I like this balancing rock sculpture by artist Michael Grab. I'll be talking about his work more in a later post. I think this is in Arizona. He totally balances rocks with no glue or adhesives.
It's completely astounding:
Here's another angle:
And here's the artist himself:
Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
We're in a series about one of the best Texas Rangers to ever wear the badge, the great Frank Hamer, who was brought out of retirement to take down Bonnie and Clyde.
(And who temporarily went out of his mind in his choice of a wife)
Recap
In the last post Frank and Gladys got married and the threat against the family grew as the Sims clan fumed and thirsted for revenge.
You had Mr. Sims who was offering $4,000 to anyone who could bump off Billy Johnson(Glady's dad) and Frank Hamer.
That was equivalent to $80,000 in today's money so in a time when a nice house cost a few thousand dollars it was a fortune.
Gladys's brother-in-law Gee McMeans was determined to do the job but I call him McUgly because in Texas jargon we use "ugly" to describe someone who is a nasty piece of work basically. Mean and ruthless. That was McMeans.
Today's story
Everyone knew what route Billy Johnson took each day to get into town. One day He drove into town and as usual, Frank and Frank's brother Harrison accompanied him as guards. Frank knew that McUgly would try something soon.
McUgly and 3 other ugly dirtbags set up an ambush by the side of the road on Billy's route into town. They were hiding in some brush just waiting for the car to come into sight. It did and they aimed their rifles.
But suddenly the car slammed on it's brakes right before it got to them and Frank jumped out and started shooting. They were caught by surprise and thought they were under attack so they ran for their car.
Saved by the wolf
What actually happened was that Frank just happened to see a big gray wolf off the road so he had Billy stop the car so he could shoot it. (Wolves were the bane of every cattleman in the region.)
Turns out the wolf was right beside the brush area where McUgly and his uglies were. lol. Well Frank and them were shocked as well to see all those guys running out of the brush toward their car and speeding off.
Search and destroy
When they got Billy safely to the bank Frank and Harrison went looking for the uglies because Frank was hot. Sure enough, Frank spotted two of the men inside a store and said, " Look over yonder next to the cafe."
They waited for them to come out and the thugs walked across the street towards the bank. Frank and Harrison approached them on the sidewalk. Frank asked Harrison which one he wanted. Harrison said, "It don't make a damn to me."
When they got up to the supposed ruffians one of them began saying "Hello, hello there" repeatedly which don't make no sense unless he was scared out of his britches.
An old fashioned beat down
Frank steps in and does one of his open palm slaps against the guys' head and knocks him clean off his feet.
His partner started pleading with Harrison squealing "Don't hit me! Don't hit me!" like a little school girl.
Harrison said later, "I grabbed him by the collar and shoved him up against the abutment of that First National Bank building and smashed his nose and lips and all. Frank was just stompin the hell out of his man."
Frank jerked the guy to his feet and yelled, "Pull out that pistol you've got in your pocket and use it!"
"But the man wouldn't use it," Harrison said "and then Frank kicked him plumb out in the street. Hell, he wouldn't do nothin so Frank turned him loose, and I let mine go too."
No sign of McUgly though and Frank knew he would try again but he needed to hire some better quality thugs.
Those accounts of Frank slapping the trash out of people always reminds me of those hilarious Trinity Westerns starring Terence Hill. Check out this scene from Trinity Is Still My Name:
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all! -jonboy Texas
