CHAPTER 9
Creswell
1949-1951
Sher Khan was an old bachelor and said he was from Persia. I think that would be Iran today. He owned hundreds, maybe thousands of acres west of Creswell. In addition, he owned a big turkey processing plant in Eugene. We moved into an old house on his place that was fairly big. Before we moved in, he had Dad wire it for lights, but there was no running water. It did have a handy well right on the back porch. We had to walk about a quarter mile across a covered bridge to catch the bus. The computer map does not have a name on the road but the house was on the east side of the first road that turns north off Camas Swale Road after passing Sher Khan Road. He had two other families on the place in addition to us. They worked his cows, and he wanted Dad to raise turkeys. Darwin and I enrolled in Creswell Elementary School, and finished out the school year. I earned a “letter” on the softball team, but was no longer the big fish in the pond. There were about 30 kids in the eighth grade; at Alpine there were less than that in the seventh and eighth grades combined.
I don’t remember how many turkeys we had that first year. I would guess three or four thousand. We got them just after they were hatched, and put them in a brooder house that was about a mile down the road from our house. The brooder house was about 30 feet wide and maybe 100 feet long. There was a feed room on one end and a wood fired boiler on the other. It had a raised walkway down the middle, with hot water pipes that ran under the walkway. The water in the pipes was heated by the boiler. The baby turkeys could get under the walkway for warmth. I don’t remember where the wood came from. Dad might have cut it or Mr. Khan might have had it bought in. I just know I didn’t have to cut it. The turkeys were kept in the brooder house about six weeks. While there, they required constant attention. The first couple of weeks the temperature had to be kept just right, not too hot and not too cold. This was done by regulating the fire in the boiler; Dad slept with the turkeys during this time and would get up every hour or two to check the temperature and stoke the fire. The turkeys walked on wood shavings and when the shavings got dirty they had to be scooped up and fresh ones put down. It was a full time job just to keep feed and water out. Water was piped inside; it was supplied by a one cylinder gasoline engine that pumped it out of the well and into an overhead tank. When the tank got empty we had to start the engine and fill it up again. The engine was started with a hand crank and you had to be very careful or it would kick back and try to break your arm off. I know it got Mom and me both on different occasions. There was a porch that ran the full length of the brooder house with a screen floor. After the turkeys were about three weeks old, we would let them out on the porch if it was warm outside. This saved a lot of work because the shavings didn’t have to be changed near as often. When they were about six weeks old they would be put in a pen outside and fed until they were ready for market in the fall.
We had an Eighth grade graduation ceremony in the high school gym that spring. Our principal’s name was Mr. Chestnut. Some local politician spoke and the only thing I can remember of the speech was that he mentioned Mr. Chestnut’s name and then said, “At least we know what kind of nut he is.” All the kids thought that was funny. After we got our diplomas we all lined up and the adults came down the line saying, “Congratulations.” I didn’t know what the word meant but I made an effort to find out after we got home. I was now ready to change schools without moving.
As I look back over my childhood and compare it to the kids of today, I see a big difference. I believe television has caused a lot of this difference. If I could have watched cartoons, one followed by another, hour after hour, I doubt if I would have ever built a waterwheel sawmill or trapped skunks. I think I also felt a sense of responsibility that kids are deprived of today because of everyone’s affluence. I knew I was contributing to the family when I was milking or cutting wood or cultivating beets. We were never hungry because of lack of money but we were close enough to poverty to see the possibility existed. Today, if you lose your job, the government will help; today I am not acquainted with any one that needs to worry about going to bed hungry unless he has messed his life up with drugs or alcohol. Life is easier with running water, TV, and central heat but if you really want to enjoy these modern conveniences, you need to live part of your life (not just a two week vacation but at least a year) without them. There are advantages and disadvantages in both periods of time; I’m just glad God chose to put me on earth when he did.
I would guess there were 120 students in Creswell High School. At first I was lost but after being there a while it felt more at home. My favorite class was Shop. The school had just built a new woodworking shop complete with power tools and a finishing room. I had no idea that schools had such luxuries or that I would ever be able to get my hands on any tool a person would ever need. As a first project everyone had to build a half round end table, and after that, we could choose our own. We were not allowed to use any power tools on the end table. The hardest part on the table was to get the glue joints tight enough using a hand plane, but it was good training. Mom recently gave the table I made back to me; some of the glue joints had dried out and cracked and the finish was peeling. I completely refurbished it (using power tools) and it looks as good as new today. In the two years I was at Creswell I made the end table, walnut bookshelves that Ronda has now, a cedar chest that Mom has given to me, and a magazine rack that has disappeared. It seems like I made other things, but I can’t remember what they were now.
The second spring we were at Creswell Mr. Khan wanted more turkeys. He had us put turkeys in the feed room of the brooder house. (This almost cost us the whole brooder house full of turkeys because the feed room was heated with a kerosene stove that caught fire and if one of the other hired men hadn’t happened by at just the right time it would have been out of control in no time.) Mr. Khan also had Dad build another brooder house next to the old one. In addition he hired a retired merchant marine that wanted to live in the country to raise turkeys in another old building on the place; the new man didn’t realize what he was getting into. He spent several weeks getting the place ready for the baby turkeys and two days after they arrived he said it was too much work and left the country. With his and ours, we raised just under 11,000 turkeys that year. Mr. Khan was also having trouble keeping people to care for his cows. Before long, Dad was helping there, too. First thing we knew we were milking about 30 cows.
We had electric milkers but the buckets had to be emptied by hand. We had to carry the milk about 50 feet where we put it in ten gallon cans and placed the cans in a water tank to cool. We kept the cows locked in the stanchions at night. In the morning it was a big job to clean out the bedding and manure.
We had a team of horses that pulled a wagon to feed the turkeys. Most of the time it was too muddy to use the pickup. The horses ran loose in a big pasture and sometimes they weren’t too eager to work; it often took longer to get them cornered, caught and harnessed than it took to feed the turkeys. It was usually my job to drive the team from feeder to feeder and unravel the string at the top of the feed sack while Dad walked beside the wagon and put the feed out. One day the horses were pulling a heavy load up a hill when one of them just fell over dead in the harness. I guess he had a heart attack and I’m glad I wasn’t driving at that time. That summer we bought feed by the train car load and it was a lot of work just getting it from Creswell to the farm using our pickup.
That fall, instead of selling all the turkeys, we kept about 1000 hens for layers. The hens had to have saddles put on their back. When I asked why, I was told it was to keep them dry in the rain. The saddles were canvas, about ten inches square with two loops on the front corners that went around their wings and held them in place. I found out later the saddles were to keep the toms from scratching and cutting the hens’ backs. When they started laying we had to gather the eggs three times a day, clean them, crate them, and send them to the hatchery. There was a patch of rocky ground where we kept the layers, and we would often find rattlesnakes in the rocks. For some reason, the turkeys liked to lay their eggs in this same area. I killed several snakes there and heard the turkeys would kill them too but never saw one do it.
Mr. Khan moved us into the best house on the place. It had indoor plumbing, a telephone, and a fireplace. (See figure 14.) The telephone was there mainly for Mr. Khan to call us. It was a nice house, but it added about a mile to our walk to the school bus. Linda was going to school now; she had a mild case of polio and the walk was almost too much for her. Sometimes I would carry her most of the way home on my back. At other times Mom or Dad would be able to pick us up. I was sick in bed with the mumps when our house caught on fire. Like Alpine, it was caused by a spark from the wood fire falling on the shingles. Mom and I were the only ones at home. She called the fire department. I got out of bed, shimmied up the front porch post with Mom’s help, got on the porch roof and then on to the house roof. Mom handed buckets of water up to me. I was so dizzy I could hardly stay on the roof, but we almost had it out when the fire truck got there. If they hadn’t brought a ladder, I don’t think I could have got off the roof without falling. I don’t know how many people I gave mumps to that day.
I was on the Creswell High School football team. I played very little my freshman year, but more the sophomore year. The worst part of football was the walk home after practice. I would be exhausted and it was about four miles home. Of course the buses were long gone by the time practice was over; most of the time I would catch a ride at least part way but many times I walked every step. I had no football shoes and no money to buy them. The coach gave me a pair that had been left in the locker room from years past. They were about two inches too long and one inch too narrow. Every second I played football, including practice, my feet hurt. I didn’t get to start a game until after one day I got the coach’s attention at practice. I was a defensive back when the biggest boy in school broke through the line and I was the only one left between him and the goal. I didn’t have enough sense to get to the side and just take a glancing blow. We collided and both went down; I came out with a bloody broken nose (we used leather helmets with no face guards). The coach looked at me, laughed and said, “Nice tackle.” I got to start the next game, sore nose and all. I played enough that year to earn a “letter”.
There is a butte to the south of Creswell. Each spring the freshman class was given the job of climbing the hill and repainting the big “C” that was near the top. That year the wood needed to be replaced; the shop teacher gave me the honor of designing and cutting out the letter. It was about eight feet wide and ten feet tall. We made it by laying two 1”x12’’s side by side.
I didn’t have a license but one or two times Dad let me drive the pickup to school and catch the bus to a football game; that was a pretty rare occasion. I went to the movies with a girl named Paula two different times. I really didn’t take her; we made arrangements to meet at the theater and I would leave her there when the movies were over. That was the extent of my “dating” in Creswell.
We got a dog to help drive the turkeys from one field to another. He was not as good as the sheep dogs seen on TV, but he was better than nothing. His name was Blaze; when he was a big puppy he liked to chase cats. One day he was after one and was just about to catch it when the cat ran up a tree. Blaze had his eyes on the cat and not on where he was going. He hit that tree full steam ahead and I guess he thought the cat had really laid one on him. He walked away with his tail between his legs and never chased a cat again.
Mr. Khan would sometimes come out and help with the work. He usually wore a suit. He drove a stick shift pickup; I think that is the only kind they had then. He never quite mastered the clutch. He kept the engine revved up, and to slow down he used the clutch; you could tell he was in the area because you could smell it burning. He had other different ideas about driving, too. Coming off the farm on Camas Swale Road was a blind corner. In all seriousness he told Dad to speed up around that corner in order to get out of the way before someone ran into him. One day he was helping vaccinate turkeys. It was about noon and I was getting hungry. I ask Mom, “How long until we eat?” Mr. Khan heard me and in a gruff voice and thick accent he said, “You no worry about eat. We work now.” I think he must have felt a little bad about saying that because the next time he came out to the farm he gave me a brand new hat like Tom Landry’s. I would rather he had given me a pair of football shoes.
Foxes started catching the turkeys so Mr. Khan was going to bring a bunch of hounds out to tie to trees to see if that would scare the foxes away. He had the hounds tied in the back of his pickup; on the way to the farm, one jumped out and all that was left when he got there was the leash.
There was a big ranch to the northwest of us called Christian Brothers. They had a lot of Brahma cattle that was used for rodeo stock. Some of their bulls had jumped the fence and bred some of Mr. Khan’s cows. Of course they had a hump on their back and Mr. Khan called them his “Indian cows”. He fed them along with the others, but when it came time to take them to market he would hold them back because he said they were “holy”. He fed them grain every year we were there. I bet some of them weighed 3000 pounds.
He would buy semi-truck loads of alfalfa hay to fill the lofts of the barn. We would park the truck in front. There was a hook device on a carriage that came down from a pulley in the second story. It would be hooked on to about six bales of hay and a team of horses in the back would pull it up to the second floor and then down a track to the middle of the barn. A trigger would be released and the hay would fall to the floor. A horseback rider at the front had a long rope tied to the carriage and would then pull it back out for the next bunch of bails.
Darwin and I were walking northwest of the house one day and found an old graveyard. Most of the headstones were wood and a lot of them could not be read. There were no recent graves and I don’t remember just how old they were but we had the feeling that no one was aware it was even there.
We went to the Methodist Church in Creswell most Sundays. If Dad ever went with us, I can’t remember it. I do remember the preacher coming out to the farm one day and telling Dad that a study during World War II proved that a person working six days a week would accomplish more than he would if he worked all seven. He didn’t convince Dad.
Uncle John and his new business partner built a commercial fishing boat. He took Darwin and me salmon fishing; I think it was out of Newport, Oregon. One day when we went out, there was no breeze. The fog came in and we got lost. After a while the fog lifted and we found our way home. Another time it was pretty rough and I got sea sick. We caught fish both times but when I was sick, I could not have cared less. Uncle John took pictures of us holding fish and I looked like I’d been run over by a truck.
Mom’s Aunt Susie (Grandpa Sullivan’s sister) and Uncle Francis Cunningham, their son Lloyd (Mom’s cousin), their daughter Marian (Mom’s cousin) and her husband Del and Del’s daughter Ruth Ann came from Moses Lake, Washington for Thanksgiving dinner in 1950. We had turkey for dinner (we had turkey for dinner two or three times every week). Lloyd was a lawyer in Moses Lake and an unofficial salesman for the area. They all wanted us to come up there and farm. The government was just about to start opening up a lot of new farmland around Moses Lake with irrigation water coming in from Grand Coulee Dam. Because of the long hours everyone was putting in made it pretty easy to convince Dad.
When Mr. Kahn found out we were planning to leave, he told Dad he would give him the ranch there in Creswell when he passed away. He said he was going to give his processing plant to the woman who had worked as his secretary for years. We heard later, after Mr. Khan died, his secretary filed a lawsuit trying to get possession of the plant, but failed. The state got both the plant and the farm, because Mr. Khan had no heirs and left no will.
I finished my sophomore year of high school when school was out in the spring of 1951. Dad had already gone to Moses Lake and rented a farm. Darwin graduated from eighth grade and got out of school two weeks before Linda and me. He went to Moses Lake on the bus to help Dad. We had so much stuff in the back of the pickup that no one could ride there and the cab was full with Mom, Linda, Cheryl, LaDonna, and me. If Darwin had not taken the bus I think one of us would have had to stay in Creswell. After I got out of school we sold the last of the turkey hens, finished loading the pickup and left for Moses Lake. I had a learners driving permit at this time so I helped Mom drive.
The last thing we put in the pickup was an old pussy cat that had proved herself to be a good mouser. We stayed in a motel just east of Portland that night. When we let the cat out for a break she took off and we never saw her again. We sure could have used her when we got to Moses Lake, because the house was full of mice.
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