C.K. "Slim" Jolly, recorded July 13, 1976

I am wondering just what it would be like to all of a sudden from our present style of life to just go back 80 years, all at once, or to come from 80 years ago to our present life style.

I think that would be worse, to come from 80 years ago to what our lifestyle is now, because I think it would just about scare a person to where he would find a hole and climb in it. Don't you think?

Just think of all that hay that was put up at that time. They used to use a pitchfork and wagon and now the hay goes into a stack without touching it by hand. Even pick it out of the field and stack it and 'touch it by hand. I wouldn't want to go back to that era. I kinda like our lifestyle. Some people talk of the good old days, but in the time I can remember, back when I was 12 to 14 years old, I kinda like our style of living. I really do!

There is one thing I didn't mention. Right at our home, on the four corners north of Leahy, the Indians used to come and get water, and camp. I can remember that my brother and sisters and I would sneak around keeping out of sight of the Indians, because we didn't know for sure just what they'd do. And you know, their youngsters were doing the same things to us. I thought that was kinda interesting at an Indian encampment.

My brother and I were coming home from school one day and there was a rock no higher than that table there, kinda sloped down, but anyhow my brother and I climbed up on this rock. I got down and I told him to get down, and he said no that it was too high.

"I'll get hurt, and I want you to help me," he said. I wouldn't help him because I knew it wouldn't hurt him and so, being kinda independent, I went home.

My mother said, "Where's Dan," I said, "Oh, he's up there," "Up where?" "Up there on that rock." "What's he doing there?" "Well, he got up there and wouldn't come down. It wouldn't hurt him if he fell, but he couldn't fall." Mother went down and he was laying on the rock asleep. She went home, got a switch, but I was the one who got the switching.

I suppose all of you know where Pilot Rock is, up on the west side of Grand Coulee, the highest point until you get clear over to Waterville. You can see it from Davenport and Mansfield and many areas so they named it Pilot Rock.

The early settlers tell me they used it as a landmark for traveling from one area to another. Carl Lewis might be interested in photographing that from the air. It is right in the corner of my field, just outside of my field and what was Vern Adams' ranch.
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The first man I knew who farmed the area around Pilot Rock was a man by the name of George Horning, a bachelor. I know my brother and I went over there to harvest for him and we took our horses and mules. We were pulling a combine with mules at that time. He was going to cook for us.

Well, now you know, we just about starved to death because it was so dirty we couldn't eat. So our mule injured one of his nice fryers. We rung its neck, and took it in and we had fried chicken. So he said he'd have to fix the barn, so the chickens couldn't get in. But the next day the mule killed one when we took it out to water.

Well, he couldn't have that, and so he wondered if we could take the mule home, and we said no that as long as we were there we had to have the mule. We knew if it didn't kill the chicken we'd never have anything to eat. I was real happy to have that mule.

My father raised a lot of mules and sold a lot of mules and I can remember how difficult they were to handle. I much preferred the horses, but mules could do a lot more work. One of those mules could kick you when you were buckling the hames, they really could. It really wasn't pleasant to be around them.

I went to school in Mold and Ragged Butte. The first teacher I can remember was Genevieve Lamb. I think she was from Montana. Then I went to Mold and St. Andrews and high school in Brewster because of the transportation problems.

There were no school busses in the 1920s and so you would either have to go to Coulee City and stay, as it was a little too far to ride horseback every morning at 12 miles. I could work at Brewster because of the orchards and that was real important to us because in 1920 we still didn't have any money. So I could work and go to school and not cost my folks very much.

Of course, at that time, my mother had passed away in 1919 or 1920 during the flu period, and I was the oldest, so I was the chief cook and bottle washer. As soon as one of my sisters would get old enough for me to tutor her I would teach her to cook and we would work that out together.

We all stayed together and my Dad raised the six of us and didn't do too bad a job. I don't know that any of us has been in jail. My brother has been in the State Legislature since 1957. He is retiring this year, Dan Jolly.

In those days they had to be real hardy souls because the only income you had was once in a while you'd get some wheat to sell and milk from the cows. When my brother and I got a little older, old enough to do quite a lot of work, one of us, either my Dad or my brother or I, would get a job working with a team of horses working for the county building roads or something like that and that would bring a little income.

It was real tough times. I don't know why we stayed, my brother and me, why we didn't just go and desert the ship, but we didn't. We were really needed and we just didn't leave. Any money we made we'd bring home to help support the ranch.

Question: How did you manage that can of cream to send by the mailman?

Answer: The mail route would go right by the road. You'd take the can out there and take a wet burlap and put over it and that would keep it cool by evaporation, that's pretty good air conditioning you know. Of course you'd take it out not too long before the postman came along.

Question: Will you tell us about cream separator?

Answer: Yes, that was quite a job. You had to turn it at a steady rate, just so many turns a minute or you'd get too thick or too thin a cream and it had to be adjusted that way.

Question: Where did your folks come from?

Answer: My father came from Missouri and my mother's folks came from Pennsylvania, they were Penn, Dutch. My mother's first name was Addie.

Question: Did they use binders in that area?

Answer: Yes, binders and reapers and then shocked the hay or grain. Later they came along with the wagon and picked it up to haul to the barn or to the stack. It took a large portion of your crop just to feed your horses and cattle. Sometimes you didn't have any to thresh, but you always hoped.

Question: Was there wild game on those lakes, ducks and geese?

Answer: Yes, lots of ducks and geese, plus lot of white-tailed jackrabbits, sage hens and grouse and some prairie chickens. You know that was a large part of your food supply-the wild game.