Wyoming Street, Dilworth Elementary, Beacon 2nd Ward

On February 25, 1951, we moved to our new home at 1900 Wyoming St. It was a yellow brick (actually more dirty ochre than yellow) 2-bedroom house with a single car garage. Wyoming Street was a dead end street, so the entire street became a playground. The front yard was a single story, and the yard sloped so that the back of the house was two stories. The house faced east. We lived there until September 1955.

Wyoming Street is located between Texas Street and 2500 E. It runs downhill from the dead end to Parleys Way, crossing Redondo Ave and 2100 S. When we moved there, there were still a few undeveloped lots on the street. By the time we moved away, all the lots were filled with houses.

The first two winters there were severe. Lots of snow. To a six or seven year old it was deep enough to be over my head when piled on the sides of the sidewalk. When it melted, the houses on the east side of the neighborhood streets got flooded basements. We were on the west.

The heavy snows brought deer down into the neighborhood. They ate the newly planted pfitzers, tams and euonymus that Mom planted. The neighborhood dogs chased the deer up and down the street. The poor deer ran with terror in their eyes.

I had lots of friends in that neighborhood. Across the street were the Doyle and Byron Olsen families with lots of kids, Joe and Betty Wicks and the Hudsons. David Olsen and Barbie Hudson were my age. The Olsen cousins included Julie, Janice, Dianne, and several others. Johnny and Judy Wicks were younger, Donny Hudson was Barbie’s younger brother. Down the street were several others around the same age. It was a great neighborhood to grow up in. My first grade school crush was on a little girl with golden hair named Sally who lived on the NE corner of Wyoming St and 2100 S. She was in my 1st grade class. The Loveless's lived next door to the north. Judy Loveless was a couple of years younger than me.

The big thrill of that first year was being invited to Sally’s birthday party. I also went to David Ashton’s birthday party near the end of second grade. He was President David O. McKay’s grandson. His younger brother later founded Word Perfect. David’s mother took us to see “War of the Worlds”. It was pretty scary for a bunch of 7-year olds. Another friend, Tommy Anderegg, invited me to his birthday party in third grade. That was where I got another big crush on a girl named Kitty, who had the longest eyelashes I had ever seen.

My first grade teacher at Dilworth was Mrs Peterson. When Mom took me to school the first day, she told Mrs. Peterson that I was to be called Jimmy. But after Mom left, the teacher said they would call me James, because there were already two Jimmies in the class, Jimmy Pizza, and Jimmy Reynolds. Mom and Dad were not happy with Mrs. Peterson. James Pizza and I ended up graduating from Olympus High School together.

Being the new kid in class, I was assigned to share a desk (they were 2-person desks) with Kathy Webster. Apparently no one else wanted to sit by her. She had a bad speech impediment. She was not bad looking, and had a nice personality, so I didn’t mind being there. Except for the time she got sick and threw up lunch all over both sides of the desk.

One friend I walked home with often, was Michael Ruud. Looking back, I think he was very rude. He eventually became a famous ballet dancer with the big ballet company in New York City.

Bruce Vanderwerf was another friend who became somewhat famous. He trained as a chef in France and was named the best chef in Utah at one time. He also founded Eat-a-Burger drive-ins.

I had lots of good friends at Dilworth. John Lund was one of the best. He was tall for his age, and I was short. He tried to teach me to play basketball.

We tried to learn ballroom dancing there. I liked to dance with Barbara Hughes because she was tall and could take big steps to stay out of my way.

The only boy in the neighborhood who had divorced parents lived behind us on Texas Street. His name was David Gartiez. His mother often brought treats to school for the whole class. I thought she was very nice. However, David always seemed to be in trouble. He never did anything really bad, but he liked to try things that didn't work out too well, like bringing snakes to school that he had caught on the way.

My second grade teacher was Miss Storey. She was young and pretty. But she got married the summer after school which spoiled it for a lot of little boys.

Mrs. Hampshire was our third grade teacher. She was very nice. In third grade I liked a girl named Kay. I don’t remember her last name. I chased her around the playground at school and finally caught her at the back door and kissed her. She didn’t like me in third grade. Then she decided in fourth grade that she did like me, but by then I liked somebody else.

Yo-yos were the big rage in those days. The cool boys were the ones with the fancy spinners. My folks wouldn’t buy me a fancy one. One day David Olsen and I decided to go to the corner drug store which was about a half block from the school. It was a popular place. K. Fisher Drug. We thought that in the crowd no one would see us pocketing some fancy yo-yos. But Mr. Fisher caught us and escorted us to the back room for a lecture. We decided that crime does not pay. Many years later, after he retired, Kimball Fisher moved into the Butler 11th Ward where we lived. I was able to thank him for saving me from a life of crime.

Another friend from Dilworth was Paul Gardner. He had red hair and was extremely competitive. He was the fastest in the class in 4th grade at multiplication tables. His father owned Dan’s Supermarket, which was then a single store on the NW corner of 21st S and 21st E.

The church we occasionally attended was across 21st East from Dilworth. The Beacon 2nd Ward. It was named for the air traffic warning beacon which sat atop the mountain to the east of our neighborhood. Bishop Garff was the bishop when we moved there. Robert McMullin became bishop soon after.

Six months after I turned eight years old, I was interviewed by Bishop McMullin to be baptized. I was badly scared about that interview, because I feared anyone in a position of authority. We were not very active in the church at that time. I was supposed to go across the street to Primary every week after school, but I frequently skipped it. We went to Sunday School sometimes. When I was interviewed for Baptism, Bishop McMullin asked if I obeyed the Word of Wisdom. I couldn’t remember ever hearing about that. But I figured that I was trying to be wise or smart, so I answered in the affirmative. The truth was that I frequently took sips of Dad’s beer when no one could see me. But I didn’t know that was against the Word of Wisdom.

I was baptized in the Salt Lake Tabernacle font on March 29, 1953 by a young Priest named Richard Hardy.

Bishop McMullin had a son named Bobby. We were pretty good friends. I kept running into him in later years and we had classes together at the University of Utah.

Since I was afraid of authority figures, the school principal scared me badly. I avoided him at all costs. One day Michael Ruud dared me to open a window in the boys restroom. When I tried to do it, the latch broke off the window. Michael said he was going to tell the principal. I ran to the far end of the playground to get away. Some older kids came and got me and dragged me to the principal’s office. I told the principal, Mr. Hales, that Michael told me to do it. That was the first time I heard the line, “If he told you to jump off a building, would you do it?”

While I was in 4th grade, they started to build Beacon Heights Elementary school at the upper end of Wyoming Street. That summer, the neighborhood kids set up a Kool-Aid stand in the Olsen’s driveway. Lots of the construction workers on the school would come down to buy our Kool-Aid. I never made any money at that stand, even though I helped sell. I didn’t understand anything about business; it was just fun to help.