9. BUNDLING AND HOP PICKING

Donald M. Dickey: Oh, they moved there after we did. I think Forest had owned the 60 acres for quite a while but I suppose they moved there in 1930 or something like that. And I think they were still there when the cantonement took over weren't they?

Maxine Dickey: I guess.

Donald M. Dickey: Yeah, in 1942.

9. BUNDLING AND HOP PICKING

Maxine Dickey: Yes. They were there when I was teaching school, because I boarded with them.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember a Mr. Withrow?

Donald M. Dickey: Witlow?

Neil Vanderburg: Withrow.

Donald M. Dickey: Withrow?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Donald M. Dickey: Oh yeah.

Neil Vanderburg: We drove bundle wagons for him.

Donald M. Dickey: Harold Withrow, he was a farmer and had a dairy farm and he ran a threshing machine in the summer time. And the locals, well Tandy and my dad, and I and

Neil Vanderburg: I drove bundle wagons for him, too.

Donald M. Dickey: I didn't know Neil drove bundle wagon for him. One summer they were starting to raise hairy vetch and rye grass and I don't know whether you've ever had any experience farming or not?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Donald M. Dickey: Anyway this hairy vetch was just one big mess. I mean, it was fluffy and you couldn't pitch the hay, I couldn't pitch it in the machine fast enough to keep the sack sower busy, and anyway we spent most of the summer doing that, and one day Forest came around to me and says "The next field we're going to is wheat." And he says "It's in short bundles. Thought maybe I was gonna make it first, but I guess I'm not." But he says "You're gonna be the first load there so get a good big load of the short bundles and when you get into the machine work that sack sewer so that he can hardly keep up with it." Well I did that except the sock sewer lost his needle. And Withrow was pretty proud of this old thrashing machine. And he told me that only one guy had ever been able to plug the thing up and his name was Tommy . . . well,

Donald M. Dickey: he lived down by Joe Smith, and he was young fellow, probably in college and well built. One day I got in there and Withrow was setting out on the sack pile, and I started in getting bundles placed out in front and kept adding to them and pretty quick I got down to where hay was full and then I started pitching them. Pretty quick it goes "whrr, rrr, rrr," Old Withrow he was a signaling me to slow down.

Neil Vanderburg: I was there when you did that.

Donald M. Dickey: I beg your pardon.

Neil Vanderburg: I was there. I still remember.

Bob Zybach: Neil told me that story a couple of weeks ago. Must have been pretty impressive.

Donald M. Dickey: Well, actually, the old machine wasn't as good as it had been before, so maybe I wouldn't have been able to do it. I was not too slow, I worked on a farm and pitched hay and bundled and cut wood and stuff, so I had pretty good muscles.

Bob Zybach: Was that your first job?

Donald M. Dickey: Oh no. My first job was picking prunes when I was about 6 years old. I was down at Yamhill at that time. I made a dollar the first day I worked. I got 12 cents a box that year. Then, from then on I picked prunes or picked hops or something every summer. We just needed the money so we could buy books and go to school. I mean, kids worked in those days, they didn't sit around and watch TV and say, "Ma, what can we do next?" I think it was good for them. They didn't . . . nobody got hurt.

Neil Vanderburg: Did you pick hops for Branches?

Donald M. Dickey: I picked hops down at Mike Branches, and .

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, we picked for Branches.

Donald M. Dickey: We picked down at Millers. Was it Millers down the road? Well, anyway, dad bossed hop yards part of the time. And we picked hops. Anything in the fall or summer to make a few bucks so we had enough money to buy books and clothes and stuff, because there wasn't any free money those days. No government programs. You made your money or you didn't make it.

Maxine Dickey: His mother picked with him.