Interview with Orwin Henry Gubler

Orwin Henry Gubler was interviewed by Randall J. Bunn on October 1, 2018 in St. George, Washington County, Utah. He related his World War II military experiences. Also participating: Velda Gubler, his wife, and Brady Fronk.

RB:I want to ask you a little bit about your growing up period. You told me you were born on March 23, 1924. Is that right?

OG:Yes.

RB:You were born in Santa Clara [Washington County, Utah]; your parents [Archie Henry and Marie (Blake) Gubler] were living there. Your name is Gubler, so do you go back to the Swiss [people who] came here in the 1860s?

OG:Yes.

RB:We are also with Velda Gubler, his wife. How long have you been married?

VG:Since January 1949.

RB:In 2019, it will be seventy years.

VG:Probably.

RB:That is a long time. [Laughter] What do you remember about growing up in Santa Clara?

OG:It was a small community; everyone knew everyone else. Victor [Russell] Frei and I were the only two boys [the same] age. There were some [who] were a year older that we chummed around with.

RB:Were you one of six children in your family? Were you the second oldest?

[Orwin Henry Gubler siblings: 1) Anna Elizabeth Gubler who married Eldred John Smith; 2) Lester Gubler who married Marie Louise Nazer; 3) DeLoy Gubler who married LaDawn (Roberts) Porter; 4) Dale Gubler who married Sheree Miles; and 5) Clark Tennyson who married DeAnn Lynn.]

VG:Yes.

RB:Were you the oldest boy?

OG:Yes.

RB:Was your father a rancher or a farmer?

OG:Father did a lot of things [and] he was a hard worker.

VG:He raised fruit.

OG:He had fruit trees --.

RB:Everybody in Santa Clara raised fruit then.

VG:Most of them [did].

RB:A lot of them.

OG:We were self-sustaining; we had a milk cow, pigs and chickens. We could actually live on what we raised.

RB:What kind of fruit trees did your parents [have]?

OG:The Elberta was the main one; it was a --.

VG:Peach [tree].

OG:We had all kinds [of fruit trees].

RB:I think The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] has some peach orchards [that are] still out there.

OG:In Santa Clara?

RB:Yes.

OG:They used to have some apricot [trees], but I do not know if they have any there now or not.

RB:What kind of things did you, Victor, and others your age do [when] growing 00:03:00up? What did you do to entertain yourself?

OG:We had various types of games.

VG:We would build fires on the hill.

RB:Fires on the hill? That is great.

OG:We would go up on the hill and build a fire.

VG:[We would] cook [our] supper.

OG:And cook -- we had tires we would swing on and wagons we made going off the north side of the hill to see who could go the fastest. We had a swimming hole in the irrigation ditch on the other side of the [Santa Clara] Creek [River]. We went swimming. They sluiced the ditch out when the sand came in and had a good beach that you could go and lay in it. We did not have swimming suits. I do not think anybody had one in Santa Clara. We were out of bounds.

RB:Was it just in your birthday suit?

OG:Yes.

RB:[Laughter] That is fun!

OG:We had different games we played. We played softball at the back of the school on the softball field. They let us go in the rec [recreation] hall above the school -- on top of the schoolhouse ─ and play basketball.

RB:What was your favorite sport?

OG:Swimming in the hole.

RB:That is nice.

OG:We would go down on the noon hour while our dads were sleeping, in the heat [middle] of the day, and swim. We had homemade flippers that we made from --.

RB:Homemade flippers that you made for your feet?

OG:[Inaudible]

VG:Flippers. Bang! Bang! [Gesturing shooting a gun or pistol.]

RB:Oh, I see. [Laughter]

OG:We would shoot the birds ─ wait until they were off the nest ─ [then] we would help ourselves to whatever might land on the hill. We would go back the next day and there would [be] another bird on the same nest.

RB:Is that right?

OG:We did not take it the second time. We did a lot of things.

RB:Were you growing up in The [Great] Depression [of] the 1930s?

OG:Yes.

RB:Did you even know that you were in a depression?

OG:No, not really. Maybe. We looked for traffic. There was not much traffic on the road, even then. People coming through would chop your wood for a bite to eat.

RB:That was old Highway 91 that goes through Santa Clara.

OG:I remember [there was a meeting] that the school or the church, or the community put on. I remember Orval Hafen getting up and saying [that] not a person in Santa Clara [is] on relief. They were all taking care of themselves.

RB:Was everyone able to take care of themselves in Santa Clara?

OG:[During] The Great Depression. It was hard. Everybody had something to trade with you [and] that was as good as money.

RB:Yes. Did you have a radio in your house growing up?

OG:Yes.

RB:Did you ever listen to the radio?

OG:Yes to Little Orphan Annie and Jack Armstrong. As a [child], I could not figure it out. It was a small radio and I would look [in the] back to see if there was a man standing [there] talking.

RB:[Laughter] Someone is talking out of this little box, but where are they?

BF:[Laughter]

OG:I was not very old [and] I could not figure it out.

RB:[Laughter] That is good! Did you ever travel anywhere as a [child]? Or did you [always] stay in Santa Clara?

OG:I pretty much stayed in Santa Clara. I went to Salt Lake [City, Salt Lake County, Utah] a time or two.

VG:He had an aunt [Edith (Blake) Larson] who lived up there.

RB:[So] you went up to the big city?

VG:[Laughter]

OG:Yes. We went to Saltair and around to different [places in the city, but] I pretty well stayed in Santa Clara. We had horses [and] we used to ride horses all over [the area].

RB:Did you have a horse of your own?

OG:Dad always had some [horses]. He gave me a colt once, but he never did quite make it.

RB:Did you have to take care of the horses?

OG:I had to feed them all the time and milk the cow.

RB:I was going to ask if you had cows that you had to milk.

OG:Yes.

RB:What did you think about milking the cows?

OG:It was a job.

RB:A job! [Laughter] Did you have any pets like a dog or --?

OG:I had a dog, but not really a pet. He was kind of a nuisance around the cattle.

RB:Was he a working dog?

OG:No, he was for playing. We did not keep him very long.

VG:[Did] he help you herd the cattle?

OG:No.

RB:Not really?

OG:We had rabbits. I raised rabbits and pigeons. I had a tree house in a big tree.

RB:[Did] you build the tree house? Would you go up there and spend time?

OG:Yes. I [would go] in the garden, pick a pocket full of peas and go up there 00:09:00to eat them.

RB:[Laughter] Let me ask you about school. [Did] you go to school in Santa Clara and then into St. George at Woodward Junior High School?

OG:I went to Woodward in seventh grade.

RB:What do you remember about your school time? Did you like school?

OG:It was not easy for me.

RB:No? That was not your [strong point]?

OG:We had a lot of work to do after school. We had to go down the hill to help on the farm.

RB:Yes. When [World] War [II] broke out [in] 1941, were you about eighteen years old?

OG:I had another year of school.

RB:Were you seventeen or eighteen years old?

OG:I remember they had flight training school in ROTC [Reserve Officers Training Corps where] they trained pilots. There were two boys [who] trained even before we entered the war. They volunteered to go to England and they both [were] shot down.

RB:Were they a couple [of] Santa Clara boys?

OG:One was from Veyo [Washington County, Utah] and the other [one] might have been [from] St. George. He was from St. George. [Keith Leland Hafen] He was [the coach], Leland Hafen "Lee" Hafen's son.

RB:[Was] his son shot down and died?

OG:Yes. [Keith Hafen was shot down in England on March 31, 1943.]

RB:When did you enlist?

OG:[June 18, 1943] is the date there. [Gesturing to the family history book, 00:11:00Archie Henry Gubler Family: Lineage and Legacy complied by Velda L. Gubler, 1993.]

RB:Do you remember how old you were? Nineteen?

OG:It was right after I got out of school.

RB:You would have been about eighteen years old. Was it [in] 1942? What do you remember about enlisting? Where did you do that?

OG:[I went to] Salt Lake City on a bus. I had a chance at [the United States] Army, [United States] Navy or [the United States] Marines. I had a neighbor who said, "If you get a chance, join the Navy." He was in World War I in the Argonne Forest in Germany. He showed me his uniform.

RB:Did you decide to join the Navy?

OG:Yes.

RB:Did you go to the recruiting office in Salt Lake [City]? What did they have there for you?

OG:I do not remember where the office was. The church owned half of the [Rio Grande Western Depot]. I think there was a station next to there. Maybe that is where we left [from]; I do not know. They took a [lot] of us and -- there is a story here that she wrote in the [Gubler, Velda, Ibid, page 253]. There might be a record if you can find it.

VG:Do you want me to get that article?

RB:Where did you go from Salt Lake [City]? Where did they send you?

OG:[To] San Diego [California].

RB:Did you go to San Diego on a bus?

OG:Yes.

RB:Is that where you did your basic training?

OG:I do not remember if I went on the train in the service, or only when I was on my [LDS] mission. I think I went down on the train two times. There is an article in here [Salt Lake Tribune or The Deseret News] about it.

RB:Did you go on your mission after the war?

OG:Yes.

RB:You went to San Diego and did you have your basic training there?

OG:I had basic training [and] ten days later we went back after leave to San Diego and they put me on a landing craft, put the troops in and spent a month there..

RB:What was basic training like? Do you remember?

OG:We did a lot of things like going through a room that had poison gas in it.

VG:They tested and trained them that way.

OG:It was a sixty-foot lake [and] you had to jump off into the water. They had a battleship.

RB:You knew how to swim because you used to swim in the Santa Clara ditch!

OG:It was not very long before they told me, "You must swim so much or you cannot go on your ten day leave after training." I knew I could swim it. It wasn't that scary. They had airplanes go over a target and you had to shoot a machine gun at that. Basic things like that. We went to Camp Pendleton [California] and spent a week, raising and landing the small landing boats -- 00:15:00[to] get the feel of it.

RB:They did some training that way.

OG:I got a ten day leave before I went back --.

RB:What did you do on your ten day leave? Did you come back to Utah?

OG:I came back and helped dad pick peaches!

RB:Of course! [Laughter]

OG:They were having a struggle [at home with the peaches.] They would see me and tease me about, "You will not do anything; you have gone soft."

BF:Did you father or anybody in the family ever give you grief for joining, [since they were] World War I veterans?

OG:No. My father wanted me in [military service]. He had a bad leg and he did not get into World War I.

RB:He didn't?

OG:I do not think he was old enough.

RB:If he was born in 1898, he might not have been. He would have been twelve 00:16:00years old, maybe fifteen or sixteen [years old].

VG:This is the house he grew up in. [Showing a picture. Gubler, Velda, Ibid. pages 106, 108, 109.]

OG:[Would you like] to see it?

RB:Let me see that.

OG:There is a picture on each side.

BF:I can put it back. Yes, we have it.

VG:You can take that if you want to look at it.

RB:Okay. Very good.

BF:There is another copy over here. Could I use that?

RB:Could he take a look at that book? [Gubler, Velda, Ibid.]

VG:Certainly.

RB:After your basic training, where did you go?

OG:[We went] overseas.

RB:You went on a ship. Do you remember the name of the ship?

OG:I do not remember.

VG:You have a picture of it. [Gubler, Velda, Ibid. Page 255

RB:Is it in the book? Where did you go overseas?

OG:[I was assigned to] Pearl Harbor [Hawaii]. I did two or three little jobs on 00:17:00the base waiting for them to find a place where I could get some schooling in shop work [as a] repairmen, so I was assigned to repair [landing craft].

RB:What was your job in the Navy?

OG:To repair the landing craft.

VG:He was a carpenter's mate.

OG:A lot of the ships, even the parts we were working on [were ships] when they went on liberty, they would use this as a Navy ship too. They [the ships] would get beat up and had to be repaired.

RB:That was your job?

OG:They would come back and I could tell they had been out in the bay and there was some junk in it.

RB:Yes.

OG:There were rations on them that they didn't eat. They were pretty beat up.

RB:Did you spend most of your time around Pearl Harbor?

OG:I stayed there until the war ended. I ended up going under the Golden Gate [Bridge] when the war was basically over [September 2, 1945.]

RB:Was that in 1945?

OG:I do not know how many years I was on Pearl Harbor; I never did figure that out. [About October 1943 to September 1945.]

RB:Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. [Did] you go after that happened?

OG:Yes, more than a year or so [later]. [October 1943.]

RB:What was Pearl Harbor like after all that? Were they still trying to clean up?

OG:They did have to [clean up] a ship or two. One they never did [and it] is still there. They cleaned it up pretty good.

RB:Did they find all the bodies? Or some of them?

OG:There were some on the ship. I do not know if they got them all out; if they did it was recently. I think there was the [ship] USS Utah. I do not know where it was.

RB:[USS] Utah was the name of the ship?

OG:Yes. I do not know what type of ship it was. But it was sunk there too. It stayed there for quite awhile submerged. They had ships that were sent back to the [United States] to be repaired. They had the places on the island that they [could get repaired]. That was my job. If the landing craft [was] beat up a little bit, we needed to fix them.

RB:Were you at Pearl Harbor for [your] entire [military] time?

OG:And then the war was over.

RB:[When] the war ended, did you come back to San Francisco [California]? Is that where you were discharged?

OG:No, it was the city on the other side of the [Golden Gate] Bridge.

RB:[The] Oakland Naval Shipyard [in California]?

OG:Yes, I think so.

RB:Not Treasure Island?

OG:No. I came back and they put me on a ship hauling freight from Oakland [California] to Stockton [California], sixty miles up the river. That is where my time was up and I left from there.

RB:How did you get back to Utah? Did you take a train?

VG:[Laughter]

OG:It was not easy.

RB:Did you hitchhike?

OG:Tried it.

RB:[Laughter]

OG:After the war was over, I do not know whether I had a leave. At Thanksgiving 00:21:00time, the captain said, "Now half of you can go for Thanksgiving and half for Christmas." I had a friend said [to him], "Should we try it?" He was just going down to California. I went from California back to Utah. We left the ship at 10:00 at night, took a bus to the bus depot -- back.

RB:To the highway?

OG:[Inaudible] He said we could go, or we have to wait ten days. I said, "Should we try it or should we go back to the ship?" He said, "Oh, let us try it." We hitched all that night and some [man], an ex-serviceman had a -- I do not know 00:22:00what kind of car -- [inaudible] but he [had] a couple of flat tires and said, "That is as far as I can take you." It was just impossible to buy a tire.

RB:Did you go south towards Las Vegas [Nevada]?

OG:No. We went down to Los Angeles [California]. The next morning we caught a man going that way to pick us up from Los Angeles. He said, "You can cut across there to that little town." I do not remember what it was, a little town on [Highway] 91. "It will save you 100 to 150 miles." It was a little before dark. It started to rain a little bit outside and I thought: I do not know. I had an uncle [Clement Gubler] in Los Angeles, so I said, "I think I will try it." I got 00:23:00out and I thought: no. It was almost dark and it started to rain so I thought: I will have a night here. Before that some men took me down the other road, to make sure somebody will pick me up and take me up here and there is another road to get on. It was only a half-mile or a mile. I got up there and it was raining. I said a prayer; one more step and here came a [fellow]. He said, "Where are you headed?" I said, "Back to Utah." "I am sorry I cannot help you, but I can take you into Las Vegas." By then it was 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. I knew Las Vegas pretty [well]. I worked for Rocky Mountain Produce [Company] in Santa Clara.

RB:[So you] had [been] to Las Vegas before?

OG:They would ship truckloads going to California and I helped unload it. He took me and the bus station was not very far away. I thought: I will go down and try anyway. I asked and he said, "Yes, I have one seat."

RB:[There was] one seat on the bus at Las Vegas?

OG:I got to Santa Clara a little after daylight.

RB:My goodness! Did anybody know you were coming?

OG:I do not think so.

RB:When you got to Santa Clara, where did they drop you off?

OG:At my door yard.

RB:At the door of your house?

OG:Yes.

RB:What do you remember about your mom and dad greeting you? Was that a nice return?

OG:My little brother.

RB:Your little brother. Who was that?

OG:Clark [Gubler]. He was four or five years old. [He was seven years old.

RB:[Did] he see you at the door?

OG:Yes. Another time I came and he knew I was coming. He waited for me up at the storage yard. When he saw the bus stop at the house, he took off and got down there by the time I got off the bus. He was waiting for me.

RB:That is nice. That was your experience during the war.

OG:It was hard getting a ride; I know that.

RB:Was it a good experience in [military] service?

OG:Yes, it made you appreciate a lot of things.

RB:Did you meet a lot of people?

OG:On the island we used to have Crawford Gates. You might have heard of him.

RB:Crawford Gates, the musician?

VG:Yes.

RB:I know of him.

OG:He was an officer. He could get a jeep and so every Sunday, if we were working, we could get off early and he made sure we went to church.

RB:Were you on the [Hawaiian] Island of Oahu?

OG:Yes.

RB:Did you go to any of the other islands?

OG:Not [while I was] in the service. I went back with the Farm Bureau. I went to a couple of the other islands then.

RB:Tell about when you arrived back in Santa Clara. What did you do after you [were] discharged and you were home again?

VG:Picked peaches! [Laughter]

OG:I helped my dad on the farm. I wanted to buy a farm and find a wife. I was 00:27:00not successful either way. In the service I decided if I did not find anything I was going to leave to go on a [LDS] mission. It was the hardest thing in the world; I got homesick. I did not find anybody and so I told the bishop he had better sign me up.

VG:To go on a mission.

RB:Were you twenty-one or twenty-two years old when you went on your mission? [He was twenty-two years old.]

OG:I do not remember how many years I was in [military] service.

VG:He was twenty-four years-old when he [completed] his mission.

RB:How long was the mission? Was it two-and-a-half years?

OG:Two years. They sent me back to California.

RB:[Laughter] You had hitchhiked all the way to get back to Utah, and then you went back!

OG:After the war I could take buses.

RB:Yes. What do you remember about your mission? Was that a good experience for you?

OG:Yes. I taught in northern Arizona.

RB:Were you in Arizona, too?

OG:[Inaudible]

RB:What town in Arizona?

OG:It was close to Flagstaff.

RB:In the northern [part of Arizona].

OG:There were stretches of place there where a lot of people who came up from Mexico after Pancho Villa kicked them out. They settled in there. They were an industrious good people.

RB:That is nice.

OG:I was next to the [California] coast the last half [of my mission]. It was almost up to the Northern California Mission. I got to see each end [of] California.

RB:Yes, you covered quite an area. After your mission, did you keep in touch with any of your companions?

OG:Not really.

VG:[There was] Elder Hawn.

OG:I met one of them when we went down to Mexico at a reunion in northern Arizona. He lived in this little room. There was a grocery store. What is his last name?

VG:Hawn.

RB:What was his last name?

VG:Hawn. H-A --.

OG:Not Hawn, my companion [after the war].

VG:Your companion? I do not know who that was.

OG:I am sorry.

RB:That is alright.

OG:Yesterday I could have told you all of these [names], but not [now], I am getting old.

RB:[That is] not a problem.

OG:I talked to him about things on the way back from the reunion. A day or two days later he died. He was sad to see me, going down; we spent some time [together]. I do not know exactly how long I was stationed there at Pearl Harbor; I could not tell you.

VG:Two-and-a-half-years.

RB:Two-and-a-half-years at Pearl Harbor?

OG:At the end of the war, the captain called me in and said, "I notice on the record it says you have been here longer than any of them, so you will get the chance to go home first."

RB:You must have [arrived] there about 1943, maybe in the spring?

OG:It was five months after I joined the Navy when I shipped overseas [on November 1943].

RB:When you came back from your mission, then what did you do? Did you find 00:31:00yourself wife?

OG:Yes.

RB:You [came] back [from the Navy] in November or December of 1945. You went on your mission for two years. [Was that] from 1946 to 1948?

OG:Yes.

RB:You [were] married in 1949. How did you meet your wife?

OG:It is a long story.

VG:It was not very long --.

OG:I was dating -- there were two or three girls left when I went to school. [Inaudible] for somebody to take their hands. I took a friend --. I wasn't ready for a companion, but ─.

BF:We are getting low on battery. I do not know if there is a plug.

VG:Yes, there is [behind] that lamp. There is one on the mantel also.

BF:That might work better. I do have your dates, sir.

OG:There would be one in the middle.

VG:It is underneath that statue.

BF:Yes, I got it.

BF:Is it stopping?

RB:No, it is good. You need to fix that.

BF:Yes. In order to do that, I need to -- for a minute.

VG:Here are his pictures.

RB:Good.

VG:You do not have to have them.

RB:I would like them. After we are done, we will --.

VG:This is his Navy and this is --.

BF:I have all the dates here, as well.

RB:Okay.

VG:This is his family. Here is his Navy picture.

OG:[Inaudible]

VG:Is that it?

BF:Those are --.

VG:Which one should I [inaudible]?

RB:That is Lester [Gubler] and that is you.

OG:Yes.

RB:Can you focus in on --.

BF:Yes, a little bit higher.

OG:Lester was an aerial radioman.

BF:We got it.

VG:That was his brother.

RB:Lester was your brother and he was --.

OG:An aerial radioman.

RB:An aerial radioman. Lester Gubler?

OG:Getting back to how I met my wife --. At the old [Dixie] College, there was a 00:34:00tennis court and they held dances on it every summer.

VG:It was at the back of the [St. George] Tabernacle.

OG:There was a girl I knew who was going to school and so I got a date with her. She said, "Do you care if I bring my little friend with me?" I said, "No."

VG:She was my friend.

OG:I had asked for the --.

VG:Do you know anybody from St. George?

RB:Not too many. I have only been here a couple of years. Who was your friend?

VG:Jeannine [(Harris)] Holt.

RB:Jeanne Holt. Is she still alive?

VG:Yes.

OG:I said, "Yes, bring her." We got into the dance and there were not that many people to dance with, and I did not want her standing around. The first time she 00:35:00wanted to talk and I let her talk. I was impressed right off, just like that! The first dance I had with her. Then the second dance. She was talking and I heard this voice, "You need to investigate," or "get better acquainted." I did not know what it was. There was nobody around her. I knew right then she was the one.

RB:She was the one for you! Did you know that too? [Laughter]

VG:I must have; I married him.

RB:You did!

OG:The rest of that night I thought: I would like to get better acquainted with this young lady. I told the bishop about my mission and the mission call never came through. A month, two months, three months and I knew all about her. We 00:36:00found we wanted to be with each other.

RB:Was this before your mission that you met her at the dance?

OG:Yes. She said, "I will wait." You notice that did happen. I had the assurance of that voice, she is the one.

RB:She was the one, so you could rest assured.

OG:I did not worry one minute.

RB:You did get your mission call and you went off to California for two years. Then you came back. How long after you came back [before] the two of you [were] married?

OG:A month.

RB:She was waiting for you. Did she write to you?

OG:Yes. I said, "You date." I knew she would because she is popular. I knew who she was dating with because I knew all of the [young people]. Seventeen times or 00:37:00twenty-seven times, she dated. I knew all of them except one [man]. I know that they knew. A month after I got out of the service, we had everything ready to get married.

RB:That is good. You [came] back. After the service you wanted to buy a farm and find a wife. After your mission, you [found] your wife. Did you get your farm?

OG:Two days after we married, it snowed in St. George, over a foot of snow. They said you could not get out of town. I could get back and forth to Santa Clara, but [there was] a knock on the door and it was my uncle saying, "I heard there is a farm for sale next to me."

RB:This is in January 1949. Right?

OG:Two days after I got married. She did not like me leaving. I went down to the 00:38:00farm right here [gesturing to outside of his home].

RB:Is that right?

OG:It split in half and two men bought it. [One of the men] let me get a lease on it. There was no down payment. He didn't want a down payment. I couldn't get anything better. I farmed it the first year. The next year [there was another plot available.] Then years later [another adjacent plot] was for sale too. It was really more than I ever wanted.

RB:How many total acres did you end up with?

OG:[I have been farming] over 100 [acres].

RB:Over 100 acres?

VG:[It was] 150 [acres].

RB:Was there a house on this farm?

OG:Yes, it was beside this house.

RB:Then, there was a little house.

VG:It was at the top of the lane. The farmer who owned this [acreage] had built that.

OG:The [previous owner] did build the basement part of it.

RB:Is that where you lived?

OG:Oh, no. We didn't want to live there. Eventually, I got a big Cat [caterpillar tractor] and dug a big hole and filled it [the basement] in. Things just clicked.

RB:Yes, it [all] came together for you.

OG:I didn't worry a bit about whether she would be here or not.

RB:She waited for you and you were very confident that she was the one.

OG:She lived around the corner from my grandmother [Rosena Eliza Blickenstorfer].

RB:In Santa Clara?

VG:In St. George.

RB:Where did you grow up in St. George? What streets?

VG:[I grew up on] 200 South [Street] and 75 East [Street].

RB:Did you start raising your children in the 1950s?

VG:Yes, after he bought this farm.

RB:Did you grow alfalfa, corn --.

VG:And silage corn.

OG:At that time, we just grew grains. I [grew] barley.

RB:Barley and wheat too?

OG:No wheat. I planted corn and sugar cane for silage.

RB:How many head of cattle did you have at the most?

OG:At one time, probably, about sixty head.

RB:Sixty head? Would you sell them for beef? You did not slaughter them, but you sold them to the meat packing place.

OG:Yes, for beef. We shipped them to California. As my dad got older, he started trucking down to have something to do. He would haul them. He knew the [man] down at the action.

RB:Was that in Los Angeles somewhere?

OG:Yes. He was a member of The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] who knew dad.

RB:[Have] you lived here on this property for your entire [married] life?

OG:Yes.

RB:Are you retired or are you still working?

VG:He is retired.

RB:You are retired. [Laughter]

OG:Yes. I can't work [gesturing to a walker]. I can't do it. I do get out in [the] garden early.

VG:He tries.

RB:When did you quit your main job of farming and ranching? How old were you?

OG:It tapered off over the last year or two.

RB:Did any of your children get involved in ranching?

OG:One son [Scott Antone Gubler], my oldest son [has a] building down here. He likes it. He grew a grapevine there and he likes to grow corn, too.

RB:He does?

OG:But he has so much to do [that] he doesn't know if he is coming or going. He has a pharmaceutical company outside of Bloomington [Washington County, Utah]. [He employs 150 people.]

RB:That is quite good.

OG:He, my other son [Blaine Corwin Gubler] and a grandson [Matthew Gubler] are helping. Right now, [Scott Gubler] is on the other side of the world in Oman 00:43:00[inaudible] a Book of Mormon [where] people lived and built the ship several times.

RB:Oh, Oman, yes. Is he working there?

VG:He is there now.

RB:What is he doing there?

OG:They are still trying to find something.

VG:[They are] excavating.

OG:They have found everything which the Book of Mormon talks about. Some certain metal.

VG:Are you a Mormon?

RB:I am, yes.

OG:He said in the little town next to it, you cannot take a Book of Mormon in; they will kick you out.

RB:In the Middle East, it is kind of touchy.

VG:It is [very] touchy.

OG:[Inaudible]

RB:[Laughter]

OG:[Scott] is visiting with the second richest [fellow] there. They are going to fly over it and take a [photograph]. [It will be able to see down under the 00:44:00surface.] He is involved with them and they are going to build a pharmaceutical plant. They want his expertise.

RB:You have six children. How many grandchildren do you have? Do you know?

VG:[Laughter]

OG:Yesterday or the day before?

RB:[Laughter]

BF:[Laughter]

VG:You have ─ add them and I will tell you.

RB:Who do you have?

VG:Grandchildren; the first one died.

OG:That is our children.

RB:You said Galen [Orwin Gubler]. Did he die?

VG:Yes.

RB:[He] was your child.

VG:He was about three years old when he died.

RB:How many children did Scott Antone [Gubler] have?

VG:He hasn't had any yet, but he has adopted several.

RB:How many children did Brenda [(Gubler) Haight] have?

VG:[She has] four [children].

OG:How many for Brenda?

VG:Four?

OG:I thought you were counting [children].

RB:We are adding up your grandchildren. How many did Blaine [Corwin Gubler] have?

VG:He had four [children]. Next is Mark [Gubler]. Did he have four [children]? I think they all have four.

OG:Two girls and two boys.

RB:How many [children] did Gina [Marie (Gubler) Hall] have?

VG:Did she have five?

OG:Yes, I think [so].

RB:That would you [bring] you to seventeen grandchildren and some adopted 00:46:00grandchildren from Scott. That is a big family.

OG:There is more than that now with the generations coming.

RB:You have some great-grandchildren. There is no telling [how many great-grandchildren]. Is there anything else you want to add about your life? Have you had a good life?

OG:I think so.

BF:What is your secret to long living?

OG:Behave yourself and do as you are supposed to do.

RB:What about your marriage? What is the secret of being almost seventy years together?

OG:Love. Kindness.

VG:Dedication.

RB:Have you both been active members of the church the entire time?

OG:Yes. We are not very active right now. We cannot get to church.

RB:It is difficult to be active at --.

RB:Yes, I understand.

VG:We have both been active. He has been a bishop.

OG:I have been in a bishopric, the High Council and most every Priesthood organization [during my church services].

RB:You have been?

OG:Yes.

VG:Yes.

OG:[I was in the] Stake Sunday school.

VG:Here is his history.

RB:We will end right here, but I appreciate you --.