THE OLD COWBOY Part Forty Eight
(continued)


"Grandpa, mom said not to say too long. She was doin' some cannin', we been pickin' a bunch of tomatoes."

"You pay attention, your mom lern't from your Grandma. She wanted me to learn about cannin', but all I ever did was get in the way. I even had a hard time gettin' the gars there in one piece, as I remember.

Naw, I was dern good at cowboyin', and not worth much around the house. I could cook what ever out on the trail over a camp fire. I could boil a little water and make up some coffee. Yea, and we all carried a good dab of jerky on us all the time. I couldn't cook up any well rounded meal, even if it ain't fancy.

Milkin' them cows, I could do that. Diggin' up them 'tators, I could do that. Pickin' corn and 'mators, and blackberries and such, yea I could do all that, but cannin', no way. I'm a long ways from understandin' how all that works, but I sure like the eats on them really cold days in the middle of winter. Your Grandma had a real good way with strawberries. A fresh cooked loaf of bread, some hand churned butter, and your Grandma's strawberry jams and jellies, yea man I could do that."

Grandpa had some grin on his face. I could tell he'd gone back a bunch of years when my mom was a little girl. So I went over and climbed on Ol' Tanner number two and started circling around the driveway. The sun had come out and felt real good like a warm blanket on a cold spring morning. I raced around a little more and Grandpa motioned me to join him.

"Grandboy, I know you need to get back to help with the cannin' and all, but I wanted to tell you about one winter's day, morning really, up in southern Wyoming right near the Colorado border. Wern't doin' much cowboyin' or anything else that winter and things was gettin' lean. We'd got down to just a little bread makin's and all them canned goods your mom and Grandma had stored up. Wind blowin' made the out house hard to get to and from, but that fresh bread with strawberry jam and scrambled eggs made me think of spring.

When spring did come..."

To Be Continued. . .