Interview with
David C. Porter
December 8, 2007
By Joyce McBride
Show Low Historical Museum
Joyce McBride: This is Joyce McBride and I’m interviewing David C. Porter of Show Low, Arizona for the Show Low Historical Society Museum, and today’s date is December 8, 2007. Good afternoon. How are you doing?
David C. Porter: Fine. I had my hair cut the Sixth of December. It was amazing to me. I said, there was quite a few men in the barbershop, you know, and I said, “What’s tomorrow? December the 7th?” I said, “How many remember what happened on December the 7th?” I was amazed nobody could tell me. I said, “Did you ever hear of Pearl Harbor Day?”
JM: That’s amazing. I can see them not remembering the date, but remembering the occasion. You can even ask people nowadays what they were doing when President Kennedy was assassinated. It’s amazing how many people were too young to remember that. And I’ve been interviewing a lot of people that their lives have been changed by it.
DP: Oh yeah. History is one of my favorite subjects.
JM: It’s my favorite for sure, and this interview is all about history. So, tell me about yourself. Tell me about your family. Do you know when your family first came to the United States?
DP: No, I really can’t, I’m really not sure. I know my grandfather on my Dad’s side was in the Civil War and he was captured three times and escaped three times.
JM: Oh my! Was he in the North or the South?
DP: He was a good one. He was in the South.
JM: So, what was his name?
DP: Thomas Jefferson Porter
JM: Thomas Jefferson, a good name
DP: T.J. Porter
JM: T.J. Porter. So where was he living?
DP: Tennessee was where he was from. Yeah, I can’t remember the name. I have it someplace too, the actual location of where he was from. There were a bunch of rebels running.
JM: Was he married at the time?
DP: No, I think he and my grandmother were married right after the, right after the war.
JM: How did you get here from Tennessee?
DP: After the Civil War, they left Tennessee. My brother older than I wrote a book about the, on the Porter family. And the place that the family located in New Mexico was on the Tularosa, a small creek, river, you know, Tularosa. And the title of the book was From Tennessee to Texas to the Tularosa and Beyond. He really did a great job on that.
JM: So they first went to Texas then.
DP: From Tennessee to Texas, and from Texas to. . .
JM: What brought them west?
DP: Well, I guess just looking for a better, a better living, you know.
JM: Always that promise. Texas being a southern state too. Were they ranching? Were they into ranching or were they farmers?
DP: Well, that’s where they had, when they came to New Mexico farming and ranching.
JM: Was it a subsistence type ranch or farm, where they just farmed for themselves, or commercially?
DP: Well, to start with, of course, before they got all the way to Apache Creek where they finally settled, they didn’t have water. It was just dry-land farm. Then, when my mother and dad were married and they settled there at Apache Creek, he applied for the water rights to that. There were two little streams. One of them was the Tularosa and the other was Apache Creek. And they came together right at the foot of a mesa and we had the water rights to that.
JM: Where is that?
DP: Well, let’s see. How can I tell you? About 140 miles from here, isn’t it Honey? Something like that, 140 or 150, south from Quemada.
JM: Okay.
DP: I carried the mail from Socorro, New Mexico to Springerville for years and years and year and years. That was before – that was B.J., before Jeanie.
JM: What’s your father’s name?
DP: Joseph Baxter Porter
JM: Born there too, in New Mexico?
DP: No, he was born in Tennessee.
JM: Okay, he came before
DP: Yeah, came before. He was real small. In fact, there might be some pictures in there in that book. I’m not real sure.
JM: So they were married in Tennessee, and did you have any uncles and aunts?
DP: There was Uncle Blunt Armstrong. Oh, Lordy, See, that’s my mother. there’s uh. See that’s my mother. See that?
JM: Yes, I was just looking at her.
DP: See that?
JM: Yes, very beautiful, very beautiful.
DP: See, my dad, my dad when to school at Las Cruces.
JM: So he was pretty young then when they moved to New Mexico.
DP: And this is, this is my dad here, J.B. Porter with his horse and dog while working on the ranch. See, that’s my dad here. My brother wrote this. From Tennessee and Texas to the Tularosa. Absolutely all Armstrong Welcome to County Tennessee.
JM: Armstrong, is that your mother’s name? Maiden name?
DP: Uh hum, yeah, uh hum, and that’s my grandmother right there. Vicksburg, Mississippi.
JM: A letter he wrote?
DP: Yeah, that’s a letter that Tom wrote, wrote to his mother.
JM: That’s what they called him, Tom.
DP: Uh hum. I could read you these. You’re welcome to. It really is. It’s a lot of history.
JM: Yes. I think a lot of times in the Civil War and things like that they just want to get away from memories of it and start out fresh.
DP: That was my mother’s brand. That’s Sam put the brands down. Bar L Bar that was one of my brother’s, Bar P L. Now see here, look here. This is the back of our old home here. These guys are having watermelon.
JM: Yeah, a great American tradition.
DP: Yeah, it was about 1930 there, ’32.
JM: During the Depression. When were you born?
DP: January 10, 1926
JM: ’26, so you were about 4 years old when the stock market changed the world.
DP: Yeah, I guess, I didn’t know anything about that for a long time.
JM: So you kind of grew up in the Depression.
DP: Oh yeah, uh hum.
JM: Probably thought that was normal.
DP: That’s right, yeah.
JM: But if you had a subsistence farm it probably, I mean if you were out there in the middle of nowhere, it probably didn’t change that much.
DP: Well, you see there’s my mother. She took care of the milk cows and she did the milking. That’s my mama and me.
JM: Oh and you, wow! A little guy.
DP: And then this is my oldest brother, Horace, that’s ol’ Ponto our dog, and it’s hunting season, see they’ve got two big ducks hanging up there.
JM: How many was in the family?
DP: Eight
JM: Wow!
DP: Yeah, six boys and two girls.
JM: I feel sorry for your mom. Well you needed boys though on something like that, somebody to do the chores. You probably knew how to shoot a gun though, huh?
DP: You betcha
JM: You all went hunting and . . .
DP: This is my brother, Preston, the second oldest. He got a job. My dad was a pretty good politician, and he got a job with the State Highway Department. He could do pert near anything. He had a very good demeanor about him and got along with people, you know. He wound up a patrol foreman on the road crew, patrol, you know, and stuff like that, you know. So, when Pearl Harbor come along, the first thing. See there’s the military candidates right there. That’s a cousin there, John MacAlexander, he was a first cousin. And Steve Neese, he was just worked for a store over there. This is the brother older than I am. This is Preston.
JM: What’s his name? This guy
DP: Lewis Abner
JM: Horace, Preston, Lewis. . .
DP: Uh hum, this is a cousin here, these two are brothers here and then that’s a cousin there, and I’m standing over here by the fence. This is Christmas 1941, see, right after Pearl Harbor, and they wouldn’t let me in the picture because I wasn’t old enough, see. Needless to say I was.
JM: Probably thought that was all that was going to go.
DP: Yeah. Yeah, but I served in that infamous Army of occupation in Germany.
JM: Did you?
DP: Yeah
JM: Did they all go in then? All those boys?
DP: Uh, well, this cousin of mine. He didn’t let his shirttail hit him in the back until he was in Morenci. Him and his wife, he got a job in the mine down there so he could get a deferment, you know.
JM: Well, he was married. I could see.
DP: And then Buster, W.W. and Horace and Preston and Sam and Steve Neese. John Mac and Buster, they drew straws to see. My aunt only has the two boys and a girl, and they had quite a large ranch there. They just about had to have somebody stay there, so they drew straws. They had it all figured out the short straw goes to the Army, joins the military. So Buster drew the short straw and John Mac stayed at the ranch.
JM: So how old were you then?
DP: See, that was Christmas 1941 and I was born in ’26, see. I was 15 years old. Preston, he served all his term because they thought he was a patrolman, see. So they put him as a military police and he spent his whole tour of the Second World War in Hawaii.
JM: Oh! Tough!
DP: Yeah!
JM: Well, I guess Hawaii was the first the first place bombed, so you never know. It might!
DP: Yeah! And then Horace, they invaded -- this all happened in Saipan.
JM: You were in high school at the time.
DP: Yeah, when it started, yeah.
JM: So you stayed and finished school and worked the ranch.
DP: Yeah, but then I joined up. I took my basic training at Camp Walters, Texas. They were training us for one thing, and one thing only, and that was to invade Japan, see. And they figured at that point in time that we would lose 2 million men.
JM: Oh my gosh!
DP: That’s what it would take to take the “Japs.” And the only thing that saved my neck was that “A” Bomb, you know. Oh, several years ago there was a deal came out in the paper kind of referring to stuff that was in the Second World War. And one of the questions they asked was, “Do you think it was proper for the United States to drop the ���A” Bomb on Japan?” I wrote the editor and I told him, “Not yes, but Hell yes!” Because I didn’t want to be one of those 2 million that we were going to lose.
JM: We ended the war in Europe ‘45, December ’45. We should have to remember that date. I know that D Day was pretty much the end of it in Europe but it took a while to mop it up.
DP: Yeah, I just write this little bit. I said, “In the spring of 1949 I told Papa (that’s what we called him) I was going whether he said so or not, so he finally agreed. I got a form for voluntary induction and went in the Army in April. . .
JM: In what year?
DP: ‘45
JM: Okay
DP: My basic training was held at Camp Walters, Texas. I had a delay in route after basic on my way to Camp Pickett, Virginia. From there I went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and shipped out of New York in November ’45. We landed at Le Havre, France, wound up in Southern Germany, Bavaria, was assigned to the Third Army and finally wound up at Cadretta Replacement Depot about 40 miles south of Munich. I was there until October ’46 at which time I was sent to Bremerhaven, Germany and where I shipped out for the trip back to the States.
JM: So what was that like for a young man from New Mexico taking such a jaunt?
DP: Well, one thing about it, if you were a good soldier you didn’t have to think too much because they thought for you.
JM: Yeah, you just had to obey.
DP: You just had to say, “Yes, Sir!” Well, of course, I had. The Porter bunch, they had discipline before they went into the Military because Joe and Emmy Porter, they disciplined their kids, you know!
JM: Yeah, having six boys it was self-defense.
DP: Yeah, six boys and two girls, you know!
JM: Well, the girls were good. All the girls are good!
DP: Yeah, yeah. Let’s see I’ve got, who all is left in our family? Simon, I and Melvin and Alice, yes, three boys and one girl still left, yeah. I wound up at called Cadre, you know. I was stationed at Rosenheim Germany. And that was the replacement depot we processed, I shouldn’t say “we,” that’s where they processed guys going home, you know? And guys coming in, see. And a lot of the people . . .
JM: So you were the last to leave then, because you had to get everybody out.
DP: Yeah, and I had the privilege of when they had those Nuremberg trials? They had what they called a revolving section, you know. I saw about three different parts of it. They’d let you in, they’d give you about 30 minutes, then you had to leave and another bunch would come in. I got to see all those suckers, you know. Yeah. I was over there when ol’ Göring when he bribed that American G.I. to give him a shot in the arm or something or other because he couldn’t stand to think about getting hung. They built those gallows, had those 12 gallows. We were right close to the Austrian border where I was stationed as cadre in that replacement depot processing guys coming in and guys going back. But they built those gallows down just about, oh about 35 miles from where we were right practically on the border of Austria, about 35 miles from Austria. We had the privilege of providing guards for about 40 miles when they moved those gallows up there. See they built all those gallows down there and then hauled them to Nuremberg.
JM: That was pretty quick justice done there, wasn’t it?
DP: They didn’t fool too much. Ol’ Göring bribed an American, you know.
JM: Yeah, I can’t remember his name.
DP: I can’t either. Yeah, to give him a shot, killed him and he died in his cell, see. Göring did. Rotten
JM: There’s a mystery about Hitler. Whatever happened to him?
DP: Well, Hitler and Ava Braun, his you know, live-in, they both poisoned themselves. And then some of the Germans, some of his aides, they took them out and dug a couple of shallow graves right out from where they were, and burned them, threw them in and burned them, see. So, he beat the gallows that damned Hitler did, you know.
JM: So you came home in October of ’46, came back to New Mexico to your family. And then what did you do?
DP: Well, went back to the farm and the ranch, but there were 8 people in the family, you know, and someone had to, you know?
JM: You’re all men now, right? I mean, you’re coming back and you’re not a kid anymore.
DP: Well, that’s right. Well, we had two of them. My two younger brothers were, uh let’s see, my brother next younger than me, his name was Eugene. He went to Korea.
JM: Oh, Korean War!
DP: Yeah, that’s Eugene right there.
JM: Eugene, nice looking young man.
DP: Yeah, he got uh, he was about, what was Eugene, about 6’3” something about that? He was a nice looking kid, yeah? He would have never have made it home because he was real thin, tall. He was a 2nd Lieutenant and the Koreans would have killed him just sure as the world, but he came down with polio.
JM: Oh! In Korea?
DP: In Korea, yeah, uh huh. They shipped him back to San Antone, where he met Kathleen. They shipped him back to the States, to Brooks Medical Center, I think in San Antonio. And his nurse, Kathleen Were, she was a girl from back East, from the East, from New Hampshire I think, in fact. Yeah, and they fell in love.
JM: Did he survive the polio okay?
DP: Yeah, well, he never was real strong after that.
JM: It says here that he was medically discharged in December of 1952. What did he do after that?
DP: He went to college. Gene and Kathleen went to Carlsbad, yeah.
JM: Carlsbad?
DP: Carlsbad, yeah
JM: You stayed working while the rest of the family, it looks like they were all – and the next one, Kenneth, was in Vietnam.
DP: Yeah, Kenny was in Vietnam, yeah
JM: Hum. Your mother had it. All these boys going off to war.
DP: Well now, see that’s uh, Kenny was a grandson.
JM: Oh, he’s a grandson, there it is, it says that his father was Sam. So what did you do? You came home and how long did you stay at the ranch?
DP: Let’s see, I left the ranch, uh. I’m trying to figure out how I got my first wife.
JM: You probably fell in love! Things like that happen.
DP: Uh, yeah, anyway, I put up with her for 13 years. I moved to Socorro. And uh, I was still in the mail.
JM: Oh, you were hauling the mail, okay.
DP: Yeah, and she decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street, but that’s. She don’t know how good she treated me when she . .
JM: It was not a good match. Did you have any kids by her?
DP: Yeah, a boy and a girl, Ann Marie and David C. Yeah, my name was David Camp Porter.
JM: Camp
DP: Yeah, so I
JM: Why Camp?
DP: No just Camp
JM: Why did they pick Camp?
DP: Because that was part of the ancestors. My dad was great on ancestor names. So when my son was born, first son was born with the first marriage, my wife wanted him to be a junior. I said, “No, he won’t be a junior. I’m not going to saddle him with that “Camp” all his life. It’s David C! That’s all; his name is just David C, initial C, Porter. So, we got through the War now.
JM: Yeah, and we got through the Second War - Divorce.
DP: Yeah, we got through.
JM: And you were living in Socorro at the time.
DP: Yeah, Socorro.
JM: That’s the middle of nowhere New Mexico.
DP: I got my route changed and I moved from Socorro to Globe, and then that’s when she decided that the grass was greener on the other side of the street.
JM: Well, there’s not much green grass in Globe, so I can understand that.
DP: So anyway, I had a station wagon, or we did. She had a car and I had a station wagon. And so I moved from Globe to Show Low. One trip, everything that I owned, or everything that I got, was in that station wagon and I had plenty of room!
JM: After 13 years of collecting. Did she stay in Globe?
DP: Yeah, she did for I don’t know. She’s had, I think she’s had, she’s still living. I think she’s working on either # 7 or 8.
JM: So you were a mail carrier up here too? In Show Low?
DP: I still am!
JM: Still are?
DP: Yep
JM: Oh, that’s right! You said you were . . .
DP: Yeah, yeah, yep I’ve carried the mail longer. Highway mail contractor, see. I don’t work, I, well I work for the Postal Service, I mean they pay me, but private, we’re private contractors.
JM: Okay
DP: I have carried the mail, they call it Highway Contract Route, HCR, okay? And I have carried the mail longer than anyone in the United States.
JM: Wow, so you’ve done it your whole life.
DP: You might as well say that, yeah.
JM: Communications! You’re into Communications!
DP: Right! And you know that gal right there. You know she’s oh!
JM: Speechless
DP: Best thing that ever happened to me.
JM: Oh, that’s great. You cook him three meals a day, huh?
DP: Well, I usually cook one meal a day.
Jean Porter: He burned the pork chops today! I made the gravy.
JM: Oh, oh! I thought I smelled bacon!
JP: It will be 45 years this month.
JM: Forty-five!
JP: The 28th, uh huh.
JM: Wow, that’s pretty good. You met then, back in the ‘60s?
DP: ’62, yeah, should I tell her where I met you?
JP: No, you don’t have to.
DP: Laughs
JM: Someplace close. (Laughs)
DP: Oh well!
JP: We met in Show Low
DP: Yeah her folks moved out here from Illinois and had a little variety store.
JM: Oh! A Variety. That’s down there, it used to be . . .
DP: Well if you were coming, White Mountain Fuels?
JP: Yeah, White Mountain Fuels
JM: Oh! Across the street over there by where Cooley comes in
DP: Yeah, on the angle?
JP: Pat’s Place
JM: Yeah, I know Pat’s Place.
JP: Well, it was a little bit further down.
JM: Okay, was it like at Woolford’s Garage?
DP: Yeah, it’s up the street a little ways from Woolfords on the other side, opposite side of the street.
JM: Is that where Lamar Nikolaus, across the street they had a store over there.
JP: Grocery store
JM: Yeah, Nick’s Grocery and across the street was, didn’t they have a variety store there too.
JP: Yeah, they did, but you’re about a half a block, back toward the State Compensation Office is. They redid that whole building, but my folks’ store was in that building.
JM: Okay, right there downtown though, huh? So you went in shopping for some variety and you sold it to him!
DP: She uh, wasn’t it the Paint Pony where you?
JP: No, Bill’s Bar!
DP: No, but I mean where . . .
JP: Now she knows!
JM: I know where Bill’s Bar is!
DP: No, I’m talking about where, where you were working.
JP: Porterhouse!
DP: Porterhouse!
JM: Porterhouse
DP: Yeah, the old Porterhouse
JP: I worked for the Chamber of Commerce office half a day and then, no I worked there 7 hours and then I went down to the Porterhouse and worked 4 more at night. Motel 6 I think it is now.
JM: Okay, oh yes! That’s where Albierto’s is now.
JP: I worked as a desk clerk down there.
JM: Oh, okay.
DP: But I met her at the Porter House.
JM: Yeah, that’s where you met. And so you’ve been married 45 years. So when did you get married? Don’t make me do the math.
JP: We got married December 28th, 1962. We just barely got married in it. I came out here with my folks. . .
JM: You’re about to have an anniversary.
JP: We moved to Show Low in ’61, and came from Illinois, then in ’62.
JM: Uh huh, so how does a mail carrier become mayor of the town? This is the mystery!
DP: Well, it’s a Mail Contractor
JM: A Mail Contractor!
JP: When we were in business we employed about 30 people. We had contracts all over New Mexico and Arizona, both. Now, go ahead, Dear.
DP: No, that’s good.
JM: So you weren’t just doing it yourself, you were. . .
DP: Oh Lordy, we had!
JP: We had about 30 employees.
DP: Yeah
JP: We hauled the mail all over.
DP: Well we hauled it to Phoenix, Mesa-Phoenix. We hauled it to Holbrook and Flagstaff, hauled from Holbrook to Albuquerque, Grants and Albuquerque.
JP: We had diesels running from . . .
JM: Done by big, huge trucks. Were you hauling?
JP: Yeah, we had big trucks.
DP: Yeah, we had, yeah.
JP: And we had also we had, uh, we did piggybacks. We ran piggybacks off the railroad. The railroad paid us to have our drivers take them off the trucks and haul them to Phoenix. And we hauled, we had a freight contract.
JM: You were in the trucking business.
DP: Yeah, we were.
JM: You were trucking.
DP: Yeah
End of Part 1
