Ruth: Well, I. . . I went to live with Aunt Nettie after my sister Mae died. She—after Grandma Calkins died, Aunt Nettie was very lonesome. Ben and Fred and Joe were all married, and away from home. And so, Aunt Nettie thought I was really pretty smart for my age, and she was going to make a lady out of me, if she possibly could. I was a little hoyden-heathen. And she begged mother to let me go stay with her, and go to school. So I started over there—starting to school with Aunt Nettie. And she was very strict, quite a bit different from what I'd been accustomed to. Ha ha. And the school was nice, and I liked the kids in school-they accepted me. But, um, every morning, one of my duties was to take a ten pound bucket of soapy water and a scrub brush, out to the outhouse. Which everybody—there were no bathrooms, in those days—had outhouses. And I had to scrub that outhouse with the soap—with the soapy water and the scrub brush, every morning without fail. And I thought that was the worst thing that could ever happen to anybody. (Laughs) I really didn't like it! But Old Ulus used to come to Gardner to get his mail. He'd ride down from Medano, you know, down that way—it was much closer than going clear to Blanca or to Mosca. And he always stayed all night at the Waggoner place—that was a. . . part of the routine. So, of course after all the boys left and everything, he still did that. About once a month, he'd come into Gardner, and spend the night in Aunt Nettie's. And she let him sleep on the old couch they had in the living room, which was a. . . folded out in a bed, a wire, metal couch. A she'd-they'd pull it out from the wall, and she'd fold it up, and put a feather bed mattress on it-that was the mattresses we had in those days. And one night he got tangled up. . . He never took his clothing off, ever. He'd. . . ah. . . I don't know whether he did at home or not, but he didn't at other people's places, and he. . . ah. . . the couch tipped over, he got too close to the front edge. Anyway, Aunt Nettie got up and lit the lamp and we went in there, and he'd got tangled up in that feather bed, and just ripped a whole in the mattress. There was feathers all over the place! Oh—Aunt Nettie was so angry at him!
BH: Was he awake?
Ruth: Well, he. . . yeah. . . when the couch tipped over, he found out he was tangled up or something. . . I don't know it happened. But anyway, he. . . we cleaned feathers for a long time. We didn't have vacuum cleaners then, you know.
BH: That would have been a tough one! And did you tell me he always wore a spur. . . ?
Ruth: On his right foot, always. . .
BH: But that was the only one?
Ruth: The only one. He never. . . it was always on his right foot.
BH: Did you find him hard to get along with?
Ruth: Well, he was very friendly with us. We never had any problem with him at all, except one time he ah, brought some meat down, and said he'd had to butcher a steer that had broke a leg, or something, I don't recall what. Anyway, he brought a hunk of meat when he came, and it looked-of course Mother cooked it, and we ate it and thought it was really good. Then he later told us that it was horse meat instead of cow meat. And I thought my brother Harry was going to kill him—he was—oh, he was just so angry.
BH: Now, why did he kill a horse?
Ruth: I have no idea. I think it was probably a horse that had been injured. And a number of people would eat horse meat, but to us, that was just the most absolute horrifying thing in the world.
BH: Now, when he. . . I know he couldn't hear.
Ruth: No, he was stone deaf.
BH: So how did you communicate with him? Did you write things down, or. . . could he read lips?
Ruth: No, he couldn't read lips. I guess people had to write things down. I didn't, as children we didn't. Must have-because he was totally deaf.
BH: Did he shout?
Ruth: Well, he had a very high, squeaky voice. I can remember that.
BH: Uh huh. What other things do you remember about him? What was his place like when you would go up there fishing?
Ruth: (laughs). We went fishing up there when I was fourteen years old. The Denton boys—Tuffy and Charlie, and my brother Ben, this was before my brother Ben, of course, married Cora Denton, my sister. But, ah, Cora and my older sister Gertrude, who was quite a bit like Aunt Nettie in many ways—she was pretty prim and. . . thank heavens! But, we took horseback—all of us went horseback. And ah, Glen and Howard Wellington were with us-my brother Glen and then Howard Wellington. Anyway, we camped down at the. . . about a half-a-mile below old Ulus' place, at the mouth of the creek, because it was a-there was a kind of a little park there-nice camping area. And. . . we fished. Of course, we caught—we ate the fish we caught. It was part of our food. But we just had a really good time—the fishing was good—there was a lot of fish. And Cora and I were fishing one day, up above—we had gone clear up above his cabin, and ah. . . it started raining like fury. So we hurried fast and made it down to old Ulus's place, and he never locked the doors, they were never locked. . .