November 30, 2023

Random Stories from My Youth

After writing so many stories and summaries for this blog, it has occurred to me that I also have a number of brief stories, or more precisely memories, from my youth.  These either didn’t make it into a blog related to a topic or I simply didn’t have anywhere that they seemed to fit.  Mostly, it might seem like I am just rambling and that’s probably exactly the case.  Anyway, once I started putting them down on paper I discovered that collectively they are too long for just one blog post.  So I have decided to break these Stories from My Youth up into two or three blog posts.  This is the first such blog.

 

Shelling and camping out on beaches in Florida.  Early in their marriage, Mom & Dad shared a love for seashells and hunting shells on the beach.  I remember when I was 4 or 5 years old and we were living in Florida that we spent many days beachcombing and shell hunting.  I also remember our family camping out on the beach in Florida during that time.  Mom & Dad ended up with an impressive shell collection which they catalogued and labeled using some of their many books on shells. 

Music.  Music wasn’t a big thing in our house growing up, however Mom & Dad did have a red & white turntable when we were young and some records.  In Yuma, I remember that they often listened to Sons of the Pioneers and their songs, Tumbling Tumbleweeds and Cool Water.  Mom also bought a Chubby Checker album and we all learned the Twist dancing in the living room.  It was good fun! 

We each got our own transistor radio when we were teenagers.  That brought with it the challenge of finding a decent radio station to listen to.  Alto, NM is not located near any major city and being in the mountains made reception difficult.  Our local station didn't feature music favored by growing teens.  The best rock station that we could sometimes get (if the weather was just right) was out of Oklahoma City.  

Eating out.  My parents were firm disciplinarians and one cardinal rule was that when we were in public, we were expected to behave – period.  And we did.  Eating out was a big deal in our family.  Going out to a restaurant was an expensive activity for a family of seven.  We probably only had a meal in a restaurant about once a month when I was very young, and that was often dinner at a pancake house or BBQ place, not an overly expensive outing.  And when we all filed into a place to eat, there were often looks like “Oh no, kids!”  But time and again, people would come by and tell my parents how well behaved we all were and how nice it was to see us. 

Speaking about BBQ… summers were long for me living on the ranch with no friends or nearby neighbors for distractions.  The boys would often spend time with Dad on projects and work over at the barn or stables, and there was also a family with boys that lived at the other end of the mesa.  I spent much of my time with Mom though, and I expect that is why we were close, even as adults.  I guess that Dad realized that, and he began asking me to join him for a trip into town to have a BBQ sandwich lunch, just the two of us, about once a month.  It was special for me and I loved it. 

Making apple pies.  As we got older, we started to have Sunday afternoon lunch out after church, often BBQ or burgers with my Granny & Granddaddy, and then later simple sandwiches and apple pie (or Honey Buns if we didn’t have a pie) for dinner.  It gave Mom a Sunday break from cooking.  But it was also all about the pies.  Our grandparents had an apple orchard, and in the fall we would have boxes of apples, as many as we could use.  Mom would make apple preserves and put cooked apples in the freezer for the rest of the year.  But it was the apple pies that were the star and we all wanted lots of apple pies! 


One year Mom put down her foot and told us that if we wanted so many apple pies, then we would have to make them ourselves.  You bet we did!  We all agreed to work on that project.  The boys set to work peeling and slicing the apples; it helped to have one of those gadgets that bolted to the table and then had a handle that turned and cored, peeled and sliced all in one motion.  I worked on making pie crusts, yes, from scratch.  And the younger kids worked on assembling the ingredients to put the pie together. 

We would completely assemble the pies, wrap them in foil, and then freeze them uncooked.  When the pie came out of the freezer, we only had to thaw and cook it, and it was like we had just made it that morning.  That first year we made and froze about 2 dozen pies – it was heaven because we could have an apple pie every other weekend!  We made pies each fall for several years.  Thank goodness that we had a couple of large freezers.

Dinner was at 6:00 sharp.  We always all ate dinner family style at home at 6:00 pm each evening.  My mother was a good cook, you almost had to be with five children in a day when there wasn’t such a proliferation of fast food places.  Actually though, Mom didn’t really like to cook.  So it really isn’t a surprise that as an older daughter, I became her partner in the kitchen in my younger years.  Mom & I usually worked on preparing the meal together, though she much preferred cleaning up if I would do more of the cooking once I reached high school age.  I understand that today, as I think that she simply got tired of cooking every day after so many years.  The job of making family meals is much less overwhelming if most of the pots & pans and preparation paraphernalia are cleaned up before everyone sits down to eat.  Then the job of “doing the dishes” after a meal is mostly just a quick task of putting extra food away and getting plates and utensils and such in the dishwasher.

In our younger days, everyone had a mug of milk with all our meals.  We went through a lot of milk!  Later after Dad had a heart attack and cholesterol became an issue, we started drinking more iced tea.  

The family rule when we got older was that dinner was served at 6:00 pm.  If you were late getting to the table then the penalty was that you had to do the dishes – so everyone would try their best not to be even a minute late!  Those meals were never quick either as we all would usually sit and have long conversations about our days or any other topics that were current.  And then most of the time, everyone would help with the dishes.

*  *  *  *  *

 

Key Individuals:

     Robert Gordon Scribner  (1923 – 2006)

     Ann Hart Hughes Scribner  (1921 – 2006)

               Jane Hughes Scribner Simonitsch McCrary (1953 – and more) 

               and my four siblings:  Bob, Jeff, David and Mary Ann

Notes:

I have more brief memories and notes, so I will simply continue this blog with my next post to keep it from getting too long and tedious. 

- Jane Scribner McCrary




November 15, 2023

Raging Fire Threatens Our Home

In the summer of 1967, there was forest fire that started in the Gavilan Canyon outside of Ruidoso and headed straight for our home in Alto, New Mexico.  I’m not sure how it got started, but my brothers and I first became aware of it when we saw all of the smoke and then flames while we were on the bus heading home from school one day in early May. 

We realized that the fire was traveling pretty much in the same direction that we were, and we could even see the flames cresting the hills over to the right of the highway that we were traveling on.  As usual, we rode the bus to the end of the line which was Mr. Creel’s property, our bus driver’s home, and located just down the mesa from our family’s ranch. 

 

Dad or Mom would usually pick us up at Mr Creel’s house.  But that day, no one was there to pick us up and smoke filled the air, so we just started walking and running down the mesa towards home.  Very quickly either Mom or Dad met us and picked us up, but we got home only to run into the house and quickly help load a few things into our family station wagon.  I remember that we were told to throw a few things to wear in a big suitcase in the living room, and among other things, Mom & Dad loaded some paintings and the old Hale family bible in the back of the car.

We then piled into the car and Mom drove us into the middle of an open field where we parked and were in less danger from the fire that was heading straight for our home.  Mom, me and my three younger siblings sat out there in the field for hours and watched the fire bursting through the tree tops while my Dad and older brother were on the roof with sprinklers and water hoses to try and save our home. 





A bulldozer was tearing a fire break in the woods just below the house, and we watched as forest service planes also dropped their pink slurry to try and turn the fire away from the house.  Eventually they were successful, and the fire stopped at the fire break that was created just below the house.  That fire break, and the slurry, turned the fire away but it still burned a lot of our forested acreage before the fire was finally put out the next day.  

Later that night while the fire fighters continued trying to control the fire, Mom took us to a hotel to get some sleep.  It was several days before it was safe to return home because all of the hot spots also needed to be put out.



The tree grinder.  The summer after the fire, Mom & Dad hired a crew that arrived with a large bull dozer and a tree mulcher machine.  It was pretty exciting and we all watched as the crew and equipment drove back onto our burned acreage and pushed down any remaining trees that had died from the fire.  Then all of the burnt tree trunks, logs and dead brush were cut and fed into a huge mulching machine, ground up and then spit out the back in small pieces.  It took several days to complete the work on the burned portion of the ranch. 

As part of the tree cutting, grinding and mulching work, the burned ranch acreage was spread with seed for permanent grass to prevent erosion and begin the process of restoration. 

*  *  *  *  * 

Key Individuals:

     Robert Gordon Scribner  (1923 – 2006)

     Ann Hart Hughes Scribner  (1921 – 2006)

                                   

Notes: 

1967 was a time when girls were required to wear dresses to school.  However, I hadn’t thrown any dresses into the bag that we had quickly packed the afternoon of the fire.  So I had to get special permission to wear pants to school for a couple of days until we left the hotel and could return home.

- Jane Scribner McCrary

The End of This Journey

It has been four years now since I started this blog and I believe that I have finally run out of family stories to post!   I started this...