Looking Back at Pages from the Past

The following stories are summarized from past issues of the Caribou County Sun over the last fifty plus years. The Enterprise thanks Mark Steele for permission to use the contents, and the Grace Public Library for access to the archives.

2011

The Whitney family has opened up a new family diner in Soda Springs, called the Amin Street Diner at 71 South Main Street.

Hours are Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.  They will be opening for dinner in late May on Fridays and Saturdays.

“Starting May 1, we will have our upstairs gallery open for meetings, parties, and large groups free of charge with a minimum of a 24-hour notice, “Shannon Whitney said.

The Whitney family would like to thank everyone for all the support opening up the new family diner.

“We are looking forward to serving our family and yours for generations to come,” Whitney said.

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The Soda Springs Chamber of Commerce has launched a branding campaign or competition to define the city and surrounding area, and to bring some long overdue catchet to its image.

They are looking for something catchy, like Hershey, Pennsylvania’s “The Sweetest Place on Earth,” “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas,” “Cleveland Rocks,” or New York’s “The City the Never Sleeps.”  

What the chamber is trying to do is identify the heart of the community, and to give Soda Springs and Caribou County its own identity.  And brands only resonate if they reflect the location’s true character.  To help find its identity, the chamber has posted a branding campaign or competition, asking anyone even remotely familiar with the area to name the town’s endearing qualities.

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Schae Richards authored the following piece:

“The newspaper staff of Grace High School has recently published an article in the school newspaper, on a 1967 graduate of Grace High School.  This idea was presented by the entire staff with the intention to educate and entertain the readers of the Grizzly Growl.  They wanted to emphasize the fact that small town students can achieve anything they want to.

To help execute the idea, the staff chose Judge Randy Smith to interview.  I, as the editor, traveled to Pocatello to the United States Courthouse to interview Randy for the article.  He was very open to any questions and gave exceptional answers to the ones that were presented to him.

Randy Smith came from a family that consisted of four boys and one girl.  His father, Norman Smith, supported his family well as he took on three different jobs.  Norman was a farmer, a teacher, and a coach.  Randy was asked if he disliked having his father being an employee if the high school and Randy noted that he was never annoyed by the fact that his father was always there, but he did mention, “He made me work harder than anybody else.”  He claimed that as a definite advantage.

Randy claims that his favorite memory about Thatcher was working in potatoes and going to the post office to eat candy.

Randy stayed active during his high school years and received many opportunities which later benefitted him.  Starting as a freshman in 1964, he wore the jersey number 52 and played the positions middle linebacker and center for the football team.  He carried on to play football his sophomore year and also managed to letter in football; he was also able to be a member of the G-Club.

In 1966, Randy was voted “most studious” by his junior class.  He played a part in the play production of Judge Linch and Curious Savage.  He also got involved with the first debate team that Grace High School ever had.  He also joined declamation where he competed in Extemporaneous Speech…

During his senior year in 1967, he pulled ligaments in his knee while playing a game against Paris, and because of injury, he was not able to play basketball.  This setback did not stop Randy from being involved in his school.  He was elected senior class president and he also had the privilege to be a member of the National Honor Society.  He continued to stay active in the debate program as well as declamation.

During research, I found that Randy was voted most studious and most likely to succeed.  When asked how he would describe his highs school experience in Grace, he declared, “It was the most learning experience.  I enjoyed every part of it.”

Randy Smith is now a judge for the Ninth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals.  Currently, he is working on a case dealing with Proposition Eight in California.  He claims, “The hardest aspect of my job is to make sure that the things I say and do are the right things to do.”  Before he received this prestigious honor, he enrolled at Utah State University.

He mentions that Utah State was “the place to go to have fun” and that’s what influenced his decision to attend there.  Randy’s intended major was accounting after he graduated from high school.  “I wanted to make money like Brian Mendenhall,” Randy replied when asked why he chose this area of study.  

He decided to transfer to BYU and after six years he received his law degree.  He also served an LDS mission to Paris, France.  

Based on his high school career, it may seem obvious that Boys’ State is what got him involved in politics, but Randy simply noted that going into debate sparked the interest.  

When asked what he considered to be his greatest accomplishment, he said, “My marriage to my wife.”  He met his wife LaDean in Preston at the golf course.

Another great accomplishment Randy has pursued was the drug court that he started in 1995 right after he was put in as an Idaho District Judge.  Before that he occupied the job as an attorney.  He chose to help kids who were using meth, drinking, and driving.  He desired to help these kids by assisting them to change their lifestyles…

Some Grace High School students look at being raised in a small town as a disadvantage.  Randy notes that the advantages outweigh any disadvantage.  He states that he was “very” and “extremely “ grateful for his small town experience.  He then noted the main advantage, “It teaches you to work.”

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James Frankos was named to the 2A All-Idaho Basketball First Team according to the Idaho Statesman.  Frankos, a senior at Soda Springs High School, shot better than 40 percent from the field.  The 6’3” senior guard averaged 15.5 points, six rebounds, three assists, and one block per game.

“He was without question our team leader.  He was like having another coach on the floor,” Soda Springs Coach Greg Berghom said.  

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Americans for Job Security, a pro-business issue advocacy organization, has launched new advertisements applauding Sen. Mike Crapo for his work towards limiting credit card swipe fees that cost American businesses and consumers more than $48 billion in 2008 alone.

“Sen. Crapo has stood up to Wall Street banks and credit card companies on behalf of Idaho’s small businesses,” said Stephen DeMaura, president of Americans for Job Security.

“Small businesses are left powerless against the multi-billion-dollar banks that have a monopoly of the marketplace.  Swipe fees are crippling our nation’s hard-working merchants and ultimately killing jobs.  On behalf of America’s small business owners, I would like to than k Sen. Crapo for standing up for Main Street Idaho, limiting egregious fees and protecting Idaho’s businesses.”

Every time a consumer swipes their debit card, small businesses pay big banks and average of 44 cents – approximately 11 times the actual cost that banks incur to process the transaction.  Because swipe fees are centrally set by Visa and MasterCard, which together represent nearly 90 percent of the debit-card market, small businesses are unable to negotiate swipe fee costs or take their business elsewhere.

1976

Senator Frank Church said today that he has cosponsored legislation which would prohibit credit card companies from disclosing personal information without the credit cardholder’s permission.

Church noted, “Recent hearings have shown that credit card companies have been releasing personal financial records, including credit transactions, which enable others to form profiles of individuals’ purchases and most intimate daily living habits.  This practice is clearly an invasion of privacy which must be stopped.”

The hearings showed that the companies are also responding to subpoenas without the cardholder’s knowledge.  The bill Church is supporting would require that the holder be notified if such a subpoena has been received.

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If Barry Rhodes asked you to stand on the model wooden bridge he built for his drafting and design technology class, you would probably laugh at the idea.  The bridge, not quite two feet long and weighing less than six and one half ounces, would surely break under your weight.  And if Rhodes also invited one of your friends to join you on the bridge, you might then be convinced he had a death wish for his creation, right?

Wrong.  Rhodes and his classmates at the Idaho State University School of Vocational Technical Education have confidence in their designing abilities.  Their bridges would be in little danger from you and your friend, even with lead weights in your pockets.  As a matter of fact, Rhodes’ bridge withstood 453 pounds on a stress machine before it began to creak and break.  That figures out to 70.8 pounds per ounce of bridge, not bad for balsa wood and glue, and good enough to win the annual bridge-building contest at Vo-Tech. 

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Nettie Nelson Farnworth celebrated her 82nd birthday April 4, 1976.  She is the only survivor of seventeen children.  She was the 16th child.  Her last surviving brother, Daniel Nelson, passed away a year ago in Seattle at the age of 90.

Nettie’s parents, Hans L. and Anna Christine Nelson, were converts to the LDS church, coming to the United States from Denmark in the 1860s.  They settled first in Mantua, Utah.  A few years later, they homesteaded in Mink Creek, Idaho, being one of the first families in that community.  Eleven children were born there.  

Nettie grew up and received her schooling in Mink Creek.  She married Hugh Farnworth in 1917 in Preston, Idaho.  They were later sealed in the Salt Lake Temple June 25, 1920.  They made their home in Mink Creel for five years.  One daughter, Idonna, was born there.  They moved to Grace in 1922 to Andrew Adams ranch two miles south of Grace.  Two more children were born there, Mrs. Orion (Vonda) Hegstrom, and a son, Milo.

In 1946 they built and moved to her present home in Grace.  

In June 1971, her husband Hugh passed away.  Since then she has lived alone and maintained her home.  She still attends her church meetings and civic affairs with the help of her family and friends.  

While physically able she was a visiting teacher in the Relief Society where she served faithfully with 19 years of 100 percent teaching.  She helped to raise a nice garden each year and had a beautiful yard.

He children live in Grace.  She has twelve grandchildren, 10 great grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.  

Her family honored her April 3.

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Idaho’s U.S. Senator Jim McClure recently cosponsored legislation, which would exempt custom-combine operators and sheep shearers from some provisions of the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act of 1963. 

Calling the Registration Act “another example of bureaucratic meddling in the affairs of Agriculture.”  McClure said that the Department of Labor has taken it upon themselves to interpret the law to require registration of custom-combine crews and sheep shearers even though they are employed on a contract basis.

McClure said the Labor Department rules just lead to more red tape for farmers and sheep ranchers, and serve little useful purpose.  Further, the Idaho Republican Senator said, “In reviewing the history of this Act, it is obvious that Congress had no intention of placing such a restriction on combine crews and sheep shearers.  “That,” McClure said, “was decided by some Labor Department employee, who apparently thought the rule would serve some useful purpose.”