During that early spring of 1922 employment at the Ward home was more than satisfactory. My father was steadily employed. In fact my father was never unemployed during the depression. Though the sand and gravel business was almost to a standstill, he was still the wheelwright plant manager. Through the country’s new deal programs sand and gravel were being used in all make work projects. When the plant did operate I had the good fortune to have some part time employment. Harold, now married, was getting part time work at wheelwright. When I was not working I spent my daytime hours seeking employment. In that effort I met Bob Holmes a construction superintendent for the Ord Bundy Construction Co. And through Bob Holmes I met his son Ray. Ray like all of us singe men, was another unemployed citizen. It was through Ray that I became acquainted with the procedure of seeking employment at the US Federal employment office in Ogden. Ray and I found that the office listed the work position open on all P.W.A projects in Utah. Anyone could apply for any of those positions. In making your applications you stated your qualifications and experience. As a singe man your only chance of employment was that a married man had not applied.
One day Ray Holmes and I saw a new listing for employees to be hired at the new Hyrum Dam in Hyrum Utah. As we studied that list we came upon the listing of scale men. The listing asked for two scale men. Both Ray and I had experienced operating overhead scales, weighing sand and gravel for large concrete mixers. We both thought we had a chance for these positions. We both felt that no married man would apply for these open jobs. We filed our application s and we were right. We were both notified that employment was ours. We were told to report to the J.A. Terteling Construction Co. at Hyrum Utah. Hyrum was in Cache Valley, about twenty miles south of Logan, Utah. At that time the Utah Idaho central electrical railway passed through Hyrum on its route from Ogden. The next day after our notification Ray and I were on our way to Hyrum. We both carried with us one small suitcase which with what we had on our bodies, constituted all the clothes we both possessed. All except the suit my parents gave me from high school graduation.
On arriving at the Hyrum Rail Station we were told, by the station master that a Terteling truck would be by for their mail and that we could ride the four miles it him to the project site. When we arrived at the the site we were directed to a temporary wooden building that had a sign on it, Office. To a man behind a counter we presented our employment papers. He processed us by having us fill out some papers. After reviewing the papers he told us we would be housed in the tent village and that meals would be available at the company kitchen. We were escorted to the tent village and found that we would be in a tent with two others. The tent was canvas, mounted on a wood frame with a wood floor. The papers given us at the office informed us that the cost of housing was $10.00 per month; Meals were $1.00 per day and those costs would be deducted form our pay. Our pay sale would $.50 per hour or $4.00 per day.
That evening we met the other tent occupants. They were heavy duty truck drivers. Both were in their fifties, which to us put them in the older class. At six PM we heard the dinner bell and by the following the truck drivers we found the mess hall. It also was a canvassed covered building with wood floor. There were about eight long tables with chairs seating eight to the table. At one end of the building were the food trays. We lined up and selected from trays the food we desired. The food was fair but certainly not a class with my mothers.
Returning to the housing quarters we spent the evening getting acquainted with our roommates and became somewhat oriented with what stage the dam construction was in. In total there were approximately ninety men working on the project. That included superintendents, foreman, steam shovel operator, cat operators, truck drivers, steel workers, carpenters, surveyors, engineers and laborers. Ray and I were the new scale men.
The first morning after arriving we expected someone to delegate us to our workstation. But no one showed to tell us anything. By noon still no one. We went to lunch and still no one said a word to use. After lunch I told Ray I was going to the office and inquire as to when we would placed into employment. The man in the office hardly knew of our existence. He told us he would inquire about work starting time. The day passed and we went to dinner and still no one said anything about work.