I wrote to Rita to ask if she remembered hearing Ray tell about when and how he got John and what ever became of him.  Below is what she wrote.  Bo

 

Right now I cannot think of how Ray came to have John.

 

I think that Ray took John to Uncle Frank Smith when we left the farm in '58 but I don't know what happened with him afterwards. 

 

I guess everyone has some story about John.  I could tell several.  I'm sending two now and if you care to put them on the new site you have my permission. Maybe others will write their stories. 

"Old John was the boss and whenever Ray acquired a new horse it didn't take him long to exert his authority.  One rainy day, John chased a newcomer back and forth through the alley between the barn and the fence by the road.  It was dusky dark on this particular day that we decided to go to a movie in Beckville.  As we drove past the barn we saw John raise his head.  He had slipped on the muddy ground and fell broadside as he pursued the other horse.  His feet went through the hog-wire fence and he could not get up. He had cut a foot so many times on a barbed-wired fence that he finally learned to wait patiently for someone to come to his rescue.  If we had not just happened to be out before dark he probably would have laid there till morning." 

"Old John would follow you anywhere for a bite of feed.  One time he got out in the road and was about half a mile from home toward Beckville. Ray put some horse feed in a bucket, took me along, and drove down the road where he was.  Ray had me get in the back of the truck with the bucket of feed and we tolled him home."