From the "Day in the Life of Medano Zapata" interview
July 10, 1999
Oral History MS Vol. II, p. 83

Ruth: I think before Ada and Durkee sold this place, my father had ah. . . a haying crew, and my mother. . . they. . . they came over here and camped, and old man Trujillo lived here somewhere, and he helped dad. And. . . but they camped, and mom cooked for the hay crew, and they cut the hay here on the ranch. . . for several years. And when I was born, I was born down around toward Blanca in the old Scruggs schoolhouse. My dad was down there with the hay crew—they had just moved down there to cut my Uncle Steve Calkins' hay. And mother went into labor, and they. . . they let her camp. . . they let them camp in the grounds at the schoolhouse. And dad got on a horse and rode three miles to get. . . Edith Allen was the closest people there, to come and help with my birth. And I was born in the old Scruggs schoolhouse—which is up on the mountain now, above the cemetery, as part of our house we moved up.

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