I was born April 6, 1917 in Cosmopolis, Washington. That was the day that USA declared war on Germany. I don’t know if all that had anything to do with an early labor or not. It was also my Grandmother Charlotte’s birthday. Dad was working in a lumberyard at the time.

My folks left Cosmopolis (It rained so much they thought I would be getting web feet) and moved to Portland, Oregon where dad worked in building wooden Liberty ships. They used wood because they would not attract magnetic mines.

Sometime after that we moved to Salt Lake City. I don’t know how long my folks stayed there. Dad got a job with the railroad and was sent to Shasta, Nevada. It was here that my memory first stored a few bits of data that I can recall.

Shasta was a water stop for the trains. Dad worked with the [railroad] in this regards. He even moved an engine from one place to another and I can remember riding in the engine with him. That was exciting. Not too exciting when I got my finger badly cut on a coal shoot. I still have a bad scar on my right index finger. One time a trainload of Shriners stopped and a man gave me an ice cream cone. First one I can remember. With all the trains coming and going, somehow I got a cinder in one of my eyes and they had to take me by train to Salt Lake City to have a Doctor take it out. Shasta had a total population at that time of 50, five of which were in our family. One lady had school for all the kids—6 or 7 of us. I remember a snow that was just about as deep as I was tall.

Sacramento, California, Here we come. Mother didn’t like it at Shasta so we moved. Mother’s sister Elsie lived there which was another reason for the moving. That is where I started school in the first grade. I was to meet my sister after school at a certain spot and I got lost. Did I cry? I just remember that she finally found me…

When we were kids [mother] sent us to Sunday School. I remember going one Sunday morning to find that the church had burned down. We quit going for a while. Someone came to our door canvassing the neighborhood an invited us to Sunday School. I, being the oldest, took my 3 younger brothers and went to the Westminister Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, California, which is just across from the State Capitol on 13th and N. Streets. We went there for several years. I somehow got the thought in my mind that I was too old for Sunday School and we all quit. I have always been sorry that I quit, but thankful that I had the Word of God in my heart, even though I had not accepted the LORD Jesus as my Savior at that time. That happened when I was in the navy…

One day, my friend Corkey said to me, “Heber, let’s join the navy.” I thought it over and said, “OK.” Guess what happened? We called him Corkey because he walked with a limp. That’s right, I passed the physical and went to the navy Jan 10, 1936 and Corkey stayed at home. I don’t remember seeing him again.