Toys

Janet remembers a toy that Newt created for neighborhood children. It was an adaptation of one used by children as he was growing up. He rolled a strip of steel flat bar into a hoop then butt welded the ends. This formed a band very much like the ones used as tires on wagon wheels of earlier times. Next he bent another strip into a 'U' shape with about a two-inch throat and 3/4-inch lips. This he welded to a handle made of 1/4-inch steel round bar doubled back into a deep 'U' shape to form a handle. The handle was used to roll and guide the hoop around the yard, sidewalk or where ever. Because it was steel sliding on steel it made a terrible racket but it was challenging and fun and provided plenty of exercise. I believe he made two sets so you could challenge your friends to a race. Newt made other things too. One summer while playing softball, Newt broke his leg. Janet jumped off a slide and broke her leg too, so there were two invalids that summer. Newt had commercial crutches but they didn't have a size that would fit Janet so Newt cut a pair from wood and fitted them to her height. It was hillarious to watch father and daughter hobble around.
Newt bought an old Jeep pickup then decided he needed a camper to put on it for deer hunting. Newt decided the factory built campers weren't worth what they cost so he spent nearly every night one summer building one of his own. It could have been that the bed on the Jeep was smaller than most pickup beds and he couldn't buy a camper to fit. Come deer season he had a new camper to keep him warm and dry. He took the camper to Yellowstone one summer. A big brown bear strolled up to the driver side to beg for food. Genevieve wanted a picture of the bear so she got out of the passenger side and creeped around the back to take the picture. As she got to the back, Newt pulled forward leaving Gen nearly face to face with the bear. He got a good laugh from that prank but he paid dearly for the joke. I'll leave the rest to your imagination. Newt's sisters claim that he was full of pranks as a boy. While one sister was drawing water from the well, Newt would wait until she had it cranked nearly to the top then tease her until she released the handle to swat him which let the bucket fall back to the bottom.

What Did Simpson Steel?

Just like Charlie Steen who also was born in 1919 in Texas, Newt became involved in the uranium boom of the 1950s. He spent a summer working and maintaining a drill rig for Utah Sprocket near Moab and Hite in southern Utah. Unlike Charlie, he did not make a fortune in mining claims. The experience may have triggered an entreprenuerial chord with him because he began to think, plan and venture to expand his financial options. At first he purchased used welding machines from construction firms who chose to sell them rather than move them to the next project. He then rented this equipment and within a year was making almost as much from the rental income as he did from his day job. With a little capital and a few welders, he started a back-yard fabrication company. He made handrail and other miscellaneous steel items that were so small that they did not cover the overhead required at a larger steel firm. Great trees from little acorns grow and Newt's company struggled and grew to a multi-million dollar enterprise.

I Get No Respect

Newt insisted that his family show respect whether at home or in public. He only had to tell his children once that 'Old Man and Old Lady' were not acceptable terms for Mom and Dad, neither were Ma and Pa. His children were never to call adults by their first name. Showing disrespect to a teacher or arguing were likewise unacceptable. One day at a family gathering at Genevieve's parents, Jerry was playing with his cousin Ralph. They were nearly the same age and were enjoying playing together. Newt told Jerry to do something and Jerry answered, "phooey-on-you." Jerry thought he was being funny but as Newt stood up with a frown on his face, Jerry knew he'd made a mistake. Jerry started to run through the pasture toward the canal. That was his second mistake. About half way down the pasture Jerry paused to look back. That was all it took because Newt was right behind him. Newt subscribed to the concept of "spare the rod and spoil the child." Jerry received a sound spanking. It hurt a lot and since Ralph was there, Jerry was also embarrassed. One night after visiting his wife's parents, Newt pulled into his driveway to find Jerry's tricycle right in the middle of the drive. "Put your tricycle in the coal shed," Newt said to his son. It was dark and the coal shed was in the back yard. Jerry was afraid and refused to put it away, then threw a screaming fit. Newt said you can stay outside until you put the tricycle away. A short time later a police car pulled up in front. The sirens and flashing lights really scared Jerry but he stopped screaming. The policeman asked if he was hurt or if Newt had done anything to him. It was all a big mistake. The neighbors heard the screaming and called the police. I think that was the last of Jerry's temper tantrums.

The Guitar

Newt was often asked to sing at church or family gatherings. At home, he would accompany himself on his old guitar. Usually around Christmas his brother Vic would visit and they would sit on the couch and sing country and western, gospel and sometimes popular songs from the 1950s. When 'Goodnight Irene' became popular, Newt sang that tune over and over until some of the family complained. Newt had a pleasant voice and seldom did anyone ask him not to sing but this time the repetition was just too much. On deer hunting trips he would usually wake the camp with "Oh what a beautiful morning; Oh what a beautiful day. I've got a wonderful feeling, everything's going my way." One sister commented after his passing that as a youth they could hear him singing as he came down the country lane long before he was visible. Just a few of the songs he sang were 'Little Brown Church in the Vale, How Great Thou Art, Oklahoma Hills, Bluetail Fly and Clementine.' Before the Minstrel Shows became passe, Newt and three friends formed a male chorus from the LDS Ward community and performed an evening of music, jokes and entertainment staged as a minstrel show. It's strange that I don't remember the show itself but I do remember the practices. One of the members couldn't sing but he was one of their friends so they taught him how. How would it be to look back across the years to when Newt's grandfather would sit on the porch of his Texas home and sing the songs of that time.Newt's oldest sister Irene recalled a song their father sang to his wife that always brought tears to her eyes. It was titled "In The Shadow of the Pines" and the words were included in a collection the Carter family had posted online.

Sea Legs

As a sailor during WWII, Newt became proficient at the welding trade. He spoke little of his years aboard ship. It seems to take a shipmate to draw the stories into the open. One experience that he shared was the Normandy invasion. Newt was on a repair ship that participated in the invasion. He spoke of being off shore as the landing craft hit the beach. A ship near by was struck by enemy fire and sunk. He then said that their ship was signalled that they were at the wrong beachhead and directed to move further off shore. I don't recall if he told whether they then sailed to the beach they were intended to support. I recall one snapshot in his photo album that showed the deck of a ship with a large hole which he claimed was caused by a bomb that failed to detonate. He returned with one momento of the invasion, a seashell inscribed with the name of his vessel, Normandy, and the date. Besides his duffle bag and uniform, the only other item relating to his naval service was his seaman's handbook. The knots and splices and pictures of different classes of ships were the most interesting to me. He told of shaping a file into a knife blade then tempering and hardening it. He plied his trade in his driveway building boat trailers. He would salvage an axle from an old car and frame the rest of the trailer with pipe. for rollers he used old wringer washing machine rolls. He'd custom fit the trailer to the boat. He had a boat for a while. One day he was backing down to the water at Great Salt Lake and submerged the car engine in the salty water. The old engine sat in his garage for years afterwards. Later he bought a boat to sail at Lake Powell. Then he had to buy an airplane to get there and get his pilots license.

Newt

We bounced through the sagebrush and over rocks on what Newt promised was a road but there was no visible indication to prove his claim. The old yellow Jeep managed to cling tightly to the side-hill as we neared the West Fork headwaters. Lunch was a can of Dinty-Moore stew; we would be through fishing in time to catch a bite of dinner in Kamas on our way home. The fish were small, quick and alert to any intrusion from outsiders. Newt worked down stream while I sat on the bank trying to entice a large cutthroat that patrolled the deep hole. It had been what seemed like an hour when I decided to retrieve my line. I had a snag. Try as I might, I couldn't get it loose. Then suddenly it moved upstream. I had the fish on my line. I must have made a lot of noise because Newt soon broke through the willows and seeing my plight, set aside his pole and with a net prepared to help me land the trout. After several minutes and many attempts to get the fish to where we could slip him in the net, we finally landed him.