Slone Rides Again!

For about the last month my daughter Alexis, has been asking me to come to her class to tell a cowboy story. At first I thought she was just asking me but then about a week ago I received a note from her teacher. The note said that Alexis was asking her if it was OK for me to come tell her second grade class a cowboy story. That caught me a little off guard.
Now, all these "cowboy stories" comes from long family car trips. My kids get a kick out of hearing me tell western stories of hard riding, shoot em ups. But I have never told them in front of 30 seven year olds. Well, after doing a little research, just to make sure I have the facts straight, I showed up to tell the story of Grub Gulch and the Black Kid. What a rush! I can kind of see how the great cowboy heroes of the past, The Lone Ranger, Gene, Roy and Hoppy, may have felt! Just walking down the hallway to the class room in my cowboy action shooting clothes and the looks I received was way cool. Nobody had anything bad or smart to say. When I entered the class room, the eyes of these kids told the whole story. Never had I seen eyes get so big and such big smiles. Well I told my story, answered a few questions about the old west then with a big, "Adiós" I was out the door, but it didn't end there. As I was leaving, the upper grades, 4th - 6th, were getting out for lunch. They were lined up and I had to walk right through all of them to get back to my truck. More looks and some "Aww...look at those things on his boots!" Then a teacher came up to me asking if I would go back and tell the kids in line about my spurs, she had tried to talk about them but wanted them to see real ones. I was more than happy to comply and took the opportunity to spread "the cowboy way" with the kids. I showed and briefly talked about my spurs and then added how horses don't like to be kicked hard with them. I told them that asking the horse with a gentle nudge with the spurs works best, just like "asking someone nicely will get ya farther than kicking fer what ya want"
It was so cool! Kids, teachers even the school principal got a kick out of my visit. The only thing that was a bit of a downer was a older lady who saw my SASS (single action shooting society) badge and asked if I was a "law officer?" I told her no and she seemed a little pushed out of shape, but that was all.

What a time I had, but this may be the kicker. All the while I am writing this, N.B.C.'s To Catch A Predator is on. In case you don't know, it's a show about grown men targeting 12 and 13 year girls AND boys for sex. I think of these wackos and think of the smiling faces I saw yesterday and I gotta wonder, what would Gene, Roy and Hoppy think?

Oh, and if your wondering about the story of Grub Gulch and the Black Kid, "Ya just needs ta ask me bout it pard!"