As we drive down the paved highways to town, covering 100 miles in an hour and a half or so we seldom think of what it was like here 75 or 100 years ago.. Every once in a while Jack tells a story he heard from his grandfather about the early days. The pioneers had to build their own schools then and sometimes getting the materials needed was a challenge. In this case they had built a school on the Rosebud. They needed to go to Miles City to get the furnace . That meant a trip of 90 miles. Jacks grandfather was one of the men who had the job of getting to Miles and bringing it back. He and another neighbor had a mule and an old Indian pony to pull the wagon they were planning on hauling it in.. .They got to Miles, loaded up the furnace and started back. As long as they were on the straight stretches or going downhill the animals did fine but they werent strong enough to pull the wagon up hill, loaded as it was. The men decided there was only one thing to do.. Whenever they came to a hill, they unloaded the furnace and carried it up the hill, loading it on the wagon again as they went downhill. It took them three days to finish their trip. Another story was the time Jacks granddad and Uncle Jim brought a bull home from Billings. They had an old truck at the time. The roads were only dirt tracks then, they werent even graveled. The truck would probably have done fine if it hadnt rained. It was so muddy that the truck couldnt make it up the hills loaded so theyd unload the bull and Jacks granddad would lead it up the hill while Jim got the truck up in the mud. One time when his granddad got to the top of a hill and was waiting for Jim , two range bulls came along and got into a fight with the bull that his granddad was trying to hold on a rope... He never did say how they got the range bulls away and their bull loaded up again. Going to town took at least a full day so they only went for supplies once a year. Theyd take a wagon and buy all the staples theyd need for the next year. Of course, like most people then they raised most of what they ate. My family would have starved if they had to depend on what I was ever able to raise in a garden. Unfortunately, I didnt inherit my Dads green thumb!! Thank goodness for grocery stores ten minutes away and good paved highways. c
Posted on: Thu, 29 May 2014 04:23:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015