Grace Emily Astle Frank A Life History Told In Her Own Words

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Dad planted bush beans and Pearl, Elva, and I had to pick them. They were then sold to a canning factory in Smithfield. I sure hated that job. Dad also raised strawberries and raspberries. He hired some girls to help pick them. We got one cent a cup for picking the strawberries. We started picking early in the morning as soon as it was light. We picked until about 11 o'clock. The berries were sold for 40 cents a case.

When I was in the seventh and eighth grades, I picked strawberries, raspberries, apples, peaches, and apricots for Joe Baer. I got 3-4 cents a bushel for picking apples and 10 cents for peaches and apricots. It kept us busy to pick 50-60 bushels in a day. We had to pick the trees real good and not break any limbs either. Lots of us girls picked fruit to earn a little money.

Grace Emily Astle

I thinned beets and also topped them for my dad. Of course, I had to weed them too. I helped in the hay also.

I went roller skating in the pavilion on Main Street in Providence. People from all over the valley came there to skate. We also skated on the sidewalks, from first east to second west, during recess when I was in Providence Elementary. That was the only place that there were cement sidewalks.

On the last day of school when I was in the eighth grade, we all took a lunch and walked to the springs, about three miles up Providence Canyon. Our teacher went with us. All of us girls and boys that were the same age had fun together. I had a lot of fun growing up without spending a lot of money.

There were picture shows in the old pavilion on Main Street. The actors would talk while in the pictures but we had to read on the screen what they said. They also had real people in shows on the stage.

Dad built a chicken coop and raised about 500 chickens. I fed chickens and cleaned eggs all of the time I was in high school.

Dad bought two pair of silver foxes. They cost $2,000 a pair. I then helped build pens for them. We built a fence around approximately eight acres of ground. The fence was six or eight feet high with an overhang along the top so the foxes couldn't climb the fence and get out. There were small interior fenced pens built for the foxes to live in inside the main fenced area. Soon babies were born so this increased the number of foxes. When the foxes were about two years old, they were killed and skinned for their furs. My dad made good money for a few years but then he sold all of the foxes. The fences were torn down and the land was planted into beans and raspberries again.

I went to South Cache High School for four years. I went to dances and ball games. South Cache boys played basketball and football with North Cache, Preston, and Logan High. We generally had a good team.

Carma Checketts, Millie Renner, Wanda Mathews, and myself went to the dances in Logan every Saturday night when we were in high school until we started to date. Lee Checketts took all of us.

I graduated from South Cache in 1930. About 80 students graduated that year.

I cleaned house, etc. for a lady up by the college for a couple of months for $1.50 a day. I rode the train to Logan then walked eight blocks to work, then caught the train back to Providence again. It cost me 20 cents a day to ride the train.

I then got a job at the Utah Poultry for $2.00 a day so I earned $12.00 a week. I rode with Lorin Renner to work. He would not let me pay for the ride because he was going anyway. I worked at the Poultry until I got married. Seth also worked at the Poultry to keep an eye on me so I wouldn't fool around at noon with other fellows who worked there.

The boys played basketball with other teams in the valley at the pavilion in Providence. Seth played with Providence First Ward. They won most of the games. He also played baseball in the spring and fall with other wards.

Seth and Grace Frank

I started to go with Seth Frank, off and on, in the summer of 1930. He had a brand new 1930 Ford Sedan. We had a lot of fun going to dances, shows, Salt Lake City, and Bear Lake. In 1931 we went steady.

Seth asked me to marry him on my front porch. He gave me a ruby ring for an engagement ring. That is what I wanted. We were engaged for about one year.

On April 16, 1932, we were married in Farmington, Utah. We stayed overnight in a hotel in Salt Lake City. We then went back to Logan and stayed in an apartment on Center Street for a month. The rent was $50 a month. We then went to Providence and painted the old Fife home on first west and first north and lived there for a few months.

Seth and I were sealed to each other, along with all of our kids, in the Logan Temple on March 23, 1949. Our witnesses were my dad, John F. Astle, and Fred Jensen, brother-in-law (Seth's sister Luella's husband).

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