Mario Peraldo Oral History

Dublin Core

Title

Mario Peraldo Oral History

Description

Mario Peraldo Oral History

Creator

Churchill County Museum Association

Publisher

Churchill County Museum Association

Date

January 7, 1994

Format

Analog Cassette Tape, .docx file, Mp3 Audio

Language

English

Oral History Item Type Metadata

Original Format

Audio Cassette

Duration

1:00:49, 38:51

Transcription

CHURCHILL COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

an interview with

Mario Peraldo

Janaury 7,1994

This interview was conducted by Anita Erquiaga; transcribed by Glenda Price; edited by Norine Arciniega; final by Pat Boden; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project, Churchill County Museum.

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.

Content waring: Vivid descriptions of animal death and preparation, as a standard part of farm life.

Preface

Mario Peraldo's parents settled in Churchill County in 1920. They bought a ranch on the lower end of the Carson River, and this is still the family ranch. In 1986 Mario and Olga moved into the Ideal Mobile Home Park, and this interview took place in their lovely, spacious mobile home. They both say they are very happy there. Their son, Mario Gene, daughter-in-law, Lynn, and three granddaughters live on the ranch. Mario drives out to the ranch nearly every day to help his son with farm work.

Mario is a very outgoing friendly person, and he talks freely and easily about his life. Watching him and his wife together it is easy to see that the young couple, who married when Mario was just out of high school, are just as happy together today, more than fifty years later.

Mario was interviewed because he has spent many years in public life as a community leader. He has many memories of growing up in a rather different era, and I feel that his recollections are very accurate.

He has always been a farmer who kept records of the production and expenses of his business, and he mentioned that his father kept records, too. He has saved letters and papers that belonged to his father, and to me this indicates that the history of his family is important to him.

It was a pleasure to interview Mario.

Interview with Mario Peraldo

ERQUIAGA: This is Anita Erquiaga of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Program. Today is January 7, 1994, and I am interviewing Mario Peraldo at his home at 750 East Stillwater Avenue. Well, Mario, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview. I know that you'll have some things to tell us that will be of interest to people in the future. Would you please tell me your name and your place of birth and date of birth?

PERALDO: I'm Mario Peraldo, and I was born in Paradise Valley, Nevada in 1918, and I can't remember the doctor's name, but a doctor made the delivery in Winnemucca, Nevada.

ERQUIAGA: At the hospital?

PERALDO: Yes.

ERQUIAGA: What was your father's name, and where was he born?

PERALDO: My father's name was Emilio Peraldo, and he was born in Italy.

ERQUIAGA: And your mother's maiden name?

PERALDO: Was Emma Frisiero, and she, also, was born in Italy.

ERQUIAGA: And did they know each other in Italy?

PERALDO: Yes, they did.

ERQUIAGA: Were they married while they were still over there?

PERALDO: No. This had been her second marriage. In fact, my father made two trips from Italy. He came to America. and then for some reason or another, he decided he'd go back to Italy, and then he finally married her. Then he came to the States. He worked in Coolidge Dam, and he worked in a coal mine in Pennsylvania which he didn't like when he went in the hole. When he saw the lights go out, why he handed his lunch to his friends and told them, "You can have the lunch.            This is it," and he never went back.

ERQUIAGA: That was a coal mine in Pennsylvania?

PERALDO: Pennsylvania.

ERQUIAGA: And where is Coolidge Dam?

PERALDO: That's the one down here in Arizona.

ERQUIAGA: What kind of work did he do there?

PERALDO: I think he was doing mason work. If I remember right he spoke about doing some mason work there.

ERQUIAGA: And so then how did they end up in Paradise Valley?

PERALDO: Well, they had friends. I can't remember when his brother came. I'm sure he came before Dad did, and, then, of course, they had a lot of . . . well, like Olga's folks were not too far from where our grandparents lived so evidently they must have told them what a nice place this Paradise Valley was. So that's what brought most of those people over there is from people that were here, and then when they'd hear from their friends or relatives why that's what he did. He came in Paradise about, as far as I can figure, it was right close about 1910 or somewhere in there. I don't remember the exact dates 'cause I didn't have nothin' to refer to. And I don't know why either one of them left Italy 'cause they both had good business. She had a bakery, and, of course, he was a mason then and a rock cutter. In fact, my brother, when he went back to Italy, he saw the pit that they take the stones out of, and the name Peraldo was still up on the side there. You could read it.

ERQUIAGA: Where they had cut it into the rock, you mean?

PERALDO: Mm-hum. He was very impressed about it.

ERQUIAGA: But they were married after they came to Paradise?

PERALDO: He got married before he left the second time, and then he came over. Then he finally had to send back for her, and then she came later. It's not a very nice trip. I always remember my mother talking about the trip over the ocean. I think she became very sick 'cause she spent like two to three weeks on the boat, and she wasn't very fond of it, and the worst part of it is that when she left her parents and all her relatives, she never did see them anymore.

ERQUIAGA: She never went back?

PERALDO: Never went back. Neither one of them ever went back.

EROUIAGA: Did they write once in a while?

PERALDO: They'd always correspond. In fact, my folks had property over in Italy, and, of course, they would correspond and always talk about, well, he had an interest in it, so he'd always have to keep up with what their expenditures was, updated. Then, of course, that's when we finally found out after my father passed away that this property if it wasn't taken care of that they could assess us over here in the United States to make repairs over there, and so my brother went back there. It had to be about 1947 or 1948 he went back to Italy, and then we settled all that property there so we wouldn't have to fool around with it anymore, but they used to correspond all the time. In fact, I got a lot of letters in the file there of their writing back and forth.

ERQUIAGA: What kind of work did they do in Paradise Valley?

PERALDO: Well, he came over and then he was a farmer. Quite different. He also did cabinet work. He was good about building cabinets and whatnot, and, of course, he had bought this place in Paradise Valley, and then that's when my two sisters were born. Which was Josephine [Peraldo] Plummer born in Paradise Valley in [February] 1913, and then, of course, Del [Adele] Peraldo Serpa was born in [June] 1914 in Paradise Valley, and then, I don't know what reason he left. He left Paradise Valley, and then he went into Golconda, Nevada, and he had a ranch over there that he was working on. I don't recall why he went there, but anyway he stayed there a few years, and then he decided to move back up to Paradise Valley. He went back into Paradise Valley because around that time--that was about 1915. Well, no, I'll take it back. Caroline Peraldo Nation was born [January, 1916] in Golconda, Nevada, so then it was after that that he went back to Paradise Valley again. His brother was up there, too, in Paradise Valley, and they were close by, but they worked together somewhat, and, of course, then on the July 4, 1918, I was born in Paradise Valley, Nevada.

EROUIAGA: On July fourth!

PERALDO: July fourth, yes. He had read about the Newlands Project that they'd constructed this dam. Read about they had places for sale and how good the opportunity, and, of course, he irrigated there in Paradise Valley, but he never liked it 'cause--well, you're probably familiar with it, too--they'd have to go up and set their water in these streams, and you're allotted so much time to irrigate, so then generally you'd set the water at night and then come back and check it the next morning. Well, while you went home at night somebody'd come back during the night, shut your water off, and he'd take it, so it was just a constant fight with the water. Who would have it. He knew that someday he would catch somebody over that--he was very hot-tempered--that he'd probably hit them over the head with a shovel. So then when he heard about the Newlands Project here that's when he came over here and looked over the place. He'd looked over several places. He'd looked over some place along the river up towards Swingle Bench, but he didn't like it. Then he finally went down into the lower valley and looked at the Mills' property, and he was impressed and so he purchased it.

ERQUIAGA: Did Mr. Mills homestead that ranch?

PERALDO: That place was homesteaded by Morton Morrison, and he had homesteaded that ranch in 1907, and, of course, then it was sold to Charles E. Mills in 1911, and, of course, then that was sold to Emilio Peraldo in 1920.

ERQUIAGA: And then how did he like the irrigating down there? Must have been very different.

PERALDO: Oh, it was different. He enjoyed it because he knew when he ordered water that he'd have it, and he'd have it for the time designated, and he had nobody to fight with or anything. Like I say, that was one of his big things when he came here. That's what brought him here because they had water and it was available and that you could irrigate when you wanted. It was easy in those times because there was no water shortage, and you always had plenty.

ERQUIAGA: Well, was that place ever irrigated from the river?

PERALDO: Yes. The Morrisons had irrigated from the river. The old Hepner ditch, I think they called it at that time, and it came from the river.

EROUIAGA: 'Cause that was before the project was finished. The dam was finished.

PERALDO: That's right.

EROUIAGA: Didn't have the canals in yet.

PERALDO: True. True. Later, and they had a dam. I presume it was where they took it out of the river is approximately where Sagouspe Dam is now 'cause they used that old ditch.

EROUIAGA: And Hepner owned that Sagouspe place at one time, didn't he?

PERALDO: Yes.   Yes.

ERQUIAGA: And so that dam was probably built that far back.

PERALDO: Well, yes. 'Course there was just a small dirt dam up the river just like the rest of the people on down the river did.

ERQUIAGA: So they could get the water out to the different ranches?

PERALDO: That's right, and, 'course, they had twenty acres of vested water right in there. This first place that we had there that Morton Morrison had homesteaded.

ERQUIAGA: How many acres was it all together?

PERALDO: Well, that Morrison when we first bought it was considered 160 acres. It was 159 and so many tenths.

ERQUIAGA: Well. that was the amount that you could homestead, I guess, wasn't it?

PERALDO: Yes, I think so. And I always thought that there was somebody else in between there that homesteaded. I don't how they . . . they must have been able to homestead 160 because that's what he had, and their homesteading must have been in two different years, but it doesn't show anything of that, but, anyway, it had the 159, so evidently he must have had that amount homesteaded.

ERQUIAGA: Well, what does it mean when you say they had "vested" water rights?

PERALDO: This is water rights they have taken through the river, and that's something that they can't take away from you because they had this right before 1890 or 1882. Somewhere way back there, and they were given this vested water, and, of course, then they got this other water when the project went in and give them more water to irrigate with is what they did.

ERQUIAGA: I see. Well, that place was pretty far down. How far would you say it is from town where you grew up?

PERALDO: Seven and a half miles northeast of Fallon.

ERQUIAGA: And it's pretty well one of the last ranches down there.

PERALDO: Well, of course, it isn't the last because we have other people living on down the river. The old Thirty One ranch, the old Sagouspe ranch, the old Vencill ranch, and, of course, there was Mussi's. Had a place down the lower river there, too.

ERQUIAGA: Were there ever times when the river spread out, overflowed your ranches or the country down that far?

PERALDO: Well, it did. We never were bothered with the flood. The flood never did bother us in our particular area. It got high and everything, but we were never harmed by any flood waters. We've had two years that it actually flooded, but no damage was done to us other than just filled up the rivers and whatnot but no particular damage.

EROUIAGA: What kind of crops did your dad raise down there?

PERALDO: Well, our main crop was alfalfa, and, of course, we raised wheat. We raised corn, we raised oats, and, of course, he had some people that came in and leased part of his land that raised garden crops like potatoes, and they had melons in there for a while, too.

EROUIAGA: Cantaloupes?

PERALDO: A few cantaloupes, but nothin' big, nothin' large other than just for home consumption.

ERQUIAGA: Oh.

PERALDO: And, of course, our farm had a lot of fruit trees. We must have had, oh, at least, thirty fruit trees that's consisted of apples with different varieties of apples, peaches, plums, cherries. In fact, we had one walnut tree. It was a large walnut tree that was very good, and, of course, they had all kind of berries. Blackberry, currants, gooseberries. Don't remember much about strawberries. We didn't ever raise too much strawberries, but that place had a lot of stuff on it when our dad took over.

EROUIAGA: Did you sell fruit?

PERALDO: We didn't sell fruit, no. I don't ever remember selling it. They just used it for home use, you know. Had plenty, or if you had more you'd give it to the neighbors or something.

EROUIAGA: And the walnut tree did produce?

PERALDO: It did produce, but it was--if you're familiar with walnuts, they're very nasty things to work with, and we never did like to fool around with them. laughing) They were terrible, and that tree, I always remember Dad said when it dried up he was always going to make a gun stock out of it 'cause it was walnut, and he would have, I guess, 'cause he knew how to do that stuff, but we had that stump of that tree around there for years, but he never did get to do it. I would've loved to seen him do it 'cause they say he was good at that.

ERQUIAGA: Walnut is a hard wood.

PERALDO: Yeah, it is.

ERQUIAGA: Would have made a good gun stock with it

PERALDO: Yes. That's what most of them are made out of.

ERQUIAGA: Did you ever raise turkeys?

PERALDO: Yes, we raised turkeys. We had quite a few turkeys. I suppose it's just like all the rest of the valley had a lot of turkeys. It's one thing I wasn't too fond of was to pick turkeys. We picked a lot of turkeys, and I always remember the time when I was driving school bus. Reminds me of turkeys because we had three good friends that were driving bus, and so Odell Whisenhunt had asked us if we'd come and help him pick his turkeys because they weren't too well off, and they couldn't afford to have anybody hired, so we said yes. So as soon as we got out of school and brought the bus in, why we all took out there. Four of us, and I don't remember how many turkeys we picked, but we picked and we picked hard, and I often thought my dad [knew], but I never did tell him that I ditched school to pick the turkeys, but she wanted to reimburse us, but we didn't want anything. She did give us a very good meal, and we was very happy. Happy to get out of school, too.

ERQUIAGA: Picking turkeys is not real easy. You have to know what you're doing.

PERALDO: That's right, and if you don't get them stuck just right so they're bleeding good . . . you generally watch their tail. If the tail goes straight up, you know it's right. You grab the tail feathers first, and if they just--well, they practically fall out. You pull them a little bit. Your wings are the hardest part of the turkey to pick. Generally sometimes you'll have the thing picked and it's still shaking its wings.

ERQUIAGA: Would be flapping. Did you used to put a weight on the…

PERALDO: A weight on the bottom.

EROUIAGA: So they wouldn't flap so much?

PERALDO: That's right. They'd just get away from you many times, and they'd swat you. Those wings were vicious, too. I'll tell you. They hurt. But, if you just didn't get them bleeding just right then they'd be hard to pull the feathers off.

ERQUIAGA: You had to have the head just right?

PERALDO: Yeah, you stuck them in the back of the head to get this big vein, and, of course, you saw the blood pourin' out on this weight and you knew you had it good if you saw it pourin' right out, and then you went to it. You had to hurry up and get them pickin'.

ERQUIAGA: You had to work fast then, I guess.

PERALDO: There was another thing that I had, while we’re talking about turkeys, What else. We raised sheep, too. We had about a hundred sheep or something like that, and then, of course, I never did like sheep, and I suppose the reason I never liked sheep was because when we sheared them, and, of course, you put the wool in these big bags. What is there? About three or four hundred pounds. I was the little one, so I got the choice of stomping the bags down, and I can always remember I never did need no grease on my hair because about the time you'd look up another bag would come on top of you, and I just couldn't stand . . . to this day, yet, I just can't stand sheep for some reason. Well, it's the smell , I guess.

ERQUIAGA: It was pretty hot in those wool bags. Must have been. They were long bags?

PERALDO: They were long, and they were big bags, and, of course, evidently I suppose Morrison or Mills had had sheep there, too, at one time, because there was droppings all around that old barn that we had where we'd made a milk barn and that they'd had sheep in there, too.

ERQUIAGA: And I suppose you had horse-drawn equipment only in those days.

PERALDO: That's right. That was a good part of the thing was the horse-drawn equipment. It was a lot of work. You'd get up early. Generally, when you was doing haying or anything, you'd have ten, eleven people working for you, and you had about a dozen horses that you'd have to harness every morning. As a rule, you generally had somebody that you paid a little extra, and he would go out and harness some of the horses, and then he'd feed them early in the morning so that about the time it got seven o'clock or six thirty, you were ready to go. I mean, they worked. They worked from six thirty to eleven thirty, and, of course, from one o'clock to five thirty. They put in some rugged shifts, and it was hard work, too. Wasn't easy work like it is now. Can't compare it to the way you do it nowadays 'cause it's so simple now. No heavy work, and, of course, at the same time we were milking cows. We'd have to milk those cows twice a day.

ERQUIAGA: That was your main living, came from the cows?

PERALDO: That's right. The cows. And, of course, we also had pigs that we raised, too, 'cause we had the skim milk.

ERQUIAGA: You separated the cream from the . .

PERALDO: And we turned the separator by hand until 1937. We finally got electricity, and that was the first thing we hooked up was the …

ERQUIAGA: You didn't have electricity at all?

PERALDO: No, huh-uh. We had water 'cause we had the tank up. Mills had an electric plant in there, but I don't ever recall whether he used it or not. It had these dry cell batteries up on top there, so the house was all wired and everything. It was all wired with heavy wire. 'Course when we got electricity, he wouldn't change anything because he said that was heavier wire than they would put in there.

ERQUIAGA: But that was at least fifteen or more years that you lived there before you got electricity.

PERALDO: Oh, yes, yes.

ERQUIAGA: What did you use? Lamps? Coal oil lamps?

PERALDO: Coal oil lamps. Yes, and these mantle lamps. Well, in fact, we still have some of those old coal oil lamps.

ERQUIAGA: Do your studying at night alongside of a lamp?

PERALDO: That's right, yeah. 'Course we didn't do too much studying at night because we was generally so tired at night after milking and everything why we went to bed, but if you did, why that's what you'd have to do. I can recall some of us who were kind of afraid of night, so we'd have a lamp burn all night in one room there. Make a dim light, but it'd still be better than total dark.

ERQUIAGA: That was your night light.

PERALDO: (laughing) That's right.

ERQUIAGA: Well, did you have to level any land down there? Did you have a Fresno or tailboard or those things and have to level land?

PERALDO: Yes, we did. We had Fresnos. We had the tailboard, and I recall we used to have our neighbor, Mr. Shaffner, that used to work, oh, for years, that would winter months, and that's all he would do. He'd come over there and take some of those hills that we had down.

EROUIAGA: Tell me what a tailboard is, or how did it work?

PERALDO: Well, a tailboard did the same thing as a ... it doesn't do like your laser, but that was to float the ground out and level it out, smooth it so you'd get all your big lumps off.

ERQUIAGA: And did you move the dirt from the hills down to the lower places with . .

PERALDO: With the Fresno. Yeah. Well, you'd have four horses if you had a big Fresno. If you had a small Fresno you'd use two horses, so then, I suppose you got maybe a quarter of a yard or half a yard in one of those Fresnos, and you'd tag it out, and then once you finished, why then you would go over and smooth it out with a tailboard and try to level it the best you could. And my dad used a jar. He'd put water in it and watch the level that was on the jar to level his fields. I don't know just exactly how it worked, but I could see his point on how he could work it all right, and that's the way he leveled. He'd use that as a guide.

ERQUIAGA: Where did he carry the jar?

PERALDO: On a tripod, and then he knew that that water inside that jar was level, and so he'd watch the level and then shoot from that roughly. Just like you would with an instrument, you know.

ERQUIAGA: That was the original surveying instrument around here?

PERALDO: Yeah, that was what he used. I remember him always telling us about he used that. And I always thought, "You don't have to be too intelligent to think of something like that" because after all no matter where you put that jar of water he knew it was going to be level. It sit level because water doesn't lie. At least, it never does go uphill anyway, does it? (laughing)

ERQUIAGA: (laughing) No, it doesn't. Well, when you were small, how did you help around the farm? What things did you do?

PERALDO: Well, when I was small, I started milking when I was early. Oh, I forget, I was ten, eleven years old. Maybe not even ten. We learned how to milk. That was the first thing we learned how to do was milk cows, and we milked by hand, is what we was doing.

ERQUIAGA: How old were you when you first learned to milk?

PERALDO: Oh, well, like I say, I had to be about ten years old, if I remember right. And then we had an old barn. You don't have the modern facilities that you do now and cold, and the only way you could keep your hands warm was by keeping your hands up against the cow's udders, and, of course, it was closed in so it would help, and you'd get a bunch of cows in there to keep you fairly warm. It was a tough job. All our family knew how to milk by hand.

ERQUIAGA: You mentioned your three sisters. Now, were they all older than you? Right?

PERALDO: Yes.

ERQUIAGA: And you were number four, and where was your brother?

PERALDO: He was the last one. He [Silvio Peraldo] was the only one that was born [1920] in Fallon, Nevada.

ERQUIAGA: Did your sisters milk the cows?

PERALDO: Yes, they all learned how to milk.

ERQUIAGA: Everybody had to work?

PERALDO: That's right. None of us got excused from it.

EROUIAGA: And your little brother milked when he was old enough?

PERALDO: That's right. We all learned. And we also learned how to drive a team of horses right quick, too, 'cause we'd mow hay with the mowing machine, and I always used to remember my dad. He'd always put me on his lap when he was mowing, and I wondered how come, but I found out afterwards he was telling me something. You know.

EROUIAGA: Breaking you in.

PERALDO: That's right.

ERQUIAGA: Well, did your father have a car?

PERALDO: Yes, he had a car. It's an old Dodge, 1918. In fact, we still got it out the ranch, and my brother, Silvio, was always going to re-do that, but he didn't live to do it. He figured when he'd retire, why, he'd have enough time to tinker with that 'cause he loved to tinker with cars and old stuff.

EROUIAGA: Is it in good shape?

PERALDO: No. In fact, it was a touring car, and then my dad made it into a pickup like. He had cut the back off and then put in a box in the back, and, of course, when we used to sell our hay to Kent Company, why a lot of times he'd relieve the horses so they wouldn't have to pull the wagons or there was more wagons 'cause he'd go in with four teams or six teams and we'd pull in three wagons into Kent Company. He'd leave it. Oh, it was dark, and he'd always get back by night, and some of the time, why he'd go back if he didn't want to pull the wagons back, he'd use this old Dodge. We'd put a hitch on the back of it. That old Dodge was powerful. In fact, that old Dodge, I remember the Mussis one time when he was coming across. They took the shortcut from Lovelock into Fallon there across the desert, and the Mussis would always, if they saw a car coming across there, they'd hurry up and go over there and harness their horses up 'cause they knew they had a job, and they kept awatchin' this car go by and go by, and they never did see where it went to, and, of course, my folks and them were all friends, and they were telling him about it, and he said, 'Oh, that was me." "Well," he said, "what was you driving?" He said, "The Dodge. He said, "You never did stop." "No," he said, "and I didn't have to pay you to pull me out, either.

EROUIAGA: Oh, I was going to ask what was the job that they knew they had? People would get stuck?   

PERALDO: That's right. That's right. It was sandy and everything through there. They'd always get stuck. 

EROUIAGA: But, the Dodge made it?       

PERALDO: That Dodge made it. It had thirty-three inch wheels. Long, tall wheels, and it made it. Thirty-three by three and a half. He made it, and he always used to tell us about it.      

EROUIAGA: Well, did all of you kids learn to drive? Your sisters, too?

PERALDO: Everyone of us knew how to drive.

ERQUIAGA: And your mother, did she know?

PERALDO: No, my mother was the only one didn't drive. In fact, my mother didn't talk real good English, either. She never did pick up the real English 'cause she never could talk a word of English when she'd come here, but she didn't talk. And I remember another little incident that happened to my brother and Josephine Plummer, my oldest sister. We used to always go into the creamery and get the buttermilk, and, of course, we had an old Model T truck which we'd put a new transmission into it which give it a lot of power. Slow. I always remember 'cause my dad was busy here ahaying, so he didn't have time enough to go in and get the buttermilk, so he told my sister and my brother to go in and get the buttermilk, and this tank had about, oh, I think it carried at least three hundred gallons of buttermilk, but, anyway, when you had this transmission head and when you put it into neutral, you had no brakes, and when they got out of the ranch there they was just going to turn. They had to open the gate, and when they stopped to open the gate, the engine stopped or somethin' and it started a backing up. They didn't make it. It went off of the bridge and turned over backwards, but the thing that saved them was the tanks. And there was some hay men out there working at the time, and they went to help. The only thing that scared them, and then, of course, those windows in those old Model T trucks were the kind you lifted up with the leather straps so when it turned over the windows all went down, but they didn't get hurt or anything. That's what I tell you.           I can remember when I had to drive he just told me to . . . 'course I always used to play with the car like I was always drivin', and he just told me one time when I stopped up there to irrigate, and he wanted to go look at the water [End of tape 1 side A]

ERQUIAGA: You said you milked cows. Now, how did you take care of that cream? You separated the cream from the milk?

PERALDO: Yes.

ERQUIAGA: And did you sell it to the Modesto Milk Producers' Association?

PERALDO: Yes, we sold there. Of course, there was another creamery before that, and we sold to them, but I can't recall that name. Do you?

EROUIAGA: Was it in a different place?

PERALDO: No.    It was in the same place.

EROUIAGA: Same place there by the railroad tracks?

PERALDO: Yeah. Correct.

ERQUIAGA: Where MPA was, and did you have somebody come to the house to pick up that cream?

PERALDO: Yes, they had a truck that would come out, and we'd pack it from the barn and put it in our tank house there in ten-gallon cans, and then the truck would come by and pick up the ten-gallon cans.

EROUIAGA: What did you do with the skim milk?

PERALDO: Fed it to the pigs.

EROUIAGA: And then what did you do with the pigs?

PERALDO: We sold them locally or we took them to a Reno place in Reno that would take them.

EROUIAGA: There was no auction yard here at that time.

PERALDO: No. No.

ERQUIAGA: Did the local butcher shops buy them?

PERALDO: Some of them would, but they wouldn't buy that many Maybe they'd want a pig every now and then, but we generally had sometimes ten, fifteen pigs at a time to sell, so we'd just put them in the truck. We'd bought this little truck, and we'd just take them into Reno. Before that we sold to Kent Company. Kent's was our biggest business man of all because they took pert near anything you wanted. They had a limit to it, but they'd give you the price. He'd buy your hay. Most anything. Turkeys that we had. Most anything that you had why he'd buy or you'd exchange. You'd buy stuff there and pay your bill that way.

EROUIAGA: Pay your bill with the produce that you had raised?

PERALDO: That's right. And the Kent Company was big at that time and was very good to all farmers, I'll tell you. You were lucky to have a man to deal with like the Kents were at that time.

ERQUIAGA: Many people have said that.

PERALDO: Yes, they were good.

ERQUIAGA: Did your father ever work off of the farm?

PERALDO: Not that I ever know. No, he never did work off. He had plenty to do on the farm. Like I say, he'd always had somebody there working helping him. He'd generally have a steady man doing the odds and ends, but a lot of those people you'd get at that time would just love to stay for board and eats, you know.

ERQUIAGA: Year round did you have somebody?

PERALDO: Oh, yes, he always had year round.

EROUIAGA: Did they stay at your house, or did you have a bunkhouse?

PERALDO: Yes, we had a bunkhouse that they could stay in too, and, of course, Charlie Recanzone was kind of a relative of ours, and he worked then. He also drove bus, but he lived in the house with us there. But, like I say, it was easy to get somebody to help you if you needed someone. They'd be happy to do anything for something to eat or a place to stay.

ERQUIAGA: Well, do you remember how the Depression affected your family?

PERALDO: Yes, I remember the Depression all right. I always wonder what my dad did 'cause I remember the two days before we finished haying he'd went in and made a deposit to pay for his hay crew and then the banks closed, and I still don't know. I've asked my sisters and them and the ones that knew they didn't remember either what he did to pay them. Didn't have anything else, you know. But it was tough. I'll tell you. The Depression was tough. We were lucky because we had something to eat, our milk, your vegetables, your fruit, and all that. You'd have to buy your sugar and stuff like that, but you got by. We also had a company there, it was a store in Reno by the name of Brunetti and Petroni. They used to sell different . . . well, they sold vegetables, they sold dried fruit, oranges, vinegar, oil. We'd always buy all our cooking oil from them, and he'd always get it in gallons. I mean, you'd get a case which was six gallons, I think. He'd always buy oranges in those big large crates. I don't know if you remember those big crates. They were, oh, three feet long, about a foot high, and, of course, you got a better price on it. 'Course there was five of us kids eatin', too.

ERQUIAGA: And you went into Reno, you said, to buy that?

PERALDO: They would deliver that. The guy'd come around, and he'd take an order from you, and then after so long then they'd send to it to you or they'd be delivered down to you.

EROUIAGA: Do you remember when they used to bring the fish down from Pyramid Lake and sell it around?

PERALDO: Yes, we do remember. That's the thing that makes me upset to know that they say that we're the ones that caused them to be extinct on the fish. To me, they are the ones that did it because they used to hook those, or net them, or do anything but spear them as they were spawning. They're hollering about spawning fish, why they were destroying all the spawning fish, and I know --my wife can tell you the same thing--they went as far up to Paradise Valley, Winnemucca, and all that bringing those fish up there, and they were large fish.

ERQUIAGA: Oh, I remember they were big ones.

PERALDO: Yeah, and then now they're blaming us. Our water is what did it all. If they hadn't killed those fish as they were spawning, you know, that's the way you get rid of anything is by getting rid of the things that breed. Just like if you want to get rid of an animal then you just get rid of the mothers and whatnot that are producing the fish or whatever you have.

EROUIAGA: Well, were those trout that they used to bring around?

PERALDO: Yes.

ERQLIIAGA: That's what I've thought.

PERALDO: Yeah, they were big. I'd say they weighed fifteen pounds or better. They were large. It was amazing how they kept them 'cause they'd come in these old wagons with the horses, you know, and have them all covered with straw and everything to insulate. I never remember getting--at least, I never heard of getting a bad one. They were always good. But, that's what I say, every time they mention about what happened to their fish, why, they're the ones, I would say, that destroyed the fish 'cause then afterwards the Fish and Game come in and restocked that 'cause I don't think they have the original trout in there anymore that used to be in there. I may be wrong, but that's my opinion anyway.

ERQUIAGA: Do you remember the Mills' school out in that neighborhood?

PERALDO: No, I don't. No, I don't remember the Mills' school. No. I just remember the Old River School, but I don't remember the Mills' school.        In fact, I don't even know where it was.  I don't recall that at all.

ERQUIAGA: You always went to school in town?

PERALDO: That's right. Of course, the bus came by there and picked us up.

ERQUIAGA: You mentioned that you drove bus?

PERALDO: Yes, I drove bus for three years when I was going to school, and that was very interesting. Of course, the buses weren't as comfortable as they are nowadays, either. I tell ya', we used to get so cold. I remember when I was a kid before I drove bus that as we was going into the school why lot of times the driver to stop and we'd build a little fire if he'd have to make a back run. You know, he'd have to go back into the Vencill place or something down there and then come back by the time we'd have a little fire going warm our feet up a little bit. Gee, it was cold. Those buses. They had just curtains or something. No heaters or anything. It was cold. Not very comfortable, I'll tell ya'. Not to compare like they have today with everything they have. I don't know if they have radios or TV in the school buses, yet, but I suppose that would be the next thing that's coming.

EROUIAGA: What did you get paid for driving bus?

PERALDO: Well, I think I can say I was one of the least paid of any bus driver there was. It happened to be that one year that we was driving, and I drove that one. When I started I was getting twenty dollars a month. So then, for some reason, they decided they ought to have a conductor on the bus, so they put a conductor on it, and she was paid four dollars a month, so they took four dollars out of my twenty dollars.          (laughing)

EROUIAGA: To pay her?

PERALDO: Yeah, and we was getting sixteen dollars.

ERQUIAGA: Oh, boy!

PERALDO: And I was still saving money with the sixteen dollars.

EROUIAGA: Well, sure, you were glad to have a job, probably.

PERALDO: I'm sure that I can very well say that that was the least any bus driver ever got paid.

ERQUIAGA: Did your brother drive bus later?

PERALDO: No.

EROUIAGA: You were the only one.

PERALDO: I was the only one that drove. My sister drove bus for years.

EROUIAGA: Oh.

PERALDO: Del did. A good many years.

EROUIAGA: Well, later on then.

PERALDO: Yes.

EROUIAGA: Were you ever in 4-H?

PERALDO: I never was in 4-H.

EROUIAGA: And when you were in high school, did you take the agricultural classes?

PERALDO: That's right. Took four years.

ERQUIAGA: And who was your teacher?

PERALDO: L. C. Schank.

ERQUIAGA: The whole four years you had him?

PERALDO: That's right.   In fact, that's how come I . . . they come out with Ag IV the year that I was going to graduate, and I had signed up for all my different subjects that I was going to take, and I saw Ag IV but I didn't want Ag IV. I had one year of typing, and I wanted the second year of typing, so I signed up for typing, and, of course, Mr. McCracken, our principal at that time, called me into his office, and he says, "I see you signed up for typing." "Yes." He says, "Do you realize that you're going to break Mr. Schank's heart if you don't take that Ag IV? I would suggest that you take Ag IV." I took Ag IV and let my typing go, but I regretted not having the typing. One year doesn't quite . . . I can type some but not like I could if I'd taken it. But, anyway, I made somebody happy, and I think that was the right decision as far as I'm concerned.

ERQUIAGA: And were you in FFA?

PERALDO: Yes, all that time I was in FFA?

ERQUIAGA: That's Future Farmers of America. How did that work? Did you have projects that you worked on?

PERALDO: We had projects. I had a project at home there, and, like I say, I'll always remember my Holstein steers that I raised, and I sold them for six cents a pound. Thousand-pound steers. So you can see what a difference it was now and then. 'Course hay was three dollars or six dollars a ton, too. Compares to what you make, but I did love my . . . I was happy with my agriculture 'cause that's where I got to make my different trips, too.

ERQUIAGA: What kind of kind of awards did you win in FFA?

PERALDO: Well, I got all the awards that they're entitled to as far as it starts from the bottom up, and, of course, my biggest award was the American Farmer's Degree which is the biggest degree you can get. The ones I followed up all the way through, and, of course, then, I was also elected vice-president of the State. 'Course then that's when I got to make my trip back to Kansas City, Missouri in 1937.

ERQUTAGA: That's because you were the American Farmer?

PERALDO: That's right.

EROUIAGA: And what did you do back there?

PERALDO: Well, they had their regular meetings like we do here at your locals and everything only it's on the national level instead, you know, your locals. You got chapters from all over the country that's represented there from all states, and it's quite an affair. In fact, it's so large you don't realize how large it is, and, 'course, I don't know what it's like now, but at that time I thought it was very large. It's very nice. I really enjoyed it. And, of course, I---I have mentioned it--I played the accordion, and, of course, I did a lot of entertaining on the different Farm Bureau programs and everything, so they had asked me to bring my accordion when we went back to Kansas City, Missouri. 'Course we'd went from Fallon to Salt Lake City [Utah] in a car, and then from Salt Lake City into Kansas City we rode on a train, so I got to entertain them on the train.

EROUIAGA: Well, that was quite a trip for a young fellow that grew up on the farm without electricity. (laughing)

PERALDO: (laughing) That was. Sure was, I'll tell ya'. It was very impressive, and I always thank Mr. Schank for it because I think he had lots to do with it and helped me a lot.

EROUIAGA: That's what I was going to ask. Who do you think influenced you to do all those good things?

PERALDO: Well, like I said, Mr. Schank 'cause I've taken a lot of public speaking with Mr. Schank, too. He encouraged me to, and I did a lot of skits and whatnot with different students and everything in there and participated 'cause you knew--I don't know if you remember when we had the different schoolhouses, you know, every month that they'd have a meeting they'd have a program, so Mr. Schank would always manage to get some of us to entertain and go out to them. It was very nice. Sometimes you didn't agree on some of the things they did, but then still that's a fact of life, and after you get older you can understand these things. Why they did the way they did, but I was very proud of Mr. Schank, and I have nothing bad to say about him. I might have disagreed with him once in a while, but it wasn't anything.

ERQUIAGA: Well, now, you were in FFA. Did you have a parlimentary procedure?

PERALDO: Yes, just like they do now.

EROUIAGA: Was it team?

PERALDO: As a team, yes. Yes. I never did enter their parliamentary procedure contest. The only thing I entered into was the speech contest. Well, I'll tell you. I entered the livestock judging team, and I entered the crops, too. I didn't do too good at either one. I made something, but I didn't get anything big.

ERQUIAGA: Sounds like it was very good experience.

PERALDO: That's right.

EROUIAGA: Did you learn things about farming that were different than what your father did at home?

PERALDO: Well, I wouldn't say it was different. See, Mr. Schank at that time, we'd go out in the field. We had this old car body, and, in fact, it was two rear ends. The car was put together, and they could carry about fifteen, twenty students in it, and we'd make these field trips to different farmers that would have different things that they were making. In fact, that's where I learned how to make our first squeeze chute, well, it was a chute, anyway. That was at Bass' place, and you go out and you'd learn how to dock sheep, castrate them, castrate pigs. You'd have to do it yourself. You'd learn how to do that, and then you'd go around and learn the way people were doing farming, or they had different things you'd get to learn from that, so it was right down to earth about the whole thing.

EROUIAGA: And then were you able to implement some of these ideas in your own farm at home?

PERALDO: Very well. That's right. That's right. The only thing I didn't do that I learned in that was making roosters into capons.

EROUIAGA: No, you didn't ever do that, huh?

PERALDO: No. They showed us how to do it. We did it as he instructed us to show us, but I never did do it at home, but it's very interesting. In fact, we even had killed a cat--well, we put the cat to sleep, and then we dissected the thing and went through it just to show us where his heart was. In fact, it was still alive, and we'd see the heart moving, how the pulse was working and everything. Always remember Philip Jones. (laughing) After we finished, why, he'd touch its heart, and it'd stop, and he made the remark, "Well, what's going to happen to the cat?" (laughing) He couldn't bring it back.

ERQUIAGA: Well, the cat was gone. No, not the way we butchered. But that was the things. You did just exactly what you had to do, you know, and it was shown to you just the way it had to be done, so you knew how to do it. Of course, we didn't have the equipment then like we do now, you know. But they showed you in your shop how to weld with the forge and all that.

ERQUIAGA: Blacksmithing?

PERALDO: Blacksmithing. You learned how to do carpenter work and all that. How to thread your threads to make bolts and all that stuff, and, of course, that was just the way it was being done then, but it was all educational. I mean, it was helpful, and it sure was helpful.

ERQUIAGA: And did you learn record keeping?

PERALDO: Yes, I learned record keeping in there 'cause I did record keeping for four years on our project and everything, but I always enjoyed doing record keeping 'cause I think I probably learned that somewhat from my dad because I just picked up some of his books the other day and was going through there how he kept records of all his things. Especially his hay men. He'd keep records of the days they worked and the days they didn't, the price and everything. He kept good records, so maybe I learned a little bit from that, too, and, of course, you learn in school about budgets and whatnot, you know. How to operate your ranch because you had to make sure that you had money to operate or you couldn't operate.         

ERQUIAGA: Did you take part in any sports activities in school?

PERALDO: No, I didn't. I just did sports, what little I could, during the school, but I would have loved to played sports, but, there again, I had farm work and we was so far away from town. Some of the other students did, but they were a little closer than I was, but I would have loved . . .              I played football in the grammar school, but we just did that while we was at school. I played some basketball, but I love football most of all, but I didn't get to . .          I did do some track in high school. My letter on track, my Block F, that's where I gained my letter in that.

ERQUIAGA: Did you get to go to school dances or football games?

PERALDO: Oh, yes. Yes, we did attend some of the football games, and I attended quite a few, I loved dancing, and that's why I attended, but I can always remember our dances how they were, and maybe it was your time, too, 'cause McCracken was very strict, and if you got too close to your partner, he was over there to separate you out. Couldn't dance too close. I remember in school, too, they had two sides. I don't know if you did or not at the time you went to school. The one side the girls was on, and the other side was the boys was on. You didn't go on the other side unless you were going to go to a class or something. You didn't go on their side. Completely different from what it is today.

ERQUIAGA: Yeah. Very different. Well, when did you graduate from Churchill County?

PERALDO: I graduated in 1937 in June.

ERQUIAGA: And during these years, did some of your sisters marry and leave home?

PERALDO: Oh, yes. Josephine was the first one. I don't remember the year she got married, but she had left home, and, of course, Adele had left home. Carolyn, my youngest sister, she had left home, and, of course, the only two of us that were left right at the last was just my brother and I. And then, of course, Carolyn, she passed away. She was young when she passed away. She was thirty-six years old when she passed away. In may the 12, 1936 she passed away- no, that’s my mother in 36, no Carrie died in… [ed- original transcript notes C Carolyn died in 1952]

ERQUIAGA: And she was only 36?

PERALDO: She was only 36.

ERQUIAGA: When did your mother die?

PERALDO: My mother and dad died both young. My mother in 1936, and my dad died in 1940. They were both young. One's forty-nine and the other's fifty-two.

ERQUIAGA: Hmm.

PERALDO: 'Course that left us young then. I mean we were young. We got weaned young.

ERQUIAGA: Well, then after you graduated from high school, you stayed on and helped with the farming?

PERALDO: That's right.

EROUIAGA: You didn't go on to school anyplace.

PERALDO: No, no. We couldn't afford to go to school. I had figured that maybe when I got through, I had thought I wanted to go around the world. In fact Freemont Bria and I had got things ready, and then I had this Gus Pasquale was a friend of ours up in Paradise. He had went on these different tours on these boats, you know. You get on them, and you'd work and get to take these tours, and I was just making arrangements for it down in San Francisco to make this trip, but something else come up in between, and that's when I met my wife.

EROUIAGA: (laughing) When did you get married?

PERALDO: I got married in 1937.

EROUIAGA: Oh. Right after you were out of school.

PERALDO: Yeah. 1937 was a big year. That's my big year.

EROUIAGA: How did you happen to meet your wife? Tell us about Olga.

PERALDO: It was Olga Forgnone at the time, and she was a great friend of my sister Caroline, and she used to come down here and visit with us. For some reason, I don't know, there was somethin' that sparked me off, so then I decided I ought to go see her once in a while, so I got to making a few trips up to Paradise Valley. The next thing I knew it was hard to go away, so I told her I got a rope and lassoed her and asked her to be my wife. So that's how it happened. It was short, but it was quick.

ERQUIAGA: Where did you live when you were first married?

PERALDO: At the ranch we lived. Then I left a couple of years and went up to Paradise Valley and lived up there for a couple of years, and then when my dad got real sick in the 1940's there, why my brother come and we had a talk, and my dad wanted us to take over the place and everything, so I went back there and that's when we took over.

EROUIAGA: And what year was that that you took over?

PERALDO: Well, we took over in about 1942. See, my dad had passed away in 1940, and then before we got everything arranged about 1940, and then, of course, about 1943 when we got everything fixed, and, of course, that was about the time that we went into World War II, and, of course, then they came along and took my brother away from me, and I was left alone. He was inducted in 1943. It was rough, I'll tell ya'. I was by myself.

ERQUIAGA: Well, now, you were milking cows at that time?

PERALDO: That's right. I had about thirty cows I was milking by hand myself.

ERQUIAGA: All by yourself.

PERALDO: My wife was there, and, of course, my brother had been there before, and then they took him. I got to fighting the draft board quite a bit, and they finally decided if I didn't like it, they were going take him, and I said, "Fine. Go ahead. You're welcome to it. You take care of my wife and take care of the cows, and I'll go," but we sure had a hard time. I never did get him out, so I just had to take over, and, of course, it was 1943 that my son was born.

ERQUIAGA: That's Mario Gene [Peraldo]?

PERALDO: Mm-hum. Our son, Mario Gene. February 26, 1943, and, of course, my brother come back in 1947, and then that's when we homesteaded another eighty in 1948, and we'd found out, and he had time in the service, so he was able to get recommended that he was eligible for it because this C.L. Buck had never relinquished their plat on that homestead so it still remained open, so we went up to Carson City to find out about it. So that's when we got that in 1948.

ERQUIAGA: Was that adjoining your ranch that your father had bought?

PERALDO: Yeah, right next to the ranch. Yeah. It was three 80's one right along the other.

ERQUIAGA: When you were still working there by yourself, were you still selling to the MPA and separating it?

PERALDO: Yes, yes.

ERQUIAGA: And then when did the grade A barns

PERALDO: And then we went into grade A barn after my brother come back from the service, and that's when we come back. That was a grade A barn. We built it around 1950.

ERQUIAGA: And what was the difference then between grade A and what you had been doing?

PERALDO: What we had been doing before we's separating the milk and selling the cream, keep the skim milk. With the grade A barn you was sellin' raw milk is what you was sellin'. Pure raw milk.

EROUIAGA: Oh, the whole milk. Did they come in big tankers?

PERALDO: Well, at the time, when we went into it, they were picking up. We had the refrigeration, and we had cans. Was putting it in ten-gallon cans, and then you put it in these refrigerated boxes that you had in your barn, and you'd hold it there, and then they'd come by and pick it up in cans then. And, then, of course, it was several years after that we built a milk pipeline, and then you put it in the tank and then they'd suck it out of the tank and put it right in their tanks.

EROUIAGA: Did your grade A barns have to be built to certain specifications?

PERALDO: That's right. They had to be built to State specs, and they were inspected once a month to see that you kept them clean. That you had your bacteria down and all that. They'd get pretty rough at you at times, but we'd chug along all the time, but it's quite different after you, to think when you first started to milk by hand and all the work you have to do separating and all that and then there we were at the last just put the machine on the cow. Didn't even have to pack the milk or anything. It'd go in the pipeline, aerate it, cool it off, put it in the tank. Then they'd come along, pick it up. Very simple then.

EROUIAGA: Did they have inspectors that would come around and see if everything was clean?

PERALDO: Once a month. Yeah. Once a month they had inspectors coming around.

EROUIAGA: Were you one of the first grade A barns around?

PERALDO: No, no. There was many more of them that come in ahead of us. Stillwater was the one that really had a lot of them at that time. At the time we were in it, there must have about thirty or forty dairies. There was a lot of dairies. Small dairies, you know, but they were there.     It was good money, but it was, like I say, it's confined. You had to be there every day of the year twice a day, but it paid off. It was good, but we's also glad to get out of it, too.

ERQUIAGA: Was this a family operation? Did your wife raise the calves?

PERALDO: My wife, I never did let her get involved with down in the barns.

EROUIAGA: With your brother back, you were able to take care of the calves.

PERALDO: Yeah, and we always worked, but that was thing I never did do. I felt that as long as my wife kept her end of the deal and cooked for me and kept things clean and everything. That was her job.

EROUIAGA: She didn't have to take care of the cows, too?

PERALDO: No, no, and she cooked for the hay men and whatnot, and she took care of all that, so that worked out all right.

EROUIAGA: How many cows did you milk?

PERALDO: By hand we milked about thirty cows.

EROUIAGA: By hand you milked thirty, and then how many…?

PERALDO: Well, we had about sixty cows once we went into the grade A dairy business.

ERQUIAGA: When did you get involved in Farm Bureau?

PERALDO: Well, I was always involved in Farm Bureau, well, I would say, even like I say when I was in school. My dad always belonged to Farm Bureau and all that, see. We'd been involved in Farm Bureau the last fifty years at least that I have been involved in.

EROUIAGA: And you still belong to Farm Bureau?

PERALDO: Yes, and I still belong to it.

ERQUIAGA: What were some of the benefits that farmers got from Farm Bureau?

PERALDO: Well, the thing I liked about it all was you could go visit with one of your neighbors and whatnot and compare notes as to what you were doing and all, and, of course, you can stay on top of things as to what was going on in the State. You used to go to a lot of meetings where the legislation on different things would come up, but I don't think you would have known so much about it if you hadn't been involved in Farm Bureau. Kept you updated, and, of course, you had your recreation and you had your dances, and you had your entertainment and different things that you had as you went to the Farm Bureau meetings. I always enjoyed it because you'd have different areas in Fallon here that had their different places that they conducted their meetings. [End of tape 1]

ERQUIAGA: -Had their own meetings?

PERALDO: That’s right. Farm Bureau meetings, yeah. Like I said, there was Stillwater, I knew, and there was Old River, Sheckler, Lone Tree, Northam. There was a bunch of them, and, of course, every month you could go one place or the other.

ERQUIAGA: How far back did they start having Farm Bureau insurance?

PERALDO: Let's see, farmer's insurance has gotta be back to about, I'd say, twenty years or so if I remember right.

ERQUIAGA: That's one of the main things.

PERALDO: Well, that's the main thing, yes. You know, you just compare your insurance rates with other companies, and you'll find out that their Farm Bureau insurance rates are very much lower than anybody else. In fact, my son just compared. He had some insurance rates with the government or with another group that he had when he was in the service, and he said that couldn't be beat, but when he come back here he was told that I'll bet we can beat them which he did. He went down there and found out they can. They can beat the rates that he thought he really had were low, but the Farm Bureau .

ERQUIAGA: Do you think Farm Bureau was quite different in the community now, or is it…?

PERALDO: Well, the big thing about Farm Bureau now is I don't think, well, you don't mix as much as you used to because you don't have these different district meetings anymore, and sometimes you wonder just what your benefits are. Of course, things are done different now. All this information through radio and TV and all that, so that gives you the information. Before you didn't have all that, you know. Of course, the radio didn't come on until way late, and, of course, TV didn't come on, and, of course, but now . Actually that's what I miss. I'd really rather have the social life that we had before. I thought you'd gain more out that than you did, but this way you learn about, not only do you know about your next-door neighbor, your town area, your state, it's worldwide now. It's formed of everything, but Farm Bureau has its place. You can't be without it. You gotta be organized, and, of course, you probably realize that we found that out by this little incident we had with the water situation. We used to always think we could be individuals, but that last issue we had, why, it brought us to life quickly. We had to work together. We can't work as individuals. We gotta be united. You gotta be all together.

ERQUIAGA: You're referring to this latest group that's been organized. The Newlands Water Protective Association.

PERALDO: Yes. That's right. That's right. That's right, and I've always said you've gotta be united. You can't work as an individual no more 'cause if you don't, they're going to whip ya, and it's just been proven time and time.

ERQUIAGA: When were you elected to the T.C.I.D [Truckee-Carson Irrigation District] board?

PERALDO: I was elected in 1948.

ERQUIAGA: And did you happen to get into that?

PERALDO: It was kind of a tough . . . it was a threat like in a way. I asked the individual – I shouldn’t even mention his name – if he's gonna run anymore. In fact, he'd been on the board for, well, it was F. C. Erb. He'd been on the board for years and years, so I thought he wasn't going to run, so my brother and I went out there one time and asked him if he was going to run anymore,    "Why," he says, "sure I am, and I s'pose you're going to try to beat me." "Well," I said, "I thought if you weren't going to run, why I'd run for it." "Well, go ahead and run anyway," he says. "I can beat you just like I beat everybody else." Well, I was lucky, and I come out on top. It was kind of bad for him, but then that was my first experience with politics I s'pose you could call it.

ERQUIAGA: Well, what kind of an experience was that?

PERALDO: Well, it was a good experience. I found out those rates at the time when I went in there, I think at that time they were fifty cents.

EROUIAGA: For what now?

PERALDO: Just like you're recharging, you know, for the O and M.

ERQUIAGA: Operating and maintenance.

PERALDO: Operating and maintenance, yep, For fifty cents. I'm sure it was fifty cents. I know John Konda was our chairman. I said, "John, we all agreed that we gotta do something. We're going backwards here." The CC's [Civilian Conservation Corporation] that came in here and had done a lot of building of structures and everything, and we had a lot of things that we could see that we never could pay for it. So the time we went in there we raised it from fifty cents. We raised it to three and a half. Three dollars and fifty cents.

ERQUIAGA: Is that per person?

PERALDO: Well, per water user.

ERQUIAGA: Per water user, no matter how much acreage you had.

PERALDO: Well, that's right. It was still three and a half per acre, and we thought we'd get a lot of flack on it, but then we were able to buy. We needed some draglines, and we need different things and, boy, you just had to. It was just unbelievable.    'Course that's the way those people were re-elected was because they kept that O and M so cheap, but we couldn't go on that way. We just needed so much stuff that we just, you couldn't do it, and I felt like that was one of the good things, and, also, we, it was a thing that we did with the Wildlife [Fish and Wildlife Service].          That's when the Wildlife come in here and leased all that hunting ground. The Sinks, Carson Sinks, Stillwater, and all that, you know. They leased all that. We give them a fifty-year lease, and we leased it to them, and I thought that was a good deal because they want to raise their ducks, and we had the water, so that was good. Some of those things that we did not--that's what bothers me when we talk about we're not being cooperative or we're not doing things like we're supposed to in the T.C.I.D. Well, I never remember doing anything with the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District that it didn't have to be passed by the Department of the Interior. You had to get their blessing or it wouldn't go through, so these people that are all saying, you'll hear these comments now that T.C.I.D. did this, and they did that, and we did them. We were the ones that were running the place but we still had our boss that was watching us. Just like you'd have a hired hand, you know. He'll do those things, but still you're the one that has the final say so.      It's just like I said, there was a lot of people that had only three acres or only three and a half acres of water rights. They'd come in and they'd tell us they didn't have enough. We'd increase it to four, four and a half, went along, but it was still the blessing of the Bureau that it went through. Of course, now those people there, they're the ones that's getting hurt now because that wasn't what your original contract was, four and a half right. You've exceeded it, so they're taking that part away from you. That's what makes a lot of people upset, but I've told them, "No," I said, "I don't think any of us has actually been cut, yet, as far as I know from what your contract said you were entitled to." But, I know they've taken things away from us. Our agreement said that we could have electricity, you know. We could use the water flow through the dam [Lahontan Dam] in the winter. That'll go down the Carson Sinks and we'd generate electricity all the time. Well, they took that.

EROUTAGA: That was up at Lahontan where they generated the electricity.

PERALDO: They took that all out, and, of course, I remember we also put in two big diesel units up at Lahontan Dam because we needed more electricity, and, of course, at that time, that's when the District owned the electric plant. Truckee-Carson Irrigation owned the electricity that we was selling around here, and we needed mare power so we installed two big diesel engines up there. They don't use them now. They don't need them.

FROUIAGA: They don't generate any electricity up there now?

PERALDO: Huh-uh.[ed- they continue to make electricity while the river is flowing, generally during irrigation city. The now, presumably, refers to winter] And we also put in a generator at the twenty-six foot drop. They were always talking about you got that water running all the time there all summer, why don't you put you up a electric plant there and be generating for nothing. You know, you got the water going through there, so we put that in there, too. That paid itself off quick, too, but now they can use that as a standby, but I don't know if Sierra Pacific [Power] uses that or not now. I'm not familiar with it, but those are some of the things that we did that I felt was things that needed to be done. Very much so.

EROUIAGA: Well, those were a couple of the things that you feel were accomplished while you were on that board.

PERALDO: That's right, and, like I say, they were always saying we don't work with anybody, but we worked with the Wildlife. We were working with the sportsmen. We had meetings on that and everything to decide what we wanted to do. They were involved in it just like anybody else was.             It's all agreed, so right through there.

ERQUIAGA: Well, getting less water, part of it has been the drought, but it's also been cut back even in the good years.

PERALDO: That's right.

ERQUIAGA: And it was a rather gradual thing, was it?

PERALDO: Well, I always referred to Harry Richards. When I was on the Board he always told me, "Mario, you'll live to see it, but I won't, but," he says, " you're fortunate now because you can get all the water you want. The day's gonna come," like he said, "I'm sure you're going to see it, and it's goin' to get right to the penny, and they're going to cut you down to just what you got comin'." Which is true. That's just exactly what they're doing. They need this water. All this water that was going down there, just whether it was going down to Indian Lakes or Stillwater or the Carson Sinks or the Greenhead Hunting Club, it's all been cut off because the farmers have been cut back, and they're not wasting any water now. They're not letting any go to the drain ditch like they used to. They're watching it very close, and, of course, now we've gotten to the point where we can irrigate a lot better because we've got the laser where you put the water over so easy with it, and it irrigates good. Our methods are altogether different, and we do. Our efficiency, to me, is very good now compared to what it used to be, and, of course, we've made it so we can take big heads of water. We've concreted our ditches. We did everything, but, like I say, I was told, and I can see what he meant. Just the time comes when everybody needs more water. Wherever there's any spare water they're going to pick it up.

EROUIAGA: You refer to the laser. That's part of the leveling operation.

PERALDO: That's right.

EROUIAGA: They get the land leveled.

PERALDO: Yeah, yeah.

EROUIAGA: It irrigates better.

PERALDO: Yeah. You can make it wider checks, they'll go down just as smooth as can be.

ERQUIAGA: Takes the place of your father's jar of water! (laughing)

PERALDO: (laughing) That's right. Don't need that jar of water. You can use that jar of water to drink now.

EROUIAGA: We need it. From the T.C.I.D. then, you went on to be a County Commissioner.

PERALDO: I always wanted to get in politics, but I hated to think of running because I thought, "Gee, I'd get beat," and I hate defeat, but, anyway, it was kind of a . . . it was something that happens. It just happens to be about that Ramon Arrizabalaga come to me one day, and he says, "Mario, [taps three times] how'd you like to be a County Commissioner?" and I said, "What do you mean be a County Commissioner?" He said I got a chance, but I gotta know right today or tomorrow, by tomorrow, 'cause the County Commissioner they had on there they had to get rid of him. He had a problem, so they had to get rid of him, and they had to re-appoint another commissioner, and I told Ramon, "God, this doesn't give me much time." "No, he says, "you gotta think of it." So, I talked it over with my brother. He says, "Well, throw your hat in there.' So, I said, "I'll accept it. I’ll take a chance on it." Of course, then he told the governor, and the governor calls me up, and he says, "You'll be appointed with the conditions that you run the next term. You'll have to run next time," and I said, "Okay, I'll do that." So that's how come I got to be on the County Commissioners.

EROUIAGA: What year was that?

PERALDO: That was in 1972.

EROUTAGA: What were some of the accomplishments that happened while you were County Commissioner then?

PERALDO: Well, we built a new jail a lot of the people call the white elephant. Well, I suppose I shouldn't call that one the white elephant. The one we called the white elephant was the swimming pool. We constructed a municipal swimming pool that they called the white elephant 'cause they said we didn't know how much it was going to cost, and I've always told them from the beginning that that wasn't something that was going to make ya' some money. No matter. We toured a lot of other counties that had swimming pools. They told us the same thing. What it's going to mean is going to cost you is what it's going to do, but people were demanding for it, and so that's how come we built a pool. We had to build a new prison because our jails were overloaded and everything. The only bad part when we built a new jail was I hated to get rid of the old jail, and I fought hard to keep that old jail 'cause I thought it's an old landmark. You got the old jail, and people come around, and they don't understand like it used to be. I always remember the old George Dalton. He says, "Mario, that's the worst mistake you're making getting rid of that old jail," and I says, "1 know, and I don't want to get rid of it." He said, "And you shouldn't even build that new one." I said, "I agree with you there, too." He says, "You know, you don't see too many going in that old jail, did you?" "No." He said, "You know why. When they take them in there, they had that one stove that sits in the front." Did you ever go in that old jail?

EROUIAGA: I don't believe I did.

PERALDO: Well, anyway, it was an old potbellied stove, and then you had your four cells, I think, were back there, and he says, "You know, there's mice running around there. There's black widows going around there, and there's spiders and everything, and they'd go in there one time, but they didn't want to go back in there again, and you build them a new one, they'll have fun” which is true.

EROUIAGA: Do you think you would be allowed to use that old one now? (laughing)

PERALDO: No, well, that's right. He knew what's coming, but you couldn't stop it. He was just making a comment.

EROUIAGA: Making a comment.

PERALDO: Yeah. That's why you don't like to go in there. Now it's a pleasure house, as far as I'm concerned, to go to a jail. You have all the facilities you want, and at the time we built ours, we didn't have to put windows in them. Right after that they require that each cell have a window. Things are just all together different from what they used to be. But I knew we needed a new jail, but I didn't want to get rid of the old one. The building is still there, but they're using it for something else. I don't know what they got it for now, but I didn't want them to destroy those jail cells and all that. You know, you'd go around the world to see these old things, and here we got something right there. Oh, they said that building was going to fall down.              Fact is there's a cable around it, but I made the comment, "Yes, I remember when the old Esquire Club was going to fall down, too, and Mr. Whalen, the city engineer, condemned to be torn down," and I said, "How'd they tear down? They had to blast it."               

ERQUIAGA: It didn't go down easy?

PERALDO: No. Those things in those days were built to stand. They're not built like they are today. But, anyway, you have to stay with the times. You just keep it going. Some of the things you disagree with, but you have to go. But I always enjoyed my county commissioners, especially after working with the . . . I was threatened more times when I was on the T.C.I.D. board. I was threatened to be thrown in the ditch. I got cussed out and everything, and then when I went to the county commissioners, I was still working with the same people but you would of never known. It was just like day and night.

ERQUIAGA: Is that right? Why was that?

PERALDO: I suppose it was because on water issues. They got rough with you at times when I was on the T.C.I.D. I don't remember ever getting . . . oh, we had the big thing when I was on the county commissioners was the house of prostitution was made legal, and that was something that we could have done as commissioners if we wanted to. All we had to do was pass on it. I told the other commissioners, "Let's just put it for a vote. Let the people vote on this one. I don't want to be responsible for this one 'cause I know they'll kill it. We've got all the different churches that'll run it down." I did get some flack on that from the Mormon people. They were calling up. Maybe you'd like to have it yourself.              I said, "That's all right. Don't bother me, but," I said, "you're going to vote on it." So when it voted on, it passed--I think it was about three to one.

EROUIAGA: That was to legalize prostitution?

PERALDO: To legalize prostitution.

ERQUIAGA: In Churchill County?

PERALDO: Right, so I went back to some of these church people that were talking so much against it. I says, "What'd you do? Which way did you vote 'cause there was no way it could have been passed with all your church members the way that you were against it, so somebody must have did thinking at the last." But, anyway, that was the people that put that in, so we felt good about it. They couldn't come back on the commissioners then.

EROUIAGA: Well, were you a county commissioner when they had all the changes of the hospital?

PERALDO: Yes, I was. I was on the hospital board all the time that I was county commissioner. And there again was another thing that when we mentioned that we needed a new hospital, I was told, "Burn it, do anything, but don't build another hospital."

ERQUIAGA: It was a county hospital originally?

PERALDO: Yeah, it was a county hospital originally.

ERQUIAGA: And they were losing money. Is that right?

PERALDO: Well, they were losing money, I suppose. It wasn't just run properly, I suppose. It's just like anything else, if you don't watch it carefully, and, of course, then it was turned over to St. Mary's which I thought was a very good deal. I thought sure that'd go through good, but I was disappointed how that operated, but still they were always telling us how bad we were. Weren't making money or anything, but I'd always look at the audit there and our figures and everything when we'd check over what we'd spend, what we took in and everything, and I says, "I don't see anything in the red here.              I see we're keeping up with all our payments. We're paying our employees, and," I says, "well, we got another little fund. Well, where's that fund coming from," and that's what always made me wonder just how they were operating 'cause you go through their financial statements you should be able to find out when they're in the red. Somethin's gotta happen. Like I said, the payroll is going to be neglected, or somebody's going to be neglected somewhere along the line. I never did see that. Anyway, there was a lot of changes made, and, finally, I think, the county's got it back now, I guess, and they've leased it, I suppose, to some other outfit. I'm not too familiar with it no more now.      I figured I did my part when I was there and did what I could, so let the other people . . . now, I see they keep wantin' to build more and more. Before they didn't. I was involved in moving that old Dodge house over by the [hospital], which is the health department [Churchill County Community Health Nurse].

EROUIAGA: [85 North] Taylor Street. Is that county owned?

PERALDO: Yes, it's county owned.

ERQUIAGA: I see.

PERALDO: 'Course we made some additions to the hospital. I don't know. To me, I just thought there was too much friction. We had friction amongst our doctors. I got chewed a lot by doctors 'cause when we was trying to hire doctors, then we was trying to get them to come in here, and we was paying some of their fees to get them here, to get involved. Some of the other doctors disliked it. In fact, like I told one of the doctors, "After some of these new doctors come in," I says, "are you short of patients?" "No." In fact, some of them had more patients than they knew what to do with then. So, I said, "Well, tell us somethin' that we need these doctors." But, I still believe our local doctors was what making our hospital not operate good because they were sending all their patients to Reno is what was happening.

ERQUIAGA: And they stopped delivering babies there for a while, didn't they?

PERALDO: That's right. I remember when I was in there, I forget how many there was, but you could count on your hands how many there was in a month, and then after they got all those doctors in there, boy! I forget what the last figures are, but they're all being born here. Well, I wouldn't say all of them, but that's what I think actually what's brought the hospital back on now. Got all those patients coming in with the baby birth, and that's quite a turnover. I tell you, there's a lot of them. I should have that figure, but I don't have it now. My sister-in-law used to always keep me updated with it. It's kind of a sad story, but anyway you learn different things that way, too.

ERQUIAGA: Were you on the Board of County Commissioners when the fairground moved?

PERALDO: Yes, I was.

ERQUIAGA: Built up out there in the new place.

PERALDO: Yes, I was. Fact, I was the chairman the year that they did that, and 'course, remember old Oser was the one that contributed the property.

ERQUIAGA: Oser?

PERALDO: Mm -hum.

EROUIAGA: The property on south . .

PERALDO: The property out there where the Regional Park is now [Sheckler Road]. Remember he's the one that give us the Safeway store, too, I think it was.

ERQUIAGA: For the museum.

PERALDO: Yes. Mm-hum. Oh, we needed some place. I think we were very fortunate that we never did have a disaster. If you'd got under those grandstands to see how they were, and I think of those drunkards that used to be underneath there, and they'd lit a fire under there why we could of had some of the darndest lawsuits 'cause that was terrible. It was rotted underneath there and everything. We was just fortunate that nothing ever happened there. And, of course, it was in the wrong place anyway.

ERQUIAGA: Does the County still own that land where the fairgrounds used to be?

PERALDO: No. Not where the fairgrounds, that's been sold, and I think there's another group of guys that have that. I don't know for sure if Frey, Gomes, there's about five or six of them that's got that that they purchased. We still got a piece of property there. I think they still have that little piece just east of the fairgrounds there.

EROUIAGA: Well, where the Regional Park is now, they do a lot more activities there than they ever did at the old fairgrounds.

PERALDO: Oh, yes!

ERQUIAGA: It's really put to good use now.

PERALDO: Sure it is. Sure it is. But, again, just like I've always said, those things don't pay for themselves. It's just like a ballpark--well, of course, I shouldn't say that 'cause they do pay for themselves, I s'pose. But, you see, you got so much recreation there. What you're doing is you try to keep your children and everything off of the streets and everything. Give them something to do, but those things are costly. No matter what you do. I remember my cousin used to always tell me these people donate you things. That's one thing, but then when you start have to improve it or put something on it, that's when the expense starts which is right.

ERQUIAGA: The upkeep?

PERALDO: That's right.

ERQUIAGA: Forever.

PERALDO: Forever, you know. But, they've had a lot of things going there. We'll never replace our old Dry Gulch, though.

 

ERQUIAGA: (laughing)

PERALDO: The crowds we used to have there.

ERQUIAGA: That was a fun place.

PERALDO: It was a fun place. That's one of the things that really happened. You killed that when we took that out.

ERQUIAGA: Why did that happen, though? Why couldn't it have continued into Regional Park?

PERALDO: I don't know. They had that one building, you know, that they classified as the Dry Gulch over there, but it's just like people have told me, you know. You've got a restaurant or a small place, and you've been serving there for years. You take that and enlarge it or something or change it, people don't like that. For some reason it does something to them. They won't come back then.

ERQUIAGA: Oh, I see.

PERALDO: And it's just a matter of something that people get adjusted to it. That changes the atmosphere or something. That never did go over like at the Dry Gulch did over at the fairgrounds. Never did. Might have had some crowds but not the crowds that we used to have at the Dry Gulch.

ERQUIAGA: What other accomplishments do you recall from your days of the County Commissioner?

PERALDO: Well, I don't know of any others. Like I say, I just feel like I got educated.

ERQUIAGA: How many years were you a commissioner?

PERALDO: Nine years, eight months, I think, or ten months. Lacked two months from having ten years so I could get a pension.

ERQUIAGA: Why did you not run again?

PERALDO: Well, like I've always told you, I didn't want to get defeated, and the more you're on there, the more you become a target. You're not going to satisfy everybody 'cause we also put in the planning commission if you remember about that time we had the planning commission and some people were pretty hot on that, but you had to start somewhere, and, of course, like I always said, this is a start. It doesn't mean that you have to go by this for the rest of your life 'cause you can always make corrections or amendments or whatever you have to to change these things, but still it's one of those things. As you get large and everything that you gotta protect the other individual because if you don't they'll build anything in front of you or something. It ruins your property, so that's why the planning commission was proposed and all these changes, but we're still livin' in them. We have to. Other places do it, so you have to. You have no choice. But, it's hard. There again, you know, used to be independent. Used to be able to do what you want but can't do what you used to.

ERQUIAGA: When your son, Mario Gene, finished high school, what did he do?

PERALDO: When he finished high school, he went into the Air Force.

ERQUIAGA: Did he go to the University?

PERALDO: Oh, yes. He went to University four years. Let's see, he graduated in… I have it marked here somewhere.

ERQUIAGA: Must have been in the late sixties he graduated.

PERALDO: Yes. He graduated from the University there. Well, and then, just after he graduated from there, then he joined . . . he tried to get into the Navy, and the Navy didn't want him. They said he had bad eyesight, so he went to the Air Force, and he got into the Air Force.

ERQUIAGA:  And how long was he in there?

PERALDO: He was in there about twenty years. He was there till 1988.

ERQUIAGA: Where did he serve?

PERALDO: He's been all over Europe, Spain, England. He put two hitches in Vietnam.

EROUIAGA: Was he a pilot?

PERALDO: He was a jet pilot, yeah. He loved it. He thought there was nothing better than his airplane. In fact, that's what he misses more than anything right now is his airplanes.

EROUIAGA: He retired and came back to Fallon, right?

PERALDO: That's right.

EROUIAGA: He had married in the meantime?

PERALDO: Yeah, he married a girl that was was over in England, and they always thought she was an English girl 'cause she talked quite broken, and she still does, but her folks were in the service, too, so she'd been traveling all over the country, too. With the service men you go all over. In fact- [End of tape 2 side A]

ERQUIAGA: About your son's wedding. You said you had gone to England?

PERALDO: Yes, yes.

ERQUIAGA: And now they have three daughters?

PERALDO: They have three daughters. They had one daughter and then a set of twins after that.

ERQUIAGA: And after they retired, they came back to Fallon?

PERALDO: Yes, that's what they did. They'd always told me--I'd asked them to come back, and he said, "I won't come back as long as you got the dairy cows." Well, in fact, we'd asked when we sold the cows of what he thought of us selling the cows 'cause we sold the cows about 1956, I think. But, anyway, we were tired of the dairy.       As you get a little older you get too confining and everything, and that's why we asked him if we sell the dairy will you be upset? He says, "To tell you the truth, come back if you sell the dairy, but I'll never come back if you keep the dairy." So we sold.

ERQUIAGA: Well, then, you went into beef cattle after you sold the dairy?

PERALDO: Beef cattle, yes.

ERQUIAGA: And he likes that?

PERALDO: Yeah, he loves that. He's very good at that. He's like your husband, Tony. He keeps records very, very thoroughly.

ERQUIAGA: And when he came back, is that when you moved to town?

PERALDO: Well, that's right. That's in 1986, isn't it. So, in 1988 he come back. We always said that we'd move to town if he'd come back. He could have the old house, and he could do whatever he wanted with that, and we've been here since that living in a trailer which we feel very good about it.

ERQUIAGA: Would you call yourself semi-retired?

PERALDO: Semi-retired, I'd say.

ERQUIAGA: Or do you still work all the time?

PERALDO: Well, I don't know. I work a lot, but I love to work. I still love to do it, but, like I say, I can't do what I used to, but I still love to be around helping all I can. Like I told him help him as long as I can. I can't do what I used to, but do what I can. 'Course this is so much different. I can drive a tractor, feed, or swathe or do those things. It's no hard labor. Be hard labor I wouldn't be able to do anything.

ERQUIAGA: Well, with you for a role model, it isn't surprising to see that Mario Gene is getting involved in the community, and you certainly wouldn't discourage him from doing that, would you?

PERALDO: No, no. It's just too bad. He'd love to get more involved, but . . .

ERQUIAGA: Well, he still has time.

PERALDO: But, he's found out the way you got to keep up with his farming. You can't get too involved too many 'cause you let your own things go, and you can let them go to a point, you gotta be involved, but still you can't be too involved. He's on the planning commission which he'd asked me when he first come about when they asked him to be on there. I said, "Actually, that's one of the worst places you get on is the planning commission 'cause I served on that myself when I was on the County Commissioners." Well, he'd love to be on this, so that's what he's doing now. He's on the planning commission. Okay, I've told you about the homesteading of the Buck place, yet, and, of course, my brother got married in 1947 to Harriet. I didn't mention that, I suppose.

EROUIAGA: No. Did he meet Harriet while he was in the service?

PERALDO: Yes, he did.

ERQUIAGA: Did he marry her over there?

PERALDO: No, he didn't.

EROUIAGA: She came here.

PERALDO: Then, he called for her after he got back, and they got married afterwards, and she's been with us since.

ERQUIAGA: And they built another home on your ranch?

PERALDO: Another home on the ranch, yeah. But, that was my biggest blow is when I lost my brother.

EROUIAGA: When did he die?

PERALDO: He died in 1983.

EROUIAGA: He died very suddenly then, didn't he?

PERALDO: Uh, yes, yes.

EROUIAGA: And his wife still lives there and continues to be interested in the farm?

PERALDO: That's right. That's right. She's got her interest in there, yet, and it's been working out perfect. As I say, you know, the two that's left now of the Peraldo family is Josephine and myself.

EROUIAGA: Does she have children?

PERALDO: She had two girls and they both died.

EROUIAGA: Oh, really. But, your other sisters had children?

PERALDO: Yeah. Del had children. They're all still going, and Caroline had children. They're are still in existence. One of my nephews, Paul Nation, the young one, he died, but we'll never carry on the Peraldo family because my son didn't have no boys, but this is going in the third generation of the Peraldo family now 'cause see my dad had it, and we had it, and now it's going to my son, so we're actually in the third generation.

ERQUIAGA: All on that same place.

PERALDO: All on that same place.

ERQUIAGA: Kind of nice to have that.

PERALDO: So, it's home to us, and, I mean, I like to see people going, and that's why my son would like to see it still going. He might not become a millionaire, but, at least, make a living, anyway.

PERALDO: Mm-hum, and it's a good place to raise the kids. That's right. That's right.

ERQUIAGA: Well, I think that probably concludes our interview. I thank you for taking this time and telling us all this about your family.

PERALDO: You're welcome. I'm sure I probably left some things out, but I try to keep up with everything I can, but, you know, when they ask you these things you seem to remember and then when they come in final, then you forget a lot of stuff, but, of course, you asked a lot of questions, so I think we hit it pretty well. I wouldn't change anything that I've done before because I think I've seen more changes in my lifetime from horses, buggies and horses to going to the moon. You can't ask for much more.

ERQUIAGA: No, and you've contributed a lot to your community. Is there anybody in particular that you feel influenced you to be a community leader the way you have been?

PERLADO: No, the only one I'd say is Ramon Arrizabalaga is actually the one that got me into it, and, like I say, 'cause he was great with the governor and all that, you know. He used to be hot on them. He always wanted me to run for it, but I wouldn't.  I told him, no, I wouldn't until this particular case come up, and he still remembered, so he got me into it, and I'm glad I did. You learn a lot. T don't care what they say, you always learn. No matter how old you get, you can always learn something, and it just upsets me when these farmers feel like they can be so independent individuals. You can't no more. You gotta work together. Got understand because this world is getting smaller everyday and getting more complicated, too.

EROUIAGA: So, that's your advice to farmers is to stick together.

PERALDO: That's right. Be open-minded on all these things. You know, we've hurt ourselves a lot with this [Senator Harry] Reid. I know you can't help from disagreeing with what he does. You know, you just gotta be diplomatic on all these things. You feel like you want to do things, but in the long run that hurts you, and that's what he's using against us. It's just too bad.

EROUIAGA: Are you on the board of water users?

PERALDO: No, I'm not.

EROUIAGA: Okay, well, I think end this now then, and I certainly thank you.

PERALDO: And I thank you.

Interviewer

Anita Erquiaga

Interviewee

Mario Peraldo

Location

750 East Stillwater Avenue

Comments

Files

Mario Peraldo center.jpg
Mario Peraldo Oral History Transcript.docx
Peraldo, Mario tape 1 of 2.mp3
Peraldo, Mario tape 2 of 2.mp3

Citation

Churchill County Museum Association, “Mario Peraldo Oral History,” Churchill County Museum Digital Archive: Fallon, Nevada, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ccmuseum.omeka.net/items/show/668.