Don't complain about snowy roads...

This morning Grandpa Henry told me about a telephone system they had in the Blackfoot Mountians when he was a kid. Grandpa Cliff, Henry's dad, found an old Army telephone system in Kleggs Used Furniture Store in Blackfoot. The Jemmett men ran miles of telephone line between the cedar creek homesteads. When a person wanted to call someone, they had to crack the handle which made a ring. Each cabin had an assigned number of rings. Russell had 3 rings, Dad had 2, etc. This system came in handy in the winter. When supplies began to run low, Cliff called around. If enough homesteaders needed supplies, they would gather together in buggy, wagon, sleigh and Cliff's old studbaker and start for the valley. When they came to an inpassible spot in the road, the men would jump out or off from their various vehicles and take the manditory snow shovels out and start shoveling. Talk of snow plows...the road were hand cleared back then. Once everyone finished shopping in Firth, they loaded up and went back up the hills, shoveling any driffs that had blown in behind the caravan on the way down. Grandpa Henry wants all his children and grandchildren when they are traveling to carry a shovel during this rather unpredictable weather....they always did.