A Woman of the Century, Frances Minerva Nunnery (1898–1997): Her Story in Her Own Memorable Voice as Told to Cecil Dawkins

15: Single Again

15 ❙ SINGLE AGAIN ❙ 97 ❙ About this time I was having little arguments with Bob. I’d learned a lot about ranching, but Bob wasn’t a rancher and he didn’t understand a lot about running cows. I had arguments with him over things like having to change to a new bull every couple of years. He didn’t understand why I couldn’t make do with the bull we had. I kept telling him you need to change bulls ever so often so you won’t have incest among your cattle. He said he didn’t give a damn about the cows’ morality. I told him morality had nothing to do with it, incest in the herd leads to inbreeding and weakens your stock. Anyway, he was always waiting at the end of a cattle drive to pick up the check. On one drive we ran into a snowstorm. It wasn’t bad snow, just nasty, spitting snow and sleet, but we were all of us out in the weather.Even our bedding was wet.The miserable conditions made us late getting into Magdalena. Bob met us fussing that he couldn’t waste his time sitting down there waiting for us to get the cattle to Magdalena.He said he needed to get the check and get back toAlbuquerque.But of course he couldn ’t get the check till the cattle was in the Magdalena stockyards. ❙ A WOMAN OF THE CENTURY ❙ I told him you can’t run cattle on schedule. He said no and I was as stubborn as a cow and couldn’t be run on schedule either. Well, we had at each other, and of course that got all the help disgruntled . The two Correjos quit and went home and left me there short-handed. So I told Bob that was it, this was the end of the line. I took off my wedding ring and threw it out there in the St. Augustine Plains. I guess it’s still there. We’d been married eight years. After Bob went back to Albuquerque and a little time passed and the air cleared, he came out to the ranch and stayed overnight to discuss the separation.We had to decide on things he wanted and what I was going to keep. Before we went to bed I told him,“You’d better get up and get going in the morning while the ground’s still frozen.Once it thaws you won’t be able to get out.”And I offered to fix him an early breakfast. But he said he would go when he damn well pleased. He didn’t get up till late. Then he enjoyed a breakfast of ham and eggs and my fresh sourdough biscuits, and he loafed around playing with the little dogs till about noon,when he decided to head back to Albuquerque. He had just bought himself a new car, hadn’t had it more than a month or so. He got up the road a way and, sure enough, got stuck in a little ravine the road went through.It had spawned a pretty good mud hole, and his new car sank in with all four wheels. Disgusted, he walked back to the house and said he’d wait and fool with it in the morning. I said,“You’re not going to get it out in the morning. In the morning the car’ll be frozen in.” Well, he knew better, so I said Fine. The next morning he went up there,and of course the wheels were frozen in hard.That car wasn’t going anywhere.He hiked back to the house and said,“I guess you better get the tractor and pull me out.” So I fired up the Cat and went up there and watched him hook 98 ❙ SINGLE AGAIN ❙ the chain onto the bumper. I told him that was the wrong way to go about it, that it would never work. In those days cars had leaf springs, and the front bumper was fastened to the body of the car. But as usual Bob knew better, so I shut up. And when he said “PULL!” I pulled. I pulled off the whole damn body and left the chassis sitting there frozen in the mud. His new car was a total disaster. 99 ...