“Ray, Me and the Sheriff”

Ray and I were best buddies growing up, indeed we still are good friends, but hardly ever get to see each other, due to the vagaries and busyness of life.  I was privileged recently to be present at Ray’s mother’s funeral, Edith Petty.

Growing up, being only a few months apart in age (Ray is older), we found ourselves as next door neighbors also good friends.  We did many things together.  I believe I have already mentioned the incident with the pine trees, in which we demolished around 25 small pine trees with our new handsaws, a joint Christmas present.  These trees had been left to grow for timber by Ray’s dad for a new home yet to build.  We also found an old mule plow on the farm, with which we plowed a garden and managed to raise a few ears of corn.  We took turns being the mule to pull the plow.  I remember also digging a post-hole, for no apparent reason, just to see if we could do it and how deep it would go.  Edith made use of it after we tired of playing in the post-hole and planted a nice plant in it.

On this occasion as I recall, Ray and I would run up the hill toward my house, but always stop at the gate onto our property, which was built so persons would walk through, but not animals.  In this way it was a gate which required no locks.  It was always open, but nary a cow ever got through!

When we reached the top of the hill near the gate to my home, we would immediately turn and run down the hill towards Ray’s home, which was at the base of the hill.  Occasionally, we dressed as cowboys and had our make-believe cap pistols.  On those occasions an imaginary sheriff often appeared behind us and he would chase us down the hill.  The sheriff was, of course, out to arrest us for some perceived crime, although we never admitted to any at any time.  Nevertheless, it was exhilarating to outrun the sheriff and get to the safety of Ray’s home.

I do recall Edith laughing sometimes as we tore down the hill and arrived at her back door.  “So you outran the Sheriff again?”  “Oh yes, we said, we don’t want him to catch up as he might put us in jail!”

I am not sure whether we had been watching “Gunsmoke,” or something else.  I am sure we got this idea off a TV, as shows like this were popular at this time.  My favorite TV show was “Roy Rogers.”  He rode Trigger, his every faithful white stallion, was married to Dale Evans, and had a trusty dog, “Bullet.”

I have tried to reflect back on Ray and my friendship over the years and can simply say I have never met a better man, nor had a more faithful friend, although I have had some very good ones.  As I thought about our infamous Sheriff, who always seemed to be chasing us down the hill, I have come to realize we were imagining our own conscience.  We might outrun him, but he was every present with us, watching everything we did or hoped to do.  As young boys, we had been instructed not to play too far from home.  However, we didn’t need anyone to help get us home.  That ole sheriff did such a good job for us, bringing us home every day!

I do recall, however, that while the Sheriff was with us all the time every day, he seemed to have a stronger voice to call us home when it was time to eat our lunch!

Bill Wilson