Loelia Carl Oral History
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Recording 2, 6:53
More Stories 1: 1:01:53
More Stories 2: 1:02:09
More Stories 3: 30:20
More Stories 4: 01:01:56
More Stories 5: 1:02:27
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LOELIA MAY FARRINGTON CARL
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewer and interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Churchill County Museum or any of its employees.
Notes: Loelia Carl recorded the following stories in her home during 1999. The tapes were transcribed at the Churchill County Museum. It is a narrative, not a question and answer oral history. As such, it has been transcribed in paragraph form, keeping headers when provided. She recorded this herself, and seems to have paused the recorder often, possibly re-recording things.
Content Warning: Use of the r-slur on page 34/tape 4 around 30:30, used in context of it being the medical term at the time. Around that time, other casual ableism in regards to how children with disabilities were treated in schools in the 1950s, which was not in line with the respect they deserve. We have left this in place so as not to whitewash this aspect of history.
Earl "Little Horse" Carl
- 02 January 1908 Colby, Kansas
- 23 November 1989 Fallon, Nevada
Loelia May Farrington
- 12 April 1909 Laws, California
Lover and Friend
As we said the "I do, I promise" on the 3rd of August 1937, little did we realize that 52 years plus could be so happy and so full of joys and sorrow. WE were ONE. We did almost everything together. Our life's journey started with the wedding supper at a Basque restaurant in Reno, Nevada. We had a festive meal, plus music and dancing. Little Horse and I had the first dance. After that my Dad [Adam Farrington] and brother [Lyster Farrington] waltzed me around. Then Little Horse and I spent the rest of the evening dancing. Our first night as Mr. and Mrs. Carl was spent at the Golden Hotel. They had placed a Do Not Disturb sign on the door of our room. It was certainly not very effective. Everyone on the floor had to knock and call. "We wish you much happiness!" Our honeymoon was short and full of excitement. When we left the hotel, we drove to Sierra Valley, California, to see my cousin Mary and her dad Jack Flynn.
Our welcome was "Please help me pull 'Buckskin' [horse] out of the well." Little Horse helped Jack get the horse out. Mary and I sat on the sidelines praying [tape cuts] that the horse would be alive and be able to get about with no broken bones. Jack and Little Horse were successful. And Mary and my prayers were answered. Buck was alive, no broken bones, and quite able to move. He was quite stiff but limbered up before we left for Austin.
Little Horse had tried to find a house for us to move into. Houses were not to be had, so our first home was a couple of rooms at the International Hotel. We spent the first six weeks of our early married life "makeshift." There was a hot plate in one of the rooms. I used it to do the cooking there. Our meals were very simple, so I didn't have to prove that I could cook. I made his breakfast and lunch and at night we ate at the cafe. The lunch, I carried down the hill to the mill and we ate it to the "click-click-click" of the Bush engine that was used to crush the rock. It was a happy but a long six weeks! [tape cuts]
One night when he came from the mill, he had a big smile on his face. I couldn't figure what made his look so happy. "Are you ready to move?" He had found a little house that had been vacated that day. So, [long pause] he rented it.
We picked up our few belongings and were on our way to house #2. It also had two rooms, a big bedroom and a little kitchen with a real honest to goodness stove, a stove that would let me show off some of my cooking skills. But, again, there were drawbacks. The water had to be carried across the street from Mrs. Dron's home. I put up a sign "DON'T WASTE THE WATER! DON'T WASH UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!"
The bathroom was about 25 feet up a VERY steep HILL. The bedroom had a bed that would accommodate four grown-ups and they would never touch each other. I didn't have bedding that would fit. The bedroom was our sitting room, study, whatever you wanted it to be. Be sure the bed was made and things picked up each morning. You never knew what might drop in or WHO! [tape cuts]
One of the customs of our time we messed up. It was a charivari. I often wished we could escape it all together. After a couple of weeks in our second home, Little Horse came home about 8:30 in the evening. I had already gone to bed and he said the Sheriff had come down the mill with a warrant for his arrest. The Sheriff had taken Mr. Grimes down to the mill to relieve Little Horse and he failed to explain the whole thing was a hoax. They waited to get Little Horse home so they could proceed with their plans for our charivari. When I had been told what was up, I hurried and got dressed and made our room for any occasion presentable. About nine p.m. the tricksters made their way to our home. With them came crackers and cheese, pretzels, and plenty of HOT beer. Congratulations and good wishes were given and the drinking and storytelling began. The stories got bigger and bigger and the beer got hotter and hotter. As the cans were opened, they spewed beer all over the house. Both rooms were super-saturated. We found some gunny-sacks and tried to soak up the hot beer that had spilled everywhere, by midnight, I said We had enough and it was time for them to go home. I might as well have talked to a brick wall. A few stragglers stayed on. Little Horse finally, loaded my brother Lyster [Farrington] and Francis [a friend] into the back of the pickup, covered them up with a blanket and let them sleep it off. Little Horse and I spent the rest of the night trying to mop up the beer. As far as the charivari, it was AWFUL. When we had settled down to live a half normal life, all went well. Each day we kept our ears opened to see if another house might be vacated and we could get something as good or a wee bit better than we were living in. The first part of October of 1937 we heard that Steve and Mabel Linka were moving from their two-bedroom home, quite new, to Kingston. Little Horse did not wait or waste any time inquiring about it. Lady Luck was with us and we were ready to move into house #3.
Before we could move to home #3, we had to clean our home #2, pack water from across the street, scrub, wash the walls and windows, floors and ceilings. It took us a couple of days that were VERY LONG. It took plenty of soap and disinfectant and Bon Ami to make the house livable for the next tenants. While it was work, there were happy moments and memories. We often relived our stay in home #30.
Home #3: It was a joy, pleasure and a fun place. It was unfurnished, so we had the pleasure of getting things to keep house. Two bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen and a pantry. The water was piped into the house, and there was a fancified "two-holer" not too far from the back door. It wasn't up hill and that was a help. Little Horse could not get off of work so I drove to Salt Lake City [Utah] and picked up a couple of double beds, bedding to fit and a few dishes. The trip to Salt Lake was uneventful, but interesting. I drove one day, spent one day getting whatever we had to have and drove home the third day. I had to rest a couple of days after the trip to Salt Lake City. Little Horse had to put up the beds in the bedrooms. I got the beds' linens out and made up the beds. I put up the pretty curtains on all the [tape cuts] on the windows. Scatter rugs replaced a few rugs ...and it seemed so wonderful. We both enjoyed our home #3. I could prepare a nice meal and have some of Little Horse's friends to enjoy it with us. In the afternoons I could have my friends in for tea, coffee and cookies. Our lives had branched out with friends and we felt very comfortable in doing for and having them in to share. The girls with whom I had gone to school decided I should have a wedding shower. One bright sunny November afternoon they came in, food, drink and gifts. It was such a fun time in our darling little #3 home. They had made tasty sandwiches, lemonade and dainty cupcakes. What a pretty table in our #3 home! The gifts were lovely, a waffle iron, coffee maker, towels and washcloths, mixing bowls, salad bowls and serving spoons. Green glass tumblers which I still have 60 years on. After the gifts were opened, we had a couple of word games: Make the most words out a single word. Example: festival. When Little Horse came home from work, he and I relived the afternoon festivities. He enjoyed every minute of it as much as I had enjoyed it. [Tape cuts]
I had written to his [Little Horse's] folks in [Carrizozo] New Mexico and invited them to come and visit us. We now had a home that we could be proud of and I could become acquainted with my new family. My invitation had been accepted. Mother [Edna], Dad [Calvin], and Skeeter [Lee] arrived for a two week visit. It was to be an interesting two weeks. They arrived on the little train that ran between Battle Mountain and Austin [Nevada Central]. I met them when the train arrived in the afternoon. To Mother Carl, it had been quite a disappointment, having to squeeze into the coupe plus all the baggage, didn't make it any more pleasant. Dad and Skeeter couldn't make her happy, either. What!? Two whole weeks of whining and complaining about our home and how Little Horse and I did live!?
Little Horse didn't get home from work until 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. Never having seen them before, it was not easy to do things to make Mother feel comfortable and at ease in our home. It was a blessing when Little Horse finally got home. He hadn't seen his family for five years, nor had he kept in contact with them up until the time we were married in 1937, so they did have some catching up to do. Thank goodness! I had planned a very simple meal for our first get-together, a roast with the vegetables cooked with it. I had made an apple pie for dessert. All went well and the meal was enjoyed and visiting continued. Dishes and putting away left overs started more unpleasantries. No hot water, no, no hot water until it was heated on the stove. Then, bring out the dish pan and a rinse pan and proceed. When it came time for bed, Little Horse and I filled a pitcher with water and placed it by the folk's bed, by a flower bowl. They were placed on a sideboard by Mother and Dad's bed. Little Horse put the guest towels and the wash clothes over on the nightstand and the needed pot was placed under the bed. Little Horse put up a twin bed for Skeeter in our living room. We had own bedroom so we were set for the night. At least we had hoped. That was not to be. "I have to go to the bathroom," Mother said. "And the bed pan is under the bed. I can't use it. I have to go where I can sit down and be able to get up again. The bed pan is too low. I might fall." "I will go with you to the outside john." I picked up a flashlight and we did the "light fantastic" to the outside toilet.... to the rhythm of "It is too far. It is too dark. Are there any spiders? I can't find the toilet paper!" It was funny and yet a little irritating. We were offering much better than we were used to. It wasn't the Ritz or Grand Central. We did make it out and back again. What a first introduction to my new family! [tape cuts]
Twice a week the boiler was filled with water and placed on the stove to heat. When it was warm and time to bathe, the round tub was placed on the floor and water from the boiler was dipped into the tub and cold water was put in to make it comfortable for bathing. Soap, towel and washcloths were laid out. First one in got a nice clean bath. Second one, not so clean. If there were more than two to take a bath, the water was dumped out and a new tub of water was heated. It was time to conserve but it was work. Mother was not happy with the set up and she it made it known to all of us. Was there a solution?
Little Horse was a solver of all our problems. One evening he came home from the mill earlier than usual. On the way home, he stopped at the one and only grocery store in town and picked up fixings for a picnic supper. As he walked in the door, he issued an ultimatum. "We are going to drive out to Pete's Summit. There is a Hot Springs there and two tubs have been filled with water. One tub for real hot water and the other tub to hold the hot water to cool until it was just right for a nice warm bath. We are all going and have a picnic supper, before we take our baths." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was 42 miles from where we lived to the bathhouse. The 42 miles were dirt road and very rough and dusty. I got towels, washcloths, and soap. He, Little Horse, put the table, picnic lunch and the bath supplies in the car. He herded us into the car and we were on our way for a bath. Guess who was unhappy? Little Horse, Dad Carl, and Skeeter enjoyed it no end. I got the table set and the food put out while I was doing that Dad and Little Horse got Mother into the tub of cooled water and it put her into a jovial mood. After the meal was over and the trash pile picked up the four of us took our turns at having our baths. When we were clean we piled back into the car and drove back to Austin. It was a dusty, dusty dirty ride home and we were covered with dust. Believe it or not, we had to heat a boiler of water, haul out the tub and let Mother have another bath before she went to bed. Never a word was spoken. We were involved in our own thoughts. I am sorry, I wasn't a mind reader. It would have made an interesting book. Only a couple of days left before they were to go home. It did not make me unhappy to know that the time was getting shorter.
I wanted my Dad and Grace [Loelia's stepmother] to meet the Carl family. I fixed a get together meal and a farewell dinner. It turned out very well. Grace and Mother Carl had a very pleasant visit and Dad Carl and my Dad and Skeeter seemed to enjoy each other's company. Little Horse was very quiet and not with us the whole evening. He didn't say a word as to what had happened. As my Dad and Grace got ready to go back down the [Smokey] Valley, the bombshell exploded. "The mine is closing down and we will be out of a job in about a month. Paul Clopstock will help us on until everything is cleaned up .... and all the machinery is made ready for sale." It floored all of us. My thought was "Move to #4? Where to this time?" I was getting used to moving. The families wanted to know what our plans were. It all happened so quick, Little Horse and I had no time or chance to talk over our discussion about what paths we would take. [tape cuts]
After we had gotten Mother, Dad and Skeeter on their way home. We had time to plan for our next move. Very… [tape cuts] My Dad came back in a couple of days later and made an offer to take over the home place at Millett. It sounded good but there were many things to be considered. My Dad had hoped we would live with him and Grace. To go and live with them was out. There was NEVER a house built that is big enough for two women to live in and stay happy and congenial. That gave him something to ponder over for a few days. I guess he knew what I said that I meant. He came back again a few days later. He and Little Horse had a long talk. After he had gone back to the Valley, Little Horse told me what they had been talking about. It was a deal that we buy the 640 acres and build a home for my Dad and Grace down at the Lower Twin River. I guess I had made up my mind that we would be better off if we got away from the family. Our money was running short and a decision had to be made. Figuring what it would cost to make... find a new home, and hunt for a job. It was a decision that had to be made quickly. We could at least try to work out and pay for the place. The papers were drawn up and we were going to make the ranch home at Millett out 4th home. Little Horse stayed at the mill until it was closed down. It paid all of our outstanding bills. Prepared to keep our home that we had enjoyed so much. Just a few days before we were to leave, a beautiful Calico cat showed up ... Crazy Cat! When we moved, he moved with us to home #4, and Crazy Cat was quite a cat!
Home #4
As we left home #3, there were regrets but also anticipation. The move took two days to get the few things we had accumulated in such a short time moved. Our work was cut out for us and we started from scratch. The money was running very short. Times were getting harder. Our first purchase after we got settled in was a lovely Holstein cow from John Rebol, and we named her Mary. She was to do us many services. Her first service was a baby heifer calf and we called her Anna. Anna shared with us. Mary had enough good milk to fatten Anna and give us plenty for our own use. We had butter, buttermilk for biscuits, cottage cheese and sweet cream for cooking. For the first six weeks we were in home #4 we shared it with Grace and my Dad. All worked out very well.
Little Horse would go to Lower Twin River and work on a one-bedroom home for Grace and my Dad. Pug Ike helped Little Horse and at the end of the six weeks the home was ready for them to move into. Before Grace and Dad could move in there had to be a house warming. Little Horse had left one board off of the new living room to place a good wish welcoming gift for their happiness. If that board closing could tell a story there is $10.00 waiting to be found. All the folks in the Valley were invited to attend. Several of their friends from Eureka, Duckwater, and Hot Springs came to help all of us celebrate. I made all the goodies for the big affair: potato salad, macaroni salad, sandwiches, cookies, two large loaf cakes, several pies. Coffee, tea and punch were served. I can't remember how many were there… perhaps fifty, not counting kids. It lasted from sundown to sunup. Some of the guests from Eureka came to our number #4 home for breakfast. I had made a farm breakfast, biscuits, ham, eggs and potatoes. I was so proud of myself, but I was in for a real let down. When the folks from Eureka came in, and saw what the meal was, the comment was, "All we ever eat for breakfast is a cup of tea and a piece of toast." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Dear Little Horse came up with one of his funny stories and the tea and the toast were gotten. Some of the Valley folks stopped in on their way home from the party. No one ever came into our home at meal time that they were not asked to share with us. They sat and ate what I had prepared for the Eureka folk, so it was not all a complete loss. [tape cuts]
Sixteen Years of Fun and Work
After Little Horse and I had gotten Grace and my Dad settled in their own home, we proceeded to get ourselves organized in my old-new #4 home. It was fun getting the few pieces of furniture arranged and in our old-new surroundings. The old piano could be moved back into the house. A rug had been given to us and we placed it in the front room. We got some brown vinyl and used it as an outline for the carpet or the rug. It made the carpet look very festive. I got new gay plaid curtains for the windows and a little table to set in the bay window. It looked so happy and gay! We ended up getting a beautiful second-hand heater for the corner of the room. As times went on we got two nice easy chairs to put in front of the lovely stove. We spent many hours in the front room. The dining room had a lovely old table that opened up to seat 24 people very comfortably. We were always stretched out and most of the time was full. I always had a nice white linen table cloth and napkins to match. The bay window was full of lovely plants I started from seed. Geraniums, 3 gloxinia plants - red, lavender and white and several cyclamen plants. They were so colorful and happy. ... a reading table and a big green rocking chair filled the space under the archway. On the table sat our little radio that Little Horse and I listened to at night by the light of a kerosine lamp. I might add at this point that the little radio gave me the news of the "Bombing of Pearl Harbor" and the beginning of World War II. On the wall by the china closet was the telephone. On the north side of the dining room was another lovely wood burning stove, and another comfortable chair.
The north entry into the dining room was a place used to hang hats and coats. The kitchen was big. There was a big wood burning, water heating stove, a big sink, …a large pantry and a tall dish cupboard. And the kitchen table and chairs for Little Horse and me to have our own special meals. The water was piped into the kitchen from the artesian well. There was not much done to the bedrooms. That would come later.
Our Chicken Venture
The cash was running very low and outside work was nil. Bartering seemed like a way of getting ahead. A neighbor had some Leghorn chickens he wanted to get rid of. He also needed a new roof on his house. The chickens would give us food as meat and good fresh eggs for the table and for cooking. Roofing for the chickens seemed like a good deal. We added to our livestock with twenty-five hens and a rooster. The feed, the new family was left to forage in the meadow. The meadow was full of green grass and insects. The flock fared very well and gave us plenty of eggs. The corn and wheat we had planted would give the babies food for the winter when it was harvested. The trade had been good for both families.
Little Horse had put a nice roof on the house and the chickens had given us enough eggs for our use and we sold enough- [End of tape 1 side A]
The Garden
-work up the ground for a garden. With the plow we were in business. Oh, no we did not have a work horse to pull the plow! How would we solve that problem? My dear Nellie Jo had never been harnessed. She was my saddle horse, but maybe, just maybe, we could harness her to the plow and she could pull it for us. She was so kind and gentle. We would give her a chance to see how her talents were. As long as we were plowing a straight row, it was just a pleasant job. When we came to the end of the row and had to turn it was very difficult. As long as we didn't have to hurry, it worked fine. We were on the last row and we had a problem. Little Horse was holding the plow and I was leading Nellie Jo. As we made the turn, Nellie Jo stepped on my foot. It hurt her as much as it hurt me. I screamed and my foot was under Nellie Jo's hoof. Nellie Jo lifted her foot up and held it up in the air until Little Horse could get my foot out of the way. Nellie Jo had done her job perfectly. I had failed on my part. As I sat feeling sorry for myself, Little Horse unharnessed Nellie Jo and came back and acted as a crutch for me to get to the house, where for several days Little Horse was the cook, dishwasher, house keeper and my crutch.
When I was able to walk, we planted the garden with all the good veggies that would grow in our short season. We had a bumper crop of potatoes, beans, cabbage, onions, corn, tomatoes, cauliflower and peas. Two long rows of rhubarb and a row of asparagus. The garden was watered with water from one of the artesian wells. We had to weed and cultivate in between other chores. As the season came on, the hay, alfalfa and wild hay, had to be harvested. The crop on my Dad's place had to be taken care of first. In order to take care of both places we had to budget our time and the days weren't quite long enough.
Haying at Twin River
The day started at 4:00 in the morning. Little Horse did the chores at home. I fixed our breakfast and straightened the house. By 5:00 a.m., the cows had been milked, the chickens fed, and the milk for the day was bottled and ready to go. On Monday, Wednesday and Fridays I stayed home and baked bread for the hay crew, nine loaves at each baking. While the bread was getting ready to make into loaves, I churned the butter and worked it into round patties. The butter milk was saved for baking and drinking. The meat was cooked at our home. I cooked the huge roast and made stews. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, we would pack what I had cooked and take it to Twin Rivers so Grace could have food for the hired men, which was nine for the crew.
Grace and I had a chance to get away from the crew. It worked out very well. Sunday was a day for all of us to do the things we wanted to do. My Dad said that was a day of rest. Not for Little Horse or me! Sunday, we worked in our garden and cleaned the house. This went on for a month. When the hay was up at the North and South Twin, we put our crop up. It only took about a week to get our crop harvested. What vegetables we hadn't used for the hay crew were ready to be harvested for winter. I canned tomatoes and rhubarb. We husked the corn and dried it over the clothes line. Weather was [tape cuts. Transcript notes "It dried"] in two weeks if the weather cooperated. Then we shelled it and put it in an air tight container. We had the corn for the winter. To cook it, we soaked it over night and cooked it like dried beans. It was delicious. The cauliflower was hung up in the root cellar. We still had some to start our second year in our old-new home. We canned some of the beans and let some of them dry. The eggs were put in a crock, preserving them in slack lime and water. They were as fresh as some of the eggs we get in the stores today.
Fuel for the Winter
After harvesting all the crops, we had to plan for fuel for the winter. The first year we didn't have the money to buy coal. It was pine that was about twenty miles across the Valley. We had to plan for the two families, part of our payment for the ranch. First Little Horse made a trip across the Valley to locate a place where the wood was plentiful. He located a stand of dead pine just west of North Umberlin. To get to it, we would have to get someone to cut and snake it down to the road. My Dad had an old horse named Smokie that would do most anything if he had a mind to do it. We let Lee Richardson cut and get the wood to the road. We paid him in hay to feed his animals. The cutting and hauling the wood took about two weeks. The real problem was getting the truck we borrowed up to the cut wood. We would fix a lunch and if we were lucky, we could get to be where the wood was to be piled in about three and a half hours. Lee had the wood trimmed so that loading wasn't too troublesome. The weather that year of 1937 was not good. Before we started out of the canyon with the loaded truck, the rains would come and they were so heavy that our road would be washed out. Where it had been taking three and a half hours to get to the wood, it took us a good five to six hours to get back home. We would work every step of the way, keeping the truck load of wood from dumping over! That went on every day until all the wood was out. It was scarce and hard work. After we got home the wood had to be unloaded and the chores had to be done before we could call it a day. If I remember, it took us eleven days to get the wood for both the places. Our work was partially done to pay off some more of our place. We had to split and cut the wood for both places. I didn't do any of the splitting or cutting but stacking the wood in the wood shed was a big chore. I had sore arms and splintered hands. That was minimal. Reloading the cut wood was another big chore. Both of us were ready for a couple of days of rest. [tape cuts]
Fencing in the Hay Stacks
One thing leads to another, and it is a continuous circle with never a broken spot. We had been able to get a few head of cattle and to keep them happy, we would turn them into the fields to eat down the meadow grasses. Like all other creatures, they would seek the choicest places to eat. The hay stacks would be much easier to reach than the wild meadow pastures. The hay stacks had to be fenced in. It took a little measuring, a lot of wire and fence posts, post hole diggers and more wire, oh, yes, and wire stretchers. It had to be done while the ground was still workable and before the cattle could be turned into the meadow. Little Horse said the fencing would be a game rather than work. How could that be?
September was usually a nice month. The days were sunny and warm and the Valley winds were calm. Perfect for a get-together. John and Joyce Yelland and their son Toby liked picnics. I called and asked what day would be good for them to come and join us in a work and play day. I told them the work would be. They joined us. I had a lunch of fried chicken, potato salad, and cream puffs. Good apples for snacks and plenty of lemonade for thirst quenchers. It proved to be just what Little Horse wanted, work and play. The boys, John and Little Horse, got the post holes dug. Joyce and I put the posts in the holes. The boys did the covering of the posts. Today, Toby was too little to help, but he made an excellent boss. By noon the posts were in and the holes covered. Joyce and I laid out the lunch on a large canvas. We all squatted on the ground and had our lunch, told stories and relaxed for a while. Toby picked up the paper plates, and cups and forks and knives, while Joyce and I put what food that left in containers. John and Little Horse got the staples, wire stretchers and hammers out. Joyce and I rolled the wire out, so the boys could staple it to the posts. It didn't take Joyce and me long to roll out the wire. Our work was done. We left the boys to their finishing job. We girls had time to spend. We rested for a while and visited. We talked about food and what would be good for a salad. The artesian well had a lot of nice water cress, so we walked up to the well and gathered enough for all of us. The day had been a pleasant fun day, the work had been completed, the cows could be turned into the meadow and the hay stacks would be saved for winter feed. When the Yelland the family got ready to fence their hay stacks, Little Horse and I joined them and we had another work and play day. Our first year was a happy one because Little Horse made it so. He always had a solution for all the problems.
Sixteen Years to Follow
The second year we were on the ranch saw a few changes. My brother, Lyster, came to stay with us. He helped Little Horse [tape cuts] in the fields and he and Little Horse built a slaughter house at Upper Twin River. My Dad had cattle and pigs that he killed and sent to stores in Ely, Austin, and Manhattan and Tonopah. A house was built near the slaughter house. Lyster got married to Carol Ryan, and they lived at Upper Twin River. For two years Lyster and Carol went into cutting and selling meat to the above-mentioned towns. Little Horse continued to work to pay off our #4 home. However, we had more time to develop our home at Millett. The bedroom and bathroom needed to be made more livable. The bathroom was in need of a new floor and the basin needed to be replaced. Little Horse did it with the help of neighbors. The bathtub was one of the biggest I have ever seen. One of the nice things about the water for the big tub, it was heated by the coils in the kitchen stove and piped into the bathtub. Both the cold water from the artesian well and the hot from the coils in the kitchen stove were piped into the tub. The tub was a great joy after having had to put a boiler of water to heat and then place the water into a small washtub and squeeze the body to fit the shape of the tub.
Winter
Spring, summer and fall had been busy but pleasant one. Winter was a season to try our dos and promises. Our herd of cattle had grown to nine cows and a bull. I had raised six bummer lambs. Our chickens had given us babies and we now had about thirty. My Dad let us borrow Scuffy and Baldy to use to haul the hay from the field. We had the hay wagons for two and a half months. We hitched up the two mares, drove to the field, loaded the wagon and threw out hay for our cows, load up the wagon the second time and head for the house. After closing the gate to the fields, we hitched the reins to the Jacob's staff and the old mares would go up the road, through the gate at home, make the turn to the manger and wait for us to get ourselves out of the warm hay, unload the hay into the manger and unharness them. Not once did they hit anything. Little Horse and I had kept warm covered with leaves from the alfalfa.
Mary, the cow, was waiting to be milked and then turned out to the manger to have her breakfast. I would go and make breakfast, coffee, biscuits, eggs and home cured bacon or sausage. After the evening chores were done and the two heaters were lit and we sat by the fire and told stories. There was no electricity. The rest of the time was perfect. Before we turned in for the night, I heated flat irons and put them in the bed to take off the chill.
The Phone and Its Story
We lacked a lot of amusement but our phone gave us much pleasure. It hung on the wall in the dining room. It was the old crank type. Our call was one long and three short rings. The operators were Louise Casady at Austin and Mrs. Michael in Round Mountain. If calls outside the Valley had to be made they had to be made between six in the morning and six in the evening. The calls were gossip time in the evening. There were fourteen families that used the phone to keep in contact with each other. It only took a jingle of the bell to get the whole Valley on the line. Some times with all the receivers off the hook it was hard to get a good clear connection. "PLEASE HANG UP SO I CAN GET MY MESSAGE THROUGH, WHEN I HAVE COMPLETED MY BUSINESS I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHAT IT WAS ABOUT." Perhaps if you would hang up, and it was easier to get a better connection. If you did not keep your word those that hung up would call you and ask "What was the call about? Did you get the information you wanted? Was it what you had in mind? Are you having company?" If the company was coming soon they would ask, "Is there was anything we could do? Do you have to prepare anything special? How long will they stay?" If it was someone that the folks in the Valley knew, they would plan to get together so all could visit at one central location. By using the phone a party could be gotten together in a very short time. No fuss and no preparation. Bring what you have and we will serve at such and such a time. "CLICK, CLICK, CLICK." The word was out and the designated time, the cars would arrive and the spread was laid out. Old friends would meet, new friends and by the time the get-together was over our families had grown.
Again the phone was put into action to make sure that all the friends had arrived at their home safely. When an emergency arose, which was quite often, the neighbors from near and far were there to help. Thanks to our gossip line, a fire in the bunkhouse at the Perrine Ranch, saw a gathering of neighbors within thirty minutes. One ring and at least the Valley fire brigade was called. They came with fire extinguishers, axes, ladders and wet gunny sacks and shovels. The women had prepared something to quench the thirst. Those who hadn't come with firefighting equipment and thirst quenchers, had made medications to treat anyone who was hurt or burned. The neighbors were not able to save the bunkhouse at Perrines but they saved the other buildings thanks to the trusty little phone!
How To Get Action
For a month our telephone operators were not able to call down the Valley and the Valley folk were not able to call out. The line was down here and there. Some of the insulators were off the poles. Ted Brown, the man in charge of taking care of the line, was notified that there were problems. Nothing was done to solve the problems. Little Horse and I drove forty-two miles over dirt road to put in the last complaint for all of the Valley folk. I called Ted from Austin and asked what and where and when we would get our service again. Ted's reply was, "We will have it back in services again within a couple of days. The days went by and still no service. This time I did not ask the Valley folk what to do. I wrote a letter to the public service commission and to the head office of Bell Telephone located in San Francisco, California. It took a couple of days until a man from the head office in San Francisco, two from the Reno office and Ted Brown were out questioning me and looking, looking, looking at the line from Austin to Round Mountain.
Within four months we had a real honest to goodness telephone line. It was good in one but made a big difference in another. Millett, our home, was the division the point. In order to talk to the folks south of us we had to call Austin. The call was then transferred to Tonopah and from Tonopah to Round Mountain and to whoever they wanted down the Valley south of us. All the good gossip was missed, but we did have twenty-four-hour service, seven days a week, and that we did need out there. One day Ted came down the Valley and stopped by the house to visit. In the course of conversation, he said, "Loelia, if you ever have any more problems, let me handle them." My reply was, "Ted, I gave you the opportunity to fix the line. We got NO service. If we have problems again, I will NOT go to you. I will take it to the head official."
[tape cuts] From the time the line was made workable until Little Horse and I sold the place. We had no more problems. We both had learned you not mess with the "in betweens." Take your problems to the top and let it work its way down to the people that are responsible.
Mother and Dad Carl's Second Visit
The spring of 1938 had passed quickly for us in our #4 home and summer was upon us. We had many projects that had to be finished before the summer 1938 was upon us. In late June we received a letter from Mother and Dad Carl. They wanted to come and spend a month with us. After the experience of the Austin visit at our home #3. I was reluctant to have them come out. Little Horse made the decision. I would help out in the field and I would turn the house over to Mother Carl to do as she wanted. It worked out to be very satisfactory and pleasant for the month. Mother, Dad, and Skeeter came to Austin on the little train that ran from Battle Mountain to Austin. Little Horse drove up to meet them. The forty-two miles from Austin to Millet could have been a little nicer. Little Horse helped Mother… a little up beat by telling her what she was going to see on the way home and all the things that were different at the ranches. It didn't quite take her mind off the dirty, nasty road and the long stretches in between ranches. One nice thing to look forward to was a nice hot bath in an indoor tub. She could be clean before turning in for the night. I had prepared a nice meal for the welcoming, a beef stew with all the good vegetables we had. Homemade bread, our own cheese, butter and fresh apples. Pie was one of the things both she and Dad liked. Luckily, all of above hit the spot for Mother. Dad and Skeeter were easy to please. We had to stay in the house to do our catching up on family gossip. The mosquitos and gnats were too pesky and we didn't want Mother to be unhappy and wanting to go home to Carrizozo, New Mexico, the next day.
The next morning, after their arrival, Mother and I spent the morning planning the time they would be with us. I would have to spend a good part of the day out in the fields helping put up the hay. If it was not too much to ask, her and Dad could fix the noon and night meals. I showed her where all the things were kept. Everything was to her liking and it worked out for a very pleasant, helpful month. Dad had his chores all cut out for him. When he found out we had a garden, he said he had missed working in the yard since he was a boy. He enjoyed his month out in the garden, and all the goodies he could bring in and help Mother prepare for the meals. He also liked to cook the morning meal. It started off with coffee. The hot pancakes, the most delicious I have ever tasted, eggs and whatever meat was available. Truly I felt privileged – no meals to plan or think about. Skeeter was a big help to us. He helped us put up the hay and he and Little Horse fixed up a lot of the old worn out machinery so it could be used again next year. On Sundays we would go visit friends in the Valley. My Dad and Grace had a big picnic on one of the Sunday's that Little Horse's family was with us. All the folks in the Valley gathered at Lower twin River. It was a delightful day. Mother and Dad Carl got to know and visit with all the local Valley families. The month that Mother and Dad and Skeeter were with us, was a most enjoyable month. I did get to know Mother and enjoy her. We appreciated each other much, much more as I said before and I'll say again, "There is no house big enough for two women." And it takes more than a couple of weeks to work feelings out. I am glad that Little Horse helped me to work out that month to make us a family of Carls.
As the years go on ... 1939.
The first year in home #4 had gone quite well. Our crops had been plentiful. A few good lessons had been learned and we were ready to start on a new year. On January 2, 1939, I planned a get-together. It was to be the evening of Little Horse's birthday. The special occasion was his 31st birthday. Our trusty little phone had been put to use, again. Those that could brave the-weather, and we enjoyed. Our little phone let us know that all the guests got home safely. The winter passed and nothing special happened. To amuse ourselves we played cribbage and whist, read books and when time hung heavy on our hands we lay on the floor in front of the stove and see who could blow cranberries into the air the highest. It was fun and winter passed into spring. Spring saw a garden made ready for planting. Fences had to be fixed, springs had to be cleaned and the ditches made ready for the spring run-off and irrigation. [Nevada] Fish and Wildlife wanted to plant some chukars in the Valley. And, they asked if Little Horse would fix a pen to house 100 of the lovely birds until they could take them to the hills and turn them loose. The pen was made ready, branches of brush were put in the pen for a place for the birds to roost. Whatever was brought in for feed until they could be free. The birds were brought to us and all went as planned. A very cold snap came. The birds got pneumonia and in a few days the flock was down to a very small number. We could not see them all die, so we opened the pen and let them loose. The survivors stayed close to the place. They sought [End of tape 1, original transcript continues "cover where ever they could."]
[Ed- At this point in the original transcript, they had the transcript for the tape entitled "Our move to Fallon, Happenings in the valley" I believe that this was due to an error in numbering the tapes. As such, it has been moved and begins on page 28. Moving forward, original transcript notes the following, which is missing at the beginning of tape 2:
Measles
In the process of growing up, I had missed some of the childhood diseases, German measles being one of them.] That didn't keep me grounded as a child. Paul, Isabel and Timmy Ryan had come down the Valley to take some ore to Tonopah to be loaded on the train and taken to the smelter at Salt Lake City, Utah, to be processed there. Jimmy was just getting over the measles and wasn't feeling up to par. He wanted to sit on my lap while waiting for the trucks to be loaded. He had to cough and I got an excellent exposure to the measles Jimmy was just recovering from. I didn't think too much of it at the time, however, I did mark down the date that I had been exposed. Thirteen days after the exposure I started to have symptoms of what might be coming. On the fourteenth day I had a terrible fever. I told Little Horse I couldn't get the breakfast. We had just started to put up the hay at our place. I wasn't able to help. I would burn up with fever, go out on the porch to cool off. Then freeze and would hurry back to bed to get warm. No measles were coming out. I was getting sicker and poor Little Horse was having to cook, care for me, and try to get the hay put up. Bless him, he did it and never said a cross word. After three days of my fooling around trying to get the measles out, I remembered my Mother giving Lyster saffron tea. I had Little Horse make me some tea from the saffron. It worked. After having the tea, I covered up real good, and when Little Horse looked at me when he came in from the field he said I was covered from the head to the toe with little red welts. After the welts came out, it wasn't long until the fever broke. I was still weak and couldn't do much to help. Dr. Stevenson and his wife dropped in. They were on their way to North Umberland to check on some of his mining claims. As he walked in the door, he said, "Who has or has had the measles recently?" I asked him how he could tell that someone had the measles. His answer was, "Those were the German Measles and they leave a very potent odor." I then told him I had been the victim. As a doctor, he wanted to know all of the particulars. After telling him the story he proceeded to tell me what I should do the gain back my strength and what to avoid to keep from having a relapse. One: plenty of rest. Two: no heavy lifting. Three: drink lots of liquids. Four: don't work in the hay fields or garden. Five: if there was pain take a couple of aspirins twice a day until aches and pains subsided. Six: as a final word eat, rest, rest, rest. With all of the above instruction, it didn't leave a lot that I could do to help. I got Juanita Abe to come in and do the cooking and housework. She took a big load off Little Horse's shoulders and gave me a chance to gain back my health.
Oh, it took such a long time to make the house safe for all that would come in. Juanita scrubbed the walls and floors with soap, water and ammonia. She burned sulfur to clear the air of any germs that might be hiding in out-of-the-way places. The rest of the summer passed and I had a chance to get the three bedrooms fixed up and make them livable. As summer drifted into fall, it meant start to plan for the following winter.
How We Planned For the Winter
After all the hay was harvested, and all the machinery used in haying was repaired and stored, it was time for a Valley Folk get-together. August was a perfect month to plan for a picnic. My Dad and Grace loved to have all the Valley folk come to join with us in a day of fun and story time. My Dad always appreciated my cooking. It fell to my lot to do the meat and the salads for the picnic. He had Lyster butcher a beef and cut a nice hind quarter for roasting, and the ribs for braising. Grace made wonderful bread and potato rolls that would melt in your mouth. Little Horse would make the coffee. He had the big old-fashioned coffee pot and he knew just how much coffee, salt and egg shells to make it to his liking. He brewed the coffee over an open fire. Even I enjoyed a cup of his special brew, ha ha! The main course for the picnic had been settled. The little trusty phone was brought into service again. "BRING WHAT YOU HAVE. WE WILL GATHER AT UPPER TWIN RIVER FOR A FUN TIME RELAXING PICNIC AT NOON." Grace and my part of the menu was ready. Pug Ike, Little Horse and Lyster had put up tables and benches. All was ready, waiting for the families to arrive. At 11:30 in the morning we could see the dirt rising from the north and from the south. My diary tells me that 65 of us sat down to a sumptuous feast.
After the appetites were satisfied and the tables cleared, the serious work began. I had my pencil and note pad. We, Little Horse and I, would be making a trip to Fallon the next week. Was there any special item they would like for us to pick up for them? Luckily for us, most of the families were planning their own winter shopping trip to Fallon to pick up their own winter supply of staples. Little Horse and I would shop the Safeway store in Fallon, then located on Maine Street. Our list read like this: 1/2 ton of sugar [1,000 pounds] , 50 pounds of coffee, 1 cannister of tea, cereal for three families, 1/2 ton of flour [1,000 pounds], condiments that were needed, drugs for colds and so forth, case of oranges, stalk of bananas, large can of shortening, three cases of canned tomatoes, three cases of peas, 50 pounds of dried beans, macaroni, canned and dried peaches, and apricots, peanut butter, soda crackers and canned fish, plus any other clothes, bedding, hardware, seed for the spring planting and if the money held out, a few little special items. We usually planned to spend the night in Fallon, take in a show, and stay in a hotel, the Overland, a real treat if you could stand the noise. After my list was completed for the shopping trip, we continued to visit and enjoy each other's company, until the shadows of the hills dimmed the picnic area. It was time for each family to journey home.
The Trip to Fallon
We borrowed my Dad's ton truck to make the fall buying trip to Fallon. Wednesdays were the best days for us to get away. We got up about 3:00 am, did the chores, and made sure that Lyster or my Dad could find the necessary things to do the chores until we got home. No doors were ever locked. By 4:00 am we were on our way to the big city of Fallon. It would take four to five hours to make the trip. Most of the roads were rough and corduroyed. Austin and Campbell Creek [Summits] took quite a spell to cross. The salt flats, before reaching Fallon, were not the easiest.
Parking during the 1930s was in the middle of Maine Street. Quite a difference than present day Fallon. Before we left for the return trip to Smokey Valley we would… double check to make sure we had gotten all that was ordered. On one of the other fall buying trips, it was rather frightening. When we left Fallon about 2:30pm, the sky was very gray and angry looking. Before we reached Sand Mountain, the snow was coming so hard and fast that the wind shield wipers would not take the snow off. We debated about turning back. A couple of hours of day light was left and we thought we could make it to Austin. It was a frightening trip. The two hours stretched into about five. To stay on the road we opened the windows and drove by watching the barrow pits. When we reached Elephant Rock I noticed tracks leading over the bank. We looked and it was a friend. Little Horse stopped and walked down to see if we could help to get the car back on the road. It was chore. It was Marshall Woodward. Chains had to be put on our big truck before we could get Marshall's car back on the road. Marshall followed us on our way to Austin. The snow made slow going. When we got to the foot of the Austin Summit it had quit snowing. The snow had turned to rain. We stopped and took the chains off. As we looked back we could count a total of 12 cars behind. From the summit home, Millett, the rains poured down and we checked our time ... it was 2:30 am. It was a wonderful feeling to see our #4 home. The house was warm, Grace and my Dad had [tape cuts. Original transcript continued "come from Twin River and were waiting for us."]
Our Fall Buying Trip of 1941
The summer news of 1941 had not been good. There was a lot of unrest in the country. I had a feeling we should put in a few extra staples, just in case. In October of 1941 we made the trip to Fallon. We had to scrimp to come up with the money to pay for the extras we planned to get. It turned out to be a very wise move. We got into Fallon, went to Safeways, then located on Maine and Center Street, directly south of Kent's. Mr. Sydenham, the manager of Safeways could not believe our list. One ton of sugar, one ton of flour, 150 pounds of coffee, 8 cases of tomatoes, 4 cases of peas, a hundred pounds of dried beans, 25 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of dried peaches, 25 pounds of prunes, plus any other goodies we could afford. Mr. Sydenham asked us why we were getting so much more than usual. If I remember correctly, I think my reply was, "We may not be able to get back for our spring and summer supplies." We loaded up the truck and made the trip home, all in one day. By the time we got everything unloaded and stacked, our storeroom was a store.
Pearl Harbor and How it Affected Us
The fall went along as usual. The wood shed was full of wood. The potato cellar was full. Wheat harvest was good, the bins were full and overflowing. A half-ton of coal had been ordered to supplement the wood supply. The cellar beams had cauliflower heads hanging upside down from the beams. Where there was room the tomato plants with the tomatoes on them were hung in among the cauliflower. The apples were stored so that we could have apples until the new crop came in.
To get the coal from Austin to the ranch we were going to have a borrow a truck and meet the truck that was hauling the coal from Salt Lake. Little Horse was helping brand cattle when the call came that the truck loaded with the coal would be in Austin. Who was going to get the coal? I had never driven a big truck, but rather than have to load it from a bin, I made the trip and got the truck back loaded. When I arrived home, the boys were still working the cattle, and I unloaded the half-ton of coal into the wood shed, returned the truck all in one piece, and drove home. I breathed a sigh of relief as I walked into our #4 kitchen.
The fall months went quickly. We had a breather. Chores were done. The cozy warm fires in the house gave moments to dream and plan. It made me feel that I had been very, very wrong in my thinking, that there would not be any war. December came in cold and snowy. We had done the outside chores later than usual. There were so many little things that had to be fixed in the house. On the 7th of December 1941 we had just come from feeding the cattle in the lower field. While Little Horse was unharnessing the horses, I came in to do chores in the kitchen. I turned on my little radio. What did I hear? "PEARL HARBOR WAS BOMBED" The Japanese had done a load of damage to ships and many had been killed. I put our trusty little phone to work. I called Maggie Daniels and told her what I had heard and for her to turn her radio on to get all the later reports. I knew I had not been wrong in my planning. It was such a short time before all eighteen-year-old and older had to sign up to serve the country. Sugar, flour, and coffee were to be rationed. Also, gasoline. Shortly after the War was declared, Mr. Sydenham wrote a note and asked to buy back some of the sugar, flour and coffee we had gotten in October. The price would be twice as much as we had paid for it. We did not accept the offer. Little Horse had to go to the draft board in Tonopah. His classification was 1A .... that meant we might have to hunt for home #5. If he was called up, he couldn't plan a lot, except get things in order, just in case he was called into service. If he had to go, I would find a teaching job and move to where ever it would take me. For two years we lived on needles and pins. Watch for each piece of a mail that might say "Report for Duty at such and such a place." After waiting for three months, the word came that he had been re-classified to 4F. We were really glad, but we didn't know but what the draft board would do another re-classification. We lived one day at a time. Our lives were changed. My Dad turned the running of the North and South Twin ranches over to Little Horse to manage. It was quite a responsibility. How was I going to help? I have always been a great believer of "The Big Man Up Above." A new road had to be built between Austin and Tonopah. Before it could be done, a survey had to be made. Or day, Denton Hayes, the engineer for the road department, came to the house and asked if I could manage to take care of thirteen surveyors. I said I would talk it over with Little Horse and let him know my decision in a couple of days. After much planning, we decided between the two of us, we could do it. I would do the cooking and manage to do the chores at home #4. Little Horse would wait on the table in the morning and at night. It was not easy, but we did it. We hired Ida Dick to do the dishes and keep the bunk houses and the house clean. There were no idle moments. I let Mr. Hayes know that we would do the best we could.
Our Family Grows
The surveyors arrived, they were a fun-loving bunch and fit into our way of life easily. For them it was a "camping out" way of living. As long as the food was good, they could do with most anything and any inconvenience. For three months they lived with us. To make our lives more interesting we had an old maid school teacher boarding with us, also. The boys enjoyed visiting with her and sharing the day's happenings. It built up her ego and made her feel like royalty. They were such nice, well-mannered boys, until the boys had a friend that they wanted to visit at Battle Mountain. On Friday night after work, they drove up to Battle Mountain for a week-end party. The party was wild and they returned home late Sunday evening. Monday morning, they came staggering in for breakfast. Not wanting ANYTHING but tomato juice and MORE tomato juice. They were less talkative and more bleary-eyed than Miss Case, the teacher had seen them. After the boys had left for work, Miss Case came into the kitchen and her anger exploded. She was not about to share another meal with such a raucous group. She was not about to stay in the same house where such nice, well-mannered boys had turned into such culprits. It made the boys feel very embarrassed when there was a vacant seat at the table. When they came in for supper, as strange as it may seem Miss Case would not speak to any of the boys for the rest of her stay at Millett's. Dear Little Horse moved all of Miss Case's things into our little apartment we had in the back of the old store. The remainder of the school year, all was peaceful.
How Strange Can Ideas Be?
Miss Case gave us many strange things to think about. I don't know if we were old fashioned or if she was. When she came to board with us had a menu to keep her from gaining an ounce: no eggs excepting at Easter, and then three soft boiled; no peanut butter because the old fashioned peanut butter had the oil that had raised to the top; no dates because they had been washed and handled by hand; no salt because it made her retain liquid. Little Horse went to Tonopah to purchase some of the things that we thought she might like. When he arrived home he had a jar of homogenized peanut butter. He not only had homogenized peanut butter but his eyes were aglow! I hadn't the slightest idea what he was up to. He had put the jar of peanut butter on the table and was waiting patiently for Miss Case to come in for supper. We both knew what she would say, "What kind of peanut butter is it?" Her question was a statement, "I have never seen peanut butter like that ... it must be tasteless and dry." "No, Miss Case it is just like the old fashioned, only difference is they have found how to take all the oil out of it. The fat content is much less and the taste is much better." "Mr. Carl, did they really take the oil out of it?" Little Horse went into great detail as to how it had been done, never cracking a smile and enjoying watching Miss Case take it in. His explanation was so convincing that she did take a taste. It was so tasty, before the week was out she had eaten a small jar of the "non-fat" peanut butter. Little Horse was so tickled that he had made a believer of his wild tales.
"Loelia, are all the teachers that easily brain-washed? I can't believe she is that gullible. If her reasoning isn't any better than that, how can she be a teacher?" I didn't have the answer for him. He was ashamed he had told such a wild tale. He wanted to tell her that he was only joking. "Forget it Little Horse, she is happy. She has found non-fat peanut butter. You let her have her fun and you have had yours. Think up another one of your peanut butter pranks for the future.
Miss Case and The Dates
Little Horse did not have to wait long until the opportunity presented itself. The Christmas vacation was a few weeks away and Miss Case wanted to got to Paradise Valley for the vacation to be with her family. In order for her to make connections with the train that ran from Austin to Battle Mountain, we had to drive her into Austin. Before we left home at Millett, we asked her if I could fix a lunch to tide her over until she got to Battle Mountain. "No thank you, Mrs. Carl, when I travel I do not like to eat much. When I get to Austin, I will get some dates to munch on. They will be all I need until I get to Paradise Valley." When we got to Austin, she asked Little Horse to pick up some dates for her to nibble on. He found two nice packages and when he gave them to her, she asked, "Where can I find a place to wash them? They have been picked and processed by those workers. They are not too clean, you know." She did not take the dates with her. We took- [tape cuts]
1943 saw many changes in our Valley. The water was seeping into the sand as it meandered down the hill to the meadow, and our small hay fields. During the spring run-off it kept us busy trying to keep the water in the ditch. The new highway, 8A, was begun and Little Horse got a job helping on the grading and laying of the oil that was used in paving. The extra money helped to pay off the mortgage on home #4. Lyster and Carol had moved to Hawthorne. They took care of the motel that my Uncle Ben had bought and Lyster worked for the government helping to build the igloos for storing ammunition. They had a new baby girl, Loelia Ann join their family on May 12. It was a joy to have a new niece join our family. When Loelia Ann was two weeks old Little Horse and I went over to see her, and her dad and mom. The trip over was beautiful. The visit, pleasant. About 5:00pm, we started back home. The wind had come up and by the time we got to Millers, the dust was so thick, you couldn't see the road, and it was scary. We didn't know if we should turn back and go to Coaldale, or try to get to Tonopah, eight miles. It was a hard decision. We did go on the Tonopah, but by the time we got there, we were covered with dust. The dust lasted for about only five miles. We had both said a little prayer when the air cleared. The rest of the way home was uneventful. At midnight, we had to do our chores. It was only a couple of weeks until we were called back to Hawthorne. Lyster had had an accident. A piece of steel had run through his mouth and punctured a hole in the upper part of the palate The trip was good, we found Lyster in good spirits. Luckily, the steel had not done any critical damage. The trip home was a very pleasant, uneventful one.
Fall saw the deer hunters coming. They were all having good luck. I had taken a teaching job at Round Mountain. I had all grades plus the first two years of high school. It was a real challenge to keep up with or ahead of the kids with their high school work. A special certificate was issued to make it legal so the high school students would be able to have their grades transferred to the next school they went to. The students I had in the first two years of high school had to take state tests to make sure they had completed the work and were ready for their next grade in the high school they would be attending. As far as I know, they passed.
Interesting People
Smokey Valley held many interesting natural wonders. The bird population was fantastic. Some of the professors from the University of California at Berkeley came to the Valley to make a study of the kinds of birds we had in our Valley. Dr. Linsdale an ornithologist _ from the UC Berkeley spent four summers counting, cataloging and photographing the bird families. At the end of his study, he had identified 121 different birds in the area. He and his wife stayed with us while he was doing his study. Mrs. Linsdale had the study of the plant life in the Valley. Our area was special. It was a privilege for Little Horse to have them stay with us. The Linsdales shared so much of their findings with us, we were a lot more knowledgeable about the wonderful, special things [End of tape 2 side A. Transcript continues: we were living with. We could appreciate our desert surroundings much more.
Louise Alexander and her friend spent two cold winters] with us. They were making a study of the rodent population in our area. They were elderly ladies and did not have to spend their time in such a desolate area. Louise Alexander was one of the heiresses of the Alexander Steamship Lines. She told us that she liked to get away from all the pressure of business. From their study of the rodents they were getting information that would later be published for references for the University of California at Los Angeles. Again, it was our privilege to share with such delightful people. The rodent that was one of a kind, kangaroo rat, they had caught and studied was found in Mitchell field about four miles from #4 home. Miss Alexander and her friend were so happy and so surprised, it called for a celebration. They had some special wine in their cache. I made one of my special pies plus a fried chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy and some of our dried corn that Little Horse had dried. It was very special. Especially since it was mid-January. Their stay was one of the most interesting times Little Horse and I had. This might be a good space for my special pie as I made it often. It is called Sour Cream Pie 3/4 cup of sugar; 1 cup sour cream; 1 cup raisins; 1/2 cups nuts, walnuts or pecans; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon cloves; 1/8 teaspoon of salt; 2 eggs. Mix together and bake as a custard pie. Serve with whipped cream. It is lush!
The dear old ladies were to come back for the third winter study. The winter had taken its toll and they did not return.
Ed and Euna Mae Oshier: The Oshiers and their adopted daughter and adopted son moved into Round Mountain when the Round Mountain Gold Mining Company had the working mine. Ed was head engineer for the company. Rationing of food was still being used. Little Horse worked for Ed and we became friends. Whenever we killed a beef, Ed and Euna Mae would drive down to get a hind quarter of beef for their own use. Euna Mae always wanted the kidneys. I asked her how she fixed them. She said it was so easy to do ... "Boil the piss out of them, and make a kidney pie." I didn't try it because I don't like kidneys.
After the peace had been signed in World War II, they still stayed at Round Mountain. They would come down to the ranch and we spent many pleasant hours together. Both Ed and Euna Mae had spent time in the service. When the mine shut down, Ed went to Denver and Una Mae moved to Porterville, California. They both came to see us often after we had moved to Fallon.
Nell and Del Williams, a dear couple from Marysville, California, came to Round Mountain to work on the big shovel that moved the dirt that contained the gold. It was a triweekly visit to the ranch. Nell had to have fresh milk and that we had plenty of. Nell and I did a lot of quilt talk while Del and Little Horse mined, fixed machinery and all the things men do.
Les and Lillian Allen: They had also come from Marysville, California, to work on the machinery that was being used by the Round Mountain Gold Mining Company. Lillian liked dishes and we spent many hours on different kinds of furnishings for the dining room. Les and Little Horse had more inventions that never got to the patent stage. It helped Little Horse and me make the world bigger and we became more knowledgeable in many fields other than the ranch.
Paul, Francis and Kathi Esterhazy, the last of the reigning house of Esterhazy from Budapest, Hungry made our home a place of joy for them. It all happened in a strange way. Paul had come to Round Mountain from New York to work in the mine. Little Horse was also working up there. He and Paul became friends. Paul asked if Little Horse would share some of his ranch knowledge with him. Paul, Francis and Kathi would drive down a couple of times a week. Paul and Little Horse would check out the field and Francis and Kathi would spend their time with me in the kitchen. Francis shared with me some of the experiences they had escaping from Hungry. They were not pleasant ones. I will try and remember some of them to share.
When they knew they were going to have to leave their homeland, Paul took all the art work out of frames, rolled them up and sent them to an art dealer in New York. His clock collection, valued at over a million dollars, he buried on the Esterhazy estate. What other valuables he could save were smuggled out of Hungary into Germany. Paul managed to escape, leaving Francis and Kathi there until he was able to arrange for their escape. Francis was a pilot in the Hungarian Air Force. Before Paul could get them out, Francis, and Kathi, who was three years old, managed to escape. They spent four months trying to locate Paul. They finally got together in a small town in northern Germany. Francis said it was a wonderful meeting, but having no money it was getting by on what they could beg or steal. Through the Catholic Church they were finally able to get the family to New York. They arrived in New York and were able to get help from the Catholic Church welfare in New York. It didn't work out. They were there penniless but Francis located the Red Cross. They were fed and housed until Paul could find work. Francis said the food was wonderful. From the time they left Hungry until they reached New York they had fared on watered down potato soup. Their stay in New York was short. Paul contacted the art dealer to whom he had shipped his art collection. He sold one of the paintings for enough to get to Round Mountain, Nevada. An ad in the Wall Street Journal had been his first job since they left Germany. His job at the mine lasted until the mine closed. On one of their visits to the #4 home, Paul brought down a couple of his paintings. He wanted to borrow $500 to repay some of the bills that came due. He offered a painting of the Last Supper as collateral for the $500. We gave him the $500 but under no circumstance would he take the painting. It was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. It was worth much more than the money Paul wanted and Little Horse did not want the responsibility of having it in our home. The $500 was repaid back in ways that were more precious to us than the paintings that Paul could have offered us. Our friendship has lasted all of these years and the history of their lives has taught us that money is not the most important thing in life.
Scotty and Mr. Johnson: There were people from all walks of life. Death Valley Scotty and Mr. Johnson, Scotty's money bank spent many visits with us at our home #4. Mr. Johnson was such a gentleman and Scotty was just Scotty. Both were most interesting to visit with. Little Horse and I were invited to visit Scotty at his castle in Grapevine Canyon. Kings and Queens could never have been more graciously entertained than we were at Scotty's and Scotty did the cooking and it was a very, very special meal.
Pat McCarran, Vale Pittman and Mr. [James G.] Scrugham were the other politicians that made #4 home a stop... at our place. From them we learned many interesting and worthwhile things. Reverend Shriver, the traveling minister, made our #4 home a stopping spot. Many services for the Valley folk and the Indian friends were held at our home.
1945 and Two Special Events
The summer was progressing as usual. The same amount of chores that had to be done each day were done. The crew had decided they would go to Kingston and do some fishing. I had cleared the tables and put away the dishes, had in mind what I would serve before they went to work in the field. I turned on my radio and what wonderful, wonderful news I heard. The War with Japan had ended! The big-wigs were in the process of finalizing the terms. The boys had missed out on the news. I had to tell someone we were "AT PEACE" once more. I called my friend Maggie Daniels and the Valley folk had the report that Japan had at last surrendered. Maggie's husband, Albert went down the Kingston Canyon and gave all the fisherman the wonderful news. The hay crew left the creek and drove on to Austin from Kingston. The celebration was on for two days. When the crew came back to finish the hay, they were a tired, happy bunch and the hay seemed to fly into the stacks. Little Horse and I just put up the fence around the hay. All of our cows were brought off the meadows and put on the new mown pasture to eat it down. All of our chores seemed much easier just knowing that the fighting has ended.
The second big event had been long in coming. Joyce and John Yelland had been waiting to adopt a play mate for Toby. In the spring, plans had been made for the arrival of the little new one. I went through all the months of waiting with Joyce. Each day I would call her to see how she was coping. As the weeks went by Joyce had checked with the adoption agency to make sure that everything was coming along as planned. The day Ray joined the Yelland family was a hectic one. Joyce, John, and Toby had come down to our #4 home to spend the day. Little Horse, John and Toby had gone to the little field to fence in the new mown hay that had been stacked. Joyce stayed at the house with me. She was having all of the ailments that go along with birth. About noon the trusty little phone rang. I answered and the message was for Joyce. It was a call from Elko to tell her that she and John were the adoptive parents of a baby boy, Ray. All her pains ceased and she was ready to go home, pick up her packed case of baby clothes and head for the Elko Hospital. It was a joy for all of us. We did not have to suffer the nine months ... what was it going to be like to have little Ray home? Ray was a beautiful baby. He couldn't have looked more like Toby, when he was a baby, if the kids, Joyce and John had hunted the world over. He, Ray, was a very lucky baby to have been adopted by such a wonderful couple. [tape cuts]
Little Horse's Sister and Brother-in-law
We had anticipated their visit to our #4 home. Many things had been planned to make their visit a happy one. It was in the fall of the year, and Mother Nature had made it beautiful, fall colors everywhere. Bob and Alta arrived with another couple and the first day everything was perfect. We watched the wild animals make their nightly visits to the meadows. There were deer, porcupine and skunks. We enjoyed a very pleasant visit. As we returned to the house, Alta complained of a headache and a sore throat. It didn't sound good, but thinking didn't make it hurt any more, and it didn't make the hurt go away. In the morning when I checked what Alta wanted for breakfast, I didn't have to ask how she spent the night. Her temperature was up and both sides of her face were twice what they should have been.
"Alta, have you ever had the mumps ?" Mumbling, "I can't remember if I have had them or not." "Let me get you some nice warm tomato juice." After a few sips of this juice, I didn't have to ask about the mumps. I knew we had a mumpy sister-in-law at our home! I made her as comfortable as I could. I found my red woolen scarf, rubbed her jaws with oil and put plenty of cover on her. "Orders are Orders, Alta. You are to stay in bed until the swelling goes down and the temperature is normal." For a week or better, she was confined to the bedroom. Bob and the other couple had to go back to Van Nuys. Little Horse did all the things we had planned to do, excepting Alta could not go with him. Alta and I spent the days and weeks at home. After 15 days, I let her go the front door and peek out and see what was close by. When Bob came back to take her home, we did do a few of the things that had been planned for all of them. Alta didn't enjoy them as much as she had hoped. Mumps had taken their toll of her strength.
A Special Father's Day
My Dad had been up and down for a month. He had been in and out of the hospital at Ely a couple of times. All of us were at our wits ends trying to make him comfortable. As it got closer to Father's Day, I said, "Pop, is there any place special that you would like to go, and feel up to? Little Horse and I will take you any place you would like to go." Little Horse said to me on our way home, "You sure let yourself be wide open for a huge order." As we walked in the door of home #4, the trusty little phone rang. My Dad had had enough time to think over what I had said and it made his spirits rise. On Father's Day which was only a couple of days away. "I would like to go over some of the country I used to cowboy in. Do you and Little Horse want to take me? Grace does not want to go. We can leave about four o'clock and I will guide you into my early days." It sounded like a long day, but I had asked, so we did. I prepared a picnic lunch for at a least a twelve-hour trip. It didn't take much. My Dad liked a few cans of sardines, crackers and beer. To him, that was a banquet. Little Horse didn't care for the sardines, so I put in some cheese, peanut butter and some cold roast beef sandwiches. Crackers would suffice for the three of us. For drinks, beer, coffee and water. At 4:00 am. we were on our way. It was to be a long, but a very rewarding day. From Smokey, we made our way to Hawthorne by Tonopah. He, my Dad, pointed out all the places he had ridden for cattle on the drives. Whiskey Flats, the Antelope Corrals, Huntoon Valley area and the Saw Mill and other; Bodie Cut-Off, the Conway Ranch, Mono Lake, their old home, the Craters, the Grants Lake. By the time it was getting into the late afternoon, I suggested we start home to Smokey. No, we couldn't go until we had gone to Silver Lake and to locate a spring that had ice cold soda water. He was sure that a glass of that cold soda water would cure all of his hurts. After quite a hunt and search, we found the spring. It was all, he told us it was. Icy cold and very strong taste of soda. We had to have a couple of jugs filled with the good water to take to Smokey. After filling the jugs we had to have a bite to eat and drink some of the good water.
We couldn't back track. We made the loop to Gem and June Lake back to the Crater's Cut-off to Mono Mills, Dutch Pete's and Benton. At Benton he had to make a stop for a beer. A trapper had just come in with a mountain lion. It was a huge cat. The beer stop lasted for a few stories of other lions that had been trapped and as the last rays of the sun hit the White Mountains we ambled our way home by Montgomery Pass. Knowing my Dad, I knew we would not get past Mt. Montgomery without another stop and a visit with old friends. By the time we bad spent time at the Montgomery stop, it was well into the evening. We, Little Horse and I, knew that we could not pass Hawthorne without another stop. We spent another hour in Hawthorne while my Dad visited with old friends. We arrived back at his, my Dad's, home. It was in the wee hours of the following morning. Grace was fit to be tied. She was afraid we had had an accident or we had had to put my Dad in a hospital. After telling her of our day, Little Horse and I drove to our #4 home. There were a couple of chores that had to be done before we could call it a LONG, LONG day. As weary as we both were, we had to recount all the things that had made it a perfect day for both of us and my Dad. It also made my Dad feel much better and he had forgotten all his aches and pains, in which he had been. It also gave him something to talk about and to see how many changes had been made since he was a young cowboy. [Tape cuts]
Charles McCloud and Lena Streshley
They had known each other for many years. They had been to many parties. Lena had worked at the Lander County Court House for many years. Charles had ranched in Smokey Valley all his life. Neither one had ever married. The "love bug" had never entered either of their minds or crossed their paths. My Dad liked to have a party at the drop of a hat. When the notion struck it was on short notice. It was a February day. Things had been too quiet and all had been housebound too long. Again, the trusty phone came into use. He called Little Horse and me and asked us to plan for a Valentine party at his home. We did some fast planning. All the neighbors were invited to join Grace and my Dad for an evening of food and fun. My Dad suggested we ask Lena Streshley to join us. Little did we know what he had in his mind. [tape cuts] He also wanted us to make sure that Charles McCloud would be there. After the evening chores were done, and the neighbors began to arrive at Grace and Dad's home. Being farmers, the feasting began about 6:30. When everyone was served and the chatting was noisy but happy, my Dad said he had something to say. None of knew what was coming! "We have a couple of friends that have known each other for many years. [tape cuts] -Join all the married couples. Lena and Charles have you ever thought of getting married?" It took all of us by surprise. After each one had had a moment to think of what my Dad had said, they had words of encouragement. Charles and Lena started dating and in six months they became one. Of course, a wedding calls for a charivari. We knew there would be a big crowd, so we rented the hall at Darrough's Hot Springs. Bert and Millie Acree came from Austin to play for the dancing. The friends and the neighbors from Austin, Tonopah, Round Mountain, Eureka, Ely and Battle Mountain came to wish Charles and Lena much happiness. Everything went well, until about midnight. All were happy and some were a little too happy. Betty Holts, one of the teachers was dancing with a guest from Tonopah and he fell and down went Betty also. She broke her leg in the fall. Most of the men were a little bit clumsy and they made a complete failure of getting Betty into a car to take her to the doctor at Tonopah. Little Horse fixed a bed in a pickup, picked Betty up and carefully put her on the bed in the truck. He made her as comfortable as possible. He rode with her to make sure that she would get the best of care. After they left, I went home.
The Year the Grasshoppers Ate the Fields
I don't remember the year, but it was one of the dry years that we have. It was so hot, dry and dusty. Water from the hills was nil. The only water to water the fields of alfalfa and wild hay came from the ponds that Little Horse had made to use in case the creeks went dry. [tape cuts] Each day as we rode to the hills to check the water, the swarm of grasshoppers grew and grew. The crops in the field became smaller and smaller. What was the answer to getting rid of the hordes of chewing insects? It was not only our fields that were being invaded but all the fields in the Valley. A meeting was called and the men, and Leo Funk from the Extension Service met with Valley folk. His suggestion was to get poison bran and scatter it in the bushes that surrounded the fields. As I remember, the government provided the poison bran for such an occasion. The ranchers would get up and spread the bran about 3:30 in the morning. Grasshoppers, being early eaters, did clean up a lot of the bran. However, that did not get rid of all of the pests but did make a dent in the… hordes [tape cuts out. Transcript continues: of grasshoppers. The fields were as bare as a new plowed field.
There was one funny incident. Joe Tognoni had an old milk cow that got out into the brush where the bran was scattered did a good job of eating her share of the poison bran. It upset Joe and] he was ready to sue the government for sending the poison bran out. It didn't hurt the cow at all. She was anxious to have more of the goodies scattered. The boys had to rake the fields to get rid of the dead "hoppers." After getting the insects piled up, they would cover them, put gas on the pile and burn them. The air in the Valley was very potent from the smell of the dead insects. The burned bodies did make good feed for the coyotes.
Nick Rogers
Nick was an Indian [tape cuts out, transcript continues "friend that lived on a little ranch about four miles from us. He was] truly a very loyal friend and neighbor. He had about 40 head of cattle that he grazed on the public domain which lasted because BLM was not there [ed- this is land that was later taken over my BLM and is still in public use]. In the summer months, there was enough grass and brush for them to make a good living. Nick raised a little alfalfa, not enough to carry the animals through the year. A few animals he kept to sell were pastured in his little meadow. As fall and winter neared, outside feed was scarce. Little Horse would put on extra forks full hay and scatter it on the outside of our fence and the cattle always had something to eat. Nick was very careful to make sure that they always had water and that none of them had gotten into wire or had been chased by coyotes or cats. Sometimes the rides were long and cold. On very cold days he would stop by the house and have a cup of coffee and cookies. One day he asked Little Horse for a pie, after the other goodies had been eaten. Neither of us knew what he had been talking about. He had a hard time explaining what the pie was. We were so surprised when we found that to him pie was a hand rolled "Bull Durham" cigarette. Nick was not a smoker but he did enjoy his "pie" after he had refreshments. He and Little Horse would go into the dining room, roll their "pie" and spend a good hour smoking and "spinning yarns." In the summer months he would invite us to go to his little ranch and share with him his elderberry wine he had made. The bottles were kept in the cold spring water next to his raspberry patch. When the raspberries were picked, we always had to take some home for my Dad and Grace. Of course, we had our share also.
When Nick passed away, [End of tape 2] his son Frank came down and asked Little Horse to come up, help make the casket and help bury his Dad. The ceremony was very simple. Each pallbearer was told where to stand. They carried the casket up the hill, across the creek, and up another little hill. Two big rocks concealed the burial spot. The hole had not been dug, in which to lower the casket. Frank gave Little Horse a shovel and asked him to lift the first shovel full of dirt. Frank told Little Horse by doing that the Evil Spirit would never bother his Dad and he would be happy in the Hunting Grounds. None of the women were welcome at the ceremony. They stayed at the house and prepared a meal for the men. Frank took over the little ranch after his father left. He did the work of caring for the cows. We got to see him quite often, but he did not like "pie." He did not smoke, nor did he- [tape cuts] his sense of humor… had wanted toy guns, so Little Horse whittled them the guns. They had to take money from their piggy bank to pay for the guns. The kids decided they would rob a store to get more guns. I heard what was going on. I told Little Horse what I had heard what the kids were planning. I also told Little Horse he had to get the guns back and return the kids' money. Frank heard me talking to Little Horse and telling him my story. He said, "I will tell them I had heard of their plans." And he also said, that the sheriff in Tonopah was looking for two redheaded kids that were planning to rob someone to get money to have guns made. Loelia Ann and Boom had been with me when I told Little Horse of their plans. The story Frank said he had heard started to sink into their noggins. Tears and more tears and two very frightened little ones. Frank and Little Horse continued to make the robbery story more frightening to the kids. Finally, Frank said if we could find [tape cuts] include him in on what was taking place. Ted said he had met the sheriff down the road, and that he was looking for two redheaded kids that were planning a robbery. By this time the kids were ready to do anything just to keep the sheriff from looking for them. Frank said if the guns were turned in, he would pay for the guns and that the sheriff would not put them in jail [tape cuts] My two little redheads couldn't get to the house quick enough to get the guns and get them to Frank and dispose of them as he would or could. Their money was returned to the piggy bank. There never was any more plans made to have guns made, or to rob people to get money for their own pleasure. It was a very good lesson for both of them.
Some of the Final Days at Home # 4
There was a change in our seasons. One, the weather pattern was changing. Our times were changing. Everything was changing. Many of the old-timers were selling their homes and property. Some were out of the state. Others moving to other parts of our own state. Little Horse and I had a few chances to go visit friends and relatives. A friend from Carson City was always glad to come take care of our place and watch and care for the animals. My cousin Gene Pyle and his wife Agnes asked us to come and spend a couple of weeks with them in Pendleton, Oregon. We arranged our time so that we were there in time for the Pendleton Roundup. It was a wonderful experience for us. We were killing two birds with one stone. It gave us time to look at properties and check on the livability of different sections of the country. We knew that the way things were changing, we would in time be looking for a new home. The Pendleton area was very fascinating. To me it was like a patch-work quilt. They did a lot of dry land fanning. A patch of lovely green peas and a patch of dry land that remains dormant for the year. Truck load after truck load of peas were being brought in for freezing and canning. We visited some of the plants used in processing the crops. For fun we went to the parade that they had each year. It was an all morning affair. There were many floats but many more horses. Indians came from near and far. I don't remember how many acres were set aside for the beautiful Indian Wigwams. Each tribe had a certain section for living. Gene and Little Horse spent each day at the rodeo. They saw some of the best riders in the country. Aggie and I would drive out along the river and pick elderberries and choke cherries. After we had gathered all the good fruit, we made jelly and jam from the elderberries and syrup from the choke cherries. Some of the evenings were spent at pageants of the early history of Pendelton. The acting was wonderful, but to me, too realistic. After a pleasant two weeks in Pendelton, we made our way back to home, checking different little cities. As we came, each one had things we liked and others that we would leave.
Our Trip To Grants Pass
Our second nice vacation took us north and west. We left home #4 in care of our neighbor. We thought it would be in care. It wasn't to be. The vacation was wonderful. We drove up through Gerlach to Cedarville, California, up to Lake View, Oregon, and Grants Pass to visit with my Uncle Arch and his wife Ann. It was a beautiful trip. We drove miles and miles looking at the beautiful meadows. The wild flowers were plentiful, and the hills and mountains were a rainbow paradise.
I had forgotten my flower book so didn't identify many of the gay displays. The wildlife was abundant. There were lots and lots of deer. They looked so peaceful grazing in the lush grass. There were quite a few antelope before we got to Cedarville. On the [tape cuts] lakes the water fowl were at their best. The geese and ducks had their babies following in lines as they moved from the meadows to the little lakes.
The home on the Rogue River was a palace to us: three bedrooms, each with its own shower, a huge living room, a large dining room. The kitchen was huge. It had windows that looked out on the Rogue River. The house sat on two acres and they were well landscaped. The squirrels and the racoons were everywhere. The sun porch was perfect for relaxing. While visiting there we had a chance to drive to the zoo and aquarium in Eureka, California. Giant Redwood Groves where we met with Paul Bunyan' s statue. We were taken to the most wonderful eating houses. It was a treat we had never had before. The bakeries and fresh fruit stands and vegetable markets were out of this world. When we left for home, we loaded up with fruit and vegetables for both families in Smokey. When we arrived home we found a mess. The man we had left to take care of the place was an alcoholic and we had a lot of cleaning to do and a lot of repairs to make our house livable again. It taught us a lesson. Other vacations were short trips to place close by.
Other Interesting Things To Do: We drove seventeen miles to Darrough's Hot Springs, and had our weekly swim. We always felt very relaxed after a bath in the hot water pools. Anyone that came to visit that was one of the joys for all of us.
Final Days in Smokey and Home #4
It was a year and a half of guessing. The seasons were changing. There was no snow in the hills and the springs were dying up. Little Horse had to have three of the artesian wells sanded. He made a couple of dams to store water for irrigation. Even with the ponds, the water had to be spread sparingly. We had gotten a new tractor to help us keep the land in shape. It was one of the very few things we had to buy on time payments. In order to pay for it, Little Horse went to work at a mine 35 miles from home. It meant driving back and forth every day. I tried to keep the little gas station we had built up on the highway. It was quite a chore for me to take care of the place and try to run the station also. My Dad's health was not getting any better. We spent many hours trying to help Grace, my stepmother, take care of him. In the early spring of 1952, Little Horse had to take my Dad and Grace to Boulder City. They put him in the hospital there. When Little Horse got home from Boulder City, [tape cuts] north and south Twin Rivers were beginning to run. Water was scarce, so he had to do a lot of work to get the water down to the lower ranch. He had only worked on the ditches a couple of weeks when we got a call from Grace to come to Boulder City and to bring them home.
Another Long Trip
The summer of 1952 was a rather hectic one. It was hot and dry. The crops were nothing. We wondered how we could take care of our 100 head of cattle that we had acquired. We managed to put up 5 stacks of alfalfa and wild hay. With luck, that would see us through the winter of 1952. In early October of 1952, we got a call from Grace that my Dad was very sick and could Little Horse take them back to Boulder? It was a fast trip and my Dad was out in the hospital again. Little Horse had only been home a couple of days and a call came from Grace that my Dad was critical. Could we come down? He wanted to see us. We had to find someone to take care of the place. By the time we had made arrangements, it was noon. It was 11:00 pm when we arrived at the hospital at Boulder City. My dad was waiting for us. He told us of his plans for the next day and asked us if we wouldn't like to go fishing at Mono Lake when was able and out of the hospital. He said he was tired and we had better go to my brother's home in Henderson and come back the next morning. We had only gotten to Lyster's home. The phone rang. My Dad had left us. After all the plans for his burial had been made I came home with Grace. Little Horse followed the hearse. In Tonopah my Uncle Ben "butted" his nose in and all plans were changed. A memorial was held in Tonopah and after that we took the remains to Bishop for burial. The trip to Bishop was just as my Dad would have wished it, FAST. After the services in Bishop, we, Grace, Pete, Mary, Rene, Little Horse, and I, came back to our homes in the Valley and Lyster drove back to Henderson. Before we all settled in, Grace, Little Horse and I had make several trips to Vegas. My Dad had taken some property from John Cavanaugh in payment for the Twin River ranch. Grace wanted us to be with her while that was being settled. Lyster, Little Horse and I had gotten some of property when the estate was settled. [tape cuts]
Learning a Lesson
It seems that when my Dad took the property from Cavanaugh, there was not a clear title to the land where all the buildings were placed. I went to the title company in Las Vegas and definitely asked them if all the lines were straight. If everything was in order before we did anything on the land. I was assured that it was all intact. We payed quite a sum of money to have the title researched and okayed. When we took possession of the land we thought everything was straight. A lady from California by the name of Petrie came over and bought the property from us. We thought we were giving her a clear title but she went to the title company that we had gone to and found out that there was a house on just a small section of her land. We had to go down to Las Vegas and it cost us quite a bit to get the title cleared. It wasn't an easy chore to take care of. I have found out that even title companies cannot be trusted. I sometimes have said and I have said it many, many times over and over.... who do you believe? Who can you trust? Is there any such thing as justice? We had to give a quick claim deed to Petrie of some 420 feet in order to clear the land so she would be happy. That again, cost us quite a bit to have that taken care of When it was taken care of, down there, we came home and said, "Never again will we accept the word of a title company."
Our lives had not changed an awful lot after my Dad passed away. Little Horse continued to work up at the mine to keep things going and so that we could buy and progress as the money came in. We didn't do an awful lot of building, but we did do some work on the ditch to keep the water, as limited as it was to come down to the ranch so that we could irrigate our little field. There were trips to Beatty quite often to pick up Bentonite to put in our ditch. It worked. It took a lot of time to go down and pick up a load of Bentonite and bring it back and put it into the ditch, watch the water settle it in and then see how much farther down the ditch it had come. It was quite an interesting project, well worthwhile.
I stayed home and raised more chickens. I sold eggs and the cow brought us in money from the milk and the cream that we could sell. We also killed cattle. I didn't do any of the killing but I learned to skin and it was quite an art. I could do it without cutting in to the flesh and that was a big, big feather in my hat. [tape cuts]
The fun days were over. It seemed like every day some of our families moved away. The McClouds moved to Fallon, The Smees moved back to Las Vegas. The Rogers sold and came to Fallon. It just wasn't "our valley" anymore. The Carvers built up a service station down at the southern end of the Valley and had a restaurant and a gas station. Round Mountain was quickly closing down. The mines were shutting down. It was not the same valley at all. We didn't have to make the buying trips that we had had to make in the early days. It just wasn't for us, so we tried to sell. It just didn't seem like that was in the offing at the time. But when it did come, it came so fast that it sort of frightened us. I have learned in the process of all this livelihood, that Little Horse and I could do anything we had a mind to do when it came to getting money coming in. [Tape cuts]
The two Yelland families sold their place and moved back to Ely. It was a very lonely valley with no one to associate with. Everyone had their own work to do and it seems like they were all busy. The people from up at Round Mountain when the mine closed down, moved farther and farther away. They went back to Marysville. We did make a couple of trips down to Marysville to see the Williams and the Allens. It was a fun trip to do that. We also made a trip to Mohave to meet Little Horse's niece and nephew-in-law, and have a short visit there. Each Memorial Day we would go over to Bishop and check on the graves. It seems like that was the whole deal. It just wasn't the same anymore, but we still had fun and Little Horse always made it a happy time, whether it was happy or not. I don't know what I would have done without him. He always cheered me up and he always made it seem like a worthwhile day. [tape cuts]
After the chores were done in the morning and supper was made for the night meal when Little Horse came home, I would saddle up Red and the two dogs and go to the hills for the day. There was always something interesting to see in those mountains. And there were always places to be found that are now forgotten. The Indians also have a burial ground down in Mitchell Field. I used to go there quite often to see that the graves were being taken care of. When the rains came it was hard to get down there to see them and it got to a place where the coyotes and other varmints would dig up the graves. It wasn't a pleasant situation, but it gave me something to do and make the days past faster. It just didn't seem like the same, same place to be at the house alone. Even the little phone did not please me. While it had changed, it was still not the same.
With time on my hands, I decided to take up a couple of courses from the University of Utah. One was an art course and the other one was a course in writing. It took up a lot of time with the art work, but it was well worthwhile. I learned to do a little drawing and sketching which I had not ever been able to do before, and the other course, writing, was interesting and it helped a lot. I probably should have taken a course in business management, but I didn't. After I had finished those two courses, I took up a course in hotel management which was most interesting. It was from the Lewis Hotel in Washington state. I did much, much research in preparing for that. It has helped me with my cooking and it has also helped me in how to manage the household a little better. [tape cuts]
Nell Murbarger
Nell Murbarger was the writer of western stories and ghost towns. She and her trusty little Ford were fixed up to travel all over the country. She went by herself, but I was privileged to go with her on several of her little treks up the hills. She liked to go to Ophir Canyon and see what the Army had done up there to destroy the smoke stack of one the big mills that they had up in the canyon. It was quite a day's travel. So we would make our lunches, take the two dogs and the horses and ride up and see what there was. Another one of our trips was down the valley to see all the writings that the Indians had done in the southern part of Smokey Valley. It was fun and it did help to pass the time for me. Little Horse also enjoyed Nell very, very much. They had long talks about what had happened of the history of the country and Little Horse could give her an awful lot of information on some of the old camps.
We went up Park Canyon and did a lot of exploring around there. In the early days, the miners had been there and had mined for silver. It was a long trip from the house but it was worthwhile. The wild flowers were beautiful and the foliage on the trees was lovely. It took us several days of hunting to find all the things she wanted to write about. She wanted to write about some of the lizards that lived in our valley. The ring-necked lizards were the ones that took her fancy. She took many pictures of them and up at Park Canyon she took many pictures of the old mill that was built at the mouth of the canyon. A good part of it still stands to this day as far as I know. [tape cuts]
After we moved into Fallon, Nell made many trips and we tried to find the first county seat of Churchill County. We had quite some trips on the Stillwater Range. We never did get to the town of the first county seat. [ed- Nell was searching for LaPlata, on the east side of the Stillwater range, which actually was the second site. The first Churchill County seat was at Buckland's Station, now part of Lyon County.] The people at the Wildlife Refuge [tape cuts] told us a story that took us on a trek with no ending, but we did have fun. Even though we got high-centered a couple of times before we got out of the range. [tape cuts]
It was and it wasn't a happy move when we left the Valley. There were so many pleasant memories that we were leaving and yet we knew we had to go. It was one of the things that took us from one part of the country to the other and we saw many, met many and made new friends wherever we went. We spent at least six months looking for a new place to live. It wasn't easy. We didn't have the money for most of them and the ones that we liked were either too expensive or the snow was too deep. In Washington we found a place we liked very, very much where they make the Applets and Cotlets. But they told us that there they had snow six feet deep. There was no wind though, it was not a bad situation. But, Little Horse said, "No, if there is snow there that deep, we don't want that part of the country at all." So, we moseyed along back down through Wyoming and in Wyoming, we found a place that was beautiful, but again, it was not to be had. There were seven snow fences on the road coming up the canyon from the ranch that we like so well. We looked at everything on the place. It was just exactly what we wanted, but, again, snow and Little Horse said, "NO MORE SNOW! We are not moving back into some place where we have to fight snow." So we left Wyoming and moseyed on down to Henderson, Nevada. We looked around Henderson, but nothing was too enticing there. There were too many people, for one thing, and it was too crowded and too hard to get around in. But our move from Fallon was still in mind and we came back to visit some of the friends, not thinking about getting another place as close to Smokey Valley as we did.
When we came into Smokey Valley [ed- she means Fallon] from Henderson and looked at our little home here, it was the most beautiful place in the world. I can't say it is the most beautiful world to most people but to us, it was just exactly what we could afford, what we liked and that is where we wanted to stay. But again, we had longings to go back to Smokey and we did go out several times and look the place over.
Mr. Frawley was not the person to be on that ranch. We should have known that from the very first but he was an arrogant, egotistical, know-it-all, easterner and he had many changes that he was going to make in the few months that he was there. We did try to show him some of his pit-falls but he would not listen to us. I guess it was just not to be. But when we found this little place it was to be. It is and had been one of the nicest homes, the most "homey" homes we have ever had and I can say that Little Horse and I enjoyed it to the fullest. There could have been nothing that could have pleased us more than our little place on Auction Road.
There was not much here when we first came but our own little house and a few others. But now, we are in the City of Fallon and the city proper. It is not a happy feeling without Little Horse here but when he was with me, he made it just as much a home as it has always been. I have a feeling that it will always be a home that he really meant for me to stay in after he left me.
This is the end of my story. Thank you [End of tape 3]
[Ed- This tape was originally titled "Our move to Fallon, Happenings in the Valley" and was originally labeled 1a & 1b. However, narratively it makes significantly more sense to put it here and follow it with tape 4]
This is the second page of the book that I have written about Little Horse's and my married life.
My Dad had passed away [15 January 1953 at Boulder City, Nevada] and we had come back to Smokey Valley after the services in Bishop.
Grace, Little Horse and I had to make many trips to Tonopah, Las Vegas and Ely in order to settle up his affairs. It took a long, long time to do it. My brother, Lyster, and I had gotten some property down in Las Vegas as part of the inheritance. And, Grace would go with us to see that all the recordings were made proper. After all this was taken care of, in 1953, we came back to the ranch and started where we left off before my Dad passed away. Little Horse had to go to work to make all ends meet. He found a job at a mine about 42 miles from home up by Pete's Summit. He would commute every day. I would do the work that had to be done at the house. It was a never-ending job, so it seemed. We had put the place up for sale several times but only one time had we had the opportunity to show it and the man who looked at it was afraid of the rattlesnakes and said that was not the place for him. Each day, as the days came, we did the things that were necessary to do: feed the cattle, do the chores, take care of all the livestock, see to it that there was nothing in any of the springs and time went along as usual. In October of 1953, we had a phone call from Bob Musgrave [Fallon real estate agent] in Fallon. He said there was a man in Fallon who would like to come out and look at the place. He was originally from California and he wanted to locate in Nevada.
It was on a Saturday and Mr. and Mrs. George Frawley arrived. Little Horse and I had planned to go to Austin to a show, but Little Horse showed Mr. Frawley around the place after they arrived at the ranch. Mrs. Frawley stayed with me and she was not happy with what she saw. So, we invited them to go with us to the show in Austin. They declined, they said that they would like to stay and see what there was on the place. The next morning when we got up, Mr. Frawley came in. It was about 5:30 in the morning and he said, "I suppose you would like to know our decision." We told him that we would and that we had made plans to go ahead if he was interested. He said, "I am interested. I am going to take the place." Mrs. Frawley said, "If I wasn't a good Catholic, I would divorce him immediately. I do not like this place. It is out in the boondocks. There is nothing here that is appealing to me. I like it where I have all the conveniences of life. Frawley and I are older people and we do not need to be put out in a place like this."
But, Mr. Frawley was adamant. And he said, "We are staying." So ... it was October, and October 12th was Columbus Day. He wanted us to go into Tonopah to put the place in escrow. We told him that we could not do it that day because all the state and county offices were closed. He insisted! I told him, "Frawley, we can't go in today because we will just take that 90-mile trip for nothing. We will have to wait until tomorrow to get things going." He said, "Well. I know it will take at least 3 months to get everything straightened out and go through escrow." [tape cuts]
On Tuesday we went into Tonopah and went to Willy Crowell who was the office in charge of all the work that we had had done. He said, "If you folks will go down and have lunch, and come back. We will see what can be done." Frawley was amazed when he came back and Willy said, "Everything is in order and everything has been taken care of and you can take possession of the ranch as soon as you pay the money."
We drove back home and, on the way, coming home, I said to Little Horse, "Well, here's a fool who meets a fool! [tape cuts] You want to sell the place. If you do, PLEASE KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!" When Frawley saw that it took only that short time to get things in order, he said, "I had given you three months to get out, but if it can be done in a month's time, I would like to take possession."
Little Horse and I got busy and packed up, threw away, burned and did everything that we could to get rid of the stuff that we didn't want and that Frawley did not want at the ranch. I burned up ever so many Wells Fargo canceled checks that been stored by Mr. Millett when they had the place. Mr. Frawley said, "Well, why did you destroy those?" I said, "There was no use to keep them . Nobody else would want them." He said, "Those could be valuable." That was not the right thing to say, I guess, because he became very indignant and he insisted that I leave everything else alone. I did just as he said. I left everything alone that I thought would not be of any use to them. [tape cuts]
Little Horse continued to keep the job that he had up at the mine. When he came home in the evening he would pack up all the big equipment away. I proceeded to do all the little stuff and it seemed like a never-ending job. There were words and more words. [tape cuts] We didn't know where we were going to go. We hadn't acquired- [tape cuts]
Home #5
We left the Valley and drove down to Henderson, Nevada, and spent a week with my brother Lyster, Carol, and the two kids. From there we moseyed down to Arizona and looked through parts of Arizona to find a place. They were either too high or they were not the proper thing. Little Horse said, "Let's head north." So, we came back north. Went through Wyoming. There was a place near the town by the name of Lander. It was a lovely, lovely set up and we both liked it until Little Horse and I saw seven rows of snow-drift fence. He said, " This is not the place. We can't stay here. I have lived in snow too long and I don't intend to stay any longer." [tape cuts]
From there we drove into Washington and drove through all the state of Washington that we could get through. There were lovely places every place but none were within our price range. So, we came down the coast and spent some time in Grants Pass with my aunt Ann. From there we drove on down, through to California and in the process of doing that we stopped and visited with his brother Charles who lived in Hanford. Then drove on down to Saugus and visited with his sister and brother-in-law, Alta and Bob. Nothing was there that we could even touch. From there we drove to San Diego and spent a spent a few days in San Diego County, looking at things there. We went to the zoo and watched all the animals. We spent a whole day going through the zoo. From there we drove over to Hemit. I don't know why we went to Hemit, but we did. At Hemit they were having a dog show and it was the first dog show we had ever encountered. So, we spent a good part… [tape cuts. Transcript continues "of a day there viewing the first dog show"] I had ever seen in my life.
After we had had our stay there, we went on down to Yuma, Arizona, and Little Horse told me the story of his travels in the early days of going over the dirt road to Yuma. How nasty and dusty and hot it had been, and how many flat tires they had had. At Yuma, we looked there, but it was too hot, so that was out. From Yuma we drove on down through to New Mexico to Carrizozo. His mother and dad lived in Carrizozo. We spent some time looking around there, but couldn't find what we wanted, and besides he said living close to a family was not to be had, and he intended to get as far away from a family as he could get
After we had had our visit and had looked around in New Mexico, we drove back to Henderson, Nevada, and stayed with my brother. He had a little camp trailer and we lived in it for a week. A week went into a month. One day we decided to come north again and get some supplies.... at least some fresh meat and fresh eggs that we weren't able to get in Henderson.
While in Fallon, we looked around at places and finally went to real estate dealer by the name of Jack Webber [Webber Real Estate, 355 West Williams Avenue], he said, "I think I have just the place for you." So, we came and looked at the place we now live in [1700 Auction Road]. It was a lovely, lovely place. It was about an acre plus, but Little Horse said we didn't need anything bigger than that and we did have the money to pay for the place. Mr. [Otto] and Mrs. [Lydia Gaylord] Sander were living here. It was their home and they had lived here for many years. Otto had built the place before he and Mrs. Sander were married. So, we went back to the real estate agent and put the place in escrow.
From there we went back to Henderson with the eggs and the fresh meat and stayed a couple of three days there. That was in early February. We came back up and wanted to take possession of the place within 60 days. At the end of the 60 days Mr. and Mrs. Sander had no mind of moving out. We had stayed at the Couch Auto Court [250 South East Street] at this time. It was fun driving back and forth and planning our new home even though we weren't in it. After two months I got a little tired of waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Sander to get out of the place, so I told them that they could either pay our rent at Couch Auto Court or move out, that we were moving in! It was in March of 1954 that we moved onto the place.
For the first week that we were on the place, we were busy picking up things and placing them and getting our possessions out of storage, that were stored down at the Consolidated Warehouse [301 N. Taylor]. It took us quite a while to get everything into the house and located the way we wanted it. But it was fun in doing it. New neighbors came to wish us well and the days passed very fast. After a month's time, Little Horse decided that it was time for him to get to work. He was becoming bored with just such a little place to work on. He knew of a man by the name of George Coleman and had worked with him in the [Masonic] Lodge work. So, through George he got a job with the Nevada State Highway Department and went to work. I was to be LADY. Lady? Heh, that was not for me. It didn't last too long.
In the fall of 1954, I went down to the [Consolidated B] school and asked Mr. Frank M. Godwin [ the superintendent] if there was substitute work in any of the grades. He said that at the present time we do not have any openings for substitutes but there is a place for first grade teachers [at West End School]. "Would you mind taking a first grade class steady?" I said, "I will think about it and will let you know in the morning." The next morning, I went back down and I said, "Yes, I will take the first grade." It was quite an experience, one that I would not want to repeat again.
I was the third teacher that that room of little first graders had had that year. It was very confusing to them and I am quite sure it was confusing to me. I wanted work books for them and Mr. Godwin said that there were none available at that time, so Little Horse and I drove into Reno and got workbooks for the class. The class consisted of 26 pupils. They were confused, I was confused, but after the first month we got along beautifully and the school year passed with no upsets, excepting one of the little girls, Janet Copenhaver, getting caught in the closet and not being able to open the door to get out. It was something that I had warned them about many times, but we have to experience before we know what we are doing. And, she did. After I let her out, there were many tears before, and many tears afterward, but I think all of the youngsters learned their lesson from that. At least I hope they did, because I didn't have to experience it again. The school year went off beautifully and at the end of the year they asked me if I would come back for the next year. I was very happy to accept it another year because after everything straightened itself out it had been a delightful year.
Flossie Fowler [Mrs. Jess Fowler] and Ella Hanks [Mrs. Ed Hanks] took me in tow and showed me the way of the school system. They were very, very good in all of the things that they told me. If it hadn't been for them I probably would have made many, many mistakes. But as it was, things worked out very lovely. Through the summer months of 1954 and 1955, I decided that I did not like to pull weeds. The place had 2 rows of strawberries, and 2 rows of asparagus. So I said to Little Horse, "What can we do to get rid all these weeds?" He said, "I really and truly don't know." So, the summer of 1955 he plowed up the ground and we put in grass. I can't remember what kind of grass it was but whatever, it was very, very good and made a lovely park.
The strawberries- I will have to stop and tell you a little tale of our little Midnight [black dog]. We had lovely, lovely berries coming on and we had planned on having good strawberries for breakfast, but those strawberries never seemed to ripen. We wondered why. So, one morning very early, about three o'clock and I went out to look, and who was going down the strawberry row? Well, you will never guess, but it was Midnight. He was going through and picking out each ripe strawberry and having them for his breakfast. It was fun to see but it wasn't fun for us for our breakfast. We just never got a strawberry that year but we didn't scold him and we didn't say anything that would upset him because he had caused us other trouble. The asparagus rows, we used that year but plowed them up when we decided to put in the lawn. The lawn turned out beautifully and is still in fairly good shape after all those many years from 1955 to 1999. [tape cuts]
Today, being the 4th of July [1999], it is a good time to tell a little story about what happened in Fallon on our first 4th of July here. Early the morning of the 4th Little Horse and I decided to go up to Austin and visit with the folks that we had known in the Valley. It was hot in the Valley and it was hot up in Austin when we got there. However, we did have a very delightful visit and I sort of dreaded the thoughts of coming back to Fallon in the hot, hot, hot weather. But as we hit Sand Mountain, the air started to cool down and when we got to the house it was really quite cool, more like an early April evening. It was nothing that we had anticipated but we enjoyed it. We went to bed, never thinking of what might happen that night. Through the night the wind started to blow like fury and about 4:00 am of July 5, we had a nice, nice shake! One of the nice earthquakes that shifted the sand out by Stillwater, part of the mountain down, and it made cracks in the road Little Horse was not satisfied to stay home and see what all the damage had been done here at home. He had to hurry, put on his clothes, and go up town to see what had happened up there. He said, "I want to see what the damage has been done there in town and nobody was hurt." But I really think that he went up just to see what he could see what he could see in the sights of people running out of the houses in their nighties. I stayed home and went around to see if there had been any damage here. Luckily nothing had been taken off the shelves. The shelves had not been raised and it was really quite safe to walk around. However, the next day we did find out that out in the south area of town at the Sorensen place, the earthquake had raised their root cellar up in the middle. All the food on the shelves was safe, but the middle of the root cellar was up almost to the ceiling. It was quite a sight to see. Little Horse had to go to work on the morning of the 5th and they worked out towards Eastgate. Some of the roads had been cracked, but not as badly as they thought they had been. When he came home, he was so excited about all the things that had happened all around the [Lahontan] Valley, but hat was our first experience of an earthquake here in Fallon. [tape cuts]
The next day, on the 5th we had irrigation water here in the yard. I was anxious to see and had hoped hopefully that I would be able to see what an earthquake had done to the ground out in the garden. It had really shaken the earth up. The water was coming down and all of a sudden it started to roll like waves of the ocean, only not quite as high. It was fun to see and feel and experience just such a feeling. I hoped never to have to have it done again, but one can never be too sure in this world about what will happen tomorrow. [tape cuts] For the rest of the summer I stayed home and hoped the be "The Lady." However, it became a boredom and in the fall of the year I decided I would go down and see if I could get a substitute job at school. Mr. Godwin told me that there was an opening in the first grade, as they had had too many children for the number of teachers that they had. He wondered if I would take a full-time job. I told him I would come home and talk to Little Horse and see what he said. [tape cuts]
Some Of My School Years Stories
It was in October of 1954 that I started teaching the first grade. I had a class of 27. It was a delightful little bunch of youngsters but they were as confused as I was. It was a good thing that they were patient and that the people in charge were patient with me. Mrs. Flossie Fowler and Mrs. Hanks, Ella Hanks took me under their charge and let me go my way with their assistance. We did make the year out after all the trials and tribulations had been settled. The children were short on workbooks. Mr. Godwin said they did not have the finances to secure workbooks for that year. So Little Horse and I, on one of the Saturdays, went up to Armankos in Reno and I got enough workbooks to take care of the class that I had. It was not so bad after that. With the use of the blackboard and the workbooks and the books that we had available, it all worked very beautifully.
One of my off-duty chores was to sit with the youngsters when they had their lunch. At that time, they did not have lunch rooms at any of the grammar schools. Those children would all come into the hall and they would eat their lunches there. Sometimes it was good and sometimes it was bad. We did have one or two that were a little obnoxious and you had to send them to the principal's office. It worked out as far as I was concerned, I don't know that it worked out as far as the children were concerned. The year went very, very well.
My second year at West End was another story. During the summer months the district had taken all our little desks out and had planned to purchased new desks for the year. When school started again in September, and I went back, there were no desks, but a room full of auditorium chairs. If you have ever worked with little youngsters around auditorium chairs you find you are continually pulling one out or putting one in or taking the chair up or putting the chair down. It was a raucous, raucous start for the year. Our desks did not come in for about six weeks after school had started. So Little Horse bought me a great big rug that we put down on the floor, and we did our work from the floor and the blackboard. One day Mr. [Donald] Johnson came in and he said, "Mrs. Carl, what are you doing down on the floor?" I said, " Mr. Johnson, the children and I are speaking to one another. We work together, person to person." And it worked out a lot better for all of the children in the room. It was a fun year. We did enjoy it immensely. When we got out new desks it was a joy, but it was a fun time, also a noisy time to try and adjust to the new desks and get all of our things put away in the proper places without knocking each other down or throwing each other on the floor. But it worked. It was just one of those things that you have to put up with sometimes in the process of teaching.
Our year finished out beautifully, but we did have an experience that was quite funny. One that I enjoyed thoroughly. One of the little boys that had been in Mrs. Price's room was a little slow. Mr. Godwin said at Christmas, "Mrs. Carl, if you do not take this little boy into your room, I am going to have to get a new teacher to take Mrs. Price's place because she cannot put up with him any longer. The situation has just gone farther than she can put up with." I had found out from this little boy's mother that he was particularly fond of cars. So Little Horse went up town and bought me four [toy] trucks that we played with for the rest of the year. I took many, many trips, back and forth to Las Vegas in those trucks in order to keep Jack [Ellis] entertained and keep him quiet! He was always at work, but sometimes he 'would want to go and of course we all went with him when he went to Las Vegas and it was a fun trip for all of us. We saw some of the towns going and coming and we learned from the map that there were other towns besides Fallon. I think the kids knew that there was Tonopah, Beatty, and Las Vegas. The when we came home, we always stopped in Tonopah and had our lunch. It worked out very well. Jack learned to write his name before the end of the year and the sentence, "I am Jack." One day he came to me and said, "Mrs. Carl, do you mind if I go and tell Mr. Johnson what I have done?" I said, "I would be most happy to let you go." So, he went in and he read his story to Mr. Johnson. All that was on line was... "I am Jack." But it was a great accomplishment for him and for me, because I had never taught a mentally retarded child. It gave me an understanding of how much patience you have to have in order to cope with something like that. From that time on- [End of tape 4, side A] Wonderful success.
There was another little incident that happened that year that was funny and not funny. But it taught the children to really pay attention to what was being said. I had warned the children not to get into the clothes closet and close the door because they were hard to open from the inside. One day I was out on lunch duty and the little girl, Janet Copenhaver, locked herself in one of the closets. When I came back into the room, there was more screaming and hollering than you can ever imagine. It is a wonder that some of the other teachers did not hear it, but I had the pleasure of taking her out and reminding her that you do not disobey orders in school because it can get you in to trouble.
After that, the next school that I had was over at Northside. It was not a far place from home and I would drive up every morning and look in on our new room. Mrs. Ella Hanks and I went in to Northside with the class rooms not completed. There were no blackboards, no floors, no clocks, no bells of any kind, no rest rooms and a bus was on stand-by eight hours a day so if a child had to go to the bathroom they could be taken to West End. As you know, when there is something like that in the offing, EVERY child in the school HAD to go to the bathroom at least forty times a day! So, the school year was sort of interrupted but we made it through. It was just another one of those obstacles we had to meet. Ella and I would bring water to school in buckets. We issued each child a paper cup at night, put them on their desk, warned them that if they lost those cups they would be very, very unhappy because we were afraid to let them pass the cups from one to another on account of diseases. The nurses were not available at that time and there was a little girl that had to have [tape cuts] medication. The water became very scarce for her and we had to be careful to see that she always had plenty to take her medication which she had to take four times a day. It was quite an experience and sometimes a little scary. But, again, we made the year through without any very, very terrible mishaps. [tape cuts] The bells that called us in from play was an old bell that I had brought from home that I had had for many years in previous years of teaching and also one that I had gotten when we had the sheep. It did its purpose though and we had our watches so synchronized so that they all stayed together. The one that was closest to 4:00 o'clock, at any rate, as that was the end of the school day. [tape cuts]
The second year at Northside, most of the things had been completed but the classes had grown and they had had to put two classes in Quonset Huts. The school had also decided to build an addition on to Northside. My room was right next to where the addition was to be made. And, we had jack hammers, all sorts of equipment working all day long. Sometimes it was a little hard to hear one another but again, we managed to surmount all those problems. One day, Mr. Johnson came in and he said, "What do you expect of these children?" I said, "If they don't all become construction workers it will be a mere surprise to me."
We managed to finish the year and the third year at Northside was not as hectic as it had been before. We had clocks, we had floors, we had rest rooms, we had everything that we needed. And, it was much, much easier to cope with the children, but they had also decided that they needed to have a music room at school. My room was made into the music room and I was moved across the hall to the west side of the building. That was fine with me. It was a good place for the children to see all the activities that took place in the pastures across from the school [Venturacci Ranch]. The children loved to watch the animals and they also loved to watch the cars go up and down the road. The year went beautifully and we had a very, very quiet year.
After that there were many little things that came up that I had least expected. There was one little girl that had been hurt and she was a paraplegic [Dana Smart]. It was a challenge for me. Mr. [tape cuts] Oxborrow said if I could handle it, he would like for me to take her. I didn't know just how to handle a case like that. However, I had the opportunity to go to Australia that year and on the trip there was a lady that had taught nothing but special education. She said the nicest thing that you could do for that child is to keep all the other youngsters in school and have her stay away for a week before she started. While that week was going on, for me to explain to the other youngsters that we had a problem coming into the school room and they were not to make fun of or not to make any comments what so ever. It was really one of the nicest things that had happened for me. When school started in September. I asked her mother [Eva Bianchi Smart] to please keep her home for at least a week before she enrolled. In that week we discussed many things that could come up and many obstacles that had to be met by all of us. We had to treat her as one of us and also make her feel very comfortable in the room. It was a challenge for the children and it was a challenge for me. But again, we met that challenge head-on! About six weeks before the end of the school year she was asked to go to Salt Lake City to the Shrine Hospital where they had been treating her. And, to go through an evaluation of what had been done through the year. How the school had affected her. What it had done to her health and how she had managed to adjust in the room. When her mother returned from Salt Lake, she came into the room and she said, "Mrs. Carl, the people in Salt Lake told me that Dana was one the most well-adjusted children that they had had to deal with in quite some time, and that the teacher that had taught her or had had her had done a very good job of making her life a pleasant and acceptable one." That was a BIG feather in my cap. I thought I could do most anything if I could do that!
Each summer was a happy summer for all of us. In the fall of the year, just before school started, I would plan a reunion for the first graders that I had had the previous year. It would be done so that they could have a chance to get together as a group. No longer would they be in the same classes and each would go their separate way. We had much fun. All of the children that were here in my class during the year we here for the party. Little Horse always helped me to arrange it. To arrange the games and to help see that the they had a pleasant time. Each was given a little memento of the year that they had been in my class. Usually, it was a little book.
The remaining years at Northside were pleasant. Many things were happy and there were several things that were very unpleasant. One of the most awful things was one of the teachers, Mrs. Myers, collapsed in the room. One of her students came running into my room and tearfully said, "Mrs. Carl, QUICK! Our teacher is down, she can't get up! I put one of my students in charge of my room and hurried into the room. Mrs. Nellie Huber came in and we sent for an ambulance that took Mrs. Myer to the hospital. She had had a heart attack and was very, very sick for several days. However, she did come back to finish out the school year.
Another incident was a fire that broke out at the Consolidated Warehouse. I was out on the yard duty and saw the smoke burst out the window. I called the children and told them to stay low because there was a fire and we didn't know what would happen. I sent one in to the office to tell them to alert the fire department that the fire was close by. When it was all over, we were very, very upset. However, no great damage was done and all went well.
Some of the more pleasant things that happened through the school years. Each Christmas we had parties in the rooms. Each Halloween they would have parades through the halls so they could show off their costumes. It was fun for everybody, and much, much fun for the teachers.
I had one student in my room whose mother made us some of the most beautiful puppets I have ever seen. We would put on little puppet shows for the other rooms. They all enjoyed it to the utmost. I asked the boy [Bobby Getto] whose mother had made the puppets if he still had them. He has kept every one of them and said they are in very good shape.
Little Horse had gotten me a three-wheel bike and it was a fun deal for me to play Santa Claus at one of the Christmas parties. I dressed up as Santa Claus and rode my bike filled with toys down into the Multi-Purpose room and the kids were thrilled to death to see Santa Claus come riding in on a bicycle. I took a lot of teasing from the other teachers for doing what I did, but to me it was fun.
Another incident that happened at Northside. One of the little boys came to school one day with a terrible earache. As a child, myself, my mother had always held me close and said the warmth of her body would help to ease the earache. I sent word to the office that little youngster was sick and the parents should come and get him because he was not able to spend the rest of the day with us. About in a week and a half afterwards I woke up in the middle of the night and my jaws had started to swell. I said to Little Horse, "Little Horse, would you please call Mr. [Elmo] Oxborrow in the morning and tell him that I have the mumps." Little Horse said some words I will not repeat, but he said, "Go back to sleep. You don't have mumps." However, the next morning when he woke up my jaws were swollen twice as big. And he did call Mr. Oxborrow and asked him to get a substitute teacher to take over my place until I recovered. It was an ordeal to keep me down, because I didn't hurt, it was just a swelling. George and Nell Coleman would come out every day to see that I was behaving myself, that I wasn't going outside. One of the teachers from Oats Park gave me a wool scarf that she had. I used that wool scarf for the six weeks that I was down with the mumps. The other teachers at school hadn't had mumps and they were afraid to come near. It might even carry over the telephone. It was a fun-fun deal for me, but I sure had a good rest. When I went back to school, it was hard. It had taken more out of me than I had realized, but I did get over it and it is something that I will always remember having gotten the mumps at Northside.
My retirement party was a big one, but a sad one. I really hated to leave the school but it was one of those deals where I had to make a decision. My hearing was going and to be with little youngsters with their high-pitched voices… it would be impossible for me to understand all that they said and it was very frustrating for them to think that they had to repeat and repeat and repeat. I think, if it had not been for the loss of my hearing, that I would still be teaching to this day. I do enjoy children. I thoroughly enjoyed my work at Northside and I gained much knowledge from those little youngsters, just watching them grow mentally, physically, and morally. It gave you an uplift every day to walk into the room and to see the progress that had been made. Most of my youngsters have worked out into jobs that are very well worthwhile. There are a few that are little scoundrels and have gone astray. Sometimes I wonder what I didn't do and yet again I say, "Well, it wasn't all my fault. I did the best I could." [tape cuts]
I am going to put in something now that is not pertaining to anything that happened here in Fallon. This was of our great-uncle, Arch Farrington. And this is the obituary that was written for him.
"Word was brought to Bridgeport [California] Tuesday morning, telling of the death of Arch Farrington on Sunday, December 18, 1932, at the home at Millet, Nye County, Nevada. Arch Farrington, "Uncle Archie" as he was best known to his many friends and acquaintances was born in Burford, Canada, in Ontario, on June the 4th, 1842. At the age of 18 he left home and went to Battle Creek, Michigan. At this point he joined an immigrant party whose destination was the Great West, and landed at Salt Lake City, Utah. Here he and a brother engaged in the ox freighting business hauling between Salt Lake City and Montana. After seven years spent in this work, he came to Austin, Nevada, in 1872.
At one time he owned the famous Garfield Mine which netted him a fortune. So rich was the ore that a single ton lacked but $2.50 of paying $10,000.00. Later he made a trip to England and sold this mine to a British syndicate. In company with Ogden, he next acquired the Sera Gorda mine and also operated the Indian Queen mine and other properties. Sometime about 1894, Mr. Farrington purchased large land holdings in Mono Basin which he later sold to J.S. Cain and W. S. Metson. Now, the property of the Cain Irrigation Company. Leaving Mono County, he next purchased the Gilbert Ranch in Deep Springs Valley, also several properties in Owens, Valley. His last purchase, being that of the large ranch holdings at Millet, Nye County, Nevada. The same being his home, up to the time of his death last Sunday.
He was a man of sterling worth and character, of whom it was often said in his busy lifetime - " that his word was as good as his bond." Surely, no higher tribute could be paid to any man. The writer's first introduction to him was about fifteen years ago when he was introduced as 'Uncle Arch Farrington' and by this honored name we have since known him. In his passing there have gone from a large circle of relatives and friends, one who will be missed, but let it be said in passing, that all knew that at his advanced age, of past ninety years, that his life's tasks were finished and finished well.
Arch Farrington was a member of the Masonic Order for nearly fifty years, having joined that order at San Jose. For the past twenty-eight years he had been a member of the Winnedumah Lodge F.&A.M. of Bishop, California, from whose home he was buried following the rendition of the beautiful ritual service of that Order. Internment being made at the Masonic Cemetery at Bishop. So live that when thy summons come to join the innumerable caravan that moves to that mysterious realm where each shall take his place in the silent halls of death, thou go, not like a quarry slave at night, scourged to his dungeon; but, sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Some of our Activities After We Retired
One of the highlights was the 4th of July each year. We always planned a picnic here at the place. The whole neighborhood was invited. The only requirement was "bring a dish of your own liking." It was nothing to see us all out in our yard to the tune of about forty dishing out all the good things and enjoying all the amenities of life. Each had a story to tell of different 4th of Julys that they had had. Each had a real, real sad story; each had a funny story. If I could remember all of these stories and put them all down together, it would be well worth while. But our 4th of Julys were always a fun time, here at the place. We not only had all the folks in the valley [neighborhood] that were friends but we also had all the dogs and cats and birds and rabbits. All the family was invited. It was such a delightful outing and Little Horse was always so gracious. He would fuss'it for a long time but when it came time for people to arrive, he was there to greet them, to show them all of the good things that we had in our yard. See to it that each one had a nice poesy to take home and explained all the different flowers that we had in the yard... how we had fought and fought and fought to make them grow. One of the specials ones that he liked to show off more than any of the other flowers was our weigela [a showy shrub of the honeysuckle family]. It is a beautiful, beautiful plant. The bells are real dark pink with little red centers and they are sort of bell shape. It was a hard thing to get them to grow.
Mrs. [Olive] Pierce, our neighbor, said that they would not grow in this valley. Both of us, being stubborn people, decided that it WAS going to grow whether it wanted to or not! We had to plant it five different times before it found a place that it liked to call home. It is in the far corner, south corner of the yard by the gate. In the spring of the year it is just one solid mass of bloom. I had never seen another one here in the valley. I am not saying that they cannot grow but I do know that they have to have a very special place in which to live. They need to be trimmed as all plants and shrubs and trees should be. Little Horse knew just how to do it and before he left me, it showed all of the love that he had put into it. It was just a great big cushion of bloom in the spring. [tape cuts]
Another yearly trip that we took was to Bishop [California] on Memorial Day. We would leave here early in the morning, go down to Hawthorne, cut across over to Mono Lake, down the Sherwin Summit into Owens Valley. We have family that is buried in the Bishop Cemetery. There is Uncle Arch Farrington, Grandpa and Grandma Farrington, my Aunt May, after whom I am named, and my Dad [William James Farrington]. They are buried by a lovely, lovely big lilac bush. The grounds are beautifully kept and it is a joy to go over and see how happy and peaceful they must be looking at the hills of the White Mountains to the east and the Sierra on the west. It was a joy for us to visit with our family. Ena, Jimmy and Susan Cook, they are related as second cousins. Jimmy has a feed store in Bishop and we always enjoyed going to his feed store, looking at all the animals that he has to take care of. He always managed to have cows, a couple of sheep, a lot of chickens and ducks. They were fed from the feed that was lost in the process of handling it from one place to the other.
After a pleasant day in Bishop, we would come back through Benton, over Montgomery Pass and to Mina, then to Hawthorne and home. It was an all days journey but it was a journey that had been worth while and we always had such a good visit with all of our family that lives in Bishop. The Cooks were not the only family. The Sprowell family also lived there and we go to visit with them also. Each one had a little story to tell about what had happened through the year. The conversations became most interesting. I wish I could remember all of the things that they had done, to tell you how interesting were and how they passed their time from one year to another.
In the fall of the year it was the custom for us to always have family come for Halloween. We would decorate all the yard and all the house with all the goodie-fallory things we could find. Sometimes it was sort of scary but everybody enjoyed what they saw and everybody enjoyed what they did, and I am quite sure that we enjoyed what we did. We were always happy to have an open house so that everyone could come and spend time with us.
We took other trips that I will try to tell you about in the next form of the tape. I don't know how they will come out. I'm not much of a story teller, but I will do the best I can. For now, I am going to call it quits for this tape and try to get my thoughts together for the next tape of our life here in Fallon. I hope you have enjoyed this much of it, and I hope kids, that you will realize that we are a fun-loving family. We enjoy people, we enjoy what we do and try to make everybody feel at home in our household. [Tape cuts]
George and Edith [Kendrick] Eckman, they were a dear little couple that lived across the railroad track from us. Poor little Edith was so crippled up. I used to spend my spare hours going over and reading to her. We would do recipes. We would talk about things that had happened years and years ago. And, if on a Sunday she was able to go for a ride, we would take her places. One of the places that she enjoyed most, was going up to Gerlach and then into Cedarville where she enjoyed seeing all of the old things that had been done years and years ago. One of the most interesting things for her was to see the big potato cellars that they had in Cedarville. [End of tape 4]
The Finish of George and Edith Eckman and Little Horse's and My Trip Up Through Cedarville And Up Above Cedarville
We had such a lovely day. It was nice and it was cool. Our lunch was like we wanted it, fried chicken, potato salad and Edith's favorite, a coffee pie. She loved a good coffee pie and I used to make them quite often for her. We spent the day looking around at all the old buildings, all of the potato cellars, all of the old, old pieces of equipment they had for display. Before we left to come home, we saw to it that our car was loaded down with enough potatoes to last us through the winter. Those were the best tasting potatoes I had had in a long, long time. And George and Edith enjoyed them no end. It was a day well spent.
Edith was terrifically tired when she got home but she said, "You know, Loelia and Little Horse, I am ready to go again. Could we go again tomorrow?" I am afraid it would have been a little bit too much for her and as a matter of fact, Little Horse had to work the next day, so we could not go on another trip on the Monday. But it was good for all of us to get away from Lahontan Valley and see how other people live in other parts of the country. [tape cuts]
George and Nell Coleman
George and Nell Coleman were another dear couple that we met after we came to Fallon. We spent many, many hours on picnics, going for rides, going to different parts of the valley and seeing all of the things that they had not had time to look at when they were here. After living here for all these times, it always has seemed strange to me that people stay pretty much to one place. I love to see all the different things that there are to see, and in this valley there are many.
We used to go down to the Stillwater Wildlife Refuge and go through and look at the birds. Not once did we do it, not twice did we do it, but many, many times. Each time we went we saw so many different kinds of birds in the process of their flights from the north to the south and visa versa. In their spring flights from the south to the north a lot of them nested down in the marshes in Stillwater. Avocets were one of the most interesting birds that we did see. George and Nell loved to see the avocets and Little Horse would always antagonize the Momma and have her come flying at him like a mad, mad woman. She was protecting her nest and her babies. I have pictures, and lots of pictures of the avocets that we saw in the Stillwater area. They were also down on the Pasture Road area, and Nell and George went with us there many times.
Another one of things we loved to do with George and Nell was to fix a supper and go out on the Schurz Highway, I do not remember the name of the springs [Lee Hot Springs] but it was a hot springs. If we had food that had to be cooked we would see to it that we had pans that we could put in the hot springs and do the cooking there. It was always much cooler out there on the hill than here in Fallon on the hot, hot day. There was a breeze that came down from Walker Lake, it seemed like, and cooled the air up there. Our picnics there were many and each one was a little better than the other. Another place that we used to go picnicking was out on the road where the boys were working. Nell and I would fix up our supper, take it out to where they boys were working. They would stop their work for a few minutes and we would have another picnic. I am a great person for picnics. I love them. There is nothing more fun than to sit down in the sand, on a rock, just wherever and eat our lunch out in the open. Another place that we used to go that was most interesting was out to Sand Mountain. We would take our coffee pot and our food, take the wood with us, build a little fire, and have a picnic out there at Sand Mountain in the evening. The summer months were not very good to go out there; it was so hot. But, in the fall and early spring was when we spent much time out there. We also went up to Lahontan on picnics. The teachers also went with us at times on the Lahontan picnics. We always took our wood and all the goodies. I had a big, big, big griddle, and I would mix up the hot cakes before we left and take our griddle with us and the bacon and the eggs and Oh, those tasted so much better up there than they did here at home. Another place that we liked to go picnic was up on the hill [Rattlesnake Hill, tape cuts]. We never ran out of picnic places.
When we all retired from teaching, we formed the Teachers Union, the Retired Teachers Union. Mary Gail Jensen came out from Reno to help us get it started. Magda Bolger, Little Horse and I made many trips throughout the county to see if we could get teachers that would be interested in joining us in our group. Our first group meeting was out at Kelly Johnson's home. Kelly became our president and acted as a wonderful president for several years. At the end of each school year we would have a big picnic out at his place [6045 Power Line Road] and invite the teachers that were retiring to come and join with us in hopes that they would join our union. I spent many hours, with Little Horse's help, in securing nice programs for each one of our teachers' meetings. One of the nice speakers that we had was Mr. Davis. He had traveled all over the country and it seemed that he had pictures and stories for each country that he had visited. It was just a real joy to come and listen to his lectures. However, there were some of the teachers who were not polite. They had to talk during his session of lecturing and I think that that is one of the things that lead us to do away with getting a speaker to come and talk to the teachers at their meetings. [tape cuts]
I would go many places to find many interesting things that would interest all the retired teachers. One of the nice places that I did find was out in Yerington at the Wildlife Refuge. I suppose because I am interested in birds it was more interesting to me than it was to some of the others. But they all would come and they all seemed to enjoy what they were doing. That way, they were all together and doing the same thing. Most of the time we would have a picnic when we were either coming or going to these different places. Don Perry, Little Horse and I went up to the [geothermal] plant up on I 80, to the place where they were making pepper flakes, onion flakes and what have you. We had hoped that they would allow us to come and visit to see how it works. However, it did not work in with our program and it did not work in with theirs. It was interesting for us to see it and I think the rest of the teachers would have enjoyed it had we been able to consummate it. Just one of those things. It was not to be.
Now, I will stop and try to tell you something of what Fallon was like when Little Horse and I came to Fallon. We lived a mile from town. There was not an awful lot on each side of the road. However, to the east of there was a stockyard owned by Jake and Dorothy Jacobs. They had a sale of livestock every week. Once in a while, they would have people with merchandise of all kinds come in and everyone would flock down to see what kind of merchandise they had for sale.
On to the east of their place was the old fairgrounds. It had many, many interesting things put on. The Indians would have their pow-wows. The circuses would come there and perform. If there was anything very special in town it was done at the old fairgrounds. [tape cuts] To the north of us was the railroad. It would come in during the fall of the year when the cattle and sheep were being shipped to market. It was ever so uncertain when it would come in. Sometimes in the middle of the night and sometimes in the middle of the day. It was fun just to see it come in. To the west of us there were four houses on the north side of the road. To the south there was the old hospital owned by Dr. [Hobart] Wray, the Summerbell place and the house owned by Jack and Jean Uithoven. Later, to Martin doge and family. From there on around the corner there was nothing. We were a very, very small little community on Auction Road.
Mrs. [Olive Alberson] Pierce would walk with me up to town quite often. There was not much on the way into town excepting when we got to Maine Street the Court House on the north and a gas station on the southeast. There were hotels, gambling houses and what have you until you got down to Center Street. At one time most of the parking of the cars was done in the middle of Maine Street, from Williams Avenue down to Center Street. It was nothing to see all the cars right in the middle of the road. [tape cuts] On the main street some important businesses was: The Court House on the west side of Maine Street [10 W. Williams], and as you went down the Maine Street on the east side, there was the Union Oil Station, two jewelry stores, The Golden Rule Store, the Theater [Fallon Theatre, 71 S. Maine], Kent's Market [165 S. Maine] which was opened to everybody. A lot of Kent's produce was brought in by the local ranchers who had things to sell in season. On the west side of Maine Street there were all of the saloons, a couple of restaurants, a couple of barber shops, and when you got the Center Street, from there on down there was J.C. Penney's [290 S. Maine], the [Heck's] Meat Market [250 S. Maine], and Frazzini's Furniture Store [270 S. Maine]. Frazzini's Furniture Store was there for many, many years. On the east side of the street from Center, toward the south, was the Safeway Store, a hardware store [Palludan's Mercantile, 201-257 S. Maine], Kolhoss Market [263 S. Maine] which was there for many, many years. It was operated by two brothers, that were here in the valley for many, many years [Harvey Jr. and Munsey Kolhoss. Tape cuts]
One of the first new buildings in the center of Maine Street was the First National Bank of Nevada [built 1950, 295 S. Maine]. We used to go there quite often and it became sort of a meeting place for us with people that lived here in the valley, seeing as how it was one of the one and only banks, it took care of many, many customers. Later on, the Dairy Queen [310 S. Maine] was built across the Street from J.C. Penneys. That drew a lot of the young people from around the valley. And, not only the young, but also the old. It was a place to go and spend an evening with your friends and family. [tape cuts]
At the north end of Maine Street was Kent's hard- Not hardware store, but general things [260 N. Maine]. We got our grain, lumber and all of the things that we needed to build things. It was another meeting place for old friends who came in from out on the farms in the valley. Little Horse and I also spent a lot of our spare time and spare money at [Guy Wemple's] Consolidated Warehouse. It was another place where you could buy lumber, grain and what have you. It was an interesting place to go because a lot of the fanners would come in and they had many tales to tell of what was going on in the valley.
Kent's market was an interesting place. They had many, many things of all sorts of varieties. You could go and look in there for hours, find things that had been long used many years ago. As time went on, they added a florist shop and a seed shop to the store. In the spring of the year, it was nothing to go and see the people go in to the nursery part of the store and pick up all of the plants and seeds and the things that they needed to make their gardens. [tape cuts] Kent's [grocery] store stayed there for many, many years and it was only with in the last few years that they closed their doors for good, however, the grain and feed store up the street still is under the Kents' managership. The daughter of Tom Kent [Karla Kent Mayfield] took over and is now running the store. It has closed out all of the grain and feed they had and deals in nothing but hardware and paints and lumber. It seems a shame to have some of these old stores close down.
Safeway stayed on Maine Street for many years until a couple from California gave them a piece of land down at the south end of Maine Street. [ed- this is 1050 S. Maine, but she has the order confused. This couple, the Osers, bought the land AFTER Safeway left and gave it to Churchill County] They had a store there for quite some time before they moved over onto South Taylor Street [461 W. Williams] Where they were before is now our museum. It is run by some of the best organizers in town and we have one of the most wonderful museums in this part of the country. It is forever changing and is well worth a stop to see what changes have been made. It covers a lot of territory from way back when. It is not an hour ill spent to go in and visit with the people that are there to help keep the things going.
The courthouse stood for many years on Maine Street, but it has, like all things else, grew out its size, and they did move it to what was the old hospital up on Taylor street. All of the county offices are now in the old hospital location. It seems strange to have to go from the old Court House clear across the street to the new offices but it is much easier to get about, there is more room, and the offices are much larger and easier to handle. [Ed- she is likely talking about the courthouse records moving, as the original courthouse is still there, along with the court services and justice court which are just to the north of the building. County offices are at 155 N. Taylor as of 2019, but I am not certain if this was the old hospital, or if other changes have been made]
The meat market still stands as it did when we first came. You can go in have your meat cut to your liking. They carry some of the best grades of meat that there is in the valley. I don't know how they manage to stay going like they do. But it is a place you can always depend upon the meat to be excellent. Not only do they have meat, but they carry other little odds and ends like bread, butters, spices, sauces of all kinds and it is a pleasure just to go and get your meat there.
The Japanese people [Ito and Kito families] had a garden and they raised so many lovely vegetables for summer use. Little Horse and I used to go out quite often and pick up the good vegetables. On one of our treks out to the garden Little Horse decided to give me a ride in the old-fashioned wheel barrow that the Japanese people used to haul their vegetables from the field in to the little ground market that they had. The Japanese ladies thought that was the funniest thing that had ever happened. It wasn't so funny for me because it was pretty rough riding in that old home-made wheel barrow. But Little Horse enjoyed it so very much. Some of the vegetables that we got from out at the "Jap's Place" were their lovely corn, and their beets, carrots, turnips, eggplants, onions, potatoes. They had most everything the ground would grow. They did such a marvelous job of selling.
Today it is quite different. We have two places in particular that raise food for market sale. Out at Workman's [4990 Reno Hwy, Fallon, NV] they have all sorts of vegetables, they have plants of all different sizes and seeds. Not do only do they go for the vegetables and the seeds, but they have art work of all kinds.
Then, Lattins [1955 McLean Rd], gardens and they have the Hearts O' Gold cantaloupe, hybrid cantaloupe, peppers, pickling cucumbers, and all sorts of berries.... strawberries and raspberries. The girls at Lattin Farms have learned to make jam from all the excess berries and rhubarb that they raise. Some of their best jams are the raspberry jam and the raspberry and rhubarb. It is excellent. I don't know that they will be making jam this year, in 1999, as the girls have gone off to different schools to make a life of their own. Mr. and Mrs. Lattin have expanded their corn fields into what is called a MAIZE-MAZE. It is really quite something, from what I have heard. I have not been out to it. I am too crippled up at this age of the game to go out and do much walking. However, we do go, Barbara and I, on Sundays to pick up some of the good melons, and some of the lemon cucumbers when they have them. The corn has been excellent.
One of the other things that was told to us when we first came to the valley was to never go off without telling someone where we were going, at what time we were going to leave and at what time we would be coming home. It was quite primitive out in the Old Lakes [Old River] and Indian Lakes Road areas. You never knew when you were going to run into a pot hole or get stuck in the sand. Little Horse and I had been warned by John Rebol to be very certain that we never went any place in the valley unless we told someone where we were going, about what time we would leave and about what time we would come home. It was a good lesson for us. There were a couple of times that we did get stuck in the mud and we had to work our way out. When we went out on the Indian Lakes Road, it wound around, through the valley to the Stillwater area. Some of the Stillwater area was fascinating to see. There was also quite a maze to know which way to go. It was like getting into a pot and wondering how you were going to get out. We always managed to find our way out because of the mountain [Rattlesnake Hill - Mt. Toyeh] where the [City of Fallon] water wells are dug up on the hill.
After so many years they built a cross and put it on the hill. And it is something that you always look forward to seeing. You never can get lost if you know where to look for the cross. [tape cuts] Like all things, progress is something. I don't know that it is good. The cross on the hill, while it is a beauty and is also a mark so you can always know where you are. Some of the people decided they did not want it up there and they took it down and vandalized it. It was not there for several months and finally the valley folks got together again and replaced it with another cross. It was such a joy to see that cross lit up at night and to know that we were being watched over. I have often wondered about people, and about progress. Why, Why, Why do people always have to tear up, rather than to try and build and make things more livable?
There are so many things in our little town that are nice to see. In the Stillwater area itself, the birds are plentiful. Many, many times have Little Horse and I gone out to the wildlife refuge, gone through all the little ponds to see all the different birds. Quite a few cattle grazed down in that area. On the cattle we would see the birds perched on the cattle's back, picking off the worms and taking care of the insects that flew out. Ducks, blue heron, avocets, owls, pelicans and I don't know how many more birds live in that area. It was also known as a "flyway" for the birds when they came from the north going south and then on the return to the northern lands in the spring.
At one time they planted rye and rye grass, down in the area, so that the bird would have feed when they made their winter flights down to the southern parts of the world. They had a gun club out there [Canvasback and Greenhead Hunting Club on Carson Lake] and many people belonged to the gun club. They would go and stay out there and hunt the ducks and geese in the fall. It is quite a sight to go and see all the fly ways and all of the beautiful birds that come and nest. [tape cuts]
The Navy base was there, but it was not as active as it has grown to be. I had many of the youngsters in school and I had the time and patience to put up with a lot of the stuff that some of the parents from the base gave. I am glad that I had that experience before it closed down. There were many pleasant things that the base did for the community. There was much activity that went on that benefitted the town, but it was one of the things that I was not interested in.
A lot of the housing for the military was right on base and it wasn't until quite some time later that they took a piece of land and put it into housing outside of the base. I used to go to the housing that was outside the base to visit a couple of the families that were quite friendly. I still keep in contact with a good many of my former students that I had from the base, and quite a few of them have come to see me in recent years. It is always a pleasure to see what they have done, where they have gone and what they are doing for themselves. There is a great change in the housing project out there now. A good part of it- [End of tape 5 side A. Transcript continues: is located on former farm land and the U.S. government keeps appropriating money] to make it grow and it has grown like a mushroom. It has just spread all over creation. They just keep taking more and more desert and mountain land each year for their pilots to train on. Many of the local residents are not happy with these activities and some of them think it is very good. It is good for our economy and it is good for us otherwise, too. I have no feelings about it one way or the other and Little Horse had no feeling about it one way or the other. [tape cuts] Every two years they have the Blue Angels come in and do stunts and show off all the equipment that they have out at the base. After that, the Navy has the Search and Rescue that is very, very helpful in finding people that are lost, not only in our own vicinity but also over in the California area, also. They are always there to help whenever they are needed.
Each year the Indians have their gathering. They put on what is known as the Indian Rodeo. They play the games that they played long ago. They have all of the people- Indians from all over the country. They come in to show off their skills. Their art work and their dancing are something that is well worth seeing. Many of the art works are on sale and the dancing is quite, quite colorful. Even to the little, small ones, they are teaching them to carry on the traditional dancing. Fortunate Eagle [Adam Nordwall, a half Norwegian/half Chippewa from Redlake Reservation in Minnesota] has set up a museum out on the Stillwater Road. He has done much work with sculpting. He also is working with ministry with the Indians. It is very interesting to go out and see the work that he has done. He is a very well educated Indian and very knowledgeable about all of the gifts that all of the Indians have, which are many.
There are so many things here in Fallon that are well worth seeing, I don't know that I can name all of them, but I will try to name some. To me, one the most interesting places to go is to see the work that was done out at Soda Lake. They built a plant. It is now submerged in the water, but at one time they did extract soda from the water. Another place I have been most interested in is going to the Wildlife Refuge in the Stillwater area. The birds are plentiful. You can see most anything that you want: avocets, cranes, stilts, hawks, pelicans, wild geese and so many birds that I do know the names of. A person could spend a whole day out in that area, just studying and watching the wildlife that is provided for. At one time, they did plant many, many areas with feed for the birds. Then the drought came along and a lot of those lovely feeding grounds were diminished and the birds had to go elsewhere. Now that the water has come back again, I am sure that the wild bird life is plentiful in that area.
Another good place that is well worth seeing is out on the Rattlesnake Hill. You can see that at the top of the hill where the water for the Fallon area is produced and watch what goes on in all directions is one of the places that you can always find a way back to town or if you are out in the wilderness and are lost. I have been with Little Horse up to that area so many times and looked over the valley, seeing farms and fields of lovely, lovely, lovely grain. At the present time they have a Speedway, I guess that is what you call it, where they race cars and play for an audience for an amusement. [Rattlesnake Raceway, 2000 Airport Road]
Fortunate Eagle, one of the Indians of the Great Lakes Region, married one of the Indian girls from this area [Bobbie Graham]. He has built himself a lovely place to show off his work. He has done beautiful sculpturing in wood and stone and it is on display. He not only does that kind of work, he performs ceremonies of different kinds for the Indians and all their neighboring friends. He goes quite often and lectures to different colleges here in the West. He is a very well-educated man and his art gallery is worth going to see.
Another interesting place, to me, is the wildlife sanctuary down on the Stillwater area. Little Horse and I have had the opportunity to see so many of the lovely birds that come through in the fall. Not only are there birds in fall, but there are many birds that spend the year around. We have a colony of Pelicans that come from the Pyramid Lake area over to the Stillwater area in the fall of the year and spend the winter down in the swamps and fields. They are interesting to watch. On some of the ponds in the Old River area, swans of different kinds will come and spend the winter there. I have had the opportunity to see so many with their babies or young ones, spending the winter and showing them how the world is run. All of these, to me, are well worth going to see.
Another place that I have enjoyed, while not exactly in Fallon, is the plant that they have up on I-80 [Gilroy Foods/Geothermal Plant at Brady's Hot Springs]. It is a place where they grate the onions and carrots, powder onions and carrots. They come in by the truck loads and by the train loads and park on the siding and they are worked there. We have been there many times. We have not been able to go in because the fumes from the onions in much too great for a person to go in and breathe easily. But is truly something to see.
Lahontan [Dam] is not only a place to go and watch birds. Fishermen and people go up for their weekends and spend a lot of time swimming and just wandering up and down along the shore. Of late, it has become quite a playground for an awful lot of people and on holidays it is almost an impossibility to find a place to park. We have learned that the best time to go is early in the morning and late in the evening.
At one time, they had a restaurant on the north shore of Lake Lahontan called The Cove. They served the most delicious meals, and for what reason they closed I do not know [Ed- Original transcript notes "the business closed and building torn down when the State of Nevada appropriated the area for a marina and state park." Tape cuts.]
Little Horse and I used to spend many hours up on Rattlesnake Hill [Mt.Toyeh] looking over the valley and just watching the sunsets and sunrises. We have been there early in the morning and we have been there late in the evening. It is truly a sight, sometimes to see the different colors that permeate the sky. It is lovely to think that we have such a lovely spot to go. The cross is up there to lead us on our way, and that is something in itself.
At one time I took a class from John McCormick in identifying plants. While we were up on the hill I was wandering about picking different plants, and the plant that I picked was not a plant to be identified. It was one of the most beautiful red arrowheads. It was right at my feet. I couldn't let it stay there and be taken by somebody else. While it is quite dangerous [illegal] to pick up things. The government doesn't like for you to be taking things away from the land, but I did, rather than see it taken by someone else.
Fallon is quite a place for horses and we have many, many, many horse shows. I didn't go to too many of them but I did go to one that was most interesting. The horses were the white horses. I can't think of the name; it starts with an L [Lippizaner] but the trainers and the acts that they put on were absolutely fantastic. The horses were so well mannered, they [responded to] the owners completely. [tape cuts]
Little Horse liked to go see the little kids put on their rodeo and their goat tying, pole bending. All the things that they did were most interesting to him. As a matter of fact, he liked anything that pertained to a rodeo. So he spent many, many hours at the horse shows. While he was there, I would do "my thing," which was to do needle work or work in the yard, can, just anything to keep from becoming annoyed.
One of the big sources of entertainment during the winter months and the summer months also was to get in the car and go up and sit in the car on Maine Street. Sit in front of one of the clubs and watch people. Both of us were great people watchers and we enjoyed each and one of every sight that came on. It was also a place to meet many of your friends and have a nice visit. Quite often, we would just go into one of the clubs and see what was going on there. Not too often .... Little Horse would put in a few pennies but I am very opposed to gambling. So, I would just sit and watch and watch the people. It was fun to watch each one as they would put their nickels in. When they came out, I would look at their hands and they were the dirtiest hands that you ever saw.
Another nice thing that we did to pass the time, through the summer months we would go up and sit on the shores of the little lake [tape cuts] Little Soda Lake. The breezes that would come off the water made it very cooling. It was several degrees difference in the temperature from here at the house and out there on the hillside. In the process of going out, we would look at all the gardens that Workmans had put in. Their melons and cantaloupe, corn and all the vegetables that they had, which amounted to turnips, onions, squash, beans, and pumpkins. In the fall the pumpkin patch was turned over to the kids. They would go up and raid the patch. Each one would try to find a pumpkin that they could carry. Some of those little tykes picked up pumpkins that were huge. You wondered how they got them into their little arms.
On summer evenings, Little Horse and I would take the two dogs, King and Queen, and put them in the back seat and go up to the Dairy Queen and get ourselves a cone. We got one for each of the dogs and one for us. The dogs did a better job of eating their cones than we did ours. And then, there was Little Inky, our kitty, she also liked her cone. I would sit her on my lap and she would have her cone being very careful not to drop a drop of any of the cone that might leak out. The Dairy Queen has changed so in the last few years and they have done away with the old, old Dairy Queen and have moved down on South Taylor. [1101 South Taylor Street.] The Dairy Queen on Maine Street has been turned into a donut and pastry outlet. They say that the lady that is running it does an excellent job of preparing of all the good things to eat. [tape cuts]
Every Labor Day the Kiwanis will put on a breakfast feed between Kolhoss' Store and the bank building. They serve hot cakes, bacon, ham, scrambled eggs, melons, coffee. It was a joy to go down there and meet all the people who congregated there to meet, eat and see the politicians and then listen to each politician give out his speech as to what he would do, if elected. Before we left the tables where we sat were full of cards from every, every denomination.
During the summer months we managed to have a picnic or potluck dinner at least once a month. All the of friends would gather here in the yard. Sometimes there were as many as 40 people. [Tape cuts, original transcript notes: It was fun planning what to] cook when it came to planning a main dish. However, I did have a bean dish that everybody liked. It was called Fiesta Frijoles. You had to take two days in order to plan it but it was well worth that time. It was a meal in itself. Some of the other good foods we had were all sorts of salads, all sorts of breads, all sorts of cakes, and puddings, and pies. Just anything that you would want to have. It was a fun time and a good time to visit. The picnics usually lasted from noon until around five in the evening when everybody went home to their little holdings. I don't think everyone felt like they had spent the day wrong, just to come in and visit and eat. [tape cuts]
Little Horse was a marvelous host. He always made people feel so at home. And he kept them entertained with stories that he had to tell about his life when he was a child. Some of it was good and some of it was not so good, but, he made it fun, whatever it happened to be, good or bad. He liked to tell of the tricks that they used to pull on some of their friends in the old days.
His brother-in-law and sister came up one summer and we picked the house to pieces, piece by piece and re-did it in cherry wood. It was to the liking of both Little Horse and myself and it was a wonderful thing to have his brother-in-law Bob help him do the work. Little Horse didn't have that much time to spend, he was working on the highway at the time. And, Bob would go with me to the warehouse and pick out the things that were needed. Then he would do all of the carpenter work that had to be done. His sister was a good decorator and she told you how it should be done and how to put things back together again, so it would look homey. We have always appreciated the work that he did with us. [tape cuts]
There were a couple of winters that were REAL bad here in Fallon. My brother came and spent some time with us one of the winters and he and Little Horse had the most fun putting a snow-lady together. She was a big as any snow person I have ever seen. It lasted far into the spring months. [coughs, tape cuts] The grass had gotten green and the roses had started to bloom out before the snow lady melted away. It was really something to have people come by and look at that snow-lady out in the flower garden. It really was a contrast with the roses blooming and snow in the yard. That year we had an abundant crop of fruit. We had cherry trees out in the orchard at that time and they were plentiful. All the neighbors came in and we all had cherries. The apple crop was lush and so was the apricot crop. It was a year of good canning and storing of fruit in the winter to last over until spring.
The first hedge that we had was a rose hedge. The roses were beautiful and the smell was like an orange grove. There was just one thing wrong with those roses: they were the stickiest, thorniest things that ever was made. They made a good hedge, but it was a hard hassle to keep them trimmed. They spread and spread rapidly. Each spring the roses would come out in little white buds and the whole yard would have the most luscious odor. It just was a joy to go out and have all that good smell coming in. One of the funny things that happened with the hedge. I woke up one morning and walked out to the road to get the paper. I saw something by the side of the rose hedge and I didn't know what it was. I came back and called Little Horse and had him come out and look. And lo and behold, what? A drunk was asleep! It was mighty, mighty thorny sleeping but he was so drunk I guess it didn't make much difference to him. After so long a time, we had to cut the roses down and we put up the honeysuckle as a hedge. It has been wonderful, but it too, is a spreader and it is hard to get rid of when you want to trim it down. It twines in among the fence and it is hard to get all those branches cut down. I sometimes wish that we didn't have it, but it is a windbreak and it is also a barrier from the sounds from across the road. The children are afraid to come through and the sounds do not carry through very easily. [tape cuts]
When we first came to Fallon, the west side of the property was nothing but a barbed-wire fence, separating us from the neighbor. The children, next door used to come over and climb through the fence. It was always a case of "Have a safety pin, a needle and thread, and a pair of scissors or band aids and a disinfectant of some kind?" I got tired of that and I asked Little Horse if there was some way that we could possibly fence the place off so these kids wouldn't come over and cut themselves all to pieces on the wire. He found a place where he could get ties and he got ties enough to fence the whole west end of the field. It worked for a while and then the kids decided "well, it was fun to climb that fence" and again I had to get out the plyers and a good long need to take out slivers. And some of the slivers were quite long and a little hard to get out. So we had to do something, to get something done, to keep the kids from doing that. We got the electric fence and put on the top, but that did not stop them from coming over the top. So, finally we planted all sorts of bushes and shrubs along the fence, and that has done a very good job of keeping the kids on their side of the fence, and no more aches and pains and scratches and what have you to take care of. It has been a joy and in the spring all of those lovely plants come out. We also have two cherry trees that make a good feasting ground for the robins and they seem to find them as soon as they are ripe, the cherries, I mean. It is a joy to have all these good things to separate us from our neighbors on the west. On the east, we had had to plant trees and more trees to keep the people from next door from coming over. I guess we want to be hermits and be by ourselves. I like people; Little Horse loved people, and we had lots of people, as I said before, with picnics and what have you. But, with our picnics, there were no children that came to the picnics. Children are fine but they have a place, and that place is where their parents will take care of them. [tape cuts]
To the north we have the railroad track. There is about 150 feet between the fence line and the railroad. At one time, the train ran quite often. Then for a long time, there was only a train maybe once a month. Now that the Navy is doing work out at the base, we have a train that comes through every other day. It is a joy to hear that whistle blow and it is a fun time to go out and wave to the train people. They look forward to see what is going on in our yard. I do not do it too much anymore, but Little Horse always made it a point to become very friendly with the train people. [tape cuts]
At the north side of the house we have what is known as a "root cellar" and I know that some of you would like to know what a "root cellar" is. It is a hole, that is dug down into the earth, well lined and a nice roof put over it. It is a place to store all of the canned food and the food that is left over from the garden, like beets, carrots, turnips, apples ... any fruit that you can pick and store that will last up until the spring. When Loelia Ann and Boom lived with us, the root cellar became known as a spider parlor. The spiders would build webs unless you went down and cleaned it very often and sometimes, I am afraid that neither Little Horse nor I would do that. [tape cuts] It was a place that it was fun to go to but it was also full of good things to eat. [tape cuts]
We have had many strange visitors in our life time here in Fallon. At one time I woke up in the morning and looked out the kitchen window. There was a momma deer and her baby along the railroad track. I don't know where they had come from.
Another time, we had a white dove. He stayed with us about a year and a half Someone had let him loose, I am quite sure, because he was very tame. I put a feed trough for him out on the post and kept it full so that he could have food whenever he wanted. We had very many conversations. He did not have the same voice as the mourning dove. His voice was "coo-coo-kar-oo, coo-coo-kar-oo." In the morning I would go out and he would be up in the cottonwood tree across the railroad track. And, I would say "coo-coo-kar-oo, coo-coo-kar-oo" and soon I would hear "coo-coo-kar-oo", coo-coo-kar-oo!" and he would come and look at his dish and see if there was food in it.
Another time a deer dashed through our field. She jumped the fences coming into the yard on the west, jumped the fence into the rose garden, jumped the fence into the field. Jumped over into Olive's [Olive Alberson Pierce] pasture, and from there jumped into Venturacci's field and disappeared in the corn.
Another time we had a coyote come through the yard. He was not the nicest visitor in the world, he was too snoopy and he looked at the chicken coup longingly, hoping that maybe he could catch a feather. Luckily, we saw him in time and we went out and shooed him away. The dogs did not even see him nor did they smell him, so they did not give chase. I was glad to get him out of our way before he caught any of our chickens. We had quite a few chickens at that time.
Another time we had a chukar. He spent a couple of weeks with us. He was a lot of fun to watch He would come sneaking through the grass in the evening and find all the food that he could find before darkness set in. He would go back over toward Olive's place and go up into the tree. I have often wondered whatever happened to him, but he was a very welcomed guest and we enjoyed him immensely. He enjoyed himself here, too. He became quite gentle and it was a shame that he had to leave. We never knew what happened, it was just one of those things. He disappeared and did not come back. Those things do happen every year.
Other little guests that we have had have been an awful lot of skunks. Those are not the welcome guests but they are friendly and fun to watch. One time a Momma skunk and her babies, five in number, walked down the railroad track, one behind the other. There was one little fellow that was just a little curious and he wasn't about to get out. We had to throw rocks at him to get him to move. But he did finally move.
Other than the skunks, we have had no other visitors that I know of, excepting the birds that pass through and our quail that stay here most of the time. I do enjoy my birds as well as my flowers. Little Horse was a great lover of birds too. We never hunted, we fed. And I wish there were more people who would do that to keep our bird population well supplied. So many of the birds that we first had when we came are not here anymore because their feed grounds have been taken. Especially the killdeer. We used to have quite a few of them, but no more. All of their feed- [End of tape 5. Transcript continues "areas have been taken up."]
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