HOW THEY MET

So, apparently at one time my father, Chris Vigil and my mother Rita Mitchell were strangers! My mom was 18 and working at a Laundry somewhere close to Silver City if not in Silver City, N.M. and my dad was working somewhere close by and one of his jobs was to help put out fires.

So, has fate would have it, a fire started up at the Laundry where Mom worked and Dad was sent out to help extinguish the fire. Well, Mom never told me if he put the fire out or not, but once Chris saw Rita his priorities changed and he asked her for a date right there!

Wish I knew more about that first meeting, like did she say, "YES" right there and then or did he have to pursue her more.

IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO LOOSE THEN DON'T BET

I had 5 older brothers who seemed to think it was their duty to play jokes, tease or teach one of the younger kids a lesson.

Mom had a habit of tying her change in a corner of her hanky and when one of the grandchildren were around, she would unwrap the change and hand it to them with a kiss. One day she presented one of the grandsons the coins she had been saving and off he ran with his money burning a hole in his pocket. That evening the guys were sitting around the kitchen table playing poker with their pennys. My nephew approached them and wanted to play. He soon lost all his money and when he complained about losing his money, his uncles told him, "if you can't afford to loose, then you shouldn't bet your money." They thought they had taught him a good lesson. Only, Grandma discovered what had happened and the next thing I knew, she walked into the kitchen, pulled up a chair and said, "deal me in boys". Naturally the guys did not want to take her money and tried to talk her out of the game, but she insisted that if she lost her pennys, she would quit. Well, when she cleaned the guys out of all their change, she got up to walk away and one of the guys stated, "you took all our pennys!" "If you can't afford to loose, then you shouldn't bet your money", was her response. Grandma gave her grandson back his money and while she was tying her bundle of money in her hanky, she told him that he should never gamble.