Crossing Paths

In 1967, my granny and grandpa from Edinburgh came to visit Bakersfield, California.  This was the 2nd and final time that I was in contact with them.  It was quite amazing that they flew here since my grandpa wasn’t going to come to the U. S. A. until a bridge was built for him to walk across the Atlantic.

Nevertheless, here they were for a visit.  One day, my father took my grandpa to visit a stockyard out at Famoso (pronounced by locals:  Famosa).  This was interesting to him as he was born a country boy and worked in the stockyards of Edinburgh.  My Wyoming father had a bit of livestock knowledge so this was probably an enjoyable “guy” thing.

In the picture above, off in the horizon, there is a derrick, Texaco, and a motel sign.  Under the motel sign is a cafe sign.  My mother-in-law ran that cafe.  She ran that cafe in 1967.  Farmer MacGregor kept his horse, Sugar, at the stockyard.  I would like to imagine that my dad took my grandpa to the cafe for a bite to eat and that my mother-in-law was pouring the coffee.  Farmer MacGregor may have been at the counter eating pie.

  My mother-in-law met her father-in-law before meeting my father-in-law.  I met my father-in-law before I met Farmer MacGregor.  Small world really.

For any of my gajillion cousins that may read this, I would love to share any scanned images with any stories they may have.

I’ll return to the garden after this brief detour to the stockyard.