This week's Sepia Saturday theme has to do with two men in hats standing outside the entrance of a coffee shop. I have shown this photo of my Great-Grandparents, Talitha Letsom Hedrick and her husband Benjamin Hedrick, before. They are celebrating a special anniversary, probably their 50th. There are plenty of coffee cups there, so there must have been some coffee about to be served.
The story below maybe off theme, but it has been a long time since we have all visited one of our favorite little places, Tin Pot Valley.
So, please grab yourself a cup of your
choice (coffee or tea), and settle down to a cute story, written by my distant cousin, Wilfred Brown, grandson to my
Great-Great Uncle Horace and Aunt Aurilla Putnam of Oregon.
Tin Pot Valley, Chapter XXVIII:
by
Wilfred Brown
"Only Half Full"
Horace Putnam moved slower in the years
that followed -- and as his strength ran down, so did the productiveness
of the the Putnam Ranch.
Hired men driving the tractor did not
plow as well as Chester had, or operate as well as the implements for
the tilling of the soil. The prized dairy cows, descendants of the
Chief and his successors, did not give down milk in the volume they had,
and the cream checks that long had been the mainstay of ranch income
likewise dwindled.
But Horace Putnam did not worry much.
As he had for years past, he spent much of his time at projects that did
not contribute greatly to the ranch economy, while brush grew thicker
in the fence-rows, and encroached on fields and pastures, and fences
fell into a state of disrepair.
He visited happily with those who
stopped by -- relatives and old family friends and their descendants --
talking mainly about days and people long-gone. The visitors usually
had time to stay for dinner.
Putnam buggies and hacks had long since
fallen apart, in the years since Chester brought his first Model-T
Ford. Grandpa once would have walked, when he went up the valley to
visit George and Sue Hedrick, taking his time, looking at things and
poking with his stick. But now he didn't quite feel up to it. So he
hitched his aging horses to the sulky corn-cultivator and drove over to
Hedricks. He found it an acceptable one-man vehicle, and used it often
for personal transportation after that.
Horace Putnam spent many hours at a far
corner of his ranch digging on a ditch -- a small canal -- that was
aimed at draining a small swamp into Elk Creek. It wasn't clear to me
how beneficial that would be, for removing the massive growth of trees,
brush, berry vine and other vegetation to make the swamp land
cultivatable would be an even more horrendous task. But Grandpa kept
digging away, from time to time when the mood struck him, even though he
never did get his ditch done.
He pointed out to me the spectacular
possibilities of another canal that wouldn't have to be so much larger.
He noted that the divide between the Willamette and Umpqua River
watersheds, at a community called Divide, south of Cottage Grove, is
hardly perceptible. Then the water headed for the Umpqua descends
rapidly to the much lower altitudes of Drain and Elkton. Not much of a
ditch to connect the two river systems, said Grandpa, and you'd have the
majestic Willamette River and most of its tributaries flowing south
instead of north, down Pass Creek Canyon and into Elk Creek at Drain.
Off-hand, I could see no reason why
anyone might want that -- but it was quite an idea, and having seen some
of the other things done in rearranging the natural landscape, I
wouldn't be surprised to see a small matter like reversing the flow of
the Willamette River some day take place.
Mary Cunningham and Margaret Brown, both
too young for automotive drivers' licenses, got Grandpa's permission to
drive the Model-T around the ranch for practice, and thought up all
sorts of errands to attend to without going onto the county road.
 |
| The lovely ladies in this picture are not Mary and Margaret. They are Vera Patchen and my very own Grandmother, Florence Hedrick (soon to be Traylor). They are posing along with my Grandpa Ben Hedrick's Model T nicknamed "Old Hank". Ben and Horace Greeley Putnam (Grandpa in this story) were brother-in-laws and neighbors. |
They asked Grandpa if they could paint
the Ford. He thought it was a good idea. Rust was showing in a few
places, and he said he'd get some black paint next time he went to
Drain.
But that wasn't what the girls had in
mind. With some white paint they found in a half-filled can in the
woodshed, one afternoon when Grandpa was away at his ditch, they touched
up the car after the fashion of teen-agers of those days. On the right
side of the car they painted the warning: "Abandon Hope, All Ye Who
Enter Here!" . . . On the radiator grill: "Here Comes Trouble!" . . .
Across the hood, a variate of the introduction of a current canine movie
star: "Tin, tin, tin, the wonder car!" And there were a number more.
Horace Cunningham happened by, and added
a contribution by painting across the back of the Model-T a perhaps
timely warning: "HELL IS ONLY HALF FULL!"
Horace Putnam said nothing, when he saw
the decorated car, but they knew from the crinkles around his eyes that
he was mightily amused by the creative efforts of his grandchidlren.
The next morning, when Grandma and Lou
came out, to drive into Drain for Sunday School and church with the
younger children, Grandma was really shocked -- particularly by the
warning on the rear.
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| Perhaps Uncle John Hedrick and Grandma Florence joined them on the trip in to town for Sunday School at times. |
Lou ordered her son to do something
about his handiwork. But time was pressing, and Horace did it only to
he extent of getting the paint can and obliterating the offensive four
letters -- considered a "swear-word" among Methodists. Then the party
proceeded into Drain, to Sunday School and church, with Grandma still
not at all happy to be riding in such a conveyance.
The last time I saw the old Model-T,
when it had long since ceased to run and was half-hidden in a thicket of
blackberry vines, a fading inscription still showed above the rust -- a
blot of white paint, then the words: **** IS ONLY HALF FULL!"
(Pages 174-177)
Here are some other chapters previously posted from Tin Pot Valley:
So, there you are, my friends. If you enjoyed this story, please visit my Sepia Saturday friends by "CLICKING HERE" to find other neat photos and stories. To read more about my family and other stories featuring old
photos, memories and more, please look for this picture of me and my dad
on the left-hand sidebar and read whatever else catches your fancy. Thanks so much for visiting!
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| Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews |
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