It has been ages, it seems since I posted here while we were on expedition to Arizona and New Mexico to acquire the new RV, the Excursion and to visit and see things in a warmer climate. Now home, I have a lot of different ideas thrashing loose in my head but today I'll feature my own sepia of sorts stirred up after our visit to La Mesilla, New Mexico, near Las Cruces. The Mesilla Valley was a natural trade route of the Native Indians long before the Spaniards came to northern New Mexico in 1598. This area teems with history, right up my alley. Ahh the old wild west before it was.
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| 1950 myself 5 years old on the roving Pony |
As a child I loved going to the movies with my Grandmother (Baba as I called her all my life) Rose; it was our special treat just for her and me to do so on a Sunday. I strongly preferred technicolor movies and cowboys and Indians, while Baba would prefer a musical or drama. This meant that some Sundays we went to two movies, so that we each could choose. Growing up in the city in Pennsylvania, ranches, horses, and all western things were pipe dreams to me and the movies of the cowboys intrigued me. One day a roving photographer happened by our house and while Mom was at work, her husband, my stepfather was home. This is one of the nicer things he did, paying the photographer to take photos of me with this pony. I learned in adulthood that many of my friends who lived all over the country had similar photos taken; what's comical is how proud we all were on our mounts.
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| 1945 Here I am on my Rockin' Horsey |
Actually my fantasy of horses goes even farther back to my very first horse that I still remember today, a rocking horse that my Grandfather built for me. No small feat because though Teofil was many things, he was not a carpenter, still it was quite a ride for me. I called it "Horsey" one of the first words I blathered clearly and I spent some time riding away. I guess I really got to making it go distressing my Grandma who was just sure I would fall off and injure myself. I never did, but she felt she had to watch me carefully and she scolded Granpap for doing this, but there was no more to be discussed as I was happy with feet in the stirrups. I wonder whatever happened to Horsey?
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| 1984 Me with our Charley Horse |
I never did become much of a horse rider, even later years living in California when we owned horses. Jerry and Steve rode, but my fascination was gone, not caring for the height. It seemed a long way up there to me. And it did not help that on one ride, Winnie, our Appaloosa startled and raised up on her hind legs. To this day I don't know how I hung onto her. The above photo in 1984 shows Charlie, our only problem horse; Jerry fancied taking him on hunting trips in the mountains but Charley was a horse with a mind of his own and a bad habit of laying down when he did not want to go into the trailer. Any rider knows that the horse laying down can be a dangerous animal and that is something which is not to be tolerated. Otherwise, Charley was a gentle guy, who loved Oreo cookies and carrots and would pick them from my rear pocket. One day I came home from work astonished to see Charley in his corral with the horse trailer. The men had planned a mountain trip for the weekend but when Jerry went to trailer Charley, Charley had other ideas. So Charley got to stay home but I found a big note inside from Jerry, "Do not feed Charley any hay or oats, his feed is in the trailer. He can go in there to eat!" Jerry was not amused with Charley's antics. Despite working with different trainers Charley never did get over this bad habit and so we sold him. Don't know what happened in the early life of that horse, that might have caused that reaction.
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| Me at Billy the Kid Building in La Mesilla |
This Sepia post idea comes from a day we spent the day in La Mesilla, New Mexico, and another at the old Tucson Studios where many western films were made.
http://www.oldtucson.com/ Above I am with the Billy the Kid building in La Mesilla just a week ago; immersed in the area, I began to think about all those old western movies and those outlaw legends. If walls could talk, the history they could tell about the glory and gory times in Western US history when Billy the Kid roamed the lands, and when disputes were settled with the six gun rather than waiting for years on court decisions. This building still stands in La Mesilla today, it was built in the 1840's by the legendary Sam and Roy Bean, two brothers who intended it for a freight and passenger service. After the Civil War it was became an important stop on the fabled Butterfield Stagecoach Line.
Mesilla was founded in 1848 and is Spanish for the “little table land” due to the nearby mesa that borders the Rio Grande River that runs by the village. Since its founding the village has had a colorful history that is easy to imagine when walking around the streets of La Mesilla, seen in the photo below, from another blogger.
Next week I will share more about this historic place with some old photos that I have researched. As always click on the title of this post to go to the Sepia site where others share their Sepias.
