Brigham D. Madsen, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Winston Erickson, January 21, 2003: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 546 & 547

Page 5

Brigham D. Mad en 21 January 2 0 ability although I never played any instrument so I was very succe sful. I w n a pnz and my parents said they were proud of me. So she was a good teacher. In my junior high, I remember one teacher out of my three years of junior high and she was the algebra teacher, Miss Moore. She wore pinch-nosed glasses and she was very, very strict. She gave a quiz every week and she would pass the quizzes back on Friday and according to the grade you made on that weekly quiz, you then changed seats. The row next to the wall was for the low people and the one next to the windows were for those who had made a great achievement. But she was very kind. The ones who had gotten low grades she tried to encourage them and so on. So I remember her. The only one, the only teacher I remember in high school was Miss Shafer. When you can only remember, count on the fingers of one hand the teachers you had, I mean, a lot of the teachers were just not worth remembering as far as the student is concerned. Miss Shafer taught speech and I was a very timid young man and I just decided if I ever were going to amount to anything I had to learn to speak in public. So I signed up for her course with fear and trembling. My first assignment was to recite the poem, "Bells" by Edgar Allen Poe. And the night before I was to perform, I'm telling you I didn't sleep one minute. The next day I got through it and at college I took other classes in speaking. So now, ifl have about a thousand students to speak to, that's better. I learned to overcome my fear and how to speak in public. So when I became a missionary, I was prepared to speak in public and Miss Shafer was very good. WE: Did you participate in any extracurricular activities? You say you were timid. Did you participate in athletics? Or, you say you didn't play any instruments. Did you sing? 4