This article was published in the Mackay Miner and later in the Aarco
Advertiser.
It was wriiten about 1985, by MARGE FULTON SMITH of
life in that upper valley community many years ago.
Seventy five years ago children rode to the
Chilly School carrying two sack lunches. One sack was full of oats for
the horse and the other sack was for the student. Stalls and manger were
part of school life. Chilly horses liked to fight just like Chilly kids.
Students huddled around the pobellied stove. When the bell rang, a ten
minute march, exercise, song drill got the students warm enough to start
classes.
Chilly's one room school house still stands.
The population of Chilly grew so rapidly that the Chilly patrons built
a new two-room school with a nice hall. The new school was made of a type
of brick. The two-room school had grades one through five in one room and
grades six through eight in the other. At first, students from Barton and
up the river all attended the Chilly School, but as people moved to the
valley, two more schools wre built. The Barton School and District Seven,
near Barlett Point.
Christmas programs were a highlight
of every year, with a dance following. Music for the dance was an organ
and a fiddle. Many times the teacher could play the organ, but Chilly had
some good local musisians like Fay Larter, Geneva Sollender, and Aubrey
Fullmer. The Christmas programs and dances wre held in the school house.
The Chilly dances always had a fight between the Chilly boys and the Barton
boys. I quote Ferry Larter, "Chilly always had a bunch of ----mean kids."
In Chilly there wsere houses up and down the
land on both sides where the lane ended. It was slough all along the first
stretch and people used to work out their taxes by hauling gravel to spread
on huge chuck holes in the road, or one could work for money. The wages
were $ 1.50 per day and furnish your own team of horses. The gravel mostly
sank into the mud and the road was full of chuck holes.
Life in Chilly centered around the busy Hunter
Store and Hall. Bill Bradshaw, Jim Hunter, and Claude Larter werethe first
settlers Chilly. Jim Hunter's store had everything in stock and everyone
traded there. The Hunter Store and Hall was a two-story structure; the
first story housed the store and the second story was a recreational hall.
Friday night was basketball; Saturday night was a dance; Sunday night was
roller skating.
One winter a girl named Ila Wilson died. It
was the first time that the students at Chilly knew that kids die just
like old people.
Every family had four or fivse cows and a
few chickens. The Hunter Store had a cream testing machine where farmers
could trade cream for groceries; farmers could also trade eggs for groceries.
Ferry Larter found that two eggs could be traded for a bag of marbles or
two eggs could get a sack ofcandy. (Incidently, Ferry helped himself to
theeggs, unless he was caught.)
Francis Fulton Long has memories of the log
cabinon the Wenson Place. "The old log house where we lived had only one
room so we fixed on bedrooms in the grainary. The door did not latch and
sometimes the coyotes woudl peek in the open door. They scared easily,
but so did we."
In 1926 Jim Hunter died; In 1927 the Hunter
Store and Hall burned down. Soon after, people started moving away. Many
houses were moved to Mackay. Ferry Larter sums it up, "Chilly went to ----
when that store burned down."