Lynn Poulsen and Lee R. Christensen Reminisce

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Frank Lee Pritchett Captures Senior Division Crown of Jr. Pentathlon Finals

Comment from Lee R. Christensen ~~~

Kathy: A great story. I've always considered this event the number one athletic activity of my Jr hi school years. It allowed marginal (would be) athletes to compete - but seldom beat - the real athletes. As I remember, there was a computed co efficient for each competitor based on age, weight and height. That times your event performance score gave you a score for that event. The five events (?) shot put, broad jump, 40 - 50 yd dash, hi jump and the 1 - 2 minute basket ball shoot.

Seymour Jensen, coach and principal , North Sanpete Jr High was the early promoter and coach for this event. This event also led to a 3 day Jr Hi group trip to the big, big, city or Salt Lake. For many of us it was our first trip to Salt Lake City. Billy Hansen, Lynn Sheppard and Duane Schovil were three that I remember as SLC competitors , 35 - 37 . My congratulations to Peter for making the cut 1953. lee 

Vietnam Wall ~

Vietnam Wall First click on a state. When it opens, scroll down to the city and the names will appear. Then click on their names. It should show you a picture of the person, or at least their bio and medals. This really is an amazing web site. Someone spent a lot of time and effort to create it. I hope that everyone who receives this appreciates what those who served in Vietnam sacrificed for our country. The link below is a virtual wall of all those lost during the Vietnam war with the names, bio's and other information on our lost heroes. Those who remember that time frame, or perhaps lost friends or family can look them up on this site. Pass the link on to others, as many knew wonderful people whose names are listed. http://www.virtualwall.org/iStates.htm




Amazing, impressive and touching.  I had not known that both Fairview and Mt Pleasant had a man killed in Vietnam.    lee



FAIRVIEW, UTAH:




1LT GARY RUEL MOWER




~~~

MOUNT PLEASANT, UTAH:




SP4 BRENT HAL Mc ARTHUR



We found another one today. Jimmy Lee Larsen, Mt. Pleasant, died on his birthday. He is listed from Salt Lake by mistake. The family has tried to have that changed to Mt. Pleasant, but to no avail.

Mt. Pleasant, Utah:
Jimmy Lee Larsen

Specialist Four
3RD PLT, D CO, 3RD BN, 12TH INFANTRY, 4 INF DIV
Army of the United States
18 March 1944 - 18 March 1969

If there are others, please let us know. . pandk@cut.net.

Lee Remembers the "Class of '34".

Kathy: My book ”You Knew Me As Buddy” is more or less dedicated to my Hamilton grade school Classmates of 1934; considered by at least two of us to be the “greatest” class in the schools history. And probably by many others because on at least two occasions the class was given the responsibility of enforcing school rules on a large, older group.

When we were third graders the powers that be set up a “kangaroo” court system to enforce playground rules. Charged violators were assembled in a classroom/courtroom where they were tried and sentenced before a judge, who as I remember was a fifth grade teacher. The third graders were to maintain order in the courtroom. This activity lasted about three weeks.

When the "Class of '34" was in eighth grade North Sanpete High School joined the Traffic Patrol bandwagon and started a traffic control program. The "Class of '34" were to be the Enforcers. One of the big goals of the program was to stop the high school students from cutting across State Street at the bridge to the candy store corner. At noon of the first day a squad of us eighth graders with our new flags walked over to the bridge and the NE corner of Main and State to begin this new operation.



I was with two others at the bridge and here comes the noonday stampede of students headed for downtown. Remember, we had one hour for lunch. The Enforcers at the corner never saw a student. The Enforcers at the bridge never stopped one. I don’t know that any of them even asked us what our flags were for, and they never saw them again. The Program lasted just the one day.   .......Lee R. Christensen

Washington Maneuver Includes 100,000 Men

Lee writes:


 This news article is describing the war maneuvers of Aug 1941. For these war games Mt Pleasant’s Btry D 222nd FA Regt motored north to Western Washington from San Luis Obispo. A year earlier, summer of 1940 while still a National Guard unit, the Btry went by rail from Mt Pleasant to a tent camp near Centralia Washington for a similar exercise.


A story to go with the maneuver article. In August 1941 of the four Btry D gun Sgts I was the junior Sgt. The Btry had just been issued three big 4 ton Diamond T’s to pull our 155mm howitzers . As the jr sgt, my section got a small 2 ½ ton 6x6. As we were getting ready to move out on this 2000 mile road march the Division Commander called me over and asked if our small truck was up to the job. I told him that with DelRay Sorenson as our driver it would be no problem. It wasn’t. The commanding general was Maj Gen Ernest J Dawley who went on to command the American VI Corp in the invasion of Italy. A photo of the gun section, with DelRay, was posted earlier on this site and well after we had a Diamond T truck.

L.R. Christensen ~ Funeral Services in Maryland ~ July 1960

L.R. Christensen was the father of Lee R. Christensen, a frequent poster here.  We found the obituary, Lee furnished the photo.  Thankyou Lee

Lee and Beth Reminisce ~ about Mt. Pleasant

from Lee R. Christensen's Book:
"You Knew Me As Buddy"

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Lee R. Christensen's photos Taken from his book "You Knew Me As Buddy".

Lt. Lee R. Christensen















Howitzer Section, Mt. Pleasant Battery World War II





Howitzer Section, Mt. Pleasant Battery Utah National Guard, 1935


Enlisted Club Dance 1941

Lee's Memory of A.E. Jones

Like all of my activities then and now I started clarinet playing with great enthusiasm.  Reached quickly a very modest plateau which I maintained through eighth gradne and then dropped off freshman year high school.  I was never better than last chair clarinet section and in 6th had 4th graders ahead of me.



I played away from the band in public twice.  First in a 5th grade class program I played a solo, "There's an Old Spinning Wheel."  When it could have been Phil Squires , a duet before his mother's social club.  Why me?  When it could have been Phil Squires.  Even Wayne is wondering that today.  I was so bad at keeping time that Wayne put his foot on mine to tap the beat.  Again, there was no encore.  But as I remember, we finished together.



By eighth grade, Junior High I was an accomplished faker.  Or maybe Paul Webgb, the band leader, didn't care.  I wasn't ruining the performance for the rest of the band.  Then, even today as I write this I'm starting to squirm in my chair.  A.E. Jones, the district Superintenant , a former music teacher visited the band practice.  He immediately notice the lack of so much as a twang from the faker in the clarinet section.  The rest of the band hour was devoted to the musical education of Lee Christensen.  Paul Webb's contract was not renewed and the rumor around town was that the faker in the clarinet section was responsible.  A.E.'s son, Kenneth was one of the 4th graders ahead of me in the section.



I was never much of a performer.  As a sophomore seven of us danced as Snow White's dwarfs in  Margaret Nielson's dance revue.  We were so out of step, everyone thought it burlesque.  Newel, Billy Beck and Lyn Poulsen were three of the hoffers.  Because I wore glasses, I was Dumbo of the group. 



And then in an all male senior year, one act play, performed but once at assembly I forgot my lines.  Because I couldn't hear the prompter, I pulled the script from my pocket; looked up the forgotten line and read it.  Haberbosch still remembered forty years later when he saw me at our 40th (Class Reunion at Wasatch).  Told me he gave up directing after that.



Years earlier after one of my on-stage performances, A.E. Jones corrected my presentation.  This was at an Armistice Day Assembly, probably  eighth grade, where L.R. Christensen Jr. dressed as a WW1 soldier was telling the audience how the war started.  I kept confusing Serbia with Siberia.  After my presentation A.E. took me aside and explained the difference.  I doubt that I wrote the script so we must have had a confused teacher.  A.E. probably wondered why with about eighty teachers in the District he had to be the one to straighten out the Christensen kid.



I don't know what happened to A.E. and his family after they left Mt. Pleasant.  He was at one time president of Carbon Junior College.  He died in San Luis Obispo, California so may have been affiliated with Cal-Poly the university there.  He was an outstanding educator, but good as he was he couldn't make a clarinet player out of me.  L.R.

Mt. Pleasant's Btry A 204th FA Bn

Here are two photos of a howitzer section from Mt. Pleasant's Btry A 204th FA Bn taken on or motoring to the Yakima Firing Center March/April 1942.

North Sanpete service men are: 1st photo: DelRay Sorenson left of truck, front left John Seeley, Leo Truscott behind John, Clay Bagley sitting on tailgate and Lee Christensen hand on hip>. 2nd photo: John center front,, Lee to the right and Leo scratching a woodtick bite. Clay is 2nd from left, back row;. Both Clay and DelRay from Moroni.