Editor’s Note: Be sure to read Carol’s other story about her Granny — just click on her name on the side bar. You can also read her interesting story about her rodeo family.
While we were living on Star Lane down by the Animas River, Granny drove up, fresh from her hunting trip in Alaska. Granny had to have been in her late sixties. She had already taken several trips to Africa to hunt for big game. We had sat for many a night while she showed her hundreds of slides from these trips. She was a pretty amazing woman, but when you are a teenager, it is a little embarrassing to have a grandmother who packed a hunting rifle and had heads of big game mounted on her walls.
This trip to Alaska was no exception. She had stories to tell and slides to show. While visiting, she got a call from the Greyhound Bus station in downtown Farmington that they had a big wooden crate addressed to her and could she come down and pick it up. She asked Susie and me to go with her to help load the crate in her station wagon. So, we piled in and drove to town.
When we arrived at the bus depot, we found this huge wooden crate. There was no way it could fit inside the car, so Granny asked the attendants to help uncrate the contents. Upon pulling away the wooden sides, it revealed an enormous head of a caribou! Caribou have large sets of antlers and two flatter antlers growing straight out of their forehead. Even without the wooden crate, there was no way this mounted caribou was going to fit inside the car. Not to be deterred, Granny asked the bus station folks to help her hoist the head to the top of the car and tie it down. This whole operation was causing quite a stir and a whole lot of interest to all the people waiting for their bus. Susie and I were, of course, embarrassed. But there was more to come.
Once we got the caribou loaded, Granny was determined not to let all the attention go to waste! She proceeded to drive out of the bus depot toward downtown Farmington, and drive slowly the length of Broadway like a one-woman parade. People stopped in their tracks to stare at the spectacle, cars nearly collided while drivers slowed to look at this Alaskan specimen with his snout pointing up and glass eyes staring into the sky. Susie and I sunk lower and lower into the backseat hoping that no one we knew would recognize us.
The caribou saga was not over. Once we returned home, Mama had put a caribou roast in the oven at Granny’s insistence. The smell of the wild game cooking had permeated the entire house and it was not a pleasant smell. With the big guy staring at us from the top of the car and the smell of him roasting in the oven, we were all going to be hard-pressed to sit down for a caribou dinner that evening.
Copyright © 2024 by Carol Carryer
Hi Carol! I love all your stories. The images you paint with your words always stay with me – like that caribou rack on top of the car – priceless! I’m so happy you share these stories with us!
Carol,
Your stories of your colorful, independent Granny makes me laugh out loud every time I hear or read them. She’s the stuff of legends!
Cathy Meinhardt
Hilarious and exciting adventure! Go granny! Thanks for a great visual image of teens cowering and a parade through town. Loved this!
Sounds like a fun loving adventuresome grandma. I think I would have passed on supper too!
That’s quite a grandmother you had. I think we don’t appreciate the unique people in our lives while we are young. It was a well written and entertaining story.
What an entertaining tale! I would have loved to meet this grandmother.