Another Brennan ranch Memory

Long after the financing fell through on the Brennan ranch, we would still travel to the ranch to fish, picnic, hike, etc.  Dad and I and a friend of Dad's and the friend's young son took a four day back pack into an area along a lake above the ranch.  This was about 1951 when back packing was not as popular as it is now.  I remember the Brennan brothers thought we were crazy for walking to the lake.  In their minds that's what horses were for.  Dad loved the out of doors and welcomed the chance to be in the mountains with or without the help of horses.  At eleven or so years of age, I too was enthusiastic. The fishing was great and the scenery was unbelivable.  I also remember seeing Rocky Mountain Goats along the way.  As we learned later, the Brennan brothers had convinced the Montana Fish and Game Department to plant the goats in the area several years earlier.  The goats of the Crazy Mountains today are the descendants of this initial "plant".

On another occasion our family, including the Linses and the Kinsfathers, traveled to the ranch for a picnic and hiking.  The hiking usually consisted of four groups:  older kids (of which I was a member), the younger kids (of which my brother was a member), the men, and the women (including the really young kids of whom my sister was a member).   The older kids usually took off first and ranged far ahead of the other groups, followed by the younger kids and then the men and women.  A couple of miles up the trail a small creek ran over a stretch of solid granite.  Moss had grown in this area and it was slippery-slippery.  We make it over with little trouble but when the second group reached that part of the trail, my seven year old brother Brad slipped and fell hitting his face flush on the solid granite.  He had about inch and a half to two inch cut in the brow above his eye.  Blood came gushing out much to his distress!  As he grabbed his hands to the wound and started running back down the trial he yelled to his cousin Johnny, "if my eye ball falls out Johnny pick it up and bring it with you, I gotta find mom and dad!!"  Of course, to this day the story lives on.  If my eyeball falls out........  I believe he carries the scar to this day, but for the life of me I can't remember much about the incident other than laughing about the loss of an eyeball.  But, you have to remember that he was the one that lay on the bed for two days after he "not quite cleared jumping a picket fence" and breaking his leg.  Mom and Dad finally took him to the doctor even though no blood was involved because he couldn't walk.  I also remember "not going to the doctor" after a horse's foot did a "three sixty" on the arch of my foot .  A doctor's visit was not necessary because as mom put it "it's badly bruised but not bleeding".  The medical decision model was a lot different when we were young as compared to now.  I do recall that Brad got stitches to his brow because "there was blood involved" and as we older boys told him "to hold his eye-ball in"!  

Gordon et. al.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 

~

Blue Skies and Cold in Spokane

Today

The Swan's ass is frozen

in the lake

Today!

I wish we could all be together

Today!!

Gordon Skip, et. al.

Cambria Treat

A Typical Cambria Dinner

consists of

Plus

Plus

Combined to make

this

Cook this

Plus Good Conversation

Equals

A really good time!! 

Come join us!!!

 

Gordon, et. al.

Another early memory

For as long as I can remember there was a small framed photo of Rock Creek on the wall of my Aunt Julia and Uncle Martin's dinning room  It was above a little desk arrangement that they had hanging on the wall just to the left of the door coming in from the kitchen area. In my mind's eye I always thought Rock Creek was what a mountain stream was supposed to look like.  We spent many summer days in this area on picnics and family gatherings.  I remember my parents and aunts and uncles "calling for kids" after dark trying to get us back to the cars so we could go home.  Sometimes they were pretty mad!   I took this picture on my last visit with Mike.  I think this is Rock Creek.  Now I'm wondering if it is Hell Roaring Creek.  Mike?

I passed this scene every time I went to Roscoe to drink beer, dance and generally raise Hell in my younger days ~ never gave it a thought.  Now I stop every time I go to Roscoe, I look at the above scene and say, "Wow, what a sight."  It is the entrance to the East Rosebud River canyon.  I was always a West Rosebud sorta guy.  But, I have to admit the East Rosebud area was beautiful too.

Roscoe was where the local high school kids would go to act like adults - i.e. like idiots.  We would drink beer and dance mostly.  But, an occasional fight would break out and the dance hall would empty so as to view the action.  It was usually a "dust up" between Absarokee kids and Columbus kids with an occasional quarrel over some girl thrown in to make it really interesting.  I remember one particular night when a fight broke out and I walked out onto the front porch of  the "Sambo* the Eskimo's Bar (true name) to get a good view of the fight when some kid from Columbus says, "Hell I can lick Chapman".  And, he threw a punch, hit me flush on the mouth and knocked me ass over tea kettle backwards off of the porch.  Whereby I hit the back of my head on the bumper of a friend's car.  By the time I woke up the fight was over.  Never did find out who the hell hit me, but he was right.  He could "lick me". My friend Bill Mack called me "one punch Chapman" after that!  I never was much of a fighter.  I could out run most anybody.

My buddy Mike especially loved Roscoe.  He loved to fight and he could fight to his heart's delight in Roscoe.  When I heard of a possible flare up I'd make sure Mike came along.  I remember one time in particular when I mentioned to Mike that a guy by the name of Bob had a habit of getting drunk and beating the cramp out of people at the Y-Bar in Dean and that it ruined a good dance.  He says, "really? do you think he'll be there this weekend?"  Yep says I.   And sure enough we were in Dean that weekend.  What I hadn't mentioned to Mike was that Bob was about six foot four and weighted about 220 lbs.  Mike and I were not what you call large when we were in high school.  Still aren't.  Mike weighted probably 175 and stood about five foot eight or nine.  Anyway, when we got to the dance Mike had to figure out how to get to the guy because he was so dang tall.  He couldn't have reached his head with a step ladder.  Fortunately, for Mike the Y-Bar had a rather tall front porch upon which Mike ended his argument with Bob ~ Mike on the porch.  Bob on the ground.  I guess Mike figured if he could get in one good punch it would be over ~ and it was.  Mike launched himself off of the porch like a heat seeking missile.  Although Bob had started the fight -as most bullies do- , I don't think he knew what hit him.  We were one punch sorta guys, but for opposite reasons!!  We never had much trouble with the Y-Bar bully after that.

When I visited with Mike last month we passed the Roscoe area.  Sambo the Eskimo's is now know as the Bear Tooth Bar and Grill. And, it got a complete face lift ~ pretty yuppie looking.  And,  the Y-Bar in Dean Montana, the last time I saw it, was a personal residence or bed and breakfast or some such other non-bar sorta thing.   I guess life goes on with or without you.

*Yes I know Sambo is racist.  But that was the name on the sign ~ big sign too. The man that owned the bar was an old Norwegian and you could hardly understand him.  He had a hard time reading driver's licenses too. Gosh we had good dances there.  That's where I learned the Montana Hop. :-)  I was a one dance sorta guy, too. 

Gordon et. al.

email to Mike

Several mornings back, I sent an email to my buddy Mike.  We have an "on going" discussion on conservatives and liberals.  We have pretty much concluded that we are a mongrel-dog mixture of both.  :-)
Follows is the general idea of our discussion on that particular morning.

Mike,
Just read this in the New West,

"Madel, a 23-year veteran of working with grizzlies along the Front, called 2009 an “unprecedented” year for bears wandering back on to the prairie, and says the bears’ presence there is only likely to increase in coming years.

That means an entire population of humans will now have to learn how to co-habitate with grizzlies. While the plains are historically grizzly country, for many living there now, the return of the grizzly is – to put it lightly – a surprise."

Who's doing this ~ the liberals or the conservatives?  The liberals because they want a "more perfect world" or the conservatives because they don't want things to change?  I don't really know, but where is this all going to end?  Don't really know what the point of this "reintroducing" fad is.  The latest count of Grizzly bears in the Priest lake area is in the neighborhood of 65 (probably much higher given the area that "the powers that be" surveyed!).  We are having to learn how to "live with them".  Why I'm not sure.  Seems like we were doing just fine without them.  The bears are doing fine in the Bob Marshal Wilderness Area, other wilderness areas along the Rocky Mountain Front and Yellowstone Park.  It's not like they were or are an endangered species.*

What with DNA and all,  I suppose we could reintroduce the dinosaur.  After all they were here first.  ;-)

At any rate I wouldn't want to meet a Grizzly on the plains.  Ain't no trees to climb!

hang and rattle,

skip

P.S. I may put this email to you on the blog!

I also had a rant in the email about reintroducing bad human types into our cities, but left it out above.  I'm not really sure the analogy follows but we don't seem to be doing too well in that regard either.  Damn life gets complicated!!

*Grizzlies were endangered but not when they reintroduced them to the Priest Lake area.

Lion Hunt

Baroda.  Sept. 2nd 1920.  This will be your birthday letter and I do hope it will find you in the best of health and happiness.  I do wish I could come and give my wishes and show my love in person, but you know don't you, darling, that they are just as warm and true as if I did.  I've not had time to see about the "puttu" yet, but shall perhaps by next week.  If not I shall send you something else as a little reminder of your distant May.  This last fortnight some our Baroda folk have had a thrilling time.  The two residents and two married couples with one or two others went on a lion hunting expedition to the forest of Gir - the only place in India where lions abound.  It is not far from where I was last year when I went to Amreli.  You can find it on the map just north of the bay of Cambay or ljir Hills it may be called.  They have now come back having bagged four of the tawny brutes.  I wish I could have gone with them.  The teaching profession....!  As you know it always has to keep on its job.  I was ever so pleased to hear from you that Dot is keeping so well.  I hope she'll have the jolliest gayest time to make up for lost years.  There are again changes in Baroda.  Our last regiment has been ordered to Mespot and a new one has come in its place.  Our travelers in Europe, Mrs. Randle and Miss Davison - not to mention the ruling family will probably be back before Xmas.  The Webbers leave this week.  I was very glad to get a nice letter from Willie this week.  He seems to have enjoyed my account of our tour.  I wish he could have enjoyed the reality with us.  My third sheet is drawing to an end, so I think I must with it.  Good bye dearest Dad for another week.  Very much love from your ever loving daughter May.


Baroda Sept 9th 1020  Another week has gone and I have not been able to go shopping yet so my reputation of sending birthday presents late is being lived up to!  Forgive me dear and look forward another week.  We are in the middle of a series of religious holidays now.  Monday was Kinshra's birthday sacred to Vaishrwite Hindus.  Friday is the Parsi New Year - next week is Mohurrem a great day for the Mahomeddans, the next gaupati ( or vice versa) in which the elephant headed god of practical affairs is taken in solemn procession to a sacred tank and there entrusted to the waters.  After that comes Dussera a festival commemorating an event in martial history and then in about seven weeks Drivali the feast of Lights when we start our three weeks holiday. Jock is at my feet gnawing bones and eating chappaties.  A chappaties is a kind of unleavened bread - a flat thin baked cake.  Jock's particular kind is made of bajri , a coarse dark flour.  The most plentiful and cheapest grain grown round here and a staple food of the poorer people.  A well made bajri chappati with a good cup of hot sweetened buffalo's milk and a little spiced vegetable is quite a good albeit plain supper.  I must send you another snap of Jock soon He is growing very handsome and I am getting fonder of him then I ever thought I could be of a doggie.  I was very pleased to hear this week from Ethel Milbourn though sorry to hear that her mother was so ill and not expected to recover.  I have not yet received Mr. Heath's letter.  Good by darling for another week very much love to you and all from your ever loving May

I would have never known that there were lions in India.  I thought they were only found in Africa.  I bet she was disappointed that she didn't get to go on the lion hunt!  My kinda gal.  I'll bet she was a drinker of gin and Scotch Whiskey as well!  Interesting times.  I'm learning a lot.

The Gir Forest National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary (also known as Sasan-Gir and गिर वन) is a forest and wildlife sanctuary in Gujarat, India. Established in 1965, with a total area of 1412 km² (about 258 km² for the fully protected area (the National Park) and 1153 km² for the Sanctuary), the park is located 65 km to the south-east of Junagadh.
It is the sole home of the pure Asiatic Lions (Panthera leo persica) and is considered to be one of the most important protected areas in Asia due to its supported species. The ecosystem of Gir, with its diverse flora and fauna, is protected as a result of the efforts of the Government forest department, wildlife activists and NGOs. The forest area of Gir and its lions were declared as "protected" in the early 1900s by the then Nawab of the princely state of Junagadh. This initiative assisted in the conservation of the lions whose population had plummeted to only 15 through slaughter for trophy hunting.

May and friends apparently did their share in making the lion a "protected" species.  ;-)
 

Food talk:  I guess buffalo's milk would be somewhat the same as cow's milk.
bajri flour = kurakkan  Poor farmers in India and Pakistan use this millet flour to make bread and griddle cakes.  It's gluten-free.  Substitutes:  sorghum flour

chapati flour = chapatti flour = chappati flour = atta   This is a blend of wheat and malted barley flours used to make chapatis.  Substitutes:   Sift together equal parts whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.

Is chapatis the delicious bread you get when you go to an Indian restaurant?  Gotta have it with curry.  I love curry!

I won't attempt to define all the religious holidays.  Let alone spell "em' correctly.

Dad, et. al.

Seven Little Americans

Baroda Aug 12th 1920 Just a scrap of a letter tonight as I've written a long one to Gee and must not keep the "boy" up too late for the mail.  Poor little Gina with her "seven little Americans" all down with whooping cough at once.  I've sent her a little present to help her along.  You must be back in Cambridge by now.  I am glad you had such a nice change by the sea.  I wish I could have come for some of the walks by the sea with you.  I'm busy as ever. I think I must ask for some more assistants.  But when I get them I have to train them and that is a slow business.  The weather is getting cooler.  The rains are satisfactory from an agricultural point of view but not from the tank-filling point.  What we want now is some tremendous showers that run into the channels before they have time to sink into the ground.  Well darling I must close.  Much love Ethel, Willie and all,  Ever your loving daughter May
 

Baroda Aug - 19th, 1920 Your letter and the Times arrived safely and were as usual very welcome.  So you are back in Cambridge again and comparing it's air with that of the Burnhams.  Well I am doing the same here only mine is that of the Himalayas with Baroda's.  But I still have the lovely clear mountain air in my lungs and my blood.  There is a great talk here of opening a college for women.  Hitherto our women students have attended the Men's College here.  Now a wealthy Gujerati, Sir Vishaldas Thakersey, has given a large sum of money to be spent on Women's Education in the Bombay Residency and Baroda hopes to come in for a share of it.  Hence meetings and discussions are the order of the day.  I think there will be happenings when their Highness's come back.  I'm thinking of sending you all some "puttu" for your birthdays.  I wonder if you would like it.  I'm sending some to the "seven little Americans".  By the way Mr. Heath hasn't written to me yet and as for Ethel I think she has forgotten my existence.  What has been the matter with Mrs. Congrere?  My Gujarati Munshi is just coming so I must close now dear  Very much love to all from your ever loving daughter May P.S. you have not yet told me the name of the man who came from Baroda.


Baroda Aug 26th 1920  I'm up to my ears in work tonight.  Tomorrow we have a holiday and I should have plenty of time.  But I've promised Mr. Widgery some notes on Girls' Education for his Sociological Review and he is going away tonight, so I must give him what I can get into shape - and you, poor darling, have to suffer with a short letter.  Better luck next time let us hope.  I'm just having a cup of coffee and a cigarette to get my mind into working order after dinner and shall then set to work.  Very much love to all from your ever loving daughter May

This letter is the first where the term Seven Little Americans appears, Phoebe, Jack, Charles, Robert, Dot, Bea, and Harry Chapman, Gina's children.  In a later letter, her father apparently took exception to the term.  From then on,  May referred to them as the Seven Little Californians!  On December 20, 2009 my uncle Charles will celebrate his 94th birthday with a birthday party in Sacramento, California.  I would love to be there.


Puttu is, apparently,  a common breakfast in Kerala. It is made out of rice flour and is cylindrical in shape. Puttu is made with the help of a Puttu maker. Puttu maker is a steamer which is cylindrical in shape. These are available in the Indian grocery stores. Many people use idly moulds also to make puttu recipe. Nowadays Instant puttu mix is available in Indian grocery stores. The dish has to be made with lot of coconut.
per     http://dailygirlblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/puttu.html

For some reason I'm not surprised the old gal smoked. :-) 

Dad. et. al.

Maps of India

Aunt May lived in Baroda in the state of Gujarat, India.  The state of Gujarat is south and west of New Delhi bordering the Arabian sea and the gulf of Cambay as seen on the map that follows.

 

I can only imagine what it must of looked like in 1920.  The above map of Baroda is dated "prior to 1909".

I may add more comments to this post.  But will put this up now so Candy can view it.  Need to get a better idea of her travels for instance.  But this will give us a start.  This has been fun and interesting.

Dad et. al.

May letter July 22, 1920

ગુજરાતી

Baroda July 22, 1920
I was so glad to get your letter from the cottage a Burnham.  It all sounds so nice and I do hope you all three will enjoy the change and go back all the better for it.  It's rather a different holiday from mine but these quiet holidays can be very enjoyable.  The place you mention is Loharkhet - a little village on the side of a steep mountain.  We stayed there a night both going up and coming down.  I was very glad to get Gee's address.  I do hope it's an authentic one as I am shortly writing to her and don't want any more letters returned through the D.L.O.  It's such a slap in the face from such a distance.  I am very busy up to the end of this month, as everything I want for the school before the end of next school year (our school year ends in July) I must ask for now.  The recognized way in this state of asking for anything is to send up a "tippan" i.e. a request couched in special words and written in a special form, which goes the round of all the most important governing men of the State.  The last to write is the Accountant General and alas too often when everyone else has written favorably he "puts the topper on" - to use a school boy's phrase - by declaring that there isn't money enough in the Exchequer.  Well I'm asking for no end of things this time - furniture and equipment for our new classrooms and lady teachers salaries to be raised pretty nearly all round. So he'll howl!!  Well good night darling.  I expect you're back by this time.  My dearest love to Ethel and all, not forgetting yourself.  Ever your loving daughter May


Baroda India July 29, 1920
It was nice to get two letters from you yesterday.  Both were from Burnham.  I am so glad you are having this nice change from the heat of Cambridge and that you are able to make little expeditions in the neighborhood.  The "Times" arrives regularly and is always very welcome.  It is so nice to get the home news from a home point of view.  The Literary Supplement too is very interesting.  I am still hard at work though most of my tippans are in.  But the finishing business is still going on  Good by darling.  If I have time I may put in another sheet.  But if not adieu for the present.  Very much love to all from May  -So glad to hear of Gina.


Baroda Aug 4, 1920
Very many thanks for your last letter written from Burnham.  I am so glad you are having this nice change by the sea instead of being in Cambridge all the time.  So S. went to Cambridge to bring back a friend of his?  That will be jolly for him and Dot.  Tell them I wish I was with them to come boating.  Dear little Dot, how nice for her to be her old self once more.  I think it is time she wrote me a letter by the way.  I am very busy.  I wish my mastery of the Gujarati language was complete.  But, I am still very far from possessing it and I have to spend time daily over it.  I have been several motor turns lately.  Been four times round the Race Course this evening.  The fashionable car here is the Ford.  The Clarkes, the Hirits, The Hendersons, The Widgery's and now Mrs. Strong all have a Ford.  I want John to build me a strong plain car, suitable for traveling over bullock cart tracks - for many of the roads here are no better - as I could see much more of the country with a car than with a tonga (?).  Well good bye darling for another week.  I expect I shall have one more letter from Burnham.  Much love to all and especially your own self.  Always your loving daughter May

See this site http://www.sriaurobindoashram.org/research/show.php?set=doclife&id=4
wherein tippan is described as a formal proposal, i.e. an Indian term.  Spelling is correct.
Interesting, budget requests over time have always been "couched in special words and written in a special form".  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Sometimes only accountants know the language, i.e. the special words and forms.

Apparently,  May and Gina are not directly communicating that much.  I always thought that they were very close.  Now I wonder.  Grandma's big drama has not yet occurred.

I don't know who Gee is or if spelling is correct.

Re: the language Aunt May was attempting to learn.

Gujarati (ગુજરાતી Gujǎrātī^?) is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is native to the Indian state of Gujarat, and is its chief language, as well as of the adjacent union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
There are about 46.1 million speakers of Gujarati worldwide, making it the 26th most spoken native language in the world. Along with Romany and Sindhi, it is among the most western of Indo-Aryan languages. Gujarati was the first language of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the "father of India", Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the "father of Pakistan," and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the "iron man of India."

Apparently, May drove race cars as well all the other "stuff" in her life. :-)

Dad, et. al.

Candy I'm trying to find a map.  Can't find any suitable at this point.  Will keep trying.

May letter March 10 1920

 This post is out of date order.  I forgot to post it.

 As I read this I realize the artistic ability of several members of the Chapman side of the family ~ a couple of whom made a good living at it.

Baroda. March 10th 1920  How are you this morning?  Beautiful April morning it ought to be.
     Oh! to be in England
     Now that April's there
Oh! perhaps you'll be having some April showers preparatory to the production of May flowers.  You can imagine me in April heat when this reaches you.  My week's holiday is over - to my sorrow.  How do you think I spent it?  In sketching.  A sort of mania for putting paint on to paper, however ineffectively.  Runs in the family, doesn't it?  We must have the artistic instinct only it never seems to have time to develop.  There is here now (for me) a delightful couple - both artists.  Mr. and Mrs.Gibdin and they have been out shetching and fired me up.  Alas just as I was thinking I'd missed my vocation, work begins again and I've no thought for anything else.  But - I hope to do more in the six weeks holiday two months ahead.  Jock is very well and very mischievous.  I've never been intimately acquainted with a puppy before, and I've never before realized the profound wisdom of the advice "let sleeping dogs lie".  The peaceful moments of my existence are those when Jock is asleep!


Good bye darling.  Very much love to all.
                                               from May

I guess most of the family have enjoyed the company of "dogs" as well.

Dad, et. al.

May Letters

Baroda June 17, 1920 Many thanks for your last six letters: four in one bunch and two in another.  It was delightful to get my mail at Naimi after our travels.  Naimi Tal being the last place we visited and the place to which I had my letters redirected.  I called there on Mrs. Hill and had a delightful afternoon resting on her bed and devouring my accumulated mail.   I'm now back again at work and am finding a great deal to do as usual. I feel very vigorous after my delightful holiday.  We walked about 160 miles, rode (pony) 20 and motored 70 all in most lovely and varied scenery.  We dreaded coming back to the burning plains where it had been exceptionally hot, but fortunately for us the monsoon broke while we were on our return journey coming through the outskirts of the desert of Rajpectana, and the showers brought some modicum of coolness with them.  Now we have rather hot days with refreshing rains and cool evening breezes.  you want to know just where we went.  I think you will find on an ordinary map the mountain Nanda tevi.  Well we got just about to its' foot.  Nanda Tevi is on of the big peaks of the Himalayas and is 25,000 odd feet high.  We attained about 12,000 feet.  I am so glad that you are having such a nice change by the sea and am only sorry Ethel can't be with you.  I do hope it will do you all good.  I was so much interested in hearing about Mr. Henry.  Yes, do tell him I'll be delighted to hear from him and hope he will write soon.  Good by darling.  Much love to all at the cottage.  Ever your loving May


Baroda July 8 1920.  The post brought two welcome letters from you today.  I am so glad that everything is going on well and especially that Dot is so much stronger and able to have such a good time this May week.  Dear little girl she deserves it after all the suffering so cheerfully borne.  Tell her to write me a graphic account of everything.  I expect she owes me a letter and if it's the other way about, I'm sure she'll be nice and forgive her extra busy "Bud".  I see my last to you, when you wrote, was from Loharkhet* and you hoped we reached the glacier.  The one written from  Loharkhet on my return journey will tell you of our disappointment in that respect.  Now I am very busy.  The work of the school is increasing.  I am glad to say and I have more organizing to do.  I am getting a larger staff however.  Very few people are back from their holidays yet so there is not very much entertaining which when one is busy is a good thing.  We are having lovely rains and everybody is rejoicing.  Kitty, my mare, and Jock, my dog, roll and leap for joy while the frogs keep an unending night long chorus.  Well dearest I must say good night.  My fondest love to you all from May.

* See
Pindari Glacier Trek @ http://www.trekkinginindia.com/trekking-in-kumaon/baqershwar-pindari-trek.html
It probably was the Pindari Glacier area where she was trekking.

It appears Jennie and Katy's love of horses and animals is "in the genes".  See the above www site.  It is a beautiful part of the world.  I can only imagine what it must have been like in 1920.  Obviously, it involved a lot of walking ~ 160 miles!!

Dad et. al.

May letter - Feb 22, 1920

Baroda Feb. 22,1920
The boat is going late this week on account of some kind of (administrative?) delay in Bombay.  There have certainly been plenty of them, others of damage caused through a collision with a Japanese steamer.  Whichever it is, it enables me to write on Sunday instead of on Thursday.  My little dog arrives today it is about a month old and at present answers to the name of "Bill Bailey".  Its mother and father are both pedigree dogs so it ought to be good.  It is a broken-haired terrier and will be an excellent watch dog.  Mrs. Strong is giving him to me.  I am dining there tonight and shall bring him home.  This is all about my doggie instead of about you!  How is your poor leg.  You did not write last week to tell me how it was.  So can only hope its is not worrying you more.  Have you realized darling that you are writing only once a fortnight instead of once a week now.  You must ask Dot to remind you every Thursday it is Thursday isn't it?, that it's mail day.  The hot weather is coming on apace.  I am beginning to be glad to have my punkah* going and before long we shall have early morning school  I have been so busy lately that I've not had time to ride or even to take enough exercise but yesterday I managed a round of golf and a good walk.  The golf links belong to the club and I have had some sticks sent me, so just get a ball and go round.  It is very enjoyable.  I shall look forward to taking Dot round the links at Cambridge when I come back.  Well, good bye darling.  Write me a nice letter every week.  Very much love family, your ever loving daughter May.

 New word for me:
*punkah a fan used especially in India that consists of a canvas-covered frame suspended from the ceiling and that is operated by a cord.  Visions of old movies in Turkey.
broken haired terrier.  Wonder what that is?

Thoughts:
I believe May's mother had died prior to 1920.  Hence, her letters addressed only to her father.
Apparently,  there was about a two week lag time between posting a letter and delivery of a letter.  So you ask a question and get an answer one month later. A little different than today's "twitter" where random and useless thoughts are communicated instantly.  I worry that today's generation has lost the value of "ponder" let alone know what it is.  Some things are better left unsaid.  ;-)

Dad/Gordon et. al. 

May letter February 1920

As I type this letter of Aunt May's, I try to envision her sitting at a desk at a friend's home, a "bungalow",  in India. I wonder about things such as smells, temperature, sounds from the home, was she at a window? a desk?  was it dark yet? what were the Strongs doing as she wrote her letter home?  what was their relationship?, etc.

At least when I try to envision my great grandparents environment, I can visualize their home and the boarding school.  I was there.

Baroda Feb 6th 1920
Another week has gone by on wings, and I am sitting down again for weekly chat, this time in Mrs. Strong's bungalow as I'm here for dinner.  My sports are day after tomorrow and I'm up to my ears in work.  I will send you a programme.  I am sending you by next week's mail darling the where-withal to settle for the rubber bandage and ointments you had to get for your poor leg.  I was so sorry to hear you were laid up with it.  It must be very tiring to have to stay in all the time instead of being able to have your customary trots around.  Get well soon.  Spring will soon be upon you now and I suppose the snowdrops will be out in the gardens and the almond blossoms on the commons.  With us the "Spring" (Vasanti) is already here and the hot weather will be beginning in about a month, but the nights are still cold and today I wore my warm coat in the house till nearly eleven.  I'm so sorry, please tell Storton (?) that I missed his birthday, so will send through you, belated though very warm wishes for many happy returns.  Good bye dearest Dad.  Very much love to all from, May

Snowdrops must be an indication of spring everywhere ~ and crocus.  But almond blossoms in Spokane, I'm afraid not!


I am sure the above word Vasanti is how it was spelled in May's letter.  I wonder if it is Hindi or Muslin. I'm not sure on the Storton spelling.  I looked at a family tree thingie and didn't see any family to whom it might apply.  So..a mystery.  I can't envision my great grandfather in a "customary" trot.

While in England, I do believe my father and I did see the "commons" to which she referred. Their boarding school set off to a side of it.  The school still stands.  I have no idea of its use today.  I had no idea the trees were almonds.  I thought almonds grew in a warmer climate.  Guess not.

Dad, et. al..

May's letters

I'm having more difficulty than I anticipated in  transcribing Aunt May's letters.  Her penmanship is excellent, but the quality of the photo copy is terrible.  I am forced to present only the ones that I can make out.  With my luck the one's I can't transcribe are probably the more interesting ones. ~  A Capricorn's take on life! :-)

Baroda Jan 30th 1920.  Here is the promised letter.  We had a very pleasant time last night at the Colonel's "at home" and got back about twelve.  There's another "at home" at the chancellor's, but that is an afternoon one.  Soon the hot weather will be on us, and then we shall not have so much energy for entertaining.  I am very busy myself just at present as my sports day and prize giving are on the 7th.  I'm having a purdah affair this time, only ladies and the Divan's wife is giving away the prizes.  I hope we shall have a good assembly.  The next excitement (in the school) will be the terminal examinations and then the scholastic at  ---.  I hope our girls will do well.  I got your letter early last week and the paper comes regularly.  I much enjoy the Literary Supplement.  I am very sorry your leg has been troubling you so much and do hope the new bandage will be a comfort.  I am going to make you a present of it darling so will send a Post Office M.O. next month.  Please thank Dot for her delightful letter and the beautifully worked handkerchief.  I am hoping to write to her next week.  I was so glad to hear from her again.  I wrote to Willie yesterday for his birthday.  I hope the letter will reach him in time.  If Ethel judged it wise to buy those things I mentioned to her a month or so ago  and has not yet sent them ask her to register them as parcels are so much safer that way.  If not registered they are likely to be lost.   ....  Well darling I must say good night and get me to my little bed as we have ... (completely faded out on paper.)

New words I learned:
purdah ~ seclusion of women from public observation among Muslims and some Hindus especially in India.
Divan  ~  the privy council of the Ottoman Empire, council

I have no idea who "Willie" was.  I wonder what was wrong with Great Grandpa's leg!

Dad, et. al.

Letters from the Past

Grand Aunt May Neeham ~ far left.

Grand Aunt Ethel Steen (Neeham) ~ far right

Grandmother Georgina Chapman (Neeham) ~ bottom.

Aunt May never married.

Aunt Ethel married William Steen and had two children

Grandmother Georgina married Fredrick Chapman and had seven children

Great Grandmother

 Charlotte Augusta Needham

Great Grandfather
Stourton Samuel Lionel Needham

Great Grandparents
Aunt Ethel
Students at boarding school

Parents left their children at boarding schools in England during this period of time as they worked in far away places such as India, Kenya, and South Africa.  I suspect this was a great influence on Aunt May's decision to travel to India for her life's work. 

Whilst in the United Kingdom in the early nineteen nineties my distant cousins Micheal and Bill Steen gave to my father and me letters that had been written by Dad's mother Georgina Chapman to her sister Ethel Steen.  These letters, for the most part, dated from the late forties to the late fifties.  These letters were mostly updates on Georgina's children and their life's affairs.  In additional to these letters, the Steens gave us photo copies of letters from Georgina's Sister May to her parents, Stourton Samuel Lionel Needham and Charlotte Augusta Needham.  The letters, which were written in the nineteen teens and  early nineteen twenties, were from Baroda, India (http://www.baroda.com/city.html) where Aunt May was the head mistress of an all girls school.  Grandma Georgina had two sisters, May and Ethel.  Georgina's  parents  owned and operated a boarding school in Tunbridge Wells, England.  The Aunt May letters are extremely interesting from both a family point of view and from a historical point of view.  As an illustration, an early letter from Aunt May, which I can't seem to find at the present, describes her initial trip to India aboard a freighter.  They sailed the Mediterranean Sea at night in hopes that the Kaiser's gun boats would not intercept them.  It was during the height of the first world war.  I had visions of an Ernest Hemingway novel as I read descriptive passages of the letter.  I will post the letter to the blog if and when I find it.  She obviously had a great spirit of adventure and independent free spirit in her own right ~ a women ahead of her time.

In the weeks ahead I will attempt to transcribe a few of her letters and post them to the blog.  The letters are photo copies and are very hard to read/decipher so please bear with me.  Please feel free to correct and interpret along with me.  I will attempt literal transcriptions, i.e. abbreviations and all.

The first letter is as follows,

Baroda Jan. 2rd 1920.  I am hoping you have had a very happy Xmas week and New Year's Day and that 1920 will be a time of much happiness to you and all.  We have had a very nice time with dinners and teas and picnics.  I have had a lot of presents for Xmas, cakes and fruit this year, and today a haunch of venison turned up so must invite some one to help eat it.  Will you come in dearest and do your share!  The mail brought me your and Ethel's letters yesterday Ethel's for my birthday.  But the strange thing is that I've not had a single Xmas letter from the family except one from Willie from Farnham.  I had one from you on Xmas Day itself, but it didn't mention Xmas so some must have gone astray.  Probably they'll turn up a few days late.  The mails have been much more regular lately.  I was much interested in your news of Gina.  I must write to her though she owes me a letter naughty girl.  I am still very busy and shall be up to March when we have a week's holiday.  Good bye dearest  Baroda Jan. 9th 1920.  Just a note only today as I'm out to dinner.  But I can't let the mail go without a line.  Will send a decent letter next week.  Much love, May.

Comments:  Interesting the first part was dated 1/2/20 and last dated 1/9/20.  Obviously the postal service was not an everyday thing as it is now.  Receiving a haunch of venison in India is an interesting thought.

Grandmother Georgina (Gina) was as I found in reading these letters considered "naughty" at several levels.  Much to the embarrassment of her Church of England  parents, she married a divorced man in England with two children, immediately started having children of her own, set sail for the United States where she ultimately had seven children total and eventually divorced her husband who tried to kill her.  If nothing her parents raised free spirited daughters!!  Gave them lots to talk and worry about!

More later,

Dad/Gordon/et.al.

p.s.  Are sisters to your grandmother grand aunts or great aunts?

Dentist

I went to the dentist yesterday.  Am I the only one?  I sometimes get the feeling my teeth are only on "loan" to me.  The only reason I go in for a "check-up" is for the dental tech to determine if I have treated her teeth properly.  Have you been flossing?  How many times a week on average do you floss?  Do you brush morning and evening?  Have you been using your sonic tooth brush? (at least she acknowledges that the brush is "mine".)  Remember to use "up" strokes.  Have you been paying attention to the "pockets"?  Have you ever tried a "water pick"? 

Then there is the depth charting done in conjunction with another tech type. 1..1..1..3..1..3..2..98 woops that was your throat.  hee hee.  Little dental humor.  Another favorite  is when they hit a 6 and follow it with a question mark.  Then the question follows, "have you been paying attention to that pocket?"  During one depth charting I interjected, "mark twain" to no reaction on their part what so ever.  Damn I hate it when people don't understand my jokes!  In trying to explain the failed joke I had to give them a lesson in literature.  Wasn't worth the effort!

The final irony was when Kate, my cleaner type person, as she was attempting suck spit, slime and water from the bottom of my by then choking mouth says simply, "my form of water boarding".  Guess in the future I better watch what I say!

I did make it through the examination.  And, she did say my teeth looked "pretty" good.  At least she didn't say "for an old man", in which case I would have taken the damn things out and given em back to her!!

another day in paradise,

Gordon, et. al.

Eye Exam

I called the eye clinic today for an appointment.
A young lady answered, "Hello, Spokane Eye Clinic, how may I help you?"
I said, "Hi, I'd like to make an appointment for an eye exam."
She said, "I'm sorry we ran out.  We don't have any more!"
I said, "WHAT".
She started laughing and said, "I've always wanted to say that."
I said laughing, "how did you know I'd have a sense of humor?"
"I don't know", she said, "but you have a nice voice."
Got a new friend.  You find them in the dangest places.
I can't wait to meet her.  She got me an appointment on December 9
about six weeks ahead of the normal wait!  Boy am I going to get
back at her somehow.  I'm thinking of wearing my Willy Nelson outfit
complete will coke bottle thick glasses.

Gordon, et. al.

So True

Spokesman Review
November 17, 2009
Paul Turner Column
I quote:


Saying the right thing
An extended family group was at a South Hill veterrinary clinic.  A beloved short-haired retriever was going to be put down, and everyone felt the way you would expect in that moment.

"I wonder if dogs go to heaven," said Jean Hamacher, softly thinking out loud.

The vet had an answer.  She said, "It wouldn't be heaven if they weren't there."

So true.  So aptly put.  Moose and I turned 70 this year.  We're still living the moment.  He's taught me a lot about the really important things in life, i.e. being petted and having our ears scratched!  And ~ being appreciative!

Hugs,

Gordon/et.al.

Montana turkey hunt

Taken on a recent trip to Mike's place in Absarokee.  A Montana turkey hunt.

For my non-Montana native friends, this is all in jest.  Mike wouldn't let me shoot em ~ something about family.  :-)

Gordon et. al.

Cost of College Education

Quote from "The New York Times, Sunday, November 8, 2009 edition",

Prime Number
58
THE NUMBER OF PRIVATE COLLEGES THAT NOW CHARGE AT LEAST $50,000 a year for tuition, fees, room and board, according to the The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Last year, only five colleges charged that much.  Generous aid packages mean many students pay far less, the Chronicle noted.  Even so, the cost of a college education has grown much faster than the costs of other goods and services--up 4.3 percent this year at private colleges and 5.9 percent for instate students at public schools.

$200,000 for a four year degree!  The private colleges have the ability to quickly raise tuition to keep pace with the rising costs.  The public institutions do not have this ability.  Tuition increases have to be passed by state legislators who in turn are justifiably pressured by their constituents to keep the costs of a university education down.  Revenue measures aside, the cost of a university education is simply becoming too high for the middle class.  I suspect this is just another reflection of the widening gap between our middle class and the upper class (as measured by income levels).   Where will this all end?

I was recently asked to attend a meeting of Eastern Washington University officials and representatives for the Spokane area accounting profession to discuss the funding of an endowed chair of accounting that I occupied the last six years of my academic career.  Simply put, the endowment for the chair is not generating enough funds in the present economic environment.  As I sat at the conference table I learned that the full  time accounting faculty at EWU now total five.  Our department totaled 12 during it's prime approximately fifteen years ago.  I learned that they are currently recruiting two additional full time qualified faculty members.  How much does a new Ph.D. in accounting with no teaching experience get I innocently asked.  $150,000 per year plus benefits, if you can find one,  I was told.  Accreditation standards require that approximately 60% of the faculty have a PhD.  The numbers dictate that the recruits have PhD's.  Yet given that they were able to find two additional faculty who were PhD qualified, the department would still be seriously understaffed. Student enrollments in accounting have not declined significantly in the last 15 years.  Salaries have approximately trebled during this same period of time.  Now couple this with the fact that salaries make up approximately 90% of an academic department budget,  a history of budget contractions, recent budget cuts approaching 18%, and upcoming budgets cuts and you have a formula for disaster.  Actually, the disaster has arrived for the accounting major at Eastern Washington University.  By the way the "non-academic" side of the typical university has encountered even larger budget cuts than the academic side.

So what's my point?  Well I need to explain further.  When I occupied the E. Claire Daniels chair of accounting the funded chair allowed the accounting department to do some special incremental things; mainly, provide a dedicated faculty member (me) to provide a needed interaction/interface with the professional accounting community, both public accountants and private accountants.  It was "in addition" to what the University (State) provided (funded).  The endowed chair allowed us to provide a unique experience for the students and faculty alike ~ a "high profile" for the department in  the professional accounting community.

My "take" on the meeting I mentioned above indicated to me that now  the endowment is viewed by the university administration as a supplement to state funding, not incremental funding to enable the accounting department to get that little extra boast toward excellence.  The University appears not willing or unable to fund the department at its most basic level.  If the University is going to develop a model that relies on private endowments to fund the basic funding model, it isn't going to be without  "strings".   It is a slippery slope the university is approaching.   We are rapidly approaching the model that I discussed in a previous blog where the private sector will provide the technical training and the state will provide the liberal arts education ~  not a good model in my view.  And, I feel uncomfortable representing my university in an interaction with the accounting community as a result.

I am conflicted.  As a liberal, I appreciate and expect change ~ make it better and more reflective of our society.  As a "blue-dog" democrat with a conservative leaning, however, I realize that change does not automatically equate to "good" or even needed.  I am reminded of the recent financial mess in which we found (and find) ourselves.  There were good reasons why certain laws were passed in the 1930's.  Changing those laws in the name of "increased competition and efficiency" really turned out to be corporate greed and the restriction of competition though "largeness".  In my view, most of the changes were short sighted and stupid ~ period!  Maybe we should enact a law that makes greed and stupidity illegal !  :-)

We don't need to change the basic structure of higher education.  We need to support it and reinforce it.  And, most importantly, we need to keep it affordable to the populace.  How we do this is what troubles me this morning as I drink my coffee.  Society does not seem willing, let alone able,  to support higher education.

My contribution to "soup stirring" for the week!.  Other than that things are fine here on the shores of Lake Wo-be-Gone.

Gordon, et. al.

Oh Oh

I screwed up.  For the past two posts I've referred to the Brannen Ranch and the B4 as being the same ranch.  They are not the same ranch.  The B4 ranch is in Wyoming at the head of the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone river near Cooke City, Montana.  It was/is strictly a dude ranch, one that our family visited a couple of times during the fifties.  My Dad was a friend of the then manager of the ranch.  I seem to recall that the couple that ran the ranch were friends of my parents while they were all members of the Dude Ranchers' Association.

I honestly do not recall the brand of the Brannen ranch.  I think my confusion came from the four Brannen brothers hence the B4.  But it wasn't so nor is it now!  There were four Brannen brothers, however.  I do remember that we just called it the Brannen ranch or place.

Rack it up to an old man's memory! :-)  But at least I eventually remembered.  Just a little late!!

• 11/9/09 edit.  Now, Candy tells me that I have been misspelling Kinsfather.  It doesn't have a d like I have been using!  Also I now think Brannen may have been spelled Brennan. ;-)  I am getting into an area where my poor spelling is interacting with my poor memory ~ a deadly combination!  Faint heart never won fair lady.  I am charging forward anyway.  :-)
• On another note, it is the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River that runs from Cooke City through a corner of Wyoming and finally into the Yellowstone River at Laurel, Montana.  The Clark Fork river that runs through western Montana has no apostrophe s ~ that I know.  For years my Spokane fishing buddies would correct me when I said the Clark's Fork when I would refer to the Clark fork River that runs through St. Reggis.  The Clark Fork River of my youth had an apostrophe S.
• I just googled the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River.  The results showed no apostrophe just Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone.  Wouldn't you think it should have an apostrophe?  There was only one Clark of Lewis and Clark fame.  It's not like there was more than one Clark.  And, if it is his fork it needs an apostrophe S!  Crap.  Now I'm thinking who gives a rat's ass?!  Haaaaaaaaa
  
• Gawd, life gets complicated!  But--fun.
  
• It ain't easy being compulsive!
  

Gordon et.al.

Preceptions of Time - Connections

The West Rosebud River Valley

The Fishtail Creek Drainage comes in at Fishtail, Montana

This is the area I call Home - Absarokee Country - Stillwater County
Crow country

We celebrated Jennie's birthday yesterday by watching Kimmy play basketball and then having  a Grandma Rose dinner here at the house.  I was showing them the post on the Brennan Ranch and talking about how it was then. A thought occurred to me after they had left last night for home.  I was discussing with them events that occurred 55 years ago .  My grandson Brandon is 10 years old.  As a way of comparison to my perception of time, I made the following calculations: a) when I was 10 years old the year was 1948. b) if my grandfathers (both of whom I never knew) had discussed with me at age 10 events occurring 55 years previous c) we would have been discussing events occurring in approximately 1893!  I know nothing of my grandfather Fredrick Chapman.  My grandfather John Kinsfather would have been approximately 68 years old.  55  years previous to 1948, he would have been 13 so he could well have remembered events occurring in 1893.  I wish I would have had this connection with my grandfathers and their life stories.  I wonder if my grandchildren will grow to appreciate this connection with the past. On the other hand, is it no wonder that we often times  mis-communicate with our children and grandchildren? 

When Mike and I visited the Brennan Ranch we stopped at the ranch just down the Sweet Grass  valley from the Brannen place to obtain the key to the next gate so we could continue on up the valley to the ranch.  I happened to be a classmate of the granddaughter of the owner of the ranch so I was able to strike up a "meaningful" conversation with the woman who was the "guardian of the gate".  At one point in the conversation I asked "how long has your family been on this ranch?"  She replied, "since 1883 ."   ~ that's 6 years before Montana statehood. She also noted to me that the four Brennan boys had trailed their stock including the angora goats up from New Mexico running from a range war.  She noted that this had occurred  after her husband's family had settled on their ranch.  She was proud to note that their ranch had never changed family ownership since it's inception and that the Brannen place had changed ownership only once - and that her son was married to the daughter who had inherited the place from Spike VanCleve.

I love stories.  They help to explain who we are and how we got here ~ as a person, as a society, as a Montana, as a nation, etc.  As a Montanan my "story" has always been influenced by the "land".  I was reminded of this once again on my trip back home.  The mountains of Montana are my cathedral. Western authors write about this sense of place Montanans, in particular, seem to have.  I understand.

Gordon, et.al.

Memories ~ Brannen Ranch

The Crazy Mountains as viewed from afar.
Where the plains roll into the Rocky Mountain Front
Northwest of Absarokee, Montana

One of my most bitter sweet memories is of my Dad's failed attempt to purchase the B4 ranch in Melville, Montana in about 1954. We were about four years out from the Pitchfork Dude Ranch and the financial disaster of that adventure. I was about fourteen years of age. Dad was slowly recovering from near bankruptcy by working three jobs at once. in Billings, Montana. He worked as a sales person for Bob's Sporting Goods, a sales person for the Cherrio Liquor Store and in some capacity for the Northern Pacific Railroad. During this time, he had been in constant contact with a guest from the Pitchfork ranch. This guest who owned a tool and die company in the Rockford, Illinois area was going to back Dad in purchasing a ranch once Dad was back on his feet. Dad researched ranches during this time and decided on the B4 ranch ~ a ranch that was located in the upper Sweet Grass valley of the Crazy Mountains.

Dad had learned the principle of diversification through the hard knocks of experience. The Pitchfork Ranch had one source of income, i.e. the dude business (including guiding). The B4 had several; a cattle operation, a dude operation, angora goats, a mink farm, and raising trout for the Montana fish and game department. The ranch was being operated by the four Brannen Brothers and each apparently had some responsibility for raising money for the ranch. While operating all aspects of the ranch Dad was going to concentrate on the cattle and dude aspects. Unfortunately for Dad, his Illinois contact backed out at the last minute and Dad could not come up with the needed capital on his own. The total sales price of the ranch excluding the cattle was $64,000. You could not purchase a home in Big Timber, Montana for that amount now. Dad and I were devastated; not my mother, however, as the location of the ranch was very remote. She viewed herself as a city girl at that point in her life and wanted nothing to do with ranch life. Ironically, Dad's next business venture was the operating manager of the 4K dude ranch coupled with owning a dairy farm ~ a sink-hole of work combination!

As I was driving over to visit with Mike last week I passed through Big Timber and marveled at the Crazy Mountains off to the North of the Yellowstone river. The upper elevatons had had snow and were absolutely stunning. I vowed to return to the Brennan Ranch on this trip home. Mike and I made the trip the following Thursday. Following are some pictures that I took on the visit to the upper sweet grass creek and the Brannen Ranch. I was awestruck and my heart was filled with a longing for "what could have been" had the "deal gone through". This country makes the Grand Tetons of Wyoming look like just "some more mountains" in comparison.

So I sit here drinking my morning coffee wondering how would my life have been different if the gentleman from Illinois could have "come through" with the financing for Dad. You can not spend a great deal of time looking back at "what ifs", it's not very productive ~ but none the less................................

Gordon, et. al.

p.s. For very interesting reasons the ranch has not changed very much in the last 55 years. The only thing I could not find was the mink farm. The woods within which the buildings and cages set had been clear cut; the buildings, cages, and timber were all gone!  ;-(   Oh, yes, the goats weren't there either! Follows is a slide show of more pictures of the ranch.