Among mom’s stash of correspondence, I have found letters from her younger brother Hollis, living in Colorado. Here are two of them; one is undated, so I’m not sure about the sequence.
2768 Cherry
Canon City , Colo. 81212
Dec. 13, 1977
Dear Ruth and Thorgel:
Christmas is sneaking up on us, and I for one am a long ways from being ready for it. Usually I have presents bought and cards pretty much in hand by this time, but somehow I was inefficient this year and may be still writing letters and addressing cards on Christmas Eve.
For one thing, the weather has been too nice to spend a whole lot of time indoors. Today is a lovely sunny say, temperature close to 60 already. I should be up at the ranch working on the house instead of what I’m doing, but circumstances dictated otherwise.
I drove to Denver Sunday morning–Nancy had borrowed the pickup to move with, and I had her little yellow Toyota. Found that she had a lot of moving still to do, though–most of the friends who had promised to help her on Saturday hadn’t showed up, and though she had managed to get the heavy things moved while she did have some help, there was a tremendous lot of stuff still sitting there. So she and I moved that, and it was late that evening before we finished. Monday I decided not to drive to the ranch as there was a flat tire for a spare and if I took time to get it fixed first there wouldn’t be much time for working anyway. So I headed for Canon City, and was glad I did–the truck started balking on the hills and I took it to the garage this morning for a tuneup. The last thing I want is to have a lot of truck trouble a long ways from home.
Nancy moved because her rent had been raised outrageously, but found a very nice place for less than she had been paying. Her address is now Denver I believe, though I forgot to ask. It could be Englewood.
Work on the house goes slowly, but I have the exterior pretty much finished now. Last time I was there I got most of the living room paneled, which changed its appearance much for the better.
I’m looking forward to when I’ll have time to work at leisure on the trim and that sort of thing, but likely won’t get a whole lot done this winter.
Our weather has been generally good, though we have had a couple of light snows. One morning it was 5 above which is about as cold as it gets here generally. A lot of cars didn’t start and a lot of trailer house water lines froze; people never seem to be ready for winter here. But we have had a lot of days in the 70s too, and that always makes the winter shorter. The ski resorts are very happy about the snow they have already, after a couple of very deficient years. The high country is buried in several feet of snow already, and a lot of the passes have been closed at times.
The last time I was at the ranch there had been snow in the higher elevations and the deer came down to feed. I was surprised to see a big buck browsing on the hillside across the creek from the house, and that night in the moonlight I watched a doe feeding just in front of the house. And the following day I counted 40 deer along the creek and up the hillside, tame as cows. There were 3 big bucks among them–the hunters don’t get too many of them around here, there being miles of roadless country just to the west and plenty of easier hunting country farther into the mountains.
We always enjoyed watching the deer; the winter Ruth and I spent at the ranch there were almost always a few in sight, and tracks all over the place. I’ve seen and heard fewer coyotes this year but there are still a few around.
Nancy has invited me up for Christmas, though I probably won’t be there until Christmas morning. Unless the store closes quite early on Christmas Eve, and the weather is fine, I’ll drive up in daylight. The Monument Hill area can get quite nasty this time of year, and I’ve been lucky enough to get through quite a few rather vicious storms there this time of year. This year I’ll be more conservative.
If the weather is halfway decent I’ll go on to the ranch from there, and make sure it is OK. I usually leave two electric heaters there to keep the pipes from freezing, but turned low. So far it has worked, despite occasional fierce January storms. I want to get the water line covered deeper in a few spots in hopes it won ‘t freeze this year. If I were there permanently I’d have to bury it deeper the whole length; it did freeze during January last year, but thawed itself during February. And the flash flood we had this summer cut some trenches through the ditch that I have not filled in as much as I want to. The ground should not be frozen yet, and if not I’ll spend a day or so deepening the cover. Yes, I could have gotten machinery in and cut a trench in the rock ledges to make the water line deep enough, but that would have cut that hill up pretty badly.
Hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and an excellent year to come. And I may very possibly see you next summer, on my way to investigate Neil’s cave.
Much love from
Hollis
P. O. Box 423
Lyons, Colo. 80540
(undated)
Dear Ruth and Thorgel:
This is meant to wish you a very Happy Birthday, Ruth, though it will probably as usual arrive a bit late. I have no excuse for that, just didn’t get it done when I intended. But the sentiment is there, anyhow. This makes you two years older than I am again, and I’m not a bit jealous.
We arrived back in Colorado on schedule. Spent the night in the campground on the Missouri across from Chamberlain, which is a nice spot, and arrived at home via the Nebraska sandhills the next evening. I have had no ill effects from the long trip, and am feeling pretty good now.
I went back to work the last day of September, and worked for two weeks, then came up here to the ranch for two weeks. If it can be made to work that way I’ll probably repeat that for awhile. I’m now sure how the Smallers like it but at least it gives them a break from working all the time. As a matter of fact when I was there they all took off for the Ace show in New Orleans and left me with the place to run. I worked 11 days out of 12, which I hadn’t really expected, but survived it all right.
It probably doesn’t really pay me to work, what with maintaining a place in Canon City and driving back and forth, but I can ‘t bring myself to really like the idea of retiring either. So will try it this way for awhile.
I’ve been back to the hospital for several checkups since seeing you last, and seem to be getting along all right. Cold air doesn’t do me any good, but it has been mostly nice fall weather and only a little frosty in the mornings. May have to stay indoors more than usual this winter.
Last week Dick had a service call to make in Grand Junction, and we all went along for the ride. It was snowing in the high country when we went over, both at the Eisenhower tunnel and on Vail Pass, but fairly nice once we got across. There is a lot of road work going on in the Glenwood Springs area–they are trying to fit the Interstate into
a narrow canyon there and it doesn’t fit too well. Apparently one side of the highway is to be on a sort of shelf partly above the other.
Dick got his repairs done OK, and coming back we again ran into bad weather on the passes. Nothing to bother but there were a lot of cars sliding around here and there. It was the day before the first elk hunting season opened, which meant lots of traffic. The hunters must have had a mighty cold first night, the way the snow was coming down. We made it across OK and found things dry and not too cold once down off the pass.
This weekend Dick and I will try to install a water heater. Never did try that particular job but a sure we can figure it out eventually. Poured the base for it this past weekend, and we are all ready for that first hot shower. Sponge baths are not in it at all compared to a good shower. Hope that the result is a bath rather than a flooded basement.
We have been having company the last few days. Encouraged by some apple peelings that Charlotte put out for them, a doe and her twin fawns have taken to coming around close to the house. They watch us through the windows and don’t seem a bit afraid if we don’t get too close. If the apples hold out we should have some close friends.
How is Dorothy coming? Sure do hope that she is gaining ground. Would be glad to hear how she is.
Much love,
Hollis
When she wrote this “rags-to-riches” story, Ruth Davie was 9 years old, and attending Lewis Heights school, on the east side of Sioux Falls, SD. The family maintained a very large garden and sold produce at a local farmers’ market.
January 1925.
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Polly Sargeant Buswell was my great-great grandmother.
And here’s a link to the hi-res PDF version, so you can examine it zoomed in:
Things mom saved. 