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Me, the Ugly Otter, long before I had built this web page, sold Native American Indian Jewelry in various Flea Markets whenever the opportunity presented itself. I sold in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Socorro, Silver City, Truth or Consequences, Las Cruces, and Red River, all in New Mexico. Heck, I even tried a few places in Colorado. In most of these places I was succesful but it kept me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. We're talking about a couple of decades ago when this all happened.
One day, I was set up in the Albuquerque Flea Market, and a nice looking youngish Navajo, probably about 35 years old, was hanging around admiring my jewelry for a long time. Finally, we started a conversation. The Navajo's name was "Wil". I never did know his last name. Anyway, Wil explained that he was a silversmith and made jewelry very much like what I was selling. I told him I would like to see some of it, and maybe buy some from him. He said that right now he was sold out as he had not made anything for several weeks.
Wil told me that he had a spot reserved at a big Arts & Crafts show in a town near Grass Valley, California. But, he said, unfortunately he had no jewelry to take to the show. Well, he had the spot reserved, and I had the jewelry, so we decided the smart thing to do was for both of us to go to this Arts & Crafts show, where we would make a killing. He would furnish the spot, I would furnish the jewelry, and together we could make some cash. And, I was to furnish the transportation and expenses, as he was currently broke. After we took in all this supposed cash, we would then divide up the expenses. Sounded good. I had the spare time, and it sounded like a fun trip, so we shook hands on it right then and there.
Wil told me how to find his home on the Navajo Reservation (no phone), so on the appointed day for this California trip, I had all the jewelry loaded into my van, and headed out to pick up Wil. I arrived at his house, and his wife told me that Wil was not there, but probably I could find him at his girlfriends house. She (the wife) gave me directions, and I found Wil. All was fine between the three of them, no problem with Wil having a wife and girlfriend at the same time. Wil had his stuff packed and we set out for Grass Valley.
Wil knew this woman in Grass Valley, as he had participated in their Arts & Crafts Festival several times, and they were friends. The lady was to have made reservations for Wil for the show. It turned out that she had forgotten to do so. She contacted whoever was in charge of the Festival, and begged and begged for a spot for us, but it was too late - they were completely sold out. We were all crestfallen, and wondering what to do next. The lady was very remorseful that she had let us down, so she offered for us to follow her home, meet her family, and spend the night. We accepted.
We followed her for miles and miles thru winding mountain roads, and finally turned off onto a dirt road for a mile or so, and parked at the end of a lane. Tall pines, brush, and no signs of neighbors and anything. There was a path going to the house, we followed it for maybe the length of a football field, and there, sure enough, was a half built house. Her husband and several kids were there and we were made quite welcome. They fixed us some dinner, we sat and visited for awhile, and we asked about the half finished house. They told us that something was wrong with the building permit, and they had been "red tagged" and could not do any more building until the permit was obtained. They did have an extra room with a roof and two cots, which were to be mine and Wil's for the night. We went to bed feeling eneasy. We were way out in the boondocks, no one knew where we were, my van was parked 300 feet away thru the brush, containing about $100,000 worth of silver.
I woke up from an uneasy sleep about midnight, and I could see that Wil's cot was empty. He was gone. I was worried. I got my boots on, went out the door into almost total darkness and looked around for Wil. Nope, no Wil. I stated feeling my way down the path toward the van with all kind of thoughts running thru my head. As I got close to the van, I heard Wil's whisper "Ugly Otter, is that you?". I answered and ask Wil what he was doing out there, hiding in the bushes in the middle of the night. He said, "I'm watching the van. No one is going to steal that jewelry". We both sat there until it started to get light, and then went back into the house.
The lady fixed us a nice breakfast, and finally we told her we were leaving for home - the trip was worthles. She said "You can't leave just yet. I've called all my friends and told them you have a lot of nice silver jewelry for sale, and they are heading for my place". Sure enough, in about an hour, people appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and we had a very large crowd, maybe 30 or 40 people. We made a lot of nice sales,. had a good visit with all the nice people, made some friends, and all ended well. About noon Wil and I left for the trip back to New Mexico.
Our worries were for nothing. People, generally, are better that we think! We sometimes tend to think the world is full of crazys and crooks, but in truth, there are a lot of very good people out there in the boondocks.
Our Mailing Address is: Phone 775 753 5396FAX 775 753 4093
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********************************* Back to INDEX Page "Some True Stories Page" "Want to read a true "Wolf" story?" "Want to read a true "Thief" story?" "No One's Here, We're Gone" "Ugly's First Rock Hunting Trip" "Trip to a Reservation" "The Great California Show" "A Rough Trip Home!" "Bear? What Bear?" "A True Story of Lies" "Site Map Page" Back to INDEX Page |
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