1967-Voice Of The Tennessee Walking Horse 1967 December Voice | Page 36

their barn and they didn’t even know about it. A scrawny pine tree was sitting on a table in the cross-tie area with popcorn strings and wads of alumi­ num foil hanging on it. "That’s some Christmas tree you got there, boys,” said Lonny, as he looked around to check the crowd. He saw Mr. and Mrs. "Red” Lar- rimore, Mrs. Spindel, Carol Jones with her parents, Dr. Stepanovick and his family, Tad Larson, his bud­ dy "Dink” Fuller, Don Wells and his family, Bess Fagan whom he remembered from last Christmas (he noticed that her hair was red this year instead of blond), Don Hill and his wife, the Mark Bullards, Mr. Rutledge and his little boy, and Dr. and Mrs. George Greely. "This is some Christmas party, folks . . .” he said, as Dr. Greely came up to shake hands. "Lonny, my boy,” he said, "we heard about your misfortune in losing a couple of brood mares, which by Charles Barry Sanderson After going through the ordeal of searching out two missing brood mares and having to pay five hund­ red dollars to get them back for one of his customers, Lonny and Helen Barnes were convinced that their Christmas plans were shot. Helen had planned to get some new furniture for the den as a family Christmas present and was very let down to find that Lonny had spent it for the mares. They had not had much to say to each other for about three weeks, and Lonny was getting fed up with Helen’s pouting. It was only a few days until Christmas and Lonny was sitting in front of the fire at his home trying to figure out just how much mon­ ey he could scrape up in order to buy the furniture that Helen had counted on. Unless he heard some­ thing from the lawyer shortly, he was going to borrow the money. Helen and the kids, Lonny, Jr. and Ralphy, were busy putting the tinsel on the Christmas tree and Christmas songs were playing on the radio. Lonny sat back and surveyed his family and his home and was grateful for his many blessings. As he sat there watching the fire, engrossed in his thoughts, he was startled by the phone ringing. "Answer that, will you . . .” said Helen, as Lonny got up to go to the phone. "Hello?” There was a long m