Amy chose this image to represent Denver City at the end of Chapter 5. It shows Gid with - probably Krista? - in their backyard.

It was only while putting together this website - with the manuscript complete and uploaded to Amazon - that I discovered … the cinder block fence is described not in this chapter, but the next one! Here is where it is described in Chapter 6:

I paced the concrete fence separating our yard from the neighbors’. Once Krista was steady enough on her feet, she joined me there. Together we imagined ourselves traversing shark-infested waters. Hermann, the neighbor’s barking dachshund, played the role of shark.

Even though it is in the wrong chapter, for Amy - this is Denver City. Flat lawns with lots of space. No trees. Endless horizon. Cinder block fences. And her grandfather Gid.

I discovered in the earlier, discarded drafts of Amy’s book a longer description of how she, as a child, encountered the cinder block wall:

I remember balancing atop a low brick wall which separated our drive from the neighbors’. That brick wall ran into a higher cinder block fence which separated our back yards. My sister and I spent hours walking back and forth along the brick wall. It took me several months to muster the courage to tackle the cinder block wall which towered over our heads. I could reach the top of the taller wall by standing on the brick partition and hoisting myself up. The height was intimidating, though there was , in reality, no reason that I should fall. The cinder blocks were considerably wider than the bricks. The consequences of a misstep, however, were serious. Not only was the drop longer, there was a vicious dachshund on the neighbors’s side of the yard. Herman the dog would chase me back and forth along down that wall barking threats and canine profanities. Visions of flesh being torn from my arms and legs got my adrenaline pumping and make me feel quite daring.

A recent photograph is another testimony to Amy’s remarkable memory. It is also a testimony to the fact that nothing has really changed in Denver City since her childhood! The last time she was there, Amy drove by the house that her grandparents had lived in and snapped a picture. You can see to the right the lower cinderblock wall that indeed “separated our drive from the neighbors”, and also the place by the house where it rises to become a higher wall. (You can also see that the small tree in the backyard has grown up!)