...............The Road Sign
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
THE HISTORY OF HALLS STATION
Once upon a time there was a country store named Halls Station. Today it is just a dot...a highway marker depicts that at one time there was this fellow by the name of Halls who went out there and built a store building with a gas pump in front of it. They used to be called Mom & Pop stores....now-a-days they are called Seven Eleven, Kwik Stop, Kwikway...Mr Halls was mostly interested in making a decent living and was not inclined, I don't suppose, with what the future held for stores of the nature that he owned and operated. Well according to the scant history that I derived...obtained from my oldest brother Estel F. Schmeiser(March 6, 1912-July 8, 2004) before he passed off the stage of action, this Mr. Halls's store caught on fire and burned to the ground and all that was left on the northeast corner of this infamous intersection of Colorado Highway 94 and Lincoln County Road 11...And because of the fact that Mr. Halls's property was a small plot in someone's cow pasture...to this day all that remains is a pile of the concrete foundation of Mr. Halls's store and gas pump. So we move to the northwest corner of this intersection where Mr Ray Renck built a store and gas pump. Mr Ray Renck's luck at maintaining a business there was not much better than Mr. Halls's across the road and seeing as how Mr. Stringham had a corn field on that half section, all that remains of Mr Renck's store is the memory of a select group of hardy folks with a good memory of days gone by!!! So we move "catty corner" across the road to the southeast corner of this intersection and this is where Mr. Sears and Mrs. Bertha Stevens created a thriving business of a country store, a gas pump and a automobile garage repair business/blacksmith shop/welding shop....Mr. Sears Stevens not only knew how to build store buildings....there just wasn't much that he put his hands to that he couldn't do and maybe thats why him and his wife and two daughters fared so well on their corner of this Historic intersection....Halls Station.... However, all that remains there today is the memory. And unlike the two other locations of stores and gas pumps, Mr. Sears Stevens apparently had purchased his corner from the Durkee Ranch and it was deeded land that still remains fenced off from the rest of the world. At least that's the way I remember Halls Station from the last time I was privileged to visit out there in 1999...!!! Halls Station is located thusly...Back in "The Good Old Days" downtown Colorado Springs Colorado...used to be....well actually...standing smack dab in the center of the intersection of Platte Avenue and Nevada Avenue there is a humongus statue of General William Jackson Palmer, Founder of the City of Colorado Springs...1871....on his favorite trusty steed, a handsome stallion, which is about seven miles west of where Colorado Highway 94 originally had it's beginning a short distance west of The Road Sign that depicts "RUSH 33" miles east, and Halls Station is another 12 miles east of the..."RUSH 33"....United States Post Office/gas station/residence..a total of 52 miles...to the Colorado 94 Highway marker depicting Halls Station
Sunday, September 18, 2011
IN THE GARDEN....My Mother's Garden
I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses; And the voice I hear, falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses........
MEMORIES.....I have MANY fond memories mixed with a few memories that are not so fond, not so pleasant to remember... some that I'd like to erase from my mind but they are stamped there indelibly and I find quite impossible to eradicate from my mind....of the nearly twenty years I was PRIVILEGED to live on my Pioneer Parent's HOMESTEAD on the high plains, the wind swept prairies of Eastern Colorado........
Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. Genesis 2:7&8
(NET)
Somewhere along the way...I would imagine about the Spring of 1915...my Father and Mother planted a garden. And every Spring season Mother would make preparations for that garden to be planted for the summer. It was no easy task but it certainly was necessary...It was vital to our very existance as a matter of fact!!! A section of fence on the east side near the walk-in gate would be opened to allow my Dad's team of horses to pass through and then they were hitched to a one bottom plow to prepare the ground for planting. The soil preparation was followed by weeks of back breaking work making rows and planting the seeds that would eventually bloom/blossom/develop into some of the best food that I was going to be privileged to consume in all the rest of my life on God's green earth!!!
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. Genesis 2:10a...Mother's garden was watered by a windmill at the top of the little knoll that her garden was situated on....a windmill that constantly...whenever there was a brisk breeze blowing....that pumped some of the softest best tasting water found anywhere in the State of Colorado....into a holding pond and this pond was surrounded by willow trees all the way around except for a narrow opening where the well pipe drained into the pond.
And the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. Genesis 2:15......My Mother was the "Keeper" of our garden and as such the "dressing" of her garden was left up to her kids. There were three of us at home most all of the twenty years I was PRIVILEGED to live on that Beloved old HOMESTEAD. There was my brother Vern who is ten years older than me and my little sister Glida who is a year and a half my junior. It was our responsibility to keep the weeds out of our Mother's garden and to keep it watered.
MEMORIES.....I have MANY fond memories mixed with a few memories that are not so fond, not so pleasant to remember... some that I'd like to erase from my mind but they are stamped there indelibly and I find quite impossible to eradicate from my mind....of the nearly twenty years I was PRIVILEGED to live on my Pioneer Parent's HOMESTEAD on the high plains, the wind swept prairies of Eastern Colorado........
Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. Genesis 2:7&8
(NET)
Somewhere along the way...I would imagine about the Spring of 1915...my Father and Mother planted a garden. And every Spring season Mother would make preparations for that garden to be planted for the summer. It was no easy task but it certainly was necessary...It was vital to our very existance as a matter of fact!!! A section of fence on the east side near the walk-in gate would be opened to allow my Dad's team of horses to pass through and then they were hitched to a one bottom plow to prepare the ground for planting. The soil preparation was followed by weeks of back breaking work making rows and planting the seeds that would eventually bloom/blossom/develop into some of the best food that I was going to be privileged to consume in all the rest of my life on God's green earth!!!
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. Genesis 2:10a...Mother's garden was watered by a windmill at the top of the little knoll that her garden was situated on....a windmill that constantly...whenever there was a brisk breeze blowing....that pumped some of the softest best tasting water found anywhere in the State of Colorado....into a holding pond and this pond was surrounded by willow trees all the way around except for a narrow opening where the well pipe drained into the pond.
And the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. Genesis 2:15......My Mother was the "Keeper" of our garden and as such the "dressing" of her garden was left up to her kids. There were three of us at home most all of the twenty years I was PRIVILEGED to live on that Beloved old HOMESTEAD. There was my brother Vern who is ten years older than me and my little sister Glida who is a year and a half my junior. It was our responsibility to keep the weeds out of our Mother's garden and to keep it watered.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
CHAPTER ONE...The Peach Picking Trip......
The very first time that I was privileged to have driven past...The Road Sign...RUSH 33....was right after a Driver's License Examiner at Simla Colorado had "handed" me, sans a test of any sort, my first Colorado Drivers License at the age of eighteen!!!
Now back in those "good old days" of this era it was customary for young folks, that could be spared from various duties, extra hands and others that were seeking part time employment, people from the farms on the plains of Eastern Colorado would journey over to the Western Slope to such places as Fruitvale, Orchard Mesa, and Palisade, small farming communities around Grand Junction Colorado, there to help harvest peaches and other fruits. As destiny would have it I was permitted to make this particular trek across the Rocky Mountains...ONLY one time!!! This trip was a very memorable...if not a downright unforgettable venture....and most especially the return trip home!!!
..........................MR. RONALD J. HOOVER of Rush "33"........................
Very much like the nickname Corky that was "tacked" onto me by my beloved brother Walter Marlin about five and one half months prior to the time my beloved sister Gladys had taken my baby picture....in a letter that I recieved dated May 25, 2004 from my friend...everyone in Eastern Colorado knew him as Ron...he wrote; "Hi Corky" "I'm starting this as Corky, because when someone says Lyle Schmeiser, I have to stop and think a while, as to who they are talking about. So you will always be Corky". And Ron was right...I have always been Corky!!! Ron had a car that was much more "road worthy" than the '39 Ford 2dr sedan that I had purchased from my brother Vern for the sum of $50.00 and although Ron lived with his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Harold Hoover on their farm a few miles north of...RUSH 33...Ron and I ran around together, mostly to dances around the country. (The Ginkgo Biloba is kicking in)...
One of those times of going to a dance didn't work out so well and was quite a disapointment to us. A "gulley washer" rain had washed out a bridge which resulted in us turning around and "high tailing" it for home!!!
On the trip over to Grand Junction I was PRIVILEGED, I had the distinct pleasure....
(I've learned the true meaning of what the word HONOR means since the time I was "eighteen going on thirty"!!!)(And it has been my HONOR to have been acquainted with a LOT of really great people all over the state of Colorado where I had the PRIVILEGE of living the majority of my life")!!!....The trip over to Grand Junction with Ron and his younger brother Tom was a breeze compared to the....sometimes a bit scary...hair raising...trip back across...some of the most AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY in the entire United States of America!!!
The orchard that a whole bunch of us from...RUSH "33"...were "working" in belonged to Ron and Tom's uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Verle Deniston and seemingly from the time of our arrival until the day I gave it up and left to go home...was one continual "wall to wall" party!!! There was a lot of "horse play"...a lot of nonsense and clowning around involved...along with a hot, sticky, dusty job of picking tons of fuzzy peaches!!! We would work all day and then "try" to sleep at night. We were "sleeping" in a vacant house owned by another neighbor located across the road and about 200 yards from Ron's Uncle and Aunt's home.
.......................................ROSIN......................................
At this "bunkhouse of sorts" where a bunch of us guys spent our evenings and long drawn out seemingly endless sleepless nights....(my dictionary describes it rather aptly)....BOISTEROUS...rough and noisy, noisily jolly or rowdy, clamorous, unrestrained...the sound of boisterous laughter....I dont know if any of us were doing much laughing....but there was plenty of "unrestrained" clamor going on!!!
Someone had attached a string to an outside wall, most likely right near an open window and then they would set up a din of "sawing" on this string with a piece of rosin which would create all kinds of weird, eerie, nerve racking sounds with this combination!!! Just about the time we would all get settled in for the night and perhaps doing a bit of "sawing" of our own, this tumultuous, noisy din would start up and it was usually kept going until the whole camp was awakened and wandering aimlessly about in the darkness seeking the cause of commotion...all the unrest!!!
Now add all of that to the aforementioned peach fuzz, the hot hard work, along with all kinds of flying insects...both day and night...and as can be imagined...it wasn't long before some of us were ready to go back to the quiet peaceful Eastern Plains!!!
.................................THE RETURN TRIP..................................
The Rapp family, Bob and Carol and their four children from northeast of...RUSH "33"
....had driven both their family automobile as well as their farm pickup over there on this "Historic Peach Picking Trip". The primary purpose for this was to haul a load of fruit back home with them on the return trip. I believe it was because of the youngest of their children becoming quite ill that they deemed it necessary to return home before the harvest was completed. They inquired of me if I would like to drive the pickup back to their farm in exchange for a ride home? They did not have to twist my arm NOR did thay have to ask twice....for a couple of reasons and one of those reasons is explained in the next segment, while the other is described in "ROSIN"!!!
..............................MISS CRYSTAL RAPP................................
.......RUSH "33"........
I had taken a "shine" to the daughter of my special friends Bob and Carol. However Crystal, who was perhaps a year or two younger than myself, much to my dismay, did not care very much to share in my enthusiasm in anything more than just a casual friendship. She did, however, along with one of the younger children start out by riding in the pickup with me. This arrangement didn't last very long though so the caravan stopped and allowed her to ride with her parents and one of the other younger ones then rode in the pickup with me. From that point on we were supposed to alternate the riders in the pickup but that plan did not work out at all due to the fact that Bob and Carol decided to stop somewhere en route while I kept on going....
much to the consternation of my two young riders!!!
The distance from Grand Junction Colorado to the Bob Rapp Ranch at...RUSH 33...is approximately three hundred and sixty miles. We were able to accomplish this all in one day, but not without considerable difficulty!!!
.....................................MONARCH PASS.................................
The Continental Divide of the Americas meanders from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska all the way down through Canada and the United States, through Old Mexico and extends to the tip of South America to eventually even be crossed by the Panama Canal
....and the only way to get from the eastern plains to the western slope of Colorado and visa versa....besides flying in a jet airplane...is to drive over the Continental Divide!!! MONARCH PASS, standing at eleven thousand three hundred and twelve feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean
to the east, over the breathtakingly beautiful Rocky Mountains is one of Colorado's higher passes.....About sixty miles to the south of Monarch Pass is a pass that a Mr. C. W. McCall, singing a country/western song....where either the singer was made famous by the Wolf Creek Pass or vice versa....anyway Earl and his buddy were hauling a load of chickens over this 10,857 feet pass...singing, "Wolf Creek Pass way up on the Great Divide, truckin on down the other side". They didn't fare so well on account of the fact that the brakes went out on their flatbed truck and they lost the top row of crated chickens when they shot through a tunnel and then slammed into the side of a feed store in downtown Pagosa Springs, Colorado!!!
My trip over Monarch Pass in Bob Rapp's 1950 1/2 ton Chevrolet pickup, as exhilarating as it was, was not nearly so eventful as Earl and his buddy and all them chickens flyin down off'n Wolf Creek Pass!!! (Google C.W. McCall and read all about it)!!!
Things went along relatively well until we began the ascent of this pass and on to the summit, at which point would have been about half way "to the house". Two or three times upon our approach of the summit of this majestically beautiful landscaped work of art by the Creator of the Universe, God Almighty Himself, the pickup overheated making it necessary for me to pull off to the side of the road to allow the motor to cool down and to add coolant to the radiator. Two of the younger children were riding with me at this time and coupled with the fact that the pickup was causing a bit of concern along with the fact that the parents were "lagging"...
far behind...plus the excitement of the height of the mountain we were attempting to climb...and the children were beginning to act up as well...I do not mind relating the fact that I was beginning to get a bit uneasy myself!!!
Now back in those "good old days" of this era it was customary for young folks, that could be spared from various duties, extra hands and others that were seeking part time employment, people from the farms on the plains of Eastern Colorado would journey over to the Western Slope to such places as Fruitvale, Orchard Mesa, and Palisade, small farming communities around Grand Junction Colorado, there to help harvest peaches and other fruits. As destiny would have it I was permitted to make this particular trek across the Rocky Mountains...ONLY one time!!! This trip was a very memorable...if not a downright unforgettable venture....and most especially the return trip home!!!
..........................MR. RONALD J. HOOVER of Rush "33"........................
Very much like the nickname Corky that was "tacked" onto me by my beloved brother Walter Marlin about five and one half months prior to the time my beloved sister Gladys had taken my baby picture....in a letter that I recieved dated May 25, 2004 from my friend...everyone in Eastern Colorado knew him as Ron...he wrote; "Hi Corky" "I'm starting this as Corky, because when someone says Lyle Schmeiser, I have to stop and think a while, as to who they are talking about. So you will always be Corky". And Ron was right...I have always been Corky!!! Ron had a car that was much more "road worthy" than the '39 Ford 2dr sedan that I had purchased from my brother Vern for the sum of $50.00 and although Ron lived with his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Harold Hoover on their farm a few miles north of...RUSH 33...Ron and I ran around together, mostly to dances around the country. (The Ginkgo Biloba is kicking in)...
One of those times of going to a dance didn't work out so well and was quite a disapointment to us. A "gulley washer" rain had washed out a bridge which resulted in us turning around and "high tailing" it for home!!!
On the trip over to Grand Junction I was PRIVILEGED, I had the distinct pleasure....
(I've learned the true meaning of what the word HONOR means since the time I was "eighteen going on thirty"!!!)(And it has been my HONOR to have been acquainted with a LOT of really great people all over the state of Colorado where I had the PRIVILEGE of living the majority of my life")!!!....The trip over to Grand Junction with Ron and his younger brother Tom was a breeze compared to the....sometimes a bit scary...hair raising...trip back across...some of the most AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY in the entire United States of America!!!
The orchard that a whole bunch of us from...RUSH "33"...were "working" in belonged to Ron and Tom's uncle and aunt, Mr and Mrs Verle Deniston and seemingly from the time of our arrival until the day I gave it up and left to go home...was one continual "wall to wall" party!!! There was a lot of "horse play"...a lot of nonsense and clowning around involved...along with a hot, sticky, dusty job of picking tons of fuzzy peaches!!! We would work all day and then "try" to sleep at night. We were "sleeping" in a vacant house owned by another neighbor located across the road and about 200 yards from Ron's Uncle and Aunt's home.
.......................................ROSIN......................................
At this "bunkhouse of sorts" where a bunch of us guys spent our evenings and long drawn out seemingly endless sleepless nights....(my dictionary describes it rather aptly)....BOISTEROUS...rough and noisy, noisily jolly or rowdy, clamorous, unrestrained...the sound of boisterous laughter....I dont know if any of us were doing much laughing....but there was plenty of "unrestrained" clamor going on!!!
Someone had attached a string to an outside wall, most likely right near an open window and then they would set up a din of "sawing" on this string with a piece of rosin which would create all kinds of weird, eerie, nerve racking sounds with this combination!!! Just about the time we would all get settled in for the night and perhaps doing a bit of "sawing" of our own, this tumultuous, noisy din would start up and it was usually kept going until the whole camp was awakened and wandering aimlessly about in the darkness seeking the cause of commotion...all the unrest!!!
Now add all of that to the aforementioned peach fuzz, the hot hard work, along with all kinds of flying insects...both day and night...and as can be imagined...it wasn't long before some of us were ready to go back to the quiet peaceful Eastern Plains!!!
.................................THE RETURN TRIP..................................
The Rapp family, Bob and Carol and their four children from northeast of...RUSH "33"
....had driven both their family automobile as well as their farm pickup over there on this "Historic Peach Picking Trip". The primary purpose for this was to haul a load of fruit back home with them on the return trip. I believe it was because of the youngest of their children becoming quite ill that they deemed it necessary to return home before the harvest was completed. They inquired of me if I would like to drive the pickup back to their farm in exchange for a ride home? They did not have to twist my arm NOR did thay have to ask twice....for a couple of reasons and one of those reasons is explained in the next segment, while the other is described in "ROSIN"!!!
..............................MISS CRYSTAL RAPP................................
.......RUSH "33"........
I had taken a "shine" to the daughter of my special friends Bob and Carol. However Crystal, who was perhaps a year or two younger than myself, much to my dismay, did not care very much to share in my enthusiasm in anything more than just a casual friendship. She did, however, along with one of the younger children start out by riding in the pickup with me. This arrangement didn't last very long though so the caravan stopped and allowed her to ride with her parents and one of the other younger ones then rode in the pickup with me. From that point on we were supposed to alternate the riders in the pickup but that plan did not work out at all due to the fact that Bob and Carol decided to stop somewhere en route while I kept on going....
much to the consternation of my two young riders!!!
The distance from Grand Junction Colorado to the Bob Rapp Ranch at...RUSH 33...is approximately three hundred and sixty miles. We were able to accomplish this all in one day, but not without considerable difficulty!!!
.....................................MONARCH PASS.................................
The Continental Divide of the Americas meanders from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska all the way down through Canada and the United States, through Old Mexico and extends to the tip of South America to eventually even be crossed by the Panama Canal
....and the only way to get from the eastern plains to the western slope of Colorado and visa versa....besides flying in a jet airplane...is to drive over the Continental Divide!!! MONARCH PASS, standing at eleven thousand three hundred and twelve feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean
to the east, over the breathtakingly beautiful Rocky Mountains is one of Colorado's higher passes.....About sixty miles to the south of Monarch Pass is a pass that a Mr. C. W. McCall, singing a country/western song....where either the singer was made famous by the Wolf Creek Pass or vice versa....anyway Earl and his buddy were hauling a load of chickens over this 10,857 feet pass...singing, "Wolf Creek Pass way up on the Great Divide, truckin on down the other side". They didn't fare so well on account of the fact that the brakes went out on their flatbed truck and they lost the top row of crated chickens when they shot through a tunnel and then slammed into the side of a feed store in downtown Pagosa Springs, Colorado!!!
My trip over Monarch Pass in Bob Rapp's 1950 1/2 ton Chevrolet pickup, as exhilarating as it was, was not nearly so eventful as Earl and his buddy and all them chickens flyin down off'n Wolf Creek Pass!!! (Google C.W. McCall and read all about it)!!!
Things went along relatively well until we began the ascent of this pass and on to the summit, at which point would have been about half way "to the house". Two or three times upon our approach of the summit of this majestically beautiful landscaped work of art by the Creator of the Universe, God Almighty Himself, the pickup overheated making it necessary for me to pull off to the side of the road to allow the motor to cool down and to add coolant to the radiator. Two of the younger children were riding with me at this time and coupled with the fact that the pickup was causing a bit of concern along with the fact that the parents were "lagging"...
far behind...plus the excitement of the height of the mountain we were attempting to climb...and the children were beginning to act up as well...I do not mind relating the fact that I was beginning to get a bit uneasy myself!!!
IN REMEMBRANCE
It is indeed regretful that I waited until my PIONEER Parents had passed off the stage of action before the "seed" was planted and the thought process began to "germinate" in my otherwise intelligent mind....the thought of writing a book similar to the ones mentioned in "COMMEMORATION"....However, I did "come to my senses" before my brother ESTEL FRANK SCHMEISER (3/6/1912-7/8/2004) passed away....
July 8, 2004....a day that is stamped indelibly in my memory....because that evening I was installed for the first time as the Disabled American Veterans Central Florida Chapter 16 Chaplain. Not only was Estel the oldest of my siblings....he was also a GOLD MINE of information....a LOT of information that I waited almost too long to realize that I needed to know in order to even begin to write my life story and get it right!!!
And then there was my sister GLADYS EILEEN (SCHMEISER) HOOPES (8/19/1919-2/6/2010) who was instrumental in filling in a LOT of blanks after the demise of our brother Estel. Upon attempting to "dig out" some information from my brother Vern who was the sibling that purchased the OLD HOMESTEAD when my parents decided to retire from farming....I'd ask him questions like...."Hey, Vern can you tell me some of the names of the horses our Dad used for farming"? "Well, what do you need to know all of that for"?
That certainly was no where near the response that I got...or would have gotten... from THREE of the other NINE of our siblings!!! Gladys remembered AND related to me the names of EVERY one of Dad's horses from the time she had gotten old enough to realize what was taking place on the old HOMESTEAD and perhaps years before that!!!
My PIONEER father farmed with horses from the time he was big enough to harness a team on his mother's homestead/farm in Indiana until he retired from farming in 1954....a span of almost a HALF CENTURY...!!!
Another GOLD MINE of INFORMATION that I still have around is my little sister GLIDA ISABEL (SCHMEISER) HUGHEY who presently lives in the state of Oregon and was widowed 2/15/2002 when her lifemate Gene passed away. We've spent at least the last eight years on nearly a monthly basis of filling each other in on details of our lives!!!
July 8, 2004....a day that is stamped indelibly in my memory....because that evening I was installed for the first time as the Disabled American Veterans Central Florida Chapter 16 Chaplain. Not only was Estel the oldest of my siblings....he was also a GOLD MINE of information....a LOT of information that I waited almost too long to realize that I needed to know in order to even begin to write my life story and get it right!!!
And then there was my sister GLADYS EILEEN (SCHMEISER) HOOPES (8/19/1919-2/6/2010) who was instrumental in filling in a LOT of blanks after the demise of our brother Estel. Upon attempting to "dig out" some information from my brother Vern who was the sibling that purchased the OLD HOMESTEAD when my parents decided to retire from farming....I'd ask him questions like...."Hey, Vern can you tell me some of the names of the horses our Dad used for farming"? "Well, what do you need to know all of that for"?
That certainly was no where near the response that I got...or would have gotten... from THREE of the other NINE of our siblings!!! Gladys remembered AND related to me the names of EVERY one of Dad's horses from the time she had gotten old enough to realize what was taking place on the old HOMESTEAD and perhaps years before that!!!
My PIONEER father farmed with horses from the time he was big enough to harness a team on his mother's homestead/farm in Indiana until he retired from farming in 1954....a span of almost a HALF CENTURY...!!!
Another GOLD MINE of INFORMATION that I still have around is my little sister GLIDA ISABEL (SCHMEISER) HUGHEY who presently lives in the state of Oregon and was widowed 2/15/2002 when her lifemate Gene passed away. We've spent at least the last eight years on nearly a monthly basis of filling each other in on details of our lives!!!
Monday, March 21, 2011
...................COMMEMORATION.......................
I have this philosophy....I am persuaded....I have determined in my mind....that it is so much better to "give credit where credit is due".....that its better not to wait until someone passes off the stage of action but rather to, while they are still around to enjoy it....spread a few roses in their path on their walk down through life!!! Such is the case with a few of my writer friends such as; Although I've never met Mr. Monty Gaddy, owner of the Gaddy Printing Company at Calhan Colorado personally I did, however, attend high school with his mother and over the years have known of and or met many of the characters who make up the book that he published back in 1987
The HISTORY of CALHAN and Vicinity 1888-1988 written by Larry L. King
****** ******* ********* ******** *******
Then there is the COLORADO STORY...a Passion for the Prairies...a vivid memoir of life on a homestead by the (late) Esther Clibon, A Native Coloradan who was born and raised about twenty five miles northeast of my Pioneer Parent's Homestead where I was born and raised. I worked nine years for her (late) brother-in-law Mr. Lennie F. Ehnes, co-owner of Ehnes-Rink Auto Supply in Colorado Springs Colorado.
****** ******** ******* ****** ******
Next we have a relatively new writer/author who presently resides in the Denver Colorado metro area who wrote a very interesting, informative book titled Working the Land: Building a Life....written by Fran Cirbo. Her PIONEER parents Homesteaded between Matheson and Limon, in Elbert County Colorado, around the "turn" of the twentieth century.
******** ******** ****** ******* *******
A long ago friend of mine presented me with a Pioneer History book back there about 1995 titled One Horse and a Load of Oats written by Ivan A Swanson.It is 5-1/2 X 8-1/2 and consists of only 82 pages. It is just a book of short stories but quite interesting to read...This past week I picked it up and thumbed through it. One or two of the stories in it are directly related to my life as a youngster growing up out there on the prairies of Eastern Colorado. One of the stories was titled "Runaway" which involved a two hitch team of horses and a hay rake, with the rake getting badly damaged and some fence torn down. I do not remember all the details of an exact similar runaway that happened to me....however I do remember that what had once been a wooden tongue in my father's hay rake was, for years after the runaway, one made out of well pipe. Then Mr. Swanson devoted almost two pages telling about husking corn. Well, thats where we differ because...if and when I EVER get around to writing about my corn picking experience it'll involve a whole bunch more than just two short pages!!!
The HISTORY of CALHAN and Vicinity 1888-1988 written by Larry L. King
****** ******* ********* ******** *******
Then there is the COLORADO STORY...a Passion for the Prairies...a vivid memoir of life on a homestead by the (late) Esther Clibon, A Native Coloradan who was born and raised about twenty five miles northeast of my Pioneer Parent's Homestead where I was born and raised. I worked nine years for her (late) brother-in-law Mr. Lennie F. Ehnes, co-owner of Ehnes-Rink Auto Supply in Colorado Springs Colorado.
****** ******** ******* ****** ******
Next we have a relatively new writer/author who presently resides in the Denver Colorado metro area who wrote a very interesting, informative book titled Working the Land: Building a Life....written by Fran Cirbo. Her PIONEER parents Homesteaded between Matheson and Limon, in Elbert County Colorado, around the "turn" of the twentieth century.
******** ******** ****** ******* *******
A long ago friend of mine presented me with a Pioneer History book back there about 1995 titled One Horse and a Load of Oats written by Ivan A Swanson.It is 5-1/2 X 8-1/2 and consists of only 82 pages. It is just a book of short stories but quite interesting to read...This past week I picked it up and thumbed through it. One or two of the stories in it are directly related to my life as a youngster growing up out there on the prairies of Eastern Colorado. One of the stories was titled "Runaway" which involved a two hitch team of horses and a hay rake, with the rake getting badly damaged and some fence torn down. I do not remember all the details of an exact similar runaway that happened to me....however I do remember that what had once been a wooden tongue in my father's hay rake was, for years after the runaway, one made out of well pipe. Then Mr. Swanson devoted almost two pages telling about husking corn. Well, thats where we differ because...if and when I EVER get around to writing about my corn picking experience it'll involve a whole bunch more than just two short pages!!!
HONORABLE MENTION
.......................VIRGINIA WAWRO (1/31/1919-10/22/2005).......................
Holiday Florida....My (late) cousin Virginia expressed the wish to meet that guy over there in Orlando Florida who was....writing all those great stories. She read all....with great enthusiasm!!! Virginia, a great Lady, is so sadly missed!!!
..............................HERBERT & JANE MOOR..............................
My cousin Herbert and his wife Jane in West Unity Ohio....Jane was extremely helpful at a time when I was learning how to operate a computer....starting at an "early age".......of past seventy years young!!!
................................ANN WELLS.........................................
A distant....in more ways than one....cousin...WAY out there on the other end of the United States....whom I had the distinct pleasure....was extended the privilege...
the HONOR of meeting...via the internet when I logged onto the....Steuben County Indiana Home Page.....May 2004....!!!
...............................DARLA MORSE.....................................
My daughter who over the years has kept me supplied with writimg materials and for Father's Day a few years ago presented me with an excellant three inch thick... Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary....to aid me with the correct spelling, the nomenclature...usage of certain words....A "refresher course" of the stuff that those "One Room Country School Teachers"....from grade one through the eighth grade helped to instill in my infinite mind.....!!!
...............................MR. RONALD J. HOOVER...............................
A Rush "33" Colorado neighbor whom I grew up with....Ron and his cohorts are featured in a story about a peach picking trip to the Western Slope of Colorado!!!
...............................MR. DAVID J. "DJ" MCCALL.........................
Orlando Florida....My Computer Engineer friend to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, the worth of which I will NEVER EVER be able to repay.....................!!!
................................A SPECIAL THANKS...............................
To my wife Evelyn for her support....patience?.....sometimes understanding my need to follow through with the thoughts....which are continually running through my mind.... keeping me awake at night....thoughts expressed with the words...."Taking up a pen to write"!!!
Holiday Florida....My (late) cousin Virginia expressed the wish to meet that guy over there in Orlando Florida who was....writing all those great stories. She read all....with great enthusiasm!!! Virginia, a great Lady, is so sadly missed!!!
..............................HERBERT & JANE MOOR..............................
My cousin Herbert and his wife Jane in West Unity Ohio....Jane was extremely helpful at a time when I was learning how to operate a computer....starting at an "early age".......of past seventy years young!!!
................................ANN WELLS.........................................
A distant....in more ways than one....cousin...WAY out there on the other end of the United States....whom I had the distinct pleasure....was extended the privilege...
the HONOR of meeting...via the internet when I logged onto the....Steuben County Indiana Home Page.....May 2004....!!!
...............................DARLA MORSE.....................................
My daughter who over the years has kept me supplied with writimg materials and for Father's Day a few years ago presented me with an excellant three inch thick... Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary....to aid me with the correct spelling, the nomenclature...usage of certain words....A "refresher course" of the stuff that those "One Room Country School Teachers"....from grade one through the eighth grade helped to instill in my infinite mind.....!!!
...............................MR. RONALD J. HOOVER...............................
A Rush "33" Colorado neighbor whom I grew up with....Ron and his cohorts are featured in a story about a peach picking trip to the Western Slope of Colorado!!!
...............................MR. DAVID J. "DJ" MCCALL.........................
Orlando Florida....My Computer Engineer friend to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, the worth of which I will NEVER EVER be able to repay.....................!!!
................................A SPECIAL THANKS...............................
To my wife Evelyn for her support....patience?.....sometimes understanding my need to follow through with the thoughts....which are continually running through my mind.... keeping me awake at night....thoughts expressed with the words...."Taking up a pen to write"!!!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
.................SPECIAL RECOGNITION...................
..............................FOOTPRINTS ON THE HEART..............................
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our hearts to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom.
Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for a while, leave footprints on our hearts AND we are never, ever the same...!!!
(From a poster by Flavia)
There are five SPECIAL LADIES out there on the Plains of Eastern Colorado who richly deserve all the credit and recognition they can possibly recieve for their contribution of correspondence to a weekly newspaper that has been covering the Pikes Peak Region for over a hundred years...!!! They are namely: BETTY RAGAINS and CHRISTINE NEKL who keep this 'ol Colorado Native farm boy informed of what's happening with all my friends and neighbors by writing the....RUSH "33".....NEWS items!!! Quoting from the July 16, 2009 issue of this weekly rural newspaper where she and two other correspondents acknowledged and replied (in their respective news columns) to a letter I had written four of them and sent (via "Pony Express")in which I had mentioned a fifth writer....from Brush Colorado....I quote; "Thanks to Lyle Schmeiser for the great letter! Reserve Champion, huh? I guess I can live with that considering your family homesteaded in the Rush community. However, my maternal grandmother was one of the homesteaders in that community whose roots were planted in Miami Oklahoma, thus the name of the school. Does that score me any points"?!...
Unquote...What an HONOR, what a PREROGATIVE that would be, having the MIAMI-YODER SCHOOL ....named for your family and you!!!....AWESOME....and that was none other than...JEAN MEINZER....who writes the Edison News column!!! Then we have NETA DAY who keeps us apprised and sometimes surprised with a very entertaining column of what is happening with the Hanover News items. And last but not least is the lady who keeps us posted with the Ellicott News, LINDA THOMPSON..................!!!
SPECIAL FRIENDS..................CLARK AND LAURIE WHITCOMB.....................
Way up there in Calgary Alberta Canada....whom I had the HONOR....the distinct privilege....the pleasure of meeting and getting acquainted with during the short period of time I was PRIVILEGED to live in THE BIG SKY COUNTRY of MONTANA...!!!
..................................EDWARD AND MARY GANSTER........................
Winter Garden Florida USA...Co-Founders of Operation Safety 91...whom I was extended the HONOR...the PRIVILEGE....of meeting and ultimately joining several other 1st RESPONDERS Chaplains in partnering with this vitally important worthwhile organization....!!!
................................FRANKIE AND CINDY GALLO............................
Ocoee Florida...BELOVED Friends whom God placed in my pathway upon my arrival in Orlando Florida in or about the year 2002. In addition to Frankie being the founder of THE GATHERING LAKESIDE Frankie is credited with helping me set up this blog and quite often using gentle words of persuasion/encouragement has managed to keep me writing... writing the stories that he delighted in reading....reading stories of "The Good Old Days"!!!
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our hearts to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom.
Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for a while, leave footprints on our hearts AND we are never, ever the same...!!!
(From a poster by Flavia)
There are five SPECIAL LADIES out there on the Plains of Eastern Colorado who richly deserve all the credit and recognition they can possibly recieve for their contribution of correspondence to a weekly newspaper that has been covering the Pikes Peak Region for over a hundred years...!!! They are namely: BETTY RAGAINS and CHRISTINE NEKL who keep this 'ol Colorado Native farm boy informed of what's happening with all my friends and neighbors by writing the....RUSH "33".....NEWS items!!! Quoting from the July 16, 2009 issue of this weekly rural newspaper where she and two other correspondents acknowledged and replied (in their respective news columns) to a letter I had written four of them and sent (via "Pony Express")in which I had mentioned a fifth writer....from Brush Colorado....I quote; "Thanks to Lyle Schmeiser for the great letter! Reserve Champion, huh? I guess I can live with that considering your family homesteaded in the Rush community. However, my maternal grandmother was one of the homesteaders in that community whose roots were planted in Miami Oklahoma, thus the name of the school. Does that score me any points"?!...
Unquote...What an HONOR, what a PREROGATIVE that would be, having the MIAMI-YODER SCHOOL ....named for your family and you!!!....AWESOME....and that was none other than...JEAN MEINZER....who writes the Edison News column!!! Then we have NETA DAY who keeps us apprised and sometimes surprised with a very entertaining column of what is happening with the Hanover News items. And last but not least is the lady who keeps us posted with the Ellicott News, LINDA THOMPSON..................!!!
SPECIAL FRIENDS..................CLARK AND LAURIE WHITCOMB.....................
Way up there in Calgary Alberta Canada....whom I had the HONOR....the distinct privilege....the pleasure of meeting and getting acquainted with during the short period of time I was PRIVILEGED to live in THE BIG SKY COUNTRY of MONTANA...!!!
..................................EDWARD AND MARY GANSTER........................
Winter Garden Florida USA...Co-Founders of Operation Safety 91...whom I was extended the HONOR...the PRIVILEGE....of meeting and ultimately joining several other 1st RESPONDERS Chaplains in partnering with this vitally important worthwhile organization....!!!
................................FRANKIE AND CINDY GALLO............................
Ocoee Florida...BELOVED Friends whom God placed in my pathway upon my arrival in Orlando Florida in or about the year 2002. In addition to Frankie being the founder of THE GATHERING LAKESIDE Frankie is credited with helping me set up this blog and quite often using gentle words of persuasion/encouragement has managed to keep me writing... writing the stories that he delighted in reading....reading stories of "The Good Old Days"!!!
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