Mary Wailes: A ten-dollar gold piece, The Christmas I remember most, & When I was 23

I know that when I was five years old,
my father was an engineer on the Santa Fe RR
He bought tickets for my mother and me
to northern Canada,
to the East Coast, they had a farm there.
She’d fix her berth below,
she was quite heavy,
she’d push me on the top.

I was afraid of falling off.
When we got back to Phoenix,
a man sitting across from us
gave my mother a ten-dollar gold piece
because I had been so quiet,
not running around bothering him during the trip.
When I left home, she gave it to me as a gift
and I still have it to this day.

—Mary Wailes


The Christmas I remember most
was now, when my family came to visit
and to have dinner with me
It was also my birthday on the 14th
They were celebrating it with me
One of the gifts I received
was this shirt: "Joy to the World"
and the whole family came to my room
We all gathered round the couch
exchanged gifts and we sang carols.

—Mary Wailes



When I was 23
I was married, you see
we moved to the east
he joined the marine corps
We lived on the base
It was a most unusual place

When I was 25
I was still young in my years
The first of 6 was to come
I saw the doctor, he said "don't smoke"
I knew I breathed for each baby to survive
when I was 25

When I was 35
we moved to El Torro. CA
we had a regular life
when I was 35

And now I'm 81
my family visits me here
I visit them each year
It brings me such cheer
to meet all the children
my children have had
It was some very good years.

—Mary Wailes


I had a roan horse I rode all the time.
I was lonely so I talked to her all the time.
She either listened to me real good
or she didn’t listen at all.
She was a roan, an ornery roan
and she gave me troubles all the time.
Once I wanted her to jump a small creek
and she wouldn’t do it, so I kicked the hell outta her
She did it, eventually. But she was a strawberry roan
A real redhead. Once she threw me over a fence.
I was cantering along, planning to open the gate
but she galloped right up & slammed on the brakes
I went right over the fence without opening the gate
That was my first flying lesson.
Like Amelia Earhart! I flew in her plane once.
The horse, she knew where she was going
into that pasture & she got rid of me, pronto.

—Mary Wailes