Little Retta - Ranch Days -II
February 3rd, 2007Good ole’ ranch days…..
Most of the approximate seven years Little Retta lived on the ranch near Columbus, MT were “good” memory times. When she thinks of her Dad, she has this picture of a man you might call “Big John”. He was not extremely tall, but was a self-made, very confident, fearless man, and when on the job, was usually decked out in leather chaps, cowboy boots with spurs ‘a jinglin’, Levi jacket, a cowboy hat slightly cocked to the right and sometimes a hand rolled cigarette danglin’ from the corner of his mouth. His dark brown eyes set on a clean shaven, weather beaten tanned face usually had a mischievous twinkle in them. He loved to dance and sometimes in the evenings, with Little Retta standin’ on his feet or holdin’ her in his arms he’d twirl and dance ’round the living room with Mom watchin’ with a big grin on her face. The music they were dancing to usually came from the little radio that was in the living room and the music program would have been……..of course…….” The Grand Ole Opry ” !
Sometimes, at the end of a long hard working day, if Dad was relaxing on the couch, Little Retta would brush and comb his curly black hair. It helped relax him and it was something she loved to do. Hair grooming was a talent she inherited from Mom, ’cause Mom was the only one who fixed Little Retta’s hair. Also, I’m not sure but Little Retta might also have been a pretty good back scratcher, even in those olden days……… Good ole’ ranch days.
Some of the “cool” things for Retta on the ranch were: the big “root cellar”, where Mom stored all the canned vegetables and fruits she had raised in their garden and put up in jars during the summer, If was a pleasure to go into the big root cellar to fetch a jar of something on a hot July day. “Cause it was “coooool” inside compared to the outside. Then there was the huge barn with eight horse stalls, a tack room for saddles, etc., a grain bin and a big hay loft above. Attached to the barn was a large shed, originally utilized as a sheep shed but was eventually used for the brood mare horses when they became part of the ranch operation. During the sheep raisin’ days, the sheep shed was used when they sheared wool off the sheep. This procedure fascinated Retta…. Except occasionally,when a feisty, rambunctious old ram would kick or butt the wool shearing hired man and the resulting pain caused some rather inappropriate language for a little girl.
When horses became a big part of the ranch operation, the brood mares were used to “harvest horse mare urine”. Believe it or not, but it’s true. In those olden days, the mare urine was sold to certain laboratories, who used it to manufacture estrogen. I don’t think they still do that these modern days. The horses they used were Tennessee Walkers. Do you suppose it was because of the quality of the urine or because of their cooool walkin’ gait?
Now I ask you, “How in the world do you “harvest horse mare urine?” Do you have any ideas? Well sir, Little Retta could tell you, ’cause she used to spend hours just ‘a sittin’ on the wooden corral fence watchin’ and observin’ everything them thar horses was a’ doin’……Everything……from urine harvestation to…….. the first steps of horse colt production.
In those “ranch days” Little Retta didn’t have to do any particular work in the fields. But she did relish and enjoy accompanying Dad when they were harvesting sugar beets. ‘Cause he’d let her ride on the “sugar beet drag” with him. The drag was pulled by a team of work horses to make a smoothed dirt ditch between rows of pulled beets. Then the beet workers would chop the tops off the beets and throw them into piles in smoothed ditches. Little Retta thought riding on that beet drag with her Dad was about one of the most fun things she got to do with Dad.
However. some things she had to do on the ranch were not always so pleasurable. There was a chicken coop, where one of Retta’s daily chores was to gather the eggs. At times THIS was not a pleasant task. ‘Cause if a chicken hen was in “settin’ ” mood, she’d fight Retta for the eggs on her nest. At those times Retta would go ‘a runnin’ to the house screamin’, “MOMMMM, there’s one “so ‘an so” hen that’s trying to peck me when I try to gather the eggs. HELP ME, MOM”. What do ya think?……. Did Mom go out and help her or did Retta have to go back out to the chicken coop by herself and do hand to hand combat with the ornery hen??????
Some frequent warm weather visitors that quite often sunned themselves on the concrete slab just outside the kitchen door, were bull snakes. Dad’s orders were, “Them bull snakes is our friends, so nobody is ta bother them. They helps rid the place of varmints such as rats and mice.”
So……….if there was a bull snake on that concrete slab ya just eased by an’ left ‘em be. Little Retta always said she didn’t like any kinda’ snake…..friend or not!………..Did she use the front door if they blocked her way?……..Or did she try to sneak by to get in the
kitchen door? ………..OR…..did she pick them up and play with them?…….Did she drape them around her neck like a necklace? You don’t suppose she’d try to used them as jumping ropes, do you?……… What do you think??
We’ve talked about Little Retta’s losing battle with the ornery, mean, gray Shetland pony and how she ended up with a much better horse to ride…..ole’ Paint. She enjoyed riding and working with ole ‘Paint much more. In fact Paint was more of a pet to her than a working horse. No halter or bridle was needed, ’cause he’d follow her where ever she went, whether in the pasture, or corral or the yard or even in the streets down town during a parade. However one time when the family was participating in a celebration parade down town, Paint was trailin’ Little Retta down the street and Mom and Dad were riding their horses a ways back. Paint would do tricks for little Retta. Like if she tapped his shoulder with a stick he’d stop and bow. Only at one point, Paint got to goin’ a tad fast and Retta put her arms around his neck to slow down but didn’t get him stopped quick enough and they ran over a little boy pullin’ a toy wagon in the parade. ‘Bout scared the oppo outa’ Little Retta, but nobody was hurt so it all turned out OK. My guess is that she probably tapped Paint on his shoulder and he bowed to the little boy, who then laughed and his tears disappeared. The crowd loved it, I’m sure, and thought it was all part of a pre-planned act. But of course it wasn’t.
Little Retta liked to ride her bicycle lickity split up and down the lane from the house to the road. She learned to ride that bike when she was five years old. That same year, at five years old, she started school. She was the only first grader, so they started her in the second grade. Consequently, having started school at such a young age and getting such a head start, she graduated from high school at the age of 17.
Little Retta swam in the irrigation ditch that ran thru the ranch yard, but it was so shallow the only stroke she knew was “the mud crawl”. Even today that’s still probably her best swimming stroke. One of Retta’s favorite things to do on the ranch which she looked forward to late in the summer was to pick green apples off the apple trees. She’d then get a salt shaker, some comic books and head for the outhouse. She loved to read her comic books and eat green apples sprinkled with salt…….while hidin’ in the outhouse. I don’t know if she went to the outhouse so no one would bother her or if she just anticipated what her needs would be after eatin’ so many green apples……..What do ya think?
Yep………..those were some of the good ole’ days on the ranch for little Retta.
Papa (Jim Diede