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Monday, January 21, 2008

Behind the Scenes

This is an ongoing post of how the book "Buckskin Bessie - Her Lost Letters" came about. It is posted every Monday and the original was posted in Jan. 2008
No part of this information may be reproduced in any way.

My step-son was part of a group called "Teen Challenge". This is a Christian drug and alcohol rehab program. One of the many things they do to help raise funds, is go out to estate sales when they are completed and sort through and remove all the things that have not sold. Their pay for doing this clean up is that they can keep what they think they can sell at their on going carport sale. While at one of these estate sales, my step-son saw a Manila envelope with letters spilling out over the top of a garbage pile. The bright red letters of the return address on many of the letters said "101 Wild West Show" and he noted that the postdates were very old. He decided to take them back to his room and check them out before they were thrown away.
Now my step-son is a real pack rat and often brought things home for us to keep for him so when he hauled these letters home I did not pay any attention to them until my husband said, "come look at these letters, they are really old and postmarked from all over the world". The two of them were debating over who they thought the woman was that wrote the letters and etc. and I said "You guys are just wasting time, you can't even begin to figure out who this woman is without reading these letters in the order they were sent"! One of my strong points is organization so I went about putting them in order...the problem is that I also started reading them and the more I read the more I wanted to read. I was hooked, they were fascinating.
I didn't think I would find anything but went to the computer and googled Buckskin Bessie (her show name)... low and behold some info popped up. There was a newspaper article in Ponca City, Okla. stating that a man there was displaying his collection of Buckskin Bessie's personal things! Who was this man? How did he know her? What all did he have of hers? Would he want these letters? Was she famous? What was the 101 Wild West Show?
Will be continued...............................................................................

4 comments:

Linda G. said...

Oh boy, oh boy..I'm hooked! I've been meaning to order your book. I really want to read it...just been busy with the stuff of the season..but Feb. and March are good months to cuddle up with a good book and Western History's one of my favorite things!

Lady Di Tn said...

That is so neat, the history behind the letters. So many wonderful things are found at estate or yard sales.
When I get my reading binge on I hope to have a copy of your book to start with.
Peace

Changes in the wind said...

Thanks guys for your interest:)

Granny Annie said...

I love people, so I love blogs. Reading a blog gives insight into that person. Reading Buckskin Bessie's letters had true appeal to me because it was like reading a blog from the early 20th century.