Monday, April 3, 2017
John Nance Garner AKA Cactus Jack ...
He puttered around his ranch in a “battered Stetson hat stained with grease and dirt, and attired in a pair of baggy-kneed, frayed-bottomed overalls.” During recess in 1932, while his wife answered telegrams from Washington, Garner set out from his farmhouse at sunrise to gather tackle for a fishing trip.
Garner’s fishing pals were Ross Brumfield and Ben Franklin, rival auto repair shop owners, and Mon Fenley, a well driller. Even after becoming Vice President, Garner continued fishing with his partners in West Texas.
Fenley explained that Garner enjoyed angling but liked rowing the boat and critiquing his buddies’ technique even more. “If you miss your shot, or lose your fish—jumpin’ Jehosophat, how that old Vice President can tear you to pieces.”
“And what do you do when the Vice President starts to cuss you—take it?” the Globe Reporter asked.
“Take it? Podner, you’re in Texas. Of course I don’t take it. I cuss him right back. We all do. Make him mad? Pshaw! It jest delights his soul.
I guess he gets pretty fed up livin’ all the time with a bunch of mealy-mouthed politicians, and to hear a little good old clean-cut Texas language is a relief to him.”
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