laughing in the spirit: June 2009

Sometimes that blank sheet is beautiful, so unmarred by forlorn thought....Some time it is terrifying...
It gives vent to all kinds of memories....I never know what is going to pop out of my head to be
remembered and written. Mostly I try to keep my life light and happy.....I was born in the Truman
era but the major part of my child hood was the Eisenhower years.....those halcyon years after the war.
Times then were not so automated as they are now. I think we older souls have a lot to teach the
younger generations. Ways to happily "make do" ......Ways to THANK GOD for what we have and
to find ways to make the object or reality fit into our lives......

When we were young Dad and Mom didn't have much...A few acres of the old homestead
property they BOUGHT from his parents. This property was at the top of a mountain and hard
to get to in winter. Very few crops would grow. Mom Did a wonderful job of growing a garden
and canning the produce. We had apple trees, we had a stream just a few feet from the back door
and we had a cold clear spring to drink from. All in all it was a "make do" Millionaires dream....

This house is still in use sixty five years after Dad and his brothers built it..It still is probably
not finished off on the inside. Dad never finished ANYTHING...If he painted a room and you looked
hard enough you could and would find a half inch square of unpainted area. It was a part of his
personality. In the kitchen he hid the unpainted square in one of the cupboards. I didn't find it, till
He and his brother were having one of their infamous rows and knocked the cupboard off
the wall. All of Mom's dishes went crashing to the ground....Mom poured their moon shine out The
door and into her flower garden Where it promptly killed about a dozen of her favorite petunias....That
was probably just before she "waded into those two drunks with her broom and a tirade
that would make a sailor blush!" There wasn't a dirty word in it. They KNEW what she meant. They
knew she meant business! That was just after I made a break for my brother's bunk
house! That kitchen was no place for a small kid who didn't move to fast!

That little"spit fire and chew Nails," woman could keep those drunken brawlers in line with the
fire in her eyes. There was a time to tease Mom...and a time to just GET out of her way! When
those coal colored eyes of hers started flashing lightening sparks off yonder wall. It was best that
small children and dogs make a break for the door! It was better to do so before they started throwing
the sparks. It kept a kid from getting ran over by a recalcitrant and probably drunken adult who
had wondered in craving Dad's booze or his attention!

The family got a land grant from Lincoln, cause they lost a brother in the Civil war. The land
grant was prairie land. Today, prime farm land. Those people were loggers and miners from the
land of the Welsh. They had no idea how to grow anything on dry land farm ground! They did the
logical thing. They traded the property for some tree lots way up in hells half acre a thousand
feet above the prairie floor and seven miles from the little town they would eventually found and
become important to! The town would become a shipping hub and the county seat. The people
would be the head of the school board. The mayors, police men and teachers. The people would
stay, and stay and stay....But the county seat would be moved to a better more prosperous town.
Once those who wanted it moved had set the red light district on fire to make the family drop their
shot guns and man water buckets. Those MEN knew what was more important to a rail road town!
The Battle cry WAS....."Let 'em have the county records! Save our sportin' Houses!"

I'll tell the story as told to me by Uncle Luke. Luke was a grand friend and a heck of a story
teller. He could gentle a horse ride like a movie star and tell a tale. He was a lumberjack. Well
they ALL were. For a while. Lumberjacks, most of them; have a mind set. They figure they
are in one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Which is true. They also figure they better
live fast, cause they might not be here for long! That summed up my Uncle Luke! Luke was
a hard living, hard drinking man. He was up for a good fight and had one about once a week
with aunt Eava...She was the terror of the family!. She raised those brothers of hers and she
was gonna" keep them in line" if she had to ring their necks to get it done. There was only one
of her and four of them! Then she married Luke! For sport we would stick thumb tacks into the ceilings when he was seventy. He was so limber even at that age he would swing his leg up with his ever present "Romeo" slippers and push that tack into the ceiling with his toe!

The night of the Great fire Luke was at his favorite hide out, He had his foot on the rail of
the Mountain View's bar. He watched it all .

His tale went like this. The town council just
voted in a new fire house. It still stands on main. A little squat building made of native brick and daubed with concrete and sand. The building was just big enough
for the horse drawn fire wagon. Behind it stood a horse barn for the horses that dragged said fire wagon.That fire wagon was just delivered. The vollunteers spent days shining up the brass gadgets and spouts. It sported two metal bars that would need to be manned to go up and down, up and down, to pull the water from the newly painted fire plugs Bright RED, they were, so they were easy to see among the wild bachelor buttons and the lovely homes that were popping up all around . They were justly proud of so many of them proudly standing all over town!
The town was just getting up to date. They put in wooden water mains. There was a board
walk clear down Main from one end of town to the other. The local joke was, Now Luke would
have splinters in his knees too! Water was supplied to the town by a big reservoir on top
of the mountain. The pretty red fire plugs were in place. They thought they were all set for
what ever" came down the pike." Back then there were two train lines through here each
had a depot. The trains were coal fired and spit sparks and black coal soot all the way
from here to Milwaukee. We were the shipping hub of Northern Idaho. From here the
mines shipped their silver, The army brought in the "Buffalo soldiers" that manned fort
Coeur d' Alene. Such characters of history as Wyatt Earp and his lovely bride walked
the boardwalk. Calamity Jane and Hickok came through here. It was a thriving town.
They were proud of their pretty court house, their IOOF hall, their Catholic Church
with the red brick made in the back yard of one of the Georges of George town!
The Methodist Church Boundaried on the stream that was the pride of the prairie town. The church with it's beautiful windows not far from the
county seat of justice and power.

The Mountain View was a lovely two story white washed building with a long veranda and many many windows facing main street....The veranda was held up by hewn posts. I believe Uncle Luke and his Father built the building and installed the huge fire place in the main dining room. It faced the mountains with their yellow pine , Douglas fir hemlock and Tamarack.And the mighty Cedar trees of the Northwest. The streets were lilac lined and freshly oiled. It was a beautiful building fit for the luminaries that would one day grace the streets of the thriving little town!
It sat .next to the new drug store. It was one block to the railroad tracks, and another block or so to the cotton wood lined stream that murmured it's way past the Methodist church, the court house, and through the city park.
It was on the south side of main street and faced the block of rail road street where
the Milwaukee road had it's water tower. It was just down the street from the bank.
This was a proud little town. The railroad
built t a park and it even had a pool for the children. The only problem was.
Coeur D'Alene Village wanted to be the county seat! They wanted it so badly they'd
made at least one other attempt to steal the county records and tried to set the court
house ablaze. Uncle Luke and lots of other relatives guarded the court house with
shot guns and threatened to shoot anyone who walked around the place with so
much as a candle! (We can assume Uncle Luke was on guard duty from the front
veranda of the Mountain View!)

Luke had excellent hearing, The player piano played a sprightly tune, a few of the town ruffians were belly up to the bar talking and yelling. In short it was a normal night in a normal bar in North Idaho..It was with some shock that he realized;The fire bell was ringing furiously. CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! It called the volunteers to man the hand pump on their fire wagon! They could be seen riding on horse back even a few drove from the edges of town in their motorized cars. There was excitement in the air. There was a good bit of smoke, too.

Luke said he made a round about the court house as he left his
"post" to see what the bright light on the "wrong side of the tracks" possibly
could be. He road his Paint horse down to the end of town he was not allowed
into.....by edict of Eava!. He knew he best not be caught there. There were parts
of his anatomy he was rather fond of. He'd landed on one of those parts riding
rodeo.He knew what it felt like to land hard on a saddle horn and pound one IN!
He had no wish to feel any of the things she promised she would do if she ever
caught him on that side of town..That painted Pony of his was pretty hard to
hide.It stuck out like a sore thumb, Half the town knew him from his trick riding down Railroad ave. during the
last" pioneer days Celebration!:" He'd beat the train into town! Sometimes he was in the saddle, others he was running along side or swinging from the saddle horn. . The other half of the town was related to him! Worse yet, they were related
to her! He tied his Horse behind a big cotton wood tree next to the creek...It was very dark there and chances were he wouldn't be seen . He very quietly walked toward the flames and smoke. He didn't want anyone to see him skulking around the bad part of town!

It seemed he arrived ahead of the "Brand spanking new volunteer fire brigade."He was well hidden behind a rock wall When they came running up with their brand NEW fire wagon...They rolled that hose out like experts....they hooked up the hoses. They turned on the water and began to man the pump!!!
In his excitement,He climbed to the top of the wall! There were three or four men to each side of the pump...They pumped with all their might to get up pressure to shoot water at the burning building. Ladies of every description and Mode of dress stood along side the fence! Some were made up like china dolls and others just looked haggard in the glare of the ever brighter fire light..They stood in awe of the power of the fire that was chewing away at all they posessed in this world..Some cried, most just wrapped their garish shawls tighter around what ever they were wearin' when the dread call of "FIRE!" Broke the evenings revelry!

The fire raged! It was working it's way into the rafters. It seemed to him all the "ladies" were out...and a good many men he knew were dressed in their long johns boots and City hats!...He hid and he waited....They pumped and they pumped
and they Pumped.....He remarked in his later years he could have Peed a bigger stream.

It was about the time they discovered the brand spanking new water system was
NOT hooked to that bright red fire plug....someone yelled,"They are stealing
the records from the courthouse......and Uncle Luke fell off the wall !! He sprained one elbow painfully and made a grand spectacle of him self outside a sportin' house with all the" ladies," some wearin' nothin' but a shawl and their under drawers!

Eava Raised Dad. Their Mom was not well. AS children we were often told it was
Not polite to tell people." Grandma had Toys in her Attic!" In actuality she believed
there were people living in her attic. The fact that it was a one story house and had no attic didn't seem to deter her hallucination one iota! I still think of her when I smell Mint. To draw water from her spring one had to go behind the house between two bull pines...It was impossible to get a bucket of water without stepping on the mint leaves she'd caused to be planted along the water's edge..A visit to Grandma's house meant one of us had to go draw her a bucket full for coffee with heavy cream and a spoon full of molasses from the jar. That was about all you wanted to ever have at her house cause she burned everything she cooked...

Dad grew up on that hill. Life wasn't easy for his generation either. They knew how to survive!
The hills were full of deer, elk, and bear. There was a liberal sprinkling of Bob cat and cougar
too. They didn't eat them!

They grew black cap raspberries...Mmm I still remember the taste. They had a potato
patch. Grandma couldn't get corn to grow in that meadow no matter how she tried.
They finally relegated Grandma's meadow to Grandpa's logging horses and got their
corn from a jar!

Buck brush, huckleberries, and a tree claim lined their farm property. You had to walk through windfalls, and brush bigger than a tall man to get through the property if you didn't stay on the trail..There was a swamp for the breeding of mosquitoes We were not allowed to go in there.. It was also prohibition times the hills were sprinkled with moon shiners, probably cousins. Who
were hunted by the ever present Gov'ment men who were looking for their stills. If a shot rang out you did not go toward it to see if someone got a buck. You waited for them to come to you. There were things more dangerous than snakes and mountain goats in those hill's.

Dad said when he was young if the cows would get out, He would follow the
omnipresent cow bells.
Suddenly and seemingly out of no where there would be a man he did not know with a rifle
in hand. When he stepped out of the bushes the boys would stop dead in their tracks.
Much as I would if a menacing man in the mountain's told me to HALT! The boys were usually bare foot and if they had a gun it was a single shot 22 rifle. It was a varmint rifle meant to poach a deer now and then, or to shoot a bird for dinner.

The stranger (or older cousin) would tell him," son, your cows are over there!" He'd point toward a distant trail.

Dad was taught to say,"Yes sir!" even if he could see a cow with his own eyes ;standing
behind the stranger with the rifle. He knew that soon his cows would be on "yonder trail"
the gent pointed out to him. He would go to wait for the cows to come away from
the still, so he could herd them home! Many's the times he followed a cow home that seemed to have a wobbly gait from eating sour mash that was dumped when they were done with a run!

One old boy dumped his mash to the chickens. We would have never noticed his chicken house had "the odor" but we were over for some family band music playing, and hay riding. One of my older brothers pointed out to one of the girls that their chickens were walking funny! It looked sort of suspicious to see a Road Island Red who could barely walk....He sure as heck couldn't fly. His timing was all off too. He crowed any old time of day!

In later years Dad got his own still. He also had cows. He tended the still and sold
the proceeds up into my teen aged years. We'd stumble upon it occasionally when
the horses or cows got out. We knew enough to stay clear of that little circle of
brush and junk he'd built to shield such goin's on. We also knew enough NOT to mention
it to Mom!...She didn't hold with no dancing, card playing, or moon shining!

The old one room school Dad attended was still standing among the sugar maples that lined the road when I was a kid. It was
called the" George Town "school cause on the four corners just down the road the
homes were owned by men named George! My family tree is a terror. It is filled with
men named George and William! To find the right one for the right era you need to
know the right wife!

We held family dances, parties and big celebrations in the old school house.Anniversaries, Birthdays, and new babies were an excuse for Dad to bring out his fiddle, Luke would bring out his guitar and Evea played the piano. One of my Girl cousins played the accordion..I always fretted for her, that she would get her boo-sums caught up in that squeeze box! I never told no one. I didn't really care for her a lot. But it would have been very painful for her to catch her self up in her instrument!

The Old School was blessed with a "His" and a "hers" out house
They stood at either end of the back of the building. The door was half ways off the "Hers" so we all used the "His"..These were really utilitarian little buildings. They each had two holes for one to sit upon or squat over. Depending upon you belief in germs, and how high you thought they could jump. The "his"was "tricked out" with a false ceiling they stuck a mason jar or six up there for
those who wanted to have a little nip! He was expected to leave six bits or so in another mason jar. It was for the "Community chest" as Dad put it!
I don't know how they could stand the stench long enough to get a "nip!" That
school had been there most of Dad's life and all of mine! I don't remember them
ever moving the outhouse...Or digging it a new hole....or fixing the door on the "hers!" I guess they figured we could stand in line and take our chances....It was understood, when a party was in full swing one should knock very very hard!

Just as the family band was breaking into "Good Night Irene"
One of my aunts found her husband drinking from the communal Mason jar. He'd
obviously contributed several dollars to the "community fund" that went with the
jar. She was NOT a happy family member.She was a little short woman, she wasn't as tall as Mom.....She had fire red hair, and she could fight with the Men! I never saw anyone like her! Unlike Mother, she knew a LOT of
dirty words. Words I never knew before were emitted from that outhouse! Wow-weee
A kid could sure get an education hanging out by the old School house on a
Sharp autumn night!

Aunt gave Uncle "what fore" ;then she went lookin' for her brothers! Well HECK!
I think that stash came from her Daddy's still. I don't think her brothers had any
thing to do with the sobriety of her hubby!..

When she couldn't get none of those smart men to go outside with her she decided
the mason jars needed to be dumped into the hole! She stepped up on the bench
to reach the false ceiling....Her very angry husband gave that ole' out house a small
tip.....and over she went, leaving a very angry woman to make her way out the bench
two hole system and across the hole, in the ground. She sure needed new shoes
and socks when she reached the other side....She was just about to teach me a new
crop of words. I was sure of it!....When Mother came to get me, She wasn't a bit
gentle about it either....

That was when Mom took us kids home. The Model A was running. Dad was smoking
a cigarette behind the wheel. Mom was just SMOKING..on her side of the car...Come
to think of it. That was one of the last family parties I ever remember attending at the
ole George town school house.....OH there was one other.....the night we lost
Grand dad.....but that's for another time......

Web	laughinginthespirit.blogspot.com

laughing in the spirit

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Floating roses down the creek....

Today my Daughter is 40...Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcet are gone

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A well planned retirement Humor

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

some old time fiction

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