"Yes, [I remember my childhood friends]. I still have a friend with the nickname of “Humpty.” Almost everybody [in Morenci had nicknames]. (Laughs.) Sometimes when I get a bit sad, I start to remember the nicknames that people had. Quico Alvidrez was a very good man too. Quico Ruedas. He was a very good friend of mine, Quico. To say it, Quico Alvidrez was also. He died in Safford.

When I was a child we played marbles, guachas, rebote, basketball, volleyball. Yes, [those last two were in school]. [Boys and girls] we played separately. We boys played “Keep Away” when we had recess. [We used] a ball.

I remember that one time, a wagon pulled by horses went over me. I was in town, the barrio they used to call “Coon Town” where many colored people lived and being mischievous, I went up on top of a cargo of apples. I fell. I fell under the wheels of the wagon. I was swollen for a while. When I stopped walking my father was going to go to Dawson, to talk to the future father-in-law of my brother. When he went, that morning, I could not get up and my father thought that I did not want to help him. He left a bit displeased with me. I told him that I could not and he went by himself. He went down by the concentrator with his suitcase and I stayed in bed. I told my mother that it was not because I did not want to go but that I could not walk. She had to send for my father, that I was sick.

When I started to walk [it was because] a comadre of my mother recommended a masseuse. He massaged me and massaged me and I almost fainted. I got up to walk with a cane, but this is the curious thing. One time I went down the path with my friends by the concentrator, and when we were coming back, I was going up with my cane and I heard a moan, “umph!” It was a man who was lying on the ground, very drunk. All of us were scared and I started running. Then when I was afar, I remembered my cane! (Laughs!) I left it there! I forgot it. (Laughs.) I thought it was very funny! From when I had the accident, it was a long time that I could not get up.

I do not remember the masseuse’s name. He was an elderly man. He massaged whoever hired him. No, [I was not taken to a doctor]. Many different ways was I lucky. There was a big tank up there above the barrio. I was already a little older. There were no stairs [in the tank]. I used to dive into the water and swim there. When I got out, I had to struggle. Now I remember [it] and I get scared. It was a big tank. I do not know what they used the water for. One time a young man from Metcalf, he was in high school and he went to swim in the tank by the concentrator. There were two tanks. There was big tank and they had like a fence and there was another one. I used to go under. One time I got a cramp in the water and I was close to a platform. You should see how awful that is. Our Lord helped me. I reached the platform and I got out from there, but I remember this young man. He went in after lunch and I think he got a cramp and he drowned.

We used to do a lot of things. They used to dive from the hill into that tank. Many children used to go there. I remember a friend who told me he used to dive from the hill."