Cora Deane Younger - oral history interview

              BEGIN SIDE 1 
PENNY BURDICK: —Cherry Valley in 1874. What I want to ask you about is, want to ask you about your family background and age of your parents, that's better, you know, and where they're buried, any stories about them that you remember, I'll give you this list—we'll startin ’ up here—
CORA DEANE YOUNGER: I wish I knew—I wish I had asked them more questions years ago.
BURDICK: Yeah, we, we yes. 
YOUNGER: When my grandmother was alive—
BURDICK: Yeah, me too 
YOUNGER: ‘Cause now we wonder, you know. 
BURDICK: Me too, that's the problem I'm having with my family. 
YOUNGER: Yeah, I know. 
BURDICK: The ones that can tell me what I need to know are gone. 
YOUNGER: That's it, we waited too late. It didn't make difference to us then, we didn't think anything about it, but now I wish I could remember—to ask my grandmother when you came across the prairie, what did you do? They came here in 1874. 
BURDICK: In, right in here, or where? 
YOUNGER: Over here where my brother lives now, where my brother— 
BURDICK: And where's that? 
YOUNGER: Well, over here at the Hiatt Ranch. 
BURDICK: At the Hiatt Ranch? 
YOUNGER: You know Shirley [unclear] on the county line, and that was in 1874. 
BURDICK: Where did they come from? 
YOUNGER: Iowa [unclear, name of town in Iowa] 
BURDICK: And what made them come here? 
YOUNGER: I suppose, he had, grandpa had homesteaded and I suppose they wanted to come west, you know, and they left in about May and they got into the Springs, oh I think it was along in August. Took them, I suppose, about two months to come across. 
BURDICK: Can you imagine that? I know, I can't. 
YOUNGER: With a two-year old child. 
BURDICK: With a two-year old child. Can you imagine that! 
YOUNGER: And they lived down there for I don't know how long, a week or so, two weeks, a month, I don't know. Then they went to Golden and my father was born in Golden and then they came back down here on the ranch, I suppose he had homesteaded that, and then by that time he probably could come down here and they built a log cabin and they lived in that. 
BURDICK: Is that the one that's still over there? 
YOUNGER: No, 
BURDICK: This is different. 
YOUNG: It's all torn down. He made a map, I've got it about this big showed here the position of the old house here and here's the milk house and here was the toilet, here was the barn and here was the shed. And then they built the new house, but he was killed in 18, ah 98. He slipped off of a load of grain when the wagon's wheel dropped into the irrigation ditch, he slid off the hay— the yoke and the wagon run over his back and broke his back and he died in 1888, I mean 98. And they had this lumber all ready to build the house, and, of course, he was buried then at Evergreen Cemetery. Mom said that he lived about two weeks. And, ah, and then, but in 1900 then my grandmother went ahead and built the house, and she lived in that. She and Pop then until 1904 when Pop was married and Mom came there then. And that's where we were all born, in that house. 
BURDICK: What do you remember the most about that house, even about this country? What comes to your mind the most?
YOUNGER: Oh, it was just—it was 10 of us, we just had a ball all the time. We made our own playthings and, you know, we didn't go to Denver, we didn't go to the Springs, you know. 
BURDICK: Too hard to get there. 
YOUNGER: That's a long ways. 
BURDICK: What kind of transportation did you have a car? [unclear] 
YOUNGER: — not until 1914. 
BURDICK: So if you had to go to Denver you had to go by wagon— 
YOUNGER: We didn't go! 
BURDICK: So how did you get your supplies, of flour, you had to get flour and sugar and some of those supplies, how would they make it? 
YOUNGER: We went to Eastonville in a wagon, and in wintertime Pop had a, a sled, a two-horse sleigh and he would take his milk to town sitting on a board cross the back of that sleigh and we'd go to Eastonville and, ah, take the milk to the creamery and then we'd buy our groceries there. 
BURDICK: So the creamery was in Eastonville. That’s where you went. 
YOUNGER: Yeah, there was a little creamery there, and, we'd buy our groceries there. Mrs. Killen used to work in the store there at Eastonville. Higby's had the store there, you remember in the early days. And Pop said he could remember Mrs. Killen waiting on people there in the store, you know, I can't remember that, that was probably before I was old enough to go to town. 
BURDICK: Yeah, cause you know cause Greenland was quite a ways away then, at that particular time, you had to go clear way down— 
YOUNGER: But we didn't go to Greenland, no we went to Eastonville. That's where we did all of our trading. 
SHIRLEY: —from that place, it was closer— 
YOUNGER: See that's close to Payton. 
BURDICK: So Mrs. Killen ran that store and then the Higby's ran the one in Greenland, I guess that's where I'm getting mixed up, ‘cause there was the general store in Greenland which you probably never— 
YOUNGER: No 
BURDICK: went to because it was too far. 
YOUNGER: No, Greenland was a long ways off, I didn't know anything about Greenland, it was too far away. 
SHRILEY: They had several stores— 
BURDICK: — so that store in Eastonville would have everything from flour to nails, if you need nails for the barn, where did you get siding, where did you get the material, you just used the trees around the building? 
YOUNGER: Well, I suppose, there were sawmills everywhere, you know. 
BURDICK: Was there? 
YOUNGER: there were just sawmills everywhere. I don't know where they got their lumber, but Mom said they had all this stuff ready to build when Grandpa Hiatt was killed. And, ah, the neighbor thought it was terrible that she would go ahead and build that house after her husband died. But what else could she do, she lived in a little log cabin— 
BURDICK: —she had all these kids; she had to have a roof over their head. 
YOUNGER: And the carpenter that built it lived at Payton. And he came out there, I can't remember what his name was, but he came out there and he built the house, and it had a fancy parlor, two parlors and a kitchen and a pantry and three bedrooms upstairs. And, ah— 
BURDICK: —of course you heated with wood and that was it, I'm sure. 
YOUNGER: Oh yes, sure, sure. 
BURDICK: That would have been fun every morning to get outside and get some more wood in so that you— 
YOUNGER: Oh no we got that it at night, we always got the wood and the chips in at night, you know, and fill the reservoir on the stove, you know, and pump the water. There was well close to the house, about as far as here to there. 
BURDICK: So that's where you took your bath, right in back of the stove in the kitchen, once a week or whatever? 
YOUNGER: Oh yeah, that's right. 
BURDICK: Must have been an effort. 
YOUNGER: But, Mom lived there with my grandmother, they had just the one kitchen, so Mom and Pop, of course lived with my grandmother, and then along about the time, I don't remember just what year, why, ah, my grandmother told my Dad that he had better build on some rooms. So he did, he built on another big room so that Mom, then, had a kitchen and a living room and then she had then three bedrooms for her family. And, so they built on a room. 
BURDICK: How did you get to school? 
YOUNGER: Walked! 
BURDICK: You walked, how many miles you think it was? 
YOUNGER: Three miles. 
BURDICK: Three miles each way. 
YOUNGER: Yeah, and we walked, cut right across through the pastures. 
BURDICK: In the middle of winter, what did you do when the snow— 
YOUNGER: We didn't go to school in the winter. 
BURDICK: — was 10 feet deep. You didn't. 
YOUNGER: We started in May and went until Christmas, and Christmas program was the last day of school. 
BURDICK: No kiddin'. 
YOUNGER: Right. 
BURDICK: And that's how you got around then, I've never heard that before. That's how you got around the weather. 
YOUNGER: Yeah. 
BURDICK: I'll be darned. 'Cept in the summertime, I suppose, you know, you needed help, your folks needed help around there and the kids was gone, how did that work? 
YOUNGER: Well kids, school didn't, I don't know how they worked that out, but we were at home to pick potatoes and help with the hay and things like that, and still I remember Pop cutting hay and we kids sometime would walk up the road on what we call the Walker road now and cut down there about half a mile and we'd run into Pop cutting hay and there'd be the hay rack and we'd get a ride home. That really helped. 
BURDICK: And in those days, I would imagine, did you have a tractor or was everything horse drawn? 
YOUNGER: Oh no, no. 
BURDICK: So how did you pick up they hay out of the field, did you have a rake that was horse-drawn, that would rake it in a pile— 
YOUNGER: — sure we had [unclear] 
BURDICK: — or did you hand do it on the wagon— 
YOUNGER: We had a duck rake. You know, and there’s three of 'um out here now, three duck rakes out here and that's what they used. And then Pop would rake up, make long ricks, you know, then he'd go along and rake it and then clip it and that'd the pile here and then they'd come along with the hay rack pitch it on with a fork. Then take it to the barn and, we had in the barn was a, what'ch you call it, was a deep fork that came down in the barn on the hay rack, you know, he'd drive in it to load and this big fork would come down and you'd scoop it in the hay and then somebody outside would take that other horse and drive it away and that'd pull it up in there, pull it across the barn and dump it. Real modern, you know. 
BURDICK: Well, real handy cause it worked, 
YOUNGER: Sure, 
BURDICK: It worked good. 
YOUNGER: I don't know anybody else had one like that, but we did. Old tractor in the barn, yet, I suppose. 
BURDICK: And how did you, I assume, you would ah can, if you had an opportunity to get fruit, did you ever get fruit? 
YOUNGER: Oh sure. 
BURDICK: And would can it then; peaches, pears and stuff 
YOUNGER: Oh sure, peaches, apples, Mom canned everything, so did my grandmother. 
BURDICK: And meat then— 
YOUNGER: —oh yes — 
BURDICK: Would you get ice from Eastonville for a refrigerator— 
YOUNGER: We'd cut our own ice. 
BURDICK: right off a pond. 
YOUNGER: We had a little pond that we cut our own ice. 
BURDICK: And did you preserve it then through the summer months? 
YOUNGER: Well we had, we called it the bunk house. And there was one end where our hired man could sleep in it, it was fixed up and had a window and everything. And then in the middle that was a work shop and then on the north end of it was a room and they stacked this ice in there and they covered it with cement with sawdust. And that lasted all summer, we had ice all summer long, and they would cut that ice down off a pond, you know, and then pull it out and put it in a wagon. A neighbor generally came in and helped, you know, and then we'd store it in this place in big cubes about the size of that and cover it all with sawdust and it'd keep winter, all summer. 
BURDICK: So then when you wanted to put it in your ice box, you would cut something that big you'd cut it in half. 
YOUNGER: We didn't have ice boxes; that was unheard of. 
BURDICK: Okay, so how did you keep milk then and things like that cold? Eggs 
YOUNGER: We had a milk house, it was a house that was insulated, it had double walls and it was insulated with sawdust. And on the west end of it was a trench, trough that ran through there that water ran through from the spring and Pop would set his milk cans down in that, and that kept the crem. But that place was kept spic and span, it was finished all sanded, you know, and was calcimin green, I can see it yet. And on the north end of it was racks and they had big pans about so big that they slid those pans of milk in there and after it set for overnight and all they'd a skimmer and skim the cream off and then they'd feed that milk to the pigs, cats, chickens, calves, and then, of course, we got the separator and we separated. But the separated was in there too, but that place was always kept shut, you know, and nothing could get in and they had a screen on the west side on the window where you could open up the window and get fresh air in there. But we called it the milk house and they would go up— 
BURDICK: so in the— 
YOUNGER: —get milk 
BURDICK: —wintertime it would never freeze because of the double insulation— 
YOUNGER: yeah 
BURDICK: — and the sawdust so you never had to worry about stuff freezing. 
YOUNGER: I suppose it did freeze some but hard, you know. 
BURDICK: And if you did ice cream, you made it and ate it right then and there, you didn't store it, you made a batch and you must have had to eat.
YOUNGER: Well we ate it for dinner (both talking) we ate it all for dinner. 
BURDICK: And you hand cranked it too boot.
YOUNGER: Right, I've got an old crank out here now in the garage like we used to use, you know, let the old bucket go to pieces, forgot. And of course we churned out own butter.
BURDICK: And your meat then, basically, you preserved it with salt and left it in the milk house too?
YOUNGER: No, we had a special meat house to keep the meat in.
BURDICK: So you had a sep—still a separate house for the meat?
YOUNGER: Yeah, the meat was put in there and Poppa would cure it, rub with it with, I suppose, brown sugar and salt, it was cured you know. And then it was hung along in there and it kept all year.
BURDICK: And they would have to, I assume, double insulate that to keep it cool also, so it wouldn't get too hot.
YOUNGER: Well, I can't, I don't think it was insulated, but it was separate from—
BURDICK: —the milk house—
YOUNGER: —yeah.
BURDICK: Brown sugar and salt?
YOUNGER: Yeah, I remember seeing Poppa pack that, and you know they packed it down in I don't know whether it was big heavy boxes or what and covered with salt and it stayed in that so long and then, you know, they could go out and shake that all off and then hang it up and I think they put bags over it or something in the summertime when they hung it up, you know, now that was the pork, the beef, you know, that hung up in the that other place close to the ice house. And we'd want a steak off of it, well Pop would go out and saw off a big steak and bring it in. But that wouldn't keep in the summertime that was just for winter.
BURDICK: Yeah, that's what I was wonderin’ how you would keep it in the hotter months or if you just didn't have beef in the hotter months or if you just hunted elk or deer or something— 
YOUNGER: —I don't think we did—
BURDICK: —for the summer months or you just ate vegetables for the summer months or
YOUNGER: Oh no, we had chickens—
BURDICK: —you had chickens in the summer—
YOUNGER: —lots of chickens. And then of course, I suppose Pop, I know we would fry the sausage and put it down in the—I think they poured lard over it or something, sausage, they used to put it in bags made bags out of muslin and put that in there. And then, you know, you just cut it off. Or they would pack it down in stone jars, I used to go out there yet and dig out sausage and bring it in and make patty cakes and fry it. They worked hard didn't they?
BURDICK: Very hard, very hard. How long did they live, considering how hard they did work, did they live a long time? Do you remember about you mother and your grandmother?
YOUNGER: Well, Mom died, Mom died, she was 83 when she died— 
BURDICK: —so obviously long time—
YOUNGER: —she died in ‘67 and she was married in 1904 and Pop died in '52 and he was born in 1876.
BURDICK: And when did you get electricity there, or did you ever have it? 
YOUNGER: We never had it.
BURDICK: You never had it you just used oil lamps at night—
YOUNGER: Oh sure.
BURDICK: You probably went to bed when the sun went down cause why use the oil on the lamps, or—
YOUNGER: Oh no, we'd read, you know, always read and, we read a lot, I love to read, and I can remember now, see I was next to the oldest one, and we'd go into my grandmother's house at night and she would have a book, she always had good books for us to read. There's one called “The Youth Companion,” we used to read that. She'd get those things and we'd go in there and she'd lay on the couch be half asleep, probably, and there'd be two or three of use gather round and I'd read to 'um and we'd come to a word that I couldn't pronounce and I'd say, I'd spell it for her and she'd say sugar, call it sugar, so I'd say sugar and go on you know [laughter] but we did, night after night we'd sit in there and read stories like that, you know, cause we didn't have TV.
BURDICK: And then it'd be Christmastime, I assume, you would go out and cut down a tree and—
YOUNGER: Right
BURDICK: —you would make your own decorations—
YOUNGER: Sure, popcorn
BURDICK: —obviously you didn't go to the store and buy all this fancy stuff.
YOUNGER: Popcorn, trim it with popcorn.
BURDICK: Did you really put candles on it?
YOUNGER: Yeah.
BURDICK: Did you really?
YOUNGER: We had little candle holders, you know, that held candles and had the little candles about so big, yeah.
BURDICK: And then you'd worry about it burning down all the time-
YOUNGER: Well—
BURDICK: You'd blow all those out when you got ready to go to bed.
YOUNGER: Well, I don't know [unclear] we always had a Christmas tree.
BURDICK: Was there any spare time left over by the time you'd get up, go get your water, bring it in— 
YOUNGER: sure
BURDICK: —cook your breakfast, ah, go out and work in the field, do your laundry, tell us about laundry day.
YOUNGER: Well, it was this way—
BURDICK: — probably rub a dub a dub, with water you hauled in from the creek—
YOUNGER: No we had a well
BURDICK: You had a well.
YOUNGER: But we carried it in and heated in a big wash boiler, hot water you know and then put it in the tubs and then just scrub it and rinse it and hang um on the line. If it'd freeze, you'd bring them in and thaw um out.
BURDICK: How'd you make soap?
YOUNGER: Mom made, she always made her soap. We never bought soap.
BURDICK: Do you remember how she made it, I'm curious?
YOUNGER: Well, I don't know, lye and water and cracklin's, I don't know how they did it?
BURDICK: What is cracklin's, I never heard of that?
YOUNGER: Oh yeah, you know, we rendered our own lard, cooked the lard, and oh those cracklins were so good to eat, especially when they had a little bit of lean meat in them, gee they were good when they were fresh, yeah, she made them out of cracklins and put it in a big, oh, iron kettle. She made the soap outdoors with fire under it and she put that water and those cracklins and lye in there and boil it and boil it until, and then they'd pour them into a box and it would harden and [unclear] they cut it out in bars. We made soap in tubs. 
SHIRLEY: Oh yeah. 
BURDICK: So what would you use for laundry, you know, we have the harder soap for like if we were washing our hands and that kind of thing but we think of laundry soap as being in a powder. 
YOUNGER: Yes, we bought soap for our hands, I remember Ivory soap, we used to have that you know, but this other was the laundry soap we just break [unclear] I have lye out here now a couple cans of lye that I was going to make soap someday again, but I never got around to it. No, we used to make soap in clumps. 
SHIRLEY: I remember that too. 
BURDICK: Did your teacher live there, I assume the teacher must have had to live right by school or live with a family by that school, ‘cause obviously they couldn't get around that good. 
YOUNGER: Year, Miss Guard, she boarded with my father's sister and they lived about a mile and half from school. And that teacher walked to school. And she would go to school of a morning early, start the fire, you know, and I suppose she probably swept the school at night before she left, we kids used to clean the blackboard for her, I remember, wash them all off you know, erase them good, wipe um. 
BURDICK: Did they make you start real early in the morning so you could get home and help at home, or did they start you at nine to three like we do now? 
YOUNGER: No, we'd leave for school, I expect about 8 o'clock. 
BURDICK: Cause it probably took you 30 minutes or so to get there—
YOUNGER: Oh more than that—
BURDICK: —45 minutes to get there.
YOUNGER: I think about an hour, school took up at nine, it took about an hour, I'm sure to get there.
BURDICK: And then when you guys were out in December did the teacher leave or did she stay on with the family—
YOUNGER: No, she, no, uh-uh. This was a teacher, she was raised here at Monument [unclear] and her parents live here in the Springs now or her relations. But anyway she lived with my aunt and she would go to school and she was just a lovely person, thought a lot of her. But we had some that was kind of rough too, one of them kept a curtain with the top of the door in the school and I remember one day some boy did something in class she didn't like and got that curtain down and she wacked him across the shoulder with it. She'd be arrested now —
BURDICK: Right, that's right
YOUNGER: But you know you didn't have any backtalk in school like that.
BURDICK: Well so you had, you probably didn't do a kindergarten, but would have like a first grade, the sixth grade in that school and then the kids that went on into secondary, higher levels jr. high or sr. high they had to go live in the Springs, I assume.
YOUNGER: No, no they had high, out there at that school, I guess they had high school there too, but I was up in, I think the 7th grade, then the districts all consolidated and our little school went into Eastonville, and that's where we had a high school.
BURDICK: Was right there in Eastonville?
YOUNGER: Yeah.
BURDICK: And that was in a separate building?
YOUNGER: Well this Bluff school was out here in the country and Eastonville was about 3 or 4 miles farther over than that. But I went to the Bluff school, I think I was probably either the 6th or 7th grade, then we consolidated with Eastonville and rode in a bus.
BURDICK: Oh, you did ride in a bus?
YOUNGER: Oh yes. Just a truck with flappy curtains on the side of it, but it was a bus.
BURDICK: Can you image that! [unclear] weather ’s a little nippy like it is today a little chilly in the bus.
YOUNGER: Well, but you put on clothes.
BURDICK: And lots of them.
YOUNGER: But that was better than walking to school and gettin' to school and our feet was wet and we sit and put our feet up on the old heater in the middle of the room to warm our feet up. But ah—
BURDICK: Well, that's interesting so you were able to complete all through school then right there at Eastonville.
YOUNGER: Well, yeah, they had the four years of high school at Eastonville.
BURDICK: So, you stayed in the one building say till 8th grade and 9th through 12th was there high school so to speak.
YOUNGER: Yeah, I think there must have been four rooms in the high school, in the school. I think there were two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs.
BURDICK: And when you went to grade school, do you remember how many kids were there about?
YOUNGER: Oh I think probably in the school we probably had about 18, I have pictures of us in front of the old Bluff school with Miss Whitaker. She was the one that could take the curtain to 'um and give um a whack. [Laughter] But I think in that picture there must have been about 15 of us maybe and I know there was [unclear], his sister and one other kid who was older than I was but then my sister, Clara that passed away, she was a little girl, she went to school there too. 
BURDICK: I suppose teachers probably in those days didn't have to have college and all that other stuff, did they?
YOUNGER: I don't know.
BURDICK: They just had to like to learn and like to plan and—
YOUNGER: I don't know.
BURDICK: —like to teach kids. But you were all mixed up I assume like first grade all the way on to eighth grade and everybody was kind of segregated in their own level or where ever they were at and—
YOUNGER: Well, I don't know, I remember I always had one certain seat in school I always liked, I remember yet it was on the northeast of the school house, school house faced to the south, I mean the back of it and the front of it was right on the road, on what they call the Evans Road over there now. I know the spot just where it is, they moved it away now. But, ah
BURDICK: And what year, so then you are out of high school and what did you do immediately out of high school?
YOUNGER: Came home and worked.
BURDICK: Came home and worked, you went ahead and lived at home and just kept working,
YOUNGER: Sure
BURDICK: Until you married Bruce, right.
YOUNGER: Sure, sure, worked for all the people in the neighborhood, babysat here and babysat there and cooked for thrashers here and some of 'um said well what, how come you helped everybody and I said I don't know, ‘cause I just was handy I guess, but I probably helped cook for thrashers, clean house, babysat for people and kids, you know, for everybody.
BURDICK: ah, I guess I forgot to ask you exactly what it was you grew over there, of course you had milk cows, but you did grow potatoes—
YOUNGER: oh yes
BURDICK: —and lettuce this was good potato country.
YOUNGER: Oh Ma had a beautiful garden, they had a lovely garden, she had apples, we had two or three apple trees, we had our own apples, we had potatoes, we raised everything. We raised chickens, Mom, we always had lots of eggs, of course milk and cream, made our own butter, you know.
BURDICK: And you remember doing that, I'm sure. How long do you have to pump that stuff till it gets to be butter? You see those old butter churns and go like this
YOUNGER: I've got it in there, I don't know.
BURDICK: Or you whip it, you just whip it
YOUNGER: No, I've got the old churn in there.
BURDICK: So how long did you have to churn?
YOUNGER: Oh, I don't know.
BURDICK: Till your arm was broken
YOUNGER: Oh, no
BURDICK: It didn't take very long,
YOUNGER: I don't think so. [unclear] sit down there beside and churn with a book in this hand, just churn away, you know
BURDICK: What made it thicken up, I curious, you got cream in there ‘cause obviously you use cream, put straight cream in there.
YOUNGER: Sure.
BURDICK: What made it thicken up, just cream it
YOUNGER: Well, no, it finally curdles you know, it kind of brakes and your cream or your butter kind of gets “gobby” in there and you churn it until it kind of gets up in a wad and then take one of those skimmers and dip it out and wash it, run cold water over it you know, and there was your butter milk left, you used it to cook with. 
BURDICK: So you didn't do ice, you didn't do ice at all you just put room temperature cream in there and started—
YOUNGER: Yeah and you had to have the room, the cream you were going to make butter you had it kind of warm, I mean, it would be room temperature, you didn't take ice cold cream and beat it, or churned it you know. I think we brought it of an evening or something ‘cause we were goin' to churn tomorrow so got to get some cream in. Of course we had butter bowls to put it in, you know and the paddle—
BURDICK: I bet it made quite bit at a time, didn't it?
YOUNGER: Yeah, I think so, oh maybe two or three pounds, I don't know.
BURDICK: That's a lot, a lot, and how many times a week, of course if you had ten of you, plus your, everybody else you'd probably be doin' it pretty often, at least 3, 4 time a week for that many people—
YOUNGER: No, I don't think so, we might churn once a week and I don't know if we'd do it that much or not, I don't know.
BURDICK: Well, maybe you don't have bread everyday so.
YOUNGER: Yeah, we did all of our bread baking. Boughten bread was a treat.
BURDICK: I'll bet.
YOUNGER: Mama baked on Monday and Friday, and baked biscuits every morning. And by Sunday we were always out of bread. So we'd have to have pancakes.
BURDICK: Well, that's all right. But, ah, so she could make that much bread at one time, she must of have spent a whole day doing nothin' but bread.
YOUNGER: No, no, no. Mom'd bake bread and we'd come home from school and there'd be these about five of these great big loaves there and she wasn't looking and we'd take the butcher knife and cut the heels off [laughter], my dad said it was a funny thing our loaves never had heels on 'um, but that bread was so good when you come home from school, it was warm, you know, and so we'd just sneak in there and take a knife and chop it off and eat it.
BURDICK: You must have yeast going all the time then from one batch to another to keep your yeast ‘cause you didn't go to the store and buy yeast like we do now.
YOUNGER: No, no we made it, we had our own hops. We raised hops and made their own yeast.
BURDICK: No kiddin!
YOUNGER: I don't know how to make it.
BURDICK: Yeah, I was wonderin' how you do hops. Somehow, same way as making beer but—
YOUNGER: yeah
BURDICK: —you would just—
YOUNGER: when we got where we had yeast, it was those little hard cakes, little, I don't know what—because of Fleishman's yeast but it was of little kind of whitish cakes, you know, came in a little package, I think there was 5 to a package maybe, boy that was good, when you could, that really made it easy.
BURDICK: Yeah, whole lot easier than trying to raise your own hops, you've got that right.
YOUNGER: But I can see those hops yet all along on that west fence there — picked those leaves and I don't know how they did it, just took it for granted.
BURDICK: You take a lot of things for granted now.
YOUNGER: Yeah, right 
BURDICK: Life is easy.
YOUNGER: Right.
BURDICK: Go light the furnace over there with a match and not have to worry about it.
YOUNGER: And we'd cut the wood, I always liked to cut wood, always thought that was fun, that's the reason I still like to cut wood, always like to cut wood when I was old enough.
BURDICK: You'd have to get a huge saw though if you had a big tree you'd have to get a huge saw to get it at least quartered so you could an ax and finish it.
YOUNGER: Yeah, but we didn't, we didn't cut it up in blocks like that, Pop'd just go out and get wood around in the timber, most of its downed wood and he'd just bring in, you know, big chunks of wood, go out there and split it up and chop it put make pieces big enough to stick in the stove and then Mom would say “Now children, chip basket.” We'd have to go get a basket or a can of chips, you know, generally was an old wash board, and bring it in and stick it behind the stove, you know, to start the fire with.
BURDICK: Um, what's the worst snow storm you ever remember here? When you were growing up, or even now.
YOUNGER: 1913 was the big one.
BURDICK: How long was it 'til you got out of there?
YOUNGER: Oh, I don't remember, but I do know that it, the snow storm just filled the front of the house, we couldn't get out to the old john so we tunneled through it.
BURDICK: Had to dig a tunnel to get through, huh.
YOUNGER: Yeah, you know how it would blow through and just make a big drift from your house and I can see it yet we had to tunnel through that to get through that big drift to go down to the old john. And my dad, I remember, shoveled until midnight to get the cows out of the cradle to the creek to get water the next day, cause it just blew in like it did out here last winter. Just leveled you know. And Pop worked there until midnight that night trying to get the cows out of the cradle to feed them.
BURDICK: By himself.
YOUNGER: To get water, yeah.
BURDICK: That would be an awful lot of shoveling wouldn't it?
YOUNGER: Yeah.
BURDICK: So you think it was 4 feet deep?
YOUNGER: Oh, I imagine— 
BURDICK: 5 feet deep.
YOUNGER: Not on the level perhaps but you know how it would drift over.
BURDICK: Just on the drifts—
YOUNGER: But it was just terrible, I remember they said about it was over the fence and everything, you know, but [jump in tape]
BURDICK: So what did you do for entertainment when you dated? You know, you couldn't go to a drive-in movie, there was no television to watch, did you just take long walks together, or, ah, sat and talked and read or.
YOUNGER: We really didn't go anywhere.
BURDICK: You just sat and talked.
YOUNGER: Well, we didn't go anywhere, we couldn't go to the Springs, not until I got older, when I was 18 and 20 like that, we went to the Springs to a picture show or something like that, but before that, heavens, no you just didn't have any place to go to, there wasn't any place to go.
BURDICK: Yeah.
YOUNGER: We would have parties.
BURDICK: Barn dances?
YOUNGER: No, my folks didn't believe in dancing. We didn't dance. Nope.
BURDICK: So, when you went to a party, what'd you guys do?
YOUNGER: Oh, we spun the platter that was a fun game.
BURDICK: Spun the platter, now let me hear about this I'm real interested.
YOUNGER: Well they'd take a pie pan and we'd all sit in a circle. The man, the person that was “it” would get in the middle and spin that platter and you'd jump up and grab it. And then you'd get to spin the platter, you know, was exciting. 
[All laugh]
BURDICK: Yeah, I bet it was swell.
YOUNGER: Yeah, we played Gossip too, we'd sit in a circle you know and one start here and tell you something then they'd come clear around and come back to you and then they'd say well what did they say and it never came out the same way. That's what was: Gossip.
BURDICK: And it's still true today, isn't it?
YOUNGER: Right.
BURDICK: It is still true today.
YOUNGER: And, of course, we went to Sunday school. When we were younger we went to the First Christian Church and it was over there by Carnahan right across the road from where Carnahan's live now was the First Christian Church and we used to go there in a wagon and we had, we didn't go for just, we didn't have Sunday school, we went for church and the minister that came—
BURDICK: So he would just travel around every week, or would he only come twice a month, or
YOUNGER: No, we had it every Sunday.
BURDICK: So he must of— lived around.
YOUNGER: And I don't know whether he lived there around there I don't know—I don't even know who the minister was. But I do remember they had baptism one time in a little pond there on the Cantril place and two or three of the people were baptized right out in the creek you know, I remember seeing that. My Dad told about the time that they were baptizing some people there and some little boy was watching it and the minister's coat floated out on the water and the little boy said, “Oh look at the ducky on the pond.” [laughter]
BURDICK: Funny what you remember isn't it.
YOUNGER: Yeah, isn't though.
BURDICK: It's funny what you remember. Ah, let me see. What do you remember about the depression, besides you didn't have anything but then you didn't have anything before the depression much so you got along fine—
YOUNGER: Well.
BURDICK: But did you need, by that time you had a car didn't ya?
YOUNGER: Oh, Pop got the first car in 1914.
BURDICK: Do you remember what it was?
YOUNGER: A Ford.
BURDICK: A Ford.
YOUNGER: And he got it from, ah, [unclear] Brothers in Peyton.
BURDICK: And I assume he cranked it of course to start it.
YOUNGER: He did, he did.
BURDICK: And did it start all winter, too?
YOUNGER: Oh yeah,
BURDICK: Did he keep it in the barn?
YOUNGER: Yeah, and he had to drain the water out of it every time and then fill it up every time you'd—
BURDICK: That’s right, there was a [unclear]—can you image that.
YOUNGER: You put it in the barn and put a blanket over it to keep the birds and everything from getting it dirty.
BURDICK: What's the first tractor he had, do you remember, did he have a tractor before a car or did he have a car before a tractor?
YOUNGER: No he had a car first.
BURDICK: You just used horses all the time.
YOUNGER: I can't remember whether he even had a tractor when I was married. Oh, he probably did I was married in 1926. I think he had a tractor, probably, I can't remember. I used to rake hay with horses, though.
BURDICK: And, of course, you raised your own horses there, or traded them with the neighbors or whatever?
YOUNGER: Well, I don't know where he got, we all worked with a four-horse team to plow or anything, I used to plow with my dad. He'd run one plow and I'd run a plow, I'd have a smaller plow, mine had two horses and he would have a four-horse team or something. One day he went to the Springs and he had to take the cream to the Springs that's when we'd have to go to the Springs. He said “I've got to take the cream to town today” and he said, I had been helping him plow, that's on the ranch in Elbert County, we had another ranch there, and, ah, I said, “Well Pop, I'll go over and finish it.” Oh he didn't think I should and I said, “Well, I can.” So he went to town and I took the two horses and I went over there and I finished out that piece by myself. Drove over there and hitched up and finished up that and Pop said I'll be back by the time we get ready for another land. Well he didn't get back so I just laid out in his land but I plowed it the wrong way, I turned it out, so he had a ditch in his field for quite a while.
BURDICK: Did you get in trouble for that?
YOUNGER: No, he just told me I should of turned it this way, but anyway I plowed all by myself. Can you imagine me going over there by myself and driving [unclear] about three miles by myself in a wagon?
BURDICK: It doesn't surprise me at all, doesn't surprise me at all. How'd you meet Bruce?
YOUNGER: Well the first time Bruce said he saw me he was, Bruce was an assessor, assistant assessor, you know for El Paso County and, he said that he came over one day to, you know the assessor went around to ranches took everything, he said I came in from takin' the cattle out or bringin' the cattle in or something and he saw me then, told Pop he'd sure like to meet me. But I didn't meet him then, but I went to a sale over here at Acres one day with Pop and Bruce saw me there that day, that night he called me and wanted to know if he could come over and have a date. He called me from a telephone I guess over here somewhere and I said yeah, he came and went to church. So that was the way we started.
BURDICK: Getting back to the telephone, that's real interesting. Do you remember when you first got a phone over there, or if you ever did, while you were still living at home?
YOUNGER: Yeah, we had a phone, Mom had a phone in her house after she got in her house and my grandmother had one, and they would just run on the fence post, the wire would just run on the fence post and there were little white insulators, you know, I've got some of 'um out here yet. And that's the telephone and they had a telephone I know, went down to my grandmother's where Momma used to live [unclear] miles—
BURDICK: You were all on the same line, I assume you had no sophistication so when your phone rang did everybody have to pick it up to figure out who it was for?
YOUNGER: I don't know. I know we used 'um. 
BURDICK: Did you remember havin' to call an operator if you wanted to call someone else or you just rang and it rang in everybody's house? 
YOUNGER: I suppose, I don't remember. I do know my grandmother had a phonograph and she'd get a new record and it was one of these old Edison records or tele/phonographs about so big a square. And she'd get a new record and she'd put it on that, ah, phonograph and she had two big horns and she'd stick that up there and ring the phone a long ring and everybody would listen to it, she's play that and everybody in the community would hear that. [laughter] Well, you— 
BURDICK: What a riot. 
YOUNGER: —know that was neat, you know. 
BURDICK: You were probably the only one that had one of those. 
YOUNGER: We did, I don't think there was anything around.
BURDICK: Must have had to turn that up awful loud to get it to where everybody could hear it all right. 
YOUNGER: I don't know, but you know, she'd take the receiver off and ring and then I suppose everybody'd come and listen and you know, she'd play that new record, you know. 
BURDICK: What did you do for doctors over there; I assume there wasn't anyone close. 
YOUNGER: Well they had a doctor at Eastonville. 
BURDICK: They did. 
YOUNGER: And they had one at Elbert, Dr. Kethinger [sp?] was at Eastonville, then he went to Limon and Mom had to go to Denver for an operation, so they went to Eastonville, took the train to Limon, met Dr. Kethinger, and he took her to Denver. She was operated on in Denver and then when, I think she was up there about two weeks. That was in 1914. And, ah, then she came home and then there was a Dr. Anderson at Eastonville, too, that I think delivered some of the kids. 
BURDICK: So you weren't hurting for medical care per se, you know we think of now some of these isolated communities don't have any medical. 
YOUNGER: Dr. Denny was at Elbert and Dr. Denny was there probably about the time when you were born, Dr. Denny was at Elbert. He delivered all my kids. 
BURDICK: So when you went into labor you just called him up and said come on over and that was it. 
YOUNGER: Right, but before I went that night when Trent was goin' a be born, I made Bruce do the milking and get everything done before we left. Then we just got in the car and drove over to Mom and called the doctor and, ah, told him I was goin' to have a baby, goin' have a baby. 
BURDICK: — shock when he found out there was two of um, — be no way of knowin’
YOUNGER: — didn’t know, oh, we thought was goin' to have twins.
BURDICK: Just by your size, or —
YOUNGER: Yeah
BURDICK: Did they have sophisticated enough equipment to hear? 
YOUNGER: No, no they didn't and Aunt Sue, our friend, she was a friend, but we called her Aunt Sue came out one time to see us, visit me, when I was living over there, she said, “Ah, so I think you're goin' to have twins. ” And I said, “Well if I do, I'll give you one.” Just for the heck of it, you know. So after the twins were born she came out to visit me and she said, “Now which one you goin' to give me?” I said “Well, I've changed my mind now.” [laughter] Anyway when they were born that night, Norman was born first, Dr. Denny, I remember yet he turned around to Mom, he says well we're just half through.
BURDICK: So everybody was wonderin' what are we goin' to do now, we only got one bed, and we only got one, so many clothes and —
YOUNGER: Yeah, well, I divided up the clothes, you know, we didn't have pampers and all.
BURDICK: No that's right you hung them on the line.
YOUNGER: But I had big diapers so I sat up in bed while I was, you know, recuperating and I cut those all in two and made two sets of diapers, so I had enough.
BURDICK: Can you imagine how big it'd be if you hadn't cut um though, how good would they be?
YOUNGER: Yeah, they'd be like blankets.
BURDICK: My word.
YOUNGER: [unclear] ankles were about the size of my finger and they were just [unclear] the babies were, Norma weighed about maybe 3-1/2 pounds, and Norman maybe 4-1/2 something like that.
BURDICK: Did you go to term then?
YOUNGER: No.
BURDICK: You were early.
YOUNGER: 7 months.
BURDICK: Well they were good sized then for 7 months, considering there was two of them, that's ‘cause you're a hardy thing.
YOUNGER: Oh, yeah!
BURDICK: That's ‘cause you were out plowin' fields and choppin' wood (laughter) the day before.
YOUNGER: That's right.
BURDICK: So what did you do for an incubator, or did you have to incubate?
YOUNGER: We didn't have an incubator.
BURDICK: Did you have to keep them warm though because they were so small?
YOUNGER: Sure!
BURDICK: So how'd you do that?
YOUNGER: We put, I had a basket about so big, you know, and Momma put them in there and we put water bottles around 'um.
BURDICK: 24 hours a day?
YOUNGER: Yeah, just about that.
BURDICK: But you know with two people, it'd be hard for one person to stay rested enough to do everything they had to do at home, plus do babies, plus stay up around the clock to keep 'um warm, so at least with two people sharing the load, that helped a little I'm sure.
YOUNGER: Well, I stayed there two weeks, probably.
BURDICK: Is that all?
YOUNGER: Sure, then I came home and one of my sisters came home with me for a little while and helped me out, you know. But I tell you it was around the clock.
BURDICK: I would imagine.
YOUNGER: You'd just get one taken care of, fed.
BURDICK: It was time to start another. 
YOUNGER: Put it on a bed, then the other one'd be crying and pick up that one and then, here you'd set it down—
BURDICK: I bet you didn't milk for a while then, least for a month, huh?
YOUNGER: No, we only had one cow, Bruce and I never had but one cow, that wasn't too bad, you know.
END OF SIDE 1