Hidden Connections

My great-grandfather and great-grandmother are pictured far left, behind the people on the dais. My grandad Dixon is far right behind the people. From the best we can tell this might have been a press release for the relocation of Bullock’s to 215 N Main or a promotion for a sales event.

As I made my way through my family’s history in Roswell, amazing things began to unfold. In the podcast, you hear a lot about my grandfather, Dixon, and his connection to the city’s past. However, my great-grandfather, O.L. Bullock, also has a mysterious past.

In the collection of photos and mementos I found in our store’s storage was an intriguing letter to my grandfather dated  February 25, 1927.

It is an official letter from, I assume, Edward T. Taylor. I assume this because his name is emblazoned all over the envelope and this letter is all about him.Inside the envelope was a Congressional Record – the sixty-ninth congress, second session, of the House of Representatives in Colorado. The transcript is lengthy and, quite frankly, boring. It has to do with a filibuster lodged against the development of the Colorado River. The Hon. Edward T. Taylor takes the floor and has some… well, some very passionate statements to make.

We get a sense of how Mr. Taylor felt about the project and was regarded simply by looking at the number of times somebody said, “Will the gentleman please yield for a question.” To put more simply, they kept asking him to shut up.

Here’s what makes this connection strange:

1) New Mexico is never mentioned in the transcript.

2) My grandfather is never mentioned in the transcript.

3) I have no idea who Mr. Taylor is to my grandad. A friend? An ally? An enemy? Who knows. but whoever he was, he found it fit to send my great-grandad a copy of this personally to his home address…

How did my great-grandfather know this man, and why was he sending him transcripts of debates happening in Colorado?

No doubt there is a treasure trove to uncover there. This is just one of many clues I had to look through during the prep for this series. When John showed up in my life, my focus was on him and his relationship to my grandad Dixon. So this letter will have to wait for another day or another inquiring mind to investigate.

In Episode 3, a big treasure trove was uncovered that may not seem like much at first. My uncle, Glen, tells me he believe my grandad died from radiation poison due to the atomic blasts he witness out at White Sands. My dad confirms this suspicion. This was huge and led me to the unexpected connection to John.

After talking to my uncle, I was left wondering – how did my grandad gain access to witness something like that? I did some basic research and found out that there were a host of witnesses to the blast. How my grandad knew about it and joined them is still a mystery.

My grandad would have been a young man at the time, possibly an actively enlisted soldier in the Navy. Was there a connection to someone in the Navy he had that allowed him to be there when it happened? Or did my grandad’s connection date back to someone my great-grandad knew? Someone like Mr. Taylor?

John would have been a kid, but an older kid. He would have had an awareness of what the bomb meant to our world and to the war at that time, so I figured he might know something about my grandad’s connection to the blast, especially since he knew my grandad around that time.

In fact, John knew a lot about Dixon’s connection to the blast. In Episode 4, you’ll hear more about John’s story and some of the connections that led him into our lives.

For now, I can only give you a hint – his brother, Hank, is the secret. As we uncover more of John’s story, the tragic story of Hank, my grandad Dixon, and John will unfold in unbelievable ways.

In Roswell, it isn’t what you know, but who you know. And back then, when things were tough, who you knew was the difference between life and death.