Old Bill

A Person from my childhood

Bill was the year around hired man on the ranch for about 15 years.

He was about the same age as Daddy but he seemed older.

He always wore bib overalls. Daddy wore levis.

He stuttered a bit when he got excited or had a drink or two.

Bill seemed to be quite content taking his meals with the family,

Sleeping in the two room bunk house

Which featured a wood burning stove

And a sink with a hand pump and an outhouse.

Bill worked hard and was steady and reliable.

He didn't have a car.

On Saturday a relative would come to the ranch to get him

And would bring him back on Sunday evening.

Bill never corrected me or my sister.

If he saw something amiss in our behavior

Or danger in our actions

He would tell Daddy but he never said anything to us.

Bill was a private person and we really didn't know much about him.

When he died in his room at a residential hotel

We leaned that he had never married

And that he had served in the Army during World War II