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

GROUP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

GROUP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

If I could make a New Year’s resolution today
It would be not to take unscheduled naps CS
Or to lose weight—I work on it all the time here
Too much good cooking isn’t a good thing MG
I wish for the ones I love should have good health
Always through the year. That’s important FP
I’d like to go bowling once and a while
And hit them all, or at least most of the time JB
I’d like to be able to walk like I used to,
to go dancing, able to walk like I used to
I’d like to have an invention with a good income or
I’d like to win the jackpot we’ll go from there WH
I want to have more joy in one’s life, health,
and to win the lottery, hit the jackpot NON
I want someone to take me down to get the winning ticket.
I think I’d keel over if I got the winning ticket,
I’d have to wake up real fast. CS
I never make New Year’s promises
because I always break ‘em MB
I’m looking forward to a cruise with my family
go down the coast & turn left at the canal
I want to be nice to everybody around me
so they will help others, & treat me nice
and everybody will be happy this way. LK
I wish for this millennium to be less cataclysmic MH
What the world needs now is love
I would like to see more love in the world
I’d start with myself, I’d show my love for others
And maybe they’d show their love for all of us MB

Madeline Bedal, Catherine Schuler, Mary Gifford, Frances Pearlman, Joan Butler, Mabel Weinberg, Mary Wailes, Neil O’Neill, Lee Kwan & Maureen Hurley