Growing up in Granite

Growing up here in the Historic Granite Community was a joy and a blessing. It is a joy to live here today where I have lived most of my life.

I am a fifth-generation Despain in the Historic Granite Community. My Dad, Owen Despain, was born and raised here as well. He was the thirteenth of 13 children, and so there were lots of Despain’s in the area - - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings. Not everyone in Granite was a Despain: I remember playing softball on the ball diamond which was where the present-day Granite Elementary School is today. I loved softball. We had nine players on our team; only seven of the nine were Despain’s.

Granite Elementary was in the same area where it is today, but it was smaller. Grades 1 through 6 met in two classrooms. Grades 1-3 met in one room; grades 4-6 met in another room. This was in the late 1940’s and the 1950’s. There were about 6-8 kids in each grade level, probably about 40-to-50 kids in the school.

One day, my cousin, Weston Despain, and I decided it was too nice a day to spend at school. We rode our bicycles up to the beaver ponds (the ponds where La Caille restaurant is today). We gathered some watercress, a delicious aquatic plant for salads, sandwiches, or soups. We were sure our mothers would be very pleased with the freshly harvested watercress…and they probably were. However, they were not pleased that we had cut school. We were each appropriately disciplined, and I don’t remember any other “unexcused” absences from school.

Besides the beaver ponds, there were lots of places for boys to play. We had mountains, trails, streams, and reservoirs. Most of us had b-b guns, pellet guns, or even .22 caliber guns, and there was plenty of wide-open spaces to shoot these guns. We pretty well shot at anything: branches, twigs, rocks. However, we never shot at people, farm animals, cats, or dogs.

We did have a few chores. Every family had a garden, and there were lots of fruit trees which needed tending. We would prune the trees; we would weed the garden; we would harvest the fruit. And we would irrigate the groves. This involved cleaning the open South Despain Ditch Company ditches in the spring before the water was on. We got water every 6 ½ days. This meant that every other week, your turn for water was at night. Day or night, you never missed your turn to water your trees and your garden. And, you never messed with anyone else’s turn at water.

Mostly we grew Red Delicious apples, but also, we grew Golden Delicious apples and Johnathan apples, apricots, cherries, and pears. My Mom, Lois Despain, baked wonderful apples pies, and she used Red Delicious apples in her pies. Typically, we would harvest hundreds of bushels of apples. Some of these we would sell locally; some would be sold for shipment in town or out of state.

It was truly a joy and a blessing growing up in Historic Granite. For me, it is a joy to live here in Historic Granite Community even today.