This is a picture of my dad when he was about 55. In case you didn’t notice, he was a real live, born a hundred years too late, New Mexico cowboy. He is gone now, but the simple lessons I learned are still with me.

The man loved untamed adventure and “ever little thang” was an adventure. He had his own lingo complete with names for everyone and every thing. 

He didn’t make much over the ‘dollar a day–beans and hay’ (typical cowboy wages), but he had a free way of really living and drinking deeply in simple things that made him appear rich. I love that.

As with most real cowboys, he was a philosopher. Maybe it was all the time spent sitting on a horse or waiting for a cow to calve that brought on his unique perspective. Regardless of what brought it on, it was deeply embedded in him and his bits of cowboy logic remain with me today.

Here are a few.

Drink when you’re thirsty, eat when your hungry and sleep when your tired.

All a person really needs in life is a good dog and a fairly decent horse.

If he saw someone really tall with little for a butt he would say, “Looks like that ol boy traded legs with a Killdeer and got cheated out of his ass.”

If someone said something brilliant he would say, “You slobbered a bit full.”

I got my heart broke when I was young and he was doing his best to comfort me and said, “B” (he always called me B) “B, true love is a funny thing. I mean a funny thing. When you love someone, you just love ‘em, and there’s no backing down from that. That is just the way it is. You’ll get over him, but it’s gonna take a ‘wall.”

If you put your head down and work harder that everyone else, you’ll always have a job.

If someone ever asks if you can do something the answer is YES.

Always tell the truth. That way you won’t have to look over your shoulder the rest of your life like some kind of coyote.

“Yer gettin’ a little too big fer yer britches. ..Better not let your alligator lips out run your canary ass.”

The first time he met Ben he said, “Hell, his ears ain’t no bigger than a quarter…”

When he held a sleeping W, his first grandson, for the first time he said. “Hummm, nothing can look more comfy than a cat or a baby that’s a sleeping.”

When ever he would lose a calf or a friend he would say, “There’s only one thing to do. I ain’t gonna put my head under my wing like a chicken. I’m gonna get off my horse, under that tree over there…Thank the Good Lord for thier life, and this day and get back on my pony and ride off.”

He was always ‘slobbering these bit fulls.’ I miss that. I’m thankful for these little pieces of him are still with me, today.

Celebrate the good things in your Dad.

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Sis