Dallas Green

by Wayne Green, first born son of Dallas

 

Some of the things Dallas enjoyed as a kid:

• Ice skating - Sometimes conditions would be just right and you could skate for miles on what they called the slew.
• Duck & Pheasant Hunting - Dallas spent hours and hours hunting. He really didn’t pay too much attention to the seasons.
• Playing out in the barn – There was Grandpa George Green’s 45-90 Bear Gun, old gas lights out of Grandpa Greens House, and the remnants of a black surrey with fringe on top.

  When the Greens first came to Kanesville they where sheep hurdlers and the reason they picked the farm land that Dallas grew up on was it was sandy and a good place to winter the sheep. Before the Green’s came to Kanesville, Indians lived on the land. Grandpa Green's farm was very sandy. Dad said that after a windstorm he would go out and look for Indian arrowheads. Dallas Found 100’s of arrowheads as a boy. Once in a while he would find a spearhead. Grandpa Rollin found stones that had been used for grinding corn. So the Indians must have spent a lot of time in the area before the Green’s started to use the ground for farming.

  Even as a kid Dallas always seemed to find a way to make money. There was some dead trees back of the barn that were infested with worms. The worms turned out to be excellent for fishing. Dallas would chop into the trees and split the wood. He would fill up a jar with worms. He would take the jar of worms over to Kemmirs and sell them. He said he could remember getting as much as $20 for the worms.

  Saturday was the big day for going to town. The Green Family would all go to Ogden for shopping. Grandpa Green would pass the time on the corner of J.C. Penny’s. There he could catch on the latest men talk (not gossip). Grandma Green would shop for weekly supplies. And Dallas would blow his $20 worm money mainly on candy.

  Dallas also trapped muskrats in the winter. He would get up before school and check his traps. On an average he would get 6 or 8 rats per day. He would sale the rats for $1.90 to Blooms. This was a very good part time job for Dallas. Mom said it was muskrat money that bought her wedding ring and her Cedar chest.

  Ice skating...sometimes conditions would be just right and you could skate for miles on what they called the slew.

  If you asked Dallas, Julian or Harry about their youth, they will almost always tell you a story about fighting. The neighbors would say that it was really strange to watch the Green kids. They would hoe a row of beats and when they would get to the end of the row they would throw their hoes down and fight. They would hoe another row of beats and then fight again. I ask Grandma Green several times what Grandpa Green would do when all this was going on. I got the same answer every time. Grandpa was in the middle of it most of the time. One day Grandma came home from town and her potted plant was gone, pot and all. She never has found out what happened to it. The only way the could have kept a secret is if they where all in on it.

  The most famous fight story, is one that I have heard several times by several people and also several versions. I would like to tell a compilation of that story. Dallas was the oldest and the biggest. So the out come of the fights was pre-determined. Harry he always got the worst of it unless he got a lucky hit with a shoe. One day Dallas was bragging that he could whip Julian and Harry with one hand behind his back. This was a mistake because he soon found two hands tied behind his back and his feet as well. The events that followed where fueled by years of teasing and getting beat up on a regular basis. Dallas was first staked out on an ant bed and honey poured on him. After a while this didn’t seem saver enough punishment for Dallas so they thought it would be a good idea to throw Dallas in the irrigation ditch. With his hand and legs tied he would not be able to swim and he thought that he was truly going to die. But just as they were about to toss him in, luckily Grandpa and Grandma got back from town.

 

Dallas grew up on the same farm where he lived all his life. If he move it was only a couple of hundred feet, one way or another. Grandpa Green had milk cows, and hay to hall, so there was the regular kind of farm chores that needed to be done. Grandpa Green didn’t get a tractor until 1946 so all the farm work was done with a team of horses. Rollin bought his first tractor right after WWII. It was a John Deer Model B. Before that time, he did all his farm work with a team of workhorses. Dallas said that one day he was working with the horses and he just wasn't doing very well. No matter how loud he would holler the horses wouldn't pay much attention to him. Grandpa Rollin could see that there was a problem and cut a big willow from a tree. Rollin told Dallas to say "get up" in a soft voice and Rollin would whack the horses with the stick. After he did that for a while Dallas said that he was afraid to say anything because the horses were so responsive. 

 

Dallas went to night school when ever he could. Some of the classes that he took were:

• Welding
• Auto Mechanics
• Auto Electric from Blain Hartog
• Business Law
• Business 101 from O.M. Clarke
• Real-estate Law
• Psychology
• Salesmanship
• Dale Carnage Class in Salt Lake
• Real-estate License class
• Insurance License class

Some of the jobs that Dallas had:

• After Dallas and Charlene got married Dallas worked on the farm with his father. After a year's work there wasn't any money left over after paying the bank off.  So that ended Dallas' farming days.
• Delivering Culligan soft water.
• Dallas also worked Construction in Arizona mixing cement.
• Welding on grain elevators in Ogden and in Idaho. This was a dangerous job. When he applied for the job he was hired on the spot and given a complete set of tools and work clothing. Later he found out that he had replaced a fellow that had been killed working on the elevator and the tools were his.
• Weber Tractor working on Allis Chalmers Equipment.
• Defense Depot painting Jeeps.
• Ogden Arsenal working in a warehouse pulling auto parts.
• Hill Field as a Welder, welding and repairing mainly aircraft parts*.
• Wells Company as a production Welder. He would use 50 lbs of welding rod in the morning and 50 lbs of rod in the afternoon. The Wells Company make mainly implement trailers.
• Ogden Welding Works where he worked mainly on candy machines. He would receive tips in candy bars which he liked.
• Keith's Beet Harvester he worked as Welder.
• After he was laid off at Keith's Beet Harvester, he started a welding business with George Moore in Verg Jensen's old garage. Working with George Moore was a real education for Dallas. George worked on the Burma Road in World War II shoeing mulls, so they did some blacksmith work in the shop. George would always get the owner to leave the horse that was to be shoed. After the owner would leave George would put a twitch on the horses nose and flip the horse on its back and George would sit on the horses belly and shoe the horse. Dallas said that the most common welding job that they would do is put straight pipes on cars. George also liked to drink with his buddy, Holy Bybee. Dallas would watch Holy's Store while George and Holy would go into town and drink. This also ended up being quite an education for Dallas. Holy had a slot machine room in the back, which fascinated Dallas. Holy had several bulk oil dispensers for different weights of oil. One day Holy came back from drinking and Dallas told Holy that the oil dispenser was low and needed filling. Dallas wasn't sure which can of oil went in which dispenser. Holy grabbed a can and told Dallas "It all comes out of the ground anyway, it doesn't matter."  Dallas said he always felt funny after that when a customer would ask for 20 weight oil and he would go to the 20 weight dispenser to get their oil.

  *Probably the last job he had before going out on his own was a Welder at Hill Field repairing mainly aircraft parts. He was suppose to stay in the shop.  There wasn't much welding to do so Dallas would put a piece of paper on a Clip board and pull out a tape measure out about 12."  He would walk at a fast pace and look like he was going some were. He was able to walk all over Hill Field and see all there was to see. No one ever stopped him and asked him what he was doing.

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Some of the things that he did not do but came very close to doing are:

• Joining the merchant marines with Glen Green. Grandpa Rollin retrieved Dallas form the bus station in the nick of time.
• Going over to Europe and digging up dead soldiers after WWII with Floyd Cook. Floyd Cook had flat feet and couldn't pass the physical.

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It is now 14 years since I got my wife,
A very short time though it seems all my life.
In those first few years when I had my way,
She did what I said with nothing to say.
But times have changed for alas and alack,
She's learned from the years and now she fights back.
Now I'd trade her off and start once again,
But I've thought it all out and I just couldn't win.
If I started out new with a gal with some looks,
Then who would I get to take care of the books.
And now that I'm older and my stomach is shook,
I also would need a maid that could cook.
Then a parts man, a salesman, it seem there's no end,
What I would need then is a bank that would lend.
Then comes the seamstress, the gardener, and nurse,
So I guess I'll keep her for better or worse.

 

On the 14 may 1947 he made the best business decision of his career, he married my Mom in the Salt Lake LDS Temple

Dallas started his business in 1954
He took my mothers paycheck they she had gotten by working out to second street. Bought a welder for $150

In those early years his business name was Dallas Green Manufacture and repair. He built a lot of hay loaders. He also bought a semi load of used pipe and made swing sets.

 

He also had a Tractor Dealership (about 1956)
But just a short time after he started the dealership, M-M went broke

 He Joined the Utah Co-op and Started Selling Gas (about 1959)

They Loaned him the money for the tanks and pumps.

He paid back to loan with one cent for each gallon of gas that we sold.

Build the Tire Shop and started Selling Tires (about 1964)

Before (1966)

 

Green Wholesale

 

Layton Farm Supply was started 1972

While helping my bother Korry shingle the roof of his house in 1979 Dallas first noticed that something was wrong with his muscles. The doctors couldn't find out what was the matter and he continually got worse. His friend John Hatfeild had his own airplane and insisted that he was going to take Dallas to the Mayo Clinic and find out what was the problem with Dallas. When he told his regular Doctor that he was going back to the Mayo Clinic. The Doctor told Dallas that the University of Utah was just as good. So Dallas went down there for a series of test. They found that Dallas had a rare mussel disease. He was told that if he would take Pretnazone that it would take the pain away. But he was also told that it would take 10 years off his life. When he died at age 71 his body was completely worn out. The Pretnazone had really been hard on Dallas.

At my Grandpa Verg Jensen's Funeral, Carl Fowers came up to me and commented the Grandpa Verg was a landmark of a man. Dallas also was really a landmark of a man. When we would take Dallas up the emergency room. They would say, I bought chicken wire out to Dallas Store. Or they would say is this THE Dallas Green. There was a couple of thing that contributed to his Name Recognition. One big thing is that he always had his name painted on trucks. But one thing that really put Dallas on the map is when he started selling $12 Christmas trees for $3.99 Mom, myself and my two brothers felt it our responsibly to make sure that Dad didn’t get a big head. One of our favorite stores… is when Mom and Dad got on an airplane back in Illinois.  Dad started speaking to the person next to him on the plane.  Dad ask where he was from.  He answered Roy Utah (our neighboring city).  Dad with excitement said, "Well you know me, I'm Dallas Green."  The man replied, "Nope, never heard of you."

 

Dallas is the holder of 3 trade marks 

GREEN HILL FERTILIZER- PRINCE DOG FOOD - PRINCESS CAT FOOD

He also is the holder of one US patent. While delivering software tanks for Culligan soft water, he invented a plug assembly to make it easier to carry the tanks in. A US patent was secured for the amount of $1000 and orders where taken. In the first production run one of the parts was cast too thin and broke easily. With all he money spent on the patent and the first production run. He was unable to fill the orders.

Dallas Loved the Free Enterprise system. Mon said that he would never pass up a kid's Lemonade stand.

The last few years Dallas spent most of his time doing volunteer work  He volunteered over to the school for the deaf and blind for several years before he started to volunteer at the Hooper School.  He has also volunteered at the Hill Air Force Museum. All though he said that was just a part time job compared to the Hooper school.  I received a paper from the museum that he had put in 450 hours in 1999, even his part time job he put a lot of time into.