Part 10

As Mary and I awaited the birth of our second child my mother came to stay with us so she could help out when the new baby arrived. In the early morning of the 28th of June Mary awoke saying, "I think we should go to the hospital now. I'm having pains and it's a long way." We dressed quietly and told mother not to worry.

Leaving George with my mother we drove away from the ranch. Morning fog was patchy at the ranch but became heavy and solid by the time we reached the coast highway. There was no traffic so we drove the 20 miles through pea soup thick fog with "black out" lights only.

An hour of intense peering as we tried to see the edge of the pavement saw us arrive at last at the Lying In Hospital in Oxnard. We got there about 3:00 AM and checked in. We had arrived with time to spare, for our new baby Ann did not make her appearance until 8:00 AM. She was a little beauty, strong but gentle - not at all a loud, lusty, noisy baby.

Through the hours as we waited for Ann to be born we heard someone in the hospital noisily groaning, complaining of pain and discomfort. After Mary delivered the baby and was resting a nurse came in and asked if I had a Virgil Kendrick working for me. I told her he was one of my herders. She said he was the one making all that noise down the hall. I went to Virgil's room and found him swathed in bandages, head, face, arms and hands, along with one leg and his back.

Virgil told me he had become "lonesome," and rode down from our range camp near Old Boney to ranch headquarters where he located a bottle of whiskey, thinking that would help make him less lonesome. By the time he decided he should go back up the mountain to turn the goats out of their night pen at daylight, and headed to the corral to get his horse, he made the mistake of stopping to pet the young horse I was breaking.

On a whiskey inspired whim he hopped up on that still unbroken horse's back only to be immediately thrown over the rock ledge that served as one side of the corral. Hitting about half way down the slope on the other side he tumbled and slid another 30 feet or so before reaching the bottom. He was lucky to have no broken bones, but was cut up and badly skinned.