"Teeny, wake up, it
is time to get ready. Remember we are going out to the Homestead today."
It was pitch
dark, the year was about 1936, I was six years old, and we were living in our
little white frame house on Main St. In Salt Lake City. The Great Depression
had been on for about 5 or so years, and this was the middle of it. As a child,
I was not that aware of political or economic news, but I did know that Happy
Days were supposed to be here again. I was happy, so what was the deal?
Anyway, President Roosevelt would fix it, whatever it was, and I heard him say
so on the radio in our small living room.
Now it was time to
get dressed, and I was so sleepy. Why did we have to leave in the middle of the
night anyway? I learned later that 4 or 5 oclock was close to morning, and that
the desert was a hot place. If we traveled in the heat of the day, the radiator
would heat up and spew hot steam. Our Model A Ford was a good car, but it, and
others like it, were fairly fragile when it came to most anything out of the
ordinary, like heat, bad roads, thin tires, temperamental brakes, and no
windshield wipers. There were some but they were manually moved back and forth.
I put on my long
pants, the ones I only wore for times such as this,. Actually, they were
coveralls made of sturdy men's work clothes fabric. Mine had a logo on the back
that said Wing Foot, after the Goodyear Tire company that provided it for my
dad. I guess I was a small ad for Goodyear, as I walked around the Service
Station that he owned on So Main St.in Salt Lake City, Utah.
I am not sure who
went that day, but other than my parents, I know we took my grandfather Engh
and Byron. I barely remember that Aunt Marie had arrived on the train a day or
so before, with he son Harold, and when I woke up, he was at the foot of my old
iron bed.
Others lined up at the station, arriving within the hour, so that we
could all caravan together. It was safer that way, and we could all help
one another in case of flat tires, or over heated engines etc.
We had two burlap
water bags, one tied on the front and one on the back. They were not for
drinking, but for the engine. We also carried one or two spare tires roped to
the back or side of the car.
Mama had packed a
lunch of sandwiches, maybe tuna or jam, and she included mason jars of water or
Yum punch for drinking. There were a few apples, and maybe oatmeal cookies, or
even cold pancakes too. I am sure I brought my cap gun left from the 4th of
July, with some caps I had saved. I had a large straw hat and a jacket
too. The Homestead is either hot, windy or cold.
Dad loaded on a
few folding canvas cots, or maybe we put them in Uncle Henry's panel truck,
along with wool blankets, tools, pots and pans, matches, and basic food.
We probably took eggs, bacon, potatoes, flour, sugar, canned milk, syrup,
fruit and of course some marshmallows!
This was basic
camping, and we hoped to find firewood there. I may have had a swim suit, just
in case we went to the creek for a dip.
This was not my first
trip to the Homestead, but the first that I really remember. We have a photo of
an earlier one that appears to have been taken in about 1931-32, when I was
about two years old. I am not in the picture but I was there, and have a faint
recollection of it. We all look like the dregs of society, the women in their
Lawn or Batiste dresses, the men in overalls, and a Ford or Chevy that we
were standing by. It includes mama and daddy, Henry, Della, Grandpa Engh, Aunt
Nana ( his sister from Norway,) and Beth and Judd and I think Leland as a
baby. However I will add, that for the times, we looked just fine for a
camping excursion.
It was time to go,
and my dear and generous daddy, gassed up everyone's car, washed the
windshields, checked and put air in the tires, checked the oil stick and
declared we were ready!
One by one we
filed off toward the west with our headlights on in the dark July day. Soon the
eastern sky began to light up, and we made our first stop--in the Tooele area
at a gas station there. Tires were again checked and dust wiped off the
windshield. It was beginning to be fun as we joined in singing some old family
songs.
When we came to
Wendover a few hours later, we got out and everyone bought a bottle of ice cold
pop for 5 cents a bottle. Did that ever taste good with our sandwiches.
All in all it
probably took till about noon for us to arrive at the Homestead, riding the
washboard roads that took our breath away on those big dips.
What did we see
when we got there? A whole lot of nothing! And wasn't it beautiful? As
far as the eye could see there was sage brush, weeds of some sort, a few old
cow trails and cow pies, and plenty of fresh air. It was a wonderful day, and we
all had a word of prayer that we had made it safely there.
I don't remember
the return trip, but you can be sure I talked about it endlessly and
asked many times, " When are we going to go to the Homestead again?
To be continued if I get
around to it.
