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Old 11-27-2013, 02:13 AM
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walkin jack walkin jack is online now
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Location: Whitesboro, Texas
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I used to feel the same way but as I got older and older those reality checks started kickin' in. The allure of the cool looking guns and the romance of sittin' around a camp fire out on the open range with a pewter coffee pot bubblin' and a pan of beans and bacon filling my nostrils with those aromas mixing with the smells of sage brush. Laying on my back under a blanket with my head resting on my saddle and looking up at a huge full moon and a sky full of squillions of stars. Having my trusty steed for companionship and the peaceful feeling that comes from solitude.

I can close my eyes and see myself pushing my way through bat wing doors into a saloon on some dusty street in some frontier town. Walking up to the bar and ordering a shot of rye. The odor of cigar smoke and the tinkling sound of the piano in the corner adding to the ambiance of the place.

Taking my best gal out for a buggy ride and a picnic by a quiet little stream in the shade of a little stand of willow trees at the waters edge. Cold fried chicken and boiled eggs and unrefrigerated beer.

But the older I get, the more I understand the reality of my existence. For one thing I'm going to be 70 years old in June. I am 99.99999% positive that I'll make it easily and beyond. But one of those realities I've mentioned is that I'd probably have been dead for years had I lived in the mid 1800s.

Even if I'd died of natural causes which could even include something as simple as an abscessed tooth or chicken pox or an infection from a simple cut or injury that got infected and went systemic, I'm sure I'd not have made it as far as I have living in THIS time.

But with my luck I'd probably have died very young. Kicked in the head by a horse or shot by a bandit or what have you.

And I never get very far if I start thinkin' about all the stuff I have that I wouldn't have ever know about if I'd lived back then. One of the main things is air conditioning. I don't see how ANYONE lived around here before that especially trying to sleep at night while sweating like a pig.

But one good thing about living back then; nobody had to put up with the aggravation of a computer or a cell phone!
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