Page 69 - Ninety Miles From Nowhere

The Pinto Bean Capital - Chapter 16
Mrs. Ethridge, Imogene, and Dora Elsie at Imogene’s birthday celebration.
In the fall of 1935 I went to Claunch to teach, on the far eastern side of Socorro County, southeast of Mountainair and Gran Quivera National Monument, and west of Corona.
We had four teachers: Imogene McClure taught the first and second grades, Mrs. Zola Ethridge of Claunch taught the third through the fifth grades, Dora Elsie Ladd taught the sixth through the eighth, and I was the principal and taught all of the high school students.
Dora Elsie Ladd taught at Logville in 1932-1933. In 1933-34 she was at White Lake, and in 1934-35 she was in Claunch as was Imogene. Dora Elsie’s parents lived there and Imogene boarded with them.
Since the two other teachers lived in Claunch, Imogene and I rented a couple of light-housekeeping rooms from the Corleys. One room was a bedroom, and the other was living room, kitchen, and dining room combined. Our only stove was a small stove called a monkey stove. For an oven we had a cylindrical device that fit onto the stove pipe. The heat which usually escaped up the stove pipe, went on all sides of the oven, and it baked beautifully.
Imogene was saving money to buy her parents a new car, so she was glad when I suggested I buy all the groceries and she do all the cooking. That was the beginning of my gaining weight - thanks to her culinary art.
Claunch, as well as the entire Estancia Valley, was fine bean country, and the area raised wonderful pinto beans without irrigation. Mountainair had bean warehouses and packing facilities and shipped beans out by the train load.
Mr. and Mrs. Corley had a large bean farm and used a portable machine for removing the dried beans from the shells. They had bean harvest just as other farmers had a special time to harvest corn, cotton, or wheat.