Rick Binkley [Excerpts from emails written to Scott in early 2001]
It's kinda funny, but I was just telling a good friend of mine of how much I missed sitting under the big ole cottonwood, drinking iced tea, and listening to Willis Green tell mule skinner stories. Willis and Lucille lived across the creek from us for quite a few years, and were a big part of the Okobojo family in that time. I was their designated goat milker when they were away for any length of time, in fact, I always looked forward to the wages that I would earn from covering their chores, as it afforded me more quarters to feed into the pool table at the Blue Lantern Tavern, located in Onida. My entire childhood revolved around the Okobojo creek. It consisted of either fishing, swimming, skiing,trapping, ice-skating, or hunting along that creekbank. It was a great place for a kid to grow up.
Got a chance to read George's recollections on your page
and found it very interesting. I enjoyed his tour of the house,
(as well as the trip to the outhouse)! It never ceases to amaze me
how quickly things change, and how much of this change his and my
grand-parents generation witnessed in their lifetime. Between
George's description of the township and their home place, and my own
recollections of playing in the area of the old store, post office, and
"The Hall" as we called it, my mind's eye had a ball, as the
memories came flooding in.
My dad's father Arlos, and mother Genevieve (Eldridge) Binkley were the first of their clan to settle in the valley. They moved up from south of Ft. Pierre. You mentioned your father living across the road from my family, which I believe may be the same place that Willis and Lucille lived for a while. Which is the same place that Johnny Glessner, (Hal's son?), lived for a period of time. He had a son my age whose was named Hal. Once you've lived in the valley, you never really ever leave. There isn't a day that goes by in my life, that I don't recall something from my past in the valley. It might be the simplicity of life that I seem to miss the most.
Hal Glessner, George Green and my grandfather Arlos
Binkley used to put up hay together as well as pooling their resources
at harvest time. Gramps and Hal apparently combined
(harvested) their crops together, then Gramps would harvest some of
the neighbors crops - (Garrett, Grossclose, Zimmerman), right up until
the snow flew if you included the corn crops. Arlos brought his
family to the area from south of Ft. Pierre in 1942. He bought the
place from George Bunch, who I believe was married to Ross Green's
sister, Flossy, (who worked at the telephone office, which was housed in
the place located on the corner just southwest of the city hall).
I guess that would be due west of the store and post office, (and I
suppose, the printing office that George wrote about).
Dad mentioned the store was operated
by a man named Alex McGannon when my dad was going to school
there. He said that soda cost a nickel for a long time, and he
suffered through somewhat of a "soda drought", when the price
went up to 6 cents, as his mother Genevieve felt that that price was
outlandish! She was laying out $2.79 for a pair of shoes back
then, so it must have been hard to budget that extra penny for soda pop.
Getting back to Willis, I noticed your mention of the
bunkhouse, when describing your father (Billy)?, and grandpa's visits
back to Okobojo. That was one of Willis' rituals when the weather
started getting cold. He had an old wood burning stove in the room
behind the garage, and he stoked it up every morning while he was doing
his chores. By the time dad and us kids, (my brother Marlin
and I), showed up, he had the cowboy coffee on the stove, and the room
was comfortably warm. My brother was just old enough to hang with
dad and I, maybe 4 yrs., and we would bundle him up in his parka, bib
overalls, and checkered scotch cap, with his 4 buckle overshoes, and
head across the creek to get our morning coffee at Willis'. Willis
got such a kick out of a 4 yr. old taking to coffee, that he gave Marlin
the handle "Mr. McGregor", after the character in Maxwell
house coffee commercials in the '60s. I'm getting a chuckle out of
this stuff, so bear with me.
My dad mentioned Billy, but didn't have many memories of
him. What he did mention was that he was a very bright fellow, and
went on to become an engineer or something? I wonder if there is
any correlation between his IQ and the fact that he left Okobojo!!! LOL
My grandparents moved to Pierre in '56, although he and
my father were partners in the place, up until he died in '86. I
feel very fortunate to be one of those kids that got to work with my
gramps. When we harvested, he operated one combine, (an Oliver
model #35), and I ran the other, ( a Massey Harris model #32 ). My
dad was in charge of the grain trucks and elevators. Our grain
trucks consisted of a "46, one ton Ford, and a '48, 2 ton
Chevy. I remember grinding many gears in that old Ford, as it had
no sychros in the transmission. Between the two of us, we kept dad
hopping, as he hauled and we cut. We had umbrella, holders welded
to the platform of the machines, so we had shade most of the time,
(except in early morning, or late in the afternoon), so we tolerated the
heat. It was the chaff that I irritated me alot. Enclosed
cabs and air conditioners were just beginning to catch on, and most
of the custom wheat cutters had them on their machines.( I
remember thinking that those sonsabitches didn't deserve cabs
any more than I did, and I was pretty envious of their
situation. When we were finished cutting for the season, I
took solace in the fact that they were still working up north, while I
was getting ready for the county fair)! While I sat and scratched
every itch that I could reach, I would glance at gramps in his chino
pants and long sleeved chino shirt, (buttoned to the top, with a bandana
tied around the collar), enjoying a hot cup of coffee in 100 deg. plus
weather!! This picture just didn't look right to me, but
I don't ever remember the heat ever getting to him. He was in his
element whatever he may be doing, if it pertained to farming or
ranching.
the okobojo creek used to have loads of beaver in
it. i can remember a hut of mud and branches just west of the
bridge where the creek turns north. many muskrat too. i
dabbled a little in the trapping bidness, but never enough to show much
for my time. my dad and uncle ken used to trap alot of skunks to
earn extra spending money. he loves to speak of the times that the
teacher had to send them home, owing to their odoriferous conditions
from emptying their traps before school! my favorite times were
hunting rabbit and pheasant along the creek. i guess the spot just
west of the bridge on our driveway used to attract alot of people from
town interested in catching bullheads ( and the occasional pike, in the
spring of the year, when the creek was running). did you get to
see the spillway just up the creek from Jack Finley? We used to
pull a few good size fish out of the pool below it, as well as snapping
turtle.
we did our share of water skiing on
the lake. in fact dad used to put our little boat in right next to
the house, and we could ski the creek from the house to the
spillway. my dad is still telling the story of a particularly wide
turn that i made around one of the bends of the creek as we were coming
home from the lake. we were running out of daylight and he had the
hammer down. between the poor visibility, the speed, and my
recklessly wide turn, it made it impossible for me to veer away from our
bunch of cattle, who had waded out into the water to escape the
flies. dad only remembers feeling a tug on the boat and looking
back to see something that resembled helicopter blades flying through
the air as i had skied over the back of an old Hereford cow, and did my
impersonation of (the agony of defeat), only ABC was nowhere in
sight! it was the same with turtles all the time. if a
person stayed inside the boats wake, they were safe, but that can be
kind of boring.
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