College - World War II

This post is taken from notes made by my father who was a university student during the beginning of World War II. I include it because it was interesting to see how the war made such an impact on his university as they went from a normal sized group of students, to very few students when so many were drafted and went to war, and then a huge amount of students when everyone returned and had access to the GI Bill. He was a chemistry major, so his comments are pretty specific to what happened in his department.

He says:

Perhaps the effects of World War II in the chemistry department might be of interest. I began my time at USAC (Utah State Agricultural College) in September of 1941. Things had not changed much then except that Dr. Reuben Hill, the department head, had been called to the service before the US got into the war.

I took inorganic chemistry, taught by Dr. Sherwin Maeser. The class was always taught at 8 AM. The old lecture room had seats for 120 students but there were about 150 in the room the first day of class. Dr. Maeser came in at 8 AM and saw about 25 students standing in the back of the room. He looked up and said, "There will be plenty of seats next week." -- and there were. I think there were less than 50 left in the class by the end of the school year, maybe partially a result of Pearl Harbor being attacked on December 7th.

Things really changed in 1942. Several teachers were no longer there. Two of my high school teachers were there along with Professor Neuhoff, a refugee from Poland, who was teaching general chemistry. (The next year he moved on to the University of Utah for more pay and later it was learned he had never been to college.) The analytical chemistry teacher, Professor Hurst, was still there since he was nearly old enough to retire.

We were told to expect to be drafted soon unless we joined the reserve, in which case we could go on to school. Most everyone joined by November 1942. We had physical exams in December by either the Navy or Army. (The Air Corps was part of the army still.) Those who joined the reserves were sent to the service about February of 1943 and a group of servicemen took over the only ladies' dorm for the Spring quarter. I don't think any of them took chemistry, so the classes became quite small and almost completely female.

Those who joined the reserve all went to Fort Ord and became operators of heavy guns. I had signed up for the Navy but didn't pass the physical exam and somehow they transferred me to the Army. This resulted in my missing the big call-ups until July, and then I went to the infantry in Texas.

For about the next two years I went to different Army schools and finally spent some time in Guam in the Signal Corps. I was discharged in time for the Spring quarter in 1946. I returned to Logan and visited the chemistry department. By then, Dr. Hill was back. Dr. Maeser was still teaching inorganic chemistry and physical chemistry. Professor Hurst had died, so analytical chemistry was taught by Bruce Weidner who came from Ohio. Dr. Theodore Burton was teaching organic chemistry and Dr. Delbert Greenwood was in biochemistry.

In the Fall of 1946, returning veterans came in large numbers. Dr. Hill's class in general chemistry had over 1900 students (probably about as many as the prewar total students in the school). It was moved from the Chemistry building to the auditorium in Old Main. Of course, all those students had to have 2 labs each week, so lab classes were scheduled at all available hours of the day.

I was called in and asked to be the assistant for an overflow of ten or twelve students in the evening. The first night there were 120 students with space for just half of them in the lab. The rest I got to teach in the lecture hall. Somehow we all survived and perhaps they learned something. I know that I did. I graduated after the 1946-47 year, so that they must have made out all right. I think Dr. Hill's class still holds the record for the number of students in one class.

As I recall, veterans had tuition paid by the government plus $90 a month for living expenses. In graduate school I received $66 per month for being an assistant at the University of Kansas, so I lost touch with the USAC chemistry department.

Will dance for food

This is our 'granddog', Murphy. Murphy knows how to get what he wants from his people. He is a big fan of cheese and is willing to do what it takes to get it. He dances on his hind legs and begs with his front paws because he knows that performing will gain him what he wants.



These are some of Murphy's people. The small person is a quick learner. She has taken careful note of how Murphy gets what he wants. Though she didn't do her best work in this picture, she has learned to dance around with her little hands in 'begging paw' position. Although she will dance for cheese as well, she loves to dance for jelly beans. Smart girl!

When Father Was a Boy

For all of you who have heard family stories of having to walk to school, uphill both ways...and in a blinding blizzard...or other similar tales, this poem is for you. I don't know who wrote it, but it was one my mother saved in her things. She thinks it is one her mother saved.

Anyway...the pictures are of MY father...when he was a boy.

When Father Was a Boy

My father sometimes likes to tell how,
When he was a boy,
That chopping kindling wood was fun
And milking such a joy;
And how he'd hustle home from school
As fast as he could run,
And never think of playing 'til
Every chore was done.

He says he thought it was a treat
To pick the plums and cherries,
And even tries to make-believe
He liked to stem gooseberries.
But when he's telling of the time
When he was just a "kid"
And what a busy one he was
And all the work he did,
My grandpa he just sits and smiles
But never says a word
About what Father's telling
As if he hadn't heard.

But I'll bet you most anything
You'd mention, like as not,
Grandpa remembers many things
That Father's just forgot!

age 4



2nd grade



age 12

Pepperoni Rolls

Tonight at dinner time, I was hungry for a taste of West Virginia. WV was settled by several different ethnic groups. Up north, around Fairmont and Clarksburg, there were many Italians who came to work in the mines, so the food of that area reflects that heritage. The miners needed lunch food that was easy to take with them underground. It was between 1927 and 1940 that a local bakery started making pepperoni rolls for that purpose. In modern West Virginia, you can buy pepperoni rolls almost anywhere...gas stations, convenience stores, Walmart, Amish bulk food stores, etc. We found them to be tasty and convenient when we had to travel, or on busy days with little time to cook. We left West Virginia in November of 2008, and have not had a pepperoni roll since.

Since they are not readily available commercially around here, I decided I just better make my own today. I made the dough with yeast, water, sugar, powdered milk, salt and flour, then let it rise until double.


I divided it into 12 pieces then flattened each piece and then put slices of pepperoni down the middle of each piece.



Then I rolled the buns up rather like a jelly roll.



I placed them on a pan, ready to bake. I covered them with a little bit of melted margarine and egg.



Then I baked them for 15 minutes.





Changes I would make when I make them again:
I used the low fat turkey pepperoni as lowfat is best for us. The real WV rolls use regular pepperoni, which often leaves a little orange color from the fat in the pepperoni where the roll is sealed. They are also a little more moist. I think maybe next time I will try adding a teaspoonful of pizza sauce in with the pepperoni. You can also add cheese.

It was a lovely reminder of our time in West Virginia.

Hear the Wind Blow

Recently I’ve been hearing from friends in our old home of a windstorm that lasted several days. It reminded me of how much I hate the wind.

It seems like we got severe windstorms several times every year which caused all sorts of problems. I didn’t mind so much when it snowed, but it seems like within a day of a snowstorm, along would come a huge wind to stack the snow up in drifts.

One day I was watching a neighbor’s child while her mother went to the hospital to have a baby. By the time her mother came home from the hospital, it snowed, it blew, and the road was filled with 5 feet of snow. The little girl ended up staying with us for several days until snowplows manned by the Alaska National Guard came to reopen our road.

Sometimes when the road filled up with snow, the surrounding fields would be scoured clean of any snow. At least once after being snowbound for a week, we escaped by driving across the fields since the road was not usable.

We had a greenhouse about 8’ x 16’ so we could grow tomatoes. It was covered with fiberglass panels. The peak of the roof was covered by a special metal strip. One day the wind blew hard with gusts up to 117 mph. It took that metal strip and just sort of rolled it up like those old metal strips you roll off with a key on a Spam can. Then it blew away all the fiberglass panels.

Of course wind chill was always something we watched out for. At school the children went out for recess unless the temperature was lower than -10F when adjusted for wind chill.

Sometimes the wind was blowing hard when the school bus pulled up to the school in the morning. It was strong enough to blow the little kids head over heels across the school yard. When the children arrived they were kept on the bus until adults and larger 5th and 6th graders could get out to the bus. Each adult could usually hold on to 4 small children to get them safely into the school.

One time I HAD to get into town when our road was snowed shut, so I had to hike up the road to the main road where a friend picked me up.

Kindergartners were released from school about 11:30. Sometimes when the road closed, another mother from our carpool picked up my child and dropped her off at the top of the road. I would hike up to the road pulling a plastic sled. On the way back home, it was downhill, so we’d both climb on the sled and slide on home with the wind pushing us along.

I could handle the cold, long winters, but I don’t miss those windstorms!

Frost Pictures

We've hit a patch of cold weather lately...maybe not by Alaska standards, but cold enough to go below zero a few times..cold enough that the recent snow has not been melting. Many days have been rather gray and dreary, so the days when the sky is blue seem especially pleasant.



Finishing the remodeling work at the woodwright shop has been a rather chilly job, since the shop is really not heated when no one is there. A benefit of the lack of heat, though, is the wonderful frost pictures on the windows of the shop. The first two pictures were taken from the outside, looking in, so if you look closely you can see some of the work we've done inside the shop. The frost left wonderful feathery looking ice crystals on every window.







It's almost too bad the frost won't hang around in summer when we complain of the heat! By Baby Animal Days, it will be a thing of the past.

Happy New Year!

Rather than try to coordinate schedules between various families for Christmas, our family has chosen to get together for a family Christmas celebration at New Years. This year we got to host the party at our house for us and 3 of our 5 children and their families. The only thing which would have made it better would have been the 2 missing children, but they also live further away. It was great to see the ones who could make it. This year's theme was 'pajama party'.

As in many family gatherings, the first order of business was food. It is always interesting to see what happens with a potluck! This year there were a spiral sliced ham and ever so many interesting dipping things. We had a delicious lemon flavored fruit dip and plenty of fruit to dip in it, hot spinach artichoke dip, 7 layer dip, a meat and cheese tray, and from our daughter who loves to explore cooking history, a fondue, complete with 1970s era fondue pot!

As it was so soon after Christmas, some of the gifts between family members were saved to open that night, so the Christmas tree was still up. All 16 of us gathered while the youngest boy there had the job of getting gifts from under the tree and delivering each gift to the correct person. He even found out his feet fit just right in the wooden shoes.







Later we adjourned to the garage to do a piñata. Those kids were vicious with that thing!



Later we all watched 'Despicable Me' and then played games until time to celebrate with sparkling cider at midnight.

When we finally woke up on New Years Day, we fixed brunch with 2 different breakfast casseroles and about anything else you could want for breakfast.

Hope everyone has a great 2011!