The History of Old Vaquero Sayings

 September  14, 2024

   We are currently living in the era of Choose Your Own News. And, it must be noted, it is almost instantaneous.

   On the other side of the universe, way back when I was doing my first Illustrated Life & Times book—1992—I wanted to track down the source of a quote I intended to use and the quote, "History is a cruel trick played on the dead by the living," was perfect, but I couldn't remember who said it, so in those ancient times, I had to find a phone book and look up the telephone number for the Phoenix Public Library and when I called the main desk I had to ask for the Reference Desk. Minutes later, I was transferred to a nice woman who asked me how she could help me. I told her the quote and asked her if she could look up who said it and she said she would try and would call me back "in a couple days." When she finally did call back, she told me she went through all their "card catalogues" and couldn't find out who said that quote, and since I was going to press in about 17 minutes, I punted and labeled the quote as an Old Vaquero Saying. It was a total pull it out of my rectum kind of deal.

   Oh, and if you Google, "Who said 'History is a cruel trick played on the dead by the living'?" you will get a cheap laugh, as I did.

     Meanwhile, 32 years later, here is a sneak peek at the cover of our hand-printed, special-limited-edition of "Old Vaquero Sayings." 

   This groovy little collector's item is being printed down at Cattletrack Arts Compound by these two cats:

Brent Bond with OVS cover hot off the press

Mark McDowell artist extraordinaire

   The guts of the OVS book will be printed in the next two weeks and then we are going to have a hand-stitching and collating party at Cattletrack and if you want to join us, you can. Oh, and did I mention? If you buy a book you will get a free set of Old Vaquero Cerveza Coasters.

A Free Set of Old Vaquero Cerveza Coasters

   And, if you want double ironic, we just offered a dozen "Hellraisers & Trailblazers: The Real Women of The Wild West" signed both by me and the late Jana Bommersbach for $100 each with all the proceeds going to The Friends of The Phoenix Public Library, Jana's favorite charity. They sold out in a matter of minutes. So, what comes around, goes around.

"My greatest skill has been to want little."

—Henry David Thoreau