by Julie Carter
I’m not going to say it’s just cowboys that do
it, but it’s just cowboys that I know that do it. They have an uncanny knack
for making a day of celebration that belongs to someone else into a plan to get
something done they want or need done or simply to shortcut the effort into
something less than first valiantly planned. My narrative will explain.
They weren't newlyweds by any stretch of the
imagination. In fact, just days after this birthday event I'm going to tell you
about, they celebrated their 35th anniversary. They are now, amazingly enough on year 41. Keeping
that in mind, these tales will give a glimpse of the depth of love and
tolerance honed over that period of longevity.
It was his bride's birthday and since her
favorite thing was to go somewhere and see something notable, preferably
historical, he offered a blank check in the "travel" department.
"Where would you like to go?" he
asked, knowing she understood that didn't include destinations that required
travel agents or airports. She wasn't caught off guard with the request but
truly didn't have a burning desire to visit anywhere in particular. So he
decided for her. Also not a surprise.
"We'll go to East Texas," he
announced helpfully. "Pick a town in East Texas." The only town she
could think of was Jefferson, selected because it had a rich history and would
not require six months of travel time. They loaded up and headed east, getting
as far as Fort Worth. After lunch at Joe T. Garcia’s and $7 margarita for the
birthday girl, they were back on the road.
"Any place in Fort Worth you'd like to
see?" he asked her. She remembered the Fort Worth Water Gardens downtown
and suggested that she would like to see that again. "It is truly
beautiful," she recalled. "A waterfall, a river, a stream, a pond, a
cascade and anything else you can imagine doing with water.”
Aiming to please, the cowboy headed the pickup
that way. He drove around the block a half dozen times looking for a place to
park and finding none, he quickly lost interest in this particular destination.
His bride heard it coming as much as saw it. Knowing that when he's about to
turn to a "silver-tongued devil," the timbre of his voice changes. So
she takes a deep seat because what is next is always a "suggestion."
"You know baby, you have this wonderful
memory, actually an amazing memory," he said with a glib smoothness to his
words. "Since you have already seen this water display once before, how
about you just remember it."
Being married to a cowboy for 35 years will
teach a gal how to say with a straight face, "It was a wonderful
birthday." However, he did end her day by going to a roping, winning
a dinner-plate- sized buckle and
presenting it to her with the endearing words, “It’ll keep you from getting gut
shot.”
This year’s celebration involved a mission to
a bar in Grapevine but not for the reasons one might seek out a bar on a
birthday, anywhere. The cowboy has collected rocks for most his life and
finally found someone with a rock saw to cross section them and reveal the formations
inside.
That led to the need to make a table top with
these dissected rocks embedded in epoxy and lit from the underside. Said bar in
Grapevine had a bar top with rock chips in epoxy and the cowboy deemed that
worth viewing. Only a coincidence the trip happened on his bride’s birthday.
They navigated the overpasses and traffic jams
through Fort Worth and Dallas to get to Grapevine. The trip was redeemed with a
wonderful lunch ending in a chocolate truffle cake, after which they visited a
couple of rock-embedded bar tops and headed home.
The topper for the day was the skunk in the
feed room that greeted them as they went to do chores. Evicting him involved
moving a pallet of feed, locking up the dog who wanted to help, a pistol and of
course, none of it happened without everybody and everything getting a good
dose of polecat perfume.
Eventually, the skunk was disposed of, the
clothes in the washer, everybody cleaned up and a cocktail on the patio. The cowboy
went to refresh his drink and called to his bride to come to the kitchen. She complied;
he put his arm around her and pulled her tight to his chest.
She was about mid-sigh of contentment and thinking
“what a perfect ending to a beautiful birthday,” when he says, “Do I still
smell skunky?”
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