The Woodstove Whittlers and Wrangling Association
Welcome to the Spur & Lock Mercantile and Sundries Emporium. Have a seat and pick up a stick for whittlin’. Please remember to bring your own whetstones, and don’t spit on the floor, but aim for the cuspidors, located ubiquitously about the store. And before you decide on a course of action or speech directed toward a fellow store-sitter that may result in strong words or fisticuffs, please ask yourself, “What would Roy Rogers do?”
The Mercantile’s reading group, The Woodstove Whittlers and Wrangling Association, has been busy fussing over the merits (or the opposite) of a few volumes during the winter months. The reading group was the idea of Adolphus Husky -- he wanted an excuse to tell his wife whenever she claimed he was being lazy sitting around the woodstove at the Mercantile all winter; by participating in the rigorous and vigorous debates on literature, Adolphus could say he was expanding his mind. When he played this tactic one day at the dinner table, his wife, Renee, then asked if his mind would need a longer belt by the middle of February, just like his britches do each year.
While discussions were lively among the Association members, there were no violent outbursts of grub-throwing as when the topic of Brokeback Mountain came up — all vittles stayed in the pot and on the plates these last few weeks. (However, more than one discerning critic suggested that Pickle Pennington was making a silent and subliminal derogatory remark about a colleague's comments on a storyteller’s abilities when he wiped his mouth on his flannel sleeve after eating the homemade apple fritter contributed to a recent potluck. Harsh words followed until cooler minds served the ice cream.)
But these sorts of warm discussions keep the chill off while the snow wheels around outside the front door. So without further ado, here are some of the books the Association tackled this past winter.
The Cheyenne Pool by Lewis B. Patten
This is the first book by Patten the Association read. Buell, oldest of the Barlow brothers, had heard good things about his work, so we all agreed it was time to give it a try.
This is a well-written, traditional western by this prolific author. A group of cattle owners (the Cheyenne Pool) are keeping smaller ranchers off free range illegally by preventing other folks from filing claims on the land with their hired muscle. The primary character is Dan Foxworthy, foreman for the Pool. Trouble starts when Foxworthy kills a cow belonging to one of the small ranchers as a warning not to rustle any more beef from the Pool. The novel follows Foxworthy’s change from a hard-boiled, I’m-number-one type of character to a more likeable, more introspective and thoughtful man who decides to make amends for the trouble his fiery temper has caused.
The Youngerman Guns by Lewis B. Patten
This is the second Patten novel the The Woodstove Whittlers and Wrangling Association read.
(Once an Association member finds something he likes, he sticks with it. For example, Sam Strange, Jr., has a short hanging shelf with fourteen Louis L'Amour books on it -- thirteen stand upright from one end of the shelf to the other, and the fourteenth lays on top of the others, because Sam didn't like the idea of having thirteen of anything in his bedroom because the possibilities of bad luck might ensue. Anyway, whenever Sam finishes reading those fourteen L'Amour books, he starts over reading them again. Because he likes L'Amour and sees little reason to travel beyond what he knows he already likes. And even though Louis L'Amour wrote more than fourteen books, Sam has only fourteen because that's how many fit on his shelf. Well, really, only thirteen fit, but we've already coddled that bit of Sam's strangeness.)
Again, The Youngerman Guns is a good, solid western. This one is about Dan Youngerman (what’s with the name “Dan”? see the Association's notes on The Cheyenne Pool), a deputy in a small town for the past seven years, who (unknown to the townfolk) is also related to the leader of the dreaded Youngerman gang. Patten bases the Youngermans loosely on the actual James-Younger gang — reflected in the “Youngerman” name. Dan had split with his vicious brother Sam during the Civil War after the infamous raid in Lawrence, Kansas. Sam vowed to kill Dan after the war when Dan married Sam’s childhood sweetheart.
(The Association's discussion of Sam's desire for vengeance was rather muted, and more than one member cut a surreptitious glance around the woodstove at Waldo Grinter and Adolphus Husky, for Adolphus was known to be sparkin' Jeanette Curry before he went off to join the Army as a young man; Waldo took up with Jeanette and they were married before Adolphus returned home. More than once we'd heard Adolphus complain that he wouldn't be hearing comments from his wife, Renee, about his belt size if he were married to Jeanette. So things were on the cusp of being skittery while talking about Dan and Sam Youngerman, but neither Adolphus nor Waldo got twitchy, and discussions remained civil and calm. All the same, a couple of the boys remarked to me afterwards they were glad the Association was done with this book.)
Back to Patten's novel. Dan learns that the gang plans to raid his small town and rob the bank — and perhaps kill Dan in the process. The townspeople learn of Dan’s relationship to the gang, and their fear and indignation lead to some ugly scenes all the way to the big shootout at the book’s climax.
Both of these Patten novels offer solid tales. I could imagine them as the basis for a couple of B-western films during the 1960s.
Links:
Wikipedia has a listing of Patten's books. You can see it by clicking here.
Both The Cheyenne Pool and The Youngerman Guns are out of print. But you may find used copies through Amazon by clicking here,
by visiting Alibris by clicking here, or visiting the ABEbooks.com by clicking here.
Posted by ds at April 13, 2007 06:39 AM
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