Friday, September 14, 2012

Savvy Sayin's


As usual, I’m a doing my post at the last minute.   My life has just been crazy for the past year or so, and the 14th of the month always jumps up at me.  This month, I did try to find a subject, but nothing jumped out at me.  So, I doing a little cheating and going to reference a book I found a few months ago, SAVVY SAIN’S: True Wisdom from the Real West, as collected over a couple of decades by author Ken Alstad, who worked in Arizona as a farm and ranch reporter. Here are a few samplings of the hundreds of sain’s.

v  Don’t point a gun at nobody you ain’t willing to shoot, if necessary.

v  Some men’s wives are angels. The others are still alive.

v  Out West, every prairie dog hole is a gold mine, every hill is a mountain, every creek is a river, and every prospector is a liar.

v  Some cowboys got too much tumbleweed in their blood to settle down.

v  Nobody but the cattle knows why they stampede and they ain’t talkin’.

v  A corkscrew never pulled no one out of a hole.

v  When a cowboy‘s too old to set a bad example, he hands out good advice.

v  An old timer is a man who’s had a lot of interesting experiences, some of them true.

v  Don’t count the teeth in someone else’s mouth.

v  With the Homestead Law, the U.S. is betting you 140 acres that you can’t live on it.

This is a nice little book and is enhanced by the fact it has woodcut illustrations by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell throughout.  They add character to the book and are beautifully done.

Happy Friday!
Never let your memories be greater than your dreams. ~Doug Ivester

2 comments:

  1. Ohmagosh, I cracked up when I read these sassy sayin's. Great blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd love to have the book just for the illustrations, and the sayings are a bonus. Thanks, Anna Kathryn.

    ReplyDelete

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