Remember When From the Past--Peerless Cleaners

Remember When
Thursday, July 03,  2008
Kenna Holm

PEERLESS CLEANERS

    I remember thinking about the old Peerless Cleaners we had here in town.  I called Shirlene (Peery) Wood to ask her what she remembered about it because she was best friends with Gerry (Lunt) Snyder whose parents owned it.  She in turn called Gerry in Kanab and then Gerry called me.
We had such a fun time talking about the “good old days.’
    VerDel and Laska Lunt moved here from Cedar City where Del was a manager of a large laundry and cleaners.  They bought the business that was on about 165 West Utah Avenue from a Mr. and Mrs. Tiegen in 1941.
    The Lunt’s had three children who all helped with the business. They were Melvin, Patty, and Gerry.  Melvin lives in Levan and Patty who was married to LaVell Gasser has been deceased for many years.
    At that time, there was only one other cleaners in Payson and that was Hill’s Cleaners on Main Street.  The Lunts lived in the west side of the business. They had a kitchen, living room, and one bedroom upstairs and two downstairs.  In the basement was a room with the furnace in it and Del would have to go down and throw coal in so they would have steam for the cleaners.  There was also a room for the coal.
    The reception area was in the little front part on the east side.  The back room held two presses and the spotting table.  He built a shed out back that held the washers.
    Gerry said when she was in about the sixth grade (and I won’t say how long ago that was) they had a fire and all of the neighbors were running and helping them get the clothes out.  It only burned the downstairs but all of the clothes smelled like smoke.  Del did get burned in that fire.
Gerry remembers pants only costing 55 cents to clean (boy that would be nice now) and her dad used to pick up and deliver cleaning all over Santaquin, Eureka, Salem, and Payson. (Couldn’t  afford that these days with the price of gas)

    In 1953 they sold the business to Ronal and Zella Crump.  They had an office on the north side of the building and the cleaners on the East.  Zella always had geraniums in the windows.
    Zella and Ronal worked together with her doing the repairs and him doing the cleaning.  They had big irons they used to press with.
    In those days, it seemed like pleated skirts were all the rage and I guess they were not easy to press.  Ronnie remembers that often one of his sisters skirts would have to be repressed.
    They loved the business and made a sufficient livingwith it for nine years after which Ronal began working as a bookkeeper of Page’s in Spanish Fork.. He later worked for Payson City as the city recorder.  Zella worked and retired from First Security Bank.
    The shed that the Lunts had built out back had always held all of the old heavy equipment and other junk.  One year the police decided to render other services to the community that was above and beyond the call of duty.  They supported the beautification program in the city.  They launched a program to rid the town of old abandoned automobiles and such. They could get a whole whopping $5.00 for each car and different prices for other junk.  Money from these sales went
toward building a new police building.
    At that time, the Crumps had given up the cleaning business because of all the coin operated dry cleaning and wash and wear clothing that was becoming popular.   So the building and the contents were removed from the premises.
Now the Lunts and the Crumps are gone but isn’t it fun to remember when?

REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--PAYSON COCA COLA BOTTLING PLANT

Remember When...
June 26, 2008
by Kenna Holm

THE PAYSON COCA-COLA BOTTLING PLANT

    Thanks to you readers for all the kind comments on last week’s story on Sherm Loveless. He was certainly everyone’s friend. A few called and said they were maybe some of those people who still owed Sherm and forgot to pay him. I didn’t mean to make anyone feel guilty but I guess some consciences were touched.   Anyway--thanks for the compliments.
    This week I thought about the old Coca Cola Plant that used to be in Payson. Maybe some didn’t know we had a bottling plant here in Payson at one time. It was at 63 South 300 West, across the street from Jack Provstgaard’s. That’s were I remember it first. Harry Webster was the manager and I think owner of the plant.

    I called Roger Jensen to pick his brain because I knew his dad, Karl, had worked for so many years at the plant and he gave me some fun history of it.
I didn’t realize they had so many workers at the plant but Roger told me of several. There was, Monte Taylor and his brother Dick, Glade Taylor, Paul Bigler, Irvin Reynolds and his son Darrell, Jack Walker, and Bernell Evans. Now there were probably others but that is a few workers Roger could remember.
    He said Paul Bigler was one who sold and delivered, Bernell Evans (Payson former Mayor) used to load trucks and he had a route he drove. Most of them worked in the plant bottling the products.

   In 1955 they moved a Quonset hut in from Orem.  It was a big Yellow building. They used to laugh and say You wonder where the yellow went-- (remember that old Pepsodent toothpaste advertisement --You wonder where the yellow went--when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent) well, they said--the yellow went to Payson. It was painted after a while.
    The Coca Cola Plant also produced Big Chief orange soda, cream soda and root beer along with Cokes. They were a nickel a bottle or if you bought a full case of 24 it was one dollar. (now you can’t buy one for much less that a dollar) The bottles were small, I think they were 6 or 8 oz. The bottles were different shapes and they had a worker sort the bottles into shapes and of course they were glass bottles, plastic bottles and cans were unheard of. There was a man who they called the soaker who would place the bottles upside down in a washer and the bottles would be washed and sterilized. They would then go on to be put on a belt and filled with the product and capped. Workers would pull 4 at a time, two in each hand, and place them in a box that was tilted and made it so the inspector could make sure there was nothing foreign in the bottle before it was placed in the shell, as the case was called then.
    The cases were stacked and workers would load the truck and then they were delivered all over Utah and Juab Counties..
    Roger said he remembered how they would use lots of sugar, water, coke syrup and caramel color for the Cokes and they would put dry ice in the tanks with a lid on for the carbonation in the drinks.
    The old plant on 300 west was sold to Arnold Kallbacka for his sign business and the plant was moved to 500 east and 100 North, just west of the Peteetneet.
Harry Webster was killed in a tragic car accident in 1963 and it left his widow, Arvella, who was a RN at the Payson Hospital, to run the business. She finally sold the plant and it ended the life of the Payson Coca Cola Plant.
    The building went on to house the Bedowin Boat Plant where they built boats and was owned by Stan Peck and now is an Auto Supply and repair store.
I’m sure there are lots of people who have memories of the old Coke Plant and it has been fun to look back and remember when....

FOOTNOTE:
 The following is quoted from “Peteetneet–A History of Payson, Utah” by
Madoline Cloward Dixon, p 131.

“The Eagle Bottling Works was established in1912 by Roe Manwill and a Mr. Messner.  It was located at 325 North Third East in a building constructed in the 1860's as the Curtis School House.  Twenty-four cases of soda pop could be filled every four minutes. Delivery was made to communities in Utah and Juab Counties.
The Payson Bottling Works was established in 1917 in the old Taylor school house, but shortly moved to 98 West Utah Avenue, then, about 1920, to a new building located at 63 South Third West by owners , L. Roy Barnett, and his brothers, Owen L. and George Barnett.
They sold to David C. Forsey and his brothers who operated the plant until 1938 when they sold to Southern Utah Coca-Cola company.  In 1951 Coca-Cola moved its offices from Richfield to Payson and Harry Webster purchased the plant.”

PAYSON–THE FIRST 100 YEARS Part 27–Henry Erlandson–25th Mayor

HIGHWAY 91 CHANGED TO FIRST WEST

    “In 1933,  Henry Erlandson was again elected as the 25th  mayor, taking office January, 1934. He had previously served as the 19th mayor  in 1918.  Seeing the necessity of a larger storage space for culinary water, Mayor Erlandson designed and supervised, with W.P.A. help, the construction of an additional covered tank or reservoir at the intake of the City Water works at the mouth of Payson Canyon.
    A sidewalk was paved on the east side of Main Street from Memorial Park to the High School on 6th South. The park was enlarged to include the square on the east. This piece of ground belonged to the city. A swimming pool was constructed in this area.
    Because Main Street was so narrow, it was thought advisable to make Highway 91 through Payson on First West starting at First North. The contract for this highway was accepted April 13, 1935, and work commenced immediately.” *

*Quoted from “The Payson Story” page 23,  published by the Payson Centennial Committee, October 1950

Historic Payson Photso--Candle and Carol Services

THE CANDLE AND CAROL SERVICES

The first Candle and Carol Services was presented in December 1932 in the gym of the Payson Junior High School School that was located on South Main across the street from Payson Memorial Park.  All of the students, teachers, and building personnel participated.  The colorful presentation was staged annually until 1969, when the junior high classes were moved to the old high school building at 600 South Main.
The gym was decorated for the religious holiday.  Between number sung by the students there were numerous religious tableaus were presented as part of the production.  Many of our older generation look back fondly on those simpler times in our history.  Sad to say, with the political correctness the world seems to be stressing today,  these times could never come to pass it todays world.

REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--SHERM'S MENS APPERAL

Remember When
Thursday, June 19 2008
Kenna Holm 

SHERMS’ MEN’S APPAREL—SHERM LOVELESS

    Today I was thinking about Sherm Loveless andhis wonderful Men’s Store he had on Main Street. I called his daughter, Pat Hill, and we had some good laughs about her dad and his friends.
    Sherm worked at Coray and Pickering Furniture Store for a long time and then he bought the building that housed the Lant and Persson Clothiers and it became Sherm’s Mens Apparel.
    Sherm had his own band and he played at all the school dances so he was best buddies with all the high school kids. They loved coming in and just shooting the breeze with him.
He played the saxophone in his band along with a lot of other talented guys. Ardella Burdick (mother of Brent Burdick, former City Councilman) sang with the band. She had a beautiful voice. Sherm’s wife would go and set on the sidelines while Sherm and the band played. She was a good woman and always supported Sherm.
    Sherm had a table set up in his back room at the store where he and his old buddies, Selby Dixon, Dutch Draper, Roy Bills, Monte Taylor, Dick Peery would play dominoes everyday.
One day Monte and Dick played ajokeon Shermby sneaking in his back door while he was busy with a customer and lifted his cash register and took it in the back room and hid it in some boxes. Poor Sherm was frantic when he couldn't find his moneyand ofcourse everyone looked innocent. He called the police and then finally Monte and Dick confessed they had played the joke on him and of course Sherm just laughed right along with them.
    His son Brent told one story about how he had been down to the library on Utah Ave and Main (the old old library) and he was on his bike and came up to his dad’s store and put the bike against the window and the window broke. Boy,  Brent thought he had had it but his dad didn t say a thing. Brent said He was just a kind-kind man What a tribute to his dad.
    Sherm used to let Brent and his friends climb up on the roof to watch the parade on Onion Days.
    When Pat would go up to help her dad when her kids were little, he had a play pen in the back  room  for her so she could take the babies and they had somewhere to play and sleep.
 I don t know how many remember old Roy Kitchen but he used to come by everyday to Sherm s and Sherm would give him 50 cents to go buy a drink or what ever. He was so kind to everyone and especially those who had problems.
    Les Bennett use to do all of Sherm’s deliveries and one day he had little packs of peanuts that he stuffed in between the pants and shirts and when Sherm went to show someone some of the merchandise, there were the peanuts. I m not sure how long it took him to find all of them but I m sure he laughed as loud and hard as anyone he told the story to.
    Sherm belonged to the Fire Department and it was his passion. At that time, (before beepers) he had a fire phone in his store and when someone would call in about a fire, he would just run out the back door over to the station. It didn t matter if there were people in thereorwhat.He never locked a doorbut Lynn Page was good to watch the front of the store when he heard the siren go off. (Wouldn t it be fun to have that kind of trust now days)
    In 1971, he sold the store to Dr. Dutson and he remodeled it and his son in law, Charlie Ringger managed it and it was called Charles IV.
    Sherm went to work as a bailiff for the county after he closed the store and loved it.
Pat told me that after her father died, her brother Brent was going over the old books from Sherm’s Mens Apparel and there were thousands of dollars out on the books that was never collected. Sherm would never send a bill, he just trusted everyone.
Oh how much fun to look back and remember when..

Historic Payson Photos--Payson Co-operative Mercantile

The Payson C0-operative Mercantile was located at 103 North Main where we find the Wagon Wheel Park today.  "Holiness to the Lord" was printed over the doorway in a semi-circle around the "all-seeing eye." The Union Hall was located to the rear.  To the left is the post office and the Tin Shop.

Remember When From the Past--Old Payson Junior High School

Remember When
Thursday, June 12,  2008
Kenna Holm  


OLD PAYSON JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

    I keep thinking about the old Payson Jr High/Middle School and them tearing it down to make way for a new church building and I keep remembering all the fun times we had there way back when.
    To me, it will always be the old Jr. High. The first time I went there, I was in the 5th Grade and they put two 5th grades in the north end of the building. Apparently there was not room at the Taylor School for us. I don’t remember the reason. But we did stay in our part of the building and was not allowed to go up in the other area where the mighty Jr. High students were.
    Then when we got to be 7th graders, boy we thought we were something now. We were old enough to have several teachers and change classes every hour. That was a big change for us, after staying in one class with one teacher all day in grade school.
    I remember my first home room teacher was Dean Simmons. Our Principal was Reed Jones. Helen Scott was the secretary of the school. (but that was before she was married)
    In the school was the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. We had a nice library and Miss Page was the librarian. The teachers I recall were: Dean Simmons, Huish Moore, Heber Curtis, Crista Olson Amos, Howard Holladay, Miss Jewell (who taught homemaking I believe) Miss Taylor (who taught P.E. and Health), Vernon Finch, John Olson, Myrl Lindsay Anderson and probably more I can’t recall.
    There weren’t too many class rooms like there are today in the schools. We did not have seminary like they do now in junior high. We had a rather small gymnasium with a balcony all around three sides. We had the Wilson Theater in the north end of the upstairs where we put on plays and had some activities.
    Miss Jewell taught Homemaking and our first object we made was always an apron. Whoopee!  Then later on we ventured to other things. As I recall we had a Mother/Daughter Tea and fashion show. And of course there was the famous Candle and Carol Services at Christmas time. Those just seemed to set the mood for the Christmas Holiday. It s to bad they stopped having those. They were very memorable.

   We didn’t have a lunchroom in the school. We had to go over to the other building to the south of the school. That was the old, old, Central School. The band room was in the upstairs where those who took band went and the down stairs was the lunch room. In those days, every kid took hot lunch. But in those days, it was homemade food, not this frozen and sent in things they have now. I remember the wonderful hot rolls and cakes and all the good things they had. My favorite was probably chile because my mom never made it and I loved it.
    We had those beautiful (?) green one piece gym suits. They were so ugly and never fit decent. We would pull the legs down and tuck them under so theywould at least look like we had some kind of shape.
    In those days, we never had field trips like they do today. We played games outside on the grass and down the hill. There was a staircase outside the gym room we would run down and out onto the field.
    Everyone used to laugh at Mr. Curtis because he would go to sleep in class. Miss Olson (Crista Amos) would hum and skip around the room. She was a hoot. I took art from her and I loved her. Miss Taylor taught gym and she was so pretty. She got engaged while she taught there.
I’m sad to think of them tearing that building down but it s fun to remember when...

TAYLOR AND PETEETNEET MEMORIES

Remember When
Thursday, 15 May 2008
Kenna Holm

TAYLOR AND PETEETNEET MEMORIES
 

  I’ve been thinking about when I was in grade school. As you can see from the pictures, we just had group pictures, no individual ones. There were only 2 elementary schools here in town, Taylor and Peteetneet. Now, these two schools were bitter rivals, kind of like Payson and Spanish Fork.
    I never went into Peteetneet while I was in grade school so I had to call someone who had.  I chose to call Duane Haskell who Iwent to Jr. High and High School after he got out of Peteetneet. (Smart guy. I always sat behind him in all our classes in Jr High and High School because they would set us alphabetically and he being Haskell and me Heaps, we sat by each other in a lot of classes)

   At that time there was no addition to the north of the Peteetneet. It was just dirt, rocks, weeds, and sage. Their playground was the vast square . They played marbles, baseball, hop scotch, jump the rope and all sports on the square . There was rows of trees that was the east and south boundaries. There was a little bit of grass along those sides. There was no bowl and grass like there is today.
    Duane remembers Garth Olson was the principal and also taught 6th grade. Those were the days when they did double duty, principal and teach.
    In the school, the lunch room was in the basement next to the furnace room. Any programs or assemblies were held in the center of the school where there is 4 stair cases. The mighty 6th graders would get to set on chairs in the hall way and the kindergarten kids sat on the floor and the other grades would set on the stairs to watch the programs. FUN.
 

  Now the Taylor School was really neat. (As I remember it). We had a grassy play area, besides we could go across the street and play on the old Hospital lawn (which is now the City Center). We had a nice baseball diamond to the west of the school and I remember when I was in the sixth grade challenging the Peteetneet sixth grade girls to a baseball game. I don t remember who won but it was fun. I played first base and Jeri Taylor (Brimhall) played pitch, and I can’t remember who else but we had a good team. I do remember Sharon Elmer (Lindley), Linda Peery (Spencer), Ann Staheli and a few others that were on Peteetneet’s team and they were also good.
We also ate lunch in the basement of the building. I think we paid either 10 or 15 cents for our lunch and I loved hot lunch. And when we got to the sixth grade we got to take turns helping in the kitchen.
    We had a lot of good times at that school and of course this was all before they added on in 1949 and then tore it down a few years ago to make the new Taylor Elementary School.
Some of the teachers we had then were, Mr. Wall, Mrs. Jeppson, Mrs. Hill, Mr. Davis, Mrs. McCellan, Mrs. Cloward, and Martha Tanner substituted at both schools.
    Peteetneet had Mr. Olson, Miss. Loveless Mrs. Spackman (later Warner). That's the ones we remember.
    It feels like just yesterday we were there but now we have great grandkids who went  there but it is so fun to remember when...

Payson--The First 100 Years-Dr. Asa L. Curtis--24th Mayor

PAYSON–THE FIRST 100 YEARS
Part 26–Dr. Asa L Curtis–24th Mayor
Payson Historical Society

DRY LAKE RESERVOIR BUILT — SCHOOL LUNCHES STARTED

    “Dr. Asa L. Curtis took oath of office as the 24th Mayor of the city on January 4, 1932. The State Bank of Payson closed its doors the day before, January 3. This left Payson without a bank and the people with very little money.
    The Goosenest Reservoir being under construction, Mayor Curtis and the council went on with it and completed the project. The McClellan, Box and Big Reservoirs were improved and enlarged. This tripled their storage capacity. Dry Lake was made into a reservoir. The supply of water was increased in the storage tank for culinary water.
    With the aid of the C. C. C. the canyon road was improved. A road was built up right hand fork. A recreational area was built. Stoves and tables were built at Camp sites. This increased the usability of the canyon for picnics and camping.
    The gathering of dry garbage was started. It was gathered once a month from March until November. This proved so successful that a wet garbage route was commenced.
    Through the Lady Lions and W. P. A. the school lunches were started. They were at first prepared in the basement of the I.O.O.F. Building and then taken to the different schools and distributed at noon. The lunches are now prepared at the school, the school district in charge. A small amount is charged for the students.
    December 1932 the Junior High presented the first Candle and Carol Service.  From that time until now it has become an annual event. The entire student body all faculty members, the janitor, engineers participated, making it an outstanding Christmas production. Through song and tableaus the birth of the Savior is portrayed.
    According to the minutes of the City Council the tennis courts at the west side park were lighted July 17, 1933. The ball park and race track were improved, some lights were installed and more bleachers erected.’*

*Quoted from “The Payson Story” page 22-23,  published by the Payson Centennial Committee, October 1950