11/29/09
Grandma and Jasper: The Friendly, Talking,
Saber-tooth Tiger
In 1948 Idaho and Utah had one of the most severe winters ever remembered in the mountain States. It was so cold; however, it was the great quantity of snow that caused the most problems and which even now, 61 years later, people who were alive that year still remember that cold snowy winter and talk about it.
Punkaman and his father, Avery T. Beck, got lost in the snow that year in the New Field, east of Crowleyville, Utah, but that is a different story and must be told on a different occasion. This story is about South-Central Idaho in the little farming community called Filer, Idaho. Filer is west of Twin Falls and is in the Twin Falls County. The County Fair is held in Filer and this is the major attraction for this small city.
Dean and Vyla Call lived in Filer, Idaho in 1948 with their 2 children: Marilyn (age 5) and MarDean (age 3). Dean M. Call was a farmer, and he also worked for the Rogers Seed Company. Vyla was a stay-at-home mom who also did a lot of work outside on the farm in feeding the livestock which included cattle (4 milk cows), sheep, pigs and chickens. In the spring, summer and fall, Vyla and Marilyn would also work in the fields doing the hard work. Even as a 5 year old child, Marilyn could often guide the work horses when they pulled a wagon because Marilyn’s dad could yell “Getty-up” which the horse knew meant to walk and to pull. He would yell “Whoa-there” which would make the horses stop. All Marilyn had to do was hold the leather reins which were like long small ropes going from the horses' bridles which included a metal bit in their mouth. The horses also had leather blinders, which hindered the horses from seeing the driver and whatever loads were put on a wagon or sleigh. So when 5 year old Marilyn held the reins and her dad would talk to the horses, the horses thought that Dean was the driver, since he was the one that gave them their orders. In this way, Dean could walk alongside the wagon and either load or un-load hay or other things. Marilyn liked helping her dad, and it was fun to hold the reins for the horses. Marilyn liked to work, even way back then 61 years ago.
In the winter of 1948 Dean would hook the horses up to a big home-made sleigh which he had made and would haul the milk from their 4 milk cows in big metal silver cans up the hill to the railroad track and down to the main road where a big milk truck could pick up the cans. This was because the farm road to their little farm house was blocked with deep snow. Below is a picture of a horse hooked up to a “one horse open sleigh” which is like the one Grandma had, except her sleigh wasn’t a store bought sleigh like in this picture.
At age 5, Marilyn was a big helper as she sat on the big home-made sleigh holding the reins to the horses. The big work horse stood in the snow hooked on to the sleigh with a harness. In the picture below, you can see a horse hooked up to a sleigh. See how the horse is hocked up and note that there are blinders on his eyes so it is hard for the horse to look back.
Marilyn was happy to be helping her dad, and she sat carefully on the sleigh as her dad loaded the big heavy cans of milk. Even then, she just seemed to know that it was important to work hard and this meant working hard outside and inside for her parents and herself. She did not mind being out in the cold, even if the cold made her nose and her cheeks rosy red.
.BANG, BANG, BANG! Marilyn’s daddy Dean yelled and he yelled loud because he was trying to carry two big cans of milk at once to put on the sleigh, and he tripped upon a rock under the snow and dropped one can on the other making such a load noise! Then one can of milk had the lid come off and about 10 gallons of precious milk was spilled on the ground and that was why Dean yelled. Now he couldn’t sell that milk and the family needed the money!
The big horse jumped! The noise of the cans hitting each other was such a loud thunderous noise to the horse, The horse couldn’t look back at what caused the noise and then when Dean yelled, the poor horse thought he might get a whipping and so when he came down on his feet from jumping at the noise, the horse took off running. Marilyn was standing in the sleigh, but when the horse jumped it jerked the sleigh and Marilyn fell down in the back of the sleigh. She was still holding the reins, and she pulled as hard as she could and yelled as loud as she could to the horse to “Whoa, WHOA, WHOA-THERE”! The poor horse was afraid and terrified and was running and racing even in the deep snow. The horse was so frightened that all it wanted to do was to run away from the fearful noise of the milk cans and the loud yells of Dean.
Marilyn was also frightened for she was fearful that the sleigh would tip over, and she would get hurt, or she was fearful that the horse would run into a barb-wire fence which would cut the horse up pretty bad and maybe it would cut her up as well. Marilyn’s dad was also frightened for his little girl, for the horse and the sleigh for he knew that when a horse gets scared or "spooked" as it is usually called almost nothing will cause a spooked horse to stop running until it is out of energy. He knew this horse had a lot of energy.
Marilyn had heard of Jasper, The Friendly Talking Saber-tooth Tiger, from her cousin Lynn and had told him that she “didn’t believe a tiger could talk.” As the sleigh rocked up, down and forward after the runaway horse she decided she would try the silly thing that Lynn told her to do in order to call for help from Jasper. She didn't know what else to do..................
Sticking her tongue between her fingers she made the strange and peculiar sound: “Whew```plew~~~~~PLEW~~~~~” as the sound and spit came off her tongue, she immediately felt the sleigh slow down, and as she sat up the whole sleigh stopped.
A horse with a harness pulling a sleigh A horse harness is a type of horse tack that allows a horse to pull various horse-drawn vehicles such as a carriage, wagon or sleigh. A harness may also be used to hitch animals to other loads such as a plow or a canal boat.
At first Marilyn thought maybe the horse had broken the harness and run away leaving the sleigh, but as she adjusted her winter cap, she saw the horse had just stopped and was breathing hard with heavy sighs and big blasts of air bursting out from his nose and mouth in the cold winter day. Standing beside the big horse was a huge tiger, almost as big as the horse with two long white Saber-teeth sticking out of his mouth. “Oh my goodness sakes alive, 5 year old Marilyn could hardly believe her eyes. Her cousin Lynn was telling the truth.”
The horse and the tiger were evidently talking with each other. Jasper was talking to the horse and got him to stop and to calm down.
Then Jasper spoke to Marilyn: “Are you okay Marilyn?” asked the huge Tiger. Marilyn didn’t talk; she just nodded her head up and down signaling “YES!”
Marilyn heard her dad running toward her and Jasper quickly said: Marilyn, you know how to call me, please do so whenever you wish. . . And when you are a mother and grandmother, tell your children and grandchildren to call me also.”
Now, I think Marilyn called Jasper several times in her childhood. You’ll have to ask her about those occasions if you want to know about them. . . I just know that some of them are scary………………
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