Issue 34  -  December 10, 2009  -  Page 3

It is mighty cold, these days around
the ol' Circle P Ranch. Time to remember
those people and critters who are often
out there in the cold.

NOTE: The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum is located at 3400 Mt. Vernon Ave., Fort Worth, Texas 76103. The executive directory of the organization is Gloria R. Austin. She graciously gave us permission to use the following photograph from their newsletter (You can sign up for the newsletter at cowboysofcolor.org):

                                                                            Joe Beavers (World Champion calf roper), Jim Austin (founder of the NMWHM),
                                                                                            Barry Corbin (movie star and member of the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame),
                                                                                            Dean Smith (former Hollywood stunt man; 2009 inductee into the NMWHM)and
                                                                                            Doug Harmon (historian) at the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum
                                                                                            2009 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Banquet, Saturday, November 7,
                                                                                            2009, Fort Worth Sheraton Hotel.

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Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle

Our long-time saddle pal Kit Collings sent us a copy of a video clip titled, "Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle" . It is not a real good sign when a cowboy sells his saddle. It usually means that he or she has thrown in the towel and is giving up on the cowboy life. And the phrase "Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle" is usually a recommendation from one Westerner to another that the person should keep on doing what is right and not give up. Not only does this video have a very good message in song, but it has some beautiful photographs as well. Just click on the blue link, above.



Montana Lullaby

Ken Overcast, that song-singing Montana cowboy, has chalked up another nice honor for himself. Ken writes: "After having been fortunate enough to receive a career full of national awards, including the prestigious Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists, we were recently honored again as our tune, 'Montana Lullaby' was selected by the Montana Legislature to be 'The Official Lullaby of the State of Montana.'

"Wow.... what an honor!

"HB594 was officially signed into law by Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, and as a way of saying thanks, we want to share it with the whole world."

Congratulations to Ken Overcast. We're proud of you, son! So, here ya go cowboys and cowgirls. Just click on this link and you can download and keep a copy of his really fine song, "Montana Lullaby" .



Cowboy Church
Woodward, Oklahoma -- The Woodward Cowboy Church meets at the Woodard Livestock Auction Yard on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm, starting the 7th of January. Contact: David Simmons, Phone 580-579-9789

Guthrie, Oklahoma -- There is a cowboy church meeting in Guthrie, now. But I have no details.


Radio Time
You may listen to a lot of Western swing music on KSEY radio (94.3 FM, Seymour, TX) via their web site at www.radioksey.com


Peggy Paregien
Ah, yes, Peggy Ruth Paregien. Many of you know the bald-faced truth that the far better half of our duo is my wife Peggy. She is completing 14 years of work (hard and stressful work, as I can personally attest) as a reservations/customer service agent for Southwest Airlines at their call center just north of the airport in Oklahoma City. It was largely due to her stand-by flight benefit and her flexible work schedule that we were able to flit about the country to various cowboy festivals and elsewhere. Now she is officially retiring on December 31st.

Fortunately, she has worked for SWA long enough to qualify for that free flight benefit for life. So we hope to do even more traveling next year. In fact, we may be coming to an airport near you. We have never been to Idaho or Wisconsin or Minnesota, so those are high on our "wanna do" list for late spring or summer. We also want to get up to Council Bluffs, Iowa to see friends we last were with in 1977. And we want to take in, as well as hopefully perform at, many more cowboy festivals than time has allowed in the past. But my main point, here, is just to publicly thank her for not only making so much of our travel possible but for being my lover and best friend. Love ya, Peg.


Curly Musgrave

On Monday afternoon, December 7th, we received this email from Western Music Association advertising manager Lindalee Green, quoting Marsha Short, WMA Membership Director:

"Our great friend, Curly Musgrave, has been diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor. He is currently preparing to undergo chemotherapy so that he has time to spend visiting with his grandchildren and spend his remaining time in dignity and grace. We continue to ask for prayers for Curly and his family."

That is certainly not the diagnosis and prognosis that we have all been hoping and praying for. However, it is now time to circle the wagons and give comfort and aide to Curly and his family as only the WMA family can.

If you are not familiar with Curly's wonderful talent, you can get a taste of it by watching a video that I recorded in November, 2008 of he and Belinda Gail singing "Wild Montana Sky".

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Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
---Robert Schuller

Whew, there's some mighty good advice in the quote above. I clipped it from Kathy Camden's fine newsletter. It certainly describes the effort we put forth in producing this CowboyDirectory.Com Newsletter and in maintaining our web site. Lord knows, we'd like for everything to be perfect. Every word correctly spelled, every dangling participle caught and banished, every cockeyed layout neatly corrected. Sure feels great on those rare times when everything fits just right.

Truth is, though, such moments are few and far between. Most of the time it comes down to either getting it done with some imperfections or not getting it done at all. Bet you experience the same thing in your own work and personal life.

So, our thanks to those of you who send such nice notes about how much you appreciate and enjoy the newsletter. And thanks also to the few who point our our errors and shortcomings, because we will try to make corrections as we have time. We are just glad that you find this newsletter worth reading, as we do work hard (and darned cheap) at it.

My wife Peggy and I wish you and your's a very merry and sacred Christmas.

Uh, . . . that's Christmas . . . with a capital C, pard.

Adios until sometime in 2010.

 

End.

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