El Rancho Grande

My family used to live on a ranch called Chibics, not sure if that's how you spell it, but close enough, I remember the place well, we used to drive on this old dirt road, till we got to the ranch, I remember our car getting stuck in the mud quite a few times when it rained. There was an opening at the entrance to our ranch that had two palm trees, one short and the other very tall on each side of the entrance, being just a kid at the time, I was always trying to throw a rock or whatever over the top of the tall palm tree, I was also trying to knock that big ass owl out of there. At the front of the house, there was a small pump house that we used to sit up there with our dogs, Fido and Rusty, next to that old pump house was one of them old hand pumps that was connected to a well, you'd pump the handle and grab a tin cup and fill it up with cool and fresh and best water ever. To the right of the house, there was two big pear trees that had some very delicious pears, we would climb up there and eat to our hearts content, you always had to be aware of the bees though, especially since we were always bare foot. At the entry way to the porch there was a very small slab of cement, I remember my Bro and I found some live rounds from Pops gun and for some crazy reason, we were beating on them on the cement with a couple of butcher knives, thank God they never went off. Thare was an old rickety porch at the front of the house, as you walk in there's a small living room and a bedroom on the left, going straight back there was the kitchen, with the stove on the left with the sink right in front of it, I remember my Mom making our meals there and helping Pop clean catfish in the sink, Pop made his own fish hooks out of nails and he would take us fishing, the river was only about a ten minute walk from the house, if we didn't catch any fish, it was beans, papas, rice and tortillas for dinner, still my favorite today. As you walk out the back door of the house, there was an old refrigerator on the left side of the doorway outside, there was a chicken we used to call fren, who used to lay eggs up there every day, when Mom told me to go gather eggs, it was the first place I'd look. There was a shower house on the right, but I never used it, I was still small, so I took a bath in a  tina, one time there was a big commotion out front and people were running back and forth and my Tio's were out there with rifles, my bro and I started running over there to see what was going on and come to find out, it was a skunk, someone shot it and my Mom called my Bro and I back to the house and one wiff of us and it was back to the tina for us, my Mom gave us about three baths in one, threw our clothes away or burned them, we didn't have on more than underwear, t-shirt and jeans. Poor skunk didn't stand a chance. There was a little house on the left side of ours where a old Dude we used to call Tio lived, we owened a cow and one day I came home and the cow was hanging from the tree out front of Tio's house, apparently he killed the cow and was letting it bleed, he had a tin cup and let the blood fill the cup, then he drank it, he offered us some, but no thank you Tio, I'll stick to beans and tortillas. Behind Tio's house, there was this big ass fig tree, my bro and I would sit up there and eat figs and throw figs at the chickens. We were surrounded by prune orchards and there was this big slough we had to cross to get to the one orchard to go to work, I always loved the smell of that slough in the spring when everything was blooming, I have some sage plants in my back yard now, that give off that sweet pungent odor that still reminds me of our Rancho,  we'd leave the house early in the morning when it was just getting light and come home when it was just getting dark, I always liked walking in them old dusty roads barefoot, the dirt was like fine powder and it kinda burned your feet, Mom used to be the first one home and she'd start cooking dinner, seems like her work was never done, but she always found time to sit with us kids and tell stories about the old days and how things were for our family, wish I would've written that all down. My bro and I slept in a little Army cots in the living room, I remember when my cousins came to visit, we had to get creative finding a place for them to sleep, I always looked forward to my bro coming home from the Navy, cause there would always be a big party for him with music, food, sodas and drinks for the older folks, seems like everyone was happy and there were kids running around everywhere playing made up games and having the time of our lives.
My Bro and I always had rocks in our pockets and sling shots, if something moved it was curtains for whatever it was, my Pop would get mad if he caught us killing an animal, so we'd head out to the orchards and just run around out there without a care in the world, chasing rabbits, squirrels, birds or whatever we found, we use to pick up snakes, not knowing if they were poisonous or not. We were as free as the animals we encountered. We never wanted for anything, if we had company, our food portions were smaller and nobody complained, if you went to bed a little hungry, that's just the way it was, Mom made us breakfast lunch and dinner, if you weren't there, it was your fault, we got to go to town once a week and a trip to the movies was like a trip to Disneyland, Mom would buy bread, mayo, potato chips, bologna and we all got a soda and we'd head to the drive in, if we had a pickup, all the kids would jump in back, uncomfortable as hell, but a lot of fun. When winter came, we'd all get new clothes and a big heavy coat and my folks would stock up on non perishables to get us through the cold season. Pop would work as much as possible to buy whatever necessities that were needed, we were usually at the mercy of whatever old man winter sent our way. I gotta say that our childhood was the best ever. Mom and Pop taught us about family values at a very young age, they never liked seeing us fight or argue, Mom made sure we went to catechism and we all had to go to church on Sundays, my Mom always had her candles and Jesus and the Virgin Mary to pray to every night. To this day I always think about how we as kids, did all the crazy ass things we did and never had so much as a broken bone or any major injuries, the good lord must have heard my Moms prayers. Thank you Lord Jesus. Some people would say our life was hard, thinking back, I guess it was hard compared to the way a lot of other people lived, but for us, that was just the way it was, that's living the life.