CARLSBAD, NEW MEXICO # 8
The first memory I have of Carlsbad is that the church members were at each other’s throats. Let me change this – the union people were against everyone. The way I remember it, the “scabs” were sweet-spirited people wanting to make a living, supporting their families. The potash mines were in the midst of a 73 day labor strike. The biggest of all the bigshots was the president of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers’ Union and he was the biggest bigshot in our church; chairman of the church board and Sunday school superintendent. You can see how this was like oil and water only worse. The union members of our church would stand on the line going into the mines with baseball bats hitting the buses of some of our church members who were not union members. I don’t think they were sanctified. God hep us and bless us – it was awful, just awful.
Daddy was a happy man and a good preacher and Mama played the piano. She still cooked pinto beans. I played the church organ. Pretty soon everybody came together through love, and thank God the strike ended. Hard feelings were still there a little bit, but Daddy stayed there 8 years so people got over it. Continue reading “Sinking Sand/Solid Rock -An Anthology #8 Carlsbad”
Write It On My Heart 