By Brenda Cannon Henley
Standing in my colorful kitchen that I enjoy so much, I did not realize for several seconds that the crumbs falling onto my clean counter were from the cookie I was gripping in my own hand. I had reached into a package of oatmeal/raisin chewy cookies, taken one out, and was planning to sit down and enjoy it, but somehow my mind ventured off on a tour of its own. God has marvelous ways of redirecting our paths and our energies. For some reason, I vividly remembered Ted’s 71st birthday celebration. It was one that I, along with his only sibling, Martha Henley Ladd, had conspired and worked on for months. He is a big lover of the state of Texas and we wanted to do a Texas size celebration for a good man.

We had gotten with one of his favorite cousins, Nelda Florence, who lives in Amarillo, and had made arrangements to spend the night before his birthday in the Charles Goodnight primitive cabin perched on the rim of the famed Palo Duro Canyon. We wanted Ted to wake up in God’s country in a choice location, and that it was.

I had cooked the foods that Martha had requested of me — a Hawaiian styled chicken salad with lots of fruit, several easy to warm vegetables, salad makings, and sweets. We had two coolers iced down with everyone’s favorite soft drink and plenty of water. When they advertise that the five cabins available to rent are primitive, they mean it. We did have comfortable beds, water, a bathroom, and a small refrigerator, but other than that we were on our own.

The three cousins sat around a stone picnic table out on the terrace and talked for hours about family members, funny stories, mischief that they had gotten into over the years, and those who are no longer with us. We would not know that Martha, the youngest among us, would be the next to go to Heaven. How rich and special do those days spent in the canyon seem now.

The ladies had each brought stacks of old photograph albums and I saw Ted as a young child, a handsome teen, a young police officer for the City of Amarillo, and later a teacher, and then an employee of Texas Education Agency living in Austin. I got to visit by way of the photographs old home places, cemeteries, their churches, the college his mom had attended, and various vacation spots they had chosen. I met friends and colleagues, coworkers, neighbors, and relatives long dead.

The food tasted so much better than it did at our homes and we shared the wonderful tales of Panhandle pioneers like Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight who had first settled the vast canyon. I recounted something I had just learned about Mary Ann and the ladies were enthralled with her bravery and courage. Charles brought Mary Ann to live in the rough country where Indians still roamed and her only companions for a time were two cowboys he had left to guard the settlement. He had chosen the Palo Duro for his cattle because it was a natural corral with only one end needing fencing. The grass and streams were plentiful and the natural shape of the high rock sides offered protection from both the elements of the weather and banditos that would harm or steal them.

Mary Ann is credited for saving the buffalo herd of Texas. When hunters killed the mother buffaloes, and often wasted their bulk, the young calves were left motherless. Mary Ann would hear them crying in the night and send her cowboys out to bring the young ones to her. She would nourish the young animals, feed them with bottles she designed, and kept them close until they had grown enough to be strong and self sufficient in the wild open range. Ted and I have learned that 91 adult buffalo exist today in the Cap Rock Canyon State Park, descendants of the herd Mary Ann saved.

Before our visit had ended, we all felt like pioneers of the old west and thought we could help to save the country. God is so good to give us sweet memories and happy places in our mind to tide us over in the hard days. Be careful about making those memories for yourself and for those you love. You never know when you will need them.

Brenda Cannon Henley can be reached at (409) 781-8788 or at [email protected].

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