The Big City - by Gordon E. Douglass
Power meters were put in all of the Fitchville houses at this time so that all residents would have to pay for the electric power that they used. The man who put our meter in showed dad how he could undo one of the wires and the power that we used wouldn't show on the meter. He said that the main reason for the meters was because Cecil Fitch had almost all of his lights on all of the time. The company was trying to encourage Cecil to use less power. A month or two later, I let a man in to read our meter. He saw the loose wire and he came back to talk to dad. Dad continued to loosen the wire though. He told me never to let anyone in unless he or mom was home. He loosened the wire for about seven days every month.
I was eleven years old in 1929 and this ended the period of time that I ever received any money from Dad. Once in a while, Mother gave me a dime so that I could see a special movie. Jean could always seem to get whatever she wanted or needed. Mack and Bob could always seem to wheedle money out of Dad. They had to sit through a lecture on the value of money, but in the end, they managed to get the ticket to a show. I was very proud though and would rather not go to a movie than to listen to the lecture.
Two and one half years later, Dad finally realized that his career at the mine was ended. He had been going to Salt Lake City a few days at a time to seek other employment full time. I came in from play one evening and Mother told me that we were moving to Salt Lake City early in September. I went in and went to bed. I usually went right to sleep, but tonight I was so exited that sleep was beyond me. My sister Jean came home and I told Mother not to tell Jean what we were going to do or she wouldn’t be able to sleep. The next day, I had a penny and went to Hillman's store on Eagle Street to buy a piece of licorice. I told Mrs. Hillman that we were moving to 427 S 13th East in Salt Lake. She said that was a good place to live as it was above the smog. I didn't know what she meant at the time.
Salt Lake had been a wonderland in my young life when we went to Salt Lake to visit. The city was beautiful with well-kept lawns at every house. There were tall buildings where one could look out over the city on all sides. There were nearby canyons with running streams. There was the salt lake to swim in as well as the municipal hot springs. Liberty Park was a huge area with green lawns and large green trees. There was a zoo at the North West corner of Liberty Park. There were also many tennis courts and horseshoe pits at Liberty Park. We had been there many times for picnics. We went to Salt Lake often to watch the 24th of July parade. The parade usually ended near Liberty Park.
Three 5 and 10 cent stores were side by side on Main St between 2nd and 3rd South Streets. The three side by side stores were Kresses, Grants and Woolworths. It was fun to go in the stores with my parents just to see all of the items that were available. Mother would usually buy me a nickel's worth of candy. A person could get lost in Kresses, because they had another entrance on 3rd South Street. Some people became confused if they went out the 3rd South exit by mistake.
When we stayed over night in Salt Lake we always stayed with Rob and Nell Wimmer at 636 E and 3rd S. Nell was Dad's sister. A streetcar ran in front of their house. It was exciting in the mornings to be awakened by the streetcar. I ran to the front porch to watch it go past the house. The city itself had a good smell of freshly watered lawns. Salt Lake City always seemed such a big city, but one day Mother and I were up on the east side of town visiting with Mother's friend Dora McBeth. Mother used the phone to call Dad and to tell him that we were coming to town on the streetcar and to meet us at a certain place down town. I felt like we were going to get lost so I was really amazed that when we got to town Dad was there on the corner waiting for us. The streetcar was full of people and everyone seemed to want to get off at this particular corner. I was afraid that the streetcar would start going before Mother and I got off.
Dad always looked over the theater section of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper in Eureka. Whenever there was a good vaudeville act such as trained dogs or something similar at the Old Pantages Theater Dad would try to bring us to the city to watch it. This old theater was a beautiful building with gold tinted loges and silky curtains that were raised just prior to the performances. I especially liked the old pipe organ, which played music to set the mood of the old silent movies. We didn't go to these movies very often, but the times that we did go were very memorable. I believe that it was in 1928 that Dad drove us all the way to Salt Lake to see Al Jolson in the first talking picture, "The Jazz Singer." Mother didn't like me playing in Wimmer's back yard, as there was always black dirt on everything. Mother always called it "Salt Lake Dirt."
Dad located a trucker who made regular trips from Salt Lake and generally returned to Salt Lake empty. I believe that Dad paid him $50 to move our furniture to our new house. We cleaned the house in Eureka from head to toe. Mother said that she couldn't leave a dirty house. Then we drove to Payson to say good-bye to all of our family there. We didn't know how long it would be before we could ever afford to travel to Payson again.
I looked forward to moving to Salt Lake. When we visited Salt Lake, Dad had taken us to the top of a couple of the largest buildings, to the jail, to the firehouse, the lake, the zoo, to the Brighton Lodge (which was up Big Cottonwood Canyon) and to many other places that I wanted to see again. Now that I lived in Salt Lake, Dad was always too busy and too broke to take us anywhere again. It was now a question of having the gasoline for the car.
We talked to Dad's sister Kathryn while we were in Payson. Kathryn had taught school in Salt Lake at the Roosevelt Junior High School. When we told her what our address was in SLC, Kathryn told Mother "don't let Gordon go to Roosevelt". She said that there were a lot of scummy people who went there. She had a bad experience with a boy who had followed her home each night after school. She quit her job there to get away from him. We arrived at our new address on Sep 7 1932 and Mother took me to the Bryant Junior High School the next day to see if she could enroll me there. As we walked to the entrance door, there was a huge, well built, red-headed boy who sat on the banister and glared at me as we went in. It is not good to have your mother go with you to enroll you in school. I said to myself that I would have to fight that boy some day. Principal Oscar Van Cott, however wouldn't let me enroll there as I lived one block too far south. Mother then took me to the City and County Building to talk with Mr. Nuttall, who was the Superintendent of Schools. He also wouldn't let me enroll at Bryant. Reluctantly, we went over to the Roosevelt to enroll. My cousins, Jedda and John D. Jennings lived even a block further south than our house and they went to Bryant. Our family just didn't have the pull to get me into Bryant.
Principal Harold Stern enrolled me in the 8th grade even though I had been past the 8th grade at the Tintic Junior High School in Eureka. The reason was that the Salt Lake Schools were under an accelerated program and only went to school for 11 years instead of 12. Miss Street was an English teacher and my home-room teacher. She was very nice. Mr. Tolman was my algebra teacher. Several years previously he had been Philo T. Farnsworth's teacher, Farnsworth later became the inventor of the television.
On my second day of school, as I was leaving the Roosevelt Junior High School on my way home, four second-year students grabbed me and proceeded to take my pants off. Two or three times I had a chance to hit one of the boys when I got my arm free. I felt that this was just a hazing of a freshman by the sophomores and so I didn't strike out at them. When they got my pants off they hung them in a tree. I hid under an alcove of the school and waited for a boy student to come past. Only girls came past. Finally a tall girl came past and I thought perhaps she was a teacher. I was overcome with indecision on what course to take and in desperation I yelled out to her "hey will you pull my pants down?" I realized what I had said the moment it escaped my lips, but it was too late at that point. She was a student and not a teacher. She just stuck her nose in the air and continued on her way. Finally, Mr. Jones, the coach, came past and got the pants for me. I was angry and frustrated when I arrived home and Mother could sense it. She asked me what had happened. Dad was at home at the time and he got all excited. He got me in the car and drove down past the school hoping to identify the boys. If he had found them, I guess he would have had me fight them one at a time. Everyone had left the school grounds though by the time we arrived there.
I soon found out what Mrs. Hillman meant about being above the smog by living on 13th East Street. As soon as the days became colder, people lit their furnaces. The streets east of about 12th East Street were above the smog. A heavy gray blanket of smog lay over the city. The smog was filled with coal smoke and that is why the garages and other buildings had a layer of black dirt covering everything. I could feel the oppression of the heavy smog as I walked down into it on my way to school. It was this smog that had left the black dirt at Aunt Nell's house.
The first year students only had physical education on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those of us who were in the band had practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays and had Physical Education on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and so I was in the class with the second year students and Jack Swanson, the ringleader of the boys who had earlier pantsed me. When it became too cold to have PE outside, we were taught in an indoor classroom. For the boxing class we were only taught how to stand, how to lead with our left and how to defend ourselves. For our final examination we were matched up with the person who was most nearly in our weight class. It happened that Jack Swanson was to be my opponent. I think that Coach Jones may have set it up purposely. On Monday, we started the class with the two smallest boys. They put their left foot forward and feinted with their left glove and then gently hit out with their right glove. None of the boys hit their opponent. This was repeated on Wednesday and by Friday I was all tensed up. Swanson came out at me and placed his left glove out and I belted him with my right knocking him down. He got up with fire in his eyes and swung wildly at me. Up to this point the boys had all been in their seats. Suddenly they all jumped up and cheered me on. Swanson was a bully and they were glad to see him get a licking. When our three minutes were gone, the two biggest boys, Ricky Ryser and Bill Gibson got up and went through the same routine that all the others had done. I thought Jack would wait for me after school, but he didn't.
There were so many boys to play with on 13th East that I could never seem to get the time to study. James Louis Montgomery Barker lived next door on the south. His father was an absent minded professor of German and French at the University of Utah. The next house was where Charles and Paul Cornell lived. Charles or 'Chick' was cross-eyed and was a real acrobat. Their father was an editor for the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper. A few houses further was where Wayne Call lived. His father was the United States Marshall. Almost directly across from our house was where Wannie Crane lived. His nickname was now 'Rails'. His father, Guy Crane, was the geologist in Eureka. Further to the south, on the corner of 5th South was Robert Rieben. His mother and he ran a florist shop from a room in their house. He was a little bit older and played end on the East High School Football Team. His work kept him from playing with us very much. We had a lot of fun together and did almost everything as a group. One favorite thing was to play aerial football on the northwest corner of 13th East and 5th South where the Charleston Apartments now stand. My second cousin, John D. Jennings had moved up from 3rd S to 6th S and 13th E. Jim's football was punctured so we went over to play football with John D and Howard Means and some smaller boys on the grass at the Unitarian Church. One of the boys kicked the ball and it broke a window in the house next door to the church. We went and got the ball and nobody was home. The boys wanted to leave and say nothing about it. I got John D to run over home and bring back a pencil and some paper. We left a note so that the homeowner could phone us. Just as we were leaving the family drove in the driveway. When the man saw the window he started to rant and rave and said he was going to call the police. His wife told him to try to be calm. I told him to settle down a bit and look at the note that we had left him. He had us all come back the next day. Each of us gave him 35 cents to pay for a new window pane. He put the new window in by himself. He was a little apologetic for the way he had lost his temper the day before.
On Saturday, Chick's father gave us some tickets to a morning matinee movie at the Utah Theatre. Chick also had a pass for the streetcar. He went into the streetcar and threw the pass out the window. Each of us did the same thing in turn and all six of us got to town on the same streetcar and on the one streetcar pass. Another day a muzzled dog and another dog were having a fight in front of Barker's house. I didn't think it was very fair so Wayne Call and I took the muzzle from the handicapped dog so that they would have an even fight. A police car drove up immediately and an officer pointed to Wayne and me to come with him. There were a dozen people there so I don't know how he knew that we were the culprits. We were driven down to the City and County Building.
This was where the Juvenile Court was held. When the officers learned that Wayne's father was the Marshall, they couldn't help from smiling. They interviewed us quite intensively until Wayne started to cry then they let us go. We had to walk the 13 blocks home.
The Cornell boys had free passes to the University of Utah football games. The rest of us would go up to the east side of the field and climb over the fence to get in free. The guards would run toward us to try to keep us from getting in. Once we were in though, they didn't evict us. Once we were over the fence if they took us to the gate to kick us out a dozen more boys would jump the fence.
On Halloween, we went out to do tricks. We got a small box of spoiling tomatoes and took them to the big billboard on 13th East and 5th South. We threw the tomatoes at passing cars. Finally a little roadster with no roof passed. I was a very good thrower both for distance and accuracy. I threw the tomato right in the car and I can still see in my mind's eye a girl in a white dancing dress rising out of the seat to look at her now spoiled dress. I never felt so ashamed in my life. I immediately called a halt to this. We hauled the remaining tomatoes back to the store on 4th South and quit doing tricks. Paul Cornell suggested that we go out and ask for treats. We knocked or rang door bells and sang "We only come but once a year so give us something while we're here." These kids had done the same thing the previous year so many people were prepared for us and gave us each a piece of candy or an apple. I've wondered if these kids were the originators of "Trick or Treat".
We lived in the 33rd ward, which was on the 11th East between 4th and 5th South. Joseph Wirthlin and his family lived in this ward. He had 3 children of which I was aware. They were Joseph, Judith and another girl who later married James McKonkie. I always wondered if they were related to my best friend in Eureka, Rex Douglass Wirthlin. Rex's mother was my father's first cousin. I had to walk to the dentist down town. I passed the Wirthlin's home and it had several animals sculpted in snow in their front yard. They were really done artistically. I thought that it was a shame that they couldn't freeze them and keep them forever. There was a beautiful girl named Helen Clark in the 33rd ward. I heard Mother talking to a lady once about here and the lady said that Helen was an angel, but her sister was a little devil. I didn't really meet anyone else in this area except for Hubert Nuttall, Ben Lofgren and Mel Dunlap.
When I first started at the Roosevelt, I was overwhelmed by the great number of students who went to school here as compared to the school in Eureka. I thought that I was going to have to learn everyone's name. In each class, as the teachers called the roll, I looked at the student so that I could learn their names. At the end of the three months I knew the names of each student in every class. I also knew many of the students who were the leaders. I learned their names at the assemblies which were held every Friday. Harold Hiner and I were the only two students in Mr. Tolman's Algebra Class who seemed to understand what he was teaching. I sat to the left of a big fellow name Rudolph Gentner. One day Mr. Tolman announced that he was going to leave the class for a few minutes to go to the Principal's Office. There were two doors in the room. He left from the front door. Rudy said something to me and I answered him. Someone put his hand on my left shoulder. Usually when his happens and you turn then your nose hits their finger. I turned to the right instead of to the left. It was Mr. Tolman and he was smashing Rudy's head and my head together. My nose hit Rudy's head and the blood spurted from my nosebleed. Mr. Tolman took me to the washroom and earnestly apologized. I found out that the reason for his apology was that his job had been threatened and if he ever hit another child he would lose his job. I met Rudy again when I was a Stake Missionary in the Grandview Ward. My missionary companion, Marvin Smith and I baptized Rudy's wife Francis into the Mormon Church.
Some of the people that I met at Roosevelt were: Smith Monson, his brother Harry Monson, Paul Person, Ted Greenwood, Reed Richardson, Jack Sharp, Bruce Kelly, Richard Ensign, Melvin Dunlap, Hubert Nuttall, Ben Lofgren, Wilford Uffins, Charles Austin, Charles Campbell, Kim Smith, Wallace Watts, Rulon Hoyt, Ben Reece, Murray Rawson, Sam Shapiro, Morris Shapiro, Grant Hanson, Russell Jex (whom I'd known in Eureka), Wilford Bruderer, Willard Bruderer (twins), Douglass Porter, Mack Rideout, Jack Rideout (twins), Val Myers, Wallace Watts, Walter Frakes, the Gardner twins and others. I had a real crush on Margaret Stevens, who was in my algebra class, but I was afraid to talk to her.
At Roosevelt, as soon as school started each day a bugler would sound a bugle call and then we would all stand, put our hand over our heart and give the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Principal Harold Stern then spoke on the intercom and told us of any scheduled events for the day or future events.
The people who had lived in our house on 13th East owned several dogs and I guess the dogs lived in the house because the house had a bad odor. In the middle of the night one night I got up to go to the bathroom. I knocked over the garbage sack and it spilled all over the floor. Mother asked me about it in the morning, but I didn't remember anything about it at the time. Dad had been asked by Rob and Nell for us to live in their house while they went to California. This decided it for them. We moved into their house at 636 E 3rd S on the day after Christmas. This made Mother happy because now I would live in the District of Bryant Junior High School. It didn't matter to me now because I was very well pleased at Roosevelt Junior. I had thought when I first arrived in Salt Lake that I was going to have to fight all of the kids like it was in Eureka. The Salt Lake kids were a lot more easy-going. I never did have a street fight in Salt Lake.
We attended the 10th Ward from our new house. Much to my surprise, many of the boys that I had known at Roosevelt lived in the 10th Ward. Smith and Harry Monson, Rulon Hoyt, Wallace Watts, Val Myers and Walter Frakes. They all lived quite a distance from our house so I only saw them at church. We belonged to the beaver patrol and had fun in the boy scouts. We spent a day up one of the canyons and we went on a tour of the Utah State Capitol Building. An elderly man, Arthur Strong (Uncle Art) took on the job as "Beaver Patrol Advisor." He loved boys and kept us busy.
A small boy named Heber J. Hanson lived next door to us. He was an exuberant boy with a very nice personality. His uncle, Alvin G. Pack wrote short plays for a radio station. Heber and his sister acted in the radio plays. Heber sold "Colliers" and "Saturday Evening Post" magazines door to door. One week he went on a trip and left me the magazines to sell for him. I went to all of the addresses of his regular patrons and nobody would buy a magazine. In desperation, I knocked on the doors of all of the houses in the neighborhood and I couldn't sell even one copy. His supervisor came to me to collect his money and was really upset that I hadn't sold any. I realized that it was Heber's cute personality that was selling the magazines and I decided that maybe I was no salesman.
Ray Halverson was a good athlete at Bryant and I really liked him. We became very good friends and this friendship endured through school and the University of Utah and then carried on in Hawaii; he finished his mission there and I was in the Navy. I also met at Bryant on the basketball floor a big muscular, red-headed boy named John Weller. He was the same boy who had been sitting on Bryant's banister when my mother tried to get me in to school there. Ray, John and I were close friends and did many things together until I went away in the Navy. When I came home we still did many things together. Our favorite thing was to see the Three Stooges where John and Ray laughed at the Stooges and I laughed at Ray and John. We also went quite often to the Royal Dairy for a "Malt."
Carl Adair was the only boy who lived near to me on 3rd South, but we didn't seem to have any common interests. My cousin Shirley Wimmer had left an old tennis racquet at the house. I used it during the summer at Victory Gardens Playground. I usually found someone there from Brant Junior with whom to play tennis.
I tried to find some kind of work, but it was depression time and nobody was hiring anymore. The Fitches in Eureka and a lot of the rich kids in Salt Lake City wore white trousers when they played tennis. Somehow I got enough money to purchase a pair of white-duck trousers at a ZCMI sale for $1.00. I kept Mother busy washing and drying those trousers. The tennis courts were all lighted. The ones that I used were the 3 courts at Victory Playground at 250 S 10th E, the 2 courts at Lindsay Gardens courts and was at 7th Avenue and "M" Street. We usually didn't bother to sign up for the court as they were seldom all in use at the same time. I never did go to the Liberty Park courts, because they were usually filled up. There was no charge for the use of the courts. I looked around and could usually find tennis balls with which to play. Many players wouldn't bother to search for a ball if it was lost in the tall grass. I couldn’t have played if I had to buy new balls.
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