Idaho, Childhood Days, Sugar City

These pictures were taken in the late 50's or early 60's and show how things looked when I was a child and in elementary school. This is how "my Sugar City" looked before my family's move to Arizona in November of 1964.

This is my childhood home located southwest of Sugar City on the farm which my grandfather, George Ostler, had farmed and which my grandmother's mother's family had farmed. The farms surrounding my father's (purchased from his father) were the farms of his aunts and uncles and my great aunts and uncles.

This is the west side of the house and the windows overlooked the barns and sheds. The main part of the house was a log home to which additions were added. My grandmother used to tell me that it was the first log cabin on the north side of the North Fork of the Snake River. The benefit of those logs was insulation; cool in summer and warm in winter.

Left to right: An enclosed porch with storage cupboards and drawers by the windows and it was also where my mother's wringer washing machine was located. We also played here in the winter when it was too cold to venture outside. The door to the right of the window was the main entrance we used to the house. It was a rare day when someone would knock at the front door, usually some kind of solicitor. They did well at my house. I remember the purchase of encyclopedias, a vacuum cleaner, a record player with records, and the Fuller Brush man.

Next on the right is the kitchen window above the kitchen sink. It was a big room and also held our table and chairs. There was also a large walk in pantry which shared a wall with the porch.

The smaller window was for the only bathroom with the tub directly under this window. That tub was full of dirty kids every Saturday night in preparation for the Sabbath.

The other addition on the right was my parents' bedroom. It also served as my mother's sewing room and a nursery as there was also usually a crib in there as well for the newest baby. Mom kept a radio in her bedroom/sewing room which she loved to listen to while she sewed. I spent many a Sunday afternoon on my parents' bed listening to radio dramas the titles of which I can not remember.

This was my mother's view from her kitchen window. Left to right: Laurel, Janis, Lynette, and Farrell. I loved that car. The back seat area was big enough to play house!

On the east side of the house (not seen) was a large living room with entrance from the kitchen and a large bedroom for all the children accessed by a doorway on the north wall of the living room. I think that these two rooms were probably the original log structure as the windows were older, long narrow windows with several panes of glass. There was also a foundation off the front door which lead directly into the living room. I think it was meant to be another porch but was never finished off. The east windows looked towards the front lawn bordered on the east by a canal and the road which ran north/south between Moody Road and the highway leading into Sugar City.

This is the old Park School which was located on the east end of town on the south side of the highway. It contained four classrooms, two 1st grade rooms on the bottom floor and two 2nd grade rooms upstairs. It had a beautiful central staircase in the middle. It was a great honor for a 1st grader to be sent on an errand upstairs.

This school served my extended family for several generations. I have seen pictures of my father as a student in front of this school. It was built in the early 1900's. All of the 1st and 2nd graders from Sugar City and the farms surrounding it were bused to this school. School buses would pick up all of the school age children from the farms. Once in town, the 1st and 2nd graders were dropped off at Park School first, then the high schoolers at the high school on the west end of town, and finally the elementary 3-6th graders stayed on the bus and traveled several more miles to Plano School to the west or Newdale School to the east. Sugar City was pretty much divided down the middle and it was pretty traumatic to suddenly be separated from one's friends in third grade.

Look at the playground swings and merry-go-round. Siblings, those children might be you! The cars in the parking lot certainly fit our era. Also notice the long slides coming of the little flat roofed addition at the back. That was one of my favorite places to play. One of the two recess activities I most remember were the reenactment of "The Wizard of Oz" the week after its yearly broadcast on TV on a Sunday afternoon. This was played out under the massive trees on the property whose exposed roots provided furniture and thrones and other things. We also followed the yellow brick road through a large patch of grass to the east of the trees. There was not a TV at my home, so that was usually one of the Sunday afternoons that I would maneuver an invitation home from Sunday School with Karen Forsyth.

The other fun activity was playing Red Cross nurses for the boys who were at war. We would sneak band aids, gauze, and other supplies from home to patch up our men in combat. This was mostly acted out at the back of the school on the roof from which the slides come down.

This is the large Ricks home in Sugar City where my grandmother, Georgianna Ricks Ostler, grew up. My parents lived in a small apartment here when they first married. It sat just north of the high school and I was always curious to go inside but never had the opportunity, at least that I remember. It was built in the early 1900's.

This is Sugar-Salem High School located north of the main highway on the west side of town. The windows to the right of the doorway were part of a library for everyone. Our bus would wait at the high school for the high school kids to be dismissed. Fortunately there was time to go into the library and check out a new book. They had a great collection of Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, and Hardy Boys books. I pretty much read a book a night (remember, no TV) and got a new one from the library each school day.

My great aunt Mary (older sister to Georgianna) lived as couple of houses north of her childhood home and the high school. I would be dropped off early in the morning once a week for my piano lessons after which I would walk to the high school to catch the school bus to my elementary school in Plano after the high school kids were dropped off (usually I was already on the bus when the high school kids were dropped off.) I remember one early morning walk to the high school when it was -35 degrees F. I have never felt so cold in my life nor was so happy to get on the bus.

The marquee reads, "Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones"
(it was released in 1958)

Across the street and directly east of the high school were these two buildings. The one with the arched doorway was a store front which had been converted to a cafeteria serving both Park School and the high school. (As I write this, I realize that I have no idea where the 7th & 8th graders went to school or ate lunch.) As 1st and 2nd graders we would line up with partners and walk the couple of blocks from Park School to this building every lunch time, no matter the weather. The Sugar City Merc (run by my great uncle Emery Thomas, husband of piano teacher Mary) was on the way. Some students would be given money to stop and buy candy. I never had much money, but I remember that a favorite "treat" was Ludens cherry cough drops. The "Merc" (short of Mercantile) had a bit of everything from shoes, to fishing supplies, to groceries. Uncle Emery's office was in a loft and I still remember the pneumatic tubes (like the drive through at the bank) running up to the ceiling and then into the loft carrying receipts, change, etc.

The movie theater also served as the high school's auditorium. My first introduction to The Beatles occurred at an assembly presented by the high school students. One group lip synced "I Wanna Hold Your Hand." This was also where I attempted to learn to play the clarinet. Music classes were held on the stage in the summer. I saw a few movies here but our family usually went to the Teton Drive-in (it is still in operation as of this date) on the highway between Rexburg and Sugar City. My parents were friends with the owners, the Prestwiches, and our family carload of pajama clad children was merely waved through at the gate. My father kept the small fields in front of the drive-in mowed down. My parents also got bags of potato chips and boxes of candy bars from the Prestwiches at wholesale prices. (One reason to sneak into the walk in pantry :)

The churches were directly north of the highway from Park School. The old rock church still served as a Sunday School meeting place for the children when I was a child. I still remember the creaky fold down wooden seats in the chapel. The classrooms were behind the arched windows on the right. The new church would have been very new in this picture. It had a much larger chapel and a full sized basketball court/recreation room.

On Primary day once a week which was held after school, usually on Wednesdays, I would not catch the bus home but would go to my great grandma Lucy's or walk home with my friend, Jerry Dalling, whose mother was also a close friend of my mother. Then my mother would pick me up at the end of Primary. Once I attended Plano School, the school bus would take us directly to the church after school before heading to the high school. This seemed to work out well in our mostly Mormon community.

The church buildings were the location of not only our religious life, but much of our social activities as well. I would take dance lessons in the summer in the high school gym, but the recitals would be held on the stage in the church's recreational hall.

Here is a picture of my sweet great grandma Lucy. Her home was just a couple of houses north of the church block. I loved being at her home on Primary days. She usually had a treat for me and would talk to me as if I was one of her contemporaries. She told me about her Scottish family, her temple service, and her garden. She always made me feel very special.

This is her husband, Leo Jacobs. He was her third husband. I called them Grandpa and Grandma Jacobs. Her husband, Milo Ostler, had died before my birth and she had remarried. I always knew that they really cared about each other and I knew that they cared about me.

The new church of the Sugar City Ward, the old cafeteria, and the theater are the only buildings still standing. All the rest have been torn down, either because of age or damage from the Teton Dam break and flood. But these are the images from my childhood and I wanted to share them with you.