Tribute to Buddy
This story is a tribute to Buddy Tryon. Buddy was born at the River Ranch 94 years ago this coming August. In 1956 Buddy and his best gal Bertha became Bandera residents. The couple were the second black couple to be wed at the Bandera Courthouse. Buddy’s sister and her husband were the first. In 1956 the number of black residents in Bandera was approximately 1% of the population. Buddy and Bertha were loyal employees at the River Ranch for two different owners. Buddy was the ranch hand foreman and he and Bertha managed the River Ranch for many years. I asked Buddy if he experienced a lot of racism back then. He said, “No everybody always treated us really good. Everybody knew me and waved whenever they saw me. People would tell me hi and shake my hand.”
When the love of Buddy’s life passed in 1993, He arranged for Bertha to be laid to rest in what was called back then “The Blacks Cemetery”. Because of Buddy’s efforts to clean up the cemetery for Bertha to be buried there the name was changed to the Bertha Tryon/Hendrick Arnold cemetery. Bertha’s headstone is the only grave marker in the cemetery.
Buddy Tryon fully retired a couple of years ago at age 91. He lives out on Whartons Dock with his son Myron. On any given nice day, you might find Buddy playing dominos in his yard with family and friends. Telling tales from his younger years. I asked Buddy if he had a good life in Bandera. He looked at me and said “Did you know that I was the first black man to be issued a drivers license in Bandera County?”
I expressed my curiosity concerning what Buddy did for fun during his younger years. He chuckled at me as we sat in his yard and said, “Anything the law would allow and a few things they didn’t”. He told me stories about how he won a trophy for shooting darts and how he played in pool tournaments. Buddy Tryon is from a time when everyone knew each other here in Bandera, greeted each other with a handshake, and treated people with respect no matter what they looked like. I asked Buddy if he had any advice for youngsters today. (By youngsters I mean 21-55) His advice; “Grow up!” Honest words from a great man! My hat goes off to Buddy’s son, Myron. He works the most he can without leaving his dad home for any given length of time. He takes care of his dad and does his best to make him happy. I would like see efforts made to provide seniors like Buddy some fun and entertaining activities out on the dock. Having something fun to look forward to improves one’s quality of life. Instead of sitting around with nothing to do but wait for their time to come. Remember, we all will have a turn at being the old timers. How do you want to spend the last bit of your time on this earth?
According to Cowboy Mark
In the Texas hill country, where bluebonnets fill the roadsides, there is a town affectionately known as the cowboy capital of the world. Bandera Texas. Bandera got its nickname honestly. Turn the clock back to 1873. 100’ s of cowboys gathers in Bandera to drive cattle, 7 million between 1873-1893, north along the Great Western Cattle Trail up to Dodge City. Life in Bandera was good, and the economy was booming. The cattle industry was lucrative for store owners, ranchers, and cattle driving cowboys alike. Then in 1893 the good life that the residents of Bandera had been living came to an end. A cattle disease banned cattle from Texas to be transported north and more and more land was being corded off by barbed wire. These events hit Bandera hard in the pocketbook, leaving cattle ranchers to look for a new way to make money. There had been an overwhelming amount of people from the east interested in experiencing the wild west, so many ranchers remodeled the buildings on their ranches turning them into rooms to accommodate those interested in experiencing the cowboy way and the dude ranch was born. Ranchers hired real cowboys that used to drive their cattle to work on the dude ranches. All the new money from the visitors that came was good for the shop owners too. Many of these dude ranches are still in operation today. The cowboy way is still alive in Bandera as well. I met one of these real-life cowboys and asked him if I could tell his story. Introducing Cowboy Mark and his no-bullshit cowboy way of life.
Mark and I sat on a bench in front of the 2nd oldest restaurant in Texas, The Old Spanish Trail. This year marks 102 years that the OST has been opened for business. Mark had been working all day setting up Mansfield Park for all the Iron Horse riders that had been coming to town for a biker rally. He wore his favorite cowboy hat for work, a denim long sleeve shirt, a pair of Levi’s and a pair of lace up boots. He looked exhausted. What a good guy though. He came into the OST to grab a bite to eat after eating motorcycle dust all day and stayed until after we closed so I could do the interview. Mark said he was born in the nearby town of Kerrville, Bandera still has no hospital, in 1958. He grew up on an 800-acre ranch with his dad the ranch foreman. That is when his dad wasn’t driving a long-haul truck delivering cattle. Cowboy Mark grew up mending fences, tending cattle, and doing all the other chores that are part of running a ranch. Mark was four years old when he got his first pony. It was a beauty he said, and he learned how to ride like he was born in a saddle. By the age of six Mark could fire a .22 caliber rifle accurately while sitting on his horse. I asked Mark at what age he realized he was a cowboy. After a short pause, in a low voice with a Texas twang he says, “I’ve always known I was a cowboy, it’s who I am. I never saw myself as anything else.” As we sat there on that black wrought iron bench, Mark looked down at his laced-up boots. Then tells me how he didn’t know what lace-up shoes were until he was 9 years old. He had to have a pair for school in P.E. class and had no idea how to tie the laces. He points to his shoes with his leathered suntanned hand and says, “Look I still tie my laces in a square knot.”
Cowboy Mark and I sat there on the bench in silence, both smoking a cigarette, watching all the traffic go by on Main St. Then Mark says, “Man, Bandera has changed.” I asked, how’s that?
Cowboy Mark explained that in the early 1970’s there wasn’t a lot of work for cowboys. The ranchers only paid $35 a day for a cowboy’s labor. At the end of every week, after the cowboys were paid, they would meet up at Mansfield Park and ante up $15 to compete against other cowboys doing what cowboys do, riding bulls, busting broncs, and roping calf. A young cowboy could turn his $15 into $150 if he won. Mark told me that back when he was young, the rodeo was not about prestige, or winning shiny belt buckles or new saddles, it was about earning a dollar to survive.
In 1977, Cowboy Mark graduated high school and attended Southwest Texas Junior College on a rodeo scholarship. He soon decided that academia was not his cup of tea and returned to Bandera. Mark went back to work with his dad on the 800-acre ranch. He blistered his hands mending fences and worked all night sometimes, tending to the livestock. The long hours with little pay made Cowboy Mark follow in his dad’s footsteps and become a modern-day cattle driver. Mark became a long-haul truck driver transporting cattle from Texas to all over the United States. For the next twenty years Mark hauled cattle either to auction or to be butchered and processed.
The night air had turned a little chilly, yet the two of us continued to sit there and stare at the passing cars. Never breaking his gaze Marks says with his Texas twang, “Loneliness is the worst part of being a cowboy.” Mark says when you’re a cowboy you are a steward for the land and the livestock, and he wouldn’t see another person for a few days at a time while he was mending fences and tending to the livestock. He says that’s probably why he never got married and had kids. “It is hard for a woman to not know exactly where her husband is and not be able to talk to him for a couple of days at a time.”
Mark turns his gaze on me and says, “A cowboy is what you are on the inside. It is not a costume that you wear.” Mark believes that there are four types of cowboys. 1. Urban Cowboy-A Hollywood creation. 2. A rodeo cowboy- uses his cowboy skills in competition. 3. Ranch hand cowboy- that’s where you learn the skills. 4. A wanna be cowboy- when one wears cowboy attire but has never seen a horse or cow close-up. Rancher, farmer, and cowboy are all synonymous, you can’t be one without being the other.
I asked Mark if there was a shortage of work for cowboys presently in Bandera. He said, “Heavens no.” Mark explained that nowadays Bandera has a booming tourism industry. Visitors from all over the United States come to visit bars like, Arkey Blues Silver Dollar, the longest running bar in Texas. 11th Street Cowboy Bar draws a crowd with big names in country music performing. People from around the world come to taste the cuisine at the Old Spanish Trail and see their John Wayne room. Dude Ranches are booked months in advance. All of that adds up to good money for the cowboy.
As I was winding up the interview, I asked Cowboy Mark if he could bust one myth about cowboys what would it be? After a long pause he says, “That cowboys only last eight seconds. Most of us last for at least forty-five seconds, maybe even a minute.” And with that final statement, Mark stands up, tips his hat, gives me a wink, and kick starts his chopper. I watched the cowboy ride away.
