Digger and Sand

This posting is one of many I intend to write about my Dad who carried the nickname “Digger” during the last 35 years of his life. He worked at Brigham Young University in charge of many things in the Physical Plant Department of the University. This included roads, grounds, new construction on campus, etc. It was there that he earned his nickname.

In 1954 The University put on a production entitled “Sand in Their Shoes.” It was a play about the Mormon Battalion and was intended as an outside production. The presentation was to take place in the football stadium of the day. At that time the stadium was located just north of the present location of the Smith Field house. The stadium seating was literally built on the side of a hill with bleacher style seating only. (No chair seats) The stadium was able to hold a few thousand people. Little notice was given to the care of the wooden bleacher seats and they showed it from the many years of being put upon by the elements of nature.

As they were preparing the stadium and football field to stage the production, Digger being the one who had the manpower and the means to accomplish this, met at the stadium one day with the school President, Earnest L Wilkinson, Church President, David O. McKay and a couple of other brethren, probably apostles and Diggers boss. The discussion was about the condition of the wooden bleacher seats and whether or not they should be sanded and maybe painted. Whereupon, Digger in his own inimitable style of stating things said: “If something isn’t done, when the people come to see ‘Sand in Their Shoes’ they’ll get slivers in their Butts.” Whether of not the seats were sanded and painted, I don’t know, but the production went on and was, as I recall, a big success – slivers and all.