my cousins and doing different things with them. We always would get together with my cousins and uncles and aunts in one of our homes in Orangeville or Castle Dale. We’d play all sorts of games. Our parents talked about family history as did the older members of the family.
On the 4th and 24th of July, and on Memorial Day the extended family would get together. We would make homemade ice cream on these special occasions. We would use the ice we kept in the ice house which we kept out on the farm. When we moved to town we had a refrigerator which made ice cubes. The dinner meal was what I remembered most which always included red berry pudding which was carrot pudding with red berries added to it. They gave it a little tart taste which  was so good. My mother would make red berry pudding  for Thanksgiving. The red berries grew on a bush on the creek bottom near the creek. Some of the bushes got a pretty good size about as high as 6 feet. Water cress was so good which also grew along the creek.
I remember my first hot dog. On the 4th of July, we would go to Castle Dale for a big celebration. While we were watching the horse racing we would have something to eat and drink. One of my sisters got me a hot dog with a lot of mustard on it. That is the first time I tasted mustard as well as a hot dog. It was a very different taste and I didn’t like it at all. But after a bite or two I began to like it. Today, January of the year 2000, I use a lot of mustard because I read that it was very good for my health. The yellow substance in mustard is an herb.
A favorite thing I liked to do when I was small was to make caves in the wash, a waterway made by springs and when it rained a lot there was a lot of water. My mother told me not to cross the wash behind the house when it was raining and right after a heavy storm. Big floods would come down this wash. One time I had just gotten across it when I heard a roar and a flood came.
We lived on the farm under the bench up until I started to school in the year 1932. Then we moved to the town of Orangeville located about a mile and half away if going by the road but was about half that if we cut through the creek in Orangeville by way of a road at the edge of the grazing land. This is where the bridge used to be before it was washed away by a big flood.
One time I had an accident where I needed stitches. I was crossing the wash where I was near the grazing land mentioned. There was a barbed wire fence separating our property from another farmer - the game warden. I was climbing up next to that fence when I lost my footing and fell into the barbed wire and it cut a sizable gash in my right leg. The scar can still be seen.
The creek bed area was a favorite place for us kids to play. We would play hide and seek and many other games. Sometimes we would explore a new area. We would have picnics, wiener and marshmallow roasts there. We would like to fish in the creek. We would put a worm on a hook and drop it in the water from the bank. Sometimes we would put more that one hook on the line. We didn’t catch many fish but had a lot of fun. One day I decided to lower an old coal bucket with a small hole in the bottom into the water. I would wait until I could see a fish go into the bucket then I would pull it up. I waited but didn’t see a fish go in so decided to pull the bucket in and go home. After I had pulled the bucket up I found a 14-inch trout.
I helped my Dad with farming which included mowing, raking, piling and hauling the cured alfalfa hay into the barn. When we first moved  into town we didn’t have a barn so we would put the hay in an open stack. To get the hay off the hay rack wagon we would use a hay fork which would have two long metal prongs which we would push down into the hay and sideways it would take a bite of hay. By means of a pole and long length of cable, it would be transported from the wagon to the haystack. Then when the lever is pulled it would open up the two prongs which would release the hay onto the hay stack. With the use of this instrument we were able to get the hay from the hay wagon to the barn or to the haystack.  A horse would pull the cable back and forth.
On the farm my dad had a cistern built. The cistern was on a hill just north of the barn. This cistern was a storage area for our water which came from the canal up on the Bench.. Twice a year we’d fill the cistern up and we’d drain the water down from the cistern on the hill down to the house. We’d use that water for culinary purposes.  There was running water already in the town of Orangeville when we moved there.
The household chores I had when I was a child were to keep my room looking nice by putting things away and making my bed. Sometimes I helped with the dishes. After I milked the cows I put the milk into the separator (separating the cream from the milk) and sometimes it was my job to clean up the separator after it was done. I turned the handle to separate the milk.
At an early age about 6 about the time I started to school, I started to milk cows. My father taught me how to milk the cow from  the right side of the cow. I learned that each cow was different and had to be put into the mood to be milked by rubbing their legs; sometimes just talking to them helped. One chore that was memorable to me was when my dad had me tend the water. I’d have to get on my bike and ride from our home in town to the farm to change the water. I’d have to go different times of the day after the water had gotten to the end of the furrows in the alfalfa or the grain field. This was a responsibility that lasted for several years. The remarkable thing about it was even though there were just a few furrows at a time could be watered, the Lord blessed us so we could water the entire farm. The water came from a spring and from a canal and a turn to have this water did not come very often but the spring water was constant but small and by the time it got through the rows the ground was soaked.
My mother had the greatest influence over my life. I admired so much her faithfulness in teaching us children the gospel principles. She always volunteered for projects in Relief Society and worked very hard each day in helping others and doing things that needed to be done around the house. Sometimes she’d work herself to the point of exhaustion and it would take about a week to recover her strength. I feel it was her faith and prayers that protected me during World War II when I was in the navy.
My first girlfriend was a girl named Gladys Hicks when I was in the 6th grade. I thought she was about the prettiest and sweetest girl around. I was going to the grade school in Orangeville. It broke my heart when her family moved away from Orangeville.
On Valentine’s Day when I was little we made Valentines to give to each other in the class. They were mainly red hearts with the words “Be My Valentine.” We gave them to everybody in the class.
The favorite time of year that I remember was Christmas.  I didn’t get everything I wanted but I looked forward to getting something. It had a certain magic in the anticipation of what I wanted to get. I’d tell my parents what I wanted. At church there was always a Christmas presentation right close to Christmas which brought out the spirit of Christmas.
I remember hitchhiking to school. We had to get up real early in the morning to do the morning chores of milking the cows and it was real cold. I went to the same school building that Jeanne’s father went to, the Emery Stake Academy in Castle Dale. The name of the school was changed to Central High School.  We would catch the bus about three or four blocks from home and we’d have to wait in the cold for the bus.  When we missed the school bus a cousin or a friend from school and I would hitch-hike. Sometimes a man we knew would pass us up and not stop and we couldn’t figure that out.
A favorite radio show we kids listened to was Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. Right always prevailed over wrong; they advertised Wheaties, the Breakfast of Champions.
Political Science was my favorite subject in school. I wanted to be a politician. Later on I became disillusioned with politicians. It seemed to me that most of them were in politics for power and money. The actions of just about all politicians were inappropriate.
Mathematics was my least favorite subject in school because I did not have a very good background in Math.
The biggest problem I remember having in grade school was the kids teasing me.   I wanted to be part of the group but I was too easy going and I wouldn’t stand up for my rights. Sometimes we’d have a boxing match at school and everyone wanted to be paired up with me and they beat the dickens out of me because I was so easy going on my punches. Sometimes after school kids would tie me up and leave me to untie myself.
The biggest problem I remember having in senior high school was the same problem with the kids until I decided I didn’t have to please all the kids. When I started standing up for my rights, things worked out better for me. It was a whole new life for me because I was more at peace with myself.
I think the place I liked to go to be alone  was the creek bed. I just kinda liked to wander around and sometimes look for watercress growing in the nooks and crannies along the creek banks. I really enjoyed the taste of watercress. This was a comforting place to be.
A place that we discovered or built as a “haven” for our gang was along the wash over by the farm where we would make caves.  Sometimes a flood would come down the wash and cut away the banks.  It also would cut caves or crevices which we would enlarge and play in. I remember one time when my cousins were visiting there on that farm that my cousin Que Jamison decided that a boy named Junior Young (about my own age) would not allow him to cross the bridge near our house at the farm. Que said he was a Troll and guardian of the bridge and he made Junior  go around the bridge - down into the wash and up onto the other side of the bridge. Junior was driving his families’ cows to and from pasture up on the bench. Que let the cows go across the bridge but not Junior Young. Junior was afraid of Que even though he was bigger than Que and he didn’t try to fight him. I felt Que was mean to do that.
There was one time and only one time when I tried to smoke. There was a tree root we found that was porous. We would light one end of it and smoke. One day my cousin Glendon and I decided we wanted to smoke the real thing. We went along the highway and picked up cigarette butts. We found an old pipe, took the wrappers off the butts of the cigarettes and jammed the tobacco into the pipe. We took it into Uncle Tom’s barn and we took turns puffing on the pipe. The mixture was so potent that pretty soon we got sick and the stable seemed to whirl around. It was a good thing we got good and sick because we never tried it again. I think I was about ten at that time.
I had a special boy friend in the 6th grade. His name was Noel. We really liked to do things together. He was a bosom buddy. His family moved into town when I was in the 6th grade and then moved out when I was in the 7th grade. The time we had together was very special for both of us. I remember going for walks near his home in Orangeville. We talked about high standards and values we both cherished.
The kids at school wore green on St. Patrick’s Day. If they didn’t wear green we’d pinch them. There was not much significance of the Irish. Sometimes the school would have a St. Patrick’s Day program but I do not remember much about it.
I remember we had a school program where a full-blooded Indian performed. He needed a helper and I volunteered. The Indian did a dance and a lot of twirling around but I can’t remember what I did but I was so sick and dizzy afterwards that someone had to take me home. I always have gotten dizzy when turning around or seeing someone else turn around or when traveling on a crooked road.
My favorite school principal was Fred Reed  when I was in the 6th grade in Orangeville and he was also my teacher.  He really taught moral values to the 6th grade class. He was fair but strict in his administration.
The first United States president that I remember was Franklin D. Roosevelt. I remember his fireside chats and we’d all gather around the radio to see what he had to say. I was much impressed that all of us were gathered around listening to his talks.
The most famous person I ever met I remember as a child was Heber J. Grant when he spoke at conference. When I  was growing up Emery Stake did not have a permanent Stake Center. So Stake Conferences would be held in different towns. We’d travel to Stake Conference and attend the morning session. Then we would eat a picnic lunch between sessions and go to the second session. I remember Pres. Grant attending several times as well as later when he was President of the Church.  Harold B. Lee was one of my favorite general authorities. I was looking forward to him becoming President of the Church.
My school friends had a favorite “hang-out” place  in jr. or sr. high.  We made a makeshift tent in the creek bed. They were made with willows and gunny sacks over the willows shaped like a tent with a flat top. We school friends would get together and talk in our hideaway. We sure enjoyed that.
I made two or three kites when I was a child and I put tails on them. They flew better when I had a pretty good tail on them. Usually when we flew kites it was in the spring. I got two pieces of light wood and tied them together and covered it with paper then tied a cloth or crepe paper tail on it. One time the kite got caught in the poplar tree in front of the house or Uncle Tom’s house next door. Most of the time we kept it airborne.
There was only one person who I had a hatred for and I mentioned him before, Blaine Cox. When he had something to drink he was very amiable, but most of the time he was very belligerent toward me. We would keep our distance so we wouldn’t have fights or arguments.
Mr. Morris was my favorite scout master and I did not do any more in scouting when he left. I lacked one merit badge of becoming an Eagle Scout. With my asthma I couldn’t pass the Life Saving merit badge because it was too exhausting for me..
My first experience at the dentist’s was when I was about 11 years old   I was just horrified at the thought of going to the dentist because I thought they were going to work on them. I did not have any dental work done  until I went into the navy. I still have a dread of going to the dentist. My teeth have been good most of my life.
My best school chum was Nad Rosenberg. He had the gift of gab. He liked to tell stories and his imagination ran away with him when he started telling stories. I had to get his attention so he would put a little more truth in his stories. In the first year of college, we made a few trips together. I remember one time he pulled in front of a restaurant, just in front of a telephone pole. In backing up he backed into the pole and dented his fenders. Another time he hit the other fender. When he and I were juniors in high school, Nad’s father committed suicide. This experience helped me to be more compassionate and to realize how fragile life is. This experience was very traumatic for Nad but he got over it. It was a growth experience for him and for me.
Some of the crazy names other children called me when I was a child were “Little Brown Jug”. The kids couldn’t shorten my name Jay any more so they called me that.  The kids teased me a lot;  because my dad was the school principal, the kids would be mean to me. They called my dad “Peg Leg Bill” because he had an artificial leg.  This made me self-conscious but in my junior year of high school, I decided not to worry about being accepted by others or being one of the gang. My dad was a teacher and the principal in Castle Dale.  About a year before he retired he resigned as principal. He was having to spend too much extra time after school with very little compensation.
We did not go hunting very much when I was young. But we did have a .22 gun and a few times I would go out hunting rabbits. Mother would rather that I did not go hunting and that is why we had only one .22 gun. I would go hunting out on the hill not far from the farm. I caught a squirrel in a trap. Mother cut it up in pieces just like a rabbit and cooked and served it for the family.  They assumed it was rabbit. I liked it better than rabbit. But I didn’t fib to them. After dinner I asked one of my sisters “Well Sis, How did you like the squirrel?  This very much displeased my mother that I would tell them it was squirrel. I couldn’t convince any of my sisters they had eaten squirrel.
My first date when I was in my teens was uneventful. She was the daughter of the man that ran the threshing machine. He ran the flour mill in Castle Dale also. This man and crew would go to the various farms to thresh the wheat. They would get a certain percentage for threshing the grain which seemed to me to be quite a bit. Our family would cut the wheat and tie it in bundles and put in shocks standing in the field. When the bundles were dry we picked up the shocks with pitch forks and put them on the wagon and hauled it all to town where the threshing was done next door to us in Uncle Tom’s back yard just east of the corral. Uncle Tom’s wheat was in one pile and ours was in another but they were both done at the same time.
The chore I disliked the most was harnessing the horses. Occasionally we had to repair the harnesses. This seemed tedious to me but I do not know why. There was a lot of detail involved  in the harnessing. So this was my most unfavorite chore. After the horses were harnessed we would hitch them to the hay wagon to haul hay from the fields to the barn or we would hitch them to the manure spreader, plow the ground, rake the hay or cultivate with one horse. One day I mowed some rows, after being out late the night before at a Friday night dance.  The rows that I mowed were crooked and my dad told me about it too. I must have been sleepy.  Friday night dances were a big event for the young people in Emery County.
I was a member of the FFA (Future Farmers of America). One project was a pig which I raised. But I never did show it. This took place in 1942 and 1943 which was my junior year and final year in high school. I grew hogs and livestock, and learned how to judge them. I participated in the State Convention  held in Nephi, Utah, where I participated in stock judging,  public speaking and judging public speaking. One of the talks I gave was about providing food for the world. The talk was entitled “Food For Victory”.  My instructor said I probably would have gotten much higher on my rating if I had answered one question differently. I was asked the question  after my talk if my plan for providing food for the world would be accomplished.  I responded that it would probably be difficult. He said I should have responded by saying, “We’ll make sure it works!”
Orangeville and Castle Dale were thought to be wrongly named. Orangeville was named for my grandfather’s brother, Orange Seely. My grandfather was Justus Wellington Seely II. Castle Dale was named for the rock formations which looked like castles. During my lifetime the story was told that Orangeville was closer to the castle formations and Orange Seely was more closely associated with the town Castle Dale. But actually he was associated with both. Originally these towns were together. They had only one post office. The story was that Orangeville wanted to get their own post office. My understanding is that when the papers came back from the federal government, the town closest to the castle mountains was called Orangeville and the other Castle Dale.
The best pet I ever had was a horse that my dad bought me. It was a young horse which was already broken in. I really liked to ride it and it was my pride and joy. I had it for only one year before I went to school in Carbon College in Price.  I didn’t have any other pets.
In my junior year in high school in Orangeville the school I was attending, Central High School, previously called the Emery Stake Academy, where Jeanne’s father and my father attended school, was closed for political reasons.  The school board members from  Ferron, which was south of Castle Dale  and Huntington on the north, decided they were going to do away with the school in Castle Dale. The reason they gave was that they couldn’t get teachers. But that wasn’t the case. The parents  protested this by keeping their children home from school. They were told that the kids from Orangeville were to go to school in Ferron. The people in Huntington were the main force for getting rid of Central High School. So then our parents sent us to Ferron or South Emery High School. Because my high school, Central High School, was being eliminated, I decided to see if they would accept me at Carbon Jr. College in Price.
They were happy to have me come because it was war time and there were not many male students.  They even gave me a scholarship and gave me a job. I asked my adviser in Carbon College if I could make up the half- credit I needed to graduate from high school. He looked me in the eye and asked “Do you intend to graduate from college?” and I said yes. Then he said if you have a college diploma they’ll never ask for a high-school diploma and to forget about the ½- credit. He was right. No one ever asked for my high-school diploma.
I attended the Carbon County College  in Price, Utah, for one year. While I lived there I worked as a show operator at a theater. Yoshiro Budo, a young Japanese man, showed me how to do the work  and we became good friends.  We stayed at the home of the man who ran the picture show circuit. Yshiro was a projectionist and he went to Orangeville and other towns in the county. He invited me to go with him quite a bit. So if it didn’t interfere with my studies I went with him. I got to see my family at the show. The shows were shown in the church building in other towns as well.
The job I was given to support myself financially was to check out tools to the students who took auto mechanics, welding etc.  I attended that college the school year of 1943 and 1944.   I went to Carbon Jr. College one year before going into the navy.

NAVY DAYS - May 1999 - (From the little book Linda gave to Jay to write his life stories on entitled “Dad Share Your Life With Me” Written on the page “October 12”.)

Because my 18th birthday was coming up soon, in April 1944, I decided to join the Navy before I was drafted into another of the armed services.  I felt that I would not be able to hold up under the marching that the infantry would have to do. I felt it would be safer on a ship than on a battlefield and that the food would be better in the Navy (which it was) and I thought it was a better choice all the way around. I felt that if I was drafted, I would have to go into the Army infantry where I would have to march a lot. My first thought was I wanted to be a pilot but I failed the preliminary tests in the Air Corps. At that time there was no army or navy air corps.
I took the train from Price, Utah (where I was going to college), up to Salt Lake and filled out the application but asked if I could finish this semester of college at Carbon Jr. College in Price. They were happy to let me finish and they put me on inactive duty until the latter part of May.
I went back to Salt Lake in May and reported in at the navy recruiting office located in the Salt Lake Post Office on 4th South and Main Street. We were given leave until the following day when we had to catch the train and I left my things in the recruiting office and planned to pick them up in the morning , not realizing the next day was Sunday.
When I went to get my things, I found that I could not get to the 3rd floor where the recruiting office was because the elevator was not running. I didn’t know what to do. The only activity was on the 1st floor where the postal workers were sorting the mail at the rear of the building. I asked a man  how I could get to the recruiting office and he happened to be the janitor fortunately and he showed me where to go. I forgot to mention the stairs were blocked off also. This man had a key to the elevator and he took me up to the 3rd floor and my belongings were not where I left them, but he let me through some interconnecting doors and I finally found my belongings.
I hurried down the street and hailed a cab. By the time I got to the train station, I found my group waiting to catch the train. The train was late taking off; otherwise I might not have caught the train to San Diego, the naval training station.
  Boot camp in San Diego lasted about 6 weeks. When I went to boot camp I was an Apprentice Seaman. They marched me every day and afterward when they showed us a film we were so tired, we went to sleep. The chief who instructed us didn’t like the Mormons. Most of the men in my company were Mormons because they came from Utah. One day we were drilling with wooden guns and after we had gone through an exercise, the chief pulled someone our of rank (line) and told him to repeat the exercise and he said this is exactly how not to do it and he repeated it the right way and he said, “If it’s the last  thing I do, I’ll teach you Mormons something.” The drill leader was exasperated because some of the company didn’t do the drill right. We left Salt Lake together and we stayed together as a group and ‘most all the company were members of the Church.
After boot camp I didn’t have to walk as much. I felt very restricted or owned by the service. After this, some of the company went right to sea on a ship and some went to other schools. After boot camp  I was sent to the hospital corps school located at Balboa Park in San Diego, California, where I was trained to be a Fleet Marine.
  When I finished my hospital corps school, I was granted my first leave. I went to Price and then to Orangeville where my parents lived. After a short leave I went to Price to catch the train. While we were waiting for the train to come in, it came and left. The station master told me  “I forgot to tell you”.  I asked him where the train made its first stop and he said Helper about 10 or 15 miles away but it would make just a short stop. So I got behind the wheel of my Dad’s car and headed for Helper. Mom would say “Slow down Son” and Dad would say “He has to catch the train.” I think it may have been the other way around. We got into Helper just the same time the train did but it pulled in the other side of another train. I was carrying my “C” bag to the train and my mother tossed me the duffel bag and I threw it on and I jumped on myself while the train was moving. Mother was quite close but Dad was way down the tracks and I waved to both of them and I was on my way back to Balboa Park in San Diego.
The ones who got highest grade in the hospital corps school got the first choice in the assignments available. I ranked quite high so I chose the naval hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.  I arrived in Jacksonville on election night, November of 1944 when Franklin D. Roosevelt had won a landslide victory.
Since I had been trained to be a fleet marine in Balboa, I was subject to go on a fleet marine draft. There was a fleet marine draft in Jacksonville, Florida. A draft is an official order for a certain number of men to go on a specific assignment.  If any one of the men on the list could not go for any reason, I would be the next on the list to go. I found out later that every one of those on that draft went to Iwo Jima and were all killed. My life was spared, I found out later. Shortly thereafter another draft came through where I was assigned to the hospital ship. We came aboard as part of the commissioning ceremony and the ship was commissioned U.S. Hospital Ship Consolation. Then we went through a shake-down cruise which was a short trip out in the Atlantic to make sure the ship was ship-shape. Then I got a leave.
I greatly appreciated the prayers of my mother while I was in the service. I knew from her prayers that she was completely in tune with Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father granted the request of my mother’s pleadings for my safety.
When I reported to Hoboken, New Jersey, Naval Yard after my leave, the ship was not ready to board so each day they gave us special assignments or “detail” as they were called. I was lucky one day when my group went to the ball game and I saw the New York Giants play the Chicago Cubs. There was a ball hit into the stands in our area where we were seated and I reached up with my right hand and caught the ball, which ball I had until it came apart after my boys had played with it awhile.
While I was home on leave, my great-uncle, Alma G. Jewkes, gave me a patriarchal blessing. Although the patriarch was almost blind, he said in the blessing, “In as much as you are in the service of our country, your life will be protected”. My life had already been protected from going on that fleet marine draft. That was a testimony to me of the inspiration from Heavenly Father the Patriarch had received. He had no way of knowing I was in the service because we didn’t tell him.
  The ship was then bound for Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  I was an ambulance driver in Pearl Harbor. I would pick up patients who had enough alcohol in their blood to perform general anesthesia.  When we’d get a call to pick up a sailor, we’d go out the gate of the navy yard and bring the patient back to the ship yard dispensary. These sailors were off the base. One of the sailors passed out from drinking so much alcohol. He was very close to death. The Marines operated the gates and usually they were closed tight but when they heard the siren on our ambulance, they would get out of our way. I was the back-up driver. Two of us always went. It was amusing to me to see how the marines reacted by opening the gates and getting out of our way so quickly.
There was a commanding officer inspection in Pearl Harbor. I was very impressed by this commanding officer. He was very fair and fatherly.  It was like a father talking to a son.
There were white glove Hospital inspections in Jacksonville, Florida held by a navy captain with 4 bars on his arm. He’d take his white glove and rub it on some corners and if any dirt showed, we’d fail the inspection. If we had too much juice we would move those juice carts out of sight so he would not mark us down. He was the opposite of the other captain in Pearl Harbor.
I really enjoyed my duty aboard the Hospital Ship Consolation. Most of the time I was the cook for the corpsmen on night duty. This was a very easy job. I was supposed to get another job in addition to it, but the night Master at Arms made sure that was my only assignment. He wanted somebody to play pinochle, cribbage and checkers with. He wanted to play these games for money but I didn’t want to so he said he’d give me 10 to 1 odds. I said I will put up a $1.00 and you put up $10. He said you put up $10 and I’ll put up $100. I won that game of checkers and that was the last and the only time we played for money and the last time ever that I played for money. He very much disliked the Church but he really liked me. We got along pretty good.
  The ship U.S.S. Consolation was commissioned in Hoboken, N. J., in January of 1945. It was the first ship in the navy to be completely air conditioned. Hospital ships are the only ships built for comfort.  Tug boats pulled us into and out of every harbor probably for better maneuverability.
After we went on a short commissioning cruise, we started down the Eastern shore toward the Panama Canal. It was interesting going through the canal - how the locks open up and after a series of locks we got from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. We were headed toward the Hawaiian Island. So I wrote a letter to my folks and asked them in my letter how Aunt Pearl was. I did have an Aunt Pearl but she had passed away a few years before. They didn’t know what I was trying to say until my brother-in-law Dough Harrison told them it was saying I was going to Pearl Harbor. He had been in the service and knew letters were censored. If there was something in letters that the enemy might learn from the censor would cut it out. When we got through all the locks and looked toward the west and knowing how wide the Pacific Ocean was, it gave me some idea of what it was going to be like going over that wide, vast Pacific Ocean.
It took two or three weeks, it seemed like, to get to Hawaii.  Hawaii seemed like a paradise, particularly when we came back to Hawaii at a later date. We saw evidence of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which had taken place December 7, 1941. The battleship “Arizona” was sticking up out of the water still.
Each time we got leave about once a week we went to Honolulu which was interesting. We, my buddies and I, rented a jeep and went all around the island to see the beauties of the island. This was the first place I ever had soft ice cream which was very tasty and inexpensive - 5 or 10 cents a cone or cup. The city was very interesting to me.  It seemed to be a carefree place, very cosmopolitan, and many different races of people live in Hawaii. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel on the beach was a magnificent place.
When I left Hawaii, I crossed the International Date Line. There was a general initiation for those who had not been across before. They were concentrating on the officers and were particularly hard on the  navy nurses, hosing them down with the fire hoses. They hosed down the officers and they paddled them  sometimes quite severely  causing quite a bit of injury. They hosed me but not so severely and they didn’t paddle me.  They gave me a certificate that I had crossed the International Date line. I had two Thanksgivings  and it was quite a treat to get those big dinners.
I wrote a poem while I was in the navy about Navy Life. It goes: “I am worried that I’m worried about a problem grave and deep. Shall I sleep and lose my breakfast or rise and lose my sleep.”  Breakfast time was quite early in the morning which prompted me to write this poem.
Aboard ship west of the Hawaiian Island we were very happy to learn over the ships loudspeakers of the surrender of the Japanese, our enemy. We were in the vicinity of Midway Island when we got word of the Japanese surrender. We got word to go to Japan to pick up allied prisoners of war. We arrived in Nagoya harbor. The prisoners were inland from Nagoya.
  As we entered the harbor at Nagoya, Japan, a Japanese pilot was brought aboard our ship. He came aboard from a little boat. His job was to direct our ship around the mines which had been laid in the harbor to keep the enemy (us) from coming into the harbor. He steered us through the harbor so we would miss the mines. Our  ship received allied prisoners  of war in Nagoya, Japan, when the war was over.
We brought the prisoners of war aboard ship and we had to watch them continually that they didn’t eat too much because their stomachs were so small from being starved. They all had stomach problems. The prisoners were from Australia, England and the United States.
After we had picked up the allied prisoners of war in Japan and the ship was headed toward Okinawa an incident occurred. One prisoner from Australia got to be quite a friend to me. I was on night duty. One morning when I was relieved from duty I was awakened soon after I went to bed about 7:00 a.m. The nurse on duty accused me of destroying some vital records. This Australian P.O.W. whose bunk was nearby spoke up very quickly and said the nurse herself had tossed it in the waste basket. He said “I think it’s still there.” So they looked and it was still there. This relieved me of any wrong-doing because the night master of arms had checked the waste basket when I left duty and it was empty. That nurse was assigned to another ward. The P.O.W.’s were mostly in pretty good shape in my ward but in other wards there were some who were in pretty bad shape. They looked very gaunt, their cheeks were sunken and they had lost weight.
On our ocean voyage after leaving Japan I was assigned night duty as the cook for the night-shift corpsmen. Usually I would have been assigned special watch in addition to this assignment but the night master-at-arms wanted somebody to play cribbage, pinochle and checkers with and so I was assigned just as cook for the hospital corpsman. I was a pharmacist mate 3rd class. Before I became a pharmacist mate 3rd class I had been a hospital apprentice 2nd Class and then 1st class. Anyway the nurse on night duty said she would like to eat with us. I said,  “Sure if you will help me with the dishes.”
Normally an enlisted man would not talk to a nurse like that because she was an officer. She knew what an easy job I had and one time she told me “You must really know somebody to get this kind of a deal”,  so she started calling me “Senator Guymon from Utah”.  This name stuck with me even after I was discharged from the Navy.  At the University of Utah, one of my shipmates passed me on campus and addressed me “Hi Senator.” Jeanne was much surprised and I had to explain the whole thing to her.
I will now return to life aboard the hospital ship. We got orders to take the allied prisoners of war to Okinawa. On the way we ran into a terrible typhoon. It tossed this large hospital ship around like it was a match stick. The waves were very high and boisterous. The ship rode these waves. We’d see the horizon on the top of the waves and then we were down at the bottom of the waves. Before we hit the typhoon, I had just eaten some ice-cream before going to bed. It came up quickly and I was really sick.  It was the only time I was sick aboard ship.
We returned to the states from Okinawa to Camp Pendleton, located in California, about the middle of May 1946 where I was discharged from the Navy. I went home to Orangeville until it was time for school to start at the University of Utah. I first stayed at a boarding house located near the University of Utah just across from the drug store on 13th East and 7th South.  Meals were served to the students there and we paid about a $1.00 per meal.  I later stayed with two other fellows just a couple of blocks from the university.  We’d take turns cooking in our apartment. They were kind of unusual guys, nice fellows, but they were very worldly. The one who complained about the food would have to cook next time.  They had the saying “It’s burned on both sides and doughy in the middle but just the way I like it”.  That saved them from having to cook the next time they thought but we still took turns. The older fellow who was about 20 was the most sensual.
  I didn’t like that atmosphere and the rent was raised from $50 to $65 a month.  So after I’d been there about 3 months, Aunt Mary offered to let me room at her house on 6th Avenue. She charged me only $45 a month for both room and board.
The classes I took were Chemistry and Physics and since I was a pre-med student I took Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy. They’d use that class to flunk  a certain number of people out of the field of medicine. They’d give us tests and ask us to give certain parts of the body but the questions were very tricky. If you weren’t very alert you wouldn’t do very well. It was just one of the things which made me disillusioned about the study of medicine as well as the attitude of the other students. When I was in the service, that is what I thought I wanted to do. But after I got started in a course and I was associated with those students, I got the feeling they were going into it for the money and I decided that was not what I wanted to do.
I completed one semester of premed and then I went into pharmacy. I took different classes in Pharmacy, Pharmacology which is a study of the action of medicines on the body and Pharmacognacy which is a study of plants and animal products and how they affected the body.
  The stay with Aunt Mary and Uncle Ralph Oliphant was much better but they would argue a lot. I really liked Aunt Mary because she liked me. She was thoughtful and considerate of me. I liked to help her with the dishes.

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE - When Aunt Mary told me that two of Clare Oliphant’s daughters were coming in June she told me to “leave the girls alone”. But I didn’t promise anything.  I first  met Jeanne Oliphant at Aunt Mary and Uncle Ralph Oliphant’s place. I asked Jeanne to go with me to see the University of Utah about the first time we met. Jeanne and Gertrude came to Utah the first part of June 1947. Jeanne stayed at Aunt Mary’s place and Gertrude went to the mission home where she was located until she went on her mission to California. The mission home then was located on State Street and 1st North.
I helped Gertrude with her luggage when she went to the train station after her stay at the mission home.  I got to know Jeanne quite well when we’d take walks over to City Creek.  I asked her to the show “Miracle On 34th Street”.
  The qualities which attracted me to Jeanne was that she was an interesting person to be around.  She had a joyful and  spiritual personality. She had an enjoyment for living and she was pretty. Jeanne and I would wash dishes together and I would so love to be in Jeanne’s presence. I took Jeanne up to the University of Utah campus where I was going to college. This was where I met one of my buddies I’d known in the navy. He called me Senator Guymon from Utah. I had to tell Jeanne the story of how I got that name when I was in the navy.
While we were dating during the summer of 1947, I drove a taxi cab. I also worked at Fort Douglas where the Centennial Scout Jamboree was being held. Scouts were there from all over the world. It was quite a big encampment. I drove a water truck which provided water for the scouts. I would deliver water to different places  to the scouts who were camping in tents.
One time the truck lost its brakes on 13th South and I’d keep honking the horn so other vehicles would get out of my way. I finally got it stopped by gearing it down and by using the emergency brakes.
The man, an ex-colonel in the army who was in charge of this operation in supplying help for the scouts, hated to see us idle. My cousin Harold Guymon and I worked together. If the Colonel had any odd jobs to do he’d ask Harold to do them. He say “do something, anything but don’t just sit there”.  The colonel worked for the Church and was in charge of maintenance of certain buildings. Harold was a painter and painted the Eagle Gate apartments located on North State Street.
After the Scout Jamboree was over I worked for Kennecott Copper Company out by the Great Salt Lake. My job was to empty out the copper ore from the ore cars just as they were coming from the mining area. I worked there until school started. I got about $4.50 an hour which was a pretty good wage for that time.
I invited Jeanne down to Orangeville to meet my parents and family on the 4th of July 1947. We took the train from Salt Lake to Price but missed the  train that we expected to be on and told my family we would be on. My sisters were there in Price to meet us and they had been waiting from the time that we were supposed to have been there. They were upset with us for missing that last train.
When we were out with the family the next day on a picnic, I proposed to Jeanne. When we got back to Salt Lake I told Aunt Mary  to sit down and she was speechless. She didn’t seem to be very happy about our news. After making a few changes in our plans we set the date to be married on September 26, 1947.
We were married on September 26 at the Manti Temple in Utah.  My parents drove us in their car up Straight Canyon from Orangeville over the mountains toward Ephraim, Utah, not far from Manti. The roads were precarious with switchbacks and winding roads back and forth to get over the mountain. The leaves on the trees were turning gold and very beautiful. The quaking aspen tree trunks were white against the gold of the leaves.
The member of the temple presidency performed the wedding ceremony. Clare Oliphant, Jeanne’s brother, was one of the witnesses and my dad was the other witness.  Clare and Doris and my parents were the only ones of the family to be with us at our wedding.
We traveled back the long car ride back to Orangeville as man and wife with my parents in the front seat. My mother invited her friends and relatives to a reception in her home that night. She had made or provided a nice wedding cake for us. We did not go on a honeymoon. Our honeymoon was the trip back to Salt Lake where I continued my university training.
After we were married I worked at an electric power plant, the Utah Power and Light. I had to work out in the elements and the weather was rainy and snowy. I worked on train tracks that transported the coal to the plant. It was my job to see that the coal was properly transported by conveyer belt to the plant. This was when arthritis set into my feet and toes. I had to discontinue my work there.
Our first home was in the Richmond Hotel located on  the corner of North Temple and State Streets. The present Church Office Building stands there now. We could see from our 3rd floor apartment window the Church Office Building, which faced South Temple. We could see President George Albert Smith as he walked to work each morning to the Church Office Building from his car in the parking lot just below our window. Life was very happy there. We attended the South 18th Ward. We stayed at the Richmond Hotel for about 9 months.
We moved to 323 So. 6th East to a 2nd floor apartment. The Sheriffs were our land lords. We lived in the 10th Ward and  I was the elders quorum president. (A more detailed account of our life there can be found on page 284 in original issues of the Bezaleel.) On the 26 of March our first child Dennis Jay was born.
In 1950 I graduated from the University of Utah in the field of Pharmacy. But I did not go to my own graduation because I wanted to practice pharmacy in Washington and the pharmacy state board examination was the very same day of my  graduation. I needed to pass that board so I could practice pharmacy in Washington state.  So we bought a 1936 Chevrolet and moved to Washington. We stayed with Jeanne’s folks for awhile and then bought a little place on Poindexter Street in Bremerton. While we lived at this house, Linda Marie was born on 14 October 1950. We stayed there about a year and were very happy.
Life changed for us again when I decided to go to the Washington State College in Pullman, Washington. The wet weather was aggravating my arthritis and I still had some time on my GI Bill. I wanted to get a degree in Pharmacognacy teaching at college level. So we moved to Pullman, Washington, in the summer of 1951. We moved to the college housing on South Fairway.
It seems that this is not what the Lord wanted me to do. I started taking classes at the college in Pharmacognacy but the teacher over that course of study didn’t think I was a very good candidate. He wrote an article in my Pharmacognacy book telling me why he felt that way. I have not been able to find what he wrote in the book.
I had to quit school after having an appendicitis operation about one month after my schooling started there in Pullman. The doctor charged so much for the operation. As soon as we could we moved to Moscow, Idaho, where I found a job at the Corner Drug Store, just 8 miles across the Washington state border. As winter came on the weather got very cold which aggravated my arthritis.
Dr. Bramwell in Bremerton had advised us to move to a warmer climate before we left Bremerton. We now felt we had better take his advice. We left Pullman on January 1, 1952, when there was a foot of snow on the ground. We headed over to Bremerton where Jeanne’s brother Burt then took us to Phoenix.
I had written a letter to the Church  Stake President in Phoenix telling him that I was coming to Phoenix and I was a pharmacist, and I asked him if he would check the jobs  out for me. It just happened that President Heywood was a member of the Good Samaritan board and had some influence.  About a week after we got to Phoenix I secured that job at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix thanks to him. Later when he got to know us better, he told us that he had been taking quite a chance in securing that job for me.  That is quite unusual that he would stick out his neck for somebody he didn’t know. The Lord blessed us every step of the way.
Guy Hannor was the administrator for that hospital. My health greatly improved in Phoenix. From the time that I started working at the Good Samaritan Hospital, I never missed a days work. I think that is really something. The Lord has blessed us continually throughout our lives, above anything that we have done to merit it.

JAY€™S WORK THROUGH THE YEARS - When I was Chief Pharmacist at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix in 1953, a new pharmacist by the name of Bill Salmon was hired. A short time later he decided he wanted my job as chief pharmacist. He started taking over by doing things he had no right to do as far as management was concerned. I decided to go after the problem head-on. I went to the administrator  and told him that I knew Bill was trying to get my job and if he wasn’t put in his place, I was going to leave the hospital. Time went by and it got worse and I put in my resignation. But before my resignation became effective, the administrator found out that Bill Salmon was not the honorable person he thought he was. The administrator came to our home on Echo Lane and admitted his wrongdoing and gave me a raise and fired Bill. This was the same year that I got my pharmacy license in Arizona in late 1953. I felt that was quite a significant event that he would come to our home and make things right with me.

( These are Jeanne’s words--21 Nov 1991 - “Jay and I were talking tonight about the places he was working during the last twenty years working at the Maricopa County Health Department.  I was thinking as he was talking that it was a blessing in disguise that he should quit working for the Phoenix General Hospital.  That is another story in itself.  But here we will tell about how he came to be working for the Maricopa County so that he was able to retire in 20 years with a good retirement pension.
  The chief pharmacist at the county hospital, Dudly  Singer, called Jay when he was still working for the Phoenix Gen. Hospital and told him that he was dissatisfied with his own job at the county hospital as chief pharmacist and asked Jay if he wanted a job.  So Jay told him that he was interested and he told Jay whom to come to talk to and he got the job.  He gave the Phoenix Gen. Hospital  notice that he was going to quit.
  When he was interviewed for the job, he asked for the same amount of money as he was getting at the Phoenix General and so they gave it to him.  In doing so it made him the assistant chief which he did not know at the time and did not know until sometime later when he was able to view his records.  The person in charge of manufacturing became the assistant chief and Jay became the manufacturer of items that they made there at the hospital such as cough syrups and   other liquid oral preparations.  He felt that this was another blessing in disguise because it gave him the opportunity to become the drug manufacturer, a position, which was soon to be no more.
  Jay worked at the County Hospital at the Durango location about 3 years before they moved to the new hospital.  He started to work there at the Durango location in 1968 and he worked for the Maricopa County Health Department for 20 years.
  When they moved from the Durango location to the new hospital on Roosevelt and 24th Street, there was a great reduction of the manufactured items.  He was not as happy with the people he worked with at the new location.  There was an Italian man who really kept things stirred up and it was just not a pleasant surrounding.  About the same time a director of pharmacy was hired  and his language was very abusive.  Jay said, “I did not have to put up with that malarkey or foolishness so I went to the phone and called Henry Haws who was the head of the board of supervisors for the county. I told him this director of pharmacy was something else and about some of the language he was using, and he said he would talk to the county manager about it.  He never talked to me that way again.”
  Jay was telling me that there was a black lady pharmacist that was working with them.  One of the pharmacists when he was standing right by her said that these are sure good "nigger toes" talking about the brazil nuts which are a very common Christmas nut.  He said it especially to get her goat or to make her mad but she didn't pay any attention to him.  This is the name of the nut which we always called it when we were growing up because they were a black color and they were shaped like a toe.
  Jay had an opportunity to get out of this stressful environment with bickering and complaining of the Italian man and others.  He was offered the job to work upstairs at the Pediatric Satellite Pharmacy.  He enjoyed this work for a short period of time and it was discontinued because one of the pharmacists said there was not enough demand for it.  Soon after this time he had an opportunity to work for a clinic for the County Health Department on 16th Street in Phoenix.
  He enjoyed the people he worked with there very much.  He worked there at this clinic for about 3 years before it was closed down because of some consolidation of clinics.
He was given the opportunity to go to the clinic which was just opening up at El Mirage more than a few miles northwest of Glendale. It was about a 50-mile round trip every day in the Phoenix traffic.  He traveled in the "five o'clock rush hours" for 20 years.  He was out at El Mirage for about 2 years before they closed up that clinic.  He was then transferred to the Glendale Clinic for about ten years where he finished up his 20 years working for the Maricopa County making it possible to retire from the state which gave a very good retirement.”)

CHURCH SERVICE  - I was the Elders’ Quorum President when we lived in Salt Lake 10th Ward in 1949. I was ward clerk and assistant ward clerk in the Phoenix 16th Ward in the Phoenix North Stake in the 1950’s. I was ordained a 70 by S. Dilworth Young in the Phoenix Stake about 1955.
I was the ward mission leader in the Phoenix 28th Ward, Phoenix North Stake, in 1968. I taught a class in our home to help prepare investigators to be members of the Church. I served seven different stake missions. My first six missions I served in North Phoenix. It is a great experience teaching people the gospel. One mission I served with Jeanne in Tempe.
The last mission was served in the Tempe 11th Ward Tempe Stake. It was while we were living here in 1974 that I enjoyed teaching the most. My companion and I were teaching a 15- generation rabbi by the name of  Moshe Ben Asa. On the first discussion, I asked him if he would like to pray. He hesitated and my companion asked if he would rather not; Moshe said,  “It’s not that;  I have never prayed in English before.” I then said he could pray in Jewish then, in his native tongue.
After the first discussion, I told him it is more than a literary pursuit. He would really want to know if the Church was true and he would need to ask Heavenly Father. He was truly sincere in asking. On the 3rd discussion, Andy Knaphus (whom I had asked to be with me that time since my companion was out of town), gave him the baptismal challenge which he accepted. As he was confirmed a member of the Church, there were twelve priesthood holders who laid their hands upon his head. He was very humble and after that he was especially humble. When he bore his first testimony after his baptism in the ward  he simply said “I have found my Messiah.”  That was his testimony and so moving to all of us.

I was a greeter at the door in the Tempe 10th Ward, Tempe South Stake, while we were going to the Lakeshore Chapel. Jeanne and I were assigned to see that the doors in the building  were locked each night after any Church activity.
Children orn in Phoenix, Arizona - Three of our children were born in the hospital where I was working at Good Samaritan. Stephen Lee was born the 6th of January 1953, Ronald Howe was born 30 April 1954, Brian Noel was born 12 February 1957. Our last child Jeanay Christine was born in the Phoenix General Hospital while I was working there.
Our first home was at 16F Alzona Park in West Phoenix located near 35th Avenue and Van Buren Avenue. These were army barracks during the 2nd world war. We bought our first home in 1953 and lived in Phoenix at 2730 W. Echo Lane for 20 years and they were very happy years.
We moved to Higley in 1971 to provide a better environment for the 2 children Brian and Jeanay who were left at home. Dennis and Linda were married and Stephen and Ron were going to college away from home. We hauled water for culinary purposes  from the huge wells pumping water into the canals for the cotton fields nearby.  This was quite a chore. We lived there for about a year and were glad to get back to civilization and the comforts of life in Tempe where we moved in April 1973.
  While we were there at the Higley house we lost a dog, a horse and a son. Stephen was killed 24 June 1972 in an auto accident  while he was on a trip after his first year of college. We didn’t get away from the problems of life when we moved to Higley. We just found more problems.
  Ron persuaded us to move to Tempe, Arizona in April 1973 not far away, where new homes were being built.
LIFE IN TEMPE - We’ve really liked living in Tempe. It was and is a fine place to live with a gracious wife. We have been living here for 26 years. I retired in June 1988 and I really enjoy my retirement. We were able to get a cellar put in the back yard. We finally got the stairs put down into it in 1999 when Burt Oliphant helped Jeanne put it in. Our home has been very comfortable and we are so thankful for it.
I was allergic to vitamin C. It was probably the filler in the vitamin C that I was allergic to because I am not allergic to any of the citrus juices. I felt impressed to use the fig leaves because they helped my body throw off the toxins. I made a tea out of the dry fig leaves. Fig leaf tea acted as a natural antibiotic. I never did take any antibiotics or medicine except on very rare occasions. I hesitated in taking them because of an allergic reaction to the body. The reason I did not take medicine was I knew it had an unfavorable reaction to my body. I knew they had toxic chemical properties.
  I’ve now been retired for about 3 1\2 years and thoroughly enjoying it.  My prime objective is to check ancestral family names to see if the temple work has been done.
TRIPS - Our first trip was to England and Europe when we went to pick Ronald up in 1976 from his mission in Austria. We went on a U.S. history trip in 1977 or ‘78.  We then went on a church history trip and genealogy trip in 1989.
MISSIONS - We went on a Family History Mission in the Mesa Family History Center in 1989. We went on two temple missions together, to the Chicago Temple in 1993-94, to the Dallas Temple Mission in 1996-97.

(The forgoing are words of Jeanne Guymon, typed and finished by Jeanne Guymon, July 2000.)
I asked Jay questions from a little booklet which Linda gave to us from which I filled out his Personal  History. Many of the incidents Jay refers to in his youth are answers to questions in the little booklet. We are grateful to Linda for giving this to us to elicit these responses.

(JAY’S LIFE STORY CONTINUED, written by Jeanne on Feb. 5, 2003.)
  In November 1997 soon after returning home after our Temple Mission to Dallas, we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary.  Jeanay and Linda helped us by giving us a party in  the church building near our home where family members and friends were invited.  It was a lovely affair where family members took part with Scott Mason, our oldest grandson, acting as M.C.
  In May of 1998, Dennis invited us to come to England for a months stay.  He had been transferred from Hill Air Force Base for a stay of 3 years.  We jumped at the opportunity to go.  Dennis took some time off to show us around England and Scotland, were we saw many castles and places our ancestors came from.
  In 1999, Jay’s health began to deteriorate rapidly.  Family members wanted to honor him for a Father’s Day Tribute Reunion in June, 2000.  Many came from great distances for that purpose.  It was so wonderful and was preserved on a video tape.
  In August 2000, we learned Jay had a bone infection in his little toe of the left foot and while he was hospitalized in November 2000 to get rid of the infection the doctors diagnosed that he had Parkinson’s Disease.  Shortly after that the doctors found he had prostate cancer.  Later it spread to the bones.
  The medicine for Parkinson’s Disease helped him so he was able to speak clearly and loud enough so we could hear him.  He was able to hear us also, so he did not have to have the hearing device which he used while he was in the hospital in November 2000.
In Feb. 2001  Jay had so much pain in his feet that he couldn’t sleep unless he sat up in a chair.  Ron and Nita came down from Rigby, Idaho and while they were with us we were able to obtain a lift chair.  By April, Jay felt much better and was able to go to church with me.  Nita consulted with our doctor and got pain patches prescribed for Jay.
On 17 Dec 2001, we started using the Home Health Care insurance we had purchased 2 years before, which paid for a nurse to check on him every 2 weeks and a certified nursing assistant (C N A) to come and care for him 5 days a week, 5 hours a day.  This greatly helped me for she did household tasks too.  We used this service up to the day he died,  28th  of January 2003.
In Feb. 2002, we were blessed by learning about a nutritional product called  Reliv , which helped him live a better quality of life.  His skin coloring changed to a more pink color and he had enough energy to take walks down the street from our house and his hearing and speaking continued to improve.

January 2003 -  This Life Story has been given to many of the children and grandchildren but we are adding on more of his life story.

On 2 Jan 2003 the doctor told us Jay needed to go on chemotherapy so on 5 Jan 2003 we told the family of the decision we had to make and were making not to go the route of taking chemotherapy. We called the family and told them that each of the family members were invited to come and visit with their father or grandfather to obtain a blessing from him.
  On 6 Jan Jenna, Scott and Judy were the first to visit Jay and receive their grandfather’s blessing. Derek and Dallin came during the next week  On the 16th of January the doctor prescribed that Jay be under the care of Hospice of the Valley. Dennis, Denny and Christy and Billie came from Utah on the 17th and Jay gave them each a blessing.  Linda came from Queen Creek that day and received her blessing also.

On 17 January to the 20th Dennis, Denny, Christy and her boyfriend Billie were here from Utah so Lana got busy on the phone and called the family in the valley here in Phoenix to come to a dinner at our house on 5604 South College in Tempe. On Sunday 19 Jan 2003, 37 family members got together at our home to be with Jay and Dennis and his family who were visiting here from Utah.. It was such a nice time when their Dad and Grandpa gave  father’s blessings to all who wanted one. Renada and Candice received their blessing that day. This visit helped more of the cousins to come together so they could get acquainted with each other.  Dennis and his family needed to go back to Utah the next day.
  On Wednesday the 22nd our home teacher Bro. Oscar Casdorph came to bring Jay some peanut butter fudge he had made and Jay asked him for a blessing.  Right after he left Jay told me he felt his time was short, that he did not have too much time and so I called each member of the family.
On Thursday the 23 January, Dennis and his family JayDee, Becky and Nathan, and Christy came back down traveling all night arriving on the 23rd at 9:30 a.m. Ron and Craig and Beth came down on Friday the 24th.  Ruth and Paul who live in St. George picked up Burt and Peggy from Hurricane where they spend the winter. The hospice nurse ordered morphine to help ease the pain Jay was feeling.
On Saturday the 25th, JayDee got word that Brooke, their daughter had had a seizure and he and Dennis were very worried about her so left soon after we had a family devotional in honor of Jay William Guymon. JayDee took charge of the devotional which treated the subject of Life after this life and resurrection which he took out of Brigham Youngs writings. It was very good.  I got a video tape of that.
On Sunday 26th Ron left to get back to Rigby, Idaho for work the next day and Craig left to get back to his home in Utah. Jay recited the poem to Craig  he learned in grade school titled “The Ride of Paul Revere” and the “Naughty Rabbit”. Jeanay and John came over with Christian and Carol that evening and received their blessings from Jay. Then we all sang hymns to Dad which we all enjoyed doing.
On Monday 27th after a hard night Jay was awakened by the C N A ringing the doorbell. He had a rattling in his chest. Jay spoke to her telling her “You are a fine lady” which were his last audible words I heard him say. At 6:48 that evening I asked him if he wanted me to call the family and he said or indicated by nodding his head yes. So I called them all to notify them  We made a 3-way call to Ron and Dennis and they were able to visit with us. We called the after-hours hospice nurse and he came to be with us. We called the rest of the family in the valley and they all came to be with Jay and this nurse told us some very useful thing which helped cushion the blow of Jay’s death.
Lana and Brian and I were with Jay the next morning when he passed away peacefully fulfilling a life full of  accomplishments leaving us with many wornderful memories of him. Dennis and Ron called to see how Jay was but he was only able to speak to Dennis. When Ron called a few minutes later he was not able to speak. Jay was a good husband and father and he has many family members and good friends who love him. I will let Linda tell about the closing of Jay’s mortal existence here on this earth.
   (This next part was written by Linda M. Kessler, on Feb. 5, 2003)
Jay, my dad, died at 7:38 a.m. on January 28, 2003 in his home at 5604 S. College just 15 minutes after he visited with Brian, the last of his children to say “Goodbye”.  The night before Dennis (by phone), Ron, (by phone), Jeanay and I had a prayer, where he asked me to be voice, and at Dad’s request, by his bedside to ask Heavenly Father to release our faithful Dad and bring him home.  Then about 15 minutes later his hometeacher Oscar Casdorph and another ward member, Bro. Harris, came at his request, to give him a Priesthood blessing of release.  His funeral was on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2003 at the Grove Parkway Chapel in Tempe, where approximately 200 family and friends attended.  He was buried in the Resthaven West Cemetery on Northern Avenue, east of 59th Avenue, in Phoenix.
There were two Navy men doing honors for him as a veteran.  Taps were played and he was laid to rest with over 40 family and friends attending.  Almost all of my mother Jeanne’s brothers and sisters were able to attend with their spouses.  Dad’s brother Duane, his sisters Ruth Jaloszynski from Colorado Springs and Pat Crosby with her husband Dan came down from Utah. All of Dad’s children gave tributes at the funeral.  His grandchildren sang “I Am A Child Of God”.  He was praised and will be missed but he leaves a great legacy.  He always told us, “You’re a fine man” or “You’re a fine lady” but the truth is HE WAS THE FINEST MAN I’VE EVERKNOWN!

Stephen Lee GUYMON

When the days of our life are upon us
     Trails and joys of life both abound,
     Let our heart be forever true to our faith,
     Our life led by our Eternal Guide.

When at last our journey is over,
     Now to leave our earthly abode,
     Let us see through the darkness which surrounds us
     The enduring pure light of God.

Articles of Fortitude (Stephen')

1. Always be honest.
     2. There are no tomorrows.
     3. Put spirituality before physical means, while keeping healthy and
        strong.
     4. No matter what they tell you, they expect you to be clean.
     5. Be humble.
     6. Don't rank people (or yourself) down.
     7. Don't make fun of other's handicap.  It will make it your handicap
        too.
     8. Don't evey be "mean", using harsh words in a harsh manner.
     9. Be honest with yourself and confide in yourself and others.
    10. Try to look at the other end of things.
    11. Make a good decision and without hesitation, after reading "Your
        Standards", and stick by it.
    12. Be friendly and nice to be with.
    13. Don't be discouraged when you think you're being abused.
    14. Be patient.  Try to think of yourself as both the one to be patient
        and the one to be patient with, as if judging yourself and your future.
    15. Work goes lightest when you like what you're doing.
    16. Strive for permanent social gains rather than temporary ones.
    17. Now smile. You're watching yourself.

(On cover of folded paper he had written: Very important. Open frequently)

Kenneth Vaughn CHRISTENSEN

Ken has been a very good son-in-law.  He has been a very devoted husband
and father to Linda and her children.  We will miss his cheery happy
disposition.

Ken has been a very good son-in-law.  He has been a very devoted husband and
father to Linda and her children.  We will miss his cheery happy disposition.

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