Now its not like your dad had been born into the preaching
life,anything but,
Born in 1811 the Powers-that-Be seemed to have blessed him
with the ability to be a crackshot with anything
that had a flintlock firing
mechanism on it,be that Kentucky rifle,dueling pistol or
smoothbore 10 gauge fowling piece.
He couldn't shoot worth a darn with the cap n ball percussion cap
revolvers or those newfangled smokeless cartridges but
Flintlock Fridays unearthly ease with the older guns had earned
him a place in the 1830's Davey Crockett expeditions into the Rocky Mountains.
Alas your father had fallen in with the Jake Krueger Gang in the 1840s and 1850s and been gunman for many a stagecoach
robbery.
Then came 1855 and at the age of 44 Flintlock Friday had been badly wounded in a ambush of the Krueger
Gang by the Texas Rangers.
He'd survived and been sent to prison for life.
Eleven years in the Hellhole of Dreddwood Prison had apparently
worn him down
and your mother,the daughter of a Senator your dad had saved in one
of those Davey Crockett
Expeditions in the 1830s,had petitioned
for his release.
Pardon had been given and in 1866
the old crook and the young Washington DC
socialite had married and you were
born.
Now calling himself Pastor Billy Friday
your old man had puttered
along till 1876
when the James/Younger/Doolin/Dalton Gangs all rode into
Plum Creek to rob its
six banks at the same time.
Whilst all the citizens had hid in fear
ten year old you had watched in awe
as the old man put on his belt brace of
flintlock dueling pistols,put on his outlaw duster
primed his carbine
and stepped out onto
Plum Creeks dusty street to face
down
99 hardened killers
"Its Flintlock Friday boys"
he said "do you really
want to take me on?"
Jesse James and the others had muttered in fear
but then one young
snot had squeaked out
"Prove you still got it old man"
so Flintlock Friday pointed out a vulture that sat on the
church weathervane
400 yards away
opened up his duster
pulled out a dueling pistol
aimed
and
"BLOOOMMM"
For ten seconds the vulture just sat there
then it toppled off
the weathervane and hit the dusty street dead
"Oh shit.I'm ouuta here" squawked the young snot
and he was the first of the outlaws
to gallop out of town
Slowly the rest left
and Jesse James took off his hat in a sign of
respect to your
father and then joined them