AN OLD FARMER’S ADVICE
Bert Gildart: Neither the old ranch hand known as “Whispering Jack” shown in picture number one, nor the sheep herder (Jerry Jacobs) wrote down the wisdom that follows.
In reality, I found the advice posted below on the bulletin board of a doctor’s office this afternoon and thought it sage. However, I believe these men suggest the types of personalities that gave rise to these words.
Once, I knew Jerry and “Whispering Jack” and wrote several stories about each, because they were such characters. Jerry (below) worked out of an old sheep-herder wagon along the east slopes of the Continental Divide, and he tended a flock. Because of his isolated life, he always welcomed company.
This evening I needed a “vehicle” through which to relate the “Old Farmer’s Advice” and thought that because these two men could tell such offbeat stories–and because they were at times so full of earthy philosophy, I’d associate the wisdom with them. I think they look the part of land-shaped narrators and, sometimes they were. What’s more, no one really knows where this adivce came from and much of it probably evolved from people such as these.
What follows is deep, and if we all adhered to these ideas, we’d probably live more amicably. So, here, for what it’s worth, is some “Old Farmer’s Advice.”
*Your fences need to be horse-high, pig tight, and bull strong.
*Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.
*Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.
*A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.
*Words that soak into your ears are whispered… not yelled.
*Meanness don’t jes’ happen overnight.
*Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.
*Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you!
*It don’t take a very big person to carry a grudge.
*You cannot unsay a cruel word.
*Every path has a few puddles.
*When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
*The best sermons are lived, not preached.
*Most of the stuff people worry about ain’t never gonna happen, anyway
*Don’t judge folks by their relatives.
*Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
*Live a good honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll enjoy it a second time.
*Don’t interfere with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none.
*Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
*If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin’.
*Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
*The biggest troublemaker you’ll probably ever have to deal with watches you from the mirror every mornin’.”
*Always drink upstream from the herd.
*Good judgment comes from experience and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
*Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin’ it back in.
*If you get to thinkin’ you’re a person of some influence try orderin’ somebody else’s dog around.
*Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I am looking for information, directions really to the Hard Trigger Ranch near East Glacier MT. My husband and I spent a couple nights of our honeymoon there with Whispering Jack and his dog Lucy in September of 1971. My grandfather had a part interest in the ranch and my father spent his summers growing up there.Is your Whispering Jack the same as mine?Do you know the ranch?
August 9th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
Did you ever find out anything more about Hard Trigger Ranch and its location. I stayed at a Hard Trigger Ranch near East Glacier in 1949, when it was run by a Tex and Carmela Hughes. I’ve always wanted to track down the place. Anything you can tell me would be much appreciated.