by Cynthia Atkin Scott

GUEST COLUMNIST

Note: This is part of a continuing series documenting memories of longtime Tooele County residents.

During World War II, an ordinance depot where ammunition and bombs are stored was established south of Tooele. It was built on what used to be my father's wheat fields.

When I graduated from high school, I applied for work on the depot, receiving a job as a checker. It was the most uninspiring job I have ever had. There were too many of us hired to do a job that three good people could have easily done.

Our job was to count the boxes that came into the depot on boxcars. Then we had to record the number and what they contained. There were times when no trains would come in and we would recount the boxes that were already in the warehouses.

My salary at the depot was $30 a month. This was considered good pay in 1944.

After working at the depot for a month, I was approached by my sister Alene and she asked me to quit the depot and work with her at the newspaper. I filled out an application and was hired. I took a drastic pay cut, but it was worth it. The work was stimulating, challenging and interesting.

At that time the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin was owned and operated by Alex Dunn, who was also serving as the stake president of the Tooele Stake in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He had jurisdiction over the two wards in Tooele and four or five wards in the outlying areas.

I loved working for President Dunn. He was even-tempered and pure-minded.

Our hours at the paper were from 9 a.m. until we were finished. At this point in time, hourly wages had not been established. It never occurred to me to think of being paid by the hour. We were hired to do the work that needed to be done. The boss expected us to work hard, which we did. Our goal was to get home before dark.

I began with small jobs, such as answering the phone, taking down copy for articles, taking care of customers, cleaning, folding paper and putting away spacing which was used to keep the type in place so the pages could be locked into place.

When we became busy I began writing articles for publication in the paper. The information for the articles came into the office via mail, phone or by customers who brought them in.

It seemed more often than not, the articles needed to be redone. This was because of clarity, misspelled words or grammatical errors. I believe doing this was nearly as good as taking writing classes at a university. I learned to be brief and clear in my writing and thinking.

We worked hard and long, but so did our boss. He was a busy man. Not only did he have the paper to worry about, but also the Tooele Stake and being a father too.

I worked at the Transcript-Bulletin for three years, while I earned enough money to enter Brigham Young University in Provo. In all that time I never knew a boring hour.

I loved to write articles from notes which would come in from the townspeople and from those in the outlying villages.

I remember one item which came in from Ibapah. It read, "Mrs. J

The item made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. As I think about it now, with gas prices as they sometime get -- out of sight -- that particular activity might become an item again, even in our day.

Cynthia Atkin Scott grew up in Tooele. She worked at the Transcript-Bulletin for three years. She now resides in Provo with her brother Tom Atkin.

compiled by Abby Palmer