Texas
COLUMBUS, TX
In the fall of 1969 we left California
headed to Texas. We had a big white
pickup with sideboards that we loaded up with most of our stuff. We moved to
Columbus,
TX,
where Aunt Marlene was living. Cousin Lola was just four years old. I had not
seen uncle Sheno (Rosando Muñoz) since I was about 5 years old. They lived in a
small apartment and it was quite crowded after we joined them. However, Mom,
Kenneth and I, all three drove back to California.
in the pickup and loaded it up with the rest of our
belongings and then drove back to Texas
again. I remember only a few bits and
pieces about this trip. Once Mom dozed off and went off the road (this was on
the trip back to Texas).
We bounced through the median for a bit, but got back up on the road (everyone
was awake then!). I also remember traveling through Waelder,
TX, where I was born and stopping at a
Piggly Wiggly store. I had never heard of
Piggly Wiggly before and the name stuck in my mind. When we were getting back
in the truck, I put my hand on the signal light on the front hood (one of
Daddy’s little add-ons that he was so fond of) and my ring caught on the edge
and broke. It was a cheapy little plastic ring with a plastic blue “stone” in
it. Something from a gumball machine, I am sure. But I was very fond of it and
I remember being very upset about it breaking.
SEALY, TX
Shortly after we moved into the
apartment in Columbus, we all moved
to a new place in
Sealy, TX. That
included our family (Me, ‘lisa, Darlene and Skip, Mom & Dad); Marlene’s
family (Her, Uncle Sheno and Lola. Niko was not born yet); and Nana and
Kenneth. Daddy and Uncle Sheno both had jobs working at the local steel mill I
think. The house we moved into was HUGE.
It even had a dance floor. There was a large central stairwell and
several bedrooms upstairs. I went to school in Sealy for a while (my 6th
school change). This is also where I saw some of my first “critters” in
Texas.
There were eels, snapping turtles, water snakes (i.e., cottonmouths), and
crawdads. I had always heard of them, but never saw them… I was
fascinated. This is also where I was
first introduce to some traditional Mexican foods including, trípes,
menudo, calf brains, nopalitos,
tortuga, lingua de kuchina y muchas cosas mas.
CAT SPRINGS, TX
We did not live in Sealy long
before just our family moved out. Daddy got a job in Wharton,
TX, working for (Carl O’Neil?) trucking (I
think that was the name). But we moved to a house in
Cat
Springs, Texas.
A VERY tiny little town, but very nice. Our house was right next to a
railroad and the train would go by and shake the place violently. We still went
to school in Sealy at this time, but we had to ride a bus for many miles to get
there. Things I remember about Cat Springs are salamanders in the ditch by the
house, fire flies (hundreds of them!) and one particularly weird memory.
Darlene and I were walking home from school one day and there was a dead toad
in the road. Its insides had been burst out of it and we made some grotesque
joke about the frog going “SQUIRT!!” this became an on-going
(if grotesque) in-joke between me and her for many years. Another fond memory of
Cat Springs was the Mom & Pop store which had a wide spread of candy jars and
other delicacies which were especially enticing at that age!
| I wish I could remember the old man's name who owned
the store and often treated us to some of his wares. There just aren't any
(or many) businesses like that anymore it seems. Also from this time, I
remember Mom reading the book "Little Women" ... and she acquired an old
style meat grinder. Later (in 2007) I would find an purchase a meat grinder
that appeared to be very similar in memory of this possession of hers. I
have only used it about once, and I found I hated it, but I loved the
concept and will cherish the possession!
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WHARTON, TX
Again, we did not live long in
Cat Springs before we moved to
Wharton.
Daddy was working there and it was about a 50-mile commute for him from Cat
Springs, so it was in our interest to move closer. I remember the first night
in that house. There were so many SPIDERS everywhere… and I HATE spiders. In
the middle of the night, as I lay on my makeshift pallet in the living room
floor, I felt something land on my throat. I freaked and grabbed whatever it
was and threw it away from me. ICK! The
next morning there was a huge dead Wolf Spider laying next to me that I had
squished with my fingers and killed! It was about the size of a silver dollar.
I changed schools two more times while living in Wharton. This made my 6th
and 7th times to change schools. And I was just in 6th
grade. Actually… I was in 6th grade again. The school systems were
different in Texas compared to
California
and Mom decided to have me repeat the 6th grade. Things I remember
about living in Wharton are going to the cattle auctions, riding with Daddy
hauling cattle, and watching the moon landing on TV. I was 11 years old when
that historical event took place. That’s how I know it was still 1969. I
also remember that we had a telephone for a short time while we lived here.
That was very rare for us as we were usually quite poor (financially
speaking).
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I remember watching the moon landing on July
20, 1969, while living in Wharton, TX. What an exciting time and awesome
event! |
The only other telephone we ever
had was when I was about 4 or 5 years old and we were living in Driftwood, OK.
We had a party line phone I recall. I also remember finding pop bottles on the
side of the road and cashing them in for money so we could go to the movies (and
watch Peter Pan).
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GARWOOD, TX
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As usual, we did not live too
long in Wharton either before moving again. This time we were going to move
to El Campo. We actually moved part of our stuff to a house in El Campo, when
something happened and plans changed. Daddy got a job working in
Garwood,
so we moved there instead. I was still 11 years old at the time. All these
moves in Texas took place
within less than a year. I remember spending the winter in Garwood. We did a
lot of fishing there. We lived out in the middle of rice field miles from
Garwood (the tiny little town). There were canals, creeks and reservoirs all
around us. Lots of Water Moccasins too.
I remember having a lot of new
foods introduced to me while living in Garwood, including possum, ‘coon, gar,
carp and poke salat. We also ate lots
of bass, perch, catfish, some eel, freshwater shrimp and crawdads.
Another major event in my life
took place while living in Garwood. I ready my first full paper back novel.
The title was "Dolphin boy” by Roy Meyers. Later (while living here) I
ready the sequels, which included “Daughters of the Dolphin” and “Destiny of
the Dolphins.” These were most
treasured novels by Mom and I. I also read my first
book by Anne McCaffrey, “The Dragons of Pern” while we lived in Garwood. The
world of literature was starting to open for me. Times were changing.
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While
living in Garwood I met Debra Graham, her brother Kenny and her older brother
Edgar. Her parents were Nita and Raymond.
Kenny has an interesting story. I went to school with me and he also
worked on his family’s rice farm. Once day, while working in the rice fields
with his uncle Carl (who only had one leg), Kenny was trying to push rice down
into an auger buggy (the vehicle that carried the rice from the combine to the
trucks at the edge of the field). He slipped, fell and got his leg caught in
the auger. He ended up losing his leg up to the knee; a very sad story.
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The little I knew o Kenny after the seemed to show him to be a very bitter
person. He was only eleven years old when the accident happened. It was very
sad. It was also very ironic that he was with his uncle Carl when the accident
took place and that his uncle had also only one leg!! In school at Garwood we boasted
ourselves (themselves) as the mighty “Gars” and our school colours were Purple
and Gold. Garwood was my 8th school change, and I was only in 6th
grade.
It was while living here at age
11 that I received my first pair of glasses. I have the same genetic myopia as
most of my family and also the same tendency to read heavily.
The Goose: While we lived in Garwood, I committed a crime… though
quite without meaning or understanding. Daddy had bought me a .22 rifle and
during this time of year the geese were flying over. Hundreds of them landed in
the rice field across the road from us, and I decided I would shoot one with my
rifle. So… let’s see how many laws I unintentionally broke; (1) I shot onto
private property. (2) I shot across a public road. (3) I shot a goose out of
hunting season. (4) I shot a goose without a hunting license and, (5) I shot a
goose with a .22 caliber rifle (rather than a shotgun). Oh… and I was underage.
However, I shot it through the head from about a quarter of a mile away!
EL CAMPO, TX
We moved from Garwood into
El Campo (finally). I was 12 years
old and attended El Campo Jr. High (my 9th school change). I hated
that school and tended to get into fights a lot. I played hooky for the first
(and only) time while attending that school. Our house was on
Church
Street, about a block away, and on the other
side of the street from a funeral home.
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In the house behind us lived the Zaruba’s. The older sister was (I think) Diane Zaruba (maybe it was Carol… I
forget). The next oldest girl was Cindy Zaruba. She was deaf and I learned
some of my first sign language from her. The youngest daughter was Cheryl
Zaruba. I heard that Kenneth had a “fling” with the older sister and that she
ended up having a baby by him. I never knew that for sure, but if so, then we
have another relative, my niece/nephew. I also understand that Darlene’s
ex-husband, Ronnie, is (or was) living with Cindy Zaruba. Such a small world!
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I think that at the time we were
living in El Campo, Marlene had moved to Eagle
Lake. This is where she was living when
she had her second child, Niko. I know I was 13 when he was born, and I
remember seeing him as a baby while visiting in Eagle
Lake. I think I have a picture of
him on a big bath towel with a Dahlia flower on it.
Also, since Marlene was married
into the Mexican-American community, AND I worked at a Mexican-American
restaurant, I picked up a lot of Spanish. I speak fairly fluent Spanish
comfortably today. Actually, I started learning Spanish from the sheepherders
in California around age five
through ten. Later I discovered that much of what I was learning from the
sheepherders was actually not Spanish, but Basque. Anyway, my Spanish took a
“Speedy Gonzalez” leap forward between age 11-13 while living in South
Texas, working at a Mexican-American restaurant, and meeting my
Mexican in-laws.
I don’t know why we moved from El
Campo, but we seemed to have to leave in a hurry. It was shortly after I had
turned 13 years old. I think Mom & Dad were having some financial problems
… we always did. We sold or gave away nearly everything we owned. I had 32 rats
that I was raising at the time and gave them to the Zarubas!
Regarding the rats (which were
important to me at the time). I got the rats (black & white lab rats, not
the Norwegian rat depicted in horror movies), from the science lab at
Garwood
High school. I gave two to Kenneth
(who was living down the street from us at the time) and I kept two. Ken had to
give me his two a little later on for some reason, but I ended up with all six
of them. In a year’s time, I had 32 rats! This was not counting the ones that
died, were given away, or that got away of their own accord!
So… we left Texas
when I was 13 years old. We packed everything we could into a Chrysler Station
Wagon and headed out for Washington
State.
During that time we camped out a lot, picked fruit and/or vegetables to make
money for more gas and food… and slowly made our way. At one point we lived for
a couple of weeks outside of Provo, Utah,
in a tiny trailer out in the middle of nowhere. Mom and Dad were tending a
flock of sheep for some rancher. We had no bathroom, no electricity, no water
or anything. We used to go digging around for chunks of coal to fix food on an
old wood stove. Mom & Dad slept in the trailer and we kids slept in the
car. It was during this time that I became "the story teller" and laid out wild
and fantastic stories with all of us four children as the "heroes." One of the
fantasies involve the four of us as "winged avenges" of some sort. We had
angelic wings sprouting from our backs, but I also including smaller and simple
"wings" which spread from our lower legs to help control our flight. (I was
always trying to keep my fantasies "real"! lol....). Eventually we arrived in
Pasco, Washington.
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