I was almost ready to start high school as a freshman in the Clarkdale High School. Life had gotten a bit complicated a few days before due to my brother's accident. I'll cover that below.
Aug 30, 1957
Not actually! Got up at 7:30 as usual. I woke up at 7:00 just like an alarm clock. Did the horse chores and made a late breakfast. Fixed up the toys in Charlie Mike’s ‘shop”. Dad left. Took VI over to Mrs Wease and talked a bit. Did horse work. Ate lunch. Cleaned the house. Played a bit. Mom got here about 4:00. Visited her a few minutes. Went to town for mail and groceries. Did chores, cooked and ate. Eve came down for a few minutes. Drove over to Cottonwood. Charlie Mike is very cheerful. He is feeling much better. Talked and laughed and I read stories. Came home, fixed Dad’s supper. See you manana. Luz de Oro Bella Dona
Although the full fledged cowboy girl routine was not yet taking place, we had three horses and a mule or two at this point. Taking care of them was one of my main duties. Usually one or more were on a pasture but some would be stabled there in Clarkdale in the arroyo behind our house. At this point it was probably my mare Tina that I had owned for a year and a half and a mule we called Louie.
Through the summer I had watched some of the critters graze either up the canyon where the swimming pool drainage irrigated a lot of Bermuda grass or other spots where grass grew. We were a very unofficial mowing crew! On August 27, I had Tina and Louie up in the canyon and Charlie Mike was hanging out with me. I had a hobble on Tina--that is a strap to bind the animal's two front legs close together at the ankle so they cannot run. I could then trust her not to stray if I had to run up to the house for some reason. Somehow Charlie Mike got in front of her as she hopped forward. Her hoof hit his leg, the left one, and he fell down. She did not step up him but managed to swing to one side. However when I tried to help him get up I saw at once something was drastically wrong! I edged him over closer to a mesquite tree and dashed for the house. Dad and Mom came at once and before long he was headed for the hospital with a makeshift splint on his leg. It turned out to be a spiral fracture of his thigh almost into the hip joint, a very bad break.
My uncle, Dad's brother, was a surgeon and advised not to put a pin in the leg due to Charlie's age as it could restrict proper growth. In lieu of that he was in the hospital for several weeks in traction to force the bone into place as it began to heal. Mom was able to stay with him most of the time since he was not quite six years old. That left me with a lot of new things to do at home. School started before he came home in a half body cast which he lived in for nearly two months more.
I am confused on the one sentence. "Took VI over to Mrs Wease..." I know Mrs Wease was our next door neighbor and a friend but what I took is a mystery! Maybe I just can't read my own writing after so long but that was what it looked like in my old journal!. And I was still using my fanciful artsy nicknames. Eve of course was my friend Evelyn Graves, now Morales for many years.
Charlie Mike recovered well and Mom home schooled him enough that he was able to go back after the holidays and pick up first grade and be promoted the next spring. That leg is slightly longer and he wears a lift in the right shoe per several chiropractors' advice. I always felt bad about it but I realize there was probably nothing I could have done to prevent it and he has never berated me over it. At almost 70, he now has some arthritis but in many places besides that injured leg.
A few photos: The first is Tina with me and Charlie near the same place but a few days before the mishap. Next is Charlie in the hospital with the traction appliance on his leg. Finally near the holidays, he was learning how to walk again and build muscle back in the leg. He was a game little kid through it all.
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