After a busy year of book
writing, researching and promoting and ghost town traveling,
our Christmas gift to our EHC readers is a little piece of
fiction which hopefully will make you smile. Perhaps
somewhere in history a scene just like this was someone’s
truth, if not, as the Clampers are so fond of saying “It
ought to be!”
Life got
tough for a couple of hours and she couldn't explain it
away. She grabbed her friend Eleanor, the beauty with the
faint moustache that made her smile and teased the men at
the gambling tables and together they headed out of town on
foot. Not too far out the muleskinner with his great freight
wagon and his large team of mules offered them a ride. That
evening they camped at his wagon.
It was a
balmy night with a hint of summer in the early spring air.
The sky was pitch black and moonless, but the logs on the
campfire lit just enough. The desert wind subsided for the
evening, but the strains of the mule skinner's sad and
lonely fiddle playing permeated the air. The girls sat
across from him holding each other and singing an off key:
“You Are my sunshine my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You never know dear how much I love you
Please don’t take my sunshine away…”
The
coyotes howled in the distant mountains in mournful unison
to go with his sad version of the normally bright song.
When the
sounds stopped the girls had a tear drop, one in each dark
eye. They held each other tightly, staring into the campfire
watching the flames through a blur. The muleskinner stood up
and poked and prodded the fire just a bit then poured
himself a cup of strong coffee from the old spackled pot.
While he
slowly sipped his coffee Eleanor remembered the cards she
always kept in her pocket and brought them out for a game.
The girls gambled for stones until the muleskinner picked up
the violin again. The strains were lively this time, and the
two sets of female feet began moving in time to it. Before
you know it, they were gathering their skirts and rising
from the sandy ground. They took each others hands and began
spinning each other around and laughing hysterically. As
they spun, the muleskinner fiddled all the faster,
occasionally bellowing a loud “Gee haw!”
The dance
frenzy went on till the moonlight finally peaked. As the
darkness disappeared the fiddle stopped and the girls
plopped down on the ground, their petticoats flying in the
air for a brief moment as they did so. Eleanor reached in
her pocket once again, and took a silver flask to lips for a
long hard swig. She wiped the dribble from her chin, and
passed it on, the friend and the muleskinner took turns and
did the same.
The
muleskinner picked up the fiddle once again and began the
sour notes of his original song once again in an even more
somber tune than before. The girls listened, again with a
tear in each dark eye, as his sorrowful voice accompanied
his own fiddling:
The other
nite, dear,
As I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms.
When I awoke, dear,
I was mistaken
And I hung my head and cried.
You are my
sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
I'll always
love you
And make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me
To love another
You'll regret it all some day;
You are my
sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
You told me
once, dear
You really loved me
And no one else could come between
But now you've left me
And love another
You have shattered all my dreams;
You are my
sunshine,
My only sunshine.
You make me happy
When skies are grey.
You'll never know, dear,
How much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away.
As the last verse was completed, the flask went around one
more time, and the muleskinner went to the wagon and tossed
out a bed pack which he gave to the girls. He took a jacket
for a pillow, and soon was passed out on the still warm
sand. The girls shared the bed pack until just before
sunrise, then slipped back in to town before the muleskinner
opened his eyes.
The song remained in the hearts of the girls and the sad off
key version became the favorite with the men who’s eyes they
caught the fancy of night after night. The muleskinner woke
to a solitary campfire breakfast then hitched his mules and
went off with his freight to the next destination with nary
a tune in his head.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! KEEP SINGING, DANCING and SMILING. MAY THE
SUN SHINE UPON YOU THROUGHOUT THE NEW YEAR!!
Roger and Cecile,
Explore Historic California
