Life at Fort Craig during its heyday, between 1854 and 1884, was isolated and rustic for soldiers and civilians alike, shaped by loneliness, tension, tedium, and strict social stratification that kept officers and their families apart from enlisted men and hired civilian workers. For the civilian wives of officers, life at an isolated frontier fort was difficult because they were far from family, friends, and familiar surroundings, and unlike their husbands they did not receive free rations, clothing, medical care, or reassignment transportation. With servants providing most household services, these women spent their time visiting other officers' wives, reading, writing letters, sewing, entertaining military and other visitors, teaching at the post school, riding horseback, fishing, hunting, or studying desert plants and animals. Most soldiers' children attended school when an officer's wife or the chaplain could teach, and otherwise passed their days reading, riding horseback, swimming, fishing, hunting, playing games such as "Soldiers and Indians," and sharing in the fort's daily routine and special events. The children of laundresses, servants, the sutler, and other civilian workers instead labored at gathering firewood, helping with laundry, caring for animals, and doing other household chores. Because of its isolation, Fort Craig had to function almost like a self-sufficient small town, with most labor usually falling to enlisted men, though civilian workers were hired from outside when needed, sometimes living at the fort but more often traveling from San Marcial, Paraje, or other nearby villages. Laundresses were vital at frontier forts, and the wives of enlisted men sometimes took in laundry to earn extra money. Teamsters, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, and wagonmasters cared for livestock and hauled supplies; stonemasons, painters, and carpenters handled maintenance; and cooks, butchers, or bakers might be brought in for kitchen work. The civilian sutler played an important role by selling clothing, food, hardware, and other goods, sometimes serving as postmaster as well, and his store became a gathering place for gossip, illicit gambling, pool, bowling, and drinking.