Alene Gellatly
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Transcribed from the typed transcript held by HCHS. Spelling and punctuation are as typed. Struck text is struck through on the page; [handwritten: …] marks later ink; [p. N] marks the top of each page.
[p. 1]
[handwritten margin: TAPE #15]
Interviewee: Alene Gellatly
Interviewer: Elaine Henderson
Date: September 14, 1989
Elaine September 14, 1989. We are at Alene Gellatly's house. I'm Elaine Henderson we are going to interview Alene and Jerry Reed (?) is here with me.
Elaine Alene, tell me about your father's folks if you can remember anything about them.
Alene I can't remember his father at all, but I do remember his mother and she was born, she only had one eye. But she could sew and what she had to do, those days. But they were raised over in the Paradox Valley. They migrated from Bellplaine, Texas to the Paradox Valley, and they lived in this sod hut and she had that floor just shining and sparkling dirt.
Elaine What's Paradox near; Gunnison?
Alene No. It's out of Norwood and Naturita, Elaine. You go way out there and all there is now is a little post office. And we went over there not too long ago, and the post office is still there, and it's wonderful to go through that valley, but the Indians always used to come to my Grandparents' and stay all night, and the folks would fix places for them in the hay and make them comfortable and then my grandmother always had something cooked which was a pot of buckskin, probably, and then, my dad, at seven years old, he got the big idea that he was a big cowboy, so he run off from home. And he joined this band of cowboys, so they put him to work just to catch the horses up of a morning and not many saddles. They'd go way up ... there's a mesa out of Paradox and I can't remember the name of it, but they used to go up there and they and the Indians got along real well. There was no problems at all. And then from there, my dad moved to Crawford, and my mother was a telephone operator up there in the little old Crawford building when they just had the crank phones, you know. She was an operator and that's where my dad met her and they were and they were married and they had us three kids; my two brothers and myself, and both my brothers are dead.
Elaine Go back a little bit. If your father is part Indian, which of his parents were Indian?
Alene His dad.
Elaine And what tribe was he from?
Alene He was a Cherokee.
Elaine O.K. Cherokees weren't very common in this part of the country.
Alene There was very few of them.
Elaine Very few is right. I thought maybe he would have been a Ute.
[p. 2]
Alen No, no. Cherokee.
Elaine And you don't know how he got into this area or anything.
Alene No, no. When they , or when he moved to Crawford, he got to going with my mother and they were married and had my older brother Russ, pitch, he was mayor of Crawford for years and years and years. You didn't know him?
Elaine No, no; that was before I came here.
Alene Oh. And then I was next, and then I had a brother younger than me and he was killed in World War II.
Elaine What year were you born?
Alene 1917
Elaine '17 ; before the war, then?
Alene Mmmhmm (yes)
Elaine And which did your father have up at Crawford.
Alene Well, we was all over Fruitland Mesa from one end to the other, and I used to go out and help my dad. I'd rather go out there and help hay, and my brother, he liked to help my mother cook. (Laughter)
Elaine Reversed roles!
Alene That's the way we did it. I did what I wanted to and my brother did what he wanted to. And when we were living out there ... on the upper ranch up on Fruitland, I was playing for dances and I didn't have any way to get over to the dance hall ... that was up Smith Fork,
Elaine Up Smith Fork? Whereabouts?
Alene Well they had a little old school house up there. So I'd just .... my mother would pack me a dress or skirts or whatever she could and tie it on the back of my saddle and I'd ride from there to the dance hall, go out to the little out house, change my clothes, go in and play for the dance all night, and then get on my horse and go home.
Elaine And who else would play with you?
[p. 3]
Alene Well, Lewis and Ralph Christian. Red; Lewis just passed away here not too long ago.
Elaine That's right. And what were they playing?
Alene Lewis played banjo and Ralph played the fiddle, and I played the piano.
Elaine Where did you learn to play the piano?
Alene By ear. And my Aunt Nellie played it by ear also.
Elaine Nellie Ashby?
Alene Nellie Ashby.
Elaine Now tell us a little about your mother's family. You remember much about them"
Alene Well, there was ......
Elaine This is McCloud now...
Alene Yes.
Elaine She was Birdie McCloud, right?
Alene Birdie, mmmhmm. There was Tom and Custer and Jim, the three boys. And then there was my mother and four other sisters.
Elaine That many, huh?
Alene That was a big family.
Elaine I should say it was.
Alene It certainly was. A big family.
Elaine And how are you ..let's see ... are you a cousin to the McClouds that live right over here on Orchard?
Alene John?
Elaine John is your cousin?
Alene John is my cousin.
[p. 4]
Elaine And his mother hasn't been gone long.
Alene No, no.
Elaine She was a McCloud. She was married to a McCloud.
Alene Yes; Ollie. She married Tom.
Elaine I didn't realize there were so many.
Alene Oh yeah. There was a whole bunch of us.
Elaine But you never lived on that McCloud Ranch then, that John has.
Alene No, no. I know where it's at because I used to ride all over Black Mesa horseback with my dad. Do you know where Ben Harman's (?) grave is?
Elaine No.
Alene You don't know about Ben Harman?
Elaine No.
Alene Well, he was a game warden and he lived in Crawford for a long, long time and he was a most wonderful person. An he went up on Black Mesa and he picked out this spot; under a pine tree, and he said "When I die, if it's in the Wintertime you can bury me in Crawford, but in the Springtime, when you can get up there, to Long Gulch on Black Mesa, under that pine tree, I want my body taken up there." Which they did.
Elaine No. I'd never heard that before. Is it marked?
Alene Oh my, yes, and has a fence around it.
Elaine No, I'll have to go up there and see it.
Alene It's wonderful. Do you know where Long Gulch is on Black?
Elaine No, but I can get somebody to take me.
Alene Well, have you ever been up on top of Black?
Elaine No, not really; not on top.
[p. 5]
Alene Well you have to kind of go up the old road. Now however, where you go up to John's hunting lodge which they have up there now. You can go up that road and then you'll go up to the XF Ranch and that used to be my grandfather McCloud and his wife, my grandmother, her name was Leadocia (sp?) And I used to every summer when they'd move to camp, I'd go to camp with them. Stay all Summer long. Boy we raised the best spuds and turnips and rutabagas you could ever imagine. Then you went around oh, about three quarters of a mile and then you'd hit Long Gulch. And up the end of that gulch is where Ben Harmon is buried.
Elaine Well, that's a nice place to be; where he loved it.
Alene Oh yes. And he was loved by everybody, I tell you. Us little snot nosed kids up there in Crawford, you know; our pennies were kind of few and far between and Ben, he'd come over there and see some of us and he always had some shekels in his pockets and he'd give us some pennies and buy a big old long stick of licorice, you know, and that was really something..... Well then I went to school ..... I started in the Crawford school up there .... you know where the town hall is now? Well that used to be the old school house. I started my first grade there and went through high school. Graduated and there was four of us in the High School that graduated that year.
Elaine They had all the grades there, then?
Alene Every one of them. They had the lower grades down below. And Leslie Fields' wife was my teacher. Mildred was one of my teachers.
Elaine She taught up there a long time.
Alene She sure did. A lovely person.
Elaine Yes she was. And your brothers went to school there with you, too?
Alene My oldest brother went to school and then he quit. He got the fantastic idea he wanted to go to California and get away from .... you know .... see what the world was like. But my other brother that got killed. He graduated from there.
Elaine Tell me how both of your brothers died.
Alene My brother at Crawford that was the mayor; a heart attack ... massive heart attack.
Elaine But now he lived a good long life.
Alene He lived a good long life. And my brother that was killed in the war; he was just in the prime of life. I can't remember how old Bob was when he got killed.
[p. 6]
Elaine Was he killed during the war then?
Alene Oh yes.
Elaine It was a war death; it wasn't here during the war is what I meant.
Alene Oh, no, no; it was over at Pearl; Pearl Harbour. He enlisted in the Navy and he went over there and when they blew it up why he was one of them.
Elaine Well, now tell us more about your life when you were out helping and doing. How did you have time for all that when you were going to school, too?
Alene Well, I went to school, but heck, I used to ride horseback way out there on Fruitland back and forth to school. It was about ten miles. I'd go there and then I'd; they had a bunch of old cedars up there back of the school. They've torn them all out, and I; my mother would pack my lunch and I'd go out there and get that old lunch and eat it and then when school was out and I always had a little; Dad always fixed me a little bag of oats to feed my little old grey mare that I rode all the time.
Elaine How many miles was it in to school for you?
Alene About ten.
Elaine Ten each way?
Alene Ten, oh but I went like fire. Nothing stopped me, I tell you when I got on that horse I was ready to go. And then ......
Elaine After school did you have a lot of farm chores to do?
Alene Oh yes! Cows to milk and hogs to slop and chickens to feed and everything. I always helped my dad. I always helped my dad.
Elaine You both were close.
Alene Oh yes and my brother helped my mother.
Elaine They say your father was a hard riding, hard drinking cowboy.
Alene You bet he was.
Elaine Do you remember any of the stories that he told you about things that happened.
[p. 7]
Alene Oh, doggone, if I could have just found that paper. It told a lot of things that he used to do. Well one thing, him and Harry Lufer was one of his buddies. He was an old cow puncher. And they were up rounding up some cattle and they had a kind of a greenhorn along with them. So they thought, well, we're going to do something. It ain't gonna be good and nice either. So they took this kid; he was not too old a fellow, and took one of their ropes and they tied him on one of their steers, and just tied him around and put the rope down underneath and cinched him on there and turned the steer loose and there he went. I heard my dad say "You know, that was a God damned shame we did that to that kid, but," he said "we sure had a lot of fun." And finally they roped the steer again and took him off.
Elaine What a ride. Eh?
Alene Yeah, what a ride is right. Oh Dad, he was a , and if he liked you he liked you and if he didn't, why that was it.
Elaine Do you know anything about his life before he married your mother?
Alene Not too much, really. Uh-uh.
Elaine I forget who he was married to first. Do you remember her name?
Alene Uh, golly, no. I can't remember her name. I sure can't. They weren't married too long.
Elaine No. And didn't she die or something?
Alene Yes.
Elaine Or took her own life?
Alene No, she died.
Elaine She died. Do you remember what it was?
Alene I don't remember. I wasn't even thought of, then!
Elaine I thought that your father moved in from the Gunnison country.
Alene Well, Dad was all over that country, you know.
Elaine Or was it the McClouds that came in from the Gunnison area?
Alene No? They could have come in from that area, some of the McClouds. I can't remember
[p. 8]
where my grandfather; his name was Alexander McCloud, and the old house he lived in up there at Crawford; Rich and Ann lived right next door to it in a mobile home and the old house; I've been in it a hundred times; it burned down. And there's nothing there now.
Elaine I know where Rich lives .....
Alene Well it's right next to there ..... on the left. And there's a trailer house on down below. But where they all came fro, Elaine, I don't know.
Elaine Well, it's just interesting if you do know it ....
Alene But I sure don't.
Elaine Do you remember moving from place to place much?
Alene Oh yes.
Elaine Tell me something about the houses as you remember them then. Were you in one room cabins or what were you .....?
Alene No. Most of the places we lived out there on Fruitland were pretty nice houses. Of course there was no water or toilet facilities, you know, and each house had a pump, a water pump. Boy and you'd just pump that water you know in a big old round tub and that's how we took baths and .......
Elaine Was it pumped into the house or out. Did you have to carry it in?
Alene No it was Dad, the last house we lived in, he fixed a pump inside the house, but with the others we had to go outside.
Elaine And haul it in ..... and then the privies, of course.
Alene Oh yeah. Outside in the cold weather and all And in the Winter time when the ponds would all freeze over, we always had a ice house, and boy, we'd fill that thing full of ice. Of course we had our own cows and pigs and everything. We always had plenty of milk and cream and made our own butter and everything like that and we'd have big things; freezers, of home made ice cream, and that was good. It was the best.
Elaine I'm surprised that you didn't have any of the one room school houses....
Alen Oh my yes, in Crawford. On the lower end of Fruitland Mesa there was a little schoolhouse and we had to ride horseback. My brother he was small and I was a little bit older, and we rode horseback, and of course, tied our horses up and went in there, and I'll
[p. 9]
forget the first year I went there. I knew I was pretty dumb, but I didn't know I was that dumb, though. I went for about a week and then this teacher says "I want you to take this note home to your mother, Alene." So I took it home and my mother read the note and she said "That Alene is the sweetest thing I ever saw, but she can't learn a thing." (Laughter) And I said "Well my God what am I doing going to school for, then?" So my mother went and had a talk with her. Then when my dad found out about it, Wow; he went and had a talk with her, so then her and I got along very well and I showed her that I did know something. But that was the only country school I went to.
Elaine Weren't you interested in the work or didn't she make it interesting?
Alene She didn't make it interesting. None of the kids liked her.
Elaine Do you remember what her name was?
Alene Hammond was her last name; Harriet Hammond. Yeah, I remember her .... real well!
Elaine Well how many grades did you go to there?
Alene I think I went through the fifth. Then we moved from the lower end of Fruitland Mesa; we moved up to another location on Fruitland and from there, we had to make our own way to Crawford. And in the Winter time when it was real, real bad and snow and you know, Dad used to hitch up a wagon team and my mother would always heat old flat irons and blankets and put them in the wagon and we'd go down through the road and pick up all the kids we'd be just nice and warm underneath there. With them hot irons, you know.
Elaine Tell me about the one room school. What was it like inside there?
Alene Well, it was a one room with desks, and of course, she had her desk, and outside toilet.
Elaine And I suppose you had a wood stove?
Alene Oh yes, yes. Wood, there were lots of cedars and in the Fall, before school would start, why all the fathers would go and cut wood and saw it and we had one of those cross saws, you know, boy I'd run one of them with my dad I used to like to do that ; run that saw; sawing that wood.
Elaine And what kind of equipment did they have in the school room?
Alene Well, kind of rustic desks, but at that time, they were fine, and we were lucky to have a .... I remember I used to buy Big Chief tablets, writing tablets. Five cents; and a pencil if you was lucky.
[p. 10]
Elaine Did they have books for you to read or did you have books to take home?
Alene No. Uh, the teacher had the books, well we did have a small blackboard, and she did have chalk and she would write the lesson out up there on the board and we was supposed to write that down and get our work done. We never took any homework home.
Elaine You had enough work to do when you got home.
Alene You bet.
Elaine Then, did you write in your tablets? You didn't have slates to write on or anything like that?
Alene No, no.
Elaine You wrote on the paper. Do you remember maps or anything like that in the school room?
Alene No.
Elaine Not much besides the desks and the stove, was there?
Alene That was all. And the teacher.
Elaine Then it was quite a change when you went to the school in Crawford?
Alene Oh my, yes.
Elaine And that one was fairly new when you started there?
Alene It sure was.
Elaine Because the other one had burned down in 1912.
Alene 1912. They had, you know where you look up there, Elaine, at the front of the building and this kind of up at the top. That used to be the professor's office. I been in there several times (Laughter).
Elaine Now why would you go in there?
Alene Oh (laughter) just because I ....... I wasn't the only one, though. My cousin and I, we was in there a lot. But we never did get a whippin'. It's a wonder we didn't.
Elaine I was just glancing at this newspaper article you gave me. You were the valedictorian.
[p. 11]
Alene Right, I was!
Elaine Yes you were, so you learned a few things along the way.
Alene I sure did.
Elaine When; do you remember picking up your piano skills?
Alene Oh, when I was like that.....
Eileen Very young...
Alene Very, very young.
Elaine That's amazing. Do you realize what a God given gift that is?
Alene I know it. And you know, I had my old piano here, and it got so rickety and everything, and then my husband, Harold, he couldn't stand for me t play. He didn't like for me to play the piano and I don't know why, so we sold it. I'd love to have a piano, but I don't know. Rich has an organ which he never sits down to. The only time that organ is ever played is when I go up and I can really play that organ. So I'm going to see, whe they leave this Fall if they couldn't bring the organ down here.
Elaine Wouldn't you enjoy that.
Alene Oh, I'd love it.
Elaine Oh, you sure would. That would be great. Well maybe he'd let you store it for him all the time if he's not playing it.
Alene He don't play it. He used to play a saxophone in a dance band in California.
Elaine Does she play it? Does his wife?
Alene No, no.
Elaine Dies his mother?
Alene No she's up at the home ......
Elaine Yeah, but did she play it?
Alene No. She used to play my piano and we used to harmonize. Oh we could sing. Oh beautiful.
[p. 12]
Alene We sure could.
Elaine Well tell us more about the dances you played for.
Alene Oh; rough and rowdy. (Laughter)
Elaine Did you play up at ... I can't think of the name of it, but it's on a cattle ranch now and they say that used to be a wild dance hall. It's on the cut-off between Crawford and Paonia, not to far from the Burns Ranch.
Alene Crawford and Paonia .......?
Elaine It's a big long building.
Alene Oh! Yes! I played there for dances.
Elaine What did you call that then.
Alene I don't remember, Elaine. It was just a school house and a dance hall. And then out on Grand View Mesa; you know where that's at? (Mmm-hmmm) They had a school house out there and I played every Saturday night out there. Me and these other two fellows.
Elaine And how old were you when you were doing that?
Alene I was probably fourteen, fifteen.
Elaine Oh, that young.
Alene Yeah. Oh I played all, you know. And then we went to Reid and they used to have ... where the railroad, you go along the railroad and on the right hand side across from the Reid, right there, you know, where the school thing is, they had a big dance hall there. Not too big. We used to go down there and play for dances. And we used to play for dances in Cedaredge and lots of places and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My land, we used to have fun. And when the Japanese surrendered, you know, I was living up at Crawford and my cousin and I, which is the only one like I've always been, I've kind of tamed down, Jerry, (laughter) ...
Elaine Which cousin is this?
Alene Geneveve.
Elaine Geneveve, o.k.
[p. 13]
Alene Well, we of course, we had to start raising a little Cain, and boy, we'd get out there and we decided; the only bell in town was the church bell at the Methodist church which I was baptized into, and we got in that church, I don't know how, and rang that bell and rang that bell and everybody was shoutin' "The war's over. The war's over!" Then of course, we had to have a dance. And that one out at Grand View was called "The Bucket of Blood"..... dance hall. And I tell you; now talk about wild. It got wild. Everybody from all over came and Oh, danced all night, played all night. And then the next dat everybody was kind of blah, and then the next night they had us go at it again, so we went another night and I said "This is it. I'm played out. I gotta go home." I had blisters on the ends of my fingers. So that was my playing for dances.
Elaine How old were you when you got married.
Alene Well, I was married twice, see.
Elaine Well, the first time, how old were you?
Alene I was twenty-two.
Elaine And what was his name?
Alene Mike Springer.
Elaine Is he from around here?
Alene He lives in Grand Junction. I had two children.
Elaine Are they living?
Alene My daughter is. My son was killed in a car wreck. But my daughter lives in California. Dixie.
Elaine And then, that didn't last. Is that it?
Alene No.
Elaine So how long were you married to him?
Alene Oh, about eight years, I guess. I would say that. Then when I .... I used to ride races down here. Horse races.
Elaine At the fairgrounds?
[p. 14]
Alene Oh yes. Lisle McCloud, my cousin and Chuck Avery, they worked up on Black Mesa for this big dude outfit, and so I went up there one time with them and I was riding. They had a lot of good horses. This Doc Roberts from New York had thoroughbreds and brought them in there. So I just rode horses all the time. And when I wanted, I'd get on and go .... bareback. So then they said I think maybe we're going to run some horses down at the Fair this Fall. Would you ride for us?" and I said I didn't think my mother and dad would let me. Well, my dad said "Well hell yes, she can ride!" my mother, "No, no, no." so I came down here and the first horse I rode was a little brown mare, beautiful, and I won that race, and I said if I ever have a baby girl I'm going to name her Dixie. And Dixie always says "Mom, you named me after a horse."
Elaine They had a lot of betting on these horse races .........
End side one
Begin Side two with:
Jerry No, no, this is interesting (ladies' laughter)
Elaine I think so, too.
Alene You see how ornery I've been.
Elaine You've had a lot of fun ,too.
Alene I sure have.
Jerry I think we ought to talk about her dad now a little more. If he liked you he liked you and if he didn't he didn't. He didn't take any nonsense from anybody.
Alene Oh, and he didn't take any nonsense from me. No.
Jerry Nor from your dad.
Alene I say Dad didn't take any nonsense from me. But he was... what he said was it, specially to me. Now my mother, my brother could get by with murder with her, you know. But me with Dad n-o-o-o way.
Elaine But you were very close.
Alene Oh, very, very close.
Jerry Well when he was a kid and riding horseback and stuff, did he ever get any scrapes with
[p. 15]
other ranchers and pack a pistol?
Alene Oh, Dad always packed a pistol. Oh sure. All of them.
Jerry He really did? Like you see in the movies?
Alene Absolutely! You betcha. Oh yeah. And you know I had my dad's .30-.30 and I went , heavens, I went hunting every Fall. Killed my buck or whatever. Oh yeah. And Dad would always say "Well, you're going to have to better today than you did yesterday. You missed." So I did. Well he taught me how to shoot when I was real small. And I wasn't scared of a gun, and I don't own one, now.
Elaine When you were going like that did you wear pants or did you have a sidesaddle or .... ?
Alene I went bareback, and the first saddle I ever rode was on that race down here, that first race, and I rode a flapjack; pancake saddle. Just a racing saddle.
Elaine But how did you dress?
Alene Oh, Levis, and my mother made my shirts.
Elaine Regular western shirts.
Alene Right, uh-huh.
Elaine Flour sacks or not?
Alene Flour sacks is right. I used to like to pick out the .... when we'd buy flour to make me you know a shirt or a blouse or whatever. 'Course, she wore dresses all the time.
Jerry You said that when your dad took off at (age) seven and worked with this cow outfit, he'd do chores and stuff and gather horses and saddle them and stuff, but not many saddles.
Alene Uh-uh. (Negative)
Jerry Do you mean that he didn't do much saddling or did everybody ride bareback?
Alene Oh no. They rode ... they had saddles. But I didn't want ... I told Dad ....he said "why don't you ever want a saddle?" and I said "Dad, if I'd get thrown off I might get hung in the saddle. Bareback I won't." I never did.
Elaine You must have had nice fat horses.
[p. 16]
(Phone rings)
Alene Pardon me. Oh yeah, we had the best horses.
Tape is shut off, probably for phone call.
Jerry .......... spend the night. I misunderstood you.
Alene You misunderstood me Jerry. Uh, Dixie, when she was, uh, when we were living at Crawford and my mother made all of her costumes. I wish I'd a got some of them out. I don't know where they're at. Oh gosh she was a natural. And so, she danced everyplace, and the Elks Lodge in Grand Junction called because my dad, being an Elk, he was talking to some friends he knew down there about how she danced, and so I took her and went down there and she danced at the Elks Lodge and Ahhh, talk about encore, encore, encore; one right after another.
Jerry She must have come by that musical talent, that ability, from her Mama.
Alene And then got a call from the Veterans' Hospital in Grand Junction. "We hear your daughter is a good dancer. We would like to have you come down. We will pay your expenses." So I took her and went to the veterans' home Grand Junction. And that's the first time that either one of us had ever ridden an elevator, and oh, I'm telling you. If that wasn't a big thrill. (Laughter)
Elaine Then you played while she danced.
Alene Mmm-hmmm.
Elaine And did she learn all the dancing by herself, too?
Alene There was a lady who used to live at Crawford, now she lives in Grand Junction, maybe you know ... uh ..... she writes the church column. She lived at Crawford and she was the dance teacher, so she formed a class and of course, I played for all of them, and we had shows over at the old Paonia theater and all the kids performed separately and I'd play exactly what they could dance to. You know Kathleen Wheeler? She called me one day and she said "Alene, I wonder could you work up something for Dixie for this program." I forget what kind of program they were going to have. To have her dance and I said "Oh, I think so." and so, golly we worked on that for a long time, I got it to perfection the way I wanted it and Dixie wanted it, too, and put her down there and boy, from there we just went Paonia High School, Delta High School, all over, you know.
Elaine You didn't tell me about getting married the second time.
[p. 17]
Alene Oh, Harold and I. We went together four years, and then he had the three children and I had the two, and we lived, Elaine; you know that house next to the Rainbow? We built that house.
Elaine Oh, you did? Where Bess E. (?) lived for so long.
Alene Yes, yes, we built that house there. And then it was real noisy but it didn't bother us at all, but the people that run the Hotchkiss Herald, their name was Pete and Virginia Wallace, and they had run the printing office and Karen worked for them. And after school and you know, setting up type. And then they was talking to us one day and said "Well, you kids wouldn't think about selling that house over there, would you?" and I said "Well, I don't know; where would we go?" Well Oral McMillan built this house. He built the log house, he built Jerry's house, and he built Bonnie and Don's house, and he built this house. They owned all of this through here; the McMillans. They were an old-timer.
Jerry What's her name? Gladys is it; bakes the pies? The Fobare ....
Alene She's a Fobare ...
Jerry She said that her husband built that, or her dad or somebody.
Alene Well, Oral helped her husband build that and then Oral built the house for Bonnie and Don for an old couple, the Keenans. And then he built this house.
Jerry I never could figure out when that house was built.
Alene Gosh, I don't remember.
Jerry They said it was sixty-two years old, but then they said "No, it burned up in a fire and they built it again."
Alene Yeah.
Jerry In the fifties.
Elaine That's more like it. These houses aren't sixty years old.
Alene No, no.
Jerry It says on that "Sixty-two years old." They said there was a house ther, a log house, but it burned up.
Alene It burned, because when we was living up town, we heard the fire whistle and it was in the
[p. 18]
middle of the night and of course, me, I had to go to the fire. I said hell, come on, if you want to go to the fire, I'm going to the fire. So I .... and boy, come down here and we couldn't get very close over there. They had the hoses all, you know, so we just turned around and went back home. But anyway, then we got to talking houses so then, the McMillans, Mavis, she had a beauty shop right there in that back room. And so we were great friends so they came down to our house one evening to play cards and Harold said "You know, Walllaces want to buy our house." and Oral says "Well, by God, if they want to buy your house, we'll sell you ours." (Laughter) and so we did. And Mavis and Oral moved in to a little old place here in town some place and so we made three moves on one Sunday. We moved out, the Wallaces moved in, we moved in, and the McMillans moved out. All in one Sunday. But when we got down here it so quiet ... I couldn't sleep, Harold couldn't sleep and it took us a good couple of months for us to get used to it being so quiet down here.
Elaine More like being out in the country, here.
Jerry How long has the stockyards been here?
Alene Gosh, Jerry, I don't know.
Jerry A hundred years? Was there always a stock yard?
Alene Yeah, uh-huh (yes). But that was quite a move ... and we never got a thing mixed up. There was trucks coming and going and picking up and going out that way and up that way and the truck bring our stuff in here and them putting their stuff over in our house. That was a nice house up there, Elaine.
Elaine Yes it is. I was in there when Bess E. was living there.
Alene Yeah, we built that. That's when we had ... see the old Rainbow .... we used to have Barney's Grocery, Joe Barney, and Harold worked for Joe Barney for a long time and then we bought it from him. And we had five kids ... we had those two boys .... and they was supposed to sack spuds .... you think you could get those kids to sack spuds if they could find an excuse, boy, "Well, I've gotta go here." the girls were awfully good, though.
Elaine Now where was Barney's grocery?
Alene Where the old Rainbow is.
Elaine They weren't there at the same time were they?
Alene No, no. And then after we sold Barney's, we sold it to Karen and Harold. And they just couldn't make a go of it so they closed her down and then .... did you know Lee Bloss,
[p. 19]
would you go?" I says "Well, if you go up Black Mesa, you want to watch ,if you're going to be horseback. You going to be horseback?" "Oh yeah, we got the horses all ready to take up there." And I said "Well, if you go up Black Mesa, watch it on the hillsides there because they got side-hill gougers up there." "Well, what do they look like?" I said, "They're pretty good size. Pretty doggone good size and if you happen to get off, or slip off or anything, one of them things is got you, right now." "Oh, God, maybe we'd better not go up there." and so I never cracked a smile and went on about my business and everything, and so they left and went hunting. We packed their lunches and the next morning, they seen me and ... it was Alma's turn to wait on them and I said "Thank God, it's your turn, Alma." and I just said "Good morning!" and went about my business and there Alma was back there at that big table and she come back after she poured their coffee and she said "They want to talk to you." and I said "What for?" and she said "They want to TALK to you." and I said ...... I knew what it was.... I went back there and they said "You know, your about the orneriest little devil I've ever seen." I said "Why?" And this one guy said "Hell, we found out all about those side-hill gougers ... there ain't such a thing as a side-hill gouger." I said "Well, I was just a tiny girl when my Daddy told me that there was side-hill gougers." They got the biggest kick out of that and they came back for years and years and years.
Elaine I remember when I first came to town, you and Alma were both there, weren't you? Ten years ago?
Alene Oh,, yes.
Elaine And you knew everybody that came in the restaurant.
Alene Everybody.
Elaine And you took care of them. Even if there was just one of you. I never saw people move as fast as you two did.
Alene I know. We really had a system.
Elaine Yes, you did.
Alene We sure did. Did you know Ron and Jackie Shiplett?
Elaine I know who they are ....
Alene Well, they had the Rainbow. Oh talk about fast food. Alma and I was working together still, and boy, those kids, they could put out that food in nothing flat. And Alma and I, boy, nobody had to wait. I'm telling you we took care of people.
[p. 20]
Elaine Well, it was after you left and all that they had such a hard time making a go there isn't it?
Alene Yeah.
Elaine How long ago did you quit there?
Alene Oh gosh, Elaine, I don't know. See Harold got emphysema and I had to quit to take care of him. He had that pretty near five years before he passed away.
Elaine When did he pass away, now?
Alene Oh golly, he's been gone four years.
Jerry So nine years ago they were all there when you could get down.
Elaine Well, but see it wasn't too long that you were there after I came here.
Alene Yeah, but golly ... you know John Campbell?
Elaine Sure.
Alene I have to brag about myself a little bit, Jerry. I went over to the store and I got out, I was starting to up to (something) store somebody hollered "Hi, high hat!" and I turned around and it was John Campbell. I said "My God, John, I haven't seen you in a hundred years." He said "You know it's funny. We was all someplace in a restaurant , I don't know where it was at, and couldn't get waited on, couldn't get waited on." and he said "Some guy spoke up and said "By God, if Alene Gallatly was here, you'd get waited on in nothing flat.""
Jerry Well that's what everybody says. I run into them down here at Zack's, and he has trouble with waitresses. And he said "My God, nothing like Alene."
Alene Well I sure did it a long time.
Jerry Most of your life.
Alene That and play for dances.
Elaine Well, that's not too bad a life.
Alene No, not bit.
Elaine Because you was always with interesting people then.
[p. 21]
Alene Everybody. And you know Clark Winey (?) I tell you, a morning when we had opened the Rainbow up there; we always had ... and when Ron and Jackie run it ... we didn't have to just pour a cup of coffee and put the pot back ... we had little warmers ...we'd make pots and pots of coffee and set them all down the line and had their cups all down there, and when they come in, there was their coffee and they could pour their own coffee all down that counter. It was a long counter then, Jerry, real long, and I tell you, that crazy bunch, I tell you, they'd have something going all the time. And then at Christmas time, I made a mistake. I made peanut brittle. Jerry can tell you I make good peanut brittle, and so at Christmas time I made each of those guys a little box of peanut brittle, you know, and the day before Christmas, why when they'd come in, .... they had .... old Clark he had his certain seat; third seat down was his. "That's my seat." and so I had the names on the candy boxes when they'd get in why I'd start down with the candy, you know, and I'd just miss Clark, "Gosh, I didn't know you was going to be here this morning." "Bt God I am! Where's my peanut brittle?" So then I'd reach down and give it to him. And so, from then on, why, I always made peanut brittle for those guys.
Elaine Well after you weren't there, that's when they started going to Doug's, don't you think?
Alene Oh yes.
Elaine That's when they made the switch.
Alene Zack wanted me to come over there, but then Harold was bad and I had to rassle oxygen tanks and everything. Jerry? You want another glass of tea?
Jerry No, no. Talk about your orneryness; that's the McCloud in you.
Alene Oh, I know. I got a lot of McCloud in me.
Jerry When those guys, when you was working at that hotel cafe and they'd tie up their sheets and do everything bad to you.
Alene Oh, yeah. That was in California.
Jerry Tell her what you did to those guys.
Alene Well my grandad McCloud; he had three daughters living in California, so when I graduated from High School, he asked my folks "Could I take Alene. We'll ride the train out to Sacramento and they'll pick us up." And oh, boy. I wanted to go so bad. "Well, yeah, but I don't know who's going to do her work while she's gone." He said "Well you find somebody do her work, she's going with me." Grandad McCloud so boy, I went with him, and I tell you; we went out there and my mother's oldest sister. She was the oldest one Beatrice,( pronounced Bee-AT-riss) she was strawboss at the Holly Sugar Hotel, and
[p. 22]
my mother and dad came out there and my mother opened a little restaurant. She run the little restaurant; Dad helped her. So we had all this hotel and it was full of Holly Sugar workers, and so we had these three kids from Wyoming, and they were ornery, oh God they were ornery.
Elaine You don't mean your kids?
Alene No, they was workers in the hotel. And I went to work there with my aunt and they was so doggone ornery and we'd go in to do their room in the morning; they'd have the sheets tied in knots and the pillowcase tied in knots and everything and we'd just work and we had just so much time to get that done because we had to go down below and clean. So one day, my Aunt Bea says "You know; we're going to fix those kids." I said "What we gonna do?" and she said "Well, you wait 'til we get to the room and I'll tell you." So we had a big old sack. We took every one of their sheets off, we took the pillowcases off. We took the toilet paper out. We took all the soap out; hand towels, bath towels, everything. Took that all out and when they came in that night ... why ... we was sitting down, then I got to working in the dining room, too. Uh, they come down and the said "Beatrice, we got a problem." She says "What do you mean you got a problem?" "Well we haven't got any sheets or pillowcases and no towels and no soap and no toilet paper." "Well that's just tough luck isn't it?" and boy, we made them get down and plead and beg. But my aunt was a wonderful, wonderful person. So then one day she called me kid. "Kid, how'd you like to go down there and work in that dining room?" and I said "Aunt Bea, I don't know anything about a dining room." "You'll learn." so she went down that first morning with me and we set up for .... well we had about forty-five, forty-six men to feed there. We had great big long tables; swinging doors. I was telling Jerry about the swinging doors, and so I got along just real well. And I used the right door for my swing door. We got along real well until this one girl quit and we didn't have anybody, so I told Aunt Bea, "Well how about the dishwasher? He's kind of a nice acting kid and maybe he could do it until we can find somebody." "Well, that'll just be fine. We'll try him." So we asked him and he said "Oh yeah, I'd be glad to try." Well everything went fine while we were setting up the dishes and everything, but when we started to serve, I took my door and I told him his was this other one. Well he took my door and I had gravy and everything all over. Then I didn't tell you, Jerry, one morning Aunt Bea, she was taking care of the rooms and I was working down in the kitchen and we had a big old fat German cook and I mean he was big, but he was a good cook. Boy he could put that stuff out, but I went down there one morning early to get ready to serve breakfast. Went in there and he was so drunk. He was throwing pancake batter on that grill and didn't even have the grill on. I can't remember his name. I didn't know what to do, so I just run back up and I told Aunt Bea, I said "My God, the cook's drunk. We gotta do something." "Oh well, come on. I'll go with you." She was a marvelous cook. She had cooked in different places before. And so we got down there and her and I really got that grill cleaned. She got a new batch of panckes all mixed up and everything and she had a cook helper. And so by golly, we got that mess all cleaned up. But that cook he got down the road. But that was in Hamilton City. That was
[p. 23]
a nice little town. I even played for dances there, and I was pregnant. This one family, burned out ... and my folks lived in one little apartment and my first husband and I lived in the next one and I was big pregnant, and so this family burned out and so they come and asked me "Alene, would you donate your music and play for the dance tonight to help those people out?" and I said "Golly, I don't know. Look at me. Well, I'll go talk to my doctor." I had a lady , Dr. Mary "Alene your not going to have that baby for another ten days." I said I'd play for the dance, so I went and played for the dance and it was a huge crowd and did real well, and I got through the dance and went home and went to bed and about two-thirty I thought "What's wrong with me?" so I just tapped on the wall so my mother could hear so here she come and I said "Mother, I think you'd better go get Dr. Mary because I think I'm going to have a baby ... NOW!" So she went and got Dr. Mary, and the way they did then, Elaine, they tied a sheet around the bedposts and you pulled on that, and that's what I pulled on and then I made a daughter Dixie.
Jerry And the doctor came to your place. You didn't go to the doctor's place.
Alene Oh no. The doctor came there. Dr. Mary, and when she was born and got her all cleaned up she laid her down beside me and she said "
END OF TAPE (I'll always wonder what Dr. Mary said to Alene)