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Show THE ZEPHYRAPRIL 89 PAGE 20 Toots McDougald9 s HISTORY OF MOAB JIM STILES For the laic four years, I 'vs been Toots McDougald' s next door neighbor. On the day 1 signed away ay life to First Security Bank, I drove over to Locust Lane to survey the ruins. As 1 walked around ny dilapidated house, wondering If I'd truly lost ny alnd, a gravelly voice interrupted ay doubting thoughts. "Are you buying "It this place, or Just renting lt?a Toots McDougald, standing shirtsleeved In the March weather, a cigarette dangling froa the comer of her was aouth. "Veil,11 I replied, hope you paint "I Bay be crazy but I juat bought lt.B that roof," she replied, pointing to the bare alualnua shingles. "The glare off that thing into ay kitchen In the late afternoon is terrible.11 The next week I bought five gallons of alualnua paint and covered all that glaring alualnua. Toots and I have been good friends ever since. "I narrled to Bish Taylor (Saa's dad), said for sons reason to little unknown "You'll always be ay little The first part stayed with her, and by toots the tine Toots was in school , nobody knew who Marilee was anyaore. In fact, two teachers at her grad school, Miss Penfleld and Miss Peterson, Insisted on calling her by her proper naae. She soaetiaes got in trouble for falling to respond to the teacher, but like Toots says now, "Hell, I didn't know they were calling ne - - I only responded to Toots. Even today, the Grand County phone book lists: Marilee Toots "Without the 'Toots' in there," she explains, McDougald. "I'd never get any calls." So, what was it like to grow up in Moab in the 1920s7 "It was wonderful. We went on picnics, and hikes and chicken fries. And after we got older, we stole chickens and had chicken fries . We had great wateraelon busts ; in fact, a aan named Olio Reardon planted a field of just for us kids to steal. He said we could steal froa that patch all we wanted, if we left his patch alone. "Wed go up and over the Lion's Back, clear to the river. , We jumped a crack once, and we decided to cone back the sane way. When we got to the crack, it had become twice as wide as before. Some fisherman across the river kept yelling, 'Don't jump,' but we did it anyway. That was Madge Duncan and Maxine Foster and me. "Everything was so free and easy, no pressures, no traffic. We didn't know anything about drugs. We thought we were pretty wild if we got us a sip of hooenade beer. My friend's father was a bootlegger." Marilee, water-nelon- And who was was unloaded." ! s, that? "I'm not saying." "I was living on Center Street then, across froa Starr Hall. One dcy, I was out on the front porch, when I heard these shots coning froa the jail. I thought for sure that it was a breakout, and that they'd shot the lock off ths door. I saw a guy running, and so I ran over to the jail. I found the Sheriff, Dick Westwood, dead. My friend Helen Foster was walking along the other side of the street at the tine, and the sum who shot Dick Westwood ran right past her, with the gun in his hand. "There was quite a search. Albert Beech was coalng froa Montieello, when he spotted hla. He captured hia and hauled hia into town, holding an unloaded .22 rifle on the guy the whole tine. . . of course, that guy didn't know it T . t it does now. Main looked a lot different then than The road south exist. didn't Center, Street, beyond turned left on Center to 4th East and Mill Creek Drive. "City Park," remembers Toots, "was the Grand County There were grandstands, and corrals and Fairgrounds. Before that the whole area was a swamp. shoots. bucking Just a grassy, murky area. The first fairgrounds were where the baseball park is today, across from the Middle School . " And here according to Toots, is where Moab's dreaded established a beachhead. "As I plague of goatheads recall, we'd get circuses in here and rodeos, and a lot of the time, these people would bring their own hay and feed Moab Y- first Toots at the corner of First North and Main. Toots knows a lot about Moab, she should; she was bom here in 1915, In the sane house on First North that Ron Pierce lives in today. Her grandfather, M. R. Walker, built that house around the turn of the century. She grew up in and around Moab, spending sone time In Thonpson and Cisco, where her aother cooked at the hotel. For all those who have wondered why ny neighbor is called Toots, here at last is the explanation. Bom Marilee, a aan by the naae of Albert "Ab" Wats, whose sister was for their animals. Well, that stuff must've been nixed up The Cretone coveralls. with the hay, because pretty soon those nasty little no use for were popping up everywhere. I've got goatheads goatheads at all. (I can personally attest to Toots' lack of fondnesa for Mostly though, life in Moab was peaceful, beautiful and goatheads. Periodically, I'll get a phone call froa Toots in the afternoon. She'll say, "Do you like chocolate simple. Her stepfather, Marv Tumbow, ran the ranch that cake? Meet me at the fence." Toots will be there waiting is now in Arches National Park and named for its original with the cake, but there's a catch . . . ."Now Jia, before owner, John Wesley Wolfe. She would spend a week to ten "Wed ride our horses up I give you this, reach down there and pull up those days at a time up there. goatheads, there by the fence. Here's some more over Courthouse Wash and then along the cliffs to Balanced Rock and then down to Turnbow Cabin. We had a great time up there . . . . " there. We did some riding, a little branding But it's worth the cake.) I As slow and peaceful as Moab could be, it had its never ouch cared for that. I Just couldn't stand to hear traumatic ooaents as well. Toots got caught In the aiddle those little calves cry." She spent summers at the ranch until she decided she "was of a particularly dangerous situation when she was just ten or twelve. .... 94 W. 1st No. 259-533- 3 Moabs Complete Outdoor Store welcome! bikers, jeepers, runners, the amazing gruff Groff brothers. . vacationers... |