This amazes me that this happened less than 60 years ago. My Dad was
born into a family of ranchers (Mexican/Apache). Their ranch was (still
is) in New Mexico & Arizona. He grew up in the family's village.
They had no electric or running water, had to tote water from the creek.
They had to ride their horses 8 miles to go to school. There was a small
paddock at the school (one room school with all the grades up to 12th) to
keep the horses. After school they would ride back home. Some days
they would get caught up in a game of ball after school and it would get too
late to ride home, so they would camp out at school till the next
day. These are 5-15 year olds. On weekends,the younger
kids, after chores, would pack up and just ride (I'm talking thousands of
open acres). (older kids,11 & up, had to do
ranch work all day). Dad said they would ride till dark, camp
out, ride some more next day, and make it back home by Sunday night (for their
weekly bath).
Every year or so I go back for the family reunion.
I noticed the family cemetery (my Mom is buried there) has a lot of tiny
graves. My Dad said " Out here, if you made it past five, you were
tough enough to make it through just about anything."
And he was right. Most lived well into their 90's. My Grandfather
lived to 103. I still have an old black & white of him on one of the
ranch horses, in a bosal (hackamore). He was 97 in that photo.
I don't expect my kids to live like that in this
day and age. But I do believe that kids today are coddled and
SPOILED. Let them be kids, and let nature take it's course.
