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Show Volume XV Issue VIII The Ogden Valley news Page 11 April 1, 2008 Note: This story is from Valley Elementary teacher Mrs. Jane McVaugh’s 1995-1996 fourth grade class who collected and typed up a number of historical accounts from Valley residents, then compiled them in a book called “The Valley’s Treasures.” The following account is by William Garnerr. Growing up on a farm was a lot of work. We had to get up very early in the morning—at 5:00 a.m. We had to feed chickens, water chickens, and do a lot of chores before we ate breakfast. If we were slow and we messed around, we would go to school without breakfast, so we worked fast and hard. One of the things we raised was hay. We raked the hay. We would rake the hay behind the horses and load it onto the wagons. Up on the farm there were a lot of rattlesnakes in the hayfield. When we’d rake the hay, we’d go around and put it into tiny bunches. The rattlesnakes liked to get in the bunches of hay because it was out of the sun. It was common to find snakes in there. One day we were out there hauling hay. It was alfalfa and we wanted to get as much of the leaves as we could because that’s what the cows would eat. We’d take the stems out for the horse to eat and that way, nothing was wasted. Well, I didn’t like to have rattlesnakes falling off the pitchfork as I pitched the hay onto the wagon so I jiggled the pitchfork, and if there was a rattlesnake in there, it would buzz. My father got really upset because I was shaking all the leaves off the alfalfa. He said, “You’re shaking all the leaves off the hay. Now stop doing it!” Rattlesnakes! So I said, “I don’t want a rattlesnake coming down the pitchfork at me!” “Well, if you’re gonna do that, then you get up on the hay wagon and stomp the hay,” my father ordered. You stomp the hay up on the wagon in order to get more on it. Well, we were way up on the side of the hill, and my father threw up a fairly good sized load and it happened to have a rattlesnake in it. And there I was up on the wagon alone. I wasn’t gonna stay there with that snake so I jumped off! The horses heard the snake buzz so they got excited and took off down the hill. They went just as fast as they could go. Well, hay went flying all over! Wheels came off the wagon and went rolling all over. Now, I never talked back to my father, never ever, except once, just once. He said, “Why did you jump off the wagon?” I said, “Why did you throw that rattlesnake up at me?” And then we spent the day putting the wagon back together and gathering up the hay. Grandpa’s Buick My grandfather had what a lot of people said was the first car in Ogden Valley. Now, he’d been used to driving a team of horses where you’d pull on the reins and say “Whoa!” And they’d stop. Well, he got this new Buick and he was going down along Spring Creek. He was going pretty fast, a lot faster than a team of horses would be going, and he got excited. He pulled on the steering wheel and pushed on the gas pedal and yelled, “Whoa! Whoa!” And then the car ran into Spring Creek. Grandpa went home, fuming mad, got his team of horses, and pulled his car out of Spring Creek and then put the car in his barn. I can remember as a little boy, I went out there, came back in and said, “Grandpa’s got a brand new car under a sheet out in the barn.” My Grandmother said, “Oh, no, he doesn’t have a car out there!” “Oh yes he does. I saw it!” I can remember that car so vividly. It was a beautiful brand new car with less than 1,000 miles on it, and he would not drive it anymore. Heating the House and Washing Clothes We did not have running water in the house. We pumped it in five-gallon buckets and carried it into the house. The big stove had a reservoir over on one side where water was put to heat. The type of stove we had was coal. We had a little coal shovel, a shaker to shake the ashes down, and a poker to stir the fire up so it would burn better. To take the soot out, you’d reach back under a little compartment at the bottom of the stove and pull the soot out. My mother’s iron always sat on the stove. In order to wash our clothes, we would have to heat the water on the stove in a big tub called a double boiler. We used an agi- tator that we pushed up and down, “slosh, slosh, slosh,” and that’s how you got the dirt out of the clothes. This is the way my mother washed clothes and the way my wife washed clothes when we were first married and our children were small. The clothes would get very hot in the double boiler so we used an instrument to pull the clothes out so we wouldn’t get burned. Some people had a wringer to put the clothes through after they were washed. We never had one; we just wrung them out by hand. You’d have a couple of different tubs, one for soapy water and one to rinse the soap out of the clothes. Life on the Farm Another thing I had to do was milk cows. We did not have an automatic milking machine and we did not have milk sheds. We had a lot of cats. We’d get through milking in the morning then we’d give the cats a quart or two of milk. We wanted a lot of cats around because they’d keep the rats down and kill all the mice. We had a stool you sat on and had a bucket you’d hold between your legs. When you’d have fights with your brother, you’d squirt him. HISTORICAL cont. on page 13 Historical Photo Historical Photo Update The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS staff asked our readers if they could identify the girls in the Historical Photo printed in the March 15, 2008 issue of the paper. Fern Carver Manning of Salt Lake City, formerly of Eden, called in with the names of these girls, which she believes to be cor- rect, and also the approximate year the photo was taken. She stated that she was unsure of who the girl is sitting in the very back, but thought it could be Edith Montgomery. Also, the girl holding the sign in front of her face could not be identified. Otherwise, from left to right: Daisy Carver, who lived at the bottom of Patio Road (Wolf Creek Drive) on the southeast side of the road in a home that has since burned down; Ortel Stallings, sister of Lowell Stallings, who lived on the west side of Eden Park; Dorothy Fuller, who lived in the home on Patio Road more recently owned by the Kammeyer family; Haveline Thompson; daughter of Earl Thompson (She died as a teenager of a childhood illness); and Mardell Burnett, who lived in the Clyde Sowers home, also on Patio Road. The picture was probably taken around 1923. Circa 1935. Front porch of Louis Wangsgard’s home in Huntsville. Pictured left to right are Athleen Felt Hardy, Jean Jude Cobia, and Karma Wangsgard Smith. Photo courtesy of Karma Wangsgard Smith. Celeste C. 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