<TITLE>04. Par 14-17</TITLE>L-14 I remember this little... I don't believe in telling jokes from the platform, 'cause it's not a place to joke. And I wouldn't want you to think this was a joke, because I don't believe in it from the platform.
This is... Just a little something, you know, about... When I was first ordained a--a Baptist preacher, my, I was so happy to get that Bible. And I just carried It everywhere I went. Because beforehands I thought nothing but a sissy would pack a Bible.
And so... I used to box all the time till I got my ears beat down one time. I got up to win the Bantam Weight Championship of the Three Falls Cities and then in a match. And then I thought no one could whip me, and a little boy from... Billy Prick from Huntington, West Virginia, like to killed me one night. So that taken it all out of me. But I'd had fifteen professional fights and won them all. So then, he sure fixed me on the other one though. Ha.

L-15 So then I used to always say when I was... Them days I thought, "Well, a preacher, he was just a sissy. And I just thought maybe someday I'd have to preach." And I just thought that would be the biggest sissy that could be. And then after I got saved, oh, my, I wanted to carry that Bible. And anybody, I just liked to tell them I was a minister, was a preacher.
And so the Missionary Baptist Church gave me a local exhorter license, giving me the right to marry, bury, baptize, or so forth in the state of Indiana. And then I thought, "Oh, my. How wonderful."
Somebody say, "You a preacher?"
I'd say, "Yes, sir. Yes, sir." I was happy to say a preacher.

L-16 And just remind me of... My father was a rider. And he was a very good shot. He used to follow shows. And he'd take guns, and he was one of the best shots I believe I ever seen. He'd take those great big marbles, and roll one of them out like that, and when it stopped rolling, he'd have two guns. And he'd take one gun and shoot and knock the marble up in the air and burst it with the other gun before it hit the ground.
I couldn't hit a lard can setting out four feet in front of me. So I was a long ways from being like dad. But he liked to ride. And he would just break horses.
That's where mother met him in the... When they was in Oklahoma, he was breaking horses. And he was a very good rider. So when I... Say, "When I get to be a man, I'm going to be like my daddy. I'm going to be a real bronc buster."

L-17 And I remember I used to... When I'd get the old plow horse out you know, of the day, and when we'd plow all day. And the poor old thing would be so tired. It was old anyhow. And the old watering trough was hollowed out of a piece of log.
How many every seen an old log watering trough? They was a bunch of southerners in here today. How many has slept on a straw tick? Say, I'm not the only country boy here, am I? No, my. That's as--as America as hickory smoked ham and sorghum molasses, isn't it?
Now, we'd get down there on the back by the barn. And--and I'd water the old horse. And my little brothers, I'd line them all up, and I was the oldest of them. And I'd get on this old horse. And I'd get dad's saddle, and get me a handful of cockleburs and put in under the saddle, you know, and pull it down, jump up on him.
Poor old thing so old and tired. He'd just bawl, you know. He'd hold his head down and bawl. And he was trying to buck. And he was to--he was too stiff. He couldn't, and tired. And he couldn't get his feet off the ground, you know. And I'd take this straw hat off and just swing from side to side. I thought I was a real cowboy back there and just swaying around on this old horse like that, and...


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