Daily Herald | Posted: Friday, November 7, 2008 11:00 pm
33At least not this girl, and the world has certainly conspired against my being Western. Even so, I'm so Western that when the local teams play football, I root, a little, for San Diego State where I started my university experience. I shout, a little, for Texas Christian University because I loved living in Granbury, Texas, on the Brazos River. I yell, a little, for University of Nevada-Las Vegas because I am a native Nevadan. Of course, I jump up and down a lot for Brigham Young University.
I've admired the metro in Moscow, Russia, and turned a dark corner in Brussels, Belgium, to see a cathedral lit up like heaven. I've stood in the little garden near London where my great-great-grandfather raised his famous roses. I've watched wild manatees swim by in Florida. I've hiked into the Daniel Boone woods of Missouri. I've eaten tongue and escargot in Mexico City. But it takes mountains to make me feel at home.
I am definitely a Western girl. When I was tall enough to see over the dashboard of my dad's haying truck, he plunked me behind the wheel. I only had to know one gear to keep pace with those hefting the bales onto the truck. But I was so allergic to the hay my eyes swelled up and tears flowed down my checks. No more haying for me.
When I was about eight, my dad perched me on his little gray work tractor, checked to see that I could reach the clutch -- which I could as long as I stood up -- and let me at it. As you might guess, I might have been barely tall enough, but no where near hefty enough. The front of that tractor came raring up into the air, and I thought I was a goner. Somehow it settled back down before anyone was hurt.
So you see what I mean about the West conspiring to keep me out. But it didn't work. I could pull weeds, and while I did, I heard the corn grow. Nevada Augusts are that hot. My Gram told me the corn stalks grow several inches a day, causing rustling. Then I ate vine-ripened tomatoes with just enough dirt hanging on to give them spice. Oh, I'm a Western girl all right.
My world was full of tough, good men who worked dawn to dark, crossed deep ditches on little flumes, fell down mine shafts, herded cattle, butchered their own pigs, were so adept at milking cows they could squirt milk in the cat's mouth without spilling a drop.
These men were strong in all the ways of the old West, honorable and determined to protect their families. Of course, the women were strong, too.
Our family and our uncle's family mined tungsten near Timpiute, Nev., for a summer, without power or running water. It was sooo much fun for all of us, including my mom who was more Western than I am. We mucked out the mine, lit the fuses, played cars in the dirt and found a 50-year-old cabin filled with old newspapers.
Once Grandpa enlisted my sick mom to help with an old mad cow. I leaned over the fence rail and watched that mean old sick cow chase my mom. She made it to safety, barely. We gathered pine nuts, shot and canned venison, broke beans and dried corn.
Dad and Mom, my Sis and I, would climb in the car and drive to Caliente, Nev., to see a movie on many weekends. Our favorite shows were Westerns. It is popular now for sociologists to say the Westerns had no truth to them. And, like all movies, a good share wasn't real. But some of it was.
Recently, my husband and I were looking at lists of the greatest Western movies, which reminded me of all this. The lists of the "experts" we read may be right. But we sat down and made a better list: a list of movies we were willing to watch more than once.
Now you may wonder what all this has to do with family history. It is, I hope, a serious reminder that while we are learning about our ancestors' past, we must also record our own. My grandchildren will never feel as safe as I felt growing up surrounded by relatives and honorable men and women. I don't want to lose that world. So I'm telling you about it.
Here is the list of Westerns my husband and I are both willing to watch more than once: "The Magnificent Seven," "The Sacketts," "Silverado," "Shane," "Ride the High Country," "The Ox-Bow Incident," "True Grit," "The Shootist," "Treasure of Sierra Madre," "Fort Apache," "Giant," "Friendly Persuasion," "Quigley Down Under," "Support Your Local Sheriff," "How the West Was Won," "3:10 to Yuma" with Van Heflin, "The Three Amigos," and "The Alamo" with John Wayne. For fun, add "The Man from Snowy River" and "The Apple-Dumpling Gang."
I'll take just one more peek at those mountains before I invite you to contact me at Itsallrelatives@sfcn.org or at www.itsallrelatives.net.