BH: Did you. . . now I understand you worked for the Medano Ranch for quite a while?
Andy: Yeah. I went to work there in the fall of '37. . .
BH: Fall of /37?
Andy: First of December.
BH: So were you working for Linger?
Andy: Howard. . . H. K. Linger.
BH: What did you do? What was your job?
Andy: I done chores there, pretty near all the years I was. . . That's what he hired me for—to do the chores. Chores—that's not quite as big a word—that's just a day's job. And I done chores, and I got tired of doing chores, so he'd put me to feeding hay for a while, and then back on the chore job. He'd hire somebody. Whenever he'd come to work with a real bright smile on his face, I knew. . . what he was after. He'd want me to go back on the chore job again. (Laughs).
So, when I'd get tired of that, after a year or two at work, why then, I'd threaten to quit if he didn't get a. . . get a chore. . . get another chore boy. So he'd get a chore boy, and seemed like it wouldn't be very long and here he'd come again. "Would you do the chores until I find another chore boy?"
Virginia: How many cows?
Andy: Oh, we'd just. . . as far as milking, we'd just milk enough cows for what we needed there.
BH: Um hum.
Andy: And ah. . . but we had. . . you know, we always had calves that needed a mother. . . a nursing. . . nursing mother. So that was part of the chores, and then, of course, we had waiter (?) calves and other stuff in the corrals, and we'd have. . . I'd have to feed hay. And stuff like that. But that was always. . . always work to do. Split firewood. . . in the morning, I'd have to get up early and build fires so the cookhouse would be warm, for whenever the cook got there—they'd cook breakfast. And one thing about the cook—whenever he hired a cook, why. . . it was biscuit, beefsteak and gravy for breakfast—every morning, except Sunday. If the men wanted something else on a Sunday, why she'd do that. But other than that, why it was always biscuit, beefsteak and gravy. And you know, once in a while somebody'd want hotcakes for. . . on a Sunday morning. So about the middle of the morning, we'd start to get hungry. And, oh, them hot cakes—you know—they don't have near the (unintelligible) that they should have. Not like that biscuit, beefsteak and gravy, because that's food for working men, I guess.
BH: Yeah. Keep you going.
Andy: But ah. . . that was it. Always the same breakfast.
Virginia: How many men worked at the ranch?
Andy: Usually about seven.
BH: Year round?
Andy: That is at the Medano. And they had one, sometimes two, over at Zapata.
Virginia: And what were their various chores? What did they all do? How do you keep seven people busy on the ranch?
Andy: Just sitting on a horse. (Laughs). That's what I always called it—sitting on a horse. I never did like it. . . I liked to ride a horse, I liked something to do. But so much of it is just pull out and check this pasture. They just sit there on that horse, I guess, all day long. And one time, Howard Carr, he's gone now, but he used to live down at La Jara. And ah. . . he told me a number of times, he says well, he says, these guys can tell you what they want to, but he says, riding a horse is still a lot easier way of making a living that getting out and digging post holes. And he told me that several times.
BH: Um hum.
Andy: And ah. . . so, anyway. There was always some riding to do, and some truck driving to do and fence building. Because there's always fence repair that had to be done. I don't know. . . he always found enough work to keep men busy.