GOD & TEXAS: Texas Romance

Courtship in pioneer Texas was problematic. Young adults had little time for social activities because they worked long hours supporting their families. Before electricity was common, simple tasks required more time and greater physical energy to accomplish.

Boys usually cleared fields, dug wells, and fed the livestock. Unable to obtain adequate farm implements, boys would learn from their fathers how to make needed tools. Their toil started before sun-up and ended long after sundown.

Girls worked equal hours cooking, washing clothes, weaving, making candles, and watching their younger siblings. Since store-bought food was in limited supply and expensive, fresh peas were shelled, corn was shucked, and stringed beans snapped. Food came from the garden they tended, and canning was necessary for future meals.

There were fewer women than men on the Texas frontier, so girls were often married by age fifteen. Because frontier life was so hard and disease was rampant, many men lost their first wives and married again, creating an even larger family.

Fun was home-grown with card games and family sing-a-longs. There were church socials, barn-raising, and cabin-building events with pot-luck dishes that drew surrounding families into a social setting. This provided some opportunity to meet a future spouse. Some marriages were arranged by the parents, but it was not very popular among the youth.

The Big Bend town of Terlingua was not known as a party hot-spot. But there was a place that the young people found to dance and make friends. Micaela Hernandez Garcia moved with her family to Terlingua at age 11. At the age of 98, Micaela shared her experiences of growing up in what is now a ghost town. It was there that she met her future spouse, Miguel Garcia.

Micaela said that the young people met after work at the arrastra, or threshing circle, on top of a hill. This is where mules would walk in circles loosening the grain from the stalks. Micaela’s countenance brightened as she recalled, “Oh, we danced. I loved to dance. And my favorite song was the Blue Waltz.”

In the Bible, the place of threshing grain held a prominent position. Not only did farmers prepare and sell their grain there, but the threshing floor was used for mourning (Genesis 50:10) and treaty-making of adversarial kings (2 Chronicles 18:9). Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22). Mount Moriah became the threshing floor of Araunah that David purchased (2 Samuel 24:18), and where Solomon built the Temple (2 Chronicles 3:1). It is believed that this is also the site of today’s Western Wall or “Wailing Wall” on Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

And Biblical couples found love at the threshing place, too. Like Micaela met Miguel at the arrastra in Terlingua, Ruth met Boaz in the place of threshing (Ruth 3:6), and their union led to the eventual birth of Christ, our Messiah (Matthew 1:5). Indeed, “Love will find a way!”

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