maricopa to chandler a horse back

when I was eleven or twelve years old  as soon as school let out for the summer I would saddle my pony a hour before sun rise  and strike a trot to my grandparents farm in chandler. it was a good 25 mile ride on a hot may day. by ten o clock the morning coolness had disapated and the oppressive heat had set in.  by then I hoped to be almost to the gila river. along the way I could water my mare at puddles  from irrigation run off. but unless I carried a canteen(and I never did) I couldn't get a drink til I hit the farm on cooper and chandler heights. in those days  it was all dirt roads in that area and houses were a mile apart.
   after I crossed the river I would cut across the desert to the old snake town road that ran east to west. it passed through the old Hohokam ruins called snaketown. in those days the well educated hadn't decided to excavate  the ruins. the ground there was a mosaic of broken pottery for a mile in every direction. once in a while you might find a pot that was almost whole.   the pima Indians who lived in the neighborhood  didn't pay much attention to what went on there so a long legged kid trotting through wasn't anything to pay mind to. once a indian cowboy who was going my way rode with me across snake town. he stopped his pony looked all around and said that perhaps his old folks lived there and the old lady got mad and broke all the dishes! then chuckling to himself rode on with me. the next stop was a store and bar we called last chance. most of the folks my grandparents age called it seaside. that was the name of the gasoline sold there during ww11. if I had thought to put some silver in my pocket I could tie my horse in the shade of a mesquite tree while I swallowed a barq s root beer bought in the store.  if I had no money I drank water from a garden hose at the gas pump.  it was a old style hand pump. don't see those anymore.  from last chance it was 4 miles on to the old folks farm. I would spend the summer helping my grand father on the farm. he raised cotton. corn and water melons. the water melons and corn he sold to the Bashas market in chandler.  at the end of the summer I would make the return trip to Maricopa the same way I came.  if you told a kid today he needed to that they would run screaming into the night, but I thought it was fun.