FINANCIAL BIG SHOTS or BIG MONEY

NICE TOYS EQUALS "MUST WORK"

        By the time Stewart and I were sixteen we both had Vespa motor scooters, and both got jobs working at JC Penney’s on Center Street in Provo.

JC Penney's store in late 1950s

        We got up before it was light and buzzed off to work, running every stop light along the way. There we swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms, emptied the trash cans and washed the front door windows all in time to make it to our first class at BY High. A year later we were both working in the kitchen at Eldered Care Center, loading food trays and washing dishes. I continued to spend a big chunk of the money we earned on religious books.

Eldred Center rest home in South Provo

        Next Stewart landed a car route delivering the Deseret News through the River Bottoms and up Provo Canyon to Wild Wood. After he graduated from High School I took over his route and delivered the papers on my Vespa.

INVESTMENT CLUB or FINANCIAL BIG SHOTS

        Stewart was a good friend and an ambitious worker. Under Stewart’s leadership a group of us organized a club called “Young Investors.” It wouldn’t be long before we would all be driving Corvettes, so we thought.

1961 Corvette

        We each put in $200 and began investing. We followed penny stocks in the newspapers, found one we liked, and visited in the Salt Lake Penny Stock Exchange. They refused to sell us anything. They said we were too young. 

Salt Lake Stock & Mining Exchange - Salt Lake City, UT

        We later bought stock in a movie company that was making a movie about the Mormons crossing the Colorado River at “Hole in the Rock.” It went bankrupt.

"Hole in the Rock" Pioneers. painting by Lynn Griffin.

       We paid the back taxes on a piece of salt grass property near Goshen. We felt like bigshots standing on the County Courthouse steps and bidding on tax sale property. It turned out the title was disputed. The Park Service claimed ownership. Bummer.

Utah County Court House, Provo, UT

        Our last investment before leaving for missions was a loan to the Southam Mining Company. It seemed Mr. Southam was sending out his own missionary and was short on cash. We looked for big returns from “The Man Upstairs.” Maybe we’ll collect in Heaven!

        Toward the end of my Junior year at BY High, some members of our investment club encouraged me to run for student body president. With this group of "Winners" backing me, how could I lose?

Francis standing next to his campaign sign. His sister, Kay, made the poster.

        Our platform was "The Big Deal." We all dressed like gangsters from the '30s in double-breasted, pinstripe suits and carried violin cases. We used Ray Ashby's brother's Model A as a backdrop.

1930s Ford Model A.

         I climbed the old metal fire escape to the second floor platform, and gave my passionate campaign speech to the gawking crowd below. When the votes were counted, the Young Investors finally prevailed. I got the job!

BY High Executive Officers, 1962-1963.

      What became of the Young Investors? We served missions all over the world, got married, and after college each of us was successful in our own way. Stewart Grow became a real estate developer; Paul Hoskisson became a professor of Ancient Scriptures; Ray Ashby became a Seminary principal; Joe Clark became a teacher; Steve Grow became a lawyer, and I became a Seminary principal, and then an Elementary School teacher.