My Family – by Louise

My great-grandparents all had Texas Fever.

They came in the 1870s from Illinois and Alabama. They lived through cholera, civil war, three runaway marriages, covered wagons, fires, hydrophobia, drowning, murder, fevers, deafness, polio, suicides, whisky, fires, and aids.

My great-great-uncle lost his life in a duel over a bad woman. His brother had a real nice big framed picture of him. His wife made him keep the picture at the barn.

My parents dreamed of claiming a homestead in New Mexico. Their worldly goods were less than $75, including the Model T Ford. They went to the Texas plains, near Spur, to make the cotton crop, in the summer of 1923. July 15, 1923, I was born near there.