At home in a tent

During a recent conversation, a lady expressed amazement when I told her that I had once lived in a tent. Actually, a tent was my home twice.

Mother taught Upper Minersville School from September 1929 through May 1931. School was in a room of the big Nugget Bar building. Mother couldn't drive our Model T the 10 miles back and forth. There was no place for Mother, my sister, Barry, and me to live. Daddy and brother, Herb, stayed on the ranch. The only answer was a tent.

Daddy started building a tent frame just below the Nugget Bar barn, several hundred yards from the main building. In the meantime, we were in an auto tent, open to anything else that might come by. When a September storm blew in, Mr. McHenry, the Nugget Bar's caretaker, kindly gave us shelter until our tent was finished.

Daddy built a plank floor and walls some three feet high with a sturdy frame above that. A large tent was pulled over the frame and fastened down. Over an outer frame, Daddy put heavy wire netting in case of heavy snow. A canvas fly went securely over that.

The tent was furnished with a small cast-iron wood range for both cooking and heat, a bed for Barry and me, another one for mother, a table for work and meals, benches and shelves for storage. Water was carried in pails from a faucet at the barn. Light was provided by kerosene lamps and lantern. Water was heated on the wood stove for bathing, washing and laundry.

The tent warmed quickly even on frosty mornings and it remained warm and cozy even with frost and snow outdoors as long as the stove was loaded with wood. The tent door was snug and there were no drafts.

We lived in that tent through two winters, even when three feet of snow fell and Mother had to rake it off the tent's roof.

The second time I lived in a tent was when George and I first married. He was Spike Camp boss, and there was no place for me. He built a tent frame at the edge of a meadow above the Spike Camp, built a table, bench, and shelves. He painted everything a very pretty green and cream. That was our honeymoon cottage from the end of June until December when storms closed his job and we moved to the ranch.

We were never really uncomfortable except once, when some wild critter had a fight with the McHenry's big Airedale right in front of the tent's door.