Jewel II

Jewel and Tootsie became life long friends with the exception of a short time that was foreshadowed by their theme song. When they were in second or third grade a new little girl came to town. Her family seemed to be well off and it was clear that the little girl always got what she wanted. What she wanted then was to replace Jewel as the social focus this of her class.  one by one Jules friends started going home with the new zero play after school and finally Tucci join them left you allowed. When the little girl held a big party and invited almost every girl in the class except jewel to see was mortified. She didn’t go to the party. She went to Jewell interiors and said she was sorry. The reason the little girl had so many friends all of a sudden is that she bribed them with candy and other presents. They hugged and made up and there friendship continued without further interruption.

Jewell and Tucci were inseparable. They played together when they were little. When they got a little older they were allowed to make an annual excursion to the big city of Provo, Utah. They took the bus from Pleasant Grove to Provo which was 20 miles away. They had soldiers at Walgreens in the town center at University and Center Street. They shopped in all the big stores — Woolworth’s, Kress, Firmage’s and Taylor Bros. Woolworth’s and Kress were national 5-and- 10 cent stores. Fimage’s and Taylor Bros. were locally owned department stores. Kress was owned by the S.S, Kresge Company. The company is now called Kmart. Rumor had it that Kresge changed their name in to Kress because they wanted to avoid being known as a store with Jewish ownership. If that’s the case they miss the boat. Mormons identify with the Jews. Jewish owned stores were successful in Salt Lake City.

Other notable accomplishments in elementary school included being the fastest runner in the third grade including the boys, and taking piano lessons. The children in the open family were encouraged to develop their musical talents. Prominent in their home was a beautiful baby grand piano. The children were all encouraged to take lessons. They promised that the child who became most proficient on the piano could have the piano when they had established their own home. By the time you’ll got to high school she was winning competitions on the piano. She played for church a Sunday through high school and college. When her folks retired and moved to a smaller home Jewel was given the piano.

Jewel and Gayle continued their friendship through high school. They roomed together in college. During her junior high and high school years Jewel kept busy. When she was 12 she started picking fruit in the summers to learn extra money.  Being a fruit farmer at heart Lew  OLpin strongly encouraged his girls to pick fruit in the summers.The boys worked in the lumberyard. Jewel made it sound like he was a match for the overzealous Little League fathers of today.

Jewel:   Nothing made my father happier than getting up early in the morning to wake me at   5:30 AM to pick berries. When I got home he would interrogate me.

Dad: “How many boxes did you fill?”

Me: “6 1/2.”

Dad: “Who picked more?”

Me: “Nobody! I picked more than anybody else.”

Dad: “How much money did you make?”

Me: “$2.75.”

Dad: “Not bad. Keep it up.”

A paper route was a prized economic opportunity for boys 12 to 15. Dee got one of the prized afternoon paper routes when he was 12. By the time he was 15 he had better things to do with his afternoons. It was not cool for someone his age to still be delivering newspapers. So in order to preserve the paper route for Gerald, Jewel became the afternoon papergirl. For three years jewel rushed home from school, changed to blue jeans, put her hair in a ponytail and hopped on her bike and rode downtown to pick up the papers and deliver them. By the time she was 15 she was dating. She told me how undignified it was for her to hurry home after delivering her last paper, hop off her bike run in and get ready for a boy to pick her up and take her to Salt Lake to the Rainbow Rendezvous to dance to the music of one of the big bands and listen to the singing of Nat King Cole. Nat was her favorite. Finally Gerald took over the paper route when Jewel was 16.

Now Jewel was old enough to work her kumu off on the midnight shift at the Pleasant Grove cannery. The word kumu, pronounced Kumy by Jewel’s family is a Maori word meeting backside — Lew’s gift from New Zealand in addition to Dick Marsh. Now Jewel has to tell her dates to get her home by midnight so she can run in change into Jeans and hurry the few blocks to the cannery. Jewel’s competitive drive was demonstrated again in the cannery. She was such a fast and accurate worker that she had the honor of being on the end of the line to finish up all the produce that made it that far. Her partner at the end of the line was a middle-aged woman who could give her a run for the money. She spent the night telling Jewel about the joys and pitfalls of marriage.

In addition to working her kumu off she had an active social life. She dated most of the hot guys between Orem and American Fork — Jerry Pulley from American Fork and David Harvey from Pleasant Grove for example. She did well in school. She loved Stell Fenton’s English classes. She was a student leader. In fact she was so popular she was one of the cheerleaders. The first time I saw Jewell was at a football game.

It was the first game of the season. BY High School was playing Pleasant Grove High School on the Pleasant Grove field. I played both offense and defense at end for BY High School. The Daily Herald sports page hyped it as a big game because they predicted BY High School and Pleasant Grove High School were the two best teams in the region. Of course BY High won 28-0. We won so easily I sat out most of the fourth quarter. I noticed the cute little Pleasant Grove cheerleader who like to show off her pretty legs by spinning so hard that her long skirt came up to her waist. 

Jewel and Gayle joined other high school friends to live together in Provo, Utah while they attended Brigham Young University. Jewel admitted that most of the girls thought of Brigham Young University as a good place to find a husband. Most of them figured on being there two years max. I suspect that jewel considered that option. She was popular. She joined the top sorority. She joined the cougarettes who did synchronized dancing at the football and basketball games.

She initially studied to become a secretary. She struggled because taking dictation and typing fast with stressful. I suspect Jewel didn’t like having incompetent men bossing her around either. After two years she changed her major to elementary education. As far as she was concerned she had hit the jackpot. She loved learning and teaching and helping others, especially children. She had plenty of chances to leave school and her frustrations by getting married. Many of her friends did just that. Jewel had lots of boyfriends and revealed to me before I proposed that she had already had five proposals.

I think Jewel’s low-key competitive drive and her good judgment kept her in school until she found a career she loved and  a partner she loved. Between her junior and senior year she spent the summer helping her sister Catherine with her seven children. She also found a job in a savings and loan in Walnut Creek, California. She finished her senior year by doing student teaching at an elementary school in Brigham City, Utah.

After graduation she signed a contract to teach fourth grade at Westmore elementary school in Orem, Utah. She was excited and eager to get on with her next phase of life. She had graduated from college and found a career that she loved. Now she needed to find the man she loved.

Jewel

Jewel’a Grandma Ine’s father was Lewis Robison. Ine’s mother was Mary Jane White, Lewis Robison’s third wife. Lewis had four wives and 23 children. Ine lived with herr mother in Pleasant Grove, Utah. She was a feisty little girl who worked to help support her family from the time she was a little girl.  She washed clothes on a scrubbing board and worked in the orchards for long hours to earn 50¢ a day. She was less than 5 feet tall and full of life and energy..

Her husband, Edwin Dee Olpin, was a fruit former before he went into the mortuary business. He took his wife, Ine, with him when he traveled to Salt Lake City to peddle fruit. She was fun to be around and she was good at selling fruit. Edwin took her with him every place he went if it was possible because she was fun to be around. Sounds a lot like Jewel to me.

Edwin and Inez had eight children, Lacy, Lewis, Ann Belle, Joseph, Mary Inez May, Emma, Roy and Donna. They also had a Maori foster son from New Zealand who lived with them for 11 years. His name is Dick Marsh. Family tradition has it that when Jewel’s father Lewis was 17 years old he got in trouble in school. His father, who was his Mormon bishop, decided to straighten them out by sending on a mission for the Church. He spent three years in New Zealand teaching the Maoris.

He learned to love the Maori people. One family felt so close to Lewis that they told him they were going to give him their son Dick when he returned to Utah. Lewis wrote his parents and asked them if they would be willing to raise Dick if he brought him home. Before their answer could reach him he had finished his mission and boarded the ship for home. The Maori family showed up at the dock with Dick holding a little bundle that contained his possessions. So he got on the ship and became a member of the family. Dick was 10 years old at the time.

Dick became Roy’s big brother. They became close friends. How and why Dick returned to New Zealand is a little fuzzy. I have heard several versions—some in print and some by word-of-mouth. Dick was popular. He was handsome, friendly and a talented musician. I was told that he was also a good dancer. He liked the girls and the girls liked him. Dick was not black. He of course was Polynesian. But apparently at that time people made little distinction between African Americans and Polynesians. People discriminated against them equally.

Edwin took his family to Salt Lake to go to the theater. When the cashier at the box office saw Dick he refused to let him in the theater because he was black. Edwin angrily said, “I’ll take my business elsewhere.” So they sent Dick on a mission to New Zealand some say to avoid the possibility that he would marry a white girl. According to written accounts when he finished his mission church leaders advised him to stay in New Zealand. Verbal accounts say it was a little more complicated than that. Dick was not a US citizen and apparently didn’t have the proper documents to return to the United States.

Some accounts say that he was very disappointed, frustrated, angry tand fet hat he had been tricked. If that was the case he got over it quickly. He married a Polynesian girl named Polly and had a large family. He named his children after his American family, i.e. Roy, Emma and so on. When he was in his late 50s he and Polly came to Utah to visit with his Utah family. He was warmly welcomed.

Lewis met a missionary couple named Chase and Delle Murdoch. They were together on the ship returning to the United States for several days. They got to know each other well. Chase was from a small town in southern Utah named Beaver. Della was from an even smaller  farming village west of Beaver called Adamsville. Adamsville is about halfway between Beaver and another small town called Minersville. There is a lead mine at Minersville.

 Della is the oldest of the seven children of Joseph Hiram Joseph and Catherine Elizabeth Griffiths—Della John, Margaret, Mary Ann, Ruben, and Lewis. Dello was 14 years old when her father was killed in a mining accident at the lead mine in Minersville. Catherine was given the job of postmaster and her brothers helped her on the farm.

On the trip home Della invited Lewis to come to Adamsville and meet her little sister Margaret. In the next few years Lewis found lots of excuses to make business deals in southern Utah. While he was there he courted Margaret Joseph. Finally he won her over and they were married. Lew’s brother Joe said that the key was a new Buick convertible that Lew drove when he proposed.

On December 21, 1921 Lew and Margaret joined Lew’s brother Joe and Joe’s bride Violet and traveled to Salt Lake City where each brother married his bride on the same day in the LDS Temple. They made their home in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Margaret thought she was in heaven. She told her children that Pleasant Grove was the Queen city of the West. It is a lovely town set 

at the foot of a rugged, beautiful mountain. Mount Timpanogas dominates the Valley.

Margaret and Lew had six children—LuJean, Katherine, Elaine, Dee, jewel and Gerald. Jewel hated being born between two brothers after three sisters were born first. She felt like Dee was her dad’s favorite and Gerald was her mother’s favorite. Margaret told everyone that he looked like a Joseph to Jewel’s chagrin. I don’t know why Katherine spells name with a K instead of with a C like her grandmother whom she was named after. Mysteries abound.

Lew followed in his father’s footsteps. He and Joe took over the mortuary when his father died in 1926. He was elected mayor. He replaced his father as Bishop. He was a partner in a lumberyard,and a director of the Pleasant Grove Bank. He worked hard and he worked smart. He was financially successful, but was careful with his money. His daughter Katherine applied for a job at the PG drugstore. The proprietor told her, “Yes there is an opening but I won’t give you a job because you are Lew Olpin’s kid. I’ll give the job to someone who needs it” She hadn’t known she didn’t need a job until then. 

Lew’s one extravagance was cars. He felt he needed a nice car for his business. So he bought a new car every two years. His favorite was a Packard which he would drive for two years without changing the oil or doing any maintenance because he knew he was going to trade it in soon. Every two years he would drive his beat up Packard back to Detroit and pick up a new one.

Jewel resented the attention her two brothers got, Gerald from her mother and Dee her father. So she picked on Gerald and made him cry when she thought she could get away with it. When Dee picked on her she fought back. One of her favorite tricks was the sneak up and pour water over his head and then run as fast as she could to the only bathroom in the house, slam the door and lock it. If the house hadn’t burned down you could still see the marks that Dee made on the door by beating on it.

Jewel was much younger than her sisters and she was really cute. Her sister’s felt like she was their favorite baby doll. They liked to dress her up and curl her hair .They discovered that she had nearly perfect pitch.and loved to sing and dance. When she was five years old her sisters decided to make her into a Shirley Temple clone. Shirley Temple was the big rage when Jewel was born in 1935. That’s why she was named Shirley Jewel Olpin. She dropped Shirley and added Knight when we were married.

So when their mother was worried about holding her Mother’s Club meeting in her home the girls suggested that they could help Jewel and her best friend, Gayle Thorne (Tootsie), who is also a cute little girl with perfect pitch, provide the entertainment. It was a huge success and evolved into the traveling Jewel and Tootsie show. They sang and danced in church and civic events for the next couple of years with Jewel’s and Gayle’s sisters acting as producers, directors and publicists. Their signature song was I Don't Want to Play in Your Yard.

Once there lived side by side two little girls, 

Used to dress just alike, hair down in braids, 

Blue gingham pinafores, stockings of red, 

Little blue bonnets tied on each pretty head. 

When school was over, Secrets they'd tell, 

Whispering to themselves, down by the well. 

One day a quarrel came, hot tears were shed: 

"You can't play in our yard," 

But the other said: "I don't want to play in your yard, 

I don't like you anymore, you'll be sorry when you see me, sliding down our cellar door, 

you can't holler down our rainbarrel, you can't climb our apple tree, 

I don't want to play in your yard Iif you won't be good to me." 

Next day two little maids each other miss, 

Quarrels are soon made up, and sealed with a kiss, 

Then hand in hand again, happy they go, 

Friends all through life to be, loving each other so. 

Soon school days pass away sorrows and bliss 

But love remembers yet that quarrel and kiss, 

In sweet dreams of childhood, 

We hear this cry: "You can't play in our yard," 

And the other reply: 

"I don't want to play in your yard. I don't like you anymore, 

You'll be sorry when you see me, Sliding down our cellar door, 

You can't holler down our rainbarrel,. You can't climb our apple tree, 

I don't want to play in your yard if you won't be good to me." 

My father was Eldred Vinson Knight, and my mother was Hattie Madson. 

I had multicultural grandparents. 

My father’s father was Vinson Philip Knight. His family originated in Bristol, England and emigrated to New England in colonial times. My father’s mother was Mary Jane Hess. Her family originated in Zurich, Switzerland. They emigrated to Pennsylvania in colonial times. 

My mother’s father was Mads Jonathan Madson. His family emigrated to Utah from Denmark in the mid-1800s. My mother’s mother was Ann Amelia Clark. Her family originated in South Wales and emigrated to Malad, Idaho in the mid-1800s.

So each of my four grandparents were raised in a different culture, but they had two things in common. They were European and they were early converts to the Mormon church.

My great great grandfather, Vinson Knight, was one of the first converts of Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet. He was a prominent church leader in Kirkland, Ohio and in Nauvoo, Illinois where he was the presiding Bishop of the Church and a civic leader. He died at approximately the same time as Joseph Smith. His wife, Margaret McBride, became the plural wife of Heber C. Kimball a counselor to Brigham Young. My great grandfather, James Vinson Knight, was 14 years old when his father died. He was so upset at his mother’s marriage to Brother Kimball that it he left home. In the early years he survived as a freighter, cowboy, and Indian fighter. He was associated with the notorious Porter Rockwell. He later settled down and started farming in Southern Utah.

My great great grandfather, John W Hess, was Pennsylvania Dutch Even though his family originated in Switzerland. He joined the Mormon Battalion that was recruited by the United States government to fight in the war with Mexico. The Mormon Battalion marched from Nebraska to the Pacific Ocean. Later he became a bishop in Farmington, Utah. He is noted in Mormon history for starting the primary in his congregation. John W Hess had seven wives and they each had 10 children. I have a lot of cousins named Hess.

 My great-grandfather James Ephraim Madsen was born in Denmark, he joined the Mormon church in the late-1800s and emigrated to the Danish settlement of Salem, Utah.

My great great grandfather William Clark was born in South Wales. He joined the Mormon church in the early 1800s and emigrated to the Welch settlement of Malad, Idaho.

 My grandfather Knight grew up in southern Utah where he learned to farm and hang out with cowboys. He got a job working for a farmer in fielding, Utah that was located in northern Utah about 30 miles from the Idaho border. He was hired by John Henry Hess, the Bishop of Fielding, Utah and send of John W Hess and blank. My grandfather was attracted to one of Bishop Hess’s daughters, Mary Jane Hess. They were married.  My father was born in fielding, Utah. They moved to Mud Lake, Idaho and started a homestead. Their Homestead failed and they moved to a small farm west of Blackfoot, Idaho near a village named Rockfortd. M/y grandparents sent my father to Hinckley, Utah to live with relatives and attend  High school at Hinkley Academy.. Hinckley is in west central Utah near the Nevada border. The closest town is Delta.  I couldn’t find a picture of my father or even a mention of his name in the Hinckley Academy yearbook that is with my records except for one comment. In a column titled Wouldn’t You Be  SURPRISED if  one entry mentioned my father.
“Wouldn’t you be surprised if Eldred Knight had nothing to say.”

After high school my father attended Idaho State University and earned a two-year certificate to qualify as a teacher. This is where he met my mother, Hattie Madson.

 My grandfather, Mads Jonathan Madson, and four of his brothers left their home in Salem, Utah looking for work.They ended up on both sides of the border between Idaho and Utah. Some settled in Southern Idaho and some settled in Northern Utah. They worked as sheepherders and freighted wheat to the railhead at Corinne, Utah near Brigham City. They took honey and other goods back to Idaho and sold them to the settlers. This is how my grandfather got hooked up with a pretty little Welch lady, Ann Amelia Clark, from Malad, Idaho. They had 11 children—Earl, Hattie, Elva, James, Jack, Orville, Rex, Grant, Parke, Orlin and Amelia Ann. Earl was killed in 1928 in a farm accident and my grandfather died of a heart attack in 1930 when he was 55 years old. 

 My mother, Hattie, was the second child. Her older brother, Earl, was her hero. She idolized him. He set the pattern for the family. When he completed eighth grade at the little one room schoolhouse down the lane from their home he decided to go to Malad for high school. This was not trivial or even common at the time. During the winter their ranch was snowed in. In order to go to high school Earl had to figure out a way to live in Malad during the school year. My mother followed suit. She boarded with her  mother’s sister, Aunt Mable, during her high school years. My mother was interested in literature. She loved to read and she hated the farm. The worst thing she could think of was to have to pluck dead chickens and prepare them to cook. As a result she would never eat chicken. So chicken wasn’t part of our diet when I was growing up.

My mother was devastated when Earl was killed in a farm accident.

After high school mother attended Idaho State University and received a two-year teaching certificate. This is where she met father. The first year after completing her schooling she taught in the one room schoolhouse in Elkhorn near her home. She said that is was the worst year of her life. She said, “It was hell!” Never teach if a large share of your students are your siblings. Then she married Eldred who wooed her with his sharp, new convertible. They moved near his parents in Rockford and built a log cabin right next to them so Eldred could help with the farm. They both got a teaching position at the elementary school in Roberts that is about 2 miles from their new home.  They taught in a two-person school. Father was the principal and mother was his only teacher.  A few years after their marriage my father was called to serve an LDS mission in England. He left my mother to teach and try to pay their bills and went to serve in the Yorkshire area of England. During Eldred’s absence my mother learned that she could be the breadwinner and manage the affairs of their home. She is naturally an organized person but she worried and fretted until her husband finally return home. This experience prepared her for what was to come next in her life.  After six years of marriage I was born in  March of 1935.

When my father complained of chronic sore throat they decided to have his tonsils out when the school year ended in 1936. The operation was performed in the office of an MD in the small town of Rose, Idaho. father hemorrhaged and bled to death. It was a tragedy. Mother was devastated, but she had to carry on. She took over the school and realized that she couldn't make it on the salary that a barely certified teacher could get in the middle of a depression. She had two years of training. She needed two more years to get her baccalaureate degree. So she went to school every summer. 

 I remember stories I was told about the summer mother spent at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. I was a few months old. I was the cutest, smartest baby you have ever seen. At least that is what I was told. During this time we went to see an aircraft carrier in Seattle Harbor, and I was very well behaved. While mother was in school, a niece of Kate Bennett—another teaching friend of my mother—was my baby sitter. She really learned to love me. I know she love me because she told me so. She lived in Concord, California while I was on a church mission in Walnut Creek, California. She had my companion and me over to dinner several times. We taught her husband who was not a member of the Church a lesson or two, but he wasn’t interested enough to make much progress. He was a nice guy and told us a very funny story on himself. He was painting a house of a friend and a little boy stood and watched him while he stopped and had a cigarette. Finally he asked the little boy if something was wrong. 

The boy said, “You are going to die.” 

He said, “Why!”

The boy said, “Because you’re smoking a cigarette.”

So he put out the cigarette and asked, “Am I going to die now?”

The little boy said, “I don’t know.”

When I was three years old we moved to Goshen, Idaho where my mother found a teaching job. Goshen is a village about 3 miles east of Shelley, Idaho. Shelley is a small town about 10 miles 

south of Idaho Falls. The first things I remember are events in Goshen. Mother found an older couple named Christensen to take care of me. I remember the Christensens. They both had white hair and they were small. They were very nice to me and I enjoyed being in their home. The Christensen’s granddaughter was my favorite playmate. She was a cute little blond girl and we  liked to play pretend games.

One morning when my mother dropped me off at the Christiansen’s I complained of itching. They made me stand on a chair and stripped me down to my shorts. My body was covered with a red rash. The doctors diagnosed it as scarlet fever. Nowadays scarlet fever is not a big deal. They can be treated with antibiotics in 1938 it was a serious matter. I was quarantined for six weeks. That meant I had to live with the Christiansen’s for six weeks with no visitors especially not my mother. She was a teacher and scarlet fever is a contagious disease. It was a lonely six weeks. When my quarantine was over my little girlfriend suggested we celebrate by eating candy in her father’s country store after it was closed. We got into a lot of trouble.

The next year we moved to Shelley. Shelley is a small town--big town compared to Goshen. We lived with Mrs. bear, her son F. L. and two of mothers teaching friends. F.L. was about ten years older than me. He was my hero. He was a quiet kid but the greatest thing about him is that he liked to play with me. My mother stayed in touch with Mrs. Baer and I remember we stopped to see her on one of our trips to Idaho Falls to see my Uncle Grant. She was proud of F.L. 

because he was now a big time Chicago lawyer. She gave use a book he had written on 

an esoteric legal subject. I treasured that book for several years. I was proud of F.L. too, 

because he was my friend. 

My most vivid memory of that year was a visit to a church activity that featured a 

basketball game. I was so excited about the game that I went home, stripped to my 

shorts and pretended to play basketball much to the delight of my mother and her 

friends. 

Another memory was a trip to my mother’s girlhood home on the ranch in Elkhorn 

just west of Malad, Idaho. As we approached Malad pass in the mountains just 

north of Malad it started to snow. The further we went the deeper to snow and the 

slower my mother drove our 37’ Chevy. It was a winding narrow road and my mother 

was scared. It didn’t help because I complained every time we hit a bump or made a sharp 

turn and I spilled my drink. My mother was petrified, but I thought it was cool and 

exciting. This is when my mother told me I was going to spend the next year with my grandmother, my uncles and aunts at the ranch while she went to  Brigham Young University to finish her bachelor’s degree. At that point I think she was looking forward to getting rid of me.

Black Baptism

In the fall of 1956 I was transferred to Fresno, California to be district leader of the Central Valley district. The district covered the central valley from Modesto to Visalia. I served in this position for nine months until my mission was over. Of the many experiences I had one that stands out.

One of my duties was to interview candidates for baptism into the LDS church. It was a time of racial unrest in the whole country. In my first area in East Oakland we lived on the fringe of a black ghetto. This was where the Black Panther movement started shortly after this time. In knocking on doors, which is how we solicited prospects for membership in the church, we often encountered black people. We were instructed not to teach black people the gospel. This instruction bothered me. When one of the leaders of the church visited our mission, Apostle Delbert Stapley, I ask him about this issue.

Me:  “Elder Stapley, why are we instructed to avoid teaching the gospel to Negros?”

 Elder Stapley:  “Elder Knight, this is not the right time to proselyte Negros. The church is just not prepared to deal with the issue at this time. I’m sure this will change. If  Negro people come to you and ask to learn about the church of course teach them. Just don’t solicit black people as you knock on doors.”

I didn’t feel completely comfortable with the instruction but I followed it. So when I received a phone call from the elders who were working in Merced I faced a moral dilemma.

Me: “Hello, Elder Knight speaking.”

Elder Jones: “Hi Elder Knight. This is Elder Jones in Merced. We have a family ready for baptism. Can you come up here and interview them soon?”

Me: “Wonderful! We can be there at 7 o’clock Monday night. Will that be okay?

Elder Jones: “That will be great. Come to our apartment and we will go to the investigators home together. By the way just a heads up. The couple are Negroes. He is an airman from Castle Air Force Base near Merced. They are from Chicago.”

There was a long pause while I considered what to say next.

Me: “How did you meet these investigators?”

Elder Jones: “We met them tracting (going door to door).”

Me: “Do you know the rule about teaching Negros?”

Elder Jones: “Yes, we know the rule, but when we met them we didn’t realize they were Negroes. They looked white to us.”

Me: “okay. I will see you Monday night at 7 o’clock at your place.”

I met the family and interviewed them for baptism. They were a great couple and were accepted into the ward where they had many friends from the Air Force base.

Now there is one thing I know about the two elders in Merced after this interview. They will lie about other things or they experienced a miracle when they met this black family.

The only repercussion from this baptism was from the Stake President. After the next stake conference the Stake President took me aside and told me a story.

State President: “I want to tell you a story about a friend of mine. He received a note from a member that said he had an acquaintance who was interested in learning about the Church. The address was on the note so my friend set about making a visit. He ended up way out in the country, down a little lane where he found a small wooden house. He knocked on the door and a black man answered and said, ‘What can I do for you.’ He said, ‘I’m lost. Can you give me directions to the highway.’

Me: “Thank you. That was an interesting story.”

Shining

I gave a presentation to a women's group about writing personal history. I used Dad's blog posts (memoir chapters) as an example. He has written some really honest, tender things and I'm so glad he's doing it. One of my favorite lines in his entries is the one where they were at church with the queen and Mom made Dad sit on the back row. It shows Mom and Dad's personality so much.

One thing that the women commented on was Jack Nicholson's face on the side of the blog and it says: Mom's favorite movie. They were dying. Your mom's favorite movie is The Shining?
I said, uh yeah. That and Silence of the Lambs.
They were laughing so hard. And I told them about the time Mom recommended I go to The Ring. She and Dad were on their mission in DC and they had just gone to see it so then I went to see it and I was not surprised at how freaky it was.
But then I told them that she worked in the temple, double shifts. And how she slaved away at work, and read book after book after book (and recommended some to me that were good, yes, but had some graphic material in it and when I was like, Mom? she was like, oh come on, I don't even think about that stuff). I told them about the time I had the worst first day my freshman year at BYU so she picked me up and took me to GI Jane at Wynsong.

Today Cam made waffles and they said, Daddy usually does waffles and you make other breakfasts. I said, yep and they said, is that how it was in your house?

So I told them how Mom used to make breakfast but then she had to go back to work so Dad took over. We talked about all the breakfasts Dad would make (and how Sam really really didn't like one of them) and how I used to beg him to get us doughnuts and chocolate milk practically every morning. And when he did relent, how I let EVERYONE KNOW that we had them because of me. Dad made us a lot of cracked wheat, oatmeal, eggs, pancakes, german pancakes, etc.

Mom never made breakfast really for us because we were in the younger family but I know she made it for the older kids, right? I remember some of you talking about biscuits and other things she'd make. She did always make dinner. Always. And she made us eat it, even the fish casserole on Dad's birthday.

She also bought healthy-ish cookies, like those oatmeal ones with the raspberry jam in the middle that were only like nine to a package which we would eat fast even though they weren't oreos. Oreos we ate in about two minutes (I usually scraped the cream out of a bunch of them and made a frosting ball wrapped in saran wrap to keep in my pocket for secret eating. I did get in trouble when she found tons of the chocolate parts in the garbage).

I also told my boys about the dinners she would make. How every Sunday we had a roast, potatoes and gravy, rolls, two vegetables, a salad and a fruit. And then dessert. Like the chocolate cake with walnuts and chocolate chips on top and then pears and raspberries to go on the side. Van suggested we could have put the pears on top, which is true.

I loved talking about Mom at that group of women and with the kids recently. They didn't know Mom loved frosties. Van said, I DO TOO! We're the same!

I love Mom and I love Dad and I love our family.
Maybe we should all watch The Shining for Mom's birthday---or better yet, an entire film festival! Ha ha ha.

Prologue II

 Shortly after returning from two years serving in LDS temples in Mexico and England my wife, Jewel, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  Soon after we settled in our new home in a condominium on the sixth floor of a building in downtown Provo Utah, We were asked to give a talk at a conference for several of the local LDS congregations. We talked about our mission service after our retirement. The local church leaders hoped to encourage others in our situation to choose to do missionary service.

The prospect to giving this talk caused Jewel a great deal of stress. We devised a plan. I prepared and gave the talk. Jewel stood by my side and interjected her contributions when she felt it was appropriate. She either corrected me, expanded the topic, or interjected new ideas. The talk was well received and Jewel felt very comfortable with her role. She did a good job.

In this book I will tell a story of our life before we met, our life together raising our family and our life and our golden years and our life with Alzheimer’s disease. Jewell will interject her contributions or she feels is appropriate in this book as she did in the talk mentioned above. In doing this I am presuming that I can speak for jewel. I think after 56 years together I know what jewel is thinking better than almost anyone maybe even Jewel herself. When Jewel is telling the story it will be indicated by a headline--Jewel.

 Russian Banquet

In the mid 1990s Larry was asked by a Russian colleague to cochair a scientific conference to be held a compound owned by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The retreat is near Moscow in a wooded area. The surroundings are beautiful but the buildings are austere. The compound center has meeting halls and accommodations. The rest of the compound is sprinkled with dachas provided for officials of the Academy and famous scientists. Notable among the scientists who lived there was Nicolay Basov, who won the Nobel Prize in 1964. He invented the MASER the forerunner to the LASER. The conference focused on x-ray technologies, X-ray lasers, and X-ray lithography. X-ray lithography is the next technology for producing microchips. Such microchips could produce smart phones as powerful as the biggest computers.

 Larry was assigned a small room.  His next-door neighbor was Grigory a close friend of  Nicolay Basov. He was of average height, husky with a robust personalities. He gave me a bear hug and his slap on the back every time we met for breakfast.  Every evening Grigory would visit his friend Nikolay Basov at his dosha. They drank until the wee hours of the morning. Since the walls of the rooms were paper thin Larry could hear everything that went on in the halls and in the room next door. Being awake most of the night because of jet lag he heard Gregory come bouncing down the halls, bang, bang, bang. He stumbled into his room and fell on his bed. He was dead drunk every night. Then he appeared at breakfast first thing in the morning looking like he was ready for a big day. 

Participants came from all of the world.  Larry and his Russian colleague Alexander Shevelko presented  papers on plasma diagnostics and a novel plasma source for X-ray lithography. The Conference lasted five days and several hundred papers were presented. It was a success.

Every conference has a closing banquet. Everyone seemed excited to go to the closing banquet for this conference. Larry didn’t understand why because banquets are boring and if it wasn’t for the fact that he was cochairman he have skipped it.

 He was assigned to sit at a long head table, surrounded  by Russian dignitaries. Tables filled with food and drink were set out in front of the head table. The first row tables was filled with every kind of food you can imagine ––caviar, salmon, ham, turkey, pork, vegetable plates, fruit plates, breads, and rich desserts. The second row of tables was filled with liquor. 

 There were no speeches. Everyone started eating, drinking and talking. Later when they were all––almost all––drunk. There was some singing and dancing.  The meeting started at seven and Larry left at midnight.The party was still going strong. 

He asked his friend Leonid, “How can people eat so much and drink so much. 

Leonid answered, “You eat until you are so full you can’t stand it. Then you drink enough to burn out all the food. Then you eat some more. Larry, you just don’t understand. We have to do this in Russia to survive. You have a good life in Utah and we have a rough life in Russia.” Leonid lived in Utah for a year.

Jewel and Larry

Jewel and I first met in 1953 when we were both seniors in high school.  We met at the home of my friend, David Kimball. She was visiting with David’s sister Elaine. Jewel looked familiar.  It took me a few minutes to recognize her as one of the cheerleaders for Pleasant Grove when we played a football game with them in the fall. I remember thinking boy that is a cute girl. I would like to get to know her better.  As we came to the door Elaine greeted us.

Elaine:  “Jewel, this is my brother David and his friend Larry Knight. They are seniors at  BY High”.

Jewel: “Hi, I’m glad to meet you.”

David:  “Hi.”

Me: “Hi.”

Elaine: Jewel is my fiancé, Dee’s, little sister. We’ve been hanging out quite a bit while he is doing his basic training. We’ve been doing a little shopping downtown. We stopped off at home to get a bite to eat.

David and I thought that was a good idea. We went into the kitchen and gorged ourselves with hot homemade bread and honey.  Jewel left while we were eating. Soon Elaine came into the kitchen with a grin on her face. She looked at me.

Elaine: “Did you think Jewel is cute?”

Me: “ Yeah.” I  spotted her when we beat PG High in football.  She was the cutest cheerleader.”

Elaine: “Would you like me to line you up with her?”

Me: “You bet.”

That’s the last I heard from Elaine.

Two years later I was serving a mission for the Mormon church in the Northern California mission. I had only been out for three months when I was given a very difficult assignment in Walnut Creek, California. President Gardner, the mission president of the Northern California mission, immediately won me over. I told myself I would do anything for him. 

 Now after three months the president told me he wanted me to be an assistant district leader in the newly formed Walnut Creek District which included Berkeley, Richmond, Martinez, Port Chicago, Concord, and Walnut Creek. The district leader was Elder McCoy who had been serving as the district leader in San Jose. At 28 he was older than most missionaries. In his youth he went through a period of  inactivity and rebellion. He left college and joined the Army where he served for two years as an MP. He joined the reserve when he was discharged. He was called up to the infantry to his chagrin when th Korean War broke out.. After a brief period of training he was in Korea on the front line participating in firefights. He began to rethink his decision about God and the importance of the Church. He promised God that if He preserved his life he would give up smoking and serve a mission. After each firefight was over everyone sat down, relaxed and took out a cigarette. He couldn’t stand it. He said, Lord I’ll quit smoking, but not yet. He was captured and spent 30 months in a Chinese guarded prison camp in North Korea. His left eye was infected and he was treated by having a doctor pop his eyeball out just like a pimple.  He now has a glass eye. 

When he was released he enrolled in Utah state University found a girlfriend, but delayed his education and marriage to fulfill his promise of going on a mission.  As time went on he felt the pressure of needing to get on with his life––get married and finish college. 

Our duties were to train and supervise the other companionships in the cities in the district. We  visited one companionships each day each day to hold study class. We spent one day each week with one of the companionships. The rest of the time we worked in our area which included Walnut Creek, Danville, Lafayette, and Concord.  We dealt with rejection, dogs snapping at us, being treated as a curiosity. In a barbershop one day a man came up to us, looked straight at Elder  McCoy and said, “Are you guys in the boxing game.? You look like you might be the little, tough manager and this big guy is your boxer.”  

One day Elder McCoy said, “I’ve had enough.” He turned on his heels and walked to the car. We drove back to our apartment which was a remodeled garage. We continued to perform our duties with the other missionary companionships but the time set aside for working our area was spent in study and running errands.  Now I was the one who was frustrated. I had feelings of guilt because I wasn’t doing what I thought I was there for.

We got invitations to dinner almost every Sunday. The Weeks family in particular invited us several times a month.  During the Christmas season we were attending a church Christmas social. Suddenly Elder McCoy stood up. 

Elder McCoy:  “I’m going home. You can get somebody to bring to the apartment when the party is over.” 

 I didn’t quite know what he meant by going home. I felt uneasy. 

  Me: “I’ll go home with you.” 

When we to the apartment Elder McCoy started packing.  Then I knew what he meant when he 

said he was going home. I snitched his keys and put them in my pocket.

Me: “Elder, where are you going?” 

Elder McCoy: “I’m going home. I told you.”

Me: “No you’re not, at least not until you talk to President Gardner.” 

NO ANSWER!  Elder McCoy just kept Packing until he was finished. He then took his bags and climbed in to the 1948 Hudson. He threw in his bags and started looking for his keys. He fumbled and a look of frustration came over his face. He came storming back into the apartment.

Elder McCoy:  “Elder, where are the car keys?” 

Me:  “They are in my pocket.” 

Elder McCoy raised his arms and glared at me. Then he dropped his arms in frustration and walked out to the car. He opened the hood. I realized that he was hotwiring the car. When he completed the task he climbed in the car. I climbed in the seat beside him.

Elder McCoy: “Get out, now1” 

Me: “I’m going with you.”

 Elder McCoy looked at me with a look I will never forget. It was a look of hate and despair. He finally drooped with exhaustion and got out of the car. He walked in the apartment and fell on the bed and went fast asleep.  I called president gardener. He said he would be out to see us first thing in the morning.

Sure enough,  President Gardner showed up  at 9 o’clock the next morning. He interviewed Elder McCoy and when they had finished they were smiling. He had arranged to release Elder McCoy from his mission in good standing and told him to return home with the best wishes of the mission and the church. He expressed gratitude for his service.  Elder McCoy went home happy.

I gave him his car keys and waved goodbye as he drove down the driveway.

I was happy to start a regular missionary routine with my new companion. We continued to work with the elders in the district and we had good success in our own area. We continued to have Sunday dinner with the Weeks family periodically. In June Sister Weeks told me that her sister was going spend the summer helping her with the children and working in a local bank.  Her sister was Jewel Olpin, the girl I met at David Kimball’s home three years before. I was pleasantly surprised. My first thought was, it’s too bad I’m on a mission. 

Jewel  and I said hello to each other at church and socialized briefly at more or less weekly Sunday dinners with her sister Catherine and her family. At the end of the summer I received notice that I was being transferred to Fresno California. Jewel was going back home for her senior year of college at BYU. At a conference of the congregations in the Berkeley area which was held the day before we both were leaving Walnut Creek, I talked with Jewel briefly and suggested that she might like to write to me during the rest of my mission. She said yes and that she would write two words for every word that I wrote. I must admit that tweaked my heart a bit.

So for the remainder of my mission we corresponded approximately once every two weeks for the next nine months until the spring of 1957. I was released in June. I drove home directly from Fresno to Provo in my old Dodge mission car. On the long drive home I was excited to see Jewel and finally get that date I was promised years before. As soon as I got home I picked up the phone and called Jewel and made a date for the next day.

I picked her up at her house in Pleasant Grove. We drove around for several hours and talked. We ended up in American Fork Canyon. We pulled in the parking lot at the Timpanogas National Monument. We sat and talked. It was there that I gave Jewel her first kiss. On the way home she said that she wanted me to know that that was the first time she ever kissed a boy on a first date.

After that first date we were together as much as possible. We both had to work but in our free time we were together. I was invited to dinner. Her father and her brothers talked about bodies they had embalmed. Then they asked me to help them move a body. I apparently passed the test.

After a few weeks jewel told me about some of her old boyfriends. She seemed to be a little embarrassed because most of her girlfriends were married. At 22 she was beginning to feel like an old maid. I think in order to defend herself she told me about five boys that had asked her to marry them. When she finished telling me she looked at me with an expectant glance. I took the cue. I pulled out a box that contained a ring from my pocket and said,  “Now you have six proposals.” She accepted and we talked about a marriage date. We decided we should wait until next the next spring since she would have her first year of teaching. She had signed a contract to teach at Westmore elementary school in Orem. I had one more year of undergraduate study. About two days later

Jewel: “We’ve got to change the marriage date.”

me:  “Why?”

Jewel: “I don’t want you around BYU all those beautiful coeds before we are married.”

Me: “Sooner is okay with me. When do want to get married?”

Jewel: “August.”

My mother was a little cool.  She thought we didn’t know each other well enough.

Jewel’s mother warned her with, “That big man will kill you.”

We were married 19 August 1957 the Salt Lake City Temple the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At our wedding reception Elaine Kimball remembered our first meeting. She said she asked me if I wanted to date jewel and I said, “She’s too short.” Then she asked Jewel if she wanted to date me and Jewel said, “He’s too tall.” She lied. I said no such thing. Jewel can speak for herself.

Jewel  saved my letters in a cardboard box. However they are not available for publication yet. Our oldest daughter Karen did find them and leaked one item.

“I read someplace that you lose one second of your life every time you kiss. I wonder if you’d be willing to help me commit suicide when I get home.”

Cumberland Lodge

Cumberland Lodge Larry Knight

Cumberland Lodge is a 17th-century country house. It is located in Windsor great Park about 3 1/2 miles from the town of Windsor, UK. Windsor is the site of Windsor Castle the principal residence of Queen Elizabeth. It is surrounded by lush gardens and groves of trees. It used to be the home of royalty, but it now is used for conferences and retreats. Located in the same area of the Park are a few residences, the Royal Chapel, and the  Royal Lodge––all. these places are connected by paths that wind through forests and lush meadows. Most of the park is reserved as a royal forest. The Royal family uses it for relaxation and hunting. A series of narrow paved roadways also connect Cumberland Lodge, with the other buildings in the park.

 After World II the Lodge was donated by royalty to provide a retreat for college students to discuss the ethical and moral issues of the day with their teachers and knowledgeable speakers. The donation was motivated by the belief that part of the responsibility for the disaster of World War II was that the German universities failed to give their students a foundation of moral responsibility. My friend, Alan Michette, was in charge of a yearly retreat for science students from King’s College London to participate in one of these retreats. This year they were having a conference on science and religion. Alan asked me to lead a discussion on Mormonism.

On Sunday we had a break that allowed us to attend church at the Royal Chapel where the queen often worshipped.. The Royal Chapel was about a mile and a half walk through the forests and meadows of the Park. We had to submit our passports on Saturday night and we were subject to search. It wasn’t revealed whether the queen would be there, but there was always a chance. I didn’t pass up the opportunity.

The Royal Chapel was a small version of the ornate chapels that are scattered throughout England. It reminded me of the chapel at King’s College Cambridge. It held probably no more than 40 or 50 people. There were two rows of pews and then off to  right of the pulpit was a box that was covered with curtains. This was the Queens box. It was impossible to see whether she was there or not during the service. I sat on the back row near the Isle. My wife always made me sit in the back so I didn’t block somebody’s view. After the service I quickly got up and walked out the door and there was the Queen with Prince Charles standing to greet the people as they came out. I just stood there. I waited till the rest of my group came and were ready to leave. Most people came out and bowed a little bit or curtsied. Finally Prince Charles and the Queen climbed into a black Landrover. The Prince took the wheel and they drove away. 

I thought, “They are much smaller than I had judged by their pictures.”

So I went to London to not to see the Queen but I did.

homework

My grandfather,  Edwin Dee Olpin started a mortuary business in Pleasant Grove, Utah. He was a hard-working farmer who decided Pleasant Grove needed a mortician. He was upset because the Anderson’s in American Fork were taking care of all of the deaths in Pleasant Grove. So he ordered  a case of embalming fluid from a catalog. He read the instructions on the bottle and started embalming the people who died in Pleasant Grove. Thus began the family business. My father grew up helping his father with the farm and with the mortuary.

My grandfather Olpin and both my grandparents on my mother’s side, Joseph Hiram Joseph and Catherine Elizabeth Griffith died before I was born. Grandfather Joseph was killed in a mining accident in Minersville, Utah near Beaver, Utah in 1907. My mother was just eight years old at the time. They lived in Adamsville, a small farming town also near Beaver. He left a widow and seven children ages 14 to 6. 

The only grandparent I knew was grandma Inez--Inez Melissa Robison.

Grandma Inez was a little, busy, quick moving lady. She had endless energy. She ran all day. She had false teeth that were not fitted properly. Those teeth clacking are the first thing that comes to mind  when I think of her. She lived right across the street from us. The street was State Street. It was the main highway between Salt Lake City and California when we lived there. Our home which was a combination mortuary and residents was on the west side of State Street. We lived on a few acres which also served as a small farm. We had cows, chickens and a garden.

I could “drop in” to see grandma any time—day or night—and feel welcome and treasured I visited  often. She came to our house almost every day finding things to do to help out. She 

came to our home after Sunday meeting.  She loved helping out with our family of six

children whenever she could figure out a way to help.  I never saw/heard her cry.

One Summer evening she crossed the highway as usual to spend some time with us and help put us to bed.  After visiting on our front porch she started walking toward her home in her quick little gait.  

There was honking, screeching of brakes and thump  thump.  She was gone instantly.  My parents wouldn’t let us leave our front porch. In fact my mother forced us to remain inside our house.  It was a terrible experience—I relive the sounds of those two terrible thumps.

Grandma wanted us to develop our talents.  She sat beside me on the piano 

bench for as long as I could stand to play.  She was a fabulous cook.  She put 

ingredients together whenever—whatever, and it was delicious.  Everyone loved her.

 She was my size and shape.  It makes me happy to remember that.

I loved her dearly.