LIFE IS AMAZING WHEN YOU ARE five.

​​When a guy is about to enter kindergarten, all things are possible. I could even make myself invisible. I learned for sure, it doesn't work when you're in second grade.

As things evolved, Audie Murphy was my alias when we played war. Plus, I could be Al Swanson, my dad and my hero, when playing grown-up.

​When Larry beat me to claiming Geronimo as his alias, what choice did I have? Why, of course...who had the best, the fastest, the smartest horse on earth?

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    My Saturday mornings were total emersion in television and the B-westerns the box offered. If only I’d have put my mind to schoolwork like I did on those westerns I would now be a Nobel Laureate... at least. 
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​I practiced my draw in mom's full length mirror. Whew, I was fast. 
I knew every cowboy, most of their horses by name, and the thing that made them unique. Now-days that would be called the ‘hook’. Tom Mix and Tony, the Cisco Kid and Diablo. Lash Larue was handy with the whip, Tim McCoy, the white ten-gallon hat and extraordinary peripheral vision, Buck Jones, Johnny McBrown, Hopalong Cassidy and his horse Topper. Of course the Lone Ranger and Silver and his sidekick, Tonto and his trusted steed, Scout; Ken Maynard and Tarzan, Gene Autry and Champion, and my all time favorite, King of the Cowboys, and the cowboy I love to this day...

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Roy Rogers & Trigger

To learn more about the author, Dale A. Swanson, click here. To learn more about Swanson's books, click here. To order one of his books click here.