The spring of 1940 saw the beginning of the children "leaving the nest", as this was the year Eunice graduated from High School. It was an important event for Ira, and a feeling of pride swelled up in him as he saw her walk down the aisle and receive her diploma. How fast time flew, as he could hardly realize when even the younger ones would follow the same path. Eunice was working out at various jobs to earn money so she could attend business college. A large share of her earnings came from assisting the Allreds' with their family. Vyla also had a chance to help with some of the family expenses by working at the potato processing plant in Burley. She put in many nights on the late shift and left the girls to do the house work, which was a good experience for them.

The Frost Family in 1940 just before Eunice left home for business college. Back: Celia, Myron, Eunice, and Thelma. Middle: Marion, Lorna, Ira, Vyla, and Irma. Front: Gerald and Kathryn.

       It was quite a milestone and a happy occasion when, on March 10, 1941, the Frost family, through the financial efforts of Ira, was able to have electricity put in their home. The neighbors had all done this before, and therefore, it was an event which had been discussed and long awaited by all the family. After the years of kerosene lamps, flat irons heated on the stove, ice boxes with blocks of ice, the electricity was really appreciated. The little bare light globes hanging from a wire with a chain pull was a lovely sight to behold and that evening, the children could hardly wait for darkness so they could try the lights. It was one wild and noisy bunch of kids who ran all around the circle of the house, from the old front porch into the kitchen, then into the front room and back to the old porch again, turning the lights on and off as they laughed and had a happy time.

       Thelma graduated from High School in May and she had great plans for working and getting out on her own. The farming work proceeded with the usual "happy" crew of Frost kids out in the beet field with their short handled hoes, crawling along or walking, their backs bent, with one intent in mind: getting the beets done! An airplane landing in the field across the road brought a little excitement to an otherwise dull summer day. It made a forced landing and then pulled out into the beet field and took off again.

The old gray Studebaker. One of the nicer cars Ira owned

       In October, Vyla started working at the potato mill again. They needed electrical appliances and one main item they all wanted. . . was a radio. They bought a used one with a short wave from Ira's brother, Earl. Lots of happy evenings were spent with the kids crouched on the floor in front of that old floor model radio listening to such programs as "Henry Alldrich", "Fibber McGee and Molly", "Inner Sanctum Mystery" and Ira sometimes listening to the police calls on the short wave. Prior to getting the radio, Ira would always go up to Gooch's to listen to Joe Lewis's Heavy Weight Championship fights on the radio. Now, the Frosts were really living it up.

       However, Eunice was a little too late to enjoy these modern conveniences, as Ira and Vyla took her to Salt Lake City in August and left her to stay at the home of George Wood, an elder they had known in Moscow. She did some housework and then started at L.D.S. Business College.

       This was the fall they were able to buy Myron his first suit. Also the pet goat must have been a nuisance, as he notes in the diary, they had to butcher it. And, after all the years of the big family being crowded into the small three room house, the time had come to add an addition. Ira bought some lumber in December and started this project. The plans were for a new porch, kitchen and bedroom with a portion to be used as a future bathroom. This was all to be built onto the west side of the house.

       While in the process of working on the house, Vyla and Thelma working at the potato mill, Eunice making frequent visits home, and the other children busy with school activities, the sad news came of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Our beloved country was at war again. It was not long until the people of the nation and the Frost family learned the meaning of patriotism and love of country. December 7, 1941 would not be forgot.

The farm house after the addition

       Ira worked on the house all during January and February of 1942, and although not quite finished, the family moved into the new addition on March 7. Vyla's brother, Myrl, helped with the cupboards and the finish work. Then came the spring and summer work. Myron had a job at Raft River working on a ranch and Thelma went to Salt Lake City where she attended business school and worked.

       Vyla's winter earnings provided a much needed refrigerator. That fall Myron gave Ira his earnings to help pay for an eye examination and glasses which he needed. He had a difficult time adjusting to them. In his diary he wrote: "having hard time with glasses. . everything slopes to right. They threw me off pig pen into a pool of water. . . fall when stepping off fences or ditch banks." The rest of 1942 Ira was building a corral with railroad ties and started on a new chicken house.

       The beets were harvested with the help of the family. Topping the beets by hand with a sharp beet knife, throwing them into rows, and then throwing them onto the truck as it drove between the rows was a real tiring job.

       During the war, with shortages of help, the schools had extra long harvest vacations, and the kids all worked picking up spuds and in the beets. Ira worked at the sugar factory that winter, working from 12:00 midnight till 8:00 a.m. and Vyla was on the 1:00 p.m. till 11:00 p.m. shift. Christmas was nice with the sisters coming from Salt Lake City. The other kids were excited to have them come walking up the road after getting off the bus down on the highway. Sometimes they would come in the middle of the night, surprising the family. It was not unusual to wake up finding one of them in bed with the other kids.

The seven Frost girls: Kathryn, Irma, Marion, Lorna Celia, Thelma, and Eunice

       Early in 1943 Ira had some health problems, suffering with neuritis and was unable to do very much that winter. He did manage to finish the house and the chicken coop. Then, much to the delight of the girls, Ira converted what had been the kitchen into two bedrooms by adding a wall. Oh, what a way to live to actually have a room that two or three could call their own. In the earlier years the sleeping arrangements of the family was almost wall to wall beds. In the tiny bedroom there were at times, bunk beds. . .pull-out beds. . .and a crib for two babies at a time. In the front room was the old davenport which, when unfolded at night, took up most of the room and was dangerously close to the stove. Three of the girls slept there. In the summer a cot or two was placed out on the old porch for sleeping and on many summer nights Myron slept outside.

       On one of those summer evenings, Marian had slipped out to the old outhouse and then came back in again without the others knowing she had left. It was dark and with everybody just getting to sleep, the sound of the door opening and someone coming in frightened Eunice and Celia into thinking an intruder was there. They went screaming to their dad. Ira fumbled for a weapon. Then finding no intruder, he quizzed the family until he discovered the truth. It created quite an amusing incident which they laughed about later. Thinking back on some of these events, it is no wonder the new bedrooms were such a welcome addition.

       The summer of 1943 Myron worked at Raft River while the rest of the family carried on with the regular farm work. The war was in full swing and Vyla and some of the girls rolled bandages to help the Red Cross. The family was issued ration books which were used to buy the shoes, sugar, meat, gasoline, tires and other scarce items. There was a scarcity of many commodities. When Penney's received a shipment of overalls or fabric, Vyla would take the kids to join others in the purchase line. In July of that year, Dad Dayley passed away.

       The grain harvest was one of the highlights of the summer for the children. Oh, the anticipation as they helped their mother bake pies and prepare a big meal for the crew. When they finally got a glimpse of the threshing machine as it thundered down the road, they joyfully ran out to meet it. Following closely behind or ahead would be several teams of

Myron driving the old beet truck. Tootles, the dog is following along.

horses pulling the hay wagons and a crew of the men ready to work. As soon as the big machine was set, the work started. The men pitched the shocks of grain from the field onto the wagons, which hauled the loads into the threshing machine where the grain was pitched into it. The exciting result was grain coming from the spout where it was sacked, and the straw coming from the big blower made a beautiful stack of straw. Oh the tunnels that they could build in the stacks. Oh...the itching arms and legs that resulted. At mealtime the whole crew came to eat. There was always a wash tub the kids had set up with water, soap and towels where the men could wash up. The children all had to help with setting the table and other tasks. At times, Mother Dayley came to help out. Ira bought his first truck about this time. It was a welcome piece of equipment, often needing repairs, but proved to be of great value in the harvest. After the harvest, Vyla again went to work.

       Due to the draft with all the young men being taken into the Army on their eighteenth birthday, Myron decided to enter the service. He was not yet eighteen and thought he could have the draft board make it possible for some married man to stay home if he took his place. On November 4, 1943, he went to Twin Falls where he joined the Navy. On November 18 the family bade him goodby and he left for his training. Ira writes in his diary: "Everywhere I turn there is something to remind me of our boy. I feel confident he is well enough grounded in the church that he will come back as clean as he leaves us . . . not because he is my boy because I have not done anything to claim the honor of his high moral standing." However, Ira was very much the reason, along with his wife, for the kind of boy Myron was. From years back there were nights sitting around a warm stove eating popcorn with Ira reading to the children and discussing Gospel principles. Ira was practicing Family Home Evening long before it was presented as a program by the church.

       By the beginning of 1944 many things had changed in the Frost's big family with Eunice, Thelma and Myron away from home. Letters from them was always a welcome message. On January 13^th it was exciting when Myron came home on leave sporting his crew hair cut and his Navy uniform. The girls from Salt Lake City came home and for a brief week-end, they were all in the security of the family circle one more time. Myron left for Farragut, Idaho on the bus on January 26^th. Ira did a few more things on the house until it was time for the spring planting.

The Frost Family - January 1944. Back: Lorna, Celia, Myron, Eunice, and Thelma. Front: Marian, Gerald, Ira, Irma, Vyla, and Kathryn.

       In May, Myron came home on leave just in time to graduate from Seminary with his classmates. He had been taking a correspondence course through Brother Allred. He was asked to give the benediction for the Seminary Graduation exercises. His leave was a short one, and about the time he left, Celia moved into town where she was working. Now almost half of the family had gone. . . They all made frequent visits home and Ira was always happy whenever they did.

       This was the summer that Kathryn was riding Old Prince and fell off, breaking her arm. Other than having fewer children at home, the summer was typical with happy events like family reunions, freezers of home made ice cream, the ritual of moving out of the house for a day while it was fumigated for pests, swims in the canal, and sewing school clothes.