Back in 1965 Roger Miller released a song called, " You can't roller-skate in a buffalo herd. " Do you remember that? I certainly do and the chorus says, but you can be happy if you a mind to. What a silly song and one that became quite popular. It's a far cry from what is being written today. But, for some odd reason that song came to mind this morning and I thought, you can't roller-sate in a buffalo herd but you can ice skate in a buffalo wallow. I know that for a fact, because that's exactly what I did, along with my siblings. I'm certain we did so in the winter of '65 and several years before and after that. None of us were aware of that then but it doesn't change the fact that we did it.
I lived on the fringe of what is called northwest woods in the town of East Hampton. My house was the first on the right going up a dirt lane. That dirt lane is still there to this day and so is the house. Leaving that house and turning left on the Springy Banks road you will soon come to place called Settlers Landing. You could call it an early version of a housing development. Just across the street from that place back off the road a short distance, is a depression. That depression is a buffalo wallow. We just called it " the pond." It was never very deep, not more than eight inches or so but would freeze sufficiently for ice skating, you just had to avoid the sticks poking up through the ice here and there. Being down in a hollow and back off the road it felt isolated and private. We thought of it as ours. I can remember going there as just a little guy tagging along with the older kids. On one occasion my feet got very cold, I cried and said I couldn't walk, so my brother carried me all the way home. I was teased about that for many years and it is still mentioned after sixty years, when I talk with my brother and sister. Oh, we spent many a happy hour skating on that tiny pond in the buffalo wallow.
I was even trapped there once by a mean dog! That dog belonged to the man that lived across the street from that pond. He had gotten loose and came running down to that pond where I was ice skating alone. He didn't come out on the ice, but every time I tried to leave that ice he would growl and bare his teeth. I wasn't going anywhere! Well, a good friend of my father lived in Settlers Landing, a man we called Uncle Gravy. His real name was Meredith Graves and I suspect that is why he was called Gravy by the other men. These were all blue collar working men and I'm certain Meredith would have raised some eyebrows. I began hollering at the top of my lungs. It wasn't long before Uncle Gravy showed up to rescue me. I remember him picking up a stick and walking toward that dog. That dog turned tail and run. Some time later that same dog jumped over his fence with his leash still attached and hung himself. He wasn't mean anymore. No, it isn't a very pleasant tale but it is the truth of it. But back to the buffalo wallow.
I learned many years later that a Mr. Tommy Gardiner kept a small herd of buffalo in that hollow. He was attempting to breed them with regular beef cattle. This would have been in the early part of the twentieth century. At that time there was a village named Northwest in that general vicinity. In fact my Grandmother lived there. Northwest was a port for whaling ships and home to fisherman of all sorts. When a new wharf, with deeper water, was built just across the bay from Northwest that spelled the end of that village. The whaling ships, along with the shipping trade, all went to the new wharf. My Grandmother worked for Mr. Gardiner on the Island that his family owned. She told me of his keeping buffalo on that island. She told me the tale of my eldest aunt, Aunt Edith who was startled by a buffalo. You see, Aunt Edith was just a little girl at the time and had her pacifier in her mouth. She was looking out an open window in the house when a buffalo stuck his head up there. She was startled and dropped that pacifier. Grandma told me Aunt Edith never got that back and never used another pacifier. So, it was a buffalo that got her to stop using a pacifier. A few years after that Mr. Gardiner secured a home for my grandmother in the town of East Hampton where she worked for him at what they called the big house. Most folks back then, and in my youth, knew it as the Brown house. And so I can say, Mr. Gardner secured a home for my Grandmother, where she lived and raised ten children, my Mom being the last born in '29 and it was because of Mr. Gardner's' buffalo I had a place to ice skate. No, you can't roller-skate in a buffalo herd but you can ice skate in a buffalo wallow. And as Roger Miller pointed out, you can be happy, if you've a mind to.
I lived on the fringe of what is called northwest woods in the town of East Hampton. My house was the first on the right going up a dirt lane. That dirt lane is still there to this day and so is the house. Leaving that house and turning left on the Springy Banks road you will soon come to place called Settlers Landing. You could call it an early version of a housing development. Just across the street from that place back off the road a short distance, is a depression. That depression is a buffalo wallow. We just called it " the pond." It was never very deep, not more than eight inches or so but would freeze sufficiently for ice skating, you just had to avoid the sticks poking up through the ice here and there. Being down in a hollow and back off the road it felt isolated and private. We thought of it as ours. I can remember going there as just a little guy tagging along with the older kids. On one occasion my feet got very cold, I cried and said I couldn't walk, so my brother carried me all the way home. I was teased about that for many years and it is still mentioned after sixty years, when I talk with my brother and sister. Oh, we spent many a happy hour skating on that tiny pond in the buffalo wallow.
I was even trapped there once by a mean dog! That dog belonged to the man that lived across the street from that pond. He had gotten loose and came running down to that pond where I was ice skating alone. He didn't come out on the ice, but every time I tried to leave that ice he would growl and bare his teeth. I wasn't going anywhere! Well, a good friend of my father lived in Settlers Landing, a man we called Uncle Gravy. His real name was Meredith Graves and I suspect that is why he was called Gravy by the other men. These were all blue collar working men and I'm certain Meredith would have raised some eyebrows. I began hollering at the top of my lungs. It wasn't long before Uncle Gravy showed up to rescue me. I remember him picking up a stick and walking toward that dog. That dog turned tail and run. Some time later that same dog jumped over his fence with his leash still attached and hung himself. He wasn't mean anymore. No, it isn't a very pleasant tale but it is the truth of it. But back to the buffalo wallow.
I learned many years later that a Mr. Tommy Gardiner kept a small herd of buffalo in that hollow. He was attempting to breed them with regular beef cattle. This would have been in the early part of the twentieth century. At that time there was a village named Northwest in that general vicinity. In fact my Grandmother lived there. Northwest was a port for whaling ships and home to fisherman of all sorts. When a new wharf, with deeper water, was built just across the bay from Northwest that spelled the end of that village. The whaling ships, along with the shipping trade, all went to the new wharf. My Grandmother worked for Mr. Gardiner on the Island that his family owned. She told me of his keeping buffalo on that island. She told me the tale of my eldest aunt, Aunt Edith who was startled by a buffalo. You see, Aunt Edith was just a little girl at the time and had her pacifier in her mouth. She was looking out an open window in the house when a buffalo stuck his head up there. She was startled and dropped that pacifier. Grandma told me Aunt Edith never got that back and never used another pacifier. So, it was a buffalo that got her to stop using a pacifier. A few years after that Mr. Gardiner secured a home for my grandmother in the town of East Hampton where she worked for him at what they called the big house. Most folks back then, and in my youth, knew it as the Brown house. And so I can say, Mr. Gardner secured a home for my Grandmother, where she lived and raised ten children, my Mom being the last born in '29 and it was because of Mr. Gardner's' buffalo I had a place to ice skate. No, you can't roller-skate in a buffalo herd but you can ice skate in a buffalo wallow. And as Roger Miller pointed out, you can be happy, if you've a mind to.
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