Ouch by Laura McGrath Humphreys

I don't remember the year this happened so I will just guess. It could have been 1959 or 1960. My family which was Dad Raymond, Mom Myrna, Sister Karen and myself, Laura went to a roadside rest area between Safford and Duncan, Arizona for a picnic. I think there may have been some McGrath and Hancock relatives there because I remember some of each. Anyway, we were playing cowboys and indians out in the desert and galloping wildly on our yucca pole stallions and waving our stick guns and rifles in the air because afterall, that is Geronimo country! Well, this cowgirl was not watching very carefully where her horse was going because she got bucked off right into a little barrel cactus! You know the kind....small but mighty with short and curly needles. All I can say is "that hurt". I screamed and cried and quickly mom and dad and embarrassingly enough everyone else, came running over and pulled me out of the cactus. Needless to say, that ended the picnic very abruptly. We all went home and we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Vessa and Vernon McGrath's in Duncan where Mom and Grandma worked patiently pulling needles out of my arms and legs and chest. It was a painful process and hurt like the dickens for a long time.