Dear Ropers,

The AATRC spent September 27th and 28th in Glenrose Tx. This roping was a #4 capped at a #2 therefore it was ran with the AATRC format where you can drop your longest time. (the format that so many have come to love and duplicate!) Dave Murphy and Robert Brewer are two guys that love the format! These guys came from the 17th call back and took first with a 29.22 on 3. Robert, a racehorse trainer from Tx, has been one of the heelers that all the headers want to draw! Keep up the good roping guys. Trailing right behind first was Lee Crow and Tommy Deluna with a 29.86 and third place was Gary Pendelton and Cooper Bruce with a 30.15.

Sawing off the Jakesteer horns were Bryan Caudle, Zane Murphy and Justin Ward. Each winning a beautiful Hy-O-Silver buckle to take home and show all their friends!

The next weekend we were back in full force at the Hardy Murphy Coliseum in Ardmore Ok. This roping is very special to us because it is in memory of Levi Lusk. This was Buddy's cousin that passed away 4 years ago. Part of the proceeds is used in a scholarship to help kids afford go to college. 

We started the day of with a #9 with a # 7 incentive. With a fresh set of steers the headers had to make sure they dotted their eyes and crossed their t's. Cody Camerer did just that for #6 heeler Kent Shankels. They were a total of 39.07 on four and won $2440 along with 2 buckles. Incentive winners went to a happy father and son team, Terry & Terrell McClemore. That win was good for $1000 and 2 buckles.

Next we ran the #6 pick and draw. We were not long into the roping when James Wright of Sulphur Springs Tx had a wreck at the end of the arena. His Sorrel horse decided to be a bit cantankerous and threw him at the end of the arena. Not hopping back up we knew he was hurt pretty bad. His family hauled him to the emergency room to find out his pelvic bone was broke and was going to have to be plated back together. This news was not great but it could be real bad the doctor said. Surgery was successful and he will be back in the saddle in a few months! James's grandsons are the 5 yr old twins that like to rope in the dummy ropings. As he was in the hospital bed awaiting surgery one of his grandsons looked up to their grandpa and said "pa we thought you were more cowboy than to fall off your horse!"

Taking the victory of the #6 was the preacher! Dennis Aaron and #3 heeler Devon Moore took home $2000 and 2 saddles. Pays to pray cowboys!! They put together four runs in a total of 40.01. Second went to Glenn Allen and Randall Norman with a 40.05. Randall placed second in last year?s memorial roping too!
Dummy roping winners go to Bryan Caudle, Brady Norman and Kolby Miller. They all won Hy-O-Silver buckles.

Our finals are fast approaching! Three qualifying ropings are left this year, Monroe La, Claremore Ok and we will have a preliminary at our finals in Shawnee Ok before each shootout. Ads are in this months issue so please check them out. Your shootouts are being mailed to you this month along with your partners phone #'s so get your stuff together by Nov. 17!

Tribute to John Cargal

October 5th I was at the Hardy Murphy Coliseum putting on a #6 pt roping. This date will forever be imprinted in my mind.

Not because of the roping that we put on but because one of our most loved, and faithful ropers went to be with our Lord at the young age of 48. If you do not know John Cargal then you missed out on a little extra laughter & joy in your life. By reading this tribute I hope to shed light on who this wonderful man was. And to those who knew John I hope to bring a smile to your face on his remembrance.

John was a people person. He loved people and he loved to laugh! He could make something funny out of EVERYTHING. At his funeral the pastor said, "If you knew John then you had a John Cargal story and if you don't have a story then you really didn't know him." How true that statement is! Here are a few stories I would like to share.

In Tunica Ms, at our AATRC roping, John and Jean stayed in a motel. As arising early that morning John went to take a shower. And as we all do he took his underwear in the bathroom to find out that the underwear he was about to put on was not his but they were his wife, Jean's underwear! This story he had to share. So then John became the man who liked to wear his wife's panties! And when accused he just smiled. Then there was the time in Ark. He roped with a garter around his arm that was given to him out of kindness, from Charlotte Burr, so he would stop tearing his shirts when he dallied. But John had to make the story interesting. Down by the chutes he was twirling the garter around his finger to make a show. Then of course the guys asked where he got it. He bragged it was Charlotte's!! Before he made one if his runs he asked me to make a big deal of him wearing the garter only hoping to cause her a little embarrassment. Let us not forget the superhero face!

John would do this thing with his hands to make it look like a mask and say it was his superhero mask and then laugh at his easily entertained audience. Little did he know he was the only one in the world who could captivate a grown audience by putting his fingers around his eyes and proclaim to be a superhero!

John loved his family and was especially close to his nieces and nephews. And as we where at the funeral we saw several of them wearing his buckles. The story was after the ropings where he won a buckle he would think of which niece or nephew he would give it to. But this decision was not made rationally. John had to spend time in thought of who would get the buckle.

Then he would give it them personally. Each buckle is very special to each person wearing it.

John loved his wife! Jean was very special to John. There was not a roping that would go by that he didn't brag to Buddy about how good Jean was roping and would always tell me she was his best friend and how good she was to him. John and Jean raised greyhounds and trained them. Not only did they rope together but worked side by side. You never said John without saying Jean!

John was a heeler and probably one of the best heelers at each roping of ours he came to! But John never bragged on his roping. In fact him and his good friend Deloyd Burr would joke that they would have to draw a picture of themselves with a truck and put it in the paper themselves if they were going to be in there. Well that was really not the case at all. John was quite talented and had won a lot this year. Being a heeler he would always go to the heel side and wait for his turn.

While he was there he became good friends with the guys and gals that worked on that side of the arena. My niece Kelsey works for us pushing steers up on the heel side. Her mom said her daughter, about 12 at the time, came home a few years ago and spoke of this man that was so nice to her! It turned out to be John. They had a very special relationship from then on out.

John had a way of bragging on everyone and making them feel special. John was the type that cheered you on even if you had a call back to beat him! Or made you feel like you won the roping when he just beat the socks off of you.

A roping didn't go by that he didn't tell me thanks for something. And what a good job we were doing. Pastor Dennis Aaron speaks of John telling him about how he appreciated his preaching and everything he is doing to help the cowboys with their walk with the Lord.

John and Jean were always faithful to attend church service on Sundays.

Although we are all sad at Johns passing we are sure were he is today, because at the age of 8 and a half John walked the isle of his church and took Jesus as his savior. That decision secured his eternity in heaven. We just never know what each day holds! God's word says in James 4:13 &14. "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.'' Why? You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." Let me remind you that life on this earth is not what it is all about. Our life here is like a dot wrote on a piece of paper and eternity in heaven is a line drawn that has no end. In Psalms 39:5 it says, "Each mans life is but a breath." Therefore lets prepare and look toward what is lasting ..Eternity in heaven. The word of God says that he will not abandon us to the grave, (psalms 16:10) and in the book of Job chapter 19,he says that even after his skin is destroyed he will see God. Have you made your reservations to see God? That call has to be made to Jesus and then your name will be wrote down in the book of life. He is the only way thru the gates of heaven. For more info on knowing Jesus write me at PO Box 82 Springer Ok 73458 and I will send you some information that will lead you in making your life after this world secure.

John will be deeply missed by many friends and family. If you knew John or Jean and would like to send your condolences the address to do that is P O Box 304 Blair, OK 73526.

Buddy and Kelly Norman