What to say to someone who wants to try on your hat

November 4, 2019
   For some reason, some people back east think our Western lifestyle is a joke of some sort. 

   Here's what you say to Easterners who ask you stupid questions:

"Can I ride your horse?"

"Can I wreck your car?"

Can I try on your hat?"

"Can I try on your underwear?"

   They don't quite get this, but try it. It offends so many people, and that makes it all worthwhile.

   I was honored to attend Robert M. Utley's ninetieth birthday party last Friday night. I sat across from the birthday boy, who regaled Paul Hutton and myself with the story of interviewing the last survivor of the Little Bighorn fight! So to be one person away from the Greasy Grass battle was, to say the least, exciting.

Along with the birthday boy and wife Melody (top, left), were Melody's two sisters, Bob's son Don, Marv and Jane Kaiser, Don Fixico and wife Michelle Martin (right, foreground), myself and Paul Andrew Hutton (top, right).

"Every child is an artist until he's told he's not an artist."
—John Lennon