Violet Sly: The Pinch Ball Player, by Lowell Shideler. From the Bedrock School Bulletin Aug 1992.

In 1918 six year old Violet Sly lived with her family on a ranch in the San Miguel River Canyon, about six miles below Naturita. The closest school was in Nucla. If you took the road to Naturita and then to Nucla, it would mean a trip of about thirteen miles. The straight-line distance to Nucla was about six miles.

During the summer, fall and winter the San Miguel River was a small docile stream. It was only fifty feet across, on the average, and no more than two or three feet deep, except in a few places where there were deep holes. During these times of low water the Sly girls would mount their horses at the ranch, ford the river, climb the1,500 feet out of the canyon, and follow the trail and road across the mesa to school at Nucla. It was not unusual for the coyotes and foxes to follow the horses for a considerable distance.

It was different when the high mountain snowpack started to melt in the spring, for the San Miguel River then became a raging torrent. Riding a swimming horse across was not prudent thing to do, even for an adult. Mr. Sly solved the river-crossing problem, during the spring flood, by stretching a cable across the river. From this cable he suspended a small platform hung from a pulley. Underneath the cable he stretched a rope which could be grasped in a hand-over-hand manner to pull the platform and riders across the river. Mr. Sly would go with the children and take them, one at a time, across the river on this homemade conveyance. Then he would meet them after school and the crossing would begin again. The horses were trained to swim the river and wait on the other side for them.

Older sisters or brothers were a necessity in the beginning, but in a short time the six or seven-year old youngsters became seasoned hands. This in spite of the fact that they would have to lead their horses up beside something from which they could mount if one of the older kids wasn’t around to boost them up.

At the point where the trail ended and the road began they would, on occasion, meet the Jenks girls and ride to school in their company. One of the Jenks girls, Buella, who was several years older than Violet, would later marry Bill Shideler. Bill and Buella Shideler would be proprietors of the Bedrock Store when Violet took her teaching position at the Bedrock School in 1933 & 4. .

When Violet became a fifth grader a school was opened in Naturita. This meant a six-mile journey over a wagon road. At this time a school bus route was started. The school bus was a covered wagon with a small potbelly stove in the center for warmth during the winter months. On occasion the stove would become too hot and endanger the wagon, at which time the driver would stop and cool things down with a few hands full of snow.

Violet finished grade school in Naturita then attended high school in Nucla and graduated in 1929.

Violet’s first teaching position was at Horsefly where she taught summer school for two years. This was not a summer school in the modern sense, but a school that was held during the summer months since the high elevation brought deep winter snows. This was before modern snow removal equipment was invented so it was impossible to hold school during the winter. She met and married Ray Haskell during this time.

Her next teaching position was at Bedrock. Ray hauled Violet, her personal belongings and her black, long-legged racehorse, Spider, to the Ben Robb ranch where she was to board during the school year.

Violet was an active young lady and enjoyed playing baseball. The small size of the school made it difficult for the students to field a complete team and they did not feel it an intrusion by an adult when their young teacher chose to play ball with them. During one of the ball games Violet learned something about herself that she had not known. It was very surprising because no one had ever brought it to her attention before, even though she had played ball since she was a small girl. She caught and threw right- handed, but she batted left-handed. Could it be said that she didn’t know right from left?

Everyone knew that Violet was a kind, tolerant, and understanding teacher because she let Billy Butler wear his spurs to school. The clink, clink, clink of the spurs could be distracting in a schoolroom and the normal thing for a teacher to do would be to insist that the spurs be removed. But Billy had the spurs custom-made for him by Otho Ayers and he was so proud of them that he even slept with them on. Violet, realizing that it would be a traumatic experience to have Billy remove his spurs, let him wear them.

After the 1933-4 school year she moved back to Horsefly where her first son was born in 1935. In 1936 she and her family moved to Montrose where they purchased a farm.

During the years of World War II, 1940 to 1945, they left their farm with relatives and moved to Long Park. There her husband worked in the uranium mines, and she taught school.

After the war they moved to Nucla where she taught the first and second grades for one year. Then they moved back to Montrose. After several years on the farm Mr. Harris, a member of the school board talked her into teaching at the Oak Grove School, where she taught for several years.

After teaching for sixteen years she decided to quit. She stayed home for one year then went to work for the Montrose County Welfare Department, where she worked for sixteen years.

Violet lived in Montrose until a couple of years ago when she was in a car wreck. The injuries she sustained in this wreck eventually took her life.