Good Friends in Soquel

Ron Evans

Ron Evans was one of my best friends. He was a dental technician at the Santa Cruz Office. I first ran across Ron without meeting him when I was about 14 years old. My dad had bought a ranch in an isolated, desolate area of New Mexico called the Animas. My mom was with Grant and Agnes May in Silver City, New Mexico. where they were going to college. Mom was very sick and was going to the doctor there. Lordburg was the nearest town, about 70 miles from Silver city. the road was a rough, dirt, mountainous road. I had a little doodle bug motorscooter that could only go 15 miles per hour on a smooth road. Dad took me to Lordburg and I had a quart jar filled with gas tied on to my scooter and I started to go to Silver City to see my mom. I didn't have any brakes in it. On my way there a truck passed me. Little did I know that Ron Evans and his uncle were in the truck. Ron was my age then. His uncle commented, "What kind of idiot would be out here on that little scooter?"

Some of the hills were so steep I had to get off and walk the scooter up the road. After many hours I reached Silver City. The little scooter didn't have any shocks and since the road was so rough it jarred my insides. I had to lay down for several hours until I felt better. Little did I know that 20 years later in California, several thousand miles away, I would be working with that kid in the truck in New Mexico. Ron was part Cherokee Indian. He loved to hunt and fish. A month before hunting season he would have to take tranquilzers because he was so excited. Ron and I did a lot of hunting and fishing together. His family was about the same age as our family. We did a lot of things together. We had Barbecues, rode horses, target shooting, at our Nicassio Way Property. We went boating together, too.

Some of my deer hunting trips with Ron were really fun. We went several times to Kaye's cousins ranch outside of Elko, Nevada. Ron could drink a lot of beer without getting drunk. If he took one sip of hard liquor, it was all over with him. he would drink the whole bottle and really get dead. happy drunk. This one evening in particular we were at Kaye's cousins place in Golconda, Nevada. Mark had a little bar, cafe and some cabins. We were staying in the cabins. We were in the bar and we kept winning jackpots, then we'd buy drinks for everyone. This was Mark's plan. He'd loosen up the slots and then everyone would use the money they won to buy everyone drinks.

Ron started drinking liquor and got very drunk. I went to the cabin and left Ron in the bar. Ron came in very late and really drunk. He had traded his hat for a little paper painter's cap. We got up at 4:00 am and got in the jeep and had to drive about 30 miles into the mountains there. We drove pretty high on the one mountain. we were going to hike further up this mountain. We got out and started hunting. We heard Ron shoot. We went over there and he had shot a little tiny buck. He was so drunk he had forgotten his knife to clean the deer. He had flattened his shell out to try to use it to clean his deer. He was freezing because he only had worn a windbreaker and it was snowy and cold. The deer was so small I put it on my shoulders and carried it back to the top. Ron swore he was a big, big buck go behind the rock and when the little buck stepped out, he shot it. We kidded him about how his big buck changed into a little buck. When we got to the jeep, we put the tailgate down and tied the buck on the tailgate. Ron didn't tag it there he was going to wait until he got back to Mark's place. as we started to go back the gas gauge dropped suddenly to nearly empty. We got out and saw the gas line had been pulled loose. We fixed it, but had almost no gas. We made it back to a road and flagged down a red Bronco going by. He said he would follow us and make sure we made it to Mark's place. When we got there Ron said, "Come on in and I'll buy you a drink." We were sitting at the bar and Ron pulled out his tag and said, "I'd better fill this out and put it on the deer." The guy said, "I am a judge. If you came into my court about the deer not being tagged right away, I'd have to throw the book at you." Ron said, "Give this guy another drink."

One more story I'd like to tell about Ron was on a fishing trip up the Carmel River. Ron and I would go up to the headwaters of the Carmel River the first day of fishing season. I took my son Greg and Ron's brother went with us. We took Patches, a shetland pony to pack in our stuff and we took Lee, Cathy's horse, to ride. We hiked in. We had to cross the Carmel River 19 times to get to our camp sit. Ron liked to drink beer but his brother would drink twice as much. Someone ahd a bottle of whiskey, Ron couldn't drink whiskey because he couldn't stop until he was totally drunk. When we set up camp, Ron started drinking whiskey and got totally drunk. Some hikes came up and set up camp close to us. Ron got on Lee and started riding riding back and forth through their camp and yelling. They broke camp and left right then. As it started to get evening and it started to rain, Ron fell off the horse and was laying on the ground dead drunk. I covered him up with saddle blankets. The next morning we started to fish and caught a lot of fish. It turned out to be a fun and memorial trip.

Ted Szychowski

Ron Evans, Ted and I were best friends. Ted's niece, Marilyn, came to work in my orthodontic office when I first started. Ted brought his son, Mark, into my office for braces. ted was a retired air force person who worked for intelligence. He was Polish and he liked to tell jokes on everyone. I found all the Polish jokes I could and used them on him. We liked to play pool, and I was better than him. He used to drink a lot. He could drink more whiskey than anyone I had ever seen without acting drunk. We had a lot of poker games with the mountain boys like Danny Horn, Flash, Mark and others like Joe Vigil. His wife, Loretta, was a Casalegno. They were a long time family that lived in Santa Cruz. Ted ran the little Casalegno Store in Old San Jose Road and Laurel Road. Loretta's brother, Frank, ran the store along with Ted. Frank was crippled from a car accident. Loretta's mother lived in the store, too. Loretta's brother and sisters owned a lot of land in that area. Their became friends with ours. We had alot of barbecues and holiday parties together.

One night we were having a poker game in our cabana. Ted started seling Metropolitan Life Insurance and was always wearing a suit. They had given him a gold pen for his sales that day. Joe vigil and his brother in law, Chuck. We called him "No Luck Chuck" because he never won. Robert Hopkins was there. At 2:00 am we finished the poker game. It was cold outside. We walked outside by the swimming pool. Robert Hopkins and Joe Vigil picked up Ted, suit, gold pen and all, and threw him in the swimming pool. ted was so angry, he just disappeared, we didn't know how he got home or anything.

Three Pigs Story

Ron had a friend named Pappy who was a rancher that raised pigs. Ron thought that we could raise some money by buying 3 pregnant pigs and selling their piglets. Where Ted lived, there was a pig barn. I told them I would buy feed, but I didn't want to take care of them. Ron brought the 3 pigs to Ted's big barn. As time went on, Ted's friends who said he knew pigs told Ted they weren't pregnant and Ted should butcher his sow. Ron kept telling Ted not to do it because Pappy said they were pregnant and Pappy knew. Ted's friends kept bugging Ted. Ted finally butchered the sow and it was full of little pigs. Then Ted wanted to share in the rest of the little piglets. This made Ron really mad. Instead of staying friends, they were never friends after that. I gave my piglets to Ted and Joe Vigil. They had a barbecue at Joe's bar that he just bought. Ted and I remained friends and Ron and I remained friends, but Ted and Ron were no longer friends.