Old Timer

He was the best influence a boy could ever have, right up there alongside my dad. His farm was just across the pasture from the house I grew up in, it was over there that I spent many a day working for and with him. He taught me so very much like how to tell right from wrong, when to be soft and gentle and when to be brave and strong. He was part rancher, part farmer and always a full-time, hard-working, top-hand, I learned from him to work without complaint and to ride for the brand. He showed me how to drive a tractor long before I could handle a car, and how to spot a lost calf hiding at the edge of a field way off far. We'd talk for hours while out mending miles of fence, with a wonderful old-school knowledge he'd share with me his superlative common sense. Even though I was young he treated me fair, just like a grown man, he told me, always do what's right and against what's wrong take a firm stand. Better than most he understood the value of friendship and loyalty, so many were the gracious gifts of wisdom he freely bestowed upon me. Like how to sit a horse rope a calf, and milk an ornery old cow, there's so much more I'd like to tell but, time and space won't allow. So here in this little way, I'd just like to say my hat's off and my heart forever goes out, to that grand old-timer of my early days who taught me young, what life is really about.