Author: Ronald Guenther
Written: October 10th, 2013

Well, Big Don, I got off on a tangent talking about some of the beliefs of the older generation. I did think it was fun to know about their superstitions, though. Of course, with Halloween coming up, it is important to know about ghosts. Ghosts can do you no harm, they are not material and so do not interact with material beings, but they can startle you. How they reflect light so that you can see them is a mystery that not even the greatest scientists have been able to unravel. One important exception to the fact that ghosts cannot interact with material things is the poltergeist. Poltergeists can throw things around but I have never heard of a poltergeist harming anyone, they make noises, break chairs and that sort of thing.

I left off after the family had been roving around, gold panning at Mount Lassen, spending time in Coos Bay, Los Angeles, Needles, over the boarder into Mexico, always on the go. They finally settled for a while in Cheney and there grandpa Sam bought a theater. He was very proud of it. It had a silver screen and at that time all the movies were silents. It was the first time that many of the local people had ever “gone to the show” and seen a movie. With the movie reels came piano rolls. Grandpa had bought a player piano. Our cousin, Don Perry, still owns that piano and would love to sell it. During the showing of the movie, Aunt Berchion or Aunt Noma would pump the piano and the rolls would play. During the intermission, pop and Aunt Berchion would play pieces, he on the violin, she on the piano. Pop was taking lessons from a woman at the local school, then called Cheney Normal as i said once before and preparing himself for enrolling in the music school in Leipzig. One time, a local farmer who was at a movie for the first time got so angry at the villain and he thought what he was seeing was real, so he jumped up on the stage with a knife and stabbed the villain, which tore the silver screen and really angered everyone there. Grandpa was furious and the local people were mad. The poor fellow was really sheepish about what he had done. At any rate, the theater was closed for a few days while the screen was replaced. If you have ever seen a silent movie, you will realize that there is nothing realistic about them. Those movies were terrible. There used to be a program on TV called Silents, Pleased and hosted by Ernie Kovacs. What terrible movies. But after a few months, grandpa ran into a fellow who had a map to the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine.

You have to realize, Grandpa Sam had gold fever and he fell for every possible scheme out there. The Lost Dutchman was actually a German who had discovered gold somewhere, no one has ever found where it was, but he used to go into the mountains and return after a few weeks. No one was ever able to follow him. On his death bed, he told his heirs where it was and gave them landmarks to follow. But shortly afterwards before they could go into the mountains, there was a big storm and all the landmarks were obliterated. Ostensibly, the mine was in the Superstitious Mountains just outside Phoenix, Arizona. So, Grandpa Sam bought the map, enlisted the help of some of the people, sold the theater, and he and the family headed to Boise, Idaho, where the spent the rest of the winter with a judge there. They finished the school year there and got ready for the big expedition. The judge was a big fat man, the children called him “Old Butterball”. They thought that he was romantically interested in Grandma Alice and were uneasy there. But I do not believe it. I think he was seriously concerned about her. But this time, her health was rapidly deteriorating, she had less than a year left to live, her thyroid which was never diagnosed was obviously causing her problems. I can imagine that the judge was afraid that she would die at any time. But she kept up her good humor and the children continued to adore her. The school year ended and the family set off to find the Lost Dutchman’s gold mine as the map indicated and then they would all be rolling in the money. 

To be continued.