In order to progress in this fast moving world you need many things, education, a good job, good pay, responsibility, a good wife, children and ultimately a good home. The above mentioned group of words has helped me tremendously. As you say them they will mean many things to many different people, depending upon his or her frame of mind and occupation. I use this simple saying whenever a major decision or problem comes up.
To me it means:
Take a Deep Seat: = A long look at the problem. Don’t be a quitter – “No, I can’t do that” is not in your vocabulary – “No, I won’t do this” is.
Think a Good Thought: = Be positive – don’t allow the negative to enter into your thoughts. Search for truth; The Good Life… The 13th Article of Faith = “We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul – we believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.”
Neighbor: = In everything we do there will always be a neighbor whether he is sitting beside you or living next door. What you do will directly affect his thinking of you, your family, and your belief. Remember, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.
BEST OF LUCK IN LIFE
Art Smithee
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Arthur J Smithee Sr.
By His loving wife, Ginger
Born 12-2-34
Parents – JC Smithee & Pauline Francis Kerby Smithee
Place of Birth – Pima, Graham, Arizona
Arthur’s mother was 17 years old and his dad was 24 when he was born. She had a very difficult time bringing him into this world. He was born in his Grandmother Kerby’s home. Grandpa Kerby was by her side holding her hand, encouraging her to keep trying. Arthur was a very colicky baby yet he was a very good baby too.
I can only write the things I remember Pauline and Arthur telling me about Arthur thru the years of our married life, which is no way near being a complete history or even come close to it.
When he was in first grade they moved so many times Arthur attended six different schools in California. His father worked on construction jobs that kept them moving from place to place.
In the summer between first and second grade JC moved the family, then consisting of two sisters, Arlene & Ardith and a baby brother Larry, to Farmington, New Mexico. JC’s mother, step father & families, three married sisters, their families and a younger brother, Littleton, who was crippled, lived there. Arthur’s mother would not move in with them and she & JC had very little money (less than $10.00). JC found a place to move his little family into. An abandoned chicken coop! Pauline had to take down the boards the chickens would roost on, shovel out the chicken manure and scrub it down with lye water & soap, then she wall papered, so the cracks would be covered, with black tar paper they used for roofing. The coop had on small window. They had two beds, a table & two chairs & a propane camp stove to cook on. JC found another job away from Farmington, but Pauline refused to move again even though it meant having to stay in the chicken coop. she was so ashamed of where she lived she would not let her little children outside to play, except at night, then she would take them behind the coop & hold a flashlight until they got tired enough to go to bed. They had to use the bushes for a bathroom and once a week she would take them in town to Grandma’s for a bath.
The summer in Farmington would sometimes reach into the 100-115 degrees. Can you imagine how hot that chicken coop, with one small window & one small door on the same wall, would get on those days? They lived there from early spring, beginning of March until September when just before school started they moved into a house in town which was a mansion compared to the “c. coop”. The house was a pink stucco 4 room house with 2 bedrooms, living room & kitchen, and a yard that was dirt, no grass.
Arthur started third grade here & got to ride a bus. But alas the mansion didn’t last long (2 months). They moved to a farm house in Aztec. JC bought a 5 acre piece of land that was divided into 3 lots. On the middle lot he put 2 structures, 12’ by 3’ high, of lumber. On these structures he put tents with a center pole, like a circus tent, secured them around the bottom by nailing them with strips of wood to the 3’ high lumber. The weeds were cleared but the floors were still dirt. They wet them & rolled them until it became very hard. They dug a hole & built an “outhouse” & brought electricity to the 2 tents. They had to haul their water in 55 gallon barrels. After a couple of months and before the snow came JC put down a wood floor, no insulation. Arthur was 9 years old when they moved here. JC was still gone a lot so Arthur helped his mother with all the responsibilities of keeping a home and taking care of his brother & sisters.
Remember, these few years are in the very early 1940’s during the depression & WWII. Things were very hard to come by. They had very few toys so they made what ever they could to play with. One of Arthur’s favorite things to play with was a coke bottle with leather thongs tied around it & a plastic horse, he would pull the coke bottle like a wagon on roads he made in the dirt, another was a boy ragdoll, but he wouldn’t let any of his friends see him with it.
When Arthur was 11 years old a lumber yard, close to their tent home, burned down and Arthur & his mother hauled enough usable lumber from there on a bed wagon and the two of them built a two bedroom house, with no foundation or plumbing, in front of the tent houses. They almost had it finished when JC came home from another out of town job, and plumbed it and put electricity in it & finished it, but still no inside bathroom. This was in 1945. They lived in that house until four years after Arthur was married in 1957.
When Arthur was twelve he got a paper route to help the family with finances & some spending money too. JC was in town for longer periods of time now also. Also by this time there was another baby sister, Joyce Carol, Arthur absolutely adored. He would come home from school, put Joyce in a make shift back pack made out of a gunny sack with two holes cut in the bottom to put her legs thru & hook it over his shoulders some how, then put his papers in a canvas bag over the handlebars & off he would go to deliver his papers. He said this gave his mother time to do something without having to tend a baby. On days he would collect for the paper he would always stop at the bakery and get his mother a small 4” Boston cream cake, bring it home, hide it, so she could eat it after the smaller children were asleep. Most of the time she would share it with him. When she told me this she said she never had the heart to tell him she really didn’t like them. So as long as he had the paper route this was a tradition. Arthur had the paper route until he was 16 years old when sports took too much of this time. However, he did so well with his paper route that he was one of 10 boys in the whole state of New Mexico to win a paid trip to White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico. The whole family went. The first real vacation they had ever had.
During the time the family was hauling water, Arthur told me they would take a wagon pulled by horses to a well that was out in the hills, who it belonged to he never said, that I recall, but they would put Uncle Littleton, who was crippled, in the wagon & he & Arthur would shoot cottontail rabbits, take them home & have them for dinner
After the family moved into the house, they would go to Pima, Arizona each summer to visit Grandma & Grandpa Kerby. While there, Arthur tells of he & his cousins, Willy Kay & Billie Fay, floating down a large ditch on inner tubes. Part of that ditch went thru an underground tunnel for about ½ mile, it was really scary because it was so close they would have to get out of the tube & put their head up in the center & their arms under & around the tube to hang on & float thru in total darkness, Arthur was always glad to see that day light at the other end.
When Arthur started Jr. High he became interested in sports, which became the love of his life. (Until he got married that is!)
During his Jr. High (7th & 8th grade) years he grew to be 6’ tall and did well in basketball, football & track also his grades were not outstanding but average.
In High School beginning in 9th grade, Arthur was very popular, even with his teachers. He rode a moped his freshman & sophomore years, had sports after school & worked with his dad, who at this time owned a ditching company, on weekends when he was at a state championship meet in Albuquerque the coach told them not to eat anything after an hour before the practice time which was an hour before the meet was to begin, well he loved Mexican food, tamales especially. He and a couple of team mates were walking up Central Avenue towards the High School when what do they see but a street vender selling tamales. His buddies told him not to, but he HAD to have just one, well one turned into two. Practice was great, he felt good & was running faster than the day before. Today he was running the 440 & 880 relays. Arthur was anchor man for both events. 440 Farmington won! 880 coming up, 4 runners ready to go & in place. Third man passes baton to Arthur, he’s going great with an Indian boy named Bahey close behind. Oh! Oh! What’s this? The taste of tamales! Bahey wins the race. Arthur was back a ways getting rid of the 2 tamales along side the track. Needless to say he never did live that down. Farmington came in 3rd overall for the whole tournament. That was the last time he ever messed up in sports. As far as track goes, Arthur held the high school high jump record for the school until ten years after he graduated. Arthur was always in the starting line up in both basketball & football. In basketball he played center & forward, football his position was right end & his number was 77. When Arthur was a sophomore he was playing a basketball game and started down court, the next thing he knew he was on the floor holding his side that has hurting so bad he could hardly breathe. Within an hour he was in the operating room with a ruptured appendix. It didn’t take long however till he was well & back on the court.
He had three scholarship offers for football when he graduated, one to S.M.U. in Texas, one to New Mexico (Albuquerque), and one to Denver University in Colorado (he accepted Denver)
In the summer between his junior and senior year he bought a 1942 Dodge Coup, faded red in color, called it his “Little Red Wagon”. This is also the summer he started dating Ginger Pace, June 1952.
By His loving wife, Ginger
Born 12-2-34
Parents – JC Smithee & Pauline Francis Kerby Smithee
Place of Birth – Pima, Graham, Arizona
Arthur’s mother was 17 years old and his dad was 24 when he was born. She had a very difficult time bringing him into this world. He was born in his Grandmother Kerby’s home. Grandpa Kerby was by her side holding her hand, encouraging her to keep trying. Arthur was a very colicky baby yet he was a very good baby too.
I can only write the things I remember Pauline and Arthur telling me about Arthur thru the years of our married life, which is no way near being a complete history or even come close to it.
When he was in first grade they moved so many times Arthur attended six different schools in California. His father worked on construction jobs that kept them moving from place to place.
In the summer between first and second grade JC moved the family, then consisting of two sisters, Arlene & Ardith and a baby brother Larry, to Farmington, New Mexico. JC’s mother, step father & families, three married sisters, their families and a younger brother, Littleton, who was crippled, lived there. Arthur’s mother would not move in with them and she & JC had very little money (less than $10.00). JC found a place to move his little family into. An abandoned chicken coop! Pauline had to take down the boards the chickens would roost on, shovel out the chicken manure and scrub it down with lye water & soap, then she wall papered, so the cracks would be covered, with black tar paper they used for roofing. The coop had on small window. They had two beds, a table & two chairs & a propane camp stove to cook on. JC found another job away from Farmington, but Pauline refused to move again even though it meant having to stay in the chicken coop. she was so ashamed of where she lived she would not let her little children outside to play, except at night, then she would take them behind the coop & hold a flashlight until they got tired enough to go to bed. They had to use the bushes for a bathroom and once a week she would take them in town to Grandma’s for a bath.
The summer in Farmington would sometimes reach into the 100-115 degrees. Can you imagine how hot that chicken coop, with one small window & one small door on the same wall, would get on those days? They lived there from early spring, beginning of March until September when just before school started they moved into a house in town which was a mansion compared to the “c. coop”. The house was a pink stucco 4 room house with 2 bedrooms, living room & kitchen, and a yard that was dirt, no grass.
Arthur started third grade here & got to ride a bus. But alas the mansion didn’t last long (2 months). They moved to a farm house in Aztec. JC bought a 5 acre piece of land that was divided into 3 lots. On the middle lot he put 2 structures, 12’ by 3’ high, of lumber. On these structures he put tents with a center pole, like a circus tent, secured them around the bottom by nailing them with strips of wood to the 3’ high lumber. The weeds were cleared but the floors were still dirt. They wet them & rolled them until it became very hard. They dug a hole & built an “outhouse” & brought electricity to the 2 tents. They had to haul their water in 55 gallon barrels. After a couple of months and before the snow came JC put down a wood floor, no insulation. Arthur was 9 years old when they moved here. JC was still gone a lot so Arthur helped his mother with all the responsibilities of keeping a home and taking care of his brother & sisters.
Remember, these few years are in the very early 1940’s during the depression & WWII. Things were very hard to come by. They had very few toys so they made what ever they could to play with. One of Arthur’s favorite things to play with was a coke bottle with leather thongs tied around it & a plastic horse, he would pull the coke bottle like a wagon on roads he made in the dirt, another was a boy ragdoll, but he wouldn’t let any of his friends see him with it.
When Arthur was 11 years old a lumber yard, close to their tent home, burned down and Arthur & his mother hauled enough usable lumber from there on a bed wagon and the two of them built a two bedroom house, with no foundation or plumbing, in front of the tent houses. They almost had it finished when JC came home from another out of town job, and plumbed it and put electricity in it & finished it, but still no inside bathroom. This was in 1945. They lived in that house until four years after Arthur was married in 1957.
When Arthur was twelve he got a paper route to help the family with finances & some spending money too. JC was in town for longer periods of time now also. Also by this time there was another baby sister, Joyce Carol, Arthur absolutely adored. He would come home from school, put Joyce in a make shift back pack made out of a gunny sack with two holes cut in the bottom to put her legs thru & hook it over his shoulders some how, then put his papers in a canvas bag over the handlebars & off he would go to deliver his papers. He said this gave his mother time to do something without having to tend a baby. On days he would collect for the paper he would always stop at the bakery and get his mother a small 4” Boston cream cake, bring it home, hide it, so she could eat it after the smaller children were asleep. Most of the time she would share it with him. When she told me this she said she never had the heart to tell him she really didn’t like them. So as long as he had the paper route this was a tradition. Arthur had the paper route until he was 16 years old when sports took too much of this time. However, he did so well with his paper route that he was one of 10 boys in the whole state of New Mexico to win a paid trip to White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico. The whole family went. The first real vacation they had ever had.
During the time the family was hauling water, Arthur told me they would take a wagon pulled by horses to a well that was out in the hills, who it belonged to he never said, that I recall, but they would put Uncle Littleton, who was crippled, in the wagon & he & Arthur would shoot cottontail rabbits, take them home & have them for dinner
After the family moved into the house, they would go to Pima, Arizona each summer to visit Grandma & Grandpa Kerby. While there, Arthur tells of he & his cousins, Willy Kay & Billie Fay, floating down a large ditch on inner tubes. Part of that ditch went thru an underground tunnel for about ½ mile, it was really scary because it was so close they would have to get out of the tube & put their head up in the center & their arms under & around the tube to hang on & float thru in total darkness, Arthur was always glad to see that day light at the other end.
When Arthur started Jr. High he became interested in sports, which became the love of his life. (Until he got married that is!)
During his Jr. High (7th & 8th grade) years he grew to be 6’ tall and did well in basketball, football & track also his grades were not outstanding but average.
In High School beginning in 9th grade, Arthur was very popular, even with his teachers. He rode a moped his freshman & sophomore years, had sports after school & worked with his dad, who at this time owned a ditching company, on weekends when he was at a state championship meet in Albuquerque the coach told them not to eat anything after an hour before the practice time which was an hour before the meet was to begin, well he loved Mexican food, tamales especially. He and a couple of team mates were walking up Central Avenue towards the High School when what do they see but a street vender selling tamales. His buddies told him not to, but he HAD to have just one, well one turned into two. Practice was great, he felt good & was running faster than the day before. Today he was running the 440 & 880 relays. Arthur was anchor man for both events. 440 Farmington won! 880 coming up, 4 runners ready to go & in place. Third man passes baton to Arthur, he’s going great with an Indian boy named Bahey close behind. Oh! Oh! What’s this? The taste of tamales! Bahey wins the race. Arthur was back a ways getting rid of the 2 tamales along side the track. Needless to say he never did live that down. Farmington came in 3rd overall for the whole tournament. That was the last time he ever messed up in sports. As far as track goes, Arthur held the high school high jump record for the school until ten years after he graduated. Arthur was always in the starting line up in both basketball & football. In basketball he played center & forward, football his position was right end & his number was 77. When Arthur was a sophomore he was playing a basketball game and started down court, the next thing he knew he was on the floor holding his side that has hurting so bad he could hardly breathe. Within an hour he was in the operating room with a ruptured appendix. It didn’t take long however till he was well & back on the court.
He had three scholarship offers for football when he graduated, one to S.M.U. in Texas, one to New Mexico (Albuquerque), and one to Denver University in Colorado (he accepted Denver)
In the summer between his junior and senior year he bought a 1942 Dodge Coup, faded red in color, called it his “Little Red Wagon”. This is also the summer he started dating Ginger Pace, June 1952.
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