NOT TO BE T*;;EIN FROM THIS ROOM Humboldt County Library Winnemucca, Nevada

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MARY MENTABERRY YRUETA NOT TO BE T*;;EIN FROM THIS ROOM Humboldt County Library Winnemucca, Nevada

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MARY MENTABERRY YRUETA page 9

LD: Getting back to your Mother, you all lived in a pretty small house?

MY: Oh yes. We only had two bedrooms and one bathroom. The kitchen was huge. The one behind the grammar school. But at the ranch we had three bedrooms and the front room and the living room and the kitchen. And then the outhouse. I can remember at midnight going out to the outhouse. No flashlight, no candle or anything and walking between the weeds and the flowers and stuff.

LD: Did you ever worry about snakes?

MY: No. We never had any snakebites. I can remember one time, I think it was Lep (Dave), we couldn't find him. We looked all around. Mama thought he fell down the well, and we couldn't find him anyplace. We all looked and looked and finally he was under the mulberry bush. He'd gone to sleep under the mulberry bush. But Lep was always afraid of people. If anybody came to the ranch he'd run and he'd get under the bed.

LD: And he still is quiet.

MY: Yes. He's not a mixer at all.

LD: What would your Mom do for clothes, and her hairdos?

MY: Papa came to town and buy dresses, and she always had one size - I think it was size 22 - he'd go down to Reinhart's. Mama never wore any Levies or anything like that. She'd get this dress and she'd make up an old apron out of flour sacks by hand. She'd tie her hair and put it in a big knot and put a few pincurls in it and get her scarf and put it over her head. Wash her hair once a month and take a bath every other week. We had to get great big huge tubs and warm up the water.

LD: So he would do her shopping then?

MY: Yes. And I can remember before school started Dad would come to Winnemucca and go down to Reinhart's and for our shoe sizes he'd go to the willow and he'd get a strip of willow and we'd put our foot on it and he'd cut it and that was my shoe size. And then for Annie he'd put Annie's foot down and measure. And all summer long if we didn't have shoes we went barefoot around the ranch.

LD: Did you ever hear her complain or say how tough it was?

MY: No, she just seemed like it was part of her life. She'd get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and get the old stove agoin' and Papa would go milk page 10 the cows. By the time he got back why she'd have breakfast ready and they'd have breakfast. She'd have to pull out her breast and feed one of the kids while she'd feed them. And then she'd put them to bed and get back in the kitchen and get back to putting the soup on. Then she'd go in the garden and she'd come with the lima beans and we'd have to shell those. She'd bring the lettuce in and we'd have to wash the lettuce. We ate a lot of vegetables.

LD: Did she ever go to the sheep camp?

MY: She'd walk up to the upper canyon there sometimes to do the irrigating if Papa was at the sheep camp, but she never went up to the sheep camp at all. She always stayed at the ranch because the irrigation and all that stuff was her responsibility because Dad was always up at Disaster Peak.

LD: So you girls were in charge of the inside the house?

MY: Yes. We'd iron with the big heavy irons we put on the wood and coal stove, I mean wood stove, we didn't have coal. We'd heat them and iron our clothes with that.

LD: Would you all go out and gather the brush for your wood?

MY: No. Dad and the boys used to bring in the brush. And then every night it was Hank or Foe's duty to fill up the wood box with sagebrush. There'd be a great big piece of sagebrush sticking out and when I think about it now how those things would fall and we'd pick them up and put them back in there. We never had a fire or anything! We did use to have some fire drills though. I remember Dad used to say, "In case of fire, we got to have a fire drill." We'd all get water in wash basins and we'd throw it at one another and then we'd have a fight. Brother Johnny would get mad.

LD: Did she talk about being lonesome for Spain?

MY: No. She never did. She missed her sister, Visticion. She used to always talk about her. She wondered how she was getting along because she had left her. She was the only one left there of all the family because the other brothers had all come here too. But she talked about her all the time. And she was a scrawny little thing. She used to walk all the time. From Mendexa she'd walk clear to Lekeitio twice a week and bring her few eggs and milk so she could sell them to make a living.

LD: What did you do in the evening for entertainment? page II

MY: As soon as it got dark we were in bed. We didn't have a radio. Seemed like everybody was tired and we were ready to go to bed. We didn't have any entertainment at all. Fourth of July was a big treat. Papa would say, "I take you to McDermitt if you want to go." Annie and I and the boys would jump in the car and go to McDermitt. When we got a little older he'd let us stay for the dance. We'd come home about I o'clock or 1:30 in the morning.

LD: And your Mom didn't go with you?

MY: No Mama never did go.

LD: How about singing or music, did you guys do that?

MY: Mama had some sayings like if the weather was bad and her lambs were being born, she had a few Basco sayings that she'd sing once in awhile, but seems like there was no music or anything. We'd just work, work all the time.

LD: If she had a good sense of humor she probably made it easier. Did you help your mother with any of her births?

MY: I'll never forget 1932 when George was born in February we were living up at the house behind the grammar school and she told me, "Go to grammar school and find Dr. Giroux." There was snow this deep (to waist). I got over there and couldn't get in and somebody came to the door and I said, "I've gotta find Dr. Giroux." I didn't have a dime to go in and pay for the basketball game. I couldn't find him so I said, "Find Pete Bengochea." Somebody found Pete Bengochea and I said, "Pete, Mama is going to have her baby. See if you can find Dr. Giroux. Mrs. Hillyer is already at the house and she has the water boiling on the stove." That was the only disinfectant they had. Pete found Dr. Giroux and he came with his little bag and he was an alcholic and he was always tanked. Anyway I can still hear this screaming, hollaring, and Doctor said, "George Washington was born. George Washington was born." Pretty soon Mama said in Basco, "What did he say?" I said, "He said that George Washington was born today." I can still see Mama in the bed and in Basco she said, "We'll call him George." So that's how George got his name because he was born on Washington's birthday. Mama had all her kids at home. The only one that was born in the hospital was Johnny in San Francisco. Even down at the big house Dave and Eddie were bom just with Mrs. Hillyer and Dr. Giroux.

LD: Can you tell me anything about Mrs. Hillyer? Everybody talks about her but nobody seems to know her first name or who she was. page 12

MY: You know 'Dumps' Hillyer that used to live in Winnemucca here?

LD: You mean Mary's husband?

MY: That was Mrs. Hillyers' son. And the Hillyer that lives in Reno behind Foe and Joyce and she works at the Nugget Oyster Bar. She's been there for the last 29 or 30 years. She was a Hillyer. And then the other Hillyer girl that had the bad back. She lives in Yerington now. And they all lived way out of town at the Hillyer Ranch and they used to come to school here in Winnemucca.

LD: Do you know what her name was?

MY: We used to call her Nurse Hillyer.

LD: Do you remember her?

MY: Yeh. She had grey hair, and she had long hair all the time. She wore a dress. She was kind of hefty. She delivered a lot of babies.

LD: What other doctor was here?

MY: Dr. Swezey was here. And then for dentist we had Dr. Wendell. He lived in that house behind where Judge Brown's office was. That was where his office was. I can remember the mortuary being where the vacumn cleaning place is now. (middle of Bridge St. between 3rd and 4th Streets on the north side) I can remember Alice (Bengochea) and I going over there when Mrs. Goyhex lost her second baby and we sat over there and looked. She was dressed in a beautiful white dress, this little coffin. Alice started laughing and I started crying. I just thought it was so sad. In fact Dorothy Johnson's dad was the mortician here in Winnemucca. She can tell you a lot of stories about nursing and about the mortician stuff in Winnemucca. She turned out being a nurse. She went to the Holy Name in Oakland and she came back here.

LD: Dorothy Johnson lives here now?

MY: Yes. She lives on Railroad Street in her mother's old home. In fact her Dad wasn't a Catholic but they were trying to get money to get the stained glass for the St. Paul's Catholic Church and when you first walk in on the right hand side that stained glass he donated to the church. His name was Carlson.

LD: Do you remember there being a mortuary next to Dr. Hartoch's house on Sixth Street? page 13

MY: No. But I remember Mrs. Bengochea had some little baby in her front room one time. One of the relatives baby died and we went over there. The only one I remember is on Bridge Street and then the other one where the second-hand store used to be (north corner of 4th and Baud).

LD: Was it a Basque custom to go and sit with dead people overnight?

MY: Yes. 24 hours until they had the funeral services. They used to take turns.

LD: Did your mother and father teach you customs of the old country?

MY: No. We would just follow what Mama did. Papa must have learned how to herd sheep in the old country. There was other Basco guys and nobody knew exactly what to do. And then in 1942 the BLM told Dad if he didn't get his citizenship papers he wouldn't have any rights to run his sheep. So he started coming into Winnemucca and at the big house I just worked with him and worked with him on the Constitution and in August 1942 he got his citizenship papers. Dad was a stowaway so Judge Brown had to do a lot of red tape and stuff.

LD: You didn't have your mother become a citizen?

MY: No, she never did become a citizen. She got so she could understand (English), but she spoke her Basco all the time. All of us would talk Basco to Mama. Papa would speak English to us because he was picking up quite a bit of English, but Mama always spoke Basco to all of us.

LD: Getting back to clothes - would she make your dresses?

MY: No, seemed like she always bought them. She bought a sewing machine one time but she never did do much sewing on it. Mending and stuff she did.

LD: So you guys had store-bought clothes all the time?

MY: Yes.

LD: How about bloomers?

MY: We wore the big black bloomers and then Mama would knit a red sleeve less kind of thing and we'd wear that in the wintertime. It would keep us warm. Kind of a vest. We'd put a white like a tee shirt over it.

LD: Would it always be red? page 14

MY: For some reason she'd find red yarn someplace. We wore it to bed in the wintertime because we didn't have any heat or anything. The only thing we had for heat over here behind the grammar school was the old pot-bellied stove and we'd fill it up with coal and about 2 o'clock in the morning it was ice cold.

LD: And you guys probably slept together.

MY: Yeh, there was sometime three of us would sleep in one bed. Then we had the old folding bed in the kitchen we would open up. When my Aunt Mary Zane came from France she stayed with us there for awhile. When she came out to the ranch she didn't like the ranch so she came to town and she started working for Vic Marcuerquiaga at the restaurant that he had above the old Kirk's store. That's when she met Justo Zabala and she got in trouble and she had little Justo. Then she met Chabot and she married and went right away to where she is living now.

LD: So she's alive still?

MY: Yes. She's 83 or 84 years old I think. She goes to church every Saturday evening or else Sunday morning for sure.

LD: How about church? Did you guys go to church?

MY: We went to church all the time. If Mama was in town for the winter­ time she'd take us to Mass. I remember one time Mama couldn't go, she was going to have a baby or something, and Foe and I went to church and we had the little envelopes that we'd drop in the thing and you'd put a dime in. Foe dropped his envelope there and he had already taken the dime out of it. (laughter) I guess it was more important for him to get a dime to get some candy or go to the show with than give to the church.

LD: Tell me about your schooling.

MY: We were six kids and Dad came to the county commissioners and said he wanted a school at the ranch. They said we couldn't have a school. He said, "I got six kids." And they said, "You can't have a school." So then we all had to come to town and that's when I stayed with my brothers and sisters here and in the wintertime Mama would go to the ranch and in the fall she spent all her time at the ranch.

LD: You never went to school in McDermitt?

MY: We didn't have any transportation. page 15

LD: And you couldn't drive a car yet?

MY: None of us were old enough to drive a car. And if we went we'd have to get the old wagon and Dad had the old wagon up at the sheep camp. And we didn't have six horses where all of us kids could get on a horse, so we had to come to town.

LD: And there was no thought of buying a house in McDermitt instead of Winnemucca?

MY: Well Dad already had this in Winnemucca.

LD: You started school in Winnemucca?

MY: Yes. Mrs. Watt lived over behind the grammar school and she kept every one of us Mentaberry kids back in the second grade because we couldn't speak English very good. First grade I got through with Mrs. Smith and in second grade old Cora Watts didn't like the Bascos and she kept every Basco back because they couldn't speak good English.

LD: How did you learn?

MY: Where Hartochs live, Abies lived there. Don Able and Susie and Lona Able. We played with them and that's how we learned how to speak English.

LD: You didn't know any until you came here to Winnemucca?

MY: I didn't know any English at all. We spoke Basco all the time. I was in the 4th grade when they built the new building around it. It had 1st grade through 8th grade in that big building and then they built all these things and I was in the 4th grade when that was built. We'd jump over the fence and go to school. We'd have our big black bloomers on. Seemed like during the afternoons after we went home Annie would come back from school and she'd find chalk and she chewed chalk. She just craved it. I'd say, "What do you got in your mouth?" "Nothing." And she'd have chalk running down her chin. She did that all the time, (laughter) The old Indian school was behind there and we used to go in there and say, "God this place stinks." It had oiled floors and old old desks. It was just that old smell and we'd say, "Gee the Indians stink." Well it wasn't the Indians, it was the old building.

LD: You would have been too young for when the courthouse burned?

MY: I don't remember the courthouse. I remember the Busch Hotel burning. page 16

Christmas day that burned. We brought Celso Cobeaga to the house and he was just crying and screaming and we were trying to shake the old Christmas tree - it was an old pinyon - and he was screaming because he had seen the fire. Of course Mrs. Egoscue and all them were at the hotel then. Mrs. Etchegoyhen.

LD: Do you remember playing with the Indians?

MY: Well they lived on the other side. Brother Johnny played with Ovie, he was an Indian and one day it was wintertime and we were on vacation and there was so much snow we didn't go out to the ranch. Dad couldn't come in with his old Model T and Mama was going to have a baby, I think it was Dee. So Ovie came over and he had an old Model T and he and Johnny went for a ride and they never showed up. Evening came and Mama was hysterical. No Johnny. We went to Mrs. Abel's house and she said, "We'll wait for awhile." 8 o'clock came and Mama said, "Go tell Mrs. Abel get the policeman." Mrs. Ovie, the Indian lady came to Mama and said the two boys were going to go out of town and Mama said, "Johnny didn't tell me." Next morning real early Mrs. Able came over and she said that Johnny and Ovie had gone to Flat Creek and their car broke down and they had walked into Flat Creek that night so then the cops called and said they were there and the next day the cops brought them back to Winnemucca. Mama was sitting on pins. And no telephone. And in fact at Flat Creek they had to go into Orovada and telephone. I think Mrs. Mendiola lived at Flat Creek at that time and they got in their old wagon and telephoned.

LD: In McDermitt would the Indians come and visit you or be around?

MY: Indians came to do all our shearing and Papa used to kill a whole beef and in a weeks time they were through eating all that beef and they'd still be trying to shear and they would tell Papa they needed more meat so he'd have to butcher a lamb. After two days they'd come and say, "Mr. Mentaberry we need some tomato." And Papa said, "I give you case of tomato. What you do with tomato?" "We used dessert." That was their dessert. They'd open a big can of tomatoes and that was their dessert. Papa used to give them beans and meat.

LD: Did you go out to where the Indians would camp?

MY: They used to do it right there by the ranch in the big corrals there. They had the old sheepshears and blood would be running down and Papa would get the sheepdip and put it on. And then they'd count them and at 4 o'clock in the afternoon up the hill they'd go with all the sheep and the camp tender's sheep were just wild. Then they'd get those great big huge sacks and put all the wool there and they used to tie them with twine and page 17 the brand and big trucks would come in and haul them into Western Pacific here and they'd send them into Boston. Many a times Papa's wool would sit there for two or three years because there was no price for wool.

LD: Do you remember your folks talking about that?

MY: Yes because Mama used to say in Basco how times were hard and she would say, "If we could ever make a living, if we could ever make a living." And I can remember one time Mr. Able was a lamb buyer and he came out to the ranch. He was a big guy and he sat down and he said, "Mr. Mentaberry, where Mr. Mentaberry?" "Mr. Mentaberry up there, up there in the hills." "What you got price?" Mama told me in Basco to ask him. I said, "Mama wants to know what your price is." He said, "Half a cent a pound." I told Mama in Basco and tears just rolled down Mama's eyes. She said, "How am I going to make a living to feed my kids?" When Papa came and Mama told Papa he just shook his head and shook his head. Then he'd have to come to town and borrow money from the Nevada Credit Association to keep things going. Then he used to be a co-signer for Gabicas because they were having a rough time and they didn't have any credit established so Papa was always a co-signer for them. If it wasn't for Papa they'd have never made a living.

LD: How did your father get Washburn Creek Ranch?

MY: He bought it from (can't remember)

LD: Was it established already?

MY: Yes. I think I found a deed one time. Some American people had it. There was just the old house and the corrals, the outhouse and that little kind of a cabin they put the flour and wheat and different stuff in there. They'd set traps and always trying to catch rats.

LD: Would you fish?

MY: Once in awhile we'd go up the creek. We used quite a bit of codfish. Mama would soak it in the creek overnight. Tie it with rope and the water would run through and it soaked it.

LD: That's a good idea.

MY: We ate a lot of salted meat though. Mom used to soak it overnight and make stew out of it.

LD: Did they make chorizos? page 18

MY: Yes, Mama made chorizos. In the fall she used to make the chorizos. She would store them in home-made lard in'trock pot and we had chorizos all summer.

LD: Did your Dad cook at all?

MY: No. He didn't ever do the cooking. Mama did all the cooking. She did all the bread for the sheepcamp. One big treat was when Mama made the big sheepherder's bread in the dutch oven and she'd always save a little dough and then she'd raise it and fry it like a donut. She'd add an egg to it and fry them and then she'd put sugar on it and then we'd eat them when they were hot. That was a big treat to have a hot sugared donut.

LD: How about wine? Did you make wine?

MY: Yes we made wine. Every fall a big truck would come with a load of the dark grapes and we had the big cellar at that time above the house that we had built and they made the wine there. I can remember we used to have a Institute Week they called it here in Winnemucca and the school would close for a whole week. The teachers were supposed to go and learn education and we'd have a vacation, so we'd go to the ranch and this one time Papa threw all the leftover seeds from the grapes and the sheep were in the corral and they got drunk, they were all over the place falling down. We were laughing, (laughter)

My brother Johnny though, he had to quit school in 1932 during the Depression because Dad didn't have any money to get any extra sheep- herders or get anybody to help him, and at that time they used to bring the sheep clear from Washburn Creek clear into Winnemucca to the Western Pacific. They used to come over the mountain. It took them ten days and all the nice fat that they'd picked up during the summer up at Disaster Peak they'd lose it because they'd walk so much. So Johnny had to quit school. He was a junior and he was a star football player and I can still see Papa telling him, "Johnny you better quit school and come to the ranch." He didn't want to, but he went. So Johnny didn't get to finish.

Then I can remember one time Eddie was at the ranch and he said, "I'm going to Winnemucca." Papa said, "No, no, no. You're going workin'." He said, "I gotta finish school." "Four years you no finish school!" "No, I didn't finish." It took Eddie five years to finish school, (laughter) He did finish.

LD: Did your Mom ever go anywhere to socialize?

MY: The only thing I can remember Mama was when she'd come to town she'd go to church, and then one time there was a carnival clear down by MARY MENTABERRY YRUETA

June 27, 1996

Linda Dufurrena: We are at Mary Yrueta's house beginning an oral inter­ view for the Humboldt County Library.

Mary we have a completed interview with Hank Mentaberry telling mostly about the men's side of growing up in a Basque family, but I know you would have another outlook of that same life from a woman's point of view. To begin with, your birth date was June 29, 1917?

Mary Yrueta: Yes.

LD: You were just showing me a wonderful picture of your mother and it also has a top of perhaps an oatmeal box you thought, where she practiced spelling her name and writing.

MY: She was trying to write Damiena Mentaberry.

LD: I'd like to know what your memories are of her.

MY: She came to the United States from Spain March of 1914 and she got married in December 31, 1914. She was working at the Commerical Hotel in Reno when she met Dad, and Dad had come from France in 1903. He came to Elko in 1903 and he worked at the Spanish Ranch for three years, then he came to Humboldt County here and bought his own sheep and that's when he went to Reno and met Mom and in six months time why they had a romance and they were married. He bought this little house behind the grammar school on Aiken Street. All those homes were built by Mr. Aiken that the street was named for.

John was born in San Francisco and then the rest of us, except for Eddie and Dave they were born on the big home on Second Street.

LD: Did your mother ever learn how to write eventually? And did she write home to Spain?

MY: No. The only thing she'd ever write was Damiena Mentaberry. At the end she got so she could write it very pretty. She practiced and practiced. Once in awhile somebody would write from Spain, but none of the Goitandia family knew how to write, but a couple of relatives once in a while would write and tell what they were doing and how hard things were. We didn't have anybody to write back in Basco or Spanish so we never wrote back. page 19 the river and I remember we had one of the kids in the buggy and we went to the carnival. I had a couple of nickles and I played the thing and I won a whole set of fancy cups. In fact I got some of the cups and bowl and things. And that's the only place I can remember Mama going. She used to go to the Busch Hotel and visit with the ladies, but that's the only place she ever went.

LD: The Busch and not the Winnemucca?

MY: No, because she used to walk up to the Busch Hotel.

LD: Do you think that the French Basque and the Spanish Basque were separate?

MY: Not at that time. I think they are more now than they were at that time because Mama used to visit like Mrs. Ydiando would come from Golconda and Mrs. Laca come from Golconda. They'd get on the train and stop here and stay for a couple of hours and then when the train came through they'd jump on the train and go back. One time Mama said Mrs. Ydiando had one kid here and she had a daughter and she had one in her arms. She had Frank and the daughter and they were just busy talking and talking and the train was ready to go and Mama said, "Where's your kid?" "Oh my God, I forgot my kid." And she had left him at the Busch Hotel. She ran to the Busch Hotel and picked up Joe and got in the train and went to Golconda. There was quite a bit of Golconda Bascos at that time. The Arbonies were at Golconda and the Archibalds and Gastelecuttos.

Mama came over here to visit Mrs. Siard one time and for some reason Johnny took fifty cents out of her purse and he was playing with it and it went down in the hole in the porch and Mama used to always look and say, "I'll bet my fifty cents is still down there." I do imagine it's still there because all they ever do is just paint that. It's been there for 70 years I think and they've never done anything to that house. I've been up here 50 years and they've never painted the outside.

LD: You've lived in this house 50 years?

MY: Yes. 543 Lay Street.

LD: Who built this?

MY: Stitser. Stitser that had the Humboldt Star. He built this house. He had it built. Anderson and McShay built it. When we were over here at the grammar school this was just a vacant lot. We used to play here. There was a lot of sand. The houses on each side were here and then he had this page 20 built. Then he had a boy and a girl and it was too small. As big as he is I don't know how they ever built such a small bathroom. I said the only advantage to the bathroom is you can sit on the toilet and vomit into the sink at the same time, which I've done many a time, (laughter)

LD: And he was a big guy?

MY: Yes, he was a big guy and then they moved down to Second Street and bought that house from Reinhart's. And then Mrs. Gillman lived here. She was the 8th grade schoolteacher and she had holes in the back of the doors and everyplace because she had a lot of cats and she'd let the cats come in and out so we had to do a lot of patching when we first bought this house. It was a dingy house. Johnny and I had the biggest fight we ever had. One time I said, "Johnny let's take this door out and make this kitchen bigger." He said, "No, no, no." So we fought and fought. Finally we talked Tony Costa into coming and he said he would fix it. Tony Costa took all year long, in fact we went to Kings River and stayed there for a week. Came back and we lived in the basement like pigs and all we had was fried food. We had a little hotplate. We'd go someplace and come back and there'd be a big sign, 'water turned off, finish next week'. Tony I thought would never finish this kitchen. Finally Johnny paid him off and some Basco guy was going by and he told him, "Come on in, I want to show you what I did to my house." This Basco guy came in and he looked and Johnny said, "I did this, and I did that" and I was just burning inside. The guy left after he visited for awhile and I told Johnny, "Johnny damn you, you and I fought and I wanted this kitchen made bigger and you didn't want it and now you're telling everybody 'I did this, and I did that'." He turned around to me and he said, "I paid for it." (laughter) I said, "I guess you did." So that was the end of our argument.

LD: I should get back to when you were still out to the ranch and young. You would go into McDermitt maybe once a month?

MY: Dad would go in once a month. We only went in like Fourth of July or sometime if they'd have a dance in August.

LD: So your Mom came into Winnemucca with you until you got to be nine years old?

MY: Yes.

LD: How did that come about? Did they just say, "Mary, you're old enough to watch the kids."

MY: Well it was just something - there was nobody at the ranch to take page 21 care of things. Mama would go out to the ranch and Papa would go out to the sheep camp. Mama worked awful hard because she did all the irrigating and milked the cows and raised the chickens.

LD: She must have liked to be outside.

MY: Yes, she enjoyed being outside. She'd put Papa's old straw hat on and go out there.

LD: When you came in I'm curious about how they told you that you would be more or less responsible.

MY: I don't know, it was just automatically on my shoulders.

LD: Was it really hard for you?

MY: I don't know, I just didn't know any better. I would just get out of school and go home and get the old coal stove going.

LD: And you were nine years old?

MY: Yes. I think that was the earliest that I can remember. Johnny and Foe I remember had a big fight one time because Foe was supposed to bring the coal in and he didn't and Johnny got the stove poke and hit him. Foe was just about out, but he came to.

LD: So you probably had no authority over them I'll bet.

MY: No. Because they used to fight and I just washed the dishes in the old big sink there. Then we had just the one bathtub and we did have a toilet there. And then Mrs. Bengochea lived next door and she used to kind of watch us, but she was raising her own kids and seemed like we was just on our own.

LD: How about groceries?

MY: We used to go to Reinhart's and order and they'd deliver them for us. I used to go and charge and old man Oscar Reinhart knew us and he'd let us charge. But we just bought the necessary things like beans and stuff. We wouldn't see Mama until we went out to the ranch in the springtime.

LD: That just blows me away. I can't even imagine! Maybe there's a lot of families that their folks are both working and the kids have to take care of all their brothers and sisters. page 22

MY: We could just walk across the street to go to school so they didn't have to worry about how we got to school. We'd have a few tin cans and we'd put those tin cans under our shoes and run around and play 'hide-and- go seek' and that was our entertainment. Later on in the evening we'd go home and go to bed. We didn't have any books.

LD: Did you start using the library?

MY: We never did use the library until I think when I went to high school.

LD: Did you have a favorite teacher?

MY: Mrs. Pike was a third grade teacher and I was her pet. She'd send me to the post office and I can remember this one time she gave me a dollar and she told me to buy one hundred one cent stamps. I bought the stamps and I was coming up the hill and the dogs chased me and I lost the stamps. Ever since that I don't care for dogs. I told Mrs. Pike and I was just crying and crying and she told me that was alright. And then this one time she was going on vacation Christmas time and she asked me if I'd come and stay with her mother. They lived over there where the firehouse is, it was a big two-story building. They had a beautiful place, and cats galore. There was cats all over. I can remember I got into this great big beautiful bed and big down comforters and I was just going to sleep and I felt things all over me and kept kicking and kicking all night long. Finally next morning I told Mrs. Warren, "I can't sleep with the cats in my bedroom." She said, "Just close the door because Vivian let's them sleep with her. Sometimes they get in the bed. She's got her cats with her all the time." She didn't have one, she had twenty. And when Vivian came from this trip she brought me some earrings. I still have those earrings that she gave me. Every time I look at them I think about the time I stayed at her house. Mrs. Warren was a wealthy lady. They had a beautiful place. Mrs. Pike had already gotten married and divorced and she was a beautiful woman. She hated anybody that wore fur on their coats or anything.

LD: She was an animal right's activist?

MY: Oh boy she was just against anybody, and at that time all the coats had fur around them. Where now I don't think you can even find a coat that's got fur.

One time Papa sent my Uncle Pedro with wool to Boston and when he came back he brought me a pair of crystal beads and they were on a silver chain. I remember him saying it cost him $15. That was big money at that time.

LD: Did he buy everybody something? page 23

MY: No, he just bought me those crystals. I don't know why. Maybe Papa told him to.

LD: And who was this?

MY: That was Mama's brother, Pedro. He just was different. He used to gamble and chase the girls. He didn't want to save any money and he'd come to visit Mama. He came one Fourth of July and he had a beautiful pocket watch and he had a wrist watch and he had another wrist watch around his ankle, (laughter) He had a silk pongee shirt. Big cigar and this big fancy hat. He had rented a car here in Winnemucca and had a chauffeur bring him clear out to the ranch. So Mama tried to tell him about saving money. And he pulled out his wallet and said he had plenty of money. He just threw it out there. Mama said, "You're going to have to save that money when you get old and get sick and who's going to take care of you? You're not married, and nobody is going to take care of you." Well it ended up he was flat broke and when he died Mama and the brothers and sisters had to fork over the money and we gave him a good funeral. He's buried over there (the local cemetary) and I see that he gets flowers on Memorial Day. But he didn't have any idea of saving money. And the other ones, Estaban and Fausto in Susanville, he saved every penny he made. In fact when we picked him up in Susanville and brought him to Winnemucca he had great big holes in his shoes. He wouldn't write to us. We'd send him letters and nobody would answer and Johnny said one time,"Let's go and see Uncle Fausto. Somebody said he's in Susanville." So we went to the Basco hotel and they said he was staying at a certain place and we went to meet him. That time he had malnutrition. He'd have a coffee in the morning. At noon he'd have a bowl of fruit and at night he'd have another cup of coffee and a doughnut and that was his day for years and years. He lost quite a bit of money though with that Basco company and the French guy (Ururfur) in the sheep business. Well he didn't have enough education I guess and they just gyped him and he said he lost an awful lot of money with him. Then he started working in the lumber mill and that's when he made some of his money and he saved it.

LD: Did you ever go and eat out as a family?

MY: No we never did. The only time we stayed at the Winnemucca Hotel was when we went to the ranch for the summer and Mama let Mrs. Maguira and Mr. Maguira stay at our house. Mrs. Maguira was going to have a baby. Mr. Maguira was an alcoholic and he'd get this big accordian and sit on the porch and play accordian, and he made moonshine. And he closed all the doors and all the windows so nobody could smell it. Poor Mrs. Maguira she went cuckoo. I can remember somebody coming out to the ranch and said that Mrs. Maguira was going to have to be taken to Sparks. page 24

LD: During that time she went crazy?

MY: Yes. All that summer long he was making moonshine down in the basement. I guess the alcohol just got her. So Mrs. Arboitz came out there and said they were going to have to divide up the kids. So Mama took Cleto. He was only 8 months old. Mrs. Bengochea took Mary, the same age of Dee and Mrs. Arboitz took Emilie Maguira that's married to Alcorda, and Frank Maguira. She took those two. And then we had little Cleto. Cleto and George were best of pals. The trouble they got into a the ranch was unbelievable. So then anyway we kept Cleto until he was about five or six years old, so Mrs. Arboitz came out to the ranch this one time and she told Mama she was going to take Cleto and she was going to take Mary from Mrs. Bengochea. She thought the kids all should be together and she was going to take care of them all. We had nine of us already then so Mama said, "Allright." Mama cried and I cried because I'd changed Cleto's diaper many a times. She came up to Mrs. Bengochea and Mrs. Bengochea said, "Nothing doing." Her kids were all grown and she wasn't about to let Mary go. They fought and fought but nothing doing and Mary stayed there and the rest of them went to Mrs. Arboitz.

LD: Where did Mrs. Arboitz live when she had the kids?

MY: You know where Say When (McDermitt) is right now? That's how Cleto Maguira inherited that land. He was supposed to be in business with them with the Say When and someway a big fight started because he owned the land. I guess Mrs. Arboitz had left it to him. I don't know what happened but they had quite a fight about it. She had a bar and a kind of a little house there in back where she raised those three kids.

LD: Was McDermitt a lot bigger when you were small?

MY: Oh yeh, the Commerical Hotel was booming, and there would be Mrs. Arboitzes place there on the corner. There was two grocery stores. There was a service station. A lot of people living around there. There was a lot of houses.

LD: Did you ever go to Fort McDermitt?

MY: No. Once I went with Papa to Nouque's ranch. I stayed outside in the car and Papa went inside and talked to Mr. Nouque about something and then this last year Christmas time Ruby took me out to Nouque's ranch and that was the second time I'd been there.

LD: There wasn't any mining around you then? page 25

MY: The Opalite Mine was going at that time up there at Disaster Peak, and then later on the McDermitt Mine, that one that used to be the Cordero Mine. Because when Johnny and Angela left the ranch they went over to the McDermitt Mine and lived at the mine and Johnny worked at the mill there. I think that's where Johnny lost his hearing because he worked where they crushed rocks and there was a constant noise.

LD: Getting back to here when you were going to grammar school. You went to this grammar school all 8 years?

MY: Yes. All of us did. Then when we moved down to 2nd Street we walked ten blocks up to the high school and would come home at lunch time, make Jello - and Jean Morrall said, "How do you make Jello?" I said, "What? Don't you know how to make Jello?" She said, "No, I've never made any Jello before." She lived with her grandmother and all she did was practice the piano and go to the school. Never got into the kitchen, never did the dishes, she had no idea that you could make Jello. And I used to make Jello at noon. We used to get a big block of ice for ten cents and put it in there and have ice cold stuff like that.

LD: Where would you get the ice?

MY: Old man Brecker used to come along with his truck and you'd put a sign out in the window if you wanted ten cents or twenty-five cents and he'd walk in the back porch and put it in that big refrigerator. In fact that great big refrigerator is in Tammy and Tony's house. She told me the other day she's going to fix it up and put a little china and glasses and stuff in it. It's one of those old wooden ones.

LD: How about milk?

MY: Milk, after we even came up here we used to get milk from old Hazel Smith, by the river. She'd milk the cows and never sterilize anything. It was raw milk and we drank raw milk, and Mr. Lew Miller from Paradise - we'd leave our pint of fresh cream out there on our doorstep and next week on a Friday we'd wash it out and put a quarter in it and leave it on our doorstep and when the kids came from school they'd put it in the refrigerator. Every Friday he'd come in, he had a lot of customers and we all got fresh cream.

LD: Would Mrs. Smith deliver the milk to your house?

MY: Yes. She had an old Model T.

LD: What was she like? page 26

MY: She had a lot of whiskers on her face, a moustache. I never saw her hair. She always wore a straw hat or else a felt helt that was just oily from wearing it so much. She wore long sleeves. She wore bib overalls. Dee and the kids used to call her 'Shotgun Annie'. They'd go down to the river and boy she'd give them holy hell because they'd go to her place there. She never sterilize anything and she'd have the great big gallons of milk that she'd deliver to different people.

LD: How would you pay her?

MY: Once a month she'd come with a bill and we'd give her cash money for that.

LD: Was she married, do you know?

MY: I don't know, we never knew if she ever married and she never had any kids or anything. Where the old Richfield Service Station used to be (SW corner of Aiken and Winnemucca Boulevard) she had her house there. She always had her gates locked with chains. You never could go into her house. Every Memorial Day she'd sell flowers. She had a lot of flowers and for fifty cents you could get all the flowers you want. We'd walk and take them to the cemetary.

LD: I wonder why she was like that.

MY: She was a funny lady, she wasn't a friendly lady but everybody bought milk there. She was the only one that had the milk until old man Hershey started his milk at Tallman Place out there. Then they used to bring the milk in. In fact Dee and Albert (Jones) and Mrs. Jones did, bought all the land from her on the river. She had a lot of antique stuff there, in fact Dee has a picture that she painted of the bridge that they used to have that Albert would take a sack of wheat and stuff over the bridge to feed their animals and stuff. It's a beautiful picture.

LD: Dee painted it?

MY: Yes she did, when she went to Elko. She was kind of lonesome and they said, "Why don't you go to the community college and take an art class." She took this art class and made a beautiful picture. Then Dee and Albert got quite a bit of stuff from her, the round old refrigerator that she had and had the top where you could put ice on it.

LD: Did Hazel Smith have any other relatives here that you know?

MY: I don't think so. She was a loner. She'd say hello and stuff like that, page 27 but boy if the kids ever went around there she'd pull out that old shotgun and she was ready to shoot.

LD: What happened to her?

MY: I think she died right here in Winnemucca. I don't think she ever ate much because she was just skin and bones. She always wore a hat. I keep thinking when we keep talking about sterilizing dishes and stuff, god there was no sterilization there.

LD: There weren't as many people either.

MY: And the cows didn't have any disease at that time.

LD: Would you make regular meals then for your brothers and sisters, or did everybody pitch in and help?

MY: I did the cooking.

LD: And did you make bread?

MY: No, we bought the bread unless when Mama would send some bread with Papa. We usually bought our bread because we could buy it for ten cents a loaf.

LD: Where?

MY: At Reinhart's. We did all our shopping at Reinhart's until it burned down. I was married to Johnny when that burned. I had Deanna because I remember going uptown to get something and saw the fire going. At that time we didn't have a telephone at the house. Well it was during the war we had a helluva time trying to get it and we tried to talk to Mr. Snyder and we couldn't get it because you had to be on the list and you had to be priority and you had to be important and stuff. We had an awful time trying to get that telephone. Austins did next door so we used to go over there and use the telephone.

LD: When did you move to the big house?

MY: 1932 and I stayed there until '36 when I was graduated and then I stayed there until after I was married and had Deanna and Ruby. I stayed there about 7 years and took care of my brothers and sisters. Then we had Danny Gabica and Joe Gabica because they didn't have a high school in Orovada so I was taking care of them. And Sally (Quilici) graduated from Pleasant Valley so she came and stayed with us. And we had a couple of page 28 those French guys that did some mining for Papa. They stayed down the basement and I'd have to clean the bedding.

LD: Who were they?

MY: Steve Crutchcarry and Pete Apestegie.

LD: What was the occasion that your dad bought that house?

MY: Old man Reinhart had gone bankrupt and Papa got that house real cheap, in fact he borrowed the money at that time from the bank and paid for that house, and paid cash for it, because it wasn't very much.

LD: Who lived there before you?

MY: Reinhart.

LD: The Reinhart Family did?

MY: No, I'll tell you who lived down there when we bought it. Old man Lyon. He had the stageline from Winnemucca to McDermitt. They were Christian Science people and they had one room in the basement just loaded with Christian Science papers.

LD: But Reinhart's owned it?

MY: Yes.

LD: Did your Mom come in then and see the house, and was she excited?

MY: I don't remember. It was cold that year and that was the year that Papa had to take his sheep clear to Battle Mountain to Mrs. Saval's place to take care of the sheep because we didn't have any hay, we didn't have any corn, we didn't have anything, and Papa leased the Saval land or something and he was back and forth taking the sheep. And then we had the old furnace, it was a coal furnace and we'd have to get the furnace going and then the radiators with the water would heat the house. One time we went out to the ranch and we didn't have any heat and we came back and water was all over the place. The radiators had broken. We got some of them fixed, and some we never did get fixed. Then later after Johnny and I were married Johnny and Pepper got them changed into oil.

LD: You moved into that house when you were in the 8th grade?

MY: Yes. Mrs. Larre was a French lady and Papa had brought them from page 2

In 1954 when we were going to make our first trip to Spain, Johnny and I made a special trip to the ranch and I said, "Mom, we're going to go to Spain and do you want to come and see your sister Visticion?" And she said, "Oh, I'd love to go see her." We said, "Alright, make up your mind because you are not a citizen and we have to get a passport. It takes just about six months to get a passport." So she said, "Well, I' don't know, maybe I'll see." So we waited and maybe a month later Dad came in and I said, "Did Mama decide if she wants to go to Spain?" And he said, "No, she doesn't want to go. She doesn't want to leave me and Uncle Steve at the ranch." So then just a week before we were going to leave she comes to town to tell us goodbye and to tell us she wants to go to Spain, (laughter) And I said, "Oh Mama it's late now. We got our tickets to go on the big boat and we got all our passports and I never could get you a passport." She said, "Well that's alright. Just bring me pictures and pictures of Visticion and the family." So we did, we took a lot of pictures and she was very happy when we came back and showed the pictures.

She (Visticion) had just an open fireplace and she got down on her knees and she'd put her kettle on one of these things that hook on, and she'd do all her cooking there.

LD: So you went to the place where your mother was born?

MY: Yes.

LD: This last time when we went to Spain we stayed at a little town on the ocean called EA. Joyce Vetter's grandmother's name was Remeteria and of course her grandfather was Joe Erquiaga, who lived a mile away.

MY: Mrs. Bengochea was Mama's sister and Mrs. Chabagno was Mama's sister. Paula Ugalde and Remundo Erquiaga and Mrs. Maguira, that's Cleto Maguira that lives in McDermitt, his mother; Mrs. Aranguena. They were all Mama's first cousins. And then Mrs. Legarza, Neivas' mother, she was a first cousin.

LD: Oh gosh, everybody is related, (laughter) When you went to the place your mother came from, did they say it was almost the same?

MY: Well yeh, because they didn't have any electric lights, and she didn't have any washing machines. She had an outside toilet. And they took baths just like we did when we were at the ranch. Big tubs. The second trip when we went they had modernized it quite a bit. Martina (another sister) lived there and she went into Lequitio and then she had the modern washing machine and had gas stove and refrigerator. They would disconnect everything because they didn't want to pay two big power bills. page 29

France to herd the sheep. And they went to school here - Irene and Helen and Geneivieve was just a small girl - and so they lived in a house where Domingo Arenguena lived, right next to a two-story house. Mrs. Larre used to clean the hotels and do chambermaid work and he'd work in the sheep camp in the summertime at Disaster Peak.

LD: Were you happy to move into this big house?

MY: Oh yes, because we each had our own bedroom. We had our private bathroom. It was really nice. And then we had bells in each room and into the kitchen. If you wanted some service why you'd ring the bell. In fact Tammy brought it up that one of their biggest treat was when they'd come in from the ranch to stay and take swimming lessons for two weeks, when Dee would go to get Albert at the railroad they'd go to the bedroom and ring the bell and Dee would come and she'd say, "How come all the bells are out?" All eight bells would be out. (laughter)

LD: So Reinhart's probably did that.

MY: Yes. It was a nice home.

LD: And who were your neighbors?

MY: At that time Fern Nelson, she married three times. She was a Nelson and she married a Tonkin and she married another guy and then Fern married Rene Amat and they kept the house.

LD: Who was this Nelson?

MY: She stayed home all the time. Her husband was a railroader.

LD: Did they have children?

MY: They had a boy and Fern. And the boy got hurt. Instead of going to the war he went to work on the railroad and just about a month after he got started someway two trains got together and hit him in the leg and he lost his leg. They had to amputate it and he died from that accident. And then Mary Negro had married him and she left and she went to Reno. In fact she's in a rest home now.

LD: And then after Nelson it was Tonkin?

MY: She got married to somebody by the name of Tonkin. He was some guy that worked as some kind of a carpenter. Then she divorced him and she was a widow when she passed away. page 30

LD: You were still doing most of the cooking. Did Annie help you with the cooking?

MY: Annie had gotten married when she was a junior so she was gone. Annie was a beautiful girl and she was always running around, (laughter) She never had time to do any work. I can remember one time we went to Reinhart's and we got some long formats for $2.95. (laughter) One was orange and one was blue and I wanted the orange one and Annie wanted the orange one. We had a helluva fight in that big bathroom, (laughter) And Annie took the orange dress and I kept the blue one and I didn't even go to the dance. Annie went to the dance and had a good time, (laughter) Annie was a beautiful girl and boy the boys were always chasing her. I'll never forget, $2.95 we paid for those formals. They were long formals and kind of a plaid material, puff sleeves on it.

LD: Plaid material?

MY: Yes. Kind of a fine material. $2.95 of course at that time was worth practically $40.

LD: Then you would close up the houses and go out to the ranch all summer long?

MY: Yes.

LD: And then you'd help out there too?

MY: Yes and Mama would go out in the hayfield. I can still see Mama with a big pitchfork putting the great big stacks of hay on top of the old haywagon. Then she'd come in the house and help me finish cooking the dinner. Mama worked awfully hard. Mama worked awfully, awfully hard. Mrs. Bengochea used to spend the whole summer at her ranch and she didn't do anything. She had an old fellow there that was related to Mr. Bengochea and he did all the cooking and she'd get up at ten o'clock in the morning and had a good time. Mrs. Goyhex was the same. They didn't work hard at all. Mrs. Chabagno worked awfully hard too. Mama and Mrs. Chabagno worked awfully hard.

LD: She must have liked to be outdoors, do you think?

MY: Well, it was just something that had to be done and that was it.

LD: Was she ever ill?

MY: Not until she got real sick with leukemia. I don't remember Mama page 31 being real sick. Even after she had her kids she'd be in bed ten days and then she'd be up and around washing clothes.

LD: Did she talk to you much about how tough it was to have that many kids?

MY: I remember she used to always tell Dr. Giroux, "No more kids. No more kids. I don't want no more kids." Dr. Giroux said, "You tell Mr. Mentaberry sleep there and you sleep here." (laughter) That was his remedy. There was no birth control.

LD: Do you think there was any talk with the priest about that?

MY: No. Mama never even went to confession. She just went to church. I don't remember Mama ever going to Holy Communion. We all received the sacraments, all of us kids did. We were all baptized in the church and then we received our communion and confirmation. Papa wasn't much for church going, but Mama was. She made sure that we went to church and we went to catachism.

LD: When you first remember church, was it this church or another one?

MY: When we were little small kids there was a church where the Winner's Inn is. A small wooden church. There's a picture of it up at the museum that Rene Risi took up there. And then they built this church and all my kids and all of us we've received our sacraments in it.

LD: You didn't help out in the field at all?

MY: No, I never went out in the field. I rode the mule one time and the mule bucked me and I went flying. That was the last time I got on the mules.

LD: Did you like the cooking?

MY: I don't know, seemed like I kind of enjoyed it. I didn't know any better and just figured it was part of my thing to help.

LD: You and your Dad were pretty close?

MY: Yes, Papa was close with me. Seemed like he always confided in me about this and that.

LD: Was your Mom invovled in any of the business decisions? page 32

MY: No, Papa did all the business decisions. I was in high school when I used to get his stuff and take it to some old mechanic that did Papa's income tax. Seemed like he never had to pay and I remember this one time I said, "Papa you got to pay income tax." "Oh me happy Mary, me happy." And I said, "Why?" He said, "I make a little money. Last year, last year, last year no money. Didn't pay no taxes. I pay tax this time I make a little money." So if he made a little profit and he had to pay income tax he was happy because it meant he made some money. And that was very rare that he had to pay any taxes because he'd just barely break even from one year to the next.

LD: So you graduated from Humboldt High School?

MY: In 1936.

LD: How many were in your class?

MY: There were 24 of us I think. The only one that's around here now is Louie Peraldo and I. And he told me the other day it's sixty years since we graduated. I said, "Oh my goodness. I didn't realize that." (laughter) I can remember one time when we were still down at the big house and Papa said the Red Cross was giving flour and he told us to go to a certain place uptown to get the flour. He told Johnny and I to go and Johnny had a little red wagon that he'd found someplace and Papa said, "Get this wagon and go down and get some flour." Why I was embarrassed and Johnny was too. We said nothing doing and Papa got mad at us and I said, "You go." And he said, "No you kids go." And we didn't go and we never did get the sack of flour. Things were tough at that time. That's when the banks closed. You know where the Elks building was? That was the old Trust Bank and brother Johnny had saved money from selling gunny sacks and working at the Over­ land at the bowling alley. He had $80 and the bank closed. And I had $7.82 and the bank closed. In fact I still got that bank book downstairs.

LD: How did you make that much money?

MY: I don't know, I think someone would give me a dime and I'd save. Maybe Papa would give me a dollar or something and I took it to the bank. But Johnny worked hard for his money because he used to go around and pick up all the gunny sacks and bring them up to old man Brecker and get ten cents for them. Johnny was a money maker. He's still a money maker.

LD: How about your father? Did he lose a lot of money then too?

MY: We didn't have very much because we used to borrow the money from the credit union so Papa I don't think lost much. I was in the third grade page 33 and there was a crash then too and Mrs. Gillman came from here crying and she had lost all her money in the Bell Telephone stock. She came and she was just crying because she said she'd lost all her money in the crash. She had lost everything and she had quite a bit of telephone stock I think her father had given her.

LD: Who was your principal?

MY: McFadden, Leo McFadden.

LD: Not the Monsignor Leo McFadden?

MY: No. In fact he had kind of a bad knee. Later on Roger Corbett.

LD: Tell me about Bauptista Mentaberry.

MY: His stepfather took him to the sheepcamp when he was in the 8th grade and he was all alone at the sheepcamp and kind of went cuckoo. He was a mental case. I can remember Papa came here one evening and he said, "Mrs. Goyhex wants me to go up and see her. I wonder what she wants to see me about." And that was the year that Helen Brown came out to the ranch and stayed with Dee and Papa thought that maybe Helen got pregnant is all he could think of. "I scared to go there, I scared to go there" he said. So he went over and he came back and he said, "Oh my goodness, my goodness." I said, "What happened?" He said, "Oh Bauptista down in the basement. He is cocolo." See Bauptista's Dad was Dad's brother and Mrs. Goyhex didn't know what to do with Bauptista. She talked to the doctor and then they kept him there and he got really mean. They couldn't handle him. Finally they had to get him down in the ambulance and tie him up and they took him to Sparks. He was in Sparks for a long time. Then they decided that they would operate on him and they took him to the University of Nevada and somebody that I knew that was at the university said he was brought to the class and they asked him questions and he talked about being alone at the sheepcamp and he figured that's when he got bad. At that time I think it was a real bad case of depression and they didn't know exactly what it was. And then from there they took him to Fallon and in fact the year I got married in '38 that following year he went cuckoo.

LD: When did you have your first job for wages?

MY: I went to work at the Overland as a waitress and I'd go to work at five o'clock in the morning. The first thing I would do is look at the delicious pastries that was there and the old Chinaman had just finished the banana cream pie with fresh cream. I'd go there and cut myself a piece of banana page 34

cream pie and have a cup of coffee for my breakfast, and then I'd work like hell. I worked awfully hard and one time this gal told me, "How much money you making?" I was making $2 a day and what few tips we were making and she said, "Oh, I'm making $4." Oh, I was so mad. I said, "How come you're making $4 ?" She said, "I'm older than you are." I never did forget that. Otis was her name. So then one morning, five o'clock in the morning, old man Anchart from the City Bakery right next door came and he brought some fresh bread and said, "Mary you want to come work for me?" And I said, "Yes, I'll come work for you." So I went to work for City Bakery. I only worked four months I think at the Overland. And the local businessmen would go on big drunks and party down The Line and then they'd come and sit there in the booth and they'd have raw oysters. I can remember bringing them fresh raw oysters with lemons. They were trying to sober up because they'd been out all night drinking. That was supposed to settle their stomach.

LD: Did they open at 5 a.m.?

MY: They were open all night. In fact there was quite a bit of restaurants at that time that were open all night.

LD: Did the Chinaman own it?

MY: Yes he owned it. And then sometimes you'd bring hashed brown potatoes and your fried eggs and you'd have a couple of fried cockroaches. Cockroaches all over. I never ate any hashed browns or potatoes for years and years. All I could see was those cockroaches. And then stew and things like that I never ate.

LD: Who was he?

MY: Lee Wong was his name. One time at 5 o'clock in the morning and you could just see the damned cockroaches going right behind the chimney. They were thick. People would just pick them off. Some of them ate them fried.

LD: Did he teach you how to wait tables?

MY: I don't remember taking any lessons. Hand them a glass of water and the menu.

LD: And then you'd have to remember in your mind and write it down.

MY: Yes. page 35

LD: At Anchart's Bakery was it a better wage?

MY: I was making $2 a day and then if there was leftover bread and stuff he'd give me the leftover bread and doughnuts so I'd come home and the Mentaberrys ate a lot of doughnuts at that time because they were free.

LD: And he was a character?

MY: Yes, he was a real character. Mrs. Anchart really worked too. She used to come early in the morning and wash the big pans and get the bread a going and frost the cakes. She was just go, go, go. He'd go to bed about I o'clock and she'd still be there at 4 o'clock in the afternoon working. Next morning at 4 o'clock in the morning she'd be back working.

LD: What did you do at the bakery?

MY: I waited on people and early in the morning I'd wrap the bread. They'd put it through the slicer and you had the waxed paper and you'd put it on the side and at 8 o'clock it would open up and you'd wait on the customers.

LD: Did you sell much bread out?

MY: He used to go to Imlay once a week. There was some little store there and he'd take some bread and some rolls and then Crawford would stop by and pick up orders from McDermitt. We'd send those on the stage. Every once in awhile someone would come in from Denio and they'd buy maybe ten loaves of bread and take it out.

LD: You worked there for quite awhile?

MY: Yes, I worked there even after I got married. I was taking care of the house and taking care of the kids. My brothers and sisters were all there and I worked there until I got pregnant with Deanna and I used to have morning sickness so I quit.

LD: Did you use that money to help the family or did you save some of it for you?

MY: In 1936 when I started working we didn't have a refrigerator in that big house and we didn't have electric stove and we didn't have a washing machine, so I went to City Electric to old man Horning and told him who I was and I told him I was working and I wanted to buy a refrigerator. He said, "I'll give you credit." He delivered the refrigerator and I kept paying $2 a week on it. And then I said I wanted an electric stove so he gave me a electric stove and I think it was $67 or something. One of those small page 36 little things with three little plates. I said I wanted a washing machine so he gave me credit and I could pay so much on them. And finally when Johnny and I got married I think I owed maybe $80 or something so he paid them off and I can still remember I'd go to the Corner Drug Store and Mr. Horning would come over and he'd pat me and say, "Here's the girl that made $2 a day and saved enough money to buy a refrigerator for her folks and a washing machine and an electric stove." He used to tell me that all the time. Social security went into effect that following year and we didn't know anything. Not much papers we had at that time and no radio and no TV and stuff.

LD: Did the World War I affect you guys at all?

MY: Yes. I can remember Mama telling me that in World War I is when we lost Papa's brother that was married to Mrs. Goyhex during the influenza. A lot of Bascos died at that time. Mama said the people would go up the street with a handkerchief tied around their face because they didn't want to get the germs. That influenza was just really bad. 1917 it got a lot of Bascos.

LD: And that was something connected with the war you mean?

MY: That's what they claim it was. And then the 1942 war the day my baby Ruby was born Foe went to the service. And I can remember him saying, "Pumpkin I'll see you when I come back from the war." Four years later Foe came back. Foe worked hard for his education. We didn't have much money and Foe just insisted he was going to go to college. He used to work at the Overland washing dishes and he'd bring his dirty, dirty white shirts to me and I'd have to wash them, from college. They were just greasy filthy and I used to get them and scrub them and scrub them and throw them in that washing machine. He never had a suitcase. He just had an old flour sack he'd bring his clothes in and throw them down in the basement and I'd have to wash them and iron for him and he'd take them back. He always got a ride and he always makes fun of it too. Ast, at that time they lived next door. They had the laundry and they had fancy ironed shirts from the laundry and old Foe would come with this flour sack full of dirty clothes, (laughter)

LD: Did you ever wear pants when you were working?

MY: We wore dresses all the time. I don't remember when we started wearing slacks. Seemed like everybody wore dresses.

LD: In the bakery did you learn how to make any of those things? page 37

MY: I picked up a few things. How to make a frosting like for making a fluffy frosting I used to see Mr. Anchart get a handful of white lard and throw it in and he'd get his powdered sugar and he'd get a cube of butter sometime and pour it in there and mix it up and it'd make it just fluffy. So sometime when I want to make a fluffy frosting I'd get crisco and get some butter and just mix the hell out of it and make it fluffy.

LD: What was he like?

MY: He was always kind of a jumpy guy. He was always jumping around. I never could see how he could make any money. He used to have to pay so much for eggs and so much for flour and you'd sell a loaf of bread for ten cents. Doughnuts we used to get $1.50 for a dozen. I don't know how he ever made any money. At that time it seemed like there was no wedding cakes to make big money on. At the end of the day there wasn't much money left in the cash register.

LD: When you graduated from grammar school was that a big occasion?

MY: We just had a graduation exercise and Mama and Papa couldn't come because Mama was at the ranch alone with doing the irrigating and Papa was up in the hills lambing. In fact in 1936 Mama didn't come to my graduation (high school) either. She was at the ranch alone and Papa was up at the sheep camp.

LD: Would she talk to you about it and say she felt bad about not making it?

MY: I just felt it was just something that had to be done. I never gave it much thought because it was part of life. Mama was trying to work and Papa was at the sheep camp. In 1936 I graduated and I went to Ma Davises and had a root beer and I was in bed by 10 o'clock graduation night.

LD: What did you like the best in high school?

MY: Home Ec I enjoyed and I took piano lessons from Mrs. Isabel Loring. She married the guy from the post office. I had to study for my lessons. Math and algebra were really hard for me and my English. I made average grades. I wasn't outstanding, but then when I got out of school I wanted to go to business college and Papa said, "Mary I no got no money. My lambs no sold, my wool in Boston. Next year I make money. I send you to school." And I met Johnny and that was the end of my school. So I figured it wasn't too bad. I got married and had two nice girls.

LD: When you were growing up did you have enough money to go to the page 38

movies or anything like that?

MY: We didn't go to movies much. Foe and those kids would but seemed like I never went to movies very much. I remember Eddie he used to go to movies. We'd have two shows and when people would be coming out he would walk backwards and get into the show, (laughter) He said, "I didn't have a dime." And then we used to go once in awhile to Mrs. Dyer. They had that beautiful home there on 1st Street and that's where I used to make some money. Dominica DeArrieta would go washing dishes. They always had company, they had Mr. Marvel and different people and they'd have the big dining room and the old lady would have her cigarette thing and trying to talk and the ashes would be falling off. She was a good cook, the old lady was, and we'd have to wash the crystal they had that had gold around them. Ten cents for three hours of washing dishes, wash the crystal. Never got anything to eat. I look back and I think how dumb we were. And Foe was supposed to bring the wood and coal in and he used to get a dime a week or something. One time it was about 4:30 and old man Dyer came in and wanted to know where Foe was. I said I didn't know. He hadn't been there three days and the wood and coal bins were empty. Foe came that night, I don't know where he'd been playing, Foe was always playing someplace. He came and I said, "Mr. Dyer was here looking for you." And he said, "The hell with the damn fool. I'm not going to work for ten cents. I quit." I said, "Why didn't you tell him?" He said, "I didn't go, so that means I quit." He didn't even go back. But Dominica Prida worked there. In fact that was the only place she worked in her life from the time she was in school and even after she got married. She worked for old man Dyer and that's how Joe (DeArrieta) got into the Dyer Lumber business.

LD: How would you get wood for your stoves in town?

MY: Old man Bricker. You know where that vacant lot is now next to the Office Bar (corner of Bridge and Railroad Streets)? There was an old place down in the bottom and he would bring the coal from the railroad station and dump it out right there and then bring in the wood and they'd put it in sacks and you'd go and get a sack of coal for a dollar. Sometime you'd have to haul it yourself because he charged sometime 25 cents to haul it. Foe and Hank would chop the wood and bring it in and bring the coal in. And at the big house we had the coal furnace and at that time then they used to deliver it and we used to have the coal dumped into the big basement down there. I'd close the old doors and cover them up with paper and stuff but the smell would still come in all over.

LD: Did you guys ever have to go to the hospital or doctor and did you have those kind of responsibilities with your brothers and sisters? page 3

LD: I love that area. It is so beautiful.

MY: It is. It's a very friendly and nice area.

LD: What did your mother look like?

MY: She was kind of a little hefty after she had her kids. She had a little potbelly. She always had a sense of humor. She always made a joke of everything. She'd fight with Dad and call him the 'Old dumb Frenchman", and then he'd turn around and said, because Papa was French Basque and Mama was Viscanyo, and he'd say, "You're just a Viscanyo" and then they'd make up and then they'd go on. But Mama always raised a big garden, a huge garden. We didn't have any refrigeration so in the summer time when Dad butchered she'd get all the meat and salt it and put it in great big old tubs and we'd boil it on the coal and wood stove. She made all her jellies, preserved all her fruit. I always say that during the Depression if we didn't have the ranch the Mentaberry kids would have starved to death, because there was six of us and I can still remember during the Depression we didn't have any money at all. I can see Mama - we had a little round bank that somebody had given us and we used to put pennies in there - Mama got the old big ax and chopped that thing and the pennies went out and Mama grabbed them and came up to the store and got a loaf of bread.

You could borrow money not from the banks but from the Nevada Credit Association just to run your sheep, and we'd go down to Reinhart's and old man Reinhart would give us one year's credit until Papa sold his lambs and sold his wool. He'd go in and tell Mose Reinhart, "How much I owe you?" Mose would say, "Wait a minute Mentaberry, I'll see." And he'd go upstairs and he'd come back and he'd say, "You owe me one thousand two hundred and sixty-two cents." That was a whole year's groceries.

The biggest treat from Reinhart's was when Papa would get those great big chocolate squares that they used to make the old-fashioned chocolate with and we'd chop that up and eat it like candy, and oh, that was the biggest treat! I just really loved that.

LD: Did you help out in the gardening?

MY: I always worked in the kitchen. In the morning we'd have to put the big pot on the stove and get the water hot so we could do the dishes after breakfast and Mama would be out feeding the chickens or something and I'd be washing the dishes. We'd rinse them once in awhile. Sometimes we didn't have enough water so we didn't rinse them. We'd use the old lye soap that Mama used to make with the leftover lard. She'd make great big page 39

MY: The only one that went to the hospital and had his tonsils taken out was Hank. Papa took him to Dr. Weiss. I can remember he brought him in and laid him on the bed and he couldn't even talk. For two or three weeks seemed like Hank had a helluva time, but he was the only one that had any­ thing taken out.

LD: Did you ever feel that you weren't treated good because you were Basque?

MY: Well no, because seemed like there were a few American people that were really friendly with us. There were more Bascos like the Garteizes and the Legarzas and Bengocheas.

LD: Then you picked up the English easy?

MY: Yes.

LD: Were you involved in sports?

MY: I just belonged to G.A.A. the club. They didn't have girl's basketball and they didn't have volleyball. The only sport there was was boy's football and basketball. We didn't have any baseball or any of that kind of stuff.

LD: How about any kind of debate teams or any of those things?

MY: They had a debate team and I never got into it. We had a teacher who's name was Willie Hudson. She was kind of absent-minded and she'd put on the board we were going to do this and that and Frank Bengochea and Ray Jones would get her attention and she'd be talking to them and they'd go up there and change it with the same lesson we had the same day. So that went on and on and on. "No, that's what you got on there.", the kids would say and we used to have the same thing maybe for a week over and over because they would change it. Frank and Ray really gave old Willie Hudson a bad time. They were full of hell.

LD: So there was no extra things in school that you did?

MY: No, we were supposed to be at school by 8:30 and we'd get home for lunch an hour and then we were out at 3:15 and I was back home at 3:30 ready to get my dinner on. I can remember one time brother Johnny, I don't know where he got that bicycle when we were kids, he gave us strict orders we couldn't use it and this one time I thought, "I gotta ride that bike." I picked it up, took it on the sidewalk and rode around and came back and would fall down and I came back home and I had a scratch on me and I put it back. I don't know whether he saw me and he said, "You rode page 40

my bike." He gave me the biggest kick. There was only one bike in that house.

The other day there was two Mexican kids out in front there and one little white kid from down here and I called them over and I said, "You kids want to pull some weeds? Come tomorrow morning at 9 o'clock." One Mexican kid said, "Oh I can't do it. I got my chores to do." And the other one from down here said, "Yeh, I'll come." So at 9 o'clock I brought all my shovels and my stuff and gloves and nobody showed up and I did my work. Pretty soon about 11:30 gee I see somebody on skate boards. Somebody was bent down and I went out and I said, "Oh are you guys going to finally pull weeds? I told you to come at 9 o'clock. It's pretty hot out here now." And they had their skate boards. I said, "Take your skate boards off." And he said, "Oh no, we can work faster." (laughter) They never took their skate boards off and they were roller skating back and forth and they were trying to pull the weeds. It made me so nervous, pretty soon I said, "Go get the wheelbarrow." They went out and got the wheelbarrow on their skate board and on their skateboards they took the few weeds. I thought, "This is enough of this." I said, "That's alright, I'll get somebody else to finish the job." They were just sweating. I made some lemonade for them and I came in and got some money and paid them off and that was the end of them, but can you imagine.

LD: Were there any Basque organizations at that time?

MY: No.

LD: And no get togethers like they have now?

MY: The only thing when my kids were up here at church we had an OLV Club. That was Our Lady of Victory and we worked with the catachism kids. We used to give them Christmas parties and they used to have Christmas plays at the Nixon. We'd get the stage fixed and the sisters would help the kids with the play.

LD: Did you use the Nixon for entertainment?

MY: I can remember going to some of the dances. They had a big balcony and we'd go in the top and watch the people dancing when we were kids. And people had long gowns and long gloves on. Really fancy dancing. I don't know how we sneaked in because they used to have to pay I think to go to those dances. On Labor Day we'd always look forward to Labor Day when we'd come from the ranch and they had the first rodeos out there where Raley's is. Brother Johnny and I walked and we went to see the rodeo and we were coming back and somebody on one of the wild horses page 41 and they got loose and they came and knocked Johnny down. I ran and we finally got home and we were scared to death. I mean we didn't have any cars at that time even.

Mom looked forward to March basketball season. George, David and Eddie were playing basketball games. Johnnie and I took her to Reno for Zone Tournaments. One Zone Tournament here in the grammar school Foe was a coach in Elko and Eddie was playing for Winnemucca when John Dolan was coach. At the last of a tie game Eddie makes a big long shot - Winnemucca won. The Humboldt Star had headline, "Brother Beats Brother." Mom was nervous. She wanted Foe to win the game too.

-end of first interview- page 42

July 17, 1996 at Mary Yrueta's house.

LD: I wanted to pick up a few things I left out last time. I wondered how you got ice.

MY: The only time we had ice was when we moved to the big house on 2nd Street. There was that great big refrigerator and Bricker would get ice from the river, and during the winter then they put it between sawdust and saved it. We had this great big sign we'd put in the window - 10 cents block - and he'd come right in the back porch and put a 10 cents block of ice in there.

LD: But at the ranch you never saved ice?

MY: The only refrigerator we had at the ranch was we had a tin thing that had the screen on it and somebody would put a gunny sack on it and Mama used to throw water on it like in the morning. We'd put our milk in there and close the door. That was the only refrigeration we had. We'd bring the milk out and put it on the table to put in the pitcher and it had real thick cream. And there was the old cellar that had thick walls and Papa used to open the back window and leave the front heavy door open and that cold air would get in.

LD: Did you ever ride on the stage between Winnemucca and McDermitt?

MY: No, I didn't. Pop got out the Model T and we rode in the Model T. Mama did, and she said when they came down Paradise Hill it frightened her so bad she'd get off on the top of the hill and she'd walk clear down the hill and Papa would come down and meet her and then she'd get on the wagon and come on into Winnemucca.

LD: How about any earthquakes, or eclipses?

MY: We had a cloudburst at the ranch one time. Terrible, it was just awful. It came from the mountains and it just brought everything. Picked up all the chickens and everything. Picked up all Mama's vegetables in the garden and they went down the creek and the carrots went clear down to McDermitt Creek. That was awful, just a terrible one. I can remember I was just scared to death. It was thunder and Mama was running around trying to save her chickens. Heck she didn't save anything. And then after that Dad talked to the county and the road crew came and they made great big culverts on the side of the ranch in case of another cloudburst so it would go toward McDermitt Creek. Oh that was awful.

LD: How about seeing an eclipse? page 43

MY: We did one time. I can remember brother John said, "Pull out the black silk handkerchief." And we got the black silk handkerchief and looked and Johnny said, "Did you see that lady laying on the bed and the old man." (laughter) I'll never forget.

LD: And earthquakes?

MY: Mama said one time not an earthquake, but a tornado. She said she was going down to the field and she said it just picked her up. It hit her against the tree. She said if the tree wasn't there she said she would have been way down into the creek.

LD: After you got into Winnemucca, do you remember if you were ever afraid to stay at home, of course you had your brothers?

MY: No, we never locked the doors or anything.

LD: Did you guys ever fish or swim in the river?

MY: No, because we used to go to the ranch in the summertime. Albert Jones and his family really learned how to swim in the river because they lived down there by the river.

LD: How about riding in an airplane?

MY: No. The first time I ever rode on a train was when I was a senior and the GAA made a trip from Winnemucca to Manzanita Hall for an overnight trip. After I got married is when I started riding in fancy cars and going on trips.

LD: How about hobos around town?

MY: There was a lot of hobos. They came off the train and came on these streets and they'd ask if you had work to do. And if you had work to do you'd either give them a sandwich or 50cents or 25 cents, or something. But they always asked you if you had work to do. There was a lot of hoboes.

LD: Did that go on for quite a while?

MY: Yes, it did because after we moved up here I was working at the school district then and some hobo came by and wanted work and Johnny said, "I'm the caretaker here." (laughter) "I don't know if they need any work because I do the work for them." page 44

LD: Did you see any women or kids?

MY: No. Like in Spain we had an awful lot of Gypsies. Here it was just men.

LD: Did they stay at the river?

MY: Yeh, most of them stayed under that bridge. They weren't a problem.

LD: How about when you first voted? Was that before you were married?

MY: I was 18 years old. That's how I got my driver's license. I didn't have to even take a test. I just went to the Court House and signed my name and the day I was born and I got my driver's license. There was no test or anything.

LD: And so you registered to vote and got your driver's license the same time?

MY: Yes.

LD: Did you do that as soon as you turned 18?

MY: Oh yes. Well I was a senior, I was just getting out of high school and that's when I started going around with Johnny and he had that beautiful Dodge. It was kind of aqua and I could hardly to wait to get my hands on that wheel, (laughter)

LD: How did you learn how to drive?

MY: He taught me how to drive. Just around town here. And my brother Foe just couldn't wait for me if I had the car at home. He's say, "Can I go get Johnny?" I'd say, "Well Johnny won't be ready until 6:30." "Oh that's alright. I'll go early." And then later in life he told me he'd get in that car and man he'd run all around town. He said he had more fun with that car. That was the height of his glory, (laughter)

LD: Do you remember any of the women in your family talking about the women's vote?

MY: No, because Mama wasn't that educated and neither were we at that time. The only thing I can remember in 1936 when I started going around with Johnny was I couldn't go to the Gem Bar and sit at the bar because women weren't allowed in the bar. We used to go into the cafe there and we'd sit down and that's when I first started having a highball once in page 45 awhile with Johnny. I mean I never drank anything much. There was a swinging door there. The ladies would walk into the cafe and have their drinks and men were the only ones that could sit at the bar.

LD: When you got together at houses did women drink?

MY: Oh there was a lot of coffee drinking. Papa made wine at the ranch, but the first thing anybody came over Mama used to say, "You want a cup of coffee?"

LD: Could you tell me about when you first met Johnny and a little bit about his family?

MY: Johnny came to the United States when he was 20 years old and he made several trips going back and forth because he had lost his father when he was only 14 months old so he never knew his father. Johnny was a kind hearted person. He would pick up wood and take it to the plaza and if he made 15 pesatas he kept 7 pesatas and he gave 7 to his mother.

LD: What town was he from?

MY: He was from Berriatua, Vizcaya, Espana. It was close to Bilboa and Lequito. It's a small town. They used to call it Little Madrid because people from Berriatua were very, very happy with their little town. It was a beautiful setting. And then his folks where they lived just was right up the hill in a farm there.

LD: How did he come here?

MY: His mother gave him enough money to come. They just couldn't make a living in Spain and his mother got enough money to send him and he got as far as the Busch Hotel. And this August Pasquale took him to herd sheep at Paradise and he worked there for two years and the second year he thought, "Well, I'd better get to town." He told Pasquale, "I'm going to go to Winnemucca and I want my check." And he looked at Johnny and he said, "No check. I went bankrupt." Johnny said, "What?" He didn't know what he meant because he said it in Italian. He said, "What do you mean?" Pasquale said, "No money, no money." And Johnny lost two whole years of salary. And he's the guy that built Andorno by hauling all those big bricks from Paradise mountains and he made a lot of money, but when he got the money he went to Italy with it. He left a lot of people holding their empty hands. Johnny never did forget that.

LD: I wonder how Johnny even knew about herding sheep? page 46

MY: They used to have a little sheep in Spain. Not like we do here you know. You get a big herd and go off. I don't know, they just thought the Basco people knew how to herd sheep, and they really didn't. It was just an adventure for them to come out here and they wanted that money so they took the chance of living alone and it was just solitude he said. It was just awful. Then he worked for Essain and he worked for Pete Egoscue. He worked for Pete Laca?

LD: And they were all outside of town? He was still herding?

MY: Yes. Then in 1926 he came and got the Martin Hotel from Vivianna.

LD: He had saved his money then, but did his brother come with him?

MY: No. Pete came earlier. Johnny was the youngest of the family. There was Angel and he passed away, and then there was Victor and then there was Pete and Johnny was the youngest. Pete herded sheep too for several years when he was first in Humboldt County.

LD: Who was Vivianna?

MY: She was the most beautiful woman I ever saw in my life. She had the most beautiful face and skin and a beautiful personality.

LD: Was she Basque?

MY: Yes, she was Basque. She and Johnny kind of went into partners and then they got into a fight, or something, and Johnny said, Til buy you out.' He said it was three or four thousand dollars. At that time it was big money. Then she was here for a long time then she left and went to Elko and she bought The Star. And then there was Frederico Bengoa, that was Frank and their first cousin, he had borrowed $50 from Johnny and was flat broke, didn't have any money, and finally got to Elko and fell in love with that gal and got married and they made a bundle of money. When she passed away she had already said she wanted her body shipped in a casket to Spain and it cost them a fortune, but her whole body was shipped in a beautiful casket to Spain. He went there and then he came back and he went to Idaho and married a young gal and they had five kids, and I met that gal at Gardnerville at a Basque festival several years ago. He always wore white shoes, white pants and straw hat. We used to call him 'Palo Blanco'. He'd work for awhile, but seemed like he never could save any money. Years later we went to Elko and Johnny started talking to him and he shook hands with Johnny and he had a $50 bill in his hand and gave it to him. page 47

LD: Did you know Johnny when he was in the Martin Hotel?

MY: Yes, because we used to go up there for the dances. Mrs. Bengochea used to get her young girls, Evelyn and Jean and Alice and I would tag along and we used to go to the Martin Hotel. I can remember during prohibition time they had a dance and they had the liquor and the bar and everything upstairs because they wouldn't let them sell any liquor down­ stairs. One time when Johnny had the Martin Hotel he had a lot of liquor in that house across the alley there in the basement. It used to be Doughty's house. It's got cement hallway. That's where Johnny used to make his moonshine. This one time he went to the bank and when he came back somebody said the pro-hi's were in town. They used to call them pro-hi's instead of probation. He came and saw his whiskey going down the gutter and the winos and people were with tin cans drinking the whiskey. He lost all his whiskey at that time. And then one time at the Legarza Ranch, him and Alfonso Navarran from McDermitt had a place there, and the pro-hi's got him there. Somebody must have turned him in because they would never have known where that place was. Took all their stuff and broke the stills and everything.

LD: When you guys would go to the dances at the Martin Hotel how was that? Basque dances?

MY: Yes, they'd have somebody playing the accordian. At that time in Spain too if it was January the 6th, All Saints Day, or All Souls Day, they used to have all kinds of dances. I can remember the whole weekend of Christmas and New Year's dance. January the 6th we used to go down to the Winnemucca Hotel and just dance like hell. Just had a helluva good time.

LD: Who were some of those accordian players, do you know?

MY: We used to call him Paco. He was married to Laucirica's sister. You remember that Hall that was in Paradise and they had a ranch? Willie Hall's wife's Dad was a accordian player. He really used to play that thing. And Candy Urizar used to get his spoons and make them just like the castanets. It was just a fun time.

Johnny had made a trip to Spain in 1932 or '33, and he was working for Cleto Archibald driving wool truck and he came to the ranch and picked up the wool there. I remember Mama invited him for lunch and he talked to us and I knew who he was. When I started working at the bakery in 1936 I used to go to work at 5 o'clock in the morning and he was just walking out of the door one time at the Gem Bar and he had worked all night and he asked me what I was doing. I said I was going to go to work, and we kind page 48 of visited. Next morning at 5 o'clock he was out there and talked to me, and I don't know, we just started going around together.

LD: Now why did he leave the Martin Hotel?

MY: I guess he was having so much trouble with the Pro-Hi's and stuff. And I got stacks and stacks of books from where people used to charge the liquor that he never collected from. If I had a penney for every money that Johnny gave to people I'd have been a multimillionaire. He was always giving to people. During war time too the young kids would come to the Gem Bar and say, 'I want to call my mother but I don't have any money. Will you buy this or something?' And he'd give them a couple of dollars so they could call their folks.

LD: Do you know who he sold the Martin Hotel to?

MY: He sold it to his brother Pete. Then he went to the Index (Bar), where the Boondocks (Bar) is now. He bought that in 1931. He ran that for two years and then he went to Spain in 1933. In 1934 he came back from Spain, then he bought Montero's place, Monty's Club, and then he sold his share to him, and in '35 he went to Ely. He started gambling, and there were so many Mormans in Ely that they just ran him out of town. Then he went to Greenville (California) and had a rough time there. This one time he said there was a trained big bear that would come from the mountains and would go right into the bar and the people would give him a great big glass of beer and it would drink that beer and boy it would just amaze people I guess. Johnny said he always wished he had a camera. He never did take a picture. He said sometime the bear got a little too much and they'd have a rough time trying to chase it up the mountain.

LD: And then he sold that?

MY: Yes, and that's when he came to Winnemucca in '36 when I met him here.

LD: And did he buy into the Gem Bar?

MY: He took over the gambling at that time.

LD: Who owned it then, do you know?

MY: Pete Yrueta had the Gem Bar. He sold the Martin Hotel to Louis Bilboa (Pepper). Louie came from the Commercial Hotel in McDermitt and then here. Also in 1935 Mrs. Bengoa insisted that Frank get married to Annie so they could run the Commercial Hotel. And Annie and Frank were going page 4 squares with it and that's what we took our bath with. That lye didn't hurt us I guess, (laughter)

LD: Did you help make it? Do you know what the recipe was?

MY: Yes. She used to get the lard and melt it and then she'd pour the lye and she'd move her head over so the lye wouldn't get into her eyes. Then she'd pour it into a great big box and leave it four or five days and then get this great big knife and cut it in squares like soap and then she'd put it in the old cellar there.

LD: So was the lard any kind of lard?

MY: Just the lard they had from the pigs. It was strong.

LD: I wonder how they'd buy the lye?

MY: It was in small cans. Dad used to go to the old mercantile in McDermitt and buy the lye. I think everybody made their soap. I don't know who taught her how to make it, but I can remember she would get this great big old paddle and stir it around and around and she told us to stay away from it. I guess she knew the lye was very dangerous.

LD: I wonder how she got all the seeds for her gardening?

MY: Dad used to go into the old mercantile. Mr. Ugariza ran the old mercantile there at McDermitt. There was a bank at McDermitt too at that time. I can still remember going in there with Dad to the bank. There was a couple of tellers there. He would buy the seeds at the mercantile and Mom would save her potatoes from the year before and she'd wait until they sprouted in the springtime and then she'd cut them in half and plant them. She'd plant radishes; lettuce; string beans; peas and carrots.

One of the main things I remember was Fourth of July she'd have a leg of lamb, and she'd go in the garden and she'd scratch under the dirt and get small potatoes and pull out some carrots. Peas were ready by then and we'd have peas and potatoes and carrots and that leg of lamb. She'd make her flan. She had this great big bowl. She used to put 12 eggs in it and 12 cups of milk and she'd make the best Fourth of July dinner. I'll never forget that. I always think of Fourth of July and Mama's good dinner we used to have.

LD: Did you have lettuce?

MY: Yes we had lettuce. She'd get the old tub and put the lettuce in there page 49 together in McDermitt, and in 1936 when Annie and I and Frank and Johnnie went to Lake Tahoe we were sitting in the big Cal-Neva bar that goes around and Annie said, 'Look what I got.' She had a diamond ring box. She said, 'We got engaged.' I said, 'Oh when are you going to get married?' 'Tomorrow1, (laughter) I said to Johnnie, 'Frank and Annie are going to get married.' He said, 'Oh are they? I'll buy them the outfit.' So we went to Reno and I can still see that little blue-brimmed hat and she had a little short dress and Johnnie paid for them and it was a wedding gift from Johnnie and I. They went to the Justice of Peace and they got married and came to Winnemucca. Annie didn't have a suitcase or anything, and Annie said, 'We'd better go to the ranch.' And they got to the ranch and Frank said in Basco, 'We got to tell you something.' And Mama said, 'San Christos, what in the hell you going to tell me?' And Annie was kind of scared. She said, 'We got married.1 She said, 'Got married? You're just a kid!' Annie said, 'We're going to run the Commerical Hotel because Pepper is leaving it.' 'My mother wanted me to get married1, Frank said. And Mama said, 'Well alright. You'll make a go of it I guess.' Annie worked hard at that place. Boy she worked hard! Just about that time is when the McDermitt Mine started and there was no place to live at the mine so they were living at McDermitt and Annie had three meals a day to put out and take care of the rooms. She used to hire Indians and they wouldn't show up. She'd hire cooks and she'd call me and tell me, 'Get a cook for me." I'd get Sylvster Uriguen's mother to go up there and she'd work there for awhile and then they'd get somebody else. Just back and forth and back and forth. They made pretty good money but they worked awful hard. In fact we've got a little picture of Ann Darlene when she was just a little girl sitting in front of the Commercial Hotel and they'd say, 'Where you been?' And she'd say, 'My wheels are tired.' And she'd go all through McDermitt into the bars and talk to the people. They knew who she was. When the war came then they bought the King's River Ranch.

LD: After Tom Dufurrena died?

MY: Yes.

LD: So when you were in the Cal-Neva you and Johnnie weren't married?

MY: No, we just went around together.

LD: Did he suggest that you get married then?

MY: No, he didn't. I wasn't quite ready to get married yet. I had just got out of school and my mind was still where I wanted to go to business school and Papa said he didn't have the money to send me. Then when I started working at the bakery I was going to save my money to go on to page 50 school.

LD: Gosh Johnnie was a very handsome man. And so nice.

MY: I look back and Johnnie took care of Papa. Bathe him, shave him. I'd pick up all the sheets and the clothes and bring them up here. Uncle Steve Johnnie would shave and I'd bring up all the clothes and clean them here. The bedding and everything. He'd go to the Winnemucca Hotel when Uncle Fausto was there and bathe him and clean him. I brought all his clothes and stuff. Johnnie would never complain. Papa was up to the hospital for 8 years and Johnnie went up at noon and night all the time to feed him. If he wasn't in town he made arrangements to see if I'd go up or someone.

LD: It sounds to me like the whole family was real good to your Dad.

MY: Yes, they were both well taken care of. It was hard for Dee to have Papa and Uncle Steve both of them there at the same time. Papa was kind of onery. Uncle Steve wasn't. He was an angel. He could sit by that window and rock that chair and say, 'The wind is going to blow tomorrow.' I would say, 'How can you tell?' He could tell you by the clouds. He herded sheep for forty-five years all by himself and he could tell you just exactly what kind of weather it was going to be. He herded sheep for Papa all the time Papa had the sheep.

LD: When did you get married?

MY: We got married in '37 I think it was. He gave me the ring Christmas, and everybody had gone to the ranch and Mama was the only one left in the town. She wasn't feeling too good at that time. I can still remember I came flying around there and said, 'Look what I got Mama.' And it was the cutest ring. Johnnie and Justo Zabala had gone to Reno and they went on a big drunk and next morning he told Justo, 'I got to get a diamond ring for my girlfriend.' It was really a pretty ring.

LD: Was he a gambler a long time?

MY: I can remember one time after we were married - Johnnie had to work all the time, Saturday, Sunday and holidays - this one time he said, 'We'll go to the boxing matches.' That was on the last day, a Monday night. I was still living down at the big house. We went to the Nixon and we saw the big boxing match and Frank Ydiando was one of the boxers. His Dad didn't even have $20 to put him in the ring for an entry fee. He came to Johnnie and borrowed $20. And he had this big match and I can remember he used to bless himself, and he just would really go to town. So then after that we went to the Gem Bar and Johnnie looked in the door and the crap table page 51 and he said in Basque, 'The crooks have been here.' And the guy that was at the table said, 'Yeh, they were here.' One guy from the inside and the other one from the outside just cleaned him. At that time just before holidays they'd always have outside gamblers come in to help you out. They used to just clean the town. Finally Winnemucca got wise to it and they said, 'No more of this.' There was big gambling in Winnemucca during the rodeos. Cowboys and all the ranchers and everybody would come in from after working all summer long.

LD: Was Bill DeLong on the fight card?

MY: Yes. Anyway at the Gem Bar there was the DeLongs, Peluagas, Martins. They'd have too many beers and there would be some real fights. Many a time I saw them. Boy they really had some fights. Mr. Peluaga was quite a character. He was married to an Indian girl. She was really a nice gal. Very good to him. He was good to her and the kids because they used to just idolize him. And he would sing in Basco, I'll tell you he could just really sing some songs. At the Winnemucca Hotel we'd clap and just watch him and just have more fun just listening to him. He could really sing songs. He worked at Tungsten and he used to come on paydays and cash his check at the Gem Bar. Johnnie used to at the Gem Bar cash checks for over $100,000. from the railroaders and the miners on a weekend. He had an old adding machine that he'd figure on and he'd take them to the bank. This one time the bank called and asked if he'd made a mistake and he went back and they figured and figured it, and the gal had made a mistake, not Johnnie. Johnnie never made a mistake, and he didn't have an education. What he got was just learned in town.

LD: Did he buy the Gem Bar?

MY: No Pete had it. So he just took over the gambling and he would take care of the bar. They worked together there. Pete made good money there. Johnnie made pretty good money there, but one year we had a rough time. I mean after the kids were born he just wasn't making any profit. We were having a helluva time. There was no money coming in at all.

LD: Because of the gambling?

MY: Yes. Gambling had really stopped. By that time there was so many crooks they had begun to catch the people and people just quit gambling because they thought the dealers were all too crooked.

LD: How did he come out of it?

MY: That's when Pete sold it and then Pete and Johnnie both went up to page 52

Monte's Club and started working for Monte at Montero's Club.

LD: Gambling?

MY: No, they were both bartenders. Johnnie took care of the gambling too, but he took a regular shift on the bar. Monte used to say people would steal you blind. He said they would bring their little black bags and pick the bottles of whiskey and go through the back door and go up to the Index and then sell it to people. And they do now too. Joe Mackie told Johnnie - Joe Mackie used to come from the back door, the front door, never knew what time he was going to come, and he'd go through the garbage cans and he'd find great big pieces of ham in the garbage cans covered up with all empty bottles, and in the empty bottles would be bottles of Vodka. They would put them in the garbage can and then after they got off work they'd go around and pick them up.

LD: Let's talk a little bit more about Johnnie making the moonshine. Did you ever watch him do that?

MY: No. He wasn't making it when I started going around with him. We had a distill down at the big house though that belonged to Steve Crutchcarry and Pete Apestegie and they used to make it.

LD: In your house?

MY: They didn't make it there but it was a big tank and it had all the stuff and when Dee sold that house she took and gave it to Davey, and they had it in the front room, but I don't know where it is now.

LD: So would people come to your house and buy liquor?

MY: No. They used to do it up in the hills someplace. They never came to the house because we didn't have any whiskey there.

LD: You just had the still there?

MY: Yes. In fact when we were over here in this house and I was taking care of that house where we were born one time the plumbing went bad and Johnnie got somebody to dig up that old cellar and in the cellar they found quarts and quarts of moonshine. And we had it down here in the basement for a long time and Johnnie would say, 'Let's drink it.' And I'd say, 'Oh Johnnie, I'm scared.' And after Johnnie passed in fact I got it and threw it away down the sink and saved the bottles. I think the kids took the bottles. Cleto Maguira's Dad was the one that made it. page 53

LD: Did Johnnie say anything about how he made it?

MY: They used wheat and sugar and they would grind it and it had to ferment and then they'd scrape the top off.

LD: And would he do that at the Martin?

MY: When he had the Martin that's when he had the distill at Legarza's place up by Orovada.

LD: Did he ever say anything about women coming around and breaking bottles and raising hell about him having liquor?

MY: No, in fact when Johnnie and I got married, I think two or three years after one time we went to Salt Lake and it was nine o'clock in the morning and I saw drunk women. In Salt Lake at nine o'clock in the morning!

LD: When were you able to go into a bar?

MY: '38 or '39 I think when it was opened. In fact they always say that Phil Tobin was the one that opened up that and gambling and stuff, but it wasn't him. It was somebody from Winnemucca, but Phil Tobin got all the credit.

LD: You would probably go to the bar and wait for Johnnie?

MY: Yeh, well I was going to pick him up.

LD: Was the Gem Bar one of the main bars?

MY: Yes. It was a nice place too. They had a good clientele. It was all the ranchers and the locals. Johnnie, if he wanted to sit down and write a book of men stepping out on their wives! The bankers and the bigshots in Winnemucca. Their wives would phone and ask if so and so was here.

LD: So then what other bars would have been the main ones?

MY: Monte's and the Gem Bar and Hotel Humboldt, The Index, the Winnemucca Hotel. And you could go in the morning and say good morning to the bartender and you would get a free drink. Some of the people would make a complete tour and then in the afternoon they'd come and buy a drink, but if you went in the morning and you said good morning you got a free drink. Mr. Bosch used to come every morning and then he'd go to Monte's and he'd say, 'Good morning.' They'd give him a shot of brandy. He'd say, 'That's what the doctor said is good for my heart.' page 54

LD: Where did you and Johnnie get married?

MY: We got married in St. Paul's Catholic Church. Father Empey married us. Annie and Frank stood up for us and he looked at them and he said, 'And we'll turn around and marry your sister and brother-in-law. I saw in the paper where you got married by the Justice of the Peace.' So they turned around and got married by the priest.

LD: What date was this?

MY: December 31st because Mama had got married on December 31st so I picked that date. 1937. Then we had a dinner at the house. Mama had a dinner for us and I used to love raviolis, so Mrs. Scott made a big pot of raviolis. Mama had baked chicken and different rice and stuff and we had Sally was living at the house at that time. The kids had all gone to the ranch. Tillie Tillasova and Childress, her husband were there and Pete and Julie Yrueta. Julie gave me a silk comforter. I still have it.

LD: What was Tillie like?

MY: Tillie was really a good nurse. She came here from Salt Lake. Rosinda Martinez knew her. She started working at the hospital and she was real good. She started drinking and Childress passed away in the Veteran's Hospital from cancer and then she just really went down and finally she just committed suicide. She went on his grave and took some kind of pills and committed suicide. But she was a kind-hearted nurse.

LD: So you guys knew this Childress because he was a gambler?

MY: Yes. I think he worked at the old Sonoma Inn and from there he came to Monte's.

LD: Now how about the Ferris Club?

MY: That was going, yes. Mr. Ferris had it and Tom O'Carroll had the gambling. Waltzy Elliott was in there too. And Mike Lizantes.

LD: Did you stay at the bakery very long after you were married?

MY: I stayed until I got pregnant with Deanna and then I was getting kind of sick and that's when I quit and had Deanna on February 14th and I was still at the big house. Mama stayed with me there that month and in March she went back out to the ranch and I had all the kids to take care of, and take care of Johnnie. It seemed like it was just go, go, go all of the time. I would think, 'God, I wish I had a half an hour to myself." page 55

LD: Did you have Deanna at the hospital?

MY: Yes. Dr. Weiss. Eddie would come in from the ranch and tease her and Ann Darlene to no end. One time he got on a big robe and got in the closet and he'd make them get on their knees and he'd make them say their confession, (laughter) They still talk about it, about how stupid they were. I always think Eddie should have been a comedian.

LD: When was Deanna born?

MY: '39, and then '42 the war had started and that was the year that Papa would come in from the ranch and he got his citizenship papers in August. I didn't go to the courthouse because I was really heavy and it was really hot. Foe went and Foe came right back and said, 'Oh you can't imagine how good Grandpa did. He sure answered those questions.' And boy I felt so good. So then they went to the Gem Bar and had a party and he told Foe to go back to the house and said, 'Tell Mary to come over for awhile.' And I went with my big belly. They were having a helluva time.

And one time I guess I was pregnant with Ruby and Mr. Esparza got citizenship papers and I can't remember exactly who it was but from the Gem Bar we went to Esparza's house across from where Western Auto-is now and Judge Brown decides that they are going swimming. So Mrs. Redin gets great big bathtowels and I said, 'I'm not going. I'm going home.' Johnnie said, 'I'm going to work.' So Johnnie went to work, I went home. Mr. Maloney and Judge Brown and Papa leave and the next morning I get up and Papa is in the kitchen with his head in his hands. I said, 'Papa, what's the matter?' He said, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' I said, 'What's the matter?' He started to tell me that they were going to the Humboldt River to go swimming and Judge Brown decided they were going to go right through the river with his car and they got stuck in the mud. They couldn't get out and Papa said to me in Basco, 'We're damned lucky we didn't get drowned.' Finally they managed to get out of the car. It was three or four o'clock in the morning and some car came by and Papa could still hear him telling that guy, 'You go and get the wrecker. Don't tell the cops anything about this. Don't tell anybody about this.' He forks over $20 to the guy and the guy goes uptown and gets a wrecker. Papa had a hangover. You know how he used to get rid of a hangover? He'd get a rope and tighten it real tight on his head and that just relieved his headache.

LD: Did you ever try it?

MY: I never try it, but at the ranch many a times if we had a fiesta or something the next day he had a headache and Papa would have a great big rope on his head. Papa never took an aspirin or any kind of medication. page 56

When he was in the hospital they used to try and give him medication and he would take it right out. Papa never swallowed any kind of pills. At that time he had glaucoma and Dr. Hartoch never told us he couldn't see. I can look back and I still can see that great big white stuff all over his eyes. They should have given him therapy after his broken hip and they never give him anything like that.

LD: Did your Dad move in just when he got sick?

MY: After Mama passed away.

LD: So she passed away first?

MY: Yes, and then he came to town.

LD: And had you known that she was sick?

MY: First they stayed out at the ranch, Uncle Steve and Papa did, and Eddie and Jean were already married and they tried to keep an eye on him. Uncle Steve used to do the cooking and they stayed there a couple of years. And I think then George and them decided to buy the ranch, or take it over, and that's when I think Papa came to town.

LD: Your Mother was so strong and all of a sudden she had leukemia?

MY: Yes. Mama was only 67 years old when she passed away. She used to say things looked blurry and she was so tired. It didn't take Dr. Weiss long to find out. He had a blood test and the next day he told us she had leukemia. We took her to Reno and she had a radiation treatment on her spleen, and she was kind of sick from that and it didn't help her. And then we'd take her to Dr. Weiss and he'd take a blood test and her blood would get real low and we used to take her up to the hospital and we used to call so many different people to get blood transfusions. And then she'd be sick to her stomach and then she'd get along pretty good. That went on for several years.

LD: And she died here in Winnemucca?

MY: Yes, I was at the house when Mama passed away. Dee had been taking care of her practically day and night and one time she said, 'I am exhausted. You'd better come take care of her.' I went and Mama was just really sick that day. I think Dr. Weiss had come in and given her some kind of a shot and about two or three o'clock in the morning she passed away. That was a very, very sad night. I never will forget it. page 57

Little Jean was really good to Grandpa, and Grandpa was a rough character. He'd say, 'Mrs. Mentaberry, come help me.' And he'd make her pull the wagon loaded with hay. Jean worked awful hard. Jean was really good to Papa.

LD: And so then he came in here and stayed until he died?

MY: Yes.

LD: After the kids got a certain age did you go out and get another job?

MY: Ruby was four years old when we came here in this house and then she started going to kindergarten. I took her to kindergarten the first day and she held onto my hand and I left her there and she didn't want me to leave and I said, 'Well, you gotta stay here.' I came home and she had already gotten out of school and came through the back door and was right there in the kitchen, (laughter) I said, 'Ruby, you're going to school.' I picked her up and took her across the street. She cried and cried. I think the little Burke girl came up and talked to her the next day and then she got acquainted and she just loved school. She did really well.

I worked at the dime store. There was an Italian fellow. He was a Catholic and he saw me at church one time and we were talking and he told me he needed some help around Christmas. I said, Til come and work for a couple of hours.' I used to go to work at 3 o'clock in the afternoon until 6 o'clock. I worked in the summer too when the kids were small. I guess they must have taken care of themselves.

LD: Where was the dime store?

MY: I think where the J. D. Saloon is. Then from there I went to Ramascos and I worked at Ramascos for three or four years. I got a lot of nice jewelry that I used to make payments on. It's worth money now. Then business got kind of bad right after Christmas one time. He laid me off and then in 1958 I worked at the Stockman's Store and I worked there for two years. Then there was an opening at the School District office. Jean Anderson told me she was quitting her job and I went and applied for that. Mr. Nelson was the superintendent, and I got it, so I told Mr. Higbee that I wouldn't be working after the first of the year and he said, 'Oh you're not going to quit me.' And I said I got this real good job. So December 31st was my last day and two days later Monte called me up and he wanted me to come to work. I said, 'No, I can't because I've taken this job at the school.' He said, 'Can I ask you how much they are paying?' I said, 'Yes.' And he said, 'Well, I can't match that.' I said, 'Well, I'm getting my insurance too.' So he said, 'Well I'll see what I can do.' About a week later page 58 he called me again and wanted me to come back to work. And I said, 'No, I'm satisfied. It's five days a week and it's not bad at all.' And I said to myself, 'Boy, I'll never go to the six days a week job.' When I had the six days a week jobs I was up here I'd get my two kids and on Sunday morning after Mass we'd go down to the big house maybe once a month and vacumn it, clean it, clean the sinks and clean this and clean that. And after working five days a week, it was just perfect.

LD: Do you remember what your wage was?

MY: I started working at $175 a month, five days a week and holidays off. And insurance. I worked for the school district until I960. I retired in 1980.

LD: Let's go back to the Second World War. Was that any burden on you?

MY: Well we used to get a lot of sugar stamps and gas stamps because Papa had the ranch at that time and they didn't use that much gas because Papa used horses all the time. We used to give people coupons that we didn't use. I can remember when we came up here one time it was Ruby's birthday and it was during the war and at the bakery they weren't getting any sugar so they weren't making any birthday cakes. We had a party for Ruby, but we didn't have a birthday cake.

LD: All of the men in your family survived the war?

MY: Johnny and Manual Chabango were our first cousins and they both went to war and Manual got shot with sharpnel in his hip. He had hip problem and his leg got shorter and he had to wear high inlaid shoes. He had a rough time in the war. And then Foe was in Manilla I think, and he used to send us pictures of girls naked, is all they had it seemed like was a gunny sack wrapped around them. And then Hank went to the Marines and he was gone three years. Foe was gone four years and he came back and insisted he go back to school and so he went to school (University of Nevada) and started working at the Overland washing dishes and going to school.

LD: He made it through school. Were there others in your family that went to college?

MY: Nobody else finished. Hank went to college and he came out. Patch went to college but he didn't finish out. Dee went to school and then she and Albert got married so she didn't finish. In fact we just celebrated Dee and Albert's 50th anniversary. June the 15th.

LD: Was the gambling going on strong during the war? page 5 in the morning and clean it. We'd find those big green bugs and we'd get them and we'd step on them and say, "Here's something we should eat." (laughter) Then we'd go pump the water - we didn't have any running water - so we'd pump the water into this washtub and we'd clean it and we'd put it in a dishtowel and then she'd put it in the old rock cellar. It was nice and cool in there and then we had a refrigerator that had been made with gunny sacks. You'd wet the gunny sacks and it would keep your milk. The way we'd pasturize our milk was Mama used to get the milk and put it on top of the stove until it had a film and then she'd take it off and it was pasturized. And it took all that odor like in the springtime when the cows would eat weeds. Kids used to say, "Oh I don't like this milk." She'd do that and you couldn't tell.

LD: Would she scrape off that scum and throw that away or would you use that?

MY: She'd always take the cream scum and save that and she made her own butter. We had a churn.

LD: Did any of you girls help with the milking?

MY: I got to tell you this story. Mama and Annie and Eddie went to Reno because Eddie had mastoid surgery. I was left to do the cooking and Dad had a couple of guys there working. The boys were up at the sheep camp I think. This one day I had this real thick cream and I had a great big White House cookbook and I looked through that and I saw 'creampuffs'. I thought, "Gee we've got eggs, we've got that lard and we've got whipped cream. I'm going to make creampuffs." I thought, "If I spoil them I'll just throw them out and the chickens can eat them and nobody will know the difference." So I whipped up my creampuffs and put them in the old wood stove. Poked it with the sagebrush and got it going. No temperature or anything on it. The recipe said ten minutes and reduce the heat. There was no reducing heat with that stove, (laughter) They turned out beautiful. I thought, "This is great." I didn't even have a timer. I kept looking at the old Big Ben clock and after 45 minutes I took them out and they were just beautiful. I whipped the cream with the old hand beater. We didn't have any powdered sugar. We didn't even know what that was. I put them in the cellar and cooked dinner. I brought dessert and Papa said, "Who come from Winnemucca?" I said, "Why?" He said, "Who bringa creampuffs?" I said "Nobody bring creampuffs. I made them." "No, no, no Mary, you no make them." I said, "Yes Papa, I made those creampuffs." I went and got the big cookbook and said, "Papa here's the recipe. You can't read it, but I can read it and here's the recipe." They just loved them. That's one of my favorite. Custard that Mama taught me how to make I make all the time with one cup of milk and one large egg. Those are my page 59

MY: Yeh, because the soldier boys used to jump off the train and they had maybe an hour rest here. They'd run up to the Winnemucca Hotel and Gem Bar and gamble, buy packs of beer, and boy business was really, really good. And that's when Don Wood's mother and father had a stand at the depot and would sell a ham sandwich for $2 and a coke for $1.50 or some­ thing, and they made a bundle of money. We had soldier boys going through here two or three times a day.

LD: Did they have a hard time in the bars getting help, or were they older people?

MY: Seemed like there were steady Bascos that were around here that didn't go to the war. And Johnny was supposed to go to the war and Pete took him out to the ranch and he worked at the ranch for three months, but he come back and forth once a month or twice. They called him but he didn't pass his examination.

LD: Would you go out to eat as a family at the Winnemucca or Martin?

MY: Not when the kids were small. It seemed like Johnny was always working Sundays and at 6:30 he'd come home and eat and go right back again.

LD: After the Ideal Club then where did he go?

MY: He retired and started trapping.

LD: For the government?

MY: No, for himself. He and Louis Bilboa trapped a couple of years and then one time he and Mr. Mendiola trapped.

LD: Angel?

MY: Yes. He used to go out to the other side of Winnemucca Mountain. That's where those red foxes were. He got more red foxes. And then Martin Monaut had started buying the hides so they used to send them to Martin Monaut and he would ship them. At that time lynx fur was worth $200 or $300 and it was really good money. I had a coat made for myself and Ruby and at that time Deanna was in Yuma (Arizona) so she didn't need one.

LD: Where were those made?

MY: They made them in Salt Lake. page 60

LD: So did he make quite a bit of money trapping?

MY: Yes. And then one time the price went really down. Then I remember when he was sick we had a couple of more hides downstairs and some buyer came here and when I went up to the hospital I said, 'You can't guess what I sold today Johnnie. I sold those three furs we had downstairs.' I don't know who the guy was that came and bought them. And he said, 'Oh, I'm so glad you sold them.' We'd had them down there for years and the guy came and gave me $20 apiece for them, and I was glad to get rid of them. I still have his stretchers for the hide. We had electricity put out in the shop and he used to clean them and put them on the stretcher. I couldn't stand the odor though. He'd come into the door right here and he'd take all his clothes off and put a robe on and then go in and take a shower.

LD: How long did he do that?

MY: Oh he did that for several years. And then in between time he kind of had mining deals going. He found a gold nugget one time at Jungo. A pretty good-sized gold nugget. He and Childress got started in mining and they sold some mining claims and they were getting little royalties out of them. During the uranium bust we were going to go to Spain and Mr. Durbin that had the restaurant where The Griddle is, he came in and he told Johnnie, 'You want to buy some uranium stock?' Johnnie asked how much. It was two cents a stock or something. He asked me and I said, 'We haven't got time for that Johnnie. We're getting ready to go to Spain." So we didn't buy any. Evie Marcuerquiaga bought some because she was working for Durbins and the gal (Erikson)that was working for Durbins as a waitress, she bought some. And then inbetween time Dr. Hartoch and Durbin they'd find these big uranium things, so down in our basement we had more business that time because they'd put those great big rocks on the washing machine, turn the lights off and you could just see all that blue stuff. The uranium boom was on! We came back from Spain after six months and Durbin said, 'Boy Johnnie the uranium stock is going really good." Johnnie said, 'I should have bought it.' Time went on and the price was going down. The waitress sold hers and she bought that house across the street from the golf course. She made $8000 clear. Paid for the house. And Domingo and Evie argued. Evie said, 'Let's sell it.' And Domingo said, 'No.' They kept arguing and arguing and Evie said, 'We lost our couple of hundred dollars.' So they never did resell theirs.

LD: Did you ever go trapping with Johnnie?

MY: I went once. I said, 'Why do you have that thing hanging on the sagebrush?' He said, 'That's my sign. When I find that sign I go straight and then I can find my trap.' And then we had a dog that had a very good page 61 scent. Cookie was his name. He'd growl and Johnnie said, 'I know we have something.' So he'd go back and get a little pistol. That dog would always know if there was something in the trap. And he showed me one time about the trap and how he put the scent on the sagebrush. He made his own scent. In fact I think there's still some in the shed.

LD: What do you think he made it out of?

MY: He made it out of sheep guts and things like that. It was just kind of ferment.

LD: Do you know any of the big buyers?

MY: Garcia was one of the big ones in San Francisco. They used to have the shows here and you could take your furs and put them on the tables and the buyers would come and bid for them. A couple of times he sold some like that, but most of the time he'd ship them.

LD: Would Johnnie put the whiskey he made in jugs and sell it?

MY: Yes, he'd filter it so it would be clean and then he'd put corks on them and have the gallon jugs.

LD: Who were some of the pro-hi's?

MY: They used to come from out of town. One time he was going to Golconda, Ruby was telling me about it one time because he told her, and he had his little convertible and he was down here getting gas and he thought some guys looked kind of suspicious. They thought he looked suspicious too so he got his gas and he went as fast as that little convertible could go down to Golconda and the Pro-Hi's followed him. So he decided he'd better go visit one of the Lacas or Gastelecuttos, so he stopped and visisted with them and told them what was going on. Finally he lost them, so he went on and sold his moonshine. He said he was scared.

LD: So there was a lot of that going on around town?

MY: Oh yeh, a lot of Bascos would sometime make it in McDermitt and then make it here and they were in partners. In Coyote Canyon Legarzas made it.

LD: Did he miss the gambling when he retired?

MY: No, Johnnie kept busy and then he raised a nice garden. He loved his garden. He'd raise tomatoes and peppers, and onions and garlic. He was page 62 always bringing in manure from someplace and he had rich, rich soil. Then Pete and Johnnie went trapping together because Julie didn't want him to go alone and I didn't want Johnnie to go alone and so a couple of years they trapped together

LD: They were pretty close as brothers?

MY: Yes.

LD: Did Johnnie write to his family in Spain?

MY: Every Christmas Johnnie's brother Victor would send us a lottery ticket. One for Deanna, one for Ruby and one for me I think. December 1st you'd go to the post office and here was this lottery ticket. Then Johnnie would say, 'We've got to send some money.' So every Christmas Johnnie and Pete would get together and send $100 apiece to the families in Spain. And then like Mama used to say, 'Oh I wish I could send some money.' But we didn't have the right addresses so when I went to Spain I took quite a bit of money for Mama and gave it to her sister. And then I took money to Papa's sister too. I don't think that check was ever cashed. It was a cashier's check.

LD: How old were the kids when you took your first trip to Spain?

MY: Ruby was 10 years old. Her trip to Spain was so overwhelming that she has forgotten everything before until the time she was 10. You could ask her anything from ten years on when she was in Spain and she could tell you all her trip. And then Johnnie wanted the kids to stay longer and send the kids to school in Bilboa and we'd get an apartment. And then Deanna cried, 'Oh no, I'm a cheerleader in Winnemucca and I've got to get to Winnemucca.' She cried for two days and so we said we'd better go back. All the time we were in Spain Deanna was always homesick for her friends and Ruby just mixed right in.

LD: Did you stay with family?

MY: No, we had a condo and we had a car so we'd go from there on different trips like to Italy and then come back. And there was maids ready to do your washing and ironing and cleaning, do your cooking and everything. The only thing we'd have them do was the washing and then they'd clean the wooden floors on their hands and knees and clean up the bedrooms. We had a lot of fun there because we had a lot of relatives. We were just on the go constantly.

LD: And then what did Johnnie do after he trapped? page 63

MY: He got sick and he was sick for a long time. He'd be pretty good and then he'd be down. He had cancer of the throat. He took chemotherapy and it seemed like some weeks he'd be pretty good, and then other weeks he'd be just sicker than a dog. That's why I say we are way behind (in Winnemucca). At that time we had a Greyhound Bus, we had a Trailway Bus, we had Amtrack that he could get on and get there (Reno) at 10 o'clock for an appointment and maybe come back that same day. Now you can't even get a half-way decent bus or train. I can remember many a time taking him to the Trailways at 7 o'clock in the morning and he'd be there by 10 o'clock and Helen would meet him at the bus and he'd take his treatment. Toward the end he was getting too weak.

LD: How long did that go on?

MY: About six years. They would kind of skip the treatments and then they'd say the cancer cells were coming back and they gave him quite a bit of treatments. Then we went on a trip to San Francisco and he got real sick and we had to put him in the hospital and the doctor there showed me the x-rays and he had a great big hole where it was burnt from the treat­ ments. He said the treatments were too strong for him.

LD: So he had radiation also then?

MY: Yes. He was two weeks in the Reno hospital and Dr. Siefert said, 'John I can't do anything else for you.' And he said, 'Well, in otherwords me go home and die there.' The doctor just kind of turned his face. He didn't want to say anything else. And then they put him in the ambulance and I came with my car and Evie met us. He was there two weeks in the hospital and he died in the hospital. December I, 1978.

LD: Boy I bet that was a long drive home for you.

MY: It was.

LD: Who did you work for in the school district?

MY: I worked first for Mr. Nelson, he was the superintendent. And then Lyman Bruce, and then Robert Scott and then Mr. Lords. From I960 to 1980.

LD: When I was in school Burnell Larson was the principal.

MY: He was just before Mr. Nelson. At PTA meetings he would come in right after we saluted the American flag. One day I told one of the gals, 'How come Mr. Larson comes in right after we salute the flag?' He left here and went to Carson City and somebody said he was on the street page 64 corner giving out Jehovah Witness flyers. One of the supervisors for the accounting office that came here once a year to check our books and he was the one that saw him on the corner.

LD: What was your job in the school district?

MY: I was an account clerk and I took care of all the payable bills. When I first started I took care of all the teacher's contracts, took care of all the federal funds, took care of the accounts payable. I can still remember one time the teachers would send in their contracts and I told Mr. Bruce, 'The teachers can't read! Here's all these contracts and you are supposed to sign your name and date and out of fifty here there's ten of them that aren't signed.' So he brought them back to the grammar school and he came back and I looked at them and I said, 'Well, Mr. Bruce you forgot to sign yours.' He was so embarrassed. We used to have an awful time with the teachers signing papers. I had to check all that stuff and make all the purchase orders. We used to have to get the duplicate and have to make three copies for each bill. One copy was left with the school, and one was sent with the check and one was sent to the court house. We used to get all the checks and take them to the court house and all they did was sign them.

LD: So you went through a lot of changes in the ways of bookeeping.

MY: Yes. First we had a great big huge, huge computer that you'd put a tape like that in it (cassette tape) and one time it was August and really hot and the sun was shining on it. We never had air conditioning in that place and we came back to work from a long weekend. I think it was Labor Day weekend. We started working and everything was just blank. Every­ thing was just blank. And the guys couldn't figure it out. I said, 'You know something, it was pretty hot when we came in here this morning and no windows had been open. Do you suppose that tape got too hot?' That's just what did happen. So then we had to get these guys out of Carson and they had to make new tapes for them. That's when Ann Tipton was working there and she couldn't stand the computor at all. She'd just get the total and stop. So then she quit. We had that big computer for a long time. And just before I quit we were connected to the court house and the court house was making all the checks and stuff. And now they're back on their own computers. It doesn't take them long now to make out the checks and the stub and everything.

LD: Who was directly over you?

MY: The superintendent. There was just two full workers and then Marie Kassibaum was the bookeeper and DeDe DeLong was a part-time worker. page 65

After I quit my job I had had the AD and all that and now they just divide it up so many places that each girl sits there and has nothing to do. I went there one time and I thought, 'My God here they have their desk all cleared up and sitting there at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and sitting around visiting." I never even had a chance to go to the bathroom or anything until pretty near 5:30. It was just go, go, go.

LD: When I was on the school board that one time the whole town seemed to be mad at Lyman Bruce. You never had to put up with any of that though?

MY: No. The only one that ever came there one time and they kind of got mad was Monte Higbee came and he wanted to look at the actual bills to see where the basketball uniforms and football uniforms were ordered. I think it was Mr. Nelson was the superintendent and he really got mad.

LD: Then when you retired can you remember what your wage was compared to when you first started?

MY: $1080. I think, and benefits. Of course right now Tony Plaza has been there more than 20 years and the secretary that comes in to work is making more money than he is. Deanna's been married 35 years this August and when they first started working here they were making $4700. a year. And now a starting teacher's salary is twenty-eight thousand something with your benefits, and they pay your retirement and every­ thing. When Ruby graduated from school she went to Scottsdale and she tried to find an apartment and couldn't find anything less than $800 and at that time she was going to only make $4600. If she stayed there she would have had to borrow money from us to make her payment on her car. Daddy paid the down payment and she figured she could make the payments when she started working and she would not have had money after she paid for her rent and her groceries and her utility payments. Of course Scottsdale is still the wealthy part of Phoenix.

LD: So what did she do?

MY: She didn't take the job. She quit and came up and we stopped at different places like Yerington. There was an opening there because a guy was taking a job at Carson City for co-ordinator for the ESL for the Spanish people and she kept the job at the high school. And she started out with I think five thousand and something and she got a great big apartment for $75 a month.

LD: This is a good time to name your two girls and who they married? page 66

MY: Deanna married Bob Prida and they didn't have any children so they adopted Steven and Tina. Tina got married and she's got two kids, Courtney and Brandon. And then Steven, he's been running around the country and now he's back home working at a service station. Ruby married Bill Lowry and he was a driller at that time and now he's super­ visor for Alaskan territory, and he has John and Joe working there and John is a supervisor for drilling and Joe is a supervisor on his drill. And they put themselves through school by working there in the summer and with the scholorship from the gaming commission they didn't have to pay anything for their education.

LD: After you retired from the school district then you went back and worked for the community college?

MY: For II years. It was just a part-time job and I enjoyed working and I could play golf and I could go to my meetings. I guess I wasn't quite ready to retire after I left the school. I was a nervous wreck after Johnnie passed away. And that's when I went to Flagstaff and I stayed practically the summer there and then the next summer I went to Ruby's in Alaska.

LD: You had one advantage over many women in that you knew the finances in your marriage?

MY: I took care of all that.

LD: So many women don't know that at all. What did you do at the community college?

MY: I was a secretary and receptionist. I just worked from 3-6 every day, but when they had registration I'd work three days straight. I met a lot of people and I just enjoyed it. They had different kinds of classes and I took Spanish class and I took crocheting and machine embroidery. I took an English class and one on how to invest money on a weekend. I just enjoyed it and then they had all the mining tours and I took all the mining tours.

LD: Have you been involved with the stock market?

MY: Yes, I'm quite a bit in the stock market.

LD: And you can understand all that?

MY: Yes.

LD: And you just retired from the community college? page 67

MY: Three or four years ago I retired. I worked II years for the community college and didn't even realize it was II years until I quit. When they moved from the post office that first year is when I started working up there.

LD: What made you start taking up golf and how old were you?

MY: I took golfing through the community college. They offered it in the spring and I used to play golf a long time ago with Duke O'Malley and them. I had an old golf bag and old clubs and I had them in the garage here. I don't know where I got them. So I thought I would take golf lessons and I just enjoyed it.

LD: Who's Duke O'Malley?

MY: They worked at the Sonoma Inn and worked at Monte's too. They were big friends of Jack Sommers. Harry O'Malley was in charge of the gambling in the Sonoma Inn for years. In fact Duke O'Malley is still in Hawthorne and two years ago when I went to Yerington for Christmas I told Ruby, 'You know where I'd like to go? I'd like to go see Duke O'Malley.' And she said, 'O.K.'. We went one day and she really enjoyed the visit. She's 83 years old. She doesn't go anyplace anymore because she can't see. She doesn't drive anymore.

LD: Was the golf course in?

MY: It was already in when we played golf. I can remember one time on Thanksgiving day I played golf and Ruby and Deanna cooked Thanksgiving dinner here. That's how good the weather was.

LD: You've always been involved with the Catholic Church?

MY: Yes. I worked with the OLV and I did a lot of volunteer work with that, and the PTA here across the street had the hot lunch and I worked with that and the PTA at the high school. I've been in the Basque Club for years and years and years too. And then I joined the Golf Club for 13 years.

LD: How about Senior Citizen's? Do you take advantage of that?

MY: No. I go up there once a month when our soriety has a luncheon there and a meeting.

LD: You were telling me that you have travelled to quite a few countries.

MY: Yes. The last trip I went to Pearl Jones and I went to Switzerland, page 68

Austria and Germany. We went with a sorority groups and had meetings with a sorority group. In Germany we met the American girls that had the sorority there and they told us about when they first went to Germany with their husbands how homesick and how terrible they thought it was that you had to pick up your basket and go uptown to the plaza and get your meat and get your loaf of bread and milk. They thought that was the worst thing. Now they think it's the most wonderful thing because they just enjoy it and visit with friends and meet different people. They think it's great.

LD: You aren't worried about travelling?

MY: I wouldn't travel alone. I've always travelled with someone. The last trip I went to Spain I went with Madeline and Jerry Iroz and Marie Belzarena and her husband and daughter. They took me right to Lequitio and then I stayed with my relative in Lequitio. I got a little scared because the Guardias were at the airport and they were all checking and looking around. They are on the roads all over too. In fact Johnnie got to know a lot of them. We'd stop and visit with them.

LD: We are so lucky here. Do you think we've left out anything in all this interview?

MY: (Looking through blue book) Oh, I didn't tell you that Ruby was Miss Winnemucca February 1962 and that she was runner-up for Miss Nevada June 1962. She made her own outfit. It was her first year in college because she came from Oakland, she was going to Holy Name there, and she picked up quite a bit of weight around her legs and she rented an exercise machine from Clara Stoker and she had that for a month and she really lost her weight and never did pick it up anymore.

LD: When you were first married did the Basques get together and have the parties like the Basques do now?

MY: Saint's Days the Winnemucca Hotel and Martin Hotel always had dances and that's when the people would just get together and really enjoy them.

LD: Did you celebrate Christmas at the ranch at all?

MY: Not with gifts or anything like that. It was just a big Christmas dinner and that was it. We never did have any presents.

LD: Who are your neighbors? page 6 two favorite things to make that I remember from the ranch.

LD: Did your mother know how to cook pretty well when she came here?

MY: She knew how to make her stew and soup and cook the beans and stuff like that. I know one time I went out to the ranch after I was married and we made a prune upside-down cake because we had fresh prunes at the ranch. A couple of weeks later I went and she had made this cake and she said, "I had the worst time. I put the prunes on top and the prunes are not on the top." I said, "Mama you're supposed to put them on the bottom, then put your batter on there and then you turn it over when it's done." "Oh, Tonto! me Tonto me." (laughter) And then we put whipped cream on it and it was delicious.

LD: Did she ever tell you why she came here? It must have been such a hard trip and everything.

MY: Some people had been here before and had written to the families telling them how wonderful it was living in the United States. That's when Mrs. Bengochea and Mama, Mrs. Erquiaga and they all decided to come to the United States because it was so much easier to live here. But it wasn't for them when they came at that time. We still didn't have running water and electricity. Whoever had told them that made it seem like we had everything first class.

LD: Did those girls come together?

MY: Some of them did. Mama came with Louie Erquiaga's mother. Paula (Ugalde) came with Mama and there was another lady from Reno that came with Mama.

LD: Did she talk about her trip over?

MY: Mama said she was so sick all across the ocean. She just vomited and vomited.

LD: And then coming from New York to here!

MY: She came on the train. She said you'd find a few Bascos and they'd talk but she said she was just scared. She said you just didn't know what you were going to see and everything looked so different. It was just frightening.

LD: The first place they went was Reno? page 69

MY: Skip Hammergren, he's at the Driver's License and she works for the Planning Commission, Sandy does. Yvonne Siard Hager lives on the other side.

LD: I wonder if you knew some of the other characters around town like Josie Pearl?

MY: I used to meet her at the post office and I couldn't get close to her because she had such an odor. It was awful. To me she was a character and a half. I'd always talk to her. She used to come to town and go to the post office and get this big mail sack and she'd talk. She could spend a good hour talking to you.

LD: She was a pretty good friend to Avery Stitser's mother.

MY: Mrs. Bourn. They were really big friends. She was an elderly lady at that time and was a very distinguished lady and she had that son of hers that was an alcoholic and Mr. Stitser used to try and give him a job at the Humboldt Star. I can remember when Johnnie and I first started going around together we went to the Gem Bar and Mr. Stitser rolled a twenty dollar bill up and would light his cigar with a twenty dollar bill.

LD: How about Twinkle Toes? Did you know her?

MY: Yes. Johnnie was the one that gave her the name Twinkle Toes. She used to kind of walk on her toes all the time. When she first came to Winnemucca that was the first time I started going with Johnnie she was a beautiful girl and we didn't know at that time but she was mixed in with drugs. She'd go to the Mercantile and she'd get a big bag of bones because she had her dogs to feed. They say she didn't have any dogs but she thought she did. Somebody would ask her where she was going with the bones and she'd get mad and hit them with her purse. She got awfully mean.

LD: Well, I think that's about it. I need to ask you if you would mind if the library used this interview for their Oral History Program.

MY: After I look over it. Yes.

LD: Thank you Mary.

-end of interview- page 70 Additional

August 2, 1996

LD: I wanted to ask additional information about Mrs. Hillyer, who was the midwife around Winnemucca for so long.

MY: Her name was Christina Hillyer and she has a neice, Shirley Amos, that lives in Fallon, Nevada and she has a neice in Yerington, Helen, and a sister in Reno, her name is Ruth. She has worked at the Oyster Bar at the Nugget for the last 25-30 years.

LD: What do you remember about Mrs. Hillyer?

MY: I remember kind of a heavy-set gal and she had gray hair she pulled back in a knot. She always had an apron on and she was always running up the alley to help someone have their baby.

LD: Would she stay and help the mothers?

MY: Maybe she'd come back a couple of days later and she'd say, "How are you Mrs. Mentaberry? You doin' all right? Call me if you need me".

LD: Would she have you help get the water or anything?

MY: Yeh, I'd get the water and put it in the old teakettle and put it on the stove to get it boiling.

LD: Did she have family that you remember?

MY: I don't remember her having family of her own.

LD: Where did you say she lived?

MY: At that Eggleson Court behind Pavillion Street where the old Baptist Church is now. That vacant lot. We used to call it Eggleson Court because the old man that owned it had the little cabins around it. Then there was a little grocery store there and there was a nanny that did the laundry for the rich people in Winnemucca. She'd come up the alley with this great big basket of clothes on her head that she had ironed. Foe and Hank would say, "Let's throw a rock so we can trip her and we can see the things fly across." And I'd say, "No, no don't do anything like that." She'd wave at us. We'd go to that Eggleson Court to maybe buy a little candy or something and we'd see all these Ginger Ale bottles and we used to say, "Oh gee, that old lady sure drinks a lot of booze." (laughter) At that time I didn't know what Ginger Ale was. page 71

LD: Do you know what her name was?

MY: We just called her 'Nanny'. She was really a black, black gal too.

LD: We were talking about builders. You said there was only Anderson and McShay at one time and one other.

MY: William Aiken. I have a card here that Mrs. Aiken gave me one time for my birthday. She lived across the street from us when we lived in the big house (2nd Street). We knew her from the time we had bought the house from Mr. Aiken that we had on Aiken Street. They had a lot of rental property and she used to just stay home and collect rent. She had a lot of pretty flowers and a big garden. In fact, Eddie pulled weeds for her one time and he said he worked awful hard and she gave him twenty-five cents. He went to her and he said, 'Mrs. Aiken, I dropped that quarter down the well.' She turned around and gave him another quarter, (laughter)

LD: Mr. Aiken did build homes?

MY: Well, later on when we went down on 2nd Street he just had rental property. He was quite old. He'd sit in this little old canvas chair and she'd put out his coffee and he'd drink two or three cups of coffee and then she'd sit down and talk with him.

LD: And how about Anderson and McShay? What were they like?

MY: Mrs. Anderson was a big tall lady. She was a German lady. She still had her accent and they lived in the red building going toward the junior high school north of C. R. Drakes (4th Street). It was a two-story building. McShay's lived in that other house north of C. R. Drake that looks like my house (on 543 Lay St.). He built that house. I'm sure that McShay built this house too. They are the same.

LD: Didn't Ermon Stone live in that house on 4th Street?

MY: Yes. All those homes on that block in 4th Street Anderson and McShay built.

(NOTE: Following not on tape, but Mary remembers when the area near Pavillion and the Eggleson Court was used to be junipers and sagebrush. The Mentaberrys would sometimes get their Christmas tree from that area. There was also a town dump in that area.) MARY YRUETA INDEX

Able Don - 15 Lona - 15 Mr. - 17 Mrs. - 16 Susie - 1 5 Aiken, Mr. - I, 71 Amat Fern - 29 Rene - 29 Amtrack - 63 Anchart Mr. - 34-35, 37 Mrs. - 35 Anderson, Jean - 57 Anderson & McShay - 19, 71 Andorno Ranch - 8, 45 Apestegie, Pete - 28, 52 Aranguena, Mrs. - 2 Arboitz, Mrs. - 24 Arbonie family - 1 9 Archibald. Cleto - 47 family - 19 Ast Laundry - 36 bakeries City - 34-37 banks crash - 32-33 Trust - 32 bars Boondocks - 48 Gem - 44-45, 47-48, 50-51, 53, 55, 59, 69 Index - 48 Monty's Club - 48, 52, 54, 67 basketball - 41 Basque Club - 67 Belzarena, Marie - 68 Bengoa Ann Darlene - 49, 55 Frank - 48-49, 54 Frederico (Palo Blanco) - 46 Vivianna - 46 Bengochea Alice - 12,47 Evelyn - 47 Jean - 47 Mary (Maguira) - 24 Mrs. (Goitandia) - 2, 6, 13, 21, 24, 30, 47 Pete - 11 Bilbao, Louie (Pepper) - 28, 48, 59 Boondocks Bar - 48 Bosch, Mr. - 53 Bourne, Mrs. - 69 bowling alley - 32 boxing - 50-51 Bricker, Mr. - 25, 32, 38, 42 Brown, Helen - 33 Brown, Merwyn - 13, 55 Bruce, Lyman - 63-65 building contractors Aiken - 1, 71 Anderson and McShay - 19, 71 Costa - 20 Busch Hotel - 15-16, 19, 45

cancer - 63 Cane Springs - 8 Carlson, Mr. -12 carnival - 18-19 catalogs - 8 Chabagno Manuel - 58 Mrs. (Goitandia) - 2, 30 Chabot, Mary Zane - 14 Childress, Mr. - 54, 60 church - 14, 31, 40, 67 citizenship - 13, 55 City Bakery - 34-35 City Electric - 35 clothing - 9, 13-14 cloudburst - 42 Cobeaga, Celso - 16 Commercial Hotel (Reno) - I, 7 Commercial Hotel (McDermitt) - 24, 48-49 'Cookie' - 61 Corbett, Roger - 33 Cordero Mine - 25 Corner Drug Store - 36 Costa, Tony - 20 Coyote Canyon - 61 Crutchcarry, Steve - 28, 52 dairies Hazel Smith - 25-26 Hershey - 26 dances Martin Hotel - 47 Winnemucca Hotel - 47 Davis, Ma - 37 DeArrieta Dominica (Prida) - 38 Joe - 38 DeLong DeDe - 64 Bill - 51 dentists Wendell - 12 Depression years - 3, 18 Dime Store, The - 57 Disaster Peak - 10, 18, 29 Doctors Giroux - 11, 31 Hartoch - 56, 60 Swezey - 12 Weiss - 39, 55-56 Dolan, John - 41 driver's license - 44 Durbin, Harvey - 60 Dyer Lumber - 38 Dyer, Mrs. - 38 eclipse - 43 Egoscue, Pete - 46 Eggleson Court - 70-71 Elliott, Waltzy - 54 Erquiaga Louie - 6 Remundo - 2 Esparza, Mr. - 55 Essain, Mr. - 46

Father Empry - 54 Ferris Club - 54 Flat Creek - 16 food preparation - 3, 5-6, 10, 17-18 Gabica Danny - 27 Joe - 27 gambling - 50-51, 53-54, 59, 61, 67 games 'Hide-and-go-Seek' - 22 gardening - 4-5, 10, 61-62 Gastelecutto family - 19 Gem Bar - 44-45, 47-48, 50-51, 53, 55, 59, 69 Gillman, Mrs. - 20, 33 Giroux, Dr. - 11, 31 Goitandia Damiena (Mentaberry) - See Oral History of Mary Yrueta Estaban - 22, 50, 56 Fausto - 22 Martina - 2 Pedro - 22-23 Visticion - 2, 10 Golconda, Nevada - 19, 61 golf - 67 Goyhex, Mrs. - 12, 30, 33, 36 Greyhound bus - 63 Griddle, The - 60

Hager, Yvonne (Siard) - 69 Hall, Willie - 47 Hammergren Sandy - 69 Skip - 69 Hartoch, Dr. - 56, 60 Hershey dairy - 26 Higbee, Monte - 57-58, 65 Hillyer Dumps - 12 Mrs. Christine - 11-12, 70 hobos - 43-44 holidays Christmas - 68 Fourth of July - 4, 11 Saint's Day - 68 home remedies - 7-8 Horning, Mr. - 35-36 hotels Busch- 15, 19, 45 Commercial (McDermitt) - 24, 48-49 Commercial (Reno) 1, 7 Martin - 46-48, 68 hotels (continued)

Overland - 32-34 Star (Elko) - 46 Winnemucca - 7, 23, 47, 51, 68 Humboldt Star - 19, 41, 69 ice - 25, 42 Index Bar - 48 Indians - 1 5-1 6 influenza (1917) - 36 Iroz Jerry - 68 Madeline - 68

Johnson, Dorothy (Carlson) - 1 2 Jones Albert- 26, 29, 43, 58 Mrs. - 26 Pearl - 67 Judge Merwyn Brown - 1 3 Jungo, Nevada - 60

Kassibaum, Marie - 64 King's River Ranch - 49

Laca Mrs. - 19 Pete - 46 language - 1 5 Larre Geneivieve - 29 Helen - 29 Irene - 29 Mrs. - 28-29 Larson, Burnell - 63 Legarza Mrs. - 2 Neivas - 2 Legarza Ranch - 47 leukemia - 56 Lizantez, Mike - 54 Lords, Ken - 63 Loring, Isabel - 37 Lowry Bill - 66 Joe - 66 John - 66 Ruby - See Ruby Yrueta Lyon family - 28

McDermitt - 8, 20, 24 Bank - 4 Creek - 42 Mercantile - 4 Mine - 25, 49 McFadden, Leo - 33 Maguira Cleto - 2, 24 Emilie (Alcorda) - 24 Frank - 24 Mary - 24 Mr. - 23-24, 52 Mrs. - 2, 23-24 Marcuerquiaga Domingo - 60 Evie - 60, 63 Vic - 14 Martin Hotel - 46-48, 68 Martinez, Rosinda - 54 Mendiola Angel - 59 Mrs. - 16 Mentaberry Angela - 25 Annie (Bengoa) - 5, 9, 15, 30, 48-49, 54 Bauptista - 33 Damiena (Goitandia) - See Oral History of Mary Yrueta Dave (Lep) -I, 9, 11, 41 Dee (Jones) - 16, 24, 26, 29, 33, 56, 58 Eddie- I, 5, 11, 18, 38, 41, 55-56, 71 Foe - 10, 14, 21, 36, 38, 41, 44, 55, 58, 71 George (Patch) - 11, 24, 41, 56, 58 Hank- I, 7, 10, 38-39, 58, 71 Jean - 56-57 John - See Oral History of Mary Yrueta John Jr. - I, 10-11, 16, 18, 21, 25, 32, 39-41, 43, 58 Mary (Yrueta) - See Oral History of Tammy - 25 Tony - 25 Mercantile, The - 69 midwives Mrs. Christine Hillyer - 11-12, 70 milk - 25-26 Miller, Lew - 25 mines Cordero - 25 McDermitt - 25, 49 Opalite - 25 mining - 60 Miss Nevada - 68 Miss Winnemucca - 68 Model T Ford - 8, 16, 25, 42 Monaut, Martin - 59 Monty's Club Bar - 48, 52, 54, 67 moonshine - 23-24, 52-53, 61 Morrall, Jean - 25 mortuary - 12, 13

'Nanny' - 70-71 Navarran, Alfonso - 47 Nelson, Mr. - 57 Nelson, Fern (Amat) - 29 Nevada Credit Association - 3, 17 Nixon Opera House - 40, 50 Nouque Ranch - 24

O'Carroll, Tom - 54 O'Malley Duke - 67 Harry - 67 OLV Club (Our Lady of Victory) - 40, 67 Opalite - 25 Overland Hotel - 32-34 Ovie, Mrs. - 1 6

PTA - 67 Paco - 47 Paradise Hill - 42 Pasquale, August - 45 Pearl, Josie - 69 Peluaga, Mr. - 51 Peraldo, Louie - 32 Pike, Vivian - 22 Plaza, Tony - 65 page 7

MY: She said on Saturday - she always had to wash the dishes - and Saturday night she just hated because that guy that was running this place he would go and get fifteen chickens, they were all alive chickens, and they'd take them to the basement and whack their heads off and they'd get the water boiling and Mama had to pluck all the chickens, clean the insides of them. Hang them on the rope there so they'd dry for the next day, and the next day was special fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

LD: That was at the Commercial Hotel?

MY: At the Commerical in Reno. You know where Commercial Row is? That's where the old Commerical Hotel was. And Sundays was a treat for the Basque people to come and have a big dinner like they used to at the Winnemucca Hotel. Get together and just visit and enjoy the big dinners. And they would serve just like Winnemucca Hotel did, one big long table.

LD: So then your Mom and Dad married and they went to Washburn Creek Ranch?

MY: They didn't buy that until 1921.

LD: You have this nice notebook that you've kept all along.

MY: Yes, it seems like I was always responsible for what was going on.

LD: Is it kind of like a diary from when you were very young?

MY: Yes. I can remember sitting under the tree at noon when Papa would come in from haying and tell me different things and I had this book so I would just write the different things in it. Otherwise I never could have remembered anything. I wrote all Johnny's stuff in here too. I have my history and my ailments.

LD: I remember Hank (Mentaberry) telling me once when he had a cut your Mom just reached in that cellar and grabbed a handful of spider webs and stopped the blood. Did she have other ways of dealing with injuries?

MY: The only disinfection we had was sheep dip. I can remember one time I was getting dandruff real bad and Mom was taking a nap and Dad was taking a nap and I went to the old - we used to call it 'etxetxiki' (little house) and I got the sheep dip and I got it into the kitchen and I got a big washbasin and I washed my hair and rinsed it. I put a teaspoon of the sheep dip in there and I rinsed my hair. I think it helped it because that was the end of my dandruff. That was the only disinfectant we ever had. Vasaline and sheep dip. Prida Bob - 66 Deanna - See Deanna Yrueta Steven - 66 Tina - 66 priests Father Empry - 54 pro-hi's - 47-48, 61 prohibition - 47

Quilici, Sally - 27, 54

Ramasco Jewelry - 57 ranches Andorno - 8 King's River - 49 Legarza - 47 Nouque - 24 Spanish - I Washburn Creek - See Mary Yrueta oral history Red Cross - 32 Redin, Mrs. - 55 Reeves Claude - 8 Frank - 8 Mrs. - 8 refrigeration - 5, 25, 42 Reinhart family - 28 Mose - 3 Oscar - 21 Reinhart's Store - 3, 9, 21, 27, 30

Saint Paul's Catholic Church - 12, 54 Saval, Mrs. - 28 schools Community College - 66-67 District Office - 57-58, 63-65 Humboldt High - 32, 37, 39 Indian - 15 Winnemucca Grammar - 15 schoolteachers Gillman, Mrs. - 20 Loring, Isabel - 37 Pike, Vivian - 22 Watt, Cora - 15 schooling - 14-15, 37, 65 Scott, Mrs. - 54 shearing - 16-17 sheep ranching - 45-46 sheep dip - 7-8, 16 Siard, Mrs. - 19 Smith, Hazel ('Shotgun Annie') - 25-27 soap, lye - 3-4 Sonoma Inn - 54, 67 Sommers, Jack - 67 Spain Berriatua - 45 Lequitio - 2, 10, 68 Mendexa - 10 Spanish Ranch - I Star Hotel (Elko) - 46 Stitser Avery - 69 Roland - 19-20, 69 Stockman's Store - 57-58 Swezey, Dr. - 12

Tillasova, Tillie - 54 Tipton, Ann - 64 Tobin, Phil - 53 Tonkin, Mr. - 29 Trailways bus - 63 trapping - 59-62 'Twinkle Toes' - 69

Ugalde, Paula (Goitandia) - 2, 6 uranium - 60 Uriguen, Mrs. - 49 Urizar, Candy - 47

Vivianna - 46 voting - 44 wages - 34-35, 58, 65 Warren, Mrs. - 22 Washburn Creek Ranch - 7 Washington, George - 11 Weiss, Dr. George - 39, 55-56 Wendell, Dr. - 12 Western Pacific Railroad - 17 Winnemucca Hotel - 7, 47, 51, 59 Wong, Lee - 34 Woods family - 59 wool - 1 7 World War I - 36 World War II - 36, 58-59

Zabala, Justo - 14, 50

Ydiando Frank - 19, 50 Joe - 19 Mrs. - 19 Yrueta Deanna (Prida) - 27, 35, 54-55, 59, 62, 65, 67 John - See Oral History of Mary Yrueta Julie - 54, 62 Mary (Mentaberry) - See Oral History of Pete- 48, 51-52, 54, 59, 62 Ruby (Lowry) - 27, 36, 55, 57-59, 62, 65, 67-68 Victor - 62 The Life of Mary Adel Mentaberry Yrueta Across the street from Winnemucca Grammar School is a small house, still standing, at 590 Aiken Street. On June 29, 1917, Damiana and John Mentaberry were blessed with a daughter, whom they called Mary. An older brother also named John was present. John had been born in San Francisco, California on December31, 1915. This little house was the birthing place of 5 other brothers and sisters. Annie was born on May 16, 1919; Fausto was born on May 13, 1921; Henry on June 4, 1923; Delores on May 14, 19 2-Cf and George arrived on Washington's birthday on February 22, 1930. This little house had 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. The bathtub and the wash basin were the same. For washing dishes there was a wide basin. A wood and coal stove heated the water. A small pot-bellied stove was located in the bedroom. Starting as early as October the back bedroom windows would have frost on them in the mornings. We would scrape the pane with our fingernails to see if any of our friends were playing at the Grammar School. I never had a doll to play with. We had fun by smashing the tin cans we could find and fit them on our shoes. We'd run around with them on our feet and make noise. "Hide and Seek" was the favorite game of the Mentaberry, Abel and Bengochea families played in the Grammar School yard.

At Christmas time, we would go to the dumps where we would get- some kind of a tree, usually a Pinon pine. The dump was across the stree from the house located at 633 Pavilion Street. We would put some silver tinsel and small-real candles, which were only lit on Christmas Day. There were never any presents, only hard mixed candy and oranges- which were a real treat.

Our dinner would consist of roasted chicken and potatoes. We did not have our first turkey until 1940. When I was 4 year old, 1921, our parents bought the Washburn Creek Ranch. There he began his sheep and cattle business. At the ranch Mom would raise and irrigate a huge garden and orchard and would raise chickens and hand feed the lepie lambs. We had no refrigeration, so Mom would salt the meat and can the fruits and vegetables. Since I was the eldest girl, I had to take over the the house chores. I cooked on the coal and wood stove; washed in the old tub on a scrubboard and ironed with a heavy steel iron heated on the woodstove.

Dad brought sheep herders from Spain to work on the ranch. He also brought his niece, now Mary Zane Chabot to come to America. She came to the ranch, but did not like it. So she went to work for Victor McErquiaga who had a boarding house on Main Street across from where C.B. Browns is located. In the fall of 1930, Dad bought the house at 419 West Second Street, which we called the "Big House." My two youngest brothers, David and Eddie were forn there. David was born on March 4, ^932, and Eddie was born on April 14, 1934. In the summer Mom and Dad went back to the ranch with their 2 small sons.

In 1932, I gratuated from the 8th grade at Winnemucca Grammar School. My graduation skirt was made by our friend Louise Larre. It was a pleated skirt. I bought an orange sweater at the Reinhart department store. I wore white heels. My Dad had brought Louise Larre and Gaston to America. Gaston herded sheep for "Papa." Louise lived in town with her daughters, Helen, Irene and Genevieve.

Mary Zane was living at the "Big House" and had a baby boy whom she named Justo. The "Big House" had 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a full basement. The old coal stove would die down at night and the back bedrooms were very cold. Mary Zane would bundle Justo up with gloves, cap and blankets. Later my husband Johnnie, converted the coal stove to oil. Mary Zane married Justo Chabot and they moved across the street. Once again I had the chores of cooking, washing and packing the clothes up the stairs out ot the clothesline.

We often had boarders. Steve Crutchbarry and Pete Apestegie slept in the bedroom downstairs and ate at the Louise Larre home. I attended Humboldt County High School. We all walked home for lunch and back, a total of 10 blocks. I had a friend named Tean Morrall who practiced the piano daily. She never had to do any housework. She couldn't believe I made jello one day during lunch. She had no idea how to do that. Mom would bring pears and plums from the ranch. I would can them on the coal stove. The breadboard I used to use with the burn marks on it was still in the "Big House" when I moved out.

In 1936, I graduated from Humboldt County High School. After graduation there were no parties for me. I walked to Ma Davis's Hot Dog stand and had a rootbeer float. Mom and Dad were at the ranch and were not able to attend the ceremonies. I was in bed by 10 P.M. After that I started working at the city bakery for Mr. Anchart selling pastery, bread and donuts. I wanted to go to Hennegar College to business school. In the fall dad came to town and said, "Mary, I didn't sell my lambs and wool. You make 'em some money and maybe next fall I have some money for you to go to school next fall. At that time people borrowed money for their business but not for education.

In June 1936 early one morning I was walking to work and I met JOhnnie Yruetaguena. He had worked all night at the Gym Bar and he was walking out of the backdoor. I had met Johnnie when I was a junior in high school. He was hauling wool for Clete Achabal and come to the ranch. He came by to pick up Dad's wool to haul it to the Winnemucca train depot to be shipped to Boston. The price was very low for wool that year. Page 3 The summer of 1936 I worked for $2.00 per 8 hour shift. I bought a refrigerator, washing machine and mix master. I would pay a little every week for these items. Ten years later Mr. Horning, the city electrician, saw me on the street, patted me on the back and commented on how wonderful it was that I was making payments on the items. Finally Johnnie paid for the balance and I still saved money in the bank. The big day was December 31st, 1937. I was married to John Angel Yruetaguena at St. Paul's Catholic Church. Mom cooked a dinner for us and the Pefe Yrueta (dad's brother) family had Mrs. Joseph Scott make a batch of raviolis, my favorite dish. Johnnie paid $15 for them. We went on a month's honeymoon to Las Vegas, Nevada, T <3-«A^ When we got back, Dad asked me to stay at the Big House to take care of my bothers-and sisters. Mom went back to the ranch. Our first daughter, Deanna Louise, was born on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1939. That same year Sally Chabagno (Quilici) came to live with us at the Big House. There was no high school at Pleasant Valley where Sally lived.

In the spring of 1935, sister Annie was late for school one morning and was running from home to Humboldt County High School on 4th street. She cut across the vacant lot where the Winner's Inn is. A huge truck loaded with wool came around the corner. Frank Bengoa from Oregon Canyon was driving it. He had loaded it at 5 A.M. in McDermitt. Annie was delighted to see Frank and to get a ride to school. She was 5 minutes late for school. She got engaged on the 4th of July of 1936. The next day she and Frank were married in Reno, Nevada by the Justice of Peace. Ronnie, my boyfriend, bought Annie her 2 piece blue outfit with a matching hat.

The first time we ever had turkey was in 1940. Johnnie bought a live turkey from the Flat Creek Ranch. He butchered it and I boiled water on the coal stove downstairs. I had to pick the feathers and clean the insides like I had to do so often to the chickens at the ranch. I hated the smell, it would make me gag. For ?8&F$rt succeeding Thanksgivings and Christmases that was my job until they sold the Flat Creek Ranch. I think that is the reason I'm not crazy about turkey.

My husband Johnnie was born in Berriatua,Vizcaya, Espana. He came to this country sponsored by Pasquale Brothers of Paradise Valley as a sheepherder. He worked for 2 years for them by himself in the hills herding sheep.One day, April 1920, Mr. Pasquale told him, John I am bankrupt. I can't pay you anything for the 2 years you have worked. Johnnie got his citizenship papers on March 24, 1941. He changed his name from Juan Yrutetaguena to Johnnie Yrueta that same day. He was born May 27, 1900, and passed away December 1, 1978. He had 3 brothers page 4 Angel,Pete and Victor. His mother's name was Agueda Unamunzaga. His fathers name was Francisco. Our second daughter, Ruby Marie, was born on September 29, 1942. Fausto left for World War II two days after she was born. Mom came and stayed for 3 days.

In the spring of 1946, Annie and Frank went to Mayo Brothers Hospital to check Frank's back. They left Ann Darlene and Delphine, who was 9 months old with me. Since it was Easter, I dressed the 4 girls in their nice clothes and took them to the Easter egg hunt. Delphine got diarrea and it soiled her long white stockings before we left. I had to change her completely and we got to the end of the hunt.

The fall of 1941, Joe and Dan Gabica came to live in the Big House in order to attend high school. Mom was at the ranch in the spring and until late fall. Not only did I have to wash and starch and iron Johnnies white shirts, but all of the boys too, an average of 20 shirts.

In the fall of September 1946, we rented Mary Chabot's house on Second street and lived there for 3 years. In the fall of 1946, we bought Florence Gillman's house on 543 Lay street. WE remodeled the dark kitchen and dining room.

Ann Darlene and Delphine Bengoa both took turns living with us, since Annie and Frank were living at King's River Ranch. Hank' and Eddie would come up for breakfast. I'd usually end up doing Eddie's typing for him. They also came for dinner and then they would leave without helping with the dishes saying they had to go to a flood-control meeting. I continued to do their laundry.

Johnnie worked at Montie's Club from 1954 to 1965. He worked 7 nights a week, an average of 12 to 14 hours a day. He had no holidays off and worked every rodeo 14 hours long. In 1954 there was no rodeo because in late August, the roof was blown off the grandstand.

My most memorable Christmas was in 1937. Johnnie gave me a doll. He said that Santa brought me a doll. He also gave me a a beautiful diamond ring. Deanna graduated from HCS on June in 1957 and from UNR on May 19, 1961. She married Robert John Prida on August 5, 1961 and they have 2 children, Steven and Tina. Tina married Bobbie Hurst on March 3, 1992 and they have a beautiful son named Brandon They all live in Flagstaff, Arizona. Ruby graduated from HCHS in June, 1960 and from UNR on may 1964. She married Bill LOwery on June 17, 1967. They have 2 boys, John and Joe and live in Yerington, Nevada. John was born on November 1, 1971 and was babtized on June 2, 1972. His Godmother is Paula Mentaberry and Godfather in Dale Mentaberry. Joe was born on January 6, 1973 and was baptized on May 29, 1973. Juleen Marcuerquiaga is his Godmother and Dennis Mentaberry is his Godfather. Page 5

I worked as the superintendent's secretary of HCHS for 20 years. Then I began working for Northern Nevada Community College on September, 1981. I keep very busy with my clubs; O.L.V., PTA, Beta Sigma Phi sororiety, Winnemucca Basque Club and I love to play gol<^several times a week. I am also a member of the Altar Society, Ladies Golf Club and Friends of Nixon. I love to travel and have traveled to France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Canada, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Tennessee and Alaska. HUMBOLDT COUNTY LIBRARY

DEED Or GIFT AGREEMENT

, hereby give my

ord'! history interview with JJkk^J^Jj^ , , which intarwi swer

was conducted on /ehlltffe ^lli7/%i to the Humboldt County Dal,

brary. Winnemucca.. Nevada.

It is hereby agreed between myself and the Humboldt County Library that all rights, title and interest in the transcript (verbatim and edited) and/or tape recording and the contents thereof belong to the Humboldt County Library. I further agree to expressly assign any copyright interest I may have in this material to the Humboldt County Libraryy

In full accord with the provisions of this Deed of Gift, I hereunto set my hand.

r ^h-^uCL <*> ^Yia^L •LLL* M^L IK Date

UlVlt'l/l^ Q97 3 Date

• 85 E. FIFTH STREET • WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA 89445 • (702) 623-6388 • FAX (702) 623-6438 • page 8

LD: Marge Stephens talks about her mother, Grace Dufurrena, she had eczema really bad and she used sheep dip and it went away. Boy that would be tough.

MY: Yeh, it had a strong, strong smell to it. But Dad used that for all his sheep and cows. Dad went by the moon. If the moon was going up - Mama did too - she'd plant her vegetables that were supposed to go up, and if the moon went down she'd plant the vegetables that were underground. And Dad would look at the moon and he would say, "We're going to cut the tail on the sheep." "No, no, it's too light, too light. We got to wait for a dark moon. No flies, no flies." You see if it was light the flies would get on the sheep and lay the eggs and they would be maggots and get infected.

LD: I hadn't heard that. I thought it was because of bleeding during certain parts of the moon.

MY: He always watched the moon. We used to get the great big old calendar from McDermitt there. Frank Reeves and Mrs. Reeves were very, very good to Papa. Really helped Papa an awful lot. I can remember one time Dad brought a bunch of old Montgomery Ward catalogs from McDermitt because they didn't use them and we took them to the old out­ house. One time I was going through it and I said, "Gee there's a water pitcher in here for 75 cents." Papa said, "Order it." I said, "I don't know how to make an order." He said, "You make an order, I go to Claude Reeves. I ask him if it's alright." So I made the order and Papa ordered it. In fact that pitcher was still at the ranch until recently. I don't know where it is now, but for 75 cents we got a water pitcher and that was my first order out of the catalog. I didn't know the zones or postage or any of that stuff.

LD: How would you get your mail?

MY: Once a month Papa would go to McDermitt and get groceries. We didn't get any mail. Papa got sometime a few things. We didn't get any advert­ isement or anything like that.

LD: How would he go?

MY: By that time he had the old Model T Ford. I was telling Mrs. Wilson at the Andorno Ranch when we went out to the open house there that that was a stop for us. We used to stop at Cane Springs. If Dad had a few extra dollars he'd stop at the bakery and get some cream puffs and we'd stop there and get a glass of cold water - not glass, a tin can of cold water - and then we'd stop at Andorno and Papa would go and talk to those two old folks and we'd run into the orchard and eat the green apples. It would take us practically twelve hours to get to the ranch.