It's All Trew: Old-timers' tales - true or not

When old-timers gather and talk about the good old days, you never know whether the story is the real truth or exaggerated nonsense. Here are a few samples I remember or have heard lately. # Some old men were comparing notes about their early years. One man said his family ran down jack rabbits for meat, as they were too poor to buy ammunition for their .22-caliber rifle. Another man said their family also ate jack rabbits for meat, and he and his little brother also ran down rabbits. Since he was older and wiser, he ran alongside the rabbits, feeling their ribs to see if they were fat enough to eat. When a rabbit passed inspection, he signaled his little brother to bring it in to eat. # This last story is true, so help me, as my father told it many times down through the years. During the early 1940s, after the dust quit blowing, the blessed rains came and the Great Depression ended, there was an abundance of wheat pasture on the Great Plains. My father placed hundreds of cattle on wheat in and around Perryton, Texas. One day, while in town on business, an out-of-work cowboy approached Dad for a job, saying he was broke and his family was hungry. There was an empty farmhouse out east of town on the Shuster farm where Dad had cattle, so he hired the man, gave him $20 for groceries and told him to move into the house. The man's family consisted of a tall, slender wife, two tall, skinny teen boys and a slender wisp of a girl about 10 years old. The next morning, Dad hauled the man two horses and a milk cow with a sucking calf weighing about 300 pounds. About three days later, Dad returned to the place to check cattle and saw the remains of the big calf hanging in the windmill tower with half the carcass gone. When he asked the man about the calf, it seems there was a strange accident. The man had tied the calf to the fence in order to milk the cow. The calf got loose, and when the man shooed the calf with the milk bucket, it struck the animal in the head and he fell over dead. To prevent waste, the calf was butchered and hung in the windmill tower to keep. Dad laughed about the story and noticed the wife and family had already gained considerable weight in three days...read more