Meme Ortiz by Gilberto Lopez

I've spent most of my life at Mexico. I've spent eight years at Mexico. I love Mexico because I had all day to roam around town and explore. My father was here in the U.S. and we were over there i learned how to ride horses at the age of four, feed them and groom them at the age of six and take care of cattle at that same age. i went to kindergarden in Mexico. We entered kindergarden at 7.00 a.m. but I regurlaly got home at about 9.00- 12.00 p.m. My best memories are there. When it rained the lake got really full and on hot summer days almost all of the kids in town swimmed there. One of my most dangerous memories were there aswell. When I was old enough to go with my uncle to take care of my grandfather's cattle I went with him. It was a nice day like always and it was lunch time and we sat down under a "wisache"(a thorny green bush) when all of a suddem we hear strange noises coming from back of us. I remember my uncles exact words he told me, "Gilberto subete al caballo". I did as I was told. He grabbed the machete from the horse and peeked around the bush. A rattlesnake ( my gradfather calls them "osico de puerco") popped out of the bush. My uncle was face to face with death. The rattlesnake struck but luckuly my uncle moved. My uncle slashed the head off the beast and we were safe. I also remember what my uncle did with the rattlesnake. He set it on fire but we took off the rattle "cascabel" because they are valuable. There are many other fun and crazy, and just weird stories.