PHOTO BY MIL, 5-31-'68
There was once a white-haired retired
Baptist preacher living on maybe thirty acres
a few miles southwest of Los Lunas, New
Mexico.
He and his wife were kind of "old-timey" as
the saying went....they were senior folks and
I coulda been their son, age-wise. He wore
faded-out overalls most of the time, and his
wife, a lovable little lady, was partial to calico
dresses and wore an old-fashioned bonnet,
especially when hoeing their gardens in the
hot NM sun.
I'd stop by and visit them when in the area
and we'd do a little target practice on his back
acre, or sit in the shade of a cottonwood
for a spell and he'd reminisce about his old
preachin' days...
Sometimes he ask me to sing "Amazing Grace,"
or "Shall We Gather At The River?"
Here is the fascinating thing: he had the
most interesting little "farm." He must've had
a small tractor, though I never saw it. There
were fruit trees and maybe a few acres of
alfafa---memory says he had several gardens,
a grass pasture with a few cows grazing, and
pheasants galore running free.
He liked to keep stuff, like cars and mechanical
things and had a junk heap over a little knoll,
kind of out of sight. ("You never know when you
might want an old part and save yourself a trip to
the hardware store.")
The thing that perhaps was the most interesting
about his whole place, besides their cozy little
farm cottage, was the menagerie.
You see, not only did he like to grow plants, but
he raised animals. I don't know where he got 'em all,
maybe bought some of them, but he had a lot of
critters growing and I mean---not just chickens
and pigs and cows...but rabbits in cages...and tame
geese and quail running around loose.
Since I led the music for a while in the little
church down there, I dropped by from time
to time and took my youngest son Bri. He
liked to head out with me in my old green
1960 Chevrolet pickup....when I had a day off.
One spring day when my boy was about
four-and-a-half years old, he and I stopped
by "The Preacher's Place" as I called it, to say
hello.
My little son was fascinated by the myriad
of interesting stuff around that place....
especially the skunks . I don't know if the
adult skunks had had corrective surgery or
what---I mostly steered clear of their
domicile.
But Preacher had some skunk babies, whose
plumbing was yet to develop and he said
to my boy: "How would you like to hold a
baby skunk in your hand?"
Kids are not picky and they relate to other small
creatures, and my boy said: "WOW...SURE!"
The photo tells the rest.
++++++++++++++
MILS PLACE
by Mil
27 SEPTEMBER 201
(B.E. found this old photo in the garage
yesterday, while rummaging. I had just
taken up photography that spring of '68
and processed the 8X10 in my darkroom.)
