This is a story about Cora Edna Gertrude (Dobby) and Roy Roland Tilford (Bompy), my great grandparents. It looks like part of an interview that dad had with them. Dobby tells of when her and Bompy were first married and were looking for a place to homestead. They had heard of some land in South Idaho. She says: "There would undoubtedly be a chance for us to get a home. So, I stayed with my folks and Roy and a friend went to see about it. It seemed like the right thing to do, so Roy decided to stay and work until he could learn more about the best place to homestead. He got a job and sent for me to come. It was March and I went by train to Parma where he met me. He had a team and wagon, since it was till cold when I left and as we got farther and farther on the then desert, I got so warm I complained about the warm dress. He asked if I didn't have any cooler dresses and I said, "O yes, but where would I change?" How he laughed as he looked all directions and no one in sight and asked who I thought would see me!" She went on to say that that fall she went to stay with her parents while Roy worked in the harvest fields. They bought a covered wagon, Roy had a horse and her daddy gave her a colt and it was traded for a horse old enough to work. When they were ready to go, with a very small amount of money and supplies, but a world of adventure in their minds, she said, "I can still see my mother, leaning against the gate post crying, when we were ready to leave. "Why was she crying so when we were so happy?" Only years of experience could teach us that." I have thought about this story and how we have all probably gone through that time in our lives, when we were young and thought we had the world at the tip of our fingers....thinking that we could conquer all, but then reality comes and teaches us that it wasn't as easy as we thought it was going to be!
Dobby with Eleanor
