Life on a Shoestring: Making Memories

Tom 1915-2008; Irene 1920-1998

John Thomas Ferrel II (Tom) and Irene Norma (Rost) Ferrel, pictured here, lived in a sheep wagon for a short time when first married. Life was difficult, but the young couple didn’t care much about where they lived, as long as they are together. Their first “real homes together” were established in Cabin Creek near Ollie and later, Baker, Montana.

Tom and Irene were married in a double wedding ceremony in Hardin, Montana, with Tom’s brother Allie and his wife Florence, a cousin to Irene, in 1937. Brother’s married cousins, making the blood ties closer than most relatives. After getting married, the four of them worked on the Clark ranch in Wyoming. During this time, Tom and Irene lived in a sheep wagon on the property. Irene loved it.  She said it was cute and like living in a little camp trailer.  Of course they were young and in love, so most any place would have seemed magical!  Allie and Florence were there too, and one of Tom and Allie's other siblings, possibly Ellen was working on the ranch at that time. It must have been fun for all of them there together. 

There was a scare during that time. It was the time of Earl Durand.  Earl Durand was was a young man who lived in rural Wyoming  near the Clark ranch.  He wasn't a bad young man but often got into trouble for poaching. He grew up poaching and seemed to feel he wasn't doing anything wrong, helping people who were hungry. He became known as an outlaw after he escaped from jail. To escape and remain free, he killed four officers, two at his house, and two who tried to apprehend him during an 11-day manhunt in the Beartooth Mountains near the mouth of Clark's Fork Canyon. Mom was alone in the sheep wagon during the day, a young, married, teenager. She was terrified that Durand may find the sheep wagon and seek shelter there.He was eventually cornered while trying to rob a bank and shot himself in the head. 

Tom and Irene raised five children together: Larry (died as an infant), Myrna, David, Cheri, and Kim.

Tom worked for Montana Dakota Utilities as a skilled arc welder, following the pipeline through Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. It was a secure job which allowed him to be a good father and family man.

Irene attended Black Hills Teacher’s College in Spearfish, South Dakota. She taught in a one room country school for a short time in the mid 1950s. I remember her showing the children coins and teaching them how to make change correctly. Some of the children had never held coins before. Irene was a talented artist and found time to draw portraits of us children. She inspired me to become a professional artist.

Childhood memories in Baker recall a home where apple boxes covered with a cloth served as side-tables; telephone party lines where the operators said, “number please;” Slim Niccum’s main street barbershop, the Red Owl store, buying shoes at Russell's, the ice cream shop with a giant ice cream cone on top, getting store bought clothes at J.C. Penny’s, the Flint’s movie theater, shopping at La Cross’s grocery store when a couple bags of groceries cost $5, postage stamps that cost 3 cents and a kindly kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Loveless. Printed flour sacks, old overcoats and skirts from hand-me-down dresses were great for remaking into children’s clothes. My brother and I had a matching shirt and dress made from the flour sacks. It was very special to have something that matched with my older brother! Card playing with family and neighbors and evening desserts were the most common form of entertainment. Many nights I fell asleep on a pile of coats in a guest room where we were visiting. Shivaries and barn dances (the older generation teaching the younger to dance); church socials; the laughter of friends and the taste of hot cocoa after a fall hayride; the sounds, the smell, the taste, the memories linger; they are the stuff family histories are made of! Thanks for sharing mine.

After 23 years, Tom and Irene went their separate ways but remained friends until Irene’s passing in 1998.  Tom passed away in Baker in 2008 at age 93.