Daniel Boone once said that “all a man needs to be happy in life is a good gun, a good horse and a good wife.” Clan Cornelius is out of the equestrian world right now, so I’ll go along with Lane Batot and substitute “a good dog”* for the horse — and stake a claim that I’ve got all my bases covered.
Twenty-three years ago today, I married Marilyn Coon, which is without question the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. She’s got a sense of adventure, a sense of humor (delightfully twisted) and is incredibly tough and resilient. She’s capable and practical and gets things done like nobody else I know.
And she’s the kind of woman who actually understands and likes men. Her favorite movie is “The Godfather, Part I & II” and she loves “Banshee” and “Strike Back.” I know, right?
She’s a hoot to be around and I just plain love her. We’re true partners and I’ve seen enough marriages that are not that to appreciate what I’ve got.
I’ve got a tattoo with her name right through my soul
I think everything she touches turns to gold…
(Guy Clark, Stuff That Works)
I’m a lucky man and I know it and I figured — since D. Boone listed a good wife as mandatory Frontier Partisan equipment — that some small tribute was due on these pages.
Happy anniversary, darlin’.
*(The dog is a somewhat neurotic mama’s boy, but he’s still a good dog).
Paul McNamee says
Twenty-three years ago today, I married Marilyn Coon, which is without question the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Smart move.
Have a happy one!
JimC says
Thx Paul!
Norman Andrews says
Congratulations to you both, and best wishes for the years to come. I know just what you mean , Trudi and I have been married 41 years, along the way we have had a few tears , but so much more laughter.
Norm.
JimC says
Ah, that’s grand.
clay says
Happy Anniversary to you and yours!
JimC says
Thx Clay.
Keith West says
Happy Anniversary to you both!
JimC says
Thx Keith.
lane batot says
Ditto. Twenty-three years? Why, that’s two dog lifetimes!….. The horse-thing is(sadly) obsolete for most these days, but of course in Danl’s day, it was the main source of transportation and hauling materials, so you could understand the horse part of that quote. Nowadays, when trying to keep horses is sooooo expensive, and society is NOT set-up very well to accommodate them, I wonder(were Boone alive today) if he would have said a “truck” or other practical vehicle, in place of that good horse…..as fer thah wimmin–I ain’t had much luck myself on that count, so I just substituted by gettin’ MORE DOGS! And, in my personal experience, ten or more dogs in yer pack are STILL much less trouble and expense than ONE a them wimmin! So I rarely git me a woman-cooked meal!(that last statement is from “Hound Dog Man”–ever read that? Classic Texas Frontier Tale, by Fred Gipson, also author of “Old Yeller” and “Savage Sam” You’d love it!). But POWER TO YOU TWO for lucking-out against the odds! I DO havta admit, I’d be right much for most modern wimmin to try and put up with. Somebody that knows me once said they were going to nominate me to be on that show “The Bachelor”, just to watch the wimmin RUN out on their own! I wouldn’t havta eliminate any of them–they’d do it themselves!(sigh…..)
lane batot says
….and I just realized I probably ostracized myself severely on THIS blog by even mentioning “The Bachelor”! Hey guys, I just said somebody SAID, I didn’t say I WATCHED such a useless show!
JimC says
Fear not, Lane. The notion of you on The Bachelor is so rich in potential, I think we all would tune in. Ratings bonanza!
Matthew says
Congrats!
JimC says
Thx Matthew.
Craig Rullman says
Well done, Clan Cornelius
JimC says
Thank you Sgt. Rullman!
Breaker Morant says
Congrats-rookie. Our 25th is tomorrow (the 29th) so I have a couple of years on you. What can I say-I married a woman who let me go to Africa (yes, I know I have to get writing again).
Doing a California trip-mid July. Flying into Las Vegas-doing a quick trip through Death valley and Sequoia country-then relatives and such in Los Angeles/San Diego.
Kicked around going to Yosemite, but I have no interest in mid-July crowds at Yosemite.
Got crowded out at Glacier in 2014. Glacier draws everyone to the central axis of the park, whereas Yellowstone, while obviously crowded as well is better at dispersing crowds.
JimC says
Good call on Yosemite. Stay far from the maddening crowd.
Black Tyrone says
Jim, Congratulations to both of you! Never to just one . Always has to be two to go the distance hand in hand.
JimC says
Sure ’nuff.
Craig McDonald says
Belated best wishes to you both!
JimC says
Thx Craig!
Steve Bodio says
Going on 25 years with Libby, preceded by seven years with Bets before she died.
Got the dog of a lifetime in Ataika, who is 14- if she were a normal dog like her old number two, Lashyn, or her old “big brother” the lurcher Plummer, she’d be dead or blind or diabetic. But as it is, she is a Turkmeni tazi, born to leap off the backs of Akhal Tekes and camels to chase game, and her mother was fourteen when she had her, 18 or 19 when she slowed down, and 21 when she died (her grandma made 19). Taika still jumps 5 foot fences she has given up the 8 foot backyard one which she used to walk around on like a mountain goat), still hunts, still points quail (yes she’s a sighthound). Since I am too western a wimp to breed her at 14, Lane Batot and Phillip “Lighthawk” are breeding me a successor, very close to her in lines. (Lane send those pics).
Guns? Got my Mannlicher Schoenauer 6.5 bX 54 1903 “TAKEDOWN ENGLISH” model with the flip – up peep, made in 1905, still near 95 % condition, not just the nicest rifle I ever had, but maybe the nicest I have ever seen, even better than the Rigby .275 I gave to Jonathan Hanson because it was obviously “his”(good Karma coming ’round?), and anyway I get more elk that way since in Arizona they don’t have to draw; it cost me half what it was worth in an estate sale because the guy who selling it thought it was worth LESS with no full stock (thank you Malcolm Brooks!) Got my Czech Mauser 22, same action as yours, different stock. Got my Mauser Broomhandle Red Nine with wooden holster stock and pigskin shoulder holster for a 1970’s price from Mel Merritt at Ron Peterson’s in Albuquerque; got my all- steel Commander- size 1911 with faux ivory grips by Raj Singh, with real scrimshaw, signed, of Japanese Goshawk from the early Tokugawa shogunate, taken from a screen in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts back in 1971, before they charged for images. And my exquisite English .410 by Turner, 4 pounds with its 16 inch original stock and best engraving, though ironically i use it mostly on cottontails, as I have no woodcock and I don’t like to wound… it points well, but carries little shot.
So I’m looking around for a bigger gun as nice, not looking for famous names, and Jim Caldwell comes up with: a Purdey. Not your modern hammerless self- opener Beasley ejector, mind you, which my gunsmith John Besse calls “guns for driven shooting with bells and whistles to attract rich people”, but an island lock rebounding hammer extractor gun, which John calls with approval “the last honest gun design in Britain, for a county gentleman to walk around with, shoot a rabbit for the pot, a duck on the pond, a fox in the hen coop– then maybe go on a shoot on the weekend.”
(It seems fair to observe that the greatest of Edwardian shots , Lord Ripon, made his bags with such “humble” guns).
But I am just a poor writer in the American back country, in a town which has a legitimate claim to be a ghost town, down to under a thousand from its heyday of cattle and mines. Aldo Leopold, when he was still an ace predator killer in his twenties, before he saw that “fierce green fire” in a dying wolf’s eyes, gave a talk at the “Magdalena Sportsman’s Hall”, which no longer exists, to a crowd slightly larger than the town’s present population, on “Game conservation”; he probably told the rancher how to put out strychnine baits! But Aldo saw the light. HE didn’t stint on guns; he ordered a special high- grade Fox 20 bore, with long barrels, custom engraving, and no safety, and took the train to Colorado to get it He gave his boys extra money to get Parkers, and I believe he did the same thing later for his one female student, my friend Fran Hamerstrom, a Boston-born grande dame five feet high who lived out her life in a Victorian house with no modern conveniences in Wisconsin, studying prairie chickens with her husband Fred (she called him “Hammy ) and flying eagles . She drank Spanish Brandy and smoked her constant Camels with me and the cowboys in the Golden Spur, on the way to Mexico with an illegal 38 she knew how to use in her pocket, at 84, and told me that I was NOT poor, because I had good boots and a good shotgun..
So THEY (or their ghosts) approved, and Libby approved. It was a perfect restoration with EXACTLY my measurements, with steel barrels, good wall thickness, rebounding low hammers, and proofed for modern 2 3/4 inch loads . It was also the only good Purdey, possibly the only Purdey period, that was priced under (if not FAR under) five figures. Some friends offered a little aid..
I jumped. I still have to pay it all off, but I hope to have it by the Old Timers parade.
Which is the second to last reason I am a happy man.The town has elected me the Grand Marshall of the Old Timers parade.I could only be a LITTLE happier if I won a Pulitzer! As Miles City writer Jonn L Moore said (IN CAPS!): “STEVE, THERE IS NO HIGHER HONOR THAN BEING CHOSEN AS A PARADE MARSHALL BY YOUR HOMETOWN CITIZENS.” It IS a long way from Dorchester…
I am way too Parkinsonian to sit a horse these days– sorry,John L- but with my good Resistol and new western shirt I’ll look good waving to all the pretty girls in my friend Bodie’s Sheby Mustang, a car that shakes the ground..
And the other reason? I have new book out. It is about the dogs. It is called The Hounds of Heaven, and it is available on Amazon. So far, Jameson Parker and Tim Murphy, the poet, have liked it in reviews. Maybe you will too..
JimC says
THAT was absolutely wonderful. So good to hear from you. I’ll get the book.
lane batot says
Heck yeah, Bodio–you oughta range over this way more often! I fer one would love to hear yer take on lots of the subjects discussed(and cussed) here! And I CERTAINLY can’t wait to read the Hound book! And I’ll TRY to “forward” you those computer pics Philip Bailey sent, but as you know about me with computers(or wimmin), thar ain’t no guarantees. And in truth, ONLY a TRUE dawg aficionado wants to see pics of his potential dog’s parents in a tie!……
lane batot says
….And for anyone curious of the outcome–I successfully “forwarded” them photos! Now fer the wimmin…….
Nick S. says
Aye, Congrats it is! Coming up on 22 years together here. Although she barely tolerates me and my dogs (especially since my fierce little partner, The JRT Daisy Mae, got skunked twice in two days. It’s a rare thing for men such as ourselves to find any woman, much less a good one, so double congrats! Now if I could get over my jealousy of Steven’s guns, especially that Red 9……..