MEMOIRS PART 13 - MATT HALL

In my senior year at Grantsville High School, Milton Matthews (who was a junior) and I decided to play some tricks and practical jokes on the other students, the faculty, and the townspeople. Milton and I had a common ancestor (James Wrathall); since Milton’s mother was my grandfather ’s half-sister, Milton was my father’s half-first cousin. We also shared a great-grandfather, Edward Hunter, so we were also second cousins.

Milton and I decided to use the pseudonym MATT HALL, since HALL MATT didn't seem like a realistic name, and and we did our best to keep our identities secret. We posted notices in various places, including the the school bulletin board, and we wrote letters to the school paper and even the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, although I don’t think the latter published any. All these writings were based on the theme that MATT HALL was a new investigative entity in the community, bent on publishing and correcting all of the rights and wrongs therein. Our true identity could not be revealed, and once we even put a notice on the screen of the Saturday Night Movie at the Grantsville Cinema which said simply: “WHO IS MATT HALL?”

As far as I can remember, Milton and I didn't do any actual investigating. We did create a lot of interest in what we might or might not do. We also made people wonder who we were. It wasn't long before they noticed the similarity between our names and our pseudonym, so we spent a great deal of time denying any involvement in these pranks.

After a few months it was no longer a secret. Milton and I began writing a column for the Grantsville High School newsletter using our real names. I still have a copy of the 1937 High School Year Book with an example of our writings in it.