The family moved from the Rio Grande
river bank to a small town nearby. It was late in the summer when they took the
tent down and loaded everything into the trailer.
The house was one half mile north of Center, Co. It was a
white two story house with an outside toilet and a large yard with a small
shallow lake next to it. The three school kids walked the half mile to
school. They lived in the kitchen and
one bedroom. Other rooms were closed off to preserve heat; the only heat source
was in the kitchen. It had a potbellied stove near one wall and the opposite
wall had the very large wood burning stove. It had a reservoir attached to the
end of the stove. It held warm water for doing dishes and their hygiene. It
only held warm water while the stove had a fire in it. A small table located on
the wall at the end of the stove held a wash basin and water bucket which held the
drinking water. A ladle was kept in the bucket. Everyone drank from the same
ladle. There was no concern about exchanging
germs. The dining table sat next to the wall by the potbellied stove with a
bench on the back side for the kids to sit on.
The upstairs rooms were only investigated the day they
moved in. The upstairs had three rooms and one room had a massive amount of
funeral wreaths and dead flowers strewn all over. The mystery of the flowers
was never solved. Their imaginations, fueled by the funeral wreaths and dead
flowers, led to their belief that the upstairs was haunted by a ghost or possibly
numerous ghosts. They all heard the eerie sounds coming from the upstairs night
after night. They made sure one bed was placed in front of the door to the
stairway to block it from the ghosts. Just in case they can’t walk through a
door. This bedroom was actually the living room of the house. The main entrance
to the house was in this room and was also blocked by another bed. They only
used the backdoor entrance. They continued to share the house with the ghost,
and had many conversations about the cause of the dead flowers and wreaths and
what might happen if one went upstairs. This was not entirely a kid issue; the
parents were also concerned about the overhead noise. Another mystery was the
door to the other bedroom which opened from the kitchen. It was stuck tight
during the day and very difficult to open, but it never failed to come
creaking open during the night. One day Naomi was visiting and the door problem
was explained to her. She said, “I think I can solve your problem”. She saw a
heavy dresser sitting next to the door and the door swung open into the kitchen
so she tugged and shoved, and with some help moved the dresser in front of the
door. It took care of the problem, but created another one. The next morning
the mom wanted something from the closed off bedroom and the dresser was in
front of it. She was somewhat miffed about her sisters’ actions and wished she was there to move it back where it belonged.
They planned to live there until the spring thaw at which
time they would hightail it back to Oklahoma
if enough money could be earned. The story went on forever, but this is another
chapter.
 | |||||
| From left to right: Dennis, Letha, Carol, Gene, Hollis, Bennie, Lorrene, Ray, Cecil. |
