09/23/05 Lost and Found

Lost and Found Sometimes things aren't really lost, just misplaced. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be back in one minute to explain. Have you every wondered how long something has to be gone before it's really lost? Maybe it's lost the next time you need to use it and don't have it or I guess it's only lost until you find it. Somehow, when Dad was just a teenager, he lost one his spurs in the pasture without feeling it come off. Granddad purchased the spurs for Dad from a homesteader and rider that called it quits and left the country. Dad always wore the brass spurs and we all thought they were the old rider's pair, but he told us the story of losing one of the originals. The reason he had a pair that looked alike was because he found a person in the area that happened to have a single spur that matched his remaining spur. That seemed quite a coincidence to me but worked out great for Dad and the spurs did make a pair. Around forty years later we re-plowed some old homestead land and started raising corps on it again. About the second year we farmed that ground, Dad's lost spur hung on a piece of equipment as was found when the implement was raised from the ground. The odds of finding a matching spur first and then finding the lost spur forty years later by hooking it with a farm implement are the kinds of odds you would like to win with in Las Vegas. We also found a pocket watch that was jarred from Dad's pocket when a horse bucked with him, but it was only misplaced for about 12 years. Hey, maybe I'll find my nylon rope in a few years if the coyotes haven't worn it out playing jump rope. I'm Jeff Keane.