Raphael's family settled into daily life as good citizens of the town and active members of the church. The newspaper was thoroughly read every day, there being an urgency to know the progress of the war. We liked to go to the movie theater too, because there is where we watched a "Newsreel" of the war in action, before the feature started. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Raphael's two oldest sons enlisted and we felt the Newsreel's helped keep us somewhat updated on the war. Because of wartime security, sometimes servicemen's letters were censored, which created uncertainty for Raphael and Pearl when they couldn't learn of their sons whereabouts or safety. Then added to that, they lost their new baby son, Gary, born on May 9, 1944. He lived only one hour and forty five minutes after birth.
For a year and a half after Raphael first arrived at Hanford, the war raged on. Then on May 8, 1945, the announcement came that the war in Europe with Germany was over. The following August the war with Japan also ended with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, the first on Hiroshima, the second on Nagasaki. Plutonium for the second atomic bomb was produced at Hanford. The Japanese finally surrendered September 1, 1945 on board the Battleship, Missouri. It was a blessed day to have the long war come to an end. By the Lord's blessings, Don and Bud came home safe and sound.
In the spring of 1945, Raphael was called as the Yakima District Mission President. He served in that position until
1949.
He taught the importance of the Book of Mormon, showing that it is another testament of Jesus Christ which tells of the Savior's ministry in America. It is essentially a journal about ancient American history covering the period from 600 BC to 421 AD. Raphael read many supplementary books relating to the scriptures and doctrines of the Church. "The House of Israel" by E.L. Whitehead was an often referred to book, judging by the number of his markings in it.
After his release as District Mission President in 1949, he writes to his sister Nancy saying, "I have been put back in the District again in the Genealogical work, so I have three organizations to keep going. I have our family [organization], and as you know I am the Chairman of the Branch, and now assistant Chairman in the District and it looks like it will not be long until I will need to take the Chairman job here." He took genealogy classes himself and carried out assignments relating to them. He taught himself through sheer perseverance how to use his typewriter and became able to adequately correspond by that means.
He accepted church welfare farm assignments and was a Home Teacher (they may still have been called Ward Teachers at that time). Singing was one of Raphael's great enjoyments and past-times, he was a member of the ward choir for years. When we moved to Richland, he had more time to give of himself to his family and was a supportive and interested father. He camped with the family quite often, which included extended family. One time he caught 24 trout, proving his prowess as an excellent fisherman.
Dad attended many of his teenager's functions, ie, sports and musical concerts, etc. He had a good rapport with his married children, sons in-law and daughters in-law, all good friends. He held his grandchildren on his lap enjoying their little antics.
He'd even put them on his lap in a park swing and give them a ride.
When the Columbia River flooded in 1948, he was one who dropped everything and joined the hundreds of other men in building a dike, forcing the river back into its boundaries. His sons and Grandpa Clement rolled up their sleeves and joined in the urgent project as well.
A family man of a pretty large crew, Raphael really enjoyed the parties, parades, dances and plays, etc, just loved having a good old-fashioned time. There could be honey candy which he enjoyed from his home raised honey. Oh, and the movies! They were a great enjoyment to him, even earlier, during the silent movies era. Dad's favorite actress was Claudette Colbert - he thought she was really something, the best and so beautiful. He said many times that he thought Pearl looked kind of like her. There was delicious popcorn, popped in a different way than how it used to be done in the old-fashioned mode. One old way was to pop corn in a screen-pan with a sliding lid, and a long handle to shuffle the pan back and forth on the stove until the corn was all popped. This was a good way, as no oil needed to be used. The dry corn kernels just air-popped, the same as today with the electric "Air-poppers." Dad loved the western cowboy movies and songs as well as classicals. He started up his wood-shop in the basement of the house where he built many nice things for family use, and things for kids.
We had a very nice city park overlooking the Columbia River, and after the enjoyable 4th of July parade was over, consisting of the first rate Columbia High School marching band and floats, etc., the family would join there for the traditional picnic with all the city. There would be the usual entertainments, fire-crackers, goodies and games, program, etc. Pearl said, "At first, there were people on the parade committee who were prejudiced against the Mormons and were powerful enough to persuade not to allow a Mormon float in the parade." Soon after, Pearl was put in the Young Women's Presidency, who was a powerful persuader herself, along with her counter-parts in the presidency. Their influence was evidently felt, because the very next year their was a beautiful, large, Mormon float in the 4th of July parade. She said, "The Mormons finally won them over, and were allowed to enter a float in the parade." It was received well by the townspeople at the parade. Those were happy, grand times we had with our dad and in all these family events. Having a good time with him was so great! The early hard times faded away.
He decided to take piano lessons at age 50 from a good teacher named Helen Madsen, the organist of one of the Richland wards.
Dad and Mother made many friends. Raphael was not shy. He was doing many outgoing activities with Pearl which included lots of mingling with people. The folks attended ward plays from way back in their young married years. Pearl got Dad to participate doing a part in one of the early ones in Fairview. They enjoyed the Minstrel Shows put on in the Richland stake house, that was popular in the country at that time. This was evident in a carry-over from earlier days, when Pearl stole the show at a family gathering. She dressed up as a "Gypsy" and did her former comedy act, then she recited a humorous poem. She was 74 years old then, and was still a riot. She was a character at times and loved to bring fun to a crowd so they'd have a good time. It is surmised that she hatched up the Gypsy act way back when she was the young women's leader in her Fairview and Taylorsville wards, putting on plays, etc., and that Dad saw her do this Gypsy act back then. She kept Dad laughing, he never knew what was coming next. What a bright light she was in her husband's life. After he passed away she was very sad over her loss, but amazingly she kept herself and family laughing - in stitches most of the time. By this means she taught her family to laugh in the face of hard times. She got through her hard times with a contagious sense of humor. What a great lady.
But best of all Dad and Mother worked as a team, and saw to it that their kids, all through their growing up years, were taught to be team workers. In a family setting, they were set on a job and it had to be done by certain standards. Dad taught his children reality in a variety of ways - he did not want them to grow up to be "green."
Their place at 706 Taylor St. deserves a little descriptive attention. Dad's lot was on the small side as all Richland lots were, but it was always kept beautiful and weeded, as befits an excellent farmer like himself. And also like a good farmer, he continued to have the kids help. Grandpa was always a great help too, by working with the kids. On their Utah land, they grew just about everything in the way of food. But in Richland, they didn't have to do massive farming any more.
In describing their yard somewhat, their choice of flowers were nasturtiums, four-o-clocks, moss roses, pansies, sweet elysium, snapdragon, petunias, flowering shrubbery such as a pink and a blue althea. Each year they would plant different foundation flowers around the house, and also in the fun, white wooden "Water Well" that Dad built and placed in our back yard. Of course they grew evergreen shrubs, trees and a neat little vegetable garden, supplying all those good things which tasted much better because they were fresher than from the grocery store.
Dad proudly spoke of the beautiful, desert-friendly tamarisk tree (he called it a tamarack) that he placed on the southwest corner of the Richland house. It was allowed to grow as a loose shrub instead of training it to a small tree. In the springtime the whole lacy-like tree-shrub would be a mass of tiny lavender blossoms, so that it looked like a solid pinkish-purple shrub for a few weeks. After the blossoms dropped off, then it was covered with tiny, needle-like, light green leaves.
The sumac was put on the backyard lot line along our fence. Its leaves turn to a rich red in the fall. Richland was a warm mild climate so one year Mother wanted to try out a castor bean plant and planted it right by the front porch of the house. It grew huge leaves and was truly beautiful and different, like a tropical plant. However, the large round bean (about the size of a chestnut) is very poisonous, but we were ignorant of that at the time and the boys and their friends would have occasional bean fights.
Dad put in poplar and weeping willows trees. Often the loose sandy soil of southeastern Washington could not hold the root system of trees when the high Chinook winds blew, and the trees could blow down. It came to be expected after awhile because they did blow down a couple of times. It was sad to see a beautiful, full grown tree blow over. When that happened we went without shade on that side of the house until another tree grew up in its place. But luckily they never fell onto the house, they could have caused a great amount of damage. That climate consistently reached and held over 100 degrees every summer. The big weeping willow in front of the house blew over one day, and we named it "The Big Tree Crash", and took a photo of it. The root system sticking up in the air was taller than Dad. He often quipped, "The weeping willow and poplar trees were "pop-lar" with the people." They were chosen for that part of the country because they were fast growers."
What was selected to grow up the back side of the house by the kitchen window was the beautiful annual variety of morning glory with large, blue blossoms, (not to be confused with the perennial ground weed, morning glory). On the north and west sides of the house were beautiful, large-leafed hop vines, held up by heavy strings. They and the trees served to help keep the house cooler. One summer the temperature reached 118 degrees. It was the time Grandpa Olsen came to visit us from Salt Lake City in 196l. But the average summer temperature usually hovered around 105 degrees all summer, with the nights also being very hot. People had swamp coolers at first, then as time passed, the more sophisticated refrigeration coolers came on the scene, which Dad never used. He stuck to the swamp cooler. He mounted it in the upstairs window over the stairway, and it did a very good job. Because it was a hot climate, he'd close the blinds during the hottest part of the day to help keep the temperature down.
When the Richland Stake was formed June 25, 1950, Raphael Clement was called and ordained as Stake Patriarch that same day. The Jadwin Avenue church building is where he would give Patriarchal Blessings to the members of the Richland Stake.
Raphael wanted to get the work of the Lord done right. He understood that doubt and faith cannot exist in the mind at the same time. He was a dependable man and a diligent missionary, teaching with power and testimony, stating his testimony often. It is a happy memory today, knowing that President Clement enjoyed doing his part in building up the L.D.S. Branches into Wards all over the Yakima District under his leadership in the mission. The size of it was an 80-mile radius and Raphael's travels as District Mission President in the years 1945-49 covered all of that area. The boundary included Ellensburg, Wenatchee and Moses Lake to Walla Walla; across the border south to include Hermiston, Oregon. Klickitat, WA, the tri-cities of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco, and back up the Yakima valley to include Sunnyside, Toppenish, Yakima. Raphael thoroughly enjoyed the travel involved and often took Pearl with him. Those were such happy years for them.
Just five years passed when war came knocking at Raphael's door again. This time South Korea was under attack by communist North Korea, and President Truman sent United States forces over to defend South Korea. Raphael's next two sons, DeVon and then Carroll enlisted for that battle. They were in the navy, and Dad was concerned for the lives of two more of his sons. Later (in 1966) Raphael's fifth son, Charles, left to do his tour of duty in the United States Army. The Vietnam conflict was going on and he was stationed in Germany. All three of these sons returned home safe and sound in answer to many prayers petitioned to the Lord by the faith of their father and mother and family. Raphael had proudly sent five sons to serve their country, which they did most honorably. Their thoughts must have traveled back to their good father many times during their service.
In November 1952, Raphael and Pearl's family gathered at their home on Taylor Street for Thanksgiving dinner - about 25 in all. It was a jolly time and full of surprises. The first surprise came after dinner when Mother initiated a drawing out of a hat, as to who would wash the dinner dishes. One after the other the name of an in-law was pulled out of Grandpa's hat. Amid all the hoopla, the "in-laws" claimed that the drawing had been rigged! Those who were left were tagged as "out-laws" by the "in-laws". The "unlucky in-laws" were Dareen, Norm, Glen, Joy and Bart. Needless to say, Mother could never live that incident down, even though she was innocent. The "out-laws" revelled in their "good luck" while the "losers" washed the dishes. What fun we had as a family!
The next surprise of the day will require a little re-cap from Fairview days when Pearl lost her engagement ring, a solitaire, when it unknowingly fell out of its setting when she was washing dished in a dishpan. She said it was probably thrown out with the dishwater in the dirt yard. She surmised that one of the chickens pecking around in the yard must have swallowed it. She had just the plain wedding band to wear from then on. After that, every chicken she cleaned for dinner got a thorough "gizzard check" in search of the diamond. We had chicken for supper really often there for a while, but, unfortunately, she never found the diamond.
So on this Thanksgiving day in 1952, Dad had a special surprise up his sleeve for Mother. Not even the family knew about it. When the big moment came, he produced a beautiful new diamond ring set for his sweetheart. It was such a great surprise to her that she was overcome with mixed feelings of tears and joy. When Dad placed the set on her finger, somebody in the room snapped a photograph of this precious moment, which still exists. She knew that Dad was very happy and proud to be able to do this for her and graciously accepted this loving gesture. He loved her very much, and she loved him. It was like a renewal of their wedding day, and certainly was a very special Thanksgiving day.
From June 1950, the time Raphael was first ordained a Stake Patriarch, he was to enjoy only three more vibrant, physically-well years. But it cannot be described how full of joy and happiness they were. The folks made our home a spiritual place of peace and joy according to the Lord's guidelines. It was always filled with our friends and neighbors coming and going, and their own friends. Quite often the full-time missionaries were invited for dinner, which, Dad said, was a good influence on his family. Or the Yakima Indians from White Swan (near Toppenish) that Dad was teaching the gospel to, were invited to Stake Conference and dinner afterwards. It was neat to have Chief Jobe Charlie with his wife and family return a visit to our house in Richland and to cook a meal for them. It was a very special experience. Dad would tell us what they liked to eat so we could cook the right food for them. The Chief and his wife were very friendly and trusted Dad.
Dad understood the American Indian race since he'd grown up in Fairview on Indian stories from his father. Raphael's father used to play with the Indian boys and ride ponies with them in Fairview. Consequently Raphael knew how not to offend them, by joining in their culture, beginning with the Chief of the tribe, and they trusted him. Trust is the all important thing in the Lamanite culture.
In connection with Raphael's missionary work, it was about September 1953 that Raphael took Pearl and Susan (age 6 1/2), to visit Yakima tribal Chief "Jobe Charlie" in Toppenish, Washington during one of the pow wow's and parades. Raphael was serving an LDS Stake Mission to the Yakima Indians at White Swan Indian Reservation near Toppenish at this time. A photo was taken of these three with the distinguished and venerable Chief dressed in his Chief's regalia. He is standing between Pearl and Raphael in his tepee. The chief is short in stature, as he appears to come to Dad's shoulders. Pearl has her arm through Jobe Charlie's and her other hand on Susan's arm. He took others of the family with him at different times. Charlie Ray had the Chief's same name, and that may have helped stir a friendship with him. It is noted in this picture that Dad doesn't look well in his eyes, and, sadly, it turned out that during this mission, his cancer illness started.
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