by Baxter Black
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ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATORS
CHARLIE MARSH was born in the midst of the Second World War and was, you might say, a prototype for the baby boomer—not the successful and prosperous model selected for mass production, but the other one. He was born with an inexplicable and unshakeable desire to be a cowboy but with no aptitude for that or any other profession. Relatives with vivid imaginations, thinking they recognized objects in his childish scribbling, in fearful desperation encouraged him along those lines. In retrospect, it was probably not so much encouragement in that line as much as thoughtful discouragement in all others. However these things happen, he became what might by broad definition be called an artist—not the prolific and famous sort, but the other. As for being a cowboy, he has pursued that lifelong ambition with far more enthusiasm and much less success, so that today you might refer to him with equal chance of error as a “cowboy artist.”
Fortunately, he is married to a woman whose talent and useful abilities more than cover his deficit. He, his wife, Pat, and her mother, Vade, live on a small farm about forty miles south of Muskogee, Oklahoma, in Briartown, which would be, had its aspirations been so lofty, a wide place in the road. Between unclogging toilets, painting fences, and hosting events at the Gooding County Fair, DON GILL saddles horses and fixes motorcycles for his children, Hailey and Jordan. On occasion he will draw a cartoon.
Don and Denise Gill live in Gooding, Idaho, with their children, their petting zoo of animals, and a stray teenager or two.
Like any boy born during the great baby boom in the U.S., BOB BLACK yearned to live the American Dream. Alas, due to a fluke in the hospital paperwork, which listed his birth country as Uganda, this dream would be hard to fulfill.
As a preschooler he taught himself to forge a series of ten-day visas using only an old mandolin nut, some coal oil, and a farrier’s apron. Spending every spare moment creating documents gave him little time for socializing until, as a senior in high school, he discovered that the average government-issued visa was good for a year or more. Suddenly, Bob was on top of the world! But, at that altitude his nose started to bleed. Even so, his dream came true.
He and his wife, Stephanie, and their daughter, Samantha, make it all happily happen somewhere in the deserts of central Arizona.
As a professional domestic bovine management technician, DAVE HOLL spends most of his time involved in ag-viro perimeter containment engineering and equine adolescent behavioral therapy. His hobbies include semivintage automotive mechanical perpetuality and drawing pictures.
Dave lives in the bustling suburbs of Klondyke, Arizona, with Jan, his understanding wife.
1 From A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. University of Chicago Press.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
BAXTER BLACK is one of the bestselling poets in America. In the tradition of humorists like Robert Service, Mark Twain, and Will Rogers, he examines his corner of Americana and sheds light on the whys and the why nots of humanity.
His job, as he describes it, is to “turn over our sanctimonious stones, locate our flaws and foibles, and wrap them in hunter’s fluorescent orange. To nudge that fine line between good taste and throwing up in your hat.”
Baxter can be seen “on the road” entertaining the agricultural masses, heard on National Public Radio puzzling the urban intelligentsia, or found in the company of interesting domestic and nondomestic beasts.
He lives in Cochise County, Arizona, amid the cactus and Gila monsters, and runs a few cows. It’s not a bad life.
OTHER BOOKS BY BAXTER BLACK
The Cowboy and His Dog*
A Rider, a Roper and a Heck’uva Windmill Man*
On the Edge of Common Sense, the Best So Far
Doc, While Yer Here*
Buckaroo History
Coyote Cowboy Poetry
Croutons on a Cow Pie**
The Buckskin Mare**
Cowboy Standard Time**
Croutons on a Cow Pie, Volume II
Hey, Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?
Dunny and the Duck†
Cow Attack†
Cactus Tracks & Cowboy Philosophy
Loose Cow Party†
A Cowful of Cowboy Poetry
*Included in Coyote Cowboy Poetry
**Included in Croutons on a Cow Pie, Volume II
†Included in A Cowful of Cowboy Poetry
Copyright © 2002 by Baxter Black
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York. Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com
THREE RIVERS PRESS and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Black, Baxter, 1945–
Horseshoes, cowsocks & duckfeet: more
commentary by NPR’s cowboy poet & former large
animal veterinarian / Baxter Black.—1st ed.
I. Title.
PS3552.L288 H67 2002
814’.54—dc21 2002023149
www.randomhouse.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-42092-3
v3.0