Almont North Dakota
1906 Centennial 2006
SPORTS
by Gary Tavis
Early last
summer, I listened very intently to several old timer gathered in the
cafe, talking about the early sports they took part in around this community.
One old timer, Mr. Pederson stated, “How
well I remember the long summer days I took the cattle and sheep to the
pasture. I had to walk a mile and a half to the places where I met another
boy by the name of Casey Martin, who was also herding his father’s
sheep and cattle. There we would visit on the banks of a pond, which we
called Steep Banks, because its banks were so high and steep. On very warm
days, we undressed and went in swimming.”
Another old timer, Mr. Ramsland, joined in, “I
remember the pond you are talking about, because we used to go swimming
there too, much the objection of my parents, because there was a very deep
hole or drop off.”
“We didn't have swimming suits in those
days either,” said the first old timer. “We used to just take
off all of our clothes and jump in, because there was no one around to see
us. Then when we were through swimming we used to run up the steep banks
to dry off. There we would get all dirty so we would jump back in again.”
“Yes,” chimed in Mr. Knutson, “ when
time became monotonous, we would pick one of the smaller calves, preferably
a yearling from the herd, and try to ride it. We would pick out a plowed
field to ride in, so when we fell, we would not fall so hard. Very often
we were thrown off, but it seemed to be all the more fun because we would
try to ride it again just to show the other fellows we could. We didn't
like the idea of walking to herd those cattle and sheep, so we would usually
have a certain cow of calf trained for riding.”
Mr. Ramsland answered, “How often I
think of the afternoons and early evenings spent at your place riding calves.
We would always pick out the meanest and worst buckers to ride, and take
them to a plowed field near the house, as you stated before. How you trained
your pony to jump fences and talk, answering questions of how many with
a nod of the head. Those were the days we could make up our own sports and
really have a wonderful time.”
“We used to all get together to break
horses for working or riding,” said Mr. Pederson. “To break
work horses, we would hitch them up to a big lumberwagon with brakes on
so they couldn't’t run away with us. For riding we used to tie them
to a big post stuck quite deep on the ground. We would tie them close to
it so they couldn't jump around and kick while the rider was getting on.
We blindfolded them so they wouldn't’t know what was going to happen.
When the rider was ready, he signaled or yelled to the guy holding the horses
head. The horse was then unblindfolded and untied. Then is when the action
started. Those horses would go so high you would think they would never
come down. Most of the time when they did come down, they came down alone.”
“Runaways were very common in those
days.” said Mr. Ramsland. “No one ever seemed to get seriously
hurt, but very often the women got scared and just about split you ears
with screaming. When you would finally get the horses under control. The
women would sit down and pant and look exhausted, as if they did everything
to stop the horses. If they did anything they scared them with their screams.”
From what I have heard so far, I think this
was the start of the rodeos around Almont; every summer in June the Almont
Saddle Club puts on a rodeo at the rodeo grounds, located two miles east
of Almont. The President of the Almont Saddle Club, as I understand is either
Carl Knutson or Sig Peterson.
Well, getting back to the conversation of
the old timers again, Mr. Pederson, was saying, “Speaking of horses,
I remember a good game we used to play with their shoes, call Horseshoes.
I guess they still play it quite a bit around here. I remember how we used
to challenge the neighbors for horseshoe games. All of these games were
just practice for us. We played at the different homes.”
“Ya, I remember how we would have a
horseshoe tournament at my place,” butted in Cornelius Knutson. “In
the fall we would get together to see who was the best horseshoe player
in the bunch.”
"Yes,” quickly answered Mr. Pederson, “I
can still remember how you used to go around saying you were the best horseshoe
player, until one day I played you and beat you pretty bad.”
“That was one of my off days,” said
Cornelius. “If I would have played like the day before I would have
beat the pants right off you.”
“You couldn’t have beat me if
the pole was right in front of your nose,” answered Mr. Pederson.
“Should we go out and see who is the
best horseshoe player?” said Cornelius.
“No,” said Mr. Pederson, “I
wouldn’t want to beat you again like I did that day. You went around
with your head dragging on the ground for a week after that.”
Before Cornelius could answer, Mr. Ramsland
broke into the conversation saying, “In the evenings after it got
dark we would go in and eat supper at whose ever place we were playing.
After supper we would all gather around the play games such as: cards, checkers,
ring on the string, blind man’s bluff, and sometimes spend the evening
around an organ singling.”
“Getting back to horse,” said
Cornelius Knutson, “I used to have a fast horse called “Flash”,
which I wasn’t afraid to race against any other horse in the neighborhood.
I remember one time, Mr. Pederson here, wanted to race me with a horse he
called “Diamond”. Well anyway we went to the three mile stretch
we called the race track and raced. When I saw that he was only a half a
mile behind me I laughed my head off.”
“Weren’t those Old Settlers Picnics
fun for everybody?” remarked Mr. Ramsland. “The picnic started
about ten o’clock. Everybody for miles around attended these annual
picnics. The day was filled with events such as: tug of was, foot races,
contests of all kinds. The older people would spend most of their time talking
with old or new friends. the evenings were spent dancing in a bowery, built
especially for that occasion.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Pederson, “the
light they had was just lanterns hung on posts around the bowery as that
is where the main events of the evening took place. We used to look forward
to this coming event and prepare for it weeks ahead of time.”
“These were the good old days,” said Cornelius Knutson. “Now
days the children look forward to things such as basketball, football,
tennis, hunting for sport and also fishing. In those days we didn’t
know what a foot ball or basketball was. For our games or sports we
had to find or make our own equipment. Now all they do is buy it.”
“Oh, quit your complaining,” said
Mr. Pederson.
“Whose complaining?” asked Cornelius, “I
was just telling what we used to do.”
“Just the same,” remarked Mr.
Pederson, “I think we had more fun and were occupied better, in good
clean sports, than the children are today. We were a lot healthier too.
All or most of our games in the winter time were out of doors but now the
winter sports such as basketball are all played indoors.”
“Speaking of health” said Mr.
Ramsland, “we had to be healthy or bear our pains because we had no
doctor to go to. The closest one was Bismarck and to get there by horse
and buggy or sleigh in the winter time was pretty hard. Now all they have
to do is go to another town in a car which gets them there in fifteen or
twenty minutes, or else just step across the street to a doctor.”
At that time the conversation was broken up
as the mail truck came in the men left to get their mail. Although I think
we have a good clean sport now, I agree with these old timers, and enjoyed
listening to their stories. I think the sports of today are basketball,
football, and baseball are much more exciting that the games they used to
play. However, I am sure the games of long ago would interest me very much,
especially those with horses.