The Ponderosa
There was a place not too far from where I grew up that was
called the Ponderosa. If you remember,
the Ponderosa was the home of Ben, Adam, Hoss, and Little Joe Cartwright on the
hit western program Bonanza. The Ponderosa near our home was a two-room
cotton shack.
The family was not the well-to-do Cartwrights, but an older
single woman named Doll and her grown son Roby.
Roby was what we called up home, not right. He was mentally retarded, or to be politically
correct, he had special needs or what is termed developmental disabilities.
Doll and Roby walked everywhere they went. Roby would walk pass the house carrying a lid
from a syrup bucket. He pretended that
it was a steering wheel. As he drove
(that is walked with the lid) he would pretend to honk the horn and then wave
at us. We knew better than to make fun
of Roby or any other person with special needs.
Daddy would tear us up. If you
wanted a whupping from daddy, just make fun of someone with special needs. In fact, daddy taught us to pay special
attention to those who were mentally challenged and go out of our way to help
them. I have taught my children to do
the same.
If you want to get us charged
up, you just mistreat someone who has special needs.
Roby was pretty ingenious.
I know you might find this hard to believe, but Roby and Doll had a
television set at the Ponderosa. It was
something to behold seeing an antenna protruding from the roof of the
shack. The antenna was unique. It was the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Spokes for an antenna and a syrup can lid for
a steering wheel was very creative.
As far as I know, Doll and Roby did not get government
assistance, but they did have neighbors who helped them. People kept a check on them, but they were
very independent. They did not have
running water, which meant that they did not have indoor plumbing.
Doll’s brother, Allen, drove the school bus. I remember on one occasion that Mr. Allen did
not have to pick up a couple of boys who lived way down in the boonies. I was the first one to catch the bus, then
the boonie brothers. Rather than picking
up others students early, Mr. Allen decided to stop and spend the extra ten
minutes at the Ponderosa.
It was cold that morning.
Ice was spewed up everywhere. Mr.
Allen and I got off the bus and went to Doll’s kitchen. It was the first time that I had actually
been inside the Ponderosa. Doll was
fixin’ breakfast for Roby and her on an old wood burning stove. This stove provided heat for the shack also. She offered Mr. Allen and me some coffee,
eggs, and biscuits. I was too scared to
drink her coffee and eat breakfast. I
had heard Grandmoe Chapman talk of how unclean Doll and Roby were. I must admit that Doll would not have made a
good story for an issue of the Good House
Keeping magazine.
I think back on that morning and think how small the
Ponderosa was. I have often wondered
what kind of trouble Mr. Allen would be in today if he took a student in for
breakfast at a place like the Ponderosa.
Doll and Roby moved up in our community when they bought an
old raggedy run-down trailer and just an equally run-down old 1951 Plymouth
I wondered what they did with all the spare time and modern
conveniences they had. Doll and Roby
acted a little more sophisticated with their new house and automobile. From my own personal experience, I know how
more sophisticated one feels when they are able to take a real bath and go to a
real bathroom. Doll and Roby made their trailer a little more reminiscent of
the Ponderosa when they raised the bicycle-spoked antenna beside the trailer.
Come to think of it, I have images of Doll and Roby when I
read of Elijah, a widow, and her son.
So he (Elijah) arose and went to Zarephath. And when he
came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of
sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water
in a vessel, that I may drink. (I Kings 17:10 KJV).
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