{"id":4909,"date":"2024-06-15T16:04:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-15T23:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/187thahc.net\/wp\/?p=4909"},"modified":"2024-09-13T14:38:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:38:19","slug":"happy-holidays-from-benj-and-jan-simpson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/?p=4909","title":{"rendered":"Happy Holidays from Benj and Jan Simpson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Crusaders; This poem almost means more today to me than it did some 26 years ago.&nbsp; My son hasn&#8217;t been home for Christmas for 3 years as he is in his final year of a 6 year hitch in the Navy..&nbsp; Anyway thought you-all might enjoy! Happy Holidays!&nbsp; Stay Safe and Be Kind To Yourselves!!<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>Benj &amp; Jan Simpson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The junipers whiten with snow softly fallin.&nbsp; Somewhere down the draw there&#8217;s and old cow a-bawlin.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now there ain&#8217;t nothin ails her&#8211;we&#8217;re plumb sure of that.&nbsp; For the grass has been good and the stock is all fat. &nbsp; And yet driftin in on the snow-feathered breeze, the sound brings a feeling of wishful unease to us old hands settin here cozy and warm, Snug-sheltered and safe from this Christmas Eve storm:&nbsp; A strange lonesome feeling we can&#8217;t push away.&nbsp; Remembering its Christmas and wondering when Them two empty saddles will be rode agin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There&#8217;s two pair of spurs and two hats on their pegs, and two pair of chaps meant for young cowboy legs A-hanging unused on the bunkhouse wall&#8211; But the boys they belong to ain&#8217;t hear&#8217;in cows bawl.&nbsp; They&#8217;re hear&#8217;in machine guns, the whine of a shell And all them strange sounds of a war that&#8217;s plain hell; The sea waves a-slappin the side of a boat The ominous roar of a big bombers throat; The strange alien language of little brown men&#8211; The same sounds all over and over agin, While deep in their hearts what they&#8217;re long&#8217;in to hear Is the wind in the cedars, the bawl of a steer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Us oldsters, we set here this Christmas Eve night A-thinkin of cowboys that&#8217;s gone off to fight.&nbsp; If our thoughts could reach them, here&#8217;s what we&#8217;d say We&#8217;re doin our best boys, since you went away.&nbsp; The ranch is still here and the cattle well tented.&nbsp; Your horses are fed and the fences all mended.&nbsp; Looks like a white Christmas will show up at dawn.&nbsp; We hope its the last Christmas you boys will be gone.&nbsp; There&#8217;s an ol cow a-bawlin&#8212;she claims her calfs-a-missin&#8212; Sure wish you boys were here with us to listen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By S. Omar Barker&#8212;<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crusaders; This poem almost means more today to me than it did some 26 years ago.&nbsp; My son hasn&#8217;t been home for Christmas for 3 years as he is in his final year of a 6 year hitch in the Navy..&nbsp; Anyway thought you-all might enjoy! Happy Holidays!&nbsp; Stay Safe and Be Kind To Yourselves!!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Benj&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poems","category-tins"],"modified_by":"Webmaster","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/187thahc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}