Cars were a big deal in the Smith family (more on that later). It was stolen shortly after that and instead of going back to school, Les went to work. Without a high school diploma or higher education he managed to maintain work during some tough economic times. Probably needing money right away to pay off the stolen car, he got to work right away at the Murray Smelter, he had some connections there. That is where he was working when he got married and had Beverly in the picture above. His career covered a lot of interesting entrepreneurial endeavors. The jobs changed a bit but one thing didn't, he was a hard worker. A job he took after the smelter was working at a gas station. We frequented that gas station when we would drive from Bountiful to Salt Lake to see Carol. Then the depression hit. He was able to get on with the WPA - Works Progression Administration - a New Deal program that President Roosevelt put into effect. (Not quite sure what he did though) After that he started his own business. It was a trucking business. It was called the B & O. He would transport items, from warehouse to stores (stores like J. C. Penney). My mom said she knew the back of every store in Sandy, Midvale and Murray. The great thing about this job is that he could take Bev and Carol on the deliveries. Things were a little bit different in those days. Bev says he would leave the two girls in the truck while he would go make the delivery. They would lay out their paper dolls all over the seat. Then when Les would get back in the car they would have to gather things up until they arrived at the next store. Carol got mad once and got out of the car and walked home!!! (Oh those were the days!) Even though Les didn't graduate from high school he was whiz bang at math. Bev said he could glance at a long list of large numbers and just add them in his head. He was a human calculator. After the trucking business he started another business. They assembled custom screens and doors. He worked the entire Salt Lake Valley selling screen and french doors and then even branched out to open a branch in Reno Nevada.
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| In Reno. |
Reno is where Inez became ill with a brain tumor and came back to Salt Lake where she passed away in 1960. Les closed up his business and returned to Salt Lake. He owned a few homes and managed those, but my favorite stories about Les and his work was when he was the janitor at the local LDS Chapel. The picture below was attached to a thank you note from the primary children thanking him for cleaning the building. My Aunt Carol attended the building where he did the cleaning. Guy and Gordy would stop by and see him on their way home from school. The story goes that they would often find him swimming in the baptismal font - didn't want to waste some nice warm water after a baptism. Those were hard years to find, keep or start a business.
Inez attending school through the eighth grade. They lived on a farm far away from the schools and they felt like it would be too much of a burden to provide transportation to the high school so that is as much schooling as she got. She found that she needed to also work to provide for their little family. She worked in the Murray Cannery. They canned all sorts of vegetables. Bev remembers her coming home with tomato juice on her shoes so she knows they canned tomatoes. Bev has a vivid memory about her working at the cannery. Here is a quote from her history:
"She wore a uniform that was blue. I think she may have had a couple of them. I don’t know if they canned tomatoes or what but I’m sure she had to wash them. She just had an old wringer washing machine. I was going to help her. I was going to iron her clothes. So I ironed them for her and I was so proud, and then, I woke up one night and she was re-ironing them. I don’t think I ever told her that I saw that she was re-ironing them." Bev said she would sometimes work all night. She was also a very hard worker.
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