Dad’s Story, part 4, Only Potatoes, then Nothing

Here’s the painting Dad made from a photo he took many years later. By then there was nothing left of the buildings his dad built. The one time I visited, it didn’t look this green. As far as I know even today it is as desolate and uninhabited as ever, and not a place where you want to run out of food.

The following entry is from another remembrance, supplied by Orrelle, one of Dad’s two younger sisters. Interesting that Dad never mentioned it.

It was late summer or early fall, before we girls were born. Mom told me how she and the five boys were out on the homestead and food was running low. Burwin was 6 months old, so that would make Muriel 2, Sterling 4, Hyatt 6, and Comer 8. Pop was away, as he usually was, working or trying to get work on the railroad.

Finally they were out of everything but potatoes for over a week and then down to nothing. That’s when they got news by a passing sheepherder that some supplies had been left at GP-16, by the oil wells.

But Mom had a problem. She couldn’t go herself as she would have to take Muriel and baby Burwin. So early the next morning she sent Comer and Hyatt with the cart and horse, the only transportation they had. She waited all day, still without food, and now beginning to get worried.

Then in the late afternoon Comer came riding in on the horse. He was lugging a wheel from the cart. It had broken out on the sand dunes and he had left Hyatt to guard the groceries.

Mom put Muriel and Burwin to bed (again without supper) and told Sterling he was in charge. He was 4. She told him to lock the door and not open it until she returned. Then she found another wheel somewhere and returned with Comer to where Hyatt was dutifully guarding the groceries.

By the time they got back to the homestead it was quite late and dark. They banged on the door but the only one they could raise was Muriel, but at 2 he was too little to unlock the door. They finally pushed Hyatt in through a window!

(Below) I didn’t know where else I could insert this picture, Dad’s two sisters, Orrelle and Melva, as they were in 1945. What beauties, no? Taking after their mother.

Mom made dinner and woke Muriel and Burwin up because she knew they would be hungry. She tried to wake Sterling. She shook him and shook him without result. In desperation she started to spank him but he just started to laugh. The more she spanked the more he laughed, like it was getting funnier and funnier all the time. Finally she gave up and put him back to bed. In the morning he didn’t remember a thing. But he was ready for breakfast.

Next: The move to Washington State