Maggie deBlock
Speaking to SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary, Alan Day regaled the audience with stories from his latest book Cowboy Up! Life Lessons from the Lazy B Ranch. Alan presented an entertaining account of his young life on a 200,000 acre ranch. His book is a collection of short stories, co-authored with Lynn W. Sneyd.
As a child growing up in Arizona, Day was blessed with a vivid imagination and a grandmother who was a great story teller. Several of the short stories in his new book tell the tales of his grandmother who, as a Mormon, started three colonies in Mexico. She escaped back to the U.S. when Poncho Villa took over the Mormon colonies. Day told of his grandmother being forced to treat one of Poncho Villa’s colonels who had been wounded.
Alan grew up on the Lazy B Ranch, a home that did not have electricity or indoor plumbing when he was a child. He went to the University of Arizona and, after graduation, returned to the homestead. Since he was involved with running the ranch, he had to attend meetings in Phoenix and did not appreciate the long four hours it took to drive there. To shorten the travel time from the ranch to Phoenix, he thought having an airplane was the answer. His brother-in-law found a Piper that was $3500.
Unfortunately Alan had never flown a plane, but he wouldn’t admit it. A fraternity brother instructed him in flying the plane and, after 1.5 hours of instruction, Day had to make his solo flight back to the ranch. During his lifetime he amassed 7000 hours of flight time.
Another recollection was the story of a 1600 pound bull that kept wandering off to his neighbor’s property. Trying to corral this beast with only two helpers proved to be an impossible adventure. Finally, with two cowboys on horses and a third driving a front loader tractor, they were able to corral the angry animal.
Cowboy Up! Life Lessons from the Lazy B Ranch is available from Amazon.
SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary Club is proud of all our members who make contributions of time and money to assist those within our community and over the world. Won’t you join us in making a difference? We meet every Thursday at 8:00 a.m. at the MountainView Country Club. Please contact Ron Lenz, membership chair, at 262-358-0130.