Portales, the early days...

…was talking to Bolly about the early days in Portales when he was a kid. He told me,"Larry when I was a kid, Portales had 13 bars and a grocery store. I remember walking down a wood sidewalk and heard a gunshot and a man fell out of a bar right in front of me. He was shot dead as hell and scared the dickens out of me and I ran all the way home."

~~*~~

You ask...

I do remember a couple of things that are kinda funny.

 He bought me a 410 Winchester pump shotgun and took me dove hunting with him.  He taught me how to lead and all that.   Well my first shot I did what I was told and bingo down the bird came.  Well dad said, "Great shot Larry only one problem.  That was a quail and it ain't quail season yet" we both got a big laugh out of that..

~~*~~

 The ONLY time he took me fishing when I was a teenager.  We loaded up the trailer and went up in the Mountains to Chauma to his old fishing grounds.  Well man he could catch those rainbows like crazy with his fly rod.  He tried and tried to teach me but I could never get the hang of it.  Well we would fish in the morning at sun up and about 11 am he would head back to the tent to catch a nap.  Well I was not tired so I went exploring..

Found this old copper mine with "Tailings" all the way down the mountain.  I had to check this out so I made my way up to the abandoned mine and was poking around and found a corner of a big wooden box sticking out.  So I cleaned the rocks and dirt off of it and opened it up..  Well it was full of dynamite.  Bout 20 cases. I opened one and took out a stick and headed back to camp and by that time dad was up.  Man he had a hissy fit.  Told me to lay it down ez and we got in the car and went to town and he called the sheriff.   Boy here come the law and everybody else and asked me to take them to the place where I found it.   So I did and they ran me off and proceeded to remove it I guess, as I wasn't allowed to go back.  After I grew up and thinking about that.  That darn stick had nitro dripping all over it and I was darn lucky not blow half that mountainside and me to hell.

 However Bolly did give me a good lesson in staying around camp....  Last time he took me fishing ... =8*).. We stayed about a week and I had fun.  Fond memories...

 ~~*~~

I remember when we lived in California and I was in the 8th grade I was running with a kid who was darn smart.  His dad was an Electronic Engineer and he taught the kid a lot.  I built a 1 tube AM carrier wave transmitter.  Ran an antenna outside my room and fired it up.  It was supposed to be a Morris code xmitter.  Will I did not have a key so I just picked a station and jammed it with my carrier wave.  You remember those radio shows like "The Shadow" and others that had a surprise ending.   Well my mom listened every week.   One night she was listening to one of them and just as they were going to find out "Who Done It", I jammed the darn thing with my xmitter.  Boy she got mad and picked up that radio and banged it around and cracked the case.. Well I never said anything but got a hell of a laugh out of that.  Later I saw a truck cruising the neighborhood with a loop antenna on top and the letters FCC on the side.  Well my friend told me to take down my antenna so it would not jam the whole area..  That next summer we moved back to New Mexico as dad had it with selling real estate and wanted to go back to the ole Santa Fe.

 Oh Terry I was a little devil when I was young.

 L

This picture was taken on this river. My dad went to college with the man who lives there and was a teacher and taught wood shop. He bought the wood and built this boat we were in. It was awesome. 18 ft Mahogany, inboard engine and it was great fun trolling that river. We stayed about a week.