"Hard Times"

Jim Bamberry was a product of the depression era. He recalled, "During the hard times I took whatever job came along. Mostly I roamed from Canada to the Mexican border shearing sheep. A lot of the ranchers and farmers couldn't pay in cash so they would give you wool, meat, feed you and put you up, or if you were lucky they would give you something you could take down the road and sell for a couple bucks.
"When I was a young man I was moving furniture and fell down a steep crooked old stairway. It banged me up but I never really thought about any long-lasting effect until after I had been shearing for several years. It got to the point where at the end of a day I ached all over - legs, shoulders, back. Doctor said it was arthritis from when I got knocked down the stairs."
"Along came World War II and I enlisted in the Army but after a couple weeks they mustered me out on account of the arthritis. I came home, worked part time on a ranch and had a sideline buying and selling cattle. Did that for several years before I could afford to pick up a small piece of property. It gave me a base to work from and I added to it whenever a good deal came along.
"Over the years I built my little spread into a working ranch. Raised cattle. Rode horseback ever7y day, enjoyed the wide-open spaces. I was living life just like I wanted. But my arthritis got worse and finally it was just too painful for me to ride. That was a terrible realization, that I couldn't ride any more. I sold my horse and started selling a few head of my cattle at a time. It would've been too hard to sell them all at once.
"Then one morning I woke up and I didn't have one cow to my name. So I whistled for my stock dog, took down my fishing pole, blew off the dust, and went fishing."

Story by:
Rick Steber
Tales of the Wild West
vol. 4