Monday Memoir, May 20 , 1966

A day with no serious issues, trauma or disruptions. Thankful for that reprieve! It was on the edge of more major issues but I'd take what hours of relative peace I could get. Why the parents went to Flagstaff and Camp Verde I do not remember. Left alone, I did my normal stuff, breaking at midday to fix lunch for Alex. I think he was in 2rd grade by this time. He had just turned seven. 

May 20, 1966 Friday

Got up a bit early and got the chores done. Mom and the Boss were off for Flag and Camp Verde soon after the boys left for school. I watered and saddled and was off soon myself. No mail for me so I picked up Chief and headed down the River Road.  My can was upside down in the stump…and there was a note. Just when it was left I don’t know. On the 8^th or later as that was the last time I checked. I was delighted but puzzled. “Was here. Where were you? I’ll be looking for you.”  No legible date. “I was here” is one of my favorite sentences. I also led and ponied and  got done just in time to fix Alex’s lunch. I made two different kinds of cookies, cut out my PJs and did the dishes. It rained fairly hard from 1:30 to 2:30. I loafed awhile listening to the radio and then the folks were home. We talked awhile and then had to do up the PM chores. After supper I read a bit and found a Western Horseman the Boss wanted. Then leaned on my window ledge in the dark watching the lightning flare and wished someone was close, very close. But in  two weeks perhaps he will be. I hope this isn’t like last summer in the waiting bit. That is trying on the nerves. But I can endure for two weeks--almost anything. If only he’d write but I have proof he was looking anyway. That helps a lot.

My narrative here is a bit disjointed and light on details. Did we drive out to the pasture or was I taking Chief to check some mares? I hardly think I would have done that alone. So I am guessing that was the first task on my list after morning feeding etc.  The horse needed exercise and I did want to check the message can...  Don't even say who I was riding that day. 

The old cottonwood stump was at the end of the River Road, on the edge of the drop off into the riverbed, at least at that time. It had been a big tree with a number of branches that had been sawed off with 12-18 inches left.. It was now about waist high and had a big hollow area, partly hidden under one or more of those abbreviated branches. We used a hidden  Prince Albert can and at times a smaller coffee can for a message box from summer 1965 on.  I have no photos of it but some of the nearby location. It is hard now to realize how difficult communication could be then. No internet or cell phones, no search sites or even smoke signals. It was often by guess and by gosh to try to connect. Finding that note, I had no idea when Dusty had been there and could have cried that we missed each other but it also gave me hope. 

It was nearly a vacation for me to be "unsupervised"all day (not that I did not work independently on most of my tasks) and go about my business with no interruptions for a 'talk' or a change of plans that often made no sense to me at all.  Then some time indoors to do small tasks and .even relax. I did take a siesta many days but a nap in the hot house was not always very restful. You awoke sweaty and sticky, possibly rested but still tired. 

Watching lightning, inside or out was something I always enjoyed, Of course best when it was distant, even too far to hear the thunder. Imagining sitting together in a car or some sheltered spot and watching with Dusty--what a pleasant day dream. I guess it is good I did not yet know rumors of B&B 6 coming back that summer to Clarkdale were not true or how my wait would extend for many more weeks. That would have been hard to bear even before it happened. Day by day, I lived through it. 

Here are stage setting photos, more or less. First the view down across to the east side of the river from hills on the west side, then vacant and untouched,. Next Moonspinner at the end of the River Road, and then Dusty on Prez the same place. That stump would be just off stage to the right side of both.  In the first shot, bits of  the river road are barely visible and the end was close to where the ridge down from the Tuzigoot Ruin ends.There was a clear area where cars were turned around and also parked. It is kind of hidden by the brush.  The next two pics were in that area. Trails ran down a short, steep slope to the actual river banks