Childhood memories of Play, Work, and Mischief

There always seemed to be plenty of things to do growing up.  We had work to do but time to play also.  My grandmother, Sylvia Rayda Eskelson Hayes,  shared some of her memories with me.

Sylvia was born and raised in Francis, Summit County, Utah.  She was born on the 1st of July in 1901 to Melissa Orilla Fraughton Eskelson and Oscar Eskelson.  She was the twelveth child of a family of thirteen.

Her home consisted of one hundred and sixty acres of land with a small lumber home on it consisting of four rooms.  Later on another room was added on connecting a large rock cellar with the house.  The rock cellar was a lovely place to store the provisions and her father had put a cement floor in it along with shelves so they could store their flour, rice, beans, fruits, meats and sugar.  She remembered seeing large sacks of food preparatory for feeding their family through the winter.

Her parents homesteaded this land so it was their task to clear the land of rocks and sagebrush.  It took them many years to do it because the only equipment they had consisted of a wagon and a team of horses.  They worked hard to provide a nice home for their children.  In a few years they had the ground producing and they had a herd of dairy cows, which was their means of making a living.

Her parents never turned anyone away even though their home was small.  They always said, "If there was heart room, there was house room."

Their house was nestled among the many trees that provided shade and fruit to eat.    Oh how she loved thinking about all the years she spent romping through the green meadows picking the wild flowers.  Her father provided them with swings, merry-go-rounds and basketball standards and it seemed everything a child's heart could desire.  They had wonderful picnics on tables under the trees and her mother's flower gardens were a mass of blooms during the summer months.  They had sparkling clear water from a spring that ran through their lot which seem to beckon them to come and enjoy its hospitality.

Sylvia said, "I can still see the old cheese press father made, where they pressed hundreds of pounds of cheese and the big yellow churn that on all four legs with a huge mouth in the top that always seemed to say, "More cream, please!"  "Father would take his five gallon cans of cream and pour it into the churn, close it's big mouth and turn the wheels at the end.  Soon we would have lovely yellow butter ready for mother to press, wrap, and store in crystal clear ice for father to take to Park City and sell."

"The first and only slap I ever got from Father was when I was supposed to wash the cream separator immediately after they had separated with it but instead I had gone out to play and forgot about it.  Soon it was time to do it again.  When Father came in the milk house, there I was rushing my crazy little head off to get through before he saw me.

But no such luck, he just took one look at me and said, "Didn't you wash that this morning?"

At that I turned and said, "Well, you don't need to get frustrated, do you?"

I think it took father by surprise to think I had been sassy to him.  He just let his hand fly and slapped me on the face.  I don't know who was the most surprised, him or me or who felt the worst.  At any rate I never ventured to be impudent to father again.

Who said, "Slivers?"

As children we played great games and one of the funnest memories I have was sliding down Aunt Mira's barn onto a pile of straw.   We had worn one board slick and we called it our slickery board.  We were always speaking for the first turn because it was so much fun except for this particular day.  Because I was the youngest, they decided to let me go down first.  I sat on the wrong board and came down.   

Did you say slivers?  I had them !!!

Uncle Dan in his jovial way said, "Why girl it looks like you have been riding a porky pine."  But nothing stopped the flow of tears as mother and father dug for slivers.

Easter Eggs

"Oh Cleo, do you remember the time we used to hide eggs for Easter?  We were watching for the hens to lay so we could get them.  First, you saw an old hen go into the chicken coop.  You sat on the haystack until she came out so you could get the egg but I beat you to it.  

You started yelling, "Sylvia, that's mine, I saw that hen go in there first."

My Cat

"Cleo do you remember the time you and Bill Mitchell turpentined my cat and it ran and chased me down the path.  Father was walking toward the house and I ran and climbed up in his arms.  Father thought the cat was taking fits and he was going to take it away until you and Bill confessed to him what you had done.  For shame on two little boys!"

People in story above:

• Sylvia Rayda Eskelson Hayes b. 1 July 1901, Francis, Utah; d. 2 October 1971, American Fork, Utah
• Cleamond Eskelson (brother) b. 8 October 1898, Francis, Utah; d. 16 April 1981, Tucson, Arizona
• Oscar Eskelson (father) b. 26 April 1858, Florence, Douglas, Nebraska; d. 2 March 1935, Francis, Summit, Utah
• Melissa Orilla Fraughton Eskelson (mother) b. 18 December 1862, Heber City, Utah; d. 7 June 1913, Francis, Utah
• Uncle Dan? probably  Daniel Judd Mitchell b. 18 January 1853, Salt Lake City, Utah; d. 6 September 1932, Hayden, Uintah, Utah
• Aunt Mira probably Almyra Adelade Fraughton Mitchell b. 2 Feb 1859, Provo, Utah; d. 28 February 1920, Roosevelt, Duchesne, Utah
• Daniel Mitchell and Almyra Adelade Fraughter were married to each other and Almyra is the sister to Sylvia's mother.

Who killed the Red Rooster?

Have you ever done something wrong and tried to hide what you had done?   How did that turn out for you?    I asked my grandmother, Sylvia Rayda Eskelson Hayes, to tell me about her memories of growing up.  This one of the stories that she told me.  She was laughing when she told it to me.  Do you think you would be laughing too?   This story is about her brother, Oral.

"We had an old red rooster.  He was a vicious old fellow because he loved chasing and flying at us every chance he got.  This one day he had attacked Oral by coming at him with his wings just a flapping.

Oral was young, I think about six but he could flip his flipper as straight as an arrow.  So in haste he pulled back and let the rooster have it in the head.   Sure enough it toppled over dead.  He felt really bad because he had killed mother's rooster.  He felt sure there would be a scolding for him.

So he racked his young brain trying to find an easy way to let mother know the rooster was dead.  Finally he hit on an idea.  He rolled a big rock on the head of the rooster and came running into the house to find mother.   He told her that a big rock had fallen out of the sky right on old Reddies head, as we called him, killing him dead.

We all rushed out to see what had happened.  Sure enough there was a rock on his head.  Mother and father studied the situation over very carefully but said nothing.

In a few days, mother's chance came.  She casually talked things over with Oral.  She sat him on her lap and holding him in her arms she said, "Son, if someone were to give you a quarter, do you think you could guess how the rooster got killed?"

"Oh, yes!"  said Oral.  "I shot him with my flipper."

"How did the rock get on his head?" asked mother.

"Mama, I put it there."

Mother always had a way of getting us to tell the truth by her sweet kind way of handling situations as they arose rather than through fear.  By this method, I am sure it instilled in our young hearts such love and admiration for her.  We had no desire to tell falsehoods to keep from being punished.

People in the above story:

• Oral James Eskelson b. 4 March 1904, Francis, Summit, Utah; d. 7 January 1989, American Fork, Utah, Utah
• Oscar Eskelson (father) b. 26 April 1858, Florence, Douglas, Nebraska; d. 2 March 1935, Francis, Summit, Utah
• Melissa Orilla Fraughton Eskelson(mother) b. 18 December 1862, Hebert City, Wasatch, Utah; d. 7 June 1913, Francis, Summit, Utah
• Sylvia Rayda Eskelson Hayes (sister, who told the story) b. 1 July 1901, Francis, Summit, Utah; d. 2 October 1971, American Fork, Utah, Utah