The years pass in the wink of an eye

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
 
Not many people can say that they’ve lived to see nearly a century of life, but Una Seeley, of Osage, who just reached her 90th birthday on Jan. 20, can count herself among them. According to Seeley, the title of her life story is “And Then
I’m 90.” 
While most people begin to feel the wear and tear of getting older, Seeley continues to live in her own home on the ranch, walking two miles every day and keeping herself busy by making and selling saddle blankets and denim rugs in her little workshop upstairs, she said. 
Seeley was born in 1929 in Hardin, Mont., to Emory George and Genevieve Schiller. At the time, Seeley said, her dad worked for Camel Farming Association, preparing machinery. Seeley’s mother was from Oklahoma, and the couple met when George took off work for the winter and went to Oklahoma. They married the following year, and his new wife went to live with him in Montana. Together the couple had three girls: Una, who was the oldest, followed by Vivian and Minnie. 
Her parents moved from Hardin to Aladdin, Wyo., where Seeley’s dad was working for his sister and her husband. Vivian was born in Belle Fourche, S.D., during this time, and although Seeley said she doesn’t recall much about her life in Aladdin, she remembers that her mother always tried to learn the names of flowers and trees and pass that information down to her daughters. 
“I can remember that because she did it so much,” Seeley said. 
Continuing down memory lane, Seeley shared her first experiences with horses. 
“As a little girl, we were working for Harv Lincoln out of Sundance,” Seeley said. During this period of her life, Seeley recalled, the horses were in the yard down by the block of salt. She said she wanted to know what they were doing, so she walked toward them, but they didn’t realize she was there. Seeley said the episode scared her so badly that she began screaming until her parents came to find out what the matter was. 
“That was my first episode with horses,” Seeley said. While her first experience with horses may not have been a pleasant memory, it didn’t set the standard for her opinion about horses because Seeley said she now loves horses.
In 1933, the family went to Oklahoma because Seeley’s mother wanted her next baby to be born there. Minnie was born in 1934. What Seeley remembers most about that time, she said, is being in a dark room because she had the measles. She remembers it as a horrible experience. 
Another difficult moment of her life occurred during the big drought in the Midwest. 
“The government made everyone shoot their cows,” Seeley said. The reason for this drastic action was the scarcity of water, she said, and the government didn’t want the expense of cows that needed water. She said her dad had to shoot his own cows, something Seeley said she has a hard time imagining what that experience was like. 
But life isn’t solely about tragedy. Seeley said she has plenty of happy memories and has learned many life lessons that she will never forget. One in particular that she remembers is when she was sitting on the step leading down into the basement, crying. She said she doesn’t remember why she was crying, but she does remember what her parents told her. 
After asking her why she was crying, her parents told her that if she told the truth, she wouldn’t get punished. Seeley said this lesson about always telling the truth is something that continues to stick with her, even though the story behind it has been forgotten. 
One thing that Seeley enjoyed as a child was gardening. 
“Even as a little girl, I loved my garden,” she said. 
Lincoln, the man her father was working for, liked to garden as well, Seeley said, and he was especially fond of his sunflowers. Seeley worked in the garden with Lincoln, and she recalled looking at the sunflowers, thinking they were weeds. 
“I chopped them down,” Seeley said. Although she was in “big trouble” then, Seeley said, she laughs at the memory now. 
Soon after that incident, her family decided to lease some land and start farming. Seeley said they started out with six heifers, which they milked, and she doesn’t remember how, but eventually that number grew to be much more than six. 
Seeley remembers having to “go after” the milk cows, and she and her sisters took turns riding on a particular cow named Queenie. She said her parents didn’t know about the rides on Queenie because if they did, they probably would have put a stop to it. 
The family lived in a log house on the Williams Divide out of Sundance on the Moskee highway, she said. Their neighbors loaned machinery for them to use on their farm. Every Saturday night, they took baths in their tin tub, listening to “Amos ‘n’ Andy” by the kitchen sink. She said they were very happy. 
Seeley and her sisters went to Manhattan School, which was a country school, walking there every day until Seeley bought an old gray mare, which they rode to school. 
“Oh, did we think we were fancy,” Seeley said. But one day, a kid at school threw a rock at the horse and it ran away, Seeley said, and she and her sisters chased after the horse. When they finally found the horse, it was dead. That was a sad moment, she said. 
Once she was in high school, Seeley went to a different school. She got a job working at the drug store at noon and after school, making 50 cents a day and enjoying a free dish of ice cream. Before she knew it, her high school life was completed. 
“All of a sudden, I graduated high school,” Seeley said. Shortly after graduating in 1947, she married high school sweetheart David Seeley, whom she started dating as a sophomore, on June 1 of that year. They married in Hardin. 
In 1959, they bought Devil’s Spear Ranch, which is what landed them in Osage. They had two sons, Vernon and Lenard. David and Vernon are both deceased, but Seeley has five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren to keep her company. 
Seeley was told she should write a book called “Mother Said,” because of all the lessons and quips she learned from her mom. One lesson that came to mind was her mother telling her that God has a plan for them, which Seeley said she believes with all her heart, and she still gets shivers thinking about her “pampered life.” They didn’t have much money, she said, but they were happy. 
“Mother said, ‘Happiness is within. Happiness is what you make it,’” said Seeley, and it seems her mother lived on her advice.
“She always wore high heels, I thought she looked so beautiful,” Seeley said, but she later found out that was the only pair of shoes her mother owned.
Seeley had some additional advice to offer. She said that we should find the good in people because people are wonderful, and they are willing to help when asked. 
“Remember, life is what you make it. Work hard for your goals. Make every day count,” Seeley said.