RAINY DAY VACATIONS

Uncle Lawrence Ricks, Dad (Derrald Ricks), Roger Ricks, Kay Gillespie, Wayne Ricks

When I was growing up we never took a vacation unless it was raining - there was always too much to do on the farm, and during the winter we were in school. But if it rained we all got excited. Dad would come in the house and tell Mom that he was going to butcher a couple of chickens and to get things ready to go. Mom would have one of us get a big gallon tin can half full of wheat. Then we would carefully pack eggs in the wheat. The wheat kept the eggs from bouncing around and breaking while we were traveling. Dad and the boys would kill the chickens and we would put wrap them in wax paper and then in a dishtowel with ice cubes around them. We would go out into the field and dig potatoes, then to the garden and pick any fresh vegetables that were ready to harvest. Mom would get everything packed up. We didn’t have coolers like today, just a tin box to put things in.

            We girls would grab our latest paper doll collections and pack that with our clothes. The boys would dig worms as they knew they would be going fishing with Dad. When we were all ready, we’d pile into the car and be off to Mack’s Inn in Island Park: Mom, Dad and six kids packed into the car. We didn’t have seat belts then so four of us piled into the back seat and the two youngest in the front with Mom and Dad

            Dad would try to get us a cabin on the North Fork of the Snake River at Mack’s Inn, if possible. We loved a cabin by the river because we could go out the front door of the cabin and right into the river to play, even if the water was cold. We weren’t always able to get a river-front cabin, but we could always get a cabin somewhere close. Then, while the men were assembling their fishing gear and preparing to get out fishing, the women and younger children would put the food away and get suitcases and sleeping bags arranged.

            Uncle Lawrence, Dad’s brother, and his family often went with us and would try to get a cabin next to ours. They only had one girl along with their four boys, so while the guys were fishing, my cousin, Beth, would join  my sisters and me as we would get out our paper dolls and start to play. Oh, did we ever come up with scenarios for our paper doll families! We could play for hours! When we got tired of the paper dolls, we would go for walks around the cabins and then spend some time in the big lodge that was there. We could usually get some change from our dad’s so we could buy ourselves ice cream or a candy bar at the lodge.

            We spent a lot of time walking around, visiting, playing in the water along the shore of the river, exploring the forest close by, and even going up where the riding horses were available to rent.

            The rain didn’t stop the guys from fishing, and they would bring in their catch for Mom and Aunt Zola to fix for any meal. If the fishing was good, we would have fish for breakfast, dinner, and supper. My brothers always said that the best time to fish was when it rained, but I wonder now if that was because it was the only time they fished when they were younger.

            As we got older we were able to rent some of the paddle boats and go out and play in the river on them. Dad and Uncle Lawrence purchased a big air-inflated boat that they would take up to Big Springs to put in the river. We would all get in it and then float on down to Mack’s. Sometimes the guys would put the anchor out, get out into the river with their big rubber waders, and fish. I remember the time a moose was out in the middle of the river and was watching us as we floated by. He seemed as curious about us as we were about him.

            Oh what fun we had! But the rain would quit and we needed to go home. Although we hated to leave, we knew we would come again. It made us all look forward to another rainy days! And rainy days are still special to me.

DIRT R0ADS AND MEMORIES

DIRT ROADS AND MEMORIES

A dirt road east of the ranch



  

            We went out to lunch with friends the other day and one of the women and I started to talk about when we were young. We were both raised in Ammon, which was considered the “sticks” back then. To our more sophisticated urban Idaho Falls friends, those of us living in Ammon were the “hicks from the sticks.”

            As we were reminiscing we got on the subject of the weekly trips to Idaho Falls to buy groceries. Those trips, in our family, were on Saturday afternoon with Mother. We lived on Sunnyside which was a two-lane dirt road. To get into Idaho Falls we would go over to 17^th street, which also was a two-lane dirt road with the pavement starting west of St. Clair.

            Dirt roads can prove challenging as we know because of driving them all summer to the ranch. If it rains and there isn’t much gravel on the roads, they become slick with the mud and puddles. During the hot dry summer days a dirt road gets really dusty except where a farmer has been irrigating and the water runs into the road.

            Back when I was young there were no sprinkler pipes for irrigation, just flooding the fields. There were barrow pits along the sides of the road where most of the irrigation run off would go, but sometimes those would fill and the road would get the extra.

            Well, back to our weekly shopping trip to Idaho Falls. We always shopped at Safeway’s, located just east of the railroad track and south of the then library, now museum. I remember thinking how big that grocery store was – but it was nothing compared to our Wal-Mart’s and Sam’s that we have today. I would help Mother by pushing the grocery cart for her. We didn’t get the fresh vegetables in the winter like we do now, and I remember always looking forward to having a green salad by Easter time.

 If we needed anything downtown – didn’t have malls back then – we would leave the car in the parking lot at Safeway’s,  walk across the railroad track and into downtown Idaho Falls. There were lots of stores in downtown then, and I loved to go wandering through Woolworths and Newberry’s. Penny’s and C.C. Andersons were also stores we frequented. Mother would stop and visit with friends she would see who were also doing their shopping.

            On our way home after our big shopping day, Mother would stop at Don Wilson Drug on Boulevard and we could each have a fountain drink. I always chose iron port and cherry. How I loved that drink and have never found anything that matches it since. I think it cost a nickel. Then we could buy a comic book if we had any of our own money. If I had been helping Dad in the field by weeding potatoes or beets during the week, I could usually come up with the nickel or dime it took to buy a comic book. If each of us kids purchased one, we would be able to share them and have some good reading during the next week.

            My friend told how they too would shop at Safeway’s and then would go downtown to pick up their grandmother. While downtown they would stop at Woolworths and have an apple dumpling. Woolworths had a lunch counter in the store, but I can’t remember ever eating anything there.

            After the Saturday shopping was done, back home we would go on the dirt roads. We had to be home to fix supper for Dad and my brothers as they would have been working in the fields or with the animals while we were gone.

Yes, living out in the “sticks” meant dirt roads back when I was a child. We rode our bikes on those dirt roads in the summer time. Dad pulled us on a sled behind the car on those snow-covered dirt roads in the winter time. We slipped and slid on those same roads during the spring when the snow melted and made lots of puddles and mud.

But dirt roads made some good memories. What fun it is to visit with friends and in doing so revisit memories of days gone by.