More Memories of Wyoming

Dale, Aleta, Mama in far left photo, Grandpa Cecil on tractor in middle photo, Aleta visible in 3rd photo.

We are so enjoying our daily time with Grandma - listening to her stories of growing up in Wyoming.  Even though these are stories that I have known for so long - they amaze me anew each time I hear them.  My mother has led a remarkable life.... literally going from a tiny homestead in rugged Wyoming with no indoor plumbing, no electricity and often not enough food - to being First Lady not once, but now twice.  The changes she has seen in her lifetime are many - and I believe that the qualities that people see in her... her faith, her strong work ethic, her strength and loyalty to her family, and her adventurous spirit.... all stem from her unique childhood and upbringing.  She literally lived “Little House on the Prairie”.... except that the land they lived in could be even more rugged and harsh.

Mom’s memories are of a happy childhood..... full of adventure and play with her sister and brother.  But so many of the stories make me think of my Grandmother.  How must it have been to be the Mom, the wife....  Having 3 little ones, leaving behind everything she knew in Missouri to go with her husband to the barren land of Wyoming and literally build a life and a home out of nothing.  But build a life and a home they did - drawing strength from their faith and persevering against many odds.

Here is a sampling of my some of my grandmother’s Memories of Wyoming.... (be sure to read the bear story!) :)

That first year was hard.  It was a new reclamation project and as far as the eye could see there were little one and two room houses dotted over the desert among the prairie dog hills, cactus and sage brush.  One could travel miles in any direction without seeing a fence or a tree.  Here and there families moved in metal grain storage silos to live in until a house could be built.  Although we were in a valley entirely surround by high peaks of the Rocky Mountains, our altitude was 4500+ feet above sea level.  It was very hard to breathe until we grew accustomed to the altitude.

That summer when we began irrigating lawn, garden and crops, I was often out helping.  I kept worrying about rattlesnakes.  I asked how I would know one.  I was told, “When you see one you will know.”  That really was not very much comfort.  The irrigation ditches were wide and that first year the banks were soft.  Usually when I wanted to cross one Cecil would put his shovel on the far bank and I would jump across landing with my feet on his shovel.  That way I would not land on the bank and start a leak through it.  One day we were out together and I heard a rattler.  No one had to tell me.  I cleared the bank with room to spare and no help with a shovel!  Cecil often laughed about that flying leap.

That first summer was very hard for us to survive.  We had spent almost all our money on the truck, the house, tractor, tools and cow.  Mighty little left for food and no income expected for a year.  Mr. Bunn had been there long enough to get his land producing and he had raised a few acres of potatoes.  They had to be culled often before they were sold and people made a practice of eating their culls.  He shared some with us.  Another neighbor had a threshing machine.  When something went wrong it would split the Great Northern beans as they passed through the machinery.  Of course, split beans would not sell.  He shared them with the newcomers.  About the only meat we could afford to buy was bacon.  Cecil went hunting each fall for deer and elk but we still had that first summer to get through.  Our nearest neighbor summed it up well.  I asked her one time what she found to cook.   She said, “We have the cow so I thicken milk and put salt in it and call it gravy.  Or I thicken milk and put sugar in it and call it pudding.”

After we had been out there a couple of years we built a room on our house making a grand total of 3 rooms.  Until then our three kids had all slept in one bed, 2 at the top and one cross-wise at the foot.  Aleta was getting too long for it to be comfortable.  They kept pulling cover off each other.  In the new room we put the bed for the girls and bought a single bed for Dale.  He was so proud of his first bed all to himself.  The only other furnishing was a clothes closet (the only one in the house) and some homemade shelves for books.  All this time our books had been in the boxes they were moved in and stored in the shed in the back yard.  Mice were working on them pretty hard.  We now had more room to move around in the front room.  It held the heating stove, the dresser, a sewing machine and now, only 1 bed.

(Note: Grandpa Cecil was a preacher)
Another time Aleta’s prayers were answered in a singular fashion.  She wanted a pony.  She loved horses and wanted one for her very own.  She prayed for one every night.  We could see no way to get one for her.  One day at church Mr. English approached Cecil with a problem.  A hail storm had ruined his wheat crop and he could see no way to meet his $40 pledge to the church.  His children had outgrown their Shetland pony and would we accept it in place of his pledge.  We said yes.  We needed that $40 pretty badly, but she needed a pony.  Shetlands have a reputation for being ornery and stubborn and Ginger surely lived up to it, but Aleta loved him anyway.  Many times when they were all three trying to ride at once he would stop suddenly and put his head down.  Over they would all go in a pile even if there happened to be cactus in the way.

There were no country schools in Wyoming.  Children were bussed many miles to attend town schools.  In earlier pioneer days there had been schools on the remote ranches but not any more.  We were 10 miles from Powell by the straightest route, but when our children started school the bus route was about 18 miles.  With slow vehicles, poor roads and intense cold weather it seemed a lot longer than it would today.  Our children had to be on the bus before 7 in the morning and were home around 5 or after.  We had a thermometer and we made it a rule that they would never go when the temperature was 25 degrees below 0 or lower.  They missed some days because of that rule but the bus always went.  When it had problems we were glad ours were not on it.

We had planned a fishing trip to the Big Horn Mountains.  On the way the children begged to go to Yellowstone again, so we did.  Cecil had borrowed a tent.....that was our big mistake.  The bears in the wild are afraid and will not go near a tent until it has been there several days and they have grown accustomed to it.  But, the bears in Yellowstone see people every day and are afraid of nothing.  They go looking for food among the garbage cans every night.  Cecil did not want to leave our food in the car because they will claw open the trunk or break glass to get to it.  Many cars were ruined that way.  The smell of bacon or chocolate candy seems to drive them crazy to get to it.  We took our box of food into the tent with us.  Knowledgeable campers take a bucket and rope and swing their food from the limb of a tree, but we had not prepared to do that.  We had spread canvas and quilts across the back of the tent farthest from the entrance to make a pallet we could all lie on side by side with our heads next to the back wall of the tent.  In the night I heard a bear right at my head with only thin canvas between us.  She was snuffling along and giving an occasional gruff bark, talking to her cubs. I was too scared to move.  Finally, I had enough gumption to shake Cecil awake.  When he took off his hearing aid he could hear nothing.  He always put it under his pillow.  He promptly put it on so he could know what I was shaking him about.  By that time the bear had smelled the bacon and she ripped holes with 4 claws from near the top of the tent nearly to the ground.  She had her head and shoulders inside the tent.  I didn’t have to tell him why I had gotten him awake.  He had also put a flashlight by his pillow.  That was the only weapon we had inside the tent.  The axe was outside by the woodpile.  He took the flashlight and shining it directly into her eyes he slowly, slowly backed her out of the tent.  Then he lit the lantern and holding the flashlight sat in the opening the rest of the night.  Soon we heard sounds as people all around us were trying to scare the bears away.  No one got any more sleep that night.

1 Comment
Tina
Great stuff! What a resource!!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 01:53 PM