all open range and settled in the vicinity of Portales with Jim Newman and his herd -- that was around 1886. Later my natural grandfather, Bill Boykin who was uncle Sid's younger brother, joined up with Mr. Newman as a cowboy on the D. Z. ranch. Roosevelt county was organized in 1903, and Portales was chartered in 1909.

My grandfather, Bill Boykin, and my grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth Turner, were married around 1899 and after about five (5) years were divorced. I never knew my natural grandfather. To me granddaddy was Judge A. J. Goodwin the man my grandmother married around 1912.

Now that I have identified "our town" I think it safe to return to some of the recollections of my growing up there in the 1920's and early 30's. I remember the night my brother Frank was born --- up until that time I had no idea that I was to have a brother (or sister)! That shows you how different things were back then: a kid was not aware of his mothers pregnancy, and people just didn't talk about it in a child's presence. But Dr. Wollard came to the house just about sun - down that day. My grandmother took me to her house - and, I remember just before we left that mother, dad and Dr. Wollard went into our kitchen where grandmother had previously been boiling lots of water. At any rate grandmother and I left and later grandmother went back to our house leaving me with my granddaddy Goodwin. Early the next morning grandmother told me that I had a baby brother and she took me home to see him!!! Can you imagine - Frank was born on our kitchen table? (I was born at grandmothers' house before dad ever built the house I called home.)

Riding through Plant City the other day I was amazed at the number of new and used car

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dealers I saw -- It seems that there was one or the other on every street corner. I remember as a

boy in Portales, going with dad to the Ford dealers' show room --- he had two automobiles on display. The idea was that the dealer went over all the various features of the vehicle with the prospective buyer. There weren't any options. If a deal was consummated between them, an order was placed and it took about two (2) months before the buyer's car would come off the assembly line. In 1927, dad bought a Model A Ford from the dealer; and rather than pay freight, took mother and me to the Denver, Colorado factory where we picked it up. That trip is the first I ever remember going on with my parents.

Some memories of the trip remain with me still, although I was only three years old at the time. For instance: I remember the mountains and lakes in Colorado; the snow banks that mother and I marveled at and played in, and the fact that we stayed in a log cabin for a night on the way back. I also remember that dad had to crank the car to start it, and a feature of the car itself -- a split windshield. Funny how one's memory serves him!

When I was five, and Frank only one year old, my grandparents Will came to spend Christmas with us in Portales. That was a very memorable occasion. Grandpa and Grandmother Will gave me a little wind-up tin car -- it was a replica of Amos' and Andy's Open-Air Taxicab Company. Dad and mother gave me a tricycle and Uncle Bolly gave me an Indian suit, with feathered headdress and all. I can't remember what grandmother and granddaddy Goodwin gave me, but I do remember that they gave mother and dad a new sofa and chair for our living room. I remember how all of us -- our entire family -- gathered that year at our house for Christmas dinner; and, afterwards, how we all sat in the living room and listened to a new radio that dad had bought. That radio was dad's pride and joy!

I have a very vivid memory of things that took place after that Christmas when I was five. I never went to kindergarten, and in those days a child started school when he became six years of age; so all year long I tagged along with my father as he made his daily rounds. I went with dad to the farms all around Portales and the outlying towns throughout the county. I