Claude LaVern Cripe, born 1892 - Part 3
[ NOTE - The following is transcribed from an audiotape recording made by Claude LaVern Cripe on July 4, 1967.]
[ PART 3 OF 6 ]
1906
In these blank years I managed somehow to get enough education to pass the 7th grade.
And in the Fall of 19 hundred and 6 - I think - some way or other through my grandfather or grandmother in Indiana, I got the address of my mother, who was still living in Wyandotte and I wrote her and told her that I was coming home to visit her. And, I did.
When I got there she had a work permit all ready for me. And, she was living with a man named Bax. My brother and sister were living there with her. So I went to work, at the age of about 16 ½ or right close to 17 that fall in the Pennsylvania Salt Company, where Bax was foreman of the construction gang for the salt company.
They put me to work with this cement gang and I did a man’s work, wheeling gravel to the cement mixer, wheeling cement away from the cement mixer, all day long ten hours a day for 17 cents and a half, an hour. Those were bitter days, because Bax was a drunkard, and after I came, I had to put in very near all of my money to support the family. That lasted until the next spring. My mother left this man Bax. And uh, I told her that if she would move away and go to Miland where my Aunt lived, that I would try and support the family.
I got a job at Miland immediately when we got there. Wasn’t a month until Bax was there also. So Bax come one day, the next day I left. And I left some wages there too. All I took was what I had on my back and got on a freight train and went to Indiana to my grandfather’s again. And I was at grandfather’s about a week, and I got a letter from my mother and said that she was sending the law after me. That I had stole Bax’s German silver watch chain - what in the world would I want with a watch chain?!
So I immediately went over to the "three-I" railroad, in North Liberty, got on a freight train and started west. What a trip. I got all the way to Muscatine Iowa, I had an uncle there, and that winter I stayed at Muscatine and worked in a button factory, making pearl buttons if you please.
The next spring I started for my father’s place in Colorado. Well that was quite a trip also.
But I got there in time to help put in the remainder of the crop in the Spring. He had a homestead of 160 acres of land at Arriba Colorado, about 5 miles south of the town. And, I stayed there until just before Christmas of that year, that was 19, 18, 19 hundred and … eight.
Then I left there and in 19-9, I walked through the Grand – I’ll take that back - the Royal Gorge, from - Out of Canyon City I, and the fellow I was with, walked through this here, uh, Royal Gorge, and one of the most beautiful spots, that I ever saw in my life was this walk. There was snow on the ground and - if you will read your history - that was the year that Haley’s Comet was over the United States every night. And we watched that, up between those canyon walls - that was beautiful. We walked to the first water tank and there we stayed until the first freight train come and we got on and started onward.
And I worked at a place called Price Colorado a little later on, on an irrigation tunnel though the mountains there. This tunnel if I remember correctly was a mile and half long. I took a job on the graveyard shift from 12 o’clock night until 8 o’clock the next day. I uh, using a polishing block and water on the uh, ceiling of that tunnel. To make it as smooth as possible.
I worked there until I got enough money to eat on for a few days again, and, the next stop-off was at Ladells Oregon. And at Ladells they were building a uh, railroad from Ladells to Coos Bay. They called it the Coos Bay Cutoff. It was nearther that way and it went around through Bend Oregon.
And they was an Indian camp there - I went to work, uh waiting tables at the uh, at the uh, railroad camp. And they was an indian camps along this river - the Columbia river - and uh those Indians used to come and get the bread crusts uh, at the uh, camp every day. And that was my first real introduction to squaws! (laugh)
[ PART 3 OF 6 ]
1906
In these blank years I managed somehow to get enough education to pass the 7th grade.
And in the Fall of 19 hundred and 6 - I think - some way or other through my grandfather or grandmother in Indiana, I got the address of my mother, who was still living in Wyandotte and I wrote her and told her that I was coming home to visit her. And, I did.
When I got there she had a work permit all ready for me. And, she was living with a man named Bax. My brother and sister were living there with her. So I went to work, at the age of about 16 ½ or right close to 17 that fall in the Pennsylvania Salt Company, where Bax was foreman of the construction gang for the salt company.
They put me to work with this cement gang and I did a man’s work, wheeling gravel to the cement mixer, wheeling cement away from the cement mixer, all day long ten hours a day for 17 cents and a half, an hour. Those were bitter days, because Bax was a drunkard, and after I came, I had to put in very near all of my money to support the family. That lasted until the next spring. My mother left this man Bax. And uh, I told her that if she would move away and go to Miland where my Aunt lived, that I would try and support the family.
I got a job at Miland immediately when we got there. Wasn’t a month until Bax was there also. So Bax come one day, the next day I left. And I left some wages there too. All I took was what I had on my back and got on a freight train and went to Indiana to my grandfather’s again. And I was at grandfather’s about a week, and I got a letter from my mother and said that she was sending the law after me. That I had stole Bax’s German silver watch chain - what in the world would I want with a watch chain?!
So I immediately went over to the "three-I" railroad, in North Liberty, got on a freight train and started west. What a trip. I got all the way to Muscatine Iowa, I had an uncle there, and that winter I stayed at Muscatine and worked in a button factory, making pearl buttons if you please.
The next spring I started for my father’s place in Colorado. Well that was quite a trip also.
But I got there in time to help put in the remainder of the crop in the Spring. He had a homestead of 160 acres of land at Arriba Colorado, about 5 miles south of the town. And, I stayed there until just before Christmas of that year, that was 19, 18, 19 hundred and … eight.
Then I left there and in 19-9, I walked through the Grand – I’ll take that back - the Royal Gorge, from - Out of Canyon City I, and the fellow I was with, walked through this here, uh, Royal Gorge, and one of the most beautiful spots, that I ever saw in my life was this walk. There was snow on the ground and - if you will read your history - that was the year that Haley’s Comet was over the United States every night. And we watched that, up between those canyon walls - that was beautiful. We walked to the first water tank and there we stayed until the first freight train come and we got on and started onward.
And I worked at a place called Price Colorado a little later on, on an irrigation tunnel though the mountains there. This tunnel if I remember correctly was a mile and half long. I took a job on the graveyard shift from 12 o’clock night until 8 o’clock the next day. I uh, using a polishing block and water on the uh, ceiling of that tunnel. To make it as smooth as possible.
I worked there until I got enough money to eat on for a few days again, and, the next stop-off was at Ladells Oregon. And at Ladells they were building a uh, railroad from Ladells to Coos Bay. They called it the Coos Bay Cutoff. It was nearther that way and it went around through Bend Oregon.
And they was an Indian camp there - I went to work, uh waiting tables at the uh, at the uh, railroad camp. And they was an indian camps along this river - the Columbia river - and uh those Indians used to come and get the bread crusts uh, at the uh, camp every day. And that was my first real introduction to squaws! (laugh)
posted by Don Sheffler | 5:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home