Pop Walker walks out of retirement home

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Slim Ran­dles

When Pop Walker sneaked out the kitchen door the other day, it affected all of us. He’s been a res­i­dent of the Rest of Your Life retire­ment home for sev­eral years now.

He still remem­bers who said what dur­ing com­bat in Europe, but has a hard time remem­ber­ing if he’s had breakfast.

The call went out down at the Sheriff’s office around 10 p.m. that Pop had slipped through the enemy lines, mean­ing the kitchen staff, and was on the loose. One of the deputies called Doc, who was a friend of his since for­ever, and Doc alerted the rest of us.

Pop is one of our own, of course. A cou­ple of years ago, he took his cof­fee black and his phi­los­o­phy straight at the phi­los­o­phy counter at the Mule Barn.

It was cold, and they found his heavy coat still in his room, so this wasn’t good.

The deputies checked out the inter­state and vol­un­teers hit the all-night din­ers to see if he’d checked in there. No luck.

The cook at the home was cry­ing, and she said Pop had been talk­ing about going to see his buddy, Jasper, again, and did we know some­one named Jasper?

Sure. Jasper Blanken­ship, up at the cabin in the moun­tains. When we heard this, the hunt took more form. Two guys started up at Jasper’s place and worked down the road. Steve and Dud both went horse­back and started from the edge of town.

Steve found him. Pop was sit­ting and shiv­er­ing under a tree high up on a ridge. Steve used the cell phone to let us know he was all right, then built a fire and wrapped a blan­ket around Pop.

Pop wouldn’t go back until Steve told him Jasper was down at the home, wait­ing for him. And Steve let him ride in the sad­dle, too. But before that hap­pened, Steve ducked off behind a rock and made another phone call, to be sure Jasper would be there.

Two hours later, every­one had cof­fee and dough­nuts back at the home, and they fixed the lock on the kitchen door. We have to be care­ful with those who have prob­lems. We can’t afford to lose beau­ti­ful peo­ple like Pop.

Brought to you by “A Cowboy’s Guide to Grow­ing Up Right.” Read a sam­ple at www.slimrandles.com.

Posted by kpotts on Dec 17 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.