Pioneer Families

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JESSE VILLARREAL

 

The roads were narrow and without the safety shoulders of our modern times. Hour upon hour and day upon day, the humming of the engine became endless. We covered many miles of different types of terrain, hills and valleys, open land with little or no vegetations until we cross over the mountains of the great northwest. Snow still covered most of the area but now we saw trees taller than I had ever seen before and everything was green.

Claudio kept telling the families in the seven different trucks and cars in the caravan that we would be arriving at our destination in a few hours.  A few more hours were like another few more days.  Finally, the snow covered area was over but now it was rain that pounded our heads until we reached St. Paul, Oregon.

We finally got to the area that we had been traveling for so long to reach.  The three brand new small cabins that were build for our use were better than anything we had seen at the two other labor camps we were at in Montana or Illinois.  Each of the cabins was the living quarters for two families.  The third had a common laundry and shower room for all to use.  The farm where we would be working belonged to Mr. Ed Davidson.  This man of small stature was the hardest and fastest worker I had ever seen.  I had never seen a field with only wood post several feet high with wire strung all over the place with just a few vines coming up from the ground, called "hops".  Strange looking field.

 

For some unknown reason, the adventure sounded more exciting. If dad or mom had any concerns, I was not award. Since I had discovered "girls" I was more concern as to who was going and who I was going to ask to wait for my return. The sad "goodbyes" were quickly replaced by the "good news of who is going". The other good news was that I was now going to be riding in front with dad and not in the back covered with a thick dark tarp able to only look backwards. I had only been able to see where we were coming from on the other two trips, but now I was going to see where we were going. That was exciting!

Of course, after one day and one night and another day and another night, nonstop, except for gas, a small loft of bread, cheese and bologna and a quart of milk, things got pretty boring. Dad did not allow me to drive. I guess he was still upset because I wrecked the first truck we had. This went on until we got to the state of Colorado, which seem like an eternity. We finally stop for a few hours sleep. We woke up to see a few inches of snow on the ground and very cold. This only slowed our travel speed; we had been doing about forty-five or fifty when going downhill and now the weather made us drive with more caution. Freeways or Express ways were not developed yet.

 

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