Welcome To The Bullpen
A Century Ago
By Harold Ratliff
As a child growing up in a town so small,
I often dreamed of being a cowboy riding tall,
In the saddle, on the range riding herd,
just me, my horse, and the songs of the bird.
I grew up watching John Wayne, the Rifleman, The Lone Ranger,
Fighting bad guys and evil, fearing no danger.
The good guys always won with their actions so swift,
And evil was banished, like a log set a drift.
Today life comes at us ever so fast,
I catch myself dreaming of times from the past.
There’s cars and buildings, and people galore.
There’s no satisfaction, always more, more, more.
It’s hurry to work. Must climb the ladder,
boss to impress, clients to flatter.
Life today, always go, go, go.
There seems no time for life to be slow.
There once was a time life wasn’t a buzz,
where everyday had a simpler cause.
A time where one’s values were true,
and men set out under skies of blue.
The work was hard, the earnings were low,
but an honest days work, made the world go.
No e-mail to check, television to watch,
your word was gold, as were your thoughts.
The shake of a hand would seal a deal,
Nothing taken for granted, one had to feel,
that life was to precious to rush right through,
and GOD called when ready. Everyone knew.
When men like Charles Goodnight, a former Texas Ranger,
Oliver Loving, and John Chisum, while shunning danger,
forged new trails, bringing cattle in need,
from Texas to Missouri and places between.
Where cowboys fought Indians while riding the trail,
letting nothing but death stop them while riding through hell.
A job they had and a job they would do,
to Abilene, Kansas, all the way through.
A century ago, in the Wild West as we call it,
is a part of our history we should never forget.
I have often wondered if living those days,
had less stress to manage, or just different ways,
of living one’s life, in a different time,
a simpler life where there seemed no rhyme,
or reason back then, that the ways of old,
only existed, a century ago.
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