Category: Historical Writing

Days Gone By

Days Gone By

Sandy Snider Stahl

This old tractor sits above the house in clear view every day.

But in today’s early morning hours (while corralling the escapee horses) seeing the old Farmall H made me wonder about its arrival on the ranch. Can you imagine how excited the original owners were, how proud, yet how doubtful that it was a wise purchase even though it would have cut their work to a small fraction of what it had been before? At that time,  the convenience of labor saving machinery rarely outweighed the expense.

The Head Honcho bought the H from Dan Gilmore for $300 in the early 60s. And he tells of buying a new AC15 in the late 60s – the first new tractor he ever purchased. He was so excited that after a long day of work he’d get on it in the evening and drive it around the yard, cutting cookies and showing off for his wife, then giving the kids a ride.

He so loved that AC tractor that he had it refurbished a few years ago and it’s still pulling a rake during haying. The grandsons aren’t excited about raking with the AC – after all it doesn’t have a radio, a plug in for their cell phones – or even a cab!

With a smile, the Head Honcho argues with his sons about which tractors deserve to be stored inside. The AC gets to live inside the shed, but not in the heated garage – a compromise they can all live with.

The Old Heston, on the other hand, lives outside year round. It is a generation newer, as hard used but not yet refurbished. No one, OK – no one but the Head Honcho – wants to use it, but it always starts and is miserably reliable. It’s hooked up to the old hydro-swing swather right now, but the Head Honcho’s neck doesn’t turn very far anymore and everyone else has a more modern outlook on haying. The Heston is more like the emergency back up that requires a real emergency to be considered.

The Head Honcho and I had worked all morning hooking the Heston to the swather. Well, we worked all morning, got sweaty, tired and horribly greasy. The elder son came in from the field and took pity on us. As he drove up, smiling, he said, “What are you going to do with THAT?” But he finished hooking them up, aired up the tires and parked in position so the Head Honcho sees the duo and knows they’re ready to go in the sad event they’re needed.

This attachment to his old tractors is nothing compared to what he feels for his old horses! Those stories will have to wait for another day – the AC and rake are waiting for me. And did I just hear the Head Honcho start up that old Heston?

New “Stirrup” Story Added to Web Site

New “Stirrup” Story Added to Web Site

Sandy Snider Stahl

It has taken me nearly as long to update my web page at sandystahlauthor.com with my new story on the development of stirrups as it did to write it! Problem seemed to be with our satellite network connection, which is just a fact of our rural living. Finally though, it’s there!

Please check out the story by going to Stirrups – An Historical View. It’s one of the stories under the Nonfiction section of my web site. Then please leave a comment or share with a friend…but mostly I hope you enjoy learning a little more about the history of stirrups.

Oral History

Oral History

Sandy Snider Stahl

Yesterday I started an oral history interview with a wonderful friend, a 97 year old ranch woman. I shared my first set of interview questions so she could have time to think about her responses. She said the questions are hard and I told her we’d use them as a basis to start the interview and could go anywhere she wanted from there.

Oral history interviewee
Virginia at 93 years young

As I drove home, I thought about my potential responses. Here is a sampling of the questions; how would you answer them?

  • What is something that changed the way you lived (like electricity, running water, automobiles) ? Describe your life before and after.
  • What are you proudest of and what do you most regret?
  • How has your life been different than you imagined it would be when you were young?
  • What wisdom that you’ve gained in your life would you like to pass on to your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren?

Oral and Written Histories

Sandy Snider Stahl

The Powder River County Extension office is sponsoring a workshop on obtaining oral histories and I’m excited about attending next week. The workshop is an outgrowth of a statewide project to assist communities record  stories and the presenter is Paul Lachapelle, Extension Specialist at MSU Community Development.

The StoryCorps archive is the largest digital collection of human voices and are stored   in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. for future generations. The extension office shares guidelines to simplify recording oral histories and explain the digital recording and sharing process.

Similarly, Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Districts has undertaken a project to record oral histories of ag women, a critical component of Montana’s heritage that we lose daily. I kept hearing radio ads about the project and told my mom that she needed to tell her story – after the training, maybe I’ll be able to record her story!

The contact for the oral history project is Linda Brander at LLbrander@mt.gov. and as stated on the DNRC website, “Once an oral history is completed, it will go into the oral history collection at the Montana Historical Society (at https://mhs.mt.gov/) and be placed on the DNRC website.   This will allow people from all over the world to read the histories.”