Ina Mae Wadsworth and Nevada Deon Fisher
There is nothing more beautiful than being outside as the glory of
daybreak appears. There is nothing more magnificent than watching
dawn, the first light of day, unfold.
Very early this morning, I was watering the plants in our courtyard
and enjoying the cool gentle breeze that was stirring the leaves in the
large tree that is just outside our gate. The grackles that nest in the
tree were beginning to call to each other. I stood for a few minutes
listening and watched as the adults took flight.
I could feel the stillness of the early morning as the first light
appeared in the sky. I was thinking to myself that "nature hums as
morning comes". Two small geckos ran up the wall of the courtyard
and a humming bird darted in to taste the nectar of the oleander tree.
The blooms on my hollyhocks glistened with drops of morning dew.
I was fascinated as a hint of pink color began to appear in the sky.
The clouds were filled with pastel colors as the sun began to appear
over the horizon and tinted them with the colors of a rainbow The
early morning air was filled with the smells of a world awaking. I
stood transfixed as I listened to the plaintive call of the mourning
doves. For some reason, their call always makes me feel sad. The
first sunbeams soon added to the drama and the morning light was
shining bright at the dawning of this beautiful new day.
As I stood their marveling at the wonder of it, my mind spun back
to an early morning when I was a gloriously happy twelve year old
girl living in the beautiful little town of
Panaca. Often in the late
spring as it was beginning to get warm after the long cold winter,
my best friend Nevada Deon Fisher and I would plan an early
morning hike. We were anxious to experience the beauty of nature
as it celebrated awaking to the dawn of a new season. There were
new leaves on the trees. The dormant grasses were turning green.
The annual
flowers were budding. There were new babies in the
corrals and pastures.
It was a tradition of ours to take this first spring hike and cook our
breakfast outdoors. Our favorite place was a stretch of pastures
belonging to Dad and his brother, my beloved Uncle
Lafe. These
pastures were located near the Spring. There was a stream running
through them and several stands of willow trees. They were beautiful
with their new leaves. We cleared an area under the trees near the
stream. We carefully selected large smooth rocks and carried them to
our cleared area where we fashioned a fire ring. We each carried a
knapsack. In our knapsacks we each carried a few matches, a
potato, an onion, one or two eggs, several slices of bacon, and some
baking powder biscuits my mother had baked for us. We had our
mess kit, a potato peeler, some cooking oil, hot chocolate mix. a little
ketchup and some jelly. One of us carried a skillet and the other
a pan for heating water.
We gathered kindling to start a fire. When it was burning, we added a
larger log or two. First we peeled and fried our potatoes and onions.
Then we cooked our bacon, saving some grease to scramble our eggs.
We laughed and talked as we cooked and ate our breakfast. We sang
at the top of our lungs. A song we loved to sing was one of the Nevada
state songs, "My Name Is Just Nevada". Instead of singing the line, "I
was born in 64" (
Nevada became a state in 1864), we would sing, "I
was born in 31", (the year of our birth). Then, we would make up
words to fit the tune and sing of our adventures.
Oh, we thought we
were so great!
We were always very careful to
put our fire out by pouring water
from the stream over it until the coals were no longer red. We washed
our dishes in the stream and put all of our trash in a bag to take home.
We were usually cooking our breakfast as the new day dawned and the
sun came up. We watched the horned toads and lizards dart onto the
rocks to bask as the first warm sunbeams appeared. We
listened to
the birds sing so beautifully in the early spring morning and the
plaintive W00-00-00-00 of the mourning doves. We laughed at the
pocket mice who began to venture out of their burrows to see if
we had left a crumb or two for them to enjoy. We hunted for four
leaf clovers and made our wishes when we found one. We watched
the horses and cattle waking up in the pastures. We picked our first
bouquets of wild flowers to take home to our mothers.
We were young! We were happy! We were best friends forever, and
we were "Growing Up Ina and Nevada" in our beautiful little "heaven
on earth",
Panaca!
