I always thought of our house being a large one. I now look back and see it wasn't large but small. It was only a two bedroom house. When I was growing up all four boys slept in one room. My next oldest brother and myself slept in the same bed. I remember sleeping in that northwest bedroom - especially in the winter time. Many times I have woke up in the morning with snow all over the bed. Our house was adobe. It was warm in the winter and cool in the summer. We never did have electricity in the house. Early on we used kerosene lamps and burned coal in the heating stove. It used to be my job to carry out the ashes from the stove.
We always had a lot of cold and snow in New Mexico. We had some terrible winters when I was growing up. I can remember several times when the drifts got as high as 20 feet. I remember one year when one of the neighbor ranchers froze to death. He was out on his horse when a blizzard came in. He never made it home. I remember when the snow would drift so high you could walk on the snow up on to the top of the barn. I have seen the time people who were traveling would have to stay at our house because the roads were drifted closed. I have seen the temperature drop to 20 below zero.
And just as the snow came, so did the rain. I remember the times my father would take us to the storm cellar in the middle of the night because a bad storm was coming. I remember when it rained so much that every little hole was filled with water. I can also remember my dad taking us swimming after one of those rains. I remember when we decided that we needed a pond to catch the water. My dad used a tractor and a fresno to dig the hole to make the pond. The day we finished the pond it rained enough to fill it up with water.
We always had a lot of cold and snow in New Mexico. We had some terrible winters when I was growing up. I can remember several times when the drifts got as high as 20 feet. I remember one year when one of the neighbor ranchers froze to death. He was out on his horse when a blizzard came in. He never made it home. I remember when the snow would drift so high you could walk on the snow up on to the top of the barn. I have seen the time people who were traveling would have to stay at our house because the roads were drifted closed. I have seen the temperature drop to 20 below zero.
And just as the snow came, so did the rain. I remember the times my father would take us to the storm cellar in the middle of the night because a bad storm was coming. I remember when it rained so much that every little hole was filled with water. I can also remember my dad taking us swimming after one of those rains. I remember when we decided that we needed a pond to catch the water. My dad used a tractor and a fresno to dig the hole to make the pond. The day we finished the pond it rained enough to fill it up with water.
4 comments:
Reading this has reminded me that I REALLY wish Dad would have finished his memoirs. I wanted so bad to read about when we were kids. I wanted to know his thoughts about us (I know he loved us) and maybe his motivations behind moving so much.
I'm thankful for what we do have but wished it could have been finished.
These are great memories, well writ. Are these your dad's comments or yours?
Thanks for sharing.
I have about four years worth of journals that I'm hanging on to for the kids, if they're interested. I have a few pages from my Dad's father and think that's pretty cool, hopefully the kids will appreciate it, too.
Hey Dan,
These are all my Dad's words from a hand written journal that he kept. He called it The Life and Times of Jim Kear. It is mostly his memories of growing up on the high plains of northeast New Mexico.
I should say that The Life and Times Excerpts are my Dad's. Everything else here is my own meandering.
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