The Dying Breed...

This is recollected from a few years ago, in the days when there was still a cattle ranch or two running cattle, the San Manuel mine was still going full throttle and the little town of Oracle still hadn't seen its first dollar store (we're now up to three and counting).

My husband and I were seated in a diner booth awaiting our breakfast. A man and woman walked in, faces burned red from too much sun, wind and drink, and took the booth directly behind us. They then ordered bloody mary's. When my husband slipped off to the bathroom I thought -- oh perfect, I wonder what these types are talking about. I was shortly surprised. The fellow was discussing a mutual friend who had been forced to go down to Tucson to seek work. "You know, but he's not the same. That's what happens when you go to the city and leave the open air and get around too many folks. He's just different now. Now I couldn't do that .. I need the open space."

Conversation then turned to work. It seemed the fellow had been working under a foreman .. maybe he was the ranch foreman. In any event, they were out someplace with two women (maybe one a girlfriend, one a wife) and suddenly the foreman told off the cowboy in front of the others. So the cowboy said in the softest of voices "I didn't say anything then but waited until later when we were alone. And I said don't you ever speak to me that way in front of other folks again." And the women replied "well, you done the right thing. He was out of place telling you off like that in front of your friends but, you know, you're just trying to make the situation work out alright but still it was right you let him know."