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THE OLD COWBOY Part Forty Four
(continued)

Boy Grandpa was some cowboy. "Grandpa, me an' ol' 'Tanner' number two have got to get on home!"

With each new story I hear I think about the cowboys of the old west, the hard life they lived. They didn't have automobiles or airplanes, or even motorcycles. I mean, they walked or rode a horse, and thank God for horses.

We still have lots of cowboys out there moving cows around, it's just around somebody's ranch. They take almost all the cattle to market by the truck load and slaughter houses are only a few miles down that highway.

On the way home, while I stopped at the stop sign, five big trucks loaded with cows went by. I tried to count how many head were in each one, of course I couldn't keep up. I think there was about ten cows each, so about fifty head. Headed to somewhere, maybe another ranch, maybe to be used for meat to feed our troops overseas.

As the days wear on I wish my cousin Gary was around to chat with Grandpa too. Grandpa used to take him fishing and hunting a few years back. They took me along when they thought it would be sunny all day. Sometimes we fished from the river bank, but mostly we used Uncle Ralph's small wooden boat.

Uncle Ralph had a blacksmith shop and started making these small trailers for boats using the rear axles from wrecked cars. Ever since the government that dam down in Oklahoma, everybody wants to put their boats in the water and see how many fish they can bring home. Uncle Ralph's place had become more of a trailer shop before the war.

"You know mom I was thinking about cousin Gary just now on the way home."

"You are not..."

To Be Continued. . .