"I was only two years old when we came to Colorado," Aunt Sarah said. "Some folks called covered wagons Prairie Schooners because they looked like a ship with white sails. I don't recollect much about the trip, but Mama and Papa and the boys talked about it so much it seemed as if I recalled it.

Papa was 19 and Mama was 17 when they got married in Tennessee. A year later my sister Juda was born. I never knew her. Juda married when she was 16 but she took sick and died when she was only 17. That was before I was born. It was a hard time for Mama because she had a baby boy who was born and died that year.

Mama and Papa moved to Rogersville, Missouri and by the time they went to Colorado there was a wagonload of kids.

When Papa first started talking about going west Mama wasn't too keen on the notion. She had heard wild stories about folks getting scalped by the Indians.

Mama finally agreed to go, but she cried when she had to leave Missouri. There wasn't much chance she'd ever see her family again.

Albert loved animals. He brought home every stray he could find. He wanted to take them with him, but Papa wouldn't let him.

'There wasn't room for all them critters,' Papa said. 'I let him take Shadow. He could walk.'

Shadow was an old hound dog. He got his name when Papa said he followed Albert close as a shadow. He was nothin' but hide and bones when Albert found him at the dump. Sammy said Albert spoiled him and sneaked food from the table so Shadow was fattened up.

Papa traded the house for a couple of wagons and some oxen.

Mama and my sister Lura -- she was 10 years old, packed all the stuff from the house and Papa and the boys put as much as they could in the wagons. Those wagons was plum full. They had to take skillets and kettles, dishes, lanterns, churns, flour, sugar, salt, bacon, beans, yeast and vinegar, plus the cookstove, guns, axes, hoes, hammers and the plow. They tied a couple of milk cows behind one of the wagons.

Doc was 23, Bill 22, Joe 20, John 19, Louis 14 and Sammy 12 so most of the time they walked with Papa. Tommy was nine and Albert was seven, so they some of the time. Oscar was only four so he was in the wagon with us, but when he got tired of riding, the boys held his hands while he stretched his legs. Once in awhile Mama and Lura would get out and walk just so they could get a breath of air. The wagon got stuffy and hot.

My family joined a group that was going west. They traveled all day, starting as soon as the sun was up and stopped early at night.

'I cooked most of our meals over a campfire,' Mama said. 'We ate on the ground on a piece of oilcloth. After supper several neighbors would sit around the fire, telling stories and singing. The kids would get together and play. We made beds in the wagons.'

Albert insisted on sleeping outside under the wagon or in the tent with Shadow and the older boys. Once in awhile Mama made him sleep in the wagon with us.

'Albert complained,' Mama used to laugh when she told the story. 'He said it was too crowded and he didn't want to be with a bunch of women.'

There was a lot of troubles on that trail, wheels stuck in the mud, crossing the rivers and once the axle broke so they had to stop to make repairs.

'We had times when it rained hard and we had to crowd into the wagons,' Mama told me. 'The tent was leaking. Papa and the boys climbed underneath the wagons. They were soaking wet and they liked to never got dry.'

'Sometimes it was so cold we wore all the clothes we had. Other days it was so hot you couldn't breath,' Papa said. 'Your Ma was always scared of the Indians, but the only Indians we met up with were good ones. They helped us.'

Most of the folks in the wagon train were Christian people and stopped to rest on Sundays.

'Sunday is God's day,' Papa declared. 'We always stopped early on Saturday evening.'

'Everyone felt dirty and crabby by Saturday,' Mama said.

'We looked forward to Sunday all week. It was a blessing to have one day a week to bathe and rest up. The wagon master tried to find a place to camp near a creek so the women could do their washing. We spread the clothes out on the prairie. They were usually dry by the time we started on Monday mornings.'

Papa got the cook stove out of the wagon and Mama baked bread, apple pies and other food to pack in the wagon for the coming trip.

'We always had a service on Sunday morning,' Mama said. 'The men took turns reading out of the good book and then they all prayed and we sang. Those were some of the best services I ever went to.'

Some of the folks thought it was a waste of time to lay over on Sundays so they went ahead.

'We usually caught up with them,' Papa said. 'They'd be stopped because of a broken wheel or something else.'

'Everyone felt better by Monday morning,' Mama said.

'We couldn't go more than 15 miles a day and there were days we didn't go that far,' Papa told me. 'But the good Lord was with us all the way.'

One day when Sammy, Tommy and Albert were picking up chips they saw a snake.

'I was scared,' Sammy said. 'But Albert wasn't. He thought that snake was cute. Cute? That thing was deadly.'

'Aw come on Sammy,' Albert protested. 'There wasn't nothing wrong with that snake. He was harmless.'

'Shadow jumped at that snake while it was watching us.' Sammy ignored Albert. 'He put his teeth into the snake and shook him so hard he died before he knew what hit him. You know what Albert did?'

'What did he do, Sammy?' I knew the story but I liked to hear it.

'That dumb Albert started crying,' Sammy laughed. 'He wanted to take that dadblamed snake with us to Colorado.'