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| Built in 1884 |
REMEMERANCES: Bob Sharp and San Rafael Cattle Co
The summer of 1963 was eventful. I graduated from Attica High and went to New England to work in Whitefield New Hampshire at the Spaulding Inn Resort as a "Salad Boy". I assisted the Salad Chef, a nice lady that taught me a lot. Everyday I squeezed a gallon of fresh Grapefruit juice and one of Orange Juice. Then segmented Grapefruits to order and cut melons to order. My duties were varied but mostly prepping salads and even spending afternoons collecting Maple Leaves that we put under the Melons. When dinner was over I would walk to the nearby Mountain View house and join the staff sitting around a fire listening to folk music, singing and drinking. I learned about Bob Dylan. It was one of the best summers of my life.
That fall, at 17 years old I attended Alfred University on a Math and Science Regents Scholarship. I studied little and partied a lot. When Spring break came around I wanted an adventure. I could go to NYC and stay with my fellow classmate , Steve Kelland . Bob Sharp, lived on my floor in the dorms and was from the Westcoast. He was going to spend his time on campus reading when I suggested we hitchhike to Daytona Beach and join the fun. I wrote my parents and told them I was spending the "break" in NYC and gave some pre-written postcards to Steve to mail when he visited his parents.
Bob and I took off the first day of the break in summer clothes and almost froze the first night. We lucked out with a long ride with a trucker that took us to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We waited a long time late at night until a single guy picked us up heading to North Carolina. He had set off the a false fire alarm in his hometown, stole the car, and ran away. Turns out he was around 15 years old. We arrived in Sunshine and warmth on North Carolina. We had some small rides along the way but the next was our longest. A drunk Marine with a case a beer in the back seat ice chest. He talked about his friends would cruise at night for niggas walking the road and then come up close and hit them with a baseball bat while going by. His car broke down near Macon Georgia and we took off to get a place to spend the night. That's when I borrowed $20 from Bob and chipped in for a room in a cheap motel after we got refused a drink in a bar. Drinking age was 21 but in NY was 18.The next morning we got a few small rides and arrived at Daytona Beach that afternoon. We met others and tried a scam on a Doctor who was a Alumni of Alfred. She put us up for the night then served us a great breakfast with her lovely daughter to entertain us. Then she announced that she called the Frat we lied about and found out the truth, then threw us out on the street. We met others like us so got with them and rented a room. The landlord didn't know there was about 5-6 of us. One would buy and all you could eat buffet and bring back food for us. I looked up some people from my home town but they were older and didn't want us hanging around. I think I got a ride home with John Emerling that was with a couple of guys who had driven down. It was almost 18 years before I caught up with Bob and paid him back the $20 I borrowed.
I was put on probation at the end of the first year and had to wait out a semester before I could return. Bob transferred to University of Arizona in Tucson and finished college with a degree. Bob only told me his father, a writer, was in Pasadena, California but failed to tell me he had left Bob's mother who lived in Patagonia Arizona. Her father bought 600,000 acres of land in Southern Arizona and Mexico in 1903 when he opened a 22,000 acre ranch called the "San Rafael Cattle Company" in the San Rafael Valley just outside of Patagonia. That is where I caught up with him and paid him the $20.
When I did make it to Arizona it was after 3 daughters, 2 wives, a tour of Vietnam, countless jobs, and had just left my first Restaurant that I owned and operated. I settled the family in Phoenix , had a few jobs and was working for Monfort Beef out of Greely Colorado. I was a sales rep selling meat to food service operations in Phoenix and Tucson. Once a month I would travel to out of the way locations where we had accounts to touch base with them and see if we could sell them more. One such place was the Stage Stop Inn in Patagonia Arizona. I heard Bob was working for his Mother who owned the San Rafael Cattle Co. after her father , Col. Green, had died. I got lost on the back dirt roads in the country trying to find the house but when I did , Bob was gone to Tucson. His mother, Florence invited me in for a sandwich and lemonade. I was impressed with homemade bread and fresh lemonade. She explained that they only go to town for supplies once a month so bake the bread in the wood stove. Takes an hour or more one way to Tucson. We had a lovely chat on the porch. Bob lived in another house on the ranch with his wife and family while Managing the Ranch. His sister lived in another and helped him.
12 years went by, a divorce, three restaurants we owned and operated but now I was single and had a fine looking young companion that liked to have fun. We went to the Vulture Mines in Wickenburg, a famous Mission near the Mexican Border, Fort Verde, Camp Verde Hot Springs, Boyce Arboretum, and the San Rafael Cattle Company to pay off my, now 20 year old $20 debt.
Bob's Mother had retired to Rio Rico or Green Valley and Bob was living in the 9000 square foot Ranch House his Grandfather lived in back in 1903. His wife greeted us and retrieved Bob for a mini reunion and to pay my debt. It was really an experience. He yelled up to his sons to come meet the guy he hitchhiked to Florida with. They hadn't believed his story when he told them years ago but now I validated it.
Ten more year's and it was around 1999. Bob's Mom passed away and the family was stuck with inheritance taxes they couldn't pay without selling the ranch. Last time I saw Bob was on PBS television. PBS did a special on the Ranch, and it's history. Bob was interviewed as he showed PBS around the ranch. He shed a few tears over the finality of giving up the ranch and the lifestyle his family had shared on it. OVER...but not quite. The Heritage Foundation, established to protect national treasures stepped up and made a deal. The Sharp family got 3 plots of land for them to live on, a few million dollars, and their taxes paid. The Ranch is a Park now but a private one.
I drove to Patagonia and was going to try to visit it but couldn't. It wasn't until I returned to Phoenix when I found out he was living on his plot of land and I may have been able to see him again. C'est la Vie.
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