P.
Hurst: I was working for the Forest Service, off and on, quite a bit and
the Forest Supervisor was a very dear friend of mine. This CCC business
came into being and he offered me a job. They were moving up on the La
Sal Mountains, way up above Moab. He offered me a job to go up there and
blacksmith for the camp. And so I went. That's when I got started. I was
only there a short time until they put me on a foreman's job. Well, they'd
move them in and then they'd move them out and back and forth, so there'd
be times I wasn't working. But off and on for six or eight years I was
working with them. That was a very lovely experience. I loved it.
Stewart: What did you love about it?
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P. Hurst: Well, I loved it because
I love people. There isn't anything in the world as interesting as people.
And, of course, in 1930--you don't remember, you weren't here, but you
heard about the Great Depression.
And I'll tell you, right now, it was tough. I worked here as a blacksmith.
I had a blacksmith shop right there where that house is. I'd work for weeks
at a time and never see one cent of cash, couldn't buy a postage stamp.
A man would come and want his plow sharpened, why, I'd take anything he
had: a few eggs, a little butter, or anything in the world. There were
months at a time I couldn't have bought a postage stamp.
 |
Mike Garifano outside barracks in CCC camp in Blanding 1936. (G. Burtenshaw photo) |
Well, in 1933, they moved that camp in and they took us fellows, I'll never forget it. When I went up on the mountain and started to work, I'll never forget my wage: $156.00 a month. My, that was a lot of money! That was a lot of money in those days. Well, it would be a lot more than four or five hundred now, really, because of the prices of things. The thing that I loved about it, as I said, was the people. They brought those kids out here from all over, from all walks of life. They gathered them up from the city slums and the streets and brought them out there. Some of them were pretty tough nuts but a lot of them were wonderful kids. And it was a joy to work with them. Of course, my life had been built around scouting, working with boys, so that working with boys was right up my alley. You asked me the thing I liked about it. It was to take those kids that didn't know anything, bring them out in these hills, and start teaching them how to do little things with their hands, how to work. From that teaching them how to operate machinery, all up the line. That's what I liked about it.
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