MOVE TO JACKSON WY
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We stayed in Indiana about two months until Daddy seemed to think he had a secure job doing the electrical wiring, at the power plant. Mom’s brother, Uncle Walter was looking for work so he was willing to drive us out to Jackson so once again the little Dodge coupe was loaded with everything mom could squeeze in it and we started out, again looking like Steinbeck’s Tobacco Road. Heading to western land that was totally different from the Southern Baptist religious area we had always lived in. Uncle Willard (Bill) wanted to drive us and come west so bad, but he had just learned that his girlfriend Emma Pavey was pregnant so they planned to be married immediately. So Walter took over. I remember the morning we left , it was hot and sunny several of the family had come to say “Goodby. Mom had made a bed for Ted on the ledge behind the seat, I sat in the middle and Uncle Walt drove. Grandma was crying, I think Maud, Walters wife and kids were at their place, Uncle Bill and Uncle Walter were there. And off we went.
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We drove through to Daddy's place in Kansas, staying a night or two there visiting and resting. While we were there, Nora, daddy’s half sister, decided yo go to Wyo. With us. There really wasn’t enough room in the car but mom didn’t have the heart to say”no”. So she packed a little suitcase and then we were really crowded, She was about 18 yrs at the time, I think. I had to sit half on her lap, poor Uncle Walter, must have been a real nightmare for him. Ted crying when he would get hot. Whoever heard of car or house air conditioning in those days? But we took off from Kansas City and drove for quite awhile we the car stalled. Luckily it was in a little farming community,no stores or anything but several houses and one of them had a garage where they repaired farm equipment. They pushed the Dodge over there and said they would work on it. There were some big oak trees near the house of the people working on the car so mom and Nora spread a couple quilts out and we sat under the trees all afternoon. While Uncle Walter and the man worked. The lady brought some goats milk out for Teddy and some water, mom had some cheese and bread and cookies with us so we had a few things to eat as there was no place to eat. I know the bill for the car repairs cost money and mom was worried about having enough left to get to Jackson We left late that afternoon and drove into Nebraska where we were on the Lincoln highway now known as Hgwy 80
The next day we crossed the Continental Divide by Laramie and the size of the mtns were awesome. I am quite sure before this trip, Uncle Walter had never driven more than a hundred mile radius around Francisco. So he did a fabulous job of getting the little overloaded Dodge coupe to Jackson intact. Crossing southern Wyoming in the heat of the day was awful, as bad as Ind and Kans only without the humidity. We arrived in Rock Springs and were welcomed by some close friends of Daddy’s from Chicago. They had moved out of Chicago when times were getting tough and found jobs in the coal mine there The next day we started on our last part of the trip I am sure to Uncle Walter’s relief. It had been a much bigger responsibility than he could have imagined, the long unknown roads with little traffic, the car sputtering up the to the Lincoln highway to the monument there and now heading into the Hoback canyon on a little narrow road with a huge river running by it. But cool!!! Mom always said she would never forget when they were close to “Little America” the signs started “Ice cold fresh water, Free”. My mother always drank a lot of cold fresh water and that was about as close to heaven as she wanted to be when we reached there after the hot desert crossing of southern Wyoming and she could drink all the cold water that she ever wanted.
We drove up through the beautiful canyon passing the old VanVleck place(Roy’s Brother) which was a big log structure with lots of outlying corals and bldgs, and finally came out by the Snake River where the Hoback drains into it, We started seeing a few ranch houses, the Griswolds place across the river Scotts cabins, I think were there, as we neared the Jackson/Wilson Junction a couple more places. could be seen, but from the junction in to town there was nothing built at that time. . We crossed the old Flat Creek Bridge by Black’s log cabin lodge and we were in Jackson. I don’t know what mom’s first impressions were, but the huge Snow King and mtns surrounding the valley must have been overwhelming. She was in the west! And Uncle Walter probably heaved a tremendous sigh of relief We had arrived safely. And he could relax My Stepdad had Uncle Roy (his mother’s brother, I believe, and he owned a little café across from the Wort Horse Stables so Daddy had told us to go there and he or his wife Kitty would show us where to go. We drove slowly in town, past Blacks Log Cabin Lodge on Flat Creek. Next came Lamb’s Lumber Yard, then the grade school. On the street behind it was a Big grey building, the school gymnasium. On the right side of the road there wasn’t much of anything, Karns Ranch extended to the street and behind that was Gibb Scotts Ranch. I don’t remember much else on either side, may have been a house or two.
But next was Flame Motel owned by Homer and Eliza Richards There home was right beside motel and they had three boys, Jimmie my age and forever my “reading” buddy! Johnny a couple years younger and a baby Jackie.. After the Richards Motel came the Wort Stables. I remember the next winter the gasoline lanterns the men carried around, so dark for so long, the horses neighing and blowing steam from their nostrils as ranchers came to town and stabled their horses in the big building Across from the Stables was the Wort family home, Louella Wort was a large dominating presence ,tall like her sons and husband. Their house was white and had a couple small cabins behind it, one which we, many years later, bought and had set on our property on South Glenwood, Right beside the Wort property was Uncle Roy Butcher’s Elk café. The café wasn’t wide but quite long. It had a long counter with stools running down the left side and about six tables. Down the right side where a few windows looked out onto the Wort Home. I think the café was half of the building that also housed the old Frontier Saloon, a sawdust covered floor with a long bar. Don’t know if they had tables, probably card tables as gambling was accepted in Jackson for years, Past the Frontier I believe there was a service station
I think it was there in 1932. Going on up the street there was the old Log Cabin Bar, The Bluebird café owned by a bright redhead women past her mid-fifties I remember Then came Chester Simpsons Hardware,, Mr Charles Lang.s photo shop with a Barber shop , the Crabtree Inn, then down the hill to Ma Reeds restaurant. The little city Elkhorn Arch park was not there, it was just the city square. Ben Goes Grocery Store was across the street from the :Log Cabin Bar and that was the only building in the square. It was torn down later and Ben built the famous Silver Dollar Bar. But at the time I arrived across the street from the store was Joe Ruby’s Saloon. I know they were Italian and he had a pretty raven haired teenage daughter who I would see around the streets occasionally. There was nothing in the north side of the square as you went further to the St, Johns Hospital, the Episcopal church and the ministers home. Across from the hospital was Bruce Porter’s Rainbow Theater. On the east side of the square there was Mercill’s Store Roy Van Vleck’s Furniture and Hardware Store, he also was the town mortician and had his mortuary in back, Bruce Porter's original Drug Store was next, there were a couple small businesses offices but I don’t remember anyone being in them, the last business was Benson’s electricity, He of course was the one having the Flat Creek power Plant built that had brought us there. There was wide open space and then the old Jackson Hole Courier building, oldest newspaper in Wyo, owned by Wilford and Adeline Neilsen, Next door was the Jackson Bank, a shoe Store and OP Skaggs store,
The town residents numbered around 800 with many ranches all very close to town. Aunt Kitty, Uncle Roy’s wife had been a Vaudeville Dancer, she was attractive but an alcoholic. She was always trying to get Daddy to go buy her some bottles of booze but he had strict orders from his uncle to ignore the requests. They had a nice little log home across the street from the café, in front of the Wort Stables which were at the back of the lot, Behind the stables was Spicer’s Chevrolet Garage. Mom must have looked a sight in her high heels which were always getting stuck between the cracks on the board sidewalks She didn’t wear trousers as most of the Jackson women who spent a lot of time outdoors, Before we left Indiana women were beginning to wear what they called “Street Pajamas'' and Mom had bought a pair for each of us to travel in. But after she arrived the pajamas were put away and we were back in dresses. She never went to the store without a fresh ironed house dress, hose and high heels. It was quite a while later she finally succumbed to purchasing a pair of corduroy trousers to wear when living out at the Power Plant or in the winter.
Mom had her first big shock in the west when a cowboy and a girl’s fiancée got into a gunfight in the Frontier Bar, and one of them pulled his pistol and killed the other. They were fighting over the Redmond girl girl I remember, so neither got her one died and one went to prison. There were lots of fistfights out in the street by the bars When we arrived Uncle Roy took us over to the Flame Motel. Daddy was up at the power plant and couldn’t get in town. And no way of letting him know we were there. Daddy had made arrangements for us to live there. I think there were about 14 cabins each having two rooms with a small coal range and a couple cabinets and table in one plus a twin bed for Uncle Walter In between was a small bathroom. When the rooms were rented separately the people shared the bath which made some irate people when the other occupant would go off leaving the door locked on the other side... Since we had the two rooms I slept with Mom and Nora had a cot until Dad came home when Nora had to stay at Roy's on their couch. As their house was one bedroom. Uncle Walter found some work as long as the weather was good, but as it was getting fall and he didn’t have a steady job he thought he had better get back to his family in Indiana. Nora hadn’t found a romantic cowboy who swept her “off her feet” so she decided to travel back home, Nora to Kansas and Uncle Walter to Indiana. They left on the bus to Rock Springs, then got on the train for home. I think uncle Walter might have stayed in Rock Springs for a few weeks and worked at the coal mines but he was getting anxious to see his family. Mom was lonesome after they left, she didn’t make friends easily and Daddy was still at the plant until winter snowed too much work. She took me to the school and enrolled me in the third grad class with Mrs. Josephine Saunders.
Next year I had Mrs.Charles Erzinger, Many things Mrs Erzinger taught I remember well. She brought music, pictures of famous art, and tried to open our eyes beyond the area.
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