PEOPLE WELL REMEMBERED

As we go through life we collect memories of a few people who stand out from all those hundreds we have known and appreciated. They exhibited some trait or characteristic that stuck in our mind and will not let us forget them.

HENRY PULLAN

The first person I remember is Henry Pullan who lived on the old Tewksbury Ranch when we arrived in Pleasant Valley in 1920. Henry had a few head of cattle along Cherry Creek south of the Valley. He also had a small orchard which was irrigated from Cherry Creek. The first time I remember seeing him was at our elementary school when he dropped by with a wagon load of ripe peaches as a treat for all the kids. The look on his face as he watched all those youngsters eat peaches was unforgettable. He enjoyed watching as much as the kids enjoyed eating.

Later I was privileged to ride with Henry and some others with a trail herd to Holbrook. Henry loved to entertain kids with all kinds of yarns. The two of us were riding together south of Holbrook on our way home and Henry told me about stealing calves from a neighboring ranch in Texas. He said there was a sand covered area between his ranch and a large neighboring one and that the wind would blow sand around early every morning. He just caught two calves and led them over the sand hills. The wind then came up and covered his tracks. He claimed to have built up quite a herd, two calves at a time.

Once we were riding through an area of bare rock and Henry assured me that the Lord had put his kids out to finish the area and that the kids had begun to play around and had forgotten to put any dirt on the rocks. He added," That's the way kids are and you always have to keep an eye on them because they would rather play than work."

As we rode along we noticed a large gray horse on top of a hill beside the trail. As we got closer we could see that the horse was fast asleep. Henry said, "let's wake that son-of-a-gun up. He rode right up beside the sleeping horse and yelled while slapping his leg with a rope. The horse reared up and turned toward Henry coming down across his horse's neck in front of the saddle. Henrys's horse kept his feet only by backing out from under the sleeping gray.

It was all a big joke to Henry but we both knew that a horse who has been eating loco weed is unpredictable. The gray went right back to sleep.

VERN GILETTE

I cannot say that I knew Vern Gilette very well but I can say that I admired him from some distance. Vern was my idea of what a cowboy should look and act like. He was rather slender in build