From: laro@idworld.net   
      
   "Aunt Cee Pants" <2XL@dontemailme.com> wrote in message   
   news:3ffc14ed@news.zianet.com...   
   >   
   > Life on the Frontier, by Miquel Otero   
      
   Thanks, I will add this name to my "books to be read" list!   
   Sounds tempting.   And I didn't know that Las Vegas NM was   
   such a bad town in earlier days.  Had a good friend who lived there   
   and used to visit him in my younger days.   
      
      
   > So I've looked and guess what - they have a   
   > copy of "Interwoven" which I will try and check   
   > out next visit there. I drew a blank on most of   
   > the other titles you gave me, although inter-library   
   > loaning is an option. I'll decide if I have any   
   > further interest after reading Interwoven.   
      
   Well, if you like honest history, told from a simply pioneer viewpoint,   
   you'll like her book.   She seems to have been a self-educated woman, but   
   she had an amazing ability to describe things so that they are easily "seen"   
   by the reader.   
      
   Even thoughself-educated, she insisted that her children attend Princeton   
   Unversity!   Seems to have been "the thing" in those days to have your kids   
   educated at Princeton.  Watt said that he didn't really want to leave the   
   ranch, but he went, because his beloved mother wanted him to go!  His mail   
   address while at Princeton, and in their alumni directories forever, listed   
   him as: Watt Matthews, Lambshead Ranch, Albany, Texas.   
      
   I still find it amazing that this guy lived at the same address for his   
   entire life, well over 90 years!   Of course he did move during those years.   
   Maybe as much as 100 yards or so, unless he was spending the night on the   
   range someplace.   
      
   Heck, Watt had one uncle who went up the trail with famous cattle drovers.   
   I seem to recall a photo of this uncle with Charlie Goodnight on the front   
   porch of their ranch home.   Remember the story in "Lonesome Dove" where the   
   old cattleman was killed in another state but wanted to be buried in Texas?   
   That story was based upon history.  And this uncle was one of the three men   
   who accompanied the body back to Texas.   
      
   Another uncle was a lawman in Arizona who was killed by one of the "bad"   
   Indians while on a stagecoach run to deliver the prisoner to another   
   destination.   
      
   I believe those stories are in the Interwoven book.  If not, they were in   
   one of the books I mentioned.   
      
   There is another book I did not mention.   It is a rather recent book which,   
   as i recall, simply takes old Watt's daily logbook for a period of a few   
   recent years, and reprints it.  That might not be very interesting, except   
   to see what the old man felt worth recording.  He had the habit of ONLY   
   watching television for the evening news.  He'd note the weather and current   
   events, then turn it off.  Most of the detail recorded, as I recall,   
   centered on the weather, cattle conditions, and such.  Just the stuff that   
   was important to a rancher, I guess.   Who really cared what some dumb   
   politicians in California were doing!   He didn't.   
      
   When the old man was something like 90, the family decided it was time he   
   stopped sleeping in the bunkhouse and had quarters of his own.   His private   
   quarters were pictured in the Laura Wilson book.  He had still not moved   
   into the private house when I visited the ranch.  Guests to the ranch   
   sometimes got to sleep in those private quarters.  The quarters were   
   nicknamed "the picket house" because of the outer appearance, but within was   
   found a small kitchen, bath, washer/drier, desk, television, a sofa, and a   
   twin bed.  His bookcase was filled with some rare volumes, let me tell you!   
   I do not know if he ever moved into that place.   
      
   I just happened to be working one day, by chance in the archives of the King   
   Ranch, when the phone rang and the archivist visibly stiffened.  She had   
   just learned that Watt Matthews had died.  Apparently there was a "big ranch   
   hotline" that was used to spread any news which was more significant to the   
   bigger ranches.  Watt's death certainly qualified.   
      
   I'll stop stretching this thread now, but have to close with the very strong   
   memory that I felt like I was touching history when being visiting that   
   ranch with old Watt.  What is really significant is that I wasn't an   
   important person, just a nobody.  But everybody was treated to his brand of   
   hospitality.  When you read of someone described as "the essence of  Western   
   hospitality" you get an idea of what i mean.   
      
   I felt like I was very close to the "Real Old West" and that memory sticks   
   with me to this day.   Even as I get older, I can take out that Laura Wilson   
   book, look through the photos and truly say "I've been there.  And there,   
   and there!  And there is the chair and the lamp old Watt used when he signed   
   this book!   And it only took my about 15 minutes to write his name, by that   
   time in his life."   (NOTE: at that stage, Watt was accompanied by a   
   fulltime Nurse/Ranch manager who saw to it he was not stretching himself too   
   thin.  She drove the 4wd vehicle on our ranch tour.  She told me that she'd   
   let Watt sign one of my books, but no more.  Seems she'd just run off a   
   visiting Army General who drove out to get Watt to sign all his books the   
   week before.  She said he was too weak to be wasting strength doing so much   
   writing. I believe he was 94 then.   
   And that was that!)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)