The next winter was pretty much like  the preceding winter although Jimmy Richards and I didn’t see each other as often  and couldn’t trade books back and forth to read but I found another source of reading material.  Mrs. Steve Callahan lived not too far away and she had a set of “Little Colonel” children's books, later made famous by Shirley Temple so I had another source.  Jimmie and I read Zane Grey, Carolyn Keene, The Hardy Boys,  X Bar X Boys, Edgar Rice Burroughs Sci Fi book series and generally anything else  we  could get  our hands on.  I believe Mrs. Callahan was a sister to the Mr. James mentioned earlier, the father of my school classmates, Margaret and George James.   The Callahans had three grown children, Ethel, married to Bruce Porter, the Pharmacist, theater and ranch owner (they were parents of Roberta Porter Brazelton and Jeanine Porter Gill.) The Callahans son was Walt Callahan, owner of the long established Stagecoach Inn in Wilson. Walt married  a lady Twila, but they divorced and he devoted his life to helping raise his nephew Orlo Curtis, a famous bronc rider.  The third Callahan child was Elizabeth who had married a “Curtis” and had a baby “Orlo”  Elizabeth must have died in or around the time the baby was born, as I think she was gone by the time we moved into Porter's Log house on Cache Creek. Anyway The Steve Callahans raised Orlo until he was older and moved over to Wilson with his Uncle Walt and went into serious bronc riding.  Mrs Callahan was always a lovely lady and very kind to me recognizing a book lover.  

 

It was a long walk for me from our house to the elementary school.  No one thought of school buses if you were within a mile and half of school even though the weather was bitterly cold and childrens clothes for the winter were not very warm and certainly not made Jackson Hole’s 40 below zero weather.  I usually wore a cotton dress, cotton “lisle” ribbed stockings a sweater, coat and a scarf wrapped around my head and neck and a pair of wool winter “ski” pants underneath my dress,  I  took my ski pants off at school as girls did not wear pants in those days.  I would  get a desk as close to the old school radiator as possible which would hiss and steam but didn’t heat up the rooms too well.  We had a big school bell which would ring at 8:30 (time for students to start school) and at nine o'clock it would ring again for everyone to get into their seats and be ready for the first class.  Years later they would install the electric buzzers but I still like the old school bell ringing which you could hear all over town.  Mr Schultz the maintenance and janitor always rang the bells exactly on time There were two Schultz girls , Betty and an older one. Betty married one of the Blair twins, Clyde I believe.  Claude had a clubfoot which would have been taken care of while a baby in later years, but he suffered all his life with it.  I believe the twins were more the age of her dad, but maybe not quite that old. 

 

The years went on pretty similar, my parents were having a tough time as after the power plant was finished,  there was very little work for an electrician. During the depression little or no new houses were being built to wire for electric but Dad finally got on with highway dept. He ran a grader as most of the roads towards the park and Togwotee Pass were all gravel.  For several summers we moved when school was out up to Turpin Meadows camp. It was on the Buffalo River.  Again Mom had a one room log cabin plus a tent with board frame for sleeping quarters.  It was heaven for all of us.  Mom loved going up there summers. Our only neighbors were almost a mile away Mr and Mrs Turner  Sr. who owned the  Turpin Meadows Ranch.  Turpin Meadows was named for an old pioneer “Dan” (I think) Turpin. The ranch catered to tourists and dudes, a  small store, log cabins for tourists and hunters, they served meals in the big dining room, horseback riding was available etc.  It was a very busy enterprise and at that time the .                                                                                                                                                                                                             boys John  (later married to Louise Mapes and they were owners of the famous Triangle X Ranch used in many movies such as “Shane.”  Reed worked  hard as did all the family.  The boys  may have been teenagers at that time, it was about 1935/36.   

 

While we were at the Turpin Meadows Camp in the summer, daddy developed  a great love of fishing.  Many grasshoppers died as three year old Ted and I would chase and catch grasshoppers for daddy to use for fishing that evening.  This was also where my mother’s love affair with eating trout began as in Indiana she had generally eaten catfish that her brothers caught.in the Wabash and White Rivers.  She could until the day she died eat a couple two lb trout a day and many years later when  my son, her grandson Henry became such a proficient fisherman she expected him to jump on his bike and go out to Spring Creek or the Snake River and catch her a trout or two every day.  And Henry usually would bring her some.  While she would be visiting us she would eat trout for breakfast lunch and dinner and if there was a piece left over, she would eat that before she went to bed.  My mother could eat a lot and never weighed over 107 lbs. unless she was pregnant She had great metabolism as did all of her sisters. as none ever had a weight problem.  My sisters are the same but I inherited a little different gene bank from my father’s family so I have had more trouble with weight and consequently, Diabetes.

 

Anyway the Buffalo River would get very low  Ted and I would play on the sand banks and I don’t think Mom ever worried about us drowning or wild animals bothering us.  We would see little yellow striped water snakes around sometimes, but the Jackson Hole valley doesn’t have any poisonous snakes, so we were quite safe.  Jackson is a funny place, the few snakes that can survive the winters are not poisonous, no poison Ivy or Oak, and the ticks didn’t carry tick fever, a clean valley left by the recent glaciation.  Although I remember Bruce Porter upset over the dude horses being taken out of the county for winter pasturing  and he said they were going to bring in bad ticks sometime soon. I sometimes would come in with 15 or 20 ticks on my body and clothes. I don’t know if they carry tick fever now or not as Porter predicted.  Bruce Porter was not only financially smart, he was very intelligent and knowledgeable about many things so his opinion on things mattered.  

 

But back to Turpin Meadow Days ,  each day daddy would drive the grader and George Melcoe who also lived in a cabin near ours, would take  the highway truck  and pull daddy over Two Gwo Tee Pass to Dubois, scraping and leveling the gravel then grade the gravel on the way back.  It wasn’ until about 1940 the road to Dubois was paved.  

 

About 1940 daddy finally had an opportunity for a job as Chief Electrician for the  Kennecott Mines in Ely, Nv.  So he packed up the family, Mom Ted, Maureen, Nona  Darrel.and Ina and moved to Ely where my brothers and sisters grew up and graduated from High School. However, I was a senior in high school, the war was imminent and I had met a good looking Estonian boy, Bob Tomingas originally from Gillette WY whose family lived in Canada.  Both of Bob’s parents were  immigrants from Estonia. Like most young girls at that time I thought marriage was the next step, so we were married, much too young to know anything. My friends were beginning to scatter during our high school.  Our class had lost a beautiful little boy named Bentley Smith in grade school. He and Jimmy Richards, my reading companion with Harold (Tobe) Ferrin, had been best buddies in grade school.  Bentley was blond and had grey eyes and a very handsome sweet kid,  He died of leukemia about eleven years of age.  His family sold their South Park Ranch and moved not too long after that tragedy,  I lost another friend during my childhood, Lily Lyons, whose family owned the ranch on the foothills of the Tetons above the Double Diamond dude Ranch which later became part of the Byron Jenkins Ranch holdings. The trail to Lyons Ranch was covered with huge rocks and boulders and a climb for a horse. When I was about 13 yrs old and the Williams family had invited me out to stay on their Double Diamond ranch several times.  I loved it. I helped Nola with the kitchen duties, we slept in a tent with the creek rushing nearby, the tent was very comfortable as it had a wood frame, door and a wood floor  like we  also had on the Turpin Meadows State Highway summer camp.  Our little friend Lily died of pneumonia during the winter. While I was at the Double Diamond Nola’s only sister Hazel was being “courted” by a young  Grand Teton Park ranger  Like all younger sisters Nola was quite interested in the affair. And talked about it in the evening when he would come to call.  We weren’t allowed in the big  dining room / lounge while Hazel was being romanced.  They did get married later which was a very suitable marriage as Hazel was perfect for a rising young career ranger.   

 

The Double Diamond was just across the highway from the Bar B.C dude Ranch, famous for Cissy Patterson (Countess Gizycki, November 7, 1881 – July 24, 1948) of the Washington Times-Herald in Washington D.C.  The dudes would get together and a couple car loads would go into Wards Dance Hall which still sits about a mile outside of Jackson.  There they would dance and all the local s  would come out.too. It had a big barrel stove with a fence around it so the dancers wouldn’t fall and get burnt. Marion Nethercott when very young would get up and play the spoons, He and his wife Bernice were great dancers and Marion had  great timing.  He could really keep those spoons beating time.People came, brought their children and put them in a corner to sleep while they danced. 

 

In later years one of the spectacular events in Jackson was the spring mating season of the grouse.  People would park their cars on the highway and about 5 PM you could hear them coming.  The males thumping sound  and a big yellow and red sack would show on their necks,  Hundreds of them would come from the Tetons drumming as they walked across the flats and the highway Their strutting and drumming would go on for an hour or so and then as if timed they would turn and gradually make their way back to the mountains not to be seen until the next evening. This would go on for a couple weeks I think as I recall. 

 

The dudes in Jackson were almost locals, they and their families would come back year after year for several generations to stay in the same cabins on the same Dude Ranches.  The rodeos in Jackson  were  big time entertainment during the 30’s 40’s, 50’s and even into the early 60’s.  Jackson was the last stop before Cheyenne Frontier Days and then on to the big Madison Garden Finals.  Cowboys and cowgirls were trying to get as many credits as possible for the finals. They had marvelous trick riders and ropers, my favorite events. Their horses didn’t go at a slow gallop but on a dead run while riders were standing in the saddle with ropes, sometimes two going at once,  The trick riders were so daring, climbing around on sides of their horses , standing erect in the saddle etc.  The rodeos were the big summer event and the dude ranches would bring in some race horses and the male and female dudes would have races.  It was a  special treat when your favorite Dude Ranch would win the Dude or Dudine race.  

 

In the 60’s Sheriff Olin Emery’s nephew  from Montana died when a bucking bronc fell and rolled over on him. He was Olive and Barbara Emery’s cousin.  The Emerys in Mt. had a murder in their family.  Olin’s  brother was convicted of killing his wife on Valentines Day.  Olin and Bernice’s daughter, my very good friend Olive took the brothers daughter, Connie and raised her with their kids,  Robert and Randi Heide and Rickey Eynon.  The boy, Connie’s brother, was raised by another Emery, a MT family.  Strange; one brother is Sheriff of Teton County for many year s and the other brother spends most of his life in prison for murder.  

 

One of the big events every winter was a big western stage show at the old Rainbow theater.  The building still stands and belonged to Bruce Porter who brought movies to Jackson. It is across from the old St. John's Hospital where all three of my boys were born. The Episcopla Church founded St. John’s Hospital. The Stage group would come to town and I suspect it was sort of the last of vaudeville companies  There were performances by trick ropers, western singers, some square dancing, westrn musicians etc.  To attend was something you talked about the rest of the winter.  The old theater would fill to capacity and there may have been more than one performance.  I remember when Will Rogers and (?) Wiley were killed in an airplane crash.  Bruce Porter closed the theater for several shows and  hung a big crepe black ribbon  over the bulletin board advertising one of Will Rogers shows.  I can still see it and where the poster was sitting. by the entryway   Most of the shows were westerns  at that time,and Sat. matinees were all western. Ten cents a ticket.  I took Ted every Sat. Ted loved Cowboy movie star Ken Maynard.  When Darrel was born Ted wanted to name him Ken Maynard Mayes, mom compromised with Darrel Maynard.  I remember my mother had a “crush” during the 30’s on swashbuckling star Errol Flynn,  Mom was quite a romantic. The old Baptist Church was right behind the theater.  The preacher was Leslie Barber.  He and his wife were so kind,  Mom and I attended the church occasionally, The attendees were very few as I mentioned most of the Jackson people were Mormons with a fairly large group of Episcopal members. ( sort of the”500” of the population)  

 

One of my friends during my childhood was Lucile Spicer. She had an older sister Mildred, who was one of the prettiest girls in town.  They lived in the white house kati-corner across from what is now the northwest corner of the elk horn arch.  Their dad owned Spicer’s Chevrolet garage and the Polson girls, Rula, Lona, (my age) and much later a younger sister Adele’s father was the parts and chief mechanic there.  The Polsons later built a home by the  log Huff Memorial Library.  My best friend was Olive Emery, granddaughter of Maude and Bert Charter of the Charter Spring Valley Ranch next to the Pete Hansen Ranch (and the Lucas Ranch) and daughter of Bernice Charter Emery and Olin Emery. Olin hired on the ranch as a Montana cowboy and in the proverbial western, married the rancher’s daughter Bernice.  The Charters had one son Boyd, besides their daughter Bernice. And  after I was married Boyd was a good friend of my husband Bob and I. 

 

The  high school years were spent attending  school dances, I sang in a quartet of four girls Marjorie Clissold, Soprano, me as second soprano Winona Henrie ( Mrs. Bob Wiley) her sister Vida Henrie Alto.  We had an excellent vocal coach Mr. Hines and I think he had hopes of having a new “Andrews Sisters” foursome.   We had a very good choir too for the small school.  Our math instructor was Professor Coe.  He would challenge any “adding” machine salesman to a contest.  He could add long columns of figures faster than they could type them in and press “total” and push the handle down.  I  was always  in awe of his ability. His method of “casting out nines”, technique still  puzzles me, though he tried hard to teach it to the class. 

 

One of my good friends during high school was Lorraine Robertson  Her mother was one of three Griswolds daughters.  Feo’s dad  C. Griswold owned a beautiful piece of property that he divided into three ranches.  Feo, Lorraine's mother and her sister Chloe married two Robertson boys, George and Dell.  George and Feo moved into the southern Ranch, Cleo and Dell the middle Ranch  and Vada the youngest and her husband (don’t know her husband's name) moved into the home Ranch.  George and Feo had two daughters, Lorraine, my friend and her sister Georgene.  Lorraine was the outdoor ranch girl.  She and her mother helped with haying and outdoor chores. Lorraine milked 7 or more cows every night after school in the winter and more in the summer.  Georgene did a lot of the cooking and housework

 

Years later my son Byron tells a funny story about Georgene’s son Chad.  They were in the first grade and had a miserable, mean teacher, terrible for little 6 year olds to try and cope with her disposition, but it was still the days when the teacher was always right.  Betty Reed would  stick them in the dark closet terrifying the little kids for doing no more than looking out the window. Anyway she put Chad, Byron’s friend in the closet. Later, when she opened the door, Chad was stuffing cake in his mouth.  He had searched through all the lunches and eaten much of the desserts in the sack lunches In those days kids all had to take lunches.  Byron still gets a good laugh over Chad and the lunches.  Chad lived on the ranch, darkness and Betty Reed didn’t bother him.  Lance Craighead would have been a student in that class too in the year he went to school in Jackson. I wonder if he remembers the incident.  

 

To go back to my friendship with Lorraine,  I spent a lot of time at their ranch.  The highway then ran on the opposite of the river so to get to their ranches you left your car,walked across the big swinging foot bridge,  Robertsons and Griswolds would go to town in the car, get groceries and bring back to the ranch.  They would bring a wheelbarrow across the swinging footbridge, load the purchases  and wheel it over to the horses and wagon waiting on the ranch side of the Snake River.  I don’t know how long the footbridge was in use but was there until they sold some on their ranches to build the highway on the west side of the river,  The east side of the river had a big spot in the road that use to slide down the hillside and the drop would be several hundred feet  The highway  dept would close the road for several days and build it back up.  However during the days I was going to the Robertsons we had to cross the swinging bridge.  Sometimes you looked down at the river current, plus the swing of the bridge in the wind and would feel that you were floating up the river.  It was a long drop from the bridge.  

 

One weekend in the spring, Lorraine asked me if I would like to come out and help them drive some cattle to a summer range.  Obviously I seized immediately on such an opportunity to ride horses. The morning we started out, Feo was leading on her horse  Lorraine somewhere in the middle, Georgene and I bringing up the rear where we would be out of trouble, George thought.  As I recall there were probably 40-50 head.  George rode up and down the trail by the cows keeping them moving in a straight line.  The trail we were going on was on a very steep hillside above the river only a couple feet wide and easy for the horse or cows to lose their footing and slide down the steep embankment  a  hundred yards or so all the way to the river bank.  The trail is about one third of the way up the hillside. And we were driving the cattle on it down to the Hoback Junction, around the corner and into a little valley after the turn into the Snake River canyon.  The trail can still be seen to this day on the steep hillside.  And some of the Robertson family may still use it to take their cattle around the hills to summer pasture.  Remember at that time the Highway was still on the east side of the river  We started out but midway the trail narrowed considerably and in several places was washed out almost entirely. At those spots George would come back, make us get off the horses and walk carefully across the washouts.  We had to be very careful to stay on the upper side as our horses would  jump here and there to get across the washouts and could knock us off the trail or land on us.  One bad spot on the trail two of the yearling calves started pushing each other, butting heads, one lost it’s footing and started  sliding down the washout.  George came back and after several attempts roped its head.  The other cows were getting restless with all the turmoil and he was lucky not to lose one far down the wash.  George had a very good cow horse and between the man and horse they finally pulled the dumb cow back up about 15 ft onto the trail again.  We moved the herd on around into the canyon.  Feo had brought some sandwiches so we rested the horses, ate and then made the trek back to the ranch.  My one experience in “real cowboy” life.  George Robertson had a tame Bull Elk that he would saddle up and ride for parades and such, quite a site! The Robertsons had milk cows too which were a big part of their finances  As I said Lorraine did a lot of the milking.  When a dance or something would be on at school Lorraine would stay in town with me.  From all the milking she did  her arms would ache all night  at the  times she didn’t milk and stayed with me. for school affairs. Lorraine grew up, married a local ranch boy  Had a couple of children but died very young of cancer I think.  Still think of her friendship with great love and how wonderful George and Feo always treated me even though I was probably a nuisance. Once Feo left me with loaves of bread to remove from the oven when they finished baking, cool down, then store in the bread box.  I didn’t let them cool enough and put them in a towel and in the bread box and they sweat, nearly ruining her bread.  Feo frequently made wonderful  steak biscuits and gravy  for breakfast So good,  she used some sour cream in her gravy and a lot of fresh cream for cooking.   Yum!