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