March 29, 2021-I Remember When…The Trip of a Life-time!
In 1939, my parents, Herman and Anna Siemens, decided we should go up all of the 14,115 feet high mountain in Colorado near Colorado Springs.
We were used to climbing mountains in western Oklahoma with an orange-colored rocks and dirt. Mother was not feeling very well on those trips, so amid laughter and giggles, we pushed Mom up the hill. It was a time of family fun.
I don’t remember much about packing, planning or making lists. My two younger brothers, Jim and Gene, and I looked forward to another adventure with our Dad. He was such fun.
We drove and drove that day – in our black four-door Ford car. We usually had to make a big decision as to which of us would sit by the window, the best seat. The trip would take eight and a half hours from Western Oklahoma to Colorado.
What I vividly remember is watching the ascent from a backseat window. I wasn’t ready for the quick ascension which heightened my fear. My Dad was an excellent driver and soon had us at the top of Pike’s Peak. I left the car and took a deep breath.
Then I remember asking my Dad if we could build a house on top of Pike’s Peak and live there forever. I had a reason – Then we wouldn’t have to drive down the hill again. I didn’t understand the phrase, Trusting God. Now I would be rejoicing and experiencing the grandeur God created ‘in the beginning.’
I learned that Pike’s Peak was named after the explorer, Zebulon Pike. In 1806, he and his men tried to climb the summit of Pike’s Peak, after hunger – not eating for 2 days – and walking in waist high snow put a halt to their plans.
Meanwhile in 1887, my future father-in-law, Rufus Edgar Combs, was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. They moved to West Texas. Finally,John William Combs could not work anymore, because of a cancer on his leg. When Rufus was thirteen, he grew up quickly, when his Dad died. Rufus Edgar began supporting his sister and his mother and worked at several jobs.
He had the first Harley Davidson franchise in Dodge City. He belonged to the Dodge City
Motorcycle Club. He was married in 1915. By 1920, he wanted to go on a trip on his motorcycle with a side car. His wife, Ruth, sat in the sidecar with Baby Joyce on her lap, with Janelle and Jay beside her.
About halfway up, the motorcycle quit running because of the altitude. He boarded a bus with his family and they made it to the top. As Rufus told the story, So I loaded up Ruth, Janell, and Jay in the sidecar, and Ruth took Joyce on her lap and we headed out to Colorado Springs and Pike’s Peak. That was quite a load. I remember the first night out in Colorado someplace, some of them little towns, and they were having a fair going on there. We finally found a room in an old boarded up roomin’ house. It was so hot, we did get no sleep hardly, an’ the kids was a’bawlin’. Everything was pretty rough, but we were young so we could stand it, I guess. The next morning, we got up and went to Rocky Ford, and they there havin’ Watermelon Days there. We were guests of the town and we had all the watermelon we wanted to eat an’ cantaloupes, and entertainment, I think. http://www.combs-families.org/combs/ms/rufus/c-rufus6.htm.
When I retired from teaching school, I transcribed the six CD’s of his story. Doing this helped me understand my father-in-law knowing all the things he went through.
Now when I see the pictures of John William Combs, father of Rufus, and Rufus and his first wife, Ruth, I begin to understand him more clearly.
The strange thing to me is to learn that the Father and Mother of my husband, Edgar Frank Combs, visited Pike’s Peak years before Edgar Frank was born, and before I was. How God ties families together and we never know until we hear a family’s story. The hand of God shows how much He loves us, let’s listen to Him with our Whole Hearts.