A PARTIAL HISTORY

ALLEN HACKWORTH AND LONI GEE

by Loni

 

Allen and Loni were married in the Salt Lake Temple on September 9^th 1964 by Elder Marion D. Hanks at 9:30 PM. After the ceremony, the friends and relatives went to the Drumstick for dinner. Then Allen' s Uncle Joe Jacobson drove Allen and Loni to Ogden,  Utah where they spent their first night.  (They are probably the only couple to be chaperoned by their aunt and uncle on their honeymoon).  

 

Allen was currently employed by the Kitchen Queen Potato Chip Company of Idaho Falls as a truck driver.  He decided he might as well make his honeymoon profitable, so he had taken a load of potato chips to Ogden to deliver.  We picked the truck up Thursday morning and that was our honeymoon vehicle, a semi-truck.  On the back we taped a poster that said" "JUST MARRIED" and you should have seen the stares we got. 

 

Allen and I drove the truck to Pocatello, and he went on to Idaho Falls, and I picked him up there.  We drove back to Pocatello where we spent the night in our first apartment at 956 West Center. It wasn't bad if you didn't mind grasshoppers in the bathtub, but I did. They had jumped through an open window.  On Friday  Sept. 11, we had our reception in the Pocatello Stake House. The colors were turquoise and white. Our line consisted of: best man Barry South;  ushers Bob Chandler and Gavin Gee; flower girl Kathy Jacobs; gift bearers Jerry Hackworth and Aaron Gee; bridesmaids Lula Evenson, Nancy Parks Hough, Sharon Ferguson, Lauralee Stevenson, Lois and Donna Hackworth.

 

It was a lovely reception, and I must give credit to my dear mother who worked SO hard on it. My dad's quartet sang "Daddy's Little  Girl," "Hawaiian Chant," and “Will I Ever Leave You."  We spent that night at our apartment and the next morning, we took my dad's car, which was really painted up, and drove to St. Anthony where we borrowed Allen's father 's camper and went to Yellowstone for a few days.

 

When we got home late Sunday night, Allen was hungry and the only things in the house were some canned goods. I opened a can of spaghetti and meat balls for us, but I burned the spaghetti and the meat balls were cold.  Poor Allen wondered if his new bride could even cook canned food. 

 

We both had to be to work on Monday morning: Allen at Kitchen Queen and me at Zundells Inc.  Allen had sold his 1957 Triumph so that we could both go to school and so we inherited a 1952 Pontiac from my Dad who said, “All it needs is new tires.”  So we drove that old gray Pontiac. 

 

When school started, both Allen and I quit our jobs, but Allen worked part-time for the Blackfoot Press in B1ackfoot, Idaho.  We were both juniors at Idaho State University and enrolled in two classes together. We lived on the other south side of the town, so we drove a lady to school with us each morning.

 

After we had been married about one month, Dr. Merkley asked us if we would tend his five children while he and his wife went to a horse show in Texas. So overnight, Allen and I became the parents of five children. We made $90, which certainly came in handy as it was time to be thinking of Christmas.

 

Our first Christmas was really exciting and Allen worked all of the holidays at the Blackfoot Press. We were then attending the town ward and Allen was advisor to the teacher’s quorum, and I was speech-drama director in the mutual. We quite liked it, but one night we were invited to a young married party and everyone there were grandparents. We lived in an older section of town, so we kept our eyes open for an other apartment closer to school, so that we could walk and save a little gas money.

 

We went to lots of the school dances and games and plays and Allen almost joined a fraternity, but after attending several of the meetings he decided not to join.

 

One day in February, 1965, we happened to see an ad for an apartment close to the school, so we went to check on it.  It was completely unfurnished, but it was so much nicer than where we were living.  It had a carpeted living room, two bedrooms, and a fireplace. It looked dismal to me, but Allen saw great possibilities, so we moved in on the 13th of February. It was terribly cold and there was snow all over the ground, but it surely looked nice and cozy to us.  We rounded up some furniture thanks to Mom and Dad.  We used one of the bedrooms for a study. (I wonder how we ever got along without that extra bedroom.)

 

Rent was $10 more, but we hoped we could save that in gas money since it was close to school and we could walk. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at 1120 E. Benton and our landlords, the Dissaults, were very good to us. About the first of March, Allen began working for Falls Music selling guitars and giving guitar lessons. He charged $2.00 a half hour and gave the music company fifty cents for each lesson. 

 

His fame and popularity increased and by the time summer was here, he had about 20 students a week. He also worked for a few weeks for Litho Printing Since both of us were going to school, we had found it necessary to borrow $500.00 from the National Defense Education Act. With this, and Allen's music lessons, we lived very comfortably and had a good time. We enjoyed school and were making friends through the church.

 

When we moved, we joined the college First Ward and about the last of May there came a need for a change in the Bishopric. To our surprise the new bishop, Harris O. Craig, asked Allen to be his 2^nd counselor.  They were going to have student counselors, and they were also forming a new University Stake.  My father was put in as the first counselor in the stake presidency, and I guess that was so he could keep tabs on his daughter and see that she was righteous.

 

Allen was ordained a high priest and set apart.  In the new ward, I was made junior Sunday school chorister. We both just loved the ward and our positions in it and particularly the friends that we made while in the ward. The Giffords, Walshes, Wrides, Dixons, to name a few.

 

We both enrolled in summer school and both of us had pretty tough classes especially Allen who had a couple of English classes plus his guitar students. His job in the ward kept him very busy.  He was in meetings all day Sunday and went out with the Bishop at least once a week. We bought a TV about in June, but other than that we hadn't bought any luxuries. We were still driving our old Pontiac.

 

About one week before summer school was out, Mother called up one Friday afternoon to say that she was going with Dad and the boys to the New York World's Fair and would we and Allen like to go with them. (She knew that we had school and wouldn't be able to go.) When Allen came home, I jokingly told him and the next thing I knew, he had run over to the school and gotten excused from his exams until we got back.

 

I still had a paper due in one class and my parents were leaving in half an hour, so I packed a typewriter and some paper and we were off for New York. What a trip!  Six of us in the car. (Kaey decided to stay home and work on the farm. He had just gotten off his mission in January. It was one of the most thrilling adventures that I have ever had. We went through 20 states and went to Washington, DC., Arlington Cemetery, Philadelphia, New York, etc.

 

The Fair was something beyond my wildest imagination.  We are  certainly grateful to our folks for giving us the opportunity of going along with them. The only thing I regret is that we didn't keep a diary and record the places that we went, for now I can't remember. .When we got home, the back window in our car was shattered so that we couldn't see out of it. Gradually, it began to fall out piece at a time until finally, just as winter got here, it all fell out.

 We never did get a window in it. Some times the snow was piled so high in the back, we couldn't see out of it. At this time too, the door latch broke,  so when we turned a right corner, the driver-side door would swing open. I got a job working in the afternoons at Pugmire studio which was only a few blocks from where we lived, so I walked to work. 

 

Allen was getting a few more students and he had work to make up from summer school, so we  were kept busy before school started. About the week before fall semester,  to celebrate our anniversary, we borrowed the camper, and went to Yellowstone Park for a few days.  We really had a good time, but it was in September and it was quite chilly and we didn’t catch any fish. 

 

We had a lovely time on our first anniversary for we went out to dinner with Brent and Mardene Smith who shared our anniversary date, and the fellows had  ordered us a dozen long stemmed red roses which we got during dinner  Allen gave me a watch, so that I'd start being ready on time and not keep him waiting any longer.

 

I was asked to teach one class in seminary and started to do so, but found I had a conflict in my schedule, so Allen took it over. This proved to be a real challenge, but he enjoyed working with the students.  School started and we were both busier than ever. Allen was in the bishopric, taught seminary and gave guitar lessons. I was going to school, worked afternoons at Pugmire's, and was secretary of a Senior Women's Honorary Silver Tassel. But we were really enjoying life and having a good time. (Allen was very conscientious about his studies while I only studied the night before an exam.)  We still went to dances and plays and parties and entertained guests in our home.  We just loved our apartment and never got tired of it, except when it was messy.

 

Over the holidays, we spent a few days in Salt Lake and renewed an old friendship with one of Allen’s best friends in college, Linda and David Griffith.  At the semester, Allen found that he did not have time to continue teaching Seminary, so he gave that up. He had a very heavy schedule to take Spring Semester, 1966, but he did extremely well.  He had to take 20 credits and he came out with a 3.5. 

 

We found out in January that I was pregnant and we were both thrilled. The baby was due a bout t he first of August. I started student teaching in the fourth grade at Whittier School under Mrs. Elaine Partridge whom I consider to be a master teacher.  I have been grateful that I was able to work under such an excellent teacher. I worried a great deal about my teaching ability and I have never felt that I produced during my student teaching what I am capable of doing.

 

We both graduated from ISU, and we both accepted teaching positions in St. Anthony, Idaho. Our first contracts were $4,800 for each of us.  We lived in Jack Stone’s basement, and we were near the schools where we taught. We met some wonderful people this year, for example, David and Linda Austin.  During our stay in St. Anthony, we both applied for graduate school, and we both were awarded scholarship help: Loni a fellowship ($5,000) and Allen a teaching assistantship.

 

So it was back to Pocatello for graduate school in May 1967.  We had just bought a beautiful two-bedroom trailer, so it was a relatively simple move.  We both began summer school, and we learned that I was pregnant, but we had squeezed in a baby before, and we were delighted that Randi Sue would have a playmate.

 

We were able to work out a schedule so that we didn’t need a baby sitter for our fall semester.  Most of my classes were at night and Allen’s during the daytime, so it worked out very well.  That semester, finances were extremely scarce.  On Halloween we didn’t have any eggs, flower, or shortening to make anything, and absolutely no money to buy anything.  Randi Sue was suffering with four new teeth, and consequently was very cross.  When Allen came home from school, I asked “What should we do?”  And he said, “Turn off all the lights so the tick-or-treaters would think we are not home.”

 

During dinner, we were eating by one small candle when we heard voices then knocks on the door.  We sat very still, but then Randi Sue let out a yell and we heard the boys say, “There’s someone in there.  Let’s do something mean to them.”

 

When they left, I decided we had better have something for future trick-or-treaters, so I took some money from our coin collection and bought some cheap candy from Albertsons.  Then we only had about four sets of Halloweeners.  In November just before Thanksgiving, I was seven and a half months pregnant when Jackie and Woody Wireman invited us over for lunch.  Lunch was over and we were hurrying to get to the afternoon session of conference, and I asked to use the bathroom.

 

I ran down the hall, opened the door, dashed in.  Too late.  It was not the bathroom at all but the basement stairs.  I fell down them, turned a complete somersault and landed on my head.  Boy, was I miserable.  I thought of two things: the baby and my contact lenses.  Allen rushed me to the doctor, and the doctor’s classic was, “How many stairs were there.”  I replied, “I was too busy to count them.”  Actually, there were steps to drop eight feet into the  basement.

 

Fortunately the baby was okay, and I had pulled some ligaments, so I was on crutches for a while.  After an easy labor, Justin Scott was born Tuesday night at 10:30 on January 9, 1968.  (Too late for a tax deduction and too late for first baby of the new year.)

 

Just after Justin was born, I began teaching the mentally retarded at Lincoln School.  Allen continued working on his master’s degree and being a teaching assistant in the English Department at Idaho State University.

 

In August of 1968, we moved we moved the trailer to 246 West 4^th South to Rexburg, Idaho where Allen had accepted a teaching job at Ricks College.  In front of the trailer was a house with eight girls which we supervised in exchange for trailer-space rent.  Allen was asked to serve as finance clerk in the College First Ward under Bishop Lyle Watson, and I served as relief society president.