Memoir Monday, March 15, 1962

 March 15, 1962 Thursday!

Yes, I should put an exclamation point after today. It began early, ended late, and was exciting in between. We rolled out before sunup and were on the road by 7:30. It was rather chilly for awhile but soon warmed up. We had to do some shuffling but were able to park close and get a go view of the parade. We saw it from start to finish, one and a half hours of bands, floats, riding units and prancing, strutting horses. I have now seen close up real parade horses with silver decked saddles and all the “pretties”. I think I like the Arabians best. The Phoenix JayCee parade is not the Rose Bowl but it’s sure a long shot from the Cottonwood Sheriff Posse. I saw the rodeo queen, Miss Rodeo America, a blonde trick rider whose name I forget, Art Miller, etc. etc. It was fabulous, wonderful, pathetic, ridiculous and ??? We drove down to the Utah horse dealer’s place and almost bought a pretty sorrel Quarter Horse type mare. I rode her some and she handled pretty good but we decided against her. There was a real pretty Quarter Horse colt, too. We did our other shopping and at last loaded hay. We got home about 7:30, did the regular chores etc. Give us about two years and we’ll have an entry of mules. That would be a cool ball. Darn, I can’t go to college next year.  I’ll miss out on too much. What the parade needs is novelty and authenticity, more than the Bill Williams Mountain Men. There is our opening. Well back to my cage tomorrow. Hells Bells. Maybe I’ll get a letter from Jose. I hope so. I think I’ll ditch school.

By this time I was back in school and  varied from enjoying to hating it. I'd gone through a serious rebellion in the fall of 1960 but had recognized I was going to hurt myself way more than any damage or grief I could cause mom and dad so I was pretty straight by now and planning to graduate college-eligible and with honors. . No social life--but I had hopes that would change after I finished high school. It didn't--that took four more years. 

I actually 'ditched' very, very seldom but did take some days away with family permission such as this one. We had to get hay, cheaper and better down in the Phoenix suburban area. That meant  a full load in the big flatbed Ford F-800 we had gotten the previous fall or between 3 and 4 tons pilled as high as was safe and legal. We made that trip to coincide with the Phoenix JC's annual rodeo parade. Yeah, to a backwoods cowboy girl that was pretty impressive!

Art Miller had a flashy palomino horse and about the most decorated outfit I ever saw--a mint worth of silver!!. He was a major parade regular and I had a photo of him for awhile. I think we had met him a time or two but cannot recall the circumstances. Not a crush for some weird reason but anyway...

We carried the idea of a parade entry with a couple or several of our flashiest mules 'someday' but like many rather over-the-top dreams that never came to pass. "Back in my cage" came from one of Jim McLarney's pet sayings. Although I actually dated  him a bit some years later, 1966-67, at that time he was one of my English teachers and I was maybe one of his and Ernest Gabrielson's pets since I could write and spell and even mostly punctuate decently and was not rowdy, dull or inattentive. They both mostly gave me good grades. 

Jose was my current favorite pen pal. I think I  have mentioned him before.

Hard to find pictures, at least new ones. I'll try.  Another pose of a photo posted previously from that season and a shot of Charlie Mike on Prez but showing the big Ford truck in the background. It was dark green and dad had built most of the rack on it to haul animals but it also did many other tasks like hay.