Remembrance of Dad - John Feron Christensen
By John Feron Christensen, Jr.
May 20, 2011
Dad was born Jan 7, 1908 in Brigham City, Utah and passed away at the age of 62 in 1970 at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California. He is buried at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.
One of the reasons we decided to focus on our father at this time is that many of us, even our grand children, have vivid and fond memories of mom. Some of our children have little or no memory of dad. It is hard in some respect not to focus on both of them at the same time. I am attempting to put down on paper as many things as I can remember.
Dad’s family:
Father: John S. (Sclander) Christensen 1881-1962, 81y
Mother: Elsa Elisabeth Peters 1884-1976, 92y
Children:
Roma (Hancock) 1906-
John Feron (Elma Smith) 1908-1970
Lois (Dewey) 1912-
Camille (Just) 1914-
Blanche (Knudson) 1918-Living in Grand Junction Colorado is 93
Scott (Ann Spencer) 1922-2000
Dad comes from Utah pioneer ancestors that came from Demark, Sweden, Wales and the U.S. His parents were quite a mixture. His paternal grandfather, John L. Christensen was a pioneer coming to Utah from Denmark probably as a farmer. Dad’s paternal grandmother, Sara Forsgren, was the daughter of Peter A. Forsgren, the first convert to the church in Scandinavia.
Dad’s father, John S., married Elsa Peters from Perry (south of Brigham City). She came from the prominent Peters family. Her father, John David Peters, was a leader in the community, state and church. He was mayor of Brigham City for a time and was one of the 107 delegates elected to Utah’s constitutional convention in 1894, prior to Utah becoming the 45th state in 1896. Much could be told about both of these families.
Dads father had a farm outside of Brigham City on the Bear River. The family home was a two story house in Brigham City on First West, north of Forest Street on the west side of the street. Dad would ride out to the farm and do chores like breaking the ice on the water trough for the livestock. I know they had horses but I do not know about a cow. At home they had chickens because I remember them when I visited as a young boy, having breakfast with warmed over potatoes.
Dad was the oldest boy so I think he had a lot of farm duties. He was 14 when Scott was born. Dad went to school in Brigham City. He did go to the Utah A. C. (Agricultural College) in Logan. I found the one book I remember most. It is “Machine Tool Operation”. It has his name and address in it “Feron Christensen, Brigham, 57 N 1 W.", his signature and “Logan U.A.C. Jan. 4 1926” he was 18 years old. There are some notes and fingerprint or two so you can tell he used it. It contains information still in use today. As far as I can tell he was not a very academic student but a very smart and skilled person.
He worked on a farm as a young man where he spent time by himself. He told me of a time when one night he was trying to sleep but was spooked by a noise outside it was dark, he was alone and thought there was something dangerous outside. He could not see and got no answer when he called out warning so he shot at what he though was the problem. It got quiet. In the morning when he could see he found he had shot a bunch of prairie chickens‘.
He told me of working for a man - a farmer - digging a well. The man had cut his hand.
Dad’s skills:
He cut our hair. This happened as I recall when I got a haircut in Huntington Park on Santa Fe when we lived on Marbrisa and it was so bad that dad said he could do much better that that. He used scissors and comb and the hand clippers that I have today.
He put new soles on our shoes using leather from the big belts that were not usable at the ice plant across the street from us when we lived on Randolph in H. P. He got the lasts, the tools used to help in re-soling, from a man he worked with.
He made us a pool table as a Christmas present when we lived on Randolph. He got the balls (there were billiard balls - smaller to fit the size of he table) and cues from a pool hall on Slauson across from A.J. Bayer Co. where he worked. The pockets were socks. Kids (Gasporah’s) from the neighborhood would come and play. We had a garden on Randolph in the vacant lot next to us. When we lived on 60th Street it was in the back yard.
We raised rabbits on Randolph. I recall loosing a litter because it got so hot and I did not keep them cool with enough water. Dad killed and dressed them (skinned) and put the pelt on a clothes hanger type frame to dry. We would eat the meat. He must have sold the pelts. I remember him killing and dressing a chicken. All of these things he had learned to do as a boy growing up and working the farm.
Dad built the back room on the house on 60th street. We got to help him. I think the only thing he could not do was plaster the outside. Orson Curtis (as I recall) came and did it and there was some fun in trying a hand at it - trying to get the mud to go from the trowel and stick on the wall. He also moved the garage from the neighbors behind us to where it ended up being a workshop and patio kind of room behind our garage. He did the cement for it, then the fence was taken down and the garage rolled across the yard and set in place. He just knew how to do things.
Dad’s cars:
We had a 1932 Plymouth when we lived on Marbrisa and on Randolph. We got a 1946 Plymouth on Halloween day. It was a tan 4-door sedan from John Schliffer Chrysler Plymouth in H.P. on Pacific Blvd. They bought a Plymouth Valiant and I think another Plymouth, a ‘56 - Paul or Luann may remember these. Paul recalls that they bought Brent’s Chrysler Windsor. When Mom had the accident and had to get another car Kerry remembers Mom saying, “I wonder what Feron would think of me buying a foreign car!”
What I am getting at is that I think dad had maybe four cars in his lifetime. He worked on them, doing the tune-ups and brakes.
Personal details:
Dad was six feet tall, slender and straight. He had a strong upper body from being a farmer and a molder in the foundry, which was a very physical job. He was not a hairy man. He had false teeth, losing them as a young man possibly due to injury. I’m not sure if a baseball bat hit him – I can’t verify that - but I never saw or really knew he had them until I was grown.
The men at work called dad “Chris”. I answered the phone and someone would be asking for “Chris.”
Kerry mentioned a couple of things:
His transistor radio and always taking pictures. Kerry also remembers sort of a right of passage when dad took our boys out to the garage and showed them where the house key hung on a nail on the right side.
Personality and interests:
Dad was very friendly. He could and would talk to anyone. Things interested him.
People liked dad. He liked baseball. I went to the Dodger games with him and Grandpa in the Coliseum before Dodger Stadium was built. Mom and dad would go up Chavez Ravine to watch it being built.
An example of dad’s wisdom common sense was shown to me when I went with him to visit his father (my grandpa) who was sick and in his older years. As we drove there dad said to me, “It will be best when you see grandpa not to say ‘how are you today’ or something like that. It’s better to say ‘it’s good to see you’. Grandpa does not feel good and he does not need to keep being reminded of it, so its best to say it’s good to see you, which it is, and he will be happy to see you even though he is not doing well.’” As I have grown older I have marveled at his good sense.
I remember him using a big Chap Stick looking round bar on his hands because they would dry out and get chapped from his work in the foundry. It smelled like camphor or eucalyptus. He always kept his hands clean and nails trimmed. He always had a pocketknife, a thing that carried over from his father and on to some of us.
Occupations:
He was a farmer.
He worked of the Brigham City (probably public works) hauling pipe from the foundry in Spanish Fork (probably the Pacific States Foundry). This must have been by truck. It was quite a trip from the Provo area to Brigham City - about 80 miles I would guess. Mom told us that dad planted the trees that line Main Street in Brigham City while he worked for the city.
He was a Fuller Brush Man when he came to L.A.
He was a molder at AJ Bayer. Dad and mom talked shop. From their conversations I knew what the “cope and drag” part of a flask that the molds were made in was, and what a “slick” and a “spoon” (mold finishing tools) was before I went to work in the foundry industry. Dad was a very good molder. He was a floor molder in that the work he did was making molds using the flask and pattern on the floor because they were generally large and not made using a molding machine. He did everything from making the mold to pouring the metal. He was very good and was known to very rarely make a scrap casting. I recall him being burned. Once on the top of his foot was a spot that looked like it had been scooped out by a spoon. That one kept him off work for a while. He in later years had back problems due to what he did as a floor molder. There was a time he was foreman in the shop and that was not a good thing for him.
We have some samples of the small work he did and some pictures of other things. Things I remember are the casting of Swaps (at Hollywood Park race track in Inglewood as I recall) and the statue of General MacArthur in MacArthur Park in LA. Also the big plaques at the main (east) entrance to the L.A. Coliseum and castings at Home Savings Bank buildings.
There is a casting in Hawaii at he War Memorial and the State Seal Casting. We have a picture of that taken in the foundry and small photos with dad in the picture taken by mom. I remember him talking about casting larger window frames or something like that for a new I. Magnin department store building in L.A. There were a lot of them. I don’t know where or when - it may not even be there now. It was big and fancy.
Dad always left he physical part of the shop there. He always showered there leaving the foundry smells behind.
Dad did not serve in the Second World War because he got a work deferment. Meaning that he went to work or a foundry just around the corner from A.J. Bayer for a time doing foundry work related to the nation’s defense. When the war was over he went back to work at A.J. Bayer. A woman owned it. I found a Christmas card from Rabun Bronze Foundry signed by Lucille C. Rabun.
Church
Dad and mom were married in the Salt Lake Temple on Jan. 8, 1934. I presume they went by car. They were asked to be the witness couple during the endowment ceremony prior to their sealing. Mom said that dad kept fishing for the ring every time they went to the altar during the course of the endowment ceremony, not realizing the actual marriage ceremony would happen later in a different room.
I know dad served in or as Elders Quorum President. I recall catching a glance of him on his knees praying in their bedroom one evening. He was a quiet, “just do it” kind of person and his testimony was that way too. He also served as the High Priest Group Leader in the Maywood Ward. There is a letter of thanks to him from Bishop Richard Waite.
How did dad and mom meet?
Dad was 2 years older than mom. They went to the same school but were in different classes. I think mom knew of dad. Mom worked with John D. Peters (dads grandfather on his mothers side) in writing down his personal history. This was before they were going together I am pretty sure. John D. Peters told mom during one of her meetings with him that he wanted her to meet his grandson. It was dad.
Mom going to work:
Dad was always our provider. When we were all in school dad though it would be good to let mom go to work part time in the library in Huntington Park. (She had been a librarian in Brigham City when they married.) She did, and he supported her. It became a very important decision, one mom credited dad with.
Mom’s appreciation and love for dad:
She said that she would just think of something and dad knew just how to take care of it.
