Return to Sandpoint kept youth from failing Latin

(Today, Frank Evans shares, in his own words with some editing due to space limitations, his story. As it unfolds, I think you will agree that every “older kid” that ever lived in a small town would say, “That is how it was for me, too.” So sit back, get comfortable, as Frank tells about his early years.)

“I was born in Sugar City, Idaho, on Feb. 13, 1919. Mother and Dad had both been widowed, she with a son and Dad with four daughters, so I immediately had a half-brother Charles and sisters Sylva, Ida, Dorothy and Harriet. Then came a full sister Mary, born 1918, and a year and half later sister Adah was born in 1920.

“In 1921, Dad went to Spokane, Wash., to establish an office for his medical practice and in 1922 we moved to Genesee, Idaho. Early in 1924, we moved to Dover, where Dad took over the practice of Dr. R.N. Jackson who had drowned when his car rolled off the ferry at Laclede. The house where we lived also served as Dad’s office and had one room where patients were taken care of temporarily. At the back of the lot was a building that had a room partly filled with sawdust meant for storing ice blocks during the summer. It was also a place where we kids stashed a few bottles of the cough syrup that Dad used to make up for his patients.

“At this time, Dover was a ‘company town’ for the A.C. White Lumber Co. The area was great for kids with its wooded and rock covered hills and the river nearby. I learned to swim at the age of six with the aid of a bicycle inner tube, out near home toward Rocky Point. A highlight of each year was at Christmas time when our neighbors across the street, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Hornby, would have an outdoor Christmas tree party for the youngsters of Dover.” 

“My first two years of school were at the Dover school. Every Tuesday a music teacher would come for an hour of instruction. For some reason I didn’t like her class and for a time I would be sick on Tuesday until my sister Ida got a confession out of me and it was back to school on Tuesdays.

“In 1925 or ‘26, Dad came home with an Atwater-Kent radio. This was a big deal because very few people in Dover had radios. The nearest place with broadcasts was Spokane and, as I recall, there was only one station to be heard. From then on, Sunday evenings saw most of the family gathered around for the event of listening, although reception was far from crystal clear.

“In 1926, the lumber company was preparing to cease operations so we moved to Sandpoint where Dad established a new practice. I began school in the fourth grade at Washington School. However, I had not yet learned to add a column of figures so arithmetic was traumatic, and when mother learned this, she had me put back in the third grade where I belonged.

“When I was about nine years old I was taken to the hospital to have my tonsils removed — what an unpleasant surprise when I awakened to find I had also been circumcised.

One of my fondest memories of the third grade was receiving a certificate for being one of the best at spelling in all-third grades in the county. I could hardly wait to take it downtown to Dad’s office to show it to him.

“We lived on South Boyer, a block north of the Washington School, in a house that had a garage on the alley. The garage turned out to be a great place for Mary, Adah and me, along with other neighborhood kids, to build a stage for performing plays we would make up. We usually played the parts of current movie stars i.e., Tom Mix the cowboy, or Tarzan, or perhaps characters out of books.

“Just across the street from the school was a vacant field used as a playground including sandlot baseball. Baseball games would last until one of the kids, Dude Gardner, would get mad and go home with his catcher’s mitt and bat, thus ending the game.

“About this time, I received for Christmas my first electric train that I set up in the basement for countless hours of great fun. No other Christmas present has ever surpassed the joy of that train. In current events of the time the one thing I’ve always remembered is the news of Charles Lindberg landing in Paris after his solo flight across the Atlantic, in 1927.

“Although Mother and Dad were faithful Baptists, I began attending Sunday school at the Presbyterian Church where the teacher, a Mr. Finrow, would award a baseball mitt for a year of unbroken attendance. It also seems that the dime I had for the offering sometimes was reduced to a nickel at the Cramer’s neighborhood grocery in exchange for candy.

“Summer days were often spent at the city beach and dock for swimming, diving, and the catching of perch.” The beach area was also the scene of pow-wows by some Indian tribes of the region, who would arrive and set up their teepees for ten days or so. One of the main attractions was the “stick” games played by the men as they sat cross-legged on the ground. A rhythm would result from their sticks of wood striking boards while they chanted in chorus. I believe it was some sort of gambling game.

“Most homes, at this time, had ice-boxes for keeping food cool. On a given day each week, the ice delivery man would come by with his horse-drawn wagon carrying large blocks of ice from which he would cut the desired amount. We kids would beg for small chips of ice to suck on. Later on we got a GE refrigerator (they had coils on top in plain sight like no other brand), and ours was purchased by the daily insertion of a quarter into a metal container. If a coin was not added each day the electricity would disconnect. This occasionally happened and Mother would be somewhat upset.

“Dad was elected state senator from Bonner County in 1932 so the family moved to Meridian, near Boise, in January 1933. I graduated from the eighth grade while we were there. That summer was my introduction to farm work. I could earn 50 cents by working four to six hours shocking hay (making small stacks of hay by using a pitchfork). Hard work, but fifty cents would buy a good amount of fun. On a Saturday, we would hitchhike to Boise to see a matinee for 10 cents then afterward go to the C.C. Anderson Department Store soda fountain and get an ice cream soda for five cents. For a few months, I also earned a dollar a week doing the janitor work, on weekday mornings, at the local bank. This same summer Chuck and I spent two weeks at a Boy Scout camp on Payette Lake performing lifeguard duty.”

“I entered high school in Meridian, and since it was a very small school, I earned a slot on the traveling squad of the football team, and played some on defense. A friend and I also got into hot water for breaking into a sidewalk stand and taking cigarettes and candy.”

“After the Legislature adjourned for the session in March 1934, we packed everything into a 4-wheel trailer and with our Model A pulled it back to Sandpoint. School-wise this was fortunate for me as Latin was required in Meridian but Sandpoint High did not teach it to freshmen, saving me the embarrassment of flunking.

 To be continued