Wild, Wild West

A long time ago, my grandmother told me that her mother, my great-grandmother, was an interesting part of our family history. There was a period of a few years when she just disappeared. She had gone West to be a school teacher in New Mexico, and after a couple years, she simply stopped writing the family. No one ever knew where she was or what she was doing When she returned, she never shared those details. Ever. Gramma said, however, that when asked about it, there was a twinkle in Great-grandmother's eye that made everyone wonder. Gramma used to say I looked just like her mother, and she wondered about a bit of a wild streak in me. Fortunately it didn't surface, so although I look like Great-grandmother, I have not "lost years" in my life.

Imagine my total surprise just a few days ago when I stopped in a store, just browsing, and I found some pictures of my great grandmother hanging on the wall! I was completely blown away! Gee, she was pretty, much more than I. Anyway, I recognized her immediately from the few family pictures of her and because of our resemblance to one another.

Now imagine my further surprise to have a glimpse into the shady past that she kept hidden! Whoa! I talked the store owner into making copies of them for me. I think it was only because of the resemblance that she believed I was related to the lady in the pictures on her wall.


Here Great-grandmother is with a rifle and a bank bag from the Bank of Ruidoso! Oh, my gawd!! The smile is unnerving, under the circumstances.















The next one gives a clue about her hard side. Sheesh, she looks downright mean, doesn't she?
















This smirk makes me wonder, too. I wonder if this might have been the beginning the "twinkle" that Gramma saw.

















There was a huge one on the wall showing Great-Grandmother with another lady, both looking pretty wicked. What got me about this photo is that the other woman looks unbelievably like Jackie, the mother of my stepchildren! Eerie, for sure!








To make matters even worse, there was this one with a younger guy who look a whole lot like Allan. By this time I was getting pretty spooked. I couldn't imagine how this could happen. Three people drawn together in the mid-1800's with such resemblance to my present family.







The shocks still weren't over, however. I rounded a corner and found that someone had taken those old photos and apparently manipulated them with a computer software of some sort, and had added color. Now I'm freaked because with colorization, the photos are even closer in resemblance. Just look at these . . .






















































But the final oddity was a silly cartoon that someone had composed. Can you believe this?






















That does it. I'm outta here. I'm going back to that store and see what else I can find out. Later.