Book of Remembrance

In a white cottage in a small town of Mt. Pleasant, Utah at ten minutes after twelve the 22^nd day of February 1923, a baby girl weighing nine and one-half pounds was born to Christian Ericksen and Annie Christian Jensen. My doctor at the time of my birth was Doctor Sunwall.

I have fond memories of my girlhood, the many near and dear friends I had, and of the good times we had together. We had a lot of good time dancing at the Coconut Grove. Frances Larsen was one of my closest friends, we were always together, sharing many fond memories.

I remember the Family get togethers, it seemed there was always some of the family missing, but there was never a dull moment when we were together. For being a large family there was always love for each other.

It would take to long to relate all the good times and interesting experiences I have had, but I shall always hold them dear to my heart.

In August 1942 while working in a café in downtown Salt Lake, I met William Henry Justus, who at the time was in the Army Air Corps and stationed at the Air Base. We were married on the 27^th day of June 1943 at Kearney Nebraska.

MY CHILDHOOD PICTURES

Wishing to receive a Patriarchal blessing, I returned to my hometown of Mt. Pleasant, Utah and there received a wonderful blessing from Arthur O. Neilson. Part of my blessing I have already seen come to pass and my blessing has sure been a comfort to me when I have been depressed and needed comfort.

In 1942 I graduated from South High School. I have many fond memories of my high school days, also the Seminary which I attended each morning before school. I remember the picnics we had up the canyon when we would sit around the campfire and sing song and play games.

The last year of my High School I worked nights in a café names City Lunch. I got an apartment and supported my mother. It was just a two-room apartment, but we were together, and we were happy. I remember how sleepy I was sometimes in the mornings and how dry and boring I thought history was, so I think I slept most of the time and how I ever made the grade I still don’t know.

I was named in the Mt. Pleasant South Ward Chapel on the 6^th day of May 1923 by A. E. McIntosh.

My first day in the Hamilton grade school was quote thrilling, I remember my mother dressing me in a school dress she had made for me. How big, I thought I was going to school with my sister Opal.

We walked thirteen blocks to school. I had Diphtheria while I was in the second grade. I don’t remember too much about it, except knowing I was very sick and the doctor being there and the shots we all had to have.

When I was eight years of age, I was Baptized by R. Bruce Seely at the Baptismal House on the 3^rd day of August 1931. I remember how afraid I was when they called my name to be baptized, but after it was over, I enjoyed it and later went to the Salt Lake Temple and was baptized 12 times for the dead in one day.

August 15^th, 1942, I remember that date so well. It was the night I met Bill Justus. I was working at a café named Kellys between 2^nd and 3^rd south on Main Street in Salt Lake City. I was just getting off work when Bill and one of his buddies name Ralph King came in and ordered a coke. After serving them I went and changed into my street clothes and when I went to go home, they asked if they might walk down the street with me, instead they ended up going home with me on the bus.

I saw Bill the following two nights but then he was shipped to Walla Walla, Washington.

I remember the letters he wrote, they were letters a fellow would write to his sister of the places he’d seen and the dates he had.

Two months later I saw Bill again, this time I was visiting my sister in Pocatello, Idaho and Bill was stationed there. We got to know each other better and spent a wonderful week together.

I remember the card I received from a buddy of Bill’s when Bill went with me home from my weeks stay in Pocatello. He thought we were going to get married.

I saw Bill whenever he could get a three-day pass and could come to Salt Lake, until the last of January 1943 when he was shipped to Denver to go to bomb sight school. When he was through school, we thought he’d be sent to Salt Lake for replacement and we could be married, but as misfortune would have it his classmates were sent to Salt Lake and he was sent to Kearney, Nebraska. It was quite a disappointment.

June 1, 1943, I left for Kearney, Nebraska. I had quit my job and had gone to marry Bill, but misfortune struck again. It was the day we went to get our marriage license, they told us that in the state of Nebraska a girl had to be 21 unless she has the consent of her parents, I was only 20 and no consent.

We went downtown and sent a telegram to my mother asking her for a written consent to our marriage.

While waiting to hear from her I got a job at one of the cafés in town getting only $14.00 a week and my meals. A couple weeks later the written consent from my mother arrived and we obtained our license.

June 27, 1943, was on a Sunday, and it had rained all day. Bill met at the café when I got off work at 6:00 o’clock P.M. He told me to go change my clothes, he had made arrangements with a minister to marry us that evening. At 9:30 P.M. we were married by a Methodist Minister named Roy N. Spooner. Out only witnesses were Bill’s sergeant and his wife Mrs. Robert W. Schlotte.

OUR MARRIED LIFE

I had never met Bill’s folks yet, but a couple of weeks after our wedding we took out honeymoon and spent a seven-day furlough in Carthage, Illinois. The home of my husband. They were very sweet to me and welcomed me into the family, however it was quite a surprise for them to learn of our marriage.

While we were in Carthage a group of Bill’s friends and neighbors gave us an old-fashioned charivari and had a big dinner with a wedding cake for us.

Upon returning to Kearney, Nebraska, Bill received his shipping papers, he had been sent to Herington, Kansas.

I returned to Salk Lake, again I went to work until the middle of October when Bill found a sleeping room for rent and sent for me to come.

We paid $8.00 a week for just a sleeping room and, finding it hard to get by on Bill’s income, we moved across the street where we were able to have kitchen privileges for the same amount of money which helped a lot.

Out landlady, Mrs. George, was very good to us and treated us like her children. We were very fond of her.

I got a job working out at the base in the cafeteria. Bill and I went to and from work together until in February 1944 when we lost our first baby, it being a still birth. We were sure disappointed at the loss of our baby, but I guess it just wasn’t to be. I returned to my job at the base, everyone being so nice to us.

We had made many friends, but the one that was the dearest was Ernie and Marcie. Ernie and Bill worked together in the bomb sight vault and Marcie and I worked at the cafeteria. We would get a three-day pass and all four of us would take a train to Kansas City to do some shopping and take in the sights.

On the 3^rd day of March 1945, a baby girl came to bless our home and we were so proud of her. She was 7 months old when we left Herington, the war was over and Bill was getting his discharge. We had spent a wonderful two years in Herington, and we hated to leave.

After Bill’s discharge we made our home in Salt Lake. We bought a home on Richard Street. It was our first home and so we were real thrilled over it.

OUR CHILDREN

In Herington, Kansas on March 3, 1945, a baby girl came to bless our home weighing 6 lbs. 12 ¼ oz. How happy and proud we were, she was such a pretty child and perfect in every way. I’m afraid we spoiled her a little, she would never go to bed until we did and then she wouldn’t sleep anywhere but with us.

She was well advanced for her age and walked alone when she was 8 months old. How cure and tiny she was walking around.

Her daddy picked out her name and in June 1945 she was given a name and blessing from her uncle Clarence. The name we gave her was Charlene Kay.

Like most children, she liked to play with other children and any cat or dog she could find. If I didn’t watch her, she was going off down the street looking for someone to play with.

Charlene loved to visit her grandma and grandpa Justus on the farm. She was their first grandchild and if she hadn’t been already spoiled, she would have been by them.

Charlene used to pull everything out of the chest-of-drawers and climb in and play. She loved to play dress-up, so I had to watch my good shoes and clothing, or she would put them on.

She is getting to be a little lady and helps me a lot with the housework and children. She started baby sitting for me when she was eight and does a fine job. She started taking piano lessons in April 1954 and now is playing beautiful. She has played in Church and for a Christmas program at school.

December 21, 1946, we were blessed with a baby boy. In June of that year, we sold our home so we could move to Fort Wayne, Indiana where Bill was going to school.

We bought our first car, it was a 1940 Oldsmobile, and we sure thought we would be able to go places now. Well, on our first trip we had to be towed home. We sold the car and took a train to Indiana.

We had a bedroom on the train and so the trip was really nice, but after arriving in Fort Wayne we find there was no place to stay, we were even lucky to get a hotel room. Leaving Fort Wayne, we went to Chicago and bought a 1939 Plymouth and drove to Carthage, Illinois and stayed with Bill’s folks a couple weeks, then we went back to Salt Lake and lived there a year. During this time Bill went to night school learning glass blowing.

Bill was offered a partnership in a sign company in Kirksville, Missouri which was 115 miles from the home of Bills parents, and we took the offer and left Salt Lake in July of 1948. We liked Kirksville very much and we bought us a home in hopes we could stay there.

The climate didn’t agree with me, and I got Asthma. I went from one doctor to another trying to find some relief, but they all told me the same thing “We’d have to leave”.

I felt quite depressed and thought if only there was a branch of the Church close and I knew there was some elders close, in case I needed them, I would feel better.

Charlene had begged to go to Sunday School in her little class, she loved it so while we lived in Salt Lake and looked forward to it each Sunday. She couldn’t understand why she couldn’t go to Sunday School now.

I had looked through some of my books and pamphlets to see if I could find the address of the mission home in Independence, Missouri in hopes they could tell me where the nearest L.D.S. Church was, but I couldn’t find it.

One morning a knock came at the door and upon answering if, (as if an answer to a prayer) there stood the Branch President of the Kirksville Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was just a small branch consisting of only about 10 members, but I was so thankful for it.

Bill went with me to church which was held in a small room up over the Banks of Kirksville and it wasn’t very long until he started investigating the Gospel and they asked him to be Sunday School Superintendent. He accepted and did a fine job.

On the 21^st day of Mary 1949, Bill was baptized in the St. Louis Chapel. I think it was the happiest day of my life up to that time. The night Bill was baptized we attended a Missionary Testimonial Meeting and after the meeting President Berry baptized Bill. I don’t think I will ever forget how happy and proud I was of him.

Our home was more united and happier than it had ever been, and I cannot put into words the change and happiness that was ours.

On the 21^st of August 1950, we were blessed with a baby girl. About a month before her birth my Asthma became chronic, and I hemorrhaged from the bronchial tubes and so as soon as I was able to travel after her birth, we left for Salt Lake City.

We sold our household furnishings at a great loss and left our home rented, but for sale.

We stayed with my sister Opal and her family for two weeks until Bill found a job in Spokane, Washington. I went to stay with my sister Ruth and her family in Fairview, Utah and Bill went to Spokane. Two weeks later the children and I took an airliner to Spokane. It was a real experience for me, and I enjoyed it very much. Charlene and Billy were thrilled too. Joy was just a tiny baby, but she was good and slept all the way.

At Salt Lake City, Utah in the year 1946 on the 21^st of December a baby boy came to bless our home. He was such a sweet baby and so good. We named him after his father and grandfather Justus. He was given the name and blessing in the Waterloo ward, the name we gave him was William Elmer.

When Billy was 6 months old, we left Salt Lake City for Fort Wayne, Indiana. The trip was pretty hard on him, it was all so strange. Billy was always fond of little cars and that was the first word he said.

When Billy was almost 2 years old, he wanted to go out begging with his sister Charlene for Halloween, so I dressed him up like a tramp. By the time Billy got to the porch of the houses, the other children were ready to leave and every one thought he was so cute they gave him more than the other children. After three or four houses, he had all he could carry.

The third child to bless our home was a little girl named Joy Jean. She was born on a Monday morning about 8 0-clock the 21^st day of August 1950 in Kirksville, Missouri.

She was such a pretty baby, so fat and loveable. We left Kirksville to make out home in the west when Joy was 2 months old. We made her a bed in the car, and she was so good.

Joy was always small for her age. She was walking when she was a year old, but she was so small she looked like a big doll.

Joy has always been outspoken, and I have had many embarrassing moments because of it.

Joy’s first day at school I asked her what the teachers name was, and she said, “Miss Fence”. That afternoon when school was out Joy came to me and said, “Momma I told you wrong about my teachers name. It isn’t Miss Fence, it’s Miss Pickett”.

There is never a dull moment when the three children are at home.