Howdy!
Recently I’ve come to appreciate memoirs more that ever before, people writing down their stories or story. I’ve always liked reading biographies and better yet their autobiography because the information comes first hand. I’ve encouraged folks to do that: edited their writing, helped them organize their writings into heading and I’ve recorded their stories over the telephone and transcribed them. Sharing stories has become a big part of what we do at MHCP when we post stories on our website. It may just encourage us to write our own. (Note to self, I need to start doing that!) It’s the perfect means to learn about old-times — the hardships faced, the games played, activities engaged in and the list goes on.
The best surprise for me has been Fred Kennedy’s memoir. What a lesson in history it has been to have a ‘first hand’ chance to ‘meet’ folks and ‘hear’ about events I’ve known about or want to know about! Though he has long passed, I’d love to thank him for writing it all down, especially for as rare a find as his story about the famous horse, Midnight. That’s the beauty of putting it on paper (or on video) as MHCP has done and continues to do. How about putting it into rhyme and rhyme to music. That is the means by which stories live on. Here’s hoping you enjoy those we’ve added to our website this month.
Rodeo ***New Series!***
Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry is excited to present a new feature series that is all about rodeo. Cowpunchers and such, the rodeo hall-of-fame and everything in between. Jen and Cheryl recently attended the Pioneer of Rodeo Award to barrel racing legend, Monica Wilson. Tune in to the MHCP July newsletter for more about this Canadian Professional Rodeo Association inductee.
In this month’s newsletter, the first Rodeo legend to be featured is bucking horse named Midnight.
Midnight is a legend for being the greatest bucking horse in North American rodeo history. He was born at Fort MacLeod and Alberta is where he spent the first 10 years of his life, and it’s where he won his first championships. It is said he’d never been ridden (full regulation time was 10 seconds at the time), not even by world champion bronc rider, Pete Knight. There is only one place I’ve ever found information to the contrary. Pete Bruisehead from Standoff did make “a clean competitive ride” according to Terri Mason, editor of Canadian Cowboy Country. Midnight was the first animal to be inducted into the Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame.
- Midnight – Biography
- The Day Midnight Was Bought: The story was a treasure to discover, it’s first-hand from Fred Kennedy who was there and knew the people in Midnight’s world. It’s also the story of him helping a friend fulfill his dream. It’s about how the worst of broncs was also one with an even temperament. He was incredibly big, and being halter-broke, kids would lead him into the bucking chute. It is said he showed pride when he bucked off his riders but was also careful not to step on them. In the book the story was all but hidden, not a headline, just a set of paragraphs sandwiched between the rest of the experiences and those he encountered in his life.
- Letter from Jim McNabb
Very special thank you to the Stockmen’s Memorial Foundation for their generous contribution of photos and the Jim McNabb letter. The Stockmen’s Memorial Foundation is a non-profit registered charity that relies largely on donations to stay financially viable and to continue to commemorate the Canadian livestock industry.
New on the Website
New Newsletter Logo
You may have noticed our new ‘Keeping You In The Loop’ logo! Special thanks to Cheryl Dust and the Toastmasters club for their creative efforts!
Harry Forbes Remembers:
I recently received, from Harry’s daughter (Helen Carrierre), the manuscript for Harry’s latest book which he completed in August, 2022 (he died in September, 2022 at the age of 104). In it, some stories are repeated and there are new ones. Folks have requested access to his stories, so it was decided MHCP would continue to post his stories, which was what Harry had wanted us to do. We start from the beginning of his last book, including interesting and related parts from his former writings.
This month, we’ve added one story to our “Harry Forbes Remembers” series:
Yarns by Ol’ Ugly
Once again this month, we are privileged to have this well-known storyteller inventing interesting characters that live around here and has them getting into unusual situations in places you can almost recognize. Ol’ Ugly has shared two new stories with us this month:
Penned by Bev Biggeman ***New Series!***
We are excited to introduce a new series of stories penned by a good friend of Medicine Hat Cowboy Poetry, Bev Biggeman!
You may remember her from her interview with Emily Mastel Schmaltz.
This month she brings us another story from Rosalie Reinbolt (nee Beaudry).
Library Corner
What I’m reading is available at the Medicine Hat Public Library:
Alberta Was My Beat: Memoirs of a Western Newspaperman
by Fred Kennedy
Produced by The Albertan, 1975
971.23 KEN
In telling his life’s story, the author has the reader learning about the times he lived in as he meets influential people and tells intimate details about events as he experienced them. He visited every small town in southern Alberta as part of his work, so he knew about and often did articles on anything noteworthy. He toured much of the U.S. as he publicized and directed rodeos all over North America. His writing is chock-full of interesting tidbits.
For instance, he was twelve when he left his home in Ireland and came to Calgary with his parents. The day before their reservations to cross the Atlantic were confirmed, they got the news that the Titanic had sunk. Two months later, upon nearing Newfoundland, they saw the huge iceberg that the Titanic hit and pieces of debris floating on the water as well as boats hunting for bodies.
He describes how in New York he accidentally met Al Capone, the famous Chicago gangster. I didn’t know Al Capone had cauliflower ears, a flattened nose and a “long ugly scar which extended just above one ear and down to his chin.”
He was a reporter on horseback at Canada’s first and only Thirty Mile Horse Race that we posted about in our Country Stories video series. Several excerpts of his book are featured in our new stories about rodeo and the bucking horse, Midnight.
Cowboy Lingo
Cowboy Vernacular for Old:
- crony – an old time friend
- buzzard bait – an old, worn out, emanciated horse
- darn old bathersmith/scallawag/hen cranny – a woman referring to a man she doesn’t like or heard derogatory stories about
- donkey years – a long time
- fogy – someone old and maybe not smart in modern things (He’s an old fogy.”)
- hack – an old overworked horse
- old duck/ strange duck – an unusual or peculiar person
- Old Country – term used to refer to natives of a country in Europe who had immigrated to the U.S. or Canada.
- Old Dan – a trustworthy mule
- oldermost – the oldest
- old pod – an old man
- Old States – back east folks, people from the eastern part of the U.S.
- old woman – the cowboy cook. Though the cook was usually a man and often the most popular man on the cattle drive, cooking was still considered to be a ‘woman’s work’.
‘Old’ Idioms:
- go the way of the horse and carriage/go the way of the dodo – to become outdated or obsolete (“The cell phones have caused landlines to go the way of the dodo.”) A dodo is an extinct bird.
- money for old rope – money very easily obtained (“They pay me highly just to give advice. It’s money for old rope.”).
- no spring chicken – no longer young
- put out to pasture – to force someone to leave a job because of old age
- old gray mare – old fashioned something or someone that is aged, obsolite or outdated (allusion to the folk song’s opening line, “the old gray mare she ain’t what she used to be”.) It’s somewhat derogatory.
- old war horse – a slave, a plodder, a machine you can depend on for heavy and prolonged use
- tune the old cow died of – advice or complaints instead of actual help (refers to an old song about a farmer who serenaded his cow about the lack of grass instead of feeding her).
Poem of the Month:
Velma Pancoast is a MHCP member. We’re glad to be helping her organize her stories as she writes her memoir. She suggested our newsletter include the poem by Glenn MacKenzie. (He was the Medicine Hat cowboy poet.) The Pancoast family knew Glenn well. Velma’s daughter-in-law does it all (like most ranch wives): drives the tractor and machinery, she looks after the cows, the husband and the kids (in that order), she filled in at Velma’s office when needed, she is a marvelous cook … We all love her, including her school bus kids. That’s who Glenn MacKenzie had in mind when he wrote:
The Rancher's Wife
by Glenn MacKenzie
She comes in assorted sizes—
Short medium and tall,
She can ride a horse or drive a tractor
And still be belle of the ball!
At brandin' time she feeds the cowboys
And mostly does it all....
....she is a Rancher's wife!
In blue jeans she is right in style
With that fresh rose in her hair,
Her day begins at dawn and ends
With that moon high in the air,
She's a mother, and a sweetheart
And her heart is filled with care.....
....she is a Rancher's wife!
She's a-waving hand as her children's
school bus goes on down the road,
She's a bowl of hot soup to an ailing
neighour that she has know'd,
She looks 'rite pretty in the
fine garden that she grow'd....
....she is a Rancher's wife!
She gives the nation self-reliant daughters
and good honest sons,
She is strong and willing to help any
or all the unfortunate ones.
She feeds the men who feed the world
that quality beef by the tons....
....she is a Rancher's wife!
Even dressed up in Fifth Avenue fashion
She can bake a batch of bread,
And she comes in different hair colours
Blonde, brunette or red.
She's as modern as tomorrow and old-fashioned
As yesterday, it's said....
....she is a Rancher's wife!
MHCP welcomes poem suggestions to be featured in a newsletter. Please contact our president, Jen with your suggestions by email MHCPPresident@gmail.com or by phone (403-529-6384).
Some Parting Wisdom
“The mud will fall off but the memories last forever.” — E.E. Cummings
Happy Trails,
Jen for short
