Getting old

There's no nice way to say it, because anyway you say it, it still sounds bad. "Getting old". It's not something we look forward to, but eventually it happens. There are a number of things you can do to slow it down, but you can't stop it. It is inevitable. I'm sure there are some good things to say about getting old, but I can't think of any right now.

When I was young I used to worry about my car being ready for the weekend, washed, waxed, tuned and ready to go where ever. Now I look at my truck and say, what's another week or two it's not that dirty, Were not going anywhere anyway and if we do, we can go in the old lady's car.

As far as dressing up goes, forget it, tennis shoes, t-shirt and levis and I'm ready, too bad my wife doesn't agree though. She likes to see me all dressed up when we go somewhere. There was a time when I was young when I used to dress up, of course I was in the Army in Europe at the time. Now I just like to be comfortable. I would wear levis and a t-shirt if I was invited to visit the president of the United States, of course my wife and kids would disown me. For me getting dressed up is not important, I'm still the same person inside regardless of how I look on the outside, so what's the big deal. There are times when I don't mind getting a lil natty, but it depends on what's going down.

I was always known for the nice rides that I had. nice paint, wheels, stereo and low to the ground. I used to ride low and slow, now I just ride slow with about ten cars behind me, they can honk all they want because I don't hear to well. People are always in too much of a hurry anyway.

I don't particularly like being called sir, but when these young kids call me sir, it's o.k. because they are just trying to show respect, something that this world is lacking a lot of, if you know what i mean.

I'm starting to live some of the jokes I used to tell when I was younger. There's this one joke that goes, you know your getting old when you bend down to tie your shoes and you look to see if there's anything else you can do while your down there. It's not funny anymore, because I've found myself doing that.

One thing I noticed is, the things that used to matter to me before are just not all that important now. The only thing that really matters now is my family and friends and the good lord. The sooner you figure that out the better off your going to be. No matter how much your worth, your still going to have problems. Can money buy happiness ? I think not, I've seen poor people that are just as happy as can be. It's called being responsible and living within your means, I think you get the picture. Some people are just happy most or all the time and some people's lives are just full of drama, some even seem to enjoy the drama, don't know why that is, I guess it just comes down to, it takes all kinds of people to make this world go round , of course this is just my opinion, but I think there's some truth in there somewhere.

My hearing is starting to get bad. My wife and kids will sometimes ask me a question and I have no idea what they said, so I just say yes, as if I heard them. Sometimes they give me a funny look and just walk away. Not Maya though, she'll keep on until I understand what she's talking about. There has been a few times when she just says oh Grandpa never mind. Sometimes not being able to hear well has it's advantages, I'm sure the men out there know what I'm talking about. I heard ear phones are not worth buying, unless you buy the real expensive ones. Sorry family your just going to have to except me the way I am.

I told my wife when I retire, no more haircuts and no more shaving. I'm semi-retired and my hair is down to my shoulders and my beards getting longer every day. let's see how this plays out. Hey I told you guys I think a little different. My wife tells me I'm crazy. I'm not hurting anybody so what's the problem.

I bought me a Harley when I was sixty-four, some of the young folks "that are already old" ask me, why would I buy a Harley at my age, well why not, I like them, getting older doesn't mean you stop liking things that are cool, older people stop liking/doing things because they listen to other people that tell them," your too old to do that" but not me, if people don't like what I do, well so sorry. How does that song go, I'll do it my way. well folks, that's me. I still like the old Bomba's too and if the opportunity presents itself, I'll buy one. Lowriders are still cool to me. One thing I did notice is that I'm running over more curbs lately and I keep scraping the curb with the side of my tires, I think the side of my tire is showing more wear then the bottom, this is something I would not allow on my cool rides before. When I bought my Harley my wife and kids wanted me to get all dressed up the way they do on t.v. I still say what's the big deal, if I ride my Bike with levis with holes in em and an ol greasy t-shirt, what's wrong with that. w.t.f. I'm a biker....hah

One good thing about getting old is your taste in a lot of things starts to change and you start paying attention to things that you didn't care about before, like some music for instance. A lot of the music I didn't care about before, I find pretty cool now, I'm reading a lot more and I'm reading books I wouldn't even think about reading before. Your taste does change for the better as far as I'm concerned.

Being called Dad and Grandpa by your children and Grandchildren is the most honorable and respected achievements that I have earned in my life, it's just special when your kids call you Dad or your Grandchildren call you Grampa. It's something I can't get enough of, no matter what they are up to.

Now here's some good advice for you youngsters out there, more then likely your going to run into some bad times with your health, probably after the age of fifty. Hopefully not, but if you do, meet it head on whatever it is, read all you can about it, research your condition on the internet, ask lots of questions, try and become an authority on your condition, exercise regularly and eat well. Exercising and eating well are the two most important things you can do to help yourself out. When you exercise, concentrate on your legs mainly, "they say the legs are the first to go" because when you do this, whatever exercise you are doing will help you with your cardiovascular also, which is very important. O.k. enough of that, I just thought I would just throw that in here, because I think it's important.

Brain farts are tough, sometimes you'll be talking about something and the next thing you know, you have no idea what the hell you were talking about, sometimes you just have to wing it and make it sound like you do, depending on the situation, but I usually just say "oops brain fart" most people understand.

When I was in the Army, I was in an Artillery unit and my ears got blown out, Rock and Roll didn't help much either. Later my legs started getting real weak, but as I stated above, exercise and it will help you more then you can ever imagine. I play softball all summer long on three different teams, I wouldn't be able to do this if I didn't exercise.

I'm just trying to give you an idea what it's going to be like when you get older. I know a lot of you will handle getting old a lot better then I have, hopefully that's true for all of you, In essence, this is just my perspective on what it's like on your journey in becoming an old fart...hah

Jazzy

My Grandaughter Jazzy was born about sixteen years ago. When i seen her in the hospital, i got that good feeling you get when you see a newborn ( especially one of your own ) she was a beautiful little baby. The next day i was at work when my wife called me and said there was something wrong with the baby, i just got this ugly feeling, so i told my supervisor i had to go home. It was really scary when the doctor told us what he had to do to her, she was an infant and she was going to get operated on. The doctor told us she had hydrocephalus, she got operated on and we all went through some very hard times with her. Jazzy, Gwen, Belinda and myself, there was some weeks when we had to go to the hospital sometimes three four times a week, because something didn't seem right, sometimes we would be there till early in the morning. We would wait for the doctor for hours, just to have him come out and say she's o.k. It was scary when she used to choke when she was drinking from her bottle, you just felt helpless, but i'll tell you what, this is one strong kid. All the health issues she's had and now she's very very healthy. she hardly ever gets sick now. I give Belinda and Gwen a lot of credit for being so strong and taking care of Jazzy during these critical days of her life, Adrienne wasn't living with us at the time, but i knew we could count on her if needed. When we brought her home and she had that bandage on her head, she just seemed so fragile. I was afraid to pick her up, because i thought i might hurt her. There was one therapist that came to the house for awhile to kinda see how she's doing and he told us that Jazzy would never be able to remember anything for a long period of time, he said when she learns something , she'll forget it right away, one guy told us that she'll never be able to walk or talk or do anything. Jazzy sure proved them wrong, she can walk, she can't talk but she can do sign, she can get the remote and turn the t. v. on and find her favorite program, she knows how to operate the d.v.d. player. This kid just trips me out all the time. Sometimes when she's thirsty she'll go and get the juice out of the refrigerator and bring it to you with her cup and you better be ready for it. sometimes my wife or daughter's having a real hard time with her and i have to go help, a lot of times i calm her down by singing to her, can you imagine me singing, itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus, twinkle twinkle little star, you are my sunshine and many more. It calms her down. If for some reason she doesn't like what i'm singing. she has her way of letting me know, usually a grunt and when your not paying attention to her she'll give you a head butt, upper cut, kick, or all of the above. I've really gotten good in self defense. she's tricky though and she still gets me with that upper cut, i never see them coming. Sometimes you'll be walking by and she'll kick you and start laughing. Now if it would have been one of my other Grandkids they would hear about it because they know better, but not Jazzy because she doesn't really know any better, but in some cases she does know the difference between right and wrong. I know this sounds a little contradictory, but you would have to walk in our shoes to know what i'm talking about.

Sometimes she does things that you just have no idea why she does them. Like when she was a little baby, the squeak of a door hinge would set her off into a major tantrum, but now she'll go get the cabinet door and move it back and forth to make it squeak, one day we were sitting in the kitchen and Jazzy comes running in the kitchen and goes over to the cabinet door and opens it and makes it squeak a few times then goes back in the living room, we all just look at each other and think what the heck was that all about ? We just kind of attribute that to living with Jazzy. She is special you know.

Sometimes we sit on the couch and i do, this little piggy went to market thing with her over and over and over again, it's her favorite. I also do the one potato two potato and the one little two little indian thing with her, she loves it. I also do my imitation of James Brown and one of his doo wop songs and some others. She cracks up.

Everybody just loves Jazzy, my Grandkids understand her situation and they are very good with her. My favorite is when she gets that Jack Nicholson look, that's when you need to watch out. Today Maya told me she was going to go to her Dads house for Christmas, so i pretended that i was crying and i was telling Maya please don't go and Jazzy thought it was funny, she just started cracking up. When Maya cries Jazzy thinks it's funny.

The other day she woke up and turned on the t.v. and she had it on the Spanish channel, they were playing some pretty hot salsa, some times she'll have the t.v. on the Jazz channel, she also likes the song by James Brown, Get on up. and a bunch of others. Sometimes i'll get her and whistle a tune and start dancing with her, I put one of her hands on my shoulder and i hold the other and we dance, i'll spin her around and she loves it, but if she's not in the mood, she'll just grunt and push me away. I know better than to push my luck, so i just leave her alone. She can get moody sometimes, but that's o.k., you just have to know when to back off and let her be. The other day i was taking her out to the bus to go to school and i had her hand on my chest as i was walking out the door and i let go of her hand to open the door and pow, upper cut, right on the jaw, then i took her out to the bus and i was standing behind her as she was climbing up the steps to the bus, she tried to get me with a backwards head butt, but she missed, so then she tried to kick backwards and she caught me on the leg. I tell you, she keeps me on my toes. I've seen her catch the bus driver a couple of times, it's not funny but i can't help myself, i have to laugh, after i get back in the house. She has gotten better though, or maybe we've gotten faster. Jazzy is a beautiful little girl and of course she has her problems, but she is capable of learning, it's just going to take her longer than others.

This kid really loves to go cruising, especially to McDonalds, you have to put her in front though, she won't ride in the back, so that means when Belinda's driving, i have to ride in the back, like a big dork. That's o.k. if it makes her happy, then i'm o.k. with it. Sometimes you just have to go with what ever makes her happy. She's suffered so much because of her disabilities, that you get to a point when you say that's alright as long as she's happy.

There was an amazing thing that happened once, it was when we went to have Jazzy baptised, it was after her operation and she was having seizures all day and night, we had taken her to the Doctor, but he said there was nothing he could do about them, well when we went to the church to have her baptised i prayed to God to please make the seizures go away and not knowing it at the time, Belinda was praying for the same thing. When Jazzy left church, she had one more seizure and that was it. Thank you Lord.

When Jazzy learned how to use the t.v. we put in her room for her, it was hard to keep her off it, one thing she loved doing was turning up the volume real loud and we would go running in the room to turn it down and she thought that was hilarious. I tried putting duct tape over the volume controls, but she just pulled the tape off, I even went as far as putting bondo on the volume control, but she managed to pick at it, until she got it off. I finally ended up gluing the control with super glue, she managed to break it loose one time, so i put it on real thick and that did it, poor t.v. looked like hell after all that, it had residue from the duct tape, bondo, super glue and little pieces of plastic that i tried gluing over the volume control that she broke off. After that it was the d.v.d. player, once she learned how to use that, she just kept on changing the discs and eventually she broke it, after about three d.v.d players, we tried hiding them, we hid one below the t.v., she found it real quick, we tried hiding it in a drawer, she found it, we put it in a box, she found it. I finally had to disconnect it and put it away. Gwen bought her a c.d. player cause she loves music and Julian made her a c.d. with her favorite music on it, she learned how to operate it, so now we were stuck listening to James Brown, Lady Gaga, and Sesame street. We also gave the bus driver a copy to calm her down if she ever started acting up and she did play it for her, so now Jazzy's cruising in the bus listening to her c.d.

One thing i want you all to understand, it's not easy trying to correct some one like Jazzy, because she doesn't understand things the way other kids do, i guess that's why they came up with the name special needs. You have to just keep trying till you find something that works, but something that works today, might not work tomorrow, some of you might think we're spoiling her, but that's not the case, We believe Jazzy's tantrums come from her frustrations from not being able to communicate verbally, she does know how to do sign, but that only helps so much. If only Jazzy could talk, if she could, i think it would make a world of difference for her. Raising a child like Jazzy is not easy, but at the same time, it's very rewarding. Every time she learns something new it just makes you so happy. I've taught her how to say Mama, what a trill that was when she first said it. Yesterday i was teaching her how to say no and she said it, but it came out sounding more like "not", close enough. I was told that if she didn't learn to talk by the age of five, she would never learn, but that's not true. There has been cases where children have learned to talk when they were in there teens. So you have to keep trying. Sometimes when i'm trying to teach Jazzy how to talk, i'm the one who sounds like the one who's special needs. Jazzy's brought a lot into our life. she's an amazing child. Like i said before, you would have to walk in our shoes to know what i'm talking about.

money

Growing up in a small town, your opportunities are limited and you learn that it's going to be hard to accomplish something without a struggle of some sort, especially when it involves trying to make some cash, but you know that with a little help, and a little creative thinking you can do it. Being that i was just a kid, it was definitely hard for me to get my hands on some cash. There never was any good jobs available, but that didn't mean that you should go and cry about it, the best thing to do was to use what you learned growing up.
I remember when i was in my pre teens, in order to get money to go to the show or buy a toy or whatever it was i wanted, i would go out and find soda bottles and sell them, sometimes this meant getting one of my cousins and getting on my bike and me pedaling and him on the handlebars, we would ride down the alleys and any bottles we found were ours, don't know if the people put the bottles out there because they didn't want them, but that was our reasoning for picking them up and every once in awhile we would see a garage door open with some bottles by the door and the bottles would somehow jump out the door and we would pick them up. ( please forgive me lord ) hey on a good day, at a penny a bottle, we might make fifty cents, thats twenty five cents each. WHOOPEE we would spend two to three hours doing this, then go and spend our twenty five cents. I did have a steady job though, once a year my neighbor would get a load of fire wood and have it dumped in his garage and i would go stack it for him, he would pay me three dollars. Also every year right before the fair, this lady would give me a job mowing her lawn for another two bucks, i mowed her lawn once a year for Christ sake. For two weeks before the fair i earned all the money i could so i could have money to spend during the fair. My twenty-five cent allowance didn't go very far during the fair. ( i would get an allowance during the summer months only ) When the fair was over we would stay there until everyone went home on sunday night. Then we would go around and find someone who needed help tearing the rides down, one of the carnies would always hire us, of course there was no child labor laws back then. We would stay and work all night, the problem was, after we got done working, it would be about five or six o clock in the morning and we would be hungry as hell. they always kept a food stand there, it was usually the last thing to get torn down, so we would go and spend part of our money at the food stand, because we would be starving. some of the guys would spend most of their money on food. Tearing down the rides was kinda fun but it was hard work. The thing is, sometimes you could find money or other things that people lost, you just had to be looking all the time.
i would get an allowance during the prune picking season, which would amount to the grand total of twenty five cents, although Mom would up this periodically to fifty cents. One time at the end of the prune picking season, my Mom gave my brother and my cousin (who was living with us at the time ) their whole last check, they had been working loading trucks i believe, and told them to buy their school clothes and they could use the rest of the money how ever they wanted. I'm there thinking, alright, nice big raise in my allowance, yeah right, i get fifty cents, talk about a big disappointment, here i'm walking with my bro and cuz and they are talking about going shopping and all the things that they are going to buy and that fifty cents of mine is looking smaller and smaller. I did plead my case with Mom but she wouldn't budge, her reasoning was that i was too young, maybe i was but that didn't make it any better for me. She could have at least given me a dollar. I did get my day though when i was sixteen or seventeen. I worked swamping, that's loading prune boxes and driving truck all summer. very hard work for someone who only weighed about a hundred and twenty pounds soak and wet. At the end of the season, i asked Mom, if i could keep my last check to buy a car and before i could even finish saying what i was going to say, she said, no. now my Mom hardly ever goes back on what she says, but i didn't give up either, finally she relented and said, yes. I was so happy. I took that check and the money i had saved during the summer. I was allowed to keep ten- fifteen dollars out of my check every week, i would spend half on clothes and the other half i saved, i think i had something like sixty dollars saved. My brother Mundo co signed for me to get the car "although i know he was having a lot of second thoughts" I bought a 1953 ford at a car lot in Yuba City, on payments of twenty-five dollars a month. Once the prune picking season was over, i didn't have a job, but i did have a car payment. what to do, what to do. well i graduated from picking up bottles to picking up scrap iron and selling it, hey i had a car, i could do this. I would work and when the work stopped, i would sell whatever i could get my hands on, and by working on my car, i learned how to fix them sorta, so i used to fix them for a small fee. Took me awhile but i finally paid my car off, much to the relief of my brother Mundo. Mom and Dad ended up moving to Woodland, so i ended up taking over Dads part of the gardening business in Colusa that Mundo and Dad shared. I was still a teenager and part owner of a business. The problem was i did the job and i was very good at it, but i hated gardening. I did this for a couple years and then i moved to Woodland and went back to work out in the fields with Pop.

I just want to say that i had no problem giving my Mom most of my check, once she explained what was really going on. We usually had cousins or friends living with us and yes they worked too, but it took a lot of money to feed and cloth our big family. Everyone chipped in. Actually we had it pretty good during the summer months, because everybody worked.
When i went to work out in the fields, i would work ten hours a day, six days a week and make about fifty bucks a week. I don't believe there was a minimum wage back then, if there was, they didn't honor it. that was some very hard work. You gotta remember that everything was very cheap back then, you could get a dozen eggs and a gallon of milk for about a dollar and a gallon of gas was about thirty cents. Six pack of beer was a dollar. candy bar was five cents. (this year 2010, i bought a candy bar the other day and it was $1.79 ) Most families back then would buy what they needed during the summer because that's when the work was available, so what you bought in the summer had to last you all winter. Winter was always the hardest time to try and find work of course, but Mom and Dad always found a way to get by and i learned from them. Right now today we are in a recession, but you know what, I know, some way, some how, my wife and i will make it through these hard times and one day we'll look back and say, hey you remember that recession we were in and what we had to do to get by, member you member. I'm sure we'll have a good chuckle about it. I guess all the things i learned when i was growing up, really taught me how to get by when the work was scarce. The other thing is, if you have faith, the good Lord will help you find a way. I believe in God with all my heart and i know he's watching out for me. If he wasn't, there's no way i would be here today after all the crazy stuff i did as a kid and adult, at the same time, i'm sure i gave him a laugh or two.

Cindy

I remember when my sister Cindy was born, we were living out at Chibics ranch. I couldn't have been more then five years old, but i remember them driving up and everyone making a fuss, including me. Of course as she got older she became Dads favorite and you couldn't tell her anything or she would go and tell Dad. I know i got my fair share of scoldings. Dad used to pay her a dime to go to school, can you believe that. If i asked for a dime to go to school i would just get ignored or laughed at. One thing about our family was that we all had our time being Mom and Dads favorite. We had a little sister named Renee,who was born after Cindy and she became all our favorite, unfortunately she only lived to be three years old, when she passed, it left a great big void in all our lives, she was very, very special to all of us. Cindy didn't mind being Dads favorite after Renee.
I remember this one time when i was about ten, i was shooting my b b gun at this basketball backstop in our back yard. Cindy was under it and apparently one of the bbs hit the metal rim on the back stop and went straight down and hit her on the head, she started screaming and crying and saying that i shot her in the head and i'm trying to get her to be quiet and she starts crying louder and louder and i'm getting frantic because i know my Dad is going to take the bb gun away from me. I'm offering her money ( i probably had about five or six cents on me ) but she wouldn't take it. She was adamant about telling on me, because she said that i intentionally shot her in the head. When she thought she was right, you could forget about changing her mind, she wouldn't budge. I think she was born with a personality of half Grandma and half Mom. That makes for a very strong personality. ( and hardheadedness ) No disrespect meant Mom and Grandma.
Cindy always had to have the last word, no matter what, if she was leaving the room and you were arguing with her, she would make sure she got in the last word, or she just wouldn't leave. I would try to get in the last word, but in the end i would give in, it would get darn right frustrating arguing with her. I wonder if she's still like that. I spent a lot of time at Grandma's house, so i know how she was and Cindy really reminds me of her in a lot of her mannerisms. Grandma loved to dance, she was strong willed, she had a great sense of humor and she loved her family. Although Grandma never played the accordion, I have no doubt in my mind, given the opportunity, she would have tried. About the only thing she didn't get from my Grandma was that deadly accurate throwing arm. My Grandma could take a prune and knock a fly off a horses ass from fifty feet. She was deadly accurate, ask my cousin Michael.
Cindy was probably about twelve when i left home. She was always pretty independent, so I never had to beat anyone up for her when she was young, well maybe just once. What she lacked in strength, she made up with her smarts. She could take care of herself.

My Sis loves to dance, just like our Grandma did, when there's a party she'll dance from one end of the room to the other, she just never stops. When i was told someone had bought her an accordion, there was no doubt in my mind that one day she'd be dancing and playing it at her parties. Joe's so lucky to be able to enjoy all that raw talent, I'm sure she plays, sings and dances for him all the time. Hah.

Pop

My Dad was the kind of Dad that you could always depend on, and he always seemed to make the right decisions and of course he wanted his boys to be the same. As a young man there were times when i did something that was not right and my Dad would make sure that i paid the consequences for my misdeed, in order for me to learn from my mistakes. Dad wouldn't beat you or anything like that, what he would do was talk to you and make sure when he was done with you, that there was no doubt in your mind that what you did was unexceptable and you knew exactly why. Although it took me awhile to figure it all out, the lessons i learned from my Dad have always stayed with me. I remember when my Dad used to take me with him to work. You know how kids are in the morning when you wake them up, they complain, and say they don't want to get up, well when my Dad would come in the room and tell me, i was going to work with him, i would be up in a flash. It was always a privilege to go with my Dad. I remember going with him to work when he was driving caterpillar, i used to spend the whole day out there with him, he used to let me drive that cat. We would plow up a whole field and it was really cool driving that thing and when the day was over, we would be covered with dust from head to toe, which as far as i was concerned as a kid, made it even more cool. I was in my preteens, so everything my Dad did was cool. There was this one time when my Dad told me he had to move the caterpillar to another orchard, a little ways from our house. My Dad went over to the farm and picked up this big truck with a trailer, and he told me to sit inside and put my foot on the brakes, and he was going to drive the caterpillar up on the trailer. It was a big deal for me to be able to do that. I know,I know. I was just a kid, what did i know. My Dad loaded that big ol cat in that trailer and we headed out. My Dad driving, me riding shotgun, i didn't get much better then that. He drove to this area and stopped before he crossed this bridge over this small creek, pulled over and asked me if i could drive the truck over the bridge to where he was going to park the caterpillar. Now i couldn't have been more then 11 or 12 years old at the time. I couldn't believe my luck and of course i told him yes i can do it Pop. and i'm thinking oh please please let me drive this truck, please, please, please. I wanted to drive that truck so bad. My Dads thinking about it, cause he has to park that cat quit a ways away from where were at. so while he's thinking, i'm hoping and praying that he'll give me a chance to drive the truck and that little bridge is starting to look like the Golden Gate Bridge and that little creek is starting to look like the ocean and i'm praying that one of my friends will just happen to drive by and see me driving that big ol truck, please, please, please let me drive it. I'm sitting there thinking and all these different scenarios are going thru my head, when my Dad climbs in the truck and says, " never mind " My head was like this big giant balloon and Dad just let all the air out, I should have known, because like i said before, my Dad always made the right decisions, no telling what might have happened if he had let me drive that truck across that bridge. man talk about a let down. That was o.k. i think i still made points with him because i wasn't afraid to try. my Dad was still my hero, there was nobody in this world cooler than my Dad. When we would come home from work and i would hear my Dad tell my Mom that i drove the cat, and i did a pretty good job, my head and chest would swell up. And if any of my brothers or sisters were in the room and they gave me that " you brat " look, well that made it all the better. Too bad i didn't listen to my Dad more and pay attention when he would tell me, i was screwing up, it sure would have made my life so much easier, but i had to go out and learn the hard way. Whenever i screwed up Dad would have his talk with me and when he was finished, he would walk over to me and pat me on the shoulder and say, " you'll be alright" and that was it. For some reason i always remember that, in fact i do the same thing now. Like my sister Connie said, "it's the little things in life"
Dad was always real organized with his stuff, especially with his tools. I remember when i used to ask him if i could borrow his tools to fix my bike, he would never say no, but he would always say, make sure you put them back. Ok Dad, no problem. I always fixed my bikes right there on the front lawn, so of course i would loose his tools in the grass. My Dad would find his missing tools when he mowed the lawn, if you know what i mean. And of course i would get my butt chewed out for screwing up the blade on his lawnmower. The next time i asked to borrow his tools he would raise his eyebrows and take in a deep breath and shake his finger at me, ( no not the middle one ) and tell me with that look only he could give you and say, ok but make sure you put them back this time. I think i used to hold my breath the whole time when i asked him because i always expected him to say, no. Of course he had every reason to but he didn't. I know a lot of Dads would take the tools and lock them up and never let their kids use them again, but thank God Pop didn't do that, because i learned how to fix things, and make things. Just the other day, i needed this tool to tighten the spokes on my bike, well i went to the bike store to get one and the tool was something like ten-fifteen dollars. I had the tool in my hand and i said to myself. self you can make this, so i went home and made it. The money was no big deal, it was just the idea that i could make it myself, thanks to Dad of course, because he never discouraged me from fixing things. I wish you all could see some of the things my Dad used to build, he was very good at it and i was lucky enough to acquire some of his skills, in fact all my brothers did. Thank you Pop.
My brother and i worked with my Dad, when he ran that ranch out there by Elkhorn. I thought for sure it was going to be a piece of cake working under my Dad, WRONG, My Dad expected you to carry your weight, so we had to work just as hard as everyone else, ( when my Dad was looking ). Hey my brother and i were still young guys and we liked to have fun,we always had a ball with the boys from Mexico, even though we couldn't speak Spanish very well and they couldn't speak English at all, we still found a way to communicate with them. Dad would even go along with us if it was something funny, we all got it from him, he was the consummate practical joker, he used to come up with some good stuff, like when he would drive that old, half jeep, half pickup vehicle of his out in the field to pick us all up at the end of the day. He would drive by and it was up to you to jump on because he wouldn't stop, or when he would stop and when you went to jump on, he would take off real fast and you miss the vehicle and land on the ground, either that or he would slam on the brakes when you went to jump on and you go flying into the back of the vehicle landing on the other guys or the dogs, nobody ever got hurt, but we always had a good laugh, even when it was at our own expense. Dad loved working out there, but for me, i couldn't get into that line of work. So i moved on to other things.
I spent a lot of quality time with my Dad right before he got sick and i'm so glad i listened to my sisters, because they used to tell me to go see him as often as i could. And just spend time with him and let him talk, so i did. Dad told me a lot of things about his past, about the way it was for him when he came over here from Mexico. I remember him telling me about the time he went into this bar and stood up to this big dude, and how the dude respected him for that. Mom would be sitting right there listening and correcting him on some of the small details of his stories. Pop wasn't always so mello, he did have a little wild streak in him. Now i know where i got that urge for that periodic walk on the wild side.
I sure miss those Sundays when i used to go visit Mom and Dad, and Mom would make us a delicious breakfast with her home made Tortillas, and we could just sit there and talk about anything we wanted to talk about, most the time the conversation would end up with them talking about how it was in their day. I always enjoyed that. Some of their stories were very sad and others were very funny, but you know what, their stories let you know just how strong they had to be to endure all the hardships they went thru. their life together and their love for each other was truly amazing.

Mom

As i got older, I used to go to my Moms on the weekend and she would tell me stories about her childhood that were truly amazing, Just to give you an idea what Moms life was like. Mom lost her Mom when she was a very young girl, I don't believe Mom was a teenager yet when her mom died. Mom was taken in by her aunt and uncle who were in charge of a labor camp and she was put to work to help out around the camp. Mom had to wash clothes for the workers and she had to wash them in the creek and or river by hand . There were other chores she had to do also. They probably broke all our present day child labor laws. I used to hear the same stories from her and Dad over and over and to tell you the truth, i never got tired of hearing them. Moms life as a young girl was pretty rough. For Mom to live the life she did and come out the person she was, Is a testimony to her strength and character. Mom had a pretty rough life, but things changed for the better when she met Pop, The thing is, they still went through some pretty rough times. but at least they were together. I tried to remember all their stories, so i could tell them to the young folks,To give you an idea of Moms strength and character. I remember one time Mom told me this story about when her and Dad lived up on the levee over at Knaggs ranch. There was just the two of them living in a mobile home on the top of the levee. Dad was the ranch foreman. Mom told me one night they were home and this guy comes over to the house and tells my Dad that he was fishing out by the river and he couldn't get his car started, he said his battery was dead and asked if my Dad could help him, and my Dad being the good guy that he was, told him he had a battery that he would let him borrow, if he brought it back the next day, and the guy says sure. ( yeah right ) My Mom didn't like the idea of Dad going by himself with this guy, so she told them that she was going with them, So my Dad gets the battery and puts it in the trunk of the car and my Mom goes and gets her pellet gun that looked like a 45 pistol and puts it under her apron and when she gets in the car she moves the apron to the side to make sure the guy sees the gun. Mom said the guy got real nervous when he seen the gun, and he was nervous the whole time that they drove him over to the car. especially since Mom was sitting right behind him. I would have payed to see the look on that guys face when they were driving him over to his car, and i wonder what he was thinking. I guess you can't blame the guy, but he never brought Dad his battery back. At least he has a story to tell his Grandkids.
When i was a teenager my Mom used to drive to the store and stuff, but that was about it. She never got her drivers license, but she was a pretty good driver. Once we left Colusa, she quit driving altogether. My Mom hadn't driven in years when her and Pop lived up on that levee at Knaggs ranch. Well there was this one time when they were living there that Dad got real sick, Mom thought he was having a heart attack. It was raining cats and dogs and it was just a terrible night to be out. Mom figured she had to get Dad to the hospital real quick, so she told Dad she would drive him. Now my Dad said he didn't want her to drive, but he thought he might be having a heart attack also, so he agreed. They had a big car at the time and i believe it was that big Buick they got from Ernest. Mom had to back that car up and turn it around on the levee, and drive all the way to the hospital in Woodland. Dad said he was scared half to death, because Mom couldn't see the road real well and kept getting real close to going off the side of the levee. Come to find out Dad didn't have a heart attack, but he said he almost did on that ride to the hospital.
I remember we used to have these big water fights. I think Dad was the one who would always start them by wetting one of us kids when he was watering the plants. Before you knew it, we all got involved, even Mom and Dad. I can still remember the look on Mom and Dads face as they watched everyone having fun. Kids and grownups running around chasing each other with glasses of water and even a water bucket, or the water hose, anything that had water in it. Now those were some really fun times. Member you member. Those were the days when i would come home late at night and find kids laying all over the living room floor. I would step over one and end up stepping on another ones hand or something. Mom and Dad liked them big houses, that way they could fit more kids/people into them, One thing about the kids though, was that they all knew that you just didn't mess with Mom and Pop, because if you did something they didn't aprove of, you would have the whole family down on you. Mom was the disciplinarian, Pop was there to back her up, and we all knew when Pop had to get involved, you were in big trouble. Sometimes i can be like Mom, and sometimes i can be like Pop. It just depends on what my kids did, and how serious it was.
I always enjoyed sitting out on the porch on a summer day and drinking Moms ice sun tea. Man that had to be the best tea ever, and she always had plenty of it in the refrigerator. Sitting on that porch on a summer evening with a beer, ice tea, soda or whatever your preference was, just made for a great evening. The kids would be running around the house or playing in the front yard. Playing crack the whip or tag or volley ball, or some other made up game, and all the adults would be shooting the bull on the porch. That house was perfect for our family. We didn't need cell phones,loud music,hand held nintendo games, etc. We had it all going on right there. We are a family and a darn good one, and i feel blessed to be a part of it. Thank you familia

dogs

We always had a dog when i was a kid.My Dad always had to have at least one dog. Most of them were German Shepherds named Lobo.We also had Fido,Rusty,Mugs,spot,Tippy, Queenie and Donchie. I'm sure there were others, but i can't remember them all right now.
When i was very young we had a dog named half-a-de-medio. ( I think thats how you spell it ) Yup thats right that was his name.I don't know who gave him that name, but for some reason i think it was Dad. His color was half black and half white, thus the name Halfademedio. My memory might not be entirely correct, because i was very young at the time, but what i remember about this dog was that he was small like a terrier.And he had an attitude. At the time we were living in a house right next to the levee.The house was owned by this farmer who kept these razor back pigs on our property. Every once in awhile these pigs would break out of their pen and head straight for the chicken coop and go on a rampage. Whenever this happened, us kids had to run for the house because those pigs were considered very dangerous.I remember being scared half to death by these pigs numerous times. My Dad,the farmer and others would come and herd them back into their pen. No easy task. After they got them back we would come out and play again. There was this one time when they broke out and Halfademedio went after them. Sad to say, but those pigs got a hold of him, and each one grabbed a leg and tore him right in half. Don't mean to sound cruel but i guess he lived up to his name. After that i remember throwing rocks at those pigs every time i went by their pen, and i wasn't the only one. I think all that did was make them meaner. I never really cared for that place. I was glad when we moved. I don't remember where we moved when we left that ranch. We were always moving somewhere in the general area of Colusa.
I remember one time i was going to my grandma's house at the Colonia. I was about 7 or 8 at the time, and my Tio had this dog called stubby. It was part Doberman Pincher, but it was small. That had to be the meanest dog ever, well in my eyes he was. I was on one of my typical outings to Gramma's house. I walked up to the front gate and this dog comes charging the gate and jumps at it like he wanted to tear me up. You ever see the movie where the little native kid is being chased by this big gigantic lion, well that's how i felt. Man i was booking it down the street and screaming the whole time. Not till i got home did i realize that the dog couldn't get out of the gate. Thank god my Tio locked the gate. I had the ultimate respect for my Tio, but i had no use for that dog of his. My Tio always used to laugh at us because we were afraid of his dog , but that dog was no laughing matter for any of us. Another time in my preteens, i was walking home from my friend Danny's house and i got to this house that i knew there was a dog that was real mean, so when i get to the house i jump up on the fence so he can't get me. Well i'm up on the fence and this darn dog's trying to get me, and i'm laughing at him and wouldn't you just know it, my foot slips and i fall and straddle the fence, and yes i crushed my little nuggets. Now i'm sitting there, crushed nuggets and all and this stupid dog's still trying to get me and i look at him and say, get away from me you stupid @$#%& dog or i'll kill you. Well the dog stops barking at me and just walks away. At the time i really believe i could have killed that dog and he knew it.
Our dogs usually ate the leftovers from what we ate. Every once in awhile they would get a can of dog food but that didn't happen too often. They never had any shots what so ever, and they were never licensed.They were always very healthy. They were never tied up, and they never bit anybody. They would protect us though, it seemed like they knew who our friends were. The dogs had the run of the neighborhood. And nobody ever complained about them. I've owned a few dogs but, i'm not that good with them. It's just that i know that you have to be good to a dog,I don't believe a dog should be penned up, they need to get out and go for a walk once in awhile. It's almost like raising a child. Maybe i'll get one later, but for now i don't think so. They say a dog is a man's best friend, O.k, o.k. and a women's too, thats so true. Once a dog becomes your friend, he's a friend for life.

Teenagers

I became a teenager in 1957. Probably the biggest thing to happen in 1957 that i can remember was the 1957 chevy bel-air made it's debut, what a beautiful car. I was a teenager and i was already a car nut. My brother could put a new mirror on the car and i would think it was the coolest thing in the world. I was hooked o.k. The scene back then out in front of our house at the colonia was, there would be Dad, Mundo, Jr, Jack, Michael, myself and maybe Mr Hasty or Mr Whaley. ( Mr Hasty and Mr Whaley didn't know a thing about cars but they didn't mind putting in their two bits), we would be out there tinkering with the car trying to get it going for hours. Jessie Troughton our neighbor would be looking out her kitchen window throwing her lil remarks too. And don't forget the cat lady Mrs Spinks. Our little Grandma would come walking down the street over to our house with her trademark one hand above her eyes and the other swinging in front of her. Some of us have inherited this from her and i'm one of them, i inherited the swinging arm. Kids would be running all over the neighborhood with the dogs and whatever other animal we might have, once we had a pet sheep and once we had a pet deer, This was the 50s and a lot of things didn't matter back then like they do now. Our government is so prevalent in our lives now that you can't hardly do anything without them getting involved, and it's getting worse all the time. life was so simple back then.
Back then the style of hair was, most girls had the pony tail and the guys had the flat top or crew cut or the pompadour and some times your dad just got you and cut it all off, kinda like the way kids wear it now a days. A kid wouldn't dare wear his hair long like they do now. If they did he would probably get his butt kicked.
Once i was introduced to music i was hooked. I always tried to keep up with the latest songs that came out. so i had a stack of 45s ( records ) that was second to none. My brother Jack and my Cousin Michael had a pretty good collection too. Little Richard,Fats Domino, Chuck Berry,The Drifters, Hank Ballard and the Midniters,The Cadillacs, The Sherilles,The Dubs. Songs like Lucille,There goes my baby, Annie had a baby, Johnnie be good, Could this be magic, Speedo, Blueberry Hill, Man those were some cool jams. Going to parties or dances was cool too, People were always trying to dance like the people on American Bandstand.The twist, the stroll, the mashed potatoes, the jerk, the hitch hike,the pony. I enjoyed the parties and stuff, but i was a boy trying to be a man, and not doing a very good job of it.
School was o.k. i guess but it just wasn't for me. Although i didn't like school, my grades were not terrible. I did o.k. up to my freshman year, then things went to hell in a hand basket. In them days when you entered the classroom you had to go to your desk and sit down, the teacher was in control and his/her word was law. You couldn't just go in there and screw up or they would deal with you. Back then when a guy screwed up it was something like throwing spit balls or talking during class, passing notes. sometimes it would involve a fight, but that was about as violent as it would get. The majority of students were white and then Mexican, Indians a few Asians and not too many black people. I hung out with mainly Mexican people but i also hung out with other races too. I never had a problem getting along with people.
My cousin and i would go to school and we would walk in one door and out the other and usually head over to the river and do kinda like Huckleberry Fin. We eventually got caught by the truant officer, a Mrs Doty. she'd been on to us for awhile, and she finally got us. I got a butt chewing for that one by Mom and Dad and my sisters. My brothers thought it was funny, They must have done the same thing, but i don't remember them getting caught. Getting caught skipping school was a big deal back then. I'm sure glad they didn't have that law like they have now where the parent can go to jail if the kid doesn't go to school. Mom and Dad would probably be sporting tatoos. School was just too boring for me. I still have a problem sitting and listening to someone talk about things that don't interest me, i guess everybody does, but for me there was an alternative. And that was to quit school and go to work in the fields, so i quit and went to work. My first job was working out in the prune orchards ( of course ) I was pruning trees in the winter time, it was freezing out there in the morning. It was a terrible job, but at least i was making money and helping out Mom and Pop. The important thing to note here is that i had a choice to stay in school or get out and i decided to get out. Now i always think about what i could have done if i would have stayed in school. I learned later on that if you find something that your good at, you can usually use that as a starting point for a career. If you like music you don't have to become a singer . You can become a promoter or any other number of jobs that are tied to the music industry. I should have stayed in school. But i didn't and i'm left to wonder what could have been. Stay in school people and get yourself an education. Believe me you won't regret it.
Being sixteen and living in such a small town, i always had to go looking for something to do, i was very restless. so i got me a car and started hanging out with my friends and started doing things that got me in trouble every so often. One time Dad went outside in the morning and seen all my car windows were broken.And he asked me what happened, of course i couldn't tell him the whole truth so i just shrugged my shoulders and said some guys were mad at me and broke my windows.Dad looked at me and to my surprise he said, you probably deserved it, pissed me off because he was right, but how did he know ? Dad used to talk to me, but i thought i could just go on doing as i pleased. There was this guy who used to pick on my cousin all the time and my cousin told me about it, so i went and told him to leave him alone or i would kick his butt, Well he didn't so him and i got in a fight. After that i thought it was all over, but one day i'm with my friends going to the Colonia and this car comes speeding up behind us and follows us to the Colonia, it was the same guy. I stopped in front of our house and we get out and the guy jumps out with a shotgun and points it right at my stomach, I couldn't show that i was scared of this guy with all my friends around so i stood my ground and told him to fight me like a man ( i think i seen that in a movie once ) I'm still here so of course he changed his mind. And he backed off and him and his partner left. I wasn't brave, i was stupid, can you imagine what i would have put my family through if that guy would have pulled the trigger. My wife and my 4 daughters and Grandkids would not be with this family today. This could have taken my life but also it would have ruined the life of the other kid and his family. Think about it, one stupid mistake. Thats why i tell the kids that what you do today, good or bad, will follow you for the rest of your life. Dad knew i was screwing up and he used to talk to me and i knew what he was telling me was true, but for some reason i wanted to continue doing what i was doing even though i knew it was going against everything i'd been taught. It just felt like there was always something missing in my life. And i couldn't put my finger on it. i've always loved sports but a career in sports was about as far fetched as trying to hit the moon with a rock. I really enjoyed sports, mainly football and baseball, I wasn't what they call a gifted athlete but I had a good arm, maybe i could have become a pitcher. I got that way from all them rock fights and prune throwing fights we used to get into. I made some bad decisions in life, but quitting school was one of the worst.
I came to Woodland to live with my sister and brother-in-law when i was 16. I got a job at a grocery store. I was working 40 hours a week and making 40 dollars a week. I would give my mom 20 and my sis 10 for room and board and i would get 10. It was all cool with me because back then 10 dollars was a lot of money for me. The guys here were not very friendly towards me. The girls were but the guys weren't. I didn't make any friends so i went back to Colusa. I lived in Colusa till i was about 18 years old, then i moved to Woodland again. Mom and Dad were living in the house on Kentucky ave. Man talk about some good memories, that house has some great ones. Remember when you first walked in and there's that big living room and you walk through the house and there's all these rooms, and there's 4 bathrooms and a wine celler and three porches, and a ball room. And all the kids running around. Thats the way Mom and Dad liked it. On Sundays that house would be packed. Ah the memories, Freds shetland pony that liked to bite and would throw you off if you tried to ride him, Rays scooter that bottomed out going over a hill about 6 inches high, The volley ball games, The smell of tomatoes from the field, the smell of Mom's fresh made tortillas, our brother Mundo usually making somebody laugh, Uncle Ray and Tia Chana coming from San Jose to party with Mom and Dad, Tio and Tia did all the partying, Mom and Dad would just enjoy their company, although Mom and Dad did partake in a few drinks once in awhile, When all our brothers and sisters came down with all the kids, that house would be rocking, How about Dad driving up from work in his old green pickup and getting out with his khakis and his hat. always that same old dirty hat. man i wished i would have had the foresight to keep one of my Dads work hats, they were too cool. Thanksgiving and Christmas in that house was something else. I don't know how Mom did it but she did. She would cook these gourmet meals that were second to none. When she said come and get it... We did. Mom used to make this one dish that had big chunks of egg in it with a lot of cheese and it was in this tomato sauce, man was that good, if anyone has the recipe i would love to have it. I wish my Grand kids could have gotten to know Mom and Pop. they would have loved them. I guess for them Belinda and i will have to do.

Cruising

My brother Jack got a chevy ( i think it was a 41 ) I was about 13 or 14 at the time. I thoroughly enjoyed cars. When Jack got this car i was really excited because i knew he would take me cruising with him. Of course we had to slam the car first. It was black and had gangster white walls. The car was so low we had to go over the railroad tracks one tire at a time. It was a cool little ride, It bounced a lot but that was cool with us. Back then the top speed on that car was about 45 mph and that was cool with us too. As long as we were cruising everything was cool. To us cruising in that old bomb was like cruising in a brand new Cadillac. We never went far. in those days driving from Colusa to Woodland is comparable to driving from Woodland to San Francisco these days. We were content to just cruise around town and be cool. In order to go cruising, the car had to look good, so we would spend about a couple hours washing and waxing it every weekend, and you had to look good too, you had to have your spit shines ( usually french toed shoes ) khaki's or frisco's pants that were starched and creased so sharp you could cut yourself on them, white t-shirt and a starched shirt, sometimes with a military style crease, depending on what was going down, and you had to have your pompadour hairdo with the ducktail in the back and your hair would be longer then what was acceptable at the time. Most people didn't care for "our" style. It was the Pachuco style. The Pachucos were the first to go against the grain so to speak in the way they dressed, there music, cars and attitude towards any authoritative figure. They enjoyed there own style instead of going with the mainstream. The Pachucos of the 50's had ties to the chicano movement that started in the 60's. They were the first to dress down with the "baggy look". They also created there own style of tattoos.I would say the cross was the most popular. In any group of people, you'll find good ones and bad ones and they were no different. They just had a different perspective of what things should be like. That was cool with me because i have always thought out of the box.
We didn't have a radio in the car as was the case with a lot of cars back then. We were just learning about cars and we didn't know how to put a radio in a car and it wasn't a priority for us cause we were content just the way we were. The music came later, we were digging the fact that we could cruise around and connect with our friends. Mom and Dad didn't care too much for our music, if it was too loud they would tell us to turn it down, if our hair got too long, either my Dad would cut it the way he wanted it, or it was up to you to get it cut. We had no other choice. Mom and Dad had there opinion about the way we dressed , but as long as we were clean they didn't say too much. These were fun times for me. Having Mom and Dad and the rest of the family there and all the good times with our cousins and friends....priceless. One time my Dad bought this 49 Studebaker, they were called torpedoes because of there shape,but it looked like an aquarium. It had wrap around windows and was this funky green color. At the time none of us had a car so we would go cruising in the studebaker. That car was my Dads pride and joy until......one day he was having problems with the battery and it wouldn't start. He told a friend to give it a push with his car to get it started and he told me to get in the studebaker and when i got it started i was to turn it around and come right back. and i did have every intention of coming right back but my friend Danny went with me to get it started and when the car started he asked me of i could give him a ride home. I should have listened to Dad of course, but that little devil in me said "aw what the heck, give him a ride home, you'll be o.k." I drove right past our block and gave my friend a ride home. I always wondered what my Dad thought when he seen me drive by, I sure didn't want to ask after what i did. Any way we get to my friends house and the car dies out, so i figure i'm in trouble now. so my friend Danny boy asks his brother-in-law if he can give me a push to get the car started again and he says o.k. So he gets in his car and starts pushing the ol Studebaker and he pushes it all over the neighborhood but it wouldn't start, about this time it's starting to get dark so i tell him to give me a real hard push and let me go and i'll coast it into the alley behind the house and then i'll run away from home. No not really . I just figured i would have to face the music alone. now about this time I should have been home over an hour ago. Well he gives me this push as fast as he could get it going and then he lets me go, i get to the road going into the alley and make my turn. the lights on the car were not working because the battery was too dead and when i make my turn i make it too short and i hit the curb. It bent the wheel and frame all the way back on one side only so that one tire pointed east and the other tires pointed south..OHHHH NOOOO. A bout this time i'm thinking foreign legion. I was only about 16 at the time and i only had about 35 cents to my name so i went home, as soon as i walked in the door everyone stopped talking and slowly started leaving the room with one ear stretching back trying to find out what happened. Nobody i mean nobody liked hearing my Dad when he was pissed and believe you me he was pissed. He said where did you go, and i said i went to give Danny a ride home and then he said, where is my car, and i said, it's at Danny's house. and he said, i thought i told you to come right back, well i was wrong so i couldn't say anything all i could do was just shrug my shoulders. Dad says did it stop on you and i said yes it did and i'm thinking boy did it ever stop. I look at Dad and he's giving me one of those looks that you only know what i'm talking about if your one of his sons or daughters and you just screwed up big time. I had to tell him what happened so i started telling him and before i even get to the part about wrecking it i just knew Dad already knew this wasn't going to be nice. Before i get to the part where the curb jumped out in front of me, Dad puts his hand up and says how bad is it, after i tell him about the tires he gets his hand and runs it over his face, top to bottom. About this time i feel about two feet tall and shrinking. Dad tells me he doesn't care how i do it but he wants me to go and get that car out of the street. Lucky for me my brother Jr. lived right down the street from where i wrecked the car, so i go to him and he helped me move it, sad to say the car was totaled. My Dad sold it to the junk yard. I still had to hear it from my Dad again when I got home, If I remember correctly, Mom would always be close when Dad was letting me have it and she always had this little tell tale smile or maybe even smirk on her face as if she was enjoying it. I guess she was figuring i just learned a good lesson and thats something i won't do again. I caught more hell wrecking that ugly ol Studebaker then i did when i wrecked his beautiful 56 chevy. But thats another story.

PICKIN PRUNES

On the days we were to go out and pick prunes,my dad was always the first one up in the morning about 5:00, followed by my mom.and then it was up to mom to get us up and going. my dad was usually out in the fields about an hour or so before we arrived.he would go out and find the best row of trees for us and then he would start knocking the prunes off the trees with this long pole. by the time we arrived he would have about 10 trees ready for us to pick. there was no getting out of it,you had to work.Although we did come up with some creative excuses to get out of work when it came down to it you had no choice, because you had to fill a certain amount of boxes before you were allowed to leave. My cousin Michael was the most creative of all of us. We would pick and watch Michael all day long,cause he would entertain everybody all day long and them days could get pretty long sometimes. After we were out there for about two hours my dad would get a fire started up ahead of us and by the time we got there he had some nice coals going and all we had to do was throw our tacos on the coals to warm them up or we would get a stick and use that to heat the tacos over the coals. I tell you there was/is nothing like eating tacos out there like that.Wash that down with some water out of those tin cans that they used to fill with water from the well and your drinking the water out of one of those tin cups,I don't know what it was but it sure used to taste good like that. About ten o'clock it started getting hot. I remember picking real fast in the sun and then taking it easy in the shade.About noon it was so hot that some of the prunes would be almost cooked,they would be so hot that when you went to pick them up they would be so soft that if you broke the peel the inside would run out almost like liquid and be too hot to touch.i'm serious here folks,ask any real prune picker. We had these buckets to fill that carried about 2.5 gallons i guess. When the buckets were full you go empty them in a prune box and that prune box would be stacked and counted,then a checker would come over and count them and give you credit for them The checkers job was one of the more respectable jobs out there. By noon it would be unbearably hot. about this time we would take a break for lunch and mom would break out with her delicious tacos.After lunch some days it was so hot all you wanted to do was go lay down somewhere and take it easy. I always liked to make me a bed out of prune boxes and take a nap. Just when you start to feel comfortable, it was time to go back to work again.It had to be very hard for mom to get us going again. You know how it is when kids are tired and sleepy and hot,they don't want to do anything.Sometimes my sisters would intervene and they were like the Gustapo out there. My brothers were never around because they were always doing jobs that didn't involve picking.They would be loading the trailers or working at the dryer. I gotta tell you though that this was a way of life for a lot of families. The money you made during the summer was used to buy everything that was needed to get you through the winter.If you didn't do well money wise in the summer,you were in for a long ride in the winter. Back in them days things weren't set up to help people like they are now a days. there were a lot of times that we made do with beans and my moms delicious tortillas.every once in awhile my dad or my brother would bring home a pheasant that he killed and we would have meat. during the picking season we would move out to the ranch or the labor camp simply because it was more convenient. My dad would invest in this big ol truck so he could load all our belongings that were needed and then on top of all of that we would make ourselves a spot and there we go headed out to a new adventure in prune country, My sisters always wore bandanas on there heads so nobody would see them in the truck, of course Jack and i would do our best to bring attention to them. I remember one time the truck broke down and this guy comes over to the truck to see if he can help, man i thought my sisters were going to crawl underneath all the mattresses and stuff, heh heh mighty funny stuff. To me arriving at a labor camp was almost the same as going to a family reunion,because a lot of the people there were your friends from the year before. As soon as the truck stopped the folks had to reel us in and give us our duties before we could go and play. You always met new people and there was always some bad rides that came in. Pepe with his 48 fleetline,channeled and cool paint job, Henry with his 55 merc. Joker, La mot, La bruja, cepillo. These guys always came in some really cool cars, and in the evening they would park there cars by the camp fire and turn on the radio and you could go sit with them and listen to there music. There was always parties on the weekends and the young folks would dress up. Khaki's or frisco's, french toes, nice shirt and you were ready to go. The oldies but goodies have there roots in the labor camps too. The people, the food, the music, the cars, the clothes, It was all cool, like i said before, you would of had to have been there to know what i mean.

House on orange ave

My family lived in a house in Colusa Ca,on orange Ave. There was 15 of us counting mom and pop, and sometimes we would have cousins or friends living with us. Yup all of us at one time or another. A typical school day would begin with mom telling us to get up, and of course she would have to tell us about five or six times. at about the fifth time she would be threatening us with some kind of mayhem, so we would figure it was time to get up. The house was always cold in the morning, come to think of it ,if it was cold outside it would be cold inside,if it was hot outside it would be hot inside. Yes we did have a heater, but now that i think of it i don't recall where it was at. Maybe we didn't have a heater. Mom always fixed us up this big ol burrito made with bean, egg, potato or made from all three, They were always delicious, she usually gave it to us as we were headed out the door.
When it rained mom would go around and set up the pots and pans to cover the leaks in the roof. The boys slept on the left side of the house ( the old side ) this is where most of the leaks were, Sometimes Jack would wake up in the middle of the night and say hey brother what happened and i would say "it wasn't me, the roofs leaking". The women slept on the right side of the house ( the new side,of course ) it was a big deal when the folks had the new additions added to the house. two bedrooms and one indoor bathroom. Before that the toilet was outdoors and you didn't want to have to go at night because sure as heck someone was bound to scare the .... out of you. there were always these ghost stories about the house, so even if someone didn't scare you. It didn't matter, because when it got dark, you were already half scared to death thinking about all the ghost stories. headless horses, house was built on a indian burial ground, people looking in windows late at night.spirits walking around the house.and many many more stories. It's a wonder nobody had a heart attack. Whenever someone came to spend the weekend with us, we would tell them all these ghost stories.and just scare the living .... out of them. Funny now but at the time i was just as scared as everyone else no matter how many times i heard the stories. My Grand ma had to be the best story teller and she didn't even speak english, it was just the way she told the stories and our imagination would just run wild. a lot of her stories were about the devil. YIKES!! On the boys side of the house, it was usually Mundo, Jr, Jack and myself. My brother Jack an i used to sleep on this big ol bed, that sagged way down in the middle, so no matter how big it was you always ended up in the middle. Sometimes we would have friends or family over and there would be 5 or 6 kids sleeping on one bed, all in the middle.
Fridays were always the days that the people came in from out of town and would party with my folks sometimes they would party at the house and sometimes they would go over to Grahms, Matts or Colleti's, and other times they would go to parties at my Tio's/ Tia's house What was so cool about it was that all us kids got to go to all the partys with our folks. I think we had more fun than they did. If we didn't go somewhere, we would stay home and play poker or some other game, usually grab the spoon. poker was the most fun. We would have brothers, sisters cousins, and sometimes Connie and Dave would come down from San Jose.Thats when it was the most fun, Man what a riot. Mundo was always cheating and Lolly was always catching him, Mundo and Roger were always on the defensive around Lolly. One step out of line and Lolly would beat them like an old dirty rug. That didn't deter Mundo though, he would try to pass two nines and a six as tree nines.and Lolly would be on him beating him and calling him a cheater. Mundo would be laughing the whole time. He just loved trying to get away with it and at the same time getting Lolly all riled up.
Saturday and sunday mornings were my favorites,You would wake up to mom cooking breakfast, the smell of coffee would hit you first and then the smell of bacon, my,my,my, I can almost smell it now. you walk over by the stove and moms rolling out these tortillas and she has one on the grill and she has one rolled out ready to go. She would take one and put some butter in it and give it to you and the butters melting so much that it's getting all over your hands so you have to fold the tortilla in the middle to keep the butter from running out, man there's nothing like one of moms fresh tortilla's with butter on it. que bueno. member you member. We would sit down to eat breakfast and mom would bring these big platters with eggs, scrambled or fried your choice. I usually ate both, potatoes,beans,bacon and a big stack of her tortillas and then some of her delicious home made pancakes with a lot of butter and all the syrup you wanted. This was when this kind of food was good for you. One time Mundo got up to get something and people started serving out of his plate ,thinking it was one of the platters mom had brought to the table.
Back in them days we had a milk man that would bring you milk or orange juice in these big glass jars ( ice cold )and eggs cheese, butter. whatever mom ordered. If you never drank this milk or the orange juice out of these containers when it's ice cold well sorry people because what they make today is just not as tasty, We were always drinking it from the container right out of the refrigerator there is nothing like it. not anymore oh so sorry.
My dad use to come home from work and he always left us something in his lunch box, usually something sweet that mom packed for him. so there was this mad dash for his lunch box when he came home, but not only was it us kids trying to get his attention, it was the dogs too, they would be jumping up and down and trying to get to him. He would even keep the scraps from his lunch for the dogs. He would walk in the door and stand there with his brim cocked to one side ( i call it wearing it with an attitude ) and see my mom and say " hello Mary" when he stood there like that he was bigger than John Wayne. My mom and dad were special you'll never meet another couple like them again.
We never used to watch t.v. alone,except for dad, he used to watch the gillette cavalcade of sports friday night fights. I used to see him there by himself throwing punches while he was watching the fight with this big smile on his face and i wondered what could be so much fun for him, so i watched a fight with him and before you knew it i was there throwing punches right along side my dad. nothing was more cool than hanging out with my dad throwing punches at the t.v. screen. no telling what the neighbors thought of us. The whole clan would get together and watch our favorite t.v. programs. The very first t.v. program i remember as being my favorite was adventure time, it was about a bunch of gorillas that lived in this mountain and this Indiana Jones type guy would always go save the girl in the movie. I know it sounds dumb but for us it was as big as Avatar, once a week we would also watch the bugs bunny show together ( daffy duck is still my favorite ) Mom, dad, Mundo,Jack, Michael, Cindy and whoever was at our house at the time would sit there and crack up at the cartoons. simple times, you bet. you would have to have been there to know why these times were so special to me/us.

Fate

Seams like every summer there's a bad accident that takes someones life. when i was a teenager i was on my way to the show and these friends of mine stop and ask me if i want a ride,the guy had just bought a car,it was a 51 merc. really nice car. The guy in the back seat behind the driver moves over and tells me to get in. I thought about it and then i told them no, although I wanted to go, but i had a date at the show they said are you sure and i said yes. so they go there way and i go mine. The next day my mom wakes me up and tells me there was a real bad accident and a couple of kids were killed. I found out they hit one of those big power poles out in the country.From what i understand, the driver and the guy sitting directly behind him were killed. When that guy moved over and told me to get in i would have been sitting behind the driver.Thank God i decided to go to the show. O.K. here's one more, this happened about the same time. A good friend and I were at this party,we were young and like all young kids back then we were doing things we weren't supposed to ( we were trying to get some beer to get drunk )the party was over and a bunch of people came out of the party and they were going to go for a cruise and of course we wanted to go. so we jumped in the car in the back with about three other people, i mean this car was packed. They were just getting ready to take off when my cousin David comes over and tells us "get the hell out of there" and he grabs me by the leg and pulls me out,then grabs my friend and tells him to get out,he then tells us to go home and he doesn't want to see us there anymore. We went to my friends house and i spent the night. The next day we went over to my cousins house and we were told there had been a bad accident and 2 people were killed and one was hurt real bad, come to find out it was the car we got pulled out of.how easy it would have been for me to have gone in either one of those cars, if i didn't have a date that night or if my cousin hadn't been at the party. I might not be sitting here writing this blog. We always say, well it wasn't your time or the good lord has other plans for you. is that what it really is or is it just bad or good luck or fate. every conscious or un-conscious decision you make can change your whole day or life. there were so many times in my life that things could have turned out real bad,but they didn't. maybe the good lord has been watching over me. I guess i'll never know ,not in this life anyway

25 dollar cars

back in the day in Colusa you could buy a car for 25 dollars and sometimes less,but you gotta figure that peoples pay checks were about 40 dollars a week maybe even less.I payed 20 bucks for my first car.it was a 39 chevy,my second car was a 51 ford given to me by my brother Jack. (he was going into the service )he had been putting a motor in it,so as soon as he left i finished it up,got it running,it was a cool little car.it was already lowered and it had primer spots all over it. i cleaned it up,i think i even polished the primer spots on it.after that i was working as a gardner with my brother Mundo and i bought a car off a car lot for $125:00 on the payment plan.my next car was a 53 ford that i got for 25 dollars,i traded that for a 54 chevy 2 door hard top that i fixed all up real nice. ( great car ) i would fix my cars up and trade them for something newer that needed fixing, i traded up to a 58 impala that got stolen from me,when i got it back it was shot so i traded it for a 55 ford pickup,traded that for a 58 chevy belair,traded that for a 57 chevy 2 door hardtop ( beautiful car )ran that car real hard and ended up selling it for $150:00 took that money and bought me a real cool 53 chevy.I was back to where i started.when i was 21 years old i had owned 21 cars. the guy at the d.m.v. told me one year that if i bought another car that year, i was going to have to get a sales license, didn't know if he was serious so i just quit putting them in my name. One day Mundo and i were working and i noticed this 53 ford had been parked in the back of the house for awhile so i asked the owner what he was going to do with it and he said he had no use for it because his dad had just passed away and left him this house and some money and a new car,he said he would sell it for 25 dollars. I bought it, my brother gave me a push i popped the clutch and it started up. i took it home and cleaned it up. the next day we took it to San Jose to visit family.car ran great. i knew it was a good car because it belonged to a school teacher at one time. Another time a friend of mine got in some kind of trouble so they took his license away. so he put his car up on blocks and took the tires off, i seen it and asked about it and he said he would sell it for yup you guessed it $25:00.it was a real clean 53 ford how can you pass these deals up i put a battery in it and drove it home. Another time i seen a 46 chevy coup that had been parked for awhile so i asked about it and this elderly lady tells me the clutch is bad on it and that she wanted $ 20:00 for it. bought it and I took it home and checked it out and it wasn't the clutch it was an axle so i go to the junk yard and get an axle for a couple dollars and replaced the broken one and i ended up selling that one for$100:00 that car ran perfect.I always have enjoyed taking something messed up and fixing it all up. i'm doing that with a Harley right now.When i see a car thats been parked for awhile i don't mind going and knocking on a door and asking if it's for sale. Bought me a bunch of cars that way......Later

Lost all his marbles

when we lived in San Jose i must have been about five or six. My dad had built us this teeter toter ( i guess thats how you spell it ) my brother and a friend were playing on it and i wanted to get on so they put me on. well i had a pocket full of marbles and every time i go down some marbles would fall out of my pocket. when we finished playing on the darn thing i lifted up the board on my side and went underneath to pick up my marbles and our friend went over to the other side of the darn thing and picked up the other side and the board came down and hit me on the head. and they start laughing at me well that hurt like heck, so i came out of there throwing anything i could get my hands on.our friend lived close by, there was a couple houses down the road and then there was this empty lot then his house. well I'm chasing them and I'm throwing rocks and stuff at em cause I'm madder then hell at them. Our friend runs across the empty lot and jumps over this little fence that they have separating there house from the empty lot. I'm running thru the lot and I can't find anything to throw at them and I just happen to look down and there's this shiny piece of metal laying on the ground, it's about 2 inches wide and about 12 to 16 inches long and real thin and shiny and i just pick it up and throw it.Well this kids on the other side of the fence and he's pointing at me and he's laughing at me.Well when i released that piece of metal i didn't see it after it left my hand because i was looking at the thin side,but when it started coming down it looked like a helicopter blade and i could see it real plain like because when it came down the flat side was facing me. well I'm looking at this thing coming down and i'm seeing this kid standing there laughing at me and then "whack" it sticks right in his forehead. The kid goes down and his moms right there she sees the whole thing, she lets out this big scream and i take off running cause this kids laying on the ground with this piece of metal stuck in his head, i thought i killed him. I ran all the way home and i go under the house to my little hideaway down there and i wait to see what happens and I'm down there for awhile and i don't hear nothing so i'm thinking it must not have been as bad as i thought. My moms in the kitchen so i go in there and i'm being real nice then i hear "MOOOOOOM YOU NEED TO GO SEE WHAT BUDDY DID" Mom let me have it big time for that one then Pop got a hold of me.My mind must have gone blank because I don't know what happened to me after that.The kid lived but i don't remember ever playing with him again.

colusa

Colusa was a very small town, so if you wanted some excitement you usually had to create it yourself, and being that it was so small, that wasn't always easy to do. During the week it was just dead.It perked up a little on the weekend,but still there was nothing happening there.You could go to the show, but they ran the same movie for a week. You could go around the town cruise,but that was about 2 miles long.Half the people would cruise one way and the other half would cruise the other way and they would honk at each other every time they past each other.That was pitiful.
We used to do a lot of hunting back then it seams like everyone had a 22 rifle in there car. If your out in the country and you see a pheasant and you had a clear shot at it you took it and it didn't matter what time of the year it was.Shoot it, cook it, eat it,and nobody said a word about it.Try doing that now and see what happens.
We used to go up to the Sutter Buttes, they say it's the smallest range of mountains in the world.Might be true,seams like everything around Colusa was small,There's also a smaller town right close by ( Grimes ) that has the smallest church in the world.It's about six foot by six foot. I went there a couple of times to check it out just to say I'd been there. It's actually kinda neat as far as I'm concerned.
My brothers and cousins and I used to take some pieces of cardboard.plywood or whatever we could get our hands on and head on up to the Buttes on rainy days and we would climb the grassy hillside up as far as we could go and then jump on the cardboard and ride it all the way down to the bottom.thats what i mean by having to create your own fun.
I remember sometimes we would walk to my friends ranch out in the country ( we used to call it the ponderosa ) it was probably a good 6 or 7 mile walk. We used to go swimming in the Sac. river over there. This one time we walked over there and we swam for about 3-4 hours and we started getting hungry, so someone came up with the idea that we could kill some bullfrogs and have some frog legs. So there we go looking for bullfrogs,there was about 5 of us and we probably got about 30-40 of them critters, so my friend says lets take them to my house ( the Ponderosa ) and see if mom will cook them,well thank god for his mom cause she was a really cool lady and she says sure i'll cook em if you eat them and we said o.k. so she puts them in the pan and these are just the legs of the frogs and they start kicking like there alive. ( ask anyone that knows about frog legs and they'll tell you that it's true.they kick when there getting fried ) she brings us this bowl full of fried frog legs,salad and some home made tortillas. We dug in and i'll tell you what ,it was almost like eating fried chicken.those things were delicious.
when i was about 10 or 11 my folks bought me a brand new bike.I was so proud of my new bike, I just couldn't wait to take it to school and show it off. That morning I got up to take it to school my mom told me I had to give my little sister a ride to school, this is not what I had in mind,but I said o.k.,I really didn't mind giving my sister a ride,but the problem for me was my mom always made her this egg burrito to eat on the way, so I always had to smell that egg on the way to school after awhile I got to hate that smell. That bike lasted about two weeks before i broke the frame on it and my mom took it back and told the guy she wants a new bike,well the guy at first refused because he said i must have really been doing something that i shouldn't have because bike frames just don't break like that.He said in all his years he never seen a bike frame break. My mom finally convinced him that he needed to give me a new bike. A few days later i got my bike back, with a new frame.How did I know that three guys on one bike couldn't go riding down the side of a levee without breaking it.One time we had 5 guys on one bike.sounds hard to believe doesn't it.Well it's true cause we did it.There was one guy on the handle bars,one guy on the cross bar,one guy on the rear axle and one on my shoulders,yes thats right i said shoulders,my friend Eddie's brother seen us when we were riding by these big hedges and he got mad and started cussing us and pushed us over into the hedges.thats the bike frame that should have broke.
We used to give our cousins a ride home from school on the handle bars, when we got to the park we would go real fast and then jump off and see how far they could go until they crashed.They got pretty good at steering from the handle bars. sometimes they got hurt when they crashed into a tree or something,but the next day they would be right there waiting for there ride on the handle bars.It's strange how we hardly ever got hurt real bad considering all the crazy things we used to do.We did get hurt though, i remember one time i was giving my cousin a ride home on my bike and he was riding on the handle bars and we were going real fast down the sidewalk.When we got to the end of the sidewalk there was this bump and when we hit it the front of the bike went in the air and apparently the front tire wasn't tightened down right because it came off when we were in the air and when the bike came back down the front forks went into the front wheel spokes and we flipped over. We both got banged up pretty bad on that one.
There was this one time when we went walking to the show and there was these kids that lived down the block from us.They were our friends but then again sometimes we would be feuding with them. This one particular day when we walked by there house we noticed they had a donkey out in front of there house and they were trying to ride it and it kept bucking them off. this was one of those big donkeys. Back in them days a donkey in front of someones house was no big deal.There was this one guy who used to ride to town on the weekend on his horse and he used to take his pet skunk with him riding on the back of the horse ( i think the guys name was sunny )anyway we see these guys trying to ride that donkey and we just laugh at them and just keep on walking.Well across the street from these boys house there's this corral where they load the livestock on the trains and we were about twenty feet from it,we liked to walk through the corral because we would climb up on the fence and walk on top of it. There was about five of us. All of a sudden I hear someone say watch out and I turn around and I see that big ol donkey running full speed right at us,well nobody had to tell me anything, I ran and jumped on the fence. when I looked back my cousin Leo had just turned and seen the donkey and I swear it looked like it was going to trample him.That donkey couldn't have been more than a couple feet from him when he seen it,My cousin was off like a shot.You ever see those movies and they fire a gun and you know that sound the gun makes,well I think my cousin made that sound when he took off running, he was at the rear and he beat the others to the fence.That ol donkey ran right into the fence, were lucky he didn't crush us.When we looked back those other boys were rolling on the ground laughing. I think we laughed all the way to the show.I think the times we almost died and didn't get hurt were the most fun...stupid,but it's the truth.

The Jeans are coming

Friday evenings at the Colonia were always my favorites. Every Friday evening around 5 or 6 you would hear somebody say "the Jeans are coming, the Jeans are coming" and sure enough here they come around the corner in my Tio's Chevy. My Uncle Henry and Aunt Jean and there 7 kids in one car. We would run along side the car with our dogs and some of the other neighborhood kids. When the Jeans were in town there was always something going on. I don't know who gave them the name "the Jeans" but for some reason it fit. They spent the weekend at their Grand fathers house.Ol Gramps had a small house, kitchen,living room and a big closet. Ol Gramps liked to sit about 5 feet from the front of the t.v. and watch the Giants or the forty-niners with his cup of coffee, newspaper and a cigarette. sometimes he would leave the cigarette hang from his mouth and there would be an ash about 3 inches long hanging from it. One time my cousin couldn't take it anymore and he went and tried to knock the ash off his cigarette and he ended knocking the whole cigarette out of his mouth. Well I'll tell you what Ol Gramps has a hair trigger temper and you just don't mess with him. The next thing I know my cousin comes running out the door with a boot right behind him and a few creative words to go along with the boot.

There was this one incident that happened behind my Gramma's house that will follow us to our grave and beyond. It had to do with my cousins and my brother and I. We were just kids playing good guys and bad guys or something like that , well my cousin just happened to be the bad guy,so what do you do with bad guys ? you hang them right! and thats exactly what we did. We put him on this bucket and tied a rope around his neck, tied the rope to the tree and kicked the bucket out from under him,well thank god we didn't tie his hands, because when we kicked the bucket out he grabbed the rope so he wouldn't choke to death. At that time his sister came walking around the corner and sees whats happening and screams at us, we take off running and she chases us and leaves him hanging. to this day I don't know who got him down before he choked to death but thank god they did.

There was this other time that involved the same cousin. Seams we were looking for something to do and we had our b b guns with us and we were tired of shooting at whatever we were shooting at so I said lets have a b b gun fight and he says o.k. so I tell him you take off and I'll count to 100 and then I'll go looking for you and he agrees. At the time we were at the rice mill. We were the only ones there so we had the whole place to ourselves. Well he takes off and I count. I go looking for him and I'm being real careful cause them b b's hurt. I come walking around the corner real careful like and I look and all I see is these rice boxes stacked one on top of the other. They are made of wood and they are about 4 ft by 4ft and about 3 ft deep. Well when I'm looking over there I see some movement. these boxes are about 50 ft away. I'll tell you what, I was called dead eye by this old man that had this chicken ranch and sometimes he would give me free b b's for shooting the birds around his chicken ranch because they used to eat all his chicken feed. Any way I see movement in the rice box.So I'm looking at this knot hole in one of the boxes and I see this eye looking back at me so I just point and shoot. Now who would have ever thought I would make that shot but I did I shot him right in the eye lid. My cousin jumped clear out of that box in one leap and took off home. I'm there thinking, now I've done it, I knocked his eye out.Well lucky for him and I because it didn't do any serious damage to his eye and he didn't rat me out so I didn't have to deal with his or my folks. Did I learn anything from that ordeal ? no because a short time later we had a b b gun fight that involved 4 of us. my brother, my cousin, a friend of ours and myself. my brother got shot in the lip,my cousin got shot in the neck and chest and I got shot in the wrist and the corner of my eye. Someone sent my older cousin over to break it up because it was getting too serious, so he goes over and gets one of the b b guns and breaks it in half and that was that.

school days

Going to Grammar school in Colusa was probably a little different than going to school in most other schools, because it was so small. I had a good friend that lived right down the street from me. We would get up real early and be the first ones at school. Now your probably thinking, man these guys really wanted to learn. Well not really you see we had a rule over on the baseball diamond that whoever got there first, got to be up first, so we were always there first. Playing baseball there was a lot different because someone decided it would be a good idea to put a baseball diamond on the asphalt, I seen a lot of skinned knees and elbows. The other thing was that when you went up to batt if you got a hit it was a miracle because there was about 30 infielders and 40 outfielders, thats why we went early so we could play a regular game without all the extra people.
I always enjoyed playing sports and I always looked forward to the meeting the school would have in the auditorium at the end of the year, grades 1-8, to honor all the people that excelled in school for one reason or another, but what I really liked was when they gave out the award for the best athlete. They always gave a special award to the guys that were the captains of the winning teams in baseball, football and basketball. They would call them up on stage by name,and give them there award individually, and there was a certain amount of respect that went with this honor,and nobody had ever won this award for more than one sport. When I was old enough to be captain of a team, I was nominated for captain in all three sports,and my teams won the league in all three sports so I figure I would be a cinch for the special award at the end of the year. Well guess what, at the end of the year we were all playing out on the playground and the teacher calls us over, there was just a hand full of kids there and the teacher gives me this certificate with this little football,baseball and basketball on it.He told me that was my award for being the captain of all three leagues. I appreciated the award, but I always wondered why I was treated differently than the others, especially since I achieved something that nobody else had ever done.Sometimes life makes you feel like Charlie Brown,that was a Charlie Brown day.

Our principle in this school could be a little mean to us kids sometimes, I guess that was his job, but there was this one incident when I didn't go to school because I didn't have any shoes to wear.the bottom had come loose and when I walked it looked like they were talking to you, I think some of you know what I mean,anyway my principle comes over to the house to find out why I was not in school so my mom tells him I didn't have any shoes to wear and she didn't have the money to buy me some. so he says not to worry because he's going to take me to town and buy me some. I'm sitting there thinking, damn I have to go with this jerk ( we didn't like each other ) anyway I get in his car and he takes me to town and we stop at the army surplus store. I don't remember what was going thru my mind but I can guarantee you it wasn't anything nice. We get down and go inside and I have a seat and he has the guy measure my feet. I would have settled for any tennis shoes and they would have been cheaper, but not this time Charlie Brown, This dude picks out the ugliest shoes I had ever seen in my life. My cousin came up with a name for them, he named them hamburger shoes, because the front of the shoe stuck up all puffy like and it looked like somebody dropped a hamburger on them.I had to wear these stupid shoes until they wore out,and believe me I helped them out the best I could. kids would see my shoes and point at them and laugh at them. Now check this out, about 50 yrs. later I'm sitting here at home, and my daughter calls me and says I'm wanted on the phone. so I go and get the phone and it's an old friend of mine from Colusa, he's in town visiting and he wants to see me.This guy was my best friend back then.We get to talking about old times of course,and we get to the subject of "our principle" and he starts telling me about the time he didn't have any shoes to wear and "our principle" bought him a pair of the ugliest shoes you could imagine,he described them and they were the same kind that he had bought me.When I said hamburger shoes we laughed for days.You'll never convince me that he didn't buy us them shoes to humiliate us. I guess you could say we had the last laugh though.