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MTC OOC / Re: ...Izee's Thread
« Last post by Izee on August 10, 2025, 11:16:49 AM »...A TRUE TALE!!! 
My Grandfather, on my Mothers side, was quite a man. I wish that I had been more into documenting Family History, rather than just listening. I have forgotten so much. He was an Ambitious man, and a good prospector. He would go out, alone, with a burro to carry his supplies, and roam the deserts and mountains in Texas and Mexico, prospecting for gold and valuable minerals. In the meantime, Mother and her 5 brothers lived in an adobe house in Presideo, Tx, that had no plumbing. There was a 'two-seater' wooden outhouse in the back. (When we visited my Aunts when I was a child, we called it the 'Sauna', and taking a bowel movement in 106 degree weather in it was quite an experience.
And I just COULD NOT imagine evacuating my bowels while someone was sitting right beside me. I mean, just WHAT would you talk about? Once, in the middle of the night, I REALLY needed to do #2, and took a flashlight with me and opened the door to the Sauna...and I saw DOZENS of large insects with BIG BEADY RED EYES hanging from the ceiling, on the walls and the seat, and peering over the edge of the 'S...hole.' I pooped behind a bush...) He did locate, and file claims on several mines, and they were developed. But, he was a HORRIBLE businessman, he trusted people too easily, and they would swindle him out of his share.
One Spring, he was out prospecting, and came across a young Mexican couple who had built a rude shack in the desert, and said that they were going to live there and farm. The woman was VERY pregnant, and looked very close to delivery. Grandpa informed them that they were in the area where the Mescalero Apache would come every year to harvest, roast, and ingest the beans from the mescalero plants, and that they could arrive any day now. He told them that the Apache could get quite dangerous when they were intoxicated by the beans, and that they should move.
The next morning, when he woke up, the man had taken the couples horse and left, leaving the woman behind. Grandpa loaded her up on his burro, and headed back to town, it was about 2 weeks away. On the way, she went into labor, and so Grandpa delivered the child and brought them all back with him. He found the man in town, and the man took the woman and his child back. Grandpa was very angry and asked the man why he just took off...and the man replied that he just knew that Grandpa would bring them into town.
Once, when I was very young, Grandpa did take me into a mine he had opened a year earlier that was being worked. I got to have my OWN HELMET, and a padded vest, and walked with him into it. It was very loud, they had blasted open an area, and were loading rock onto a conveyor belt that took it outside. The foreman gave me a fist-sized chunk of rock that had veins of gold running through it. I made the mistake of leaving it in the classroom at school, I brought it for show and tell, and it disappeared. The school authorities did what they could, but it was never recovered. Mom was PROPERLY angry at me, I didn't tell her that I was taking it to school. She probably would have taken it away from me until I got older if she thought I would take it out of my room.
My Grandfather, on my Mothers side, was quite a man. I wish that I had been more into documenting Family History, rather than just listening. I have forgotten so much. He was an Ambitious man, and a good prospector. He would go out, alone, with a burro to carry his supplies, and roam the deserts and mountains in Texas and Mexico, prospecting for gold and valuable minerals. In the meantime, Mother and her 5 brothers lived in an adobe house in Presideo, Tx, that had no plumbing. There was a 'two-seater' wooden outhouse in the back. (When we visited my Aunts when I was a child, we called it the 'Sauna', and taking a bowel movement in 106 degree weather in it was quite an experience.
And I just COULD NOT imagine evacuating my bowels while someone was sitting right beside me. I mean, just WHAT would you talk about? Once, in the middle of the night, I REALLY needed to do #2, and took a flashlight with me and opened the door to the Sauna...and I saw DOZENS of large insects with BIG BEADY RED EYES hanging from the ceiling, on the walls and the seat, and peering over the edge of the 'S...hole.' I pooped behind a bush...) He did locate, and file claims on several mines, and they were developed. But, he was a HORRIBLE businessman, he trusted people too easily, and they would swindle him out of his share.One Spring, he was out prospecting, and came across a young Mexican couple who had built a rude shack in the desert, and said that they were going to live there and farm. The woman was VERY pregnant, and looked very close to delivery. Grandpa informed them that they were in the area where the Mescalero Apache would come every year to harvest, roast, and ingest the beans from the mescalero plants, and that they could arrive any day now. He told them that the Apache could get quite dangerous when they were intoxicated by the beans, and that they should move.
The next morning, when he woke up, the man had taken the couples horse and left, leaving the woman behind. Grandpa loaded her up on his burro, and headed back to town, it was about 2 weeks away. On the way, she went into labor, and so Grandpa delivered the child and brought them all back with him. He found the man in town, and the man took the woman and his child back. Grandpa was very angry and asked the man why he just took off...and the man replied that he just knew that Grandpa would bring them into town.
Once, when I was very young, Grandpa did take me into a mine he had opened a year earlier that was being worked. I got to have my OWN HELMET, and a padded vest, and walked with him into it. It was very loud, they had blasted open an area, and were loading rock onto a conveyor belt that took it outside. The foreman gave me a fist-sized chunk of rock that had veins of gold running through it. I made the mistake of leaving it in the classroom at school, I brought it for show and tell, and it disappeared. The school authorities did what they could, but it was never recovered. Mom was PROPERLY angry at me, I didn't tell her that I was taking it to school.
She probably would have taken it away from me until I got older if she thought I would take it out of my room.
And, I felt good about myself...re-learning a skill does take effort. I have met so many adults who used to play instruments who say that they just won't do it again, even though they would like to.
) Anyway, I was DELIGHTED to be in Paris, and DELIGHTED that the adults allowed we teens to go out on the town on our own! A few times I was one of five kids stacked in the back of a Parisian cab that dumped us back at the Student Hostel at 2:00 a.m. The adults did lecture us, and I got grounded one day, but no problems ever arose.