June 17, 2004 by
Frenchie Pulsipher
Some highlights and memories of the
life of Frenchie H. Pulsipher
I was born September 24, 1932 in the middle bedroom of our
home in Mesquite Nevada. I had (3) sisters and (2) brothers, Silvia, Wilverna,
Warren, Howard, myself and by baby sis Katie. I was 11 years older than Katie,
she was my parents, William and Nevada’s pride and joy. We lived on the main
street in Mesquite. Highway 91 ran right through town. Our home was located on
a very sharp corner. We mad many cars and trucks wreck in our front yard (more
on that later). I grew up on a small farm where we were self sustaining. We had
an orchard with all kinds of fruit. My mother bottled peaches, pears, apricots,
apples, etc. We had fruit and jams the year around. We raised pigs and beef for
our meat use. We had rabbits and chickens for eggs and poultry. We had cows to
supply us with milk. We did not have a lot of money, but we lived pretty well.
My dad had cattle that brought in some extra money.
I attended
Mesquite Elementary School for six years. I felt like I was not very popular.
In grade school we had clothes to wear, but not very nice clothes. I attended
Virgin Valley High School from 7th to 12th grade. I had a
lot of good friends in high school and felt like I was as good as anyone else.
This was a very small school, maybe 200-300 students. I did not enjoy 7th
and 8th grade, but in the 9th grade I was more outgoing
and had many good friends. I played on the JV Basketball team. In 10th,
11th, and 12th grade, I played both Jr. Varsity and
Varsity. We went on many trips. We had to travel a lot for our away from home
games. I was not a great player, but about average. Our high school was 99.9
percent LDS. I remember the first time I said “hell”, I was in shock to think
some thing like that came out of my mouth. I don’t think I heard the “F” word
until I moved to California. While going to high school, I worked in a service
station across the street from out house for $.25 an hour. We also did odd jobs
pulling radishes and onions and harvesting sugar beets. After high school by
brother Warren and I ran the Conco station at Beaver Dam. We worked 12 hour
shifts for $1 an hour. Then, in November 1950, we moved to San Diego CA. We
both worked at General Dynamics building airplanes. We were making $60 a week.
At that time it was pretty good money. I worked there over 1 year and then
moved back to Mesquite and worked construction for awhile. I did not like it at
all. I also drove a truck with my dad. He had his own truck. He hauled most
anything, cattle, furniture, coal, hauled a lot of ore from the mines above
Mesquite.
When I moved
back to Mesquite I had a 1947 Chevrolet (4 door). I got as far as Escondido,
threw a rod, threw the engine block and had it towed to a dealer in town. I
caught the bus home. The next day my dad was taking a load of cattle to Los
Angeles stockyard, so I came back with him with the plan of dropping the cattle
at the stockyards, picking up my car and coming home. Coming into LA, my dad
threw a rod in his truck, so we called Brother Harley Leavitt. He came down
with his wrecker, towed dad’s truck to where my car was, loaded my car on dad’s
truck and towed us both home. I had my car repaired, sold it and bought a 1950
4 door. I was drafted into the army in November of 1952, did my 6 weeks boot
camp at Fort Ord CA and was sent to Korea. I did not like the Army. I did not
like to take orders from anyone. It took me awhile to catch on. I was a 75 recoilless
rifle gunner on the M.L.R. (Main Line of Resistence). I saw many wounded and
killed. I never had any fear that I would not come home in one piece. I saw a
lot of country (Japan) Okinawa, most of South Korea. I had a lot of good
experiences. Glad that I had them, but would not want to do it over again. I
was in Korea for 13 months. Came home for 6 weeks and was then sent to Fort
Lewes Washington. I bought a New 1954 Ford, took it to Fort Lewis Washington. I
was up there for about 8 months and came home to run the service station for
Harley Leavitt for a year. I bought another new car, a 1956 Ford Victoria, my
pride and joy, found out it was pretty fast. I raced everything from Cedar City
to Las Vegas. Guys would come and get me out of bed at 2am wanting to race so I
would accommodate them. But, I never saw them again. While living in Mesquite I
played on a Mormon men’s basketball team. We were fair, but not good. Every
year Almo Nevada had won the Stake Championship. About 2 weeks before we played
a team from St George I was supposed to ride home with some of the team, but
changed my mind and came home with someone else. On the way home this car was
traveling to fast and did not make a curve in Santa Clara, most were hurt
pretty bad. Anyway, when we played Almo for the championship we asked those
that attended to give a donation for team members that were hurt. My dad attended
that game and his first to watch my play and I played the best game of my life.
I think I had like 19 points. We won and went on to regionals. At this time I
started dating my wife Marilyn, we dated for a while, then she went to BYU. I
moved back to San Diego. We wrote to each other and talked on the telephone.
She had to quit school, her mother had a heart attack and she came home to take
care of her. She came to San Diego to see me and I would go up home on the
holidays. We were engaged in November of 1956.