Faded Treasures

 Song - Chug-a-lug by Roger Miller

While looking through my portfolio of "blog ideas", I came across the realization (place a light bulb over my head)..... that my family history is one of coal miners, saloon keepers, bootleggers and actually that's just on my mom's side!   (Sorry mom - you are still a sweetheart!)

AND Mr. B's family came from the South and they were sheriff's and moonshine smashers.

A Saloon in Starkville, Colorado but not my great-grandfathers.

My background......above.

Mr B's grandfather was the sheriff - second from right

His background....above.


(That's were the light bulb went off.)

They also shot people like "Billy the Kid".....ever hear of Pat Garrett?  Well, that would be Mr. B's great-great uncle! (maybe one more great in there?) Yes sir.

Larkin Randolf Lay and Margaret Garrett (Pat Garret's sister)

Imagine bringing that story into Kindergarten for "show and tell"

OK.....so we both have an interesting supporting cast of characters in our closets.

How the heck did we ever get together?

Times were tough during our grandparents days and they did what they had to do to survive. Whether it was making moonshine or destroying it.

When Mr. B and I were first married (bc - "before children"), I had some time to do some genealogy work and to interview older family members.  I found it fascinating to hear the stories of how they came to be. 

I spent days interviewing my maternal grandparents, with the clock ticking in the background and their canary singing in the kitchen. 

Grandma would tell of having to ride on a horse drawn buggy going over the Raton Pass to get Moonshine from New Mexico to bring into Colorado. She spoke about having to clean out the saloon early in the morning as girls were not allowed inside. 


Grandpa would tell of life as a coal miner and rarely seeing the light of day and of nailing my grandmothers skirt (with her in it) to the top of the dog house "because she just talked too much!" as children living in Starkville, Colorado. He also spoke of the Mother Jones meetings that his father took him to.

Starkville, Colorado

Mr. B's grandmother came to visit from Louisiana when we were first married and told us stories about going on a date in a horse drawn buggy. She was so......Southern and sweet and was delighted to be offered a bourbon-on-the-rocks, with a splash of "branch water".

...a little "branch water" please.

I started going through my genealogy files today to collect some photo's and information.  I began doing research in the 80's......a-hem....before email and internet.  I have receipts for a $4 check sent to England for a birth certificate.  Now, it is probably incredible what you can find online.

Anyway, it got my juices flowing again to do some research in the near future.

My great grandparents Lucia & Pietro and my grandfather is on the far right.

"My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong." -- Mother Jones