Page 55 Mr. Sims drove down the street and turned right. “That’s the big house,” he said, nodding to a building nearby. It stretched from one corner of the street almost all the way to the next corner.
“This mansion is bigger. Who lives there?” I asked.
Caroline laughed. “Prisoners. That’s the state prison.”
“It must hold a lot of people.”
“Yep. That’s why it’s called the big house.”
ANNOTATION: The Wyoming state penitentiary is located in Rawlins, Wyoming. As a girl, we often sat on the penitentiary grounds in the summer where the penitentiary band entertained the townspeople. I guess the prisoners had lots of time on their hands to practice their instruments. When I was in college, my parents moved to a house about two blocks from the pen. I never saw the inside of the old prison until it was turned into a museum after the new penitentiary was built.
Mary Louise Sanchez 