One of my fondest memories of growing up in Murdo was of the day my cousin Valerie and I played Rawhide. I wrote about that fun-filled day in one of the little Murdo girl stories. I’m republishing it today because it’s Valerie’s birthday, and I hope the memory will make her smile.
Thank you, Val/Lav/Baba for making me smile over and over through the years, and now that we’re 70ish girls, we’ve still got a lot of good stories and laughter ahead of us.
Hafty birthday to one of the sweetest and dearest people I know. I love you bunches.
Here’s the story.
One day, my cousin Valerie and I decided to play Rawhide. Valerie rode Mark’s horse Prince, and I rode Guv out to Aske’s ranch, where they have a bunch of milk cows. We were having so much fun herding those cows all over that we decided to spend the night. I volunteered to ride back to town to get some supplies like food and matches. I already had the saddle off Governor because he was pretty hot from running those cows all over, so I rode bareback. The ride back was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. I really didn’t feel like riding all of the way back to Aske’s, so I went to my cousin Mark’s to play. It didn’t seem like such a big deal until I saw Aunt Ella, (Valerie’s mom), drive up in her pink car. She was looking for Valerie, and when I told her that she was at Aske’s ranch, she said to get in the car. Well, I must have forgotten that Valerie had both saddles, so she just couldn’t have hopped on Prince and ridden back. It would have been hard for me to find my saddle if she’d just left it in the pasture. Valerie wouldn’t have done that, anyway. As it was, I had a little bit of trouble remembering exactly where I left Valerie. When we found her, she didn’t say much except that she was hungry and did I even remember to get food and matches. Thankfully, Aunt Ella didn’t hear the part about the matches.
We decided we weren’t going to play Rawhide anymore because we found out it’s not really good for milk cows to run that much. Valerie and I feel guilty every time we see Mrs. Aske working at the Super Value Store. We never heard anything through the Murdo grapevine about Aske’s having cow trouble, so I guess it turned out okay.
Those 70ish Girls 
Where were the Askes when you were busy wearing out their milk cows, Mary, and how far out of town was their place? And how many hours passed between the time you left Valerie and found her again? Poor Ella. I imagine this wasn’t the first time her darling daughter and niece pushed her buttons!Happy Birthday, Valerie.
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I think Aske’s was about an hours ride from the west side of Murdo. I remember our original plan was for me to get matches and beg for food at Don’s Cafe which is now the Buffalo. I don’t know why Aske’s didn’t see the 2 Rawhide hands. I think the field wasn’t near their house. It was definitely not the first or last time our behavior didn’t match Aunt Ella’s expectations. We once had to hide in the shower at my house when we almost got caught spying on a party in the basement. We also climbed through a window to feed the sparrows I was hatching in an incubator. I lost the key and I was staying with Aunt Ella and Uncle AL while my parents were out of town. Fun times.
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You too are still pretty frisky!!
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