I continue to veer off of the Ireland/England trip–Father’s Day is a good detour. Next week, I will return, and there are only two more days left in our England/Ireland trip.
Dad on his favorite cutting horse, Rusty
This week I want to pay tribute to Harold Horner, my Dad. He was a ole cowboy and loved the family ranch, wife and his family. He was a unique person–he loved people and could talk your leg off (a family description of him), but he preferred cattle and horses. Dad was the most comfortable on the family ranch, working side-by-side with his Dad until Granddad passed away. Then Mom became his side kick, doing the daily chores of a ranch together.
Dad smelled of leather, sweat and nicotine.
He was a two pack a day Camels smoker for most of his life which stained his cigarette fingers a nasty yellow. He did quit smoking later in life but the damage had already been done. The leather smell emanated from his chaps and cowboy boots, dusty and dirty from work on the ranch. The sweat came from his weathered cowboy hat and his body. He was old school and believed you only needed to shower once a week and that was on Saturday night to go to the dance.
I loved the mixture of these smells–the aroma of my Dad.
Besides the ranch and his family, Dad loved to dance–his smooth moves on the dance floor with Mom captured my heart. He was Fred Astaire to me–my favorite dancer partner. He created a special step that only he did–said he got drunk one night, stumbled, and liked how it felt. Of course, Mom could do it. He taught it to me, so Mom and I could do with him, but after he passed we couldn’t figure it out–we needed his lead.
Dad & I dancing at his 75th birthday party in the gym at Branson, CO
I’m a lot like my Dad, so we clashed on many issues, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter because I was his baby daughter.
This poem is from my book, “This Tumbleweed Landed.”
Dad died in 1996–twenty-two years ago. He suffered from asthma and emphysema. I miss him as much today as ever before.
Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of six award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works plus three self-published cookbooks.
Her sixth book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, is available in paperback and four e-book formats. Larada offers the reader the opportunity to look back at 2020 and the global pandemic through her prose and poetry through reading, then reflecting and responding. She addresses all the emotions she felt during this overwhelming time and leads the reader through to a self-access: bitter or better?
Her fifth book is the authorized memoir and biography of world-renown square dance caller Marshall “Flip” Flippo. Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo is available now in hardback, paperback and four e-book formats. Recently Just Another Square Dance Caller won two awards: Book Excellence Awards Finalist and Silver award for eLit. Book Awards.
Another recent book of hers, A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter's Grief Memoir has won many awards including being a 2018 Book Excellence Awards Finalist in the Memoir category at the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and a 2018 Independent Press Distinguished Favorites Award in the Memoir category. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words.
Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading.
As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.
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