<TITLE>02. Par 5-8</TITLE>L-5 It usually falls my lot during a time to speak a little bit to the audience on a Gospel message. And they asked me Sunday afternoon to--if I would preach, or try to at least. And I'm not a preacher.
As I heard your pastor, one of the pastors here, Brother Richey, on the broadcast this morning, I thought, "My, if he's setting on the platform this afternoon, my, what would I feel like." But I... Only thing I can do, is do the best that I can for God's glory. I'm uneducated, have many defects that way that keeps me from being a preacher. I'm not a preacher.
I often made this little statement before starting in the message... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

L-6 One time when I was a little boy, my father was quite a rider. He could just ride, break horses, and so forth.
Frankly, that--it was in a riding match when he met my mother. And he was about nineteen years old, eighteen or nineteen, and she was fourteen. They got married. And I was born when my mother wasn't quite sixteen years old yet.
But I always liked to be like my daddy, for I thought someday, when I was a little boy, when I got to be a man, that I was going to be a real cowboy. That's a big word to say in Texas, ain't it. But... They say that's the home of the cowboys, so...
A little fellow like, you know, and reading Western Story magazines, going to picture shows, and so forth. Well, I thought the height of my ambition was to be a cowboy. Just wait till I get to wear those chaps, you know, and boots, and the great big hat, and... Oh, I was--had great enthusiasm.

L-7 So when I was about eighteen years old, why, I went out West, out in Arizona to be a cowboy. I run off from home.
And I had a little practice 'fore I left home, of riding. I used to take the old plow horse, old. And I'd plow him all day, and the poor old fellow couldn't hardly get back up to the watering trough to get a drink. I'd get the harness off of him, and get me a handful of cockleburs, and lay it up under the saddle, and pull it down, and then jump up on him.
And poor old horse was old and stiff, he couldn't get up. Tired, you know, he just stand there and bawl and jump up and down. I'd take my old straw hat and hit him. I'd say, "My, if I'm not a cowboy."...?...

L-8 My little brother and them would set on the fence and laugh at me, you know, and give me a great big hand, 'cause I was real cowboy. I thought, "Wait till I get out West. My, I'll show them what a cowboy is from Indiana."
I went out West. I remember the... I had enough money. I was going to buy a pair of chaps. I thought I had enough. I went out. A great big pretty pair that had A-R-I-Z-O-N-A, and the bottom had steer heads like that, two big brass buttons for his eyes. I thought, "My, them looks pretty. Try them on." I put them on.
Can you see one of these little banty chickens with the feathers down his leg, that's about the way I looked. There's about three foot of leather laying out on the floor. Them boys are long legged over there, too much for Indiana.
I seen all that; I thought, "My, I'd be a beautiful sight pulling all this leather down the street like that." And I thought, "What a... Um." So I thought, "Well..."


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