What kid didn't go out at night hunting for lightening bugs? Every spring when winter broke and the earth began to heat back up there was an awakening. The cows starting having calves then the daffodils would break open announcing the spring weather. The crickets would awaken to a deafening chatter along the creek and the first coyote pups would be heard echoing along the hillside. Lightening bugs would start to snap on and off and grow into large numbers along the creeks. It was everyone's game to see who could catch the most into one of the mason jars left over from being emptied during the winter months. Come to think of it we recycled about everything and those jars were a prized possession and we reused them year after year. Milk bottles, pop bottles, egg cartons and in fact I remember pre-egg carton when you would bring your bucket or get eggs at the store in a sack. Now we were different because we actually traded out eggs for groceries and the grocer (Fred and Vira Mow and I don't know if I spelled it right) would resell the eggs. Well we meandered a little but spring brought one of my favorite parts. That was the ice was gone and I did not have to chop ice for the cattle. For some reason I just never got into that one.
I did not mind the feeding the cattle everyday and counting to make sure they were all there. I even enjoyed loading the hay each morning along with the cattle cake (we fed chocolate and red velvet to our cattle, lets see what that comment brings). It was great seeing the cattle excited to see you coming as they gathered around the pickup anxiously awaiting you to put the feed out. Typically I would grab a 50 lb. bag and tare it open then start almost running as the cake dropped out of the bag. The idea was to get some spread before all the cattle got there else it was a tussle trying to get away from them. You have to remember most of them weighted close to 1000 lbs. so they could push you around pretty easy.
For what ever reason baseball was king in those days and baseball bats would be dug out of the closets and from under the beds along with the mitt and balls. When chores were done and after school was out we rushed to the outdoors to hear the ball smack into the glove as it snapped back from a fast one. Generally you would always start a little slow to warm up but pretty soon friends would start trying to burn the other person. That means they would add a little heat by throwing it harder so when you caught it and it was in the wrong part of the mitt your hand would burn from the pain. Boys would be boys you know. In fact now that we crossed that line everyone knows that boys and girls are different besides some idiots who must not have ever observed life. Here we go again.
Now I am not saying anything about being paid the same for the same job or any of that junk which was stupid in the first place. How can any moral God fearing person ever think one person regardless of sex or color should be paid less for the same job? In fact I remember one time my dad got really mad because someone suggested that Aunt Gladys should not be paid as much as a man because the man had to support a family. Aunt Glady's (Mrs. Snyder) husband had been killed and she was the sole bread winner. I suppose I have to explain that. A bread winner is a person who makes the money to pay the bills and it does not include the government or anyone else to take responsibility away from an adult to work and make a living, be a BREAD Winner!
But let me tell you of some stupid things along this line that happened to me after I left the Osage. When I graduated from college at Weatherford, Oklahoma I went to work for a little short guy with big ears named Ross Perot and EDS. It was a smaller company then but we were rocking and rolling and everyone was rowing in the same direction, I will not explain that. Anyway being from the Osage and having a good work ethic allowed me to advance rapidly and I wound up working on the Iranian contracts where we had two of our employees put in jail by the Iatolla and subsequently Ross took some of our employees and broke them out of the Iranian prison. It is a great read, "On Wings of Eagles" and there is a movie about it. Back to the story, I would up in a system engineering class (programming) in Dallas where I was on a team with two girls, one from New York City named Ilene Kanof and one from California named Janet Green. We actually were great friends and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them but they had an adjustment problem with me. Janet got really angry because I insisted on opening the door for her and in fact she yelled at me a few times. I splained (remember the definition from an earlier story although she did not get a spanking) to her that I would wait all day and she tried to out wait me. She lost. The other thing I loved to do was when they would walk by my cubical and I was talking to Shouna, my wife, I would start saying things like, "be sure and get the floors scrubbed because you did not do a very good job before". They would go nuts! I loved it.
What do you learn in the Osage?
gary@thepioneerman.com
I did not mind the feeding the cattle everyday and counting to make sure they were all there. I even enjoyed loading the hay each morning along with the cattle cake (we fed chocolate and red velvet to our cattle, lets see what that comment brings). It was great seeing the cattle excited to see you coming as they gathered around the pickup anxiously awaiting you to put the feed out. Typically I would grab a 50 lb. bag and tare it open then start almost running as the cake dropped out of the bag. The idea was to get some spread before all the cattle got there else it was a tussle trying to get away from them. You have to remember most of them weighted close to 1000 lbs. so they could push you around pretty easy.
For what ever reason baseball was king in those days and baseball bats would be dug out of the closets and from under the beds along with the mitt and balls. When chores were done and after school was out we rushed to the outdoors to hear the ball smack into the glove as it snapped back from a fast one. Generally you would always start a little slow to warm up but pretty soon friends would start trying to burn the other person. That means they would add a little heat by throwing it harder so when you caught it and it was in the wrong part of the mitt your hand would burn from the pain. Boys would be boys you know. In fact now that we crossed that line everyone knows that boys and girls are different besides some idiots who must not have ever observed life. Here we go again.
Now I am not saying anything about being paid the same for the same job or any of that junk which was stupid in the first place. How can any moral God fearing person ever think one person regardless of sex or color should be paid less for the same job? In fact I remember one time my dad got really mad because someone suggested that Aunt Gladys should not be paid as much as a man because the man had to support a family. Aunt Glady's (Mrs. Snyder) husband had been killed and she was the sole bread winner. I suppose I have to explain that. A bread winner is a person who makes the money to pay the bills and it does not include the government or anyone else to take responsibility away from an adult to work and make a living, be a BREAD Winner!
But let me tell you of some stupid things along this line that happened to me after I left the Osage. When I graduated from college at Weatherford, Oklahoma I went to work for a little short guy with big ears named Ross Perot and EDS. It was a smaller company then but we were rocking and rolling and everyone was rowing in the same direction, I will not explain that. Anyway being from the Osage and having a good work ethic allowed me to advance rapidly and I wound up working on the Iranian contracts where we had two of our employees put in jail by the Iatolla and subsequently Ross took some of our employees and broke them out of the Iranian prison. It is a great read, "On Wings of Eagles" and there is a movie about it. Back to the story, I would up in a system engineering class (programming) in Dallas where I was on a team with two girls, one from New York City named Ilene Kanof and one from California named Janet Green. We actually were great friends and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them but they had an adjustment problem with me. Janet got really angry because I insisted on opening the door for her and in fact she yelled at me a few times. I splained (remember the definition from an earlier story although she did not get a spanking) to her that I would wait all day and she tried to out wait me. She lost. The other thing I loved to do was when they would walk by my cubical and I was talking to Shouna, my wife, I would start saying things like, "be sure and get the floors scrubbed because you did not do a very good job before". They would go nuts! I loved it.
What do you learn in the Osage?
- Respect people, all of them, but you don't have to agree with everything
- Have pride in the work you do but don't be prideful because of others shortcomings
- Take time to catch some lightening bugs, enjoy your labor, then let them go
gary@thepioneerman.com
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