Bill and Bob, Where Did You Come From (LaFond, Gehring, Imes ...

entered the first grade at age 5 in 1915. Behind the
ranch house was a windmill with a large water tank.
Below the tank a tent room was constructed where a
young female teacher lived. There was a large barn with
stalls for 16 milking cows and stalls for calves, which I
enjoyed. The barn had a hay loft. Hay was brought to
the loft by a sharp, pronged, inverted, U-shaped fork,
first forced into the wagon load of hay, pulled up
to an outside projecting ceiling beam, then rolled along
a track through a high door opening into the barn
and lowered to the hay loft. I recall the excitement
of grabbing the empty fork at the open door and riding
it along the track into the barn and then dropping
through the air onto the soft hay. One time the sharp
pronged fork left the track dropped and struck the
hay barely missing me.
Eugene's first school, Eugene in center front, 1914
Hired help lived in small houses along the road.
One family was named Corn and another Cobb, a
combination which amused me. There was a silo
which we filled with sour smelling ground-up green
corn stocks which were grown on the ranch to feed the
cattle in winter. There were pigs and sheep as well.·
Once when a pig was slautered, the bladder was blown
up and given to me for use as a football. The ranch
extended back into the wooded hills. I recall going
along when blocks of salt were being taken to the
hills for cattle and sheep to lick. The ranch was within
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