Stepping back in time

September 7, 2013

Sixty four years ago I was doing my chores by gathering the eggs at our home in Concho. We didn’t have many visitors, especially the foreign kind from out of town. I had just put five eggs in my bib overall pocket when these foreigners drove into our yard. I had no idea who they were but I knew something special was happening so my six year old legs started running with all their might. The closer I got to their car the faster I ran and the inevitable happened. I fell, face first with the eggs softening the blow, but the eggs were now smashed beyond recognition into a mucky puddle across my front. This was the first and as far as I can recall the last time my Uncle Joe, Aunt Grace, Cousin Norman and others I can’t recall visited. Norman got to ride our horse Billy. He ran into a tree. The tree survived but Norman got a broken arm and my father got a huge scolding from sister Aunt Grace. Very shortly after that we were informed that Joe had died in an Air Force plane crash off the coast of California.

Three years later we traveled from Concho to Quemado, New Mexico to visit my Aunt Lola’s family. I was given the marvelous opportunity of traveling way out in the country with my brother Glenn and Clara Jo Fitch and her family. I was overwhelmed by the experience as we traveled in this wonderful car. I believe it was a 1950 Chevrolet four door. We hiked up the side of the volcanic creator that holds part of the Salt Lake. (Oh, this one is in Catron County, New Mexico.) Then we hiked down into the creator and were able to swim in the heavily salted water. You could feel the buoyancy as you body tended to bounce along the top of the water. Jim told marvelous stories about the depth of the creator and its origins. For those not familiar with that portion of God’s green earth, the landscape is chocker block full of lava pours and Malpai rock.

The next year my father Charles Glenn Jacobs was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Dad took my brother Glenn and me to our first Father and Son outing, an annual spring rite for LDS boys and their dads. We headed out from Concho and went toward the appointed place, by coincidence the same place we had gone with Jim and Jo Fitch the year before – Salt Lake, New Mexico. We got there, set up camp and had a nice dinner over the fire. As it turned out the campout was the next week and we missed it entirely but had the time of our life just sitting, talking and learning about each other.

These places still exist. Now the residents have all the devices the rest of the world has. They have television, internet, telephone, modern cars, and homes. Many of my cousins still live right there in Quemado or on outlying ranches. Very little has changed in six decades other than these minor living accommodations. People have surprisingly gotten older. Many have died and all have changed in their perspectives on life. We can’t re-live these, or any other times. We can’t change the path our lives have taken. We can’t replay the tapes and edit out the things we would rather not have played when we meet and report to the Savior. We can, however, play our mental tapes and look to them for ways in which we can comport ourselves for whatever time we have left before we are taken through the veil to paradise.

Last week I talked about how we can share charity, the pure love of Christ, in our everyday efforts. We can ignore all the people around us who have difficulties finding work, who are unable to unscramble their minds after physical, mental, or drug induced malignancies. We can pretend that they simply do not exist and go on in our little bubbles, acknowledging that they exist, just excusing ourselves from any association because they would spoil the life with which we have been blessed. I hope and pray that I never get caught up in that self-serving babble again. My goal is to do everything I can to live the law of consecration – to back to God all that he has given me.

Should anyone in my circle of acquaintance have ideas or plans for helping those we pray for daily, get jobs, get housing, get practical, meaningful training that will move them forward in their lives of self respect and responsibility, please share.

God bless you in your efforts to live happy, productive, lives.

Duane Jacobs, Grandfather, father, brother, cousin, uncle, and friend