Any time you have a bunch of ole cowboys around you almost always hear stories of the past. And it is always more fun to tell a story about some other cowboy doing something dumb rather than tell how stupid you were.
But this time it was simply a story about an older cowboy who was extremely conservative or maybe I should be truthful and say down right tight or a penny pincher. This probably took place somewhere around 1960 and hopefully not 1970 or later. This one cowboy was the best of a neighbor you could have and also one of the best cowboys in the country.
He loved to rope and could catch one in the pasture in nothing flat. So after a long day of moving cattle and branding calves he was loading his sweaty horse in the trailer when the penny pinching cowboy walked up to him and said, “How much do I owe you?” “Oh,” he said, “Just pay me for what it was worth.” So the owner of the ranch walked over to his pickup and got out a check and wrote it out for $10. I have thought about this for a little bit and I am reminded please let me never tell someone to pay me what I am worth.
Maybe I said this the other day but I am told there are a couple of ladies that do not like my jokes that I sometimes tell on a woman. Then they went on to say they would like to run me through the chute. I sure hope they were thinking vaccinations.
Almost always if you turned out worth a darn there was someone in your life who made a difference. It may have been a mother or grandmother praying for you or a dad bopping you upside the head. But more often than not it helped.
The lady who watched my kids for all those years sent me a message that said, “I turned my back for a second and old age crept up on me faster than a pair of old underwear.”
Yesterday it was so hot that I opened all the windows and took off all my clothes. I felt so much better that way but one lady on the bus got very mad.
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.
