Much of this block, Mondays, Dec 22 and Dec 29, I was in California, the second holiday season there for me. I shared it with Charlie Mike, of course, since he had been there since the end of October. I was glad not to have to stay in Flagstaff and perhaps even gladder not to be in Clarkdale as I had been the year before but it was not a total delight. The tight group of Dad's siblings (seriously enmeshed family!!) were not restful or really peaceful people and they were not kind or welcoming to Uncle Dan's newish French wife and her four kids from her prior marriage. Their two girls were still very young and his son was either not born or still an infant. I wrote very little about the whole period since my journal was back in the dorm and we mostly kept very busy during those weeks from December 18 until January 2.
Dec 18, 1967 Monday
Here I sit in the same room that was home to me for awhile in 1965-66 about this time.
We wre dismissed from NAU at noonish on Saturday, the 16th. It had eased off some but still deep snow and some falling. I lost no time in headng to town with my baggage. Once at the depot, I found out my reservation--for several days later--was worthless so all I could do was wait and hope, as did many others. I got 'picked up' in the depot by an ex-Marine who I had thought was a student and we fooled around together from 6:00 until midnight or so. It was really crazy. I could be a pussycat if I tried, believe it or not, because I 'turn on' a lot quicker than I used to. But I still do not like the taste of beer; so pub crawling was off. I then sat for the rest of the night in the depot. Train #1 must have set a record for lateness . It got to Flag at 6:00 am. No one was there to put me aboard or see me off but I had lots of company. I ended up sitting with Alida Nichols who I had not known previously Her folks had moved from Prescott to Seattle recently and she had stayed at Flagstaff, already enrolled at NAU. She had never been on a long trip or even anywhere by train before so I got to enjoy playing the well-traveled sophisticate! It was a nice trip but I slept quite a lot after too many hours awake the last 36 or so. Got to Stockton about 8:00 pm and there was Charlie Mike with Aunts Grace and Roxie to meet me. So far it is nice. I don't know how it will be for the whole two weeks but maybe it wil be okay. I want to relax because I need to in the worst way!
Dec 26, 1967 Tuesday
I've been here a week already. Christmas had done went and gone. It was quite a day. Those family dinners are a mob scene which I could readily do without but I am $20 richer and have a stack of aassorted goodies for my pains. Uncle Dan flew to Arizona last night and called us from Prescott. (I think he had a plane then and likely flew himself but am not sure,. I know he did at times.) I talked to The Boss briefly--seems Dan went on to Phoenix(?) The old man assured me whatever I had done with the horses was okay. Ruth repeated that same message to me later. Well duh, I thought. It damn well better be!! For sure he had really not done a single thing to work that all out since September 1. Thus I did my eldest daughter thing and acted mostly out of my love and care for the animals themselves with little concern for what he might say, think or do. I felt I did well. Damn his worthless opinion!
We are supposed to go to San Francisco on Friday and to see Gone With the Wind on Sunday. I already got my hair fixed. It looked really cool at first and ise asier to take care of. I also got a darling suit. Now I need to get a blue one to exchnage with it. (Seems like it was maybe blue, yellow and red check or plaid?) I really do not have much to say--plenty of thoughts but they are too vague and complicated to write down.
The rest of the time I covered briefly when I was back at Flagstaff so I will touch a few high spots here that I extracted from that first anuary entry.
it was quite a vacation but I am tired now. Maybe it is a different sort of tiredness though. It was so hectic. I met Charlie Mike's girfriend Kathy, went shopping, watched TV on the new color set Dan had given to Roxie and the boys. I saw Chueck Connor's new show and I still like him as well as the old Rifleman days. He is now the "Cowboy in Africa". Cousin Steve had a motorcycle wreck--not serious-- and we went to see "Gone with the Wind" It was fantastic and I loved every minute of it. Then Mom and Alex came out on New Year's Day and yesterday Larry drove us to Stockton and I boarded #2 to head back east.
A few photos: Aunt Grace and Aunt Roxie at Stockton Depot. A view of the wintery Pacific near San Frlncisco and then the back yard at Aunt Roxie's house. Finally Cousin Larry with Mom and Alex as they arrived from Kentucky. They were pretty travel worn, I know. I wish they could have waited a bit longer but...
So to jump to another small tale.
I signed up on 23 and Me several years ago--2? 3? more? Anyway at that time I found I was mostly (95%) British/Celtc with Irish, Welsh and Anglo-English ancestry.
They have since updated a bit and I acquired another small smidge of 'new' genetic backgroud. That thread traces to a very distant ancestor in North Africa who came across to the Iberian Penninsula and ended up being part of an offshoot of the Portugese which was closely kin to a quasi-Celtic enclave there and also related to the Basque folk who lived along the Spanish and French border from which many later migrated to North America.
Many of these folks settled mostly in California and a bit in the southern Rockies and took up the trade of sheep herding, which they had done in Europe. My sole tie to these people goes much farther back and wove into the Irish Celtic people. That was long before there was a North America--at least known to the Europeans, but that trace exists in my past and I am intrigued by it.
A couple of years ago I came across a portrait of a Portuguese woman that stopped me in my tracks. I could almost morph her itno my mother! The facial features were very similar. The Portuguese lady also wore tats and other markings that certainly seemed very "Celtic." I was like whoa, but now I do understand. Perhaps I have a very, very distant cousin who resides in Portugal in a splinter group that tends toward rebellion against the ruling cadre...
So below see first the Portuguese lady and then a picture of my mother in about 1985 and be as surprised as I was.
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