By Jerry Nine
There are a lot of interesting things in life and if you live long enough you often get to experience a variety.
There is definitely a role of parents and them being the boss over their kids. But in certain instances, if the parents live long enough or if their health deteriorates those roles often reverse.
One rancher and an extremely nice man ran a lot of cattle. And in the course of the day on the ranch a six pick was often needed to quench his thirst. And some days he was even more thirsty than that. And as the years rolled by Alzheimer’s disease or whatever the case was changed his memory or didn’t allow him to remember certain things.
So his grandson, a young adult, was assigned to take care of grandpa on the ranch. Well, as his memory had faded it appeared he didn’t remember to buy that six- or 12-pack of beer. One day it was necessary for the grandson to have Grandpa out all afternoon. And after Grandpa asked him the same question of “Where are we going?” over 100 times the grandson said, “Grandpa, do you want a beer?” Grandpa said, “I sure do.” Grandpa had two beers and it mellowed hm out and he quit asking the same question.
A few days later the grandson told his mom, who was also grandpa’s daughter, how he fixed the situation. And, of course, his mom said, “Don’t be giving Dad beer!” The grandson said, “Mom, you go hang with Grandpa all afternoon and you and Grandpa will both be drinking beer.”
Last week we sorted a load of steers and heifers and it said on the bill in to be sure and preg check the heifers before the sale as they would definitely make a good set of replacement heifers. And he was right because after sorting them no matter who buys them they are going to have to replace their corrals. We had to let one out at a time and slam the gate before the next replacement heifer went with her.
I was at a motel this past weekend and let me admit I cannot be good all the time. An older man was a little crippled and his wife was following him and they were trying to go down a few stairs with his luggage so I said, “Let me carry your luggage for you.” He said OK.
It had a green sweater on top of the luggage. I said, “I’ll just put it here by the coffee pot and after you eat breakfast you can get it.” His wife, said, “No, I’ll take it to our table.” I said, “No one’s going to steal that ugly ole sweater.” She said, “I beg your pardon that is my sweater.”
I said, “Oh, I thought it was his.” She said, “No, you didn’t.”
So in a few minutes I went to their table and said, “That is the prettiest sweater I have ever seen.”
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
