Surviving Cibola This Week and 45 Years Ago

For those who made the trip to Cibola this week, I thought these 2 videos below might give you a little perspective on what you saw. Most of the footage was shot 40-45 years ago.

You should recognize several spots, including the corrals, the canal and Cliff's first horse.

You saw the Bishop's home, now you actually get to see Bob and Zeta. Also included in the first video are the hired hands that helped Howard work the place. Milan and Wilfredo are shown in the trailer which used to be next to the ramada. Wilfredo was Milan's son. The trailer was later moved to the site next to the corrals. It was still there. When you saw it, it was completely flattened and just across the road from the well with the hand pump on it.

In the last part of the first video you see Jose Galacias. He was another worker, who, when the ranch went south, went east to Chicago with his family. All of these men were from San Luis, just across the border from Yuma. Even after the farm folded, they kept in touch with Howard. He not only was their employer, he was their friend and always tried to help them anyway he could.

Jeff was telling you how we used to have a camp on the river, just a short distance from the crash site. Check out video #2. The only video I had is of Uncle Floyd and his family on the river. It will give you an idea of what Jeff was talking about. There is also a river scene at the beginning of the video which is shot at 26th Avenue, which is just a couple of miles from where we had lunch at the Busbys. It includes Grandma Rose and a couple of Frankie Avalon wannabes. We didn't get to see it on the latest excursion.

About a year ago, Candy and I had all of the Howard and Ethel 8mm home movies from the Cibola and Blythe days transferred to mini dv tape. I then digitized them and have them on my hard drive. There is probably an hour and half of video.

I am going to put them on a dvd and if anyone wants a copy, let me know.

I didn't think I was much of a nostalgia guy or into family history until it hit me in the face this week. Thanks, Jeff, for organizing the trip and throwing a punch that was personally very poignant.