Yup, my name is Shiny.
Iffn youse don't know why then take a look under my hat.
I wuz
born in 1825 in a shack next to the Mississippi River. My pa
worked on a steamboat. When I wuz just a tadpole he dun died
in a steamboat fire. As you might have guessed we didn't have
much money, but we wuz happy. I remember runnin' along the banks
of the Mississippi with my younger brother and sister. That
Mississippi Mud used to make my ma crazy. She tried to scrub it
off'n our feet, but our feet just stayed black. Wanna see?
I worked on the steamboats untill 1852 when I went to California fer to get rich in that there gold rush in San Francisco.
It were hard work but I managed to find myself a few shiny nuggets.
I ain't got them now and I didn't get rich. I turned them
nuggets into whisky. Well, it was
hard work and a man's gotta be good to hisself, don't he?
Once
I run outta money I had to find work. So, it was easy enough to
move from the front of the bar to behind the bar. I wuz a
bartender fer a while, but them earthquakes they had there were scarin'
the livin' tar outta me. I didn't like the fog nun too much,
either.
I began driftin' south workin anywhere's I could.
I wuz a ranch hand, a field plower, a barn builder, a bronc buster, a
storekeeper, a sheriff's deputy, a tax collector, a road builder, a
buggy fixer, and I even hooked up with some bank robbers. I dun
been chased out of some towns 'cause I cleaned out the pockets of sum
lousy losers with my poker playin' skills.
What I want to know
is why am I tellin' you all of this? It ain't none of yer
business. Unless, of course, you got a hankerin' fer to play
poker.... |
Charlie
Meyerett has retired from teaching high school. He still coaches
high school golf. He dons his striped shirt in the fall and referees high
school wrestling in the Inland Empire.
Charlie has three sons
and is married to the Guns and Garters' webmaster/photographer, Kay.
Affiliations: NRA |
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