Show Jit r i mi Ail -- -i C ifta r wd-- fim 10 vfers1 J fevr I Thomas Brumley's Common Ground rattler Bella's Tail Tbonui Brumlcy By ' 'if we are going to a smile on his lips But break thla mare for you his eyes were aflame with to ride" the old man and 1 knew he was said "there is no way !lce alive with hives and to do it but the old way the itch to tell his I been feeding her for tale For the moment 1 three years and ain’t was templed to ruin his been on her back yet fun Just for the fun of it That’s 'cause there's two turn tail go back behind of us needed for this the barn find a rope to kind of thing and Nora snub the mare who stood don't count Now you're all the while with her here so let's do her right nose against the rail There's some rope there swishing her tail daring behind Uie barn tio find us to catch her and not me some and bring it say another word letting him burst with the preshere” The old man had prosure of it all But I could mised to teach me to ride nut 1 bit for the bait 1 like a child bought him a truckload of new alfalfa but "You trained her” I would not take any money asked for it knowing full well “Of course 1 did" he the size of his Social said with practiced in"You don't Security check and Nodignation ra’s check and the lessuppose a diamondback sons were his payback rattlesnake could learn The mare was a Sorrel to play Yankee Doodle on her mother a registered the piano all by her lonequarter horse her sire some do you? Not even a full Arabian And we a big city snake could were to break her and be that smart' I was to ride her or so "That snake plays Yanthe old man said lie would kee Doodle unlhepiano?” do the breaking and I "No not anymore she would do the riding after don't ' the old man said oh so very sadly "But he had done the teaching This made sense I had she used to before she became all stretched out of no ambition to accomplish ' - -- "ff couldn't any anything elegant I waited only to sit atop the more keep the beat” "Oh 1 Lee Now everyhorse and have her walk me here and there I did thing comes clear When not want to carry the did this all take place?” "Well it's a kinda long mail If the old man said it could be done It could story but I'll shorten her be done I did not think down for you so’s we can the old man was a liar get to the mare before I walked behind the that storm which is just back where we now Mowin' across the barn stacked the hay earlier mesa down a ways as you that day shooing the can see breaks and drenchickens before me and ches us down” The old spooking the heifer who man climbed up on the lay by the hay achewing rail and I climbed up her cud She went and lay beside him In the disa tance there was rain beside her mother and the once prominent Jerwoman from gentle feature? of the earth could sey who each morning and each evening gives not be seen But the garup her good sweet milk den was finished and the without complaint In a rain would do nothing but corner by a cedar post soften the ground The there lay an old gray coil old man spoke of rope I reached for it "Remember 1 told you about that old boy me and The rope began to rattle him rode together down You may say a tired rattle you may say a worn to Ely a bunch of years and weary rattle but a back?” "The guy who spent all rattle nevertheless Then the rope moved from the that time in the slammer stde of the cedar post and then got straight?” "That’s him Yeah that to Uie shade of a tumbleweed bush The rope was old boy’s the one introa snake A very long duced me to Bella’s mosnake I did not measure ther" "Bella?” this snake it is true but I think it was fifty feet "Bella’s the snake’s name” long Maybe sixty feet J Jt i ? Maybe 'tf' Two days later when I come downstairs I heard the piano agoin’ again but something was Just not right 1 don’t know may be the tune was right me and Nora And all of that happened JiikI as I told it” U The rain began seemed as if it would not The Sorrel mare stop sensed we were through for the day and walked into her shed She did not take her ’eyes off us when she passed But we owned no rope and she was safe Bella was safe as well The old man and i jumped off the rail ran to the house dried our boots by the fire weather rmiit- u many que- mi obtaining flre- fie National lute rested contact ict Ranger or ei1 - Id ervsor -- J' t of f i sr tlon run- - tinits and the it off ur maybe the rhythm OFFICE SUPPLIES of the thing but when 1 The walked over Ui the piano and took a loohsee whnd-yknow but that rattler Times-lndcpcnde- Thursday November to Obtain Firewood Fa ‘rational Forests Ha f i available dead ucria' hi'isctir nt for tat for biros certain specie? o it is desir Of! on able to leave dead log: for protection of tin' Management Dave Fordyce said that seedlings that are strug local Forest Service of- gling Tor survival Mos ficers arc available to National Forests have de help the public avoid ha- signaled ureas where thy and public cai safely gathea zardous situauin direct the management dead wood without dis- of these activities to prorupiiiig ths ecology "Wood is r good fuel tect areas of delicate ecosaid ?dr Fordyce “It s logical balance He explained that in clean easy startin some areas dead tree quick lica ing and has lnw content To he snag? are needed as habi Timber :t-- h 21 1974 B3 conserve gas and electrithe Forest Service encourages the use of dcadwuod for the purpose of heating homes” city The public is advised to consider all (actors especially safety when deciding to ublain firewood in National Forests Each person should check on weather and road conditions and should inform family or friends where ho will be traveling & a’ had given birth and the babies they were bustin' up the song Well right then and there I knew I just had to have one of them baby snakes for my own and the madam she was agreeable and ail so's I took the cutest one named her Bella after a lady I once read about in a bonk and took off fur back to camp with the snake in my duffle Shortly thereafter I give up cowpokin’ and started into ridin' rodeo I did OK after awhile bought me a pickup and a stock trailer could carry two horses and me and Bella traveled Just about everywhere In this whole damn even country together New York City where I once rode rodeo in Madison Square Gaiden But that’s another story you see As 1 say Bella was about the only company I had in them days the only steady company bein’ before I met iiy daughter’s mother and long before I met Nora here which was afterSal-l- y Rita’s ma died Well Bella cornin' from the mother she came from I didn't have no trouble teachin' her to play van-ke- e Doodle nd every ro- deo town we hit why me and Bella’d pick up spare change just splayin' in the where bars around a course no one would ever believe six foot diamond back rattlesnake could play Yankee Doodle on the piano without mis-sia note Boy did we have fun! Well to make n' a long story shorter as I say Bella would travel sometimes up in the mb of the truck just a siltin' in the sun aside me and sometimes she would climb back behind the seat and sometimes she would even crawl across the trailer hitch and ride back in the stock trailer with the horses "Weil don't interrupt The little hairs that line went along I Everything the nape of my neck were me no more anyhow fine for five or six years stiff and very suddenly just hate to be interrupor so 'til one day just my bladder was fuller ted when I am in the this side of Boise 1 had of a story It a funny feelin' I can’t than ever I had felt it middle makes me forget Now to bv I plaited a perlooked around explain oiled retreat where was I?” fectly ' and couldn’t find Bella “You and the old boy in none of her usual to the iral I do not spots ” from Ely know if the old man nolooked behind and seen the well "Oh that stock ticed tli a quaking rhyyeali right thm of my knees but 1 old boy he told me about straight behind me but am quite certain he heard just the best old house fifty or sixty feet back their bear echo up and of ill fame a tired cowboy I come to a stop as quick would ever hope to find as I could down my spine and there' was "Got the rope?” the in all his life and me Bella aholdin the trailer old man asked with a and him took off for it to the truck the hitch one Saturday night back unstuck and forced easiness everything "The rope? Oh well in ’thirty two ’thirty saved by the snake who 1 reah see what I want to three as best as was of course ruined fortell you ah you see this collect I don’t want to ever after that stretched might be dangerous for go into all the details as she was Since the heifer I mean for all of Uiis was away betime she’s tr VXS llfd the chickens yes you fore I ever even picked wherever 1 coiled unin my duffel know chickens are very up a Bible let slone id since I derstood word a to snakes is single been susceptible here she's ” I could but as I say on the way that there ehind the barn Piano was I was upstairs the barely speak Rita was growin’ bein’ a Yankee played frightened Bella was her best as perfect'' "Snakes? What the licit Doodle I and sometimes pet c could be and over are you running wlj' j think for sure the only about boy I asked you to looked closer seein’ reason Rita ever visits X lho thing when find a rope so’s we ccn anyone aplnv she visits is so snub this mare to the post the firsJpXKikcd there she ran sec Bella not and in the time you been have man might gone a found a dozen ropes” The old man certain knew something wrong but in hi I Limited waited for tha ie to be Special Offer told in its eS dme AND CARRYING CASE "LookX nat I am trying A you is there McCuBoch’s MH Mm 39 (Murat l big I is rattlesnake in back euJnengtnwabi14l oproofcM noee bar uie barn Do you want and automata oMng Ife overyMng you shoot the thing or noodle cut Mas pro 4 'I s “Oh” more Who knows was this heri six foot diamondback pickin’ away with her tail on the keys and not a human being within ten feet of the thing "That there is only one of the most Interesting thing about this place’ my bud- 4y said before he closed the door to his room Well he was only partly trailer Polaroid Film iQlor Pack 108 travV Jw S -- S1 -- re Shooter V240 jS en active in Little League jyy y xyS f Maroid Health stopped rodeoin’ She’s snake and I helped train her but ever since she's no the accident good anymore Kind of retired you might say good for absolutely but I keep her around for old time's sake” The old man said this with a straight face There was not even the beginning of 1 my nu-thi- Special otter inductes a can of two cycle englno qI and the tnwt chaw aw carrys'g caw available Rugged double-waite- d comtructon protecto your mw trom dbt and damage LoteT of Polaroid & Beauty Aids Spcciih Alka Seltzer Tabled Trac II Injector Blades mfella Balsam Shampoo $1AA95 what?” "Of course there’s a rattlesnake a back of thq Site lives there barn Lives there for the last fifteen years Ever since 5" $XTO Cmera Eeh Ss s y Color Pack dinette I Protein N0 li?G 21 Hair Spray 59e Pk0f5 69c Bottle 01 25 lOz $34 Reg- - X Hold Unstinted 13 Oz i 19 storage room tor Ctea wedge extra spark plug and oL n' or VALLEY HOME & AUTO 1 VALLEY SHOPPING CENTER juy I U ICV'll 0000 THROUGH WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER £ RESERVF THE i?1SHT TO LIMIT umw -- 9 v 7 QIMHIITCt NONE SOLD TO DEAURf WMrfuaniamnHhaMiwMMwmawwamiWHauauaia i - ’r- t |