Laguna, Family le Norreys, and Monsoon Season BUT in the Reverse Order

Monsoon Season

The single clouds are beginning to consolidate in the sky making them one very dark cloud. First, they gather around the mountains. In the morning, they start as a few fluffy white clouds hanging right above the Sandia, Jemez, Ortiz and Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The sky can be blue as far as you can see. That is until your eyes move to those mountains where the clouds are sitting like a magnetic force pulling all the moisture toward them. For much of the summer, this means there will be an afternoon shower in the mountains.

Usually, late in the summer, the clouds are more numerous, and might build up more and more each afternoon, until it finally rains. This is the monsoon season in the high desert. Growing up in Santa Fe, we would have rain in the afternoon, but Santa Fe lies at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains almost always make their own weather, and rain in the afternoon is very typical.


Sandia Mountains

I’ve lived my adult life in Albuquerque, and unlike Santa Fe, the afternoon showers or floods don’t come in calmly. In Albuquerque, afternoon rains, showers, floods or maybe no rain at all, has a very different personality. It means winds that slam your doors shut, and knock weak branches off of tree. It means loud rumbling thunder and giant bolts of lighting. Sometimes you can feel the electricity in the air. Sometime the air is so humid I feel oppressed by all the moisture that just won’t quite form into rain. I’ve seen some spectacular lighting storms while living in Albuquerque, and as much as I love the dry New Mexico climate, I enjoy monsoon season even more.

Now the question is, is it or is it not going to rain? Outside, everything in the sky will look like it is the perfect conditions to rain, and yet, within a short time, they sky is clear again, and no rain. There have been times when we in one part of the valley get no rain at all, while another part is flooding. I’ve had rain in the front yard, while isn’t a drop in the back. My favorite is a storm while the sun is shinning. The rain is ever so clear, almost sparkling, when the sun sits in the bright western sky and the heavy clouds above can’t hold a single drop more and they burst.


Santo Domingo, in sometime about 1920

Laguna

Laguna is the “youngins” of the Pueblo’s here in New Mexico. They created their pueblo in 1599. People from Santo Domingo moved away from the Río Grandé Valley after the Pueblo Revolt because they knew the Spanish would be back, and they wanted to be away from them. I’ve always found the people of Santo Domingo to be very attractive people. I also have known some extremely attractive Laguna people, both in body and spirit. I’ve often pondered whether some of the folks from Santa Domingo decided to take their beautiful daughters out of the reach of the lusty soon to return Spanish, especially since many of them were Spanish soldiers without wives.


Laguna, NM, possibly in the 1920s

Laguna is also the name I’ve given to my newest kitten. Laguna is so pretty. She walks across the room with such poise and presence. She must have an old soul. At the ripe age of eight weeks old, she is so calm and centered she seems almost constantly in a meditative state, even when Pokie is smothering her while wrestling with her or one of us people pick her up while she would much rather be down on the ground. Plus she has the fluffiest tail and fluff coming out of her ears and those white socks on her back feet! All our other Pueblo cats have been named after the Northern New Mexican Pueblos my husband and I grew up near, but Laguna is one of those beautiful girls that are being hidden in Western New Mexico.

Laguna could be the poster girl for pound kitties. All my other cats found me and basically moved in. I saw Laguna on the lost and adoptable web site for the Albuquerque Animal Shelters, whoppps, they call it the Animal Care Center these days. Laguna was a pound kitten, and they held her and gave her love until I adopted her. I have to give the people of the ABQ Animal Care Center kudos for how they cared for my kitty before she was my kitty.


Poster Girl for Pound Kitties

Laguna and Pojaoque immediately became best friends. I’ll catch them sleeping in the same position one next to the other, and Pojaoque’s will have his paw resting on her back. If one is in any given place, I know the other will be right behind. Pojaoque is the gawky teen-age brother, with the poised little sister. It is great to have young cats in the house again to spark up the three oldsters, one being feline, in our house.


Le Norreys

I’ve taken a break from genealogy to ponder a short single line connected with someone who connects with someone else until they find their way into the Bulkeley/Grosvenor line, the Norreys line. I was so pleased to find, on Google Books, a 1850 article written by George Ormerod titled, “Le Noreis or Norres and its Speke Branch in Particular” in the series 1, vol. II issue of Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. My luck, the Norreys I am researching just happen to be from Speke.

I followed Ormerod’s version, but then I ran into Steve Norris’s web page on the John Le Norreys of Speke, Lancashire. He had two additional generations, and one of the generations is different. I wrote Steve asking him why his line didn’t agree with Ormerod’s line? He wrote back telling me he had copies of deeds and documents that prove his version of the line to be true. He assured me he has been working on this information for 25 years. Nothing that he said to me has me convinced, not even the missing generation. Rather, it is his conviction that has me reconsidering Ormrod’s version. I’m also tempted to take him up on the offer of copying all his copies, at my expense, out of curiosity. That has me pondering as well. I mean . . . if I were trying to prove that my great great great grandfather was indeed my great great great grandfather so I would be accepted into the DAR, maybe. Ponder, ponder, ponder! I think I’ll put both versions on my site so others can have the same fun of pondering mixed with confusion!


Speke Hall, Which May Not Have Anything To Do With le Norreys of Speke

Oh, btw, I do have the proof that my great great great great grandfathers were my great great great great grandfathers and that I could be accepted in the DAR, but I’m really not the “joiner” type of person. Plus there are just so many associations I could join, but just, which is always a big question. I joined the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, and the only reason I’ve remained a member is they make it very easy to remain a member. I used to belong to the New Mexico Genealogy Society and the NM Hispanic Genealogical Research Center, but I can’t seem to rejoin as easily as the NEHGS. I love all three, especially the New Mexican ones.

If you are interested in la Familia le Norreys, visit Steve’s site The Family of "le Norreys." He has a tremendous amount of information on his site, but sadly no references. I have a dream of him scanning all his documents and putting them up on his site to share with the world. And don’t forget to read Ormerod’s article,

Le Noreis or Norres and its Speke Branch in Particular.

And I’m still waiting for the rain . . .

Photos and thoughts, Pie Town & Peñasco New México

Alburquerque "Heights" in 1943

*Edit: Photos are Missing I guess the server didn't like the amount of photos I put here.

I spent the day looking through the Library of Congress photos, 1840-2000, for old pictures of New México. I was surprised to find there are more photos for two places in New México, Pie Town and Peñasco, than Santa Fé or Alburquerque. There were some of the rail yards which were right in the middle of what is downtown Alburquerque today. All these photos were of men working hard in the yards. There were some delightful finds of photos Pueblos that were taken in the 1880s and 1890s. There were a few of Old Town in Alburquerque and the Adobe houses of Santa Fé. These photos made numbered in the few dozen, whereas there were over 500 for Pie Town and just under 400 for Peñasco.


Old Town Alburquerque

When I was a little kid, we often drove to see my grandmother who lived in Magdalena. That was a long drive from Santa Fé. We would have to drive though Alburquerque, south to Socorro, where we’d always stop at Socorro to see Tórres cousins, then head west on highway 60. I remember always seeing the sign Pie Town, and begging my parents to take me there. I’ve always loved pie. I didn’t want birthday cakes when I was a kid. I wanted birthday pies. Apple pie with crumb topping has always been my very favorite pie. So I envisioned a place full pies, all kinds of pies. My parents always said that there was nothing there, anyway it was way, and I mean Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of the way. My parents finally drove through Pie town on our way to Phoenix when I was 14 years old, and they were correct, there weren’t many people in Pie Town. Worse, I didn’t see one single pie anywhere.


Black Smith Shop In Peñasco

Pie Town was originally named Norman’s Place, but as is often the case in New México, names of small villages were changed once they opened a post office in the town. I believe the story goes that the postmaster would not accept a town that was named Norman’s place. From what I know about the history of Pie Town, it was a one gas station town in the middle of nowhere. Norman was the man who opened the gas station and Norman’s Place was the name of the gas station. Norman started selling apple pies at his gas station, a tradition that was continued after he sold his business. The Pies were such a hit that the gas station sign changed from Norman's Place to Pie Town. At any rate, the postmaster general accepted the name Pie Town.


Norman's Place
Now, Peñasco was a different matter. It was among my father’s repertory of Sunday drives. Sometimes these Sunday drives were daylong drives through the Northern New México. If there was an out-of-the way dirt road that lead somewhere, my father knew about it. We went places people today aren’t able to go to. My father knew every inch of this state from Magdalena in the South to Tierra Amarilla and Taos in the North. And Peñasco was one of the small Northern New Méxican towns we would pas through on our drives.


Magdalena

My husband, Jim, and I drove through Peñasco a couple of weeks ago. Since Jim lived in Peñasco in the years 1957-1964, we always take a side trip to drive through the area. It is a beautiful area, but in the 50s and 60s, it was a very poor area. My husband’s little league coach was a Peace Corps worker who was training in the one place in the U.S. that resembled places they would be sent to in other countries.

Peñasco has changed a little since the time when my husband lived there, but it is still a small town. There are the additions of some huge houses of “ricos,” most likely people who work outside of the state and have their “get away” place there. Many of these houses are placed on the top or the sides of the mountain. They also are positioned so they will be obvious and noticeable. One place had scared the mountain for a huge road to get up to the huge house. It is like a big sign that says notice me, notice how rich I am sitting up here way above the rest of you.


Kitchen in Pie Town


Kitchen in Peñasco

Since Pie Town and Peñasco have so few residents, why are there so many photos for Pie Town and Peñasco in the Library of Congress’s digital photos online? I suppose I could have searched for an answer online, but it is so much more fun to try to figure it out by looking at the photos. The ones of Pie Town show homesteaders from Texas and Oklahoma growing beans, eating, dancing, singing, and working. The photos show a co-op storage facility. The Peñasco photos show the exactly the same thing, with great many photos of the co-op heath clinic from its building up to its use. These photos were all taken in either 1940 or 1943, during the depression, so suspect there were commission by the government to record some part of their New Deal programs.


Community sing along in Pie Town


Dance in Peñasco


The people in the Peñasco photos are often referred to as “Spanish-Americans.” The houses in Peñasco are made out of adobe, while the house in Pie Town reflects the Plains area these homesteaders came from. Both types of homes were built to fit and work with their environment. Here were pictures of two peoples coming from very different cultural backgrounds doing just what their ancestors did, work hard and be a part of a community. From the sheer numbers of photos, and the content of the photos, I would suspect the photographer was welcomed into each community. I also can’t help but think that both ended up caring about their subject.


Home in Pie Town


Peñasco Home

One thing I love about these photos is they show my father’s New México. He was 30 years old when he married my mother in 1945. My mother could easily have fit into the photos of the people in Pie Town since she came from Nebraska. My father would fit in the photos of the “Spanish-Americans” in Peñasco. My parents met in Needles, California where my mother was “looking for a husband” and teaching elementary school, and my father was there doing tank maneuvers before they shipped off to North Africa. His tank group ended being part of the Normandy D-Day Invasion instead. My parents married once he return from the war, and it was to the small Northern New México town of El Rito that my father returned with his new bride.

Links:
Smithsonian article about Pie Town
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog Home Page

Adobes in Peñasco