Sheridan County Fair, August 20, 2011

[Soapweed]

At the Tri-State Oldtime Cowboys breakfast. This gentleman told about two memorable meals in his lifetime. One was a branding dinner
consisting of a bullhead fish fry after his uncle's house had been blown away by a tornado the previous week. Another was a Christmas dinner
in a cow camp far from civilization. The meal was complete with a turkey cooked to perfection over a wood stove with the firebox
burned out.

Speaking of memorable meals, I have shared many with this gentleman. One that comes immediately to mind was on a sixty mile trip
through the Sandhills in 1966. He was moving his hay machinery from his dad's ranch to his own. He drove a small Allis Chalmers tractor
pulling a haysled which was carrying a two-horse hay sweep. I was fourteen years old at the time, and drove a team and wagon
with his younger son riding along with me. When we went by a dry land cornfield miles from no place, we "borrowed" three ears
of this field corn which was in the roasting ear early stage. The corn-on-the-cob was boiled in a frying pan over a camp fire. It tasted
mighty good, even though I felt a little bad that we were more or less stealing this corn from some cow that would have enjoyed it
the next winter.

A neighbor being honored for many years of volunteer work at fairs past.

This parade float has "gone to the dogs."

Intent upon their guarding duties

Sparky and associates always put a float in the Gordon parade

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck.......

Their usual disclaimer

Sign of the times

Having too much fun, and besides, they won.

Another fun loving bunch

Quite the outfit

Pretty snazzy

Pretty paint team

A couple of nice girls from my hometown

Good looking old tractor

This gentleman raised the best horse I ever owned. The horse, ol' Tom Cat, was born in 1982 and is still going strong at age 29,
as a kid horse for friends who live in South Dakota.

Having fun throwing candy

A pair of top hands

I jumped on and rode along on the Old Cowboys float

Looking back

Some of my friends and relatives

Going down Main Street

 

[gcreekrch]

Thanks for the photos Soap, you sure you're aged enough to ride on the old cowboy's float? :lol:

 

[Soapweed]

Thanks for the photos Soap, you sure you're aged enough to ride on the old cowboy's float? :lol:

And then some. :wink:

 

[gcreekrch]

Coulda fooled me. :lol:

 

[Soapweed]

We have hay down but got a nice little thunderstorm and a tenth of an inch of rain this morning. This makes it legal to loaf.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We have hay down but got a nice little thunderstorm and a tenth of an inch of rain this morning. This makes it legal to loaf.

Ya, you wouldn't want to do any "Illegal" loafing. :lol: :lol: :lol:

You said you "jumped on" the old cowboy float. :?

How old a cowboy can you be if you can still jump? :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Soapweed]

We have hay down but got a nice little thunderstorm and a tenth of an inch of rain this morning. This makes it legal to loaf.

Ya, you wouldn't want to do any "Illegal" loafing. :lol: :lol: :lol:

You said you "jumped on" the old cowboy float. :?

How old a cowboy can you be if you can still jump? :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:

It wasn't a very vigorous jump. "Clamber" might be a more truthful description of my way of getting on the float. Good thing the team was in "whoa" mode. :wink:

Years ago my father-in-law had a team in the parade pulling a wooden wheeled wagon, and I was riding shotgun. My great aunt from Rockglen, Saskatchewan (in your neck of the woods) was here visiting at the time. She was 94 years old. I said, "Aunt Gladys, would you like to ride in the wagon." She replied, "You bet." I said, "I'll help you on." She said, "Just hold those horses still and I'll climb up the spokes of the wheel." That is just exactly what she did. She was down visiting a couple years later, just a month shy of her 96th birthday. I rode up on my Tom Cat horse to say hi to her, as she was visiting at my folks' house at the time. She complimented me on my pretty horse, and I invited her to get on and ride. She took me up on my offer, and we have a photograph with her on Tom Cat. Aunt Gladys was quite a lady.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

We have hay down but got a nice little thunderstorm and a tenth of an inch of rain this morning. This makes it legal to loaf.

Ya, you wouldn't want to do any "Illegal" loafing. :lol: :lol: :lol:

You said you "jumped on" the old cowboy float. :?

How old a cowboy can you be if you can still jump? :wink: :lol: :lol: :lol:

It wasn't a very vigorous jump. "Clamber" might be a more truthful description of my way of getting on the float. Good thing the team was in "whoa" mode. :wink:

Years ago my father-in-law had a team in the parade pulling a wooden wheeled wagon, and I was riding shotgun. My great aunt from Rockglen, Saskatchewan (in your neck of the woods) was here visiting at the time. She was 94 years old. I said, "Aunt Gladys, would you like to ride in the wagon." She replied, "You bet." I said, "I'll help you on." She said, "Just hold those horses still and I'll climb up the spokes of the wheel." That is just exactly what she did. She was down visiting a couple years later, just a month shy of her 96th birthday. I rode up on my Tom Cat horse to say hi to her, as she was visiting at my folks' house at the time. She complimented me on my pretty horse, and I invited her to get on and ride. She took me up on my offer, and we have a photograph with her on Tom Cat. Aunt Gladys was quite a lady.

We can only hope at 96 your half the man Aunt Gladys was. :wink: :lol: :lol:

By the way I've been waiting all summer to see what Sparky would come up with for the parade. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[bar o ranch]

Enjoyed both the pictures and the stories, looks like our kind of parade.