Wednesday, April 16, 2025

A Cherished Fake Billy Meets A Discarded Whip Out And They Both Win

April 16, 2025

   Sometimes the goofiest, off-handed things can change your life.


The Fake Photo I Bought for A Quarter
at The Longhorn Museum, On Old Route 66
near Moriarity, New Mexico
1958

   I was telling the story of how I acquired this bit of roadside hoo doo to the high school kids in Roswell last Thursday and I could just tell they thought it was kind of lame, or, worse—hokey, but there is no doubt it changed my life. As I told them, you can draw a direct line from me finding out the photo was fake to me running True West magazine for 26 years. In a bit of weird irony, it is framed and hangs in my office. A cherished bit of bogus history.

   Go figure.

   Sometimes I find quick studies from my failure piles and think to myself, "Hmmm, what was I thinking? I kind of like this just as it is!"

Daily Whip Out; "One Grumpy Bastard"

"Lying about the West in general and the Southwest in particular has been a cottage industry for over a century."

—Charles Bowden

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