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Basque Oral History Project Index Interview Tape Index
NAME: Mansisidor, Ray
TAPE MINUTE SUMMARY OF CONTENTS
Tape 1
Side 1
0-8:30 Ray’s parents, José Mansisidor and Santa Gabikagogeaskoa, were married in Boise in 1919. José was from Mutriku and Santa was from Navarniz, but they didn’t know each other prior to coming to the US. Ray tells a story about why his father had a good relationship with the cowboys. José was also a long-distance runner and almost raced against a horse—and claimed that he would have won, too. Ray’s parents never really discussed why they moved to the US, a fact which Ray speculates is attributable to the hectic life they led: there was always something to do for José’s sheep company. He discusses the roles each member of the family would play during difference parts of the year.
8:30-17:00 Money was tight during Ray’s childhood—they would get new shoes only once a year—but his mother and father were very hard workers. He tells of the incredible wool blankets that his mother used to make, and how they always used to smell good. When she wasn’t making blankets, pillow cases, or other embroideries, Ray’s mother was tending her enormous garden. He recalls wrapping his feet in gunny sacks to keep them warm in the winter. He’s unsure of how his parents met, but assumes it was due to the omnipresent boarding house festivities. They were married in the Good Shepherd Church, which at that time had a predominantly Basque constituency. Ray tells of the different dialects that his two parents spoke, and how his father would talk to the children in English and his mother would speak to them in Basque. At this time, Ray has difficulty speaking Basque but can understand quite a bit.
17-25:00 Ray shares an interesting story about meeting Jay Hormaechea for the first time, and how she invited them up to dance with a bunch of girls. He says that he was scared to go up, but scared that if he left Jay would chase them down! So, he started dancing with the Oinkari’s in that building on 7th Street. He saved up some money and, when he was in seventh grade, bought a bike and won a race in Hyde Park—which made his mother very proud. He elaborates on the people involved with the Oinkari Dancing. He says that he never was much of a dancer, but he started learning how to play the button accordion in the sheep camp. In 1962, Jimmy Jesuro taught Ray how to play quite well.
25-27:00 Ray performs a lively jota for the interview!
27-30:30 Ray is a member of the Sheriff’s Posse, a group of volunteers that helps the sheriff’s forces find missing people, control crowds, and manage crosswalks. Everyone they’ve looked for has been found. At the time of the interview, Ray was preparing to meet the rest of the Posse in Grandview and play music. He also still meets periodically with friends from his smoke-jumping days. The stories they tell get better every time! Ray was born on May 7th, 1924.
Side 2
0-7:30 Ray owns 200 acres in Homedale which he farms actively. He shows some pictures of the exhibition jumps he used to make. One time, while making an exhibition jump into a Caldwell rodeo, a plane interrupted his air currents and he wound up downtown! One time in McCall, he unbuckled his harness and fell out of it and deep into Payette Lake. He had a lot of fun jumping. He doesn’t regret his decision to settle down and return to farming.
7:30-14:00 Ray tells the story of an experience in the late 1980’s when he was spotting for the Posse, and how some ranchers in Nevada got lost for several days and Ray helped find them. Nowadays the Sheriff’s department uses GPS. He laughingly explains how, when he misbehaves, the Posse makes a cook out of him.
14-20:00 As a child, the Basque community in East Boise was a bit removed from Ray’s home in the North End. He did meet a lot of young Basques, but the distance was always a problem until he started dancing. He even went with the group to the World’s Fair in Seattle and in New York, and had a wonderful time! They also danced in the Rotunda in Washington DC. He details the other events and fairs that he danced at.
15-27:00 Ray’s father had his base of operations in Homedale, but also had camps in Burns, Oregon and the Cascade region of Idaho. Ray used to help his dad out from time to time, and tells of an experience trying to pack out of a steep gulf and save a drowning horse loaded with salt bags. He continued helping his father until he left to smoke-jump and run logging trucks for the Forest Service. Most of his father’s employees were Basque, but there was one Irishman by the name of Sullivan who was a really good man. So, although he was not as close to Basques as he could have been while still a child, he did associate with a lot of Basque sheep men.
20-32:00 While in Boise, Ray attended Longfellow and Washington for elementary school and then North Junior High for part of eighth grade, after which time his father moved out to Homedale. There were not very many Basques in Homedale at that time, but Ray lists the ones that did live there. He graduated from high school in 1942 and helped his father until 1944, after which he volunteered into the Air Corps. His dad sold the whole sheep outfit shortly after. For Ray and his brother, who had joined the army, returning to the sheep business would have been too lonely after having been out and having seen the world.
Tape 2
Side 1
0-9:00 Ray passed the written tests for the Air Corps at Gowen Fields and was subsequently made a corporal at Fort Douglas, Utah. He considers himself lucky, because he became an engineer when many of his comrades lost their lives as gunman. He tells in considerable detail some stories about some tricky take-offs and landings—one time the engines even froze up in mid-flight—that he has performed over the years. While in the Air Corps, Ray joined the traveling football team and served as a substitute. One time at the Coliseum in Los Angeles he got hit so hard that his coach had to have him count fingers. He also explains the importance of navigators when flying B-52s, and how one time there was heavy cloud cover and the navigator placed them right in-between two mountain peaks.
9-20:00 After his service for the Air Corps had finished on November 5th, 1945, he became an officer for the Idaho National Guard and joined the sharp-shooting squad. He made use of the GI Bill to matriculate into Washington State’s pre-veterinarian school. He was actually on his way to join a diving salvage crew when he learned of an opportunity to begin smoke-jumping, and that’s how it all began. Ray tells a great story about how he can make mule calls by whinnying like a horse. He also tells a harrowing story about a huge fire that crowned and roared right over the crew.
20-27:00 Ray continues to tell stories about his smoke-jumping days, and even helped start a school for smoke-jumpers. He made three recommendations for smoke-jumpers for the new school—one of which was Louie Uranga—and all three did very well. After his jumping days, Ray started in on the logging industry with a Mr. Brown—who Ray describes as one of the finest and strongest men he ever worked for.
27-30:15 Ray describes a couple of motorbikes that he’s owned over the years and some stories associated with them.
Side 2
0-2:30 [Silence: the interview is either not being recorded or is inaudible]
2:30-20:00 Ray mentions some cousins who also smoke-jumped and some mishaps that they had. He logged for 3 years before returning to his father’s farm, and shortly after he bought into the land that he currently works. He doesn’t regret his decision at all. He met Marie Louise at a dance and noticed that she was a pretty good dancer and pretty good looking, too. They went on some dates and got hooked on each other and, on November 25th, 1967, they got married. He details at length some noteworthy stories about roller-skates and his four children: Ann Marie, Michael, Joe, and then Patrick John.
20-25:30 All for of his children have been involved in the Oinkari’s and some other Basque events. Marie had been to the Basque Country prior to marrying Ray, but Ray himself has never been there. If he got the chance, though, he would love to travel there. He highlights the various sheep companies that used to operate in the Homedale area. The Homedale Basque Association is thriving, and Ray is very proud of the people involved in it.
25:30-29:00 Ray identifies himself as a Basque, and asserts that Basque in general have a good name here and are hard-working, fair, and proud. Ray notes that he sees no contradiction in feeling that he is both Basque and American, and doesn’t really separate the two.
NAMES AND PLACES
NAMES: Gabikagogeaskoa, Santa; mother
PLACES: Boise, ID
THEMES: Growing up with sheep |
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