Saturday Moments and My BoJon Heritage

I Keep finding the wisest words in the bible.

There are two sides to BoJon Town. This photo of  Eilers Bar is on one side and I lived across Santa Fe Avenue on the other side. Oh how I dream of restoring my once beautiful neighborhood. The city of Pueblo has no desire to see these magnificent old neighborhoods revived. The same old tired people run the city. Instead of cleaning up the drug problem they supposedly have, they do nothing. But they allow drug addicts to rent properties in my once beautiful neighborhood probably owned by slum lords. Trust me, as a young woman my eyes were opened wide to politics as I worked in the Pueblo County Courthouse. There was a man who purchased properties at the government sales when people could not pay their property taxes. He was a slum lord. I worked and saw how people such as this nameless man worked.  Then the EPA came into my neighborhood. They claimed the ground was poisoned. Interesting because my parents grew up in BoJon Town (dad) and mom in the Grove down Santa Fe hill across the road from the Runyon Field baseball complex.  When we lost my dad many years ago his illnesses were contributed to the type of work he did, a steelworker. Mom passed away in her 80's from simply old age. No cancers. No weird diseases. My paternal grandmother was a sickly child and although she married my grandfather and  raised 7 children with him, two of the boys passed away when they were small. They had a total of 9 children. A fun fact my paternal grandmother survived breast cancer along with two of her daughters. How could that be with poisoned ground?

Gus' Place was in Bessemer but every Tuesday afternoon my mom and her friends went there for a dutch lunch and cold beer before they bowled. My sister bowled with my mom and her two friends. They were called the Four Roses and they were good. I bowled in a Friday night league for many years and another good BoJon Barbara Smith was our bowling anchor. Her dad "Smitty" owned and operated the BoJon barber shop located on Northern Avenue .  Many good memories of bowling. I started bowling as a child. In the fourth grade a boy I attended school with had a mom who was widowed. She worked for the sunset Lanes bowling alley and how the school got a bus to take us there every Saturday morning is still a mystery to me. We were called the "Bowl-Jons. I learned some basic skills back then but my mom was an excellent bowler and she was very instrumental in helping me become a decent bowler through the years.

As a young adult I had my own bowling ball and shoes and bag. I really loved that sport.  My great cousin Mike Barnett is a terrific bowler. He was inducted into the Greater Pueblo Bowling Association. He is a character and inspired and encouraged me to blog about our childhood neighborhood.

Since I don't have a photo of Mike bowling a perfect game I will share this. HaHaHa. My dad was a baseball player. Mom was the bowler but she loved the game of baseball too. I will come back with more stories from the wonderful world of BoJon people.

Oh by the way our US First Lady Melania Trump is a sLOVEnian, Many of us are very proud to have her in the white house. I know my parents would have been proud. You either LOVE your sLOVEnian/BoJon heritage or you don't, it is just that simple. I shared this photo because Jackie Kennedy Onassis was a terrific mother especially her late son John would have been a wonderful and kind politician. Had he not lost his life so tragically I believe he would have made it to the white house too. Just my personal thoughts.  John and his mother had a wonderful relationship. Mrs. Trump does too with her own son and her husband's children. I am proud of my heritage and anyone has the right to love where they came from. I am working at ancestry and on my paternal grandmother's side I believe I have uncovered my 3rd or 4th times great grandfather.