Poem by Bruce Kiskaddon

His Old Clothes

The chuck wagon trailer had just got his card
To attend the spring round up. He stood in the yard
And studied a minute and scratched his gray head,
Then brought in a gunny sack out of the shed.

He emptied it out on the clean kitchen floor
And took a good look at the clothes he once wore.
Yes there was the hat, stained with sweat and with grease
And some faded worn Levis that bagged at the knees.

A brush coat and chaps that were scarred up and wrinkled
And a pair of big spurs that still jingled and tinkled.
A pair of old boots and a heavy wool shirt,
Two long hoggin' strings and a Mexican quirt.

He grinned mighty cheerful and said to his wife,
"I'll give them old waddies the start of their life.
I'll wear my old chaps and my boots and cross L's
I was wunst a brush popper, a rider from Hell."

His wife sure looked wild when she heard what he said.
She begun to get mad, she was sure turnin' red;
Of a sudden she changed and she said with a smile,
"Sure, put 'em on Daddy and wear 'em a while."

The first was the shirt. How that old waddy swore.
It jest wouldn't go on and it ripped and it tore.
The boots they jest wouldn't go onto his feet
And the old Levi pants was too small in the seat.

In the last twenty years he had gained forty poing
And the old leather brush coat it wouldn't go 'round.
Now chaps on a street suit don't look very well
And them low oxford shoes isn't built for cross L's.

If he wore decent clothes he could not wear the hat
So his plan to play cow boy was finished at that.
He would have to go dressed like he always had done
Though to wear his old outfit would sure have been fun.

But his woman she really surprised him at that
Fer she got him new boots and a new Stetson hat.
He got in the front seat but she drove the car.
You know how old fellers with younger wives are.

When he got to the round up he met all the boys
And had him a day such as old folks enjoys.
He looked 'em all over and right then he knew
They had all wore the clothes that their wives told them to.

1. The Ghosts at the Diamond Bar
2. Summer Time

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