The blog
Thirty minutes late, but my last student arrived yesterday. He’s a recent immigrant to the U. S., and I’m pretty sure he has trouble finding a ride each morning. Another student, a young lady, came 15 minutes late. “Forgot to set my alarm,” she told me. But she got up. She came. And that encourages…
We’re calling it City Slickers III. You remember the 1991 movie with Billy Crystal where he and two of his pals went on a New Mexico cattle drive. Well, we’re not trailing cattle so there won’t be any stampedes, nor any drunk cowboys shooting wildly into the air (I can’t guarantee that one), but this…
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“Mike Bellah on his horse King won this week’s Barrel Racing in 19 seconds.” The words came from a summer camp newspaper in 1968. My friend Martha discovered a copy of the Hidden Falls Ranch Yucca Times and sent it to me last night. Zan’s King McCue was the 3rd horse I owned and my…
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Spent 45 minutes today people watching. Was on Santa Fe’s Guadalupe Street at one of Charlotte’s favorite second-hand stores, so, while she was inside looking for bargains, I sat on a bench outside looking for, well, not really “for,” but “at” people. Below are my notes: Women dress to shop; men don’t. And, while the…
Everyone should be a grandparent before becoming a parent. Took my oldest granddaughter to dinner last night—just the two of us—and learned a lot. Like what she wants to be when she grows up: A middle school art teacher. “Because I like kids and art,” she told me. Also talked about 7th grade social groups,…
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Never buy a trick mule over the phone. Was finishing a conversation with a horse buyer—I needed a couple of saddle horses for summer camp—when the buyer asked if I wanted a mule. “And why would I need a mule?” I asked. “Well, he can do tricks,” was the answer. “And the price is right.”…
Charlotte and I once owned the largest donkey herd in the Texas Panhandle. Yep, donkey. That ancient beast of burden known for pulling carts in the Middle East or packing supplies for mining prospectors in the Old West. We bought them (16, once the pregnant jennies gave birth) in 1979 to haul children in and…
Christmas morning and I have a sore throat. Yuk. I hate to be sick on holidays. And as long as I’m whining— Went to fix a flat yesterday and came home with two new tires. On Christmas Eve, when one has all that spare cash lying around. Not! Then, Charlotte noticed a leak on the…
Old Bibles are like old friends. Irreplaceable. Lost mine about a year ago. Not lost it, exactly; I retired it. Was about time. Both front and back covers were gone. Inside pages were coming apart. Some were hopelessly crinkled. “Embarrassing,” said Charlotte, spoken as she rolled her eyes when a page or two drifted to…
As I write these words, I have two photos before me. In the first (left), I was 41; in the second, 61. The first I used 20 years ago when I wrote my first book and first columns. The second I used for my recent novelette and for these blogs. Despite the smile, the man…
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Almost ran over a rattlesnake yesterday on my bicycle, and it made me think of favorite rattlesnake stories. Maybe the best came in the Spring of 2005. Clark, Chris and I were on a biking trip along the Caprock Canyon Trailway near Quitaque when we stopped at an Allsup’s. A clerk named Jackie told the…
September 1960. Cassius Clay won a gold medal at the Rome Olympics, Mickey Mantle hit what was thought to be the longest home run ever (643 feet), and Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy held the first televised presidential debate in history. But for me and my 12-year-old classmates, something more life-changing was afoot. For…