This post will be endless. I'll be updating...
Daddy was born in 1914, the second oldest of 6 kids. My Uncle Raymond was first, in 1912. Then Uncle Dub, Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Jiggs & Aunt Allene. Their dad died in 1924, in a fire. My grand parents lived on a share farm & my Granny didn't work or drive. They moved in with one of my granddads uncle but all of the boys had to leave school early to support their family.
My Uncle Raymond was the oldest son, caring for a widowed mother & did not go to WWII. All 3 of the others did. Uncle never married & cared for his mom til she passed away. He was 74 when she died. He was always a lovable old grump but he never got to have his own life so I get it. To be fair, all the siblings contributed to Granny's care.
My dad would tell you he was a farmer from 1931-1932. He was a cow man. He started cowboying at 17, working for several ranches. He did that solely til he got drafted in 1942. He said those days were the best of his life. Sleeping under the stars, eating off a chuck wagon.living what he thought was the good life.
When he came home from WWII he met & married my mom. 2 years later they had 2 little girls, my sisters Cathy & Jo. (I came along in 1957) And they all lived on various ranches til 1960 when we all moved to Arizona & my dad went to work in an open pit copper mine with my Uncle Dub. He worked on a ranch on the weekends & in 1970, went to work for ranch solely.
In 1971, we moved home to Texas where he worked for ranches,the last one for 25 years til his retirement at age 82.
After retirement one of the things he did was care for calves who were sick or having pregnancy issues. The large animal vet would refer people to him because he knew everything.
He moved up to Lubbock with me at age 93 & passed away in 2009 at age 95.
I miss him greatly.
But that wasn't all of him.
He always had a job & that allowed my mom to stay home with us. She wasn't forced. She wanted to do it. She did drive school van for awhile & later worked in a sewing factory & a charity office. I'll write about her later.
Daddy's job cowboying usually came with a house & beef & pork & chickens & a garden. We weren't ever rich but we were also never poor. There were always people with less than us. They managed to send us all to college, at least for a little while. 😅
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I haven't mentioned that they raised my sister's Jo after she passed away in 1970.
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Daddy killed all the snakes. One time we were at a town festival & my friend & I were walking through an alley & there was a man laying in a doorway. I didn't look for a cop...I found my daddy. (The guy was just passed out drunk).
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The deal is, he was a man. He'd been a soldier. He adored his wife. He loved his little girls & his grandson. He loved his grandchildren. And he was a cowboy.
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If we had a stopped up drain he'd try the normal stuff but then tell us to call a plumber if it didn't work. He was not a car mechanic. He was a "cow puncher" according to his army induction papers though I never personally saw him punch a cow.
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When he retired from his last job his boss got him an expensive black felt Stetson hat. When it was time to bury him, I was going to send it with him but my niece wanted it so I sent him to Heaven without a hat. He didn't go to the mailbox without a hat.
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I 100% got my sense of humor & a genial attitude from him. He found joy & humor in everything.
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I think about everything he saw in is 95 years. I remember showing him pictures my niece sent of her children. He asked "How did they get in there?" and I had to admit I don't know.
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For the 58 years my parents were married before we lost mom, he brought home his paycheck every week & gave it to her. He got $20 & 1 check & if he couldn't account for the check, he couldn't have another. Well, more if he came to Lubbock but he brought home receipts on paper, paper bags & napkins. He never paid a bill as long as she was here. I paid them later. For the record, my mom could have balanced the federal budget in 2 weeks flat.
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He lived in our small town & his brother Raymond & sister Dorothy lived in same town. They'd get into spats but he saw them every day.
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He was a social butterfly & that's something I did not necessarily inherit from him. His day was coffee at the co-op gin in the morning, then coffee at the bank, then home for a nap & then coffee with the boys at the Dairy Queen about 2. He had a full day!
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My friend Deb called him "cute" & he rode that wave for the last years of his life.
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A couple of months ago I went to Spur to take flowers down to graves. I stopped to visit with a dear friend of my dad's. Eric gave the eulogy at Daddy's funeral. He is a lawyer & a very good storyteller.
He was talking about daddy's blue heeler dog, Pup. Eric's father-in-law was JB, my dad's boss for the last 25 years he worked. Eric told a story when Daddy, JB & Eric were trying to get 3 bulls into a trailer. The first 2 just went right in. The trailer had a divider & that divider was closed. The last bull was fighting til the end. Eric said they were all really hot & they were ready to give up for awhile. Daddy said they needed to let Pup get him in. Daddy told him to get the bull into the trailer. Pup got in front of the bull & bit him on the nose & ran into the trailer & the ticked off bull followed him in & Pup slid under the divider & Daddy closed the back gate. Daddy & Pup were a great team. He loved that dog.
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Another dog story. My nephew had Pomeranians & he had a litter of puppies & one was a big time runt & only one eye. Steve brought her to mom. Mom named her Sissy but Daddy called her Pup. Not a lot of dog name imagination. 😀 My dad never was one for a dog in the house--all of the others slept in boxed in porch or sometimes in the backyard in their doghouse. But Daddy loved that dog too. I went in one day & the 2 of them were asleep in the chair. The foot part was up & Pup was laying beside him. Daddy heard me come in & he put the foot down & pushed Pup out of the chair. Pup barked & barked at him. Daddy said "I don't know what she's so upset about"....I asked him how he'd feel if he was sound asleep & someone pushed him out of a chair. He allowed that he might be upset too.
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One Sunday morning, Daddy went with neighbor to look at show pigs for his girls. While he was gone, I made a cake & left it on the counter & went to take a shower. When I got back into the kitchen, I looked at my cake & told Daddy that I think we had a rat! He asked what I was talking about. I told I'm something had eaten a corner off my cake! He told me it was a rat...he'd seen it!!
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Did I mention I miss him?
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