I was born July 13, 1927 in Whiterocks, Utah to Mary Erma and Alexander Sessions. The family farm was actually on the Whiterocks Bench which was southeast of the town of Whiterocks. I was the third of four children. The oldest was my brother, Dean Alexander. I had two sisters, the oldest being June LaRue. My other sister, Eula Pearl was the youngest child.
When I was about six the family built a new house on the Whiterocks Bench farm where we owned forty acres. This replaced an older home that was there. We also farmed some leased ground from the Ute Indian tribe.
I went to school in Tridell by bus until the eighth grade. The Tridell school had four class rooms, a library and a kitchen. There were outhouses; one for the boys and one for the girls. At school we would play marbles in the dirt, spot ball, softball and in the winter we would play Fox and the Geese.
When I was a Junior in High School I fattened out a calf for a project in FAA. I took it to the stock show in Altamont and got a blue ribbon. I then took it to the stock show in Vernal and also got a blue ribbon. I then took it to the show in Salt Lake where I again got a blue ribbon. I sold the calf at the Salt Lake show for over $400, which was a large amount for a calf.
We lit the house with coal oil lamps that had wicks. We also had a refrigerator that ran off of coal oil. Running water meant running out to the well for water. We had a hand pump on the water well. We had a battery radio that me listened to all the time. When electricity finally game to the area, we watched for the lines to reach to our house. When we saw that the electricity lines had finally been hooked up to our house, we ran all the way home from the bus stop and turned on all the lights on in the house. We could then get an electric pump on the water well and an electric refrigerator.
In the winter we would ice-skate during the noon lunch hour in the canal that would flood into a large pond. The principal would let us eat first so we had time to skate. They would then ring a bell five minutes early to give us time to get back.
Life on the farm meant milking cows at 6:00 am before breakfast and then again in the evening. There were chickens, pigs and sheep to feed. We always had a big garden and a big raspberry patch. Granny used to sell raspberries.
I remember a big tom turkey that we had. It used to pick a fight with me every evening when I got the grain to feed the chickens. I would grab the tom around the neck with both hands and kick it with one foot until it would leave me alone. The next evening it would try to fight me again. I had to whip him every night. It made me so mad. I couldn't do my work until I had a fight with the turkey.
When I was a small boy, I had a little white dog with brown ears named Cub. When I would get a rope out Cub would like to grab onto it before I would get it around his neck. Cub and me were real buddies and played together a lot of the time. The sad part about Cub was a bunch of dogs attached him and chewed him up.
Because LaRue was quite sickly, one winter we rented a little house in Tridell to be near the school. We would then go home on the weekends. Dean would take the bus home to help Dad with the chores.
During my early teenage years, I would occasionally go over to my Grandma Moosman's house and help her pack the water from a nearby spring and milk the cows. I stay with her overnight and go home the next morning.
We would have Thanksgiving over at her house and another year we had Christmas at her house. All the Aunts, Uncles and cousins were there. We all had to bring a present of some kind. After the dinner was over, we passed out the presents to everyone and opened them. I remember I got this windup poodle doll. Although I was very disappointed (because the other boys got trucks), the poodle doll was around the house for a long time and everyone enjoyed watching it.
I remember when World War II started. We came home one Sunday and heard the news that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I was about fourteen then.
I then went to the Alterra High School for ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades.
There was talk of the Ute Indians taking back the lands that the white renters had built up and improved. Dad decided to leave the reservation. The family moved to Dry Fork settlement northwest of Vernal in May 1946. We stayed there while we fixed up another home at the mouth of Dry Fork. I remember driving the farm tractor all the way from Whiterocks Bench to Vernal as Dad moved the family and other friends moved the milk cows.
My father died in January 1947 after a short illness. I understood it was from bleeding ulcers. He died on the operating table as they were about to operate.
I went to Uintah High School for my senior year and graduated in 1947. I then helped Dean on the farm. I then received my mission call to the SouthWest Indian Mission and left in January 1949.
I spent my mission teaching the Gospel to the Indians in Arizona and New Mexico. I spent five months in Toadlena, New Mexico, then a month in Shiprock before I was sent to Sweetwater, Arizona for about three months. I then went back to Toadlena for eight months. I was there with Lynn Hess who was from Malad, Idaho. We had to walk up the mountain to teach. Then Lynn's dad brought him down a pickup truck. We scrounged up a tent and camping stuff so we could go up the mountain and stay up there. We would go up on Monday and come down Thursday night.
Our district president was President Samuel Whitmore from Santaquin, Utah. He was a big, tall fellow. Elder Hess and I could stand under his out stretched arms. He would call us up on Sunday and tell us to wait for him so he could go with us up the mountain. He probably worked with us more than anyone else.
We also had to hike from the trading post at Sheep Springs to Toadlena, teaching people on the way. Walking though the hills took us all day. We would carry a sandwich and a bottle of orange soda. That was all the drink we had.
One time I was being transferred to Aneth, Utah. We had to have horses for this area. We bought horses in Cortez, Colorado and rode them to Aneth. It took two days. On the way we stumbled upon several ranches. We stopped at one to ask for water and the ranch owner invited us in for dinner. When we told them who we were, he told us he had never heard of "Mormons". It was a very remote area. The next morning they fed us breakfast even before we could get an early start. They said they didn't see many travelers.
When we got to Aneth, I was there about two hours when the district leader met us and told me that I was being transferred. I never did get to ride my horse which cost me $25. I had to sell it to the person that replaced me.
My district leader gave me a ride to Shiprock and I took the bus the next day to the mission home in Gallop, New Mexico. Elder Spencer W. Kimball (then an apostle) was touring the mission and was staying at the mission home. That afternoon I was walking down the stairs past Elder Kimball's room when he called me into his room. He then spent about a half a hour talking to me. The next day they were going to Crystal to see an Indian lady (Sister Pollacka) who had nursed Elder Kimball back to health when he was ill. They asked me to go with President Eugene Flake (from Snowflake, Arizona) and Elder Kimball to see Sister Pollacka. I rode in the back seat with President Kimball all the way there and back. The next day I took the bus to my last area in White River, Arizona near Fort Apache. I worked with the Apache Indians for the last couple of months of my mission.
After coming home from my mission in February 1951, I was drafted into the army in May 1951. I reported to Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City. They then shipped us to Fort Lewis, Washington for ten days. After getting our shots and uniforms were shipped to Camp Roberts, California for basic training. After sixteen weeks I was given a ten day furlough with three days travel time. I came home until I had to report to Fort Lawton in Washington. My sister, Eula and her husband, Duane Price took me up there. They then put us on a boat and shipped us to Whitier, Alaska. We then took a troop train to Fairbanks on an old train that was probably a cast-off from the states. After several delays, we made it to Fairbanks. They then put is on trucks and took us to Eillison Air Force Base. There we were put in new barracks that didn't yet have electricity. These barracks were heated with old oil heaters that put out about much heat as a match. We were here about a week or ten days before being trucked back to Fairbanks and Ladd Air Force Base.
The military unit I was in was an Infantry Unit attached to the Air Force and we helped protect the air field in Fairbanks. Because we were attached to the Air Force, we had to help the Air Police with patrolling the main gates into the Ladd Air Force Base and the fuel tanks. I had to help with this in November after I got there and then the following year in June. I helped them guard the main gates, checking passed of those entering and leaving the base. One night, I was sent to guard an ammunitions dump. I was there alone from 6:00pm to midnight. I had to call in every 15 minutes and report if anything was happening. Nothing happened that night.
There was also a couple of power plants that I had to watch and check the passes of those coming and going. No one could get in unless I let them in. I had to walk around and inspect everything to make sure the people there were supposed to be there.
I was in Alaska for 17 months. On March 31, 1953, I was transferred to the Army Reserve and came back to Fort Lewis in Seattle, Washington. I was there for about 10 day before being discharge in April of 1953 and returned to Vernal, Utah.
After returning from tour of duty in Alaska, I helped Dean on the farm in Dry Fork that summer. I helped him put hay for the cows and whatever needed to be done.
Soon after I returned home, I bought a new 1953 Ford. I needed a toolbox for the car so I went down to Bradshaw Auto Parts to get one. There I was waited on by a young lady. Her name was Lloy Bennett. She told me they were out and would have some more in a few days. A few days later I went back and bought a toolbox. That night I called her at home and teased her that there was something wrong with the toolbox. During the conversation I asked her out on a date. I still have the toolbox and the young lady.
Lloy and I dated for about three weeks before becoming engaged. On September 16, 1953, we were married in the Salt Lake Temple. After we were married, I went to work for Safeways (where the bowling alley is now) and Lloy continued to work for Bradshaws (which was next door to Safeways). We lived in an apartment above Bradshaws for a few months and then moved to a duplex on 1st South and 6th West. Our neighbors were Don and Ruth Walker.
I was laid off from Safeways in the spring of 1954. We then moved in with Lloy's parents. I worked on the Coke-Cola building. I then work Uintah Packing, a meat packing plant.
During the summer of 1954, the Federal Government was offering homestead land to veterans near Rupert, Idaho so I applied for one of the homesteads. A few months later, I received word that my name had been drawn.
On October 20, 1954, our first son, Lynn Ralph Sessions was born. Lynn was a large baby, weighing 9 pounds 10 ounces. Dr. Seager, who delivered him called him 'the little monster'. It took Lloy a long time to recover after having Lynn.
In February of 1955, when Lynn was about 4 months old, we moved to Rupert, Idaho. We first lived in an apartment before building a house out on the homestead. When the foundation was poured, the extra cement was poured into a cement slab. I then built a chicken coup next to the slab. It turned out that we ended up sleeping in the chicken coup and cooking in a borrowed trailer. The trailer was very small. We lived like this until the house was finished.
The homestead consisted of 120 acres of land. I was able to farm about 115 acres since some of it was high ground that could not be irrigated. We built the house on some of the high ground. The ground had to be cleared of sagebrush and leveled before it could be farmed. I hired someone to do this.
After the ground was ready to plant, the ground was so fine, it was hard to irrigate because the ditches would keep breaking. We had to use plastic dams to hold the water and siphon tubes to irrigate with so the dirt would not wash away. The water came from big wells that the Government drilled. Each well would irrigate about four homesteads.
I grew wheat, barley, field peas, potatoes, and sugar beets. Some of the other homesteaders planted alfalfa.
We had to homestead the ground for three years to 'prove up' on it. During this time I worked for the Algamated Sugar Company, a sugar beet factory.
After we had 'proved up' on the homestead, we had to sell it because of crop failure and could no longer finance it. But before we sold the homestead, we leased the land for one summer and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. I worked for Murray Laundry during that summer in hopes of making enough money to move back to Idaho. When fall came we found we did not have the money and sold the homestead.
While living in Salt Lake City, our second son, Drell B. Sessions was born on August 16, 1957 in Vernal. It soon became apparent that he was not going to live very long because of a heart defect. He was blessed and given a name by Duane Price and Bert Angus. I was in Salt Lake City when I received word that Drell was not doing well and not expected to live. I arrived in Vernal a short time before he died. He was buried in the Maeser Cemetery next to my father, Alexander Sessions.
In the later part of September in 1957, we moved back to Vernal, Utah. I then went to work for Coke-Cola, driving a delivery truck. During that time I applied for a job with the United Postal Service.
On Thanksgiving Day of 1957, the postmaster Frank Slaugh called asked me if I could come to work the next day. This was the beginning of 28 years with the US Postal Service.
In 1958, Vernal was having an oil boom. My sister, LaRue and her husband, Bruce Watkins decided to open a children's clothing store (Tot and Teen). Lloy and I opened a fabric store (Lloy's Fabrics) next to them on South Vernal Avenue (now the drive-thru for Zion's Bank). We had the store for a couple years and then closed it because the economy in Vernal had turned down.
On April 18, 1959, our third son, Randel M. Sessions was born. At the time we lived in a house on 1st North and about 560 West.
On Valentine's Day of 1961, we move into our present home at 631 West 200 North and put down deep roots.
We had been our new home for a few months when our only daughter, Lawona Sessions was born on July 31, 1961.
Sometime in 1964, we made a small apartment for my mother, Mary Erma Sessions, in the basement of our home. Eula's husband, Duane helped with the framing; my uncles, Leland and Walter Moosman helped the wallboard and plaster; LaRue's husband, Bruce built the cupboards; and my brother, Dean helped put up the ceiling tile. My mother lived with us for about 20 years.
On October 30, 1964, our fourth son, David Bennett Sessions was born. Three years later on October 30, 1967, our fifth son and last child, Glade Vance Sessions was born.
In April of 1984, my mother suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on one side. On May 24, 1984, she passed away as a result of the stroke and is buried in the Maeser Cemetery next to my dad. She had been a widow for over 37 years.
On January 17, 1986, I retired from the United States Postal Service after 30 years of service (2 years were with the United States Army).
Lloy's dad had built a small cabin in McKee Draw, 35 miles north of Vernal. When her parents passed away Lloy inherited the cabin. Since it was to small for our family to enjoy we decided to add on to it. At the end of July in 1990 we built a 2 story addition which include four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Our family has all worked on it and enjoyed each other in the process. The addition is mostly finished and comfortable.
Since the original cabin is about 38 years old, we replaced all the windows, doors and siding. Recently we have been remodeling the inside with new wallboard, ceiling tile and floor tile, etc. We hope that next summer (2000) we can finish this project so we can do something up there besides build. It has been a long, but fun project and all our children and grandchildren enjoy our cabin.
My son, Randy and his family of seven children (number eight due soon) live just one block away from our home. Lawona and her family of four children live in Naples which is in south Vernal. Glade and his family of three children live in Roosevelt, about a half a hour away from Vernal. David has a condo in Provo, Utah and is currently unmarried. Lynn and his family of three children live in Orem, near Provo.
I have always been active in the LDS Church and have held several positions including: overseer of the Bishop's Storehouse, Ward Clerk, Stake Sunday School Board, Stake Young Men's Board, and Sunday School President.
My wife and I are currently serving a Stake Mission and I am Ward Mission Leader. We both teach a Gospel Essentials class to new and less active members of the LDS Church.
I feel like I have had a very rewarding and blessed life. I have enjoyed my family very much and the experiences we have had together. I feel my family is the most important part of my life.