Growing up on a farm was much different in the 1950s and 1960s than it is today.  With six siblings younger than I, there wasn't much time for either music or movies.  The local movie theater was in Garland, about five miles away.  I'm sure I attended some movies, but nothing specific comes to mind.

We grew up on a 200 acre farm and, being the oldest child, I always had "chores" to do--milking the cows night and morning (sometimes as many as 30-50 head), pigs, chickens and goats to feed, and lots of hay to haul.  While today tractors are equipped with air conditioning, radios, Compact Disk Players, etc. none of those conveniences were available when I was a teen.

Music played a part in my working life, however.  When I milked the cows, the radio in the barn was often tuned to KSL Radio, 1160 AM.  Although most of the cows were milked by machine, there were always some that had to be milked by hand.  Usually they were named after my dad's sisters--Go Figure!  I remember that milking by hand was easier when I kept time with the music.  This music would not just be a loud hard-rock type of beat.  It would be more of a mellow strain with a great rhythm.

We had lots of cats on the farm, and when it was milking time they would line up behind the stanchions where the cows were being milked.  It was fun to squirt milk into the mouths of the cats as they lined up with music from KSL Radio as the background.

Although I don't recall any specific songs or music, I know that it also made work seem to go by faster when it was time to muck out the barn by shoveling (with a pitchfork) manure out into the corral through either the doors or windows of the barn.  Since I didn't have much of a social life as a teenager, I'm sure that music in my life was quite different than what was experienced with those of my age growing up in East Garland, Utah. 

Reed Woods, Judy Pierson, Nan Oyler, and Susan Shaffer were the same age as I, but I think all of them were much more social.  My time was spent working on the farm, moving sprinkler pipe as many as three times in a 24 hour period, feeding livestock, hauling hay, plowing and planting, with an occasional chance to go fishing while I was waiting for the irrigation water to get to the end of the rows of corn in the "river bottoms" of Bear River near Hampton Ford where part of our farm was located.

One of the favorite pastimes that dealt with music was to watch TV and Dick Clark on "American Bandstand".  The music I remember was "The Twist" by Fats Domino and the dancing type was "the swing".  I experienced this music 'live' at the Utah State Future Farmers of America Convention in Salt Lake City at a dance club.  This was part of the convention I attended while representing Utah and Bear River FFA Chapter in the state public speaking contest about 1962.  That's another story for another time.

Yes, I listened to music and it did make the work seem to go easier--not so much for enjoyment, but for a means of reducing boredom.