Makin Fun Out of Nothin At All

At an early age I wanted to go with the guys to "pull a calf" ("deliver a baby" in ranch terms), round up cattle or just ride in the pickup while my dad cut open gunny sacks full of "cow cake" ("food for the cattle" in ranch terms) shaking it out of the back of a slow moving vehicle put in "granny" (low gear)....I pretended I was driving the 1954 Ford. I absolutely loved doing this and would get in with anyone that was going through our driveway. My favorite past time when left in our feed truck for long periods of time was to get into the steering wheel draping my legs through the open spaces, grasp the top of the wheel and swing it from side to side. I would also analyze all of the knobs and buttons on the dashboard. I can still remember what the dashboard of the feed truck looked like.
I said I would get in with anyone that would take me. My mom told of a time I got in with the hired man at the age of 2 or so and went with him 45 miles to one of our other places. No one knew where I'd gone. Finally, Ella, the hired man's wife from the other place called and said I'd gotten in with Iman and was over at Lenora. Iman was our hired man and my best friend. He worked for us for the next 15 years.
Other times I enjoyed studying the dashboard of the truck was when I would go out with the guys to a place we leased in Cheyenne Valley and wait while they rounded up cattle. There were large Diamond Back rattlesnakes on that place and my dad would warn me not to get out of the truck. That terrified me so I would roll the windows up and wait. I know I probably shouldn't be alive today because it probably got over 115 degrees in there! My husband's family bought that ranch after we leased it in the 1960's. We didn't know each other then, but today he and I own it and we still go out there. Diamond Backs still call it home and when we're out there and I'm left in the pickup for extended periods of time I still keep my windows rolled up...with the air conditioner running and study the dashboard.