OCR Text |
Show T S FVD E c.l :t , t ouu.mh u uesr tditoriol wpmiuii ur our orhce ed at 538 South StQJ Orem. Deadlines Monday 1 0:00 a.m. All submissions are subject lo ediiinm o Dinion and The Orem-Geneva Times reserves in ' puuiioii ui i iui iu puuiisii d suumission A2 Thursday, February 13, 2003 COMMENTARY & Q Column Councilman's Repor A Century of Postal Heroes in Orem Wartime Orem Postal Heroes CLYDE E. WEEKS, JR. Times Correspondent Part 6 For more than two years after the United States entered World War II, following the dastardly attack on Pearl Harbor, the only mail service available to Orem residents was the delivery of their mail by the Provo R.F.D. 2 Rural Carrier, M. Verne Thurber. Even with 400 house trailers filled with construction workers, occupying the Orem City Park located east of the Orem City Hall, Orem was still without with-out its own post office, in spite of the earnest efforts of both city and civic leaders of the community. Finally, in December 1943, approval was given to open a post office in Orem, and Lyle M. McDonald was installed as the first Orem postmaster. Housed in the south wing of the Orem City Hall, the new post office provided mail service in post office boxes, General Delivery and on two rural routes. R.F.D. Route 2 at the Provo Post Office was transferred to the Orem Post Office, where its longtime carrier, M. Verne Thurber, continued to serve the Orem patrons. R.F.D. Route 1 was also established at the Orem Post Office, with Russell Bellows serving half of Orem's postal customers. All of the Orem residents receiving mail delivery on the Provo rural route . had to complete Change of Address orders and notify their correspondents to start addressing their mail to Orem, rather than to Provo. Postal clerks working during the early months of the new post office included Ellen Bellows, Evelyn Terry and Nina Lamb. Later on, Richard McDonald and Chester Kocherhans also served. They handled the burgeoning bur-geoning amount of mail of local residents, resi-dents, as well as mail from Orem's military men and women, stationed all over the world in wartime assignments. assign-ments. In the basement room of the Orem City Hall, located just beneath the Orem Post Office, was the Federal Office, which handled the rationing of commodities from gasoline to butter during the war. The new post office operated as a fourth-class post office for six months. For the next year it operated as a third-class office, at which time it was advanced to the rank of a second-class post office one of the fastest growing offices in the state. During those difficult years, the new postmaster and his new employees employ-ees performed truly heroic service, as they worked long hours and completed many difficult assignments, handling postal customers and mail distribution distribu-tion in a postal facility, which became increasingly crowded. Under the pressures of World War II, the huge Geneva Steel. plant was completed in record time. Overnight, Orem farmers and fruit growers became steelworkers many of them maintaining their agricultural pursuits, pur-suits, as well as working regular around-the-clock shifts at the Geneva Steel plant. The City of Orem experienced a constant influx of new residents, who either worked at the steel plant, or in other expanding retail or service employment. More residential housing was needed need-ed in Orem to meet the rising need. Therefore, the Orem Trailer Park was built at 850 North State Street. The Christeele Acres Subdivision was constructed con-structed at 1000 South State Street, and the Beverly Place Subdivision was constructed at 650 West 400 North Street. Rural carriers Verne Thurber and Russell Bellows were kept busy, adding new boxes to their routes and assigning rural box numbers to their owners. Meanwhile, the workload at the Orem Post Office increased, as mail was dispatched and received for military mili-tary men and women throughout the world. Among that voluminous mail were letters, reporting the deaths on the battlefield of 16 men from Orem. As World War II ended, space in the Orem Post Office was at a premium, as new clerks, Fred Fielding and Reese Pulham, replaced Evelyn Terry, who resigned. G. Reed Hacking replaced Russell Bellows on R.F.D. 1. Next Week: New Post Office Building "Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye." -H. Jackson Brown Jr. The Orem-Geneva Times , 538 South State Street ; Orem, UT 84058 published by t The Daily Herald," A Pulitzer Newspaper Subscriptions & Delivery Service 375-5103 News & Advertising .225-1340 Fax . .225-1341 Email oremtimesnetworld.com USPS 411-700. Published Thursdays by Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc., 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Periodicals postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. Member: Audit Bureau of Circulations NEWSSTAND PRICE $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATE 1 year - $26 (in county) (Sunday & Thursday plus Holiday deliveries) Holiday deliveries include delivery the week of Easter, Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's. 1 year - $35 (out of county) NEWS We welcome news tips. Call 225-1340 to report a news tip or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. edi-tor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters let-ters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome wel-come on any topic. Publisher Managing Editor News Editor Sports Editor Contributing Writers Pagination & Graphics Office Manager Office Printing Relations Advertising Sales Production & Press Times Publishing Staff Brent Sumner bsumnerheraldextra.com Reva Bowen Scarlett Barger Martin Harris Clyde E. Weeks Jr. Robert King Sydney Sumner Scott Sumner Sydney Sumner Sydney Sumner Brent Sumner Phil Patten Brent Sumner Steve Goodwin Josh Romero Robert Kint Oust d&t Clueat Memavied My Claaet Dancing, Qwtem JOYCE ZUFELT A new house went up in our blue-collar neighborhood neighbor-hood in the early 40s, and I made a new friend. Jackie had everything a girl my age could want, including a dollhouse and tap dancing lessons. Oh, how I did covet those dancing lessons. We would open the garage door and play dancing school. Their new garage had a cement floor, unlike the dirt floors in most garages, back then. All the neighborhood girls would gather, and Jackie would teach us to tap dance. In the 50s, I enrolled my two boys, aged 4 and 6, in dancing school. Steve, the oldest, liked wearing the uniform and marching in the parade, while Brent, the youngest, would protest since his class included ballet, bal-let, a "sissy" class. Later in life, he would thank me, since he was quite an athlete ath-lete and felt the ballet had helped his balance and coordination. coor-dination. Once a week, we had a mothers' class in tap, to learn the steps and help the kids practice, and in ballet bal-let to tone up our size 6 bodies. bod-ies. In the 80s, I was in my 50s and still harboring that childhood wish to be a tap dancer. I often say, "When you are ready to learn, the teacher will appear." And appear, she did a grandmothers' grand-mothers' dancing class. I heard about it and called several times to inquire, trying to get up the courage to attend. I was so reluctant, reluc-tant, fearing I was too clumsy clum-sy or old, until the instructor instruc-tor invited me to come and just observe. When I met her, she broke into laughter. Since I was so tentative, she expected expect-ed a timid, little, old milquetoast milque-toast of a person, and I presented pre-sented quite the opposite. I told no one. My co-workers, many the age of my own girls, were ex-cheerleaders and so full of themselves. I feared being ridiculed. And my own girls? I could just see them rolling their eyes. And my husband would think I was out of my tree. And so began my closet dancing career. We tapped and stomped, twirled and plied. I bought tap shoes, ballet shoes, pom-poms, scarves and ribbons to wave. I was in my element, except when our class would go out and dance at local functions. I couldn't do it. Under this facade is a very shy person. I could not bring myself to dance in public. Well, the inevitable happened. hap-pened. Someone discovered my secret bag of dancing paraphernalia. Alas, my cover was blown. The girls at work said, "Oh, I want to come too." My girls said, "You go for it, Mom," and my husband said, "Thank heaven, heav-en, you were looking so animated ani-mated and sparkly, I feared you were having an affair." When my daughter, Kim, was 3 years old, I enrolled her in a dancing class with my sister, Ranae's kids, Kerry and Leigh. I couldn't wait to give my girl dancing lessons. She, however, wasn't was-n't so enthused. She was so shy, she wouldn't dance in front of anyone. So, eventually, eventu-ally, we stopped going. And later, I tried again, with Kris and Kim together, but to no avail. Unlike myself, they didn't want to dance. Finally, Kim has a daughter, now also. Xia is 3 and 12 years old. Kim followed fol-lowed in her mother's footsteps foot-steps and enrolled her daughter at 18 months in a mommies' and daughters' ballet class. I was visiting in Washington when their class had a program. As Kim talked to Xia, she reminded her about their agreement that she would cooperate that day. She said, "I don't think so. I think I will just sit on Grandma's lap." I loved the program. There was my 42-year-old daughter dancing, so graceful and beautiful! It was worth waiting all those years. To the citizens of Orem: In keeping with my commitment com-mitment to give an annual accounting of my service to the residents of Orem, the following is my review of the year 2002. Les Campbell 1. Travel and Financial Report for 2002 April- Utah League of Cities and towns in St. George $494.30 September-Utah Valley Leadership Conference at Sundance $ 75.00 TOTAL $569.30 r 2. Attendance: I attended 51 meetings including 10 closed-door sessions. I missed no meeting that required a vote by the City Council. I missed four scheduled meetings because of a personal family commitment com-mitment or work conflicts. They were a tour of the recreation projects in the city for which I had received weekly updates from Orem City Recreation Director Jerry Ortiz, a tour of current cur-rent Alpine School District construction projects in Orem City and two joint luncheon meetings with the Provo Council. In 2002 some of the successes suc-cesses the city enjoyed were: The completion and ongoing construction of recreation projects and parks Completion of 800 South Groundbreaking for the Parkway Crossing Student Housing Project Completion of other student stu-dent housing projects The initial construction of the Veteran's Memorial at the Cemetery , : - The beginning of the Orem Veteran's Oral History Project Liaison assignments: I was appointed by the mayor to serve as council liaison to the new Heritage Commission. Under the direction of Leah Johnson, Heritage Commission chairperson chair-person and members John Stone, Norm Parker, Tom and Toni Beard, Don Norton and Orem Youth Council representative, Lindsey Bell; the commission was given two major tasks to accomplish. The first was to complete the Veteran's Memorial at the cemetery, and the second was to increase patriotism in our city, especially among the youth. Assistance and direction direc-tion from Richard Manning and Mike Asbel has been invaluable. It was a great charter year for the Heritage Commission. A local sculptor, Leroy Transfield is currently working on a statue for the memorial that was approved by the City Council. Work is progressing progress-ing nicely, and grass has been removed and rocks put in place at the cemetery. Contributions are still being accepted. If you would like to donate money to the Veteran's Memorial, please call Leah Johnson at 361-1358. 361-1358. We expect to dedicate and unveil the statue and memorial on Memorial Day. We had an inspirational program at the cemetery on Memorial Day. On Veteran's Day, "Candy Bomber" Colonel Gail Halvorsen spoke to several hundred students and citizens at Oak Canyon Junior High It is the hope of the commission commis-sion that future Veteran's Day programs will be held at the other junior and senior sen-ior high schools with music prodded by various musical groups from host schools. I would like to tW Heritage Commission ft' tneir nam work Heritage Commissi partnership with the fj Youth Council and 0 interested citizens launched a massive m called the Orem Vet; urai ni story .Project ' intent is to interview scribe, and archive ries and experiences t; willing veterans whoi or are currently liviu-Orem. liviu-Orem. Participants review copies of their ries which will then be ed by qualified individt Veterans will recei' hard copy and CD off stories. Copies will archived in the OremJ .Library and perhaps 0 i m piaces. lape recot;; microphones and inteni questions prepared by ' Norton are available fe OYC and others to t out. We would invite all erans to call Leah Jot or Don Norton 225-80; would also invite of who would like to infer, or have transcribing ;S to volunteer their tin, this effort. We are L viewing World War II v; ans first, then Korean Gulf War vets. My second liaison as;: ment was with the Pk-Commission. Pk-Commission. My resp: bility was to attend i meetings and report ba;S the City Council abosfii decisions and cons-- appieciate the extra' and energy the comm members put into the! unteer services. Issues that linger 1. We hope to have course under constK by the end of 2003.: have been delays in w. out all the requireme: by the Corp of Enjp resolving concerns b; owners, etc. 2. Current status cl economy and the imp may have on 1-15 con tion, Geneva Road other projects. Feden state funds are reduced and elimial throughout the countif well as Utah Count Highlights: 1. We now have four time officers working' the Neighbc: Preservation Unit. I a ciate their efforts and they are making a s cant difference in our neighborhoods. 2. Resolution for nlaoernent. of the news mine nool in the SCI Park, which we hopeM May 26. 3. Neighborhood Action Programs: I am nleased with the fart job Joyce Johnson is "1 as the director oi l TT-ii.-rV.Vi-.l-ir-(4a in Thanks to efforts we have orgal tions in every comniu the city She is doings-job doings-job and has made a & ferencel The NIA' looking for volunteer-would volunteer-would invite you to cat-at cat-at 229-7914. This past year .Jufti resigned from the coo-miss coo-miss her and the con-: tions she made to 0- enjoyed working & replacement Doug He is a dedicated vant who wants to and serve' to the ut. am still eaffer to nw- citizens about your 1 and concerns and en J you to can m - f lcampbeiKfforeiu.u'e you for your interest j-ujc nasi. ana suppoi i r Les Campbell '''lis J( 0 :.iira . facili rjtie tiat ti 4 aitj Sasc lid :aidt da '.idiii Orem ;eer Db Thats !tsye lis Hi 'Col 'Vist; ott bade car, h i. Of ! |