Outline of interview with: by David Finch

Transcription

1 Outline of interview with: Ray Fetterly 3 audio cassettes by David Finch Tape 1 Side Biographical information about Ray Fetterly. Born in 1929 in Vancouver B.C., he was part of the good baby crop that year. His father was adventurous. Ray was the seventh child. His father worked his way up to foreman, even though he had no education and could not read and write. 045 The family moved back to Manitoba near Riding Mountain National Park in the early 1930s. One day the family returned to the house and found it burned to the ground. They moved into a sod barn. 080 They moved from the farm to Minedosa in 1946 and lived on 10 acres of land by the edge of town. 095 Story of how he always wanted to be a cowboy and work on a ranch in Alberta. In March of 1948, with a grade 7 education, he got on the bus, went to Brandon and got a one way train ticket to Calgary. 115 He arrived in Calgary with $45. He arrived at the CPR station on March 24, 1948 and went for a walk around the community that seemed like a big city. A man asked him for a quarter for a coffee but he did not give him any money. 130 An older woman tugged on his arm and offered him a good time but he turned her down too. He stayed at the YMCA while in Calgary. 165 He walked south of downtown to Ed and Ted's service station and asked the owner if he knew of anyone who could hire him to work on a ranch. He made a phone call to Okotoks and set Ray up with a job. The next morning he met his employer at the service station. The man was very tall, dressed in cowboy hat and cowboy boots. They went for a cup of coffee. The man looked at his hands the whole time and eventually said "Let's go to the ranch." Albert Sandeman was the man who hired him and his sister Lil Sandeman was the cook for the ranch. 250 The pay was $60 month and Ray was not allowed to whistle or walk around with his hands in his pockets. Hector and Prince were the names of the team of Clydesdales that pulled the manure spreader. There were about 200 cows to calf that spring. They used a saddle horse to pull a calf out of one cow. 290 Albert Sandeman's land was along the Sheep River, about ten miles west of the Big Rock. They did not feed from hay piles until early March. The cows were very thin and they lost 11 cows and 22 calves. They disposed of dead cattle into the Sheep Creek. They dried out the calves in the kitchen in front of the stove.

2 350 They worked very hard. One day the team spooked, ran away and smashed the manure spreader. 360 Story of how he learned to ride a wild horse. Foxy was pretty rambunctious and bucked Albert off and also bucked off the saddle. Later, Ray used a better horse and he and other men drove cattle west to the foothills. He was in his glory because he felt he had arrived as a cowboy. Tape 1 Side They slept on the ground during this cattle drive on the way west of Turner Valley to a community pasture. They went through the town of Turner Valley at 5 a.m. with 4000 head of cattle and all the people came out to greet them. There were 30 riders to keep track of the cattle. The branded and castrated some calves. The older men showed him how to wrestle a calf and he got kicked and dirty. At one point he sat right down in the middle of a big cow pie and the older men had a great laugh at his expense. 070 The men showed him how to cross the flooding Sheep Creek. Later, Ray went up the side of the mountain, trying to rope a mountain sheep. When he approached one ram, it shook its head and stamped its foot and put a real scare into Ray so he backed away and gave up on his idea of roping a sheep. 095 Details of crossing the flooded river with cattle and horses. 110 Ray bought a beautiful Pinto horse for $ He left Sandeman's after a few months and went to work for Bill Rowles. Jock Noble offered him $90 per month so he went to work for Noble. Bill and Jock argued about the fact that Jock had hired Ray from him by offering better wages. The Noble ranch was on Tongue Creek. 180 Discussion of life at the Noble Ranch. They used a fresno to clean manure out the feed lot. Jock and Ray both lost their footing and fell while cleaning out the manure. 210 One day, Ray and his brother were walking down the street in Calgary, smoking Bill Durham cigarettes that they rolled when a photographer took a picture of them. They had not smoked at home. Ray got a copy of that photograph and still has it to this day. 250 He met young men that were working at the Bar U ranch at the picture show in High River. Lee Alwood hired him at the restaurant and Ray went to work on the Bar U farm. The men lived upstairs from the cookhouse. 275 His first work on the Bar U was as a rider since they did not have any haying to do early in the season. Ray had his own horse named Kitten in addition to the 6 or 7 saddle ponies the Bar U provided for him to ride. 310 At the Bar U in 1949 were 12 milk cows, 100 broke saddle horses and 68 men on the hay crew.

3 325 There were about 20 riders including Abe Peters and Ed Peters. Ed was the only man at the Bar U that had a car. Other riders included Jim Swan, Jack McGee, Johnny Glover, Francis Hutchelack, Dave Whitup, Rudy Evanson, Jonas Rider and Webster Lefthand. Pete Watson was the foreman. 385 Twenty riders left the ranch at 7 a.m. each morning to ride the herds. Ray stayed at the Bar U farm and Lee Alwood gave him and others a ride over to the ranch every morning in his truck. 405 Pete Watson lived in the first small cabin on the left as you enter the Bar U ranch headed west. Tape 2 Side Lee Alwood took the men from the farm to the ranch in the early morning. There were about 2000 acres of land in cultivation for grain. 025 Each rider had about 7 horses so they had a fresh horse each day. Story of riding a horse named Ginger who gave Roy a hard time, jumping around, bucking half-heartedly. "Jonas Rider come up alongside me and he says 'Hey, Ray, I hear Ginger humped his back this morning.' And then he laughed and laughed at the heck of a big joke." 085 Jonas Rider and the other Stoney's stayed west on the other side of the creek in tents. Jonas rider's 19 year old daughter was called Chickeena. Fred Burlatoff went to visit her one evening and the men gave him a hard time about it for weeks. 100 They did not feed much hay until well into the new year and even then they only fed the cows and calves and the one year olds. The remaining cattle were on pasture up closer to the mountains. 120 There was a team of mules named Jack and Jenny. Ray was in charge of a team of Percherons. Story of a trick some boys played on one who tried to ride the one mule that was not broke for riding. 145 Francis Hutchelack, whom they called "Peace River" since that was his home, was in charge of the mules. Each time they were rigged up they were a bit rambunctious for a few minutes. The men picked on him quite a bit, starting rumours that he had got fired. Jack Waldron and the other men cried one day when they found out that he had died when he fell off a truck near Edmonton. It turned out that it was not Francis, but these men that had been so mean to him cried like babies. 210 Lee Alwood always was fair but stern. He carried a chequebook in his back pocket and fired men who transgressed too often. Story of Lee Alwood's drinking habits. Ray saw Lee recently in Arizona and he said "You know, I've had to revise my drinking habits. I only drink beer now when I'm alone or when I'm with somebody."

4 230 Discussion of Raymond and Anne Clifford. 250 Ray wanted to breed his mare Kitten with the stud named Sundog. Story of a prank, when the other men put his mare with a mule. When she came due, the men gathered around to see what kind of offspring she had but the mare had been bred by Sundog and delivered a great colt. 320 Details of the kitchen table with a round table in the middle on which sat condiments. When the men did not like the food, they would spin the centre section of the table and things went flying. The Wards were the cooks for part of the time he was there. 360 There were 10 or 12 teams of horses working for the thrashing crew in the fall. There were about 10 fulltime riders. There was 100 miles of fence in About 15 to 20 men worked at the farm and the remainder worked at the ranch. 380 The men were all in by about 5:30 p.m. for supper at 6 p.m. After supper they often went to the Pekisko Trading Post for something to do. Some Saturday nights they rode all the way into High River for a dance or to go to a show. Story: "Some of the girls said that indians and cowboys were the same breed." 410 Ray bought a case of beer and took it to the Fosk Hall to a dance. By the next morning he had consumed all the beer. Tape 2 Side Fights broke out between men from the Bar U and A7 ranches at the Fosk Hall. One fight got started over some coffee that was spilled accidentally. Sometimes the fights involved many men from both ranches. They disliked each other for no other reason than that they were from another ranch. 060 The men sometimes stayed at the Rigg line camp, northwest of the Bar U Ranch. They branded at this site. 070 When Ray rode on the cattle drive west of Turner Valley in 1948 they used a chuckwagon. There were calf boxes on each side of that wagon. 090 Role of Stoney indians. Jonas Rider was a good roper as was Webster Lefthand. He only remembers the two indians and that they stayed in tents, not tipis. The Stoney's were very shy people. 120 Story about Webster Lefthand and a car. A guy at the gas station told him, "There's no reverse in that car, you know, you can't back up." Webster replied, "That's okay, I not worry about that. The reserve's down there and I'm not coming back anyway."

5 130 Story about Ray's work with indians in later years as a forest conservation officer. One time some firefighters got lost in the bush. While looking at a map, one of the indians examined it carefully and he said "I'm just looking around dere, thought I might see the guys walking around in the bush." 170 Ray did not see much of the Stoney indians around the Bar U ranch. They whites respected the indians as fellow employees of the ranch. 185 Another saying common in that time was "I never had so much fun since the pigs ate my little brother." 200 In 1948, Ray got paid about $90 per month plus room and board at the Bar U. The Bar U ranch was a prestigious place to work and after he worked there he went on with his life. 230 There were two rooms, open, in the upstairs of the cookhouse. They had flush toilets and running water and electricity. NOTE: This was at the farm and not the ranch. The farm supplied the bedding. 255 Payday was every two weeks by cheque. 265 Most of the men had their own saddles and gear. Ray got J.D. Eamor's saddle shop in High River to make him a beautiful set of chaps for which he paid $28. There were two men working in that saddle shop. They went to Calgary to buy their clothing. They usually worked 6 days each week and then tried to get a ride into town with someone who had a vehicle. 320 There was a ten furrow plough and a caterpillar tractor. They used the heavy horses for the thrashing work and the hay crew work. The haying was all done with horses. During his time the caterpillar tractor supplied power for the thrashing crew. 340 Dave McGregor, the horsebreaker, usually rode a horse a couple of times and called it broken. 350 The cook was the person in charge of first aid and his name was Ernie Rivetts. 380 Don Eyestone, trained as a minister, was another man who worked at the ranch. 410 Some of the men from the Bar U went to St. Aidan's church. The minister once came by the ranch and invited the men from the ranch to the service at the church down the road. Tape 3 Side Story about communion wine at St. Aidan's. About 8 men went to church on horseback. They sat in the front row. It was communion Sunday. "Jack McGee sat next to the aisle, and he was the first one to receive the wine. And he drank the whole darned thing. The other boys are dying of embarrassment, he's smacking his lips, handed it back to the priest or preacher. The preacher never batted an eye, went a filled it up again and passed it on to the next. You talk about ignorant."

6 020 Details of snipe hunting prank. The older men tried to get him out one night, snipe hunting, down by the creek, but another man warned him and he refused to go. 040 Trading was a big thing amongst the cowboys. Ray traded a bridle for a rifle with an indian. "I showed this rifle to Jonas one day and Jonas looked at it and a big smile come on his face 'Boy, sure goot thing that thing can't talk.' They used to shoot calves with it. The indians lived off the Bar U beef as they did on all those ranches there. Who kill yourself getting a deer when you can get a nice calf." 055 Johnny Glover had a mandolin that Ray traded for an old saddle and a belt buckle. Some of the men sang, others played harmonica and others played guitar. They sang old cowboy songs. 065 Words to one song went: The hinges are of leather and the window has no glass But the door lets the howlin blizzard in... I see the lonely coyote as he sneaks up through the grass To my little old log shanty on the plains. 075 Jack Walder was a cowboy on the Bar U, and refused to go back to the Hutterite colony when the RCMP came to try to get him to go back to his family. 085 Ed Peters, known as "By Jeepers," fell in love with a loose woman. They got married and lived together for six or seven years. 105 They attended the Fosk Hall for dances and girls came from the area. 110 They played poker at the Bar U and Lee Alwood played poker a lot. 130 They men also played catch, with bare hands, in the evenings. 140 The Bar U was a very busy place, a working ranch that was a centre of much activity. 150 Interpretation themes discussed. The period just before WWII was a very busy time with lots of men working there. Cowboy costumes, the cook and some of the other characters, including a Stoney indian, and others could make it come alive. Park cars well away and walk to the ranch. 200 Interpretive idea: Five riders come into the cookhouse for lunch and they visit with people who are in the house. A man playing Jonas Rider could take folks around for a visit of the site. Talk about Sundog, one of the studs, who was a real attraction. They seldom branded at the ranch, but they could have a demonstration of branding in the corrals. Other events could include fencing, haying, milking and making butter, feeding chickens and collecting eggs, feeding the pigs. 270 Lunch could be served to the interpreters at lunch time and they could share their food with the guests.

7 290 The horse work implements are important to display. 300 Ray acted the part of a person at Lower Fort Garry, of a man who lived there in the 1850s. He knew details of the life of John Cox, who first hired on the Hudson's Bay Company in Most vivid memory is of riding the range, working cattle. 360 End of interview.