Making a Living (Sedillo 1)
RW: “What did your family do to make a living in Sunset?”
MS: They had goats. They had goats. You mean my family? Yeah, they had goats and sheep.
RW: Goats, sheep . . . did your family own a ranch or work for somebody else?
MS: No, they owned the ranch.
RW: How long did they own that ranch?
MS: Oh, let’s see, I was born in ’28, and they already had it, and then my mother sold it in 1963, because my dad passed away. You’re talking about my parents or my great-grandfather?
RW: Well, we’ll do both. Go ahead and talk about the Nunez.
RW: How big was your ranch, and where was it located -- your family ranch.
MS: My family ranch was located, as you go down the hill to the right on the hills.
RW: In Picacho, Sunset, or?
MS: Sunset.
RW: Okay, so when we are talking about your family ranchstead, we’re talking about the Nunez homestead. What kinds of stock [did you have?] It was just goats, you were saying?
MS: And the sheep.
RW: Okay, what kind of sheep were they?
MS: Just regular sheep you’d see around. I mean it wasn’t the real expensive [sheep].
RW: [It] wasn’t angus <unclear> or any fancy breeds.
MS: No.
RW: About how many animals did you run on the ranch?
MS: They used to run like two or three. On the old Nunez he had 300. But my dad – that was the grandson.
RW: And, his name?
MS: Oh, my dad? Camelo.
RW: Then your granddad.
MS: Guillermo Nunez
RW: For the family ranch, what task did each family member have? That includes you, your brothers and sisters, and anybody else that lived on the ranch. What kind of jobs did they have on a daily basis?
MS: All I know, they cared [for] the sheep and that’s about all I know. When they started a new one of the roads, my father worked on them, but this was way back in, like in the ‘40s or ’35, something like that, probably the ‘37s.
Everyday Life (Sedillo 2)
RW: The old alignment. From your duties with livestock, what were your chores? What types of things did you do?
MS: Oh, we used to ride the billy goats. And go in – a herder, you know, out in the mountains. We used to milk the goats. That’s where we used to get our cheese and all.
RW: Who made the cheese in the family?
MS: My mother.
RW: Did you ever get to help her with that.
MS: Oh, no. I was too small then.
RW: Could you describe a typical day, starting in the morning when you arose, when you were not in school, but when you were working on the ranch? What would a typical day be?
MS: It would be on Saturday, because we used to go to school, you know. But it would have been on Saturday morning, Sunday morning.
RW: What would you do?
MS: We’d go and milk the goats and each one of us had a chore. I had the chore of the milking goats. My sister had the ones that had the little babies, and my brother had the billy goats.
RW: Was it a challenge, working with the billy goats?
MS: Oh, I guess it was.
RW: Can you think of any particular incidents that you can recall that really capture dealing with the livestock as a child? Were there any incidents that really strike you as important or notable? Like a good story or something you recall as a child working with the livestock.
MS: Oh, well, on Sunday afternoon they would get the billy goats and make like a little rodeo with the billy goats, and ride them, ride the billy goats, and that’s about what we used to do in the afternoon. We also had three horses that were part of the rodeo.
RW: The whole family?
MS: Yes. My father and the rest of the children.
Leaving the Hondo Valley (Sedillo 3)
RW: We know how your family made a living – dealing with livestock, goats and sheep. And you’re obviously not in the valley anymore. What brought you out of the valley?
MS: My mother sold the ranch.
RW: What took you out of the valley?
MS: Oh. That was way back in ’43 when I got married.
RW: When you got married? So you left the valley in ’43 when you were married. Okay. What was that like, leaving the valley?
MS: Oh, it was good, because we would come to Roswell. We’d have water inside and everything, you know. But over there we had to carry the water from the river, and we’d take a bath in the river.
Growing up (Sedillo 4)
RW: The house that you grew up in, is it still there?
MS: The cave is still there.
RW: The cave? Explain please.
MS: You know, in those days poor, poor people, I mean, it was just a matter of surviving I guess. But the hill was right there, and they [dug] inside, you know, about . . . It’s still there, that cave, you know where they built. And it’s about, oh probably ten feet in, and then inside of the hill, and then they added another room out, which was with stones on the outside.
RW: Was it like living in a – we would call that a dug-out.
MS: Yes.
RW: But there’s a lot of people really into building that, because it insulates the house during the heat of the summer, makes it nice and cool. But what was it like living in that type of structure when you were a child?
MS: Well, when I was little, you know, I didn’t think nothing of it, you know. Like we do now, with these kids, you know, they want everything for nothing. <unclear> poor mother and dad <unclear>. But on those days, this from here to where we lived, that was coming down, and then the hills were about here, so from here to the hill I bet it’s about five miles, and then we had to travel three miles to the ranch. And then three miles, early in the morning – four o’clock – we’d get . . . they’d bring us up to the road, you know, to pick up the [school] bus on those buggies. So we were little and we didn’t know any better. We were raised that way.
Transportation and Everyday Life (Sedillo 5)
RW: We’re going to switch the issues now to the transportation era. Do you recall in the valley the roads, wagon roads, the trails and whatnot through Sunset?
MS: Yes.
RW: What types of transportation roads were there?
MS: Well, my father had a Model T, and he passed away in 1936, and he had a Model T for about three years before he died. And then we had a buggy with two horses. But they didn’t use that too often – the car, they didn’t use it that much. We had to really ride the buggy because that’s the one we’d go and get the wood, get up in the hills. [The road was a dirt road.]
RW: You’re talking about getting firewood?
MS: Yes.
RW: And that you would load that into the horse-drawn because you could get more places with the horses.
MS: Oh, yes.
RW: Then, what we’re looking at right now is a map of US 70, which was obviously an old road. There’s been a number of times when it’s been realigned, as you were talking about, up here [near] Sunset, where you’ve got that one old road.
MS: Yes.
RW: Are there any old wagon roads that you recall in the area?
MS: No, I don’t think so.
RW: Okay, and there was only one road that linked you with Riverside, and with Picacho and the rest of the Hondo Valley.
MS: Yes.
RW: Were there any roadside businesses?
MS: Fred Bowser was the closest one with groceries. [Tinnie also had a grocery store.]
RW: How often would you go getting groceries at Bowser’s?
MS: Well, really my dad would travel to Roswell, you know. It’d take him two days to come to Roswell on the wagon. Which would take us like, what, 30 minutes from here to Riverside?
RW: Uh huh.
MS: Anyway, he’d come and get the main groceries, which was beans, flour–100 pounds of beans, 100 pounds of flour. That had to last a month. And whatever you used on that, you know. Because we had the goats. Anything extra we would eat would be goat [meat]. And mother made the cheese – the quesavillo, whatever you call it then. I think there’s still some quesavillo.
RW: I’m curious, with making of the cheeses. Did she have a cold storage anyplace? Like a root cellar.
MS: Yes, they had a cellar.
RW: Did you ever watch her making the cheese?
MS: Oh, yes!
RW: How much cheese would she make per year?
MS: Oh, by the week, probably she’d milk the goats and then let it set for a day, and then after the day was over they would use tomatillo – you’ve seen that little tiny, little round [tomato] on the roads, and that’s what they would use for it too.
RW: The <unclear>
MS: So, I’m so afraid right now I’d say tomatillo, and now everything is against it, you know. Against all these herbs and everything. Well, we used to use all that stuff for certain purposes, medicine, the same way. We didn’t go to no doctors. Medicines that we’d get come from close to the river [or hills]. Peppermint and all the herbs, you know. [For lipstick or powder, they would use red dirt and mix it with lard.]
RW: This is interesting, because you’re isolated. You’re actually living off the land in many ways. Do you remember any of the plants that you would harvest when you would go out?
MS: The potatoes.
RW: What type of potato? Because there are several tubers that grow in the area.
MS: Oh, well right there we only had the small, little potatoes. Very small. Nothing like what we have now.
RW: <unclear>
MS: Yeah. But nothing like now days. Our potatoes are big and . . . But they were healthy, because they were under the ground, and we’d dig them out. Sometimes if we were hungry in between, we’d dig some of those potatoes and [eat them].
School (Sedillo 6)
RW: As a child you spent a lot of time in school?
MS: Oh, yes.
RW: You went to Picacho?
MS: [Yes], Picacho.
RW: What was the school room like?
MS: Very small. I bet it was as big as this room.
RW: About 20 by 14?
MS: About 20 by 30 long, you know. In fact the school is still there. The church is still there. And I used to think that this church was so big, you know. And it’s no bigger than, I bet, from here to inside [my living room].
RW: Of course, you were only this tall.
MS: Yes. And we went in there, oh, about in 1985, my sister and I. We were in surprise compared to what we have now.
RW: Obviously there were several grades. How many rooms were in the school house?
MS: Two. [The kitchen was in the basement.]
RW: Two rooms? Okay. How was it divided up, between grades?
MS: Different grades were divided with boards in between. The long one was divided with boards, and then they had like, in the other room it was from six up to eight, ten. Eight, I think. And then from there they traveled to Hondo, you know, that old school in Hondo.
RW: How many teachers did you have?
MS: We only had three teachers. In fact, one’s still living. Miss Kimbrell.
RW: You obviously had a daily routine in your school. What would be typical?
MS: Like what?
RW: Well, usually you’ll start with a subject, and then you’ll go into recess, or something, and then you might practice singing. What was a typical schedule of what you would do?
MS: Oh. Probably reading the first thing, and then arithmetic, which we called it then, arithmetic. And then the recess. And then we’d go in. And then we’d go out down the cellar. There was the kitchen where we’d eat. And that was it in the morning. And then keep going until 3:00.
RW: Until you’d get out?
MS: Yeah, ready to get out.
RW: What would you do, typically, during recess?
MS: We’d go and play ball. Basketball.
RW: And what kind of facilities did they have for . . .
MS: They had a good facility. The goal. We didn’t have no grass, but . . .
RW: A basket?
MS: Uh huh. Yeah.
RW: And girls would play separate from the boys?
MS: Oh yes.
RW: Or was it intermingled?
MS: No. Separate.
RW: And, what grade did you stay till? You went all the way through school?
MS: Yes.
RW: In the valley, okay.
MS: Not in the valley. No. I came to Roswell, and I finished here.
RW: When you were in the valley, and you were there for grammar school, did you play other schools or any team sports where Hondo would play Picacho or . . .
MS: Yes.
RW: Describe some of that.
MS: We had a team from Picacho or Hondo, whatever you want to call it. Hondo, and we had Capitan, which we had little, like the girls you know now days they have the, what do you call it, with the little . . . anyway, it was “Hondo-Hondo” -- oh, we used to go to Picacho. “Picacho-Picacho let’s play ball. Hondo-Hondo spit on the wall.” Something like that, you know. Or Capitan.
RW: So you had little cheers?
MS: Yes. We didn’t have cheers, but anyway.
RW: Or jeers. So there was a little rivalry between the schools. Of course, mainly the boys played the sports. And what would the girls do?
MS: They would play, too, with other schools, you know. In between.
Church (Sedillo 7)
RW: What other types of social events [were there]. How about church?
MS: We used to have the church right next door to it, but we only had services once a month.
RW: How would you practice your religion when the church wasn’t being . . .
MS: At home. You know, in the Catholic Church they would, in May, well starting in April, they would start making a little altar and put all the saints or statues, whatever you call it. And then in May when the little flowers start coming out, here we are, picking flowers for the Virgin Mary. I’m not a Catholic anymore, but we were then.
RW: What types of events would the church have, where the families would gather together, if any?
MS: They did have, like, fiestas, like in May and December and two or three more, but I can’t remember which other ones. San Antonio . . . three of the saints, you know, that they would celebrate, like fiesta.
RW: And what would occur at the fiestas?
MS: Oh they would have music. That’s what you’re talking about? Music and eating, like we all go out and eat. And games, little games like, what do you call it? Well I can’t remember the name of that game, but it’s like checkers, but we used to use the [beans and rocks. We would paint them].
RW: Dominos?
MS: No, we didn’t have no dominos, but we had the checkers, but we used to use the beans, you know.
RW: Beans on the checkerboard.
MS: Yes. We used to color the beans. Miss Kimbrell would let us color the beans. Some red and some other color, you know, so we’d know the difference. And then the checkerboard would be made out of cardboard.
Everyday Life (Sedillo 8)
RW: What other kinds of home remedies did you used to take?
MS: There was, okay, the one we used to have to wash our hair, it was a cactus. We didn’t have no shampoo, and the soap they used to make, it was made out of lard, pure lard. But the shampoo we used to use, we had to go up the hill when we take the goats and get the cactus.
RW: Cactus or yucca?
MS: Yucca, but we had to cut it off and then get in there in the bottom. Take all that . . . See what we went through? You all are lucky.
