Photo of Old Chief by Colleen Boyer
BOUNDARY CREEK
By
Lester Ann Hyde Jensen & Marvelle Hyde Noble
We
stayed in Rosemary for four years. Marvelle
was nine, I was five, and Shirley was three months old. Mom and
Dad worked hard but were not getting ahead.
They never had much but they did have 50 head of young cattle. Dad rented a ranch southwest of Cardston in
the Boundary Creek area. They rented the
land and had a five-year lease.
I
vaguely remember the night we arrived at the ranch. It was the spring of 1949 and a howling Chinook
wind welcomed us. When we arrived at the
gate to the ranch the ground was wet, and Dad was worried we would get stuck
before we reached the house. Besides,
the old truck did not have a lot of power and Dad was worried between that and
the load it was carrying, it would not make it to the ranch house. He had already brought our furniture with the
tractor named Rachel and a hay rack.
Dad
announced we would have to walk the rest of the way. “It’s less than half a mile. We can make it.” he assured us. To protect Shirley from the wind, he put her
in a leather shopping bag Mom had made and carried her. Marvelle and I both held mom’s hands tight as
we walked. I had never seen a mountain before and I was in awe of Old Chief
Mountain, looming in the distance.
When we
arrived, Dad built a fire in the stove and went back to the truck to collect
our suitcases. The house was a lot less
than Mom had anticipated, and she sat on the oven door and cried.
By the
time the house had warmed up, Dad returned, and he and mom made up our
beds. We were all very tired and
nervous. The wind was still howling, and
we all took a long time to go to sleep.
Things looked better when the sun came up the
next morning. The Chinook had blown the
wet ground dry, and Dad took us all on a walk and showed us around the
ranch. He told us about the fish we
could catch from the mountain creek, and the hunting he could do in the
area. He even showed us a beaver dam in
the creek and told us how he would have to tear it down so the water could flow
to where the cattle could drink the fresh mountain water
He had pointed out the Boundary Creek School we
had passed as we approached the ranch.
He had purchased a tame old mare for Marvelle to ride to school. We named her Vickie. It was about a mile from the ranch
house. She was excited to be able to
ride a horse to school. I did not tell
any of the rest of my family, but I was glad I didn’t have to go to school
yet. I had gone to school a few times
with Marvelle in Rosemary, but we did not ride a horse to school there. We rode in a big yellow school bus. Besides, I was happy to stay home with my Mom
and Dad and baby sister, Shirley. to
where the cattle could drink the fresh mountain water. He had pointed out the Boundary Creek School
we had passed as we approached the ranch.
He had purchased a tame old mare for Marvelle to ride to school. We named her Vickie. It was about a mile from the ranch
house. She was excited to be able to
ride a horse to school. I did not tell
any of the rest of my family, but I was glad I didn’t have to go to school
yet. I had gone to school a few times
with Marvelle in Rosemary, but we did not ride a horse to school there. We rode in a big yellow school bus. Besides, I was happy to stay home with my Mom
and Dad and baby sister, Shirley.
The old house on the ranch, many years later.
Mom
and Dad both worked awfully hard. Dad
worked with the cattle, built fences, and outbuildings. He also made improvements to the house to
make it more livable. Mom worked at
scrubbing floors and the walls, sewing curtains and making it into a home.
Dad often
took me with him when he had to take feed to the cattle or when he was fixing or
building fences. On one beautiful
spring morning I had gone with him, I thought to help him. I loved being able to hand him a tool as he
needed it, or to just be with him so he could tell me stories. But that morning I got tired and wanted to go
back to the house. Dad said, “OK, go
ahead.” I started off, but it did not
take long for me to realize I was going in the wrong direction. I panicked.
I started to cry and scream.
“I’m
lost! BEARS! BEARS!”
Dad had
to run to me, take me by the shoulders and shake me before I would stop
screaming, then he set me on the right path, and I was fine.
One day
while building a fence, Dad was pounding a post into the ground with a big sledgehammer. He missed his target with one swing of the
hammer and crushed his thumb in the process.
He ran to the house and told Mom he needed some salt. She was horrified by the amount of blood and
the condition his thumb was in. Dad told
her to pour a handful of salt into his other hand. She followed his directions, but she could
not stand to watch as he put his thumb in the hand with the salt and wrapped
his thumb in it. He then had her wrap a
bandage around his thumb and went back out to finish the fence.
Our
next experience is best told by Marvelle:
Mom and
Dad often went to Lethbridge to get supplies.
One time when they went, they stayed overnight and arranged for me to
stay with Hansens while they were gone.
Ralph Hansen was a school mate and after school, he and I were playing
on the haystack at their place. We were
jumping up and down on the newly made stack.
Well, I got too close to the edge and off I went. I landed on my shoulder. It was very painful, and I immediately wanted
to go home. Of course, I could not, so
Mrs. Hansen rubbed my shoulder with liniment and put me to bed. I remember looking over at the bottle she had
left on the night table. On the label, it said, “For Man or beast”. I was terribly upset. I was not a man, and I was not a beast. I cried myself to sleep.
Mrs.
Hansen tried to talk me into staying home the next morning, but there was no
way I was not going. I had to be there
for Mom and Dad to pick me up that day at school. It was very painful getting
up on Old Vickie, but I managed and rode her to school with one arm (the left
arm) hanging down. I couldn’t do anything
with it. Later that day, when Mom and
Dad stopped at the school, I didn’t see them, but good old Mr. Zemp told them I
had experienced an accident, but I was fine, and I was just pretending I
couldn’t use my left arm. So, Mom and
Dad drove on home without me.
After
school, I once again got up on Vickie and rode her home. I was in terrible pain. When Mom saw me through the window, she was
alarmed and she said to Dad, “Marvelle’s hurt! She is not pretending!” Dad ran to Old Vickie’s side and helped me
down. I stayed in bed for two days.
My arm did
not improve. In fact, it simply hung
down by my side. Dad took me to Cardston
to a doctor. The doctor said it had been
broken and had started to mend. He told
Dad he would have to re-break my shoulder to get the use of my arm back. So, I went under anesthetic and the doctor
rebroke my shoulder. He put a cast on my
shoulder and arm. The cast made my arm
stick out and when I went to bed, I could not sleep because my hand was
sticking up in the air and getting cold.
Mom put a mitten on my hand. That
helped.
In six
weeks, it was time to take the cast off.
He was so rough as he cut the cast off my body, I screamed in pain. Mom said you could hear me all over the
hospital. He then put a brace on my arm
that was made of wood stuffed with cotton batting and taped to my body. Dad only had a pickup truck for travelling and
with our whole family in the cab of a truck, one can only imagine how messy it
was and how crowded with five people in the truck and one with her arm sticking
out in a wooden brace?
A few
days later, Dad decided to go to Raymond to visit the Hutterite Colony and Dr.
Joe Mandel who was either a bone doctor or a chiropractor. Dad had a bad back and Joe was good at
helping Dad.
Lester
Ann and I had been out of the truck and walking around when Joe looked out the
window and asked: “What’s wrong with that girl’s arm?” Dad told Joe all about
it and what the doctor had done for her.
Joe said I did not walk like anyone with a broken shoulder and asked if
he could take a look at it. Dad was a
bit hesitant at first, but Joe promised not to touch me.
After
looking at me for a couple of minutes, Joe started ripping the tape off as he
kept saying: “It’s a damn lie! It’s a damn lie!”
He
continued to tear the tape off, and it really hurt. He
explained if that tape were left on my skin, it would take my skin off with it
when it was removed.
Then he
grabbed my arm and gave it a quick jerk.
“Now do this.” He said as he put his arm up and reached over his head to
touch his opposite ear. I did it and it
was like magic. My arm worked
again. That was all that was wrong with
it. I did not care. My arm was fixed. But dad was terribly upset.
Very
soon a bill for $49.00 came in the mail.
It was from that so-called doctor in Cardston, and for re-breaking my
arm and fixing it, etc.
So, Dad
went to town and he took me with him. He
marched into the doctor’s office, much to the dismay of the nurse who had tried
to stop him at the front desk. Dad
slapped the bill down on the doctor’s desk and said, “See that bill?”
“Why,
yes.” Said the doctor.
“Well,
that is one bill you will never get paid.”
“Why
not?” asked the surprised doctor.
Now, he
should not have asked that, because Dad told him in no uncertain terms and only
in terms my Dad could, what had happened.
Bills
came continually after that with interest added. Then a Collection Agency from Toronto wrote
demanding that Dad appear in court in Toronto.
Dad just laughed and the bills finally stopped coming. That was one bill my Father never paid.
I know
beyond a shadow of a doubt, there is a Heavenly Father who watches over
us. He knew I would need both my arms in
the future, so he put me in Joe Mandel’s yard at the right time. Joe saw me, took care of me, and now I have
the use of both my arms.
Arms are such wonderful things. You can use them for so many things. I can hold my babies, my dear ones, my
husband, my sisters, all my friends who love me.
Hands are at the end of our arms. Hands knead bread, fix broken hearts, sew
buttons on, and type. How would I have
made a living or done all my writing without hands.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. This is my testimony.
Marvelle, 9, Lester Ann 5, and Shirley
about six months, in Boundary Creek
Marvelle, Lester
Ann, and
Shirley on Old
Vickie
