ORANGE ORCHARDS & LAKE VIEWS

Lake at Necaxa, Puebla

1957-1960 
Nestled on an idyllic orange ranch on the fringe of Lake Necaxa, Puebla, approx. 100 miles northeast of the City of Mexico, a wealthy lady, Sra. Andrade owned a large quintessential house, secluded by trees, she allowed the mission to use when I was eight and in third grade.
 The beautiful ranch with its flowering orange trees and branches bending low full of fruit was an exciting place to hide and I take refuge under them. I  loved to spend time outdoors.

The ranch house was a dreary and dreadful looking two story house to an eight year old.  Statues of figures holding lanterns made the house look eerie at night.  Without electricity the kerosene lamps drew strange shadows and many imaginations inside and outside the house.  Sra. Andrade loved dogs and had all her beloved dog's skins lying around like rugs after they departed.
I had three sister/schoolmates who I spent much time with. On one occasion we were playing dentist with various props, one of them being white shoe polish which ended up into one of the patients mouths, yuck, because, I was the dentist and one of the sisters was my patient. 

 While we lived in this house, on the same property, a school house/dorm was being built closer to the edge, high above the lake surrounded by orange groves.
 A large rectangle cinder block building with concrete floor was in process of being built with a large indoor patio in the middle with rooms surrounding.
The large school room had a large window view of nature.  The teachers quarters was next to that room, the boys dorm on one side and girls on the opposite side.  One corner was the dorm parents suite.
Our back yard was located so as to get a view of the lake through some woods and an idyllic trail lined with ferns and other rain forest like foliage leading down to a spring and then on down to the lake.
Our mission school "living quarters" always seemed very cold and impersonal to me with the cinder block walls and concrete floors.  Nothing hung on the walls and nothing softened the floor.

Class Picture, 1960

It was customary to pack as many of us into a vehicle to go to church or into the town of Huauchinango which took us around and on the far side of the lake.  The carry-all or van lived up to its name.  I recall falling asleep on the floor like sardines while the older folk and bigger kids sat in the seats after long Sunday night services that seemed to last forever.

The thunderstorms were frightening at night prompting one to snuggle and cuddle my doll a little closer in the blankets while listening to the rain fall into the huge steel drums that were placed to catch the rain.  One incident comes to memory of playing dentist with various props, one of them being white shoe polish which ended up into one of the patients mouths, yuck, because, I was the dentist and one of the sisters was my patient.

With our dolls that Grandma & Grandpa Wedgwood gave us

One night the rabbit hutch was not secure and one got killed by the dog.  The rabbits were one type of meat we ate as disease-free chickens were scarce in Mexico.

I can't believe how much "unsupervised" time we were all allowed---to "roam" the property. I remember getting "lost" one day in the forest, thinking it was a short cut back to the house. Everybody was sent out to look for me. I thought I would be in big trouble.  After finding my own way back to the house, I hid under the bed for while with everyone still looking & getting worried.  Everyone was so relieved to find me and I do not recall any reprimands to that occasion.

Last day of school after a play about Abraham Lincoln, (L to R) back row, Larry Kalter, Ed Ediger, Becky, Carmen, David, Sonya, Mimi,Joy Shirk, Ricky Kalter  1960

Sadly, after the school year ended in 1960, the school closed at this site and we joined a family in Huauchinango for the next year of school as other families either went on furlough or left to join other missions.