Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Conversation Between Dwight and Russell M. Blood August 1992 (Continued)

I got my Social Security number on 12/12/36, so it must have been the winter of 1936-37 when I stayed at Brasher's wash house.  Drove into Cody. (Not sure what this comment means).  The mice and bedbugs were bad, I set 12 traps and listened to them snap.

Fall 1937: Louise started school.  I made cutouts (western silhouette scenes cut on scroll saw from walnut or other plywood), and made small inlays.  The year Louise was born (1931) I worked at the ranch (Dewey Riddle Ranch in Sunlight above Cody).

After I worked at the ranch, Dewey gave me an old team of horses and a light rig to go back to Penrose.  I stopped at John Nielson's (don't know who or where) and stayed overnight, cut across Sand Coulee, stayed at Oscar's (Uncle Oscar House) in Ralston, then to Penrose.  Took the horses to Grandpa's (Grandpa Wasden who lived nearby in Penrose).  The horses had sore shoulders.  In the spring, I traded the roadster (Mom's prize Model A roadster she had bought with her teaching money before marriage), team, light rig for a payment on the Penrose place (bought from Maude Moody).

We got married on December 24 1930 and went to Denver; we came back to Penrose and Louise was born in Billings.  Mother (Minnie) stayed at the folks (her parents, the Wasdens); went to Billings when Louise was born.  I went back to the ranch (Sunlight) for the summer); I was just doing chores.  I remodeled an old school house at Mary Riddle's; I took the roof off, raised it two logs high, put in new windows and a new roof, chinked the cracks with plaster.  Mother came and stayed with Mary Riddle until I was through. (To be continued).  (Someone: figure out how far it was to drive a team of old horses from Sunlight to Penrose and sketch out a rough map, showing Sand Coulee).

4 comments:

Judy said...

Good job, Dwight. I realize how many times in my childhood, I heard names and places and really never knew who or where.....time to get out an old map! Wonder what kinds of stories Dad would tell you today, if he could.

Elizabeth said...

I am so glad you took notes of this conversation. Can't wait for the next installment.

Elizabeth said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sherm Weimer said...

Just found this blog. Not related to the Riddle family, but knew the family well as my parents lived in the Crandall Creek area in the 1930's and 1940's, and my dad was there as early as the 1920's. Mary Riddle bought me my first baseball mitt, and I used to fish on her place in Sunlight in the late 1960's and early 1970's. She was a wonderful lady.