I Love New Mexico

Episode 52– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music

About the Episode:

Here at the I Love New Mexico podcast, we love nothing more than the New Mexico stories shared by families and loved ones. The legacy of Julie’s family makes a great story and an even better podcast episode!

Links
Follow Julie on Instagram
No Life for a Lady book
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook

Original Music by: Kene Terry

Featuring:

Julie Wallis

JulieWallis, third generation, born and raised in Las Cruces, NM. My New Mexico story begins in 1917, when a sixteen-year old William Anderson decides to ride horseback from Denver City, Texas to Datil, New Mexico. 

Episode Transcript

Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. One of the things that we’re really interested in doing on this podcast is talking to people about their New Mexico stories, because what I’ve found is that, um, the longer, uh, so this is, this is my guests may laugh, but this is what I’ve learned about life is that the more you know, the less you know, I, the, the more you learn. Um, the more stories I hear, the more I realize that there are thousands of stories about New Mexicans and about how families came to New Mexico. And, um, there’s just such a variety of interesting tales. And some families didn’t come to New Mexico. Some were already here when everybody else showed up. So today we have a special guest, Julie Wallace, who is, uh, who reached out to us because she said, I have a great family story that I really wanna share, and I have some, um, a, a tiny bit of knowledge about it, partly because Julie and I tried to do this about three or four weeks ago, and our sound quality was not great. So, today Julie Wallace is going to share with us some of her family story, and, um, I think there’s a long horseback ride before arrival in New Mexico. And so I’m, I’m, I can’t wait to hear it all, but Julie, tell our listeners a little bit about you, and then a little bit about your story.

Julie: (02:19)
Well, thank you so much for having me as a guest on your program. It is truly an honor and something I’ve been looking forward to doing and just having this opportunity to get to share, uh, this little bit of New Mexico history that is a large part of my own family history, but a small part of New Mexico history. So it’s a great honor. Thank you so much.

Bunny : (02:45)
Oh, you’re very, you’re very, very welcome. Tell me, um, you just as, because we can see each other and our guests can’t see each, uh, see us. You, um, held up this, this booklet that your grandmother had put together that I understand is part of the, it says Anderson Home place or something like that. I’m, I’m curious Yes. Even before we begin, where, um, that’s such a cool, um, it’s such a great idea to put together a book that encapsulates histories. What, what’s that? I’m interested in that.

Julie: (03:20)
So my grandmother was, uh, just, she was so proud of her family history and her family legacy and, um, her whole life, one of her biggest missions was to make sure that that family legacy and family story continued on into further generations. And, um, so it was actually her grandfather, uh, who had taken his family from the western part of Texas into New Mexico, um, before New Mexico is even a state. And, um, his wife had recently passed away, and he took all eight of his children, the oldest of which was a girl, and all the rest were boys .

Bunny : (04:18)
Wow.

Julie: (04:19)
And as a single father, he took his, um, group of kids with two covered wagons, a couple of cows and some horses, and he left all that he knew in his family support group. And he went into what was then the New Mexico territory into the Midway community, and showed up as a single father with all of these children trying to make a place for his family and make, um, something he could call his own and something he could pass down into further generations. And so it really starts with him.

Bunny : (05:08)
What, Julie, do you have an idea of what, I mean, we became a state, New Mexico became a state in 1912. Mm-hmm. , do you have an idea of what year it was that they came?

Julie: (05:18)
He came over to the New Mexico territory somewhere around like 1910 into like the 1911 era plaza.

Bunny : (05:29)
Right before statehood. Yeah. Yeah.

Julie: (05:31)
Cool. And, um, so yeah, him and, uh, his, his brood of children, and I, I’ve tried many, many, many times over the years to imagine this man and this group of kids that just ranged in age from, you know, 18 ish all the way down to essentially like a two year old, like this very large wow. Age group of kids. And, you know, to go into the middle of nowhere,

Bunny : (06:05)
So I know of a midway community that is over between Clovis and Portales, but do you know where is Midway? Where’s the Midway community you’re talking of?

Julie: (06:17)
It is still, I believe, in that area. Oh, okay, okay. Over there. He eventually, and I have the date here, um, but he eventually moved his family out of that little area because what he had been doing was saving money, um, so that he could purchase the, um, me, let me think. Section 7 35 in West Texas and Uhhuh , so that sits right on the border of New Mexico and Texas Right. By Hobbs. And, um, and that section is still, I still have family living on the family homestead and all these Oh, nice. Years later. And so, so that was his, my two times great-grandfather. That was his mission and goal in life for his family. And I think he’d be really proud that, that his descendants still live there today.

Bunny : (07:21)
So the, so who in that group of kids was your great-grandfather?

Julie: (07:29)
So there was eight children in this group of kids. Um, and so my great-grandfather, he was number six outta the eight, and his name was William Arthur Anderson. And some people called him William. Some people called him Willie, and others knew him as Bill. So he responded to all of those names, .

Bunny : (07:56)
So he was born, perhaps, let’s see if he was, so he was born right after the turn of the century

Julie: (08:03)
Yes. And

Bunny : (08:03)
Moved to New Mexico as a child?

Julie: (08:06)
Yes, yes. Um, so he was born, um, he was born actually in Anderson County, Texas, May 25th, 1901 is when he was born. Wow. And in this book that my grandmother compiled together of the telling of all of these eight children, um, she included in there a little poem that he had written about his name and about him himself. So he says, my mother calls me William. My father calls me, will my sisters and brothers call me Willie? And my friends all call me Bill.

Bunny : (08:54)
and tell me, so was your grandfather, I’m sorry, your great-great-grandfather. Was he, what was his profession?

Julie: (09:07)
So do you mean my, the one that moved his family?

Bunny : (09:12)
Yes. Yes.

Julie: (09:14)
He, he was really just a farmer. He, uh, and when he very first took his children to Eastern New Mexico, he and the older siblings left the younger ones, and they would go travel around to farm together, and then they would come back, um, to check on the younger kids .

Bunny : (09:40)
So, what was his name? What was the great-great-grandfather that took his children? Because, because I’m gonna tell you, I’m from that neck of the woods over in Eastern New Mexico, and somebody will listen to, to this and say, my grand, my great-grandfather was, you know, he worked on his farm or something. I know, but we need to know his name because that’s how interconnected new Mexicans are,

Julie: (10:05)
His name is. And you know, it’s true. New Mexicans are so interconnected, and that’s one of, they’re one of the coolest things about our state. Um, but his name was William Maitland Anderson.

Bunny : (10:20)
Okay. Well, that’s a, that’s a very regal name. And I’m in fact married to somebody whose last name is Anderson. So who knows, who knows. Cool. I know that they ended up at some point over in the Daddle area. His, his family did. Oh. But, so the reason I say that is this is, this is just a side story, but we’re telling stories here. So, but, but, um, recently my stepdaughter married a woman whose last name is Autry. And I say to my dad, who’s 91 now, I said, did you know? And I told her I told him her, her family name, and then I, we happened to all be in a conversation together. And, um, she said, oh, well, my grandfather’s name was, and she named her grandfather. And my dad said, oh, I used to haul grain for him, in the, in the late forties. So I just, I think it’s always good to share names because somebody’s gonna send us a note and say, oh, we knew that family. So that’s the coolest thing. So, so William Maitland Anderson brings his kids to the Midway community, and you said he was just a farmer, and I was like, there’s no, just a farmer .

Julie: (11:40)
That’s true.

Bunny : (11:41)
Yeah. Especially in Eastern New Mexico where perhaps they had irrigation and perhaps they didn’t. Um, I’m curious what you know about that, about how they ran, you know, know how they ran their business. And I say that in quotes because farming is a business, and yet it’s just hard work.

Julie: (12:02)
It is. It’s, it’s the work of blood, sweat and tears. And it is, um, you know I’m not familiar with how he ran his property. I know one of the things that he tried to do in is he ran a little store. And that’s something we’re not, we don’t know a whole lot about. My grandma didn’t know a whole lot about that. She did include in her little book, and her telling was that he did not care for chocolate. He, he didn’t like it. He didn’t see how other people would like it. So in his little store set up, the chocolate was kept close to the kerosene . So it had, I guess anyone that shopped there probably didn’t like chocolate considering it where it was stored. But for what he thought was the best candy was a piece of brown sugar and Wow. Like a little lump. And for the grandkids, that was like, for him to share that was something very special.

Bunny : (13:10)
Wow. And so he must, did he remarry?

Julie: (13:15)
He did not

Bunny : (13:16)
Wow. Wow. So he raised those kids by himself?

Julie: (13:22)
He did. He really did. And you know, my grandmother only knew him until she was four years old and he passed away. And in those four years, he really left a very lasting impression upon her to where even when she, uh, worked hard to reach out to all of the family and, and collect all of these stories and put the book together, that was one of the things that she included in there. She dedicated the book to him and cheer referred to him as one of her dearest and oldest friends.

Bunny : (14:03)
Wow. , that is quite an impression, because when you’re that, so I went to my first funeral when I was four years old, and it was my great-grandmother, um, and her last name was Vineyard. But I certainly remember her because she was one of the kindest people I know. But, um, um, it’s interesting, I’m curious, there are obviously a lot of stories in the book. What are you, what are your favorites? Tell us some stories.

Julie: (14:31)
You know, I think for me, one of my favorites is, um, about my great-grandfather, so that’d be my grandmother’s father when he was 16, uh, and this was about the time that the Spanish flu was starting to go round. Oh, yeah. And, but he was finally old enough that he could go out and he was trying to find work, and he had heard of, uh, Ray Morley over in the Daddle area and his drag a ranch needing helpers and workers. And so at 16, he had convinced his dad to let him and his brother go on horseback from what’s now Denver City, Texas, all the way to Dad New Mexico, to work on Ray Morley’s Ranch for him. And, uh, so he went over there and he loved it.

Bunny : (15:40)
That is such different country from, um, Eastern New Mexico. And, um, so what is the, there’s a book written by one of the Morley’s, do you know this book? No. Life For a Lady?

Julie: (15:55)
Yes. No, life For a Lady, yes. By

Bunny : (15:58)
Agnes Agnes Morley, Cleveland. Um, and in fact, we’ll put a link to that. It’s one of my favorite books because she talks about, um, I, I think that Ray Morley was her father, um, and she talks about growing up on that ranch in Daddle. Have you read it?

Julie: (16:20)
I have read it. And her just, the telling of her story is so beautifully written and just all of the adventures that she had in her lifetime are just, it’s just, it’s a beautiful story and just something that it, today’s world, we just are, it’s difficult to wrap your mind around and, but it is, it’s, it’s a very good, good book.

Bunny : (16:50)
So your grandfather Bill, or Will, or Willie or William, whatever we called him, um, he rode over and worked on the Morley Ranch. Did he stay in that area? I mean, is that where your grandmother was born or?

Julie: (17:05)
No, he did not stay in the area. He was there for a couple of years. There was also another book that was written, um, and it was written by, it’s just called The Morley’s. Yes. And it was written by, uh, Norman Cleveland with George Fitzpatrick. And within the book of the Morley’s, they tell a couple stories that include my grand, my great-grandfather in them. Um, and while he had been there for a couple of years, and when you hear these stories or read them, I mean, it is, it is true cowboy old West going out into the country and trying to move horses through the rain and to another location and the wagon breaking down and like stuff we see in movies that we think it couldn’t have been like that, but it was, and I think probably harder .

Bunny : (18:11)
So we were, I actually am showing, um, property. ’cause in my other life, for those of you who don’t know this, in my other life, I’m a realtor and I was showing property yesterday to some folks from New York, and I was talking about how my family my, both my parents’ family came to Eastern New Mexico about the same time that your great-great-grandfather brought his family here in the, like 19 10, 11, 12. And, um, how my grand grandpapa Terry traded two mules and $18 for a 40 acre, um, homestead that had already, that somebody was trying to prove up and they had left. And so he traded and, but, but my client who’s sitting in the backseat, he said, wow, do you think any of us could live like that now? And I said, no. I mean, it’s , it’s, it’s beyond, um, our comprehension to know what I mean, they showed up and lived in a half dugout and, um, yeah. Did the things, uh, you know, you know, prayed for rain and then prayed for not, not too much rain. So tell me what your great-grandfather did after he was at the Morley Ranch. Did he go back to Eastern New Mexico?

Julie: (19:31)
He did. Um, after a couple of years he did, he did go back to, uh, the family homestead there on Section 7 35. And he took up farming, and he raised, he, he was one kind of, um, he was one of those people that just, he found work and he moved for work. He married and he had found some work in the Las Cruces area, and he went down there, and that’s where my grandmother was born. And shortly after that, he took her back, uh, there to the family homestead, and she was raised there. Um, went to a one room schoolhouse, very close to the, the family section. And, that’s where she had her whole education. And, uh, she had won a competition, uh, to get a scholarship for college. And her father’s just, he couldn’t imagine his, his daughter going away to college. So he found some property back in Las Cruces, which at the time it was not New Mexico State University. But it was, you know, the New Mexico Agriculture College or College of Agriculture. But he bought a place there for, for them, and he moved his family down there so that she could go to college and be close to family.

Bunny : (21:14)
That, so that’s a great story. I want, I, you know, Julie, you and I know this stuff. I mean, we know, um, you know, we know what a section is and we know where all of these places are located. So I always wanna, always wanna be really cognitive of there, there are folks who are listening that are like, what in the world is this section of land? And because, you know, um, back east before the railroad, we didn’t have sections. And really it’s only in the West that we have sections. So I want, I want folks to know that a section is 640 acres and it is a square. Um, you know, it’s, it during the Homestead Act carved up the west into 40 acre pieces. And so, um, uh, I honestly, I, I can’t off the top of my head remember how we, that’s pretty simple division, but, um, so a section is 640 acres, and it’s a lot of land. I mean, it’s a mile by a mile by, I mean, it’s a mile square. So, yeah. So I want people to know that your section is in the southeast corner of the state. Is it closer to Hobbes or Lovington or what, where, where exactly does it sit from? Hobbes?

Julie: (22:31)
So, so our section, our family homestead section actually sits, uh, in Texas. Okay.

Bunny : (22:38)
So

Julie: (22:39)
Just east of the New Mexico state line. Okay.

Bunny : (22:43)
Um,

Julie: (22:44)
But from my understanding, it’s essentially, I mean, a lot of my family still lives in Hobbes, and so it’s less than a 20 minute drive from Hobbes to into Texas, uh, to the family homestead.

Bunny : (23:01)
And that, and Hobbes, just for people who know, is in the far far southeastern corner of New Mexico. And the cool thing is we’ve been talking a lot to people from Southern New Mexico. So we’ve had two podcasts that are based in Las Cruces. So Las Cruces, for those of you who haven’t listened to the last two podcasts, uh, is in the southern, sort of the southern middle of the state. And it’s closest, the closest city. I mean, Las Cruces is the third largest city in New Mexico, but it is just north of El Paso, which is this very lonely city in Texas, way, way, way out west. Um, and it, El Paso is on the border with Mexico. So Las Cruces is very close to Mexico. And you, so your grandmother, when she went to college, her entire family moved to Las Cruces. How long did that last? How long did they live there, do you think?

Julie: (23:58)
Well, I can tell you that she spent the rest of her life living there. Oh,

Bunny : (24:06)
Cool.

Julie: (24:06)
Yes. And to this day, um, I grew up, um, on the little farm that he purchased, and my mother still lives there.

Bunny : (24:16)
Oh, that’s so cool. . So your mother now lives in, so is this your mother’s family?

Julie: (24:23)
Yes.

Bunny : (24:24)
The Anderson side is your mother’s family. So where is the farm?

Julie: (24:28)
Um, well, where they live is in Macia Park. Oh. So it’s, uh, within walking distance of the university, which was perfect for, for my grandmother when she first started going there. But, um, yeah, so it’s right there, very close to the New Mexico State Horse Farms. And, uh, but still there ,

Bunny : (24:52)
Uh, for people who haven’t been to Las Cruces, I went to school at New Mexico State in the s late seventies. And, um, I, I love Las Cruces. In fact, if my family, if my parents were closer, I would move to Las Cruces. But it’s six hours New Mexico’s a big state, and it’s about six and a half hours from my hometown. And when I went away to college, my family was like, what? What? I was the first first member of my immediate family to go to college. And, um, Macia Park, I think is, it’s beautiful. It’s green, it’s slush, it’s not far from the river. There’s a lot of groundwater there. Um, that’s lucky. Your mom forgetting to live in Macia Park, which is really just a piece of, you know, Southern Las Cruces. Really? Yes. Um, it’s not far. We had a conversation with my old friend, DVI Telford, and we talked about, um, the, the pecan orchards that are just west of there. It’s

Julie: (25:56)
Just sort of

Bunny : (25:57)
Marijuana. Um,

Julie: (25:59)
It is. And the bus pecans you can find .

Bunny : (26:05)
So did you grow up in Las Cruces?

Julie: (26:08)
I did. I did. And I’m also a graduate of New Mexico State University. Ooh,

Bunny : (26:13)
Go Aggies. Go . I can still sing the fight song, but nobody’s asked me to do it . So, um, so sometimes when my husband are going, we were talking about football, I’ll sing the Aggie Fight song, but , that’s so cool. I love that.

Julie: (26:33)
It is, it, um, it is, it’s just, and my grandmother, she, she passed away a couple of years ago, but her whole life, she was just one of those people that really, she was very proud of all of her family and she really cons constantly and consistently wanted to keep the family legacy, the family story together. She, that was something so important to her. Um, and even in going through her things after her passing and seeing all that she held onto all of it was part of her story, part of her parents’ story, um, that she held on to so very dearly. And, um, so it, it really has been a journey, but just the pride and that she had, she even worked very, very hard, um, to get a historical marker, um, for where her one room schoolhouse had been, uh, there in western Texas. Just

Bunny : (27:53)
That’s so cool. So tell me about, I’m curious about your dad’s family as well, because your mom obviously, um, lived in Las Cruces with your father. Was he from there or was he from elsewhere? Did they meet at school? No,

Julie: (28:10)
They met in high school. They met at Las Cruces High School. Oh, my dad’s family. Um, my dad is actually from Maryland and both of his parents are from Maryland and grew up in a really small town. And, uh, his dad, uh, he had several jobs, but he was looking for something different and new. And, uh, he had heard about a very temporary job out at White Sands Missile Range. Oh. And so he took my grandmother and they had my father and my uncle at the time who was a newborn. My dad was two, and they drove out to Southern New Mexico. And I can still hear my grandmother’s voice saying, when Grandpa got to the top of the hill and said, well, there it is. She just started crying. ’cause she thought she was at the end of the earth. You glad

Bunny : (29:09)
. Oh, I wonder what year that was. That’s so interesting. I mean, if your dad was two years old, was it like fifties?

Julie: (29:18)
Yeah, 1954 ish, 55, somewhere in there. And, um, and she left, she had 10 siblings, um, that she was really, really close to, and her parents and, uh, all of this family. And she just went out there and she just says, I thought it was the end of the earth. I couldn’t imagine . So

Bunny : (29:47)
I, I want people to know when you come up over that pass, so you, you drive to Al Alamogordo and you go through White Sands, which is pretty, pretty stunning. But you’re in the desert. You’re really in the desert. Yeah. It’s the Sonoran Desert. And you climb through that pass and I’m sorry, I can’t remember the name of the pass.

Julie: (30:07)
Oh, the St. Augustine Pass. St.

Bunny : (30:08)
Augustine Pass. You go up over the Oregon Mountains and you go, because this is how I used to go, because I grew up in, you know, over near Tuum Care at Logan New Mexico. And I used to, you know, this is how I always went back to school. And you go over St. Augustine Pass, well, when you start down St. Augustine pass to Las Cruces, you go through Hodo, which is at, uh, the, I, I’m sorry, I can’t remember the Spanish name, but it really is the, they the words mean the Trail of death. Right. I mean, it was, yeah, , it was a place where, you know, when the Spaniards came through, they were like, where’s the water? Well, the water was w was Miles West where the Rio Grande is, but they called, oh, it’s Coronado Del Marte. So it was, it was the journey of death. So, um, so I can imagine your grandmother on your dad’s side coming over that pass and looking down at that desert and saying, what have you brought me to? And I think, I think that that’s the cool thing about New Mexico. A lot of people will tell me that they, yeah, I’ve been to New Mexico. I, you know, I went through New Mexico and I 40, and I’m like, you gotta get off the freeway. Because yeah. You don’t see, when you’re on those roads leading to places, um, sometimes it looks rather bleak, don’t you think? ?

Julie: (31:31)
Yes. Yes. And, you know, it is the, one of the most beautiful things about the state of New Mexico is truly the diversity of the landscape and how quickly it can change. Because even just going, you know, over from Las Cruces and you go back towards Alamogordo and then you climb up those mountains, you’re very quickly into the mountains and pine trees and aspen trees, and you would never imagine that could be there, .

Bunny : (32:10)
Well, and I, I always, I remind people we have every temperate zone in New Mexico except tropical. So, so you’re, so, like you’re saying, you can leave that Sonoran desert and be in Alpine Forest in an hour. It’s, and it’s the same way if you’re, you know, if you’re out at, uh, the Rio Puco, Rio Preco west of Albuquerque, which looks like the, I mean, it’s like the lunar surface basically. And you can be in the mountains at Mount Taylor, or you can come, you know, back to the Sandias in about an hour. And you’re so, so people don’t realize how diverse and how I think inviting this landscape is. Yes. But I, I just keep thinking about, um, your great-great-grandfather leaving Texas and coming to Eastern New Mexico. And I’m sure his kids were like, what in the world? I, it’s, do you know how he lost his wife?

Julie: (33:15)
Um, she, they, she had had their youngest child and then she developed some kind of sickness, um, and passed from that. Okay. Uh, but I’m not sure what she developed or how long she suffered with it. Um, but we’ve, my family and I, we’ve talked, you know, about, uh, William Maitland Anderson and, you know, just for him to, to take all eight of his kids and kinda leave his family support network and even like friend support network and decide, this is what I’m doing. I’m, I’m gonna move. You know. And it was interesting hearing you talk about your family in a half dugout, because that’s where he moved his family to, was this half dugout in the midway community. And at one point when he had gone, uh, left to go do some farm labor in another area, during that time, a windstorm had come and it had taken the top half of his half dugout

Bunny : (34:25)
. So I, I think we have to explain what a, what a half dugout is. And, and my understanding, and you feel free to correct me, but the way I understand it is that people would dig into the side of a, an embankment. Yes. Um, maybe a dry creek bed, dig into it and that, so that it’s called a half dugout because half of the house is in this dirt that they’ve dug out. I mean, it really is dug out. It’s not that they found a rock cave, it’s that they dig out this dirt like

Julie: (34:58)
Sand and dirt.

Bunny : (35:00)
Yeah. And, and hard packed dirt. And then they create a shelter over the front of it. And my, um, my grandma and grandpa Terry, my granny and grandpa Terry had a huff dugout. And at the time they had six children. Their sixth child was born in a half dugout. My uncle Ellie, and that was his name, L the letter L. And the letter E, that was his name. His mother’s name was Lenora. Estelle. And then they named him l e because they, I think they were out of names at that point. , they were outta energy and they were, were raising these kids in this half dugout. Um, there were three kids born after that. But, um, y you know, it’s who, who would do who could do that now. I mean, you know, people talk about living off the grid and I’m like, this is the ultimate off the grid living. ’cause you’re not even really in a house. Exactly. Your great great grandfather to come back and have, I mean, those kids were just living in the dirt, right?

Julie: (36:04)
Yes. They had, um, I guess when the windstorm had come, the, their youngest sibling was still very small, so they had tucked him under the wash basin and kind of sat on it . Wow. So that the baby would, the baby wouldn’t get hurt. and .

Bunny : (36:24)
Wow. And

Julie: (36:24)
Then after the windstorm had passed, you know, um, and that was also back in the time when neighbors really paid attention. And even though they could be miles and miles apart, they knew there were these kids and dad was far away and they didn’t have a mom. And so they went and checked on ’em to make sure they were okay. And then realizing, oh, half your house is blown away. . But, but they helped him, you know, find lodging and to repair their little half dugout, kind of get it back, put back together again. And, uh, so when their dad and older brother came back, it was already taken care of, and all of his children were safe .

Bunny : (37:12)
Wow. Wow. That, those are great stories. Um, I I, I wonder if, um, it’d be, would be so cool if, if we could get those in published form at some point. Are you, are you considering doing that, Julie?

Julie: (37:30)
You know, I’ve always thought, um, I have a love for writing and writing stories, and I have over the years, like tinkered with the idea of actually writing about it. My, I feel like my grandmother’s done like a lot of the legwork to, to get it put together. Um, so that is one of my dreams one of these days, is to actually get it in book form and, and continue to tell the story.

Bunny : (38:03)
Well, so I’m gonna tell folks that I will, um, add a link here to the company that helped me launch my own book when I wrote, uh, the Lifesaving Gratitude book, because there is, if you have a story and, um, you don’t, I certainly didn’t feel like I had time to wait on traditional publishing. And I don’t know if a traditional publisher would’ve bought my book, but, um, there is a company that can help you create a book and, and a, and a way to launch it and market it. So I want everybody to know that there, there will be a link in here to the group@launchmybook.com who really, really made my book a, a, a possibility. But Julie, I hope you do that. I please do. Because I think it’s important. I think stories save us, and I think that stories inspire us. And I’m, I love this story that you told today.

Julie: (38:57)
Oh, well thank you. And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share it.

Bunny : (39:02)
I, I, I wish your grandmother was here to hear your podcast . How long has she been gone?

Julie: (39:09)
Uh, about two and a half years. Oh,

Bunny : (39:12)
How old was she? She, when she passed, she

Julie: (39:14)
Was nine. She was 96. Ah, see, and

Bunny : (39:19)
That’s some hardy living. I mean, that’s Yes.

Julie: (39:23)
And you know, her profession, she went to college. She was a second grade school teacher, and her students came to visit her often, um, on a number of occasions. And a lot of times they would come with their children or they would come and bring their grandchildren to meet her. And, uh, in her home, she had her recess hat that she would wear when she had recess duty. And on her hat, she had all the lapel pins that students had given her over the years. Oh. So cool. If one of them came to visit, she was like already ready with her recess hat ready to show off .

Bunny : (40:06)
What was her last name? She was Mrs. What at her school?

Julie: (40:10)
Mrs. Sullivan.

Bunny : (40:12)
And what, what school did she teach at in Las Cru? She taught

Julie: (40:16)
At, she taught at Macia Park Elementary School.

Bunny : (40:19)
. That’s so cool. So somebody’s gonna listen to this and say, Mrs. Sullivan was my second grade teacher, , you know, that couldn’t happen. That is so cool. So, and your mom’s last name

Julie: (40:33)
Is Moran.

Bunny : (40:34)
Okay. So, and, and was she a teacher as well?

Julie: (40:38)
No, she was not.

Bunny : (40:40)
Okay. Well, Julie, this has been so much fun. I love hearing people’s stories and I wanna, I wanna tell our listeners if you have a New Mexico family story or if you have something you wanna share. Julie and I agree that this is fun stuff. This is what we wanna hear. This is what our listeners seem to love the most. So thank you you, Julie, for sharing your story. I wanna, I can’t wait to see the book.

Julie: (41:05)
Thank you so much, bunny. It’s been such a great pleasure visiting with you and talking to you and sharing.

Bunny : (41:12)
Okay. Well let us know when the book is available.

Julie: (41:15)
I will, I will.

Speaker 4: (41:28)
Here,

Speaker 5: (41:28)
I’m back on the road heading out west to the mountain time zone. There’s one thing on my mind, there’s a girl in New Mexico whose eyes green and hair’s gold. I can’t wait to have her by.