CAMPING IN THE RAIN 

Albert Martin would tell my Grandfather that he needed a fence built on the other side of La Bonita Ranch. To cross over and to get back to La Bonita Ranch at the end of each day would take too much time and it would be late by the time we got back to the ranch house.  So my Grandfather would say, “We’ll just stay over here and camp out next to the Nueces River.   It would be two or three weeks, maybe a month, before we would go back to Encinal. 

John knew how to stand like a 
"real cowboy" 

I would go to La Bonita Ranch with him when I wasn’t in school, during the summer vacation.  So this must have been during the summer vacation. He tried to get Braulio.  He was real light skinned and he was portly, he was a good cook.  He liked food a lot so he cooked real delicious food.  When we couldn’t find him, then he’d look for the other skinny guy. He had muscles, I would like to see his muslces.   He was a fairly good cook also but you could tell he didn't eat very much, he was not that fond of food.  To him food was, "Yeah, I have to eat a little something."  My Grandfather said that a fat cook is a better cook than a skinny cook.   But this time he didn’t find either one of them.  They were working for someone else.    So he told my grandmother, “We have a job already so you’re going to have to go and cook.”  She said, “Okay.” 

So we camped out by the Nueces River, we had three different tents, 2 green tents and one beige tent, big tents.  We pitched the beige tent, which was the one that the cook used.  Inside we had all the food and two cots, one for my grandmother and one for me.  My grandfather slept outside with the guys but he slept on the back of the pickup. The guys all slept on the ground or on cots around the campfire. 

Since my grandmother was there, if the guys had to go to the bathroom at night, they would have to move farther away from the area.   They also had to watch how they talked in front of her.

I remember that my Grandfather and Mexicano and some other guys were talking and my grandfather said, “Let me show you where the fence is going to go.”  My grandfather said “it had to cross the Nueces River.”  It was raining and I was in the tent with my grandmother watching them.  I saw them walking and go down the river bank, disappearing as they walked. 

I said, “Where did they go.”  My grandmother said, “They went down to the river bank.”  “What are they doing?”   “They’re looking to see where they’re going to build the fence.”  “I need to see what they’re doing.”  “But it’s raining.”  “I need to see.”  So I take off running in the rain.  She says, “Okay, go see, but it’s raining.”

It was really pouring; I was getting wet all over. I ran over by the river bank and I see them down there talking. They were standing under big trees so they weren’t getting as much rain.   I see my grandfather talking, “Yeah, the fence needs to come through here.”  And then he sees me, “Yes?”  “No, I just wanted to see what you were doing.”  “We’re checking out where the fence is going to go.  Go back into the tent, you’re getting all wet.”  “Okay.” So I run back, I’m all wet.  My grandmother says, “Okay, you have to change clothes now since you got all wet.”  I had to change my clothes but I had to see where they were, how did they disappear?  They were walking and I could see them.  Then they started to go down the bank and they began to disappear.  I had to go see what they were doing. 

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