Didn’t think we’d ever say this . . . but it’s good to see the weather cool down a little. Last Monday it was pushing 90 degrees, and those thin-blooded Bench Sitters were actually complaining about the heat. Most of them are on blood-thinners and have darn little meat on their bones to help keep warm.
Last week old “Back When” told us a story about buying a load of hay from Curley Galusha back in 1949, and darned it that didn’t trigger another memory worth repeating.
It was about the Prom decorating committee of the high school Junior Class in the spring of 1953. It was tradition for the Junior Class to handle the job, and that particular class was loaded with “over-achievers”.
Their theme was “under the sea” — complete with a false ceiling of crepe paper in the old gymnasium and a huge coral reef in the middle.
Of course, coral was hard to come by in these parts, so the decorating committee decided spray-painted tumble weeds would work just fine.
They gathered up a truck load (not a big job in Wyoming), and took them out to a barn near town to do the paint job. That barn belonged to the Howard Watt family (Camilla was on the decorating committee).
But the kids didn’t realize spray painting where a lot of hay was stored might not be a good idea.
Shortly after the Junior Senior Prom the Watt’s herd of dairy cows started getting sick. The Veterinarian was called and all the milk had to be dumped for fear it would be contaminated. It didn’t take long to discover milk cows don’t do well on hay soaked with spray paint.
Mr. Watt was a gentle soul. He understood it was not intentional, and forgave the decorating committee.
Meanwhile back down at the Bench Sitter’s coffee club we picked up on a good conversation between two of those old boys. It went something like this . . .
“I hear your wife finally got tired of some of your bad habits and moved in with her sister over in Powell last week.”
“Yup, I guess tracking grease in on the new carpet was the final straw.”
“Well, now the story around town is that she missed you, and we’re glad to hear that. Is she going to move back over?
“Nope . . . I think she’s re-loading.”
For those of you with short memories, it was the second week of September in 2014 that the mercury slid below 20 degrees and we were blessed with about 14 inches of heavy wet snow . . . bringing down some trees and loads of branches.
The city allowed people to pile all those limbs in the parking area at Prosinski Park and the County pitched into move all that to a spot near the sewage plant to be burned later.
And in 2016 the area got about three inches of rain at the end of September. Had it been colder, it would have been a repeat of the “tree disaster” two years earlier.
That year one of the locals said, “That was a great rain . . . I had almost three inches in my rain gauge.”
“Well, up where we live northwest of town we measured three and a half.”
“I can top that! We had almost four inches at our place.”
And then a retired rancher from Powder River spoke up.
“I left one of those five gallon buckets outside near the garage and used yard-stick to measure it.”
The coffee group was quiet and waited for his report.
“How much was in the bucket?” one of them asked.
“Just a trace,” he said. “The bottom of the bucket was cracked.”
Not much hope for moisture like that for the fall of 2021, and we are seeing a few livestock trucks hauling cattle. That’s a sure sign winter grass in short supply and hay has reached the “tipping” price where selling the cows makes economic sense.
Old Bad News says this is all a being caused by the same people who put stuff in the Covid vaccine that caused his cousin’s left testicle to swell up and turn purple.
Most of the other Bench Sitters believe senility will be a smooth transition for old Bad News.
Stay healthy, remember to get your flu shots and we’ll write again next week.
