I didn't know my grandfather (Francis Marion Dubois Coriel McQuivey). I don't have any recollection at all. Dad said they came from Minnesota. That's where Dad was born. My Granddad was a real intelligent man. He came out as a mining engineer. Grandad was killed in a mine in Eureka He was a miner. He had a mustache and looked like a rough, old Scotchman. He'd bring us candy, but not real affectionate.

Grandmother (Lora Orthelia Coons) married a fellow by the name of Edwards (Andrew Edwards). They lived in Provo. Edwards was a tall, gray headed fellow, very thin. Grandmother was the neighborhood nurse.

I remember my grandmother's (Mary Anna Christensen Soren) farm real well. I don't remember him (Ole Soren) at all. Grandmother Soren, she was home with Aunt Flora, her youngest daughter for a time. We spent alot of time over there. She had a big tree out front. I remember as kids we used to spend hours over there. She lived in Salem.

I thought the world of my mother and father like any son would. Dad went to school in Provo for awhile til 6th grade. He worked at the old woolen mill for a long time. Then he quit and went right from there to Eureka. That's where Marion was born.

He (his Dad) met Mother in Salem. Mother was born and raised in Salem. She was a wonderful woman. I'm not sure how far she got in school. Mother was the oldest of her family.

Mother and Dad were married in Salem. Mother was baptized (in the LDS church), but Dad was never a member.

After we got situated in Salem, Dad rented a little home, but then he went on construction work for years. That's when he got hurt. He broke his back down in Nevada.

Mother and Dad lived in Eureka. Mother was in Eureka pregnant with me, I am told, and she had to get out so they sent her to live with Grandma Soren. And that's where I was born.

Dad come down and got us this little house, that little old brick home that all of us kids grew up in at the head of the pond up there on the hill. I used to stand up there by the road in front of our house with a sling shot and throw into the lake.

The things that I did as just a little shaver was, I, every Sunday and Saturday, I rode boats down on the little Salem Lake with Dr. ___________ and Jake Greenwell, a couple of doctors from Salt Lake came down there to bass fish, beautiful big mouth bass fish. I'd row their boat for money. I'd get a dollar out of it. I'd go down there at daylight and row til dark for a dollar.

And that's where I learned to swim. When I was a young kid I lived on the lake. I lived there the summer and the winter. I skated on it in the winter and I, when I was in the ninth grade, I remember Lynn Haines was our teacher and he was a terrific teacher. My ambition was to be able to catch him at skating. Lynn would rig up races and teams on Saturdays. When I was in the ninth grade I could finally out skate him.

My fifth grade teacher was Sarah Berenson. I liked her real well. The only thing is she didn't like me too well cuz I could always have the lessons done by about the time she got through explaining it. Then they held me back. I went to school early, started too early. We had a three room school. It was a block north of the lake.

I played baseball. Marion played ball. My Dad coached the Salem team. They won the state about three years straight. Dad was quite an athlete when he was younger.

We saw Dad very little when we were growing up because of the fact he was in mining.

I had a paper route, about an 8 mile paper route that I had to walk every morning before school was in. I was up every morning before 4:00. I was in 6th or 7th grade. I still had the paper route after we were married. It wasn't fun, but I bought a bicycle. I think I was the first kid in town that had a bicycle, a nice one.

I had trouble with dogs. The Tribune is what I would carry. They'd have those papers down there at Pierce's Service Station at 4:00 and that's where I'd pick 'em up. Then I'd cover the whole damn town before I'd go to school. Then in the evening the Hanks brothers, Elmer and Kelly, they had the Deseret News route. But they had a little truck they'd deliver in, either that or rode horse. We had an old Dodge truck.

Down by the lake, do you ever remember that lake before they put that road across it. I worked on that job when I was just a little kid. I was just water boy. Sure, got paid for it.

I was going all the time. We all had to help to keep something to eat. Then I used to follow the thrashing machines. Most kids were tied to their own farms. We didn't have one, not til years later, after Dad broke his back out in Nevada.

He was mining out in Nevada. Floyd Whiting and Dad, they were coming home when they lost a wheel on the front of the car and broke Dad's back. They brought him into Salt Lake, and he hung. He was hangin' from the ceiling in an eye bolt and had a harness on him to keep his back straight. I think he was in the hospital a year. That left him not straight. He had kinda humped shoulders. Then he couldn't do any real heavy manual labor. That's when we went into the chicken business.

We got baby chicks and raised 'em. I thought that was fun. I used to take care of chickens alot. We joined the Utah Poulters. It was mainly an egg business. Dad never did raise eatin' chickens. I loved horses. Uncle Dave Hanks, he married mother's sister, Aunt Donna. He run a farm and ranch cattle. He had a pure white horse, part arabian. He used to let me take her, and the horse was really more intelligent than I was. He could outrun anything around the country. By the way, Uncle Dave was a jockey. He was a little bit of a guy and he'd run road horses in races at the 4th of July, 24th of July when these games would go through, racing for money. He always beat 'em.

There's one trip that I remember that always stands out in my mind that we took, all the family. We left Salem in a wagon and two horses. And we went up to Miton. I don't know how far it was, but it took us better than two days to get there. We camped out at nights. We took our time and had alot of fun. Dad's sister lived down there. She married a fellow by the name of Leetham. They had a family of girls. They lived in a little frame house. The buildings out there weren't much. It was actually on an indian reservation. He trapped coyotes and badgers. He was actually an old outdoorsman.

Anyway I remember while we were there they had a terrible storm, a flood. It went right through the house. They just opened the one door and opened the other door and let it run through. And the thing that I'll never forget in all my life was when finally the water receded and went down, we heard something in the kitchen. We couldn't imagine what it was. We went in there and there was a rattlesnake about three feet long. It had 12 rattles on. He came in with the flood. We had fun gettin' him. I go outa there! I let them do that!

Anyway that trip was alot of fun. We had access to all kinds of guns and that's where we were taught alot about guns. We must have been there a couple a weeks. That's where I fired my first high powered rifle. And they assigned me a little 22 automatic. I couldn't've been older than 14.

We went to town with Uncle ________. Of course we went by horse and wagon. Bob and I and Gordon, the three of us, were out on the reservation. It took us all day long and we left way early in the morning. We left at daylight, and it took us all day long to go in there and get what he wanted and get back til dark to get back. I'll never forget that ride as long as I live, no seats, it was miserable, terrible. Of course we saw alot of sagebrush and jack rabbits.

(Back in Salem) I fished when I was about 8 years old. I lived on that lake in the summertime and skated on it all winter.

First time, I remember, was I went hunting with Wilson Haines, one of our neighbors. He had me take an ol', a great big, it was a single shot rifle. It shot a chunk of lead about three quarters of an inch in diameter. We got up this one morning and jumped a couple of buck right off the bat. They took off. Of course, Wilson got one. I shot at one. We were on a ridge and they were running down through the canyon over on the other ridge. I couldn't see him down at the bottom. So I waited til he got up on the ridge and I shot at him and I knocked a limb off a tree about that big down in the bottom of the canyon with that gun. And I had a sore shoulder. I was about 10 years old or 11.

I met Mother at school. She and I attended the same school. I went with a few girls and pretty well quick, I took a look at Mother and I decided she looks better than the rest of 'em. She's just the gal I chose over all the rest of 'em.

I liked her. The thing that attracted me most to Mother was the fact that she was always cheerful, always happy, never critical of things. Anyway, we went together from then on. I was about in the ninth grade. I took her to my graduation. I went with her to her graduation.

Her home was north of Salem about three quarters of a mile. And the highway went across there. Well, I was coming down the road there on a little trot and Mother was going to Sunday School. And she got right out there in the middle of the road and her feet went out from under her and she fell right flat on her back. I charged out there and helped her up and brushed her off and she said she felt all right. She went on to church and I went on peddling my papers.

(Venna speaking) When Dad and I was going together and he was delivering the papers, I always made it a point to be at a certain time. I knew he was so regular with his papers, I knew about the time he'd be comin' down and I would always make it a point to be there so he could see me and I could see him. And that morning I was all dressed up and fell flat. I was really embarrassed.

Of course we knew each other. We were kids in a small town and everybody knew everyone else. His cousin was my very best friend. That's ________ Hanks. I really liked him. Ev was kinda the one that pushed us together. I chased him. Grandpa didn't like me cuz I chased him so much.

I had a car. Dad Bish had a car. Bob Jorgeson took me out and taught me how to drive. Dad and Mother didn't know, but when I knew how to drive, why they'd let me take the car and of course I pestered them to death. The first thing I'd do was pick up the girls and we'd go up to his place and honk. We would honk and honk and Grandpa McQuivey would say, "There's that d_ _ _ swamp angel again." That's what he'd call me.

(Ross speaking) A little while later, though, he loved her as much as I did. Dad (Granddad) taught Mother (Venna) alot about cooking. Dad was a terrific chef.

In the fall when they harvested beets, I worked up on what they call the _______, where the farmers dumped the beets in racks. Then they'd go up a ramp. I run the equipment that took the racks and dumped the beets into an open car in the railroad. Then they were shipped to the sugar factory.

Mother (Grandma Soren) was ill for years. She had a heart problem and we didn't have no doctor at Salem. And the doctor we had was a doc from Spanish Fork. He had to come from there in a horse and buggy. She suffered alot. Along toward the end, she wanted to live. She prayed she could live long enough to see a grandchild. She wanted to see a grandchild.

Mother and I got married because we loved each other. At this particular time I was working at the beet dump. Mother wanted to see a grandchild, so you (Kent), being the first one, you were only about an hour old when we bundled you up and put you in bed with Mother.

You was born down in Venna's mother's house. Then we took you from there up to our old home and put you in bed with Mother. I'll never forget the look on her face. She was happy, she laid there playing with you. Hell, you were only two hours old and the doctor said, of course. Dr. Hagen, he knew Mother pretty well. She got to see her first grandchild. Mother would take you up every day and show Mother. One day on the beet dump Mother called and I knew what had happened. Mother had died.

Aunt Nell and Flora had two boys and one of them was about the same age as I am. And Bob and I, my brothers would go and spend the summer and spend two weeks or so. It was just wonderful running wild up there. It was just beautiful.

After dinner every evening, they got me to sing. Everybody said I had a real good voice, but sometimes it scared the devil out of me. There's one little ditty that they clapped for every night, and that's that ditty, "Jimmy Dear, You've Got To Tend The Baby." It goes, (he sang!)

"Jimmy Dear, you've got to tend the baby."
"Take yer little brother fer a walk."
"You can shake a rattle for him maybe,"
"Or push him in the stroll cart round the block."

Then there's four or more verses. That's enough!! They'd clap and then throw money at me. Hell, I can remember a whole pocketful of money. But, I could sing when I was a kid. I could sing anything.

Lynn Hanks topped sugar beets. He could top 20 ton of sugar beets a day. He was my ideal when I was a young guy. He was the guy that taught school. He could do anything and do it well. This topping sugar beets was a real income in the fall. Lynn asked me, would you like to come with me, just you and I top? So, I said yah! Mother had a big, old, long butcher knife and it was real heavy. One day we topped 1 7/8 acres! I think there was something like 25 ton to the acre.

I didn't play much ball. I was just too damn busy. I did play with a little school team. In fact I remember very well cuz that's where I got my nose broke.

I was catching and Melvin Peterson was throwing. He could throw that sucker. We had two down and we had two strikes on the guy who popped one and I couldn't get it. I come back and got down. He cut one more loose, and he just barely ticked that thing and it hit me right square in the eye and I went down!!!

(talking of Venna's brothers) Mont was the oldest. Mont was a cowboy. He rode a horse, hard working bugger. Harry was kinda of a different personality altogether. Harry was quiet and nothing upset him.

(deer hunting stories) Dean Olsen, Ole, and I, we went up on the north side. We got a real early start. In fact we were 2/3 up on the mountain before daybreak. I told Ole, let's cut across. Now the only thing about this is it's going to be bad cuz, if the sun comes up, if we should see something before the sun comes up, we're going to have trouble. And we started to cross there and we came up over a little ridge like that and down below us not 200 yards, no, a hundred yards, there was three bucks eating, browsing, ya know.

I fell down and Ole said, what's the matter. You could just barely see them. I says get down, get down! There's three deer right there. He says, Can you tell what they are. I can't tell what they are yet. I says, just lay down. So we laid there for about 20 minutes. And the longer I laid there, the more jumpy I got. Ole was worse then I was. In fact, Ole was about to throw his gun down and run after 'em. But anyway, we finally calmed down and when the sun come up and we could finally see them, there were three buck. We got all three!!

We used to stay in the cabin (Spanish Fork Canyon). They (Venna's parents) always had a place for me. I took Ole. We got up there late that night because we both had to work that day. Oh, it was cold!!! We went up in old Ole's convertible. It didn't have a heater in it. We just damn near froze to death. We pulled in the yard and I went in and Mother was expecting us. They said, is that you Ross, and I said, yes. They said, thank God, it's you. Mother said, what's the matter with you. I said, I'm damn near frozen. Well, she said, we'll fix that. She said, are you hungry, and I said, no, I'm not hungry. I'm just cold! She said, well, you got anything in the car that should be brought in that'll freeze? I say, no. She wouldn't let us bring anything. They said, Ok. Well, Ole, you crawl in bed with those two guys right there. It was two big double beds. Ole got in bed and you never heard such squealing in all your life. I can't say who they were. Every time old Ole would touch them they'd just squeal. But anyway I got in bed right between Venna's Dad and Mother. Oh, talk about feel good!!! My hand's was blue!!

A real trip was Bish and I and Mother, all at the cabin. Bish and I got up one morning and it had snowed during the night. We had those big lace boots and it was just about halfway up those lace boots. And I was hiking along and saw this track in the snow, and I looked at it. I thought, what the devil could that be dragging along like that. And I called Bish over and he come and looked at it and said, oh, that's a bear!

I said, a bear!!, and he said, yah. He said, let's go down in after him. I said, fine, you go see where he went. I'm goin' back this way to see where he came from!!!

The cabin came about through Dick Sawyer. There were problems getting the permit. The Forest Service finally gave them the permit and I think it was due to Mother. We got permit to build the cabin and no one to build it. Bish and I and Burt and Dick and the kids built the cabin.

We lived with Venna's folks for a time, about three months or so. Then we went up to Eureka and bought a little home, a little two room home. They practically give them away. I think we only paid 50 bucks for it.

A friend of mine transported it down to the point for us. We moved the whole home from Eureka on a truck. We put it on the point and had to carry our water. We didn't have electrical lights. We had to use a coal lamp. We had an outside toilet.

Uncle Dave Hanks, who's a carpenter, and Dad, we put it on a foundation. Uncle Dave was real nice about it, he helped. We got it livable. It was small. It was only two rooms. Prior to that we lived with Dad after Mother died.

Taken from an audio taped interview given by son Kent L. McQuivey and transcribed by granddaughter Diane M. Anderson.