carlito

when I first went to hughes and ganz cattle co. I met a young Mexican boy whose daddy was a cowboy there. carlito was number 6 in a family of 7 kids. he was about 9 or 10 when we met. he seemed kinda lost and hung out with me every evening after work. we would rope the dummy in my front yard and keep each other company.  being on the bottom of the totam pole at his house he didn't get a lot of attention. he wanted to cowboy and rope so bad he just couldn't keep it contained.  his folks were hard pressed to feed and cloth all the kids so there wasn't much left for him. I took to mounting him and taking him to practice sessions. damn kid was a natural.  I would take him with me on weekends and let him warm my horse up while I talked to the local dollies. as a matter of fact when I met my wife carlito was warming my horse up. she thought he was my kid .  he got awful jealous about my girl friend because he saw his little world getting crowded. as time went on I would enter him in some of the cheaper ropings and he roped so good he started getting a following of other ropers who wanted to rope with him. he  for some reason couldn't win a roping.  then one night at ikes old arena he struck hard, winning a first and a third in the same roping. I think he won about 90 bucks.  when we loaded up he had that small fortune in his hand and he beamed at us and said lets go to mcdonalds, ime buying!!   after that that good kid gave that mony to his mother to help out. you wont see that today! I haven't seen him in years. the last time I heard of him he had a family and some kids. hope he is prospering.