Ungodly bruised fingers
There were bugs to poke and bunnies to chase. Yet here she sat. (USPD/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Whack
Sitting with a wooden spoon bashing the hand coming through the window. Repeatedly. So unfair.
Whack
It’s the right thing to do. Really? God wants bruised fingers. Never saw that in the Good Book – in English or Spanish.
Whack
It was her mother’s fault.
Whack.
Seeing the old man without any teeth. Seeing the indifferent shrugs. Told that all his family had died leaving him without kin to prepare or chew his food.
“Toss out of the tribe like rubbish,” her mother fumed.
So the wrinkled old Indian found if he sat close to their house, he would be offered soft food. Shortly he sat himself down under the kitchen window. Permanently. Part of the scenery.
Whack.
It became her chore to sit and protect the pies cooling on the window sill.
“Good things come to those who wait,” she wanted to scream in Spanish, or English, or Tribal tongue. Raising the spoon yet again.
The dark eyes sparkled. The toothless grin teased.
They both knew she never really whacked very hard anyway.
Wasn’t the right thing to do.
From a young girl’s journal of life in early Tejas. (1820 – 30’s)
“The Friendly Indians” probably were Lipan Apache tribes who signed a peace treaty with the Spanish in 1749 (which angered the Comanche, Tonkawa, and Hasinai so these tribes became bitter enemies of the Apache. The Comanche signed a peace treaty with Spain in 1785.) I do know from the journals that both the settlers and “The Friendly Indians” who lived peacefully among everyone greatly feared raids by the fierce Comanche.
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge.
1824. First Federal Republic of Mexico. The area known as Tejas was so rough and wild, many Mexican citizens were not interested in settling there. So the government allowed immigrants into Tejas provided they converted to Catholicism, demonstrated that they spoke Spanish (even the children), and who pledged to be productive and good citizens of Mexico. (Giggette/Commons.wikimedia.org)
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Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge 
I’m glad she never whacked that hard!
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Kids often seem to have more compassion and perspective. Maybe closer to that wooden spoon themselves? Thanks for stopping by to chat
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Yes, the idea of whacking someone would have been difficult for me, I think! Or maybe it had just become a game 🙂
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Until recently games didn’t involve hitting or hurting. A different mindset back then.
Probably a lot of “shooo-ing” and scowls were used too HA HA
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They needed a pie window! Did you grow up with those in the neighborhood? I can remember a very few old houses in my grandparents’ town that had them — very small, much higher windows in the kitchen that had a broad sill, and room for a couple of pies to cool, away from incursions from inside or outside the house.
Speaking of Comanches, we think of Plum Creek as the location of Lockhart, and Kreuz barbeque, but it was the site of that terrible battle with Comanches. I’m not sure I wouldn’t have preferred taking on the Karankawa (or not — that’s a bad choice).
Happy Easter Monday! With another front coming Wednesday (maybe) we might get rid of some of this pollen. Pray for wind and rain, but not too much.
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Cheers! (and no chocolate overdose or too much egg salad on the menu here) This is actually the middle of the Pumpkin Pie stories from those old journals – maybe the first part around Thanksgiving.
We had a “pie safe” at one farm house: an old cabinet with doors and screen over hole/openings in the sides and doors. Dad said that’s where food was kept since they didn’t had iceboxes. The screens kept most of the bugs…and boy’s fingers out of stuff. Flies too bad at the windows, I think. We did grow up with Comanches down the block. (Wish the bright young things back east would stop trying to teach us about diversity, right? Old news around here.)
Wed water! Moved a little tree and it needs the clouds and rain. Thanks for adding a remark of taste
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Life used to be much rougher. Thanks Phil.
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And simple more easy: thinking and living. Thanks for cooling off a comment to leave
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Such an interesting post to read at the start of my day. What journal did this come from? Must have been fascinating to read.
janet
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We have many letters and family journals. This one is from a small girl whose family left a rather comfy life in Virginia for the wilds of Mexico’s province of Tejas as one of Stephen F. Austin’s “Old 300” colony land grants (purchases). The father wrote they were leaving VA as it was too crowded and the Federal Government was getting too much into telling people what to do.
Then there’s the Spaniard who came with the conquistadors/explorers and jumped ship to stay in Tejas to become a fur trapper and eventually owned a trading post/outfitting company near St Lewis.
History is full of stories – hope others are saving and reading the ones they have. Thanks for browsing these pages
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That map is interesting. What a history, devastating to millions of people. It feels like an unstoppable tidal wave. Life was hard then and still is for so many people.
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Life was more direct then – very little wrapping people in cotton to mute responses by environment, animals, other people, or stupid actions by the individual. They say difficulties build character – or is that characters (No, that would be Hollywood)? Human migration is an endless restless sea. Thanks for mapping out a comment
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It must be fascinating to go back and read old journals and letters. Different times, that’s for sure.
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Make you feel like stopping whining and complaining, right? Thanks for wandering along
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I cannot imagine who I’d have been if I’d been raised in such a wild and dirty and hot environment. Would I have evolved into a woman of good character– or been a whiner longing to go back to Virginia, land of luxury? I suspect the latter, I like my niceties!
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You probably wouldn’t have been the first to flee back. (Although Central TX is much less humid and has winter – along with the rocks and rattlesnakes…they make nice hat bands, the snakes). A whole different life, indeed. Thanks for time traveling along
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HI Phil. I meant to comment yesterday but got side-tracked. Thank you so much for passing on this story / history lesson. So interesting, and the map is fabulous. We are currently doing renovations and found newspapers from 1979 and 1980 tucked inside the walls of the house. And we thought THOSE were interesting. How much more so the journals!
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Hang on to those papers – or better scan them if you can. Won’t be long before those are ancient history.
One of the cool things about working on a house are the odd things you find. Newspaper was used for insulation by some – or they could have articles that meant something to former residents. Ah, the possibilities.
Thanks for circling back around to chat.
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