Lois Anderson Oral History Report
Interview with Lois Anderson
Date of Interview: October 28, 2004
Interviewer: Nathan Anderson
Transcriber: Cheri Tyler
Begin Tape 1, Side 1

Nathan: Lois Anderson is my grandmother, and she was born December 26, 1937, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was raised in Provo and attended Lincoln High, graduated from Lincoln High, and went on to BYU. She was married in 1956 to my grandfather, Guy Albert Anderson, and they had five children together. She currently has 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She has served as an elected official in the state of Washington for 20 years. Then went on as a Washington government official for 12 more years. She is currently on the Board of Directors for Para-Transit Services.

Nathan: Mrs. Anderson, you were born in 1937, and you lived here in Provo growing up at that young age, the world was going into World War II. Do you remember, at that young age, going through the hardships, especially the economic hardships of World War II?

Lois:Absolutely, it was very traumatic. I remember the day that Pearl Harbor was
bombed. All of my relatives were there in Provo, because my brother was being christened that day. So they came home from church and turned on the radio, which was a large radio in the living room, sort of like a major T.V. set would be today. We stood around, and I saw my aunts and uncles, their faces just go pale. I was only four years old at that time. But still I can remember that day. It was a terrible day. People were crying and everything. And then the other hardships – I think during the war, of course it lasted quite some time. I started school, I was in the second grade. We made little boxes to send to the soldiers in Europe that had soap and wash cloths, socks, pencils, and other personal items that they might need.The funniest thing I think of was that we had been used to eating butter – we lived near farms, and we never had to do without butter until the war started. Then all of the butter was gone and sent to the military, I guess. We had to eat Oleo or margarine for the first time. It came white in a plastic bag with a little yellow pellet. You had to squish the juice out of the pellet and then squish it into all of this stuff that looked like lard or shortening. Then, when it got mixed, it turned yellow, then you ate it as you would butter. We all thought is was horrible, and my Dad called it axle grease. Those are the most prevalent memories I have about the war, except that we were so glad when it was over. It was hard to go anywhere, there was no gasoline. You couldn’t get tires for your cars, and so, even though I was only a very young girl, I could remember all of it very clearly. I remember my mother-in-law, even when she died, had huge storage amounts of shortening and sugar, because she couldn’t get it in the war – had whole closets full of sugar.


Nathan: Mrs. Anderson, now how many children were in your family?


Lois:I had 5 brothers and sisters. There were six of us. There were three boys and
three girls.

Nathan: And then where did you fall?

Lois:Pardon me?


Nathan: Out of those six?

Lois: Oh, I was in the middle. I had an older brother and an older sister. And then
quite a space and then me, and then 5 years and then a brother and a sister and then another brother.

Nathan: Your oldest brother, was he in the military?

Lois:He was in the military, but not in World War II, of course. He was in – I think it must have been in the Korean War.

Nathan: Growing up, you said you had a radio where everyone was gathered around it the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed. I know at that time radio was before television, and I imagine that radios were pretty common. Did every family have a radio at that time?

Lois: I think so. Just about every family. It was a main feature in living rooms. You gathered around it in the living room and you listened to dramas on it. That were – you didn’t have the picture with it. There were plays that were done on radio, and normally they were live. But there were comedy shows and there were plays, there were mysteries and musical shows, all kind of shows. It was really the precursor for television.

Nathan: Was that something that was a big deal growing up in your family, or maybe not as much as other families?

Lois:No, it was important in our family. And I remember that we would hurry and get
through with our chores in school and if you were lucky, you would get done by
4 - 4:30 when there was a show on that might have been like the Lone Ranger or something. The Story Princess – that was a good one, and our mother let us listen to that. Then at about 7:00 or 8:00, there might be something like the LUX Radio Theater, and they were different anthologies and plays that would come on Monday night or on a Tuesday night, something like that.So we listened to those. But you actually went and sat down and listened to the radio. Eventually though, when I was a teenager, we actually had a sort of a portable radio. It was about the size of a sewing machine. It was probably at about 12-13 inches wide by 5 inches deep, and very heavy. Because it had batteries in it. And mostly they plugged in, but they were tube radios and so a portable radio was quite fragile, because if you dislodged a tube then it wouldn’t play then you had to get a new tube for it.

Nathan: Now you said after you finished your chores; what were some of the chores that were pretty common for you at that time?

Lois: It was a very structured life, because we had so many children in our household.Every Monday was wash day, even when it was the 4th of July – I think even if it was Christmas, I don’t know. But every Monday was washday. Every Tuesday you ironed huge baskets of laundry, and even when we were little. I ironed things like pillow cases, handkerchiefs, and T-shirts. And then as you got older, you ironed the other items that were starched: the blouses and dresses. Of course, girls only ever wore dresses so there was a lot of ironing to do. There was nothing like permanent press until I was married in 1956.

Nathan: In your household, was it a strict atmosphere? How did grandpa and grandma handle the discipline?

Lois:I don’t remember a lot of discipline. My dad was very easy going, and I think that my mother was pretty easy going too. I think we were pretty good kids so there wasn’t a lot of trouble going on. There wasn’t a lot of fighting even. But, it was a very structured existence. Simply because there was so much work to do.I remember, probably the most important thing they taught me was work. Work. How to work hard and fast, and how to get a lot done. And that has been a real blessing. But in the summer we would rise early and pick fruit until noon. We would be in the orchard by five and would pick the fruit until noon until it would become too hot. And then after that, you would come home and fold the laundry, if it was Monday or iron or whatever. So those were our summer days. You would play a little bit. As we got to be teenagers, we did play some. We could go swimming in the afternoon every once in a while at the SCERA pool and the best thing was on Saturday afternoon. There was always a matinee at the SCERA theater, and we were allowed to go to that if we had everything in the house clean – and I mean the windows, the floors were scrubbed and waxed and the bathrooms were all cleaned and even our beds changed and everything.

Nathan: Do you remember the price of the movie?


Lois:25 cents. Which was the same price that they charged for the school lunch.


Nathan: During your teenage years, these were the things you liked to do the most? Going to the pool and to the movies?

Lois: Oh, yes, especially when we were teenagers, because then you met all of your
friends from school, and it was great fun. I mean we just had a great time.

Nathan: When you were in high school, at Lincoln High School, did you have a lot of activities. Did you have sports or a club. What types of things were you involved with in high school?

Lois:Well, let’s see. I was an editor for the junior high paper. I was just about in every assembly they had. I wrote the assemblies and produced them. Which were more like shows. And then I was the organizer and first president of the Girl’s Club or the Women’s Association at the high school. And I was a school officer several times. So nearly everyday I stayed after school but then at one period I got a job and I had to be at work in Provo at Clarke’s. I think I had to be there at four, and as I got out of school at 3:00, I had to take a bus downtown in order to get there – to be at work on time.

Nathan: Where was Lincoln High School at?

Lois: Lincoln High School was on State, and it was next to the SCERA theater, if you
know where that is.

Nathan: I do, on State and 800 South.

Lois: I think it’s a bank now and has been torn down.


Nathan: Grandma, it sounds like it helped you later in life a little bit?

Lois: It really did because I look back now and it seems like everything I did all the way through school was gearing me for the things that I would have to do later. Such as public speaking when arguing a point with someone and yet not getting belligerent about it and not fighting about it up there. And then just the fun of seeing a project – a major project like putting on a show. In doing that, I learned to be really resourceful, because you would have a very narrow budget.
I remember I was the Senior prom dance committee chair. I don’t think I was the chair. They elected some boy who had never been to a dance to be the chair, and I always thought that was absolutely ridiculous. And so he came and begged me, and as I helped him, I actually did all the work, and he got all the credit – which is the story of my life.

Nathan: Did you have to be his date too, Grandma?

Lois:Pardon me?


Nathan: Did you have to be his date too?

Lois:No. No, no. I had other dates, but I broke my leg the night before the Senior prom and had to go in a cast.

Nathan: How did you break your leg?

Lois:Well, my mother didn’t want me to go to the midnight preview on Halloween.
And I begged and I begged and I begged. Because everyone – all of my friends were going of course, and I wanted to go. It was going to be the big event. I got there, and we were the first in line, we were the first to get there. I was standing near the door frame of the SCERA when they opened the door, and the crowd surged forward and pushed my knee right into the door frame. And it actually dislocated the cartilage in the knee. So I hobbled into the movie going “ooch ouch, ooch ouch” and then I sat – we all sat with our knees slouched in the bench and our knees bent with them up against the next seat in front of us. After the preview it was very late and my mother had said, don’t be calling us at two o’clock in the morning when you’re getting out. I said: “No, I’ll stay at Arty’s.” Well, Arty’s was on, I think it was on 8th North or on 12th North. Now you know how big those blocks are in Orem.

Nathan: Right.

Lois:And I walked that entire way to Arty’s house. And stayed there the night. The
next day was Sunday so I had to go and lead the singing at church, all with a leg, that was, my knee was as big as my head. And so, when my mother finally saw me, she said: “Oh, no” and took me to the doctor the next day and he put me in a cast from about my hip down to my ankle. So that’s how I had to go to the Senior prom. Thank goodness my formal was long.

Nathan: Now Grandma, at this time T.V. now was pretty popular, when you graduated from high school. Did you guys have a T.V. during your high school years?


Lois: We did. My mother convinced my dad that it would be a way for us to have
conference in our home. And that would be a wonderful thing for our family. That we would be able to not just listen to it over the radio, but we would be able to actually see the general authorities, and we would have the opportunity to get more familiar with them. And so they bought the T.V., and its use was pretty restricted. For one thing, everyone was terribly scared – I don’t even have a clue about how people were when computers came out, but that’s how it was with the television shows. They had to be adjusted by a technician for vertical hold, for horizontal hold and for the color blend. No one was allowed to touch them and more or less all you did was push the button and hoped that it worked and adjust the antenna if you had to. You had this big antenna up on the roof, and you spent a lot of time on the roof. There was only channel at first. It was from Salt Lake City, and so the reception wasn’t any good in Provo really. I mean, because of the mountain, and they didn’t have repeater towers and all that. So then they got another channel or two but it was very limited, and you watched through snow and it was black and white of course and nothing, nothing like what we see today. It’s just a miracle what there is today compared to that.

Nathan: Did you have any shows that you enjoyed or shows that you remember watching regularly?

Lois:I don’t remember at the very beginning. I think that there may have been – there was one called, oh dear, I can’t remember, Omnibus. Omnibus, and it was – the word omnibus means “all encompassing” and so it was a little bit of everything. So one week it might have been a play and then the next week a documentary and it might be...anyway, it was a very interesting show and it was very educational. So that was one we remember. Then later on there was – Arthur Godfrey I think was a big favorite because he always had all of these different people on his show and the same with Lawrence Welk. Your Grandma Anderson absolutely loved The Lawrence Welk Show because he had a lot of talented people on his show, especially young people and his shows were just very homespun with a lot of really great talent. So those were the earliest ones I remember.

Nathan: Okay. Now after you graduated from high school, did you go straight to BYU?

Lois: I was married when I was in high school, just right at the end when I was really just ready to graduate from high school. No, I had the baby, and took care of the baby and then my mother-in-law said that she would take care of her while I went to some classes. Then my husband got a job at Boeing and we were transferred – I mean we were hired into Seattle. We could have gone to Wichita, Kansas, which would have written a whole new history.

Nathan: And how did you two make the decision to go to Seattle rather than to Wichita?

Lois:I had read a book when I was young and it was called The Talking Totem Pole
and it was all about Puget Sound – I still have the book actually. I said, oh, I didn’t want to go to Kansas. I wanted to go and live in the North West. I thought it would just be beautiful. And it was! The first day we came across Lake Washington’s floating bridge, it was a perfect day and there were sail boats on the lake and you can imagine how beautiful that was and we just fell in love with Seattle.

Nathan: And then it rained ever since, huh?

Lois:In the year that we moved up was in 1957. It was such a mild year, that even at
Christmastime we just hardly wore even a sweater. And we thought that was such a miracle after the snow and cold in Utah.

Nathan: And then, what did you plan on studying when you went back to college?

Lois: At BYU?


Nathan: Yes.

Lois:Psychology and I think English and it was going to be a pre-law degree.


Nathan: Were you ever sad that you never at the opportunity to go back and take more classes?

Lois: A million times.


Nathan Yes.

Lois:But, what’s funny – here’s the funny thing, because when I was elected, it was
very unusual for a woman to be elected and I guess someone nominated me to be in the Presidents Club at BYU. And so I was invited to all of these wonderful receptions and everything as a member of the Presidents Club at BYU, even though I had never graduated. And the other funny thing is that as an elected official, I was invited to come to the Kennedy Center of Government at Harvard and study. And I said, well, I couldn’t leave my five teenage children, nor do I have the money for the tuition. I think I could have gotten the money though. They were willing to have me do that, but it would have – there was no way I could do it. I had a big family and lots of responsibility.

Nathan: After the kids got a little older, that’s when you started to run for public office?

Lois: Right. I was elected in 1969, and took office in January 1, 1970, and so I felt like my children were all in school and that it was an appropriate thing to do. I actually got involved in government, because I was concerned about my children. I wanted a good place for them to grow up and live.

Nathan: And so you served on the city council and then later on you went on to become mayor. And what made you to decide to go ahead and go from working on the city council to run for mayor?

Lois:Well, I had been elected for a long time and I was probably – I had been elected
more – in fact, I’m still the person who has been elected for the longest time in the city of Mount Lake Terrace. But our former mayor died and it was logical for me to replace him.

Nathan: Was it something where others came to you, or was it something that you felt like you could do the job well and decided to kind of step up to that?

Lois:We had a very stable council and we knew each other well, and it was suggested
to me by the others that I would be the mayor. They wanted to support me for mayor.

Nathan: What were some of the main challenges you faced during that time you were mayor?

Lois:As mayor?


Nathan: Yes.

Lois: I think that I suppose there were challenges. But I loved it all. There were
problems, yes. We had ducks and geese on the Ballenger[sp] after we had spent millions of dollars cleaning it up and people were feeding the ducks and that made them too fat to fly south for the winter. So they were fouling up the lake and the park and everything else, which was a big problem. Everything we tried to do would make the problem worse, and then the press became involved and would be opposed by other people. Now we finally have it resolved, but there were some really tough times about getting rid of those geese. We finally passed an ordinance that said, you shall not feed the ducks and geese. And I had people coming to the council saying you’re going to throw a three-year old in jail because he would feed a duck! The children wanted to feed the ducks and we said: “No, no.” You can’t do it, and you would ruin the ecology of the whole area if you do. So, yes, people thought I would put their three-year olds in jail and probably not the case, however we did enforce it with fines.

Nathan: Now you worked with the press a lot – the media – as mayor. Were there times you read criticism about yourself? Maybe not necessarily about yourself, but perhaps things that you were doing?

Lois: I think the most frustrating thing about dealing with the press was their
inaccuracy. They sent very inexperienced reporters to deal with very complex issues. I remember one day I called the editor and said; There are 19 errors in 2 ½ inches of copy here, and I think that’s excessive. Please don’t send your string of reporters to us any more. Rather send us someone who can figure out what’s going on, or let them come and I can brief them before the meeting. Well, I think he thought that was not a fair treatment, that somehow I would impose my views upon that reporter, but boy, I certainly got tired of the inaccuracies of everything from spelling errors to totally missing the point on things. And then, I think sensationalism was the other part. We had a reporter from the Seattle Times that was supposed to cover. But he never printed anything it seems, unless there was something sensational about it. For instance, when the library was on the ballot and we needed the public to be informed so that they could vote for it, and there were also pull tabs on the ballot at the local tavern. 99% of the copy that he wrote were on the pull tabs and 1% was on the library. It was sort of like, also on the ballot is the library. And it was very disgusting to me and I did not like the reporter and I did not like the theory that, you know, that the only copy that people will read is about something sensational.

Nathan: What was it at the end of that period that you served as mayor. What was it that made you decide to stop running for mayor? Were you beat in an election? Or did you decide that you were done?

Lois:No, I left office, I resigned. I was in mid-term actually of my fifth term, and so after 18 years, I was approached to go to work for the State’s Department of Transportation. And I had worked in setting up the transit system for Sonomish County and I was on the National Board of Directors for the American Public Transportation as well. And so, it was the logical transition to go into transportation. I decided that that would be a good future that would be something I would be interested in – it would pay me a lot more money than being mayor. And that I could use the experience I had gained and the best knowledge that I had to make things better. We were planning a rail system in Seattle at one time, and they needed someone at the department who knew the “ins and outs” of what we had planned. And I had been working on that for approximately 6 or 8 years before that. So it turned out that I was the person called the high capacity transit coordinator – transportation coordinator -- and responsible for then issuing the legislatures money that they had devoted to planning that system. So I was responsible then for the funding of that planning program.

Nathan: Now you worked at for Washington State for 12 years and now you retired from Washington State; correct?

Lois: Yes, in the year 2000.


Nathan: And while you were out –

Lois:In the year 2000 then, you see, because I was elected in 1970 I had 30 years of service with the public.

Nathan: And then you went on – and now you are working with the para-transit services. Do you want to explain a little bit about what that is and what your roll is as you’ve been there?

Lois: Yes. Para-transit services was a private, non-profit organization and I began volunteering with them about 1- years ago now. And actually, I’ve been on their board for a long time now. And what they do is transport the medicaid patients. They arrange for transportation, in some cases or they arrange for the ride by brokering rides between transportation providers. transportation. But essentially what we do is take people to the doctor, and you might see the small vans that are wheelchair accessible taking people around and that is what we do. More so now though, we are brokering the rides. We have call centers where people who need rides or people who need to get to dentist’s appointment in Seattle or some other sort of appointment and one of the hospitals or clinics, they call me and we broker rides between several different providers in order to get the best ride for the least money for that patron and still have a good deal for Medicare. We have contracts in Anchorage, Alaska, some in Oregon, and a lot in Washington. Oh, in California – I’d better not forget California!

Nathan: You are somewhat retired, so I imagine you do have some free time. What are some things you like to fill up your time with as well?

Lois: Oh, I absolutely love to lead church choir. It’s just great. There is such great music being written, and we love to perform it. So I spend a lot of time studying music, buying music, finding music, teaching music, and performing music. So that’s a real love. And I have lots of grandchildren and a couple of baby great-grandchildren that I love being with – it’s the greatest thing! And I think that’s an interesting thing that I found out is that when it all comes down to it, no matter how you’ve expended your life, that nothing is more important than your family.

Nathan: Well, Mrs. Anderson, Grandma, it has been so wonderful to interview you, to hear some more about your life. Of course, there are so many more questions and so much more that is still left to be told. But thank you so much for sharing those insights and for sharing some of those stories.

Lois: Oh, you’re welcome! It’s always good to talk to you Nathan.


Nathan: Thank you, thank you very much.

Lois: Love you! Call me soon.

And this concludes my interview with Mrs. Anderson.