Sketching Brings on Memories

I sat on the porch today sketching while having my coffee and rice cake with toppings.  One of the items was "old".  There is a collection of the "stuff" from the burned house sitting out there and my Dad's old spurs caught my eye.  I put circa 1928 on them, but must have been later because they are Blanchard spurs and you can see from this article that he was in the Magdalena area (Datil, NM) in the forties.  Of course my Dad may have known him before that.

My Dad's story was that Blanchard was working around the stockyards and was offering to make spurs.  My Dad always shod his own horses and for other cowboys, too.  Blanchard just took my Dad's rasp and made a pair of spurs for my Dad.  He had his brand put on them in copper and brass for my brother, Skinny.  Skinny wore them and they were passed down to Tommy, then to Barbara and finally to me.  The last sibling gets to keep them, right?  They still had the original leather straps on them and were hanging in our dining room and burned in the fire.  They are pretty rusty and crusty now.  We need to clean them and oil them up before they rust away.

I loved wearing those spurs.  The style when I was wearing spurs was to wear them very low on your heels  and these were soooo perfect.  They were so unique that everyone noticed them. Of course our Levis were long enough to drag in the back so the spurs held them up.   The spurs had a lovely jingle to them.  I miss riding horses, my favorite animals.  It was nice to sit out there sipping coffee and remembering the good old days with my Dad.

He wanted another boy that would love being a cowboy.  My older brothers always worked hard at the ranch but went on to other careers.  Skinny and Powder both tried the rodeo circuit and Tommy rode a few broncs.  Skinny went on to be a cattle inspector, Powder was a New Mexico State Patrolman, Tommy drove a truck and was the rodeo announcer in Magdalena for years.

At any rate, Dad called me Jo instead of Karen Jo.  He was pleased that I liked riding and went on to ride in rodeos and go to the ranch with him for the summers.  He was a working cowboy and didn't really work away from town until I was in high school.  I started going to the ranch with him and working through the summer.  We only came to town for the local rodeos.

The year I graduated from high school and was planning on going to airline school I went to work as a waitress to make money for school.  I worked in San Rafael, New Mexico, at a truck stop on old Route 66 and lived with Powder and his family.  I made good money for those days.  $1 an hour, plus tips.  I could easily "rake in" $25 in tips a day.  Mom and Dad came to visit and Dad said that they were getting ready to gather cattle for shipping season, probably October and I was going off to school in November.  Dad said that the  ranch where he was working needed cowboys for shipping season and I could work there for a month.  I jumped at the chance to ride and work cattle instead of dealing with the public.  I didn't even ask the pay, turned out to be $5 a day plus board.  It was great though and I was treated as one of the "hands".

On one of the days, the boss brought out his daughters from Albuquerque, to help on the weekend.  The oldest was in high school.  As we all saddled up and gathered around the boss to get our orders for the day, the daughters were assigned to hold up the cattle in the flats as the cowboys brought them down from the mesas.    Dad and I were sent to the far outreaches and under the rimrock.  You never questioned your assignment.  However, the daughter spoke up and said she wanted to go with my Dad.  Her father said,  "No, you will hold up the cattle, it is too rough up there for a girl!"  I don't think she ever forgave me for being one of the guys and getting to do the fun stuff!

I did wear my spurs!

Old Pets, Pastels fixed with PVA Size, Framed like canvas, no glass.

This painting shows more of the leathers than the spurs.  You can read about the technique of fixing pastels to look like oil on canvas, here.

Oh, back to posting my sketches for Scavenger Hunt 262.  They were done in the brown paper sketchbook with a Micron 05 pen.

Number 12, in the ground - the cement patio with the rail and Number 13, above the ground - the bird feeders on the poles from the burned house.  It was a swing set attached to a playhouse.  The swings and slide were long gone, way before the fire.

Number 14, old - my spurs, after the fire crisped them up.  Number 15, smooth - some of the burned bowls that are discolored but still smooth.  Number 16, textured - a little chile pot with the chiles misshapen and all the junk stuck to it.  All discolored as well.  The spoon may be stuck, too.  I forgot to check.