Belle Lights Up The Fair
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas where our one tree that turns colors in the Fall has finally turned and here it is in all it's glory!:
Lol..ok that's fairly lame compared to all the fabulous Fall scenery I've been seeing posted here lately but at least we have one splash of color. I'll take the 60's and 70's in temperature in exchange for colors anyday though.
History doesn't have to be boring
Well I usually talk about some history on this blog...interesting characters who had fascinating lives. I cull through the boring records and research material and just bring out what I think is interesting and that's what I'm doing in my latest series about Belle Starr who was branded The Outlaw Queen because of her numerous robberies.
In the last post she and her husband Sam were in Fort Smith because Sam had turned himself in for robbing a Post Office. But when the city officials found out she was in town they wanted her to take part in their annual fair and that's where we left off.
Belle punishes the Weasel some more!
Remember when Belle did an interview with that little reporter who wrote an article full of lies about her and she caught him in the Courthouse and trashed him good?
Well, in one of the most humorous turn of events after Belle took part in that fake stagecoach robbery was when she rode up alongside the crowd and that mousy little reporter guy that I dubbed "the Weasel" was in the crowd.
Apparently everyone knew how she felt about him and knew about the hit piece he wrote because a bunch of the guys picked him up and ran up to Belle and threw him up on her horse behind her.
She spurred her horse and bolted off at full speed around the ring with the Weasel holding on for dear life and the crowd roaring in laughter!
His hat flew off and his spectacles were coming off as she took two runs around the field. When she got back to her starting point she reared her horse up on it's hind legs and slid the Weasel off in a heap! lol.
Belle puts on a shooting exhibition
One of the bands that performed there in Fort Smith was from Belle's home town of Carthage, Missouri so when the local newspaper, the Carthage News, did a write-up about the band they also gave a detailed description of Belle's exhibition:
"While in Fort Smith the Carthage bandsmen saw the noted Belle Starr. Talk was that she was under sentence for outlawry as a result of a recent trial; being deemed trustworthy, was permitted to give a riding and shooting exhibition just the same...
Riding a horse bareback at full gallop, she broke clay pigeons and glass balls with rifle fire while in motion, varying the performance by leaping from the animal while moving at full speed, breaking more glass balls and clay pigeons from the ground with her rifle, then leaping back on her animal as it galloped past her again, still at full speed and continued her firing."
Dang that's quite a show! Of course they made a mistake in saying that she was on trial because it was Sam who was on trial but this write up made her quite a celebrity back home too.
At this point in her life she probably could have written a book about herself and retired wealthy. After going on a country-wide book tour of course. I wouldn't be surprised if her life of crime is over. But...old habits die hard.
Thanks for reading folks, Belle's story continues tomorrow.
-jonboy Texas
the gentleman redneck
ps- ya know...you might just be a redneck if:
Your dog can smoke a cigarette!
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Howdy there esteemapp! Thank you so much for the upvote and God bless you for helping so many people!
Excellent job again @janton, I appreciate your consistency. I didn’t realize you’re doing a daily research as well, bravo on that one too.
Eh, what if your dog can buy a pack of smokes? Does that count or the dog specifically has to smoke it for you to be a redneck?
haha! Yes your dog has to smoke it but don't worry, I'm sure there are other ways that you qualify as being a redneck, just wait. Everyone has a little bit of redneck in them that I've seen anyway. lol. They MAY not want to admit it though.
As far as research, yeah all my history posts are researched so I'm doing that every day. State historical societies, U.S. government archives, state archives, research books, online sites like wikipedia and biography and specific Old West sites, etc etc. I get information from different sources that I find credible and then after I study them I just tell stories in my own words and sometimes I can make them interesting.
In other words, I spend way too much time on something that might make a dollar! lol. Two to four hours for most of my posts although I've been trying to make them shorter because several people have told me that my posts are too long.
Why, can your dog buy a pack of smokes? lol.
I wish my dog could! I haven’t had a dog since 2013, the same year my mother left, actually. All black German Shepherd, her name was Rook. ( I’m a chess player)
Just like I’ve been counting the days to move, that count also includes the next time I get to have a German Shepherd.
I really enjoy those research projects! I’m actually releasing another one today about a concert we caught the other night. I’m so exited for it!! It’s been finished since Thursday and I’ve just been working on edit waiting for today, this afternoon.
(I’m combining your other response)
About Miss j. I don’t think Steemit would be as fun for her or anyone of it was actually a means of support. It would probably turn into any other ‘job’ at that point and be despised on. But, what do I know?? Fortunately, I get to do this out of fun and interest, with each day the idea of boredom drifts farther behind.
Not three year anticipation, 2. We began this move in December 2016. There’s a lot of steps @janton. Whenever someone asks me something like “but you’ve already sold everything you own, what’s the big deal?” I could say something like.... “you’re in Nicaragua and have a rash on your stomach.. what do you do?” (That usually gets the gears moving and then they start realizing the steps that must go into leaving your country.. I didn’t even mention forwarding mail yet. How do you do that when you no longer have a mailbox?) <— things like that. No, I haven’t written anything about the journey yet, this is the first. I’m excited to land and really start posting!
Conroe, when my mother was here, she had an exhisband whis family was from Conroe. I’ve been all through that state, Dallas is miserably muggy and hot, Conroe was even worse! Oh my gosh I couldn’t stand it.
That must be why I like Austin so much!!! Man I really enjoyed it there. It’s been about 3 years since we were last in a Texas and we spent one night in Austin. Great little city!
You talk as though Steemit is your only income, is that the case? Is it just you and the wife under the roof these days janton? What were you doing before Steemit? Or what’s your thing when you’re not on Steemit? Sports, education, investing, what’s your hobby?
sir dandays! oh..Rook was beautiful! I can understand your looking forward to getting another Shepard when you move, that will be perfect! You have so much in good posting material, just the things you are working on in everyday life like the challenges of setting up this move!
Hey I'm supposed to ask the questions! No one asks me questions so I never have to talk about myself and yes I'm one of those rare people that would rather not! lol. That's why you can read my posts for a year and find out that I live in the country in Texas and that's about it.
As far as our situation in business...we started a real estate company from scratch in Ohio in 2002 and built it into a large successful company. We worked for the banks processing the homes that they foreclosed on. It was an insane, stressful, emotional, wild business but I truly loved it, it was my dream job and the money was good but the time it took was nuts.
We worked 12 to 17 hours a day 7 days a week year round, straight through Christmas and all the holidays, there was never a break, the banks intentionally saw to that. So after 12 years my wife said she couldn't do it anymore so we took a leap of faith after finding a suitable, private place in the country in the South and moved down here. I didn't want to leave yet I wanted to stay and save up for our retirement but that wasn't going to happen.
So ever since we got here 3 years ago we've been looking for work with no luck, just part time stuff that didn't work out. We also wanted to help people, we had worked with ex-cons in Ohio and had alot of experience with ex drug addicts and helped quite a few to get back on their feet.
We want to do that here especially for women because while there are lots of programs for men there is very little for women for some reason. So God put a desire and a dream in our hearts to purchase a ten acre property which lies against ours, we want to put a half way house for women back there or a place for them to stay and recover while they get employment etc.
The problem is that we have no funds and we have no connections or influence in the court system. So we decided that we needed to develop those but how? Well Mrs. J knew that if she worked for law enforcement in some capacity that she could develop the right contacts and work her way into a position of influence.
She was hired a month ago as a county jailer working for the Sheriff's department and from there are all kinds of connections to the court system, judges, attorneys, etc. they promote rapidly from the jailer position those who show ambition, take classes, etc and she is already starting to meet bosses and legal professionals so this plan is working. To basically work our way into a position of influence through the back door and bring in an income at the same time.
We know we can help alot of women and even save lives with this project and it's bigger than either of us can pull off so I truly believe it's a God-given plan. And that is more than I've talked about myself since I've been on here!
I’ve got a great idea @janton. You’ve mentioned the lack of big trails and tiunjust tokd ne what you don’t do. Give me some days, sir, I have just the plan for you. But I’ll get it to you in the shape of a post.
I’m battin’ 1,000 these days @janton, just go along with it. 😉 I just needed to be sure you were ok with it, you just showed me you are.
Great to be met, janton! God is the coolest dude in this conversation. I’m looking forward to that ‘shape of a post’ thing I’m already working on in my head
But to keep this comment section going, how many times are you going to about the question, here it comes again, janton, one question and one question only. You ready for it?
Friday’s. Food fight Friday. Kitchen #fff. You know what I’m talking about. Well.... ?
haha! Howdy tonight sir dandays! I'm not complainin or criticizin but I have no idea what your first two sentences mean..like this one.."You’ve mentioned the lack of big trails and tiunjust tokd ne what you don’t do." I don't know what lack of big trails mean. We have a huge new mission and business though.
How did the big post go today, were you sweating? Also, I gotta go over there and catch up, I know I missed one about Calligraphy or something? I'll read it I just missed the vote day.
As far as the fff thing, I don't really do food or cooking. I've done some KETO dishes that Mrs. J made but she does the cooking if any gets done but we basically don't take time to cook it's just raw fruits and vegetables except a basic breakfast. Come to think of it, on Keto we eat very Spartan. Now, I know that the great thebigsweed said something similar and then he creates that masterpiece post with a fabulous breakfast but with me, I really AM serious when I say I don't make any food! lol. and have zero time to learn. We have 15 acres here with lots of work to be done on it so between that and the stuff I'm doing on steemit there's no time and no interest.
I read that sentence, too, like “where were you on that one autocorrect?” It should’ve said:
you’ve mentioned the lack of big trails and then just told me what you don’t do.
Big trails as in curie. Don’t do as in talk about yourself. I have a plan. But like any of them, it’ll take a minute. But I think I can curate you just enough to conquer both of those. 👍🏿
Oh man, I posted it today! Yes, I was a nervous mess! I’m not kidding janton, I was so excited for this one, I woke up extra early this morning and then couldn’t fall back asleep. I’m really proud of it. That’s so cool you said Calligraphy. The fact that you know one of the words in one of my titles is flattering.
About #fff, ok, just consider this. It’s a new piece to write about, it’ll add to your post count. It’s a real cool group of people. Well, it just has its perks! It would force you to write about something that’s not historically researched. I love talking about ingredients, that’s usually my food fight, ingredients or produce I’ve never heard of. Alright, I’ll leave that seed alone now.
15 acres? What are you doing with all of that land? How many hands does it take to run 15 acres? What part of Texas are you, what region (n,s,e,w)?
Howdy again sir dandays! what a glorious day it is here in North Texas with the sun shining and temperatures are mild too. I'm going to work through some of your posts today to catch up. I also wanted to explain about where I'm at as far as posting because I've done many different types of posts including the comedyopenmic types, food, Christianity, politics, etc. so I've only recently been doing exclusively the Old West type.
But the reason I'm doing the Old West type is because of popular demand. There isn't a day goes by that I don't have people writing and thanking me for telling the Western stories and more than you would think literally begging me to not stop writing about them! lol. Blows me away. So that's why I'm doing those at this time anyway and I would do other types at the same time but at my level of engagement there isn't any time left.
It's also a natural for me being raised on a big cattle and farm operation out by Dodge City, Kansas, growing up in a cowboy and farm/rural culture and guns of course, reaching a level of handgunning skills at a young age, so the genre is a natural fit.
I could drop people that I've worked hard to get to know but that would defeat one of the goals here and I really love talking to folks so I'll stay with my system and my niche for a little while at least. I mentioned you to Mrs. J and she is so interested to know more of how you made it, we both love to learn from successful people but I couldn't even tell her what business you were in! lol.
Howdy Janton, I see you have some lovely autumn colors, lol. Sorry for laughing, since our trees are all bare by now! But I am with you on the fact that better to have nice warm weather than few weeks of colorful trees and long miserable winter!!!
Anyway, now lets focus on the Bell the STAR of the show, lol. I can just see the weasel holding being here for his life, lol. That must of been an unforgettable scene; perfect for a movie!!! I you are absolutely right, she could have make lots of money if she wrote a book. And if she was performing her shooting tricks as a part of the signing to book tour, that would be even better. To bad she didn't know us back then; we could be the perfect managers, lol.
PS: Another hilarious redneck joke, although as an animal lover, I do not approve, lol.
haha!! Miss Lena howdy tonight! Oh the thought of a dog smoking a cigarette is ridiculous isn't it? You wouldn't want the poor thing to get addicted! But the image is funny and I suppose people have taught their dogs to at least hold a cigarette. I'm glad you liked that one, I should have looked online for a picture, I bet there are a few of them.
Yes, we could have been great managers for Belle, we could help her get rich! And that's a great point about combining the book tour with a shooting exhibition.
How are you and what did you do today? cook or do photo shoots for posts?
Oh yes, I bet there is a picture of smoking dog and also dogs playing poker, lol.
haha! I remember that one, that's a famous painting! lol. good one Miss Lena!
Oh my gosh, I didn't even know it is famous, lol.
We sure would, lol. To bad she didn't meet at least someone like us!
Anyway, my Sunday was fine, thank you for asking. Although, I did not do the photoshoot yet. I had to go to supermarket and do few other things, so I will do it tomorrow.
And how was your day Janton?
My day was very good Miss Lena but I didn't do much except work on steemit. Mrs. J worked so I had dinner fixed and ready by the time she got home. She gets up at 3:30am so she gets home at 6:30pm and goes to bed at 7:30! because of those 12 hour shifts, that makes it tough.
No way 3:30??? Well, as long as she is okay with that.
ha..you know what's funny Miss Lena? We were laughing about her schedule because she gets up at 4 am anyway so she only had to adjust her schedule by 30 minutes! lol. But when she goes to the third shift training is when it will be rough because she is a total early morning and early to bed type and always has been. But she'll adjust. We just don't want her to get assigned to third shift permanently.
Wouldn't it have been fun to be at that fair and see her antics! I suspect she loved being the center of attention!
well howdy today and tonight Melinda! Absolutely she did love attention, that's why she wore that outfit and rode all up and down the main street. Why, does she remind you of yourself? lol.That hat to be hilarious, that seen with the weasel!
Hey you did tremendous in the League! How did you do that? I thought you had too much going on last week? I think you're secretly SuperWoman!
Haha! I I'm really not sure why my numbers were as good as they were. I will certainly not expecting them to be that high, but was very pleased with how it turned out!
I'm certainly not much like Belle these days, but in my younger days? I am probably far too honest to ever be an outlaw, but I would have loved to have dumped that reporter off the back of my horse!
hahaha! I bet you would have too, that's too funny. Well if she hadn't started hanging around criminals she wouldn't have been one either I don't think.
The people in the League have changed, I mean the top always used to have Glen and Lynn. Well delishtreats has been busy and off the last 2 weeks so that's why she was out of it. But that's all great for you!
Smithlabs ran out of people to comment to, that one day he only had one comment come in so we started going back and forth because I wanted to help him... so I asked him all kinds of questions, the last 2 days alone we must have done at least 50 comments so that obviously worked.
How can anyone run out of people to comment to? That really is kind of you, and helps you out, too!
yes it helped us both but I didn't need it like he did, he would have placed under you if I hadn't done that, sorry. lol. Well, most of the people he was commenting to were newer or smaller accounts and they can't comment because of the idiotic rc system. I have the same problem and it's why my numbers are so down, it shut so many people out it's terrible but they don't care.
We all had that bandwidth problem when we first started. I remember getting so frustrated! We survived it, and I suspect they will too. If they just Keep On Keepin On before you know it they will have enough RC to not have to worry anymore. I'm okay with him being ahead of me. I like being in the top 10, but don't need any more than that.
very true. Well you have so many other things going on that take your time, you don't need to be doing even more. right?
Just nice to have that one bella to wake up to treat her well and feed her well :)
Morning janton, crime is so exciting for the general folk, lol.
Are you sure janton, that this redneck is not leaning on the bar with smoking dog?
haha! howdy angiemitchell! Well that is very possible and even probable! lol. that paints quite a picture!
Wait.... just one tree change of colors? What about the others?
howdy blacklux! well at least we have one here, none of them change colors in your country do they? lol. That's what was so funny about my one little tree and people should have got it unless they live in some other dang country overseas ya know.... but anyways the other trees don't change colors, they're evergreens and cedar trees.
Well, mostly they are green... and some just goes green to brown in a blink of an eye... no other colors here ahahah
Boy oh boy...she is UP then down, then UP then down, then UP and by your teaser line she will be down again!!!
haha! so true simms50 it makes for an interesting storyline for sure, I so appreciate someone who is actually reading them!
Great writing as usual ... fun stuff I THINK, but then I am from Texas and know that history is boring the way we learned when I was in school. It is more fun this way... :)
howdy today rebaccabe! yes Ma'am well it's alot more interesting if you aren't trying to remember dates and locations and such and just enjoy the story. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!
anytime :) keep writing