WYLIE CAME BY TODAY…..

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A CLOVIS  BOY FROM THE FRIO DRAW...
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Wylie came by the house today.
    It is always good when he comes.
After all, he's Noel's brother. CHS '51.
    I met Noel in geometry in 1945
in the seventh grade!
    Noel is gone.

Wylie is interesting, and knows stuff.---
    Down-to-earth
Good old American stuff.

He and I are tuned---
    He has ridden combines, driven
tractors, trucks with wheat, and buses...
    filled with kids.
So have I...

Wylie is a down-home guy
    you like to see coming...
Today, we talked about all manner
     of things---
Western authors like J. Frank Dobie,
    Will James, Eugene Manlove Rhodes,
And old favorites like Zane Grey 
    and Loius L'Amour---

We talked about "Riders of the Purple Sage,"
    and the high plateau country
of Utah and Arizona...
    And down north of Pie Town---
Agnes Morley Cleveland and 
    "No Life For A Lady."

We talked about the Frio Draw
    twenty miles north of Clovis---
and how it once rained so hard that
    the Frio ran backward,
like the Mississippi once did.
    Wylie's famous mother, Margaret
wrote about it.

We talked about old rain storms
     lightning storms...and the time
lightning was so bad, the cattle were
    nowhere to be found...later.
Joe, the hired man said: 
    "Lightning---Poof" spreading his 
hands...as if the cattle had taken off
    in a hundred directions.
And they had.

He told of swimming on the Frio
    after big rainstorms...and the
"Big Hole" where the water was deepest
    and you had to dodge the rattlers
that got caught up in the deluge and
     washed into the "old swimmin' hole."
A good thing, too, if you didn't mind
    brown muddy water!

Over the years they killed dozens of rattlers.
    Before the days of "politically correct",
the only good rattler was a dead one.
    They dispatched long ones 
and short ones---some skinny and others
    thicker than your arm.

And they had no mice in their six barns...
    Their sixty-six cats saw to that!

We talked about Clovis and old times---
    Junior High and CHS...
Bobby Joe, Richard, A.J., Gary....and a 
    whole bunch of others...and yes! 
Coney Island Cafe was mentioned!

I met "Bear," Wylie's dog,
    through his picture on the telephone.
My, my, I love that dog already.

Wylie stands for good old American 
    values...like just about every Clovis
person I ever knew---
    No-nonsense true Americans!

Yes, how fitting it was
    that at Christmas-time
Wylie came by today!

And it was great!

"Bear"

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BY MIL
12/12/13
FOR WYLIE DOUGHERTY
CHS '53