The Pioneer Grumble: A Call to Organize

There is a call for a meeting and an organization of the 'old settlers' now living in Adams county. This is as it should be; there should be a pioneer society formed, to consist of all old settlers who settled in this state in the '60s, and possibly in the early '70s, and now reside in this county. In those days, everyone in the territory was acquainted with every other one. We could meet and compare data; renew those old acquaintances; rehearse our old time stories; tell of the days when our 'old people' held the ranch down and we young kids were compelled to go down into the Willamette Valley to rustle for work and money to keep the folks at home alive. We could tell of the days prior to the railroads, when two pounds of black Siwash sugar was one of the luxuries of life; when we had no flour, and our daily diet was potatoes and salmon—principally salmon. Why, since the advent of railroads, people have no conception of pioneer life. It is well for us old fellows to meet; we who came here 'kids,' and have grown to old men. We could instruct the 'tenderfeet,' who have come to the state within the past thirteen years, what pioneer life was. I am told that even some of these claim to be pioneers. They complain of the hardships of immigrating. They get all tired out riding to Ritzville in a Pullman car. Shades of pioneers protect us. By all means let us meet and organize. —Tenderfoot of '68.