"[I had to do chores as a child] I suppose so, but I don’t exactly remember. I would imagine as the oldest one helping my mother with my sister. My mother died very young. I was the oldest so I helped my father take care of my little sister. My little sister always would claim me as her mother. I was the only mother she ever knew. [I was] fifteen [when my mother died.]

We Mexican people make a big deal of noche buena (Christmas eve) and make tamales. We would always get together. My father had a sister there at Metcalf with her family also. In fact it was one of the reasons my father settled in Metcalf because she was there. We always got together, the bunch of us; the four kids and our parents to make tamales. It was the best time making tamales. There were no weddings in the family during the time we lived in Metcalf. That was much later. Baptisms, if you were a Catholic you would have to wait for the priest to come from Clifton. He was a very busy man and roads were not that good so he didn’t come that often. [People didn’t get baptized] until the priest would come. They made appointments with him, the people that were Catholic. [Presbyterians] baptize later by a minister. Our minister was Paulie Foley, a very dear man. He officiated at my mother’s funeral.

My father [belonged] to the Club Verde (Green Club), which I understand, was organized in 1914. Rodolfo Villarreal’s father was one of the organizers. I think that the women in Metcalf saved all their money for just that occasion to make a new dress, for the dance of the Club Verde. They were all dressed to their teeth. (Laughs) Made new dresses and it was a big affair. It still is. They still get together.

The house in Metcalf? We had several houses in Metcalf. I remember moving to a two-story house in Metcalf. That house was right in the center of whatever we called the town. My sister Tilla and my brother Arnulfo were born in that house. It was a very, very nice house. [It had] nice surroundings and a nice garden. In fact I still have furniture from that house. This old Victrola was from that house. It was a birthday gift from my father to me. I still have it. And that sewing machine, he bought it in 1919. (Laughs) Yes, it still works.

That (points to a model) is the replica of a little church we attended in Metcalf. My brother Juan made it. It’s a Presbyterian Church. There were only two churches in Metcalf. The Catholic Church and the Presbyterian Church. There was a very big fire in Metcalf. I don’t remember if it was ’34 or ’35. Nobody seems to know. I ask old timers and they don’t remember either. And that fire took the PD Store, the Stevens home, and the Catholic Church and houses in between, lots of houses. That little church was saved by my father because right across was the post office and Mrs. Farnswithe. This dear lady ran the post office for many, many years and she was very well loved by the community. When the fire was roaring, Mr. Farnswithe came with his garden hose that he had disconnected from his house, across the street and said to my father, “Primitivo, save the little church.” He [my father] saved it. Absolutely true. It was not dismantled until Metcalf closed, so my mother’s funeral was in that church. We attended all the Christmas programs and we were always by that little church.

My mother’s family, Chavez, were Methodists in Chihuahua. They went to a little college in Chihuahua. The college still exists. My mother’s family and so did the Marquez, Tavio’s father went to that college in Chihuahua City. When they came to Metcalf there was just the Presbyterian so she went to the Presbyterian Church. My father comes from a Catholic family. He became a Presbyterian through the years.

In that little house, I remember my father fixed it very nicely. At that time when we had the little last house in Metcalf, they were dismantling Shannon Hill. The company had it dismantled and do whatever they wanted to with the lumber and the doors and all of this and a very dear friend of my father was taking charge of the dismantling of Shannon Hill. He came one day to my father and his name was also Primitivo, Primitivo Loya, they were Metcalf people. He said to my father, “Tocayo.” You know tocayo is a name for your buddy. “Tocayo, you can go up to Shannon and get whatever you want to fix your house.” So my father did. They used to go on donkeys and burros up to Shannon. The beautiful doors, they were going to do away with them. Beautiful machindre, they called machindre. They fixed the house with pretty doors and very good lumber, good floors and good ceilings. That house was in very good shape. The last house we had in Metcalf.

This [Shannon] was above Metcalf. On one side of one those hills above Metcalf was Shannon, on the other side was Coronado. You heard about the incline? I can show you some material about Coronado. My brother Alberto was born in Coronado.
In that last house we had running water and electricity. "