Tag: I learned it in Cisco

Home of the first Hilton Hotel

This was great!  Grandpa lived way out north of Cisco on a farm/ranch.  He had about a thousand cows (there were some bulls, too).  I got to know them because Grandpa had a name for every one; or it seemed that way.  They became my friends.  I walked all through the herd and they let me pet them.  They didn’t hurt me.  They were my friends and they didn’t say anything about my nose.  Grandpa let me give them cow-cake and they loved it.

Early in the morning, Mama put wood in the great big ol’ kitchen stove and started the fire so all of us could have breakfast.  Grandpa always got up first and started the fire in the meetin’ room where he and Grandma slept and went around lighting the coal-oil lamps so we could see.  The meetin’ room was where everybody gathered.  It had a radio in it (powered by a car battery) and the crank telephone.  Mama had to be careful when she talked on the phone because the operators would listen in.  I guess the meetin’ room was similar to our modern day dens except for the bed.  In the winter it became a gathering place because the fire was in there.  Of course everyone spent time in the kitchen, too.  When Mama cooked breakfast the smell of homemade biscuits from scratch (she put butter and sorghum syrup on them), thick pieces of bacon right out of the smokehouse, streaked gravy and fresh eggs got us all going in a good mood.  It took Grandpa about an hour to eat ‘cause he didn’t have any real teeth, just false ones.  We were so happy. Continue reading “Sinking Sand/Solid Rock – An Anthology: Cisco Again #6” →