organizations and put engineering in the three different ones.
And so I was working, I was making a drawing of a warehouse mechanized system.

- - - 00:00:20 - - -

for the colonel and I went to the colonel and I says,
colonel, I got a question.

- - - 00:00:40 - - -

I says, I'm not going to be able to finish your drawing.
I says, tomorrow for my last day.
What?
He says, didn't they take care of you?
I says, as far as I know, nobody's done anything.
done anything. My job's been abolished. I'm out."

- - - 00:01:00 - - -

Oh, before the end of the day, the boss came to me and he says,
you're okay. You're in this day. He got permission to keep you.
So, that was fine. So I finished that.

- - - 00:01:20 - - -

And then they had another shakeup of division later on.
And so I was in charge of converting an old barracks building into an office building.

- - - 00:01:40 - - -

And they said, there's one person that goes to the civil engineering people for questions.
And so you have to go to him to get him to go and get the questions.

- - - 00:02:00 - - -

And I said, so I said, well, I went to this person and I said, I need to know how we're
coming with the lighting system. What's happening?" And he says,
I'll have to check it out. And the boss came to me and he says,

- - - 00:02:20 - - -

you're not supposed to be gabbing around. He says, get
back to work. Okay, so I go back to work. The next day I get a
letter. You're now transferred into this organization for six
months. Okay, so I go to this other organization, and it's a good organization, and I'm working down in that organization, along with all the training and everything I had.

- - - 00:02:40 - - -

They were starting to make a, actually what we were doing is we were doing time measurement.

- - - 00:03:00 - - -

tell me how long it takes to do jobs and everything. So then they said, well we want to start flowcharting
the paperwork and find out where it's going to go. So I wind up with a job of flowcharting.

- - - 00:03:20 - - -

And everything, I get on a special committee.
So there's me and a person from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Oklahoma, San Antonio, and

- - - 00:03:40 - - -

Warner Robins, and Sacramento.
We're all in a team.
And we would get together and check things out, see how things were doing and stuff.
And so I'd get to travel to the different bases at times.
And this one time I went to Sacramento, and when I come back, well, I told the guy in

- - - 00:04:00 - - -

charge, I said, when I get back, my job's going to be abolished.
I can't do that.
I said, wait and see.
Sure enough, I come back there, my job was abolished, and okay, you're now in this organization over here.

- - - 00:04:20 - - -

And the funny thing was, the person that I was taking place was a Japanese lady that had been out in Topaz.

- - - 00:04:40 - - -

What was her name?
Can't think of it offhand. But she would ride back and forth with the boss, and the boss was an alcoholic.

- - - 00:05:00 - - -

And after lunch, he'd start drinking, and she'd have to drive him home.
And so, anyway, I bumped her, Stacy, her job.
Well, it happened, the organization on the other side,

- - - 00:05:20 - - -

there was two bosses and two different groups
in the same organization.
And there was manpower and personnel.
And I was put in the personnel.
because this lady handled the personnel papers.

- - - 00:05:40 - - -

And so,
I go and get settled on the desk.
Weekend comes, and then Monday morning I come,
and they say, oh, pack up your things.

- - - 00:06:00 - - -

No, they said, he says,
you're gonna go to Colorado,
I go to school for six weeks.
So I go over to Denver, go to school for six weeks,
come back, look at my desk and he says,

- - - 00:06:20 - - -

pack your things up and move on to the other side
of the room.
So, going to the other side of the room.
And they're manpower.
Or they're the ones that are doing time measurements
and stuff. And that's fine. So I went back within hours in. And the

- - - 00:06:40 - - -

fortunate thing is the boss that I have had, or the other organization, became my
boss over here. So we had a good relationship. And after I'd been working there for quite some time, I'd go to him and I says,

- - - 00:07:00 - - -

I said, look, my grades down as high as these other guys, and I'm doing the same work they're
doing.
I should be the same grade as them.
So he says, call the classifier.
So I call him.
He comes over and I talk to him and tell him, hey, this is what we're doing.

- - - 00:07:20 - - -

OK.
So I wind up getting a raise.
Well, it's just one thing after another.
I work my way up that way.
Well, it's been about an hour and 50 minutes.

- - - 00:07:40 - - -

Do you want to take a quick break or anything?
Yeah.
Okay, we'll take a quick break and then we've got a few more questions for you.
Sound good?
Yeah.
Just off the cuff.
Sure.
There was a fellow, a relative of ours, oh, I'm sorry I don't want to take a look at that

- - - 00:08:00 - - -

enough, I forgot it.
He was an engineer working in the organization with us.

- - - 00:08:20 - - -

He was a-
Bryce Billings.
Bryce Billings.
His mother, I met his mother
at one of the reunion years before.

- - - 00:08:40 - - -

So they were related somehow, but I don't remember.
But, boy, he was married and had a family, a big family.
He got messing around with one of the secretaries.
She was a no good. She ruined him. He wound up getting divorced.

- - - 00:09:00 - - -

Oh, that was just something else.
He was a clerk?
Yeah, he was related to the clerk.
But he knew him from Hill Air Force Base? Or where did you know him?
I met him at Hill Air Force Base. But I met his mother at one of the reunions.
Oh, okay.

- - - 00:09:20 - - -

And how did you get to and from Hill Art Force Base? How did you travel?
How did you travel to and from work?
Most of the time it was carpooling.
But in the last few years I drove myself.
Or had somebody ride with me.

- - - 00:09:40 - - -

But yeah.
You need to go to the restroom or anything?
I see that you're quite the gardener.
That's great. That's a good gardener.
That's not mine.

- - - 00:10:00 - - -

Oh, it's not yours?
Well, whose is it?
Well, a lot is too big for me.
I can't do it all.
So, I put just a little bit in over on the back side.
And all this up in here is the people who live next door.

- - - 00:10:20 - - -

Oh, I see.
So you just let them do it, huh?
That's nice of you.
Well, they keep the weeds down.
It's like being a bird.
Yeah.
Well, we've got just a few more questions for you.

- - - 00:10:40 - - -

Andrew has some questions about the railroad,
the old Farmington Railroad.
Go for it, Andrew. Well, I wanted to know where the original railroad station was.
Right down there where the freeway is. Yeah. I don't know more or less where though.

- - - 00:11:00 - - -

How far was it from Clark Lane east to east or north or south?
It was south of State Street.
Okay. Like how many feet or yards?
Oh...

- - - 00:11:20 - - -

I imagine about 40 feet.
Oh, okay. I mean right there.
So 650 West and State Street is about where it was?
No. Is that right where I-15 was?
Right where I-15 was. Is. Is. Presently.
No, no. It's right there. You go over the Elmer Pass, it sells as that.

- - - 00:11:40 - - -

Yeah, okay.
And it's right there where the freeway is.
Okay. Was it west of where the freeway is currently or was it east of the freeway where the freeway is currently?

- - - 00:12:00 - - -

Well, it would have to be west because it was right next to the railroad tracks.
Okay, so the railroad tracks really haven't changed location.
No.
Okay, that's what I need to know.
No, and back in those days, people would take the mail and put it in a big sack and take
it down and hang it on an arm.

- - - 00:12:20 - - -

Okay.
The trains would come along and scoop it up and away they'd go.
That's so funny.
He was the station master, and oh man, he would do garlic.
No, no, it wasn't garlic, it was horseradish.

- - - 00:12:40 - - -

He raised horseradish, and boy, when he did that horseradish,
you could smell something else.
So I got a question for you.
I was reading Orson's journal, or biography, autobiography.
He talked about growing mangoes.
What is a mango here?

- - - 00:13:00 - - -

They grow mangoes here.
Dad, I don't know.
Never heard of a mango?
Because of course there's a mango fruit
they grow that's tropical, but they can't grow that here.
So I was trying to figure out
what he was talking about, growing mangoes.
I don't know.
Okay.
You know, there's something that puzzles me.

- - - 00:13:20 - - -

I'm wondering if my grandpa didn't have a co-op with Uncle Orson and Uncle Ed because
Uncle Ed and Uncle Orson were the farmers.

- - - 00:13:40 - - -

My uncle took care of the horses, used his barn.
There were five acres of land on the north side of the creek,

- - - 00:14:00 - - -

just west of the railroad tracks.
That was always rented out to some people who raised onions.

- - - 00:14:20 - - -

Now, Uncle Orson had the piece where the jail is and that down into there.
And there was a Greek that raised a lot of onions on part of that property.

- - - 00:14:40 - - -

And Orson raised a lot of asparagus.
He had a big asparagus patch.
And I could never figure out why we would have to go down and help him cut asparagus.
We didn't get paid anything.

- - - 00:15:00 - - -

You know?
My dad would go down and pick up the boxes of asparagus,
take it into the Woodscross Cannery.
And I don't know.

- - - 00:15:20 - - -

It seemed like,
if we're gonna kill a, raise it in a beef and kill it,
it's shared.
A pig is shared.
And I remember one time, Uncle Ed planted a lot of corn back there in the back of your

- - - 00:15:40 - - -

property.
And I noticed the corn was ready.
We had to go and help harvest the corn

- - - 00:16:00 - - -

and then take it over to Ann Innes's
and Ann Innes would blanch it.
We'd cut it off the cob, put it in racks to dry.
It seemed like that there was something
where the three families were all working together.

- - - 00:16:20 - - -

I believe there was.
But you never got paid, and you were wondering why is it that you'd, but you always ate,
you always had a lot of food.
Yeah, and we got hay from a piece of property that was grandpa's that Uncle Orson was using.

- - - 00:16:40 - - -

And so I don't know, you know.
Yes, Orson's autobiography details this and I'll have to give you a copy.
I've got a copy.
Oh, okay. He talks about how when the tough times came, that a father, your grandfather,

- - - 00:17:00 - - -

was having a struggling to make ends meet. And so he asked his sons if they wanted to
now take parts of the property, of their father's property. So he sold, I think he sold two

- - - 00:17:20 - - -

I think he sold two big pieces of property to his sons and some homes as well.
You're talking about his grandfather.
Your grandfather sold a piece of property to Franklin and to Orson to make it through
the Depression.

- - - 00:17:40 - - -

They said they didn't know at the time that he was struggling with his finances but he
was and that's why he was offering them the property.
according to Orson. He sold it, offered to sell it to them and they had always

- - - 00:18:00 - - -

wanted a part of it but that was when he finally did it and they kind of became
owners of the farm rather than just you know family members of the farm. But you
You also have your grandfather's autobiography?
Yeah.

- - - 00:18:20 - - -

Okay.
It's not as detailed as Orson's about his own financial and property ownership, but
Orson does go into some good detail.
Oh, I can't read, so I...
Yeah, we can read it to you or give you a recording.
What do you mean you can't read?
Just your eyes?
I have macular degeneration.

- - - 00:18:40 - - -

I can see out here, but I can't read.
I can see out here, but I can't read because everything is blurry.
Oh wow.
We can even give you a projector so you can just look at it on a projector really big.
I've got a projector right there.
Oh good.
Okay.
So that's what you do.
You put it under this?
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.

- - - 00:19:00 - - -

Oh, that's great.
But I was wondering how that kind of worked out because I know the families all work together.
Yeah.
How old were you when this all happened?
You kind of wondered.
It's just been in the last five or six years
and I've really wondered what happened.

- - - 00:19:20 - - -

But how old were you when this work took place
where you helped everybody sort of work together?
It was 10.
Okay.
10 or so.
Got it.
Just young kids.
Yeah.
We'd go down there and Ruth and some other kids.

- - - 00:19:40 - - -

Some of them would be cutting the aspergers
and they'd hold their arms out
and they'd put a pile of the aspergers onto us.
They would take it over and sit in the pile
and somebody locks it up.
Well, if you don't mind me asking some other questions
about religion, would that be all right?
But first, one more question about your uncle Rulon.

- - - 00:20:00 - - -

He played in the championship team for basketball
for the University of Utah.
Yeah.
Where did he learn to play basketball?
Where in the world did you guys play basketball?
Those kids?
Yeah.
We had an old wire hoop out on the garage

- - - 00:20:20 - - -

and we'd use the driveway, dirt driveway,
for the hoop, to play basketball and to hoop.
So the driveway east of the,
of your, is it the SRT Clark home?
No, no.
Or what home is this?
Well, it was east, well, it was west of Uncle Ed's place.

- - - 00:20:40 - - -

Okay, okay, oh that big driveway, the big one, okay.
Yeah.
And where did you learn to play basketball?
Why, was that popular back then?
Was everyone playing basketball?
Oh yeah, yeah.
Okay.
Well, in junior high, well, in grade school,

- - - 00:21:00 - - -

they converted upstairs classrooms
made it into a gym and had basketball and club play.
Okay, and you think that's maybe where it came,
kind of became popular?
No, I don't know.
Ruined, how he became, I don't know.

- - - 00:21:20 - - -

Because that's way, way before my father.
But his son Cal took the state high jump
and you know, at the time everybody was jumping
and he jumped over backwards.
And he started, he's the one that started jumping over backwards.

- - - 00:21:40 - - -

Wow.
Yeah. Okay. Anyway, those are some curiosities that I've had over the years.
I'll have a lot more for you and I'll write them down as I get them and come visit you.
Well, I've got some things over there that I'm going to give you and see what you want to do with them.

- - - 00:22:00 - - -

Okay, go ahead, sorry.
So, no, it's okay. So what were some of the roles and responsibilities you had in the church?
Responsibilities that I've had?
Yeah.
Let's see.
I worked with, as a secretary to the Aaronic priesthood.

- - - 00:22:20 - - -

others called president
came back

- - - 00:22:40 - - -

First one I came back to the first floor

- - - 00:23:00 - - -

Let's see.
Well, I guess, home teacher, others called president again, and ward clerk, executive

- - - 00:23:20 - - -

secretary to the bishop, two different bishops.
I was first counselor to the mission.
Then I was secretary to the regional representative.

- - - 00:23:40 - - -

Then stake clerk.
And I counseled them.
And the mission, I'm on a mission.
a mission to go to Florida to the church ranch

- - - 00:24:00 - - -

to refurbish housing and then came home
and then I was called again to go to
California Bakersfield, California to the almond farm

- - - 00:24:20 - - -

to help build a duplex and that was a six month mission
six month mission because we was gonna be gone for the summer.
The church had an almond farm?
Oh, massive almond farm.
Oh, I didn't know.
South Valley Farms.
I didn't get almonds from Deseret.
I wonder what that's called.
They're the second largest almond production company in the nation.

- - - 00:24:40 - - -

It's in the world.
In the world, yes.
They redid the farm, I said in fact, three times since we were there.
Wow.
But yeah, and so anyway, we were asked to go down
and really help them finish that duplex.

- - - 00:25:00 - - -

And so we went, this was in October.
We had to go down to the MTC.
We got out just before the conference.
Since the conference was over, we headed down there.
We got down there.
And there was two couples that were both converts to the church.

- - - 00:25:20 - - -

One was from Oklahoma and one was from Georgia.
And they did not get along.
The person from Oklahoma was supposed to be an engineer.

- - - 00:25:40 - - -

And he was a diabetic and a highly,
diabetic got the best of him a lot of times.
But they would do work and the guy didn't like it.

- - - 00:26:00 - - -

They didn't do it right.
So they said they were getting ready to come home.
They told them, we're going home.
And they said, well, there's another couple coming.
And so, I said, well, if there's another couple coming,
we'll wait and see what happens when they come.

- - - 00:26:20 - - -

So we got down there in October,
and this couple from Georgia said,
are we ever glad to see you?
We'll stay.
So, we went into the office.
After we got settled, we went in the office,
and he says, we can't build a duplex

- - - 00:26:40 - - -

because the county's not zoned for duplex.
You have to have 50 acres to build a house.
Well, that's no problem.
We've got a section of land that we want to put houses on.
We can't build any houses

- - - 00:27:00 - - -

because we don't have any blueprints,
and we're told we can't get any blueprints for a year.
He says, Elder Owens, what do you think we ought to do?
I said, I think we ought to go into Bakersfield and beat the bush, see if we can't find somebody.
So I said, I'm a massive, you take Elder Ellis and you go to Bakersfield.

- - - 00:27:20 - - -

So I said, let's go to Lowe's.
Okay, we go to Lowe's and we go up to the contractors desk.
We go up there and a lady comes over and she says, can I help you?
I said, yes.
I said, would you happen to have any house plans?

- - - 00:27:40 - - -

She said, no, we don't have anything like that.
A fellow over on the end of the counter comes over and he says, what is it you're after?
I said, I'm trying to find somebody to build us, draw us up some house plans.
Oh, I can give you a name and a phone number.

- - - 00:28:00 - - -

Writes it down.
We go back.
I call that number.
The guy says, that guy doesn't work here anymore.
What is it you're after?
I said, we're after, we're trying to find somebody
to draw us up some house plan.
Oh, I'll give you a name and a phone number.

- - - 00:28:20 - - -

She said, do you have a phone number?
So, I call that guy and he says,
do you have something in mind?
I said, yeah, we have a little house plan
that we took out of a magazine.
And he said, okay, we'll bring it over to my place

- - - 00:28:40 - - -

at 10 o'clock tomorrow.
Okay, Elder Massey, take that little girl to the slower.
We go over, he looks at it, and he says,
yeah, I can draw you up a set of some mouthplants.
And he says, this is what it's gonna cost you.
And I says, oh, I'm sorry, but we can't tell you

- - - 00:29:00 - - -

the yes or no.
I said, we don't have that authority.
I said, we'll have to go back to the farm
and tell the manager, and he'll get,
someone will get back with you.
And he said, okay.

- - - 00:29:20 - - -

So we go back,
and I guess the manager called him, talked with him,
called him, talked with him, and turns out,
he drops up some house plans,
he'll get all the building permits and everything,

- - - 00:29:40 - - -

so we don't have to worry about getting
building permits or anything.
So, we go about our work,
do whatever we have to,
make the place, get the place ready for the houses,
They hire a company to come in for this event, foundation through the floors, put the rough

- - - 00:30:00 - - -

plumbing in the floors.
Okay, here's the house plans, now figure out no lumber for two houses.
Figured out okay, ordered enough for two houses, they put it on the dock under cover.

- - - 00:30:20 - - -

you bring a forklift over, you get the forklift and come over with whatever lover we need.
And then we went to town. We had, and we were building, we had one house framed and started

- - - 00:30:40 - - -

just to get ready to start the other one and my wife's sister died and they called us in
the office and said, would you extend your mission for two months? So we'd go home with
a couple with George from Georgia. And I said, yeah, we'll extend, but we need to go home

- - - 00:31:00 - - -

to the funeral and get our income tax done and then we'll be back. Okay. So we came home
We went home for a week, went back, went to work.
We left on Memorial Day with our release.
And when we left, we had one home built up,

- - - 00:31:20 - - -

sheetrocked, and all ready to be painted on the inside.
On the outside, we put vinyl siding on the end of the house.
The second house we had frame, roof was on,

- - - 00:31:40 - - -

the roofing was on, rough plumbing,
and rough electrical, all that.
What years was this mission?
Now you're asking me a question, oh no.

- - - 00:32:00 - - -

I think.
I don't know where my water is in this.
No, that's not it.

- - - 00:32:20 - - -

Yeah.
I think that's fine.
That's all right.
Place it bare left.
Oh.
I don't know.
I can hold it for you.

- - - 00:32:40 - - -

Maybe.
2004, 2005?
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.

- - - 00:33:00 - - -

Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
2005, February of 2005.
Says February 27, 2005.
That's the processing plant.
Oh, okay.
It's not where it's at, but no.
It says that the Erwood House.

- - - 00:33:20 - - -

That's the homes.
That's what you put together.
That's the homes that we were building right there.
That's great.
Well, thank you.
That's an interesting story.
You didn't tell us about that mission.
So, South Valley Farms.
So you have mission three, you have another mission?

- - - 00:33:40 - - -

No, that's the same mission.
Oh, this is the 2000s?
Okay, I was gonna say the 80s or something.
Okay.

- - - 00:34:00 - - -

Wow, you kept good records it looks like.
Almond trees.
So, can they produce almonds for some of the big almond companies or what?

- - - 00:34:20 - - -

They have their own land.
They used to have apricots, I believe, and grapes.
And then when almonds became the thing, that's what they did.
So.
Somewhere.
Bakersfield, Lost Hills, that whole area is all.

- - - 00:34:40 - - -

Yeah.
This is the house that I put there completely.
Beautiful.
And that's where the missionaries live now?
Or the workers live now?
Yeah.
And this is all okay, it's all in the early 2000s.

- - - 00:35:00 - - -

Wow, they look nice.
Yeah, very nice.
Yeah.
So, tell me about your relationship with God.
I don't know.

- - - 00:35:20 - - -

I think he's been there to help me and guide me all through my life.
I look back on my, what happened over my years.

- - - 00:35:40 - - -

I was destined to be held back so I could join the Navy,
join the Navy, have that experience.
I think the Lord has guided me and said, this is it.

- - - 00:36:00 - - -

Is it time for you to do this work?
I said, Boy Scouts.
And I could tell you a story on that too.

- - - 00:36:20 - - -

And then when I was trying to make a decision, do I go on a mission or do I go steady with
this girl?
I was blessed to have a dream that says, this is what's going to happen when you go on a

- - - 00:36:40 - - -

mission.
go on a mission. And to have the spirit just say, sometime I want to date that sister,
you know, that was in the spirit inside. I heard that. And so I know that my life has

- - - 00:37:00 - - -

been guided by the father. In fact my Father, God bless him, grandfather gave me, said that I would serve in high councils.

- - - 00:37:20 - - -

You know, there would be in places of high council. And it came to pass.
I said, high councilman, served as a clerk.

- - - 00:37:40 - - -

We had corps as a councilman.
And when I was on my mission in Florida,
they asked us missionaries to go and fill

- - - 00:38:00 - - -

in for a high councilman who couldn't be there.
because they had a fellow that they were,
that wanted to be restored back into the church,
and sitting on that council,
as a secretary to the regional representative,

- - - 00:38:20 - - -

I got to meet with state presidents,
to meet in their councils,
and so,
It's just been that the Lord has watched over me and guided me.

- - - 00:38:40 - - -

Do you miss your wife?
Yes.
Yeah.
What do you miss?
Oh, I miss her friendship.
Just having somebody to sit and talk to, you know.
What advice do you have for society?

- - - 00:39:00 - - -

Live the gospel.
The gospel is true.
If we live the gospel, everything else will take care of itself.
What advice do you have for your posterity?

- - - 00:39:20 - - -

Just remember that the church is true.
Hang on to it.
Don't be swayed.
No.
The Lord is directing the church.

- - - 00:39:40 - - -

I know that for a fact,
and he's got a prison to the church
at the right time for the right people.
For our time.
Just hang on.
Well thank you for your time.
Oh hey, it's been fun.
Yeah, you did an excellent job.

- - - 00:40:00 - - -

That's a good two hours and 25 minutes of recording.
If you're going to scramble it all.
Well, what we do is we...