J Brent Haymond 1954-1956

The Sagas and Travels Of

J Brent Haymond

The New World

1954 to 1956

Summer of 54

The morning after High School graduation I woke up to my future with a still somewhat mundane business that I had to deal with. I continued to work on Saturdays on Wilford Clyde's farm. During the week, I was flagging in Spanish Fork Canyon for Clyde Construction and of course cleaning Haymond Drug Store each morning. I was also playing in one baseball league and two softball leagues. This schedule did a good job of keeping me ready for bed every night except for going on dates with different girls in the county. My baseball success continued to be very positive. I was winning each Wednesday when I pitched in Springville.

The construction job of flagging up Spanish Fork was a new experience. I would have to stop the cars while the asphalt trucks turned around and when only one lane was available. When I stopped the cars I had an opportunity to speak with people from around the United States. It started a deep seeded urge to see the world.

While flagging I caused an accident. From time to time Clyde Construction truck would come thru from other jobs in southern Utah. I would always wave at them with my flag and they would wave back and continue thru the construction area. Well “Shorty” who was driving a transport flatbed truck, which was used to haul construction equipment, was coming through the construction area. There was a long line of cars and trucks following close behind. I gave my standard wave to him and Shorty though I wanted him to stop. He put on the air breaks and stopped the transport on a dime. A pickup was pulling a camper trailer, was very close behind Shorty. The pickup slammed on the brakes of the transport and the trailer picked up the back of the pickup pushed the pickup into the back of the Transport. This caused the hood of the pickup to be ripped off the truck.

All I could think of was, I was going to be fired. Within a second I thought that a good offence is a good defense. I told Shorty to get his truck out of here and he quickly drove away since there was no damage to the transport. I walked over to the pickup and driver and I said “Get this pickup of the road so I can get this traffic thru. “Is the radiator OK?.” He answered “Yes”. I then told him, as if I was the Big Boss. “Then get this pickup and trailer out of here and I wouldn’t call the police.”

He thanked me, got into his pickup and drove off. I almost passed out after he left realizing that I was operating way ahead of my brain.

During this period I was called to be the Secretary of the Senior Aaronic Priesthood. This started me working with inactive members of the Church and encouraging them to come to Church. It was humbling to be 17 years old and calling on inactive members in the ward. I also handled all of the records for the Junior and Senior Aaronic Priesthood. This experience was very helpful in trying to understand why members become inactive. I was so grateful for the opportunity to serve.

I settled into a new life as a High School graduate looking forward to college at BYU, playing Baseball for BYU. The summer was filled with a lot of my old routines cleaning the Drug Store, Working on Construction, and playing baseball or softball every night. Mark and I were going out with the Girls. Some of our girlfriends worked at the drive-in, so we would go free to the show and take them home after closing.

There was a feeling that I had to move on to meet the new real challenge of Collage Education and what was ahead. The Mission was always on my mind. The reality was that my friends all had different paths than me and they were busy doing their thing. It was apparent that there had to be a new life for me with new friends. For the present, I had to continue doing the same thing.

The bright spot, and a high priority, was baseball. I was approached to try out with the Ogden Reds of the Pioneer League, a Class C Professional League. I did well but not have enough interest for a future tryout. I then was invited to an evening with the Salt Lake Bees by a Press Summerhays, a scout for the Bees and who had worked for the San Francisco Giants. After considerable pitching to a catcher and being watched by Summerhays and Lleishman, the General Manager of the Salt Lake Bees, they offered to get me a tryout with the University of Southern California. Leashman was a friend of Mr. Dado, the Manager of the USC Baseball Team. They were NCAA National Champions Coach Dado contacted me and wanted me to come without a scholarship for the freshmen year and then I would be on Scholarship the Sophomore year. I turned them down. I had a BYU Scholarship for Tuition and my Janitor job at the Drug Store for $60.00/month. That is a full ride. So I said “No Thank You” During that summer I pitched my first no-hitter and lost only one game in 12 starts. Our Church Softball team went to the playoffs.

Construction work in Spanish Fork Canyon continued. There was a lot of “Rock Work in the Red Narrows” This required Blasting. This event required all of us laborious to leave what we were doing and go to the Red Narrows and hide behind rocks, during the blasts. Once the blast took place, we would clean the rocks off the road so the cars could go through. One day they loaded the holes with too much dynamite and blew a whole side of the mountain onto the road and onto the railroad tracks. We had blocked the road and destroyed some of the tracks so the trains could not get through.

That day everyone turned into slaves. We were working on the railroad tracks in haste since if we stopped the trains it would cost Clyde Construction a lot of money. We worked into the night getting the tracks fixed. The D-6 Caterpillars made a new road for the Cars to get through. We went home in the dark. What a day! The summer work ended at Labor Day and BYU Orientation started the following week.

A New Beginning at BYU

The orientation at BYU was the second week of September. There were over 3,000 freshman students from all over the United States. It was exciting to meet people from outside of Utah. I decided that I was going to establish new Collage friends that I would know for at least four years and if they go on mission, it would be six years. Right off the start I had friendship with students from Oregon and Nevada. Not knowing the “in” group, that were leaders in School Government or Social Units, I was left out of belonging in groups.

This was one of the faults of living next to a university. Your home and ward was your social base. For Starters, I set up shop in the Science Building Library, each morning. I was riding to BYU with David Allen and David Haymond in a 1936 4 door Plymouth, the three of us purchased for $60. We each chipped in $20 to buy the car and split the cost of operation three ways. David Allan took the car home with him each night, since he lived in Mapleton. The car used a lot of oil so I went to Utah Service and ask if I could buy used oil that they had from oil changes of cars. We paid $.25/gallon for used oil. We used two gallons a Quarter at BYU.

My classes were Math, Chemistry, English, Religion and Physics. These classes required work hard and not much play. I lost my brains for a moment when I went down to the BYU Athletic Department and asked “If I could walk on the Frosh Football Team.” They said “yes” so I practiced every day from 2:30 to 5:00 PM. My Car partners weren’t happy, since they waited until to 5:00 to pick me up to go home. I stuck it out all of Fall Quarter. It cured me of my desire to play football. It was also a test, since I played on the last Single Wing team in Utah, at Springville and know I was converting to the T formation.

I was expanding my circle of friends some from Las Vegas and California. I met a friend from California that handled special events of the Student Government. On day he came up to me and ask me if I wanted to be in a photo shoot for the Daily Universe. I ask, what is it about. He said: It was a picture, with a Girl on top of the Eyring Science Building in front of the new Carillion Bells and the picture would be in the Universe. I said ok and the picture was to be taken on a Tuesday and the picture would be in the Universe on Thursday. Well Tuesday came around and I was dressed to kill. I showed up on the third floor of the Science Building for the Picture and to my surprise there was Phyllis Hansen one of the stars on campus. Well we went to the Roof of the Building and stood in front of the bells. I started a conversation and it was going very well. She was friendly and easy to have a conversation. I found out, that she lived in Knight Magnum Hall. There was only one phone line in the whole building with three floors and three phones, one on each floor. It was the same arrangement for Allan Hall, where the Boys on campus lived.

A week later, I was getting up courage to call Phyllis Hansen for a date. Finally a week later, I said I have to call her. I was studying Chemistry with my friend Klane Forsgren at Allan Hall and I thought it would be time Phyllis would be at her room at Knight Magnum Hall. So I ask Klane if I could use their party phone at Allan Hall. He said “Sure.” I went into the hall on the Main Floor, and dialed the Knight Mangum Hall. The person who answered the phone said she would get Phyllis on the phone. Phyllis finally came to the phone and we started to talk and everything was going well and then “World War III wearing broke out”, from the third floor a person at Allen Hall got on the phone and started squirming at me, that I was not allowed to use the phone since I didn’t live in Alan Hall. He continued to go crazies. He was relentless that I had to get off the phone. I told Phyllis that I had to hang up. I was so embarrassed that I never called Phyllis again. Thus it was a little setback in venturing out to new friends.

That fall my friend Mark Hoover was called to service a mission in Japan. It was a three year mission, due to the language. It was like my life had been taken a sincere blow. Mark and I had been very close for six years and now he was gone. I had just turned 18 and it would be two years before I could be called on a mission. Mark and I would be apart four years. It truly separated us forever. It was furthered impacted by David Haymond falling in love with Joan Madsen from Provo in his freshman year. His time was eaten up by his new love life which ended with engagement in the spring and marriage in the summer. The Quarter ended at BYU and I had a 3.0 Grade point for fall quarter.

Christmas came it was a time to start Ward Basketball. We wanted new uniforms which was about $75 for ten Jerseys with matching in shorts. We lined up a basketball tour to southern Utah for $25 a night contribution to our uniforms from the team we played. We booked games in Ephraim, Monticello and Blanding. We had a good team, which included Doug Smoot from our 1952 State Champion team. We successful with our tour and was able to purchase new Uniforms.

Christmas was slow with the loss of High School friends to spend my spare time. It started to weigh on me. I am a people person and need friends to do things with. I had to adapt with new friends and more projects. I had collage and needed to belong to something at BYU. I was on the Freshman Baseball Team, which amounted to being a practice team for the Varsity Team. Church Basketball was Thursday and Saturday. I continued the janitorial job at the Drug Store. All of this wasn’t away to friends at BYU. I could see that collage was a route to the other world. I had to adapt and be a part of the BYU life, and still living at home and learning more about the other world.

Winter quarter started the same way, with life at the Eyring Science Building except to a Religion Class and a English Class. I would change seats in these classes to get a little experience with new people. I started meeting a number of people from California, Oregon and Las Vegas. These people started to turning into daily friends. Some belonged to Social Units. BYU had a rule that no Fraternities on the Campus. So they were replaced by Social Units for Boys and Girls. There were about 12 Social units half Boys and half Girls The top two Boys social Units was the Brickers and the Vikings. The Brickers were the one that felt the Earth revolved them. The Vikings were more leadership types in School Government and was driven about being good students. They had a number of return missionaries.

I happen to meet and become friends with Viking since some were in the science classes and my luck I started a friendship with some of them. Living at home had a tendency to eliminate you from the social side of school. Being a social animal I found them A lot of the members had sponsors by upper classmen. I had no sponsor, so I had to develop them. But since Rush was in the fall I missed out. But in Spring Quarter the Vikings decided that since they had lost a lot of members to Missions that they should have a second Rush. By this time, I had established a number of Viking friends that sponsored me into the Vikings Spring 1955. This was a blessing to belong to this great group of young men that were principled. It was at this point I felt I was moving to the real world, outside of Springville.

Summer of 55

My summer took on a whole different life, I was called by Team Manager Jones, of the newly formed Industrial League Spanish Fork Baseball Team, to pitch for them. It meant that I would be paid to pitch. This is a real ego trip for an 18 year old kid. I soon learned that old men can hit the ball better than the younger boys. I could hold my own for 5 to 6 innings before they would get to me. The benefits were cash and a job at Gevena Ironton plant. I bought David Allan and David Haymond out of the car for $40. I earned $65 that year pitching for Spanish Fork; I bought a set of Golf Clubs. The job at Ironton was working on the section crew paid $1.50/hr fixing track in the yard. I grossed about $1,300 that Summer. It was not easy work. I also kept my Janitorial Job at the Drug Store for $60, month. You can see I always had money which I saved, but I wasn’t afraid to spend on a good event. With my Baseball Scholarship for tuition, It meant I could bank a lot of money every Summer.

When one of the Blast Furnas caved in and cooled down we had to go into the Furnas and Jackhammer the bricks out. It was not a good place to work for a upstart pitcher, wanting to go to the majors. The bad news was that I was working with a few low lives that chewed and spit tobacco, talk daily about their nightlife and drink beer.

The big blessing for playing for Spanish Fork was two great friend that I learned about life on the good side. Russ Hillman, who played Basketball for BYU when they won the NIT, drafted into the Navy and played Baseball for a Navy team. Ralph Morgan had been on a mission and was married. He played his senior year a BYU. He played Center Field. Ralph and his wife became my No 1 friend that summer. He kept me on the straight and narrow. We went fishing in the Uintah mountains together even dated together.

It was a wonderful summer, but as fall approach I started pushing Bishop Jensen to call the Church office and get approval to send me on a mission now. These discussions went on for several days, until I accepted “NO”, for an answer. I had to face up to the fact that the Lord had his time and I had to accept his time. It took time but I accepted the realty that I had things to do in the next 12 months and I would be better for it.

The Fall of 55

The fall quarter started with registration and I was able to get all of the classes in my major that were required. I decided that for my Electives, I would take US History and Political Science. Little did I know that this was an embryo of my future. Dr Stewart Grow was a teacher of Government Operation that made good government work. This year was to become my best school year in preparing me for future events in my life.

The Viking Social Unit became Brent Haymond’s Social life. I became involved in project for assemblies. Each Year the Vikings put on an assembly and center peace was a Carrousel. Well I volunteered to build the Carrousel. Once again my brain got outside of my Skill. I was working after school every day and all day on Saturday. I finished it. It was 8 feet wide and six feet tall in an octagon shape. I got a truck and hauled it to the BYU Fieldhouse and readied it for the Assembly. There were six Vikings in tights that carried it into the Assembly Stage to music. It was a hit and above all it was the assembly of the Year by the Social Units. The Viking also won the Musical of the Year. A member of the unit wrote the words and music of the winning number.

We also had a Viking Team in the Intramurals Basketball Tournament, that I was on. The Viking Team placed 2^nd. The winners was made up of a team of Varsity football players. The Viking became my new home at BYU. I was now a part of a cosmopolitan Social Unit

One of my great friends in the Vikings was Tom Kirkmen from Portland. Tom was going steady with a girl from Portland who was also at BYU. Tom said he had a friend that he would like to hoop me up with. I said sure. He told me that her father had been the FBI Station Officer for Portland and was now over security for The Miriam Franks Department Store in Portland. Her name was Nancy Jo Swenson. Well Nancy Jo and I became close friends for most of the School Year. We went hiking at topaz Mountain in Delta, Utah with Dave Moody Lauren Bryan and their Dates. Then there was the wintered Sleigh riding at midnight down the Sundance Road to Highway US 40. Speeds were clocked up to 40 miles per hour, it was a crazy time. My life was full of activities, School, Baseball, Viking, Church in Springville and the Drugstore. I had only time to eat at home and then on to the next event.

The Viking Social Unit became my Club House. If there was a project or an Activity, I was all in. I sang, very quietly, in the Bass section. The big surprise came to me the night of the Viking Dinner Dance at the top of the Hotel Utah. I was joking around with Nancy Swenson, when the President of the Vikings stood up to make an announcement. He then said, “We have chosen Brent Haymond as the Viking of the Year. To my surprise, I was shock, but I was able to say a few words that sounded coherent. Those were the fun times.

“Who is on the Lord side, who?”

This was also a time of choices for young men, the Varsity Baseball Season was starting and I was on the team, still a young kid playing with upper classmen that were older than I. We had a new coach. Coach Dave Crowton had had a mild Heart attack and the Doctors said he couldn’t coach. The Athletic Director brought in a new Coach, Wayne Tucker, who had been playing and coaching Minor League Teams. He was still looking for a professional job. But in the mean time he was our coach. I was the only sophomore pitcher and Coach needed a left hand pitcher. The question was could I, Brent Haymond, live up to the opportunity.

This was the beginning of choices. I worked hard winter quarter getting ready for the season. Coach Tucker was pleased with what he saw in my pitching. At the start of Spring Quarter the final team members were selected and I was on the varsity team.

Shortly thereafter the team left for Southern California. We were driving in four cars. There were five in each car. Our car had three married individuals and two not married. I was the youngest by six years. I was wide eyes all the trip with the adult discussion, way above may experience level. We finally found our way to the US Naval Training Station and found our Room. The discussion on the way was to pick up some girls. Our driver had studied Physical Therapy at USC, and knew his way around the area. He said he knew some girls we could pickup. He called and we picked them up and headed to a Burlesque Joint. Well after some time and a show it was apparent that I was in the wrong place. By the time we left the three married members of the group were in the front. Us two not married were in the back with the two girls, age in the 30’s, on our laps.

The other single member of our group was 26 and just out of the navy. He was after action with one of the girls. It was decided that they better get back to the base, since it was after 11:00 PM and a 45 minute drive to the base. I thought the driver was going to take the girls home since he knew them. But reality stepped in, when we arrive at the Naval Base. The three married men jumped out of the car and headed to the Gate, almost running. The other single member of the team was heavily involved with one the women on his lap.

They threw the keys to me and told me to take the women home and headed to

the gate. I looked at the other women and said: I have to pitch tomorrow and could you

take the keys and the car home and bring the car back tomorrow. She looked at me

and said: “That would be best.” I said thank you and headed for the gate. The other

single member of the team, was screaming at me all the way to the gate, for not driving

the girls home. He said: “I could have had with her all the way to their home.” That night

I thanked the Lord for the strength to say “No”.

The following day, I pitched the BYU team to a 6 to 2 victory over the Navel Training Station. I knew the Lord helped me through the test. This was a great start to my Collage Baseball Career at BYU.

The senior pitchers, on the team, were getting all of the starts. This was the case, late in the Season, when we were in Logan playing Utah State. The senior pitchers were getting hit often. The score was 8 to 6 in our favor. However, Utah State went ahead 9 to 8 and bases were still loaded in the eight. I was warming up when it happen. Coach Tucker called time out and told the Umpire that Brent Haymond was coming to pitch to the left-handed batter. The pressure was on and I knew it. The words of Bill King came to me, “Hay Kid just throw strikes.” That I did, the batter hit a pop fly to the Second baseman for the third out.

In the ninth inning, BYU scored two runs to go ahead 10 to 9. I then retired the side in the ninth inning and we won the game. That was one happy day for me and the team.

The following week our coach Darrell Tucker quit, He headed to Canada to manage a Canadian Team in the Pioneer League. Coach Dave Crowton said that he could finish The last two games of the season. Again Seniors were pressured to start even though we were not in contention to win a Championship. Once again the senior was getting hit and hit hard. I again warmed up but to the surprise of everyone The Senior refused to leave the mound. Coach Crowton left the mound. After we finally got them out . I pitched the final inning. This game ended the season.

The summer of 56

The Sophomore Year ended with me doing well in my studies and making a contribution to the BYU Baseball team in my sophomore year. I had an offer to play again for Spanish Fork, but as I was driving to the Geneva office, in Orem, I realized that I didn’t want to work on the Section Crew at Ironton. I was approaching the turn off to Thorns Construction and so I turned east on the road to Thorns Main Office. As I walked in the front door of the Office, France Bradley the Superintendent of the Ready Mix operation as well as the Gravel pit was coming in the back door. France was swearing. He was gifted at swearing. He could use the same swear word as a adjective, verb and subject all in the same sentence. He was doing that when he came in asking for a new truck driver, since the original driver had dumped his truck into the Hopper of the Crusher. The original driver was fired for backing his truck into the hopper.

I answered I am here ready to start. He started to tell me what to do in his special language. I was to go get one of the trucks, which was backed up to the fenced, fill it up with gas and head up to the pit. Since this was my first time driving a truck. I almost ran over to the truck, open the hood, pulled out the dip stick to the oil. It was ok. I then drove the truck over to the fuel pump. There were two pumps. I didn’t have any experience with diesel. One pump was being used to put gas into a truck. So, I took other pump and started filling my truck. When I had filled the gas tank of my truck, I got into the cab and turned on the engine. It started sputtering. But I head up the hill to the pit. The truck was hardly moving. I looked at my rear view mirror and saw a large billow of smoke coming out of the tail pipe at the back of the truck. I stopped and I could see several men from the shop laughing at me. One of the laughing men walked up to the truck and to my surprise it was one of my Senior Arronic Priesthood brothers in my ward.

He said: Brent back the truck up to the fence and I will drain the diesel from the tank and then you can fill the truck with gasoline at the other pump and head up to the pit. I was so grateful to him for his kindness and that Francis Bradley didn’t see this miss up.

I worked at the pit hauling gravel to the hopper for two weeks then Jack Jones, my Sophomore Coach at Springville High School, who was over the Asphalt Plant Jack stopped me and told me to go haul Asphalt, the rest of the summer. I then hauled Asphalt to different jobs in the counties of Utah, Salt Lake and Watch. This was a great job driving all day, and a lot of overtime. I was paid just over $2.25/hour. The life was good. My life went into overdrive. I was playing baseball on Wednesday and Sunday. I mostly pitched on Wednesday and played 1^st Base on Sunday, unless our other Pitcher didn’t show then I also pitched on Sunday. I also played in two Softball leagues. I played on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. If I was still alive I would find a date for Saturday. That was my schedule from June until the end of August.

Then on the weekend of the 24^th of July break Dave Moody and I left in his car to drive to the Grand Canyon for a Break. It was Saturday and we thought we were bigger than life. Dave was to have his Mission interview on Tuesday in Salt Lake. That meant that David had be back Tuesday morning and I had to be back for work on Tuesday as well.

We headed out toward Panguitch arriving at a little after noon. Our Viking buddy, Bob Orton, lived in Panguitch and he was going with us onto The Grand Canyon to play for a day. We found him at the Town Baseball Field that the High School Team was playing the Old Timers. It was the first inning and the score is 16 to 0 for the High School team. this looked like a bad day for the old timers.

Bob saw us coming into the Ball Park Bleachers. Bob came over to me and said will you come and pitch for the Old Timers. This will be a long day if we cannot get the out. If the High School Team said yes I will. They agreed so Dave Moody and I joined the Old Timers. Long storing short we won the game in nine innings 17 to 16. What a day, but it wasn’t over. The three of us got into the car and drove to The Grand Canyon Lodge, on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Upon arrival I ask for my Springville friend Martin Conover, he played the Saxophone in the Band and worked the Front Desk during the day and he controlled the rooms. There was a cabin empty so he let us bunk up there at no charge.

We had a great time there Saturday night, Sunday and Monday until around noon we headed back to Panguitch to drop Bob Orton off at his home. It was late afternoon when Bob talked us into staying for the Dance at an outdoor Dance Garden. Bob lined two girls up, with us. And the six of us headed to the Dance Garden there we danced to about 11 o’clock when we took the girls home and Dave and I then headed out of Panguitch for Delta where we had to change cars and then drive to Springville in time for me to go to work.

I dosed off and when we got to Coal Fort. Dave said we are about out of gas and we can’t make it to Delta. We decided to keep driving and to our surprise we came on a closed Gas Station. We knocked on the door to the house by the station, but no one answered. We decided to take the garden hose and cut a 5ft of the hose and siphon gas out of the truck parked at the station and fill out tank. We filled the tank of our car and left $5:00 and a note on the front seat of the truck. The note thanked them for the gas.

We were driving “Lighting Speed” knowing we were late. We arrived in delta at 5:30 AM.

and switched the cars and headed to Springville arriving at 7 AM. As I walked in the house Mother was up getting one of her special breakfast for me. She just said: “Did you have a good time.” I answered “Yes”.

I was picked up for work at 7:30 AM and headed to Thorns got my truck gassed up, then headed to the Asphalt Plant for a load. I was driving to Saratoga Springs, all day. By afternoon I was driving with my head out the window to stay awake. But I was able to played Softball that night.

The Breakdown

This event was the beginning of the end of burning the candle at both ends The first of August I was having trouble getting around. The 2^nd Sunday in August I slept through going to Church and the Baseball Team came to pick me up to pitch in Nephi. Mother couldn’t wake me. But I finally said “I can’t make it” and went back to sleep. I slept 24 hours, without moving out of the bed. Mother call and told Thorns that I was sick and couldn’t come to work.

It was the third week in August before I went back to work. I never pitched again until I was in Australia. It was a sober time for me for I realized that I have to move to live a life with more thought about my future and readying myself to serve others and a mission. My thoughts and action started to slow down with more thought about what the Lord wanted. I had saved enough money from my various jobs to pay for my mission. My father however paid for my mission and he felt that I would need the money when I got home for college.

I started meeting with Bishop Jensen and talking about a mission and what I needed to do. The preparation started and my Birthday was only three weeks away. I made an appointment with Elder Marion D. Hanks, for a mission interview. Elder Hanks said were would you like to serve. I told him that I wanted to go to Australia. He asked: Why? I told him of a friend and mentor, Kent Miner, had served in Australia and he spoke highly of a mission to Australia. I told Elder Hanks I wanted a foreign mission and English speaking.

Two weeks later I received a call to serve in the Australian Mission in Sydney Australia. The Mission included New South Wales and Queensland. I was so happy to being called to serve in this mission. The departure date was set for October 26, 1956.