After the Roundup Is Over

Sung by Erna E. Murray to her children

Verse 1:

A group of cowboys was discussing there pals one eve.

One said, “I’ll tell you something of you please,

Once I had a home boys, a good one you all know.

But I haven’t seen it since longs years ago.

When I left home boys for me my Mother cried,

I know she loved me, for me she would die.

Chorus:

After the roundup is over, after the shipping’s all done.

I am going straight home boys, before my monies all gone.

My mother’s heart is breaking, breaking for me that’s all,

And it’s God’s will that I see her, after work this fall.

Verse 2:

That very night this cowboy set out on guard.

The night was dark and storming, storming very hard.

The cattle got frightened, and on a wild stampede,

He tried to turn them riding at full speed.

But his bronco stumbled and on him did fall,

Now he won’t see his mother after work this fall.

Verse 3:

They picked him up, laid him on the bed,

He was badly mangled, they all thought him dead.

But he opened his big blue eyes a looking all around

He motioned to his comrades, sitting near him on the ground.

Joe you take my saddle, Harry, you take my bed,

Jim you take my pistol, after I am dead.

Think kindly of me, boys this is all,

I won’t see my mother after work this fall.

13. Niels Christen Nielsen & Karen Sophia Ericksen (Great-great-grandparents of Larry)

13. Erick Johan Nilsson & Maria Charlotta Eriksson (Larry’s great-grandparents)

It was so nice of you to call and visit with us for a while. I guess it was stupid of me not putting Monty on the line sooner, but I get the feeling that I would be brushing you off if I were to put him on the line before you ask about him, so I wait. But that is because I’m the dumb one as you already know. I am very sorry if I sprank a leak in the dyke. I wrote to Vern and he answers with a phone call so we talked with him last night. He is quite the guy, I had to hold the line while he opened the door for the cat to go out. It didn’t, had to hold the line again, kitty didn;t want to go out in the falling snow, so he said “Dam it, I got to hang up an get this dam cat out before it go’s under the bed”. He told me all the good qualities of that cat. Vern always like a cat, while kids at home after supper he would get our big ol Tom-cat in his arms an curl up in the wood-box that sat behind the range stove (name Steel Star) and fall asleep. Vern hauled in the winters wood , getting up at three o’clock in the morning and getting me up to get his breakfast while he got the team ready and hitched onto the wagon. They always got me up to get the breakfast because Della was hard to get out of bed. So I was the one that did that since I was twelve, and I was that lazy little kid they called fatty who turned the grind-stone for Dad to sharpen the hay knife. I rode the cultivating horse to cultivate the corn, and oh the big patches of corn and squash they raised those days. One time Dad hit the big ol slow horse on the rump to step it up a bit, and it jumped right out from under me and I lit on my right hand somehow and sprained my wrist. This made me sorta sick and I couldn’t eat dinner when we went in. But we didn’t tell Mother about it, she just thought I was tired. I got the afternoon off.

I carried in the nights wood. Douglas would pile it high upon my out-stretched arms, then run ahead to open the gate and the door for me. Then we gathered a box of chips for the heater-stove. It was me that fed the turkeys and rounded them up at nights. Herded cows with the faithful dog, Ponto. He was great. We had a little mare named Net. One time when we were speeding after the cows, she stopped so suddenly to keep from stepping in a prarie dog hole I went right over her head and landed right in front of her two front feet. She never moved. Then I would lead her to some higher mound to get back on as I was nevr good at climging on without a saddle. Always stiff as a board, so was Douglas. Pulled arms full of weeds for the pigs, dropped the beans and sweet corn seed for Mother while we planted the garden together. Any of this I didn’t seem to mind. It was our way of life. Still more to come.

I tended Douglas a lot in his baby days. Ralph I don’t seem to recall much only that Elda lived with us a lot then and Della an me had to wash the diapers for both of them. We hated this so we made a game of it . We called the Birdseye diapers satin dresses and the others were something else.

You I helped to raise. I changed your fat little butt and washed your diapers too. After you was weaned, it was up to me to crepare your bread an milk and sit and feed you, then undress you for bed. One evening you had a bawling spree on and Mother couldn’t find out what you were crying for so she called at me. I knelt down at her knees and proceded to comfort you and said “Mollie says, wha-tis-it”. It was so funny they all laughed, but you did come to me, and from then on I was dubbed Molly.

I’m sure you didn’t know all these little details, and thought you might enjoy reading them. It was a good life. They had everything a family would need. I always had a good horse to ride, almost grew up on one. Do you remember when Tod Allred and me played Santa Claus? Ralph reminded me of that last time I talked with him. I do remember the little brown hat the folks bought for him. It had a silver like buckle on the band. He loved that little hat. The second year for it, it became quite loppy but he still clung to it and called it his silver hat. If he couldn;t find it, he would hollar “Help me find my silver hat.” We all did, then he would run like heck to catch up with pa, who was sorta waiting for him.

Oh, those were the days my friend. The good years and the bad years. The happy and the sad years. The latter has come later. You folks like us folks suffered the bitter loss of your first. Blessing a thing like that isn’t easy to live through. But time marches on and you like us, have lived to celebrate your Golden Wedding day. We are both blessed with a bood bunch of kids which we can to thankful for. It’s a small percentage that reapes that privilege. Keep right on churning and you will make the 63rd. Speaking of churning, I did a lot of that too. Down in that ol cellar where it was cool I would churn till I’d get so sleepy. That’s because I was that lazy little kid that ran errands. I guess Kenneth got the churn.

It’s been good to reminess with you. It’s Sunday and we didn’t go to church and along with this, I’m baking one hour rolls. I’ll include the recipe for you Erna, in case you don’t have it. They are so good and so easy.

I am sure you could tell me things that I have forgotten. We would enjoy a letter from you. Sorry we can’t make it to your big day. You have been so good to make the effort to come to our special occasions and we appreciate that, but this is a little different. Best of luck to you and yours, and hope you hang on another fifty years, but that’s doubtful. God bless you all is our wish, and by for now.

You think some times how dumb can you be, You shrug your shoulders “Old stupid me”.

So get the address, if the name isn’t clear, say I beg your pardon, I didn’t quite hear.

You learn the name and then right away, you have another friend to fill out your day.