The Ramona Pageant - Finale

[@LazyIRanch]

Your camera work is excellent! I love being able to see and hear the beautiful, talented actress who played Ramona. I hope she becomes as famous and beloved as the young actress who starred in this play in 1959. It was the first starring role for actress Jo Raquel Tejada... better known as Raquel Welch! (RIP). Poor Alessandro! He was no horse thief, he was out of his mind with grief after the death of their precious baby daughter. The novel, Ramona, was inspired by several actual incidents, particularly the murder of an Indian by a white rancher in March, 1883. Juan Diego, a Cahuilla Indian, lived with his wife and small child near the Cahuilla Indian Reservation in the San Jacinto Mountains. In 2003, I followed Helen Hunt Jackson's description and directions in her book and found the valley where Alessandro and Ramona moved, hoping to escape their oppressors. It's up on the North-facing side of Mt. San Jacinto just the way she described it. When I saw the ancient oak trees at Twin Pines rd. it looked exactly as she described it, so I turned and explored the area. I found a maze of dirt roads where a few people lived, and knew I wanted to live there too. I kept coming back up here until I found property I could afford. I bought a 20 acre property with surveyed building pad ready for a house, and the water meter already installed. I only paid $15,000 cash for the property, but it's cheap for a reason. The electricity from the grid is too far away. I spent $28,000 on a 9kw off-grid solar/wind/battery/inverter system, and it has provided all our electricity for 18 years now. I live without a lot of conveniences I had when I lived in "civilization", but I always find a way to make it work. I may be poor, but I have something no billionaire has ever "owned"... I have ENOUGH, and I have gratitude. The Cahuilla tribe still lives nearby, but mostly they avoid the mountain because many believe it's cursed, and they may be right. They have legends about the demon, Tahquitz, who lives in a cave near the peak and eats humans (according to legend). I've heard the sound that is attributed to Tahquitz; an eerie low "growl" that seems to emanate from underground, as if the mountain itself is moaning. I don't know what causes the somewhat subsonic noise that one can feel deep in the bones; maybe seismic, maybe wind-related, but it is unnerving to feel and hear that sound. People who live here do seem to encounter great tragedies, so much so that I call this valley "The land of broken dreams". "Que es la vida!" Only an insane person would want to live here. Maybe that's why I feel at home here and why I love this place.😉

[@robertcunningham1944]

Thank you very much for your compliments about my camera work. Like you, I had wanted to see this play for years, in fact, almost 50 years in my case, but it never worked out for me, that is, until this year. I was very glad to be able to attend, along with some of my friends. With 20 acres, you don't sound poor to me. While you may not have a lot of cash, you're definitely rich when it comes to living independently, and off the grid. Take care, I hope you get the chance to see it someday.