My memories growing up at Richfield

I was born in Richfield on July 10, 1919 to John Sevier and Ruby Ellen Ketron McIntosh.

 We all had to work and help out on the ranch in those days. I started milking cows when I was eight years old, we would get up at 5 a.m.- dress by an old coal stove, then milk and separate the milk, feed the calves and pigs before we went to school. When school was out we went home and did the same thing all over again at 5 p.m.. This was done 7 days a week. We drove hay-stackers, piled hay, fed horses and cows, hoed beets, picked spuds, canned, cleaned house and did the cooking.

  Our ranch was just outside Richfield a little ways and you had to go up a lane to the house. There was always kids there from town and we would play ball, kick the can, hide and seek and anny-i-over. We played in a canal that ran by the house and played in the neighbors pond and ice-house. The neighbors had big high sheep sheds on their place and we would climb for sparrow eggs.  We skied on barrel stoves and ice skated on the frozen ponds even thou we didn't have skates.

  During the school  year  we either walked or rode horse's to school and  when the snow got high it would be over the fences and we could just walk over the fences. Sometimes in the winter when it was real cold and a blizzard would  hit dad would take us to school on the hay rack. By the time we reached the school house the rack was always loaded with kids.

  When the fruit peddlers would come by and start down the lane to leave, my brother Cliff would jump on the back of the truck and hand out watermelons and cantaloupes to the rest of us. We'd make quite a haul. One old fat peddler had whiskers all over his face and chewed tobacco.  He would always catch me and and kiss me and I hated it. One day he asked for a glass of water, so I went in to get it. I spied some Epsom salts and I dumped two spoonfuls in to the glass and stirred it up. He swigged it down- and he never came again! I wonder?

  We always had a hired man. One of them was so dirty we could hardly stand him. Another one was about 7 feet tall. Mom used to put a chair at the foot of the bed and cover up his feet because he was to long for the bed.

  We always had a horse to ride. One day I rode to town to buy a dozen eggs for mom so she could bake an angel food cake for someone. I had the eggs in a paper sack, because that was the way you got eggs then. Two ornery boys hid behind a tree and jumped out and scared the horse, he bucked me off and broke all the eggs. I cried all the way home.

  Dad bought our first car in 1929. It was a model A Ford. But our enjoyment was short lived. The depression hit and it was stored in the garage for a year. In 1931 dad finally had to sell it to the banker for $100.00  so he could buy us kids some warm clothes to go to school in. We always had enough to eat, but we never knew what pocket money was. Once in a great while we might get a little candy if mom had enough money.

  Mom did everything she could to make extra money. She worked in the fields like a man because we couldn't afford extra help. She churned butter and molded it in an old wooden butter mold. She baked angel food cakes and at one time we sold our milk to the milk man in town. We bottled the milk in the cellar and he would drive out to get it. One night he came up out of the cellar and fell over the wood pile and broke every bottle. Guess a lot of people did with out milk that day.

  A little time out for more of our growing up days. When harvest time came, the big threshing machine and all the farmers moved from one place to another until all the threshing was done. When it was your turn to thresh  it also was your turn to feed all the men. We had two long tables and started early in the morning. For the noon meal we'd pick two bushel's of corn, kill about 10 chickens, bake 6 pies or 3 cakes, peeled spuds and cook on an old coal range. It was a hot hard job but mom always served the best meals around. We raised a huge garden and there was always all kinds of vegetables. Dad would buy a truck load of watermelons and cantaloupe and we would have them at threshing  time. 

  Every year we canned hundreds of quarts of fruit. Peddlers would come with them or we would go to the orchards and pick. We'd have tubs full of pie cherries, we would pit and mom would can. One day a load of neighbors went in a truck to pick pie cherries. One old lady was cross-eyed and she'd almost go to sleep. It was so funny we laughed, and we sure got hell when we got home. One thing mom and dad taught us was not to make fun of anyone, especially someone who had something wrong with them. 

  Christmas time we always had plenty to eat and home-made candy. Our presents were mostly hand made but we were satisfied.

  On June 8th 1940 I married Edward F. Boger. We moved to Gooding in 1942 and raised 4 children. Edward died in 1966 and is buried in Richfield.

 Written by Wilma Edith (Tutty) McIntosh Boger                                 

 Died February 5 1996  - Buried Richfield cemetery