This is during the time era of the late 1950s and early 1960s in New Mexico. The homestead where Rufus Opossum, his wife, two sons and three daughters live is located off of a lone stretch of Highway 285, several miles north of the town of Encino. The paths in the foreground of pic # 2 is where the cubs occasionally take turns ridding the minibike they have and share.
Rufus Opossum is the same opossum who is the janitor / maintenance worker at the Torrance County School in Estancia...Back during the 1959 - 1960 school year, Rufus had fun dogging the three delinquent pit bull teens; Biff, Richie and Gaston when Principal Clayton Wolf had them stay after school scrubbing sidewalks for a month. The after school detention was for them beating up an elementary school student, Buckey Beaver, in the process of stealing lunch money from him and several cubs.
Out in this rural setting, Rufus Opossum and his family enjoy the peace and quiet, and freedom, of country living. They have electrical power, a modern well with an electric pump, and a septic system so they don't have to resort to using an outhouse...One thing they don't have is a phone. Phone service is not available out where they live. Their house trailer with a pole barn built over it is cooler in the summer being the sun is not shining directly on it. And the roof overhang provides a cozy canopy to bring lawn chairs out to lounge under having coffee, tea, soda, snacks, etc. There is also a pole barn used as a carport, which also has a shed built into it. And there is an old bus that is used for junk and tool storage...During the summer, when the only cubs attending class is for summer school, Rufus is not as busy at his job as when he is during the school year. Thus, during the summer, Rufus has plenty of time to run scrap metal he collects to the scrap yard in Albuquerque for supplementary income. In this picture, a 1955 Dodge pick up truck that Rufus also owns is not there at the present time. Rufus and his oldest son have the truck out making a scrap metal run to Albuquerque. It is also noontime, and his wife and four other cubs are inside having lunch.
A modified addition of this scene will be shown in a later posting for the next part of the story, Clarence Coyote and Project Courier. If no one identifies what make and model year their family station wagon is in this posting, I will disclose it in that follow up posting...Those who are familiar with old cars probably already know.
I don't know the make and model of the bus...I do know that it was a "stone age bus" even in the year 1960. EDIT: I did some research on the bus I did the drawing of. It is a 1945, General Motors, Model PD bus...A 15 year old bus at that time.
