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Fred Dudding and his Employees at Flagstaff, AZ Safeway circa 1941

This is the Safeway Store Fred Managed in Flagstaff, AZ

This is written on the back of the above picture

Fred Dudding – Stories about his life. (Notes taken by Virginia Dudding Hooten in August, 1990.)

Fred was born Frederick Arnold Dudding in Central City, WV; which was later incorporated into Huntington, West Virginia, on November 30, 1908. He was the third from last child. Gene and Charles were younger. Gladys, Arnett, Sam, and Lucille preceded him. At about age 4, he moved to Culloden where his paternal grandparents lived, and his father bought a farm. His sister Lucille took him on horseback to first grade in school in Culloden. He learned how to fold a paper cup to get a drink. He remembers only one day, then they moved to Huntington in about 1914, and his father bought a store. They rented a house across from the store … on a corner … an old building. It was a kind of general store. His mother worked in the fabric, hats, and shoes department. He remembers that rats infested the feed room. In Huntington, he got seriously ill – typhoid or diphtheria.

His father, Hamilton, had a mortgage on a new store which he built across the street. Uncle Charles Hosey had a drug store … it was still in existence in 1960. Another man had a furniture store … all in a row. He remembers Aunt Effie and Aunt Lilla. The business was successful until 1924. The chain link factory closed overnight. Much of his father’s business was on credit. People couldn’t pay. The bank foreclosed.

Uncle Sam joined the Navy in WWI. He served on a submarine chaser. He met May. He got special leave for a date with May. The ship went out while he was on leave, and never returned. Sam and May lived in Pittsburgh with her parents. She and Sam took Daddy on his first trip in 1920 or ’21. He had his first meal in a restaurant … it scared him.

Daddy played football in junior high school ... West Junior High. He was a pretty good sized boy. He played every full game throughout the year except the first half of the first game … he just walked across the field. In the 8th grade, his school won the championship. In junior high algebra, Daddy got consistent low to average grades … 80 to 90; other students got test answers and got 100’s. On the final, Daddy got 100; the others got 0. Another teacher figured it out and moved Daddy to another class. There he got better grades all around. His high school history teacher was interesting.

1926 – the depression hit Daddy’s family. Sam was in the desert 12 miles east of Mesa, Arizona. He had contracted tuberculosis and came out for his health. He finally was cured. He got a homestead of 360 acres. The whole remaining family (Gladys remained in Huntington.) moved in with Sam and May. Arnett, who had also served in WWI, got a homestead of 160 acres … 4 miles nearer to Mesa. They built a cabin – 4 walls of 1 by 12’s. They hauled water in a barrel. Gene and Daddy slept in a two-man tent. Charles and his parents slept in the back half of the cabin. The children rode a bus to school. Daddy got a job driving the bus … he parked the bus at their cabin. It was his first job other than helping in his Dad’s store. During summer vacation, a dam was being built on Horse Mesa on the Salt River. Daddy and a friend worked as kitchen help and waiters and slept in a bunk house. He graduated from Mesa High School in 1928 … he had lost a year … failed English in Mesa. He was 19 years old. After his graduation from high school, they moved into a rent house in Mesa.

Fred's mother wanted to return to Huntington. She and Granddad separated. Daddy drove just his mother and him in a new Chevrolet … his dad had just traded for it and paid $200. They stayed with Gladys. They were behind in the car payments, so they hid the car in his grandfather’s barn in Marmet. There was a Libbey-Owens-Ford glass factory in Kanawa City, West Virginia, near Marmet, so he went to stay with his Campbell Grandparents and worked there. They made plate glass. He worked pushing a wheelbarrow at 70 cents an hour … load it with sand and broken glass, push it up a plank. A tank was 50 feet long, 30 inches wide … built of 12 inch thick bricks. A firebrick tunnel was below … 2800 degree F. molten glass. Daddy dumped the wheelbarrow into the chute to feed the oven. Later, he worked in a pick-up crew to police up the yard. Two men were watching him. They asked if he wanted to work in the brick yard at 75 cents an hour. For 75 cents an hour he’d try anything … he didn’t know what the brick yard was. He and others unloaded bricks which were 20 feet high … pick up 6, relay to next worker. Once there was a defective brick in the tank and it had to be emptied. 12 or 15 young men lined up. They put on wooden “shoes” and took turns wedging a brick out an putting in a new one. They also removed fire bricks from below the tank. He earned enough to pay off the car! Finally, the job played out and he got laid off. While living with his grandmother he remembers that a special treat was goose liver.

Still living with his grandparents, he got a job in a factory in Lazote which made pure ammonia … E I Dupont de Naimors (?) were the owners. He got on as a laborer at 75 cents an hour. He did odd jobs. Like: a slab of cement had to be broken up … using a steel rod with a chisel point 2 feet long, the workers took turns holding, then hitting it with a sledge hammer. Once he was collecting samples of the ammonia, stumbled, and ammonia flipped onto his arm; it made ice, and burned blisters on his arm. One job was to scrub the inside of railroad tank cars. Another time he had to watch a compressor … check the pressure and oil periodically; no one came to replace him; he worked 3 straight shifts; he sang and talked to himself and walked up and down to stay awake and alert; He received the biggest paycheck he had ever gotten.

He worked there until his mother decided to go back to Phoenix. This was about 1930, probably in the fall. It was a 4 day trip; They stayed at motels along the way. A daughter of a friend rode with them.

(Flash Back)

Daddy thought back to their first trip to Phoenix. They camped along the way. They were driving a Chandler automobile. Something went wrong with it and it lost power. The Missouri and Kansas roads were muddy; there was little pavement. They got to New Mexico and it was a dirt road across the desert and through arroyos. A memorable experience was seeing a wall of water come down a small “ditch.” Later on the trip they saw two cars washed away in arroyos.

1930 – back in Phoenix. They rented a house on the corner of 9th and Pierce (901 C. Pierce) for $25 per month. Daddy got a job with Lowrey Grocery. He stocked shelves and delivered groceries, did odd jobs, bought produce. Daddy was supporting the family. Charles was living with them. Gene had refused to go back east with Grandmother and Daddy. He had met Mona already. He was on his own from that time on. He went to pharmaceutical school, then Mona’s father (Enloe) financed a drugstore. Gene paid him back. As I understand it, Daddy paid for him to go to pharmacy school.) Gene recommended that Charles go to pharmaceutical school, and Daddy financed that, too.

When the family had been living on the desert, Ned Cross Service Station was where the family got their water. Ned’s son Don was a friend of Daddy’s. Don had a girlfriend in South Phoenix. He would hitch a ride in to Phoenix, then wanted to go see her … Bernice Gickless. Daddy would take him. One time, Daddy saw this tall, slender girl on the front porch with Bernice. Mother (Frieda Christine Glass) was there visiting her. Don wanted to go for a ride. Daddy asked Mother to come along. No, she’d have to get her mother’s permission. They took her home, she got permission, and they drove up to Tempe and back. After that, every chance he got, he’d go out there and go for a ride – go to a show – go to the Twin Barrel for root beer or a root beer float. Mother was still in high school.

Daddy was getting ready to leave Lowrey’s. He wanted Charles to take the job, but he went off and married Patsy. Daddy did quit. He got work one Saturday at A. J. Bayless. That day at Bayless, starting at 7:00 a.m., the produce stands were out in front of the store. Daddy waited on people. He was even or ahead of manager on sales. A. J. Bayless came in the back. The other clerks looked busy. Daddy didn’t get excited … he didn’t know Mr. Bayless. Late in the evening, Mr. Bayless told Daddy to go tie up soap. He worked until midnight. Finally, Mr. Bayless came in and gave him $2.00. Daddy never went back. The next Saturday, he went to Pay and Take It and got on working on Saturdays, then part-time. Then, when NRA went into effect, part-time became full-time. He earned $18.00 per week. He worked up to produce manager and up to $20 a week. He improved the produce department. People came from all over to trade with him. The fellow across the street, a competitor, offered Daddy $25 per week. Phyllo Carter, the meat cutter, talked with Daddy. He must have told the supervisor, because soon Daddy got $25 from Pay and Take It.

Before this – one lady hounded Daddy … wanted him to wait on her, etc. Daddy tried to hide from her. She knew one of the supervisors. One day he came in the store and criticized Daddy for being discourteous to a customer, and he fired Daddy. A few weeks later, they asked him to come back. Customers had been asking about him. So he went back to work at the same store. It was the only time he was ever fired.

Mother roomed at Tempe. She earned money doing other students’ hair.

(Break)

Daddy and I drove to Carizozo Orchard (in Carizozo, New Mexico) and saw their trees (1400) and geese and Guinea hens. Daddy remembers his father having an orchard when he was very young and making apple butter in a huge pot or vat outdoors over an open fire across the road from Grandma Dudding’s house. They had to stir it with a wooden ladle with a long … 4 to 6 feet long … handle because the apple butter would pop. The story about the pot – which he never knew was true or not – was that someone had cooked a Negro in that pot. The huge old cherry tree was blamed by one of his uncles as the reason his wife got pregnant … he didn’t know whether she ate the cherries or drank juice made from them.

(Back to Story)

After a while, Daddy was promoted to store manager at the store at 7th and Oak (He thinks.) … a small store. Soon all Pay and Take It stores became Safeway’s. He worked at organizing that little store … built up the produce department, kept it nice and fresh. Soon customers were coming over from other stores to buy from Daddy. This helped build up business in other departments. He was there 3 or 4 months.

Mother and Daddy got engaged not TOO long before they married. Mother completed about 3 years of college, at that time enough to get a teaching certificate. She taught for half a year at Roosevelt school, one block from her home. They were married in the original blue building of the Congregational Church by Reverend Wright on Christmas Day, 1935. Their first home was a rental a mile or so from Grandma’s ... Roser Rd. and 19th? They lived there several months. Had chickens and a plot of milo-maize. They had a lot of it stored in a shed for chicken feed. A neighbor traded pigs for some milo-maise, so they had pork. One night a rain storm came up and the house leaked everywhere … they had buckets everywhere. They soon found a house for sale … on 13th Street and _________ … near where Daddy worked. (Mary Jo Glass was born while Mother and Daddy were dating. Mother practically raised Mary Jo. Once Grandma went off and left Mary Jo without a bottle and was gone all day. Mother managed.)

They made a down-payment on a house … not too fancy … two bedrooms, a bath between, living room, kitchen … table in kitchen. There was a kerosene burning hot water heater in the bathroom. They lived there 2 years or so. They planted sweet peas with strings going up to the house. There were huge, abundant blossoms. Daddy cut bouquets and sold them for 25 cents. They got a bushel of peaches and canned them in a tub on a fire outside. Lloyd was born shortly after they moved into the house. In the heat of the summer they slept outside several nights. Had rigged up a canvas over their heads. One night a rainstorm came up … the canvas filled with water … the supports gave way … and they were drenched. Once they had to call the police about a man playing the radio too loud. Another incident – Daddy was making up salad fixings … shredded cabbage, etc. Daddy called it “vegetti (confetti) and sold it on consignment.

Lloyd was a big baby – 10 pounds, 9 ounces. At that time, women stayed in the hospital 10 – 14 days. Lloyd had a serious ear infection … they got a special medicine for it.

In 1939 they moved to Williams, AZ. Lloyd was 2 years old. They tried to rent their house … not much luck … so they finally sold it and got some money out of it. They rented in Williams … on a hill … 8 or 9 steps going up to it … straight up the street from the store … not a very big house. They moved to a house nearer to the store … on a corner … a bigger house … a white picket fence around the front yard. They paid about $25 per month rent. Daddy was the manager of the store there and got an increase in pay … maybe $30 per week plus a bonus every three months of several hundred dollars! One day, his supervisor, Mr. Welker, and the manager over the entire district, E. I. Jaggers, came in. Daddy told them of customers who had no cars and couldn’t get groceries to their houses. They suggested a Sears wagon with slats on the side. He got one, painted “Safeway” on it. People would pull it home full of groceries, and a kid would bring the wagon back. People came to the store from all over – Grand Canyon, Peach Springs (A man came in a pick-up and loaded it up.). A customer from Bowden came in regularly, picked up a package of cigarettes, put it in his basket … later he would put it in his pocket. Daddy had to put a stop to that … couldn’t accuse him because of a case in Phoenix … fellows stole sugar. Daddy asked him if he wanted some cigarettes … he said, no, he didn’t smoke! (He was getting them for his wife, as it turned out.) Daddy began following him each time he came into the store. He finally stopped coming in.

The Methodist preacher had a Chevrolet car. He loaned it to Daddy to take Mother to the hospital in Flagstaff. While Mother was in the hospital for my birth, Daddy got delivery on a new 1940 Chevy, and brought me home in it. A man had turned in an old car to Bud Raney, but couldn’t afford a new car … had a paper credit … gave it to a banker … banker sold it to Daddy at a big discount. Daddy also had a 1928 Chevy to turn in and got the same credit ($250) for his car. This made the down payment and he paid out the rest. Grandma Glass must have come up to take care of Lloyd while Mother was in the hospital.

In Williams, Daddy got up to $37.50 or $40 per week. Then in 1941 or ’42, he moved to a bigger Safeway store in Flagstaff. The manager had not taken care of it like upper management wanted, so he was fired and Daddy was transferred. He got that store up and going … self-service produce, etc. He had two cash registers going full-force … customers lined up to the back of the store. Daddy got a cash register out of the new store being built, and put it on breadboxes. The new, bigger store opened shortly. It was a big day in that store with long lines – rationing was in effect. When they got in an order of rationed goods, people lined up in front of the store before it opened.

Mother and Daddy rented the two story house on La Rue. It had a barn on the back of the lot. Daddy bought a buzz saw. We’d load up the old trailer with wood, then he would cut and stack wood for the fireplace. There was also an oil stove to heat the house. Grandpa and Granddad sometimes burned up a lot of wood keeping the house nice and warm! Both Jim and Richard were born while we lived there. One time, Grandma Glass couldn’t come so the wife of one of the employee’s stayed with us kids. While Mother was in the hospital, Daddy and a lady re-decorated the kitchen. The wood stove in the kitchen had water pipes in the fire box for hot water.

One Christmas -- 1945? – they made wooden furniture from fruit crates for Lloyd and me because so many things were rationed or in short supply due to the war.… a doll bunk bed and kitchen cabinet for me, a desk with a toy chest bench for Lloyd. They got a ration card for Richard for which helped supply us with shoes and sugar!

I learned to use the phone. I would call Daddy and ask him to bring home cottage cheese. Lloyd and I were riding on tricycles going on a walk with Mother. We got ahead of Mother. The neighborhood bully was on his tricycle, blocking our path. Lloyd bravely was getting off his tricycle to face this guy. Before he had time to do anything, I ran up and either shoved the fellow or punched or kicked him. He got out of the way.

Daddy got up to $75 during the war. His salary was frozen. People at Belmont army depot were making $100 to $125 coming in to trade with him. (They were making ammunition “dump” covers.) Daddy And Mother bought the Mormon Lake cabin in 1943 or ’44. The La Rue street house sold without notice, so they bought the house on Aspen Street in 1946 (?) for about $2000. There was a park across the street. The house had settled and there was a large hump in the living room floor. They removed the boards, cut the braces off, replaced it all, and covered it with a rug. (I remember that Daddy once told me that Grandma Glass explained how to fix the hump.) They put gas heaters in the bedrooms and in the fireplace. A propane tank was in the backyard. They got a fancy gas stove. They built a wall, but the lumber was green. They put up wallpaper. One night … BANG! The boards had dried and split the wall paper. They removed a brick fireplace … soot was all over the place. Richard was crawling around in it. The door to the bathroom was short; they raised it. They moved pipes from the kitchen ceiling to under the floor. They put a double sink in front of a window looking out on San Francisco peak. Mother always loved that view. They had a big party for the employees. The house wasn’t even finished. When Richard was born, the employees bought a perambulator and gave it to Daddy.

Virginia Lee Glass was married. Mother made wedding outfits for a set of dolls like the wedding party … all pastel colors. I was in the wedding. My dress was blue. (Memory of me as a little girl: I and the girl across the street would exchange coats and try to fool our mothers when we came home from school. Bubble gum wad had to last all week long. I left my wad at the girl’s house after spending the night.)

During the war Daddy worked very hard. He lost his meat cutter, Felix Harold, and hired a retired meat cutter. He couldn’t lift the meat. A truck driver would drop ¼ of a beef on his shoulder. He would carry it down steps, into the store, and hang it up. He had 13 women employees, sometimes a college young man. Daddy was the only full-time male. He had to unload cases of canned goods and do all of the produce work. One time a box car load of watermelons were sent to Flagstaff … ½ to Daddy’s store. He had to unload it with the help of 2 college kids and the truck driver. They relayed them to a truck, then took them out to the store and unloaded them again.

After a heavy snow, property owners were responsible to shovel snow off the sidewalks. Daddy had to do it for the store … a corner lot, alley to alley. Daddy’s picture, shoveling snow, appeared in the Safeway Employee’s Association magazine. Daddy has a 13 year membership pin.

Uncle Rob (Elmer Robinette, Grandma Glass’s younger brother) needed someone to take over the Polar Food Locker Plant; a grocery store was in front. Daddy was disgusted that he couldn’t get a raise. Uncle Rob hired a man to “help” Daddy learn the locker plant business; this (or the man himself) irritated daddy, so he got out of the locker plant and run only the grocery store. He was barely making a living. (Mother was working in the store. Uncle Charles Dudding talked to her about finishing her degree … she’d earn more as a teacher.) Mother decided to finish her degree and go back to teaching. Uncle Rob was making demands … cut down the electricity … raise the rent.

Daddy sold out at a discount. He began looking for work. John Conyer had two stores, one on Central, one on North 4th. Daddy managed the 4th Street store. Daddy worked the other store while John was on vacation. Then back at 4th Street, the meat cutter left. So, Daddy took over the meat department. It began making money. He heard that Ed’s Market needed a meat cutter. Daddy visited with Ed and Ed offered him a job … $90 per week plus a 10% discount on groceries. That was better, so he took that job. He cleaned up the market. Ed appreciated it, and put in some new display counters, plastic wrap, cold cut area. People came for meat, and bought groceries. Daddy was up to $125 / week.

Ed died of a heart attack or something … suddenly … at his office desk. His son-in-law took over, Blankenship. He was a know-it-all. He hired a young man who was supposed to help daddy, but didn’t. The cashier wasn’t giving Daddy credit for the meat sold … didn’t hit the meat key right. Daddy complained about the young man; Blankenship didn’t listen; Daddy quit.

George Anderson had a meat market and delicatessen on Wyoming. He called and offered Daddy a job. Daddy worked there a while. Sabino’s market wanted a meat cutter … a better job. Daddy went to work there. He had a nice market like at Ed’s and customers were coming up there from Ed’s. George Wood of Thrifty Market bought Sabino’s out. Daddy stayed. George was good to Daddy, gave him helpers. Daddy taught George about meat. When vacation time came, George peeled off several $100 bills and gave them to Daddy; he did this several years. In 1970 (Daddy was 62.) George retired and turned the market over to a wise guy who was using meat in a restaurant. George told the man, “For every dollar you give him, he’ll make you two.” The guy and George evidently had an argument, and George asked Daddy to come back. Daddy did, but worked it out that he didn’t have to do ALL of the work.

Mother and Daddy’s first trailer was a dinky, used one … cost $600. They worked it over and used it quite a bit. They traded up after a year or two to a better trailer, then traded up again and again. They took the trip to Alaska in the Terry, a good trailer, but don’t leave the vent open. Sandy, Richard’s friend, let them park the trailer on his property. They went salmon fishing … no luck. At midnight they went out on a lake. They saw the effects of the earthquake … like a giant plow; a huge crack in downtown Anchorage was filled in and made into a parking lot. They flew over the glaciers in Sandy’s airplane.

The next year they went back to Dawson Creek, then went east on Alcan highway all the way across Canada; saw huge wheat fields … other fields lying fallow. They went through the capital; visited Quebec … at a service station, the man only spoke French. They saw a lot of renovation of old buildings, an old fort. In one place, sort of a gorge, the tide rises 22 feet. Daddy has the idea to harness the tides.

At Fredricsburg, they shopped at a curio store – the flags appeared to be going the wrong way on a sail boat. In Montreal, a shopping mall on the side of a hill has 10 to 12 levels, different levels as the side of the hill rises; trains go under the mall. They went all the way to Nova Scotia. They were in New Brunswick and got in line … rode the ferry to Nova Scotia. They met Mr. Violet, a Frenchman; he told the story of the Acadians. They drove around looking for a camp ground; it was full, so they went to a grocery store parking lot. In the morning, they took the round island tour. (They defrosted the freezer and the storekeeper kept their frozen food for them.) They found 2 lobster traps on shore. They went to the end of the road … a small village … parked the trailer and drove the truck to the dock to get on a converted ship to go to Labrador. The ship was high in the water; there were 2 planks to drive on; it was a 45 degree angle; quite exciting. In Labrador, there were only gravel roads and scattered houses. The post office was in the basement of a lady’s house; she took them to the fishing dock; mackerel were stacked up with salt. All of the houses were painted white. They had lunch with a family … a sign in front said “Lunch served” … they had a treat: hot dogs as the meat. On the way back, in Nova Scotia, a house had blueberry pies for sale. They drove around in one fairly nice town. Near New Brunswick, they had to go through a complete free car and trailer wash … there was a potato blight in Nova Scotia, and they didn’t want any mud from Nova Scotia!

They went to Prince Edward Island – sometime on this trip. Had to get on a boat to go there, too – trailer and all – perhaps from New Brunswick. They went to a campground. Drove all around the next day. Bought a hooked rug from a lady in her home for Charlotte. Went on a fishing excursion – 15 or so on the boat. They would throw the line in, pull in a fish – mostly mackerel. They kept 6 for the freezer. They crossed from New Brunswick into Maine. The man ahead of them at customs caught all sorts of trouble because of 1/14 bottle of wine. Mother and Daddy had the same thing, but it was wrapped. The agent didn’t see it. They came through Main, Vermont, and New Hampshire. They visited Mt. Washington – gravel road – not much traffic. At the top, in the clouds, was a barn type building. It had chains like used in ships for anchors over the building, anchored in concrete. The winds reach 200 miles per hour there. Down in New York, the took a back road through upper New York … little towns every 20 to 30 miles. They couldn’t find a campground. They got on the freeway. They got so tired they parked in a parking lot for a restaurant.

They took a road into West Virginia … Huntington … brick paved streets, maple trees on each side of the street forming a tunnel. They looked at Daddy’s old home, saw Granddad’s store, the Junior High School, Aunt Effie and Uncle Charles’ house. Two daughters lived there, Daddy’s cousins, and they visited. They drove through Missouri. In Chicago there were cobble stone streets. The freeway had moveable curbs – for rush hours. In St. Louis, the arch was still under construction. It was built in a slum section … but the arch completely cleared it out and made a park. One side was open. They rode in a two person compartment; the seats adjust as you go up; at the top, you can get out and look out. They drove across Kansas, then back home.