The Anderson Place

When we Lavells were frequenting our grandparents ranch near Belltower, there were three livable houses on their ranch. I have written about the first two. Today I am going to tell you about the Anderson place.

It is worth repeating that Grandma and Grandpa Coons were a perfect team. He was a slow, solid worker. She also was a worker extraordinaire, and took a one hundred and sixty acre homestead and made it into a creditable, if small, ranch by buying other properties of people who didn’t make it. Despite being less than five feet tall, less than one hundred pounds and half blind, she was made of high tensile steel.

The Anderson place was several miles south of Belltower and the home place. It was a mile or two south of Catamount Creek on the east side of the road to Ridgeway. There isn’t too much to tell you about it but I will do the best I am able.

My cousin, Lennet Coons Cantwell, probably doesn’t remember it but she lived in that place as a baby. In those days, and maybe today, Lennet was quite a goer and that is a compliment. Several times she had to be rescued from crawling into harm’s way from either horses or rattlesnakes. In the horse thing, I rescued her. For the rattlesnake thing, she was saved by their little dog and her wonderful mother, Ita.

Part of one summer we lived in the Anderson place to do some kind of work. Grandma would hitchhike to the home place in the morning and do the chores that needed doing there before returning in the afternoon. She would leave us something to eat for lunch. One time I was there with my cousin Hans Christiansen and Grandpa. She left us a huge bowl full of cleaned lettuce along with some homemade salad dressing. She said that we could have that salad for lunch. Grandpa said, “Well she said that we can have that lettuce didn’t she” and he divided that huge bowl into three parts and we ate it all. Grandma acted mad but I think that she was really pleased.

One time when I was there, I was riding a horse named Jitterbug. She had a colt named Diamond. Uncle Harvey was fooling around trying to rope the colt. Jitterbug got scared and tried to run. As a ten year old, I wasn’t much of a rider and couldn’t control her. She ran and I jumped off smacking my head against the road. I had a headache for several days but it was a wonder that it wasn’t worse. I don’t know why I said that I wasn’t a very good rider. I am sure that I was a better rider then than I am now.

One time I was riding out around the cows or the sheep and it rained hard. I came back to the house, put my horse in the barn and went to the house to get dry. Uncle Harvey came in and asked if I had dried and rubbed down the horse. When I said no, he hit the ceiling and made me go back out and do it. Lesson learned, I guess.

There was an abandoned house just across the road from the Anderson house. I think that it was called the Keeshaw place but that might be wrong. We kids liked to go through the place. We were always warned to watch out for rattlesnakes. Inside it was fancy as it had ornate floors and an extra steep fancy staircase leading to the upstairs. I’m sure that it was someone’s pride and joy at one time.

Well that is my remembrance of the Anderson place. It might even have been the Andersen place, I don’t remember. Next time I am planning to write a story about one of my favorite subjects, Ekalaka.