Latah County Oral History Collection

Sam Schrager: This conversation with Emmett Art and Anna Gleason art took place at their home on Hadar Creek near Princeton on November 4th, 1975.

Anna Utt: For $23. What year was that line?

Emmett Utt: By the same name.

Anna Utt: Of that thing. Now, that was terrible.

Emmett Utt: And I'd pay $5 to get hold of Bogart. That one about $50.

Sam Schrager: What was when did you when did you two start going together?

Emmett Utt: I don't know.

Sam Schrager: Yeah. When was that?

Emmett Utt: 25. I took about one in 25. I like to go.

Emmett Utt: Out to drive in 26.

Sam Schrager: Three times and 27.

Emmett Utt: Something like that. You got married? No, no, no. I don't know.

Emmett Utt: Well, she. She was going to school out a little, too.

Emmett Utt: And.

Emmett Utt: it's a big deal.

Anna Utt: Anyway.

Anna Utt: What did you start to tell? I was going to finish that. Now, was my wife is going to say he walked up to me on the street and he said, What did you say to me now?

Emmett Utt: you got a brother?

Anna Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: It's in the board.

Emmett Utt: No, not in town. Don't pop through all of that room. I just called you good looking.

Emmett Utt: I was.

Emmett Utt: Always.

Anna Utt: High, good looking or something.

Emmett Utt: would you say Monica monitor?

Anna Utt: Cause I thought he was.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, I did.

Anna Utt: All the girls, you know?

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Really? We tried to go together. 25.

Anna Utt: Well, see, I went to school in Lewiston, then 25 and 26, and I finished down there in the fall of 26. I went to summer school in the fall of 26, and then I wound up here at the Woodfield School above Hollywood, you know, with their partners and I taught school up there. And that's when we went started.

Emmett Utt: You got that thing on.

Sam Schrager: That turned it on you and just turn on.

Anna Utt: Has he got that turned on just you.

Sam Schrager: Just a minute ago I.

Emmett Utt: Heard.

Sam Schrager: That I wanted it well done. I wanted to know how you guys got together in the old days. It seems like those aren't such old days, but it really seems more different than the nowadays. You know, as far as young folks meeting and deciding they're going to make a life together, you know, well.

Emmett Utt: A little trouble. They then make up bit too fast. I think you three or four times your size right now that for you look like a couple of sticking. Well before they go ahead.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, well well, when you're when.

Sam Schrager: You were going you were going to to school there in Lewiston was a normal common teacher right? Yeah. I mean to become a teacher, right?

Anna Utt: Yeah. Yeah.

Emmett Utt: And she taught.

Anna Utt: And I went for two years and then chambers clerk and then the meantime I substituted one year here and one quarter and,

Anna Utt: Takes us up to 29.

Emmett Utt: When she were teaching school or what year it was.

Anna Utt: Then I started again in 43, you know, during the war.

Emmett Utt: After the war.

Emmett Utt: And that writing on. Yeah, that was right.

Anna Utt: I taught for 49.

Sam Schrager: Well well when I was courting according a very formal kind of thing. I mean did you, did you get, get engaged very early or did you just date more or less like, you know.

Anna Utt: It was Christmas in 48 and we married in September 49, 20.

Emmett Utt: Busy 29.

Anna Utt: 29. Yeah, 29.

Sam Schrager: You got engaged in Christmas at 20.

Anna Utt: Four and 28. Yeah, I did. I say probably.

Sam Schrager: But you're thinking of teaching.

Anna Utt: Yeah, I.

Emmett Utt: yeah.

Emmett Utt: No more business. I don't remember much about that badly in writing. They had, you know, in.

Sam Schrager: The second war. Yeah. No, I was before I was born.

Anna Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: I figured I had a way, you know.

Emmett Utt: I was a solid down to mil head soldier. They had bought carriages. Know each one had enjoyed it, you know.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. And anyway.

Emmett Utt: And she was teaching school up here. I was glad and I had about eight or nine, had two cows but two beef cattle to feed and take.

Emmett Utt: And I were.

Emmett Utt: Running the farm too. And so I had to have, you know, three out of the guys a week and a lot. But three gallon was run too well. I had that much to do. Cows, that old sergeant, old 27 Dodge. We had that. And then I had the 42 Plymouth. And so she had to go to school. I had to go to the mill and we had Digger Creamery Town and run around.

Emmett Utt: I went over to Moscow to try to get some extra gas.

Emmett Utt: No.

Emmett Utt: No, I just couldn't do it. She, like everybody, wanted to get extra gas because of Diablo, you know, He didn't need it, you know?

Sam Schrager: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: So I went to her a couple of times and they turned me down, and I can't give you an account. I guess I told them I need a form day. So. My God, she had to go to school. Had to go to work ahead.

Emmett Utt: Do my run around on.

Emmett Utt: The farm, you know, to green Greenwood out and and we just go on day and night, both of us and so I just didn't general freedom to run the car I could get gas to run with. Well yes, but you won't pursue that on the road. You know I get all the gas or the barrel, but then I couldn't get the ticket to go car to.

Emmett Utt: Okay.

Emmett Utt: You pump gas into the country and kept going.

Sam Schrager: Was then mark gas. The gas was the farm gas market. Did they did they know.

Emmett Utt: You had a Russian? But nobody was beat up every month. You had to turn in your speedometer reading, you know. Well, I, I learned not to get that trigger on the week I had it in. So I went on for a month, I guess I got a letter from the head office. They want to see me over there.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, well, I knew what I was about. So she says, Well, what's the beef? It seems like you're making a pretty good gas mileage. I don't know. I don't think it is. And so they got two of my on. They did. Well, extraordinary gas mileage. Well, gorgeous without raising your gas just to have a low.

Emmett Utt: Noise and.

Emmett Utt: Burning gas. Well, what are you getting at Getting it out of Barbaro. boy. You'd rather be in jail right now. That was old. All that got used to run them three in a row with a moscow can. We hadn't. Good word. Yeah, he was ahead of it, so I told him. Well, you wouldn't know what you can get for as well as about driving about eight or ten miles a day was going back.

Emmett Utt: I hold.

Emmett Utt: The job down the.

Emmett Utt: Mill.

Emmett Utt: Road and so many cows, and that's what I'm doing. Far more violent.

Emmett Utt: And the last.

Emmett Utt: Cause you can do that on three gallon of gas a week and you come over to show me.

Emmett Utt: How.

Emmett Utt: Well he says you said your wife.

Emmett Utt: Did in school as down.

Emmett Utt: Hold a job down.

Emmett Utt: The mill.

Emmett Utt: Well, almond milk cow, chicken pig to be.

Emmett Utt: Well, he.

Emmett Utt: Says, why didn't you say something about that has just been true. I've been over here and cried my eyes out trying to get electric gas legal, so. Well, I do go home real happy to get some extra gas. So the next day I got home and in.

Emmett Utt: The mail.

Emmett Utt: There was a string of tickets to Georgia. Now, well, I couldn't hardly use them all, you know, crazy.

Emmett Utt: So.

Emmett Utt: But God, you know. But if you take them extra, take them back. You didn't need them. Well, then they don't do that much.

Sam Schrager: So they do what?

Emmett Utt: They just you that much. Much, don't.

Sam Schrager: You.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Well you just turn and say you bought six to go that month now. Well that's a good take a bunch. I'm thinking of them back to 60. Go. Well you had a emergency, you know you wouldn't have enough gas so I never turned a ticket.

Emmett Utt: Back and.

Emmett Utt: I didn't, you know, was gas or do I think they didn't have time to go out and joyride?

Sam Schrager: How did they know that that you were that you were you you were turning the speedometer back? Were you.

Emmett Utt: Pregnant?

Sam Schrager: Were you doing this speedometer back then?

Emmett Utt: You know, no, I looked pretty low. That's what got me in trouble.

Sam Schrager: I see.

Emmett Utt: I see you can buy.

Emmett Utt: Over 200, but I don't know if I turn Milton's beloved or, like, a little. Yeah, I think I got by, but I just let it go. Yeah, well, I at a drove in jail for a hundred. An old plumber in jail did well, anyway, I didn't want to run. It didn't matter at all. That's like I called me up.

Emmett Utt: Because.

Emmett Utt: I'll to go to my dad's. My car's.

Emmett Utt: All right. So anyway.

Sam Schrager: So I guess bureaucracy isn't a new problem. They had the same problem back then. Yeah.

Emmett Utt: No, that's what they had them.

Emmett Utt: So anyway, after that. But how they go from one extreme to the other. You see, I told them about how much guys I needed but anyway on like I was doing it to take my old man. Well her dad worked on the section U.S. boss on the railroad. And so during the winter, he just led the crew up, you know, and he just kind of worked himself on the track.

Anna Utt: And shovel out.

Emmett Utt: Shovel out of crossings, one thing another. So he just put the car up. So when I got to see he was getting extra gas for driving to work and doing his work on a railroad.

Emmett Utt: But I only.

Emmett Utt: When the locomotive come, I haven't run that car back to how he lived up above Harvard and left a trip. So he's a good guy. Technically didn't use them to control me. And so I guess it was like spring when he wanted to do his car again. Go away trick on the gas. Well, yet they wouldn't do him anymore.

Emmett Utt: Well, I helped him out with tickets. I would like either. So that's the way democracy works, you know, lie until you prove yourself on. Yeah, I think that I'm good. His own love will try. And maybe you should buy this one.

Sam Schrager: I could take a handful.

Anna Utt: Well, I'll get a I'll put some in a sec. I want her to.

Emmett Utt: Try him.

Emmett Utt: Out there.

Emmett Utt: Goodbye.

Sam Schrager: You started telling me how you two got together.

Emmett Utt: Well.

Sam Schrager: With a long story.

Emmett Utt: boy.

Emmett Utt: I'll tell that story. How that goes.

Emmett Utt: Along. Get go.

Sam Schrager: I know. I. It's. It tells how little it tells how how.

Emmett Utt: You ain't got.

Emmett Utt: My book, you.

Anna Utt: Know. Yeah, it was it. But he got that turned on.

Sam Schrager: come on. Is it a bad story.

Emmett Utt: No, it was a well I'll go ahead anyway. We were started going together and 25 and she had to go back to school.

Emmett Utt: Well, in a way.

Emmett Utt: She stayed with a girlfriend. I won't name her. She'd gone now.

Emmett Utt: But anyway.

Emmett Utt: They got they like that girl. But you could bet you could cut out time with me, you see. So I. Little foolish not to take her on. So she traveled. Well, I didn't know what the hell it was. You know, her brother in law by a guy want me to go to the house and.

Anna Utt: And the other girls?

Emmett Utt: That was a good blow.

Emmett Utt: Brother in law.

Emmett Utt: And I didn't know what the heck I was. I stayed pretty gun shy of that medicine.

Emmett Utt: I didn't know what the heck. A lot of I had in mind. I look I mean the thing. But anyway, I.

Emmett Utt: I write to her and she wouldn't answer me.

Sam Schrager: And I wouldn't.

Emmett Utt: Well, no, she was right back.

Sam Schrager: Why not?

Emmett Utt: Because she made a bargain. That girl she'd lay off a midwife could get me.

Emmett Utt: You know.

Emmett Utt: Something? I have two girls fighting over it.

Anna Utt: We made that, Betsy. And it was to last. The bet was the last night.

Emmett Utt: I don't know. You know that I did.

Anna Utt: And why did you do something like that?

Sam Schrager: Why you take a chance like that? You were that sure of this guy?

Anna Utt: You know, you're never sure of him.

Emmett Utt: I.

Emmett Utt: Didn't know what was going on. So funny. She wouldn't answer my letter, so.

Emmett Utt: I got the heck of it. I went.

Emmett Utt: Bought me a new motorcycle. And what book of business you know, by.

Emmett Utt: And that by noon.

Emmett Utt: And so I just went up and down the road.

Emmett Utt: Your motorcycle more like a mile low.

Sam Schrager: Having more fun than what.

Emmett Utt: I like about that. There was no.

Sam Schrager: You ever heard.

Emmett Utt: I never heard.

Anna Utt: Anybody come.

Emmett Utt: Back a mile. I don't know that will healthy anyway.

Emmett Utt: So I give up all her.

Emmett Utt: I thought it you know I love a pair of or I.

Emmett Utt: Love a pair of that motorcycle. Tell them about February She come up here and.

Anna Utt: He he had broken his ankle.

Emmett Utt: You know.

Anna Utt: And his ankle.

Sam Schrager: And the motorcycle.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: You know bone car backed up. I'll go down hill into Potlatch.

Emmett Utt: You're on a halfway down the hill. That concrete wall is where.

Emmett Utt: I was that night. Had run down and clocked a lot turned up in there. Well, we went outside, so I.

Emmett Utt: Batten low down the hill there and.

Emmett Utt: So it all back just had a back will break and so anyway like guys like that and pretty quickly they.

Emmett Utt: Come back out back on the highway.

Emmett Utt: Well I didn't know whether you're going to keep a going or what, but.

Emmett Utt: Anyway.

Emmett Utt: I rigged and dragged them. He backed out in the highway and I.

Emmett Utt: Kept on going behind him.

Emmett Utt: I thought if they didn't, I guess he begins to get back.

Emmett Utt: I'd gotten very well.

Emmett Utt: We've both been ragged. But you had no built.

Emmett Utt: Back in the highway that way. Well, anyway, I.

Emmett Utt: Got the motorcycle crap, ran sideways like split in the flat wasn't or broke a couple bones down a foot.

Sam Schrager: And you were laid up.

Emmett Utt: Well, I laid up for a few days.

Sam Schrager: And Anna came to see.

Emmett Utt: You and.

Emmett Utt: No, no, I. I was off the mail for. I didn't know how to do from the hell out of your presence, so I come up to that's what's the rest of my apartment. And she was out of the house.

Emmett Utt: Well, well.

Emmett Utt: When the whole jail straightened out, we tried to go together again That were good.

Anna Utt: That's when I came home from Myrtle.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, that's where she.

Sam Schrager: Well.

Emmett Utt: But before she went to teacher training.

Sam Schrager: What's the women? Were that fickle when you were a kid that young, that that.

Anna Utt: Well, I don't, I don't think most of them were is fickle.

Sam Schrager: Yeah.

Anna Utt: But I could be talked into most anything then that girl was so sure and I was just sure that. you know, and I wasn't, you know, I wasn't that much for looks. I don't know why I'm so concerned.

Emmett Utt: Or you wouldn't you so well, but.

Sam Schrager: You're so good looking now, and I miss. She must have been I really a beauty.

Emmett Utt: When you do want to take a bad look pill.

Sam Schrager: I can't believe that.

Emmett Utt: She she pretty good looking.

Emmett Utt: That.

Sam Schrager: Bit.

Emmett Utt: No, I don't know what you know that girl, you know, she was so bold.

Emmett Utt: And had.

Emmett Utt: A religion working for. You know.

Anna Utt: This is. And I say he hasn't changed an awful lot because she's our wedding picture.

Sam Schrager: Are you good looking in that picture?

Anna Utt: And she he he hasn't changed all that much.

Sam Schrager: You know, you really you really lovely looking girl. You both good looking your good looking couple. I hate to say it in it, but you press their.

Anna Utt: Button on the picture. Now, he doesn't care. His wife doesn't keep his hair as nice as he did here anyway.

Sam Schrager: But you really took a chance like that that she'd be here. Would Were you sure we did. You really think that he wouldn't fall for it or didn't? You weren't so.

Emmett Utt: Sure you would like them or.

Emmett Utt: Well, she wasn't too much. Look at you.

Anna Utt: Just. I knew she. Well, she did. She was a person that always tried to work the other guy. You know, if she wanted to come up, go to a dance up here, you know, she nigger me all week to write him a letter and ask him to come down and get us and take us to the dance.

Anna Utt: What did he come down from to take me to a dance like that? That would. She'd go, you know, But that was too. Too far, too much. But for three weeks wasn't very good.

Sam Schrager: A good time.

Anna Utt: To have him.

Sam Schrager: But if you had to to let let go for three months, you couldn't be sure what it would be like in three months time.

Anna Utt: No.

Sam Schrager: But if you probably weren't all that serious about him.

Emmett Utt: we just started going together. Really? About what we had hit.

Anna Utt: Well, you know, we I.

Emmett Utt: Talked about two or three times.

Anna Utt: With anybody else by that time.

Emmett Utt: So that's what you think?

Emmett Utt: I know. I know. I, I just went and.

Emmett Utt: Bought a.

Emmett Utt: Motorbike when I had a love affair with it.

Emmett Utt: Another guy on it, kid of my age, he got one to like it.

Emmett Utt: And why we.

Emmett Utt: We just a yellow streak up and down the road.

Anna Utt: You know how that's true they were. Thank you. He took me for a ride one day soon after he got his bike. Good. And Chairman.

Emmett Utt: Well, about that summer lecturing.

Anna Utt: well, anyway, I got on behind him, you know, and he was gonna make me go ride something.

Emmett Utt: I made another mistake. The.

Anna Utt: And I bet he went. What was that? You went 90 miles or.

Emmett Utt: Well, we went from where you live in Britain up to Harvard. Turn around. Come back.

Emmett Utt: I got to go home. But it had those.

Emmett Utt: Gravel road rock roads.

Emmett Utt: But I don't know.

Emmett Utt: We were lining up, but I remember about an 80 plus.

Sam Schrager: That's a real nice guy.

Emmett Utt: And then, I don't know.

Emmett Utt: We'll get back together.

Anna Utt: And that one, because I just. I ever rode on the bike.

Emmett Utt: Last year in daylight, but I got one to go on when she got off because she had a pretty bad my back, you know.

Anna Utt: we were going so fast. And that wind was. But anyway, if we had taken it.

Emmett Utt: Easy.

Anna Utt: Easy. But you know, tend to like it as well as girls do nowadays. You don't know.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: yeah. It had been a lot of fun.

Sam Schrager: As it was you. You must have been pretty mad.

Emmett Utt: Or.

Sam Schrager: Pretty scared anyway.

Anna Utt: Yeah, I was.

Emmett Utt: I, well, I think I do like people. I don't know why I've done that. It's, you know, I'm kidding for what I've done, but like, one day I'll going to that general crap going down the road. I had a big pack on his back. You've done a blow.

Emmett Utt: Have done.

Emmett Utt: So. I'll stop now. You want to ride, you look at motors like. No, I think he just said, Well, I'm going to let you All right. I talked him into getting on a motorcycle. I just wanted, you know, And so I got him.

Emmett Utt: On and he had that big pack on his back to. Hey, we weren't about that.

Emmett Utt: Well, I got down or I'm going up the hill there, you know? Well, you know, in a motorcycle, you know, you lean to go around this way.

Emmett Utt: And you need to go down that way. Well, I knew how to do that.

Emmett Utt: And I leaned over. I knew he'd go this way. You know, he's going to be on top of it. So I allowed for his weight in a pack, made it pine the hill, the curb. I lean this way or that way.

Emmett Utt: He'd go just out and about in.

Emmett Utt: A little pool hall there.

Emmett Utt: And he got.

Emmett Utt: Up and he used to.

Emmett Utt: Shake it.

Emmett Utt: And he thanked me. So nice for that ride, you know.

Emmett Utt: Each away from me, you know.

Emmett Utt: Either cut out, you know, provide. Then I've been of fun. But he was so quiet about that was my good memories. I don't you know, it it just kind of made me feel good.

Sam Schrager: It did. Did you, cousin? Now, you wouldn't have custom out, but did you give him a hard time for that, or were you just.

Anna Utt: No time.

Sam Schrager: To.

Emmett Utt: Dillinger? But for two weeks I would have had to go, which is so gullible.

Anna Utt: No, I didn't. I just wouldn't ride again. That.

Emmett Utt: But. Well, probably.

Anna Utt: But if. If he had same car too, you know, I could have.

Emmett Utt: Ridden in there. I, I didn't.

Emmett Utt: I haven't been angry at all. I got it with the motorcycle.

Emmett Utt: I just want to ride cars.

Anna Utt: If you had had them all.

Emmett Utt: Over the last one, riding them, you know, riding was like a little boy. They were easy ride and. And they're fun. Do you want to go round the crew like you come round here? You want to go round this curve? You know, I did a little drop that I got up there, even got a personal. yeah. Right up there And I'm like to hold, you know, you you can hold it right up there.

Emmett Utt: Well, I never too good at that, but I know we went down to the races that McMinnville, Oregon are down there in McMinnville and our motorcycle regiment. I had a cop up there and he had a fight. Girl, I don't know how many girls I don't, but we'll lose six girl besides him on that motorcycle and sidecar. And he'd got back and brought brother grabbed it and was I'm girls.

Emmett Utt: I feel a little down and down They yell you know and I don't know how he does well at all that we don't.

Anna Utt: Must have been that fun riding in there Your mother you know you took her up to.

Emmett Utt: Abolish.

Anna Utt: Lawless and she enjoyed it so much.

Sam Schrager: In the sidecar,

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Yeah. She rode to take, you know.

Sam Schrager: When. When my when my mother told me about dating when she was young, you know, it sounded pretty crazy to me. I mean, I thought kids are pretty wild these days, but, you know, when she told me about it, it sounded just about as bad. Like you. You could be engaged to three different fellows at once pretty easily, you know, break in one and start another one.

Sam Schrager: A lot of as if they didn't really is if a lot of young people didn't really know what marriage and love was was about in those days either.

Emmett Utt: Know.

Sam Schrager: What the feeling I got.

Emmett Utt: I had an old Model-T Ford that first year she taught school. She thought it was they call wood. Well, I don't know. It's just this side of her. You go into the temple when you're on the highway.

Sam Schrager: But you know about were that.

Emmett Utt: She had a lot of school after that was a good grade teacher school and low get deep in winter and no clogged road much at all by values horses slaves one at a time. And I got in and out. I go in every weekend, bring her out and take her back Sunday evening and and make track car tracks.

Emmett Utt: Well, all the time and kind of freeze. Well, just like a little track going through the cargo ship a little bit once in a while. But you couldn't do it once you got started it. I would have never looked like a good.

Emmett Utt: Little old.

Emmett Utt: You know, I'd probably.

Emmett Utt: Do.

Emmett Utt: Like a little.

Emmett Utt: Drag,

Emmett Utt: And I go and then pick her up. And that's what been over three for the snow on the road but would pack bone, you know.

Emmett Utt: And all winter long I went in and out and.

Emmett Utt: If you ever jumped the track but you don't have to get out and shovel and get it back up, Back up, land up the pike. But I know where you jumped and either the crowd just went to get back on the track again, where you.

Sam Schrager: Did did most of the people put their cars up in? yeah. Yeah. You were probably one of the few that kept driving in the winter.

Emmett Utt: Well, up there. Yeah.

Emmett Utt: She's no good so deep up. And I didn't, you know, plows and the people put the car up and go to live horses. And there's only one other guy that lived up close to driving.

Emmett Utt: That little baboon.

Anna Utt: Yeah. And his home was in Peru, so he'd. But they had a meal up there and he'd come up to the meal, you know, once in a while when.

Emmett Utt: The roads were bad. But he didn't go.

Emmett Utt: Along.

Emmett Utt: With my private.

Anna Utt: Meal and he, he'd just come up once in a while. That was he had a car that was right.

Emmett Utt: She had a place up Borden up there. And my road track one. That good place right back up, back down again if you want to go further or not. But he was out of luck because nobody even had to keep a track. Broke out all winter. No, that ripped up no much we did.

Sam Schrager: What did couples do for entertainment? They young, you know, go in together. What was the entertainment around here in those days for?

Anna Utt: usually a show and blues or.

Emmett Utt: You go to blues or show.

Sam Schrager: Movie.

Anna Utt: And then once in a while in Hollywood. No, not well, not.

Emmett Utt: All of.

Anna Utt: Them, But the dance here in Princeton, we had go to every.

Emmett Utt: Know in the wintertime. I don't know, kids just entertain themselves.

Anna Utt: It was just the weekends. But I'd seen.

Sam Schrager: Movies show and blues was movies then.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, they had movie.

Emmett Utt: Theater down in Potlatch to.

Emmett Utt: What?

Emmett Utt: Yeah, they had a deal people would go.

Emmett Utt: To show on Saturday night on go way.

Emmett Utt: Back to.

Emmett Utt: Cause you wouldn't know the old road were now is still there but it is not tribal much anymore But you know what can be bought is.

Emmett Utt: Highway.

Emmett Utt: Comes around or not. Well I kind of bought a hall you don't lose you turn right left and it goes around up over the hill and down comes out all by that lumber company where that lumber company, Potlatch, that's where the world come out to, come down all them hills. And we would come up by one night in Redland and a whole bunch of us in the car have a whole building.

Emmett Utt: My dad's and I had cut out wide open, much better like a boat.

Emmett Utt: And and that way we got.

Emmett Utt: All I can do for that over the hill. I will the headlights all of a sudden by a head it was just you know, mud road.

Emmett Utt: And not but.

Emmett Utt: Headlights through a fire, as you can see. And so as cars dug up by them, gosh, you know.

Emmett Utt: I.

Emmett Utt: Looked upon the back fence long in embittered back up those little partner platforms. Well, I can go and I head up on that back. I'm about four ditches.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, I work out a whole bunch, you know, in the last one in the ditch on the back of the whole.

Emmett Utt: Car, like it like about.

Emmett Utt: Everything. And boy, boy, everybody in the country, that will be the village.

Emmett Utt: That.

Emmett Utt: Will thing. Love you. Lucky I was lucky All was well. I did not settle down like. Well, anyway.

Emmett Utt: We had a lot of fun. Everybody in the car to the north, all under. And. And then when I. But it was all pretty hard, that train line up round the whole bunch of land out ahead of them. Couple of one boy. I heard.

Emmett Utt: A little probability.

Emmett Utt: I will probably be together for the whole problem or.

Emmett Utt: But.

Emmett Utt: How they lost paper about that big round belly like a little tractor.

Sam Schrager: Did did your parents, did they object at all to you going with such a wild guy?

Anna Utt: boy. They weren't too much. Okay. But different Harvard people. See, I was raised up at Harvard.

Emmett Utt: well, like Dogpatch, it was like a what do they call it? Go back there to Dogpatch or Little Abner.

Emmett Utt: I know. Well, the.

Emmett Utt: Family was fighting back. The McCarthyism.

Sam Schrager: yeah? Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Well, Harvard and Vietnam was. But like the that country back there, you know, they bunch of those old women get along the tribal line and they'd look at you, you know, like you walked in command or something. And President Eisenhower might do for Harvard either. So, well, all that way for years. So when I tried to go.

Emmett Utt: Wherever, I thought, boy.

Emmett Utt: I don't know. And I knew that I could be where it.

Emmett Utt: Is like.

Anna Utt: It.

Emmett Utt: Looked as though really, you know, and and Bella, you got to leave. It does streak, you know, time to leave prison and a little car, Bella And you come around the corner and a beautiful more out there next to world.

Emmett Utt: My whole the whole.

Emmett Utt: Of it was like.

Emmett Utt: Boy could tell you a little bit of it.

Sam Schrager: You know, there when you started going there, they probably thought it was too bad for her. Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Well.

Anna Utt: My dad said, I ask him one time he said, well he said, I suppose you have a better time, you know, have more fun if you go with a guy like him than somebody you know, I don't even know who you compared him with.

Emmett Utt: No problem. However, allegedly.

Sam Schrager: Probably some farmer boy.

Anna Utt: But anyway, he he was always was good to him. And we had her come back down here and he'd come down helping Horace. And he was they were real good pals.

Emmett Utt: getting close to and.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, we got along all right.

Sam Schrager: Well, did you do a lot of planning before you got married? Thinking about, you know? Well, yeah. I mean, getting married and what you would need to be married as far as, you know, setting up house and all that stuff. Thinking about the future. Did kids do that? Knows?

Emmett Utt: my.

Anna Utt: You know.

Emmett Utt: Went from day to day.

Anna Utt: All.

Emmett Utt: At once. We decided, well, we got engaged and.

Emmett Utt: And she.

Emmett Utt: She had been teaching, but I didn't have a job. Did you know all that little thing anyway.

Anna Utt: No, but I had one more year before I'd have to go back to school and, and then the mill shut down.

Emmett Utt: Well they had.

Emmett Utt: A water and it could, didn't have enough water to float along down at the dam at Potlatch another long lived on the ground and just so they had to shut the mill down.

Emmett Utt: So I thought, well, why don't we go.

Emmett Utt: Get married and.

Emmett Utt: Go on our honeymoon all down? That that's what we did.

Anna Utt: And then we come back and we went to Garfield and got our stole and.

Emmett Utt: Rode out that Potlatch.

Anna Utt: Well, after a while, yeah. We couldn't get one right out. The few weeks wasn't four. We got one.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, we had Boulder and finally got it.

Anna Utt: And then we moved in with our bedroom set in our kitchen up there and.

Emmett Utt: But I was just like.

Emmett Utt: They call it like, you know what? We knew.

Sam Schrager: What.

Emmett Utt: You know.

Sam Schrager: I went to Garfield to get a stove, you know.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, we absolutely bought it over to had a high Island run a hardware store. So we went over there what the mother purchased out to be. Well, it was, yeah.

Anna Utt: Close that spring we bought you. No, you had a 22 and I got me one.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. We used to go school, so I got her a little tired to.

Anna Utt: just a little one. But man, we were from squirrels for a while, and then I just couldn't see him at all. I just miss.

Emmett Utt: Or she was a delight.

Emmett Utt: Well, it got her.

Emmett Utt: What was that I want?

Anna Utt: Well, that's not. But anyway, I could shoot a wire.

Emmett Utt: We were like.

Anna Utt: Wire.

Emmett Utt: You know what? A wire table too. Opposed? Yeah, she could, but the way she could do it.

Sam Schrager: Did you, Did you use any of that food? Did you there for food when you shot the shot, the animals in the Jesus skins or just for play?

Emmett Utt: Well, just get rid of. They were just farmers, almost plain bound. You can get rid of her. They of you, don't you much anymore. Now they're pretty well done rid of it, Boy. When I was a kid. Right, right, right up the road, a bitch girl running back and forth across the front of the car over.

Sam Schrager: Well, did you get shivery? You got married?

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Anna Utt: Yeah, We had.

Emmett Utt: About.

Anna Utt: A shower up in Harvard, and I had one down here to Princeton. And then we had in Shivery, and it was. It was just beautiful.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. How many?

Anna Utt: Well, two showers, you.

Emmett Utt: Know, we're not all right. And one of your boyfriend had a sherry and I just had a box to go out, you know, and.

Emmett Utt: I was alone.

Emmett Utt: It wasn't all that many people here, but somebody told me everybody went out with Pocketful of Cigars.

Sam Schrager: We got something out of it.

Emmett Utt: We got to go with.

Anna Utt: That was.

Emmett Utt: By the way, spells every.

Sam Schrager: All of this. I thought there were two ways. The way the easy way I seen it is s HIV a r e, but I've also seen it spelled c h like sha vra or something.

Anna Utt: Yeah, that's.

Sam Schrager: Which is.

Emmett Utt: French. I think it's probably a French word. CAGR. I've a R.

Sam Schrager: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: The French, every.

Sam Schrager: Word is that that's pronounced chivalry too.

Emmett Utt: Well I guess if you look at my dictionary, chivalry and that will spell it and that's what it is.

Sam Schrager: What were they showers like then. Did they give you gifts.

Anna Utt: Yeah. Gifts.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Anna Utt: The pillows slept, you know, or, or blankets or a lot of dishes. I got that covered back in there. most of them. A lot of wedding gifts in there. I'll have to divide up one day.

Emmett Utt: You know they don't in the morning. I have no chivalry around here anymore.

Sam Schrager: Or did they surprise you with that part of it? I mean, did you know or come in or.

Emmett Utt: Did what was where did you get the bed? You know, they make you get a dress. I remember when I got up and got married, we lived on the other place up there. You know, So my guys, when they started to come in, they were shooting shotguns off and beating on cans. And and we got an old shepherd dog.

Emmett Utt: And I never seen a dog as brave as he was, but he went out the whole window banging away and and redneck. You know, we were out running ditches over Java. I guess he beat him.

Emmett Utt: When.

Emmett Utt: They come on up the house. And of course.

Anna Utt: That's what kind of war.

Emmett Utt: And then that whole carnival.

Emmett Utt: it's.

Sam Schrager: Lovely.

Emmett Utt: Kind of grass, I think.

Anna Utt: And then I got two or three like this. it's like Hannibal Volume.

Sam Schrager: Those are shower gifts. Yeah. really nice.

Anna Utt: And then the hope is dark glasses, you know, and fruit bowls and little fish, you know, that kind of stuff,

Emmett Utt: I wonder why they call that kind of old. They used to give prize, Arnold.

Sam Schrager: it looks too nice for that. Maybe it's the colors because it has the it reflects so many different colors and.

Anna Utt: Coverage and and, Reynolds has won all that, and that's the only it's.

Emmett Utt: Done and.

Anna Utt: Looks like the same color and everything.

Emmett Utt: But I won't do President.

Emmett Utt: Usually out of advertising. You know, we've got a problem with.

Emmett Utt: Depression but I know.

Sam Schrager: What you're, you were telling me about the, the dog dog bit.

Emmett Utt: but that guy. But anyway, they come up on the house.

Emmett Utt: Well all the racket we have see.

Emmett Utt: I just little kid and so I went look out the window it's.

Emmett Utt: Summertime and I think they had the window raised up so far.

Emmett Utt: And I to put my head out of my head out.

Emmett Utt: I seen a ball of fire right down.

Emmett Utt: I'm blooming and so some.

Emmett Utt: Guys have pulled the trigger though, if you know there.

Emmett Utt: And they didn't have a trailer. So the next day I went up out right up just.

Emmett Utt: Above the.

Emmett Utt: Window or whatever it is on the roof. You know.

Emmett Utt: Birds travel.

Emmett Utt: Around the over.

Emmett Utt: New house fell.

Emmett Utt: Down. Now it was still a little.

Emmett Utt: Bit not a very far on top of that bag. You know, like that. I had got little to look them down.

Unknown Speaker: That's why I got up.

Sam Schrager: Well, when did you first start working on the bill? That was before you two were married, right?

Emmett Utt: yeah.

Emmett Utt: I had working down the mill during World War One.

Sam Schrager: That early.

Emmett Utt: By 1918. Well, only five days got it. And all the kids was able to work, could get a job because they pulled so many men out, you know, going to war. But boys and women to work and and that's when I started work like a major down the mill. I think I was about.

Emmett Utt: 1718.

Sam Schrager: She if that now if that cause you weren't you born in 19 three. Yeah you must been even younger.

Emmett Utt: I mean she.

Sam Schrager: Was 18 and he was born in three.

Emmett Utt: You went right to war.

Sam Schrager: I think we got him in 17, 17. You must have been about 14. 15?

Emmett Utt: No, I would do something wrong. But, boy, either It must've been right after the World War 16. Like I was 17, 18 years old when they did.

Sam Schrager: did they still have a ten hour day when you first started working?

Emmett Utt: No, no.

Sam Schrager: 8 hours. Eight?

Emmett Utt: Well.

Emmett Utt: I think about 1914. It lasted 10 hours a day.

Sam Schrager: What was the the working conditions like when you were when you went into the mill? I guess the Wobblies had already cleaned it up to as far as the ten hour day goes. Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Well, I don't know.

Emmett Utt: Good word, but.

Sam Schrager: What was the, what was the work like? Did you get did you get many breaks during the day or anything? Like.

Emmett Utt: No, the.

Emmett Utt: Work wasn't too hard. They all had a lot of men, you know, where they tried to double work up on guys like they do now, you know? No, they just could go down and, like, pick them up the white guys and pick their do after they go by the boards and work no hard work and pay one too hot $3.40 a day.

Emmett Utt: But a lot of money for a kid. And I read him a little.

Emmett Utt: Book, you know, one.

Emmett Utt: Six days a week and no one ever tried to mail up down here. They started up to shift whatever they you know, whatever they kept all mill going day and night. Well, I don't know that run I started of about 1906, I think when they got the milk direct you know some and I think was about 1914.

Emmett Utt: Well it finally got down to 10 hours and then finally down the road, I think about 1914, it left ten out of it.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Schrager: Well, I when I've been talking to people in Potlatch, I've heard quite a bit about all the foreigners at work there. Whoever did you, did you know or, or see much of the Greeks and Italian or Japanese in there.

Emmett Utt: And sure you're not Millwood. Well that would be before World War One. World War two were well over 6 million. That sawmill down, it was quite long. Greeks I've had death, Japs.

Emmett Utt: I've had Greeks all out for purges. And I have been on occasion a long time that I.

Emmett Utt: Was the only one. Wasn't a whopper or Greek of all of it. I don't. But then during the Depression was when they got them burned out a lot. A lot of them took off during the Depression and never come back.

Sam Schrager: Did were they did did they stick to themselves? Pretty much, yeah.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, they were.

Emmett Utt: that guy they used to be in the middle of summertime, you know, they'd all get around the bunch and Greeks and all and I on them. Another one about three or four guys on the outside, the soldiers wasn't Greek and guys, the jack and electronic chicken and all that.

Emmett Utt: A lot of the beach huts in Kentucky was.

Emmett Utt: Actually grew largely used to give mud. yeah, they'd congregate boom sales and associate. Well, I guess you can boil.

Emmett Utt: Away Well it really well.

Emmett Utt: When we left Potlatch, I guess I.

Sam Schrager: Never got steamers.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, well, Gus, I guess there's only one level of. Yeah, I don't.

Sam Schrager: That's true.

Emmett Utt: Well, I guess a little Gus was the last one. No. Bunch.

Sam Schrager: Do you think that they that the foreigners were, were sort of discriminated against so far as getting the better jobs? Do you think they had a harder time than the Americans?

Emmett Utt: I think they were favored.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Well, there was a reason for it. I don't know. It's. I can't prove what I say there, but they do anything. Good job. And an ordinary guy around here. They would. None of them I imagine a little old single Bucknell all back together didn't cost too much to live, but they kicked back to the boss. Well, I've heard.

Emmett Utt: No, I never seen that. But I think it must be something to it. Kickback so much a month. The boss wasn't working up on the job.

Emmett Utt: And.

Emmett Utt: So they didn't have much trouble working The better jobs.

Emmett Utt: You know, I wonder.

Sam Schrager: How come the Greeks were in the sawmill and the and the Italians were in the yards? I mean, why they worked out that way. Yeah, well, to figure out why that was.

Emmett Utt: Why that's on the farm. But there were a lot of rattler later and what else? When they had the railroad run all over the yard that it all lumber around on, they had a lot of them working up on the section and building tracks. And then there's some. You worked on the Green Zone.

Emmett Utt: boy, that was very good.

Emmett Utt: No talent Didn't make very good. I guess they don't do this. They do it to kind of.

Sam Schrager: I don't know it both Southern Europeans, but that doesn't mean much. It doesn't mean you. I don't really know. Did you did you have any make friends with any of the Greeks in the.

Emmett Utt: yeah. Yeah. Like after the world War Two.

Emmett Utt: There was little Gus John Guy. You know.

Anna Utt: How John Gaynor was? Good friend of his.

Emmett Utt: You know, he and I were good friends, and Gus, I knew him pretty good, buddy. Not good. The John Draft, brother Tony. And, yeah, they were all good guys.

Anna Utt: I know.

Emmett Utt: Or go along with them.

Emmett Utt: All right? But the rest of them, they just disappeared. I don't know where they went to One of them. I don't know. He. Like I say, we did money on the Depression. Come. I think maybe. I don't know what your name was. They call it Sleepy Jim, followed in by Sleepy Jim, and he was kind of a like a guy walk with a, you know, like his older brother.

Emmett Utt: He saved money.

Emmett Utt: So I guess when depression come on.

Emmett Utt: He pulled out and.

Emmett Utt: Somebody told me when I got to him and another guy went to go and they bought a big hotel, Del Rio, and then they made money on that. I got another one and I guess it got to be made in Irish, moved them to Greece.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Sam Schrager: Well, what about the Japanese? they, they were pretty much separate from from everybody else too. They Japanese.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. yeah. They had the, they had their own boarding house company. Built a boarding house just for the Jap down there. Potlatch.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. They.

Emmett Utt: They settled pretty well as one little Jap used a janitor in the store and down the main office up a be I think was his name something like that.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Just a little fella. he had a.

Emmett Utt: Wife and two or three little kids, but they were Pearl Harbor had.

Emmett Utt: Well I.

Emmett Utt: I guess they just real railroad about concentration camp, I guess.

Sam Schrager: Yeah, I heard. I heard that there was talk that he was an agent of some kind and, well, they thought about all the Japanese and. I don't know.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, well, anyway, this guy.

Emmett Utt: He was just a janitor.

Emmett Utt: But, yeah, he had a.

Emmett Utt: Real expensive camera.

Emmett Utt: And.

Emmett Utt: Different guys would take him around the country. You know, they got looked at and you've taken pictures and nobody thought nothing about it till after the with. And they wonder, why the heck, how are you going to put that the camera? And that was really some camera. And then of course Pearl Harbor his way. They figured he was just working by the mail.

Emmett Utt: I have tomatoes, nepotism and bound or whatever they were. I think he got around. He'd pay guys for take them, you know. And it was that kind of a job that they didn't make I them living here and some other way of going along with it or for a while I broke loose and all of a sudden it was really was getting alive.

Emmett Utt: He was a good little guy for the low point. I got. He disappeared out there, as we know today, but a lot of them were good citizens, took them like call them like cattle, touching them and them concentration camps.

Anna Utt: It wasn't didn't a lot of know about the Pearl Harbor before it happened and get out of here.

Emmett Utt: Well, yeah, before Pearl Harbor, they tried to do a lot of disappearing of Potlatch. I don't know where they went or one little Jap regiment. Ah, I worked with him and. Way back and early twenties. Way back for the Chinese. And he got to Japan.

Emmett Utt: The little country.

Emmett Utt: And I'd say, they couldn't look one fly out of it.

Emmett Utt: Or.

Emmett Utt: Something like that, but I'm going country. But my guys, you know, I believe they were planning that long time of Pearl Harbor.

Emmett Utt: I believe Japan was country.

Sam Schrager: If he could just see that it was coming because of the history of the thing. I mean, they had a different of looking at history over there in the East. Yeah. In the Orient than we do here.

Emmett Utt: Well, I think the country had been planned, but, you know, you just wait until they got ready to go and that might have been 15 years ahead of Pearl Harbor.

Sam Schrager: So I would have thought that that those foreign groups now I'd have got from from Gus Demus. I talked to him some as a these these Greeks and Italians didn't speak much English and neither did the Japanese. So you had to be pretty hard on, on groups like that to be a part of the community if they couldn't speak of English language.

Emmett Utt: Well, Malton tried to speak a little bit. Well, DeAngelo and Tony.

Emmett Utt: They,

Emmett Utt: You had to be used to and understand them, but they got through it. They could pop pretty good, but,

Emmett Utt: Anyway, they. Well, they were bad guys, but most of my friends, that's what we were. I don't know.

Emmett Utt: Gus, Tell me, when we went back to Greece, six years ago, seven years ago, maybe more, that time goes by anyway. Like an extra pair of shoes. Really, really old. And his cousin was over that he hit the mill, but he went back, Ruth, and got married. So girls were over there, and. And I got the people support, you know, they just I will borrow that extra pair Xulu see finally give it to gives a pair of shoes to his cousin.

Emmett Utt: And the things.

Emmett Utt: He got all day.

Emmett Utt: Long.

Emmett Utt: I got a lot of money, but he was pretty.

Emmett Utt: Well, he.

Emmett Utt: Saved his money all your life. Well, I guess you give a lot of money away. Will that be careful enough? Because Louverture's life.

Emmett Utt: Over here is close to closure. Over there.

Emmett Utt: People just the heart of over. They just couldn't say no to him.

Sam Schrager: He mentioned to me that his sister wasn't in very good shape over there. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't help her out. Quite a bit of Virginia.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. With you. He didn't like it over.

Emmett Utt: You want to stay? I guess after his body would take it back to you as a.

Sam Schrager: Yeah. Okay. Well, when those guys, the Greeks and, I heard the Greeks did quite a bit of gambling and the Italians did quite a bit bootlegging in here, bootlegging wine anyway. And during the.

Emmett Utt: Well, the Greeks was about it. They got used to being old, they might recall, you know, not the way might pepper Galla his name. He was a he was a way back. You, by the way, when you buy a multi board you remember they got to want long black. Well that was the truth That was I was only got a room like a road Well, he'd got a new board for the board to get on the road.

Emmett Utt: You think of the old better yellow or yellow for you to go on or I'll tell you they go by calling the local real yellow.

Emmett Utt: I don't know why, but you take a yellow. Whatever went on the road was.

Sam Schrager: Do you think do you think that there was much of. Well, you know, I've heard about about that tricks and jokes were big. A big thing in the mill was a way you know, way past in the time, I guess.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Sam Schrager: You remember there being very much of that when you were in a mill job and other guys and, and, and well, jokes. Well one guy told me that the he remembers a favorite one was sticking grease in a guy's glove. I.

Emmett Utt: All right. I don't know about that. Boy, that was kind of fun. One night down here, they.

Emmett Utt: I discovered the fireman. I read number one Courage and ended up on the courage to look out the window and they had a conveyor and at the run up to the fire hall, cause the father that were worried. And I look down and I've seen a fire burn.

Emmett Utt: I yell at.

Emmett Utt: Me. And I jumped off the code and out of barrels upturned.

Emmett Utt: And so they had to run.

Emmett Utt: Like this led to the mill.

Emmett Utt: Here. And they started the.

Emmett Utt: Fire hoses here. When I turn it on, it rolled up, ready to go down here, and then poke it out the window.

Emmett Utt: Down on the fire. So that was going to.

Emmett Utt: Be the engine. They'll turn the water on and on. George, George Turner, he was one of them, but they went down there, you know, that drug thing that didn't an.

Emmett Utt: Well to.

Emmett Utt: Turn around easily. I just knew.

Emmett Utt: I could get all.

Emmett Utt: Hoses straightened.

Emmett Utt: Out. But the guys went.

Emmett Utt: Backward over the over the track and the code.

Emmett Utt: Was down and they.

Emmett Utt: Were done. That proves they're all there. I don't know. But I'll bet I know the straight.

Emmett Utt: They had been out there with them.

Emmett Utt: Cause that all the perjury that you just straighten up and let them go with.

Emmett Utt: The blind people. Another purpose you.

Sam Schrager: Didn't do that.

Emmett Utt: For.

Emmett Utt: You know how to turn around, right?

Sam Schrager: How would a fire like that get going?

Emmett Utt: I don't know how power could be.

Emmett Utt: Britain with burned out how to make greener from.

Sam Schrager: What's the fire hole? You said the fire. They got a fire hole.

Emmett Utt: Well, a fire hole. Yeah.

Emmett Utt: That's where they got the fire to make the steam.

Sam Schrager: I mean, the.

Emmett Utt: Boiler.

Sam Schrager: Room. Yeah, the boiler rooms. I yeah.

Emmett Utt: I don't know what the fire boiler up above I've done it with. You have to keep the fire there on all them boilers. I don't know why they call it the parable.

Emmett Utt: Of the old called it, but no I'm glad.

Emmett Utt: I didn't do it. Purpose. They run. No, I didn't run.

Emmett Utt: Whatever I did.

Sam Schrager: Were you going down there from Princeton every day to work in the mill in those days when you first.

Emmett Utt: Well.

Sam Schrager: In the early years you worked there.

Emmett Utt: Bert tried it out. Another kid and I, we played the boarding house down at Potlatch. Then we come home on weekends.

Emmett Utt: And.

Emmett Utt: We both had bicycles, and we got tired of that boarding house, grabbed him. I didn't play that long after a while, so no, a long time. I lived up here on the old place and working night shift and run my bike to the mainland back every day nights. No ID like that.

Emmett Utt: I got.

Sam Schrager: You motorcycle. A motorcycle? Not a bicycle.

Emmett Utt: No. Bicycle.

Sam Schrager: Bicycle.

Emmett Utt: It was because I didn't get the motorcycle. Was all 23 year old, I guess, where I got a motorbike.

Sam Schrager: Well, was there. You think there was? Was there a real difference? A difference between the local kids who came from the farm country around here, let's say, or the backwoods country and the and the people who were who were town people that lived?

Emmett Utt: Yeah, there were quite.

Emmett Utt: A lot of a lot of Prichard Town people. you wanted to know the backwoods. Well, they were not true.

Anna Utt: It was it was awful hardened on Potlatch going to high school, you know, kids there might run that country kid out. Didn't want to have a friend that they used to. She had to ride a horse to school way out in the country in order to come to school. And they were like that the knows because they said.

Emmett Utt: Horse friendly horses.

Anna Utt: Smell like a horse. She took go. She couldn't take it and then she quit. But I had a better deal than they did, mostly because I had to work in Potlatch for my board. And then I would go to school. And so after a while I get considered. Accountant kid.

Emmett Utt: Well, you lived with the better people. Well, my mother much more.

Anna Utt: You know, I don't know if they were better people, but they sure thought they were.

Emmett Utt: But what it was.

Sam Schrager: Really when you were when you were going to high school, you were working for your board? Yeah. You working at the house? You live that.

Emmett Utt: Well, but, you know, you worked for the people. You're not taking.

Anna Utt: Over. And the thing to do then was to have your little servant girl and you go in and get a family to live with, and they, they'd feed you for doing the ironing and the dishwashing and taking care of the kids and stuff like that in the evenings and mornings so they could go to their parties and whatnot.

Anna Utt: I worked one for one year, one year and a half for the store manager down there, and then another year for the baby.

Emmett Utt: They made it my that I had done in Bottom Basement. That little pool was his idea. It really didn't benefit at all. Like, you know, as long as you know I was driven to pick them truck around the others and well, he didn't know exactly the department. He had the room and so I helped him did it. And they were of they were tickled wouldn't work.

Emmett Utt: Well I could do that.

Emmett Utt: I if.

Sam Schrager: You want.

Emmett Utt: To know that.

Sam Schrager: That sounds like a pretty good job.

Anna Utt: Yes.

Emmett Utt: Well, no good from that. well, I don't know. We were down a bit because every night trying to get that temperature right. So you get that out cold, you know, and your hot chocolate and pull up. And that lever couldn't talk about it if you didn't have a chocolate hot enough. Ice cream wasn't cold in that. Well, you know, it wouldn't work.

Emmett Utt: So you had to remember that he'd get that just boiling hot. You know, I needed to get that ice cream on steak and like that chocolate and everything just right. Well, you can just take them to some. Just make them just, you know, let them do it. You know?

Emmett Utt: I don't know how many.

Emmett Utt: Chocolates we stopped doing that didn't work. We didn't have to talk about it when holding it.

Sam Schrager: Did he just sell them at his at his place or did he sell them around the country, other places?

Emmett Utt: And he when he got him, he tried to sell them here, right down here on don't joint down there.

Anna Utt: Well, then, then he shipped them up to other towns.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: He got the patent on him I think and, and they went up but I don't know. And I went to Portland, I went in a joint down in Portland, you know as well as cream pie.

Emmett Utt: And they looked at me.

Emmett Utt: Like I had home run. It didn't what you're talking about.

Sam Schrager: Well anyway or and or was that, was that what did a number of kids do that come in to live in Potlatch to go to high school or were you special. We all did that.

Anna Utt: No, no. Anybody that could come that could stand, you know, and make any difference how they got there. When the year I graduated was there was only 14 or 15, 15 kids, I guess, graduated that year and mountain.

Sam Schrager: Kids from Potlatch.

Anna Utt: And and all the country around that.

Sam Schrager: But I mean, the the kids from Harvard did. They did too If you wanted to go to high school in Potlatch, let's say, would you pretty much have to live in the town? no. You from so far away as Harvard, You know, some kids came in every day.

Emmett Utt: For one thing about potlucks. Do they run the school? They run everything. They hired a digital lumber company, they hired a teacher. And that business grew out of get.

Sam Schrager: You grew up, but they let you go without paying. Yeah. From our.

Anna Utt: End in the district we come from.

Emmett Utt: Had to pay.

Anna Utt: Something for us.

Emmett Utt: On their right to.

Sam Schrager: But probably the family didn't pay.

Anna Utt: No.

Sam Schrager: But did your family just did did your family think it would be easier for you to go to school by living in Potlatch?

Anna Utt: Was a Well, yeah, they did, because we had no way of getting and living there and school. And so that was what we're doing. Well, I had been working in Potlatch in the summertime, you know, and so I was new at that job and then when I went to high school was.

Emmett Utt: Everybody going, Where could you go to school? You know, they had to go to town and live in.

Anna Utt: If you lived two or three miles, you know, you could ride a horse. But like living enough in Hollywood and I'd have to go down there. And then.

Sam Schrager: You know.

Emmett Utt: When they lived or moved to a family, when they moved over. Brandon I mean, you'd walk back.

Sam Schrager: and your family moved to Princeton.

Anna Utt: Our family moved down there. And so we started walking. Most of the time we walk the track. Railroad track.

Sam Schrager: What was it, do you think? Was it hard on you when you were a kid to be walked to be walking in? Well, to have these houses and to go to to go to school, I mean, did you feel that was a hardship then?

Anna Utt: And yes, it was harder working for my board than it was walking because, well, you had so much work to do, you know, for the family in order to earn your keep.

Emmett Utt: Where they'd.

Emmett Utt: Treat kids, you know, like that. Not all families, but some of them you'd like. They've been waiting on you to do the Negroes. You know, you. You just the servant. And that's all you want. You just a servant. I wasn't that out of mind. I knew when she was, she made a difference. That better potlatch for a page.

Emmett Utt: She'd give you some old rent or something.

Anna Utt: Yeah. She and she said that if I'd come work for her or she'd give me a dollar a week, you know, besides my board. So I changed. I had missed staying in a good place, but know person needs money too. So I went to work for her and I don't think I ever collected dinner. She would give me some old black she'd worn out, you know, and she'd say, Well, you take this for your pay and let's see, it's about worth $6.

Anna Utt: And so that was six weeks. I'd work for that, probably. I would never have it on. But, you know, that's the way it was. Yeah. And I was glad to walk my kids.

Sam Schrager: I think kids can be used pretty easily that way, you know.

Anna Utt: Of course, I knew what work was. My folks had a big and I was the oldest girl, so I knew what it was to take care of kids. But the thing I didn't like most of all was irony. And I did. I had I learned every ninth avenue in over there.

Emmett Utt: Now they have like, I don't know, I suppose I go there.

Sam Schrager: Maybe. I don't know. It was electric. Did you just it up on a roll?

Anna Utt: It must have been electric. But she had two little kids and she addressed them in the morning. And then at noon she would change their clothes and they were ready for coming. Daddy, come home. And so that was $0.02 of every day. Besides his white shirts. He ran down, worn down to the store. And I just I was so weary time I get ready for bed.

Anna Utt: And I got up in the morning, got the kids up and give them their breakfast.

Emmett Utt: And I got really bored. I bet you didn't eat. Not too.

Emmett Utt: Well like I had.

Anna Utt: There. I didn't.

Emmett Utt: boy. No. Of cruel days.

Anna Utt: And then I got more than I wanted. More than enough.

Emmett Utt: Well, that's where I was raised. Depends on who you work for.

Sam Schrager: You think, these these people who were. Who were living on Nob Hill, I've heard about them that the quite a few of them lived above their means. Really?

Emmett Utt: boy. Well, kind.

Emmett Utt: Of a funny thing during the.

Anna Utt: man.

Emmett Utt: Yes, during the war World War two. There's a family living up there and Nob Hill. And he was with a foreman up a meal and they were living high, then way down to grow their potlatch. My name of people run the grudge, where all of a sudden the government put it out. I guess that everybody didn't pay the bill, gas bill, you know, for that month.

Emmett Utt: Well, you get no more group. Well, I didn't know nothing about it, but it did happen. And I made a little money. I paid my bill up there and and saw Lowry in the back.

Emmett Utt: And so I.

Emmett Utt: Know I can get some gas because I had a driver who lived on the other place up here going back and forth to work. And this highfalutin lady, she drove in that attack. So I got and she drove here. And so they one of their managers tried it and well, he went back and looked on it. They had pages and pages of names.

Emmett Utt: You know.

Emmett Utt: If your name was on that list, but you didn't know gas, so then you had to pay for it. But she didn't have the money to pay for it. So they during the gets out of her day course, I.

Emmett Utt: Know they just.

Emmett Utt: Bring the guys back and that's all they could do. Lot of they had everybody has a light bulb right behind them. I finally got her shoved out of there. I pulled up, John got.

Emmett Utt: Up.

Emmett Utt: I looked at me. We went back there and I went in with him. I because I shouldn't amendment. He was going down the list of names I you know, and and I didn't have my name on them. They were lucky and well my bill up and so I got my name well not like a normal hurt his feelings.

Emmett Utt: Of the.

Emmett Utt: He was Roger you know he's going to tell me to go you know got out of there but I got my name wasn't on the list. I believe it really is because of my gosh, it.

Anna Utt: Well.

Sam Schrager: Those people it those people that you worked for that weren't it didn't care how much you had the feeling, were they just they just used you like a servant.

Anna Utt: Pretty much I guess in the matter, you know, you had to do. But the first people I stayed with, I was invited to the table to eat, you know, with family. But the second time then, I wasn't. I had to eat in the kitchen. I had served then and go back in the kitchen and eat what I could.

Anna Utt: And now that I'm old, I don't care much for them.

Emmett Utt: You know what?

Anna Utt: I don't care too much for them. But she was pretty good to brag on me for my girls. This my girls that.

Emmett Utt: My girl.

Anna Utt: That I got in trouble more times there because.

Emmett Utt: We were.

Anna Utt: Walter's all.

Emmett Utt: Walter.

Emmett Utt: Yeah.

Anna Utt: He run the store down there and he would bring, you know, candy and stuff home. But, you know, I knew better than to touch it, but I had company. My girlfriend from up at Harvard stepped in to see me, and she saw candy there. She saw candy. She just take, you know, and she'd meet me. I didn't know how to stop for I was too dumb to say, Well, that well, that holy cow.

Anna Utt: Next morning the bag did it.

Sam Schrager: They just don't sound like nice people as far. No, I mean, that's.

Emmett Utt: Not a Well.

Sam Schrager: It seems like they they should have understood that you were as good as they were if you were working for them.

Anna Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Well, it was a.

Emmett Utt: Whole lot back to that time. But they all manager at load put up a road out here. He was so important about his but to get off the road for him until I probably my lesson let me find out but I guess I wouldn't pay it off but that was I did you know did that though you could say he probably would have got in trouble.

Emmett Utt: But yeah, you could say that right now, everybody get proper roads like the two of you would enjoy on that. You know, he was enjoying that. What? And I think you get off a road for him.

Anna Utt: But it was it was nice to read Brandon. You know it was it was nice to have a ladies rag on you.

Sam Schrager: He bragged to other ladies to it.

Anna Utt: Yeah. You know. Well, you know, my girl does. Isn't that what I told my girl to do? This and that, you know, And it.

Emmett Utt: But I love to climb society Now. They. They have badges down there all gymnasium and just the down for big shots. Well, I heard we couldn't go you know we were outcast and could really go in and get up on the balcony, look down and watch the whole that they're worried about. Anyway, I don't know if some guy got a whole bunch of big bombs some place I was up there, I didn't know it, but I guess he wrote them down on the dance floor.

Emmett Utt: So they loved to break up of that. there he was. Over. yeah. To find out who done that.

Emmett Utt: We never found out.

Emmett Utt: But that was a laugh about that stuff, too. That was the last time they wrote that. I broke it up.

Sam Schrager: No more than did most of the houses in most of houses. And now we will have servants have a girl working for them. Was that the common way to do it or no? I mean forced Well, to do.

Anna Utt: And anybody, they could get you to work for them for nothing, you know, and if they could keep you, well that was a big thing. But then my statement. not her toxins. And Mrs. Thompson wasn't your she was awful for she'd be at the table and she looked all over you was like, you know, she said what do you want if I said bread or something like a whole slice or half life course I'd always say I have slide but that if I said a whole place, she wouldn't.

Emmett Utt: Give it.

Anna Utt: To you. She was generous and all that, but she wasn't wanting to waste anything cuz I understood that. I just. And she was very careful to see that I got it mostly. And she, she was the one that taught me the most about how to get with those kind of people.

Sam Schrager: She was one of them herself.

Anna Utt: Yeah, she was one and she was, she was, you gracious lady or whatever you call it. She truly was. So her kids were bigger than general babies too, And so they didn't need any babysitting with them. I just the kids would ask, Can I do this and that or the other thing? And I'd have to decide whether they could or they couldn't if their mother had, if they had to ask her head a time.

Anna Utt: But that was a real nice place to stay.

Sam Schrager: Where she taught you how to get along with that. Like, were there really certain things you were supposed to do or not supposed to do? And you, when you're dealing with those people, I mean certain ways of acting.

Anna Utt: And she told me, well, for instance, I one thing it does mean anything. That's one thing I remember her, especially she I always wash my hands, you know, before I go to do anything. Well, this time I would just had the soap in my hand and I would just really washing. And she says, Well, dear, I would just take a little and then wash my hands with water.

Anna Utt: You know, I just would wash the soap and well, that's really what I was doing. And so that was one way she taught me, you know, and just little suggestions and that that way with anything.

Sam Schrager: But when you were living with those with the store people, were you supposed to not speak to them until you were spoken to and that kind of thing, or did they did they have rules like that? I don't really know how people are supposed to be when they're supposed to be weak on other people.

Anna Utt: Well well.

Emmett Utt: You don't carry around the corner of your boat, do you.

Anna Utt: Yeah. And you don't you need don't interrupt in conversation or, you know, keep scarce.

Emmett Utt: Time when only thing happened. You know, like I say, my aunt, she made the dentist. And because I worked for her and the railroad guys, you know, she'd she just low brow, you know, just nobody, you know, just served. Well it turned out I had to go on a mandatory.

Emmett Utt: Well out of.

Emmett Utt: Work for her, but she knew a lot of would go wrong around the house.

Emmett Utt: Lot that got wild goat.

Anna Utt: But the woman would scream to the top of her voice screen and scream and scream. And she was. But then long, long afterward, I saw her in Potlatch at a dance down there and. She had gone down to change her shoes to a more comfortable pair of shoes, and she said, how are, you know? She said, I am extremely glad you got into the family.

Emmett Utt: She was.

Emmett Utt: Exotic.

Sam Schrager: I'm very happy about it too. Except for you, lady.

Anna Utt: Yeah.

Emmett Utt: Virginia Yeah. Got to go now. And I got married, by gosh, you know, she knew out a new.

Anna Utt: Going.

Emmett Utt: On around that house.

Anna Utt: Let her get up in the morning. You know, she made me leave me note here. Leave me a note there in 5 minutes and told me. Things would erupt. One time she left a note on the kitchen storm. I guess it was a cattle shipment or something. Anyway, I looked around. I didn't see the note, and what she wanted to do was put a boiler on the stove and fill it for water.

Anna Utt: So the laundry may come in later and do the washing and didn't see that and I didn't put the water on stove and then I just did what I had to do otherwise. And pretty soon the laundry woman and no work, no water on the stove, No hot water to start with. man. Pearl was mad because she was wanting to get that woman out of there, you know, for a.

Emmett Utt: Room.

Anna Utt: That if she left a note in the same place so I could find them. Sometimes you could go in woman living room. And if she happened to be there the night before, when she thought, what you want me to do should write the note. Leave it there.

Emmett Utt: Just inconsiderate that she were in charge. You know, she wasn't a rich girl herself. She just read it on a farm down here. You know, if it, you know, families had to have it doing that and maybe they had a half a dozen or more, but they'd pick one kid up. And my language, everything well, happened to be that family.

Emmett Utt: It was the older kids. They could just they had to work and do about and everything else. But the to them. Well, I worked my granddad down there in the hay and you know, and my uncle, he was what, three years older than I was, but his mother wouldn't let him work on up and work maybe it wasn't good enough work for him.

Emmett Utt: I could go out there and work all my life, but he could no more she could do. Take the car around town, get closer up and hold out and.

Emmett Utt: And that.

Emmett Utt: His sister, well, she just as.

Emmett Utt: Pretty.

Emmett Utt: She would my mother go down at my mother in a kitchen getting dinner ready for man, you know, and cooking.

Emmett Utt: Him and.

Emmett Utt: My daughters. She said, but of course, my gosh, she couldn't get her to fly. Well, that's where they raised the.

Anna Utt: She is a great little dirty daughter that ever was.

Sam Schrager: When she got herself a dentist. Right? Really Well to do.

Anna Utt: Yes, he.

Sam Schrager: Was. And that shot her into the upper crust.

Anna Utt: But she never let anybody forget it. But then they they were moving during the war. She was suing for divorce.

Emmett Utt: When he died.

Anna Utt: And he died. And then she married somebody that I forgot who. You know.

Emmett Utt: You been around a lot more than I have. But, you know, I like I worked on construction in Portland, you know, real millionaire, real Richmond areas. Why not make a difference? You know, you'd never know. It had been around and I about a month over he'd made his money in World War One shipyard downtown, the court building. And he built a great big well, the $300,000 house up on Castle crapper in Portland.

Emmett Utt: And I worked on that job there and, well, he'd come around and all that had been around. I thought he'd just to sidewalk above me alone. He'd stop you. And I asked you about something, talked to you and maybe talked to you. I wondered while talking to him when the boss didn't come around. You know, he'd keep holding me up and talking to you.

Emmett Utt: I just would be working. I couldn't figure that out with about to come around. Got me thinking. Well, about talking business, get the word it up. Either talk it was build a house, you know, and he and his wife, what we think is they'd never drive the same car. Yeah. When I'm old Franklin cars called Franklin and he had.

Emmett Utt: Well, it wasn't a new one. An old daughter when she'd come around. You'd rather have just kind of already have old car. She drove around and she was friendly enough.

Sam Schrager: And I think it's a difference between the old rich and the new Rich are the ones that are trying to get rich. Maybe.

Emmett Utt: Well, they're just two bit millionaires with the worst kind of millionaires. Really? Two bit ones. You know, somebody a few dollars more than the other guy and and bought a fleet of them and they go down the road or something. No I always call to a bit millionaires but you take a real millionaire a rich man and he goes you know you can be right.

Emmett Utt: You know, I don't love the guy.

Anna Utt: You know, don't brag. They can talk with the common man without kind of putting down, you know.

Emmett Utt: There I got it.

Sam Schrager: I don't know if it's still that way, but maybe but probably in the old days it was.

Emmett Utt: Well.

Emmett Utt: Or today. But Trabalhando used to be all that class distinctions that used to be. But I got a friend I went from as a kid. They would run around here at home. He his father died when he was small and he had the old he had a good, good work for money and, you know, help his mother and his sister live.

Emmett Utt: They just didn't have enough. And they just they pull he wasn't as full.

Emmett Utt: And then he.

Emmett Utt: I know he had to he got a whole road bicycle someplace. And for real? Well, I don't know. My mother would just walk from that to build a new wheel. And I helped to build that. We lived in a way they were just so poor, pitiful. But he got tired out.

Emmett Utt: And he only.

Emmett Utt: Made you going to sell vacuum cleaners? Well, he was a backward boy and he couldn't talk, you know, strangers. He was the last guy in the world to go door to door. So back in there, well, he said it was never harder than the world he put in the first day. So vacuum cleaners and second, they just give up.

Emmett Utt: And so we let him in and bought a vacuum cleaner. Put it a little later, just go do it because it's evil. Back in this Labrador station.

Sam Schrager: Where was he selling locally around here.

Emmett Utt: Gab. Gab.

Emmett Utt: That's what his boat out to pull down.

Emmett Utt: And.

Emmett Utt: But finally he Millfield so bad guys with all gung ho after that really well afterwards and a day this was back in the business I was with his again I brought boat up and he started a.

Emmett Utt: Boat out.

Emmett Utt: Now he had offices in Portland and maybe reading the paper, talking letters.

Anna Utt: He's got stories all over the country that.

Sam Schrager: He owns it now, Now it's his company.

Emmett Utt: Yeah. Now he's retired now, but he's still got the he still is a he's a general manager of all stores. He is retired, but the company owned version of Cadillac every year. Brand new Cadillac every year. I guess they do. Yeah. I don't know what he was up to a couple of years ago. Every year they got brand new Cadillac Drive.

Emmett Utt: The others credit cards on the company, anything you want to buy. And then the other salary is not what you hear from the company, but he's a millionaire. Time and again, all But all that proved back in Vietnam.

Anna Utt: And then during the war, everybody was selling everything. They get to get little money. And he went around collecting.

Emmett Utt: All backing for the.

Anna Utt: Players.

Emmett Utt: Well, he done that before the war. You see the head.

Sam Schrager: First war, second war.

Emmett Utt: Second war.

Anna Utt: So no.

Emmett Utt: Hurt war.

Emmett Utt: Nobody. But that was the Depression and depression. Depression. The first time.

Emmett Utt: He went.

Emmett Utt: Ahead and he had a shop there, all the big place shelves, but he just had a jolt. Every place you could pack a second, having vacuum cleaner on themselves.

Sam Schrager: Spokane's, you.

Emmett Utt: Know, that was that.

Anna Utt: In Spokane? Yes.

Emmett Utt: Yeah, you still got to do it. But but he was it was headquarters of Portland Land now. But he was in somewhere. Well well he's on the back of been from before World War One. Well before the Depression. Everything was boom, boom, boom. You know, people buying car, a new slave trade, the vacuum cleaner. Well, he'd take it all back and tell them a new one and then go out and buy up to some guy up here.

Emmett Utt: We'd have to sell them back and would have to download. You got make a deal with them and get them.

Emmett Utt: A little.

Emmett Utt: Way. How Run me around. Got them back and was.

Emmett Utt: Well then the.

Emmett Utt: Depression hit and nobody could buy a new back operator. So he hired a guy and they want anything. Picked up a shop and he'd remodel them, you know, he'd get new brushes and more of a repetitive motor development, and then he'd paint the house and put that paper. You know, wrap around the house, look like a new it, you know.

Emmett Utt: Well, he'd.

Emmett Utt: Probably get the I for a dollar and a happened during the Depression. He published his book about it it'd be just like on the house would look like, like a but it was all about property It was like look like a brand new machine. And they'd come and he sold all them all with nobody else. And really, I thing people buy vacuum cleaner rooms like a man.

Emmett Utt: Well, that was, that was a big deal. And then he got another rap out during World War Two doing the same thing. But anyway, he branched out. He's got a storage in Eugene, Seattle Tacoma, Real Pass.

Emmett Utt: I don't know.