Back when I was in High School, about 1970, my dad was a young and vibrant man of about 46 years. Strong as an ox. We were at the old ranch in Tumacacori, Az. down close to the border. We usually tried to keep between 4 and 500 head of mama cows all the time. And these are some of the stories of my youth and memories. Like the one about me and this guy named John and Tim Clark riding this race horse that my dad had bought somewhere. She was a Quarter Horse that had been put in a raffle somewhere. Probably at the track in Tucson. And this black lady had won her. She didnt know anything about horses. And had put some kind of rope around her neck, to tie her up with for quite awhile. The rope had dug a hole into her windpipe and when we got her, we tried to race her a few times, but she couldnt keep her breath. And she was crazy as a loon! John had parked his convertible Mustang in the road that was between a couple of our pastures. When I jumped up on her, she busts loose in a dead run, straight for his car. I tried pulling her into a circle. But to no avail. We come up on this Mustang at a high rate of speed. And up and over we go.Never touched a toe. Thank goodness she ran out of air pretty soon. She never made it as a cow pony. So we sold her somewhere. I guess it was to some of the Mexican guys that used to run a lot of match races out on the reservation. Then, my dad had bought about 100 head of Charolaise cows from Tex Earnharts dad. These cows were about smooth mouthed and weighed about 1500 lbs apiece and had calves on them and bred back. Big old mamas! Everyone of them, flatfooted could see over our 66 corrals. And wild and mean as a snake. Well me and dad and Ronny Roberson and his son Richard Hensley, were out there preg checking them. Richard was down in the alley when we turned on loose out of the chute. She was headed off to eat him for lunch, when dad jumped the fence into the lane to push Richard out of the way, right in front of the gate. She lowers her head, slams the old man and gets her dang fooled head stuck in the boards of the gate. With dad underneath of her. She is proceedin to kick and paw the holy crap out of him for about 30 seconds till her head pops out. She doesnt take but a half step back and clears that gate without touching it. Amazing stuff animals can get into and do. My dad looked like he had gone ten rounds with Mohamed Ali. He was bruised from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. And didnt much have a stitch of clothes left on him. It even knocked his boots off. We went to the sale one day to trade some cattle. And ended up coming home with a semi load, 100 head of two year old Brangus heifers, that came off a truck that had turned over, coming out of Louisiana. Nice heifers! Cheap heifers! Real cheap! Wild as a rabbit when they had left the swamps of Louisiana. And three times as wild after going on Mr. Toads Wild Ride at Disneyland in a cowtruck. I also have always had a real hankerin for bacon. So I bought 8 baby pigs. We ended up in the pig business quite by accident. All on account of me liking bacon. But as for the heifers. We kept them in our corrals for two months I guess. Feeding them and trying to get them calmed down enough that we could at least ride a horse into them or within ten miles of them to gather them back up. But dad had had enough. He wanted em off feed and on grass. So were all mounted up and letting them find their own way out of the pens. But when they saw us, their tails curled up in a knot like little pigs, high in the air. And they jumped straight up in the air and took off for parts unknown. Jumpin barbwire fences for miles. Getting themselves and their hind and front legs tied up in the barbwire. We were undoing them all day and night from the wire. And hunting them on our place and all the neighbors places for 6 months. We ended up having to trap and rope most all of them. But that was the last of the Brangus for us. As we got them penned we hauled them to the sale. And then was the only time I ever saw my dad mad at me. I mean really mad! Him and mom were having a guy from Nogales remodel the kitchen at the ranch. And one weekend he brought his daughter out. I had never been on a date yet. And she was cute. And I wanted to impress her. So I was gonna take her to the horse pasture and catch some horses and go ride. I load everything in dads Jeep and we head off. I forgot something, so we had to turn around on the dirt road. She was begging me to let her drive. And I gave in. When we got to the gate hole in the fence to turn left. She hit the gas instead of the brakes. And we dead centered an old oak tree that was three feet wide on all sides. When my dad got back awhile later, he saw the Jeep still setting in front of the tree. And wanted to know why. I showed him. He turned around and walked into the house. He never said one word to me for two weeks. It was breaking my heart. As I worshiped my dad. From then on, I tried really, really hard to never let him down again. But I did, quite a few times. The reason I write this is mostly for my kids. My kids loved and adored their grandpa very much. But didnt know him till much later in life, when age had started taking a small hold on him. I want them to know the stories that I know about him. And the kind of man he was. This is a small part of your family history, Buster, Buck, and Lana. Be proud of it. He loved you all so much.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 08:02:33 +0000
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