"Time for Identity" (1923-1932)

"And then that inevitable year of transition arrived...about 1923 or 1924.  It was the year Clarence went from knee pants to long pants.  Puberty had arrived.  This transition manifested itself in numerous ways:  The Ward choir suddenly catapulted Clarence from the tenor section to the "basso profundo" section; the school chorus did likewise.  At home, he was introduced to the proper slant of the razor.  And instead of being addressed as Master Crandall, it became just plain Clarence...or as the two Indian girls in his class at school preferred, he was called "Klance". 

And speaking of girls, they suddenly began to look interesting to him...platonically, of course.  He grew up in the day when his contemporaries uttered the word "sex" only in very hushed tones.  But in biological terms, one could say that Clarence was now a man...under restrictions, of course.  Clarence had already learned how to drive the family car, so that was no big deal.  In essence he was a young man who had graduated from marbles to pimples and dark glasses. 

The big change in routine manifested itself in his sudden disdain for helping his Mom with the dishes to a predilection as a swamper and soda jerk in his father's Drug Store.  He had arrived in public.  And he was important enough to be allowed to open up the Drug Store early every morning so that it could be swamped, swept and wiped to receive the first customers of the day.  The fact that he imbibed a few milk shakes and ice cream sodas along the way was purely incidental.  That went with the job.

1926-1929:  High School  Years

"...1927 was a banner year for Clarence; he was a Sophomore in High School, but he played on the football team and the basketball team (2nd squad); he was drafted into the glee club, the drama club, and the band. He learned to play the trumpet. The basketball team won the State championship and, as such, they were invited to attend the national playoffs in Chicago..."

Back Row:  Delvor Felshaw, Alton Montierth, Iven Cheney, Unknown

3rd Row:  Hart Rogers, Unknown, Reed Fosler, Frank Caleno, Andrew Burrell, Harold Williams, Delwin Clawson, Robert Goldery, Willard Skinner, Earl Crandall, Virginia Layton, Maggie Layton

2nd Row:  Waldo Williams, Franklin John, Raul Gabaldone, Unknown, Kathleen Kelley, Clarence Crandall, Archer Stratton, Elmer Pace, PaulGoodman, Charles Harmon, Grant Layton, Roberta Nash

1st Row:  Helen Clawson, Ardeth Hansen, ? Barney, Norene Nash, Lawrence Campbell, Rudolpho Gabaldon, Beth Stratton, Unknown, Burdette Crandall, Alberta Gillespie, Ruth Pace, Terrance Conway, Velma Harmon, Professor Harmon

"It was the spring of 1927 when one of the high spots of my youth occurred.  This was in April.  The Safford High School Basketball team had just won the state championship.  They beat the Gilbert High School (Arizona) for the title.  Only one basket separated the two teams at game's end.  The national championship games were to be held in Chicago; the Safford team, of course, received an invitation to participate. 

Now I, Clarence, was only a sophomore in High School, but I had been scrimmaging with the main string of players.  I was not an absolute pilgrim to the game, as it were.  A circumstance intervened that prevented one of the mainstringers from going.  This left a gap to be filled, and I was the lucky one to be chosen to fill the gap.  My father had made a substantial contribution toward the expenses of the venture, and this could have been a factor in my favor. 

But during the week of our departure Crandall's Pharmacy sustained considerable damage from a fire that engulfed two buildings on Main Street.  This circumstance was about to cancel out my chances of attending the playoffs in Chicago.  My help around the renovation of the store was needed; but Dad discerned that the Chicago trip was of more importance to his son than his help would have been.  (This added perspective to my life.)  We won our first game over a Vermont team, but lost on our next playoff.  I got to play as a substitute in the second game when one of our players became injured..."

1929 Football Team - They won all their games.

Front Row:  Robert Stratton, Frank Estavillo, Archer Stratton, Clarence Crandall, Leland Branch.

Middle Row:  Alton Montierth, George Bingham, Robert Golding, Frank Bennett, Robert Griffin.

Back Row:  Coach Nichols, Bill Mulleneaux, Arlo Davidson, Fletcher Wilson, Walter Collins, Carl Brown.

1930-1932:  The College Experience

"After spending one year in attendance at Gila Junior College, Clarence agitated for a more sophisticated school in which to expand his learning. This brought about a re-arrangement of duties at the Drug Store. (Other siblings were awaiting their turn to jerk soda and eat up the profits.) Thereupon, Stan, Clarence's Dad, provided Clarence with some immediate funds and sent him off to California again to fend for himself as it were. Stan knew what the chain of events would turn out to be.


By virtue of a certain contact with a pharmaceutical jobber in Los Angeles, Clarence was able to obtain a job in a Drug Store on the outskirts of the city. Stan had arranged for this surreptitiously. Clarence had wanted to amass enough money to register at the University of Southern California. But by the end of the summer (three months later), Clarence's fortune amounted to a paltry sum, something far short of what it would take to matriculate at USC. Stan seemed to know just when to make his telephone call to Clarence and recommend that he continue his education at the University of Arizona, where he could afford it.

And such was the sequence of events. Both he and his brother Earle, sat through their second year of college at the U of A. To help things along economically, Clarence landed a job at the Soda Fountain in the House of Commons on campus. This afforded him funds for books and meals and isolated fees. Clarence still remembers that smelly class in cat-anatomy that he and Earle took in preparation for a medical career that never happened. Each member of the class had to provide himself with a cat...alive. Needless to say, while that anatomy class prevailed in the curriculum cats in Tucson were as scarce as hens' teeth. At the end of that school year, Clarence received his mission call to Germany.