At the end of 8th grade, my dad sold his ranch and bought 6,400 acres at the Animas, New Mexico. Mom was very sick at this time. She had been going downhill for a long time. She had not been able to close her fingers. She couldn't brush her hair or do housework. She had been to several clinics and they couldn't find out what was wrong with her. We all moved to the Animas. Sis, Laurence and Larry moved out there, too.
Larry was about two years old. When we lived there we had an outhouse. Dad had bought a sow pig with 13 piglets. The 13th was a little runt and needed to be fed a bottle. Larry went to get the runt and was bringing it to the house. The sow was chasing Larry and the little runt was messing down Larry's leg, but he wouldn't let go of the runt. Sis ran out of the house and chased the sow away before she got Larry.
The little Plymouth car we had got a flat tire. Dad told me to change the tire. The nuts were real tight, so I oiled the nuts to get the tire off. After I put it back on, Mom and Sis took the car to Lordsburg, New Mexico and Dad, Laurence and I were following them in the pickup. It was a 30 miles dirt road from Lordsburg, New Mexico to our farm. At night on the way back Sis was driving. We saw a big dust cloud in the road ahead. We couldn't see them. We came to a tire sitting in the middle of the road and further on we came to the car with Sis driving. The tire had come off. Sis didn't know why the car wouldn't go any more. We had to put the tire back on to get home. I never used grease on the lug nuts after that!
The Animas country was about 35 miles from Lordsburg, New Mexico in the middle of nowhere. It was covered with great big mesquite bushes, rattlesnakes and jackrabbits. Neighbors were few and far between. We all lived in an adobe house with no electricity. There was subterranean lake under the Animas. Dad and Laurence put in two big wells. They pumped out lots of water for irrigation. To save money, Dad and Laurence would dig the wells by hand to first water, then they brought well drillers in to go 200 feet to second water. I would drive the tractor to lower the bucket into the well. They would fill it with dirt and I would bring it up and dump it. I was 14 years old. Some of our land was cleared and Dad planted cotton in those areas. I would drive tractors and irrigate until dark, except we would go in for lunch. Around one of the cleared areas there was a fence, but there were holes under the fence. The rabbits would come under and they would eat the cotton plants. Dad told me he would pay .50 cents per rabbit that I trapped. I usually only got a rabbits foot because the coyotes would come along and eat the rabbits that were caught in the trap.
Laurence had a single shot 22 rifle. I would shoot jackrabbits for my recreation. Dad wanted to work 7 days a week, but Laurence wouldn't work on Sundays. We would go to a church members house and have church. I was really glad to go with Sis and Laurence to church so I wouldn't have to stay home and work with Dad.
At this time my brother, Grant, was graduating from Silver City in college. He was going into Dental School at College of Physicians and Surgeons in San Francisco, California. Mom was staying with Grant there and going to the doctors. I had a little Doodle Bug motor scooter that I had bought with my potato shed money. It's maximum speed was about 15 miles per hour. I decided to ride my scooter from Lordburg to Silver City, which was about ten miles. My dad took me to Lordburg. The road between these two places was dirty, very rough and had a mountain range to go over. I tied a quart of gas to my Doodle Bug scooter and took off. As I was going up the mountain range I had to walk it up some of the steepest areas. At one spot I though a bull was going to chase me, but he didn't charge. As I came into Silver City, there was steep paved road I had to go down. I had unhooked my rakes so I wouldn't have any drag on my motor scooter. AS I went down the hill I got going too fast and I had to drag my feet to slow down. I wore the heels off my shoes. I found my brother's place and my Mom was so mad at my dad for letting me do that. I was sick for a while from the journey I took on that rough road. Dad drove up there two days later and brought me back to the ranch.
While we were there my dad had gone to Lordburg and bought some supplies. When we got home Dad went to our Serrvelle gas operated refrigerator. He had a can of coffee in one hand and he reached in and got some milk out. It spilled on him. He was so mad he threw the can of coffee back into the box of groceries and hit a box of wooden matches. They set on fire and burned our groceries.
At the end of that summer Mom's healthy was very bad. Uncle Earl Cardon had a chauffer and a black Cadillac. He took Mom to a hospital in El Paso, Texas. I started high school in the Animas, but when Mom went to El Paso I went with her. I stayed with Uncle Lester. Dad stayed at the Animas and harvested the corn and the cotton.
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