www.MeM.com

Norman Victor Haroldsen, 80, died at home on May 12, 2008 of cancer.

He was born March 18, 1928 in Idaho Falls to George Arthur and Catherine Smith Haroldsen. He was educated in a 2-room schoolhouse in St. Leon through the 8th grade. He attended and graduated from Idaho Falls High School where he served as one of the officers in the Concert Band.

He graduated from the University of Idaho in Moscow with a degree in Agriculture. While in his senior year, he made a trip to Vancouver BC Canada and met Fay Tillack. They were married on July 28, 1950 in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple.

Norman owned and operated the Haroldsen Egg Farm in Rexburg for almost 32 years. After closing his farm, he delivered mobile homes throughout the Pacific Northwest for a year. He was then a tour bus driver for three years for Grey Line of Alaska. He received an award for excellence and many compliments that he was "the best tour guide we've ever had." Norman then drove bus for Madison School District for the next 12 years. He frequently stated that driving his school bus was one of his most enjoyable job, thoroughly enjoying the many students who rode with him.

He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in Many positions, Including in the Young Men's organization, Ward Clerk, Stake Mission President, twice on the High Council, and had a regular temple Assignment.

He loved to travel and visited every continent except Asia and Antarctica and he visited 48 of the 50 United States.

He was preceded in death by 4 brothers; Donald; Earl; Edwin; and George; a sister, Edith Lovell; a son, Gary Kent; and a granddaughter, Jacqueline Fay.

He is survived by his wife, Fay, of Rexburg; children Brian (Janet) of Taylorsville Utah; Keith (Carolyn) of Menan, Idaho; Ron (Vallerie) of Provo, Utah; Warren (April) of Woods Cross, Utah; Catherine (Kevin) Thomas of Anchorage, Alaska; Linda (Mike) Mitchell and Laurie (Daren) Call, both of Rexburg Idaho; 40 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Helen Worrell of St. Anthony, Idaho.

The family would like to thank Dr Dane Dickson and his wonderful staff at Teton Oncology, Rexburg Home Health and Hospice, and especially Dana Hughes for the loving care and service they rendered.

Funeral Services will be on May 16, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. in the Rexburg North Stake Center. Family will receive friends at Flamm Funeral home on Thursday, May 15, from 7-8:30 p.m. and one hour prior to the funeral.

Burial will be in the Rexburg Cemetery.





* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





Life Sketch as presented at the funeral by son, Ron Haroldsen:

Norman Victor Haroldsen
March 18, 1928 -

A Wonderful Life

Norman Victor Haroldsen, born Sunday morning March 18, 1928. His mother told him that if he'd be born 10 ½ hours earlier, she would have named him Patrick in honor of St. Patrick's day.

His parents, George and Kate's family appeared complete before Norman came along. A family picture seems to confirm that idea. But then Norman and his 18 month younger sister appeared as two trailing cabooses to George and Kate's family.

Relatives were perplexed at where all his black hair came from. It disappeared as mysteriously as it came, and by the time he was two, Norman was as blond as blond could be.

With His little, almost twin sister, Norman's enthusiasm for experiencing life got him into his share of childhood trouble. One of many examples that could be cited was when their mother was canning grape jelly. Norman and Helen were trying to be so helpful that Kate put their names each on a quart bottle of jelly, saying “This one is yours Norman, and this one is yours Leone.” Three months later, neither Norman nor Helen saw a problem with going down into the basement to open their bottles of jelly. The first few spoonfuls were pretty tasty. But before it was all over they didn't know what ached more, their bellies or their rear ends.

Norman was experimental as a small boy. One day, he stretched a rope across their cement walkway about 6 inches above the ground, not sure of what he'd catch. He “caught” his big brother Ed, who was running to the house to get something he'd forgotten. Ed's fast moving foot caught the rope, his nose caught and plowed the cement walk, and Norman caught heck from Ed.

In telling of growing up on the farm, Norman said, “Our parents never took us anywhere. And I literally mean that – never anywhere. We never went to Idaho Falls or even to church. We grew up during the great depression. But we were never aware of being poor or deprived. We never went hungry, but were never given any money by our parents.”

Norman tells of the tedious hours thinning beets or doing many of the other monotonous farm jobs as a child, but he also spoke of the fun times on the farm. At night, after the farm work ceased for the day, Norman's favorite activity was to go to the old swim hole. He said “I was eight or ten – probably ten (years old) when my brother Ed taught me how to swim out there.” Brothers and cousins all joined in - strictly “boys only” though. (Dad told me that he never owned a swimsuit until he was 18 years old. They built a big bonfire fire near the swim hole, and when Norman got cold, he'd stand next to the fire. He'd turn a little and stand some more, and then turn and stand some more, roasting like a hot dog on a stick.

Another favorite family activity was more complicated to prepare for. Everything had to be timed perfectly. I don't know the exact order of things, but Norman's dad, George did. The first crop of hay cut, the rest of the planting completed. Cows doctored, pigs castrated, all the crops irrigated, fences repaired, potatoes cultivated, hay hauled in from the field, and stacked with the hay derrick. And the hay field watered for the second crop. Corrals cleaned and calf stalls freshly bedded. The list seemed that it would take all summer of day and night work to finish.

Then finally Pa would declare everything was ready and Norman's family would feverishly pack up and head for one of their favorite fishing streams for the next two or three days. Norman's dad, George, worked as hard at fishing as he did on the farm. After a few days of R&R along a river bank up in Island Park or somewhere else, the family would beat it back to the farm where everyone was expected to work double-time to catch up on the farm work again.

George's strong work ethic rubbed off on to his son, Norman, even at a young age. One of the daily chores that was identified as “Norman's job to do” was to milk the cow in the morning. Norman was always so anxious to get going in the morning that he would get up earlier and earlier to go out and get started. When he was going out to start milking at 3:00 am, Norman's mother, “Kate” finally put her foot down with the scold, “Norman, if you don't quit getting up so early to milk the cow, I won't let you do it any more.”

I, along with all of my siblings, can vouch for the fact that George's son, Norman, retained this work ethic to pass along to the next generation.

Even though Norman's childhood home was less than five miles from the Idaho Falls City limits, this rural area, St. Leon, operated its own school. Back in the 1930's, St. Leon was a modern school with 2 rooms – grades 1-4 in one room, and grades 5-8 in the other. With 4 rows in each class room, Dad said they just moved over 1 row each year. Going from grade 4 to 5 was a big deal because you got to change rooms.

Like Norman, most of the kids attending St. Leon were farmers who had chores to do after school. No time for sports like the city kids played. So when Norman graduated the 8th grade, in 1942, and began attending Idaho Falls High School, the last thing he and his buddy/ cousin Ray wanted was to be humiliated in the required PE classes. But good the news was, they discovered they'd be exempt from PE if they were enrolled in High School Band. So Norman's high school band career was shining, with playing two different instruments as he participated in concert, pep, and marching band. In his final high school year, Norman beat out popular Donna West as the bands business manager when she caught backlash for saying, “We can't have the band run by a bunch of country boys from out in the sticks!”

While attending high school, Norman learned that many of the kids attended LDS Seminary, and he too was enrolled by the second year. Ten years before Norman had been born, his dad had become embittered by an unchristian Christian, who was in a position of power. So with the exception of being baptized at the age of ten, at the insistence of Norman's mother, their Christianity was practiced at home instead of at church.

Norman loved attending the high school LDS Seminary. It was the beginning of a life of associating with and learning with others who likewise loved God and were inspired by the scriptures which taught of his love for them.

After high school, Norman's education continued as he pursued a bachelors' degree in Agriculture. In his Senior year of attending the University of Idaho, up in Moscow, Idaho, Norman and several of his buddies decided to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday exploring further up north instead of coming back down south to the family farm.

An old high school buddy from Idaho Falls was serving as an LDS missionary in Vancouver, British Colombia. When Norman and his college buddies met up with Elder Layton, he told Norman that he'd like to show him around town, but that there was a missionary farewell, which he was obligated to attend. Norman and his buddies were game to go along and attend the chapel meeting, and even more game to attend the dance, which followed in the basement of the church building.

Norman's buddies watched in amazement as this otherwise reserved (if not down right shy) Idaho Farm Boy competed and ultimately won the attention of the most beautiful girl at the church dance. Norman forgot all about his other friends as this beauty, Fay Tillack, introduced him to her family and then showed him around the city the next day.

Differences in background and distance didn't separate the Canadian city girl from the Idaho farm boy for long. The following summer, July 28, 1950, they were married in the Idaho Falls LDS Temple.

The first eight years of their married life became a defining time for Norman—Both vocationally and spiritually. As three sons eventually joined their family, Norman and Fay remained active in church and involved in the family farm. The stated plan was for Norman to begin to assume management of the farm while his dad, now in his late 60's eased into retirement. But working year after year with no pay and no say in any management decisions convinced Norman that he had no future on his childhood farm. Also tragedy struck even more personally when Norman and Fay's third son, 18 month old Gary Kent, suddenly became ill and died.

Those hard days brought two resolves that Norman kept. He would never take his faith for granted (the faith that gave him hope that he would someday be where he knew his son's spirit was). So He resolved to remain faithful to his faith and to serve God wherever and whenever he could.

Norman also resolved to make a new career start—Here he did almost the impossible when, with no money to his name, he moved his family which now included a baby daughter to Rexburg where he developed his own small time egg farm into the thriving predecessor of today's Agri-business.

Norman made those changes in his life, with his father George (still suffering from his own personal bitterness) accusing him, “All you care about is chickens and church.”

Seven of us children grew up on our family egg farm. This is where we learned from Dad to work and play “Haroldsen Style”. We didn't work at a feverish pitch, night and day, for 3 weeks before going fishing. But none the less, our work load compressed and intensified on both ends anytime we took off for such things as celebrating Memorial Day or the 4th of July “Haroldsen Style”.

Growing up on this egg farm, working and playing beside Dad, is where we listened to his classical music and he endured our music. It's where we learned from his sense of humor and developed our own. It's where we learned that we can love life even when we are working hard.

Norman's normal workdays were always long. Always starting before 5:00am, after 12-14 hour long work days, he would enjoy supper together with all of us as a family. Then frequently Dad's workday would continue with paper work in his office. Often his personal time was spent curled up with a geography book- and finally dreaming about places he'd like to visit in the world, until a new day began.

He did travel widely - throughout the world - always out on his own - never as a part of a tour group. He was always too impatient to wait around for the slow pace a tour guide would take.

Dad's people skills and sense of humor are legendary to everyone who really knows him. He made the world his friend-one person at a time. Examples of Dad's sense of humor continued, even in his devastating illness, even when he was most miserable. I'll give examples that each of my three sisters have told.

Story #1
Last October Dad's clothes didn't fit very well because he had lost so much weight from his sickness. Catherine told the rest of us siblings about it.

“Just thought you all might want to know about Dad's first trip back to church after nearly a year. We get to park in the handicap parking. We all get out and I stand on the sidewalk waiting for them to come around the other side. I'm standing there looking at the people walking into the church when I hear Dad behind me saying, “I think I have a problem here”. He said it pretty calmly so I just turn around to see what the problem was. There was Dad, standing on the sidewalk with his pants down on the ground around his ankles. It was quite a shocker to see that. He had his suit coat on and looked fine from the waist up but his bare legs were just out there for all to see. If the people walking into the church didn't notice that on their own, they certainly did when Mom let out a shriek. All heads turned and got the shock of their life. I walked over and did my best to block my dear old Dad from the church gawkers while Mom bent over and tried to pull his pants back up. She tucked his shirt in, scolded him for not cinching his belt tight enough and pleaded for us to all go home. “We can't go in there now!!” she cried. They did go on into church…but afterward Mom and Catherine took Dad home where they made Moon Pie to celebrate his first trip back to church after being away so long.

Story #2
When she was caring for him, Laurie told of how utterly uncomfortable and in fact down right miserable Dad was. He told Laurie to “just shoot me”. Laurie pantomimed shooting him and he immediately dropped his head to the side with his tongue hanging out like she'd killed him.


Story #3
Linda said, “One day Mom and I were trying to re-shift Dad in the bed. She stood on one side and I stood on the other. Dad's knees were bent up so I took a hold of one leg and mom took the other and we started to lift him up to shift him. Dad opened his eyes and said, “make a wish”.

All of these stories are classic Dad's great sense of humor and positive attitude no matter what.

As I pondered a good analogy of my father, Norman's life, the majestic Teton Mountains which have graced his landscape most of his life came to mind. Regardless of temperature or tempest they stand firm. My Dad's testimony and faith in God is like that. Even when hidden from the view of all by storm clouds, those Teton Mountains don't waver or waffle. My Dad's character and nature were likewise unaffected by his storms of life.

The harsh conditions on the Teton's leaves a beauty that cannot be created any other way. It's the same way in Dad's life. The trials in his life have molded his character with beauty that only the master's hand could create.

Norman's life long love of people, and his faith in the goodness of mankind, has endeared him to very many throughout his life… to almost all who know him now. This expectation of the goodness of mankind… has become self fulfilling… as his goodness has rubbed off onto those he came into contact with.

Norman's good friend expresses this so well in a card he wrote two weeks ago. Darwin Wolford's words (and scripture) sum up Dad's life better than my words can express. “Norman, you have always been a man I looked up to as a true Christian gentleman, unselfish, meek, without guile, and thoroughly righteous. When I reach this point in my own life, I only hope that I will be as prepared to meet my Savior as you are. I guess the suffering you experience is given to you as a means to refine the steel in your sweet soul even more. I think Isaiah's words are much better than mine: “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver: I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10)

Last summer, because of his long absence… because he was unable to attend church, Norman's friend and leader in his High Priest group, Jim Wilson, invited dad to share his life and testimony via audio recording. These are Dad's words from that recording of almost a year ago.

“I know that our prayers are always heard and answered. I feel the Lord has a purpose yet for me in this life. When that is completed then I will be willing to return to him.”

Dad, I want to be like you. As your faithful wife of over 57 years, as your children (all 8 of us – 7 of us mourning your loss… while I know our brother Gary rejoices in your company… as your many friends and neighbors… just as the Savior taught, everyone you came in contact seemed to be your neighbor… as everyone who's life you have touched (have changed) we love you, we miss you, your life inspires us. Good-bye … for a time.






* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *






Excerpts from his life history:

"The Book of Norman; The Doctrine of Fay; and other Family Pearls"


Norman Victor Haroldsen was born on the Sunday morning of March 18, 1928. His Mother tells him that if he were born 10 1/2 hours earlier, she would have named him Patrick. (In honor of St. Patrick's day) He was the 5th son of George Arthur Haroldsen and Catherine Smith Haroldsen. George was born on 14th day of March 1886 in Hyrum Utah and Catherine was born on the 14th day of January 1890 in Hooper, Weber county Utah.
George was the oldest of 9 children. He didn't go as far to go courting as Norman did. Catherine only lived about a 1/2 mile away. He courted her in a buggy. Their first born was named Donald. He lived 4 days and then died. Catherine had yellow fever at the time. It was 1910, and there were a lot of those kinds of diseases at that time. He was buried in the Rose Hill cemetery in Idaho Falls. A year later, Earl Eugene Haroldsen was born. Earl worked as an executive for Idaho Power Company. Two years later, Edith Ann was born. Edwin Oliver was born in 1918. In 1923, George Ivan was born. He was Grandpa's namesake. In later years, he proved to be kind of the favorite. The rest of the kids were kind of scared of Grandpa and didn't dare argue with him, but George did. His dad kind of liked him better than he did the rest of the kids, maybe because he stuck up for himself. They had a family picture. The picture was all complete. Then they had a "whoops"!! We've got another one coming, and that was Norman. Grandma said that when Norman was born he had a whole lot of black hair. Aunt Mary came in the room and looked around and asked whose baby that was. She really thought Catherine was switching babies just to fool her. Two years later he was just as blond as blond. Aunt Mary also got mad at Catherine for sticking her foot out of bed on the 9th day after delivery. She didn't think that Catherine had been in there long enough. They had to stay in the hospital for a full 10 days. A year and a half later, Helen Leone was born. She was kind of Norman's sidekick. They were so close in age and all the others were so much older. They were kind of the cabooses. George was always the lucky one. But, on the 31st day of May, 1969 his luck ran out and he was fatally burned.
Grandma Haroldsen had canned some grape jelly. Norman and Helen were trying to be so helpful so Grandma put a label on the quart bottles and said this one is yours Norman, and this one is yours Helen. Three months later, Helen and Norman went down into the basement and opened the bottles and started to eat their jelly. The first couple of spoonfuls tasted pretty good, but before long they each had an ache in their bellies and an ache in their rear ends. They couldn't really see where they had done anything wrong.
Another time Norman and Helen caused quite a stir in the traffic going by their house. All the cars were going by really slow and the people were all trying to get a good look at their yard. Grandma yelled out at them and they answered, but she didn't go and check on them. She figured they were all right. Then at one point, she opened the door and saw a streak of white run by. Grandma soon put a stop to their streaking good fun. What little angels they were.
Norman was always a curious child and would experiment with things to see what would happen. One day he got a rope and tied it about 6 inches up from the cement across the sidewalk. He wasn't sure what he would catch with it, but he ended up "catching" his big brother Ed. He stopped at the road and ran into get something. He hit that rope and just plowed his nose into the cement. Norman caught heck for that too.
Norman attended St. Leon School. On the last day of school he walked there on stilts so he could look into the classroom. They were also known for giving their teacher a bad time. She would come in during noon recess and all the kids would dive outside the windows and drop to the ground. The windows were about 8 ft. high.
Norman was 10 years old when he was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His Father had his feelings hurt and became inactive in the church. Norman's Mother didn't join the church until after she was married. When George became inactive in the church, she went along with him. She was a very quiet person and let George make the decisions. So, the children all grew up hardly knowing what church was. They never went. Catherine did feel that it was important though. When Helen turned 8 years old, she told George that it was the day for them to be baptized. He said to go ahead, but he was going to go and cut grain. Norman has no recollection of ever being confirmed. He does remember that it was a Priest age boy that did the baptism. After that, they remained inactive for many years. The ironic thing was that George's younger brother, Morgan, was the bishop of their ward. He is the one that eventually got Norman going to church and got him ordained a deacon. His first experience in passing the sacrament was when they were having church in the old Lincoln grade school. Another thing that Norman admitted much later in life is that he had a crush on a girl and ended up going to seminary because she was. He started seminary when he was a sophomore in high school and attended for 3 years. The whole time he went, his Dad gave him a hard time about it. They did end up graduating from seminary and had a very special graduation. President of the LDS church, George Albert Smith was the featured speaker. After the ceremony, President Smith stood up in front of the old 5th ward church in Idaho Falls, and shook hands with every one of the graduating students. George and Catherine Smith were not there for the graduation.
Norman also played a lot with his cousin Ray. They used to put nails and spikes on the railroad tracks and watch the trains go by and see how they would flatten them. Then they would hide under the railroad bridge. That was kind of terrifying because the old bridge would jiggle up and down and make a lot of noise. One day Ray and Norman saw about 4 coal cars sitting on the railroad tracks. It had sat there for a couple of days. They got little rocks and shoved them up against the wheels on both sides. Every wheel had little rocks wedged up close. There were 8 wheels on each car so there were about 32 wheels altogether with rocks a little bigger than marbles shoved up on each side. About that time, the steam engine hooked on to those cars and went, "choo . . . choo . . . choo . . . choochoochoochoo". It spun its driver wheel right on bare rails to get those cars moving. Ray and Norman got a good laugh out of it.
One Halloween, Ray and Norman were having a great old time knocking on doors and running. The only problem with that was when they answered the door at the wrong time. Norman went running away to make his escape and hit the clothesline on his belly and it knocked him flat. The guy at the door just stood there and laughed at him. Other things they used to do on Halloween were to knock some outhouses over. They did it to one of their bachelor neighbors and he yelled at them. How did they know that he was in it?

One of the things that Norman was really involved in during High school, was band. They would practice in the early mornings with the marching band. He also played with the regular band and in the Pep band. It was everything for him in High school. The last year of school, Norm's cousin Ray was the president of the band and Norman was the business manager. The only reason he thinks he got it was because there was a haughty girl named Donna West who kept badmouthing them. She was the daughter of a very prominent Dr. in town and Ray and Norman were just farm kids. There must have been a bunch of other farm kids in the band because they got voted in and she got voted out. She was telling everyone, "We can't have the band run by a bunch of country boys from out in the "sticks". We've got to have it run right". They felt like they had a pretty successful year in band.
All the time that Norman was in High school, World War II was going on. High school was a lot different than grade school. They all acted civilized there so Dad had to turn over a new leaf. He still had some mischievous in him. One time he went to a basketball game where Idaho Falls was playing against Rexburg. They were at Ricks College watching the game and decided to throw little BBs out onto the floor. Soon there was an announcement over the PA system for whoever was throwing BBs out on the floor to quit. There again, Norman got a good chuckle out of it.
Normans' brother George had invented a little railroad buggy. Essentially it was a bicycle that could be ridden on the railroad. George had it perfected and Norman decided to take it for a ride. He rode it all the way into Ucon before turning around. He got about a half mile from home and he could see George and Grandpa out there waiting for him. He knew he was going to get it, and he did. Grandpa was so upset about it, he made George disassemble it. George felt like disassembling Norman.
Every spring, Norman would make himself a raft. They would run up and down willow creek. The only problem with rafts is that you just went downstream. You couldn't go back up so they'd have to just abandon it. One day, Norman and his friend George, got an old Maytag with a gas engine on it. The raft was made with 1X12's. It took a 2 man crew to run it. His friend ran the motor, and Norman would bail water because there were so many leaks on it. The propeller worked pretty well. You just couldn't get close to it or it would really get you. The propeller was made from 2X4's and it would not only make you go slowly upstream, but it would cut down the willows too. All they had to do was to keep out of the way so flying willows didn't hit them in the face. It was more successful than the rafts because they didn't have to abandon them downstream.
During the war years Normans' brother had bought an old 32 Buick he bought. He didn't get into the army until the end of the war. Gas rationing meant that you could only get 3 gallons of gas per week. So his brother had converted this old car to diesel. The only problem there was that he had a big long cloud of smoke following him everywhere. Norman didn't serve in the war because he was a little young. There were a lot of wartime restrictions during his senior year in high school. He had to attend a pre-induction physical in Fort Douglas Utah. He even passed. He never did have to go into the army. While Norman was out in the potato field, he heard a lot of sirens go off and all the cars started honking their horns. Come to find out, the entire ruckus was because World War II had ended.
After High school, He went to Idaho State University with his sister Helen. His brother George got out of the army and went down there too. That's where he met his wife Merle. Norman's cousin Ray met Marilynn, his wife to be. They each had a half interest in the 36 Ford that Earl had owned earlier. Ray was so busy courting Marilyn and Norman didn't have a girl so he sold him the car. A while later, he bought the car back and that was the car he was driving when he met Fay. It was kind of a romantic car because if it was raining, the windshield would leak water and they would have to sit a little closer. Norman attended ISU for one year and then transferred to Moscow Idaho. His roommate was Gail McMurtry. He was a combat World War II veteran. He used to tell him about the different war stories like Battle of the Bulge. He roomed with him for 3 1/2 years. They first rode up to Moscow in the train. He got the car some years later. They lived in the dormitory and for most of the time that they lived there, Norman worked as a bus boy in Willis Street Hall. They served meals for 300 men. When they got out of class, they would have 5 minutes to eat and be ready to serve the others. Norman is known for "snarfing" his food. This is where he claims to have learned that. They earned a whopping 44 cents an hour. That was the standard wage back then. They did have a few fringe benefits. One of these was free milk, 3 times a day. The guys out in the dining hall only got it once a day so they felt pretty lucky. Norman studied agriculture. He had aspirations of becoming a dairy farmer. His Dad would tell him that when he got out of college he could come back and run the farm. This didn't really ever pan out though, so he started taking poultry courses and got interested in that. In November of 1948, Norman and his buddies decided that it was too far to go home for Thanksgiving so they decided to go to Portland Oregon instead. It was the only time in his life that he went "nightclubbing". McMurtry was a little more "worldly than Norman. He and Daryl Bienz, another buddy, drug him in there. They told him that he had to at least see the floor show. Norman ordered a 7UP and then he wouldn't drink it because it cost 75 cents and he knew it must be "spiked". They all got a good laugh out of that.
They had such a good time on their Thanksgiving trip that they decided to do the same thing the next year. This time they went to Seattle instead. Gayle McMurtry's brother lived in Seattle and worked for Boeing. They went to his house and stayed. In the meantime, Norman had been writing to another buddy of his, Richard Layton. He was a high school buddy that once had a crush on his sister Helen. Their Dad always used to refer to him as the "boy with the big ears". He always had a way of trying to cut down Helen's boyfriends. Anyway, that Thanksgiving they spent with Larry McMurtry. The day after, they decided to go to Vancouver, Canada to visit with Dick Layton who was serving up there as a missionary. He had written to him and invited him to come several times. They got to Vancouver and called Dick up. He told them that he would really like to spend some time with him but there was a missionary farewell for one of the local Elders. Then he added that there was also going to be a dance there and he could go with them to that. Norm thought, what the heck, we'll do that. They went with him there to a quaint little church right in the residential part of the city. It was the only LDS church they had in the whole city. There were quite a few people there even though it was just a small Branch. Everybody seemed to be having a really good time. The dance was held downstairs. Norman walked down there and saw a whole lineup of pretty ladies just waiting to be picked. He had his eye on one in particular lady that was wearing a white blouse and dark skirt. He said to his buddy that he would sure like to dance with her. She didn't stand there for very long though. Several different men would keep asking her to dance and she was really having a good time. She definitely wasn't a wallflower. Being the shy, country boy that Norman was, he was struggling with enough nerve to ask her to dance. Then he resolved to himself that it was now or never. They started dancing, only to be cut in by another fellow. Norman managed to dance with her again and was really trying to figure out how he could see her again after the dance. He told her that he really wanted to see more of the city and maybe Elder Layton could go with them. Well, she agreed to show him around and not only that, this shy country boy ended up taking her home after the dance. Maybe he's not so shy after all? The young lady's name was Fay Tillack.
They had a great time the next day. For dinner they had fish and chips. Fay couldn't eat all of hers and Elder Layton said, "If you're not going to eat all of that, could I have it?" Norman was embarrassed and wondered where his manners were, but Fay gladly handed him the leftover fish; the hungry missionary snarfed it down. After that, Fay and Norman toured the city without Elder Layton.
Norman and Fay's relationship had begun. Norman returned to school and they started to write to each other. Correspondence slowed down for about a month. Norm would find out later that it was because his competition was keeping her busy during that time. Fay's mother Gladys invited Norman to stay at their place when Norman went to Vancouver again. Norms' roommate said, "Boy, it looks like you're in now!"

Married Life and Children

Norman and Fay lived in an apartment in Idaho Falls for about the first 6 or 8 months of their marriage. It was actually a made-over dairy that had been remodeled and had two rooms. Eventually they were able to build a small frame house across the sidewalk from George and Catherine or Kate, as everyone called her. They never did consider it "their" home though. Whenever there was a question on the plans for the house, George would ask Kate how she wanted it. Norman and Fay had no say in the matter. While they lived in this house, they were blessed with 4 children.
Fay did enjoy her new mother-in-law. She would sometimes get lonely or bored at home and would walk over and visit with Kate. They would go shopping together sometimes too. George and Kate were not active in the church so they never went to church together. Kate was a real peacemaker. If there was ever any contention, it came from George, not from her.
Norman asked his mom once why his dad was so "hard". She explained that when George was still a child, his dad had really started drinking. George was the oldest child of 9 children and had to grow up really fast as he assumed much of the responsibility for his siblings. This made him a very hard worker and a bit bossy at times. He needed to be in control, and that made him intimidating to be around.
Brian Victor Haroldsen was born on the 15th of December 1952. Norman and Fay had been married for almost 2 1/2 years by this time. He was their smallest baby weighing in at 6lbs 3ozs. Gladys Tillack came down a week early to help out with the baby and he was born early the following morning. Fay's little brother Keith came with Gladys and they had been traveling by bus and were very tired. Norman and Fay wanted to go to the Messiah that night and talked them into going too. Gladys had never really been interested in classical music, but she agreed to go. When it was time to go, they drove to the Junior High school where it was going to be. The seats were all full except for some in the front and center of the auditorium. They walked all the way down to the front and then climbed over all the people on that row to get to the seats in the middle. About that time, Fay wasn't feeling too well. They said the opening prayer to begin the performance and Fay realized that she was having contractions. Right after the prayer, they all stood up, climbed back over the people on their row and walked to the back of the auditorium where they left. It was a little bit embarrassing at the time. Fay thought it would be better to leave then than to be uncomfortable with contractions during the whole performance. They all got in the car and drove back home to St. Leon where they dropped off Keith and picked up the hospital bag. When they got to the LDS hospital, they took Fay to the top of the 5-story building and got her ready while Norman filled out a bunch of paperwork. A few minutes later, Norman came into where Fay and Gladys were; he was panting and out of breath. Gladys asked him what was wrong and he said that the elevator had left without him. He was so certain that his baby was going to be born right away that he ran up the 5 flights of stairs. I guess you could say that he was kind of a "rookie" Dad. In these days, the fathers were not allowed in the labor and delivery rooms so Fay had to go through all of this on her own. The whole process lasted through the night and Brian was born about 6 the following morning. By this time, Norman was in one chair asleep and Gladys was in another chair asleep. When they brought the baby in for them to see, he was yelling and hadn't even been wiped off yet. Gladys looked up and said, "Gee what a homely baby. I wonder whose baby that is. My, he looks a lot like Norman". Gladys would later laugh at how Norman told everyone what a beautiful baby he was. Looking back at pictures of him when he was first born, he wasn't really all that cute. He was a bit on the scrawny side. The older he got, the cuter he got. By the time he was about 4 months old, he had a round little face and a very bald head. He was a very good natured, happy baby.
Norman had never really been able to get much time off to go on a vacation but when Brian was about 6 months old they talked George into letting him have some time off. They had 10 days and decided to go to Chicago. Norman had never been east of Jackson Hole Wyoming and just wanted to see something new. They didn't tell anyone that Fay was expecting again and it was kind of a hard trip. It was very hot most of the time, and they had no air conditioning in the car. They bought a block of ice and put it in a pan on the floor and let the air blow across it. Sometimes Fay would wet a washcloth in the ice water and wipe it over their faces to cool down. They had cloth diapers for Brian and had to hand wash them each night in the motel. They had fun, and were glad they went in spite of the hardships.
When Brian was about 11 1/2 months old, his little brother Keith was born. All of their lives they've been the same age for 2 weeks out of the year. Keith was born in the same hospital and Gladys was able to be there for that birth as well. Keith was a colicky baby and he cried a lot with tummy ache. Sometimes it seemed like he cried all day. Norman and Fay would take turns getting up in the night to feed him. One night when Norman was feeding him he complained that he wasn't drinking it fast enough. Fay told him that if he would hold the bottle the right way and wouldn't sleep while he was doing it then it would go quicker. Norman said that he didn't sleep while he was feeding him. A short time later, Norman fell asleep, the bottle hit the floor and Norman just about hit the ceiling. Keith had to have a bottle in the night, every night for the first 4 months.
Norman and Fay really did enjoy their two little boys. After a time, Fay was expecting again and gave birth on the 26th day of May 1955. This was the third baby they were going to name Linda, but it was not to be. They had another baby boy, Gary Kent. With Gary they did something a little different. They packed up all 3 of their little boys and went up to Vancouver where they had Ernie Tillack give him a blessing. One time, Fay was working around the house and had just finished bathing and dressing Gary and put him down for a nap. She was busy and not paying too much attention to the laughing and busy bigger brothers, Brian and Keith. Finally she went to see what was going on, she saw them running up to the bassinet and pouring water from the sink in the bathroom on Gary. He was lying there smiling at them and didn't seem to mind being wet from head to toe. Fay had to change all his clothes and all the bedding. Gary was a very playful baby. When he was about a year old they took a picture of him running out on the lawn with a diaper and plastic pants on and they were full of water. The lawn was being irrigated and they used to let the little boys run on it and play. There was probably about 3 inches of water all over. He was aggressive enough that he could make both of his older brother's cry.
In December, the whole family got sick with the flue. They were trying to get over that. Gary had been particularly cranky and that was unusual for him. He wasn't a fussy or colicky baby. They took him into Dr. Milton Reese's and the Dr. told them that he would give him a shot of penicillin and to take him home and put him to bed. They took him home and put him to bed. The next morning, Norman got up and fed the chickens. When he got back into the house, Brian and Keith were playing in the room and Gary was still in the crib. He had died in the night. It was devastating to their family and came as a terrible shock. The thing that was helpful for them is the amount of other couples that came to them and told them that they had had similar losses. When Gary died, Norman resolved to himself that he needed to get his spiritual life in order. He had been pretty active in the church during college and been married in the temple, but other than that he had kind of taken it for granted. He would try to do everything that he was asked to do and live the right way. That Christmas was quite sad, but they managed to get through it. They were invited to spend Christmas with Norman's brother George, and his wife Merle, and their children. Grandma and Grandpa Haroldsen were there also. It helped to be with family.
The next year, Fay was expecting their 4th child. Norman and Fay's first baby girl was born on the 29th of November 1957. Linda Gail was their biggest baby, by far. She also had a whole head of hair and the first time that Fay saw her, she was sucking her thumb. She had a growth on the side of her head that needed to be taken off. The Dr. told them that now was the time to do that. If they waited until she was older then the comb would catch on it. There was also the worry about malignancy. Fortunately, the growth was benign. Linda ended up with a beautiful head of hair and a big bald spot on the side. The hair seemed to take its time growing back in. When they took her out and to church they kept a pretty little bonnet on her head. Gladys Tillack made the trip from Vancouver to visit when Linda was born. She brought 7 little dresses with her that friends and family from Canada had sent. Linda received many gifts because she was the first girl born into the family. She was a good baby.
At this time they were still living in the little white house across the driveway from Norman's parents. Norman thought this was about 25 miles too close to them. It was getting harder to get along with his dad. When Linda was about 4 months old, Norman and Fay packed up their family and moved to Rexburg, Idaho. Linda was a very feminine child and Fay had a lot of fun dressing her up. She had a lot of pretty clothes and would get her hair fixed just right. She had a permanent when she was quite young, so she had a lot of cute hairstyles.
Linda and Keith had birthdays that were only 2 days apart. Because of this, Fay would make a big birthday cake and they would each get half of it for their birthday. One year, when Linda was older, and was having a birthday party, they put candles on it that she couldn't blow out. It took her a while to realize that they were trick candles.
Ronald Jay Haroldsen was born to the family on May 25th 1959 in Rexburg Idaho. Norman was able to be right in the delivery room to see him born and each child after him. Ron was a very determined child in everything he did. When he was about 2 1/2 years old, Fay was pregnant and sick again. She was lying on the couch and Ron brought the potty-chair in and set it down in front of her. He sat on it, did his business and then showed her. Fay was thrilled and praised him for it. He emptied the potty-chair and never needed a diaper again. One Sunday morning, the family was all ready for church. Ron was hungry and wanted to have some toast so Fay made him some. Ron went over to the cupboard and picked up a big jar of Roger's syrup and said he wanted some of that on it. Just then the lid came off and the syrup poured all over Ron's head. Fay could see his eyelashes through the syrup, all stuck together. She picked up a blanket and thoroughly wrapped him up in it, carried him to the bathroom and turned the water on him. They didn't make it to church that day. Ron loved going around on the farm doing things. He once built a little wagon by using 1x4's for the wheels and rebar for the axles. He also had a little 3-wheeled scooter that was his most favorite toy. It didn't have any pedals on it. He would just push with his feet. Eventually a wheel fell off but it didn't even slow him down. Then another wheel fell off and he kept going on it. He was quite a kid that way. When he got older and the family moved into the new house, he was the one responsible for building the theater and the dark room. Those were his projects. He also became the only Eagle Scout in the family.
Warren Dean Haroldsen was born on the 12th of June 1962. In February of that same year, they had a big flood in Rexburg. The little house that Norman and Fay lived on was on a little hill and it was completely surrounded by water. Fay was very sick and pregnant with Warren and the National Guard paddled a boat up to their house with medicine for her. Warren was a very cute kid. He had blond curly hair and big brown eyes. When he was very young the family traveled to Vancouver and went swimming at the beach. Warren waded out in the water and a wave knocked him over. He couldn't stand up because then another wave would knock him over again. Fay had to run out into the water, fully clothed, to rescue him. In later years the family would all travel to church in a little Toyota Sedan. There were 9 of them all together, 7 kids and the Mom and Dad. More than once, the family would cram into the little car and drive home, only to receive a phone call from the ward clerk asking, "Did you forget one of your kids?" It was always Warren. He thought he was Superman as a child. One time he got lost in Sears. Fay didn't realize he was separated but pretty soon, over the loudspeaker they heard, "Superman was looking for his mother." Would his mother please come and get him?" Fay knew immediately whom they were talking about. Warren is a very compassionate person. Anyone, who has any problem at all and especially older ladies, he would help and do things for them. Several older ladies would tell Fay how nice Warren was to them, including Sister Pelton. Warren had shoveled the snow off of her roof once.
Laurie Marie was born on July 26th, 1963. It was extremely hot this time of year. A few days before she was born, Norman and Fay watched an air show in Pocatello. It was so hot, and Fay ended up getting Sunstroke. Warren was in the stroller at the time and Fay would push him around in it. She kept wishing she could climb in there and be pushed around. They had to walk about a mile back to the car, in the heat and the sun. By the time the family got home, Fay was very sick. Two days after that, Laurie was born. Laurie has a mind of her own. She learned to walk when she was very young, nine months old. People would watch her walking down the street and comment on how little she was and that she was walking. Norman and Fay would both beam with pride. Fay's friend Regina Beebe would comment that with every baby they had, Norman kept getting goofier over every one. Laurie was very feminine and petite. Even so, she was very strong willed and wouldn't let anyone do anything to her or for her that she didn't want done. Laurie and Warren became very close friends. They were close in age and had a lot of fun together.
Catherine Fay, (the caboose) was born on October 19th, 1967. The weather before and during the time she was born was beautiful. Soon after she was born it turned really cold and wintry. For Halloween that year, Norman and Fay drove the kids around to go trick or treating. Fay stayed in the car and held Catherine while the other kids ran door to door. It was pretty cold by then. Catherine was the third baby girl born into the family and came very close to being named Lisa. They had a Linda and a Laurie, and Lisa just seemed to fit. However, at the time, Norman's mother Catherine (Kate) was very sick and dying of pancreatic cancer. It kind of came to them that they should name her after his mother instead of Lisa. His mother was proud of that. She and George came to Rexburg for Sunday dinner after the birth. Kate wanted to help so she started peeling potatoes. She kept thinking that she had done enough, but Fay explained that there wasn't near enough for the whole family. She was used to cooking for just the two of them. Anyway, after the dinner, she had planned to stay for the next few days and help out with the new baby, but she really didn't feel well and Fay assured her that she could manage with the help of the other children, and so she went on home. This was in October, and Kate ended up dying on February 29 (leap year day) of the following year. Catherine's middle name was a gift from her mother, Fay. When Catherine was little, she was kind of alone. The other kids were all quite a bit older so she learned to play by herself and amuse herself for long periods of time. She would go with Fay quite a bit to Relief Society, homemaking meetings and shopping because the other kids were all busy or doing other things. They kind of became buddies. It was hard later in life when Catherine married and moved so far away.
On March 15th of 1958, Norman and Fay moved to Rexburg Idaho. They had bought an egg farm and house from Wayne and Shirley Ricks. George couldn't understand how they could buy land when they couldn't even see it. At this time, the land was all covered in snow. Norman thought he saw potential and was very anxious to get something of his own, away from his parents. George was so bossy and Norman felt like he was being smothered. Fay's father, Ernie, gave them money for a down payment on it. The boys were moved into the upstairs room and Linda had the little room next to Norman and Fay's. They had arranged in January the exact day that they would take possession of it. They arrived with their first load of stuff on the 15th of March. Wayne's family hadn't moved out yet. They still had all of their stuff there, but Norman and Fay couldn't go back so they moved in anyway. They had kind of burned their bridges behind them. Wayne and Shirley came in, packed up their stuff and ended up moving into an old poultry-processing plant. Dale Steiner was the first man that Norman met in Rexburg, and he came and helped Wayne and Shirley move out. Wayne and Shirley and Dale and Bertina Steiner all became good friends of Norman and Fay's. They visited in each other's homes, and went to church parties and the Holiday Dance Club with them for many years.
When Norman and Fay first moved to the new farm, they didn't have any money. They had some chickens that they moved into the "green house" but weren't making enough money from them to live on yet. Norman took a job at the local sawmill for the summer. Fay would get the kids up and going. Brian and Keith would have to watch Linda, while Fay would go and gather all the eggs. This is back in the time that she had to put her hands in the nests to get the eggs. They had about 1,000 chickens at this time. Fay would put a couple of peppermints in her mouth and work as fast as she could so she could get done before the peppermints were gone. This would help with the problem of the bad smell. Then she would run in to see how Linda was doing with her older brothers; she was always fine..
Norman worked at the mill after the move to Rexburg to help out with their income. He worked for Dave Dabell and Weldon Steiner. He got a job being the handyman, which meant that the millwright needed a "flunky", and Norman was it. Harold Gole was the millwright. Norman was the 3rd highest paid man there. He made $1.35 an hour. Every time the mill broke down he would have mixed feelings about it. He was glad to get out of there and go home, but he didn't like how his wages were cut either. Every 2 weeks, Norman would bring home about $65.00. He worked Monday through Friday and every time the weekend would come around he would really enjoy being at home. Every Sunday night they'd look at their finances and try to decide if they could "make it" without that job so he could quit. Every Monday he'd go back to work there. One thing that really got to him was as he was working on the machine after it had shut down for the day. Irene Jensen's youngest boy worked there while he was going to college and they visited a bit with each other and started talking. He told Norman that what he needed to do was to go to college and get a real job. At the time Norman had a bachelor's degree but he didn't want to tell him that. Norman asked himself what he was doing there and decided he was trying to keep his wife and 3 kids from starving to death before he could get the egg farm going. He worked for the first whole season but didn't have to go back for the second.
Fay's mother and brother were visiting from Canada one summer while Winone and Bob were living in Rexburg. They decided they were going to take all the kids up to Green Canyon for the day. Norman was at the sawmill working. Fay packed a lunch for all those going to Green Canyon and she got a can of soup and some bread and put it on the table for Norman's lunch when he came home. Fay told her grandma that they don't lock the doors around there. They lived in a small town and they trusted everyone. To those who lived in a big city that was unheard of. As they left, Grandma Burrill locked the door anyway. Norman and Fay didn't even own a key. When Norman came home for lunch he had a hard time getting in the house. He finally ended up crawling through a window. When he got into the kitchen he saw the soup and bread. The only problem was that Fay had taken the can opener with her. Norman wasn't in a very good mood when they got back from Green Canyon.
In 1967, Norman and Fay started to build their "dream home". Their neighbor Richard Bevan approached Norman about buying some land that was on their farm. He thought it would make a good place to build a house. Norman thought so too and that's where he decided to build his home. Ralph Steiner was the chief carpenter for their new home. Theone Beattie was the cement man. As Beattie poured the concrete into the basement, he made the mistake of digging too deep. Before they even hardly got the basement poured, the sub water started coming up. They did put a sophisticated drainage system in that did help, but they battled with that sub water for about 20 years and spent lots of money on it. They used up to three pumps in the basement every summer starting about the first of June to the first of October. The pumps never shut off; there were several times that even after all the efforts to keep the basement dry that it would be flooded anyway. Within minutes of a power failure the water level would rise high enough to soak the carpets. The most it would ever get was about 2 or 3 inches deep. However, the summer that they were building the house, they didn't pump the water at all and let the water come in and settle at its own level. It settled at about 3 feet deep.
The house took approximately 1 year to build. Ralph Steiner would kid Norman and ask if this (the living room) was going to be the chapel. He thought the house was very big. Most of the houses he had built were smaller because they sold better. Fay always told Norman that the longer they waited on their "dream house", the more elaborate it would be. Norman was glad he didn't wait any longer to build it. It was a very good house for the family and they had a lot of fun there. In the basement they enjoyed having a ping-pong table in one room, a pool table in another room and even a theater with built in chairs and a projection room. The recreation room was big enough that they could enjoy winter picnics and entertain. Fay's parents really enjoyed their new house. Gladys especially liked it because when she came to visit she had her own room. Even Norman's dad liked it even though he probably thought it was too big. Soon after the house was complete, they gave a birthday party at the house for him. Over 50 people came to it, had dinner and there was room for all. He really liked that. George had some ill feelings toward Norman and Fay after they left his farm in 1958. He was not the type of person that would ever compliment Norman on anything. Any compliment he received from George came to him second-hand or third-hand. Norman had a number of years that he was quite successful in the egg business and as a result of this their lifestyle improved. George might have bad-mouthed Norman or the egg business on occasion but he never said anything bad about Fay or their kids. He really liked their kids.
After they moved into their new house, Fay thought that it was almost like living in the Taj Mahal. It was big and luxurious, but it did take forever to clean it. There were many places for Catherine to hide in the new house, and Fay spent a lot of time looking for her. They wondered how they were going to get their hide-a-bed down from the little house to the big house. All at once it was there. While they were thinking about it, Brian put it on a truck, drove it to the new house, and carried it in by himself. He was a big strong boy.
One of the most memorable family activities was the float trips. They decided that it would be fun to buy some rubber boats and that became a favorite summer/Saturday activity. All of the trips were fun except maybe the time that they got caught in snow, rain, hail, and lightning. Another memorable float trip was the time that Ron brought along a redheaded girl he was dating from California. He and Vallerie were sitting at the back of the boat when he suddenly grabs her and falls backward into the water. They went completely under the water and when she came up she had the biggest grin on her face. She later admitted that she knew that he liked her then because he threw her in the river. Probably the last float trip that the family went on was when Laurie was very pregnant with Rob, and her husband who didn't like to float, would race up and down the road on the four-wheeler. After that the boats started getting old and leaky.
Other memorable activities were the trips they would take. Fay took all of the kids to Vancouver by herself one time. Norman dropped them all off at the train station in Pocatello and then went home to work. Another time they went to the fair in New York. Ron and Linda went with them on the train as far as Greeley Colorado. The train didn't even come to a full stop as they had Ron and Linda hop off. Fay's sister Winone and her husband Bob were at the station to get them. The family used to go on a lot of picnics. Tauphaus Park in Idaho Falls was a favorite place to go.
During the course of their married life, Norman and Fay were able to experience many natural disasters. The first one that they can recall happened in 1959. At about 11:45p.m., Norman woke up thinking they must have had one heck of a windstorm. He went outside and the air was so silent he could almost hear his heartbeat. This was the big Montana earthquake. It put cracks in all four walls in their house and in the ceiling. The laying house had some cracks and the next morning they had a whole lot of soft-shelled eggs come through.
In February of 1962, they had a flood. When the freezing cold water would raise enough to touch the chickens it would kill them. They would put a lot of bailed straw in there so that it would float and the chickens could just stand on it. When the water receded the smell was horrible. Everything smelled rotten.
Alden Partridge was made bishop of their ward one Sunday, and the next weekend the ward held a reunion at girl's camp. That night after they arrived home a fire broke out in one of the laying-houses. The fire lasted 14 hours, and the fire engines went to the wrong place. They went to Harold Nielson's at the end of a dead end road. A bunch of curious onlookers followed them in and they couldn't get out again. In the meantime the laying house went up in flames and all the birds and the equipment was lost along with the building. Bishop Partridge organized cleanup crews to come in and help. That was his first official act as Bishop.
One Christmas day, Norman and the boys had gotten up early and finished all their chores so they could enjoy the rest of the day at home. After Christmas dinner everyone was kind of laying around when Blaine Chambers rushed in and yelled that their egg house was on fire. Norman looked out the window and could see the flames going right up the side of the building. They managed to keep the building from going up in flames but they lost a lot of egg cartons. An extra heater they had put in there to try and thaw things out caused the fire.
On June 5, 1976, the Teton Dam broke. The announcer over the radio kept getting more emotional saying, "There's leakage; there's leakage." Then he said that the dam was gone. Next thing they knew there were sheriff's cars going up and down the roads with loudspeakers telling everyone to leave everything and get up on the bench. Norman had been running the egg collector and just shut the thing off. The thought ran through his mind, "Why am I bothering to gather the eggs? It might not even be here in a few more hours." They were all kind of numb with the news that they were going to be flooded, and it took some doing to realize that it was really happening. Fay asked Brian if they had water in town, and he said, "I don't know, just a minute." Then he went to the phone and called up Janet at their apartment and asked her if they had water. She hadn't heard about the dam breaking, and she went and turned the tap on and said yes, she did have water. He said okay and then hung up. Fay called her right back and told her about the dam breaking and to get out of the apartment and get up on the hill as fast as she could. Her sister Betty was there and they left right away. Then Fay got in her car and drove up to the college to get them. When she found Janet and Betty they made a mad dash back into town and the apartment and grabbed some clothes and Janet's sewing machine and some bread that was ready to bake, and then left for the farm. The streets in town were all deserted, and it was kind of eerie and quiet. After the floodwaters receded the water line in town was measured at eight feet. Fay, Janet, Betty, Laurie and Catherine all went on the bench and watched things from there. The floodwaters came 100 feet from the house. It stopped at the canal bank and did not flood their home so they were able to return to the farm. Norman and the boys were patrolling the canal and built up a few weak areas with sod. One of their neighbors, Ken Anderson wanted to knock the canal banks down so he wouldn't be flooded as bad but they prevented that as well. The next day they went into town to survey the damage. Cars were on end leaning up against trees. Dead animals were scattered all around town. Most of the stores had collapsed floors. The water had rushed through the storefront windows and inside. The weight of the water on the floors was too much and they collapsed. Everyone around town had a cough because of the terrible dust that was in the air. There was an emergency drugstore set up in Porter's parking lot. There were no telephones in town until they finally set up a bank of phones on the street in front of the firehouse. There was always a long line of people waiting behind each phone. All the cars going in and out of Rexburg were screened for looters and nonresidents. It was this way for most of the summer. It made egg deliveries slower and harder to make. Brian and Janet moved in with them and so did the Bevan family. Fay remembers doing a lot of laundry during that time. She washed some bed sheets and blankets that had been in the flood about 4 or 5 times and never did get all of the dirt out of them. Mabel Bevan and her kids stayed there but Richard Bevan slept in his own house, water and all. He was afraid of looters coming in and taking things.
Another disaster happened on their 38th wedding anniversary. On July 28th 1988 a power failure caused the fans to one of their coops to shut off. Thirteen thousand of their fourteen thousand birds were smothered to death. They were young birds just about to laying age. That particular disaster is kind of "the straw that broke the camel's back". This was the 'beginning of the end' that put them out of the egg business. Another clean-up crew from the ward came and helped them clean up this mess. They had about 15 wheelbarrows and Harry Grass came with the backhoe and dug a trench. The ward members hauled the dead chickens out to the pit and threw them in. From then on it was only a matter of time till they closed the business down.
Norman & Fay managed to travel a bit during their marriage. The first big trip was to Australia in 1973. They were going to go with Bob & Winone and Fay's parents in March of 1973 to Hawaii. The night before the trip though, Keith was hit by a motorcycle. It's a wonder that he wasn't killed. Because of the accident, they had to cancel this trip. To make up for that, 6 months later they decided that they would schedule another trip to Hawaii. Norman had always wanted to see a bit more of the world so they expanded the trip to include Australia and New Zealand. Norman's dad was living alone in Idaho Falls as a widower at the time. He didn't think much of Hawaii and told them that they couldn't give him Hawaii. He also didn't like the thought of Norman and Fay going off and leaving all of their kids. He was probably thinking what would happen if they were to die and leave all those orphans. Norman and Fay were gone for about 3 or 4 weeks and George kept asking, "Why aren't they back yet?" Norman's sister Edith knew where they went and told George, "I think they went to some of the outer islands." Susan Thurman came in and took care of the kids while they were gone.
Other trips that Norman and Fay were able to go on included another visit to Hawaii. Norman went and toured around Australia for the 2nd time with Ron. About 6 months after Warren got off his mission they accompanied him back to England and visited there. They went to the world's fair in New York and had countless trips back to Canada. One trip to Europe they were gone for about 2 months and were able to see Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, Egypt, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are the only States that Norman hasn't been in.
Of all the places they'd like to see again, Fay thinks you can never get enough of Hawaii. They've been there twice. Norman would like to see Germany again. He likes it there because there is so many interesting things to see and because of his fascination with trains. Eighteen hundred trains go out of Frankfurt a day. Norman and Fay had gotten a rail pass on their trip and so it was fun to be able to just get on any train and go. He also found the German people to be friendly and easy to converse with. Next to Germany Norman would like to visit England again. There were a lot of interesting places to see in England.
The least favorite place that they went to was France. Paris was beautiful but the Frenchmen were not very hospitable and very hard to communicate with. In comparison to France, they went to Greece and couldn't speak Greek either, but they were able to communicate and had a great time.
There were a few times in Norman's life where fortune didn't smile on him and he was involved in various accidents. One of these occurred in October of 1983. He was trying to keep things in repair. The roof of the 3 story chicken coop needed to be nailed down where the roofing had come up. Norman climbed up there and had a rope tied across the top of the roof and tied on the tractor's loader. Ron was sitting on the tractor. Norman started to slide down the other side. Just as he was ready to start nailing it down he pulled on the rope and it broke. He started to slide down the roof and thought to himself, "Uh Oh. I think I'm in trouble". He slid off the roof and landed with one leg on the ground and the other one in the pit. The force of the fall shoved his knee into his face, dislocated his hip and broke 5 ribs and knocked the wind out of him. When the rope went slack then Ron realized that he had fallen. Fay was driving to the farm about this time and saw Ron jump off the tractor and race around the building. As he was turning the corner he yelled at Fay, "Dad's been hurt". Janet was just coming out of her house at so Fay told her to go and call an ambulance. They didn't know what had happened to him but she went in and called for an ambulance anyway. Fay went around the building and there he was, in a heap. The ambulance seemed to really take its time in getting there. As Norman rode in the ambulance to the hospital, he couldn't figure out why they would have square wheels on it. The ride seemed very bumpy and uncomfortable to him. At the hospital they tried to x-ray him and decided that he was in too much pain so they took him straight to surgery. The next thing Norman knew he was waking up in his room greatly relieved because his hip was back in place.
The egg farm was shut down in December of 1989. After all of their pullets had been smothered they continued to have bad times. Competition was killing them and it looked like it was a hopeless thing to try and continue so they just decided to close it all down. It was a very depressing time in their lives. Norman had been working hard all of his life to build it up and the plan was that Ron was going to take it over. Ron was going to make $3000.00 a month payments to pay for it and Norman and Fay were going to spend his retirement going on missions and traveling the world. Suddenly all their plans were down the drain. It was just one of those things that happens, and you move on to other pastures.
The next part of their life after the egg farm was driving "Shanty Shakers". This involved pulling half of a house (shanty) down the road. It shook as they drove along; hence the name. Ron and Norman each bought a toter truck, and started working together moving houses. They worked for Transit homes of America out of Nampa Idaho. Norman bought a brand new 5th wheel trailer to live in. In hindsight he considers that a mistake he made. Ron rented a house there for his family and they worked together from January of 1990 until December of the same year. Ron then got a job then in Salt Lake City, and when Ron quit, Norman quit. It was a stressful job pulling a 70-foot house down the road at 60m.p.h. when you're 14 feet high and 14 feet wide. They had to try and dodge all the traffic while driving through places like Portland Oregon and Seattle Washington.
In the summer of 1991, Norman got a job driving fertilizer truck for Intermountain Farmers in Rexburg for about 3 months. Then he got a real opportunity to be the assistant manager for Deseret Industries in Rexburg. That started out all right but it became a very frustrating job. He didn't like the way the employees were treated, and couldn't wait to be able to quit that job.
In the meantime, Catherine kept talking to them about how many opportunities there were in Alaska. Catherine and her family were living there at the time. A job opportunity came up for a manager position at Penguin Trailer Court. Included was a nice house to live in and Norman would have enough time to find another job to work besides that. Norman figured he might as well go for it. He gave his 2-week notice and about the 20th of October 1991, they adapted the toter to pull a big trailer and put most of their household things in that. He put his tow bar behind the trailer to pull his car. Fay was going to fly up because she was ill. Norman left in the middle of a snowstorm and headed for Alaska. He got as far as the Montana-Alberta border. They looked at his outfit and told him that he couldn't do that because he was pulling a "train" and that was illegal. Norman had to detach the car and drive back to Rexburg, leaving the toter and trailer. He was gone for two days before he was back in Rexburg to pick up Fay. While Norman was driving back and forth from Alberta, Fay was still very sick. She thought that maybe she had pneumonia. She called the Dr. and he phoned in a prescription for her. Fay handed Laurie a $50.00 bill and said that if it cost any more than that, she'd rather die. Laurie told that to the pharmacist and the pharmacist said, "Well, we'd better make sure it isn't more than $50.00". Laurie brought home the medication and even some change. Fay then went with Norman and ended up driving the car behind the toter all the way to Alaska. The trip to Alaska was hard and took 10 days. The first night after they got back to the toter they stayed in Raymond with Fay's Aunt Lucille. They had a good night sleep but woke up to about 4 inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing like crazy. They still had 2000 miles north to travel! Norman led out with the toter and Fay followed behind in the car. They had a CB radio to communicate with. Things went all right until they got to Edmonton. Norman got lost and it was a very stressful time for them. It took them quite a while to figure out how to get out of there. They managed to get through Edmonton and headed toward White Horse. It snowed all the way. They got a cheap motel in Watson Lake on Halloween night and it snowed all night. They decided they had better stay over until all the roads were cleared off. They managed to find a better motel and spent the next whole day and night there.
When they arrived in Anchorage they had lunch at Catherine's and then drove over to see Penguin Trailer Court. It was located in a somewhat questionable part of town and was surrounded by bars, and other shady types of businesses. This was their home for the next year. One interesting part of managing the court was Norman's many encounters with the "Jehovah's Witness" that used to come around and argue with him. One time after arguing with him for a while, Norman just started yelling, "Get out! Get out! I don't want you in here anymore." Catherine was visiting at the time and she and Fay were both a little shocked at that. It seemed like a very long winter for them and they played about a million games of Yahtzee. Soon after they got there Fay had an accident. They had pulled into the garage and as she was walking down a sloping ramp to go into the basement, her foot slipped and down she went KERSPLAT on her back. The fall didn't hurt but the sudden stop sure did. Both of her legs slammed into the door jam. She spent most of the next 6 weeks in bed with two severely sprained ankles. Because of the injuries it made it difficult to see some of the things she had hoped to see such as the starting of the Iditarod. She did manage to get to the ice and snow sculptures but had to do that on crutches.
One good thing happened just 4 days after they got there. Catherine had a baby boy. They were happy to be able to help and be there. They were also able to spend Christmas together and enjoy other holidays and special occasions. Norman got quite a few jobs shoveling snow off of roofs. Anchorage got about 110 inches of snow that year. Norman had been trying really hard through the LDS employment services to find more employment with little success. Then in the paper he noticed where they were hiring for Grayline of Alaska for the summer season. Norman was able to get on with them and drive a tour bus for the summer of 1992. He really enjoyed this job and made some pretty good money doing it. They got dropped from being managers at Penguin Trailer Court and moved in with Catherine for the last month of the season.
While they were in Alaska, they sold the farm via fax machine. The offer was at $65,000 dollars but they managed to bump that up to $69,000. With that money they could pay off the mortgage on the house and walked away with $4000.00.
The fall of 1992 they decided to move back to Idaho. When they got to Rexburg they rented a single wide trailer on 5th west. This trailer was small, uncomfortable; in other words it was a dump but better than living in their car. While they lived here they negotiated with Hathaways to build them a manufactured home and to have it finished the following fall. The next spring Norman was determined to go back to Alaska to work for Grayline again. Catherine knew a family that was going to be spending their summer working in Denali and arranged it so Norman and Fay could housesit for them. They spent part of the summer living here. Norman had another good summer working for Grayline and they were able to live entirely on the tips that Norman brought home. Norman and Fay housesat at the Watson home for a few months until they couldn't afford it anymore. At first they had the impression that the Watsons' were somewhat affluent. They told them they could have any food from the freezer and didn't charge them any rent or anything. But then they started getting notices from the electric company and the phone company etc… They were going to shut everything down because the Watsons' hadn't been paying their bills. Fay and Norman paid some of these but then got to a point where they couldn't do that anymore. About that time the Watson's decided they were going to sell the house so it worked best for Norman and Fay to just leave. They again moved back in with Catherine and her family for the rest of the summer.
That fall they moved back to Rexburg and a new doublewide trailer was sitting on their lot at Millhollow trailer court. It wasn't even put together yet. When they finally were able to move into their new home, the carpet wasn't laid down and there was no heat. They borrowed a couple of heaters from Linda and stayed mostly in the bedroom and kept the doors shut. They slept like that for a couple of nights. Once everything was hooked up and the carpet was laid down they really enjoyed living there. They had the feeling of being "homeless" for quite a while and felt good to be in their new home.
Now that Norman and Fay were settled back in Rexburg, Norman needed to find another job. While sitting in the temple the thought came to him that he should see if he could get a job driving charter buses. He went over to Teton Stage Lines after the session and they hired him. Norman worked there during the winter for the next two years driving ski buses and other jobs that came up. He reserved his summers to work in Alaska.
Toward the end of April, Norman and Fay drove up to Vancouver and spent a little time there. Then Norman got in a little red Citation that he had gotten from Ron and headed to Alaska alone. He got about 300 miles out of Vancouver when his transmission started slipping. He had about 2300 more miles to go so he slipped it into 2nd gear and went the rest of the way like that. Norman drove for 18-hour days at 40m.p.h and made it in just 4 days. He had a good summer there working for Grayline. He got his transmission fixed for about $1000.00. In August, Fay came up to visit for a while and when the summer was over they drove back together. The only problem they had on that trip was when they got 300 miles out of Fort St. John and their transmission went out, again. With the help of a passing motorist and their cell phone, they called a wrecker and only had to wait 6 hours for it to show up. Many other people stopped to see if they could help. One man even gave them a new bag of pork rinds so they would have something to munch on while they waited. They went to Fort St. John to wait for their car to be fixed. When they got to town Norman looked in the phone book and called the branch president to the Mormon Church, Gordon Strattey. His wife came and picked them up from their hotel and took them to church that Sunday and then back to their house for dinner. They offered to let them stay at their house and then they started reminiscing. Gordon said that when he was 12 years old his dad took him to Vancouver and they went fishing. He said, "The man that took me fishing was a barber named Ernie Tillack." Fay said, "Oh! That's my dad". By Monday morning they had the transmission fixed and they were on the road again.
Soon after they arrived back in Rexburg, Norman built a roof over the trailer he used to haul his household furniture to and from Alaska. He converted it into a shop, and storage area. As soon as he was finished with that he had the chance to drive for Teton again. He was supposed to go on a trip to Yellowstone Park for 2 days. He went down to the bus yard to look at his bus and ended up falling in a grease pit. He smashed his right knee up pretty bad. Not only did he have to scrub the trip to Yellowstone; it was nearly 3 months before he was able to walk again. After he was released from the hospital, he was convalescing at home when he started to experience pain in his legs that hadn't been there before. Another trip to the doctor confirmed that he had blood clots in his leg. He was immediately put back in the hospital again, and was there for another week. After his full recovery, Norman was eventually put on the ski run over at Jackson. He would stay there for two weeks, not being able to come home at all, and had to drive over the Jackson pass twice every day. The road conditions were terrible. He got tired of that real fast and thought there must be something better than this so he applied for a job driving school buses in Madison County.
At first he worked as a substitute driver. This is about the only way you could get into the system. Out of 33 bus routes, Norman drove 28 of them. After he was in it about a year an opportunity opened up for him. The lady that was driving for the special-ed. preschool was a chain smoker and was very unreliable. She kept canceling out and was always running late. Norman took over and was pleased with his newer bus and the aide he had to help him with the kids. He's also had a pretty good relationship with the district and with the kids. On his off days he would do some driving for Western Trails. He quit driving for Teton Stage Lines all together. Driving school bus had been quite enjoyable for Norman. He worked on split shifts and for the first couple of years and made about $70.00 a day. When one person asked him if it was really a stressful job driving school bus he replied, "This is the least stressful job I've had in 45 years!"
The most vivid historical memory that Fay can remember in her life was when man first walked on the moon. They gathered the whole family around to watch. Norman's most vivid memories would be that of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and of course they remember the breaking of the Teton Dam. The dam breaking had a direct effect on them so this was definitely a vivid historical event. Another event would have been when Nixon had to resign from the presidency. This really had no direct effect on them though.
Norman and Fay are grateful for the modern modes of transportation that made travel easier. The time and money involved in traveling was greatly reduced and if it hadn't been, Norman and Fay wouldn't have been able to have seen many parts of the world.
When asked what Norman and Fay liked about each other, Norman said that Fay has always been very supportive of him. He realizes that he is not always the easiest person to live with and Fay has "stuck" with him for 57 years now. He also admires her ability in being a mom and such a good listener. She was always ready to hear about each child's day when they got off the school bus.
Fay appreciates Norman that he is willing to go along with what she wants to do. She thinks that he is pretty considerate and thoughtful and has always taken care of the needs of the family.
One of the things that Norman has mentioned that he somewhat regrets in life and saw as a shortcoming was that he didn't spend more time with his children. He's the first to admit that he wasn't as patient as he should have been.
Some of the hobbies that Fay enjoys are reading, watching movies, baking, (if she's really bored) sewing, knitting, painting and all crafty type things. Her favorite types of books are biographies, mysteries and church books.
Some of the hobbies that Norman enjoys are riding in trains, traveling, reading, temple work and bike riding. The only books that Norman really enjoys reading are historical books or biographies, and scriptures.
Various church callings Fay has held include, teacher, (for every organization except priesthood) secretary in Relief Society, Drama director for MIA, Homemaking leader in Relief Society, nursery leader, visiting teacher, extraction worker and she did the bulletin for the ward, and PFR which involved calling families to help clean the church each week. She least enjoyed being den mother for the scouts. Fay taught in the primary for 17 years straight.
Norman served in the Sunday school as a teacher, ward clerk, welfare clerk, high councilman, home teacher, extraction worker, 1st counselor in the High Priest group, Stake Mission President, and a Seventy. He was a seventy for 22 years. His most memorable time, when serving as the Stake Mission President, is when he was interviewing a golden contact for baptism. Norman asked him what he really wanted to do when he got into the church. His response was that he wanted to find a fine Latter Day Saint girl, get married, and raise a family. Mike was baptized. A short time later right before Thanksgiving, Norman kept thinking about him. Here was a new convert into the church from Seattle Washington. Mike was living in Rexburg teaching school at the time and needed fellowshipping. Norman tried to contact him for dinner but he wasn't home so he left a note on his door asking him to call. About 10:30 that night he called back and accepted the invitation to dinner. Norman's daughter Linda came home from BYU to spend Thanksgiving with the family as well. Mike had another appointment to go to at 3p.m. The day went pretty well and everybody had a good time. The 3p.m. appointment was forgotten as the family played at the sand dunes and later went to the movie. Linda and the young man hit it off quite well. The next fall, Mike Mitchell and Linda were married.
Norman and Fay have had an enjoyable life together. In financial terms they've never been off of the poverty scale, but they've been able to do most of the things they've wanted to do in life and haven't missed much.
Out of all the things that Norman and Fay have done in their lives, they both agree that their greatest accomplishment is with their children. They are proud of each of their children and haven't been disappointed in any of them. They have been so grateful that each of their children have conducted their lives with moral integrity and have stayed active and true to the church. The biggest hope that they have for each of their children is that their families will be as good to them, and show as much love and respect to their parents, as theirs have. It is also their hope and prayer they will all stay in the church and gain strong testimonies of the gospel, and that they will all become an eternal family together.