One in a collection by Allen Bachoroski,
Local Historical Writer,
Tales Along the
Highway of Legends
Note: This
is one in a series of historical stories about local families
in the Trinidad region.
Click here to find out more
about how these stories were collected.
After mother was laid to rest, my sisters, Mary and Josie
took care of us until my sister, Maxine, who we used to
call "Max" came to live with us. My sister,
Mary was engaged to my brother-in-law at the time that
my mother passed away. They were supposed to have gotten
married in March, but due to the death, they postponed
the wedding until June. I remember one Sunday, my sister,
Mary had invited her fiance to come and have dinner at
our house. She baked a real nice cake with white icing.
She and my sister, Josie went to church. She left the
cake on the table. Sophie and I were alone. We ate most
of the icing off the cake, when my sister came home and
saw the cake, she got real angry with us, and asked "which
one of you ate the icing on the cake?" Sophie said,
"I didn't" and I said, "I didn't."
"Who ate the icing on the Cake?" We didn't,
so she got the strap and said, "you girls kneel down,
I'm going to find out who did this." She said: "Louise,
did you eat the icing? I said, 'no, I didn't', so she
said 'Sophie, did you eat the icing'? She said, 'no, I'll
say I did," but I didn't. No, she didn't spank us,
but she gave us a good talking to.
In May of that year, our house burned down, so my dad
took us to stay at the Savoy Hotel, then rented a house
on West Main Street. There used to be a swinging bridge
on West Main Street over the Purgatory River. We used
to have to cross the bridge every day on our way to Holy
Trinity School. I was in the 3rd grade at the time; Sister
Marietta was my teacher. I had gone to the first grade
at Sister's School. Sister Rose Ambrose was my teacher
then. I remember when I made my First Holy Communion at
Holy Trinity Church. We had such beautiful processions
in those days. All of the girls would be dressed in white
with beautiful veils, and the boys were dressed in navy
blue suits. My mother had brought me a beautiful pair
of white shoes. She had me try them on, they fit small,
but I said they fit good. I guess I thought they wouldn't
come in a larger size. I remember how they hurt my feet.
I attended 2nd grade at Columbian School, before we moved
to West Main Street.
My sister Max and her husband, Felipe Sanchez and their
two children came to live with us. Felipe was the boy
that my parents had raised. He married my sister after
the First World War ended. My sister Mary and her husband,
Leo Gonzales were in their own place. My sister Josie
was working at the ranch well, in January of 1925, my
brother-in-law, Felipe Sanchez, was killed in an automobile
accident. He was going to go to Aguilar to look for a
job in the mine, so my sister "Max" his wife
asked him if he would run an errand for her to the grocery
store on East Main Street at the Felix Cordova store,
where the Honda Shop is now. The streets were real icy,
and on Main Street where the Sebastiani store was, the
car skidded and hit a wagon load of hay and turned over.
He was killed instantly of a broken neck. This was on
January 24, 1925, just one year after my mother had passed
away; so my sister and her children lived with us from
then on. She was pregnant, when her husband died. On July
4, 1925, she had her third baby, Philip.
(Note:
if you have Photos of this family or know of anyone that
does, please have them get in touch with us so that we
might share some photos of the family here)