Hi folks!  I have to share a little something pertaining to a conversation I had a few days ago with one of my dearest friends from reenacting.

I called up Ted Prater, who was formerly colonel of the First Missouri Battalion.  He’s one of the most honorable men I’ve ever known, and I’m truly grateful and honored to be his friend.  I had called him to discuss my upcoming book on reenacting, and wanted to ask his permission to use his full name in the book, which of course he agreed to graciously. Then we got to talking about all kinds of memories from our field experiences.

Amongst all the stories, we got to talking about the late General Beck.  Beck was ornery, a bit hard to wrangle, and full of spitfire.  There are lots of Beck stories circulating around.

Ted got to laughing about how Beck just could not stay on a horse.  He wasn’t much of a horse guy, and most likely whatever horse he was on knew it.

He said one time they were at an event, all the commanders were on horseback, and Beck called everyone over to talk.  So all the horses were bunched up together, with his horse in the middle.  He said the way Beck was sitting cockeyed in the saddle, he had dug his spurs into the horse’s side pretty hard.  But surrounded like he was, the horse just stood there and took it.

Anyway, once the conference was overwith, everyone began to back up.  Apparently as soon as Beck’s horse got freed from the surrounding horses, he decided he’d had enough of Beck and sent him airborne.

Naturally I was laughing, thinking about Beck being thrown off this horse.

Then Ted said, “You know, Beck spent more time as a lawn dart than he ever did actually in the saddle.”  I laughed so hard I cried, thinking about Beck as a lawn dart, sailing through the air, because he’d gotten thrown off a horse again.

It did my ole heart good to talk with Ted.  You’ll read more about him and General Beck in Cooter Up.  Just wanted to share the “Beck as a lawn dart” image!