Life History of Arlie Matkin Bodily Rawlins Matkin
(By Herself)
I was born on 16 November 1915 in Fairview, Franklin, Idaho. To Blanche MATKIN and Christopher "R" BODILY. My parents were rather surprised because there were two of us. I was born about 15 minutes before my twin brother Arlo. In those days women didn't go to the doctor, they just called him hoping he'd get there in time. The doctor was from Preston, Dr. States. He probably was driving a car and always had a little black bag. The Dr. had to use instruments on my head and my mother always said how out of shape it was and what a miracle it was that I had no brain damage. My Grandma Matkin helped out. She lived with them.
When I was small I remember my mother and grandmother hitching up a horse and buggy to go visiting. It was fun.
I remember going to school in an old 2 room building 1 mile north of where we lived, and I can remember the fear of an Army coming over the high spot in the road. World War I had just got over 3 or 4 years. I couldn't keep my mind on lessons because of that. In the room where we were in there was 3 or 4 grades, with one teacher so while she taught one grade other classes were supposed to be studying. There was a big old pot belly stove that kept us warm if it got too hot the teacher, Lavina Drury, would put a screen around it. After 2 or 3 years the mothers would take turns bringing soup or something for us to eat. We had our own cup and spoon. The school house had an old building south of it we played in. We walked the fence (an old picket one). We also wore black long legged sock, bloomers and dresses. And long legged underwear in the winter.
Our folks took us to school most of the time. The Harris girls would sneak out their Sunday shoes, socks, and ect. and hide them under a bridge then change them coming to school and going home.
There was lots of snow in the winter time - everyone had sleighs. There weren't many cars. Grandpa Bodily being Bishop was one of the first to have a car and a telephone.
Our telephone was an old box type that hung on the wall, it was one that you cranked. It was an independent company.
My folks had an old Delco plant they used for electricity. This was battery operated, 56 batteries for 110 volts, and they'd have to keep them charged every now and again with a Delco 1 cylinder motor that didn't sound like a motor at all.
They had an old coal and wood stove it had a place on the side to hold water and it would get hot. It was called a reservoir. It made a nice place to set and get warm. We used to set on the oven door and get warm too. All the wash water & ect. were heated on the stove in a boiler. They'd put lye in to soften the water, then skim the scum off. Washing was an all day job and they boiled the white clothes to keep them white. They always made their soap and used it for washing, scrubbing floors, bathing, shampoo, hand soap. Our floors always had linoleum on them that took a lot of cleaning.
I remember the old house where we lived in Fairview it had 2 rooms upstairs and a closet under the stairway. I remember crawling back in there to get things, there was a bedroom and dining room and a kitchen. They built on a couple of rooms. Grandma Matkin had one. She'd eat with us. But before that she'd carry me up and down stairs on her back. We slept up stairs. Later when she lived in her own room Ardell and me were big enough to sleep up stairs. Grandma taught me to say my prayers. When ever there was a baby we'd get rushed into grandma's room a while, it was a big surprise.
The old house was moved away, but the old barn still stands (1978).
I remember the hay loft, we'd hunt eggs in the barn along where the hay was, cows on one side horses on the other. We used to play out there, one time Bardo started a fire, or someone said he did and he got his hands burned real badly. There was an old machine shed and a building by the house that the Delco plant was in.
We didn't have bathrooms, they weren't even heard of. We used to bath in an old round tin tub by the kitchen stove - 3 or 4 in the same water. We'd hang up towels over the windows and over chairs so no one could see us. There was the old "privies" toilet, it always seemed like a long ways from the house, 2 or 3 holer with catalogues for toilet paper. They'd have to be scrubbed out every so often and moved. There was always an old hen sitting or a mother cat and kittens in a corner. There was flies every where so we had fly catchers, made with screen wire it was interesting how they'd get in there and couldn't get out. Later they got spray, but not until we moved to Lewiston. It was hard to keep milk and butter cool with no refrigeration.
I remember my mother telling about going to Preston in the old buggy, and she had a feeling something was wrong, so she left her shopping and went home. Bardo, my brother, had been run over by a load of sand and nearly killed. It took a long time of nursing and care to get him well. Later on him and another brother got pneumonia, they used Denver Mud, onion poultice and everything they could, but Ted died at the age of two.
In 1925 we moved to Lewiston, Utah just a few (4-1/2) miles south and there were long rows of trees around the farms, by the side of the roads. The house was 2 or 3 rooms, no upstairs, my folks later built an upstairs and the kitchen was just a lean-to with a cloth ceiling. It caught fire and nearly burned the house. I was 10-1/2 and in the 5th grade. They made us all take a year over. The school house was a huge old thing three stories high, with oiled floors and coal furnace. We used to play on the grounds outside where the ashes were piled that was "Bunker Hill". I remember when you did something wrong you were marched for a couple of hours in the "Awkward Squad". I had it once and it wasn't my fault, Arthur VanOrden tripped me. The teachers I remember was Irma Hyde, Sylmar Jessop, and Carl Stoddard, he was great and could whistle like birds.
I graduated from the 8th grade in 1931 and my mother made me a pretty green dress. I was so small we couldn't buy one.
When we moved to Lewiston we didn't have lights for a long time so that meant lamps, and they were hard to keep shiny. We didn't know anything about radio, or T.V., to say nothing about all the frozen foods and things of today. We still had old coal stoves to carry coal in and ashes out. Mom would carry a red hot coal from one stove to another to get a fire going. She always got up and made the fires. Many a time when we went to bed there would be a huge lump of coal put in to burn all night. The stove would be red hot and roar all night. I had a fear of the house burning and how we'd get out of the upstairs. It was a long time before we had a kitchen and coal room built on and the water up to that time was outside. My mother had to heat wash water, and scrub clothes on a wash board. It was very hard.
After we moved to Lewiston some of the kids had to have our tonsils out so we went to the doctor's office. It was up over the old Drug Store and then Suel and later Ardell and maybe one more had to have them out. Dr. Parkinson came to the house and the table in the front room was used for the operations. Everyone got along fine, but Suel, he hemorrhaged and it took a long time to get the doctor there. We had no telephone so had to go to the neighbors.
My dad had an old Model T Ford, before we left Fairview. You couldn't go very fast and had to crank them. The gas feed was on the steering wheel. You didn't drive them in the winter they were cold and you could put flaps on to keep the cold out. There wasn't a door on the driver's side you just threw your leg in. They were great however. The tires were small.
When we moved to Lewiston nearly every spring a band of Gypsies would come and camp north of the barn and came to the water trough to get water. I don't know what they did except trade horses. After 2 or 3 months, they leave.
One time when we still lived in Fairview and we were going to the south end school Bardo and I were riding a pony to school and it was in the morning after Halloween. She got scared of the pumpkins and ran away. She ran down to aunt Lyra's.
When we were kids it seemed like there were bad storms. Once Mom and Dad went to Idaho FaIls, to Uncle Henry's funeral and there was an electrical storm. Hilda was there and we were all scarred and hiding under the beds and crying when they got home.
My mother always found time to take us to the circus and other places. We kids always helped thin beets, hoe beets 3 or 4 times a summer and then top them with a long knife with a hooked end to pick them up. We threw the beets on a wagon and it would take 4 to 6 horses to pull it to the road. The beets were very good in those days. There was hay to haul for $1.00 a day. It had to be mowed, raked and pitched on the hay racks (no sides on them) and pulled with horses. They used a derrick and it was pulled by a horse and it was either rode or guided by hand. We cooked the men's dinner and would take out drinks & sandwiches to them in the afternoon. There was 3 crops of hay, they used 5 or 6 wagons to haul it in so no one was waiting.
Then came faIl and thrashing time, straw was put into stacks - what a mess. It was a long time until tractors, balers and all these modern day things.
After graduation from 8th grade we went to North Cache High School. I enjoyed some teachers and classes - some I didn't. I was always very shy and had a very inferior complex that I had grown up with, so I was quiet and wasn't very popular. I did have a few good girl friends. I didn't go on many dates.
When we went to N.C. Ted Lewis fixed up a pick up and we rode in the back we called it the "Chicken Coop." Later on we had a bus and we'd have to walk to the corner north or south. Later on it came past the house. We all wore dresses and stockings to H.S.When we came home from school there was a mean old turkey coming to meet us we were scared of him. He was mean.
I graduated in May 1935. My dress was a long 3 tiered skirt. Blue taffeta and a bolero on top. Our graduating class was held in Richmond Stake Center. We had fun, chicken fries, candy pulls, watermelon busts ect.
My Dad had sheep up in Strawberry Canyon and we'd take supplies every other week. I hated John Ransom he was big and fat and always teasing me. After I got out of H.S. I went and visited up to Tyra & Milton's. One time Dad went to Jerome, Idaho. They took their sheep up there in the winter and later I went back up to visit and made new friends. I still hear of them, Ruth & I have always written and visited when we could.
It wasn't too important for girls to go to college so I didn't. I worked for a motherless family - $12.00 a week - for a long time. It was awful those little kids. It was such a mess. I couldn't eat. I went in the morning and went home a 5:00. I also worked for Laveda Drury. I sure loved all them, I also worked for Lavinia Drury and Elzira Kemp. She had an invalid sister and she was very helpless. I stood it for a while then left. She'd look at pictures one day, next day use a play iron and iron pieces of cloth. She couldn't talk - it really got to me.
I worked for Melba VanOrden. We had so much fun all the time. I loved her dearly.
I packed green tomatos for 2 or 3 years, then I started to work in the telephone office, 25 cents an hour, that was as good as anyone was getting in those days (1939). I worked there for a long time. I was very good and when big shots came I was usually on the switchboard. One night as I was working some man called up and started visiting and ended up asking me for a date. His name was Howard Rawlins and he lived 1/2 mile south of town (we used to ride horses past his house to get to town - it was by the rail road tracks). I told him I'd go then hummed and hawed around and didn't know if I wanted to or not. I went with him and each time was going to be the last - but by the time he went on his mission I thought I'll write him a "Dear John" but I could see a lot of wonderful things about him. His kind sweet thoughtfulness, but by then I'd decided I liked him and I missed him. We wrote all the time he was gone, such nice letters. In march 1941 his time was nearly up, and due to his companion's death he was released to accompany his body home. It was a shock to him.
Reed told me he called and when they'd go get him, then I knew he'd be coming up that long stairway to the Telephone office--such suspense, each time someone came in I knew it would be him. Needless to say he took me home and we rode around catching up until the wee hours of the morning. This was in March, then in October I went to Canada with Aunt Sade. We went on the bus, we had a good time and while I was gone (10 days) the other girls worked for me then I made it up. When I got back Howard had bought me a set of rings, they weren't expensive, but pretty. We decided to get married on 26 November 1941 in the Salt Lake Temple. In those days we had trousseau teas and only the women were invited and you hung up all your pretty things. Old Kay the Jap came to see my things. I had a pair of black taffeta like pajamas with white stars on them and he thought they were so pretty. We always laughed about them. My wedding dress was white taffeta and cost $30.00. Darlene always wanted to be married in it, so she was.
We went to Salt Lake early on the 26th of November 1941. It was cold and snowy, we had a lot of snow that year. Tyra & Milton, Arlo & Glenda, and my mother going with us.It was a Thursday (I think). We stayed down there a full day then came back. We lived in the west two rooms of the old house and shared the bath. I always got locked out. Then we lived in the rest of the house, Reed and Ethel moved to Washington, then Lin came home from his mission, and we lived in a house down across from Ted Lewis it was so dirty. We got a chance to buy a house for $300.00, it was a sugar factory house. We didn't have the money and we tried to borrow it from the bank and Mr. Barber wouldn't let us. We went to Logan and borrowed it without any questions. When the check came through the bank old Barber came begging and crying for us to come back. We had it moved for $150.00 to where it sits now, it was in a wheat field. We planted the old willow tree in the back yard when Charlene was 1-1/2. We had only 3 rooms, a bath and a back porch, but it was wonderful to have a house of our own. We built two bedrooms upstairs and took part of the bathroom for the stairs.
When Charlene was about 3, I was getting ready to go some where and I cleaned her shoes and put the laces in Clorox water to soak and somehow she got off the table over to the sink. I don't know to this day how she reached the glass. She drank the water and started to get sick, her face was very red. She ran to the bathroom and I thought she was going to die. I didn't have a car and so I called Julia Rogers and she said she was choking or strangulating, they were leaving to go some where, but Joan came and stayed with Ann and they took the time to take me to Dr. Cragun's office. On the way there she burped and it was strong clorox. When we got there he got a lot of water down her and she vomited it up. She had to drink milk a long time and I think it done something to her stomach.
Ann was born at Jenny Bergersons 13 April 1946, and Beverly was born there 5 April 1948. Ann used to always wonder why Bev's birthday came first if she was the older of the two.
I had an awful time when Lyle was born with "Preclampsy", they didn't know then what it was. My blood pressure went past 200 and Dr. Hansen was very concerned. He went to Owen's field and got Howard and told him if I went then they could save me maybe, but gave no hope for the baby. I was there 11 hours before he was born, 4lb 4oz. They knew he wouldn't make it, through faith and prayers he did.
He had to stay in an incubator for 2 or 3 weeks and then Jenny Bergerson took care of him for 2 or 3 weeks. I was a mess, came near to a nervous breakdown.
In October we moved to Hailstone Junction, near Heber, Utah to help out on a Stake Farm. It was a good move, we loved it down there and had wonderful neighbors, Millers (they had a raspberry patch, but the kids left them alone), Dukes, Sweeneys, grandpa & grandma Sweeney, later Bill Sweeney and family. We lived at a power plant and it was kept up very nice. We lived on a mountain and the kids thought it was theirs, they spent many hours exploring it and running around.
I kept telling them to put their pajamas up but they didn't and so I told them I would take them up to the old barn, so I did. When it came time to go to bed - no pajamas, so they had to go up there and get them alone. They were scared enough with out the Hoot Owls hooting at them. It helped for a long time, all I had to do was mention it.
One day as they were coming back from getting some rhubarb Ann & Bev nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, but the neighbors killed it before it could hurt or scare anyone else.While we were down there Charlene ran into the side of the school house. I didn't know about it until I went to a parent teacher meeting that day. Zina Duke said it broke her nose. Charlene was glad it was her instead of her friend Elva Swain. They were playing pop the whip.
Fred and Grace Veibel lived down there and we saw them often.
One time a man came to our house early in the morning and said that Howard had sent him over there to have some breakfast (for some reason he went to Howard). Anyway I fixed him breakfast and me and the kids visited with him. He was very humble, and seemed like someone we knew. When he left he thanked us for the meal and said he was too ashamed to tell us his name. He went on down the road, and we wondered if we should run after him and give him what little money we had, but by then he was gone. It impressed us all very much the way it happened.
Lyle was sick that first year, we couldn't find anything he could eat. When he was 2 years old he was so busy fixing the lawn sprinklers and every thing in the house.
One day I let Bev & Ann go down the road and play with the neighbor kids. After a while I was outside and a car stopped in front of one of the other neighbors. I yelled and asked what was the matter, a lady got out and said she'd hit my little girl and killer her. I screamed and ran - I knew who they meant. They missed hitting Ann very close, so close they thought they did. I was so thankful to see her run towards me. Ann didn't like school down there, I'd have to make her go every morning then I'd cry all day about it.
When we'd have a day off we'd take the kids and go somewhere. It was beautiful down there, especially in the fall. We went to Tipmanogos Caves and Christine and Lyle ran all the way and we knew they'd fall off the trail, it was a steep climb. We stayed down there nearly four years. Jay Swain, the man Howard worked for was so foul mouthed he couldn't stand him any longer. We moved back to Lewiston.
Howard worked in the timber that summer. The kids went up and spent a few days. Mom was so sick that I didn't want to leave her, but one week Ann and Lyle and I went up and it was so much fun. There were big mounds of sawdust and the kids played on them and called it "Sawdusting". While Howard worked up there he cut his left leg and had to drive out of the mountains to the doctor, he had to stay home a few days.
He later had a milk route and it was good income, he had it nine years. Through some dirty work on old Gossner's part it was taken from us and given to Farrell Smith, we hated him and his wife. It was really unfair. We had it for nine years.
Howard was working with D. H. I. A., testing cows milk and sending reports. He liked it and the kids could help. He had that for 3 or 4 years.
Charlene got married in 1962 and moved to Tacoma, Washington. Sherm was in the Army and the lived over the White Owl bar. Sherm was gone a lot, and Charlene was sick. We went to the World's Fair at Seattle. Darlene was so cute and busy. We went to the beach and were all so busy gathering sand dollars and shells. Darlene was so busy.
Sherm and Charlene moved back before Darren was born on 23 Aug 1962 he was in the hospital when the earthquake hit. He was 4lb 2oz and was in the incubator, but doing well enough it didn't hurt him. The quake was early in the morning. Ann and Howard were at LaVar Pitcher's it was noisy and they couldn't hear the rumbling, but the floor got wavy. I was up and I couldn't imagine what was going on. I thought the ceiling was falling down. A big plant in the front room fell down and a few other things. It was frightening, Darlene slept right through it, Bev ran down stairs and left her up there. Lyle was outside doing his chores for the morning. There was school that morning and everybody was on edges. We were warned there would be another so we hurried and got out the building. There were a few tremors, but nothing serious. The Stake building in Richmond and an old school house were condemned, and later torn down.
Before this Darlene had come into our lives, what a joy. She was 1-1/2 years old. I won't mention the hell we went through. One Saturday morning Darwin came to get her for the weekend. His dad called him before he got there and I told him that she had a very bad cold, and I didn't think he should take her. So when he got there, he had someone bring him, he was drunk as could be. He was packing a gun, this kid didn't dare get out of the car or say a word to any of us. He didn't take her and it was made so plain to us to do something NOW not later. Early on Monday morning we went to Logan and turned him in. He was mad when they summoned him. He came up gun and all. We didn't know what would happen, but he couldn't take her. We had the cops notified. The welfare people left her with us, and we had to go to court, the lawyers knew what would happen. They were there the first time, and after that they never showed up. That was all in our favor. We finally adopted her on 13 March 1961, and she was sealed to us in June in the Logan Temple. Darlene will always remember the "Gold Room". The first time I saw her something told me that someday she would be mine, it's hard to explain.
<Darlene was born to Sonia and Darwin Hodges. Sonia is my sister Ardell's daughter>
I had worried for years about something happening to Howard and I would wake him in the night and he would assure me everything was ok.
In September 1961 we took a trip to Walla Walla. He wouldn't even let me take Darlene. He said we would go alone if it was the last thing he ever did. We had a good time.
Charlene and Sherm were living in Stone, Idaho.
We were just getting to where we could enjoy life when Howard and Lyle were hit by a 16 year old girl and Howard died later of injuries. He had a badly broken hip and his jaw was broken on four places. He was doing fine when a blood clot from his leg hit him and he was gone. I knew for years something was going to happen to him even though the doctor assured me that day he was doing so well.
I couldn't hold any grudges, and she had terrible problems for several years. Howard was in the hospital from March 4-14 1965, 10 days. When he was gone I felt like my world had fallen apart. It was very hard, every thing went wrong. Tim Taggart pushed Lyle through the Church House glass door and cut him all up - both hands 35 stitches. I had problems with probate and Social Security, Lin and Vertis certainly stood by and helped me a lot.
Only those who have gone through this know what it is like. I knew I had alternatives, either withdraw from everything or try to go on. It was so hard, none of you kids will ever know the tears I've shed. I went back to work and everyone but Beatrice was kind and sweet.The first summer (1965)1 stayed home and tried to make the best of things. We sold the cows, Sherm moved over from Stone to help run things. Every thing looked like mountains. Sherm bought more cows and ran things 3 or 4 years. I then rented the dry farm to Glenn Nelson and it was later sold to Grant Chadwick.
The next summer (1966) Marie Rogers and I became very good friends. We went to summer school, she had to go that year. I made a big giraffe out of paper mache.
Marie and I went on a tour up the west coast from Oakland. We went to the Temple. We then went to Calgary, Alberta, Canada bi-centennial celebration, we met a lot of nice ladies and were gone for 10 days (1967).
In 1968 we went back east to the Palmyra Pageant and all the interesting places around Niagara Falls, New York, and Kirtland, Ohio. We went to New York City and saw Fiddler on the Roof at Radio City and the Rockettes danced. That's the only place you can see them. We saw Grand Central Station, the subways were awful. Marie and I ate with Lillian and could look down Fifth Avenue. We went in the big cathedral where President Kennedy's funeral was, it was huge and so cold feeling.
Marie got married the day after Christmas 1 968. In 1969 I went back to the Passion Play in South Dakota. We saw Mt. Rushmore and the faces carved on the mountain. Then we went to Deadwood City - it was beautiful up there. Georgia Jones and I roomed together and we really had a lot of fun.
In October George called me, and Darlene and I flew to Phoenix for Thanksgiving, we ate at Mildreds'. On December 20, 1969 George and I were married in the Idaho Falls Temple. After we went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. There was a lot of snow and cold. We went to all the little places there. The next day we went back to Idaho Falls and picked up Ron and Carol, then went to Seattle to visit Ruel and Jean. We spent Christmas there. We went and saw a lot of the big old Navy Ships that are there. We went took a boat ride and enjoyed it very much. We also went up on the Space Needle in Seattle.
We stayed a few days then came back to Lewiston and packed up what few things I brought down here, we stayed all night then came down here. Darlene was 12 years old and Lyle was going to Trade Tech in Salt Lake.
George built us a new home in 1971. We were happy and having fun. In 1972 we went to Hawaii with Mildred and Darrell, had a wonderful time. We went to Minnesota to see Ruel one fall and to Mexico in Feb. 1978. George built a nice house in Pinetop Lakes to sell.
Lyle went on a mission Oct 8, 1971 to Oct 1973. He got married on October 12 1974 and Emily was born 29 Feb 1976, Levi was born 11 Oct 1977. He works for a tool company in Los Angeles.
George is a wonderful man, he has done so much for me, Lyle and Darlene. Darlene has been an outstanding girl, she was chosen to go to Washington D.C. Honor Society, Student body President of the first class to graduate from the new High School.
On Saturday, 8 October 1977, George and I were up to the house in Pinetop, and I was helping to pick up junk, and I had a seizure or stroke with out any warning. George called to me and I didn't answer, he heard a funny noise, and there I lay. He screamed and got some help. George worked on me for about 15 minutes before I could breathe on my own. Bro. Walker from Lakeside gave me a blessing. The ambulance came and got me, by then a lot of people were gathered around, some helped him. I was in the Emergency room for a long time before I came to. Bro Wendell Allen and Charlie administered to me. I was given a powerful blessing by Bro. Allen and he commanded what ever it was to depart. I don't remember much that day. George had never seen the Priesthood work so powerfully before. On Sunday he took me to Phoenix to St. Joseph Hospital. I don't remember when they took brain scans and other tests. I was there until Wednesday afternoon. It took me a long time to get over it, I appreciate all George has done, his trips back up here then back down there.
Other things I recall are a canal east of the house where Vertis lives, we used to go swimming there. Mom would go with us 2 or 3 times a day, we'd just wear old clothes.
I was a Sunday School teacher when I was 17. I loved the little kids. I was later a counselor in the M.I.A. several times. I was a Stake Missionary and enjoyed it, and worked in the Jr. Sunday School I loved the little kids. I went back to the Telephone office for a while after we moved back from Heber, then they went on Dial. I worked there while they changed.
The Sacrament when we were very small the bread was passed on a plate, and the water was in a container and we all took a swallow. In Lewiston they had little cups for the water and trays for the bread.
There has been more change in my lifetime than in any other time. All the things done with electricity, and from horse and buggy to huge aircraft, and other ways of travel. Huge supermarkets were unheard of to say nothing of prepackaged and frozen foods. A man on the Moon was something unheard of too, but that was a great accomplishment and has done a lot for science. Along medical lines they have cures for diseases that were fatal years ago. Pacemakers in hearts were never dreamed of until recent years and many more wonderful things have come to pass.
Crime and immorality have increased very much, we never heard of 'hippies', homosexuals, gays, abortions and all those kinds of things.
There have been four wars in my lifetime World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and Viet Nam. Four of my brothers went to war and two were injured, and at this time they are all alive and well (1980).
Joseph F. Smith was president of the Church when I was born, including him there have been 7, President Kimball is President now. The Church has grown in 1918 there were 495,962 members 75 Stakes, 22 Missions and 4 Temples. There are now over 3,500,000 members 1000 Stakes and many Missions. Blacks were given the Priesthood in June 1978. It was revealed to President Kimball, this has been a long awaited gift for them and has opened up many areas to missionary work.
The President of the United States was Woodrow Wilson, he was 28, Jimmy Carter is now President 39.