Ramblin' On And On

About the Book

This book consists of stories pertaining to the activity of my life since I was a young boy until the present time as an old man eighty-three and a half years old. I have had many experiences in my life time and I wrote these stories as they came to mind. After looking through the list of titles, it seems I wrote about the things that happened currently and then as those reminded me of other things in earlier years I’d write about them.

One of the last stories I wrote is one of the most precious memories of my life. “Gains from memories of an old model T Ford.” I was seven or eight years old – the youngest of four boys. I watched my older brothers tinker with this old car and learning the principal of how an engine runs. Even today, the basic principals of how an engine runs is still the same. All my life I have been around machinery and almost always would think back on how this old Model T engine ran.

The first sixteen stories do have continuity. They are about going into the service of my country during WWII and the different phases of military basic training and the radio operator training I went through and my over seas service. Next, I wrote about my first car – a 1934 Ford 2 door. This car had doors opening from the front so you better not open a door going more than fifteen miles per hour! Wind would take a door off if going much faster!

My wife and I planned our first (and last) house in 1947 and have added to it three time over the years. We plan to stay right here as long as we can be of service to each other. Sure would hate to move – can you imagine how much junk collects in a home and garage in 60 years? Whooee!

After my service tour I decided to go into the service station business. That didn’t get me rich so I sold it and went back into the custom farming business. (farming for others) This kind of farming required a lot of equipment such as several tractors and equipment for all sorts of operations. I stuck with this custom farming and farming the home place until my retirement in 1998.

The Pipe Gun story is quite interesting and maybe dangerous too.

I wrote of Creating Running Water – this was done by elevating a tank but still had to get on top to pour the water into it. I had a brother who wanted to fly – he even jumped off the house using an umbrella as a parachute and did other weird things. However, when in the service he became a pilot and flew 103 missions over the Burma Hump.

For several years on the farm we had no electricity therefore we used wood for fuel in the kitchen range and heating in the winter. Here, I added in an extra story (joke) about one of my dogs that had it out with a raccoon in a hollow log. One time my Dad was using an old shot gun that I had acquired from another kid and I had made a firing pen for. He finally got a chance at a huge turkey gobbler but had lost the firing pen out of the gun. Whose fault was it?????

The next two stories are about a primitive way of fixing food. The next story is about a mother cow that both my wife and I thought to be gentle. We found out that her new born calf when handled made a big difference.

Finding out that mountain oysters are a very good dish when fixed right after a lot of years of working cattle. A large cow absolutely going mad/crazy – all she wanted was to get through the corral fence and get me. It took two days to get her in a trailer so I could haul her to market.

We four boys were playing in a reservoir of water on a farm our Dad was farming and I fell or walked into water over my head and one of my older brothers pulled me out.

A good friend of mine comes from A&M University to hunt on his uncle’s ranch near Carrizo Springs and I hunted with him. The next story was not revealed to my Dad until several years later. After we four brothers were out of the service and

About the Author

Dale Walker was born April 5, 1924 and as yet, has not lived out his entire life. Living on a farm as a young boy he learned what real life was all about. Learning what responsibility was by taking care of farm animals and doing the actual farming operations. He rode a bus to school twelve years and then serving his country in WWII three years. After the war years, he married and raised a family of three and both he and his wife are retired enjoying their children, grand children and great grandchildren and writing stories of their past.