Memoir Monday, May 2, 1960

 

Going back briefly to the Mule Year.  Not a lot was happening right then!

May 2, 1960 Mon

Another busy day for us. I rode Col out to the pasture this morning. We brought Tiz home and rode her out this morning. She is a pretty good old mule. She will probably walk better than Friz. In the afternoon we shod Col up with special shoes in front. They have roller toes and are ground thin on the inside. I rode Tina in the afternoon and led Bo out to the pasture. I’m really glad to be rid of him. After supper Mom and I went up to the Methodist Church to the square dance practice. The Hoovers, Pecks, Jacksons and Mr Harris (a teacher) were there. I was disappointed that no young people were there. I guess maybe I won’t go anymore. I don’t know. It was kind of fun. I’m just tired now. Adios, Gaye

This was pretty typical of that time, riding a lot, swapping animals around and spending  much of an average day outdoors. Let's see: Colonel was a bay gelding we had gotten along with some of the mules. He was a nice, calm and steady horse and I rode him a bit for a while. He could also lead or pull so that gave Tina a rest. He was a plain bay in color and not at all remarkable but not ugly or anything. He had a  habit of stumbling and 'interfering' or kicking an ankle at times  with the other foot. We tried some corrective shoeing to see if it would help. As I recall it did. The curved or rolled toe would be less likely to catch and cause a stumble and the shoe being thinner on the inner edge would change the balance of the way the foot swung and reduce the move too far inside to hit the other leg. 

Poor little Lobo or "Bo"  was a small odd colored horse who was also acquired with a bunch of mules. He had a habit of bucking and never wanted to give that up. He also had a swelling on the side of his jaw that was probably painful and may have added to his being fractious at times. We thought for awhile he had distemper which can cause odd sores that break and drain as well as "cold" type symptoms of running nose etc. However it turned out he had an abscessed tooth. Surgery to remove it would have been pretty costly and that would not cure his bucking so the chances to sell him were slim. He ended up going back to the dealer. I fear he ended up at the slaughter house. That was kind of sad.

Bertha Mae White, the pastor at the Methodist Church where we went off and on (Mom, Charlie Mike and me), was very eager to get community things going. I was excited when she began the square dance classes. I had hopes some other young people might show up but that was in vain. Even then I do not think that square dancing was considered cool by my contemporaries. I enjoyed it even if the people were all middle aged and I did go back a few times.  I loved the full tiered skirts and petticoats and this gave me a chance to wear them and get out of those grubby jeans that were my cowboy girl uniform.A few years later, I took a square dance class for PE credit at NAU and had a small step up on the other students as I knew some of the calls and moves already! Allemande left and do-si-so!

Again photos are hard to come by! Okay, not one of the mules mentioned but another--and I was a little neater than often--no patches!-- for an 'ad' type photo! This was out at the pasture behind Tuzigoot. And there is one of those skirts--probably the year before as I was clearly going to school. By now I was able to make them myself and added several to my wardrobe. We had called them "squaw" dresses--no  longer polite--so I will just say square dance skirts. This one was blue and yellow as I recall--with rick-rack!