That's Charlie

Charles Ray Oldaker 2003. Charles died in 2007 and is buried at Hobbs N.M. He is the Charles I wrote about in Grow 1 and 2 . His brother Geed or G. D. Oldaker was married to Edna Mobley..Sam and Lela Mobley's oldest daughter who is my cousin. Also Charlies Uncle N. B. Oldaker was married to my Aunt Velma, ( Jared Mobley's Daughter )

Growing Up..Part 3

It seemed as if Charlie and I were together most of our growing up years. We went everywhere together when we could. We would try just about anything, I remember one time in the middle of winter we had Mom take us about 15 miles west of Roswell and let us out. We had our bedrolls with us and some canned food and a 22 rifle.

We walked about 2 miles off the highway through snow drifts until we found a place in a small ravine to camp for the night, and built a small campfire and stayed warm in our bedrolls through the stormy night.
We slowly made our way back towards Roswell through the snow drifts, Taking our time and shooting rabbits for food. It must have taken us 3 or 4 days to make our way back home. It was fun to us, but no doubt Mom worried about us.
Another time we hitch hiked to Aspermont, Texas to see Grandpa Jarid and Grandma Ora Mobley, when a blue norther blew in. We were several miles from a town and about to freeze, when we found a field full of what looked like tepee's. It was some kind of feed and the stalks were arranged standing up and looked like small tepee's about head high.

We dug into one and ..ohh it was warm inside, but just as we became comfortable we discovered a skunk inside too. Out of there we went as fast as we could run, and must have crawled into a dozen, before we found one that was uninhabited. All we wore for winter cloths were Levi jackets and pants..To wear anything else just wasn't cool. ( We must have been out of our minds. )

Many times on our journeys we would find a cotton trailer along the edge of a field, and get under the tarp and burrow down under the cotton and be snug as a bug. I have did this when travling alone too. But never ever try to sleep or stay warm in a bole trailer. The cotton boles have sharp points and feel like a thousand needles.

Many times in summer, we would camp out on the river at Roswell. I remember a time or two, when we ran out of food and couldn't catch any fish. We wound up eating turtles, and boiling lambs quarter that we found growing along the river. In later years I discovered the plant " Dock " and it's very good when fixed right, but at that time we didnt know about it.

Another time we discovered an old underground drain tunnel near the city park, and decided to investagate. That old tunnel was 3 blocks long and we crawled thru it with a borrowed flash light. There was all kinds of crawley things in it, like Vinegaroons, Scorpians, Centapedes and Black Widow Spiders. I didnt breath good for several days afterwards and decided to stay away from things like that, and to this day, I have no desire to be a cave crawler.

The old City park was our playground. It had acres of trees growing thick in it and some were 50 to 70 feet tall, and perfect for playing Tarzin. We had ropes on the taller trees and would swing from tree to tree, just like the Tarzin movies we watched. In summer we would swing and climb for awhile and then run a block to the City pool and swim the rest of the day. We made a deal with the Pool Manager. ( We swam free anytime, in return we helped cleen the pool once a week. )

Finally, someone decided to develop housing in and near our jungle, and we found a load of building bricks almost in the middle of it. We watched the site for a while and no building took place, so we built a nice clubhouse with the bricks and invited our special friends.
We used it for quite awhile and never were disturbed. Sometimes a bunch of us would get together and have a campfire at night. We quit that when someone tossed a hand full of 22 shells into the campfire. That made lots of fireworks, and it's a wonder no one was hurt.

Several times it flooded in Roswell, and the water got so deep the stores on Main street would have sand bags in front. The streets would be full and the sidewalks covered.
The water came from the hills west of town, and from the Hondo. The Hondo couldn't handle all the runoff from the hills, so most of Roswell would flood except for the extreme north and south parts.

We lived on the west side and that would flood first, in just a short time the whole City would flood. We had lots of fun when it flooded, wading the running water on Sunset Street. Once me and Charlie took our Mom's wash tubs and got in them on Sunset Street and floated a mile down to West 2nd Street. What fun that was, until we had to wade a mile back home with the tubs.

We decided that walking or biking was too much work, "after we found we could buy some mountain burros from one of the Brewer brothers". So we bought one each and Yipee, we were Cowboys. Well..the burrros were wild from the mountains and didn't want to be rode. It took several days before we could stay on them, and then the burros decided to not move at all. I never knew an animal could be so hard headed.

We tried everything to get them moving. finally I thought of a way that might work. We each got empty canned milk cans and put small pebbles in them to make them rattle. Charlie would throw his can under my burro and I would throw mine under his. Yipeee..that worked and we would ride around like Cowboys. Then we found out that if we rode them under trees, we had to be careful and not shake any limbs. The first time I did that, the burros came unglued and throw both of us. They were used to the mountains and didn't like anything moving over their heads. We finally decided they were too much trouble, so we sold them and went back to our bikes.

Next I tried a motor on my bike. I got the idea from all the whizzers that a few people rode back then. A whizzer was a bike with a very small 2 stroke motor on it, and sounded like a model plane. One had to peddle to help the motor on hills.
I took my bike and cut some of the center bars out and had flat metal welded that would be a base for a washing machine motor I had traded for.

Next I bugged old man Mills ( He had a shop up the street ) until he helped me with the shieve on the back wheel. Well..it worked up to a point. I had to run with it to get it started, then I could enjoy the ride until I reached down to shut it off, which was the only way to stop it since I didn't have a clutch.

When I reached down to pull the spark plug wire loose, it would knock me off the bike. That was very embarrassing, and the long V Belt would come off sometimes and wrap around my feet. It didn't take me long to switch back to a regular bike,

Watermelon stealing time...Me and Charlie had a good friend named Joe Day, and his dad had a big patch of watermelons. We had watched that patch, waiting till they were ripe. One night we decided it was time, so we waited till late at night and walked to their farm and picked us a few choice ones.
They tasted wonderful while we were eating them, but next day I was so sick I couldn't hardly get out of bed. My toes curled up and I had cramps and felt like I was dying. I have no idea what it may have been, but to this day, I buy my watermelons.

Gangs around Roswell...We did have a few problems with gangs around Roswell, but not when Charlie was with us. They didn't want any trouble with him. He would go to great lenghts to even the score, even if it took years and they knew that. Besides he was very tough and would "get it on in a heart beat". He is only 5ft 5 in tall, and that's fooled lots of guys ( To their sorrow ).

But he will do anything for a friend, even to taking personal care of a niece's husband for a month who had his hands pulled into the saws at a cotton gin. Due to car and truck wrecks and fights, Charlie has pins in his wrist's and ankles, and one time he had his jaws wired shut.

He has also had several back and heart surgeries. Once when he was recuperating from a wreck and was using crutches, he decided to drive to Haskell, Texas to visit a friend.

It was night time and Charlie needed a pit stop about 10 miles from the friends house. He pulled off at a desolate stretch of the highway and left the old Desoto running while he relieved himself at the back of the car.

He got back in the car and put it in gear, when suddenly, a huge hand came in through the open window and covered his face. He was so surprised that he stiffend out and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. That saved him, but he had a time of it, trying to control the fish tailing Desoto.
As soon as he got his wits about him, he got the 38 from under the towel in the passenger seat and drove back and looked for what ever the thing was. He never found a trace and later said the hand left a very foul smell on his face.

Another time he took a trip alone to see his Aunt Mary in Arkansas, and pulled off for a pit stop at a roadside park in Texas. Again it was night time and they had restrooms there. As he opened the restroom to leave a huge dude leaned on his right shoulder and said " Cool it Dad."
That was the wrong thing to try with Charlie, since the guy was leaning on his right shoulder, Charlie turned and put him down with a left cross to his adams apple, then he saw another guy advancing towards him swinging a chain, and one in his car in the drivers seat, laying over looking thru the glove pocket.

Charlie had his razor sharp pocket knife out by then, and as the guy swung the chain at him, he grabbed it with his left hand and pulled the guy into him and layed his head, nose and lips open with the knife.
Then there was the guy in the car to contend with. Charlie knew the guy would find the 38 under the towel anytime now, so he was working on the guy trying to keep him from finding it.
The guy was screaming and Charlie barely heard the words " We want to hear your butts hit the pavement NOW." Looking around he saw a Texas Ranger and a Highway Patrolman with guns drawn. Charlie didn't have to explain anything, and they didnt ask his name, just told him to have a good trip and that they would take care of the 3 guys. Apparently the park was staked out.

Did I say that trouble followed Charlie around...Another time he was driving a Billy Walker truck heading into Tatum, New Mexico and about 10 mi out, when a hay hauler passed him and the guy on the passenger side leaned out and yelled " You S.O.B., get that slow dog off the road." Well...that was the wrong thing to say to Charlie. When he got into Tatum and saw the hay truck at the Cafe, he pulled in too.

Charlie found the guy in a booth, and pulled him out and gave him a pretty good beating then left. The Police stopped him in Lovington and put him in jail. At the hearing he told the Judge that the guy had called his Mother a bad name. The Judge didn't think that was enough for Charlie to disfigure the guy and fined him and let him go. Another thing about Charlie, he can't stand to see a child or a woman being abused. One time he was driving down a city street in Carlsbad, N.M. and saw a child getting a very bad beating from a drunken adult. He stopped and gave the guy a good whipping. When the law got there, they told him " Good work Charlie."

He is still that way today, even tho he is stove up and could hardly walk when I visited him on 4-24-003 in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Bad things seemed to happen to him, even when he did fun things. Once on a fishing trip to Haskell, Texas, we were in the water wading and jigging in the cattails and Charlie had the slack line from his reel wrapped around his fingers, instead of holding it between his fingers.

Well...a big one hit the jig and the line almost sawed off his fingers before he could untangle it. Another time he was using waders in the cold springtime and a huge gar punched a hole in his waders and almost got his tummie too.

And still another time he was visiting with Jack Isbell in Haskell and Jack told him about a honey tree he found, so they drove out and Charlie seen it and told Jack, " ohhhh baby, we'll steal their sweet honey." Well..Charlie wound up with stings all over his head and face. Jack said he never saw a little short crippled man run so fast.

Charlie is a very polite person and a barrel of fun to be around. He can have you rolling on the floor with his tales, and most are true. He retired because of disability many years ago while his wife Mary was still living. She worked and Charlie took care of the house duties. But he always had the itch to hunt and fish, never missing a chance to go.

Since there's not many good places to fish around Hobbs, he was constantly on the road with his pickup and camper or small motorhome. "He had a different one almost every time I seen him."
Later his wife became ill and he nursed her at home until she died, then he realy hit the road, but his health kept getting worse and he quit going so much. his last trip in his small Toyota motor home was to the river near my home in Loving N.M. and sure enough, trouble was still following him.

It was hot summer time and as he and his girl friend were leaving, the motorhome overheated. Well..that wasn't such a problem, since my oldest son Walter has a radiator shop. They stayed the night and next morning I pulled the radiator off and Walter cleaned and rodded it out and they were on their way home again.

I couldn't leave this story without telling this..Charlie had a saying, anytime he met a girl or woman, he would say " Oh darling, you're so pretty and if I wasn't so old and ugly I'd run off with you."
He has thrilled all my grand daughters with that tale. Well..one time he embrassed me to the core. We were visiting his wife in the hospital and took the elavator up to her floor. Two young girls in their 20s got on too, and as the elavator started, sure enough he said " Oh darling, if I wasn't so old and ugly I'd run off with y'all". I was trying to hide in a dark corner until one replied " Well you dont look so old and ugly to me."

What can I say except.."That's Charlie"

Later he became despondent and the Doctors were worried, he could hardly walk and became overweight. Finally one told him to get out and start doing somthing so he started dancing, making 4 dances a week in Hobbs and other towns close by.

It worked, he lost weight and became more active. Sad to say, his health has became worse since, and he hasn't been fishing or hunting or dancing in almost a year, and has since sold his motorhome and camp trailers.

I visited him on 4 24 003 and As I hugged and looked at him, I got the feeling that I might be seeing him for the last time..I hope I am wrong.

In closing what can I say except " That's Charlie. "

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