Hard work has unexpected benefits

It recently occurred to me that laundry played an important role in my Mom, Coila Ethel Speas McCracken's life. That sounds sad, but there are joyful laundry moments in the tale, as well as lessons in frugality and hard work.

Elva

In 1944, Mom and her best friend Elva Anderson (Butterworth) were sophomores at Shelley High School and like all teenage girls had an interest in fashion and clothing. They made a goal to earn extra money to buy new dresses for their junior year. Both were hired to work in the laundry at the hospital in Idaho Falls. I'm quite sure some of their earnings also helped out at home with family expenses.

The hospital where they worked was built and owned by the LDS Church and was located in a beautiful building on Memorial Drive, just across from the street from temple. It had been completed in 1923.


Mom and Elva worked at the hospital laundry for three consecutive summers. This high school laundry job became extremely important for Coila. 

Following her high school graduation, her previous summer employment in the hospital laundry helped her acquire another job at a laundry, the White Star Laundry. This was the biggest laundry in town and had a large customer base and booming business. Here are some examples of newspaper ads for the White Star Laundry in 1949. I like the advertisement for 20 pounds of laundry for $1.00. 

Because Coila was experienced, with three summers of laundry work on her resume, the position offered was that of desk clerk.

By this time my father, Harold McCracken, had been discharged from the Marines and was living in Idaho Falls working at Bonneville Lumber Company. He dropped by his bag of laundry at the White Star and noticed a beautiful girl working at the desk. Too bashful to approach her directly, he left his order, and promptly went across the street to phone the front desk of the laundry and find out the identity of the lovely girl.

She was as taken by Harold as he with her and their courtship blossomed. The rest is history. 

The moral of the story is that hard work pays off in unexpected ways.