Scott Jensen and Beth Hatch

[00:01] SCOTT JENSEN: Hi, my name is Scott Jensen. I'm 63, about to turn 64 next month. Born here in Logan. We're in Logan, Utah, and today's date is May 3, 2023. I have the pleasure of interviewing my mother, Beth.

[00:21] BETH HATCH: My name is Beth Hatch. I'm 86. And today's date is May 3, 2023, in Logan, Utah. And I'm with my son, Scott Jensen. And so we're ready to begin.

[00:42] SCOTT JENSEN: Great. Okay, mom, this will be great. We're just gonna dance through some things and see what comes up. I'll save the hard questions for later, but let's start by just asking what have been the happiest moments in your life?

[01:02] BETH HATCH: Oh, gosh. I think when I got married and began having children. Happiest days of my life. Really great.

[01:13] SCOTT JENSEN: And what about the saddest?

[01:16] BETH HATCH: When my husband died, which I think.

[01:22] SCOTT JENSEN: Is on our minds a lot. I mean, as we were driving up here, we were kind of relaying the fact that you've had eleven kids and that happened. When did that happen?

[01:35] BETH HATCH: When did it happen? Well, I got married in 58 and had my first child in 59 and second one in 62nd. One in 62, 60, 619, 69, 71, 73 and 77.

[02:00] SCOTT JENSEN: And you were pregnant when.

[02:02] BETH HATCH: Oh, yes. And I was pregnant with my. Which ones?

[02:09] SCOTT JENSEN: 7Th.

[02:10] BETH HATCH: 7Th one when my husband died.

[02:13] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[02:14] BETH HATCH: So absolutely.

[02:14] SCOTT JENSEN: We'll get to that later. We didn't. I should have known that might happen with the saddest, but we'll go back to some easier questions. I think part of it for me, just as a background for me was we had signed up before COVID I'd signed up before COVID hoping to have this conversation three years ago. And then Covid caused the whole thing just to go on, freeze till now. So I was thrilled that they were here in Logan, one of the few cities they're in this year that many years later.

[02:47] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[02:49] SCOTT JENSEN: And I think as we're all getting older, I wanted to capture as many memories as I could. So that's hopefully what I think all your many sibling or my many siblings are hoping to hear is just some more information about.

[03:04] BETH HATCH: Wish I could remember more sharply, but we'll do the best we can.

[03:09] SCOTT JENSEN: And thank you for agreeing to it, not being as familiar with some of this stuff. But let me just ask more. I know I've heard a lot about your earliest days. What's the very earliest memory you can remember as a kid in midway?

[03:27] BETH HATCH: Oh, the earliest memory. Gosh, I don't know. Going out and playing in the ditch, probably looking for little bloodsuckers. And things in the ditch. And I guess that's probably what I.

[03:42] SCOTT JENSEN: And tell me about where you were living.

[03:45] BETH HATCH: Living in midway, Utah, just 850 people, little cute little rural town, and everybody knew everyone. I lived just a block south of the city hall, and so right in the center of town and just a fun little thing. My father grew up there, and there were 13 children in his family, so relatives were everywhere. I had blocks of aunts and uncles and cousins all around me, so I felt very like a familiar surrounding, very comfortable, feel very safe there always.

[04:31] SCOTT JENSEN: What do you remember about that house and your yard and the barn?

[04:36] BETH HATCH: My mother or my father lived. He was born in the house across the street, and there were 13 children in this little house, and so he just moved in across the street, and that's where my mother and he lived, and all of our children were raised there. So I had aunts and uncles and everyone all around me. It was very, very fun.

[05:08] SCOTT JENSEN: And you were the youngest?

[05:09] BETH HATCH: I was the youngest of six. The baby was. My dad was 51 when I was born, so I always remember him with white hair.

[05:21] SCOTT JENSEN: And what was that like? Did that make him less fun or more fun?

[05:26] BETH HATCH: Oh, I don't know that he was that fun, but he was a hard worker, and I was his last one, so he had his knees hurt in the mine. He worked in the mine during the day and farmed, you know, the rest of the time. And so I felt like I was pretty important because he was 51 when I was born, and by that time, he had his knees hurt in the mines. So he kind of was hobbling, but he still was milking cows and running a farm. So I kind of felt like by that time, all these boys were gone and the other two girls older than me were, you know, busy doing other things. So he counted on me to help me milk cows and do the bee's little sidekick. So in a way, it kind of made me feel important, you know, in that way. But he was, by that time, due to his knees problems, he was not as spry as he would like to.

[06:32] SCOTT JENSEN: Have been because you were living in Midway and the mines were up over the mountain in Park City.

[06:39] BETH HATCH: Park City.

[06:39] SCOTT JENSEN: So how he had done that before.

[06:42] BETH HATCH: He was married or, I don't know when he started working the mines, but he worked at Park City, at the mines, which was a good drive away, going every day and then coming home and had to do farm work, too. So in thinking back, that must have been a real struggle for him to maintain that, you know? And like I say, he was 51 when I was born. So, you know, he, he was a hard worker in thinking. He came from a family of 13 children. And so he, he was quite a hard worker.

[07:21] SCOTT JENSEN: What do you remember about hearing about his first wife? So not your mother, but that was during the spanish flu.

[07:29] BETH HATCH: That's right. So he, he was married to her and had one daughter, Dorothy, and then she had the flu in that 1920, was it, epidemic, and died, and so left him with that little girl. And my mother came to town as a school teacher and had this little girl in her class named Dorothy, and she felt sorry for her because she knew she didn't have a mother. And so anyway, then eventually met Dorothy's dad and they got married.

[08:09] SCOTT JENSEN: And I think your mother, during that time as a schoolteacher, was she studying in Provo? I think there was a story about. Yeah, she was what it was like where people were wrapping scarves around themselves to protect.

[08:24] BETH HATCH: Oh, on the inner urban. Yes. She lived in Pleasant Grove and had to go to BYU, and that was during the flu time. And so they would wrap their. On the inner urban, she would ride and they would wrap their scarves around their mouth, thinking that might help, you know, but who knows what did. But, yeah, that was, that was what she was doing. And so she graduated there and then went up to midway to be a schoolteacher. So that's what took her to Midway.

[09:01] SCOTT JENSEN: So then.

[09:01] BETH HATCH: And she was 20 years younger than my dad, by the way, so she was young. Yeah.

[09:08] SCOTT JENSEN: So tell me more about your siblings then. That came from your father and mother's marriage. So it'd be his second marriage.

[09:16] BETH HATCH: Yeah. So she, like I say, then, raised Dorothy at that time, which was kind of a challenge because Dorothy had been used to running a little free and wild. So anyway, then my mother had three boys and three girls. The first three were three boys, and then she had the three girls. So she was a hard worker, my mother. I think my dad didn't realize what a jewel he had because she sewed all our clothes, canned all our food. You know, she just was quite a worker and helped him on the farm, too, you know. So.

[10:01] SCOTT JENSEN: So you lived in a house on the corner and you had a barn and a root cellar.

[10:08] BETH HATCH: Yeah, we had kind of a good piece of property there. We had a granary, and on one side was for coal. I mean, the granary was in the center, and then one side was coal and the other side was winter. So daddy had that stocked every fall, you know, to get us through the winter. So we had to have that and so when we. Everything was coal burning in the house, you know, and so I'd have to walk almost clear half a block away to get the wood and coal, you know, to bring into the house. We had to always have to maintain the fire. So anyway, the barnyard was my play area. Great. My mother would not see me from the morning. I'd be out playing in the every which way in the.

[10:59] SCOTT JENSEN: So what made it so fun? Just the horse crap.

[11:03] BETH HATCH: There were, you know, the chicken coops, the barna, the cellar, the woodshed, everything. You had a new place to play every day. And so my friend would come and we just take off and make a new adventure play, you know, make our own entertainment or go down in the pasture and look at little creepy crawly things in the ditch and, you know, just such a big place to roam and play. It was great. Play in the barn.

[11:35] SCOTT JENSEN: I always get a kick out of your relative independence. How old were you when you and your friend would go up into Snake Creek and the mountains up there for the whole day? And what does that tell you about just parenting at the time or.

[11:50] BETH HATCH: Yeah, no kidding. We just, yeah, we just take off for the day and hike clear up in those white mountains and be gone all day and, yeah, my mother didn't seem to worry. She knew we'd always come back.

[12:05] SCOTT JENSEN: And you always did.

[12:07] BETH HATCH: We always did.

[12:08] SCOTT JENSEN: Fortunately, you never broke a bone or got lost.

[12:11] BETH HATCH: Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it, climbing around in those for me?

[12:14] SCOTT JENSEN: Because what ages were you when that started and it went through? What age?

[12:19] BETH HATCH: Well, gosh, I guess I would have had to be able to drive, huh? To drive up there?

[12:25] SCOTT JENSEN: I don't know.

[12:26] BETH HATCH: How would we have gotten up there earlier?

[12:28] SCOTT JENSEN: That's kind of where I. So you were describing how the barn area was such a playfield. I remember a lot of stories of you going up into that canyon, which is quite a walk, but I always assumed you'd walk, too.

[12:43] BETH HATCH: Well, maybe we did. Yeah, probably before I could drive. And up to Devil's hole. That was up by Snyder's hot pots, you know, and you go back, there was another place that was called Devil's hole.

[12:57] SCOTT JENSEN: Why was it called devil's hole?

[12:58] BETH HATCH: I don't know.

[12:59] SCOTT JENSEN: And what is Snyder's hot pots? I don't think hot pots is maybe a name that means too much to homestead now.

[13:08] BETH HATCH: Fancy. Fancy. But it used to be Snyder's.

[13:11] SCOTT JENSEN: And what are hot pots?

[13:13] BETH HATCH: Oh, just the big mounds. You know, Midway's built on a hot pot, a volcano. So they're little hot pots popping up all over. You look down and there's, you know, the hot water down in there, some hotter than others.

[13:28] SCOTT JENSEN: It's just kind of a rock mineral.

[13:30] BETH HATCH: Formation, big mineral, and with a hole at the top. And so, you know, you can walk up to it and look down and people would have fallen in there. See, nobody even thought about all that stuff.

[13:42] SCOTT JENSEN: You know what they do?

[13:43] BETH HATCH: What?

[13:44] SCOTT JENSEN: They do yoga on stand up paddle boards.

[13:48] BETH HATCH: Oh, brother.

[13:50] SCOTT JENSEN: Board. A hole in. And that's what they do now.

[13:52] BETH HATCH: Fancy pantsy.

[13:54] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, I was gonna say. I was gonna ask. So you have that memory of midway in those days?

[13:59] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[14:00] SCOTT JENSEN: And now it's become such a bedroom community for Park City. Yeah. So how does it. How, what do you think when you drive in town now?

[14:10] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah, it's different, really. It was such a fun, little remote place, you know, not because the homestead changed a lot. It used to just be little Snyder's hot pots, you know, and Mamie Schneider and her brothers had a little, you know, a little restaurant up there where my sisters worked on Sundays. And they had a little restaurant, you know, they were the little waitress. That was a place. But then the homestead, people from California came in and made it into poshy things. But, you know.

[14:45] SCOTT JENSEN: But you worked there as well, or am I not?

[14:47] BETH HATCH: Yeah, I washed dishes.

[14:48] SCOTT JENSEN: Oh, first of all, yeah.

[14:51] BETH HATCH: Mamie Schneider, I babysat her. Little Ann, who was a terror. And so while she was running the Snyder's, I was chasing little Ann around.

[15:03] SCOTT JENSEN: What made, what made her a terror.

[15:05] BETH HATCH: She was just so spoiled, you know, and all I was trying to do is keep her from crying and chase after her. So that was my, and that was on a Sunday afternoon. See, that was back when you didn't think that it was on the Sundays.

[15:22] SCOTT JENSEN: So Sundays are supposed to be quiet times. So how did that experience with your nannying lead to having eleven children of your own?

[15:35] BETH HATCH: Oh, nothing. I could not wait to have children because being the baby, I always felt so, you know, deprived, I thought, because my friends, you know, some of them had Carol, she was the oldest. And so, you know, I always felt so. I could not wait. So that was a big desire of my life. So, no, that chasing her around didn't hamper that at all. I thought, I will have a better child than this little brat.

[16:10] SCOTT JENSEN: So my dad, your first husband, how did you meet? Where did you.

[16:18] BETH HATCH: Well, I was in Salt Lake, living with other girls, working on South Temple. 416 East South Temple. And we lived in a basin apartment. And I came home, came in and here these two big doofuses are sitting there and my roommates let them in and they, they wouldn't say what they were doing, you know, and they were just sitting there, which was a little alarming because we were in a basement apartment, you know, a little trapped. She didn't even know Margaret Stegallous was my roommate. And she just let them in and they were just sitting there and they wouldn't say what they were there for, you know, and I thought, what jerks.

[17:07] SCOTT JENSEN: So it wasn't love at first sight?

[17:09] BETH HATCH: No, it was annoying. They were just sitting there, he, and I think it was Mel Mamet, I guess, and Ralph. And they wouldn't say what they were doing and, you know, I had no clue. And so it was just annoying.

[17:24] SCOTT JENSEN: And Mel went on to sing in the Mormon Tabernacle choir. So he couldn't have been all bad.

[17:29] BETH HATCH: That's true. But he didn't, wasn't singing that day.

[17:34] SCOTT JENSEN: So from that first introduction, which wasn't that great, how did things change for you?

[17:40] BETH HATCH: Well, Ralph's thought was, you know, he's selling pots and pans. Right, for modernization, bride supply for the, between semesters, you know, college. So that was his way to make money. So he said, if we'll sell them and if it says if they're, we'll either sell them, but if they're cute, we'll take them out. That was their little motto.

[18:07] SCOTT JENSEN: Just in general, that was their.

[18:09] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[18:09] SCOTT JENSEN: And did they sell you pots and.

[18:11] BETH HATCH: Take out or just actually did?

[18:14] SCOTT JENSEN: So would you have considered yourself a modern bride? That their company was marketing, apparently. But you were studying yourself, right? Weren't you? You were.

[18:26] BETH HATCH: There was a dental assistant.

[18:27] SCOTT JENSEN: Dental assistant. Working or studying?

[18:29] BETH HATCH: I was just working. So all the, my roommates, there were four of us. And so, yeah, they were all just working. One was worked at a bank.

[18:39] SCOTT JENSEN: And so I'm a little curious because you were from midway up in the beautiful side of Mount Timpanogas, farmland, lush. You meet Ralph. He's from down in Delta, which is a little harsher terrain, but there's farming going on down there with some irrigation, so. And he's going to school. What was he studying?

[19:06] BETH HATCH: Electrical engineering.

[19:08] SCOTT JENSEN: Okay.

[19:09] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[19:09] SCOTT JENSEN: But I believe you had hoped because you liked your midway time so much.

[19:17] BETH HATCH: Well, I was waiting for a farmer. A boyfriend.

[19:20] SCOTT JENSEN: Oh, just any boyfriend.

[19:22] BETH HATCH: No, Ivan Giles was on a mission. I was waiting for him.

[19:25] SCOTT JENSEN: Oh, okay. Where did he go?

[19:27] BETH HATCH: He went to the, not the southern states, but back east. Anyway.

[19:35] SCOTT JENSEN: You were in love with him or dating him?

[19:38] BETH HATCH: He was a high school boyfriend. Yeah. So. And he was going to BYU. And I was, you know, dating him. Yeah.

[19:49] SCOTT JENSEN: Okay. So.

[19:50] BETH HATCH: So wasn't engaged. But, you know, I liked him.

[19:54] SCOTT JENSEN: So you're waiting for him.

[19:56] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[19:56] SCOTT JENSEN: And what happened then?

[19:58] BETH HATCH: I met him.

[20:00] SCOTT JENSEN: And your thoughts of Giles went out the window?

[20:05] BETH HATCH: Well, you know, actually, then. And actually, I got engaged to Ralph while Ivan was gone. But then I began. As he was coming home, I began to start wondering.

[20:21] SCOTT JENSEN: Oh, interesting.

[20:22] BETH HATCH: So.

[20:23] SCOTT JENSEN: Because isn't that against the rules if you're. If your boyfriend is on a mission, isn't that against the rules? To.

[20:31] BETH HATCH: To do what?

[20:32] SCOTT JENSEN: To get engaged with someone else.

[20:35] BETH HATCH: Well, who says?

[20:36] SCOTT JENSEN: I don't know. I'm trying to. I wasn't there.

[20:39] BETH HATCH: There's no rules. Okay. Anyway, then I. Then it was. His homecoming was coming. And I began to think, oh, I quite liked him. So I went to his homecoming and I wanted to talk to him. And guess what his mother reaction was?

[21:01] SCOTT JENSEN: I don't know. I'm guessing it was not good.

[21:03] BETH HATCH: Very guarded. Yes, very guarded. Because I.

[21:07] SCOTT JENSEN: Was she putting herself between the two?

[21:09] BETH HATCH: Yeah, she was trying to. She thought, don't be coming in around here, because I was engaged, you know?

[21:16] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah. And she sounds like it's against the rules.

[21:18] BETH HATCH: Well, it. Yeah, it was kind of weird, but. But.

[21:22] SCOTT JENSEN: So how long did this episode was?

[21:25] BETH HATCH: So who knows what would have happened if I'd have. You know.

[21:29] SCOTT JENSEN: So did this go on for a month or what? With this period when you were engaged but kind of feeling.

[21:35] BETH HATCH: Well, no, that was a boyfriend.

[21:38] SCOTT JENSEN: Oh, that. From that.

[21:39] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah.

[21:40] SCOTT JENSEN: Church meeting. It was all.

[21:41] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah. So I didn't ever get to really see him.

[21:45] SCOTT JENSEN: But so is my dad, like, second best?

[21:48] BETH HATCH: You never know. Never know.

[21:53] SCOTT JENSEN: Okay. So you got married.

[21:57] BETH HATCH: Yep.

[21:58] SCOTT JENSEN: You were living in Tremont, over the hills from us here. He was finishing school at Utah State. You were pregnant with me. What do you remember from that whole experience?

[22:12] BETH HATCH: Well, when I was. When we lived in Logan or where. When I had to drive out to tree mountain, maybe. Well, out to thy call.

[22:23] SCOTT JENSEN: Right. So you were working rocket manufacturer.

[22:27] BETH HATCH: Yeah. Chemical. Every day driving out there. And so that was. That was kind of challenge. I was going to drive every day. How long.

[22:39] SCOTT JENSEN: How long was that drive?

[22:42] BETH HATCH: That was from Logan driving there. Yeah. And there were. And we had to take turns driving. Some of the girls were not. They were crazy drivers. Because that was a long way out there, you know? So that was hazardous. That was a trialy thing.

[22:59] SCOTT JENSEN: So that was happening while he was finishing studies.

[23:02] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[23:02] SCOTT JENSEN: And as you were getting more and more pregnant.

[23:04] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[23:05] SCOTT JENSEN: You had to shift gears.

[23:07] BETH HATCH: Yeah. So I did that as long as I could and then stopped.

[23:12] SCOTT JENSEN: And what was it like having your first child late at night, during the day? Easy. Hard. Gotta be hard.

[23:22] BETH HATCH: Oh, dear. Yeah. Yeah. In Logan. Let's see. Hmm. I don't know. Well, yeah, you know.

[23:31] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, tell me, you were just reminding me as we were driving up here something I didn't know my doctor's name.

[23:38] BETH HATCH: Doctor Payne.

[23:39] SCOTT JENSEN: Doctor Payne. That's a bad omen.

[23:41] BETH HATCH: Yeah, that was not a good name for me. Yeah, yeah, so he. Yeah, he was okay, I guess, but, yeah, so, yeah, that was. I was really glad when I didn't have to work anymore because I thought, this is really the pits. So I was so happy.

[24:03] SCOTT JENSEN: Okay, so you've got first of many children, and in the back of your mind, what was your thought as far as continuing to live on a farm as opposed to what ended up happening married to a chemical engineer?

[24:18] BETH HATCH: Yeah. Well, that went out the window when I realized we were not going to be a farm people. But, yeah, it was. Well, it was kind of an adventure, you know, because once he was getting ready to graduate and starting to interview all over to where you might be living, you know, there were a lot of opportunities, you know, of course, that he could have gone, but actually he was very pleased to be able to be accepted at Hewlett Packard because that was kind of a plum job, you know, everybody wanted to, thought Hewlett Packard would be a great. If you could get on with Hewlett Packard. So, so he was happy to have gotten an offer, but he, I forget where else he, you know, people came to the university and interviews, so I can't remember.

[25:12] SCOTT JENSEN: So where did, where did Hewlett Packard's job take you?

[25:16] BETH HATCH: To Palo Alto. And so we lived in Palo Alto was too expensive. So a bedroom communities. Redwood City. So we rented a little apartment on Bay Road. No, we had a trailer. Took our trailer down there, pulled it down. Dave Bowser and Pat pulled that down for us. And so that was nice. And we lived in a dumpy place, trailer court.

[25:48] SCOTT JENSEN: I remember from the pictures, I remember me having a big grin on my face on a tricycle. And it seemed like you had prettied up the trailer quite a bit.

[25:57] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[25:57] SCOTT JENSEN: Ralph was a little cute picket fence, and there were flowers.

[26:00] BETH HATCH: Oh, he did it. And we had an awning on the trailer, you know, just that little bed, one bedroom trailer. But he made a cute little fence around the patio and we had flower pots out and it was very cute. And you were on your little trike. And it was right by the bay and on it, kind of stinky, but that's where the trailer cart was, right along there. And so that was a little place that I could get out and walk along the bay, you know, very confined, because we only had the one car and you had to take it to work. So I was stuck there. And so the only place to walk around was a trailer court or out on this slewy place by the. The Bay area there. So. So that was my limited little view. And that's when we met Frank and Elaine Bingham, and they had Carolyn, who was about your age, and he worked at, I can't remember where, some engineering place there, too. So they were our first friends, and they. That was delightful, because I was lonely, you know, stuck with no car, because Ralph had to take the car to work. So I was pretty well stuck all day.

[27:19] SCOTT JENSEN: I was going to say, you go from those environments, like Midway, where everyone knows everyone, everyone shares the same religion, pretty much, or culture, and now suddenly you're in California, newly married, with a baby who's not always good tempered.

[27:40] BETH HATCH: No, that's not true. But anyway, quite confined anyway, you know, and only had the one car, so I had no way to get around.

[27:50] SCOTT JENSEN: So everything. But still, everything's starting off great, right? You've got a husband. You always wanted to be married. You're starting your family. He's an engineer. This up and coming Hewlett Packard in 1960. All going well. And then add to the family more girls in California. How did you move to Colorado?

[28:16] BETH HATCH: Well, so he Packard decided to expand out to Colorado Springs. And I never felt like I liked California because we always went every weekend, we'd go a new place and explore it everywhere. So that was fun. But I never felt like that was a home. So when that opportunity, when they branched out to Colorado Springs and that opportunity opened up, Ralph thought, what would you like to do? Maybe go there. And so they flew us out, you know, to see what it was going to be like. And so we liked it.

[29:00] SCOTT JENSEN: What did you like about it?

[29:01] BETH HATCH: Just because it seemed more like home. The ocean didn't seem like home. It was fun to visit, but I didn't want to live there.

[29:07] SCOTT JENSEN: So you were in mountains and.

[29:09] BETH HATCH: Yeah, it seemed just like more home. So I. We liked it, and we were. We said, sign us up. So.

[29:17] SCOTT JENSEN: Must have been an exciting time. I mean, your forest academy was a.

[29:20] BETH HATCH: Brand new thing then, and, yeah, it was beautiful.

[29:24] SCOTT JENSEN: And again, so everything's going so well. Yeah, family's growing, you live in a neighborhood with a lot of good friends.

[29:34] BETH HATCH: Where?

[29:34] SCOTT JENSEN: In Colorado Springs?

[29:36] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah. Let's see. So we moved there. Yeah. So it was. Yeah, we liked it. We liked the fact. Yeah. Because that seemed more like home, you know? Like we could be at home there.

[29:52] SCOTT JENSEN: And Ralph was serving as a bishop at some point. I don't know. How long was he a bishop?

[30:03] BETH HATCH: When did we move there? I can't remember.

[30:05] SCOTT JENSEN: Mid sixties, maybe?

[30:07] BETH HATCH: Yeah. In 66. Was that when he was bishop? Maybe.

[30:11] SCOTT JENSEN: And what did you make of all that?

[30:15] BETH HATCH: Yeah, fine. You know, we had. Frank and Elaine Bingham were our friends. And we just had some nice people that were friends. I loved the area. We loved it. Yeah. And we had a nice, nice ward had a lot of friends there, so it's great.

[30:35] SCOTT JENSEN: And then things changed at some point.

[30:39] BETH HATCH: Well, let's see. What are we jumping ahead to?

[30:43] SCOTT JENSEN: You're pregnant with number seven.

[30:46] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah.

[30:47] SCOTT JENSEN: You get a phone call as you're about to serve dinner.

[30:51] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[30:53] SCOTT JENSEN: What do you remember about that? I know I've heard Janisse's version. I don't remember too much of it. As the oldest, what do you remember?

[31:00] BETH HATCH: I picked up the phone and they said, we're calling. And I was getting dinner ready and everything. And the guy said, we're calling to get details of your husband's death. And I said, what are you talking about? I thought, wrong number, whatever. And it was just the weirdest thing, you know? And I just said, what are you talking about? And then I think, you know, he realized. And then he said, well, I'm just doing my job. I remember that. And I just hung up.

[31:40] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah, I know. Janice remembers that you dropped the phone at some point. I don't know. I don't know what you remember. I'm curious about your memory of this.

[31:52] BETH HATCH: I just remember him just like. I don't know what he was thinking. But he said, well, I'm just doing my job. And that really kicked me off too. So I'm just hungry.

[32:03] SCOTT JENSEN: The news out of the blue and just the way you had to process it.

[32:08] BETH HATCH: Oh, yeah.

[32:08] SCOTT JENSEN: It was great being seven months pregnant with your 7th child.

[32:13] BETH HATCH: Yeah. I just remember going out, running down the road. Where did I run to?

[32:19] SCOTT JENSEN: I don't know. Were you running to a friend or somebody?

[32:22] BETH HATCH: Yeah, somebody to see. What on earth see, I can't remember, but I just remember going out and running down the road.

[32:31] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, and I'm curious to know what. Yeah, kind of how that next few months where it's probably either a blur or it's blocked out. Or. It's sad.

[32:43] BETH HATCH: I just can't remember. It was just. I just remember this. This cute lady in the ward coming, and I was. You know, that was that day, and she just came in and hugged me. And, you know, I just remember, you know, people were so nice. You know, everybody in the church was wonderful. To just come in and so.

[33:12] SCOTT JENSEN: And just as kind of background, all their friends. I mean, I remember. So dad is an electrical engineer at Hewlett Packard, but his love is for flying.

[33:23] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[33:23] SCOTT JENSEN: So he and a co worker bought a Cessna 140 and kind of took the wings off, and it spent a whole winter, as I remember it, with the tails sticking out of our garage as they were working.

[33:39] BETH HATCH: Yeah. Putting out new fabric on the wings. Yeah. And had to redo it. Yeah. That was a big deal.

[33:48] SCOTT JENSEN: And this dies in. So it seems like a lot of the free time.

[33:52] BETH HATCH: Was that Orland Smith? Orland Smith, yeah.

[33:55] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah. But it seems like a lot of the free time outside of the engineering world. The love was for flying. Do I have that right?

[34:04] BETH HATCH: Oh, anytime he'd get a chance, he'd love to go out flying. And I didn't mind too much, because I just didn't ever want to go. You go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He loved to do that. And he had that little side thing that he. What was the deal? They take pictures or tape.

[34:26] SCOTT JENSEN: That's what I remember. I don't know who he was. That accident happened, but that's how he passed, was piloting this plane that had been kept out towards Lyman. Is that right? About 20 miles out in the plains east of Colorado Springs.

[34:44] BETH HATCH: Yeah. Out somewhere there. Yeah.

[34:46] SCOTT JENSEN: And it. The way I heard it is that kind of to pay for gas money for the plane, they'd go out and take aerial photographs of ranches, and then they'd drive around later and sell them for $20 or something, and that would pay their gas.

[35:05] BETH HATCH: Oh, I forgot that. Yeah, that's right. They did do that, didn't they? And what was the guy's name that used to do that? Well, anyway, yeah, that was. Yeah, I'd forgotten that.

[35:20] SCOTT JENSEN: Okay, so this happened. This horrible accident happens in October. You just kind of get through it the second.

[35:26] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[35:26] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah. You have. Ralph is born in December.

[35:31] BETH HATCH: Mm hmm.

[35:32] SCOTT JENSEN: And then what's going through your mind as far as. Life's just gonna be so different now. You. You kind of had whatever he did, and whatever you did now is all for grabs. You've got to figure out how to do both jobs, I guess.

[35:50] BETH HATCH: Yeah. It was just terrible, you know, I just but one good thing, you know, being pregnant and you know, I had to focus on with that six other kids, you know. So how old was Philip? He was only two. Yeah, yeah.

[36:12] SCOTT JENSEN: So really he was the next to youngest.

[36:14] BETH HATCH: So I really didn't that, that was one thing. I guess I didn't really have time to, I mean, day to day, you just had to keep so busy doing everything.

[36:24] SCOTT JENSEN: So when you gave birth, you named your new son for Ralph, your husband Ralph. I just remember at that time, just all the tumult. I mean I was only 13, but I was the oldest, so I remember it a lot better than others. I think this is really helpful to hear just what was happening and it just must have been horrible. Yeah, we have a bit of a. Not a shared memory as far as your move to Utah. So I guess in those six months, how did that all, how did that all. You're like, I got to go home or these friends are great, but I've got to go back to Utah.

[37:14] BETH HATCH: No, I didn't plan on at all. But who was it invited me to go, you know, for conference in April?

[37:20] SCOTT JENSEN: Mmm.

[37:21] BETH HATCH: Was it April? I don't know, just to go. And so I thought, good. And so that was. Yeah. And so I got over there and, you know, Melba lived in american fork and all. And what was the deal? She, these, somebody said, oh, let's go show you some house. You know, some. So anyway, that's the way it just transpired. And I ended up getting at, you know, buying a house and came home and told you guys about what you think of that.

[37:59] SCOTT JENSEN: I barely remember. And that's why I'm happy. Probably not because I really liked it.

[38:05] BETH HATCH: You were a teenager at that time.

[38:06] SCOTT JENSEN: I was in junior high.

[38:07] BETH HATCH: Yeah. And you were pretty well established, you know.

[38:10] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[38:11] BETH HATCH: I left you kids with Lori Madsen when I was went over on that little trip. Ended up buying a house. That was crazy.

[38:20] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah. What was that? And a new house.

[38:22] BETH HATCH: Newly a new house.

[38:24] SCOTT JENSEN: So what was going through your mind? Was it just a blur? Are you just thinking?

[38:29] BETH HATCH: I really think it maybe was supposed to happen that way because I had no idea, you know, you imagine just all of a sudden, oh, I think I'll buy a house. It was weird. So maybe it was supposed to happen that way.

[38:42] SCOTT JENSEN: And I knew that was in the works. So I knew you were making these arrangements for moving before the school year started to Utah, to american fork. But I had an activity scheduled through school for June. Do you remember when I went to Mexico?

[39:00] BETH HATCH: Oh yeah. And you were so I was.

[39:02] SCOTT JENSEN: I was like a 9th grader going down to Mexico for a month.

[39:07] BETH HATCH: Oh, my heavens.

[39:08] SCOTT JENSEN: For $200 with a student teacher?

[39:11] BETH HATCH: Yeah.

[39:12] SCOTT JENSEN: Six junior high cheerleaders and a couple other guys. So we're driving. We're traveling all through Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta. All I know, and this is where our stories don't mesh, is I came back. The student teacher dropped me off after driving back from the Mexico border where our train left us. She drops me off in the driveway and drives away. I use my key to open the door, and the house is totally empty. And I couldn't have been more.

[39:55] BETH HATCH: I'd forgotten that.

[39:56] SCOTT JENSEN: I couldn't have been more shocked.

[39:59] BETH HATCH: I bet.

[40:02] SCOTT JENSEN: I slept on the carpet.

[40:04] BETH HATCH: How'd you get in there?

[40:05] SCOTT JENSEN: I had a key.

[40:06] BETH HATCH: Oh, my heaven's sake. And I have been moved so much. I can't believe that. How did I do that so fast?

[40:13] SCOTT JENSEN: I know.

[40:14] BETH HATCH: Well, see, you weren't gone that long.

[40:16] SCOTT JENSEN: A month.

[40:18] BETH HATCH: You were gone a month.

[40:19] SCOTT JENSEN: I was gone all of June.

[40:20] BETH HATCH: Oh, well, that explains.

[40:22] SCOTT JENSEN: I just can't. I can't reiterate how shocked I was. I'm assuming that in this world in which you're. I mean, everyone's probably still in shock, right? I can't believe that you're buying a house. You've never done that. You're trying to see how you're gonna handle seven kids from my age to a newborn. Financially, everything. I know, someone, I guess, offers to drive, move us. Is that why it happened in June and not okay. Later?

[40:55] BETH HATCH: So is that what it was in June?

[40:58] SCOTT JENSEN: That's when I was gone. Yeah, that's when this happened.

[41:00] BETH HATCH: Okay. So I came over and just ended up buying that house, didn't I?

[41:04] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah, you bought the house. And I think we were planning to move later that summer.

[41:08] BETH HATCH: I know, but how could I have. Oh, I know. I was visiting. Why was I over visiting? I can't remember. And this. I know. It was Melba's friend. I said, well, let's just show you some houses. I wasn't even planning on moving. That's the deal.

[41:25] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[41:25] BETH HATCH: I said, why? He says, well, let's just look around. Look at. You know. And so that's how it all started. And I bought the dumb house right there.

[41:35] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[41:36] BETH HATCH: And it was not even. It had just been finished. Right?

[41:40] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[41:41] BETH HATCH: So, no. No yard or anything. No other houses. Really?

[41:45] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[41:46] BETH HATCH: So there it was. And that was crazy. Yep.

[41:51] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, let's go back and explore a little bit more about Ralph, if you don't mind. I mean, I was wondering what you think the biggest obstacles he had overcome in life, and then maybe parallel that with some of the obstacles you yourself overcame in life.

[42:12] BETH HATCH: Ralph. What obstacles? I don't know. Well, I think it's pretty amazing that he is the first one of the eight children to ever, you know, to Afghanistan's college at that point, really? And I thought that was pretty. Growing up out in Sugarville on a sharecropper. His dad was a sharecropper. He didn't even own anything there. So I thought that was pretty good that, of course, he had been in Korea and had the GI Bill, so that gave him a boost, and he took advantage of that and pretty industrious of him to be moving ahead, you.

[42:54] SCOTT JENSEN: Know, we must have been proud of him.

[42:57] BETH HATCH: Yeah. And looking back, I sure was, you know, so working in the summer, selling modern bride supply young suspecting girls. So, you know, he was hard worker.

[43:10] SCOTT JENSEN: And what about you? I mean, is it just this story we just went through with all the challenges you faced when he had that accident, or is there something when he died? Yeah. As far as your life and overcoming obstacles in your life, what do you.

[43:30] BETH HATCH: Well, I'll tell you, if it hadn't have been the people in the church, you know, our bishop, Bishop Coford and helping so much, you know, and all the support I had, Marie Madsen and all of those people, I don't know how I'd ever made it because, you know, they just were stepped in and took care of, helped me in every way, you know. And Dennis was in the ward, and he took care, took a. Fixed our teeth, you know, free. Just everything, you know, everybody was just wonderful. So, you know, how could you have done any better than that? So it was just like I had all these helping support hands from church people so.

[44:18] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, and your kids have turned out okay.

[44:21] BETH HATCH: Amazing.

[44:23] SCOTT JENSEN: That's what, like I say, I'm the black sheep of the family, but who are you more proud of?

[44:30] BETH HATCH: Who do I like the best? I knew he was going to say that. Shameful. What do you mean?

[44:39] SCOTT JENSEN: Oh, just. Just looking at your children as you look back. So you look back at Ralph say that, you know, you were pregnant with at the time.

[44:48] BETH HATCH: Oh, the baby. Yeah, baby Ralph.

[44:50] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah.

[44:52] BETH HATCH: Yeah. Well, that was. Oh, that was, you know, amazing, too, to get through all of that, too, because he was born, what, 73? I know, but I was seven months, right. Yeah. Two months after. Yeah. So that was. Yeah. Really, all that was quite a blur. But. But, you know, without people's help, that would have been a. Couldn't have had better support. And then just on a fluke, ended up, how did you feel when I came home and said, oh, we're moving. I bought a house from Colorado to Utah.

[45:33] SCOTT JENSEN: I don't remember. The takeaway for me will be just walking into an empty house and getting in touch with you guys and hearing, oh, maybe you can catch a ride to Utah in a couple of weeks and just hanging out with her.

[45:46] BETH HATCH: Or not. Stay there. We don't care.

[45:49] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, thank you so much for having this conversation, mother.

[45:52] BETH HATCH: Are we done?

[45:54] SCOTT JENSEN: Yes.

[45:54] BETH HATCH: That's it?

[45:55] SCOTT JENSEN: Yeah. You've just. 40 minutes flew by. We didn't. We've got so much more to talk about.

[46:00] BETH HATCH: Oh, how bad? We didn't even get to the good stuff.

[46:03] SCOTT JENSEN: How good? That's all. That's plenty of good stuff.

[46:06] BETH HATCH: No. Oh, that's a shame.

[46:08] SCOTT JENSEN: Well, thank you so much, mom.

[46:09] BETH HATCH: Okay, well, you're welcome.

[46:12] SCOTT JENSEN: I'm sure all your other kids are.

[46:15] BETH HATCH: Going to enjoy listening. That's a shame. I thought we'd go on and on. Well, okay, that's it.