Kinky in Dreamland
A member of the Johnson Family tries to climb his last mountain
A white-linen Jew at the Carnegie Deli and a bona-fide cowboy at the Grand Ole Opry
‘Fuck ’em, if they tried to do our jobs they would have OD’d on cocaine ten years ago’
Wallace Creek runs through Echo Hill Ranch, which has been property of the Friedman family for over half a century now. A hundred years before that, the land belonged to “Bigfoot” Wallace, a legendary pioneer and Indian fighter who rode with Colonel Jack Hays and his Texas Rangers. “How’d he get his ranch?” is a common question in Texas. A not uncommon answer, true in Bigfoot Wallace’s case, is “he took it.” There’s a story about Bigfoot Wallace and how he got his name (mistaken identity), and a lesson (myth resists change): Bigfoot wore size nine. Stories about Bigfoot Wallace, Flacco the Lipan Apache Chief, Stephen Austin, Sam Houston, Jack Hays, and the founding of the republic of Texas are all part of the mythologized history that nourished Richard “Kinky” Friedman growing up on Echo Hill Ranch in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. On the far side of Wallace Creek, across from the lodge where Kinky lives and where he grew up, there are hundreds of Neolithic artifacts — …
