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Oral History

Adonia Johnson Dennis Oral History Project

Interview with Adonia Dennis

Date of Interview: March 9, 2008; Sandy, Utah

Interviewer: Clay Christenson

Transcriber: Clay Christenson

Small Cassette, Side B

Christenson: This is Clay Christenson. I am interviewing my grandmother, Adonia Johnson Dennis, for my Media History and Philosophy Class on March 9, 2008.

Christenson: When were you born?

Dennis: June 19, 1913 in Logan, UT

Christenson: Where did you grow up?

Dennis: I lived in Richmond all my life until about five years ago. My grandfather and my grandmother were born in Richmond. My father and my mother were born in Richmond. No, my grandfather and grandmother came from Denmark, but my father and mother were born in Richmond.

Christenson: What is your earliest childhood memory?

Dennis: When I was a little girl I used to wade in a tiny stream of water. I don’t like water nowadays, but back then there was a little stream of water used for irrigation. I liked to walk in that water.

Christenson: What did you do for fun at night when it was dark?

Dennis: The light in the house was just one cord that fell from the ceiling quite a ways. Just one bulb on it and that was the light in the house and I would just play with dolls or whatever we had at the time.

Christenson: Did you go to school or did you just work on the farm?

Dennis: I went to school. When I started school I remember that it was in a building in Richmond that just a one room building that had a giant pot belly stove in there that the teacher would keep the fire going to keep it warm in there.

Christenson: How many kids were there in your class?

Dennis: Oh there must have been about 25 or something like that.

Christenson: How far did you have to walk to get there?

Dennis: Almost a mile. My dad would take me in the morning, but I would walk home at night.

Christenson: Do you remember your first job?

Dennis: I helped my dad on the farm and that’s what I did until after I graduated from high school. Then I was an assistant to a dentist for a year.

Christenson: Did you make any money on the farm?

Dennis: No, it just went to help the family.

Christenson: Did you make money working for the dentist?

Dennis: I made 50 cents a day. I remember I saved that money until I got enough money to buy me a jacket that had a lot of different colors on it. That was $10 and I was so proud of that because I had saved my money and bought that. I remember he lived up, his office was in a big building and you had to climb up a lot of stairs and on Wednesdays I would have to clean those big stairs with a mop.

Christenson: Tell me about some of the other jobs you had.

Dennis: Let’s see, when Ann and Brad was, before I married Elvin I worked at the Utah Mortgage Loans. After Elvin and I were married for a while I worked at the first security bank for about 12 years.

Christenson: Do you remember how much money you made?

Dennis: When I first started at the bank I think I made a dollar an hour and I thought that was wonderful. Before that I worked at a grocery store in Richmond for a little bit. We would get about $60 a month or something. Then when I got this job at the bank they said would $100 a month be alright, and that sounded so good. Then, years later I made $1.30 an hour. I can remember when you could take eggs to the store and get 10 cents for a dozen. I remember you could buy a bottle of peanut butter for 22 cents. That was during the depression.

Christenson: How did you survive the depression?

Dennis: My father was a farmer so we always had food to eat.

Christenson: Did you have a telephone in your home?

Dennis: We had one of these kinds of box telephones on the wall, the folks there, and then you would have to wind it you know, or crank it I guess, so to speak.

Christenson: Could you call long distances, like to California if you wanted to?

Dennis: We never heard anything about long-distances then or calling.

Christenson: Did you have a radio?

Dennis: I remember when I heard my first one, it was in school, elementary school and the banker had a radio and he got about the first one there and after school we went over to his home to hear a radio.

Christenson: What did you think?

Dennis: Seemed different, kind of strange, kind of fun.

Christenson: Do you remember any radio programs you used to listen to?

Dennis: Oh yes, used to listen to ‘My Gals Sunday’ and ‘Amos and Andy’ used to be comedians on there and we would listen to them.

Christenson: Do you remember when you first saw a television?

Dennis: I think it was down to my husband’s mother, Elvin’s mother down in Provo. They had the first one I ever saw. It was just a little small one. You had to sit clear across the room because you wasn’t suppose to look at it close. I remember you had to sit way across the room just to watch that, it was a tiny little picture.

Christenson: What did you think of that?

Dennis: Oh I thought it was really neat that you could get a picture to look at that was moving.

Christenson: Do you remember any of the programs you used to watch?

Dennis: Lawrence Welch has been a favorite of mine all through the years. Ever since he came, that was one of the first programs.

Christenson: Did you watch the landing on the moon?

Dennis: I can remember it up to my sons, I remember my little grandson was just a really tiny fellow and his mother told him, now you remember when you grow up that you saw a man land on the moon.

Christenson: Do you remember hearing about Pearl Harbor?

Dennis: I can remember when I was with my dad and my mother and we was driving and I remember he stopped at a service station to get gas and the man came out and he said, “We’re in it now, they just bombed Pearl Harbor.”

Christenson: What kind of man was your father?

Dennis: He was a farmer. I remember when he got his first car. It was a Hupp mobile. It had leather and shades that would fasten during the winter time to keep the cold out. Back then you were just lucky to have a car that would run.

Christenson: Tell me about your mother.

Dennis: She was a just a really good cook and home maker. She was really a hard worker. In the Summer time with all kinds of fruits and vegetables in the garden. We always had a big garden.

Christenson: What did you do to stay warm during the cold winters?

Dennis: Well, I can remember when I was really little and we had a cold stove in the kitchen you know and every Saturday you had to have your Saturday bath, I was really little. It was a big tin tub that they would bring in and set it on the floor in front of the big range and they would open the oven so the heat would come out and then you’d have that hot water. Then you would get in that would be your Saturday night bath. That was just when I was real little. Then, later on we got electricity and that.

Christenson: What were some church callings you had?

Dennis: I’ve played for every organization in the church. I’ve been the ward organist, the stake organist, relief society organist, the primary organist. I have played a lot for special musical numbers. Then I also played for a women’s quorum.

Christenson: When did you start to play the organ?

Dennis: I learned on the piano because we did not have organs then. My mother started me when I was real young, 7 or 8 years old. When I turned 8 years old, my birthday fell on a Sunday and they wanted to have me baptized. They wouldn’t heat the water and my mother would worry about that. So, she got one of these 10 gallon milk cans and filled it with boiling water then we put it in a coaster wagon and took it down to the church. She thought that might make it a little warmer for me.

Christenson: How long did you work in the Logan Temple?

Dennis: 19 years. When I was seven years old my father was called on a mission to Norway. So he left my mother and myself and the others. There were three of us and I was the oldest.