By THOMAS GUTHRIE In 2006 Congress established the Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area (NRGNHA) to recognize New Mexico’s multicultural heritage and its place within the United States. Natio…

The Lopez home is many generations old, and this fireplace has been their only form of heating. Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Church which was built in 1700 and is the best-preserved colonial mission in the Southwest. Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Mrs. Lopez has many responsibilities in the family, such as cooking, washing, spinning, and sewing, as seen here, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Trampas, New Mexico. 1943

Water is drawn from the river, a quarter of a mile away, for use in the household. Trampas, New Mexico., 1943

Juan Lopez, the majordomo, and his son, Trampas, New Mexico,1943

In front of their kiva fireplace, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

The home consists of four rooms, a small orchard, a storehouse and corrals where the wagon is stored and the cows and horses given shelter from the winter blizzards. Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

All santos within the church are common property and an individual or group can carry a santo home for the night returning it the next morning. These four men are borrowing santos to carry to their chapel, three miles over the mountains. Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Father and daughter planting corn near Tuba City, Arizona, 1948 Grand Central Terminal, New York City, 1941 Hispanic family who drove through a snowstorm to bring their sick baby to the local clinic run by the Taos County cooperative health association. Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Home of an older couple, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Leonard Gagnon raises wheat for use at home but not for sale. Near Fort Kent, Aroostook County, Maine, 1942 Leonard Gagnon's daughters knitting, Fort Kent, Aroostook County, Maine, 1942 Lopez Family Mary Mutz writing to a boyfriend in the United States Army, 1943 Mennonite teacher holding class in one-room, eight grade school house. Near Hinkletown, Pennsylvania, 1942 Mrs. Maclovia Lopez and her children. Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

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San José de Gracia, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Juan Lopez, who cannot read English, studies maps of the world. Trampas, New Mexico, 1943

Fill on up!

El descubrimiento representa un hito en el estudio de la Prehistoria por ser la primera vez que se prueba esta forma de cacería, según el Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia mexicano

These photos were needy lives but full of joy of people in New Mexico in the early 1940s. They were taken by photographer John Collier Jr.. A boy reading in one-room school in an isolated mountainous Hispanic community, Ojo Sarco, New Mexico, 1943 A dance, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 A family around the kiva fireplace, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 A family in front of kiva fireplace, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 A family in front of their kiva fireplace, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 A gunsmith as well as a cattleman chatting in front of his shop, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 A Hispanic family in their wagon, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 A man and his wife studying maps of the world, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 A man with his family, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 A ninety-nine-year-old man reading in his room, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 A nurse and an interpreter trying to reach a patient's house beyond passable roads, Llano Quemado, New Mexico 1943 A nurse from the clinic operated by the Taos County cooperative health association, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 A stockman churning butter after a hard day in the saddle, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 A young nurse lying on bed, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 An old Hispanic couple, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Around the woodstove in the general store, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Boy with his chemistry set, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 Children asleep in their bed, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Children in Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Christmas Eve pageant, New Mexico, 1942 Congregation leaving after mass, San José de Gracia, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Congregation leaving after mass, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Cutting and splitting wood for the fireplace and the cook stove, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Dentist making an extraction, Questa, New Mexico, 1943 Dinner in the kitchen, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 Doing homework on the kitchen table, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Doing the family washing, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Emergency transport, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Father and parishioners, Taos County, New Mexico, 1943 Father giving a sermon in Spanish, San José de Gracia, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Father on a field trip with a boy scout troop in Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Going to the mountains for wood, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Gunsmith at work, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 Harnessing up the team to get ready for a trip to the mountains in order to collect for wood, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Harnessing up the teams, ready for a trip to the mountains for wood, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Hispanic boy in the grade school, Questa, New Mexico, 1943 Homework on the ranch, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 In front of the general store, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 In Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 In the general store, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 In the one-room school, Ojo Sarco, New Mexico, 1943 Leaving church on Sunday, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Listening to folk songs, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1943 Man and his son cut down a dead tree for firewood, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Man and his son drawing water from the river, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Men rebuilding house roof, Ojo Sarco, New Mexico, 1943 Mother helping her children with their homework, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Mother helping her children with their homework, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Old woman in her room, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Orchestra at a dance, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Pitching hay into a hay rack for winter feeding, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 Sewing, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Snow being melted down for wash water, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Sorting beans for the morning meal, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Spinning wool by the light of the fire, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 Starting out on the range in a snowstorm, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 Students in front of one-room school, Ojo Sarco, New Mexico, 1943 The keeper of the general store, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943 The radio is the only contact with the outside world, Peñasco, New Mexico, 1943 Troop of boy scouts, Taos County, New Mexico, 1943 Writing to a boyfriend in the United States Army, Moreno Valley, Colfax County, New Mexico, 1943 (Photos from John Collier Jr.)

Note: I published this post a couple of years ago, but its message is worth repeating— BE GRATEFUL. ************************************************************ A couple of days ago, I picked up my father's diary from 1940 to peek into my parents' lives during the month of November that year. His words made me think about all I have to be thankful for and how little we really need to be happy. In Norman Rockwell's famous painting "Freedom From Want," the artist created a scene that has become our ideal image of Thanksgiving. We see a smiling, laughing family gathered around a table heaped with food while the grandparents present the turkey. Even though mine was a loving and happy family too, real life in the '40s wasn't quite so perfect as nostalgia would suggest. I was the sixth of seven children, a child of the '50s and '60s, so I wasn't there, but thanks to Dad's diary, I can picture that time. Howard and Rosalie Willsie with the first three of their seven children. In November of 1940 my parents, like others in their small community, still struggled to recover from the effects of the Great Depression. My father already had a wife and three young children to support. A national election that month meant President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would serve a third term, and Congress had passed the Selective Service Act in September, requiring all men between the ages of 18 and 35 to register for the draft. During that year, the news on the radio reported the latest, none of it good. Nazi Germany invaded and conquered one country after another. Japan controlled Indonesia and Italy controlled Greece, and most disturbing of all, over 400,000 Polish Jews had been forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. Reading the diary, I though about what must have been on my father's mind daily as he worked hard, spending long hours driving a freight truck, picking up meat from Carsten's packing house in Tacoma, roses from Beall Greenhouse on Vashon Island, moving furniture, hauling groceries, and more. He had livestock to care for, as well as other chores around their place, and he dedicated any spare time available toward his effort to get a new barn built before winter. In that month, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed, complicating freight delivery. With everything else that concerned him, he also followed the news as World War II grew ever more devastating, not realizing that within a year his own country would be involved. As for my mother, her days revolved around the household their two-month-old infant daughter and young boys, one a toddler and the other three years old. The domestic duties she took in stride included not only caring for small children, but also washing laundry in a wringer washing machine. Since she had no electric clothes dryer, she dried everything on a either a wooden clothes rack indoors or outside on the line on days with no rain, even in freezing weather. She sewed, baked, cleaned, canned, and worked as hard as my father, morning 'til night. Mom kept a diary through her teen years and at the beginning of their marriage, but by November of 1940 she had left it to my father to preserve the days of their busy, hardworking lives in the little leather-covered book I now hold in my hand, 73 years later. Repeated throughout is some form of the statement that they both went to bed exhausted. In the small space allowed for each entry in the five-year diary, my father crammed together bits of home life, social life, and current world events. Sun. Nov. 10 - "Finished my sawhorses and went over to the place and cut the sill and joists for the barn. It snowed most of the morning. Dad went duck hunting." Mon. Nov. 11 - "No freight trip today. I got in a full day on the barn. I'm all ready to start laying flooring. The girls had the baby shower today. Neville Chamberlain is dead." Wed. Nov. 13 -"Too busy again to day to work on the barn. The English scored quite a naval victory over the Italians. The big Narrows Bridge collapsed last Thursday." Thursday. Nov. 14 - "Very foggy until noon in Tacoma this A.M. Had another busy day. Paid some more bills. The lodge is giving a card party but we are too tired to go." The next day they asked a friend to watch the children so they could have a little date night. They "took in the show," meaning they went to a movie at the small local theater. He mentioned the death of a community member on the following Monday. On Tuesday, Dad rejoiced that he had a small load of freight. Even though it meant less income, he could spend over two hours working on the barn. A week earlier, my mother had taken her babies to a clinic set up at the local high school, for smallpox vaccinations, and on Tuesday a county nurse came to their home to check on the children. For dinner that night, she roasted a duck her father had shot when he went hunting. Wednesday, Nov. 20 "Rained all day. Grandpa and I went up to the bank and he gave me the deed to our place as we have it all paid for at last. Tomorrow we eat turkey." Yes, they did eat turkey the following day at the home of my grandparents, but before the meal, Dad spent the morning working on the barn. The next day the sun came out and my mother did a big wash. They picked up several boxes of apples from a friend and soon the kitchen would have been filled with the sweet smell of homemade applesauce and pie. I can close my eyes and remember that smell, still part of home life after I came along. Next he wrote, on Saturday, November 23, "The Greeks are forcing the Italian Army back into Albania. It's warmer tonight and raining. Couldn't get over to the barn today at all. Eggs are forty cents a dozen." A few days later he noted that my mother "... hung out a big wash yesterday and boy how it rained all night. She went out and wrung them out on the line."  Thanksgiving day passed and life went on. His noted that his gross income from hauling freight that month was $36.00 lower than in November of '39 and he had put 22,000 miles on his Diamond T truck. My mother sewed a snowsuit for their oldest son. Christmas would soon be upon them and year later, war. After the shock of Pearl Harbor, the news that came over the radio would no longer seem so remote. My father wanted to join the Navy but remained a truck driver, his trade considered vital to the nation. When you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner this year, be thankful. I am thankful for my parents and I miss them. The world is still a troubled place and always has been, but rich or poor, in times of war or peace, home is home and family dear. Put aside your little aggravations, petty issues, negative thoughts and feelings of never having enough. You have enough. Look around the table. Others will go hungry. Others are alone. Some are refugees or homeless in your own town. Think of those missing, those who should be in the empty chairs. In memory of them, their struggles, their happy times, and most of all their love and good example, be grateful. Please "like" Good Life Northwest on Facebook.

Archaeologists said Wednesday they have made the largest-ever discovery of mammoth remains: a trove of 800 bones from at least 14 of the extinct giants found in central Mexico.

A Spanish-American village in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains dating back to 1700 which was once a sheep raising center. Taos County, New Mexico. 1943