Reflections from the Old West: How to Enjoy a Dance

By Paisley Kirkpatrick

You often hear of the lone bandit, but you seldom hear of the lone cowboy. They usually traveled in pairs, especially the bronc busters. They'd often pool their finances so one of them could bet on a horse race or get in a poker game. If one had money, they both had money, and if one was broke you could bet your bottom dollar they were both flat.

Often you'd see a long, tall, gangling peeper and a sawed-off runt, as different mentally and morally as they were physically, team together. In the spring and summer they'd go from ranch to ranch breaking horses. When that kind of work was scarce or out of season, they'd either ride chuck line or hunt jobs with the roundups.

If an outfit needed only one man, nothing doin', both had to have jobs together or they'd travel on. If one got into trouble they were both into it up to their necks regardless of right or wrong. These old cowboys would pal up 'till death do us part' or until a girl 'throwed her loop' on one of 'em, and that was worse than death to the one that was left.

Such a pair of pals used to inhabit (or infest, as the case may be) our country down on the Rio Grande. Old Slim was about six-feet-two-inches and Shorty about five-feet in his socks (if he wore such things). Once in a great while they would attend a dance. Slim didn't dance and Shorty couldn't, for in just a short time he would become paralyzed on hooch and find a vacant chair against the wall and there he'd sit and quietly dangle his feet, keeping time to the music and humming a little tune.

On one occasion, Shorty got filled to the gills and located himself a comfortable seat in a corner of the hall and Slim coiled his six-feet-two on the floor alongside his pal. Both were enjoying the affair to the utmost in spite of the various and sundry fights that were being pulled off outside. It seemed that a big husky, the bully of the community, had gotten hold of some fighting whiskey and was matching one fight after another.

After whipping several on the outside and intimidating the balance of the crowd, he decided he'd kinda clean up any irresponsible persons on the inside. He was pretty well soused and also flushed with victory. He staggered up in front of Shorty and said, ''What in hell you patting your feet for? Pipe down or I'll twist your nose." Shorty didn't realize that he was being spoken to; besides, his vision was so impaired with booze he couldn't much see past his nose, so he didn't reply, just continued to pat his foot and hum his little tune.

That enraged the cock-of-the-walk more than if Shorty had replied, so he said, ''I'll twist your nose and drag you outta here, you little dried-up shrimp." When he reached out to make good his boast, old Slim shot that fist of his up like the strike of a rattler and connected on the point of the bully's chin. The bully lit into the middle of the floor flat on his back. Such things being common occurrences, the dancers just danced around him.

Slim coiled himself back in his corner and Shorty continued patting his hand humming his toodle-do and toodle-dum. When the bully came to, he got up and shook his head like a catfish in muddy water and walked up in front of Shorty with wonderment on his face and stared at him until he attracted Shorty's attention. Shorty said to him, ''G'wan now, big boy or I'll knock you down ag'in tweedle-de de twiddle dum--'' There was no further interruption of the festivities.

Written by George Phillips in True West Magazine June, 1962

LEIGH GREENWOOD--REAL MEN WRITE AND READ ROMANCE!

Leigh Greenwood

Award-winning author Leigh Greenwood's name is an icon of romance, especially western romance. WYOMING WILDFIRE was published by Zebra in 1987, only a couple of years after he joined Romance Writers of America (he later served two years as the national president). Since then he's published 45 more books and four novellas. He has a BA in Voice and an MA in Musicology from the University of North Carolina. His minor in history has no doubt served his writing well. He taught music in schools and/or was an organist/choir director in churches for thirty-two years before retiring to write full time. He has three grown children who occupy distant parts of the United States. In addition to writing, he enjoys gardening and singing in both church and community choirs. Most of all, he says he would love some grandchildren before he gets too old to play with them. If you want to know if one of his books is still available, contact Dorchester at 1-800-481-9191 or contact Leigh through his website http://www.leigh-greenwood.com/.  

And now, here's Leigh:  



Available NOW in e-book;
Coming in trade-size print in October



As some of you may know, the past year has been full of change and uncertainty.  And at my age – I’ll be seventy this year – I’ve come to appreciate predictability as I never could thirty or forty years ago.   I won’t go into detail because there were times the situation seemed to change each week, but the end result is that my publisher of nearly twenty years stopped publishing my books in paperback format and backed out of a contract for the last two books in the Night Rider series.  Almost as bad, my back list was suddenly unavailable.  And the last three books in a bargain edition of the Seven Brides series were never released.  Readers were bombarding me with questions neither my agent or I could answer.  The obvious answer to all this was to seek a new publisher, but even that had to wait while questions of rights were worked out.  There is still more to be done on that score, but I have now moved forward.

    In December, I reached agreement with Sourcebooks to publish the last two books in the Night Rider series.  They are scheduled to be released in April and October of 2012, but these dates can change.  The previous five books in the series are TEXAS HOMECOMING, TEXAS BRIDE, BORN TO LOVE, SOMEONE LIKE YOU and WHEN LOVE COMES.

    TEXAS NOBLE (working title) is the story of Ivan Nikolai, a Polish prince whose family lost their estates when Prussia, Austria, and Russia divided Poland among themselves.  He came to America to seek his fortune but got caught up in the Civil War then ended up working on a cattle ranch in Texas.  Unexpectedly, he is given the opportunity to earn enough money to return to Poland and assume his position among the nobility.

    Carla Reece is prepared to dislike Ivan before she even meets him because she believes Laveau diViere cheated her brother out of the half of their ranch which he has asked Ivan to manage.  Neither of them is prepared for the attraction they feel for each other.  Though their interests are opposite, they soon find themselves working together to uncover still another piece of villainy perpetrated by Laveau diViere.  This leads to a closeness that soon has both of them considering possibilities they would never have given a second thought just weeks earlier.

    The last book in the series – as yet untitled – is about Nate Dolan who lost his brother when Laveau diViere betrayed their troop to Union soldiers.  Nate has bought a ranch and met a young woman, Roberta, who everyone hopes will enable him to think more about the future than about the past.  That all changes when Laveau diViere engineers a raid in which her father is killed.  When the blame for the raid settles on Nate’s shoulders, Roberta vows revenge.  In the exciting conclusion to the series, we finally learn what happens to Laveau.  I doubt it’s what you expected.

    What will I do after that?  I don’t know.  I have an outline for another series, but there are many decisions still to be made in the aftermath of the Dorchester debacle.  The most important, in my mind, is seeing that all the books in the Seven Brides, the Cowboys, and the Night Riders are available once again.  In the meantime, I’ll soon start the last book in the Night Rider series.  I’m always relieved when I manage to complete a series.  I dread the possibility of leaving one unfinished.  I remember feeling a huge sigh of relief when I finished the last of the Seven Brides.

    Wish me luck for the coming year.  Maybe this time the news will all be good.