The last time I competed in the Women’s Ranch Rodeo Association was 2012. I know this because the Coor’s Cowboy Club gave all the teams who made it to the finals a handmade piece of jewelry. It was earrings in this case and they have […]
Ever Damn Thing
Not sure how long ago I wrote this. Ran across it looking at some of my old newspaper columns today. The world outside keeps on rocking with no regard to temperature, precipitation, dust or injuries to people or animals. We cannot stop, no matter what […]
It’s All Poetry to Me
Charley Chambers recited verses, played guitar, sang old songs, dragged calves, kept cows alive and was a darn good dancer. Good cowboy stuff that is all poetry to me.I met him because his granddaughter Cattle Kate Huddleston and I played on ranch rodeo teams together […]
What’s In a Name
My cousin Bully’s name is Kevin, but few people call him that. His wife does. His mother sometimes does. The rest of us call him Bully.Bully is my double cousin. Mother’s sister is married to Daddy’s brother and having the same grandparents, it always seemed […]
My Brother and Me
We have ridden a million miles. We have danced half a million miles. We have penned hundreds of thousands of cattle. We have been to thousands of rodeos. I have headed, slapped out and ridden the chute gate with hundreds of bucking horses he rode. […]
The family matriarch
There are two main definitions for the noun matriarch: a woman who is the head of a family or tribe and an older woman who is powerful within a family or organization. If you ever met Gearl Dene Cunningham, and especially if you knew her, […]
A traffic stop in Adair
I like law enforcement. I spent 20 years covering crime, riding with police and firefighters, sitting in trial, covering stories. If you know me, especially if you are in law enforcement, you know this. For the rest of you, I want to start by saying […]
Christmas When We Were Kids
My brother and I had a great childhood; so great in fact that I had no idea I was poor until I went to college. Christmas was particularly wonderful. Our family is very close as my mother’s sister married my daddy’s brother. Two siblings married […]
Families
There are many close families that are no blood kin to each other. I have a salebarn family. For 21 years I rode pens at the South Coffeyville salebarn. Some of those people have generations who worked on that yard. The Lowrey family is one […]
A friend bigger than life
Some friends are iconic; so capable it seems they could never die. But they do. Many in the rodeo and ranch world are feeling that today. Rex Bugbee is dead, but if a cowboy had to go out, it was the best possible way. He […]