| Biographical Non-Fiction posted March 13, 2024 |
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Some scary moments going west.
Western Adventure in the Sixties
by BethShelby
In the mid-sixties, my husband, Evan, and I and our three kids were living in a middle-class neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi. Evan, a country boy at heart, decided he needed a pickup truck. Although we both had jobs in the city, buying a new one wasn’t something we could do without going into debt. He was fortunate enough to find a good-looking used pickup truck, and it came with a camper top which covered the bed of the pickup.
“Ah ha,” I said. “I always wanted to go camping when I was a kid. Maybe we can do interesting things with this truck after all.”
“You got your truck, and I know you want to test it out on the open road,” I told him. “It is my turn, and what I want is a vacation. School’s out in a week, and Carol will be free. The twins will be in school next year, and it might not be as easy to get away. You and I have a couple of weeks coming. How about we take a trip out west? I’ve never been any further than Texas? What do you think? We could take food and camp out in state parks. We wouldn’t be spending a lot of money.”
Evan wasn’t big on vacations, but he’d had to adjust to a wife who didn’t get to go anywhere growing up and longed to see the world. He took his time processing my request, but I could tell he was mulling it over.
“You know there is only one seat across the front of the cab. We can’t put the kids in the back of the truck by themselves. I don’t think you’d want to stay back there with them. Besides, there is nothing for them to sit on but the floor. I don’t see how that could work.”
“What if we put a mattress back there for them to sit on? Come on. Where is your spirit of adventure?”
“Beth, have you even met our kids? They’d be hanging off the roof. Someone would have to be with them, or there is no telling what they might do. Maybe your mom would like to come with us. She doesn’t ever get to go anywhere. I know she has never been out west.”
“Let me call her. She’d love a chance to go somewhere and our kids are crazy about her. She could read to them and play games.”
Poor Mom. She had no idea what she would be getting herself into. Just getting away from Dad for a week was enough to get her excited. She had all sorts of ideas of how to deal with this camping trip. She even had a spare full-size mattress which we could lay on the bed of the pickup.
Once the mattress was in place, it took up the entire bed of the pickup. The only way to sit was with your legs stretched out in front of you. How long could an adult be in that position with three kids crawling all over you. We tended to do some dumb things back in those days.
The first night wasn’t so bad. We’d decided to start our trip by driving through the night. Evan and I sat up front and took turns driving and drinking coffee to stay awake. Mom and the kids were able to get a little sleep on the mattress. By morning, we were in Houston. Unfortunately, we had arrived with a flat tire.
It took a good portion of the day to find a place to buy a new tire and get it put on and rotated on a Sunday. The inexpensive part of our trip had started to go south already. We were tired and needed rest. With no state park in site, we rented a room in a motel and spent the first day of our journey on the out-skirts of Houston. Since motels have a television, pools and other conveniences our children were happy, and Mom wasn’t totally incapacitated yet. Evan and I got our rest, and the following morning we were up ready to take on whatever came our way.
Driving across Texas was what the day called for. We decided to do some rotation so as to not wear everyone out. I took a turn in the back and Mom and the kids all got turns riding up front. I learned quickly that sitting on a mattress in the bed of a pickup is a sure way to get cramps, backaches and a variety of other aches and pains. There was no air-conditioning in the back, but it was early May, and there were windows on either side we could open.
I was beginning to think Texas would never end. We were going through some desolate sections of the state. It looked like desert. We were in the Panhandle. Evan was counting on me reading the map. I would be guiding us to Colorado which was to be the focal point of our trip. It was a case of the blind leading the blind as none of us had ever been there before. My head stayed glued to a roadmap, which I was only learning how to read. I soon gave up on trying to refold it properly.
We weren’t on anything which resembled the Interstates of today. At one point, I had us on route 66, which was not nearly as exciting as the TV show by that name, which we watched each week. Most of the countryside looked like desert. The area was flat and covered with sand and mesquite bushes. There were a lot of turtles, jack rabbits, and dead armadillo along the way. We did see some longhorn cattle. What our kids found exciting were the tumble weeds and roadrunners, which are large, slender, black-brown and white-streaked ground birds with a distinctive head crest.
Eventually we found a roadside park and stopped for a picnic lunch. Mom had a lot of food and everyone was ready for a break. There were very few places along the highway large enough to even find a service station with restrooms or a gas pump. With six people needing restroom stops, it was turning into a problem and slowing us down. The only city of any size we would come to would be Amarillo. I had hoped we would be out of Texas before we stopped for the night. Since big cities mean slow traffic, I tried to find a road to take us around the outskirts and hoped to find a state park or a campground on the other side of the city.
I know we could have found a faster route to Colorado which would have avoided the panhandle, but I was anxious to add to my list of states I’d never visited before. We could go home another way, but by going this way, we would go through a few miles of New Mexico in the Northeast corner. New Mexico sounded like the real wild west even if it was just for a few miles. Leading into the Amarillo area was a return to civilization, but once it was behind us, we were back in isolated country quickly. There was no sign of any campgrounds as we headed toward the New Mexico border.
What happened next, I’ve written about before, so those who were with me when I posted the first Elusive Dream book will likely remember. This became the core of the wild part of our adventure.
When we crossed into New Mexico, it was even more desolate than Texas. The map showed no camping areas or state parks. There weren’t even any little towns that might have a motel anywhere for miles. The sun was sinking lower in the sky and Evan was worn out from driving and getting a bad headache. About that time, we saw a roadside stop with a few picnic tables. There were a couple of other cars there so we pulled in and found an empty table. With other cars around and another couple with kids having a picnic at another table, it felt like a safe place to be. We discussed it and decided since it seemed we didn’t have an option; we’d have to spend the night here. Since it wasn’t designed for camping, we wouldn’t pull out our tents. We would all stay locked inside our truck overnight.
We had a leisurely meal and were thankful that we had at least found a place to stop. One by one, the cars pulled away as the sun moved toward the horizon. Even the couple with children cleaned up their table and left. Ours was the only vehicle that was left in the area. Suddenly, the quiet was shattered by a beat-up looking vehicle pulling in with a very loud muffler that kept backfiring almost like gunshots.
Four or five men piled out near a place several tables away from ours. They were raucous and appeared to be drinking. They looked like troublemakers who were scroungy and unkempt. In the growing dusk it was hard to make out features, but from their silhouettes it seemed they had long messy hair and beards. A couple of them wore pony tails. Their appearance set our nerves on high alert. They didn’t hang around long. They all piled back into their vehicle, circled the area and pulled away.
Evan suggested that the five of us should sleep in the back of the pickup on the mattress and Mom could take her pillow and blanket and stretch out across the leather seat in the cab. He felt she would be more comfortable there.
Evan had pulled a paper bag from beneath the seat which he was handling with care. Carol demanded to know what it was. When she was shown a pistol and was told to never touch it, she got very upset and started crying. She wanted to know why we would bring a gun on our trip.
“You’re going to have the truck key, so you will have to lock us in the back” Evan told Mom. “It can’t be locked from inside. After you lock us in, you will need to lock yourself in. There won’t be any way we can talk to you during the night. In the morning you’ll have to come and unlock us, because we won’t be able to get out until you do.”
The idea of being like prisoners in the camper didn’t set well with any of us but there didn’t seem to be another solution, so Mom did as she was told. It was the beginning of a night which I will never forget. Five people on a single mattress is a nightmare to begin with. Thankfully the children soon settled and went to sleep. Evan didn’t even try. He kept turning his flashlight on to look at his watch. It was around three a.m. when we heard the unmistakable sound of the vehicle with the busted muffler, once again, entering our area.
“Oh, no! Tell me this isn’t happening. Why do you think they’re back?” I whispered.
Evan didn’t answer. He was busy pulling ammunition from another bag and loading the pistol.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that? We’re locked in. You couldn’t shoot them from in here. Do you think Mom is awake? If she is, she must be freaking out.”
“Be quiet. I need to think. We can’t sit here. We’ve got to do something. They’re probably here to rob us.”
The answer to whether or not my mom was awake came quickly. The truck sputtered and jerked forward. Mom had no idea how to drive our truck. She didn’t even know how to turn on the lights. All she knew how to do was to try to crank it and cause it to jerk forward. That is exactly what she did, over and over. Knowing my mom, I’m sure she was praying as well. The combination worked.
Those men likely had no idea what they might be dealing with if they messed with us. Maybe there was a crazy person at the wheel, or maybe it was a ploy to lure them over. Maybe they even saw something supernatural that frightened them. For whatever reason, they started the motor of their noisy vehicle and left our area in their dust. We breathed a collective sigh of relief. For what remained of the night, sleep was out of the question for us and for Mom as well. We didn’t see her until morning when there was plenty of light and she came back and unlocked us. Her first words were, “I saved our lives last night.” We didn’t argue with her.
No one wanted to spend another minute in the rest area so we didn’t bother with breakfast. I was thankful the kids had slept through our crisis. That corner of New Mexico was still desolate, but on the map it showed we were near an inactive volcano. I thought since it was noted on the map it was likely a tourist area, and maybe there would be a place to eat, so we drove up to the rim of the volcano. No one was there, but there was a grill and picnic tables and an unlocked restroom. It was the beginning of a better day. After we’d eaten, we found some literature on the area left in a dispenser for tourist, and we decided to do a little exploring.
I learned we were in an 8000 sq. ft. volcanic field and this was the Capulin volcano. At this point we were at an elevation of over 8000 feet, and the view was amazing. We were supposed to be able to see five states, but of course we didn’t know which was which. We decided to hike around the rim which was about a mile. We all needed some exercise after being cramped up for so long. The volcano had a well-preserved cinder cone which the information said was 55,000 to 62,000 years old. The bottom of the cone was 400 ft down. The area had been declared a national monument since 1916.
After we left there, we decided we would not risk camping out another night. We’d be sleeping in motel rooms for the remainder of the trip. Not only that but we would be eating out as well. There wasn’t much left of the food we’d brought, so we gave up on the idea of a cheap trip. The wild west didn’t feel safe, and apparently, the pioneer blood we might have inherited from our ancestors was running thin.
By the third day, our travel arrangements reminded me of the Joad family in Grapes of Wrath. I made a mental note to never again put a mattress in the back of a pickup and expect six people to share it. Mom did her best to keep trying to straighten things up, but it was impossible. I wondered how those earlier settlers had survived their journey across the West in a covered wagon, which was just a step down from our camper shell. At least maybe they were moving slow enough they could put the kids out and have them run along outside.
Our next state was Colorado. I was so excited to see the Rocky Mountains that I cried. It was the same reaction I’d had when seeing the Smokies for the first time. These mountains stood out in bold relief since the atmosphere was less humid and didn’t have the misty look of other mountains I’d seen. We got to Pikes Peak on the opening day for the summer visitors. The trip up in our pickup was scary and at times it seemed our truck wouldn’t be able to drive up such a steep incline. It was still deep in snow at the top. The kids got really excited over the snow. For Mom, the change in pressure caused by the altitude got to her, and she thought she was having a heart attack.
The highlight of the trip for the kids was the day that we spent in Santa Land. Mom and Evan decided to skip that and stay at the motel and rest. I spent the day doing the rides with them. One of Mom’s best days was when we visited the craft shops. She got some nice pottery to take home.
When we left Colorado going home, we took a different route. We went through Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. We took a tour in Dodge City to see an old western town where actors preformed a shoot out in the street. We also toured the business, a bar and visited boot hill with its interesting epitaphs. Since we all watched Gunsmoke every week, it was something fun to do.
By the time we got to Oklahoma we were all tired of traveling and anxious to get back home. The most interesting thing about Oklahoma was seeing dust devils that whirled like small tornados. I thought Arkansas was a pretty state, because it was green with a lot of trees. We spent a little time in Hot Springs and drove a way into the the Ozark mountains.
We were all relieved to be back home again. Our trip out west had been quite an adventure. Mom told everyone how she had saved our lives in New Mexico. One of the first headlines we read, when we picked up a newspaper, told of a gang of men who had gone into some parks in the Western states and robbed and murdered a family and several other tourists.
It is possible it was the men we had encountered. Whether or not we’d escaped from those guys with our lives, they were the reason we had decided not to camp out in any of the state parks as we’d planned.
Our trip proved to us the west, could still be pretty wild, long after the covered wagons had become something you only find in museums. It was an adventure we would never forget.
Western Writing Contest contest entry
In the mid-sixties, my husband, Evan, and I and our three kids were living in a middle-class neighborhood in Jackson, Mississippi. Evan, a country boy at heart, decided he needed a pickup truck. Although we both had jobs in the city, buying a new one wasn’t something we could do without going into debt. He was fortunate enough to find a good-looking used pickup truck, and it came with a camper top which covered the bed of the pickup.
“Ah ha,” I said. “I always wanted to go camping when I was a kid. Maybe we can do interesting things with this truck after all.”
“You got your truck, and I know you want to test it out on the open road,” I told him. “It is my turn, and what I want is a vacation. School’s out in a week, and Carol will be free. The twins will be in school next year, and it might not be as easy to get away. You and I have a couple of weeks coming. How about we take a trip out west? I’ve never been any further than Texas? What do you think? We could take food and camp out in state parks. We wouldn’t be spending a lot of money.”
Evan wasn’t big on vacations, but he’d had to adjust to a wife who didn’t get to go anywhere growing up and longed to see the world. He took his time processing my request, but I could tell he was mulling it over.
“You know there is only one seat across the front of the cab. We can’t put the kids in the back of the truck by themselves. I don’t think you’d want to stay back there with them. Besides, there is nothing for them to sit on but the floor. I don’t see how that could work.”
“What if we put a mattress back there for them to sit on? Come on. Where is your spirit of adventure?”
“Beth, have you even met our kids? They’d be hanging off the roof. Someone would have to be with them, or there is no telling what they might do. Maybe your mom would like to come with us. She doesn’t ever get to go anywhere. I know she has never been out west.”
“Let me call her. She’d love a chance to go somewhere and our kids are crazy about her. She could read to them and play games.”
Poor Mom. She had no idea what she would be getting herself into. Just getting away from Dad for a week was enough to get her excited. She had all sorts of ideas of how to deal with this camping trip. She even had a spare full-size mattress which we could lay on the bed of the pickup.
Once the mattress was in place, it took up the entire bed of the pickup. The only way to sit was with your legs stretched out in front of you. How long could an adult be in that position with three kids crawling all over you. We tended to do some dumb things back in those days.
The first night wasn’t so bad. We’d decided to start our trip by driving through the night. Evan and I sat up front and took turns driving and drinking coffee to stay awake. Mom and the kids were able to get a little sleep on the mattress. By morning, we were in Houston. Unfortunately, we had arrived with a flat tire.
It took a good portion of the day to find a place to buy a new tire and get it put on and rotated on a Sunday. The inexpensive part of our trip had started to go south already. We were tired and needed rest. With no state park in site, we rented a room in a motel and spent the first day of our journey on the out-skirts of Houston. Since motels have a television, pools and other conveniences our children were happy, and Mom wasn’t totally incapacitated yet. Evan and I got our rest, and the following morning we were up ready to take on whatever came our way.
Driving across Texas was what the day called for. We decided to do some rotation so as to not wear everyone out. I took a turn in the back and Mom and the kids all got turns riding up front. I learned quickly that sitting on a mattress in the bed of a pickup is a sure way to get cramps, backaches and a variety of other aches and pains. There was no air-conditioning in the back, but it was early May, and there were windows on either side we could open.
I was beginning to think Texas would never end. We were going through some desolate sections of the state. It looked like desert. We were in the Panhandle. Evan was counting on me reading the map. I would be guiding us to Colorado which was to be the focal point of our trip. It was a case of the blind leading the blind as none of us had ever been there before. My head stayed glued to a roadmap, which I was only learning how to read. I soon gave up on trying to refold it properly.
We weren’t on anything which resembled the Interstates of today. At one point, I had us on route 66, which was not nearly as exciting as the TV show by that name, which we watched each week. Most of the countryside looked like desert. The area was flat and covered with sand and mesquite bushes. There were a lot of turtles, jack rabbits, and dead armadillo along the way. We did see some longhorn cattle. What our kids found exciting were the tumble weeds and roadrunners, which are large, slender, black-brown and white-streaked ground birds with a distinctive head crest.
Eventually we found a roadside park and stopped for a picnic lunch. Mom had a lot of food and everyone was ready for a break. There were very few places along the highway large enough to even find a service station with restrooms or a gas pump. With six people needing restroom stops, it was turning into a problem and slowing us down. The only city of any size we would come to would be Amarillo. I had hoped we would be out of Texas before we stopped for the night. Since big cities mean slow traffic, I tried to find a road to take us around the outskirts and hoped to find a state park or a campground on the other side of the city.
I know we could have found a faster route to Colorado which would have avoided the panhandle, but I was anxious to add to my list of states I’d never visited before. We could go home another way, but by going this way, we would go through a few miles of New Mexico in the Northeast corner. New Mexico sounded like the real wild west even if it was just for a few miles. Leading into the Amarillo area was a return to civilization, but once it was behind us, we were back in isolated country quickly. There was no sign of any campgrounds as we headed toward the New Mexico border.
What happened next, I’ve written about before, so those who were with me when I posted the first Elusive Dream book will likely remember. This became the core of the wild part of our adventure.
When we crossed into New Mexico, it was even more desolate than Texas. The map showed no camping areas or state parks. There weren’t even any little towns that might have a motel anywhere for miles. The sun was sinking lower in the sky and Evan was worn out from driving and getting a bad headache. About that time, we saw a roadside stop with a few picnic tables. There were a couple of other cars there so we pulled in and found an empty table. With other cars around and another couple with kids having a picnic at another table, it felt like a safe place to be. We discussed it and decided since it seemed we didn’t have an option; we’d have to spend the night here. Since it wasn’t designed for camping, we wouldn’t pull out our tents. We would all stay locked inside our truck overnight.
We had a leisurely meal and were thankful that we had at least found a place to stop. One by one, the cars pulled away as the sun moved toward the horizon. Even the couple with children cleaned up their table and left. Ours was the only vehicle that was left in the area. Suddenly, the quiet was shattered by a beat-up looking vehicle pulling in with a very loud muffler that kept backfiring almost like gunshots.
Four or five men piled out near a place several tables away from ours. They were raucous and appeared to be drinking. They looked like troublemakers who were scroungy and unkempt. In the growing dusk it was hard to make out features, but from their silhouettes it seemed they had long messy hair and beards. A couple of them wore pony tails. Their appearance set our nerves on high alert. They didn’t hang around long. They all piled back into their vehicle, circled the area and pulled away.
Evan suggested that the five of us should sleep in the back of the pickup on the mattress and Mom could take her pillow and blanket and stretch out across the leather seat in the cab. He felt she would be more comfortable there.
Evan had pulled a paper bag from beneath the seat which he was handling with care. Carol demanded to know what it was. When she was shown a pistol and was told to never touch it, she got very upset and started crying. She wanted to know why we would bring a gun on our trip.
“You’re going to have the truck key, so you will have to lock us in the back” Evan told Mom. “It can’t be locked from inside. After you lock us in, you will need to lock yourself in. There won’t be any way we can talk to you during the night. In the morning you’ll have to come and unlock us, because we won’t be able to get out until you do.”
The idea of being like prisoners in the camper didn’t set well with any of us but there didn’t seem to be another solution, so Mom did as she was told. It was the beginning of a night which I will never forget. Five people on a single mattress is a nightmare to begin with. Thankfully the children soon settled and went to sleep. Evan didn’t even try. He kept turning his flashlight on to look at his watch. It was around three a.m. when we heard the unmistakable sound of the vehicle with the busted muffler, once again, entering our area.
“Oh, no! Tell me this isn’t happening. Why do you think they’re back?” I whispered.
Evan didn’t answer. He was busy pulling ammunition from another bag and loading the pistol.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that? We’re locked in. You couldn’t shoot them from in here. Do you think Mom is awake? If she is, she must be freaking out.”
“Be quiet. I need to think. We can’t sit here. We’ve got to do something. They’re probably here to rob us.”
The answer to whether or not my mom was awake came quickly. The truck sputtered and jerked forward. Mom had no idea how to drive our truck. She didn’t even know how to turn on the lights. All she knew how to do was to try to crank it and cause it to jerk forward. That is exactly what she did, over and over. Knowing my mom, I’m sure she was praying as well. The combination worked.
Those men likely had no idea what they might be dealing with if they messed with us. Maybe there was a crazy person at the wheel, or maybe it was a ploy to lure them over. Maybe they even saw something supernatural that frightened them. For whatever reason, they started the motor of their noisy vehicle and left our area in their dust. We breathed a collective sigh of relief. For what remained of the night, sleep was out of the question for us and for Mom as well. We didn’t see her until morning when there was plenty of light and she came back and unlocked us. Her first words were, “I saved our lives last night.” We didn’t argue with her.
No one wanted to spend another minute in the rest area so we didn’t bother with breakfast. I was thankful the kids had slept through our crisis. That corner of New Mexico was still desolate, but on the map it showed we were near an inactive volcano. I thought since it was noted on the map it was likely a tourist area, and maybe there would be a place to eat, so we drove up to the rim of the volcano. No one was there, but there was a grill and picnic tables and an unlocked restroom. It was the beginning of a better day. After we’d eaten, we found some literature on the area left in a dispenser for tourist, and we decided to do a little exploring.
I learned we were in an 8000 sq. ft. volcanic field and this was the Capulin volcano. At this point we were at an elevation of over 8000 feet, and the view was amazing. We were supposed to be able to see five states, but of course we didn’t know which was which. We decided to hike around the rim which was about a mile. We all needed some exercise after being cramped up for so long. The volcano had a well-preserved cinder cone which the information said was 55,000 to 62,000 years old. The bottom of the cone was 400 ft down. The area had been declared a national monument since 1916.
After we left there, we decided we would not risk camping out another night. We’d be sleeping in motel rooms for the remainder of the trip. Not only that but we would be eating out as well. There wasn’t much left of the food we’d brought, so we gave up on the idea of a cheap trip. The wild west didn’t feel safe, and apparently, the pioneer blood we might have inherited from our ancestors was running thin.
By the third day, our travel arrangements reminded me of the Joad family in Grapes of Wrath. I made a mental note to never again put a mattress in the back of a pickup and expect six people to share it. Mom did her best to keep trying to straighten things up, but it was impossible. I wondered how those earlier settlers had survived their journey across the West in a covered wagon, which was just a step down from our camper shell. At least maybe they were moving slow enough they could put the kids out and have them run along outside.
Our next state was Colorado. I was so excited to see the Rocky Mountains that I cried. It was the same reaction I’d had when seeing the Smokies for the first time. These mountains stood out in bold relief since the atmosphere was less humid and didn’t have the misty look of other mountains I’d seen. We got to Pikes Peak on the opening day for the summer visitors. The trip up in our pickup was scary and at times it seemed our truck wouldn’t be able to drive up such a steep incline. It was still deep in snow at the top. The kids got really excited over the snow. For Mom, the change in pressure caused by the altitude got to her, and she thought she was having a heart attack.
The highlight of the trip for the kids was the day that we spent in Santa Land. Mom and Evan decided to skip that and stay at the motel and rest. I spent the day doing the rides with them. One of Mom’s best days was when we visited the craft shops. She got some nice pottery to take home.
When we left Colorado going home, we took a different route. We went through Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. We took a tour in Dodge City to see an old western town where actors preformed a shoot out in the street. We also toured the business, a bar and visited boot hill with its interesting epitaphs. Since we all watched Gunsmoke every week, it was something fun to do.
By the time we got to Oklahoma we were all tired of traveling and anxious to get back home. The most interesting thing about Oklahoma was seeing dust devils that whirled like small tornados. I thought Arkansas was a pretty state, because it was green with a lot of trees. We spent a little time in Hot Springs and drove a way into the the Ozark mountains.
We were all relieved to be back home again. Our trip out west had been quite an adventure. Mom told everyone how she had saved our lives in New Mexico. One of the first headlines we read, when we picked up a newspaper, told of a gang of men who had gone into some parks in the Western states and robbed and murdered a family and several other tourists.
It is possible it was the men we had encountered. Whether or not we’d escaped from those guys with our lives, they were the reason we had decided not to camp out in any of the state parks as we’d planned.
Our trip proved to us the west, could still be pretty wild, long after the covered wagons had become something you only find in museums. It was an adventure we would never forget.
 Recognized |
I didn't see anything about this needing to be a fictional western or one with cowboys and Indians. So I wrote a more updated family version.
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