Salas

Arrival in the Hondo Valley and Making a Living (Kelly and Salas 1)

SRB: When did your family first come to the area?

LK: Probably the middle 1800s because our ditch started in 1865, so they were already here, doing the farming and ranching.

SRB: Here in Picacho?

LK: Here in Picacho and both my father's family and my mother's family were here. And we think they came from the Manzano area as far as we can tell.

SRB: What did they do to make a living?

LK: Oh, farming, they had orchards, they grew hay, and cows and sheep, turkeys, they had chickens. They grew a lot of vegetables. Daddy had goats for a while, they would even be shepherds and travel around with them. And sheep of course, they had the wool.

SRB: Where was your farm?

LK: Mother's farm, family's farm, was here. This was 36 acres, right here and this part here, and Daddy's mother and father lived just the other side of Mendiolas. They had a farm there, and then I grew up on their ranch in the north of the highway, about halfway between here and Tinnie.

SRB: Where was the market for the produce?

LK: Mostly local, they sold a lot to Gus Chandler. They grew a lot of cabbage and sold it to the markets in Roswell and hay, most of it they kept for their animals, but if they had surplus, they would sell it to. Usually [to] people in the Valley.

SRB: Did you have a fruit stand?

LK: No, not at that time, later on we had one up there by mother's place when they put their orchard in. And there was one right here, right across the road for a while, then the highway came and took them all.

RW: In the 1970's?

AS: [19]'60s and [19]'70s.

School (Kelly and Salas 2)

SRB: Did you go to school here? [asking Mrs. Salas]

LK: Mom?

AS: I did all through the 8th.

RW: Which school did you attend?

AS: The Picacho school.

SRB: When was it [built]?

AS: I actually don't know, I think when they made that church house.

SRB: What years were you there?

AS: I don't remember.

RW: When you were how old?

LK: You started when you were six right?

AS: Yeah, six.

LK: And you were born in 1914, about 1921. And where did you graduate from?

AS: Carrizozo.

LK: I went to school in Tinnie. Went there for seven years and then went on to the Hondo school and graduated from Hondo high school.

SRB: Is that the old Hondo school?

LK: That burnt, No. It was new at that time, it burnt down, but it was new at that time. The whole Hondo school now is new. Yes. But we did have 8th grade graduation in that old gym up there at the Y.

SRB: What kind of activities were associated with the schools?

AS: We had basketball, football, and we had track. Music too. I guess that's about it.

SRB: Did each school have it's own team?

AS: Yes.

LK: We didn't have any teams like that in Tinnie. We would have Christmas pageants and boat dancing, and carnivals and stuff like that, but we didn’t have any sports for competition.

Social Events and Church (Kelly and Salas 3)

LK: I remember when I was maybe 8 or 9, Miss Marie Fuller, she had the movie camera, you know the projector, and she would order films, and they would show them for a quarter at school and so everybody would come and pay a quarter and watch the film at the Picacho school.

SRB: How often was that?

LK: Oh, every 2–3 months, she would get a film, whenever she could get one in. I remember we watched Song of Bernadette, and all the Heidi movies. And we thought it was great, because we had to go so far to see a movie.

SRB: And so a lot of people would attend those?

LK: A lot of people would attend, and the Christmas pageant. They were always real crowded. And then they had community dances, not associated with the school, they would just have dances, and a lot of people would come.

SRB: Where?

LK: At the school, because they kind of used it as a community center too.

SRB: Were there church activities as well?

LK: There were church activities, yes, I forgot the pictures. We would have St. Joseph's day, which is our Feast Day, and they'd light these bonfires around and have the procession and then they would have the meal at the school cafeteria. A lot of people came. There was a lot of people here then.

LK: In Picacho.

AS: Yes, there's nobody now.

SRB: Were there other community places, dancehalls, bars, stores?

LK: Why don't you tell her (to her mother) about those old ones that they use to have there.

AS: We had a pool hall. That's what they called it. It was just right over there. And then they had dancing. There were weddings that had dances.

SRB: How often were the dances?

AS: About every other week. They'd charge about 50 cents for dances.

SRB: Was there an orchestra or a band?

AS: No, it was a violin and a guitar

SRB: Did a lot of people attend those?

AS: Oh yes. A lot of people.

LK: That was before my time.

Everyday Life (Kelly and Salas 4)

SRB: What was your daily life like? What kinds of things did you do everyday or did other people in the community do?

AS: Work work work. That's what we did was work on the farm.

LK: We all had our chores, my brother, he had to get up every morning and had to build a fire to get the house warm especially in the wintertime. And he would milk the cows everyday before school. So we had to make it easier for him, we would pick kindling to make it easier to build a fire and then we had to watch the chickens and close them up at night. And if we didn't, we got up with the chickens the next morning to keep them out of the garden. And mother too, they raised pigs, and they had to keep the pigs from tromping all over the hay, but let them eat some, and then they'd chase turkeys all over the place. That was her job, and one of her brothers had to do the hay and the watering. And I don't think the sisters did too much.

Roads (Kelly and Salas 5)

SRB: Did the change in the US 70 alignment have any affect on that store?

LK: Not that store. But it took the little fruit stand one time. And of course this time it took mother's fruit stand. At one time or another there was a store right over here across for Mendiolas, and a café. But I don't think the highway affected them, I think they just took them down. There just wasn't enough business or something, they stopped operating.