Cenizo Journal Spring 2022 | Page 9

transition was dramatic ,” she exclaimed . Since Ivie was 4 years old , she remembers attending the yearly 4th of July celebrations at the Post Park in Marathon . She enjoyed this festival from the 60s to the early 2000s , and later brought her own children . Her parents would put her on a “ pallet ” under the park tables so she could play and not get stepped on by the intoxicated adults . “ Everyone would dance ,” she said . “ If a man didn ' t remove his cowboy hat when dancing with a woman , he would be asked by the sheriff to remove it ; if not he ’ d be sent to the Marathon jail because that was a sign of disrespect toward women .” As the incandescent starry night sky hung mightily over the Big Bend , these locals would go “ all-out ” in celebrating one of America ’ s favorite holidays in the moonlit Post Park .
As a little boy , my grandparents took me to the Pitchfork Ranch in the Glass Mountains to visit friends Richard and Nancy Newsom . I was taught how to survive in the desert while we would saddle our horses and trek into the most untraversed segments of the land .
Voyaging through the torrid desert since childhood , I was spellbound by the extensive mountainscapes and desolate environment . I was enchanted by the wild , and my young artist ’ s

Cenizo Spring 2022 9