Memoir Monday, August 31, 1968

August 31, 1968, Saturday

I had one more week left before my planned return to Flagstaff.  Almost surprisingly, I found I really liked this part of the state, enough to build different ties to Grant County over many subsequent years, made several nd lost a few friends, and even lived there for a short year decades later. Even with school, the family did a bit of sight-seeing and I dimly recall going up to Emory Pass, visiting Gila and Cliff, traveling along the edge of the first nationally designated Wilderness Area, the one that honors naturalist Aldo Leopold, and around the Mimbres and the Santa Rita mine and Tyrone, the mine's town. 

The family actually lived in the county two different times, separated by a few years when they were up at Farmington for a while. I can recall visiting San Lorenzo at least three times during the academic year. Each was a bus trip; no passenger trains came close! At that time, the main Southern Pacific transcon passed through Lordsburg and Deming but I never rode one of their trains. There was no connection to Flagstaff or even the Verde.

At this early stage, no livestock had been acquired but it did not take long. Dad would never abandon that interest and effort. At either my visit for Thanksgiving or surely by Christmas there were two mules, two older 'mollies' who came to be called Blackie and Brownie, based on their colors, I assume.  They actually came into my life for a while and lived in Bisbee a couple of years with us after Jim Walton and I were married. Of course a number of other mules and horses were bought or traded for right up until Dad's accident and death in 1988. I just shake my head. It was what it was.

I was happy for Charlie Mike. He finally had a pretty good year of school as a senior at Cobre. He rode to Bayard with mom, who was teaching at the nearby middle school, but was not burdened by the family issues and political mess as at Mingus his first two years or in Sacramento as a junior with the kerfuffle of Morganism. I know that was a bad year for him, almost equal to the two at Mingus. Of course the second one there was the worst. 

Pictures? A few of some of the places in Silver City, adjacent communities and the scenic spots in the area. First is the dumps for the mine and the distant Burro Mountains. Next is the plaque about the 1st designated Wilderness area. Next is the Gila Wilderness and the vast range of mountains encompassed in it. It is 'big country'. Then the chapel of the Miners Shrine at Fierro. There are many more sites but too many to feature!

 

Memoir Monday, August 24, 1968

 I-and the family-ended this week on New Mexico.  For the next several decades the state  figured frequently in my life to some degree, often powerfully. I actually lived there at one point, many years later. I love the scenery and generally the climate which is so similar to Arizona but there are some things I never quite cared for, mostly an element of the people....not the long term native ones, though.  I have called it the Land of Disenchantment at times and meant it. I remember back in my young days--like up to age 10 or so--, many kids were very disparaging about New Mexico and considered it an enemy or an wicked sibling sort of place. Now I laugh. The two states are irrevokably linked.

The last few days in Sacramento passed very fast. Somehow everything that had to be done got done and on August 20, which was a Tuesday, we hit the road. At about 11:00 AM,  our caravan pulled out of Aunt Roxie's drive. Dad drove the Chevy, towing the U-Haiul trailer and Charlie Mike road with him, I suspect not by choice or too happily but that was how it went. Mom drove the Volvo and Alex and I rode with her. We had the immediate things in the back--it had a fairly commodious trunk space--so changes of clothes, needed medications, toiletries etc were secured there. I know Mom was never a real happy driver although she was the main one who taught me but I think she took a Driver's Ed class in Sacramento and got her California license. Charlie Mike was now over sixteen and should have been driving legally too, at least with a training permit, but I do not think that ever happened. I still did not have a license but was a reasonably capable driver. We both had to manage that on our own

The first night we reached Barstow, CA. I know we stayed in a motel but I have little memory of that. By the next night, we were in Flagstaff.  Mom and Alex came to the apartment with me, which apparently miffed Carolyn, maybe to have a 'strange male' in her space for all Alex was a very quiet and innocent nine year old! Mom and he used the double bed and Carolyn had her folding single that her boyfriend had provided so it was no big deal. I took the couch. Dad and Charlie Mike got a room at the Monte Vista, what number I never knew! 

From there we doubled back slightly to go to Prescott where we got some of the stuff that had been in the old green Ford. The folks had some trepidations but there were no problems at all. That night we got into Silver City after taking some back roads and a roundabout route. (Not sure why the keeping off the Interstates.)That was a very long day. We stayed at The Drifter, then a fairly new motel on the far east end of town. It is still there today but more in the middle of town now. It  seems different from what I noted that first time but memory can be flawed. I've even gone back and stayed one night in the early 2000s.

We woke there on Friday morning and had to get on with business promptly. By Sunday, August 25, the folks had rented a house in San Lorenzo, where Dad would be rteaching in their small two room school. It was a decent house although I called it a  "Bryant house" as it was similar to some Charley Bryant and his wife had lived in. However it had electricity, running water--including hot--and a roof that definitelydid not leak. Propane appliances it seems. I cannot remember whether there were two or three bedrooms. It sat on a little semi-farm with some out builiings and a small orchard. It was really not a bad place at all. Too bad they did not stay there too long.

I stayed until September 8 and did my best to help set up the household and took care of all I could since both parents went to work almost at once. It seems like school started August 26, or at least their preparations did. Alex would go to the San Lorenzo School while Mom was teaching at the middle school in Bayard (forget the name) and Charlie Mike enrolled in Cobre High as a senior.

Pictures: The first is the place at San Lorenzo viewed from the hill above, some time during later 1968 or early 1969. The next is as it appeared when I detoured past on a trip down to NM and AZ from Colorado about 2014. Last two are The Drifter as it appears fairly recently, about 2015. It is larger and much spruced up from what it was in 1968 though it was not bad then.  I last saw it about 2020; thought I kept a photo but can't seem to locate it!

Memoir Monday August 17, 1968

 The third week of my time away was a jumble. The date of our departure from Sacramento was coming close and there was still a lot to be done, especially by Mom and Dad.  I know Charlie Mike was eager to see that period end. He probably had no real trust that life would be better than it had been before the family's departure from the Verde Valley but since his arrival the prior fall  he had been jerked three ways from peace almost all the time. Aunt Roxie demanded many things and forbade others;  Uncle Dan demanded those and more and had a new plan or advice daily; and when The Boss or The Old Man arrived in January, he was his usual self, especially when he did not think he was witnessed. He had treated his older son like crap for literally years and never backed away from that. Why he seemed almost from the first to resent and dislike his namesake eldest son mystifies me. I never understood.  Alex was still just a "little kid", nine years old and in about fourth grade. For the most part,  he was always a very innocuous and cooperative child,  bright and a bit odd but no trouble... not like Charlie Mike and me!!The faamily had two dark sheep. 

I mentioned earlier the folks had the Volvo sedan or coupe. I am not sure if Alex coined the name or Cousin Steve, who had a droll and sly sense of humor,but it was know as "Funny Car." There was also the green Chevy pickup, which was probably a late 1950s model or early 60s at the newest but mechanicaly sound and road worthy. It soon was obvious that those two vehicles would not handle the entire load that needed to go so an arrangment was made to rent a mid-sized U-Haul trailer.  A standard half-ton pickup, I am not sure what size engine the Chevy had but  the load did seem to  tax it a bit. I remember that trailer being pretty well filled. and  a lot of household stuff is heavy as well as often bulky. It was maybe a 12 or 16 foot trailer. Forget the normal sizes. Not huge but not small. Same cube as the smaller standard rental truck, I think.

In planning, the folks did not leave a lot of slack in their schedule. I believe school started in Grant County, New Mexico no later than the day after Labor Day. I am guessing around September 3 but [ossibly earlier.  The trip would take about three days and once there, they had to find a place to rent,  get utilities and other business taken care of. and still manage to be ready to go to work. Thankfully they had adequate finances, the source of which I really do not know.  I suspect the California family were generous there as well. Pay checks did not begin until there was work being done. The generosity and charity of dad's siblings was no small thing but I did not feel dad was nearly as grateful and even humble about it as he should have been. I felt  more than a little guilty  at times and tried to be grateful and courteous to them.  Narcisists with a large ego and arrogance seldom are! (Yes, that is a meow!) Charles McCormack Morgan was not a 'nice' guy although he could fake it very well  when he chose to. 

What was I doing or thinking? I wrote next to nothing so just have to recall myself and how I might have been feeling. I was not in a serious time crunch because the NAU fall smester began on September 15 and I would need only a few days to handle the academic and pesonal details. I already knew most of  that drill pretty well. I had  an estabished home to go back to and was almost guaranteed my funds from the scholarship and grant would be available in a timely manner. Even my small emergency cushion was not seriosuly depleted. Therefor, I planned and expected to spend a week or so in New Mexico to help the rest of the family get organized. I actually returned to Flagstaff on September 8. That little aparment at 17 South Agassiz looked prettyfine! It was to be home to me for a year and ten plus months more.I cherished having it to call 'mine'. 

Pictures of the vehicles. FIrst is at the Port of Sacramento--the Volvo coupe. Then later that fall, me with the green Chevy and still later, the next May, Charlie Mike dressed for High Shcool graduation with the same Chevy. Another picture he wore a white shirt and a tie, not a western shirt, but same jacket. And that was not the hat I gave him but a recently bought Stetson,  New Mexcio style. The last two were very old film developed by Alex in a photography class in the late 90s. so very inferior qualtiy. Imight use AI or somethingn to improve them but--not now.

Memoir Monday, August 10, 1968

Although the event I will relate was just a 24 hour thing, it was one of considerable significance to me.  I had heard of the Tevis Cup Endurance Race a number of years before and was very much intrigued by the idea.  Imagine, a 100 mile ride from the foothills above Sacramento  to Lake Tahoe,  over a big block of the High Sierras. One horse, one rider and 24 hours to make the trek. I had long dreamed of taking it with a mule, maybe the first person to do that. Just like on the Iditarod, there are check points along the route and veterinarians examine each horse before it can go on  and can force them to be rested, withdrawn or get treatment. Most have been conditioned very well, however. The entrants take it seriously to say the least. 

Linda Tellington was one of the founders of the event and now a VIP. Another Northern California Elite member high in finance and real estate etc. was Wendell Robie, who was also an avid horse lover and fan of the endurance idea... My uncle was at least slightly acquaintd with him as Doctor Dan Morgan now fancied himself part of the elite, too. He was doing very well as a trauma surgeon sought by many, They got at very cross purposes a few years later but I am sure it was not over horses or this event. Anyway, need some back story, I had been dreaming of taking a mule on the ride, maybe the first to do so  and was so intrigued by the idea. At the time almost desperate to get away from the Verde Valley,  I had written Ms Tellington and asked about a job. She actually  telegraphed me and said if I could get to her place, which I think was on the eastern side of the Sierras, she would take me on a trial basis. But about that same time the near-sure fact I would be going to NAU emerged  and I never acted on the invitation.  I have often wished I had although I am reasonably sure I made the best decision. 

So meanwhile, Uncle offered to take Dad and me up to where the race started as they assembled,  to observe, take photos or network. I am sure it was a Saturday and quite likely August 10. I am not sure what vehicle we used, probably Uncle's SUV.  I do wish I had kept a record of this day especially. Recalling a month later, I gave no details at all. I am thankful that I at least have photographs. I did see Mr Tellington but she was in the middle of everything and I did not get to speak to her. Not that I could have said anything important by now! I didn''t particularly want to speak to Mr Robie but I think Uncle did; I am not sure about Dad. The riders got to Tahoe early to midday the next day and we did not go up for that but I read about it in the newspaper and later Western Horseman. .

Pictures!! I cannot identify most of the people but note a wide variety of tack was used on the horses and evryone was orderly, excited but very calm and controlled This was not an amatuer hour event! First picture:  The lady with the long braid near the horse's head I think is Ms Tellington. In the 2nd note the officer's version of the McClellan saddle--light gear was an advantage! In the 3rd shot, the very tall guy was the senior veterinarian and the small man to his left I think was Mr Robie. I do not believe he was riding but he may have. It was cool to be there, anyway.