Then, when Dad completed his refrigeration training and got a job at Burns Equipment in Caldwell, we moved to 1117 E. Logan, Caldwell, Idaho. We move into a two bedroom, one bath, and white stucco house with a one car enclosed garage connected by a breezeway. As was typical of the day, Logan St. was a gravel road. A year or so later, Dad became manager of McCluskie Appliance in Caldwell.

It was a fun neighborhood with lots of kids my age and dogs that ran with them. Directly across the street was the corner house where George Robert Hill, Jr lived. He was a bookie kid that had a very controlling mother. He had to practice piano many hours each day. He also was required to pound out a loud piece when his mother wanted to yell at his Dad. Tommy and I enjoyed the lively fights with Jr pounding out the load music and his mom pounding his dad on the head with a pile of magazines (really). We sometimes went to his house on a cold day for a long game of monopoly. One time he was out pulling dandelions and being paid by his mom a penny apiece. He was a business boy and got us to help for half of what we picked. Soon we ran out on his lawn and headed to our own, bringing huge piles of penny worth dandelions. When George Robert proudly presented our bushels of dandelions to his amazed mom she realized what had happened and told us it was just for those picked on their lawn. We settled happily for $2 each with George Robert getting $5. Smart guy!

Also across the street lived Tommy Goettling, my neighborhood buddy. He had two older and one younger sister. To the right of us was Jimmy Johnson, a year younger than me but he could out run me. It bothered me, because I was very fast and meant to be the fastest. Often in the evenings, as it was turning dark, we would have great neighborhood-wide games of kick the can and the like. So fun!

I started school the year we moved to Caldwell. We walked, biked or roller skated to Lincoln Grade School. Mrs. Fugate was my wonderful first grade teacher. She was a kindly, grey haired woman. I was very shy and had a girl named Nancy in the seat in front of me that would turn around, and look to see what I was doing, and no matter what it was she would say “Um verrr”. It was crushing. Once I brought a new box of crayons, the tiniest box, with only one line of crayons. When she looked back and saw my new crayons, (she had one of the jumbo boxes with many rows of crayons), she said, “Oh, I love sharp crayons”, and proceeded to use mine until they were all dull. I was too shy to protest. My second grade teacher was Mrs. Humphreys, again, a great teacher. I cannot remember my third and 4^th grade teacher’s names but my 5^th was Miss Transue. She was a tall, thin, young woman. She loved to teach us music. We often sang in octets, quartets and other grouping. She mixed it in with our other lessons and it was wonderful, I loved it.

In the 4th grade, I had a very special and spiritual experience. At school, I became leader of one of the bunches of boys that played cowboys and Indians during lunch. We had about 20 boys per bunch. Our bunch got into a tussle with a group led by a large boy named Neal. They were not playing according to the rules and I confronted Neal with it. (I had put my bag of marbles in a hollowed out tree and ask my friend, Johnny Wall, to guard them while I dealt with Neal.) Neal was quite a bully and immediately grabbed me and started to wrestle me down. Because I was smaller, he had an advantage, but I was able to break away and make it a boxing match, where I had the advantage. After I whooped him, and the bell rang, we stopped celebrating and headed to class. My friend, Johnny then informed me that while he was watching the fight, someone had stolen my marbles. At this time in my life, I was loud and rough. I also had a bad temper. I really got mad at poor Johnny and hit him on the shoulder too hard. The next day, my lunch bunch lined up and all told me I was too mean and kicked me out as leader and from the bunch. Wow, I was crushed! They were my friends and now, suddenly, I had none. That afternoon at school I felt like everything was dark and terrible. I set at my desk and heard nothing, just my sadness. What was I to do?

The next day, when I went home for lunch, I was wondering why Jimmy Schultze, my neighbor kid, was always gone before I finished my lunch and avoided walking back with me. So, I grabbed my sandwich and hurried out and there was Jimmy, running off to school. I ran and caught him and asked him why he didn’t wait. He said I was too rough and always hitting and that he didn’t like it. Again, I had an afternoon of dark sadness.

As I was walking home after school that day, I was on a path through a vacant lot with very tall weeds on each side of the path. In my despair, the thought came that I should pray. I slipped through the weeds to where a pile of old boards created an opening and began to pour out my sorrows to the Lord. As I prayed, I repented of my roughness and pride and asked the Lord to forgive me. Immediately, I felt a wonderful peace and forgiveness. I was so grateful and happy! I just wanted to run and sing.

As I was running home, I was blessed with a confirmation of God’s forgiveness. He gave me a special opportunity to bless others. There was a little cottage along the way and an elderly and feeble lady with a broken wrist was struggling to carry her groceries into her cottage. In those days, people could call and order groceries and the stores would deliver them to your door. I ran over and took the groceries and carried them into her home. She was so grateful and asked me to sit and have milk and cookies. I got to know her and she became a special friend. Then I went home and when my Mother saw me, she said, “What has caused you to change, you seem different?” I told her the whole story and we wept together.

This was a life changing experience for me. Though I still had the ability to fight well, it was only for defense of right and of others. I never had to fight again until 9^th grade and then without anger or temper issues. My bad temper was taken away. Most importantly, I knew that God was real, the atonement was real and that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ knew me, loved me and answered my prayers. I also knew the joy of serving others. By the way, I apologized to Jimmy Shultze and, thereafter, we happily walked to school together.

That summer, we took a family vacation trip to Salt Lake City. We toured Temple Square, swam in the Great Salt Lake, saw Bingham copper mine, went to see BYU, ate the new craze, Kentucky Fried Chicken, at the Harmon’s Restaurant on No. Temple, and waited outside the office of President George Albert Smith until he had a moment to come out to meet us. He was the tallest man I had ever seen, had a wonderful white beard, kindly, piercing eyes and was, very kind as he greeted us and shook each of our hands, an unforgettable experience.