Young Troubadour

 What's shakin', turkey bacon?

Going to set the vibe right out of the rodeo gate with some George Strait:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jJf-p6RYvo

You should know this about me.  I love sitting on the back of a truck, cracking open a beer and singing every word to this song.  My music taste is all over the board, but I love this old Americana Country George Strait tune.  I've also been to George Strait's rodeo that he owns in San Antonio (oddly enough his rodeo doesn't allow the consumption of alcohol + very family friendly).  George Strait...a LEGEND (56 #1 hits).

Speaking of legends...

There is small cohort of the general population who love visiting cemeteries and finding infamous + obscure gravesites on road trips.  Sure I've been labeled weird, macabre, and dark.  Guilty, guilty, and guilty.  But, completely normal people love doing it, too.  First, it's great exercise.  You'd be surprised how many steps you get in!  Second, it's sorta like Geo Cashing.  Some of these graves can be completely unmarked (for example, Linda Lovelace here in Denver, who was the star of Deep Throat + other 80's porno movies, was in an unmarked grave and...drumroll...we found it -- she had a pretty interesting life story).  So, you develop a special set of skills (thanks, Liam Neeson).  And, when the government decides to shut down the entire country (aside from gas stations, liquor stores, and every single major box store...still scratching my head over this COVID law of the land -- I guess we all gotta pretend to believe that COVID only lingered around small businesses), you can still have a fun hobby.

I found this famous American last year.  What was so cool is that the cemetery was completely dead (haha, okay I'm punny, arently I?)  But, seriously, nobody was there when out of nowhere a local historian and her friend happened to walk up while we were paying homage.  I was like, "I must be livin' right" to get this completely random free history lesson of stuff I couldn't learn by Googling.  Sadly, I've forgotten most of the cool stuff she shared.

[Me]  At the Gravesite of Jesse James, Mt. Olivet Cemetery

Who was Jesse James?

He was one of America's most notorious + good-lookin' outlaw, bank + train robber (short answer, but keep reading...)

Alright, so Jesse James was a preacher's son!  Born in 1847 in Missouri,  his father (Robert James) was a Baptist minister + a slave owning hemp farmer.  He did revivals at gold mining camps, but sadly got sick and died after arriving at a camp in California.

Jesse's mother remarried to a wealthy man who hated children + made Jesse and his siblings go live with another family.  Zerelda (known to be "iron-willed") left the older rich dude and took her children back to their original farm.  She married a THIRD time + had four more children.  She remained a staunch supporter of her sons, especially, Jesse.

He was a Confederate guerilla (called "bushwackers") in the Civil War.  As a teenager his family got ambushed + his stepfather was hanged from a tree by Union militia.  The bushwackers did some unspeakably gruesome things.  They executed over 20 unarmed Union soldiers + viscously mutilated their victim's corpses.  Again, Jesse was just a teenager.

Roughly a month after Robert E. Lee surrendered at the Appomattox Court House, Jesse was shot in the chest.  His cousin, Zee (short for Zerelda, which was also his mother's name - must have been popular name back then) nursed him back to health.  He later married her + had two lovely inbred children.  As a father, he decided to abandon the guerillas + do more "risk adverse" career moves such as robbing banks, trains/stage coaches.

Jesse James became so popular, he never had trouble being invited into people's homes where he would be fed a nice, hot homecooked meal + a place to rest and would leave a generous amount of money for the boarders.  I mean back then, people didn't have televisions, MALCO, Barnes + Noble, or Facebook to keep them entertained, so an outlaw like Jesse really thrilled the locals.  Plus, a lot of these guys were indebted to the banks for their mortgages and loved when these outlaws would holdup the banks and take the bank notes or burn the banks, absolving them of their debt.

He was murdered at the age of 34.  You would think he would have been taken down robbing a bank or a train.  But, he was shot in the back of the head by a new recruit to his gang (Bob Ford), while dusting a picture on a wall of his rented home.  His family was in the other room (his wife and two kids).  Bob Ford is likened to Judas, as he arranged a reward with the governor of Missouri in exchange for the murder of Jesse James.  Ironically, after the Fords (his brother helped) announced they had killed the infamous outlaw, they were convicted of first degree murder + sentenced to hang.  The governor pardoned the brothers.  However, they got their just karma: Bob was shot to death in a saloon in Creede, Colorado, while his brother Charley committed suicide.

After Jesse James was dead and buried, rumor ran amuck.  Not only did people speculate Jesse James had faked his death and was not truly buried in the grave, a lot of people came forward claiming to be Jesse James.  Poor guy couldn't even RIP in Mt. Olivet Cemetery before they exhumed his body + sent it off for DNA testing to make doubly sure...and yep, the corpse was, indeed, THE Jesse James.

For everyone who wants to judge everyone from the 1400's by today's standards, just know they probably wouldn't think much of you sitting around staring at a large paper weight.

Bella sniffed out these 'shrooms at Mt. Olivet Cemetery.  I'm glad she finally forgave me for this puppy cut.

Thanks for stepping into my saloon...

Cheers!

Troubadour Kimmie