Grandma and Grandpa Dunn

Grandma Lived in Eastdale, Colorado and was in school there. Grandpa Dunn was her teacher. They fell in love and were married.

They lived in Eastdale until my mom was born. Just before Edgar was born they moved to Manassa. All of the rest of the children were born in Manassa.

My grandparents were a great blessing in my life and the lives of my brothers and sisters. I remember as children, Betty Jean, Keith, Rex, and I were close in age and did a lot of things together.

One time Keith and Rex got Dad's 22 rifle and were playing cops and robbers and put a bullet in it and were going to shoot Betty Jean and me and the shell jammed in the gun and the gun was never any good after that. I think for Betty Jean and Me that was one of the Lord's tender mercies.

We spent many Sunday afternoons at Grandma and Grandpa's home. We lived in Manassa at that time.

Later when we moved to Romeo, it was fun to go to grandma's house. When our parents died, grandma's house was a place for me to go for solace. I love my grandparents.

Grandma and Grandpa, My great blessing

There was a time in my life when I spent a lot of time with my grandparents. After my parents died I needed someone to talk to and to understand my feelings. Grandma Dunn was really there for me. So was Grandpa. I have felt bad that my children didn't have grandparents that they could love as I loved mine. Gatha

Blessings of having grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa Dunn are really special in my life and of all of us. We spent a lot of time at their home as children. After our parents died, they were one of the greatest blessings to us. LaRue, Barbara, Leon and Doris Faye ended up with them at the end of their high school days. I spent many days with Grandma through those years. She gave me great comfort. I will forever thank her for her love. Grandma Gatha

Riding the horses

Uncle Edgar had some horses that he kept in the pasture next to the fairgrounds. He would allow some of us to ride his horses.

Barbara White's children and I would go beg Uncle Edgar to allow us to ride the horses. we would go out to the pasture and catch them and get them ready to ride.

Jill would sometimes come with us.

I don't remember all the details, but I have memory of a couple times that we went riding. Patches was a retired bronco. Grey was a tall gentle horse. The Shetland pony was small, but was ornery. We would ride the horses depending on the people that were there and who was dominant. I ended up with riding Patches one day.

Patches liked to hold his breath when installing the saddle. This would make the cinch a little less tight, and probably more comfortable for the horse. After a bit the saddle would loosen. It was advisable to check the cinch after a bit of riding to make sure that things were all snug and proper.

The saddle loosened. I rolled to the side of the horse while clinging onto the saddle. Patches stopped and I fell to the ground. I rose and tightened the cinch, but while I was in the attitude of pulling up on the cinch that cantankerous old horse stepped back and stepped on my foot. I know it was on purpose. I pushed and shoved on the horse to get it to move from my foot. It did not put its full weight on me. We went on riding that day.

On another occasion it was my draw to get the Shetland pony. We were required to catch and prepare the horses for the ride. We managed to finally catch the horses we were going to ride. The pony did not want to be caught, and when it finally was, it did not want to be ridden, at least not by a little runt like me. I was able to mount the pony and get into position to ride it when it took off at full gallop toward the barbed wire fence. I was pulling on the reins with all my force to get the pony to stop. It finally locked its legs in a forward pointing position and skidded toward the fence. I went over the top of the saddle and over its head toward the fence. After extracting myself from the fence and beginning to check out if I was seriously wounded the pony backed up to me and started to kick. I was kicked in the head, after which I began to bleed profusely. I did not go riding that day.

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So in review, there are three levels of participation.

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Anybody can look and comment. Only authors can post articles. The administrator controls who can do what.

If you are a part of the Simeon Dunn family and would like to have permission to be an author, then please notify Kent or me (Larry) that you would like to be invited by an administrator.

My address is larryavance1954 at gmail dot com. Replace the at and dot with the right symbols.

I grew up among them

I am Larry Arlo Vance, son of Gatha Bingham Vance and Donald Arlo Vance. I grew up in Manassa Colorado. I lived with my parents across the street from Elma and Boyd Pagett. Elma is my mother's aunt. Gatha's mother is Elma's sister.

As I grew up in Manassa our family had the occasion to interact with several of the sibblings from the Simeon Dunn family. I suspect that some of them will outlive much of the 2nd and 3rd generations. I am grateful for the help that my family received from the Dunn family. They were always there to help us.



I remember that one day when I was in my younger years (single digits) and had received a bow and arrow as a gift. I shot my arrow up on the roof of the house. I went up onto the roof to retrieve my arrow by going up through the attic onto the roof. I retrieved the arrow and by the time I had descended back to the ground through the hatch into the attic my mother was waiting for me. She told me she found out I was on the roof from Elma.

Welcome Kim and Jack

Jack and Kim, we are happy to see that you have joined use. We are really looking forward to a nice newsey post about you and your family. Pictures are worth a thousand words, but words are valuable too.

If you have email addresses for your Brothers and Sisters, I would appreciate it if you would mail them to Kent Vance for blog invitations rather than posting them on the blog. I'll see that they get an invation without publishing their addresses to the world.