Stay in Touch

Stayin’ in Touch

By Mike Capron

I am a hard rock miner… looking for a little heart of gold!I should’ve been a cowboy—Learned to ride and rope like Gene and Roy…Oh, I should’ve been a cowboy!

Lucy said, “The world must be flat… because when they leave town, they never come back.”Small Town Saturday Night!

An old man once told me, “Stay in touch. It will keep you young.”My granddaughters invited Anne and me to the San Angelo Rodeo, and I figured that would be a wonderful way to stay in touch.Turns out it was a little more excitement than I expected.

I was thoroughly impressed with the San Angelo Rodeo. We truly enjoyed it and had no idea San Angelo could compete with Fort Worth and Houston. It was in the same league.

But the real treat came afterward, when we had to leave and find our car in the parking lot. It was raining just enough to get us wet, and our granddaughters were in charge of getting us home to Christoval—about 18 miles. We got soaked before we even found the car. Add traffic, rain, and lightning to the mix, and it made quite a night.

My oldest granddaughter, Macy, had just gotten her driver’s license. I figured this would be a good test. She drove us to Whataburger, got us a sandwich, and then drove us the rest of the way home through heavy traffic, rain, and plenty of water on the road. She never made a bobble. A beautiful way to stay in touch with your family—and to gain even more faith in your granddaughters.

Macy and Emmy did a beautiful job getting their grandparents home and to bed.

I’m going to be busy today…Got to get ready to watch the Kentucky Derby—Sure beats getting on a boat!(Unless you’re a sea captain and need to be afloat.)

One hundred and fifty years says a lot for any event to stay alive, not to mention a five million–dollar purse if you win the Derby.Churchill Downs—147,000 people with fancy attire and big hats, twenty beautiful horses and their jockeys—all make this the best show on the first Saturday in May.

We were busy, but we had the TV on the Peacock Channel ready for the Derby.Another event I wanted to see was happening at Fort Lancaster. Art has always taken precedence over horse racing for me, and a great artist was performing there.

Kinley Cohen from Sanderson, Texas, was demonstrating an art form thousands of years old—flint-knapping. He was a master, a historian, and a joy to watch. Perfect reference material for my paintings. I bought three flint points and one made of steel barrel hoop material, which he gave me.

We made it back home in time for the Derby preliminaries. It was raining at Churchill Downs, but rain never stops the race. I thought it would ruin it, but it didn’t seem to affect the horses much—other than mud everywhere. I couldn’t even recognize my horse or jockey; they were so covered.

The best part was the filming afterward—shots of the winning horse with his face covered in a sheet of mud. You couldn’t tell his color or markings, but his eyes told the story. He loved to run. He was having the best time of his life out there.

Shit or blood, grease or mud—he loved to run!