Then Concealed, Now Revealed!

My father, Gerald (Gerry) L. Matthews, was hired at the age of fifteen, along with other students, to work the summer off-school months for the Preway Company of Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Initially he was a gate monitor but, upon reaching his sixteenth birthday that July, he was given additional labors, such as wheel barrowing loads of concrete over narrow boardwalks, and was assigned to the shipping department to help load railroad boxcars with pallets of cartons containing field stoves for use by the armed services. [These portable kitchens could be set up anywhere and, when stacked within their frameworks, allowed for several to be used at once.]

by Craig Clyde

Article written and printed in the Deseret News

Winner —“The Christmas I Remember Best”

She was a small, wizened woman with snow white hair and snapping eyes. Her demeanor was usually adversarial and when she straightened up to her full height of four feet ten inches she could be a formidable foe indeed. Bertha Davis was my neighbor —- in fact the only neighbor of our ranch in 1955. We never had a telephone nor television set while I was growing up, so neighbors, no matter how argumentative, were meaningful.

My mother and father’s Christmas tradition of caroling always included Bertha’s place because she was a widow of nearly twenty years and, as my mother said, she needed some cheer on Christmas. I couldn’t imagine anyone that cantankerous deserved cheering up.

By - Kelly Denise Baker

Henry Eldon Roberts was born in Strathroy, Ontario on Dec 28th, 1915 during World War I. His father was born in Londonary, Ireland and his mother was born in England. His parents migrated to Canada when they were just babies and met each other as teenagers. They lived on farmland and had to work hard for what they had. Henry's older sister, Ruth couldn't pronounce his name and referred to him as " Al ", which became the name he was known for, for life.