9 Things You Probably Don't Know About Me

Having been assigned the number NINE by California cousin-in-law Mary, here's my list. No doubt you know the rule; If you "like", I will assign a number to you, too.

9. I still have not finished that g**d*** degree!!

8. Once cut my hair (blunt-nosed scissors) in the style of then President Ike Eisenhower after seeing him on the TV. Hey, if it's good enough for the President....!

7. My Best Man (twice), wing man and all-around brother-by-another-mother has had my six for a freaking 50 years. Clear on the right!!

6. When my birth parents split, back in '57, Mom actually opened the discussion with me by asking, "How would you like to have a horse?"

5. I'm a dog man. Period. At least, I like to think that I am. But back in the day of "Gene and Tex, and Roy and Rex, the Durango Kid" it was all about horses!

4. If you really want to get my motor running, take me to a good old Rolling Plains thunderstorm. Let 'er RIP, Tater Chip!!

3. From the time I noticed differences between boys and girls and up to the first flush of hormones kicking in, I wanted to be a girl. 

2. I was gonna be a "Hardshell" Primitive Baptist preacher. Yeah, really! I even supplied for a small church in Abilene, Texas, for nigh on to a year as "training" prior to official ordination as an elder. Imagine, this left handed wing nut liberal coming out of the depths of fundamentalist conservatism. Did ya know that the late Sam Rayburn, legendary Speaker of the House of Representatives, was one of us? My Ma'maw and Gran'dad went to Mr. Sam's funeral and sat right behind the Johnsons and the Kennedys.

1. My alter ego, David Forest, is alive and living in an unpublished desk-drawer novel for, Lo, these past 33 years. He, too, has survived to the Age of Medicare, so there is no way now that he will ever accomplish all that we set out to do when his tale began.

BONUS FACTOID: I began writing formulaic, pulp fiction in the eighth grade at Barwise Jr. High to impress a girl in Mr. Conway's art class. As it turned out, she published long before I did. Still love ya, Karen!!