James Vernile Terry

I had kind of a bad start. I was born without any hair, no teeth. No clothes, couldn't speak couldn't eat anything but milk. I don't remember very much concerning the early years. The first thing I recall, and I don't know for sure that was two or three, somewhere along that way. Was an irrigation ditch in front of our home in West Jordan. And as I recall, I had a dress on so I couldn't have been very old. But I've been playing in the ditch and got the end of the dress wet. And there was a footbridge close to the house there. And I leaned over on this footbridge to wring out the dress and fell into the ditch. I remember going under bridge it seemed four bridges but my mother said there was only one my sister Myrtle started screaming and mother came running out and run down the ditch and straddled the ditch and pulled me out. I don't remember very much concerning West Jordan a except that one incident then we moved to Idaho.

Dad and uncle Hyrum had heard that; I don't know whether they were homesteading the property or what but there was land available in Idaho that was supposed to be good farming land. And so we moved up to Fairfield, Idaho. Fairfield and soldier Idaho is where we live in two places. And I only remember a few things concerning Idaho.

We had a dog, as I recall his name spot. And I remember one thing that happened with us, a bunch of us were on a two wheeled cart behind a horse. And one of the girl’s father worked at a service station in the corner of the Main Street in town there. We drove down that way with the horse. It was a bunch of us kids on this. It was just a flat cart, no seats. And me being one of the youngest I was up toward the front and had a hold of the front hanging on. And we came to the service station and the girl's father thought he'd give us a little fun. So he said I'll put some air in your tires. We had just wooden wheels with steel rims. But he did it just a joke and he squirted the air and the horse jumped, started running. And of course, we were frightened. The first corner we had around most of the kids fell off. Merril and one of his friends climbed upon the horse to try to stop the horse. And I was the only one left on their cart. I was sitting in the middle hanging on and we finally came to a bridge that was over I don't now know the name of the river it was there but river a stream anyway. And spot kept jumping at the horses bit. Finally got a hold of the lines by the horses bit and the horse stopped just before we started over this bridge. The bridge had been broken. And we felt like he saved us from going into the stream.

But anyway, the thing I remember about spot was when we moved from Idaho back to Salt Lake City. We went from Idaho, about 1922 And I was about well it could have been 21 or 22 I don't know for sure. But I was about four or five when we moved to Idaho. I only stayed up there for a short time that I remember we moved back to Salt Lake City. And I started school in Salt Lake when I was six. So it's prior to this time.

While after we had been in Salt Lake, we got word that from some friends there that spot had tried to follow the train that we got on to to come to Salt Lake and went down the track and evidently trying to follow the train got killed on the track with a train that I do remember the dog and this is quite a thing to have happen.

Grandpa and Grandma Terry lived at 1514 West ninth south. And this was the home that we moved into when we first came to Salt Lake. And then we moved from there to 1300 West. And it was there in 1923 25 rather that I was baptized I don't remember the date. Or who did it right now I've got this on record. I'll look that up. And I remember trying as hard as I could to remember that promise made it baptism that I tried to live the best I knew how. So I tried for quite some time to make sure I didn't do anything that I shouldn't do.

I don't remember too much about the early years. Few things that stand out. I was ordained a deacon in 1929 when I was 12 years old. And I guess the following year, about 1930 I started Junior High School in the Jordan junior high school. And I remember I think thing that happened there we had a pageant that we was putting on right at the bend of the river on the north side of the school and Merrill had a horse and we fixed up a travoy like the Indians used to use with two sticks out the back that they dragged with a deer hide tack between and this is the way they used to travel and carry their goods. And in this pageant, it was at night and they had teepee set up north the school as an Indian village and I was supposed to come riding the horse in with this travoy up to the Indian camp and turn around and continue on through. When I got down with this horse I had a Indian costume on and riding bareback on this horse. When I got down into almost the middle of a village they threw on big spotlight right on the horse. The horse jumped the whirled and the end of the travoy hit one of the tents and about knocked over and I had a choice of either going back out the way I came or standing a chance for the horse to go right through the crowd. So I took off and went back the way I came and I got almost home for I could get the horse stopped. So I didn't go back for the pageant. Anyway I remember that quiet plain this is when I was in junior high school.

In 1932 when I was about 14 or 15 I guess I'd be 15 I remember whether it was the year before them that I was ordained a teacher and went to junior high school up until 1934. When I started went to West High School in 1934 35 or and I graduated in 35. And then I came back after graduating from school I worked for a year a little better and came back and took a postgraduate course in 1937

I wanted to go back and just mention one thing that I had slipped up on. The first year I went to junior high school, went to Jordan junior high school. And then in the second year, which would have been about 1932, we moved to Murray. Dad had been working for a fellow that put up signs. And this was his business. And he owned a farm in Murray and we went there to live and dad's part of his pay was for the house we lived in and lived on 59th south in Murray. During this time, I had taken the first year in junior high school and had algebra in high school, or in junior high and when they got to Murray they had was about a year behind and so I took the same thing over again another year. They thought I was pretty smart because I knew all about it begin with but did help.

We also had the opportunity of working with the fellow that lived next door to us he had a big dairy farm had about I can't remember for sure a couple of dozen dairy cattle they were Holsteins and Merril and, I helped milk and take care of them and so had put up quite a lot of hay and we help with the hay and and also we had a lot of produce that we grew there we had a big huge patch of tomatoes. And then this fellow that we worked for by the name of Checks, that owned signs had another farm in the Sandy area, or they raised a lot of peaches. And I remember this one year we put peaches and also tomatoes, we had so many of them that we put them up in five gallon cans. And then when we open the can you haven't enough bottles to fill up again we'd open a can and then put the remainder in the bottles to save it but that's one thing that we did. We also had all the milk and cream we could use because this fellow even though he had a dairy herd, he didn't sell the milk he sold just the cream he separated and sold the cream.

When we first started when we got ready to go home the first night after we helped him milk. He said just a minute, I want to give you some milk and so he said Get you some over there. Oh that can and then we got all two thirds of a bucket full of milk and he said just a minute and he picked it up and poured part of it out. I thought well I guess he figures we got too much that he went over and got the can of cream and filled up with the rest of the cream. So it was pretty rich milk that we took home but that way it gave us the butter we needed as well as the milk and cream. So it was a good setup. But we pick peaches and we picked apples and we picked tomatoes and all kinds of produce and things like that. So we had a pretty good living out of it. We lived in Murray for just the one year and then moved back to Salt Lake.

Getting back to 1935 When I graduated from high school, I joined the CCC's which is a civilian conservation corps, which was a Make work project to help people who were in need. This was just after the Depression The Depression came in 1929 and we'd had a pretty rough time for quite a while. Most people in our area never had much anyway and so depression didn't mean very much because we were used to going without a lot of things anyway but we had enough to eat and enough clothes to wear and got along pretty good. Joined the CCS and worked up at Fort Douglas in the finance office. Now in this finance office, we had 89 Different CC camps throughout Utah and Idaho and this adjoining area, Wyoming, and I only just quit all it took care of it covered 89 camps. And we sent the payroll checks to all of these camps. So one of the jobs we had to do was audit the payrolls, figure the payrolls, make sure they were correct. And then we had to audit the checks, make sure they're made out properly, and the right amount in the names were correct, and that there was no mistakes on them. Then we had to put them in envelopes and mail them. They sent out about a million and a half dollars in checks, most of the checks were $25, checks, some 30, and some $36 checks, but most of them are 25. But during this time, I quite enjoyed it. And it gave me good experience after working there for I don't remember why it couldn't have been more than a year and a half, two years at the most, that I that I was in the CCCs. But anyway, when I quit the CCS, I went back for postgraduate 1937. And one day, during school, my name was called on the loudspeaker to come to the office, they wanted to talk to me.

And so I went down there, and there was a fellow who was a captain, the Secret Service Department in Salt Lake City. said he wanted to question me and asked me to come down to the federal building with him. To my surprise, when I got down there, I found out that during the time and I worked in the finance office, somebody had stolen a $25 check. And they suspected that I might have done it, because every time we handled any of these checks, we had to sign our initials, if we posted them if we figured the payroll, if we put the checks in envelopes, if we even mail them. So on the voucher there, my name or initials were on, I had posted this check, put it in the envelope, and then even taken it to the post office. With the course it'd be the entire company that the check was in.

But they questioned me for two or three days. On this check, they even took me down to the store in Salt Lake City where the check was cashed. And to my amazement, it was a store that I had bought a pair of shoes from the very salesman that we were talking to. And I remember I wanted shoes with no seam across the toe, because it hurt my feet if I did. So I was insistent on having that particular type. And he showed me everything the store before I finally got what I wanted. But anyway, to my amazement when he talked to me because I'm sure he's doing the cash the check. But you can imagine how I felt because I knew I didn't take any check. And then the fact that my initials were on the voucher, three different areas. And then what they did, they had me sign the name that was the way it was signed on the check. Just signed it over and over again on a full sheet of paper. And then they told me what they had done is taken this and and enlarged it to a foot high. And they said it was identical with the signature on the check. But you can imagine how I felt here I talked to the captain for two or three days and, and even had, Ace was in town at the time. And he came over and talked to him too with me. But the captain after three days, he said to me, he said now what we have is circumstantial evidence, but he says I'm sure that there's enough evidence here to convict you. And he said, it'd be anywhere from three to five years in a federal reformatory. I said, Well, I know I didn't take a check it all. And he said, well tell you what I'll do. I'm not a member of your church. In fact, he says I'm not a member of any church. But he says I have a friend who's a good member of your church and he says I don't believe anybody They could lie to him without what he would know it. Would you really be willing to talk to him? I said, You bet. He said, Well, if you'll be here eight o'clock in the morning. I'll take you over to talk to him.

So the next morning I was looking forward to doing that. But anyway, I went home that night. I was really upset. You can imagine I felt maybe they will convict me. But I do know that I didn't take it. I know that I'm innocent even if they do. But anyway, I kneel down and prayed. And when I got up from my knees, just seemed as if something said to me, everything will be alright. Well, anyway, the next morning, I was down to the his office at eight o'clock, and he took me over to the church office building and took me up to David O. MvKay's office. This was before David O. McKay was president, the church he was one of the apostles. But I explained to him exactly what had happened in the circumstance that were involved and what evidence they claimed they had. I said, if there's any doubt in your mind that I had anything to do with it. I'd like you to pray about it. So you'd know whether or not I had anything to do with it.

But anyway, he told me that I could go back to Captain Taggart's office. And I never did know what he said to Captain Taggart. What David O McKay said to Captain Taggart but when I got there, he said, If we need you anymore, I'll let you know. He says you can go home. So that was the last time I heard it. So I'm sure David O. McKay. Told him. I hadn't done it. But I knew that I hadn't. And I had more or less reconciled myself to feel that maybe I'd have to spend time for something I didn't do. So this makes you realize that sometimes things can happen that you're not really in control of.

When I was about 21, about 1938. I started to work for black and decent assayers and chemists on west temple in Salt Lake City. When I applied for the job, the first questions he asked me, he says, Have you been through college? I said, No. He said, Good. He says, Have you had any chemistry and I said you're just basic chemistry in high school. He said, Well, good. He said we sooner have someone that's not a college graduate because they figure they know all there is to know about assaying and they can't teach them anything.

So he says with just basic chemistry we can maybe we can teach you and you can be a help too as soon as I started working there and to begin with worked on the chemical end, which was chemical analysis of all types of ores led iron, zinc, everything except gold and silver, gold and silver was done by fire assaying. Later on, I had the opportunity of working on the fire assaying and running the furnaces. So I worked there for a period of two years or maybe better.

That was about this time that I was called to teach the deacons quorum in our ward. And I taught the deacons quorum from about 1938 to about 1940 up till the time I went on my mission. But I really enjoyed that and had a lot of opportunity of visiting the boys. Then, shortly after, about this time, I started working with Dad during and sicker as a carpenter's assistant. We have a job in Bingham that was quite a project and we worked there quite some time. And I was called on a mission and left on a mission in December 14 1940.

Just prior to this going on my mission, I had quite an experience. Wagstaff and I went out to buy this. In the Uintahs, I want to call Scout Lake to cut pole pines for cabins in the canyon there for scouts. Went up there and was cutting these pole pines all day long. And I've only been going just an hour or so when I got cramps in my stomach. quite severe, but I kept working in India, I really didn't feel very good, but I worked anyway. I didn't eat any dinner because I just didn't feel like I could hold anything in my stomach if I did that anyway. After working all day long swinging an axe.

I came home that night and told mother what the problem was. And she said you think better call a doctor and I know I'll be right probably be okay. Anyway, I went to bed and I just didn't feel right about it. So I told mother, maybe we better call a doctor and he asked some questions and said, to put me in ice packs and come in the next morning eight o'clock. He said it sounds like appendicitis. Anyway, when i got in to the office. He's on he after he had checked me check my blood. He said oh, good heavens have had any idea was this bad. I'd have taken it out last night. He says how soon can you go to the hospital? I said right now. So they went. We went to the hospital and I had my appendix out. And they had ruptured.

And it's all I could do is put a drain tube in me and they didn't have any. This was before penicillin or before sulfa. And so he says all he can do is hope he says if gangrene doesn't sit in, maybe we'll make it that way I found out about how serious it was. I was lying in bed. There was a young fellow in the bed next to me there was two of us in the room. He said his parents came in and I had my face turned towards the wall. I guess he thought I was asleep. But his parents came in and said How you doing is oh I feel fine. But I sort of feel sorry for this fella. He said why? He said well, I took his appendix out. And they don't expect him to live. This was kind of a shock to me. But by the same token that didn't kind of hit me funny because I'd put him papers through going on a mission and I was intended to go on a mission I had no intention of dying. So it hit me kind of funny, but that's how I found out about how serious it was. But anyway, I recovered from the affliction and I still have to her was in the mission field before I took off the last bandage I was up in Canada. So I knew that the Lord had blessed me and I had this opportunity serving on a mission.

I went on a mission in 1940 December 14th. And went to Regina and ended up in Moose Jaw. For the first Christmas I really had an enjoyable mission. And this would take an entire tape to cover even a portion to this. I've written it in my history. And so I won't go into all of that right now. But Harold B. Lee had lived in our ward and Papago Ward when I was growing up. And my mother worked with his first wife in the Relief Society and in the presidency of the Relief Society, and so, we knew the family quite well. They had two daughters Maurine and I can't remember if sure what the other one was. But anyway, Brother Lee married us. He was our state president for quite some time in Pioneer stake. And it was during the time that he was there that they started the church welfare program that became so involved with the church and the needs of the people.

When when I got married, we moved to Tooelle. I got a job at Bauer in the assay lab there and we lived in Tooelle and viral was about eight miles from Tooelle. south of Tooelle. But I had the opportunity of working there. And here again, I were lucky didn't black and decent on. I worked on the chemical in first doing chemical analysis of ores. And then I started working on the fire assaying with the golden silver. And so they kept me on that. And I stayed there until such time that the army the war went on to the point where they started drafting everyone up to as high as 37 years old. But it was about this time in 1944 that Cindy was born. And we lived in Tooelle course. And then she was born in I'll get the dates on Cindy's and also Verlene's that I came home on leave before going into the army Verlene had been born while I was in basic training. So I wasn't I didn't have opportunity of being with her.

But I went into the service in 1945 and that was quite an experience because I had had experience in doing book work and typing. I had the opportunity of going into the office of the chief chemist in in The Philippine islands as a chemical warfare division, where we had the responsibility of investigating the equipment and all of the poisonous gases that the Japanese had in World War Two. So I worked with the chemist there, but prior to this time, I had the opportunity of serving as a chaplains assistant in the Philippine Islands. There was four chaplains on the base we were base M in The Philippine islands, about 150 miles north of Louson.

There was a Catholic chaplain Episcopalian chaplain and Protestant chaplain and Jewish chaplain at the base and I served as assistant to the chief, the head chaplain, which is an Episcopalian chaplain, I had the opportunity to setting up the services for him and ringing the bell to call the men to service and helping in any way I could. there was another, the young fellow at work there, he helped the chaplain he also played the organ. And as I was stationed at base M and had access to the chapel, we had as Latter Day Saints that arranged to have our service every Sunday afternoon, in the chapel, and being stationed there all the time, I was well, not in charge of it. That was one of the ones that were involved in setting things up and getting things going right. At the thing, and I was amazed at the base Chaplain one time mentioned to this friend of mine that played the Organ forum. He's I don't understand what these Mormons have.

He said, Here, Corporal Terry's not even a minister. And yet he said the men of the LDS men will come for sometimes high as 40 miles to come to his service. He says they won't even come across the street for mine. He was kind of put out but he didn't understand the dedication of LDS men. But it was an interesting experience. After serving in the Philippine Islands with the chaplain, the whole base was transferred to Tokyo, Japan. Everything had gone except of our group except it just the chaplain himself and myself. So we left and went by ourselves. And so when I got on board ship to go to Japan, they said, one of the orderlies that was in charge, said, now every one of you will have special details to perform. So make sure you check the roster and make sure what your duties are. Don't want to see anybody not working. Well, anyway, I went up to look at the roster, and I couldn't find my name on in any place. So I went back and lay down in the bunker I was reading and sergeant came in, he said, What are you doing in here? I told him I couldn't find my name on it. He said, What is your name? Come with me, I'll find out. So I told him my name and rank and serial number and he looked it up. And he's I guess, had a counselor as a counselor what he said, well, the chaplains put you down as his personal assistant, so you don't have any duties at all. So I had a luxury cruise with nothing to do with me just sit around, read and enjoy life and enjoy the scenery and the ride to Japan.

But anyway, when I got there, to Japan the take it all back. It wasn't the chaplain it was just prior to going to Japan, I was transferred from the chaplains office to the chemical warfare division to the chief chemists office and the chemical warfare division. So when I was sent over there it was assistant to him rather than the chaplain. And anyway, when we got to Tokyo, he said to me, it was a Thursday he says you might as well just cruise around and see the sights and report to the office on Monday morning. So I had two or three days to just look around and enjoy things. When I came into the office, why he assigned us for special duties. And so what our duties were was to check all of the chemical warfare equipment of the Japanese, they're poisonous gas at the shells, equipment that they use and make reports on we fix up to 300 page detailed reports on all the Japanese chemical warfare equipment. And there was 10 chemical depots in Japan that had the responsibility of compiling all of the information in the materials and stuff like that. So it was really interesting to get involved in something like that.

Before going into the service, I had the opportunity of coming home after basic training. I came home and I had an opportunity of seeing Verlene, she was only about a month old. And so that I had a chance to see her and then I didn't see her again till I came back from the service. Of course it didn't see any of them but

I came back from the service in 1946. And this is quite a change to get home. had an experience coming from Oakland, to Salt Lake City. We come on bus and we got to a town somewhere in Nevada that we stopped for a short time and all the men got out to relax and walk around a little bit. Most of them were smoking and fellow came up to me and offered me a cigarette. I said no thanks. I don't smoke. He says you must be Mormon. I said yes I am. That I thought that was kind of unusual that he would know that I was Mormon because I didn't smoke. But anyway, that was an interesting experience. But when I came back, Lucy had been living in the little home behind her parents home in Fremont Avenue in Salt Lake City. And this was just they had two rooms a kitchen and a bedroom and a bathroom and it wasn't very big but it was adequate to get along with and she had Cindy of course and Verlene with her, but it's really wonderful to be able to see them again after being away.

Then we moved to from Salt Lake City to Cedar City in 1947 during the time that I was in Salt Lake I worked for a while there as a carpenters as a carpenter and the government housing unit at the airport and belonged to the union and made pretty good money but it was kind of hard to know. Worked with Ace at the in the sporting goods store when he moved to Cedar in 1947. We had the opportunity working with guns we did bluing repaired them, we work with fishing rods, reels, repaired them and worked on and we also repaired bicycles. This is one thing I did a lot of repairing bicycles and cleaning them up and painting them and working with all kinds of sporting goods.

All the time when I was in the service, I had the opportunity on occasion to teach classes. And in The Philippine islands, there was only four of us that were LDS fellows together. And so we used to hold a get together and have a lesson we take turns giving the lesson. So we had an opportunity of staying close to the church and having an opportunity studying the gospel. Being the only returned missionary they kind of look to me for help and support, which I was only glad to do it. We had one fellow there that had four children that was 37 years old. I was at the time.

Let's see I was about I was about 28 When I was in the army and I had the opportunity of having quite a few experiences that were interesting in the army. Here again, this would take a lot of talent and I've written this pretty well up in my journal so I won't go into a lot of this.

We first moved to Cedar City we lived in a home that was just back of the Institute on Center Street in Cedar City. And after this time we lived in an apartment on Main Street when it first came to Cedar City and lived in the first word. Ace lived down in the third ward in the chapel on 300 West was where they went. So we decided to go down there. But it wasn't our ward. And so I guess it was only a day or two till the bishopric from the ward that we were supposed to live in came over to visit us and said we need you in our ward and we will get jobs for both you so they put both of us in MIA presidency, young men's and Young Women's Presidency of the MIA. And so we had an opportunity of working in this capacity. It seemed like there was hardly a Sunday from for many, many years that I didn't have some responsibility of some sort to teach a class of some sort.

We lived in the Old Rock Church, we went to the old rock church on Main and center and really enjoyed it there. There was fine bishopric and we moved from the apartment there to the home behind the institute. And then we started going to a different ward it was over in the college ward they call it the college ward at that time. Then later on. They made a college stake and had a number of words in that college stake.

But I had the opportunity of teaching many classes. I taught Teachers quorum. I taught the priests quorum. I taught the missionary preparatory class, I taught the adult class. I taught the 70s, the High Priests and the adult class in Gospel doctrine class in Sunday school. I taught priesthood, and prior to the time I had spent the majority of my time in priesthood in teaching the deacons or teachers or priests, I had the opportunity of teaching on a lot of them.

I had a church group of teachers in the college ward, there was all told I recall. I can't remember sure it was 21 or 27, that was involved in that they were more or less all of them active. And I told about this in my life story. I challenged them one time to make up their minds whether or not they were going to go on missions. I said, and I look around you. I said the boy on each side of you are a totally inactive from the time. He's 14 until he's 19 ready to go on a mission unless he does something about it. And I said, Are you going to be one of the inactive or you're going to be ready to go on a mission when you're 19? So all of them them said they would. So I asked him if they'd be willing to sign a contract with me that they would do that. So everyone did that. And to my amazement, most of them went on missions and on when they were ready to go on missions. They made comment about the fact that they had signed this and tried to keep themselves worthy of it. So you have goals that makes a world of difference, what you do about it.

Another church job I enjoyed quite a bit was I had the opportunity of teaching the deacons quorum for a number of years. And then, after teaching the deacons quorum, they asked me to be the Scoutmaster. I was quite amazed at the fact that I had the same boys and the deacon quorum and got I thought I knew them pretty well. But you see the Sunday boy instead of the everyday boy. I found that I got closer to them and learn to appreciate them better. When I had them as scouts I had the opportunity to serve in the Scoutmaster for seven years. This entail a lot of doing but

Brian was about eight years of age, when I took the scouts. And as a result, I decided that I might just as well take him along on the hikes and that so he had the opportunity of going on a number of hikes that he wouldn't have gone with normally. But it gave us a chance to be together and it was an opportunity to get close together with all the boys as well as Brian. Then another thing that happened I don't remember offhand the years exactly the year that many of these things happened. That I accomplished.

In the backyard, I decided to make some playground equipment for the kids. So I made a teeter totter and also a merry go round with four seats on that you could turn I use the rear end brace that kids could push it and then a motor on it. And because of a result of this, the kids really enjoyed it. We had a swing and a lot of other things. I decided to build some ridea. I built a Ferris wheel it was 18 feet high it had four seats on it. Seats are made from the old parts of electric stoves that I foud out at the dumps, and made the seats, welded them up and then the edges so that they wouldn't get cut on them. I took a piece of hose and split it long ways and put it over the edge, wired it in place so that it would protect their arms. And we painted them of course, and you could put three or even four in each seat, depending on the size of the children. And I had this turn where they are in assembly of a car as well as the transmission of a car. So that reduction there with a small electric motor, turn this and it was ample to work and I had a merry go round that I made the four seats out of and made these from the tubs of the outside type of an automatic washer. And they did the same thing on the edge with the toes to keep them from getting cut on knees. Then we had a rocket ride that had four rockets, the two seats on each rocket. And this was made from the water softener tanks that I picked up in the junk yards and decided to build a what we call tiny town.

I made arrangements with Sid Porter, he had a service station across the street south from the city park. And in the back of the service station, there's a some space there and I set them set them up in there. Also build a small metal shed bought a cotton candy machine, a snow cone machine and we also had a heating unit set in there so we could make Crono pups. And with the three rides plus the cotton candy and everything, we had a pretty good setup.

Before we opened up and this was about, as I recall about 1961. I went around to the schools and explained what I was going to do and gave each child free ride on the merry go round or one of the rides, make sure everyone had a opportunity to free ride. And when I opened up, it was about the I don't remember exactly the dates but it ran in my mind it was about the fore part of June that we opened up and I had arranged for insurance, public liability insurance in case anyone might get hurt. And this premium was quite high, but I found a company that accepted it. And we started operating the first weekend first day that we opened up.

We took in I can't remember for sure. better than $300 at 10 cents a ride at 10 cents a cone. So besides giving everyone in town a free ride. But we operated for a while up until about the or the middle of July. some normal day I would take in they would about $50 On a normal day weekend. On Saturday. It'd be anywhere from two to $300 on the Fourth of July, was considerably better than that because it seemed like every kid in town from all around came around. We had quite a crowd the insurance company notified me the fellow that sold insurance come down said the insurance company wanted pictures of the units because they needed him for their records.

When they saw the units because they weren't the regular ferris wheeling merry go rounds like they generally had they canceled the insurance. Well, I was quite upset about it because it didn't hardly dare operate without public liability insurance and also had made an agreement with the city that I would carry public liability insurance. But they had canceled it and they canceled it just before the 24th of July. So we only had just the one day to consider, so I decided to operate on the 24th of July and then shut it down, which we did. We had a really good another good day on the 24th of July. And then the Yorgason brothers that had the outdoor theaters offered to buy the rides. And I can't remember now I run them my mind I got $300 apiece for each unit that they used them out to the drive in. And also it gave us a free pass to the family for future shows for I don't know there was a year or two or whatever it was, but eventually, I don't know where all the rides ended up over in Colorado city. So I had heard someone told me that they'd seen them over there. So I don't know whatever become of them but it was quite an experience

When we operated these, we didn't have anyone hurt on them. We had some close calls. One time I was on the ferris wheel, I was loading the ferris wheel in order to load it, you had to back it up and load it backwards. And I would load the bottom seat and then take the bottom seat up to the top and then load the one on the opposite side and do this on the other two. And I backed it up and took it clear to the top. And while I wasn't looking a little boy had stepped onto the step of one of the seats and was just standing there on the step hold of the bar and I looked up in here he was clear up on top. I told him to stand real still and I slowly backed it down and got him off and so there was no one hurt, but man I was really shook up. I think what might have happened cuz I didn't even see the little boy come and get on the seat or on this step. But it was an interesting experience.

We sold lots of cotton candy and the cotton candy machine eventually sold to the college but they couldn't seem to get anyone that could keep it running and I had to fix it a number of times. And finally the college gave it back to me because they just couldn't operate it. I kept it running. We used it for benefits for the church benefits and school benefits. That cotton candy machine really came in handy. I guess some of the things that we did was when Denise was going to the south Elementary School. I remember one of the first times we used they were soliciting money to get microscopes for the classes. And so we decided to bring the cotton candy machine over there and he made cotton candy machine cotton candy during recess and noon and wasn't very long until I had enough money to buy the microscopes and the kids would bring their money and we sold this cotton candy at 10 cents a cone.

But at that time you could buy the the cone of the candy cones, paper cones, could buy them for about a penny apiece. So we're making about nine well eight or nine cents profit. It took a little bit of sugar but there is really much more than a tablespoon of sugar for each cone. So I figured that there was about roughly eight cents profit in each cone. And so it really paid off. The cotton candy machine is still in use. Many years later Brian still has it. And I made two or three others for the other kids use the same kind of parts that are on standards machines, but rather than for profit, we used them mainly for benefits. On every fourth of July on the 24th the Lions Club in Cedar City had a benefit where project and I come over took the cotton candy machine over and made cotton candy and they paid for the sugar and cones. otherwise it was clear profit for them for the day. I told him I had operated for them for nothing. It was contributing this money to Crippled Children's Fund. And I remember one day we took in one 4th of July, we took in $108 That's a 10 cents cone, that's little over 1000 cones in one day and we was operating from about 8:30 of 9:00 o'clock and to about 2:00 in the afternoon. When everything else was closed down, they're still buying cotton candy. But I used it for the scouts and for church benefits and school benefits and it really was a good paying deal.

it seems like all of my life I was had a job. When I first came to Cedar City to work with ace in the sporting goods store. And then when that they discontinued that, I worked for Cedar home furnishings with Ed Parry, and L. D. Watson. The job there was laying carpet and linoleum and repairing automatic washers and occasionally electric ranges and things of this sort. But I worked with him for quite some time and then I, in the winter time I had the coal business. Ace and I built the bins above Milt's stage stop. On the north side of the road. We built upper bins on the upper road and one down below what it was originally built for we take the local coal, they would haul it up and dump it in the upper bin and come down a chute and went through a rotary screen and screened the saw or the fine call out and left just the stoker slack that we sold around town.

I had I bought two trucks from Tucker Crowe company, a Ford truck that hold about four, four and a half ton. And then an international that hauled six, six and a half ton. I saw a truck over in carbon County that had a screw conveyor on it, they unloaded the coal with. So I rigged up the screw conveyors on both trucks so that you could unload the coal in a lot less time and without hardly any mess at all. What it did is it made a hydraulic drive that you took off in the transmission of the truck. And first the hydraulic fluid through a second pump, which made a motor out of it and we use that motor hydraulic motor to run the screw conveyor. On the small truck I had it divided up in four, one, ten sections. And you just open the gates in each section one at a time. And you could unload one ton, Two or three or four, you know whatever you wanted. So this was handy and I would put down a canvas. And when I got through, just pick up a canvas and dump it in the bin and unload a load of coal in about 10 minutes, never touched a shovel. So it really worked well the six ton truck, the International was a dump there but it would just raise that up and let it come out into the conveyor. And I could load load 610 in 15 minutes or there abouts. But you could put it into an opening wherever they want to do it in the coal bin. But I had the opportunity of working there for quite some time.

Got to the point where we had a contract with the schools and the college and the school the college was using about 50 ton a day. And the iron County Schools is using a tremendous amount of coal and used to haul coal to parowan high and to the schools in parowan and as well as running in Cedar City. And so many of the homes A company started switching from coal to oil. And we heard it rumored that the college was going to switch to oil. And this would cut our business in about half. So we're quite concerned about it, we went down and talk to them. And they said no, they hadn't decided whether the would or not, but didn't think they would. It wasn't very longafter this that they did switch to oil. And so this really threw us in a kind of a quandary, there was not enough business to stay in business.

So we decided we'd go to Vegas and see what the schools were like and see what housing situations like and decide whether to go there, depending on what the job situation might be there. So we went down there, made two different trips. And after looking the school's over the we decided that we wasn't about to take our kids and put them in the schools like that was the environment the way it was. With the housing was good, we could buy a house without too much trouble. I had no problem as far as jobs or jobs available. And pretty good paying jobs at that. But I wasn't about to take kids and put them in a situation like that I decided that all the money in Vegas wouldn't be worth to lose one of your children. Because of the situation that they had to go to the schools we went looked at the schools and walked around and talked to people and decided we wouldn't. So we come back and I had decided that maybe take it another job and continue with the coal business what there was. And so I heard about an opening for the at the city at the city water department.

So I went and talked to the superintendent and was able to get the job at the time it didn't pay very much is only about as I recall, around $300 a month. Between that and the coal business I decided I could work it. I decided that in the winter time that I could go up to the bins and get a load of coal before going to work and take the coal with me and then delivered at noon and then go back up and get another load and have it ready to deliver after work. So this is where I worked with the coal business in the working for the city water department. I worked at the city water department for 12 years. And then I had an opportunity of going out to the wastewater treatment plant as the inspector while they broke that and then I managed the wastewater treatment plant for another 15 years until I retired. when I decided to retire at 70, 1992 I think.

Another job I did when I was hauling coal in the summertime I had an opportunity of getting us some mine timbers for the local coal mines. And tucket coal company wanted 1600 of them. They would pay 60 cents apiece. I had the ford truck that had an open back on the bed and it was just ideal to put timbers in the timbers had to be at least six inches across a small end and they were seven foot timbers and they had to be bark stripped off in two sides. Now, it was quite a challenge to go up on the mountain and do this alone. I really needed someone there so if you happen to get hurt or something they could get help for you. So Verlene said she would come and help me. So I told her I pay her if she would help strip the bark off two sides. So we went up there and worked together for the whole summer. The first time we ran across the bed road up top of cedar mountain. Verlene was about terrified with the steep roads buy by end the summer she would even when some of the other kids would go with us wanting to ride on top of the timbers coming down. So made quite a difference but it really helped. I was amazed that she worked all summer long and stripping bark off in the timbers we'd cut the tree down. And she would mark the timbers in seven foot lengths the trees and seven foot lengths and I'd cut them up with a chainsaw. And then we'd stripped them then then we'd load 50 on a track and bring down a load each day we go up there, but it it was a pretty good job and it was a tremendous amount of work. sure developed my muscles in my arms. One year I had bought a that year I had bought a suit and it fit me pretty good by the end of the summer by the time I got through these timbers. Unless as enlarge so much I could almost split the coat out there's such a difference I had to get another suit but it was an interesting job.

These timbers were used in the mine as uprights to support the temporary roof in the mine so that slabs wouldn't fall down on the men while they was working. They of course couldn't hold the rock up decided to come in. But it would hold slabs from falling on their heads and it was for protection for the men as they worked in the mines.

I worked in the coal mines during the winter and then in the summertime, I'd get out mine timbers. And as a result, I had the opportunity of learning quite a bit. I did quite a lot of welding in the coal mine because there's not a lot to do. And I decided to get a welder for myself and I bought one from Sears and Roebuck it cost $300 It was a AC unit and but it was ample to do almost anything you needed to do in welding and that was where I made the merry go round and ferris wheel rides because I had a welder that I could use and you can it's amazing how much you can do. Also, when we went to took over the Terry coal company, Ace and I worked together and on the coal company to begin with. We bought the two trucks from Tucker's and then we built the bins on the side hill, and we finished that up in February we was working on the roof one day, we had shoveled the snow off and roof the bottom bin and there was a big pile down at the bottom and Ace and I were up on the roof and somebody come over to see Ace and they hollered at him and he turned around his feet slipped and he just slid down the roof off the end and jumped into this big pile of snow. It was at the bottom a guy that was there to talk to him was really surprised. And he said Man, that's someway of coming off the roof and he said oh that's the way we always do it. But we had quite a job building the bins. And the coal business was pretty good business for quite some time.

I also built our home in Cedar City. I bought the lot for from Dan Jones that lived just a little bit north of us for $400. And I dug the footings by hand. We poured them by hand with a cement mixer. And then I built the home did most work I had to have a bricklayer come and lay up the cinder blocks but and also had a plumber do the roughing into the plumbing and electrician do the finishing electrical work but I did most of the work the roughing in with plumbing and and also some of the electrical work and I had a friend in St. George, Eldon McCarthy that I was in the service with in Texas when he found out we were going to build a home I was going to plaster the inside and he said I'll come down and do the plastering when you get ready for it, so he did and as a result we had a rock lath and plaster all through the house which was even at that time was quite unusual but it's a lot better construction and I built the home it took me five years to complete it.

It was I had the 13 inch foundation under it went down to three foot footings three foot below the ground and then I had the regular diagonal siding and the outside walls were filled with volcanic ash and then on the outside of that there was 4x4x16 cinder blocks that we put on and I put down I put bar tile on the roof and it was well insulated I had volcanic ash in the outside walls and then the ceiling and the walls and otherwise was an attic had blown in Rockwall So, it was well insulated, doubly insulated and also while I was in the service in Tokyo, I had a friend who is in an engineering department. And he showed me a magazine that they had developed what they called radiant heat. They put copper tubes in the ceiling in homes and they decided it was by far a better heating system. You circulated hot water through the half inch copper tubes. So I decided that I was going to put in the home. And when I talked to a plumber to ask him about an estimate on He's never heard of it, never seen it.

So anyway, I went ahead and put this in myself bought a coal Stoker furnace to heat the water with the boiler that went with it and started out with the coal furnace and boiler and then they had a circulating pump that circulated the water through the tubes all the time. And you put a thermostat to determine the temperature that the water would go through. You never used it at boiling it was just good hot water about 110 degrees or thereabout.

But anyway, it was an ideal heat it kept everything hot directly weren't concerned with air circulation hot air, it was heat, it was radiant heat direct, it's like the rays of the sun heat here and you could flow through warm Earth warm and it was an ideal setup for heat. Then later on I changed put in a gas furnace converted the coal to gas but that got to be quite expensive. So I changed from that to I decided to after I'd had that in that electricity will be cheaper. I put, electric coils in the ceiling. So that made a double heating system that you just set thermostat and heat with electricity or of course with oil or coal around it. Then refer finally before we finally finish that I put in an oil, new oil furnace and boiler and circulated hot water that way and that was cheaper and easier to handle.

But then I put in the fireplace insertion in the front room and also found over the door going into the hallway. And when you had a fireplace, the fireplace going the heat from the front room you could circulate through the rest of the house. So in reality I had three separate heating systems in the home. And when I sold it the fellow that bought it, I talked to him and explained to him what it was. And after he used it a while I talked to him and he says he never had a heating system in his life that was worked as well as that and then I talked to him a year or two later. And he said that he really enjoyed it and was amazed it actually had such a variety if you want to use it. I know one winter for a while we used it almost completely just different room. Heat in the fireplace to get by the kids used to kid me about tearing the furnace apart every winter and redoing it that I did redo it two or three times but it seemed to work good and the kids keep running and didn't seem to worry much about whether they whether the furnace got run off because when it run off two or three hours before you'd notice any difference.

I tried to another innovation, I built a kind of a cellar south of the house and made it a big coal bin

and had a boiler

had in mind setting up a boiler there and just circulating the water into the house and having it separate from the house entirely. That didn't work out quite as well as like. Anyway, it gave us a basement that we eventually used for storing fruit and things like that. So that came in handy. But it was quite interesting setup anyway. The i built a waterfall in the backyard. I got the volcanic rock over by Snow's Canyon and put in a recirculating pump like they use in air conditioning units, circulated the water from the pond and went through pipes and come trickling down to the waterfall. The kids really enjoyed this they love to sleep out so they set up a little tent right by the waterfall and sleep out in the backyard.

We had a dog that we call Ring was a small size Collie and it was Brian's dog. The dog lay claim to Carla and dog used to sleep right along Carla's by Carla's bed and wouldn't let anybody touch you would come in to wake her up even her mother or I'd come in to wake her up and we can wake up as long as we didn't touch if we tried to touch you he growl and put his mouth over your wrist indicating he didn't want you to touch her. But it was a good dog and as long as that dog was with the kids we never worried about the kids sleeping out because nobody would bother them.

I share the following story with the Terry family. It comes from my father's World War II Journal:

During the months since Roy's arrival at Tokyo, each week he had met with Grant Maw, Don Larsen and Paul Christensen in an evening of gospel study. Roy truly enjoyed the company of these good Mormon boys, each stimulated him and jointly they were all becoming stronger in the gospel. In early May another Latter Day Saint was added to their group. James Vernile Terry a returned missionary who had served as a missionary with Roy's uncle George as his Mission President. Elder Terry carefully added new direction to the service mens' study. He, though a late comer to the group, tactfully suggested to the others that they choose the mission outline that he had used on his mission as a course for each week's study. This outline just happened to be called, "A Marvelous Work and Wonder," and had been prepared by Roy's Uncle, LeGrand Richards, when uncle LeGrand had served as Mission President in the Southern States. George had used the same, when he served as Terry's Mission President.

Elder Terry's magnetism and knowledge soon elevated him to a position of leadership amongst this group. Now each week, instead of meeting once, the group met two nights, and Terry would make an assignment to one of the group to present a discussion the week following. Each of the group were also obligated to study the same material simultaneously, so that they could participate in any discussion on the assigned subject that might be decide upon.

Roy's gospel study now gained new direction. Each week many hours were spent preparing these missionary lessons. This guided organization of Roy's study gave him a new insight. His testimony increased, and he had but one regret, and that was that he had not had this same direction sooner in his life. Had he, he might have been able to introduce many of his nonmember friends to the gospel by using this more systematic way.

Roy obtained a wooden recipe box and carefully typed resource materials on cards and then filed them by subject. He organized each subject much like he had when he had debated in high school.

Of James Vernile Terry, Roy wrote in one of his letters: "I surely enjoy brother Terry's company. He is really a most remarkable fellow, very faithful to the church. He has a testimony that radiates to all his acquaintances. Members and non members alike respect him and are glad to have him as a friend. I am really most fortunate to have the privilege to associate with him.” By the systematic approach at study that Terry introduced to the group, Roy became well prepared to later serve as a missionary. Roy will always be thankful for his association with this wonderful servant of the Lord.