This story is from James Greet, written in 1991 about his life as a cowboy in the 1940’s.
It was a nice sunny day, and we enjoyed trailing our cattle. It seemed as though the whole world belonged to us, for we hadn’t seen another soul since very early the day before.
Maybe I should point out that a horse can stand being ridden every day in the winter much better than in hot weather. The days are much shorter and the nights are longer. Summer heat saps the horse’s energy.
By mid-afternoon, we could see the Bighorn River bottom land. We still had quite a distance to cover, so we must keep moving along.
We arrived at our destination at sundown. It was Lucky Glenn’s Corrals at Worland. There was already hay and water for our cattle. We unsaddled our horses and turned them loose in the corral. It was dark by then and still no sign of Uncle Fred anywhere. We were hungry as bears, so we set out to hike the mile and a half to town and a hot meal.
We hadn’t gone far when Uncle Fred spotted us in the headlights of his Model A Ford. He felt rather chagrined when he learned the details of our trip. He took us straight to the Worland Cafe, and bought us a good meal. He had a room for us at the Richard’s Hotel, where we went for the night. We didn’t have any trouble sleeping, for sweet is the rest of a working man.
Uncle Fred told us the sad news of Ethel Connor’s death in childbirth. She was our beloved friend and schoolteacher, liked by everyone. She was the oldest of the three Canaday sisters. The others are Mabel Bass and Grace McIver.
(So ends this tale of their eventful trip to Worland. He relates another trip to Worland in his next story.)
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I am really enjoying these stories with their details pertaining to life
as a cowboy in 1940. Sounds like not much had changed from the days of the Old West for a cattle rancher. James sure loved his life!!