FIRST CARS & TRUCKS IN ENCINAL

I remember when I was little, four or five years old, at that time we didn’t see too many cars there.   We saw more wagons with horses going down the street.  That’s why the streets are so narrow, they weren’t made for cars.  There would be a wagon with a guy and his wife next to him and the little kids in the back.  They’d be going to the Mercantile.  There would be two or three wagons from ranches parked at the Mercantile.  There could be three or four cowboys on horseback getting groceries. 

I remember when there was the first truck. It was a flat bed truck and little kids came running over saying, “there’s a truck in town, a truck.”  “Where?”  “It’s coming down the street over there.  From the Mercantile it’s going to pass right there by Wayo’s house.”  “Oh, let’s go see it.”  “Wow”, the truck drives by, “it’s a truck, oh my God.”  We saw trucks in other little towns, but not very much there.

When I was little, my Grandfather used to have a Model T car.  I remember he would crank it to start it up.  Nobody had cars, Beto didn’t have a car, Kiko didn’t have a car, where we lived, no one had a car.  There were a couple of other cars in different parts of town. But trucks, that was the only truck in the whole town.  So when that big truck went by, “Oh wow, it’s a big truck.”  And after awhile we would chase the truck and hang on to the back as it went down the street.  That’s when we got a little older.  Anything unusual like that, little kids would invariably come running.  “There’s this over there.”  “Oh, let’s go see, let’s go see.” 

When Bebe Rey’s father and mother, who lived on a ranch, would come to visit Bebe Rey and Oscar, they’d come in a wagon from the ranch.   Then they’d pickup some groceries and then they’d go back to the ranch. 

One time Thomas told me, “Let’s go to that ranch where my aunt, the sister of my father, works.”  She was married to an Anglo guy named Jimmy.  Well Jimmy rode around in a wagon, on horse back or a wagon.  I remember riding in the back of the wagon.  Oh that was a rough ride.  Boom, boom, bouncing all over the place.  “How did you like that ride?”  “Eh, I don’t want to do it again.”  The ones on the seat at least had the springs which made the ride a little better. 

When I was one or two years old, my mother already had a car and they used to go to Encinal.  But in the town itself, there weren’t that many cars.  People there didn’t feel a need for it.  They could just walk any place.  In fact my mother was telling me, “When I was growing up in Encinal, we really didn’t need a car to go anyplace.  We could just walk, walk to the post office, walk to the grocery store, walk to school.  Just walk.”

That’s why Monico, my Grandmother’s Uncle, the brother of my Grandmother’s mother, just walked the whole of his life.  He was 80 something when he died.  He was like Jerry over here, he never had a car.  He didn’t need one. 

I remember after my Grandfather had that old Model T, then he bought a 52 Ford truck, a black one.  Later, he bought a 55 Dodge and then a 59 Dodge.  That was the last truck he had, a 59 Dodge. 




John with his Mother's 1948 Chevy Fleetmaster in Encinal


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