An Original Cowboy

1919-2011

My Grandpa Lee Foster Brimhall passed away yesterday.  I just want to remember a few things about him.  He was a month shy of 92 years old when he died, and oh, the stories he could tell...and poems (pronounced po-EEEEM, but only one syllable). 

He was gored by a bull.  What else can I say?

He was a square dancer.  I am not sure if he did it to humor Grandma, but nevertheless, he was a square dancer.

He was a cross country runner at the U of A.  He picked the wrong school, but we will forgive him.  Every time I saw him he asked me how far I ran that day.  His theory was that if you could run for a mile without stopping you were in good shape.  I love it that we shared a love for running.

He had a bolo tie collection/fetish.  Can ya blame him?

The summer after I graduated from HS, so the summer of 2000, I took ended up with some of his old Levi's.  I wore them and they fit like a glove.  I still have 'em somewhere.

Belt buckles.  He had the best belt buckles.

I loved hearing stories about his mission in Palmyra, NY.

I love that he loathed environmentalists.  He loathed them before Rush Limbaugh and his ilk made it cool (depending on your position) to hate environmentalists.

He really was awesome.  It's sad that all the original Cowboys are dying.  I feel like I got a lot of my toughness and meanness from my Grandpa's cowboy heritage (by way of my dad, of course, who is also tough and mean).  I also think I learned my love of the outdoors from him.

Love you, Grandpa!

I also wanted to leave you with a little ditty from Lee Foster Brimhall.

Cows and Methane Gas

I read a piece sometime back

In the local paper

About research on methane gas,

It seemed like quite a caper.

Because it was to measure

What methane gas cows put out 

What it did to the ozone layer

Was what it was all about.

So then I wondered what they’d do

If they thought it was bad, 

And how they’d go about it

If the figures that they had 

Showed that it had depleted

The ozone layer some

And if they didn’t fix it

How things would then become.

Earth warming was the problem

Cows might contribute to

And what would be corrective tings 

That they might try to do.

I wondered what they had in mind

To install some control

To prevent cattle methane gas 

From taking such a toll.

Would they make plugs and cork ‘em 

Or put diapers on the cows?

Or maybe they’d recycle

That methane gas somehow.

Or train cows to use burp bags

And install hoses and fixtures.

In my mind it sure did form

An interesting picture.

I wondered if they plugged ‘em

How long before they’d blow?

And if those corks went flying

How high up would they go?

Up to the ozone layer

And poke a hole in it?

And cause the environmentalists

To have another fit?

So I just keep on wondering

About the tings we’ll see

When those ‘Do Gooders’ put the world

Back where it ought to be.