Good Morning!
Where is everyone..? Not much activity here on Kirby's message board.
Are you all snowed in and busy reading or what?
WHAT IS YOUR HOMETOWN FAMOUS FOR ???????
We finally have enough snow here to give the farmers hope for irrigation water next summer. It takes a lot of water to fill out the potato tubers that made Blackfoot the Potato Capital of the world.
The weather here in South East Idaho has been up and down with temps hovering around the zero mark. Main roads were snow covered but most have melted off or highway department has removed enough snow to allow traffic to wear away the remaining layer.
The local used book store building has been purchased by someone that wants to use the building for their own business, so the book exchange is going out of business. I'll have to find another place to get my reading material. I might even have to get a library card. But that means I have to get the books back to them within a couple of weeks.
I can read a book (depending on the number of pages) in a few days or a week but I hate makeing a trip to town just to trade one or two books.
Gina are you froze up? I see that the COLD is pretty intense in your neck of the woods.
Come on folks jump in here and leave a message. ANY NEW READERS ???????? Your ALL welcome here ya know..........................
Hey Mule
I use the library all the time. Most of the books are
checked out for a month, except for brand new or special order books. Also there is not limit on the number of books you can check out at any one time.
What is my home town famous for.........nothing:)
Actually they have a tourist site call Carhenge made
as a joke on England's Stonehenge, only with well cars. I read in the paper recently that they actually received a federal grant to help with the up keep. Good to know your tax dollars are working :0)
What is Mahopac famous for? Why, Indians, of course! Legend has it, an indian brave had just traded some goods with the white settlers, one thing of which was cigarettes. As he got in his canoe to cross Lake Mahopac, his carton fell out of his pocket into the water and he exclaimed, "Damn, dropped ma ho pack!" Hence the birth of our town. It's true! Well, that's the story that everyone around here tells.
A few years ago, there was an "offical" vote on how to pronounce the name of our town. Almost every single person in New Yawk calls it Mayopack. But, a stikin' few pronounce it like you all probably do - like it sounds. Believe it or not, the minority won! But it doesn't matter, because every single person still pronounces it Mayopack.
Mahopac is actually a hamlet in the town of Carmel. I don't know what happened to the indians, but I heard they were a peaceful tribe and they just sorta moved on and dispersed when white settlement around the lake started in the 1800's as a vacation resort for wealthy city people. A train used to run through here, but not any more, or they'd take a steam boat up the Hudson to get here. There used to be gorgeous, oppulent hotels all around the lake, and unbelievably, almost every single one were lost in fires. The old pictures of them are beautiful. This was also an iron ore mining town, and when the mines were depleted, operations ceased, and there was no longer need for the train stop. Now it's a blue collar town.
Oh yeah, Mule, you're right. It's SOOO cccccold here! Guy knows - he's getting the same weather we've got. It's bitter, freezing, frigid, biting, painfully cold. Brrrrrr. I dread getting my oil bill next month!
Hey Mule, what happened to the Packers?! They blew it! Oh well, as someone once said...(you - I believe it was back in October..) there's always next year. (Sound familiar?) Don't worry, my Giants blew it a long time ago.
My son is about to lose his first tooth, and my girlfriend tells me the toothfairy gives $5 for the first tooth and a dollar for every one thereafter. I only got a quarter back in 1971. (Yeah, yeah, go ahead, say it - I'm OLD!) So, what is the going rate for teeth these days? Anybody know? At five bucks a pop, I'm gonna start pulling mine!
Good Morning.
Looks like ya all woke up again or maybe just headed past on your way to get another something to read.
Anyway..... Glad you checked in.
BLACKFOOT,IDAHO is down in the toe of the boot of Idaho.
One of the claims to fame besides all those Idaho potatos is it's MAIN STREET.
Supposedly it has the WIDEST MAIN STREET in the continental USA.
Main Street runs approximately North/South through Blackfoot. Down the CENTER is a set of rail road tracks. This was the end of the line for freight headed to the mines out on the Salmon River or up in Montana at Virginia City and Alder Gulch. It was built by thr Oregon Shortline RR. It was extended after a couple of years to Eagle Rock (now called Idaho Falls)then on up to Butte, Montana.
It is now part of the Union Pacific rail road system.
Any way think about the RR tracks as being in the alleyway of a LARGE city block. (350 feet X 350 feet)
Then on either side of this block on the East and West is a Main street at 100 feet wide. Thats almost two football fields wide.
The wide streets were so that six and eight horse frieght teams could turn around and get the wagons next to the freight warehouses.
Unless some one knows of others I think there are only two towns named Blackfoot.
There are two Blackfoot Rivers. One here in South East Idaho, and another one in Montana near Missoula.
I guess this really doesn't mean anything to anybody outside of Blackfoot but I think things like this are interesting.
My mind is full of trivia that will never win me any money.
The Country Western Singing Group "Lone Star" sings a song called "when cowboys didn't dance" One of the lines is something like ( the cowboys are trailing cattle North out of Texas) .......
"Across the plains of Texas and the Colorado snow, Final destination BLACKFOOT, IDAHO."
AND don't forget the Setting for the GREAT Kirby Jonas book "Lady Winchester" is Blackfoot, Idaho...
Hey Gina,
Guess I forgot to mention the town.........Alliance,
Nebraska. It's near the South Dakota border and the
Pine Ridge Reservation where the movie Dream Talkers
started.
I have no idea what the going rate for teeth is but no way I'd pay $5. I think even a $1 is too much but
with inflation etc :)
That's funny, Linda. My son asked how much the tooth fairy is gonna give him, and I said, "oh, I dunno, maybe a dollar". Then he got all excited and said, "Or maybe fifty cents!" I told him that a dollar is more than fifty cents, but I'm not sure he gets it. Kids are funny. You shoulda seen the look on his face when Rich teased him that he doesn't think the tooth fairy gives money any more.
So, I guess you don't consider Pocatello to be your home town. How long have you lived there? I was born in the Bronx, but moved before I was two, so I don't consider that home. Except for Yankee Stadium :)
39 days till spring training!
Wow, Mule, those are some wide streets you're talking about! Maybe someday we'll get to check them out.
Gina,
I'd guess you say Pocatello is my home but Alliance is my hometown, although I wouldn't want to move back.
It is way to small even compared to Pocatello. Only
about 6,000 people, varies depending on the railroad.
I'm new around here. Just thought I'd drop by to say hey. My hometown is famous for its crabcakes. Right now I'm livin' in the Sunshine State...where it's rainin' and turning cold. Why it might dip all the way down to 39 degrees.
Hope you become more than just a one time poster here.
We are all fans of Kirby's so join in.
MULE
In South East Idaho where the spuds are all fresh frozen for the past few weeks........
I grew up in Garden City, MI, which had the world's first K-Mart. I consider myself an adopted Oregonian -- we spent 20 years there before my husband got a job offer he couldn't refuse and we are now freezing our tushes near Chicago, IL. We raised two adopted sons and the youngest one tells me I am going to be a grandmother in May.
I grew up with television Westerns, and I sometimes wonder why I stuck with the genre since women were always expendable. It took a damn sight of guts for a woman to survive in the West (just being female was hard in those days, wherever she lived!). I thoroughly enjoyed "Lady Winchester" and expect to order another book on tape as soon as I balance the checkbook. I am impressed with Kirby's obviously detailed research. One of my old trail buddies comes from an old Blackfoot family (did I hear something about Chaffin's Saloon?) and I miss the time we spent riding some of the Appaloosa rides. This part of the country is too darn flat! I MISS THE MOUNTAINS!
Hi Anon,
Welcome to Kirby's message board. Stop by again.
What other books of Kirby's have read or listened to?
My favorite has always been Death of an Eagle but I enjoyed them all.
Hi Anon.
Welcome aboard to you. Last summer, I read a book about the hardships women endured in the old days - pioneers, European immigrants, etc. It was extremely brutal. I also visited a museum that had an exhibit about how extremely difficult it was for women, and it reiterated what I had read. One interesting thing I didn't know, though, was that women out west were given the right to vote years before their eastern counterparts. I want to research that a little further. Maybe Kirby knows and can shed some light on it.
Hey, don't be shy around us! You can post your name. Hope to see you again soon. What happened to Chantry?
Mule, how did you like the movie?
As far as I know, Wyoming was the only state to grant women the vote before the rest of the country followed suit in the 1920's.
If I could make a living as a historian, I wouldn't be working in medical records! Yes, life was hard -- for everyone. Medical care was pretty rudimentary. You were considered old if you hit 50, and 60 was downright elderly! A lot of women died in childbirth or resulting infections. People had three or four different spouses during their lifetime just because men died in accidents, women died in childbirth and everybody died of infections. The major causes of death during the wagon train era were infections and accidents, particularly open fractures where someone got run over by a wagon wheel. So Katherine Winchester wasn't that unusual, having had four husbands.
I'd better break off here and go to work, make the bank happy!
Good Morning !!
Welcome to Kirbys Message Board.
I see in your message a referance to a friend from Blackfoot? and Chaffins Saloon ?
Well I have been around Blackfoot for just shy of 60 years and it must have been befor my time. I didn't ever get kicked out of that one.
Yes I fully agree that women were an overlooked partner in many of the frontier ranches and farms. Without them a man would have had to have hired another helper to do the cooking, laundry, and small chores such as gardening, feeding chickens, maybe even the money matters.
But it was easyer to marry one.......... {:-o)
My friend Bert Chaffin grew up near Blackfoot. His people raised Shire draft horses and were general horse dealers. I got to thinking about that reference to Chaffin's Saloon -- it was in another book -- and since Bert's people were devout Mormons, I doubt they would have anything to do with such an establishment.
I met Bert on a Pendleton Wagon Train something like 20 years ago. He helped us with our county 4-H wagon trains and when I started going to the Chief Joseph and other Appaloosa Club rides, he came along to help drive the rig -- and started riding right along with us. Bert retired from teaching after 30 years and now has a second career as a draft horse and mule judge. I sure miss the ornery old fart! Many's the time we stayed at his family's place on our way to a ride somewhere. One of his nephews still works as a teamster for the Budweiser people.
APPYK,
Welcome to the small world.
My Father "Guy R. Mangum" and Bert Chaffins father "Alma Chaffin" were cousins.
I have traveled with Berts sister Evonna Hammon, for over 20 years helping with their Shire horses. I have known Bert since I was a youngster. He useually comes over to Blackfoot at least once a year for his birthday.
Bert And I have enjoyed many good stories togeather and like you, I miss him when i don't get to see him on occaision. I usually see him up at the International Draft horse show in Sandpoint, Idaho each fall.
I wonder if we've met? I helped Hammons at Puallup once for 18 days.
Bert has told me about his trips on the Chief Joseph Trail rides. He said he had driven a wagon a few times for a friend.
His nephew Jerry Hammon is with the West Coast Budwieser traveling hitch. He is in Colorado this week.
And All day yesterday I kept turning over the Chaffin Saloon in my head.
Bert had two cousins (Brothers) Glenn and Lavarr who managed a bar here in Blackfoot. The Darby Club.
I wondered if maybe that was the "Saloon" you were thinking about, I would be interested in reading a book with Chaffins saloon in it. Do you remember the name and author?
One of the larget Shire Horse Farms (at least in the USA) is in Morango, Ill, not very far from Chicago.
Marengo is about 20 miles north of us. We live just north of Maple Park, about 10 miles east of DeKalb.
I thought I heard the Chaffin Saloon mentioned in Kirby's "Legend of the Tumbleweed", which I have on tape.
We still have lots of Appies (far too many) and I bought my husband a Meadowbrook cart for Christmas, so it looks like I have to teach one of these critters to pull it. Paul's been threatening to get a team of Haflingers once I free up a stall or two. Paul often went with Bert to northern Idaho to the draft horse show, so you may have met my husband -- the chubby little dude with the beard.
The Chief Joseph Trail Ride is back in Oregon this summer. It would be a hard three-day haul, but the young lady we took with us last year to Montana is already checking out routes on the Internet. I'd have to take two full weeks off from work. I suspect we will be going through northern Idaho, but if we take I-80, we'd probably be looking for a layover spot in your neighborhood. I keep hoping I can persuade Bert and Marion to meet us in Joseph -- otherwise we will check on them when we go to Oregon in May to meet our first grandchild.