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And I was too light weight to wheel those doggone wheelbarrows up that scaffold, and they found that out real fast. So they put me on the shovel down there … put so much shovels of sand and so much of this gravel into the hopper and so cement to make the mix.

On the job on campus with Brother Sauls, I was the time keeper for all the guys. I checked them in, and I checked them out and put the hours they had down, so he (Brother Sauls) could put his payroll in. I didn’t put that in … he put that in. But he checked with me on each one of them, all the time. I got that much experience out of the thing. Some times that can be good or bad. Because I had two or three guys that were sneaky … and I kept my eyes open a little bit too. I knew what was going on. Oh, wait a minute … who was that guy. I talked to him about things and he went an complained to Sauls about it and Sauls came to me, and said “You shouldn’t have done that. That guy …. he’s got a wife and he’s got one youngster. He needs some help.” I don’t know … before you did it, you ought to ask about it, and set the thing up and so on that way. He should have come to me and said something or else eh should have gone to Sauls. And Sauls could have come to me and said, “Well, we’re going to do this … we’re going to give you this much …. don’t worry whether he does it or not.” I think he did that one guy after that, cause I think he learned a lesson too about that same time. Cause Sauls was quite a guy.

Up around the Grant building, when they were building and even after they got the building built and were using it as the library, I was going up there at 4 o’clock in the morning and cleaning and putting books in shape and dusting shelves and keeping things going … that was part of the job in the mornings. There were certain places where you could park a car and certain places you weren’t supposed to park a car because that was a pathway into doing some things around campus. And invariably somebody would park in those places. Sauls would say, “I don’t know whose that car is … I’ve seen it here before and I’ve stopped a lot of them from coming here.” So he went down to the boiler room and got a big pipe, a good big pipe that he put under the car and he was moving it. He’d get it on his shoulder and lift it up and slide it along, slide it here and slide it here and slide it over here. He was getting way out in the center of the road. This guy come running out there, he said, “What are you doing?” Sauls says, ”You know this sign says NO PARKING HERE. I mean that.”

(HE FOUND OUT WHO THE CAR BELONGED TO? WAS IT SOME BIG MUCKY MUCK)

Oh, somebody who thought he was pretty good. But the Maeser Memorial building was mostly accounts and stuff like that. We were all assigned to go in there and wash windows and clean up that whole building through there one day. We had a gang of kids in there washing windows inside and outside and all over the place and some things going to happen. And I think his desk or one of his tables or something got pulled over so the guy could stand on it to get up on the window. And he came in and he complained to Brother Sauls about it, he says, “They’ve got water all over my place in there … they’ve got footprints all over the things. Yakity, yak an yakity yak.” Any way, Brother Sauls said to him, “Brother, we all make mistakes. I’ll bet you’ve been to the bathroom and you haven’t got your pants down just exactly right sometimes.” He was an old southerner and he had a southern brogue (accent). His son was the secretary to the President of the school. That was Keefer Sauls. Keefer brought his family out of North or South Carolina.

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But old John used us all the time too. We were doing his home teaching all the time. In church over there he had us scheduled to go out on his home teaching. I think they called them Ward Teachers then. And so I met some of the dignitaries he had to go to . We’d go out and meet with them. One of them we met with was an attorney … he had a bunch of property down in there just before you get into Leland down toward the Manti Temple. Anyway this guy had a big ranch down in there.

You asked how I came to choose Illuminating Engineering as an occupation? (More commonly known as Lighting Engineer) Well, it was forced on me. When I got through college, I needed a job. My major in college was physics and mathematics and engineering and all that stuff. I had almost a minor … I lacked one or two credit hours to have a minor in Psychology. I had Poulson as a teacher…… I liked him. took all his psychology, religion and all that kind of stuff. Brother Poulson ….. a lot of people didn’t like him, but I thought he was a pretty good guy. Poulson, kind of a gruff old guy, but I learned a lot. I learned that on you body that when you touch things there you say its hot or cold, you don’t know whether it is or not. Because when you get a skewer and your blindfolded and that skewer is cold and you touch that and they say hot. We think its hot. Cause we had our sensory tests in our lab classes. Its surprising, but its different than we think.

But, the way I got into lighting …. The last year I didn't work on the campus …. the last summer. I worked at the Pacific Cast Iron Pipe Company over in Springville. I needed a little bit more money because I knew I’d be graduating and there would be more expenses and stuff that way and I talked to Sauls about things. We’d got in a little bit of trouble during the winter cause he found out we were getting a little bit more money. Jasper and I were living with Alma Hansen. Alma Hansen came from up around Ogden. He was down there and he was living with us and we were going to church at the Fifth Ward there. And that was the same Ward that Sauls was going to. But they didn’t have a caretaker. And the Bishop came to me and he said, “I know you boys are working up on campus, why can’t we have you take care of this building for us.? You could take care of all that stuff.” And I should have gone to old Sauls and told him we were going to take that as a part-time, that is an in between times job. But he saw us on duty up that way and he was really unhappy, because he says, “If you wanted more work, I could have gotten it for you.” That’s the only time he really bounced me. But we were taking care of the sacrament stuff and making sure things were washed up. With Jasper living with us cause when one would be off duty here, we could go in and do some work and then another could come in and do some

more.

So when I got through school and I wanted a job. I looked in Provo and I didn’t find anything there. Talked to Company’s and Industry’s there. The power company there in Provo said, “Well, I don’t know. Maybe if you went into Salt Lake, they might have something up there.” I went up and nosed around on several things and then went to the Power Company. The only thing they had a the Power Company was a part time job. Lasting the whole summer and into the fall. And in the mean time you can be looking around or what ever. I went up there testing meters. It was a periodic test that you do. It was a long time since some of those meters had been tested, if they ever had been.

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Some of them couldn’t be tested because there was no way of testing them. Cause they were that old. And so I went around Salt Lake quite a little bit looking for work and that seemed to be the best job. So I went back to the Power Company and I said, “Well, in the meantime I’ll take this job.” The guy in the meter department said, “I think we can work things around.” I said, “I haven’t tested meters.? And he said, “I think we can fix that, because I think you have enough knowledge about things…. you have your math and so on, to qualify to handle certain things.” I said, “At one point there’s one course of math I didn’t get, but I don’t think that will interfere.” Little did I know that I was tested on that and its one of the courses I really should have had. But I dug into the books and I got it back of me afterward. But I didn’t get onto that job afterward anyway. Cause I went into that test. But this time they sent me over with the chief meter man to the big smelter there in Salt Lake. They were using more than half the current the Utah Power and Light was generating. Well, their meters needed checking and I went over and helped this guy check the meters that one day. And the first thing he did was put a formula on that thing to check the doggone thing. Vector Analysis and it’s the one course they didn’t have enough people that wanted it that quarter to take, so I didn’t get it. So I was a little bit lost on that, but he explained enough to me that I knew exactly what he was doing. But I think what they were trying to do is see if they could work me into … as an aid into some of those jobs. The big power users, cause they needed to check those monthly. Because it meant a lot to both companies. So I got into that and I was out checking those meters there.

In the meantime when I said I was going to Salt Lake, why I didn’t go alone. OH , IS THAT WHEN MOM WENT WITH YOU? I said I was going to Salt Lake cause I thought I had this job. And she says, “Well, I ‘m going too!” And I said, “Well, I don’t know how that could work out.” And she said, “We’ll make it, we’ll make it … one way or another.” I went up and took that job and the last of the season was on and I knew that I’d be having to dig for another job, cause I really hadn’t found anything. We worked through Saturday up to noon, all day Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday and Saturday till noon on that and I had one meter down in one of those houses and do you think I could get that thing to check. I put a new first and second wheel in it, I put a new jewel in it … I put everything it was supposed to have … nothing was working. Finally, I looked at something else in that thing and I said, “That looks like an adjusting deal.” And I tested it a little bit and gee whiz, it went right straight on. A little screw looked like it might have been loose. And I put my screw driver on it and went into the thing and I just finished up and was putting the thing up and was sealing the meter back up and getting my stuff gathered up and in walked the boss. He

said, “I’ve been clear through your route here … thought you’d have been in way earlier. I needed you in there.” I says, ‘Well, I got that doggone meter there and I’ve had an awful lot of trouble.” He said, “Well, did you get it?” I said, “Yes, I sure have! “ He said, “Well, let’s see”, and he put a test on it and said, “Yep, that’s right.” And so I knew I was all right on that. He says, “I’ve got a fellow in the building …. their building a whole new department in Utah Power and Light. I talked to him about you and he said he wants to interview you.: And so I talked to him … he got a little bit of my background, my school work and stuff of that nature. And he says, “Id’ like to hire you. Can you come to work by such and such a time?” And I said, “Yes, I’d be happy to.” So I got into that department.

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What they were doing was building this department because they were having trouble in all the buildings in Salt Lake…. they had no engineers… no engineer service. And the architects were building the buildings and were doing their own stuff and turning the wiring and all the material over to some flunky outside to put the wire in and they were putting the wires in all different sizes…. small size and too small. People wanted loads in and you couldn’t get the loads in until you put new wiring in and all that stuff. So they set up this department as a commercial service department. We’d go into the architects office, take their plans away from them, go back to the office, make a tracing off their whole plan. And I’d had drafting before, so I knew something about drafting. Make a tracing; put a complete electrical system on it and write a specification for the size of wire for the equipment that went into here, here, and here and there , so that they could go out for a bid. And that was gratis to those architects. But that was a load builder because at that point we were figuring at least 10 years in advance…. off of advances to be going in. And so then I got into that job that way.

Here come General Electric people out to give us a little bit of push and so on like that. And General Electric had back in Cleveland, Ohio, a lighting institute. Utah Power and Light sent me back there. They sent me back to school back there. I had two weeks of heavy, intense training. Yeah, on lighting and when you get into lighting, its load building and your code stuff, so you’ve got the whole thing going together. That’s when your mother and I went back to

Cleveland . We took the bus back, stopped in at Chicago and went to the Fair there. Then we went up to Detroit and picked up a new car. Right off the line. And then we drove that new car back down to Cleveland and then on home.

We came back across the top of the United States. Well, we were going to see the Black Hills, over in South Dakota. Only when we got there and got out of the hotel that morning, it was all white. It had snowed. So the Black Hills that we saw, with the faces on them, were white. So then we sent on down through the badlands and came back to Salt Lake.

I don’t remember how much I was making then. More than the 50 cents an hour working on campus. We were able to make it except that just the time we’d get $5 ahead, somebody would come in, like the Bonds from down in Shiprock, and we’d have to feed them. It was a struggle. And then we were doing something that was wrong, because when we’d go down the stairs

(of their apartment) and get onto the street and we’d walk across the street… there was a market over there. A little market, and we was charging our…… we were going over and buying and putting on a ticket, so that we could pay at the end of the month. And that was wrong. You can get in trouble that way. We were in trouble. We got that thing worked out and we decided if we didn’t have the money, we weren’t going to get it. And we moved out of that place .

Elwyn was born in Salt Lake City and the baby girl. And right after she was born and died, why they transferred me to Provo. We were there …. ‘28 was when I went there… we were there about 2 1/2 years.

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Anyway, they needed the same work that they were doing in Salt Lake done for those architects down in Provo. They didn’t have anybody down there. So they sent me down to the Provo division, to head that up. So I went down and got a hold of those architects in Provo and worked on those things. Even on the stuff on the BYU, rewired the old State Mental Hospital up there. Oh, that was bad. Worked with Architect Ashworth on that and we went clear through that whole plant and remodeled and changed the whole thing. I wrote specs for the whole job. The guy I had trouble with was a guy name of…….. He’s the guy that built the big county building there, beautiful building….. looks like Roman Italian type building. Anyway I accosted him, to talk to him about it and he says, “Well, I’ve been to Italy….I’ve studied all over Europe and I’ve built this building and things over here.” he says, ‘I think I’m doing pretty good.” I said, “Well, don’t you think that somebody could help you a little bit.? It isn’t going to cost you anything. But I don’t think you have the time and energy your doing here on this type of building to try to evaluate what the wiring is going to be into these buildings and what the electrical load is, and what the services should be and all that stuff. That I could take away from you and I can do it.” He said, “No, he thought he could do it.” So I left. I figured I’d have to go back again. But I was working in the office one day and they had sent him upstairs (cause they’d put me upstairs above another place there in Provo. The building was on University Way, about the middle of the block and there was another place there, but it had the stairway going upstairs, and they had a room up there with my drawing board and other stuff up in there). And he came up there one day and I looked up from what I was doing and he said, “Well, I’ve been thinking about what you talked to me about.” And I says, “Well, I think I’m right on that .” And he says, “I’d like to try you on a little job

here.” So I got in there and then I went to Price, and there was somebody down there and I helped down there. Then I went to Moab and I went to all those stores and so on. I went to stores in Provo. One old Jew guy had a store with a bare globe on it. And I laid out a whole new job and he put it in and he turned it on, and he said, “Hmmmm, I’ve got a new store.” So there was plenty of work. American Fork….a lot. And Lehi…..I worked that whole area over as far as Vernal. Down as far as Moab…. all down through Huntingdon and those towns down there. It was a nice job going that way. But when they built their own plant there, I didn’t have a job.

So I started looking around for another job. First I went down to San Francisco, because the sales manager of Utah Power and Light was in Salt Lake and he knew some of those guys down there. He said, “They need some help down there. So why don’t you go down. I’ll give you a letter.” He gave me a letter, so your mother and I went on down to San Francisco. We went through the mill down there trying to get a job. Finally the fellow there sat me down and said, “Well, have you had a physical exam and all that stuff?” Passed those off. he sent me down to their general offices. They were separated in another building … they weren’t on the ground floor where we saw them. The guy down there in their general office was funny … I didn’t understand him, the way he acted. But he sent me down into town into their main office and when I got down there and they talked to me, but I don’t understand that fellow. What kind of a fellow is he?” “How did he act?” “Well, he acted kind of funny like, I thought. He didn’t care whether I was talking or not talking, cause he wasn’t paying much attention.”

He said, “Why don’t you go back and talk to him. He doesn’t believe you.” He said, “I think it would be a mistake to take a job here and go on that way, when you’ve got somebody in the general office with that kind of frame of mind.” Well, I said, “I didn’t like him, if that’s what your talking about.” So your mother and I went over to the Fair…. there was a little fair going on at the time down there, but boy, it was cold there. We went out of Utah and we got into cold weather and there was a cold damp

breeze blowing and it was cold. And we went to that fair.

Elmer H Smith