James H. Gardiner, January
1995
Born 1 Jun 1921 in
Meadowcreek, a quiet suburb of Sublett, Idaho, and a few miles east of Malta,
Idaho. Malta is a thriving town of about
150 people. Location: about 20 miles north of the Utah/Idaho border and almost
directly north of Great Salt Lake. Born in a 2 room log cabin, with the
assistance of a country doctor. Doctor Sater. I am my mother's first child.
Parents:
Hope Hulet, a school teacher and Fred Gardiner a sheepman and rancher. Parents
of 8 children, 7 reaching maturity.
School:
Malta - 8 grades and High School - Fair student, shy, good attendance record.
Liked the sciences and loved geometry. Did not do well in English until
college. Loved to read and still do. Our mother read to us extensively from the
very early years and our father read to us when we were ill. In the school year
of 1940/41, went, to Logan and began training in technical radio. This training
was extended in Navy service in the Radio Materiel School, which was a great
opportunity. In the late 40' s, went back to Logan and satisfied some of my
interest in the social sciences. In general, I loved school.
Health:
Generally healthy but had almost all childhood diseases. My mother said I had
Ricketts as a baby. My development
seemed a bit arrested as a youngster. I
was always the smallest boy in my class at school and seem to be built more on
my mother's than on my father's, who was very muscular. In my early teens, I suffered from rheumatic fever
for most of one summer. I also had trouble with toinsils for much of my youth.
The tonsils were removed by a Navy doctor. In 1989, I had cancer of the cecum
and had it removed. In 1993, a second operation removed an infected section of
bowel associated with the original operation. My eyesight has generally been on
the nearsighted side. But for my last driver license test, I passed without
glasses.
Friends:
Until I was about 7 years old, we had no close neighbors with kids to play
with. In about 1929, we moved to a farm a mile and a half from Malta. There
were two families who had children our ages, within a quarter of a mile. With
these friends, we walked to school and church, swam, ice skated, hunted
rabbits, played our versions of baseball and football, built stilts and had
great sport walking on them, built our own system for pole vaulting and high
jumping, rolled up huge snowmen, made willow whistles, played kick-the-can,
went horseback riding, etc.
Work: From
my earliest memories, we always had chores to do. When I was about 4, I
remember carrying water from a neighbor's well to help our mother. There were
always cows to milk, horses, cows, chickens and turkeys to feed. When the creek
ran dry in some late summers, we had to get water by hand from wells that
frequently had to be dug deeper to get to the water. I remember looking up into
the sky from the bottom of one of these wells and seeing the stars in the
mid-day. The chores never ended. Cows always had to be milked twice a day. The
animals suffered if they did not get their allotment of hay. The horses
especially seemed to appreciate our feeding them. I remember trudging through
the snow by kerosene lantern light, early in a frosty morning, snow crunching
underfoot and hearing the horses nicker at our approach They knew that food was
not. too far away.
We worked with horses. In
those days horsepower was supplied by horses. We raised our own fuel. I came to
love those gentle, faithful beasts. I can remember seeing horses who had given
all they had, quivering with exhaustion, but still willing to respond, with
what little strength they had left, to our demand for yet more pulling. With
horses we mowed the hay, headed the grain, hauled everything including our
firewood from the hills, hay from the fields and heads of wheat and barley.
Horses provided the power to unload hay from the wagons via the derrick.
Driving the derrick horse was one of my first opportunities for earning money.
I got $1 for a 10 hour day and grew friendly with the derrick horse. We rode
horses to search for lost cattle or just to go somewhere. In the springtime,
the horses loved to have us curry out the long winter hair. I never was as good
with horses as my brother Golden. He had a special ability to get them to
respsond.
Money:
Shortly after I was born, my father lost his property due to foreclosure. For
the rest of his life, he was on the brink of poverty. He was a very willing
worker but the times were hard. Money was tight in those days but a dollar
would buy quite a lot compared to today. In the 20's, 1st class postage was 2
cents/os. Then in the 30' s it went to 3 cents. You could buy a pair of Levis
for $1.75. A Pocket Ben watch cost $1 and ran for almost exactly a year. The
Pocket Ben fit neatly into the watch pocket of the Levis. Any kid who had
anything had a Pocket Ben. My father bought a 1926 Chevy from a man who was
headed for Portland and had car trouble when he got to Malta. He bought it for
$15. A friend in High School bought a Model T Ford for $5 and found $2.75 under
the front seat. Gold was $35/oz. In my mid to late teens I could pitch hay from
the fields onto the haywagons and got $2 for 10 hours. Those were adult wages.
And save we must. We never went, hungry but we never had enough money to keep
up with any style or trend. My father bought me a pair of blue and white
striped overalls to wear to church when I was confirmed. I was pleased to look
that good.
Entertainment:
We were pleased to have anything good to read. Most of the family were avid
readers. My favorite Christmas present, a book. Some neighbors gave us a series
of old National Geographies which we almost wore out, reading and rereading and
loving the black & white pictures. Once in awhile a movie would come to
town but we saw very few because we did not. have 25 cents for admission. We
tried to go to the high school basketball games, usually waiting until the game
was nearly over, then the ticket taker would let us in for free. We loved to
play with the neighbor kids, that was by far the best entertainment we had. We
entertained ourselves. In the mid-30's Grandpa Hulet gave us an old battery
operated Airline radio. A whole new world opened up to us, when we could afford
the batteries. My father liked to listen to the boxing reports on the radio,
long before we had one. I remember going with him to listen to a neighbor's
radio for a Jack Dempsey fight. During the mid 30' s we walked about a mile
south to the highway checking station to listen to the Joe Louis fights. For
General Conference, we went into town and listened, with many others, to the
conference from the radio of one of the storekeepers in town.
Church: We
met in an old dance hall in Malta. It was one big room but had a stage,
complete with curtain. It was heated by two big coal burning heaters which sat
in the middle of each long side of the main hall. In the winter, with the wind
blowing, they would glow red hot and still the ends of the hall were cold.
Classes simply were distributed around the walls. During sacrament meeting, the
nursing mothers occupied the last row and did not cover their breasts when
feeding their young. We had no PA system and did not seem to need it. As a
family, we were active, participating in most of the programs. I dreaded
speaking in public, a dread I have never really outgrown. A few times I
participated in temple excursions to Logan for baptisms. This was a real outing
for us. We traveled there on a flatbed truck with sides installed and some
benches and chairs for comfort. We stayed overnight in Logan and usually went
to a movie in the evening.
Conveniences:
While I was at home (thru most of 1940), we never had electricty or inside
plumbing. We pumped water by hand, chopped wood for fuel, canned huge amounts
of poultry, beef, fruit and vegetables. Our light was from kerosene lamps and
lanterns. Water would freeze by our beds at night but we were comfortable under
mother's heavy homemade quilts and snuggled into a feather mattress. Mother
would heat flatirons on the kitchen stove, then wrap them in a piece of cloth
and put them at our feet when we went to bed. In the morning we would gather
round the heater in the front room, trying to get a bit of warmth to start the
day. On the farm at Malta, we had the great space of 4 rooms. This was better
than we had known before but we slept everywhere except in the kitchen. My
mother had a treadle operated sewing machine, a White. She had bought it while
she was teaching school. She made do with clothes for most occasions. One time
I was in a play for church and needed a pair of white trousers there is no way
we could afford a pair. She bleached some Sunny Valley flour sacks and made trousers. I have wondered since, whether
you could still read the label. On one of our temple excursions I wore a set of
her homemade underwear, I wanted to be in style like the others. My mother
washed clothes by hand, a formidable job in those surroundings. She heated
water on the kitchen stove and scrubbed and toiled to get things clean. Then
she use a hand operated wringer to squeeze most of the water out and then hung
the clothes on an outside line to dry. When they did not freeze, the low humidity
usually dried them in a hurry, helped by the wind of southern Idaho. My father
said, "If the sun goes down in the West, the wind will blow
tomorrow." We bought a washing machine in the late 30's.
An overview:
Born 1 Jun 1921
Service in the Navy 1943 - 1946.
Married in May 1943, to
Elaine Mary Scholl. Elaine died of cancer 30 Aug 1960.
7 children from this
marriage. Married Irene Carol Thomsen in Oct 1961 One child from this marriage.
Worked for National
Broadcasting Co from 1951 - 1987, mostly in the recording area technical
maintenance.
Had a neat trip to China with
the Nixon party in 1972 and worked with the video tape recording equipment sent
to cover the trip for the three broadcast networks.
Rode my bicycle to work for
more than 20 years - figure I logged about 50,000 miles to and from work.
Since retirement have helped
Recordings for the Blind in Hollywood, helping maintain their recording and
duplicating gear. Served in one bishopric.
Served a term on the High
Council as PFR. Taught Sunday School for several years.
I like people and things that
work.
Currently run the Stake
Satellite system for church broadcasts, work in the Family History Library on
Fri. nights.
Favorite food - Pinto beans,
freshly cooked.
Weight - 200 lbs., Height -
5' 11", Eyes brown, hair grey, health good. Political persuasion -
conservative.
Financial - a skinflint.
Delight in life - kids and
grandkids.
Outlook - positive. Very busy
with a myriad of projects.