by Garrett Merrick
In May of 1974 I was sick and stayed home from work. However, I was well enough to take Sherry on a drive. Contrary to our usual pattern, we drove south and found ourselves in Mapleton, which we had never before visited; we hadn’t even heard of it. But, we both felt “at home”, like this was the place where we were supposed to live. We were not ready to buy or build, but we did purchase a 2.5 acre lot in south Mapleton. By 1976 we were feeling cramped in the trailer, and on 15 July, Julene’s third birthday, we saw a Mapleton home ad in a newspaper. We felt impressed to call, and we visited it that rainy afternoon. Contrary to our established policy of waiting one day before making major decisions, I announced, and Sherry concurred, to Howard and Stella Stevens that “We’ll take it!” Well, we were seventh in line, so we had to wait a month, while one by one, they each dropped out of the running. We hand-carried our documents through the bank and Veterans Administration, and got the loan approved in a week. Ken helped us move into the new house on our fourth wedding anniversary on 23 August 1976. Julene and David enjoyed stomping around the house in their snow boots which they found in one of the boxes. Ken and Bev moved into the trailer for a year, then we sold it and bought curtains and a dining set for the house.
by Cheryl Merrick
In May, we drove out to Mapleton, Utah one day when Garrett was too ill to work. It just felt like home. Kids waved at us. We both felt that we wanted to live there, so we sold our West Jordan lot to buy 2 1/2 acres on the bench in south Mapleton. It turned out that the well that was on the land didn’t have water and that there weren't any other utilities up there either. All that the land had was a dirt road and a fantastic view of Utah Valley, so we waited to build our dream home. On Sundays we drove around Mapleton longing to live there.
Considering other possibilities, on July 15th right after Julene’s birthday party, we decided to take a look at an older home that Howard and Stella Stevens had for sale in Mapleton. As we walked through the house it just felt like “home”. When the tour was over, Garrett calmly announced, “We’ll take it!” We hadn’t even talked about it, but we both felt good about buying the house. We felt impressed that this was the right home for our family.
Howard Stevens informed us that there were six people ahead of us who had also wanted to purchase the house. One by one these six families dropped out, finally giving us the opportunity to buy the house. This is how just six anxious weeks after that July afternoon, we moved into our home at 1214 North 300 West, Mapleton. We were so excited that we hand carried our final papers to Salt Lake, so that we could move into our home the next day, our 4th wedding anniversary, on August 23, 1976.
Garrett’s brother, Ken, borrowed a pick-up to help us move and to help them move into the trailer. In Mapleton, we stacked almost all our belongings along the wall in the kitchen. Julene (just 3 years) and David (almost 2), found their snow boots in one box and noisily ran through the house. They were so excited! They had never had so much space to live in before.
Adjusting to a new place had a few challenges. One Sunday, when Julene was in the Nursery, we couldn’t find her afterward. She had slipped away and even after everyone had left, we couldn’t find her anywhere. I was in tears! Finally, we found her upstairs in a small room happily “typing” on an old type computer.
At that time, there were only two church buildings in Mapleton, the old white church in the center of town and the new “red” church down the street from us. We went to the old “white” church. On our first Sunday, we hadn’t unpacked any toys for our children to play with during church. A kind woman sitting near us (Sister Brooks) who was the mother of six boys, loaned us some toys. David loved playing with the little trucks. Everyone was so kind to us. It felt like where we should be.
Over the years, so many people nurtured our children. Some came to our children’s school on Grandparent’s day, another allowed David to “hang out” at his car repair garage with the other young men, another man taught our son surveying, and another gave our son a job helping build his home down the street. Our children had supportive teachers and leaders in the church and good teachers in school. So many people nurtured, taught, and helped all of us. This really was the right place for us to live at this time in our lives.
Ken and his new bride, Bev, lived in our trailer for a year. After that, the trailer was sold.
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