The Illustrated History of
CLYDE BRUCE
YOUNG
& edited by
abridged
Rebecca Young Pendleton
illustrated by
Auriana, Isaac, Natalie,
Enoch, Miriam, and Elena Pendleton
—2009—
root & branch
publications
spanish fork , utah
christmas 2009
•
To those who continue to leave us a wonderful and lasting heritage . . .
We love you!
•
—Auriana, Isaac, Natalie, Enoch, Miriam, Elena
Clyde Bruce Young
|
G. Farrell Young
|
Rebecca Young Pendleton
|
The Illustrators
I
am Clyde Bruce Young, born February 1, 1913 in Salt
Lake City. My mother, Elise Olsen, was a daughter
of Norwegian converts to the Church who came to
Utah in her early life. It was a cold February day when
this young Norwegian immigrant lay in a bedroom in a
house that had been built for her by her husband. She
was scared, as I was coming into existence at this time.
This young woman had lost her first child at the age of 3
days and she was afraid as you can imagine at the coming
of another child into this home.
Early in my childhood, I remember quite distinctly,
my mother had always left a hall light on when she put
my younger sister and myself to bed in the evening. One
summer night a large windstorm came up and there were
several doors and windows open. It blew the hall door
shut and I was left in a dark bedroom all by myself. I
can remember screaming and I can remember my mother
coming in trying to find out what the matter was. I re-
member she was very upset with me when all I could tell
her was that the light had gone out.
My Father was Leo Howe Young who was the
grandson of President Brigham Young. My father had
bought me a new tricycle and the day that World War I
ended my Dad came home and said, “Let’s go on up to the
main street to see what we can find.”
I can remember hearing the bell and the siren on
the fire engine as we hurried up to the street. I was
pedaling that tricycle as hard as I could pedal and my
Dad was following along to be sure that I didn’t get out
into the traffic. There was the fire engine with many
people on it going around proclaiming the happiness that
was in their hearts because the War was over.
My sister Lucile was born. She was a little over a
year younger than I was and my brother Vaughn was also
born here. I remember very distinctly when he was taken
to the hospital one early morning and was to have his
tonsils out.
I remember Mother coming home very, very
unhappy because the doctor had been so rough with
Vaughn when he was through with the operation. He had
dropped him onto the bed as though he was a sack of
flour and walked off as though nothing was the matter.
Mother just couldn’t stand that and she was very,
very unhappy and I remember her saying to Dad, “Well,
we’ll never use that doctor again. We’ll find somebody
who will have a little bit of patience and a little bit of
love for our children.”
by MIRIAM
When I turned 5 we moved to 3499 South State
Street. This place was a farm as my dad called it. It
was about an acre and a half of ground. It was a nice
large, 3 bedroom house with a single bath. It had a large
cow barn, a large hay barn, and a chicken coop. We had
an artesian well and the back acre of ground was all in
alfalfa. Dad also had a very large vegetable garden that
he cultivated each year. I remember distinctly a large
irrigation ditch running in front of the place.
I remember the street was a divided highway
with 2 sets of streetcar tracks running down the center
of the street. The streetcars that ran by our house
were usually express cars and when they were passing
our place they did so with as much speed as the old
electric streetcars could muster. I started school and I
remember my mother being extremely worried because
I had to walk along State Street. There being no
sidewalks, I’m sure she would stand by the front window
and watch me as I made my way to cross the street and
go on down to school.
I remember one day as I got out of school… It
was a cold blustery day and the teachers were in a hurry
to get on their way. I had been trying to put my rubbers
on and I couldn’t get them on. I was having nothing but
trouble and finally, I gave up and carried them because
the teacher was hurrying me along. I was holding my
rubbers in one hand and my gloves in the other as I
started towards home.
It wasn’t long before my feet were cold and my
hands were cold and I wanted to do nothing but sit down
and cry. I knew that this wouldn’t do me any good and I
kept plodding along trying to get home.
As I got near our place I decided it was time to
cross the street. As I crossed the street and got onto
the streetcar tracks, right before me was a streetcar
coming very, very fast. I finally jumped off the tracks
onto the side of the road and as I looked up, there was an
automobile coming along the side of the streetcar. I got
over just as close as I could to the streetcar, it didn’t
stop and neither did the car and they both went by me.
I lost my gloves and I lost my rubbers and I made
a beeline for home just as fast as I could. I was so happy
to see my mother and I can tell you there were a lot of
tears shed that day after that experience.
by MIRIAM
I remember well the Johnsons that lived nearby
and how they used to cut through the field to get to our
place or to get out on the street to catch the streetcar.
Dad used to take me up through those fields and we
would scare up pheasants and meadowlarks that had their
nests in the hay fields. We would really enjoy the time
we had together traveling back and forth to the Johnson
residence.
There was not much else that happened during
my school days at the Blaine School..... just those normal
problems that young people have while trying to learn
a little more each day.... trying to get good grades to
satisfy our parents and striving diligently to make friends
and to find out what life is all about.
I remember well when I became 8 years of age. In
those days, there were not baptismal fonts in the Wards
and Stake Houses as there is today, but it was necessary
for Mother and Dad, my brother and my sister to get on
the streetcar and go into town, and there go over to the
temple grounds and go into the basement of the Tabernacle
into large beautiful room where there was a baptismal font.
I remember the big crowd that was there. I remember
how white and beautiful it looked.
I also remember that when I started down the aisle
to go down and take my turn to go into the font how I was
scared and I didn’t want to go. My Dad came down and
helped me get over my fear, and to get into the font where
a young Elder by the name of Sharp W. Daynes was standing
waiting to baptize me a member of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints.
I don’t remember exactly when it was—maybe 1922
or 1923—when my dad finally purchased an automobile,
1919 Ford touring car. I remember how proud we were to
have this car. There were very few cars around at that
time. I also remember how Dad had to get out in front
and crank the car to get it started and how he tried to
instruct my mother, who never learned to drive, how to
manipulate the gas and the choke inside the car so that he
could crank it.
I remember also how cold it used to get in that
open car as we would drive along, particularly in the
wintertime. We didn’t get much of a chance to ride in the
car for it was not used except on special occasions.
by ISAAC
My cousin Dave was living with my grandmother at
this time. I remember in front of Grandma’s house there
was a big cherry tree and how we used to like to climb
it, and how mad it made my grandmother. She said we
were always knocking the cherries off and she wanted
them for canning, so as to have something to eat during
the winter. I remember that we found that if we let the
cherries go and not get into the tree the robins would eat
them all, so we used to get into the tree quite regularly
and eat those cherries before the robins got them.
As we got up into the cherry tree, we were as high
as the roof of the house, which was a two-story house.
I remember getting onto the roof a number of times. I
remember how we used to dare each other to jump off of
the roof to the ground. It was a long time before either
Dave or I had the courage to jump off. Dave was always
coaxing and urging me to jump.
He would say, “If you jump then I’ll jump,” and I
remember sitting on the edge of that roof, getting up
the courage and finally jumping onto the lawn below. I
turned around expecting to see Dave coming right behind
me, but he lost courage and he was over on the other side
of the roof climbing down the Cherry Tree. He never did
jump off the roof. Whenever anything didn’t go right, I
always threw it up to Dave that I was the one who jumped
off the roof and he was the one who turned chicken and
would not do it.
I was the President of a Deacon’s Quorum. We had seven
quorums of deacons, and I was President of the Seventh
Quorum. I remember one occasion when my Bishop
came down and asked me to pass the Sacrament to the
gentleman sitting next to him on the stand first. Knowing
my nature, I probably asked him why. I cannot remember
his answer, but I’m sure he told me I’d find out. Later
during the meeting the gentleman who I passed the
Sacrament to first was introduced as Heber J. Grant,
Prophet and President of the Church.
by ENOCH
I was also in the presidency of the Teacher’s Quorum and
enjoyed very much the Scouting Program that the Church
had. My dad was the Scout Master for many years and
I enjoyed doing scout work under his direction, being
a Patrol Leader, a Senior Patrol Leader, and Assistant
Scout Master.
During 1924 and 1925, I attended the Forest
School and I had a number of wonderful experiences
there. I remember that Della Pendleton was the principal
at the Forest School. I remember how she used to come
down each morning on the street car on 9th East, and as
she got off the street car and came over to the school,
there were 2 or 3 of us usually there to greet her.
This school was unusual in that it had about 25
or 30 outside doors, which had to be unlocked every
morning. One of the jobs we got to do was to get the
keys from her and go around to all of these rooms and
unlock the outside doors. Miss Pendleton was a very good
friend and I enjoyed very much my association with her.
by MIRIAM
I remember in my last year at school money
was hard to come by and they were hiring some of the
students to help the janitor clean the rooms after
school, and how important I felt as they handed me a
big broom and I swept between the desks and swept the
aisles. They paid me a nickel for each room that I would
sweep. It was wonderful to have a few pennies in my
pocket.
When someone in the family had a birthday, my
dad would buy one candy bar for five cents and bring it
home, cut it in pieces, and we would all have a taste.
by ISAAC
I learned to play baseball at the Forest School and
Clarence Fisher, a young man who went to school there,
that had a withered right arm, used to like to pitch to
me because I was the catcher. He had one of the fastest
balls of anybody I had ever caught.... how he would throw
with that left arm with his right arm hanging at his side.
He said he liked to play ball with me because I was able
to catch his fast pitches....I had the reaction that he
needed for his good curve ball and his good drop ball. So
many of the young men who tried to catch for him could
not do so because their reactions were too slow. He and
I became very good friends.
About this time, Dad decided that it was time for
us children to start learning a little music besides the
other things we were doing.... that we shouldn’t spend
all our time playing, but should try to improve ourselves.
He bought a tenor saxophone for himself. He bought an
alto saxophone and enrolled me in a band, and he bought
a soprano saxophone, which he gave to my brother. The
three of us used to try to play trios on the saxophone.
We never did get very good but we did have fun.
I lived in Salt Lake all of my early life going to
school through the first two years of high school. At
that time, I decided it was better for me to go to work
than finish my education because of the great depression
that was overcoming the country. My first job was as a
caddy at a golf course. Later I tried my hand at being a
concrete finisher and ended up shoveling sand and gravel
into a cement mixer rather than doing any finishing.
I then joined the Deseret News and enjoyed
several years of learning the newspaper business from
almost every angle. I spent some time in the advertising
department. I enjoyed working for Apostle Mark
Petersen. At that time, he was a Stake President and
editor for the Deseret News and I was a copy boy
who would run copy back and forth for him so that the
information that he was reporting would get to the paper
on time. I decided that my ability to write and my ability
to sell was not the best in the world, so I went into the
mechanical department at the newspaper and learned to
run the machines and do the work that was necessary to
print the paper.
by ELLIE
by AURIANA
At the age of 21, I was called to go on a mission
to the Central States for the LDS Church. There’s one
incident I want to tell about my mission. At the time I
was in Independence Missouri, Apostle Charles Callis was
released as President of the Southern States Mission
and came to Independence and wanted to visit Adam-
Ondi-Ahman. President Elias S. Woodruff of our mission,
Farrell Spencer, our mission secretary, and myself took
him to this location. After hiking to the top of the
hill, President Callis moved around several feet in each
direction, finally stopping and bowing his head for a few
minutes. As he looked up he made the remark, “Adam
once stood here.”
The success I had on my mission was very meager.
I spent three months in the country area of Oklahoma
traveling without any money, on the highway at the
pleasure of the people who came along, to get from one
place to another. We found some people who had not seen
an Elder since they had been baptized many years before.
by NATALIE
One night we had nowhere to stay, so we entered
the jailhouse. They said, “If you stay here, we’ll have
to lock you up.” I told them, “I’d rather be locked up in
here than cold and wet out there!” Most nights someone
let us in to stay, but one night we were going to stay on
a haystack in a farmer’s barn, but later the farmer came
out and said that he had a room inside that we could use.
The Lord always took care of us!
Upon my return to Salt Lake City, I went to work
for the Snelgrove Ice Cream Company and started
learning the making of malted milks, ice cream sodas, and
ice cream sundaes.
Next, I was hired by the First Security
Corporation as a Teller in the Bank. During this time I
courted and married Dora Dean.
Nothing has meant more to me than doing the work
of the Lord where I have been called. And, every job I have
had in the Church has increased my faith and has made my
testimony stronger. If we will always do the things that we
are called upon to do, our Heavenly Father will bless us and
help us to reach our eternal goals.
In the year 2000 I started losing my sight. After
treatment for 18 months, I lost 60% of my sight in both eyes.
This necessitated my eliminating all bookkeeping that I was
doing as well as all income taxes I was preparing and I resigned
my position from Smith Oil Company.
I also had to resign my position as Stake and Ward
Family History Coordinator. This has been real hard as I
have not been able to do any research or place any additional
information on my computer.
We have held our family reunions on Thanksgiving
each year and have enjoyed them very much. Since losing my
eyesight, I have really appreciated the things that my wife has
been doing for me.
Life is dull, however, as I spend most of my time
listening to church history tapes as well as tapes furnished by
the State of Idaho and the State of Utah. As of December
the 6th, 2004 I am in fairly good health and expect to spend
a few more years trying to find things to do to complete my
family history and temple work that needs to be done.
Editor’s note: As of Christmas 2009, Clyde Bruce Young is still going
strong at the age of 96.
