Goodbye to my 'Texas Cowboy'

[jsr]

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-0208-banks-eddie-dotson-20140208,0,4597828.column

Goodbye to my 'Texas Cowboy'
A column about homeless Eddie Dotson changed his life — and mine too, if in more subtle ways. Now I wish I had told him.
By Sandy Banks
February 7, 2014, 4:56 p.m.

Most reporters I know have a story they've covered that's stuck with them, long after the journalism was done.

Mine is about Eddie Dotson, a man who lived for years on the streets, under a freeway near USC — until I met him in 2009 and helped his family retrieve him.

I wrote a column then about Eddie and the elegant sidewalk dwelling he'd built from other people's castoffs:

He didn't have water or electricity, but he had matching candlesticks on his coffee table, a bowl of fruit on a kitchen counter and artwork mounted on tarpaulin walls. His golf clubs were propped against a bookcase, his clothes hung neatly in a closet made of cardboard.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Freckles Advice

Below is the poem called
"Freckles Advice"
which Lane read at Freckles funeral.

Freckles Advice

Though Freckles is an angel now, he ain't forgot his friends.
He drops to earth and hangs around behind the buckin' pens.
He pulls a rope or just makes sure a rider gets bucked free.
So I took it as an honor, the day he spoke to me...

"I saw you ride your bull today. You sure did yourself proud.
You had him by the short hairs, I could feel it in the crowd!"

"I really should be thankful that I even stayed aboard.
You could'a done it better, Freckles...I'm lucky that I scored!"

"Hey don't be puttin' yourself down! You know you did okay.
The time will come when you look back and hunger for today
When everything was workin' right and judges liked your style,
Your joints were smooth, your belly flat and girls liked your smile.

"Cause in between the best you rode and the last one that you'll try
You'll face your own mortality and look it in the eye.
There ain't no shame admittin' you ain't what you used to be,
The shame is blamin' Lady Luck when Father Time's the key!

So if they know you came to ride and always did your best
Then hang your ol' spurs up with pride, 'cause that's the acid test
And, say some gunsel offers you a 'Geritol on Ice,'
Just grin 'im down, 'cause you don't have to ride Tornado twice!"


©Baxter Black