I'd like to try to straighten history out a little here. As "483" and I explained in a couple of posts below, Earl Bell was not present when Andy A. and I arrived in Chama in 1970. We were not paid for any part of 1970. We slept on the depot floor for several weeks, and then later Sid and I and some others lived in a camp car that had been opened up in the Chama yard.
Sid and I lived off our savings (not much, I will say!) for the almost 3 months that we were there. Sid's wife and kids even came up from Amarrillo for a few weeks and lived in the camp car with us. When we would be sent out for a couple of days at a time to haul equipment from Antonito or Big Horn to Chama, we would take the camp car with us, and had all the comforts of home - a coalburning stove for cooking and heat, a water tank with cold running water, bunkbeds, oil lamps, and even a straight-drop toilet!
It was after hiring on in Spring, 1971 that Mike Carr and I rented the house on Main street ("Terrace Avenue", to be correct) across from the water tank, from Jewel Nelson the owner. It did need work, but we fixed the water heater, and filled the propane tank, and were pretty comfortable, actually. Later that summer, Jewel offered to sell it to us, and we went 50/50 on it - for a total price of $10,000! Mike and I co-owned that house for nearly 20 years. We finally sold it for $30,000.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2010 04:43AM by employee2.