Just stories ?

[Boaz]

Back at the ranch .

Howard told me to ride a horse down to the Brown field and start running a one way disc to terrace some low spots and then try on the tandem disc and start discing the wheat stubble . It was about a 90 acre field . It was alongside the Little Wichita River kind of down in the bottom . Reason it was called the Brown field was that a family names Brown had lived there back in the 1800's . The old stone foundation of the house was still there and 3 weathered sandstone headstones out behind it . The chiseled names long gone eroded by time . I often wondered who they were and why they had come to live and die there .

The field was about 4 miles through pasture , there was an old trace going there but it was good enough to get a pickup through . You might think it was cool to get to ride horseback down there but the truth was I was just a grunt and not given a truck . I went to the horse lot and saddled one of the better working horses . Was about to leave and Howard drove up got out of his truck and told me to get one of the sorry back up horses , no need to take a good horse , they might need him . Then he left .
I was mad , couldn't get a truck to drive and now told to pick a sorry horse instead of a better one . Dang ! I wasn't getting cut any slack at all in my adolescent way of thinking . I picked up my water jug and just started walkin to the field ...MAD ! Real MAD !

To be continued.....

[Boaz]

Finally got to the field . I had driven the 930 Case Western Special (nicest tractor I had used up till then) down there a few days before and a hand pulled the diesel tank trailer. We got it all set up , all I had to do was plow . Busted the Case off and didn't get off all day but 3 or 4 times to get a drink out of my jug in the shade , didn't take a lunch .

Plowed till near dark ..I was still mad ..thinkin about quittin . But then they might think I couldn't handle the work . Pride !! Didn't know what to do . It was gonna be way dark time I walked to the house , was boarding with some folks down from the ranch . Long walk in the dark .

Hadn't got but about a mile down the trace , sun going down and saw Howard's grey Ford truck commin up the trace towards me . He passed me and turned around , pulled up beside me walkin and said ; Get in I'll take you home . I just kept walking and said ; I'll walk . I wouldn't look at him. He drove long side me a min and said ; I think your right....it's a nice evening for a walk .

He pushed the pedal and left me with a long walk I asked for . I got to the house late , they had already ate , went to bed thinkin and hungry .Got up early , walked to the ranch . Didn't know if I still had a job , I was ashamed of acting like a child . Started haying and feeding before anyone showed up . Howard showed up and I figured he would pay me off . Wasn't looking forward to getting let go .

He pulled up and asked out the side window ; How much you like discin ? I said maybe 4 hours . He said ; Saddle a horse and go on and finish .

Howard was a better man than me .

[Boaz]

Last Saturday an old friend came in the shop . His name Is Jonny , I have known him for bout 42 years . We rough necked together in the 70's . We talked for about an hour an a half , telling old stories and talking of all the crazy people we worked with . We both knew a hand named Harold Dean . Harold wasn't plumb right .

Harold was out of work so he gathered up all the old lumber and plywood he could find and built a giant ramp over his dad's house just out of town . It was bout 30 feet high at the end . This thing was wobbling around in a light breeze . He put out the word he was going to jump his 250 Bull Taco motorcycle off it and give a time . I heard about it but was working .

He did indeed do as he said at the appointed time . Got a good run at it hard as he could go and jumped it over the house ........into thin air .

Harold was in the hospital bout 3 months but he had his dad spread the word when he got out he was going to jump his horse off the ramp . A light wind blew the ramp down before he got it done .

LOL , we worked with quite a few folks like Harold back then .

[Boaz]

I all fairness to these folks Jonny did bring up the tendency I had to catch and torment folks with rattlesnakes . Like the time we were working for Petoskey Drilling and I threw a 6 foot coon tail rattler in the dog house while everyone was drinking coffee . Just good clean fun !

[Boaz]

Broke coon hunting mules for several coon hunters in my senior high school year . They were the going thing back then . Mules can go where a horse can't . Had to teach em to jump barbed wire fences to follow the dogs . You carried a towel with you , lay it over the top wire and tell em ...UP ! UP! and they jumped . You have to start em out with a blinder bridle like this one has on . I'm on him bareback , just started breaking him . Hunters paid about $150.00 to get one broke back then...big bucks .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7DYsjW1OXQ

[Boaz]

My dad and all his brothers and sisters . All gone home . I was at every funeral .

Dad
Uncle Howard
Uncle Bentley
Uncle Carl
Uncle Elmer
Uncle Lem
Uncle Till
Aunt Pet
Aunt Willie
Aunt Babe
Aunt Beulah



All gone now but I still have all the good memories of them no one can take away . GOD is merciful . I do miss them but will see them again . ( LOL , I don't think they knew my name , I was just Claud's boy)

.................................................. .................Just memories .

[rancher1913]

Was that you in the video

[Boaz]

No that's not me Rancher ! I just put it up to show someone teaching a mule to jump . Picture was me .

[Boaz]

.................................................. ......................Bud .

Howard had done the rodeo circuit long before he got a family and stopped rodeoing . He was a roper . Still had his old roping horse..Bud . Bud was retired and stayed in the lot we kept cattle in to start feeding them to go to a feed lot . Bud was old and cantankerous , Howard warned me to wrap a haywire around the gate to the feedlot after I got done feeding the cattle there . He said Bud could open any gate .

I hayed and grained the ones in the lot (Bud always stood a ways off and watched me with his ears back) , I was in a hurry . We all went to work some cows and got back in the afternoon . I was riding in the truck with Howard and when we got the the place there was cows and horses all over the place , just runnin loose . Howard had a fit , we unloaded the horses out of our trailers (already saddled) and started gathering up the stock .
I forgot to try the gate with haywire , Bud got out , opened every gate on the place , turned all the water hydrants on and created a mess . They all knew it was bud because he had done it before . He was standing in the shade in the shop , had backed up and took a big dump on the welding machine looking happy .

[Thundarstick]

I can sure relate to most of the things your telling, till it comes to the equine. My Grandpa HATED horses and mules and wouldn't allow one on the farm. He said all they where good for was to kick you in head or bite a chunk of of your back. He did say they made good dog food as well! Any thing I learned of horses, I learned after leaving home, and must say I'm on Grandpas side! We had a fella North of town that raised horses for years, one evening he didn't come in for super and his wife found him in the barn with half his brains kicked out!

[Boaz]

Tundarstick your Grandpa was pretty spot on , if you are working with horses you going to get kicked , bit and stepped on sooner or later . I got all three many times . It's just part of it . You have to watch what your doing all the time . Big livestock can do some real damage . Seen some people get hurt real bad .

Were working some pairs in a pen in Southern Archer County in the middle of no where . A dang good hand was cutting calves and his horse slipped . The hand tried to kick out and bail off on the way down but didn't make it . Horse fell on him and rolled over him kicking . When the horse rolled the saddle horn crushed his face in plus he had multiple broken bones . We loaded and took him to Archer City bout 10 miles . Ambulance had to come 30 miles from Wichita Falls . We were all scared to death he was going to die .

He lived but was crippled the rest of his life . It was a dang shame , experience hand ...couldn't find better . A good man , a lay preacher , good family . Yea although it was an accident but it happened .

[Boaz]

I'm bout through ...bear with me .

[MT Gianni]

I can sure relate to most of the things your telling, till it comes to the equine. My Grandpa HATED horses and mules and wouldn't allow one on the farm. He said all they where good for was to kick you in head or bite a chunk of of your back. He did say they made good dog food as well! Any thing I learned of horses, I learned after leaving home, and must say I'm on Grandpas side! We had a fella North of town that raised horses for years, one evening he didn't come in for super and his wife found him in the barn with half his brains kicked out!

My uncles were of the same opinion on horses, "They got there head down all the time" [ always feeding]. My Grandfather died when I was 5. He was born in 1866 and never drove a car. He farmed and worked horses all his life, ran kids to school on a sled in the winter with blankets and warm bricks and a wagon in the fall and spring.
He had a dent in his forehead from being kicked by a horse when he was 14. He asked the Doc why the hadn't put a plate in it and was told "kid we didn't expect you to live through the night". He had a daughter that drove him later in life but she bought a car in 1925 and he always thought he was too old to learn.
When I married my wife was curious as to why my family did things so odd to what hers did. I pointed out that my parents were within 3 years of the age of her grandparents, but it took her a bit to catch on to what that really meant.

[Boaz]

Bout Eight of us had been working , gathering , splitting , dehorning and loading ones to give 'medical' treatment at the place . Lot of squeeze chute stuff . Drove to Archer City (Little town , remember ..The last picture show ? Larry Mc Muretry ?) We went in the Wildcatter Café , Howard was buying lunch and was to meet with two other ranchers . They were going to figure a plan to put some cows on wheat pasture in the near future .

We unloaded the saddled horses and watered em behind the café and put em back in the trailer , loosening their girts . Loaded em back up and went in to eat . Most ordered a hamburger and fries , you didn't take advantage of someone buying you a meal back then . You appreciated it . Plus the Wildcatter made a dang good big burger .

I was sittin at the table , the three ranchers met , they did a lot of talkin . One was Howard , one was Pete Parish ( I hunted lots of quail and dove on Pete's place ) and one I will not name . They were all old friends , they trusted one another ...this was a handshake deal .

Howard and Pete were figuring calves , weight , pasture , times , prices ...... The old rancher unnamed was known to be illiterate and could not read or write . Howard and Pete were scribbling figures on paper napkins with a pencil and pushing them over to the old rancher , trying to explain and be honest and open . The old rancher would stare at the napkins and slowly push em back . He never said a word , just listening .

Howard and Pete kept this up a good while , not knowing how much he understood , trying to be up front and honest . Wanting no problems if it didn't come up to their expectations in the end . The old man just kept pushing those napkins back saying nothing . Being of short temper he looked more mad all this time

Finally he said as he pushed a napkin back ....I GOT THE MONEY ...YOU FIGURE THE DEAL ! And they did .

..........................................Differen t times , different kind of folks .

.................................................. ............Just memories .

[Boaz]

I was blessed Boat Brooks knowing so many old hands . Howard , Dick Brumly , Joe Bachman , Jeff Mc Murtey , Pete Parish . Floyd Rucker , Freckles Brown , Jim Huston , Jim shoulders ............The list goes on . I was a nobody but they left a mark on me .

[Boaz]

Freckes , great guy , helped young guys . Near 50 years old made history back then riding the best bull there was .Good enough to have a song made to order for him , at 46 years old he rode the meanest bull of his time . Great guy ! He pulled my rope several times .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBtxc_aPzaQ

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I wonder if you'll believe his tale. It is true, about a horse I had when I was a kid, and his name was Charlie. He was 21 years old, blind in his left eye, and as ornery as they come. His favorite trick, and he was very good at it, was to let you get him all saddled up and then, when you had your left foot in the stirrup the very instant that your right foot cleared the ground by about 6 inches he'd take off like a shot and leave you sitting in the dirt. Then, on foot, it would take several hours to catch him. He'd wait until you were maybe 3 ft. away from grabbing his reigns and off he'd go again. It was a game with him, but there was something basically evil about that horse.

[Boaz]

LOL ! Yea ...I was a RCA cowboy (Rodeo Cowboy Association) . I lied about my age , all you had to do was send your app and $25.00 to the RCA to be accepted . But it was a heck of a lot of fun though I didn't amount to squat to riding bare backs and bulls , never had a chance but it was a heck of a lot of fun.

[Boaz]

.................................................. .Memories just memories .

[Boaz]

This thread draws to a close . I have too many memories to post as all do if they recollect . My GOD has been merciful to me , I ought be dead by common sense reasoning . I'll not bore you much longer .