WINNEMUCCA - Some people might look at unexpected dinner guests as an intrusion, but Grace Bidart, 90, saw them as an opportunity for company when she lived on the Leonard Creek Ranch. The famous Josie Pearl, a woman prospector and miner when hard rock mining was in its infancy, was a frequent guest for a while.
"She was one of these old miners that lived up the canyon. The last few years she would come in right at noon," Bidart said. "Sat at the end of the table right at lunch time. We just let her."
Born and raised in Hollister, Calif., about 50 miles south of San Jose, Calif., the family lived on a ranch where her father was responsible for a large orchard of apricots and prunes.
"My sister was first born - 361 days and then I came along," she said. "We were pretty close. We did have a brother that we lost as a baby."
Both parents were originally from Saint-Michel, France, in the Pyrenees. But during the depression years her dad passed away and her mother was left to take care of the three children. Her sister, Catherine Ayerza, has passed away, but brother Jim Bidegary still lives in San Jose.
During her high school years she was heavy into sports, including softball, field hockey, tennis and track where she ran on the relay team. Bicycling, hiking and walking were also favorite pastimes.
"We never stayed in the house," Bidart said. "We played outside all the time." Whether it was playing touch football on a vacant lot or baseball in the street she wanted to be outdoors.
"Everybody thought we had money because (mom) kept us well dressed and never went without food," she said. "One thing we had to do was at mealtimes you were there. That's one strict thing we had."
For a while after graduating high school in 1941 she worked at the local cannery and laundry.
"I didn't enjoy either one," Bidart said. "Kids nowadays are so picky about working to make money. My sister and I, we had to work from the time we could practically walk."
Then one day four boys showed up at her Hollister home. Two of them were of the Montero family and the other two were of the Bidart family. All of them lived on the Leonard Creek Ranch in Humboldt County 93 miles north of Winnemucca. Out of the bunch, unbeknownst to him, she decided on Mitchell Bidart, Jr. for her future husband.
"They were sitting around the living room. I looked at him. That's the one I picked," she said. "I liked what he looked like. Don't forget he was raised out at the ranch. He had to be kinda green. So it was easy to catch him."
It wasn't until later that she realized another trait he had was behaving like a gentleman. It was during the World's Fair in San Francisco, which ran in 1939 and 1940, and the boys, along with the Montero dad, were on their way there, so Grace and her sister went along.
They began to write one another and for years she kept those letters in a locked box, which she expects to find again someday, but they were only a little mushy, she said.
"I'm surprised he even knew how to write mushys," Bidart said. "He must have been reading books."
After a two-year courtship Mitchell finally made his move and Grace became his wife a month before she turned 21. After the wedding in Hollister the newlyweds spent a few honeymoon days in Santa Barbara, Calif., which they got to by train.
"They were hard seats. No cushions, like now," she said. "And then coming back we took a bus."
As she had been to the ranch a few times it was not new to her when she arrived as Mrs. Mitchell Bidart, Jr. Nevertheless, the lifestyle was still something to adjust to. Soon it would become a fully operational cattle ranch, but it was still in the process of converting from a sheep operation when she joined the clan.
"So many people in the house - one bathroom, six bedrooms. Of course, there was a bunkhouse. Most of the boys, the older boys slept in the bunkhouse. It was different, but everybody had to be there at mealtime," she said.
At first there were the two families, but as the years went by different ones left the ranch to do their thing until the Bidarts were the last ones and her husband was managing the ranch.
"I lot of them didn't give me very long to stay, but they got fooled. I was the last one to leave," she said.
One of her duties as a young girl was to cook for a couple of weeks for hay crews located at a nearby ranch, but initially she was not very acquainted with cooking. However, her mother had brought her up that as long as you had the stuff to do it with you could make something. Her favorite was potato salad.
"I wanted to put a little color in and I thought it was paprika. It was cayenne pepper," she said. Her brother in law, Leonard Bidart, was the first to take a bite, "He let out a howl!"
From the time she got to the ranch until she left it she was the one who made the bread. She would make as many as eight loaves a day.
"We had no running water. We had to go potty with the snakes," she said. And sometimes the creek water had a flavor. "When you're young you can take anything. I adjusted to everything because I wasn't used to none of that."
- See BIDART, Page 30 -
Her son Jim Bidart, local realtor, used to bring folks home all the time, coaches, football players, with kids constantly around, but she had a big table to go with her big heart and never minded.
"But we had the best place in those days for Easter egg hunts," she said. On their place there was a small orchard, which made a great place to hide all those eggs they had colored.
There were several of her husband's brothers on the ranch so there were a lot of uncles available to help when her firstborn, Jim, came along.
"One time he went with uncles when they pulled a calf and they said he was real quiet on his way home," Bidart said. "They said he asked, 'When did that cow eat that calf?' I should've put that in Reader's Digest. He was pretty young because he wasn't into mischief yet, so he had to be, what, four?"
On the other hand there was Marie, who was a little on the shy side and didn't get into much trouble. And because her daughter lives with her, Grace feels she needs to stay on the straight and narrow to be a good example.
"What would I do without my kids? My daughter's here to help me. My son is here when I need business deals or like that," she said.
In 1981 they moved to Winnemucca and in with her husband's mother in their home, which is now the Humboldt Physical Therapy & Fitness Club building on Second Street while her current home was being built.
And the timing was right to move to town because about that time she found that she had developed cancer, but today she is cancer free.
"I feel good, but my equilibrium is very poor. I try not to use my cane in the house, but then I can't walk too far," Bidart said.
"I built (the house) the way I wanted it," she said. Which included a tub for her husband, a big oven in the kitchen and a shower for her.
They enjoyed having a garden and kept busy with activities centered around St. Paul's Catholic Church like the Altar Society and Bible studies and then there was golf.
"Lot of golf," she said. "One time I got into the sand, real deep sand and I hit the darn ball and it went into the hole. I could never do that again," Bidart said. "I loved golf. You're outdoors. I just like the outdoors."
Nowadays she reads books, magazines and newspapers every day sitting in her place at the dining table just off the kitchen.
She's relaxed among the friendly people of Humboldt County and enjoys going out to eat at places like the Pleasant Senior Center, but she seldom does because she still enjoys cooking at home, particularly making soups out of whatever is available.
She also has two grandchildren. Noel Morton, principal at Sonoma Heights Elementary School in Winnemucca, and Dr. Chad Bidart, cardiologist, in Sparks at the Northern Nevada Medical Center.
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