Vyla as a girl

        I was blessed as Villa, but baptized Vyla June Dayley in the Snake River on June 26, 1909 about a mile west of Burley. My mother was in bed with my brother Delbert, cousin Vandetta Bunn was helping out with the family. She went with us to help me. We went there in a wagon and there were several being baptized including my brother Valorus (Slim). They had a pole standing up in the water, I suppose to use as a guide line. One girl got away and went out past the pole or at least I thought she did. I was so scared I tried to run away. I was baptized by Brother Joseph Sessions and confirmed by him the next day.

        Zion was growing and after a few years the people in the Starr's Ferry area were made a Branch of the Burley Ward. Brother William Harris was the presiding Elder. Our meetings were held in the old concrete school house (which still stands) until we could build a chapel.

Slim

        For various reasons we moved back to Basin at times. The summer of 1911 the mosquitoes were so bad we had to leave. In late summer we came back to see how things were doing. Weeds had grown up all over. We tried to burn some and it nearly got to the house. Oh! how we worked to save the house.

        We were very poor but didn't know how poor till my mother told me later; but we managed to have enough to eat. Shortly after this experience my sister Thelma was born in Basin and only lived about 30 minutes. Just long enough to get her name by the priesthood. She had convulsions. they thought it was from the fire scare and food conditions.

Myrl

        Several winters we went to Basin while father went to Boise to work in the State House. He was very active in civics and politics. He was affectionately called Senator Dayley by his friends. We went to Basin School while living there.

Vyla with her hair down

        One time I was playing with a celluloid comb, they were very combustible. I held it over the lamp and it caught fire. I threw it into a corner where clothes were hanging we nearly had a fire. What kids won't do! Another time when we were visiting Grandpa and Grandma Sanford, I was quite small and was standing on a chair by the fireplace. Fred and Orenia Dayley were there. I was playing with a candle. I was wearing a pinafore and the ruffle caught on fire.

        Another time Orenia Dayley and Ora Hague were playing with an ax. Orenia was chopping on the chopping block and Ora wanted her to stop so she put her foot on the chopping block to make her stop. Well of course Orenia couldn't stop, so Ora nearly lost her big toe. It was limp the rest of her life.

Vyla riding a mule

        Sometimes we would go to Basin to see Grandma and Grandpa Sanford. It would take about all day in a wagon or buggy and horses. The dust would boil up all over us till we were simply covered. I can now see Grandpa coming up to open the gate to let us in. He had two groves of tall trees. One on the east quite a ways from the house, the other close by and south of the house. He had swings in there for us to play on. How we did enjoy going there. Grandma was a stout and jolly lady. She always had a jar of cookies ready for us.

Jannette

        Grandpa was a small thin man, as I remember him, with a long beard. He had a smokehouse close by where he cured his meat. I loved the smell of the smoke. And boy that was good meat. Grandpa died July 12, 1912. I can now see him laid out in that horrible black suit and black shoes. I was only eleven but it has bothered me ever since. He should have been buried in his temple clothes.

        I had a happy home life with my brothers and sisters. Father would take a baby in his arms and rock and sing to them, but I think I enjoyed it more than the baby did. He was a good singer and was choir leader in his ward.

Vyla and Opal in what was then a new car

Burley about 1915, looking south on Overland Avenue

        How I remember my first automobile ride! The auto was owned by Brother Hyrum Wells of Oakley. (Opal's grandfather). One day on his way to Burley he stopped and asked if we wanted to ride down to Egans and walk back. Well of coarse we did. (The road was right where we finally built another room on to our house.) When they surveyed, the road was moved back to the west.

        One Sunday afternoon my brother Myrl and a friend, Delna Rasor, and I were walking from Burley to our home along the railroad track. There was a little part of the river that ran off to the south and a trestle bridge for the train was built over it. It has now been filled in with a road there. It was east of where Ore-Ida Foods is located. We were laying on our stomachs and throwing rocks down into the river below. All of a sudden I discovered a train whizzing down the track. We left our coats there and ran as fast as we could to the end of the trestle and rolled down the grade glad to be alive. I went to the south. Myrl and Delna to the north. The engineer scolded us but I don't know what he said. It was years before we could get courage to tell our parents about it.

Vyla about the time she graduated from the 8th grade

        I did not have the opportunity to go to high school as young folks now. My father had a large family and could not afford to send me. I went for about six weeks then quit and got a job. I did house work for prominent people in Burley for three or four years.

        Young people would gather at our place and we had many good times. I remember one winter night there were a bunch there and we made honey candy for a candy pull. Well I got my hands burned with the hot stuff. The kids were Sides, Wheeler, Fewkes, Harwood, Henroid, England, Holyoak, and some others.

Vyla and Geneva Jolley on horseback

        As a young girl I loved to ride horses. When I was quite young in Basin I was riding our little sorrel pony with Myrl on back. My cousin Kell Dayley challenged me for a race with him. I had Myrl get off so I could ride better, ha ha. The race lasted quick for I fell off and the horse stepped on my leg, I still have the scar. We called him Pony he had long sorrel hair and in the winter it would get real long and shaggy. We could ride him as many as could get on and if one fell off he would stand still and wait for them to get back on. Kids could do anything with him but he didn't like men. He would buck them off and even run away with them. He was worked along side the other horse where he was needed. He died of old age and we lost a friend.

Vyla at 18

        I loved to dance but didn't care much for movies. I had many friends and lots of fun. I had a couple of girlfriends my father warned me about but I had to find out for myself what they were. When I found out what kind of girls they were I quit them. Father was right. Went with quite a few fellows but never steady.

Delbert

        I never went out in the evenings without kneeling down and asking my Father in Heaven to watch over me from harm and danger, I'm sure He did for I had some close calls where I could have gone the wrong way. Through answer to my prayers and my desire to live right and keep myself clean and unspotted from the world for which I am very thankful.

        In 1918 during the flu epidemic, people were dying so fast the undertakers could hardly take care of them. Also in 1920 there was a epidemic of diphtheria, many children died of it. My ten year old brother Delbert died of it and also two little girls within a mile of us also died of it. We couldn't have a funeral, all public places were closed. I was working at the laundry and went home one day and Christena Frost went with me, we had to go right away and get a vaccination.

Nina

Daisy

        In July 1920 I started working at the laundry (in the building where I first went to school). There I met Faye Frost, sister of my future husband. She and I had become good friends and I met some others of the family.

        Grandma Frost told her girls if Ira and I ever met we would get married. That fall I went home with her and met Ira over the supper table. Well the rest was fast. That fall I had a leave of absence from the laundry to work for the sugar company during the harvest then went back to the laundry and that is when we met in November 1920. One months courtship. I would not advise any one to do that although it worked out fine for us.