Publisher's Synopsis
This story is authentic and dramatized for the enjoyment of my readers. It is a story of a rock quarry camp in Colorado in the middle 1900's. It is a story of life, about love and respect of the family. It is a story of culture values. It illustrates that it is possible to live with dignity in spite of all the hardships and still maintain our heritage as we struggled to learn the American way of life and survived the challenge of equality. The main characters in this story are Jonny Clark and Tomas Romero and family. In 1919 Tomas and Jonny Clark met right after Jonny had graduated from Colorado A&M in Fort Collins, Colorado with a degree in Engineering. However Tomas had an equal amount of experience having graduated from the school of "hard knocks" Two guys, both green horns about the same age came together for a lifetime of friendship. First they hooked up to work in the Colorado silver mines. Later Tomas got married and several years later took his family to Fort Collins, Colorado to work the beet fields for fifty cents a day per person. There are no age limits to who can work the beet fields, consequently five year old children and grandparents were out in the hot sun doing the back breaking work of thinning and topping beets from dawn to dusk. Then one spring a tragedy strikes the family wiping out their job, housing, all their belongings, leaving them nowhere to turn. However, Jonny once again enters the life of Tomas and his family. Jonny Clark is now superintendent of the Ingleside rock quarries which are linked to the sugar beet industry. Jonny hires Tomas as the supervisor of the quarry, placing him in charge of hiring the skilled workers for the quarry and setting them up in housing at the camp at Ingleside, Colorado. The camp was a melting pot of many nationalities as the quarries employed families from many countries. Here many families found decent housing, good pay, and a school for the children, and a little church. In El Campo (as the Mexicans call the camp) they found friendship and stability. You will meet many people, who overcame their problems of learning to live with people of different nationalities, languages, cultures, traditions, poverty, accidents, drinking, gambling, fiestas, shootouts. But most of all it was a good life for all at this time in history. Vera R. Moreno is a Fort Collins, Colorado native having lived here 85 years. She has witnessed the history she portrays in her books. She is very interested in the history of the Latinos and what they have contributed to the United States of America, to help make this great country what it is today. She presents her second novel, BARRELS OF Evil, about a forgotten place and time in the 1930's. The lime stone quarry camps in Ingleside and Owl Canon Colorado. Vera was employed at Colorado State University for 32 years. She actively supports her church, The Senior Citizen Center and other community programs. She is the author of a previous book, BIG DREAMS AND HEARTACHES.