Desert Messenger

The lettering on the truck indicated that it was from a Los Angeles fi rm by the name of Grocer's Packing Company. Quartzsite's Constable Fred Kuehn, who had one of the four telephones in town, called the sheriff's offi ce in Parker and "Jop" Joplin told Fred that he was on his way. The truck driver's name was Jim McDermott and Bob Carson said he thought the driver was okay, although quite shaken. McDermott explained to Fred that he had been on his way from Los Angeles to Phoe- nix with 20 tons of packaged groceries and alcoholic bever- ages and had dozed off for just a second causing him to jerk the steering wheel to keep the tractor on the road causing the truck to tip over. Mc- Dermott said what he really needed was a wrecker to upright his truck and the manpower to reload as much of the cargo as possible. Problem was the folks with the wrecker service were among the "gatherers. Fred sent word to his wife Elsie to call a wrecker in Blythe. About that time one of the "gatherers" saw someone making off with his stash. He dropped his knapsack full of bottles of booze and took after the "thief" who looked back and saw he was being pur- sued and tried to run faster but stumbled and fell. Over broken bottles of booze, the two men started fi st fi ghting until one grabbed a couple of bottles and ran. Suddenly, both men stopped dead in their tracks, ignored each other, and be- gan swatting at themselves. I thought to myself, "They sure didn't lose any time drinking their 'salvaged' booze." When I saw a local pastor picking up a couple of bottles of "salvage," I decided it was time for me to get back to painting bee hives. As I got into our honey truck I noticed that more folks were swatting at 16 www.DesertMessenger.com December 3, 2014 Excerpts from "In the Shadow of Saguaros" by Rosalee Oldham Wheeler "In the Shadow of Saguaros" Vol. I & II are now available exclusively at the Tyson's Well Museum and Reader's Oasis Book Store Voices from The Past in Quartzsite, AZ Early on a warm spring morning in 1945, I heard a loud crash and then, complete silence. I went out front to see what had caused the loud noise. Nothing seemed amiss. I had half ex- pected a big cloud of dust or maybe a fi re resulting from some explosion, but all was quiet. Not giving any more thought to the disturbance, I went back to repaint- ing the rest of the beehive supers that Charles had imprinted with our "CHO" brand. Later, I went up to Bob and Bonnie Carson's Little Toy Café and Richfi eld garage, situated on the north- west corner of Highway 60-70 and Highway 95 intersection, where I saw several cars and trucks parked on both sides of the highways. When I pulled up to the gas pumps I could see the cause of the hustle. Some distance off from the intersection was a large trac- tor trailer rig lying on its side with the trailer open and its contents scattered about. Several passersby and some lo- cal folks were running about removing crates and boxes off the roadway and stacking them on the southwest corner, although not all the boxes made it to the stack. Several of the "gatherers" had taken off their shirts and were using them as a sort of knapsack in which they were carrying off some of the "salvage" and stashing it in their vehicles. Some of the "gatherers" vehicles were parked some distance away so they were using nearby bushes to stash their loot and then dash back to gather more. In all the rush, some of the "gatherers" had either forgotten which bush they had used or someone else had helped them- selves to the fi rst "gatherers" cache. It was almost funny watching grown men half running, some almost crawl- ing with these odd "packs" thrown over their backs. When I asked what they were carrying, one of the "gatherers" gleefully exclaimed, "Damaged boxes of whiskey, beer and wine!" Free drinks on US Highway 60-70 SEE DRINKS PAGE 26 something and then run like the dick- ens to their vehicles. I wondered if this swatting and running activity was be- ing caused by honeybees from a yard of bees we kept at our Home Place. Sure enough, overhead I could hear the fa- miliar buzz of many honeybees as they zoned in over the crash scene. The Blythe wrecker arrived and tilted up the tractor and trailer. What could be salvaged was loaded back into the trailer and all the broken glass and de- bris was swept into one big heap to be hauled away. With the "party" over, folks headed for home. Back at home I noticed a lot of bee activ- ity, unusual for this early in the season. Back in '39 when we bought the bee out- fi t from Mr. Mott, he hadn't mentioned the phenomenon of many bees in a hive coming out and attaching themselves to the front with as many wriggling about on the ground around the hives as if waiting for a command to "move out." As I stood there, bees were fl ying in to- wards the hive but not going near the landing boards at the front of each hive. They seemed lost, like they didn't know which hive was theirs as they tumbled in and crawled over the other bees on the ground. I wished that Charles had been home, he might have known what was going on, but he was out checking a bee yard up at the Twelve Mile. Later, when Charles returned the bees were still in a state of stupor. Quartzsite Chiropractic at the Quartzsite Medical Center Just west of Carl's Jr. on W. Main St. Dr. Michael Cole, D.C. Providing Chiropractic Care to Quartzsite! 928-533-4588 DR. COLE IS BACK! For more information call Dr. Michael Cole, D.C. The Smoke Shop Summer Residents & Visitors Thanks for Your Continued Support! WINTER RESIDENTS & VISITORS - YOUR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! WINTER Hours - Oct. 1 st - April 30 th Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 6:00 pm Saturday 9:00 am - 4:00 pm Sunday Closed Richfi eld Station 1945

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