Dad’s Story, part 2, Schooling and Christmas

Continuing the story in Dad’s words, with a couple extraneous photos…

My next recollection is about two years later when I was about 4 because Sterling was about 2 and I was helping him to cross the creek on a log and he fell in. I had to help him out. This seemed a very scary time because I thought this was very deep and wide. Later I realized the creek was quite small and could be waded.

There are no photos of Dad and his brothers during these days, so I’ll use the occasion to show his dad, Hyatt Edwin (28), front row, left, and introduce you (and me) to my great-grandparents, Charles Rufus (52) and Abby (49) seated, center.
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I must say, they’re a good looking bunch, all with their stoic expressions of a cat smiling, which was the way of the day.

While growing up on the homestead in Wyoming we would go to town in the fall for school and stay until spring. We did have several teachers come out and stay at the homestead, one after another, but it was too lonely for these young people.

Two winters we stayed at the homestead because of Dad’s low income on the extra board.

During the first winter the family went to GP-16 (an oil well community) for a Christmas celebration and dance. This was about 40 miles north. Every ten miles on the road, which was really just a trail through the sage brush, there was a cabin, stocked with food and wood. You could help yourself to the food but had to replace any wood used.

At the celebration Santa Claus, after giving out candy, lit up a big cigar and his beard caught on fire. It was an exciting performance for us kids.

Then we were bundled up and put on the floor to sleep in the next room while the adults danced. We managed to peek at them until we got tired.

Another Christmas I went to Rawlins with Dad to get supplies and Christmas gifts. He was again on the extra board and out of work.

We went with a horse and wagon, which took two days each way. On the way back it was so cold that Dad made me get out of the wagon and walk just to keep warm. (I read the same in the other brothers’ accounts, so apparently it happened to each of them.)

We stayed overnight at the Miller ranch. One of the cowboys said to come to the Miller ranch gate, about a mile from our place, on Christmas day and I’d find a surprise. My folks said, “Don’t put your heart on it as cowboys are likely to say things they don’t mean.” But on Christmas day Sterling, Muriel and I went down to the gate and found a large bag of candy. It made our day. (Dad often retold this story so it must have made quite an impression.)

(Below) Say Hello to my great-great-grandparents, Levi and Lydia Moore, with great-grand-Charles Rufus, right.

That year we were given many used gifts in town to take back as we had very little money, but it was my most exciting Christmas, my favorite gift being an Uncle Wiggley game. (Maybe this was the beginning of his everlasting interest in table games, not to mention his almost unbeatable competitive spirit.)

Next: The story of the snakebite. (No photos for that either.)