Clifford Leon Vandiver Written by his brother, Willis Vandiver

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The family took another train west to Spokane where they were met by Dad's brother, Steve. That same spring Steve and Dad bought some hay and pasture land in Mountain Home, Idaho, where they lived before moving to Fairfield, Idaho in January of 1915. Dad bought the Anderson place consisting of 160 acres along with all the horses and cattle. Clifford was seven years old at the time.

The picture on the right is of the old home site in 1925 - looking north into the face of the buildings.

Home Site in Fairfield, Idaho

Description by numbers -

1. The rocked-in fresh water spring for house use.
2. One room rock house with attached food cellar extending to the left.
3. Shop in which Clifford and other boys often slept.
4. Underground birthing cellar for cows - top with straw.
5. 8 foot rock fence on 3 sides of corral.
6. Horse barn for 4 horses.
7. Cow barn for 30 cows, built N. to S.

Some of the childhood events may shed some light on Cliff's boyhood. Merrill recalls this one which was recorded on tape with Merrill.

"While living in Mountain Home Cliff saved my life," explained Merrill. "It happened this way. Cliff was just a little guy not much bigger than Van's youngest boy (about 6) (Merrill 4). Cliff was the one who would sometimes get me in trouble. There was a canal in back of our house and across the road. To keep the canal from running too fast and wash the dirt sides away, concrete steps were built on the floor of the canal to provide for this steep drop. Also was built a concrete apron under the steps to stop the wash. This created in effect, a waterfall below which there would be a rolling, revolving pool. At each end of this, it had a round top wall to keep water from going outside. The water had splashed upon this forming a thin sheet of ice.

Clifford said to me, 'I bet I can step up on this and you can't.'

I accepted the challenge and stepped right up on it; my feet slipped out from under me and into the pool below I went. The water wasn't very deep -perhaps two and one half or three feet but deep enough to drown a young kid. The water pushed me under and I would come up and its boiling and rolling effect took me under again. Cliff got down and got me by the coat tail. I had one of those TEDDY BEAR coats on that was popular at that time. Actually I hadn't got a drop of water in my lungs.

I can remember that Bill, Cliff, and I used to talk about holding our breath if we ever would fall in the water. We said, 'All you got to do is hold your breath, and you can't drown!' I must have practiced what we had talked about.

If Cliff hadn't reached me, I would have drowned that day in the whirlpool. This was the way Cliff did things even as a little boy. He was the same when he got older. He didn't get ruffled - not a damn bit."

So within a span of five minutes time, Cliff proved to be both a child villain and also a child hero demonstrating his love for a practical joke but yet the calmness under stress to keep it from turning into tragedy. Thus he was! Merrill tells of another instance when Cliff got him in difficulty.

"In our house in Mountain Home, first thing in the morning Dad would build a fire in the heating stove so the house would be good and warm when we got up. In those old time houses the chimney would begin about six or seven feet from the floor. Usually the bricks rested on a heavy wooden platform held up by 2 X 12s. Often shelves were made in between the 2 X 12s for storage.

Stove Front View		Stove Side View

Cliff said, 'I'll bet I can climb up those shelves and you can't.'

Up the shelves he goes! Back down he comes! Up I go, and back down I come, but I fell, first on the hot stove burning a big spot on my cheek! Mother put a diaper on me to dress the burn and kept me around the house for awhile. Of course, I was embarrassed about that diaper. When the neighbor kids came I wouldn't let them see me for anything!"

Of the older boys, Cliff was the best student at his school work and was a very fluent and able oral reader. Because Dad had only attended school through the third grade, he was a relatively poor reader. Dad would have Cliff read aloud at home often as a means of entertainment or just to assimilate information from something that needed to be read. When Dave Eskulson was teaching the country school at Springdale, he introduced to his pupils a book entitled Uncle Nick among the Shoshones. Dad had Cliff order the book from the Desert Book Company in Salt Lake City. Cliff read it aloud to the family in the evenings. The book was later mailed to Grandpa Woods in Missouri.

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