In Search of Wisdom with Ralph Vigil

​We caught up with Ralph Vigil and asked him to tell us one of his favorite camping stories. It still makes him chuckle when he thinks about the time when he was about 12 years old and he went up into Santa Clara Canyon with his older brother Gilbert and two friends, Simon and Eloy. In those days anyone could go up into the Canyon but there were probably more bears than humans who did. Perhaps people held what they owned with a looser hand because there were fewer boundaries and nobody cared if 4 kids decided to go camping on their land. Ralph and his fellow adventurers liked to go high into the mountains and stay by the beaver dam at the river. They spent their days messing around and at night they would tell ghost stories. Since they didn’t have fishing poles they would dam the river with rocks so they could catch fish with their hands.
 
Ralph’s mother was widowed and she had 7 kids to feed so money was tight. The family wasn’t the only one struggling; many people in Rio Arriba county were poor. To earn money for their camping adventures, Ralph would collect cans and bottles for the deposit. He admits that he used to go behind the Granada Hotel and get bottles that had already been refunded and go return them at the Baragain. He used the money to buy cans of Pork and Beans and Vienna Sausages.

​On this particular trip their truck got stuck in the soft ground by the springs and sunk in up to the axels. They didn’t worry about that too much until after a week or so when the supply of beans and wieners dwindled. Then the older guys, Gilbert and Simon decided that it was time for someone to go to town for help.  “I think I was fixed,” says Ralph because he and Eloy drew the long straws. “They gave us the last can of pork and beans and they kept the sausages. Me and Eloy started down the old road up the canyon for the long trip back.” After walking about 5 or 6 miles Eloy said, “Let’s open the beans.” As they were sitting by the river eating, they saw a horse by the fence.
 
“Let’s catch him and ride back to Espanola” suggested Ralph. They went up to the horse who allowed himself to be caught with some bailing wire and rope. Ralph gets animated as he explains that he and Eloy had a heated conversation about who was going to get on the horse’s back. He gestures as he says,  “we went back and forth saying ‘saying you do it, no you do it’. Eloy finally convinced Ralph that he was too heavy, so Ralph got on to ride. In a matter of minutes, the horse threw him off in the ditch and the two boys set out on foot again.
 
As they trudged along they heard the sound of a vehicle in the distance. Then they saw the dust of an approaching truck and Eloy said, “Esconde te!” or “hide!” They quickly threw themselves into the ditch in the cover of some Pinon trees. As they crouched there, hearts pounding the truck pulled into sight and stopped. Ralph looked at Eloy and said, “Why are we hiding? We’re supposed to be getting help.” There was a long silence and then Eloy said, “You’re right- let’s get out of here”. The two scrambled out of hiding and clambered up the bank to where the truck was idling.
 
It was Eloy’s father who had come looking for the boys.
“Why were you hiding?” he asked.
“We dunno”, said Ralph sheepishly. “It was Eloy’s idea.”

Ralph’s words of wisdom are that “a tight knit community that helps you out is better than a can of pork and beans.”