MACARTHUR, Rae Elmer b. 2 Feb 1899 Currinsville, Clackamas, Oregon, United States d. 8 Feb 1971 Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States

1899 - 1971 (72 years)

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Name	MACARTHUR, Rae Elmer
Birth	2 Feb 1899	Currinsville, Clackamas, Oregon, United States
Gender	Male
_TAG	Reviewed on FS
Death	8 Feb 1971	Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States
Burial	11 Feb 1971	Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States
Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
Person ID	I20329	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

Father	MACARTHUR, Thomas George , b. 17 Aug 1868, Algona, Kossuth, Iowa, United States Algona, Kossuth, Iowa, United Statesd. 2 Jan 1956, Jerome, Jerome, Idaho, United States (Age 87 years)
Mother	POLLARD, Althia Ellen , b. 22 Feb 1877, Sheridan, Yamhill, Oregon, United States Sheridan, Yamhill, Oregon, United Statesd. 14 Nov 1907, Condon, Gilliam, Oregon, United States (Age 30 years)
Marriage	1896	Iowa
Family ID	F10754	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family	BEE, Emma Leona , b. 10 Aug 1904, Cairo, Ritchie, West Virginia, United States Cairo, Ritchie, West Virginia, United Statesd. 21 Sep 2000, Emmett, Gem, Idaho, United States (Age 96 years)
Family ID	F10821	Group Sheet \| Family Chart
Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

Photos At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

Notes

Odds and Ends In my Life.
These are things that have come to my mind, for what ever reason, and I have jotted them down over the years. Thinking that they may be of some interest to someone and give a glimpse of the times. I suppose most of it will be bragging and disjointed but you will find that out soon enough.
1942-43 Dad was on defense work and took the family and his dad George to Dublin, California to build a navy base. He sent my brother Darrell and I to Dietrich, Idaho to stay with his half sister and her husband, Connie and Andy Freese. When Andy’s mother found out about it she told Aunt Connie that she had too much work already without taking on two more kids. A few months later she apologized. She said she had never seen two boys work any harder than we did and were certainly worth our keep.
We had taken a 22 rifle with us and after a while Andy told us we would have to put it up as we were shooting so many holes in the that it was getting hard to breath.
I was playing football and we practiced after school. Gerald, Andy’s brother, said I needed to get home after school and do the chores so I moved in with an LDS family, Gene Nelson, who had a son Grant, the same age as I was.
We went shopping in Jerome and I told the clerk I wanted as cheap pair of cowboy boots. He asked me how much I wanted to pay for them and I said $12 or $13. Grant said. “a cheap pair?” Shoes were selling for $5 a pair at that time,
We had chores to do and my job was cleaning the dirty stinking chicken house which I hated. One day, during a blizzard, I was cleaning and looked out and Grant was cleaning the corral, in the freezing wind and I was in a nice warm chicken house. From then on I was afraid he would realize how nice it was in the chicken house.
I went from there to an empty house, where I batched, till the school bus driver, Jay Salkhield, asked me to move in to their home and do chores for my board an room. I stayed there for the rest of the school year.
I was able to take up boxing, when staying with Nelsons, part of my training was when the school bus made a big loop, the buss driver would let me out an I would run and meet him, down the road when he came back out..
This leads up to one time I decided to hike up to Richfield where my Granddad lived. I was running through the sagebrush when I noticed a pickup, on the road ahead, going real slow. We met on the road and they asked me why I was running? I told them that I was going to Richfield and just running for fun. One of them said, “Look, he’s not even breathing hard.
While sparring with a big guy he got me in a corner, hit me and knocked me out in the middle of the ring. The coach stopped us and started asking me a bunch of questions. What my name was where I lived etc? I told him and we went at it again and the very same thing happened again. He started with the questions again. I asked him why? He said that by rights I should be out on the canvas and if I couldn’t answer he would know that I was out on my feet.
I was able to letter in boxing. When we got our letters the coach, Bill Free, said that, “we had a new guy come to school this year and we found out that dynamite comes in little packages.” I didn’t realize that I was the new guy until he called me to get my letter. This coach also coached football. Part of our training was wrestling. He assigned me to one fellow and when I pinned him he assigned me to another. When I pinned him he said that he would wrestle with me. He then put his arm under my knees and the other one around my neck and bumped my head against my knees laughing all the time. When we played baseball at recess and noon he would come out and play with us. I played 1st base and he would be the short stop. Every overthrow to the pitcher or any ball he could get his hands on would be fired to 1st base. My left hand was swelled up all season. When we were up to bat he would umpire. When I was up every pitch was called a strike. He loved to give me a bad time because I would take it in the way he meant it.
When school was out I got a bus ticket to Dublin. At Oakland the bus driver said, “Where is that little guy that got on at Wells?” I hadn’t got on at Wells, I got on at Shoshone. Then he asked for the little guy who was going to Dublin. He had forgotten and had not let me off at Dublin so had me set, on the steps of the bus, till we got back to Dublin. I had to move every time some one got on or off. He was taking no chances of forgetting again.
I saw an add for help wanted on a farm so walked out to apply. I found out later that I stopped one farm too soon. I asked the lady if they needed help. She said “no” but we would go ask the foreman. They had a Doberman dog that followed us and I was scratching his head while we talked to the foreman. He said they didn’t need help. She noticed that I was petting the dog and said, “Manuel, look at that.” He said, “Well I’ll be.” They decided that they could use some help. I still believe that the dog got me the job.
It was a “gentleman’s” farm. Owned by Carl M Freidan whose father invented a calculator.
I mowed and watered lawns, flowers and bushes. I hoed all the weeds on a small hill on the place.
They were digging a basement under the club house, by hand, and I was standing around with a hose in my hands watering the lawn. They were using picks and shovels. I asked one of the guys if he would trade jobs with me. He was happy to and so was I. Manual came by and ordered the guy to get back to work. I told Manual that it wasn’t his fault that I was the one who wanted to trade. He said something about the guy being lazy and walked off.
I walked back and forth to work. Every day a dog would run out and follow me down the road barking. One morning I saw a sign, “free puppies” so that night I stopped and knocked on the screen door. The dog started barking and I heard her hollering. I couldn’t make out what she was saying until she got closer. She was hollering, “hold the door.” By then it was too late he was standing behind me barking. She was white as a sheet when she got there. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t bit me. She said she had noticed he never tried to bite me when I walked by.
Dad bought a 1929 Modal A Station Wagon for me which I drove from Dublin to Baker when we moved back home. It had canvas curtains with isan (sp) glass windows.
I was amazed at how much smaller our house was, especially the kitchen stove. I hadn’t realized how I had grown.
I think I might have been in Junior High when walking home from a violin lesson in town I was stopped by 2 older boys. One of them decided he was going to beat up on me. We sparred around for a little bit when his friend told him to hit me. His said, “He won’t stand still long enough.” He finally gave up and I went home.
I had learned to fight in grade school. Being one of the smallest I was fair game for anyone who wanted to pick on me. The principle finally kept certain kids in school and gave me a 5 minute head start for home.
(at Montour, Idaho) I was clerk and counselor to Alvin Hadley, who was the Branch President of the Sweet Branch. He was also a rancher. He called me one evening because one of his cows had been killed by the train. He wanted me to come butcher it because he didn’t know how. Another time, Don White also a rancher called me to butcher a cow for him. She was with calf and when she jumped a ditch she broke down in the back. Don wanted to save the calf so he waited till I got there then shot her. It always amazed me that neither one had ever butchered. I helped Alvin move cows a few times and Don told me later that Alvin said I was a good hand on a horse. I also helped Don at branding time. I was helping him and his dad when he told his dad that I was throwing calves bigger than I was. Another time he told his dad that I had caught that calf clear out at the end of the rope. Don did a lot of team roping for fun.
Don watched his cattle real close during calving and would stay up all night if he thought a cow was going to have trouble calving. He had brought a cow and calf in and kept them penned up for a few days. I was there when he decided to put them back with the herd. When we got to where she could see the herd she took off. Don said, “Now I’ll never get them back together.” I cupped my hand over my mouth and bellerd. She whirled and came running back to the calf. He had never seen that happen. The cows would hide their calves out on the hill side. I told him that all he had to do was get in the vicinity, where he thought the calf was, beller, and the cow would come to the calf.
I was remodeling a house in Sweet and had Rod and Shane helping me. Dale was telling me what he wanted done and the boys were out with Dodie and her nephews and nieces who were going horseback riding. Dodie told the boys that they just as well go with them. They said that I would be ready to go to work in a minute. Dodie said it was too hot to work. She told me later that Shane said, “My dad works when it’s too hot, he works when it’s too cold, he even works when he is sick.”
When I would go to work in the morning Dale would say, “Good Mormon.” Instead of good morning. He said something, one time, and Dodie chastised him. He said, “Well I heard Stan say damn this morning.” I quit saying damn and hell after that.
One winter day Lillie visited some neighbors. There was ice on the steps and when she came out she slipped and came down on her hand on the corner of the step. The doctor put a cast on it for her. She started getting ready to work in the Temple. I questioned her about feeling well enough to go. She said, “Yes, I’m related to you.” I said, “Only by marriage.”
Twice I have walked into a dog fight, grabbed them by the back of the neck and handed them to their owners.
I didn’t like English in school. One time I was gazing out the window and the teacher came up behind me, laid her hand on my shoulder and said, “Stan! I wish you would study just a little bit.” Another time she assigned us to write a story. She said that she would have the typing class type them. My writing was atrocious. The girl typing my story made 3 trips in to ask what such and such was. The teacher gave up and gave me a B+.
Several of us decided to join the navy so I got my grades up and all the requirements I needed to graduate. I didn’t pass the tests to get in the navy. When the principal found out he sent word with my sister that I had to come back to school. If I had gone into the navy I would have gotten my diploma so I didn’t see any reason to go to school so I skipped a lot of classes. I got called into the office and the principal told me that they were calling people into the office, whose grades were low so they could bring their grades up and pass. He said that my English grade was low (no surprise to you who are reading this) and I need to get it up so I could pass. He went back and sat down at his desk. I said, “Is that all?” he said it was. Should there be more? I told him I thought there should be. He said he felt that the teachers were pretty lenient, that he thought my English teacher might have raised my grade some.
When I passed my army exam and asked for “immediate induction” he walked out on the front steps of the school and with tears in his eyes told me goodbye. Dad sent my diploma to me at Camp Roberts California.
I could wiggle my ears and did so one day when we were eating lunch at school in Dietrich. The kid across from me saw it and asked how I did that. I told him I didn’t know it just did that at times. He sat watching my ears the rest of the lunch period.
Emmett. Id.When videos became popular you had to sign up in order to rent them. We had the family home for something and the kids wanted a video. I told them they could use my card. They said while they were deciding on what to get, the clerk said, “I know your dad so I’ll pick out something that he will approve of.”
I was in the hospital waiting to see the doctor. The receptionist was passing around a story to different ones and they were laughing about it. She turned to me and said, “Stan! You can’t read this.”
I dug graves and took care of the graveyard at Sweet. There was hardpan so had to drill 4 holes, set dynamite and light it. One time one stick didn’t go off. I waited quite a while then went over to a fellow cutting hay and told him what happened. I told him that if he heard a boom and saw me go in the air to tell my wife what happened. I went a head and dug it out and nothing happened.
When I was a kid, in Baker during the depression, Dad had earned enough money to make a down payment on a cow. We didn’t have any pasture so staked her out around the neighborhood. We came home one day and she had got tangled up in the rope, went into the river and drowned. It was devastating. Dad had bought a little 3 room board and bat house on about an acre of ground for $10 down and a dollar a month.
A lot of times we slept, or stayed in bed, till noon so we could get by on two meals a day. We struck a bonanza when someone dumped frozen spuds at the dump. In the late evening we took a wash tub and gathered up wood scraps from a sawmill close by.
Dad worked for the WPA which was started to make employment for people. Dad said that there was one fellow who always went off by himself to eat his lunch. Another fellow slipped up on him and found that all he had to eat was potato peelings.
Milk was 10 cents a gallon or 5 cents at the dairy. Dad walked to the dairy every day to save a nickel.
A fellow was telling me about Dad. People on WPA were noted for not working very hard. They were noted for “leaning on their shovel handles.” He said that Dad was different, that he was always working. Someone asked him why? He said he didn’t think the depression would last forever. That when it was over he might be looking for a job and you might be hiring. You would remember that I was a good worker.
Dad and Mom went to bed, they slept on a davenoe in the front room. I heard Dad get up and Mom asked him where he was going? He said he had told Owen, who had a gas station that he would pay him today. He got dressed and went to pay him. He always told me, “A man is no better than his word.”
I was a Master of the Sweet Grange for a while and we always took the kids. They were well mannered enough that we could take them anywhere and they never disturbed anyone. When people wanted to address me they would say, “Worthy Master.” On the way home, after a meeting, one of the kids wanted to know about people saying Worthy Master. Rod said, “They say that when they want to interrupt some one.”
Emmett, Id. I was asked to MC a church talent show one night and told jokes in between numbers. People had a great time. The next day, Sunday, the Bishop was telling about the talent show and said, “We saw a different side of Stan last night.” The Stake President was on the stand and said, “I want to hear about this. I thought I knew all sides of Stan.”
Pondossa, Ore. I went to work for Randall Black on a ranch. We were building a barb wire fence. Randall had taken the wire down on another fence and was dragging a strand at a time, with a saddle horse, from that fence to where we were building the new fence. He brought a strand over and as he was going back l noticed that it was snowing south of us. I started back to work and saw it was snowing north of us. I watched as the 2 storms came towards each other. Randall had rode down the hill and started up the other side as they came together. For a little while it looked like he was going up a path with snow on both sides of him. Then it came together.
His brother-in-law had been working with a Caterpillar in this same area. We were using a team and wagon to haul fence posts, etc. when we quit, for the day, I followed the cat tracks back. We came to a fairly steep hill and not thinking anything about it I followed the tracks. I noticed that Randall had moved to the back of the wagon and was hanging on. When we got to the barn I unhitched, un-harnessed and fed the horses and went to the house. I got there just in time to hear Randall talking to his brother-in-law. He asked him if he remembered driving the cat down a hill and saying that you couldn’t bring a team and wagon down it. He said he did. Randall said, “Stan just did.” He had not said a word he had just moved to the back of the wagon, ready to bail.
Montour, Id.We were having Family Home Evening and the lesson was on journals. We were supposed to tell, the kids about our courtship and marriage. I was telling the story and the kids were getting a kick out of it. Lillie spoke up and said, “I’ll have you know that your Dad proposed to me the third time he went with me.” Rhia said, “Oh come on now, Dad lets hear your side of it.” Lillie is sentimental and tears came to her eyes. LaNeen crawled up on the davenport beside her; put her arms around her and said, “That’s all right Momma. We knew Daddy would marry you. He’s just as stupid as you are.” We got a good laugh out of it even Lillie.
Emmett.Id.We got a new Bishop and I don’t know how my name came up but I was told later that he asked who Stan was? Some one told him that there was only one Stan.
I taught Seminary for 2 years. I had problems with 4 big boys. I walked in one time and one of them was leaned back in a chair with his feet on the piano keys. I asked him to take his feet down. He just looked at me so I put my foot behind the back leg of the chair. I think he suddenly realized he was in a very perilous position and put his feet down.
Another one was acting up so I took him by the arm and I told him we were going to see his parents. When we got in the hallway he jerked away from me and backed up against the wall. I told him that I had taken boxing in high school and if he wanted to start something that I would finish it. He started with me then said we couldn’t see his folks because they were milking. I told him I had been in barns before. We got part way down the stairs when he said he would be good. We were about back to the room when his twin sister came storming out. She said that if I kicked him out she was going too. They both went back in the room.
Years later she asked me if she had been bad in Seminary. She said she had just been called to teach Seminary.
LaNeen said that as they left another big kid asked if I had taken boxing. She told him yes. He told her that he thought he could “take” me. She told him to go a head. That she would come visit him in the hospital.
We were showing a film in the chapel so had all the classes meet in the chapel. One of the boys, from the senior class, said he wasn’t going in there. I told him to let his conscious be his guide. He went in to the chapel. His mother was telling me about it. She said he said, “What could I do.” His brother is now our Stake President.
Baker, Or.When we were kids we could never find where our Christmas gifts were hid. Years later we found that a panel in the front of the piano, above the foot pedals, came out.
My sister got doll carriage for Christmas one time. I was amazed to find that Santa Clause had used part of a wooden box that I had drawn pictures on, for the bottom of it.
We grew up in Baker, Ore. Not too far from the railroad tracks. A sawmill, near the tracks burnt down and became a hobo camp. We had a lot of hobos come to our home for handouts. I remember one Negro threw a ball to us while he waited for Mom to fix something for him. Another man set at the table, after Mom had set some food in front of him, and played with the buttons on his shirt. I told Mom later that he was blessing the food. Another man had a knife and Mom said we didn’t have any food for him. She was afraid of him.
When we were building the church at Sweet I would take the boys, probably Shane 4 and Rod 6, with me. The Branch President, Rich Humphries, had a boy, Tim that he brought with him. The week before, Tim had gone into our tool shed destroyed the things in the first aid kit and threw the toilet paper down the hole. When I saw him come with his dad I went in the tool shed and put things up out of his reach. They were heading for the shed as I came out the door. They stopped and Tim went over to Rod and whispered to him. I said, “And don’t be running and hiding from Shane.” A couple weeks later we were coming out of Boise with Illa Mae and her kids in a station wagon. Diana said something and Rod said, “my Dad can hear you even when you whisper.” It took a while for me to realize that he was referring to Tim’s whisper.
Emmett, Id.The Bishop asked me to prepare a fill in talk because he didn’t think that the couple he had asked to talk in Sacrament would take up all the time. It turned out that they took almost all the time. He turned to me to say I needed to cut my talk short. I told him I had 3 pages and I was going to give it which I didn’t. The next Sunday the speakers didn’t take up all the time. I was setting with Lillie when the Counselor stood up and said, “We will now hear from Paul Harvey McArthur with the rest of his story. Paul Harvey was a commentator that ended his broadcasts with “the rest of the story.”
Opening services for Priesthood meetings the Bishop had the leaders set on the stand and report on their quorum agenda. I was the High Priest Group Leader and I indicated that I didn’t have anything to report. He said, “Well say something.” So when it came time for me to report I stood up and said “something” and sat down. There were some chuckles from some who realized what had happened.
Another time at Albertson’s a lady who had worked at BMC West was working there. She was a character and we bantered back and forth. This time she was giving the checker a bad time and turned to me and said, “go a head and say something, go a head just say something,” I said “something.” And for a minute it caught her flat footed, then they both cracked up.
Darrell my brother was always up to something. His employer told him that one of the inspectors was Polish and didn’t like the Polish jokes that Darrell was always telling. So Darrell took a cinder block, wrapped it up in gift paper and put a bow on it. The next time this inspector came on the job Darrell apologized to him and said he hoped there were no hard feelings and handed him this package. He opened it up and asked Darrell what it was. Darrell told him it was a Polish bowling ball. He said the guy got a big kick out of it.
When my mother got Alzheimer’s it created a lot of friction especially with my sister Illa Mae and sister-in-law Helen against the rest of the family. Darrell stayed out of it. Illa Mae had been keeping Mom’s checkbook but when she found out she could be liable if Mom had a wreck she turned it over to me.
We took Mom to Dr. Smith and he said Mom had border line Alzheimer’s and anemia. Illa Mae and Helen had a fit. That small town doctor didn’t know what he was talking about. They called me and said they were taking Mom and Aunt Evoline somewhere on a certain date. When she hung up I told Lillie that I knew they were going to take Mom to another doctor. They took her to a Boise Doctor, six hundred and some dollars, and then had a meeting with the doctor when the results came in. It was to be the 4 kids only but Helen was there. He confirmed that she had Alzheimer’s. Afterwards Helen said that he hadn’t said anything about anemia. Illa Mae said that he said she was low in iron which is the same thing.
Helen brought Mom here one time and was going over Mom’s checkbook with me. Mom said something and Helen told her to stay out of this. She has always been disrespectful to Mom. She came awful close to being kicked out of my home. Leona Jean said that she told someone that she just dumped the checkbook in my lap and told me to take care of it as if she had any say in it. After Mom died Darrell apologized to me. He said he hadn’t known what was going on. Eino told Lillie that, “If it wasn’t for Stan’s religion he wouldn’t have been able to handle it.” Several times Leona Jean was going to beat up on Illa Mae and I told her to just ignore it. Which she did and was glad later that she had.
Mom and I became closer than we ever had been. I took her some place and on the way I asked her if she wanted me to bring her car down here. She said yes so I picked Lillie up and we took Mom to Horseshoe Bend. When we got there I asked her for the key to her car and told her I was going to take it to Emmett. She told me no so we came back home. She called later and asked me if I would come get her car?
Illa Mae told me, one time, that when they were with Mom all she did was talk about my kids and what nice people they were. (Thanks kids)
My Dad was 5’1” and weighed 130#. He became a jockey. A friend of mine’s Dad asked me if I was related to “Tiny”? I said he was my Dad. He told about a young filly that had weak legs and would fold before finishing the race. He said that Dad thought he could bring her in. He said he brought her farther than anyone else had but she went down and 5 horses ran over Dad. He suffered from injuries to his shoulder and hip for the rest of his life.
Richfield, Id. Mom said when I was real little a salesman came to the house and was waiting for Dad to come home. He kept trying to get me to set on his lap but I was having none of it. She said he finally got me up on his lap. I hauled off and hit him in the nose and got down.
Baker, Or. I don’t know where the folks got the money to give me violin lessons or why they sacrificed so much to do so. I was still in grade school and we were scheduled for a concert. Dad told me that if I did well he would get me a chin rest for the violin. At the concert the leader stood two of us up front because we had memorized the songs. I got my chin rest.
Boise, Id. We were out at Mom’s place one evening, after Dad had passed away, when the phone rang. Mom was in the bathroom so I answered it. The lady asked for Leona. I hollered, “Honey.” When Mom answered the phone Aunt Eleanor said “who was that man.” Mom got a kick out of it.
Emmett, Id. Darrell Aucett and I were putting a corrugated roof on a summer home and isn’t uncommon to hit your thumb every once in a while. You could tell by the sound when the other fellow hit his. I had hit mine several times but wouldn’t say anything. Darrell would whistle every time I did. Then he hit his thumb. He threw his hammer off the roof, grabbed his thumb, moaned and groaned and finally straightened up, looked at me and said, “It takes a damn good man not to cuss.
We were working on a house and he was using my extension cord. It had a short in it. He went out to his car and got his and it had a short. He went back out to his car, got his hatchet, came back in and chopped his cord into pieces.
After I started working on my own I left Shane and a hired help to strip the forms off the concrete. They had been left on a little too long and were hard to strip. Something happened and the other guy threw the wrecking bar as far as he could. Shane looked at him and said, “You just have to go after it.”
The lumber yard charged so much a square to put shingles on a roof. I found that by having them set the pallet of shingles on top of the pickup rack I could put my 20’ Stinson plank on the cab of the pickup and on the roof and pack a bundle on the roof. It was a 2 minute round trip with each bundle. It saved a lot of money.
I was carrying shingles on another roof when a neighbor decided to help. He couldn’t do it. He told the owner, “He makes it look so easy.”
The same thing happened when I was wheeling concrete for a basement floor. I would take about 4 loads then stop and smooth the concrete out. The neighbor came down and started to wheel the concrete for me. He got about half way and tipped it over. He said, “He makes it look so easy.”
Another time I was packing shingles onto a roof. The pallet of shingles was set too far forward on the pickup so I sat the end of the plank on it instead of the cab. I had packed several bundles onto the roof. The next bundle I picked up shifted the weight and it tipped up. That caused me to fall, with the bundle in my arms, onto the hood and off on the ground. I have no recollection of what happened to the bundle. I broke my ankle and a bone up by my knee. I tried to get some passer bys to call an ambulance but they walked on by. Jay Jenson’s office was across the street and I finally got the secretary’s attention and she called the ambulance.
Later on, I was still on crutches, I got Doyle Woods to come down and shingle the steep part and I did the rest. I could climb the ladder by using my knee instead of my foot. A couple came by and hollered at Doyle and told him not to be falling off the roof and breaking a leg. He said that if he fell off he would just bounce. They said “your partner didn’t.” Doyle said, “Well he used to.”
Another time we were wheeling concrete into a garage for the floor. The truck driver would not fill the wheelbarrow up even though I asked him to. Something happened and he ran it over. I wheeled it in and dumped it. He filled it up from then on.
Another time the truck got stuck in the field when we poured the footings, so when it came time to pour the foundation they wouldn’t drive in the field. I put 2”X12” planks on the forms, wheeled the concrete up onto the 2 bys and wheeled around the forms and dumped it. The driver was joshing me about it was good exercise for me, it would make me strong and keep me young. He said, “By the way, how old are you?” I told him I was 45. He said he thought I was a lot older than that.
I was doing some work for Herb Hetherington, owner of Hetherington’s Electric. I was installing a PVC pipe from the gutter, on the back of one of his building downtown, to a drain. He wanted me to put an elbow in it. I told him it was flexible enough I thought we could make it work without the elbow, saving time and material. He said, “We’ll do it the way I said.” And walked off. A little later he came back and said, “Go ahead and try it your way.” There was an addition on the back of this building and the roof needed to be replaced, which I did, also the air conditioners needed to be replaced. I suggested that I make an angle iron frame, 1 side and 1 end could be attached to the building, and we could attach the remaining corner to the building by a chain. This would put the whole thing high enough off the roof that it could be roofed, when needed, without having to remove the air conditioners. It worked out real well as there was no place for leaves and debris to hang up on the roof.
Another time he had a long machine shed that pigeons were roosting in. He wanted a 4’ wide chicken wire stretched across the front of it at the top. He said they would not fly under the wire.
I took the role of wire on the roof and rolled it out with about a foot hanging over the front. I bent it down and attached it to the building then tipped the rest down over the front. It was low enough so I could use a ladder to nail the bottom. He came out and told me that he had planned on lifting me up in a bucket on the tractor. From then on he would ask me how I would do something.
When we were getting ready to move from Montour to Emmett, our Branch President Alvin Hadley told me that the Branch had never had a greater loss. After moving I felt absolutely dead. It took me a long time to realize that I wasn’t doing anything and the Spirit was not with me.
I went to a General Priesthood meeting at the Stake Center. Merl Reusser sat down beside me. Later he told Eleen that, “When you sit by Stan you get to shake hands with everybody.”
Mel Briscoe called me to do some work. He asked me what I had done to his little boy Dan He said that when he told his wife that he was going to call me Dan said that I was his Sunday School teacher. When I pulled up to his place he told his Dad the same thing. I have no idea where he got that idea unless, as a member of the Stake Sunday School, during conference, I had taken him upstairs to a Sunday school class. It has always bothered me because I wonder how many kids I have left with a bad impression.
I bought my insulation from Pacific Supply in Boise. One of the yard men always tried to help me load. I often picked up a load on the way to the Temple, which wasn’t far from there. He asked me where I worked? I told him, at the Temple and pointed to it. He said, “No you don’t.” I told him that I did. He said, “Stan, you’re not one of them. I told him that I was. He transferred over in Oregon so I didn’t get a chance to talk to him about it.
When I worked at Simplot’s saw mill in Horseshoe Bend we were always playing tricks on each other. There was a drinking fountain that was a straight pipe with a collar around it and a drain pipe coming out the bottom. Two guys turned it on, grabbed me and were going to set me down on it. My hands were free so when they got ready to set me down on the water I put my hand over the pipe and the water sprayed on them and I didn’t get wet.
Logs were hauled in and dumped in a pond. A sawyer would cut them to length and shoved them through an opening into a smaller pond. I started out as a “Pond Monkey.” My job was to pull the logs in and shove them onto a chain that would haul them up into the mill. If I remember right, the chain was probably 70 feet long and rose from the pond up 20 feet. At the top the chain leveled off so the logs would come up the chain on an angle then break over and fall back on the chain when it got past center. They had just started sawing small logs and the chain was designed for big logs whose weight would hold them on the chain. When the small logs broke over the top a lot of the time they would slip sideways off the teeth they were riding on or they would break loose and slide back down the chain wiping out the 4 or 5 logs behind it.
There was a gate at the end of the deck that the logs would come up against and shut the chain off. Then I had to run up to the top, scale the log, to determine the board feet in it, write it down and kick the log off the chain onto the deck where the sawyer could dump it on the carriage. I like to run myself to death but was able to keep up. I noticed that there were 3 guys watching me. I learned later that it was the foreman, fireman and mill right, they were watching to see that I didn’t get into trouble and seeing if I could keep up. Also I could have called for help and the mill right would have helped me.
At the bottom instead of building the cat walk out far enough they put a bunk. Two of them were used to stack lumber on and a straddle bug would drive over them and pick the load up. Blocks were attached to the underside so there was room for the straddle bug channels could grip and pick up the load. This bunk was set on a board but not fastened to anything. If you weren’t careful, when you speared a log with a pike pole, and stepped on the end of the bunk it would tip and dump you in the pond. I don’t think there was anybody that didn’t get dumped in the pond some several times. I had been there quite awhile before I got dumped. When we came to work the next day they had built a new catwalk. Some of the guys complained to me. They said they had been dumped several times and nothing was done. You get dumped once and they build you new catwalk.
Later on they trained me to ride the carriage, this was what carried the log back and forth on a track, and be a dogger. I rode the carriage and when they loaded a log I would push a couple levers down and teeth would grab the log. Big logs I would also drop a big hook on it. When the sawyer wanted to turn the log you had to turn every thing loose then dog it again.
Eventually they taught me to set ratchets. It was the person that had to learn a formula for cutting up a log. The sawyer would signal you, all done with hand signals, you couldn’t hear because of the noise. (This is where I lost the high range of my hearing.) We didn’t know about protecting our ears. Something funny happened to me because of this. Years later I went to my doctor. It felt like I had something in my ear. He didn’t find anything but sent me for a hearing test and had me bring the results to him. When I got back he sat down on his rolling stool, looked at the test, rolled his stool over beside me and said, “LET ME TELL YOU WHAT THIS SAYS.” I got the message. He didn’t realize that he had been talking to me in a normal voice.
For what ever width board he wanted to cut and you would lock a lever in a disk, push another lever which pushed the log out and then he would run it through the saw. The boards were generally 5, 7 or 8 quarter. That allowed enough so both sides could be planed and come out the right size boards.
My brother Darrell moved to Horseshoe bend and went to work at the mill. I taught him how to set ratchets and after he got on to it they put him on the night shift. He was mad at me but that was where he was needed. His sawyer was learning and ran the carriage into the bumpers several times. Darrell went to the foreman and told him he needed to have another job that his back was bothering him. The foreman asked him what was wrong with it. He said, “That yellow streak keeps getting wider and wider.”
Emmett. Several of us were participating in a baptismal and most of the pants were too small. Mine was about a size too small. The guys were complaining about it. I said, “Yes, I would hate to have to wear this size 29 all day.” They gave me a bad time over it.
Merl, Eleen, Lillie and I went for a drive. We stopped at a lake and Eleen decided to fish. There was only one pole. She wasn’t having any luck. I picked up some small pebbles and tossed one in the water. Merl told Eleen to “come over here, I just saw a fish jump.” I did that several times, with the same results. I never told them what I had done.
Which reminds me that when I was a kid several of us kids were around a trash fire. I had a 22 shell. I picked up a rock, showed them the shell and threw the rock in the fir. They fell all over themselves getting a way. I had to tell them what I had done before they would come back.
I was Santa Clause at the church at Sweet. They had a fireplace set up on the stage and I was hid in a book closet, on my knees, while the program was going on. I shifted, which made a noise, and the little girl, Jeanette Tubbs, reached over to open the door. I grabbed it to keep it closed. Every once in a while she would test it. I had to hang onto it the full time.
Another year when they raised the curtain, I was down on my knees in front of the fireplace like I had just came down the chimney. There was a little pause and one of the women said. “Oh” she had just caught on. After wards Shane told Lillie that Santa Clause had my irrigation boots on.
Darrell Munger, a non-member, and I were talking, before church started. I was in charge of having the speaker for sacrament when the other counselor asked who the speakers were going to be. I said that Darrell was going to talk to us. Darrell said “Well I use all the right words but I put them in the wrong places.”
I was doing some work for his dad and about noon he said, “you don’t cuss like the other Mormon we had work for us.”
Joe Amyx lived across the road from us in Montour. One fall I trimmed the raspberry bushes and piled them out by the road and piled some weeds on them and set it afire. Joe told me later that he told his wife, Lois, that it was too wet to burn. He said “you must be a better Mormon than I thought.”
After he passed away, Lois told me that she was visiting him in the Veteran’s hospital and dozed off. When she woke up he was setting up in bed smiling at her. He said, “I never thought it would be like this.” About that time the doctor came in so she left the room. In just a minute he came out with a bewildered look on his face.
He said. “I was talking to him and he just left me.” Joe had passed away.
I was at a boxing match when one was hit and was going down backwards. About half way to the matt the other boxer hit him again in the face. His head bounced when he hit the matt. I had never seen that before or since.
A daughter was discussing funeral arrangements, with her Dad Ed, for his funeral. He was ill and in his eighties. He didn’t want her to say he was preceded, in death, by his parents. He was surrounded by loved ones. Etc. he just wanted a short obituary. She said, “Alright, we’ll just say, Ed is dead.
Baker, Or. A few of us were playing instruments one evening. Dad was driving taxi so I called him to listen. After a little he handed the phone to Percy, his boss. When we got through I picked up the phone and asked “how was that?” The operator said it was very good. I realized later that Percy listened for a minute and hung up because he didn’t want to miss any calls. The operator checked the line and heard the music so listened till we finished.
I drove taxi for Percy also. Dad quit and moved to Boise. Thanksgiving time I went to Boise. I realized that I hadn’t told Percy about picking up a customer at a certain time so called him. He thanked me and said, “Now forget about the taxi business and enjoy yourself”.
One of the jobs I had as I worked in the Temple was an attendant. I would be assigned to pick up a male, generally a Missionary, coming in for their own endowments. I would make sure they had all their paper work done then go through the Temple with them. This particular time, we were getting ready for initiatory and the father told his son. “Brother McArthur was my attendant when I got my Endowments.” Rarely does that happen,.
It was a tradition on farms and ranches that they had fried chicken on Sunday. This was during the depression when most people couldn’t afford to buy a chicken. A family from town always showed up on Sunday in time for dinner. (We had dinner at noon and supper in the evening) This became tiresome so the next Sunday they were served soup. The company never came back.
When I was President of the PTA for the Sweet Montour schools I put on a little program after the meetings. I had a friend who analyzed hand writing. I had collected samples for her but none of mine. When I sent her the letters I wrote my return address not knowing that she would analyze it. She said that my small writing showed the ability to concentrate. One of the teachers said, “I thought it showed that he was stingy.” She got a big laugh
In grade school we had an orchestra and had practices in different homes and a luncheon afterwards. At one of these they served hot chocolate in tea cups. I had never seen one before so didn’t know you were supposed to grip the handle instead of putting your finger through it. When I picked the cup up it swiveled on my finger and dumped the contents in my lap.
After Lillie and I were married, my Mother asked Lillie if she built the fire in the mornings. She said she did and asked how she knew? Mom said, “Because he still has the hair on the back of his hand,”
Darrell and I joined the American Legion drum and bugle corp. when we were 10 or 12 years old. I started out playing the bugle then went to the snare drum and ended upon playing the base drum. It was as big as I was.
I had to take an extra pair of pants to our practice sessions and hide them because the bigger boys would take my pants off and hide them. I would have to get my backup pair.
I remember eating breakfast sitting across the table from our leader and his wife. She was telling him that he needed to get us to bed early as I was black under my eyes from lack of sleep. The black was from a cladiascope (sp) that you put up to your eye and twisted it to watch the colors change. The problem was that it had black powder that transfers to your eye and I hadn’t got it washed off.
In order to go on these trips Darrell and I sold angle worms and did odd jobs. People would come to the house to get us to work for them.
I remember riding around town looking for work and found nothing. I came home and someone had come to the house and hired Darrell. Another time I rode my bike around town and when I saw a pile of limb wood I would stop and asked if they wanted it sawed up? They always said ‘no.” years later I realized that I hadn’t told them that my Dad had a buzz saw. They thought that I was asking to do the work.
Lillie, the kids and I were on the way to the Idaho Falls Temple to be sealed together. At the Craters of the Moon a grass fire was just starting along the road. I always had a shovel in the car because when a fire started people would ring the phone and everyone would go fight fire. I stopped and was going to put it out because it was so small and could get it done by myself. Lillie wouldn’t let me and when we came back there was no sign of a fire. Lillie said that someone was trying to keep us from the Temple.
A grass fire started at the top of the Horseshoe Bend hill and came over the top and was burning on Don Shoemaker’s ground. We were trying to pinch it off at a creek. But just before we did the supervisor would tell us to fall back it was coming in behind us. We finally got it out in spite of him. Don’s wife served us some food afterwards. Don was in the kitchen and was telling them that I had worked the hardest to put it out. He couldn’t figure it out because I didn’t have any ground that was in danger so he decided he better try a little harder.
I was doing some repair work on an apartment. The walls had one quarter inch paneling on the wall and someone had punched or kicked a hole in it. I filled it in with perfa tape mud then Lillie painted it. I was doing the work for Art Gratton so I asked him to come show me where the hole was. He walked over to the wall and said. “It’s right here.” And started to point at it but he couldn’t find it. Lillie had done such a good job, it matched perfectly.
Another time I was replacing some siding and was having trouble matching the paint. I took Lillie to the lumber yard and she told the clerk that it needed a little bit of pink in it. He said there was no way it needed pink. He finally told her that he would give her the pink but he would not put it in. she added it and it matched perfectly.
I was buying a house and needed some paper work that one of her son’s had. Anther brother lived down the road from me so called him to get his brother’s mailing address. I said, “this is Stan McArthur and I needed your brother’s address.” We talked for a little bit and I could tell he didn’t know who he was talking to. Pretty soon he said, “who did you say this was ?” I told him Stan McArthur, I could tell he still didn’t know. We talked for a little longer. When he said, “Is this Stan?” I said “yes? He said. “Why in hell didn’t you say so? He had finally recognized my voice.
His mother Becky was a feisty lady. I was giving her a bad time when she put her hands on her hips and said. “young man, you better be looking for a place to light. She slipped on the ice and I asked her if she was hurt. She said. “ I don’t believe I hurt the sidewalk at all.
Don White came to church one Sunday and the Bishop called on him to speak. He said he almost walked out. He said that when he lived in Montour there was a fellow there, meaning me, that was always trying to get him active so he moved to Emmett. The next thing he knew, this guy moved to Emmett too and I’ve got the print of his hand in the middle of my back where he keeps pushing me to get active. He moved back to Montour and was put in the Bishopric.
When I was in the service we were at Camp Robert’s Calif. And it was hot. When standing in formation on the parade ground, I remember my feet sinking into the blacktop. When we came in from a long hike they put a guard on the drinking fountain till we cooled down. I would go into the latrine, cup my hand under the faucet and drink. I don’t know what would happen if I had got caught.
When we were on training on house to house fighting one of the men from our platoon didn’t follow instructions so the Lt. took his rifle and showed him how it was supposed to be done. He went outside, kicked the door open, jumped to one side and was supposed to shoot a pop up target. Instead he shot the private in the stomach. He died in the ambulance. My friend Phillip Pakle, was relieved when he found out it wasn’t me. All he heard was that it was a little guy with lots of hair.
We were on break, in the hot sun, when Phil grabbed my foot and twisted it. It popped but didn’t hurt, but I passed out. Everybody thought it was from the sun so I was put on light duty. They would haul us out to an area and hide us. We were the enemy and attack the army when it came after us.
I looked forward to rifle training but it wasn’t all that much fun. We were shooting at a target from the prone position and I had 3 bulls’ eyes in a row. The major came over and moved my legs and I didn’t get any more bulls eyes. When we fired grenades from our rifles, no matter how I braced myself it always tipped me over backwards.
I built a fence between us an the neighbors. The city needed to clean out the sewer line and came to me and told me he said we need to get in that manhole, he had looked from the neighbors side, and you built your fence right over it. I took him out and showed him that all he had to do was open the gate over it. He was impressed.
Melvin Hale was released as Bishop from Sweet and had destroyed some records. One was a baptism and the tried several times to get him to certify that this person had been baptized and he refused. Bishop Alder was telling me about it and I volunteered to go with them the next time they visit him. When the Bishop asked him to write a note confirming the baptism he didn’t hesitate.

Trena McArthur Fluckiger
What I love and appreciate about my wife Lillie.
She is a kind, considerate pretty lady. She has many, many talents. She can cook up a meal in 15 minutes, out of nothing. She is a gifted painter, the first painting she did, a dog, was perfect as has been all of her paintings. She has given most of them away. She is a very talented pianist and organist. She played the organ in the Temple for a while. She has made over a hundred quilts almost all of them given away, She has knitted pot holders, booties, scarves, shawls, mittens, hats, afghans and probably more that I can’t remember. All given away. She didn’t just make 1 or 2 but probably dozens. She raised beautiful flowers till her health wouldn’t allow her to do that any more. She made beautiful bouquets for the church and special occasions She made rag dolls for the grandkids. She raises a nice garden and preserves part of the harvest. She is proficient at canning and canned over 300 bottles of fruit, this year, 2008. She is knowledgeable about health remedies, treatments and medications. She has a beautiful voice and can sing beautiful harmony. She is a seamstress and has made suits for us men, dresses for her and the girls. She has taken davenports and chairs apart and reupholstered them. She has repaired electrical appliances. She learned to cut hair and has saved hair-cutting expenses over the years. She does her own hair. She has held Ward and Stake offices, sometimes several at once. She has a special talent with children. She is very Spiritual and receives many promptings especially when a new baby is on its way.
She helped get my business started and worked beside me through the hard times we encountered. She perfetaped painted and at times fed insulation into the machine. Even though, at that time, I didn’t fully appreciate how much help she was, I do now and apologize for hurt and disrespect and heartaches I caused her. I was so wrong about so many things.
There are many things I have probably left out, it’s hard to remember so many things.
Thank you Lillie. I love you. Stan