May 30th, 2010 Memorial Day Posting - Email From John Wiggins

Hello Family,

Since Memorial Day is tomorrow, I have family get togethers today and tomorrow, but I still wanted to do a quick post.

I love getting emails from family members with their memories that we can add to this blog. Recently I got the following email from John Wiggins that he said would be ok to share with you all:

Chris,

I just found out about your blog and I’ve spent the last hour or so taking a wonderful trip down memory lane as I have read and looked at the many wonderful things you have put on it. It is priceless!

I am the grandson of Delores, son of Keith (and brother of Lyle who I think you are acquainted with). I have many fond memories of Clifford and Lavell. They were always so good to my grandma. I used to love it when we would be sitting out on grandma’s porch on our weekly Sunday afternoon visit, and Lavell would come on over and visit with us. It was a real treat when Clifford would come too. I always really liked him. They were wonderful people, and always so kind to me.

When I was a teenager, my father wanted something to keep me busy one summer, so he had Clifford explain to him how to oil and graphite the wood shingles on a roof, and then he taught me. I spent much of the summer doing Delores’ roof and our roof (what a messy job!). When I was doing Delores’ roof, Clifford would come over and see that I was following directions and doing a good job. It always made me feel really good when he would give me his “mark of approval”.

Clifford taught my dad all about quality paint jobs, and I in turn learned from my Dad. I can’t paint a room now (or anything else, for that matter) without thinking of your grandpa Clifford.

Thank you so much for all you are doing to share the gold mine that you have been blessed with. I look forward to following your blog.

Sincerely,

John Wiggins


Here's my reply:

Hi John,

Thank you for joining the blog and your nice email. The Johnson/Hokanson blog is turning out to be a great blessing in disguise. I'm enjoying getting to know our extended family...people that I never knew existed.

I remember as a little kid I loved Great Aunt Dee. She was always so nice to me. On Sundays when we visited Grandma & Grandpa I'd try to sneak away and run over to her house. I'd knock on the door and stand there with my hand out.

She always had a smile and I think there was only once or twice where she didn't have any candy to give.

In terms of relation to the Johnsons & Hokansons I'm on the tail end of the family tree since I'm the second to last in my family. Grandpa Johnson died when I was 13 and Grandma died when I was 19, so I never got to know them really well.

I've enjoyed hearing your and Lyle's memories of your associations with them. It helps me get to know them better.

I'm so interested to learn more about the Hokanson Family. As I keep posting I would like to see more people from the extended family join and share their memories and thoughts about the family.

Thanks for you kind words, interest and support!

Chris Johnson


Memorial Day is about remembering our family both here and gone and I'm sure the family members we are discussing in this blog are thrilled we're still remembering them, talking about them, and love and miss them.

Thank you for the wonderful email and I appreciate your input and additions to this blog. Please encourage any of your family members that you think might be interested in this blog to join and contribute!

Have a very wonderful Memorial Day!

Chris

Clifford William Johnson Desk Private Journal 1957

By this point in time G-Gpa (William Oscar) Johnson had passed away on June 4th 1954 at 88 years old, so Grandpa (Cliff) was used to working alone.

Some entries in the last two journals show that G-Gpa was still doing some work well into his 80’s. Both of them had an incredible work ethic.

Some of Grandpa’s clients during this year include:

Ridges, Anderson, Southwick, Wallace Ellis, Frank Ellis, Hogle, A.H. Hollenback, Wolfers Store, Warner, Brown, Clark Rich, Fister, J. Silver, (Judy?) Pugmire, Davis, H. Peery, Doris, M. Pitts @ Ben Lomond Center, Allred, Bennett, Silvers, Morby, O.C. Hammond, Dr. Wilson Hales.

Several of the following entries peaked my curiosity:

Feb 9th (Sat) 1957: Grandpa worked for someone named “Southwick” and after putting in 52 hours of work over an 11 day period (plus a couple side jobs for other people) Grandpa went fishing in Mexico. (Note: I may have some slides from this trip, but we’ll see about that later.)

Mar 16th (Sun) to Mar. 23rd (Sat) 1957: Grandpa did 28 hours worth of work for someone in the “Hogle” family and I wonder if it was at the zoo.

I checked the zoo’s website and it said that from 1956 to 1962 the zoo underwent some expansions and additions. I wonder if Grandpa was involved with any of that during this week or if he was just working for a Hogle family member at their home or business.

















July 12th (Fri) to July 13th (Sat) 1957: Grandpa did 10 hours of work for “Chase Electric”.

Were Aunt Gwen and Montie Chase married during this time?


Many of the Journal entries are still dominated by the Eccles Family including:

Royal Eccles, Willard Eccles, Mrs. J. Eccles, and S.S. Eccles.

Aug 5th (Mon) to Oct 4th (Fri) 1957: Grandpa did a massive project for “Hammond” which took a total of 317 hours.

Sept 25th (Wed) to Dec 31st (Sat) 1957: During the tail end of his “Hammond” project Grandpa began working on projects for S.S. Eccles which took a total of 281 man hours including 5 that he worked on Christmas Eve.

Oct 3rd (Thurs) to Dec 14th (Sat) 1957: During this time Grandpa also did 36 hours worth of work for Willard Eccles. Many of the entries show Grandpa would work for S.S. Eccles for a number of hours in the morning and then go work several hours for Willard Eccles in the afternoon.

Clifford William Johnson (& W.O. Johnson) Dailyaide Journal 1950

I like the following signature in the front of the book by W.O. because it has the "& Son" part with it:























It seems they stuck by their slogan of "What is worth doing, is worth doing well." We can see that despite the fact it was four years since the last journal, W.O. and Grandpa (Cliff) were still doing business with many of the same clients:

Toby Larson, Arcadia, Lyman Pierce, Buckway, Lowell Ridges, W. Anderson, Shuback, Wolfers, Ridges, Frank Bartlett, Dr. W.H. Budge, Dr. Thompson, Dr. Fister, Jack Hilton, Clark Rich, C.A. Wright, L.T. Dee, Stone, Benning, L.S.P., Moesinger, Jack Felt, Shubach, Posnien, S.I. (or J.I.) Davis, Dr. R. Pugmire, Swanson Shoes, Dumke, Mountain States and Fister.

Throughout this year the Eccles family also gave W.O. Johnson & Son Painting a whole ton of business. Entries for Royal Eccles, Wm Eccles, Willard Eccles, S.S. Eccles and George Eccles dominate the book.

The pages for Jan 9th to Jan 16th are all torn out. I wonder what was on them.

















I thought this entry on July 6th 1950 was interesting because Aunt Gwen’s name really jumped out at me. It’s written really big and it’s clearly not in W.O.’s or Grandpa’s handwriting.

On the previous page it looks like someone was trying to write an “N” and got it wrong so they tried again on the next page. I bet its Dad’s (Glen's) handwriting.

Clifford William Johnson (& W.O. Johnson) Desk Private Journal 1946

In 1946 W.O. and Grandpa were already building their fortune as painters with the help of the Eccles family. There are numerous entries for jobs done for the Eccles family, including George Eccles, Royal Eccles, Spencer S. Eccles and Willard Eccles.

During this year W.O. and Grandpa also did jobs for:

Toby Larson, E.Z. Tjelstead (?), Felts, Ralph Gray, John Ira Davis, Dr. Nelson, Toby Larson, AT. Wolfer, Fletcher Scoweroft, Clark Rich, Vagabond Spop., L.T. Dee, Harm (?) Perry (or Peery), Dr. Budge, Mountain States Trailer, Laura Randall, Val Browning, Allred, Robert M. Hoggan, George Eisenberg, Globe Mills, LeRoy Rourng (?), G.S. (?) Wright, Arcodia, E.W. Fallentine, Arrids Shop, Larson Cabins, Pugmire, Mrs. Stone, W.H. Harris, O.C. Hammond, Fred M. Nye Co, Clark Rich, Lindquist Mortuary, Mamie Loughran, LeRoy Young, Dee Jenson, Gus Wright and Dr. Jenson.

Many of the entries are in W.O.’s handwriting.

Between the July 17th and July 18th entries I found this folded note from Grandma (Lavell) to Grandpa:

It reads:

Cliff

Come down & have breakfast
the whole bunch are down here.

See you
Lavell

It’s interesting to note that it’s on a “Hotel Utah” letterhead, which is now the “Joseph Smith Memorial Building”.

The back side of the paper has the header and date:
"P.D.C of A - Cobble Cottage Dec. 14  44" and has a list of names and other notes.

Between the Aug. 16th and Aug. 17th entries I found the following papers and receipts:

The first receipt is dated Aug. 14th 1943 and is made out to W.F. Reid, whose advertisement is stapled to the receipt.

The second receipt is dated June 12th 1946 to Grandpa.

New Big Project: Clifford William Johnson Journals

Hi Family,

I have several sizeable projects to tackle with getting all this family media posted and I'm ready to start working on one of the big ones.

I've inherited Grandpa (Cliff) Johnson's day planners for the following years:

1946, 1950, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983.

I've thumbed through many of them and most of the information deals with his work as a painter, however there are many interesting entries throughout many of the journals.

I've decided that rather than typing up every bit of information dealing with the details of his paint jobs and items purchased, etc., I will type up the entries and input scans of different pictures that I feel might be of some value to the family.

So I'll plug away at this project until we are through the whole thing.

Enjoy the upcoming entries!

Glen's Talk Notes From His Mom's (Lavell's) Funeral Oct. 19th, 1994

1. Summer 1941
2. Thank bloodline Mom, God - Have Dad Mom choose me
3. Told me I was adopted - I felt special
4. Gwen told about Santa - Mom comforted me    6 or 7
5. I wanted to be a girl - Stay home - cook, sew    6 or 7
6. Last spanking    6 or 7
7. Painted Dad's truck Marv, Scott, I (Mom noticed)    7 or 8
8. Kendal P. piano    8 or 9
9. Piano - Lay on bench "Deep Purple" - I don't hear you    9 or 10
10. Canada - Vacation - She cooked / Side ways movie camera
     11 yrs Birth Day
11. Teenager - Parties at house - Fun holsome (wholesome)
     games    13-19
12. She organized & started Cousins parties
13. I took Cadi (Cadillac) for joy ride (No driver's license) Mom
     kind    16
14. Mom encouraged & helped Dad - Never belittled him
     or found fault - Very supportive - Success Marriage
15. If angry with - No bad talk - Truly a good Wife
16. Thru thick / thin - Always hot meal
17. Diary - Elaine / Venna remember *
18. She always showed true Christ like love to others even if they
     treated her indifferently or unkindly & taught Gwen & me to do
     the same. Others could learn (from) her good example.

A Grand Lady, an exceptional wife & help-meet, and a loving & good Mother Mom - That is how "I remember Mother"

(Back Side Of Dad's Notes)

I love W.O.'s & Grandpa Johnson's old school designs and advertisements for their paint business.

May 9th, 2010 Mother's Day Posting

Hi Family,

I have family events planned for today, so I looked for something I could put up in a quick post, but I wanted to find something befitting Mother's Day.

I came across a loose piece of paper that I realized was Dad's (Glen's) notes about Grandma (Lavell) from a talk he gave at her funeral.

This list is special for several reasons, the first of which is it gives us a rare glimpse into Grandma & Grandpa's (Clifford's) marriage.

Before Dad passed away I began recording his history, but he died before we recorded many of the stories on this list, so if anyone out there has any additional details I'd love to hear them.

I know Dad mentions Marvin's name in his list of stories, so Marvin's memories on these subjects would be a rare treat.

I hope you all enjoy Dad feelings for and thoughts about his Mom in the few short sentences he wrote, and I hope you all have a happy Mother's Day.