BH: Was she just really really quiet, or. . .
Jack: My mother?
BH: Yeah. Nobody can tell me one thing about your mother—not one thing.
Jack: My mother was probably among the hardest working people ever put on the face of the earth, and yes, she was quiet. But she got the job done. She worked. She was able to work men and. . . with no fanfare.
BH: Yeah. I noticed that picture of her in pants when you were branding cows.
Jack: Oh. . . oh, you mean in chaps? This one?
BH: So she was. . .
Jack: And there she was there—hay crew.
BH: So she just pitched in there and did whatever they did? Whatever the men did?
Jack: My mother was a great rider—fantastic rider. Yeah. . .
BH: I'm really interested in her, too. . .
Jack: Hum?
BH: I'm really interested in her—in what she was like. She had an interesting life growing up there, I think.
Marie: She was probably one of the most compassionate persons. . . anybody would know, I think.
Jack: She was a. . . one other was she was quite a pacifist. Ah. . . she was very tolerant. I don't know. . . she was. . . just exactly how to explain her. She was very strong.
BH: How did she feel when you and your brother got drafted? I know your brother got drafted before you did.
Jack: Well, I think she just kind of rolled with the punch, and just—see we still had—when he got drafted, we still had that Charlie that I showed you with the little mule and the deer?
Jack: We still had him working for us—he hadn't been drafted yet.
(End of tape)
BH: When you say that your mother was a pacifist. . .
Jack: Well, in the respect that she liked to. . . not meddle in other people's business. And ah. . . you know, let them do whatever they want, as long as it was legal, I guess.
BH: Um hum.
Jack: She. . . was a very strong woman in that when the occasion arose, she expressed her positions. Once. Um. . . the only thing that I can really look back on my mother as being an extremely forgiving soul. There were a lot of things that my brother was allowed to get away with, and that she allowed me to get away with, and I think she probably did this. . . see my dad was gone. He was in Canon City—he had a business—or he worked for the Army at Jack Carson, or he had a liquor store in Alamosa, so that he wasn't around all that much.
BH: Um hum.
Jack: And I think that she allowed my brother and I a lot of leeway—not so much because he wasn't there, but because I think she was letting us learn the hard way. And I learned the hard way—I don't think my brother ever did, cause if he did, he never admitted it.
BH: Can you tell me any stories about her? Do you remember any stories?
Jack: Well, that would be a life time achievement. I don't know of any stories that would be really worthwhile to what you're after, right off. I'll think on it. I might see something in here.