Growing Up

My youth pretty well centered itself around the family, school, and church. From the second grade through high school, I attended school in the same building in Ammon, Idaho. As a rule, there was one class for each grade consisting of about 30 kids. The fifth grade stands out in my memory because my sister Eula was born in September 1945, I began to play the trumpet, and my interest in sports was awakened. The latter was largely due to the fact that my older brother, Wayne, had gained a reputation and a lot of attention as a fine basketball player. The fact that his name appeared in the Post Register (still being printed in Idaho Falls) spurred me on to attempt to secure the same recognition. Eventually, I succeeded.

The seventh and eighth grades were much alike. I was somewhat of an undisciplined ruffian in the seventh grade and was force-fed lessons on the rights of others in the eighth. During the seventh grade, the teacher, Olin Jeppson, (unbeknown to us) suffered from a severe illness that eventually took his life. I'm sure we hastened his demise with frequent truancy, ill-conceived pranks, and general deviltry. The eighth grade teacher, T.V. Hanks, took us on as a challenge making sure we understood that he was not going to be driven to an early grave. In short, he taught me personally a great deal about life. I remember with great clarity one incident where I thought I was about to crowd into a line waiting for a drink at the water fountain. He grabbed me by the hair and threw me a considerable distance down the hall with the admonition that I had no more right to that water fountain than did the six or so people standing in front of me. This and other lessons stuck with me from that time on.

High school was an exciting time filled with sports, music and all sorts of activities. The first two years it was Ammon High School. During the last two it was Bonneville High School, as we consolidated with Iona and Ucon high schools to form a county school from which I graduated in 1953.

Coach Norvel, “Nog” Hansen

Looking back, I see sports as the most important thing at that time. Most particularly, it was basketball that held my enthusiasm. As a sophomore (remember, I was the youngest in my class) I was on the varsity team, continued through my junior year, and finally made the big time as a starter in my senior year. Strangely enough, however, it was in football and track that I made the bigger splash. I had not been able to play football at all during my junior year having been (falsely, I believe) diagnosed as having rheumatic fever. But as a senior, I was captain of the football team, played fullback and linebacker, and was chosen a member of the state all-star team. In track, I was undefeated in the 440 yard run until the state meet when I came in third. Running was, nonetheless, punishment and I always literally ran my guts out as I threw up after every race. At track meets, I would run the 100 yard dash, sometimes the 220, always the 440, as well as a second 440 as the anchor on the mile relay team. I also played second base and pitched on the school's baseball team, becoming the high school's first four-sport letterman. Upon graduation, I received the school's highest sports honor, the Babe Ruth Sportsmanship Award, as well as special awards in football and track.

It is my impression that my parents seldom showed great interest in what I was doing at school. As far as I remember, neither ever came to a football game in which I played. The reason was quite simple. The games were played on Friday afternoons, and Dad could not take time off from his work on the farm. I do remember one time that Dad came to watch me play in a basketball tournament held in the Idaho Falls High School gymnasium. We were playing against Rigby. I played my heart out and managed to score twenty-three points. Dad told me after the game how proud he had been of me. This is a moment in time that has stuck with me.

My mother always left me with the impression that if I didn't play my trumpet, I couldn't participate in sports. Therefore, I was always a member of the school band with an ego sufficiently large to force me to practice so I could be first chair. I grew to love it also. The high point of my trumpet-playing career, at least that which I remember most clearly, was playing Sugar Blues in a large musical extravaganza put on by the high school. I think my parents both attended this affair; in mother's mind music was important. My senior year, a small dance orchestra was formed with my cousin Terry Hansen; people even paid us to play at weddings and other dances. I also joined the choir as another diversion and soon learned to love singing.

My high school years were also occupied with other activities, including the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and whatever else would increase the size of an ever-growing ego. I was Idaho State secretary for a time. When the election was held, my supporters argued that they had to have someone whose handwriting was legible. Mine qualified.

This account would hardly be complete were I to ignore my first great teenage love whom I met when I was a junior. Joan Holladay, apart from frequent quarrels, was my steady girlfriend for the next three years. It was an intense relationship of enormous emotion that I shall never forget. Attendance at different colleges and a combination of other factors associated with it caused a drifting apart which resulted in an immense wound to my immature heart when she married someone else. I note, however, that in seeing her a time or two in our subsequent lives, I have come to understand the great blessing of having married Faith.