This photo is from Grams’ collection. She took it around 35 years ago in New Mexico. Doesn’t that sky look beautiful? Sure there’re clouds, but just look at that beautiful sun. Now look at the horizon line. That is one heckuva storm coming right at you. These kinds of storms come up very fast in New Mexico. When I showed the photo to Grams it reminded her of a story about storms and arroyos.
In New Mexico there are river beds that are dry most of the time. They are referred to as, “arroyo secos” or dry riverbeds. And they are dry, most of the time. It seems that a friend of Grams’ was working on a short-lived TV series in the early 1970s called, “Bearcats!” It was a western that was set around the turn of the 20th century.
The show was on a tight budget and an even tighter schedule. They shot a lot in Old Tuscan, Arizona, but occasionally went farther a field. This particular story happened when they were shooting in New Mexico. It was all the wardrobe set man, Darryl, could do to keep up with the changes on the actors. Sometimes he actually had to put a costume on and be in the scene to catch the actors’ coats as they flung them off (something they evidently did a lot).
On this day, the company had been shooting in the barren land alongside the north/south highway and the wardrobe trailer had been parked in an arroyo. This trailer wasn’t a fancy 16-wheeler; it was more of an old ‘tear-drop’ style caravan. The kind you can barely stand up in, let alone keep track of the wardrobe for an entire show. The trailer had been parked in an arroyo. Important point that.
The company struck the set and got ready to move to the next set-up down the road. Darryl was knocking about in his trailer trying to straighten out the wardrobe and didn’t realize that everyone had left, and had left him behind.
Suddenly, a storm broke right overhead. Darryl, not being familiar with New Mexico, arroyos, or sudden thunderstorms couldn’t appreciate the precariousness of his position. Well, that was until the little tear-drop started rocking about. Darryl swung open the door and was staring right into a river that raging about him and carrying him and the little tear-drop downstream.
His first thought was, “Where did that river come from? We didn’t park in a river.” Then, the water started to toss him around. It was coming in the trailer. He was holding on to the doorframe and screaming. He yelled for help, but all he could hear was the roar of the water.
Then, after about 20 minutes, the rain stopped just as suddenly as it had started. The water in the arroyo started slowly to drain away. Darryl started bailing out the tear-drop with a Stetson. After another half hour, the teamsters came back looking for Darryl. He was still soaking wet and was ringing out costumes. “Hey Darryl, looks like you went for a little ride!” they laughed. They pulled the trailer out of the arroyo, hooked it up and off they went. The unit manager was upset that wardrobe was holding production. Everyone else had a good laugh. Darryl swore he'd never do another western.
A dopo e Moochas smoochas,
Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).
Commentaires