I decided, because of past events that have recently popped up in my memory, to share this blog that I wrote in the A-Z Alphabet Challenge a couple of years ago. I guess this is my "Throwback Thursday" story...
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I would like to introduce you to a guy I met many years ago. He was a lot older than me, but the first time I laid eyes on him, I knew I wanted to get to know him better. He was gorgeous, and to me, he looked like a giant with a great smile and sparkling gray eyes. He said his given name was Gustav but everyone called him Gus.
He and Brownie, his horse, had come to our neighborhood four years earlier, looking for work. He met his wife on a neighboring farm, but that didn't bother me. She was a nice lady, and she would stand and smile when he told me many stories, some about his first home in North Dakota, and his father’s decision to move to Canada. He said he wasn't really a cowboy; he was called a cattle driver, working in ranch country in the Cypress Hills. His best friend was his horse, and he told me that he could never part with him.
One of my favorite stories was about his family. When he was much younger, his family moved from Etzicom in Southern Alberta to Glentworth, Saskatchewan. Life was not easy for them, and they wanted to be near relatives for support. Because he was the oldest son, he was responsible to bring the family's livestock to their new home. I don't remember how many miles it was, but it took him quite a few days to get there. His proudest moment was when he could tell his father that he didn't lose one cow or one horse along the way. That was quite a feat for one guy and his horse.
The family returned to Alberta after a short stay in Saskatchewan, and again, Gus was given the responsibility to tend to the livestock. That time, the return trip was on the train, which, of course, was much easier than the many miles he had spent on Brownie’s back.
When the family was settled, he started to look for a job. Work was hard to find, and being that he was now a long distance from the ranch country that he loved, he took any work he could get on a farm. It was there that he met his wife. Mixed farming... some grain crops, a few milk cows, some chickens and ducks, apparently were his only option, but he worked hard so that he could get his own farm.
It wasn’t long before he was able to make arrangement to buy a farm near the hamlet of Grainger. It was hard work, but having a wife to stand with him made it easier. Brownie was still with him, and very much a one-person horse, so Gus would ride him as often as he could. He would tell me that the time he spent on the back of his horse was a real treat for both him and Brownie. However, there were other horses on his farm that also needed attention… horses that helped with the work. Four big horses could pull the binder to cut the grain and tie the bundles. At harvest time, those horses were used to pull the hay wagons that were filled with straw from the threshing machine. In the winter, they would pull a stone boat through deep snow, loaded with feed for the cattle. Gus would also use that sled to drag snow off the road so we could go to town to buy groceries, pump gasoline in his car, tend to personal business, and on Sunday, go to church. If there was no other way, he would spend hours clearing the snow from the road with a shovel.
Gus loved his family, and gained the respect of his neighbors. He was never far from me, often taking me with him for a ride on Brownie, or on his tractor, and in the winter, he and I would spend a lot of time going up and down a snowy hill on a toboggan. Why would he do that, you ask?
BECAUSE HE WAS MY DAD!
Tags: Throwback Story Cowboy Cattle Driver
