WINNEMUCCA - One half of a set of twins, Honorine Pedroli, 85, has lived in Humboldt County most of her adult life. The first 11 years were spent using Winnemucca as a playground.
From the Winnemucca Hotel where her parents lived and worked to Winnemucca Grammar School where her and twin sister Josephine followed their brother to school one day - and another day - and another day, until it became a habit, she enjoyed her youth.
"It was quite a deal. Every day we'd run away to school and every day (Principal) Roger Corbett would bring us home," Pedroli said. He would send them off to visit the Kindergarten classrooms and about 10 a.m. Corbett would take them home when he took the deposit to the bank. Even though they had already spent a year in Kindergarten before they enrolled the next year they still wouldn't let them graduate into first grade.
"We loved Kindergarten. We got to bounce balls, play games," she said.
Her dad, Genarno (John), and his brothers Daniel Esparza and Eppino Esparza were partners in the Winnemucca Hotel during the early part of her childhood.
"Because any of those people that came from the old country, (French Basque) if their names were hard to pronounce they all called them John," she said. "And half of them changed their name to John in this country because everybody called them John!"
Pedroli was born on Fourth Street in a house where many of the Basque ladies had their babies attended by midwives and a doctor. But unbeknownst to her mother, Marie, instead of one baby popping out on May 4, 1927, two came along. Her brother Louie (Bo) was the eldest child and only boy then Pedroli's little sister Mary Jane (Juanita) came along three years after the twins.
Sometimes parents of family owned businesses want their children to work as free or cheap help, but that wasn't quite the case for the twins at the hotel.
"I can remember the cook telling us to get out of the kitchen and the maids telling us get out of the dining room and the lady that helped make the beds telling us to quit running upstairs in the rooms and my mother used to say 'where 'em I going to put them, on the roof?'" Pedroli said. "The whole place was our house, ya know, so we went everywhere, so we got in everybody's way."
During those growing up years they often went downtown to the Nixon Pool, which was located where the Winnemucca Convention Center is today. The Nixon lawn now occupies the place where the Nixon Opera House used to stand before it burned down in 1992. At the pool the two showered smiles on the adults who then gave them money for the pool and snacks. It was 50 cents a month for either the morning, afternoon or evening session, but because they were hustling the folks around the pool for money they were able to go morning, noon and night.
"But the Basquo sheepherders were there too and there was always someone watching us, so she (mom) never worried," Pedroli said. "There was a big lawn and the swimming pool was fenced in and there was benches where people came and sat, ya know, big trees and lots of shade, so everybody went down there. It was Depression time, people didn't have money to do things."
She tells people that she was raised by sheepherders as they would come to the hotel and stay when they didn't have work during the Depression.
"They took care of us and made sure my mother didn't have to worry about where we were. She had someone watching us all the time," Pedroli said. "We were very spoiled. There's no doubt about it. We just thought we were the cheesecake. We had a wonderful growing up!"
Shortly after they moved out of the hotel, when she was about 11 years old, to their new home on Fourth Street their dad passed away leaving their mother to raise the four children.
Although she said she didn't do all that well in school she enjoyed going. She and her siblings walked to and from school, including a round trip during lunch. In those days Grammar had classes through eighth grade and then they went to Humboldt County High School in what is now the Humboldt County School District offices on Fourth Street.
Kids of her era played the ol' standby, Annie-I-Over, or else made up games and rode their bicycles. The hotel had a large handball court that received a lot of use by the sheepherders.
The twins looked enough alike to be able to fool their dad occasionally and they took up the fooling game with gusto, particularly Pedroli. Their easy going father would usually let the twins have a candy bar and bottle of pop when they got home from school, but being the tomboy of the two Pedroli would run home ahead of her sister and get her pop and candy first.
"Then I'd run upstairs and I'd change from my dress into my pants and I'd come back in and get my candy bar and my pop from my dad again," she said. Then her unsuspecting sister would come home and ask for her treat and her dad would tell her she had already gotten hers. When her father realized what had happened he would relent and give sister a treat. "I used to do that quite often I'm told," Pedroli said, mischievously.
However, their growing up years were during the Depression and although the children didn't know it times were hard for the adults in their lives and if their mom needed money for things like shoes she sometimes had to get an OK from her husband and his brothers, which took some persuasion.
The sisters not only looked alike and dressed alike, but they also shared the same asthma problem, with Josephine having the most difficult time, however, both missed a lot of school with her sister missing an entire year once. But she said that with the help of acupuncture and the passing of years she finally conquered her asthma and migraine headaches.
Pedroli's after school activities were usually income producing ones, such as babysitting and cleaning teacher apartments. She also worked at the movie theater and drug store. "I loved ice cream, just loved ice cream. I still love ice cream," she said. Today you may be able to bribe her easiest with Rocky Road or Marshmallow, but any flavor will do.
Although she had little time for after school activities she did find time to get swept off her feet by a handsome uniformed soldier and they were married during her senior year before he headed off to war. Unfortunately it wasn't long after her husband returned home that they came to the conclusion they had made a mistake and went their separate ways.
It was also during her senior year in high school that her mother surprised them with the announcement that she was moving to Reno after Pedroli graduated and was going to remarry. All the kids loved their new stepdad, Jean Oyhamburu.
After graduation Pedroli moved to Reno and worked for the telephone company for a couple of years and then for Universal CIT Credit Corporation, the precursor of CIT Group, whose primary business then was financing vehicles.
Later an old acquaintance kindled a new flame in her heart and Cleto Bengoa took her off to the ranch for 30 years. "When I married and went to Kings River I moved into a house with two sister-in-laws and two brother-in-laws and a mother-in-law," Pedroli said. "I was kinda the stupid city gal. I had a lot to learn. I immediately took over helping with the kids because that was something I could do."
She was a little anxious about cooking for such a large group, but her husband encouraged her to commit to cooking breakfast one morning. They had a little oil stove in the front room that tried to heat the house and a wood and coal stove in the kitchen. Cleto got up with her a few mornings when the alarm went off at 5 a.m. and helped get things going, but then he got sick.
"I went in (the kitchen) and I was sweatin' blood and I thought 'boy they're going to know I cooked breakfast this morning,'" she said. But no one did and after that her husband didn't feel the need to get up at 5 a.m. anymore. That union produced Margarita (DeLong) and Frank who had ready playmates with five cousins under the same roof.
"My daughter was an angel. My son was hell on wheels," Pedroli said, laughing. "When he was little my brother-in-law said, 'It takes all six of us adults to keep track of that kid.' He hasn't changed much since then."
Frank and his family live on the Eden Valley Ranch out Golconda way and Margarita lives with her family on the Flying M Ranch outside Imlay. Pedroli has four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
It was during this time that they opened the Kings River School, a one room operation that eventually had 17 ranch kids. The schoolhouse was in their yard, so it was convenient, but as it got a little crowded her husband decided to go to the school board about building a two room schoolhouse down the road a few miles, which they did.
When Cleto passed away in 1979 she moved to McDermitt where her twin sister lives and where she cashiered at the Say When Casino. Then nine years later, she met Tom Pedroli who took her to the Nouque Ranch on the Oregon side of McDermitt where she lived for 10 years before moving to Winnemucca about three years ago after her husband died. Moving to Winnemucca allows her to see her children and grandchildren more often than if she stayed in McDermitt.
"I don't really want to live with my kids, but I do like seeing 'em," she said. Of course, this is the area of her childhood and there are still friends to visit with, although that doesn't happen as often as she would like.
"People don't visit like they used to. We used to visit and stuff. It's sad because we all set at home being lonely and none of us visit. I go visit when I get a chance," Pedroli said. She still drives, but is cautious about getting out on the road like she used to.
She has been to Europe a couple of times touring and visiting relatives and still keeps in contact by phone, so she hasn't lost touch with her roots.
[[In-content Ad]]
