Memories of Caballeros and Calesas

I wrote the following post quite some time ago and saved it in my "Drafts". For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to publish it. Yesterday was a bittersweet Father's Day. To explain, Terry and I returned to Texas on May 23rd...our 26th Anniversary....and four days later on Memorial Day, Dad passed away at the age of 82. While in Merida,  we often talked about how the sound of horse hooves coming down the street would bring back a poignant memory of Dad after he was gone. It will be a while before we are in Merida with all the windows open and hear those horse hooves, but when we do I know we will both smile and have tears in our eyes at the same time. This morning I opened up an email from one of my brothers explaining that he had put some of Dad's buggies on CraigsList-Houston while Mom will be keeping a few of the special ones. I decided to publish this post. I love you, Dad!

A horse and buggy quickly passing by

Each morning, and sometimes in the afternoons, I hear the sound of horse hooves when the horse and buggy drivers round the corner just south of our house. I'm guessing they live on the edge of town somewhere down south, and travel up our street to get to Calle 60 where they all hang out waiting to take tourists and local folks on city tours. It doesn't pull at my heart strings when I see them downtown, but hearing them from inside the house and knowing they travel right in front of our house always makes me run to the window and wave at them when they come by. I know there are at least two different ones that come by...maybe more. I quit going outside to wave at them because they were stopping and asking me if I wanted a ride into Centro, and I was never prepared to go. Although, I keep saying one of these days I'm going to get dressed and wait for one to come by and I'm going to hop in. Shoot! I was so crazy about "the connection" I felt with one of them one day, I stopped him to tell him: "Mi padre es un caballero en Tejas y tiene calesas tambien". The caballero asked me if he lives on a ranchero. Si.

It pulls at my heartstrings because I get a little pang of homesickness every time I hear the horse hooves. It makes me wonder:

 "What are Mama and Daddy up to today?....I hope it's a pretty day in Anderson and they are out buggy riding."

I don't know when the last time Daddy climbed up on a horse may have been. I know it hasn't been too long ago. But when it got tough for him to horseback ride, he took up horses and buggies.  His third love after Mama and Dottie...and maybe the border collie Dixie falls in there.....so either third or fourth on the list would be Maude. Now that I think about it, Maude may be first! Now that I think about it more....I'm not even gonna go there.


Dad and Maude

Most people reading this know Maude, but to explain to anybody that may not know her - Maude is Dad's Amish-trained buggy-pulling horse. I don't think I know exactly how he made the contacts and found Maude. Since he loves searching on his laptop, I'm guessing it was via the internet. She was either in Iowa or Ohio. She's the envy of anybody that sees her when she's out pulling one of his buggies. And Maude is the most photogenic horse I've ever seen. All you have to do is pull out a camera and she'll stop, stand at attention, and look straight into the camera. She'll keep a perfect stance until you let her know you're through taking her picture. It doesn't matter if she's in the middle of a parade or out in the pasture. She and Dad did quite well at a buggy trial he entered. It was set up somewhat like an obstacle course with cones, water hazards, sharp turns, and markers where he had to stop Maude on a dime.  I don't think he'll enter into another competition though because they made him take off his western hat and wear a riding helmet. He wasn't real happy about that.

So, when I'm in Anderson it makes me homesick for caballeros and calesas in Merida, and when I'm in Merida I get homesick for Dad/Mom, cowboys and buggies. What the heck! 

Amish buggy.....Mom, Dad and Little Sister Dottie