Work, Work, Work. (original) (raw)

WORK, WORK, WORK Zuleika O�Daniel as told to Louise George

Author: Personal interviews with Texas Panhandle men and women born in the early years of the twentieth century rewarded me with hundreds of stories illustrating their everyday life. I like to share those stories just as they were told to me.

Zuleika O�Daniel grew up on a farm southwest of Hart, Texas. She was the oldest of four children. Her mother was ill much of the time and needed help in the house, and her father desperately needed help tending the cattle and crops. Zuleika learned about chores when she was very young. She tells about some of them.

�Idon�t remember how old I was when I learned to milk a cow. I always knew how, I guess. I don�t ever remember not knowing. Really, I would say nine or ten. We had a different number of cows at different times. I never will forget one time, one of Daddy�s brothers had some feed that didn�t make very good, and it was just full of cockleburs. Cockleburs kill cattle if they eat them at a certain stage when they�re young and tender. Later then, those old burrs will get in their tails. Anyway, Daddy put cattle in there to graze it in the winter and their tails got full of burrs. Then we kids, my brothers and I, had to get all of them out of their tails, because Daddy didn�t want those burrs coming up on our place. Can�t you just see us out there working with those old cows� tails?

�Daddy always said, �Don�t you ever leave a rattlesnake or a cocklebur living.� Whenever we found a cocklebur, we�d get off our horse and pull it up. You took them to the house and burned them too. You didn�t leave them out in the pasture.

�Tumbleweeds also caused problems on the farm. Daddy would always have us pitch them over the fence, because they hang on the fences and they will tear a fence down. If the wind is blowing them up on one side of the fence and if the staples are on the other side of the fence, it will eventually tear down a fence. Anyway, when we built fence, we would put the wire on one side of the post and on the next one we�d put it on the other side. That kind of helped keep the fences from tearing down when the wind blew. I helped Daddy build fence and I used those old posthole diggers a lot. That�s hard on your shoulders.

�We rode calves, we roped calves, we rode horse back. But, it wasn�t really for fun usually. It was because we were moving cattle from one pasture to another, or helping Daddy move cattle. It was really work, but we took it in our stride and we liked it.

�I did something one time that I wasn�t big enough to do, but I did it anyway. I don�t know how old I was, probably ten or eleven, somewhere in there. Daddy was sick and we were to help one of our neighbors move some cattle. I thought while Daddy was sick, surely he�d let me ride his horse. I never did get to ride that horse before. It was a big cutting horse and his name was Old Speck. He was part Appaloosa and you know, they�ve got specks on their rear quarters, and you judge the worth of the horse, I guess that�s the way you would say it, by the number of specks it has on it. It�s not a paint, it�s just specks. Old Speck was supposed to be a real good horse, and it was a privilege to get to ride him. Nobody else ever got to ride Daddy�s horse. The thing was, though, I like to have not been capable. Old Speck knew more than I did. If a steer turned out of the herd, he was out there after them before I realized we ought to be. All I did was stay on him.�

� Louise George
History by George- March 12, 2005

Zuleika O�Daniel is featured in Louise George�s book, Some of My Heroes Are Ladies, Women, Ages 85 to 101, Tell About Life in the Texas Panhandle. Louise can be reached at (806) 935-5286, by mail at Box 252, Dumas, TX 79029, or by e-mail at lgeorge@NTS-online.net