Fronabarger Stories

  Mother and Daddy had close friends, Wiley and Dale Fronabarger, who lived in Ft Sumner. Dale was the postmaster at Yeso, NM; I’m not sure what Wiley’s job was, but he was a bartender, at one time. Wiley liked to tease. One time there was a fight in his bar and one of the men got the lens broken out of his glasses. Wiley got the glasses frames, with no lenses, and wore them around for days, as a joke.

 Although they were not kin to us, we called them Aunt Dale and Uncle Wiley.

 Mother went to Portales to stay with Aunt Lizzie Goodwin before I was born. After I was born Wiley went to the ranch, to take Daddy the news of my birth. As a joke, he told Adron that Mother had twins, Terry and Lynn.

  The Fronabargers were one of the first families in the Ft Sumner area to have a phone. I got very excited the first time I got to talk on it. They told me to call their neighbor; I was hesitant because I couldn’t think of any thing to say. They suggested that since the neighbor’s dog had been sick and their cat had run off I should ask about the dog and the cat. When I got on the phone I became real excited and blurted out, “How’s your dog catch your cat?” Did I get teased about that incident? Yes. Did they ever forget it? No.

 Wiley Fronabarger gave me a toy windup caterpillar for my birthday. I was very proud of it, took very good care of it, and played with it for a very long time.