What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
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As with nearly every business, the horse business has its ups and downs. If you are in the business of raising and/or selling them, awhile back we were in one of the industry’s little “valleys.” Since other business people have to deal with this same situation I began looking around for ideas we might be able to apply to our circumstances. The first tactic I noticed was in a furniture ad. “Buy now,” the ad said, “Make no payments until 2009.” The idea, of course, is to apply to the “right no...
When I was eight years old, the favorite game neighbor kids, my sister and I use to play was “Cowboys and Indians.” Because I had black hair and mostly because I was younger than everyone except my sister who refused to run around without a shirt on, I usually was assigned the role of Indian. I really didn’t mind. I thought Indians were pretty cool, even though my only contact with them was old Gary Cooper and John Wayne movies. Indians got to do all the things I was good at. According to stere...
Sometimes I wish I had become a football coach instead of a cowboy. I admire football coaches because their lives seem so simple compared to the rest of us. If we pass a coach on the street or meet him at the Post Office, most of us do the same thing out of habit. “How ya doing?” we’ll ask. I have to admit I utter those words out of habit. Honestly, most of the time I really don’t care how that person's doing. In fact, I’ve usually passed on by before they issue the standard OK. Truth be known,...
Coming up with a funny story every week can begin to wear a writer down, even one who has now composed close to 2,000 of them. In order to give the old brain a rest, I decided to switch to a history lesson this week. Hope you all enjoy and learn a valuable, previously unknown bit of our past. About four million years ago a funny looking little creature showed up in the African forests. His name was Australopithecus Afarensis. He had a very small brain which explained why he choose such a...
I’m rapidly becoming a grumpy old man. OK, so that’s only partly true. I’m not rapidly getting old. That takes time. I am, however, rapidly getting grouchier. Normally, I am a very happy, easy going guy. One single thing turns the smiles into frowns at the drop of a hat. The culprit? Progress. That’s right. I do not like progress. It makes me grouchy. This does not seem to be a popular point of view. I have arrived at that conclusion because nearly everyone wants to argue with me about it. The...
Think you’ve got a bad job? Join the club. Nearly everybody, at one time or another, decides they must have the world’s worst job. Heck, I have those thoughts from time to time ... and I don’t even have a real job! We all have those days. You know the kind I’m talking about. Those days when you just know they gave your boss his job because he was too dumb to do anything else. We’re talking about days that you find small comfort in knowing you have job security because they’d never find anyone el...
“Hello. May I speak to Mr. Gary Hodgson?” the pleasant lady’s voice asked when I answered the telephone. Guardedly, I replied, “This is Gary Hodgson,” bracing myself to repel another sales person wanting to sell me vinyl siding for my brick house, investment opportunities for when I’m not overdrawn at the bank, or my favorite, my “pre-approved” credit card. I know right away they’re lying because if they’d already checked enough for “pre-approval” they wouldn’t even be calling. Standing ready w...
A good friend of mine owns a western store. One entire corner is devoted to books and about half of the space contains cook books. All are titled some variation of “cowboy cookbook” and all promise to provide receipts for delicious dishes prepared by genuine authentic American cowboys. You are what you eat. If you want to be a cowboy, I guess you had better buy and cook from these books. Once a year my friend even hosts an open house at the store and prepares several dozen dishes from var...
I was gassing up my pickup a while back when a beat up pickup pulling an equally well used trailer full of saddled horses pulled to the pump beside mine. The driver stepped out to start his pump and I recognized him as a rancher who lived about 50 miles north of me. Remembering he also was a double tough roper and this being a weekend, I made a mental note he was probably on his way to a team roping somewhere. I also had the thought that his roping fortunes must not have been going well...
It is completely impossible to write a humorous column addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Humor aside for a bit, there are some surprising developments to all this. A big surprise to many of us is the hoarding issue. Folks rushing to the grocery store to stock up on the essentials of life. Gone from the shelves are canned goods, flour and the hardest to come by of all, toilet paper. Granted, nobody wants to run out of it. However, this is when I see a big upside for Agriculture. As a small boy,...
If you have way more money than you know what to do with, some, I have read, go on an African Safari. Don’t know any of those folks personally. They must not hang around cattle auctions or the John Deere parts counter. Too bad for them because I just finished a hunt unlike any most have ever experienced. Over 20 years ago when Sue designed the house we live in, she had a definite idea what she wanted in a home. Spent hours watching the builders to make sure it was done as she wanted. She also k...
Two things each year demand to be written about as they occur. Christmas and Springtime. If you turn on your radio, you won’t hear Jingle Bells. Therefore, I’m writing about Spring. I can’t think of a more exciting time of the year you don’t have to buy tickets for. The National Finals Rodeo gets me excited but I can’t afford to go. Super Bowl Sunday warrants weeks of anticipation, but needless to say, I watch from my chair at home. Springtime truly is better than both of those rolled into one...
A lot of wonderful things have come about as a result of these “Under The Wire” columns. Our electricity doesn’t get shut off as often and best of all, we have made a lot of new friends. Recently a whole new experience has begun to emerge. Most who publish our weekly efforts follow with our contact information. Recently, we received an email from a gentleman asking if I was the same Gary Hodgson who attended a certain college an undisclosed but big number of years ago. After answering, yes,...
I must begin today’s “Under The Wire” with a first-ever warning. At the present time, no more than 50 people are allowed to view this column at a time. If several hundred of you are gathered around to read this together, you need to lay down the paper, place your hands behind your head and slowly walk away. There, that should take care of any liability issues that may arise in this unusual world we find ourselves living in today. Now for the good news. I, along with many of you may become candi...
I should have noticed the pen of chickens. They were a dead give-away but I missed it. I thought I was so smart but ... I suppose I really should start at the beginning. Years ago I was a solicitor for a livestock auction. “Field representative” was my official title. Door to door salesman was more like my job description. On Monday morning I would climb into my pickup and head out visiting ranchers and farmers who might have cattle to sell. My boss’s instructions were always the same. Promi...
A friend of mine runs a pretty fair sized company for our neck of the woods. The company is old, the friend is relatively young. The mix is interesting. There are good features to a company being around a long time. If they’ve been in business that long, it must be a pretty sound outfit providing a necessary service. There also are disadvantages to a company being around since dirt was invented. The company can start to take their customers for granted. That’s probably why they hired my you...
A few years ago the big news out of our capitol city was the opening of a new and totally unique furniture store. Must have been a slow news day. Actually, the media blitz lasted several days, touting a shopping experience like none ever seen. This caught my eye because, short of getting bucked off a horse into a patch of prickly pear cactus, there is nothing I dislike more than shopping, especially in a furniture store. All those couches and I can’t take a nap on any of them. No TV nearby a...
The West, she's a changin'. New faces, new houses, new ideas. Along with these changes come new roles for us "natives." As people unfamiliar with the area move in, we “old timers” find ourselves becoming 'guides' to living in this environment. I'm personally OK with that. If a few native Americans hadn't taken the newly arrived pale faces under their wing and taught them how to survive those first few harsh years in a new land history might have been written differently. Change is ine...
Years ago, I, like most of the world, marveled at the sight of men first walking on the moon. It seemed to be the impossible now accomplished. The event showcased the technological advances our society had accomplished. I thought of my grandfather, still alive at that time who came to our region as a boy in a covered wagon drawn by horses. He now watched “One Giant Step For Mankind.” What a change. The sights on the television seemed surreal. You could see them, but even then they were hard to...
It is no longer enough for a public building or sports stadium to have a simple name. Gone are the days of "Mile High Stadium," "The Meadowland" and "The Astrodome." Now we have places named after brands of beer, investment companies and potato chips. Corporate sponsors pay big bucks to have their names attached to these structures, reducing the need for our tax dollars, I'm told. Since we are usually told these things by politicians, I really don't believe it. I do believe big dollars are...
