August 16 2008
Back in 2003, "Buck" Williams had a few friends over to his spread for a little party as a warm-up for the then upcoming Houston Rodeo. There was to be plenty of beer, and naturally everybody was to bring their guns.
The highlight of the party was going to be a shooting competition from horseback.
Paper plates were stapled onto sticks that were stuck into the ground, and the contestants would draw and fire at a full gallop.
Everybody was looking forward to it.
"Buck" was going to ride old Mary, his favorite mare. And "Buck" told the boys that if not ridden everyday, she would forget that she was saddle broke. True to form, when "Buck saddled her up and climbed aboard, old Mary put on quite a show.
But "Buck" finally settled her down, took her to the starting line of the competition, and put the spurs to her.
Now "Buck" was right-handed, but wore his pistol on the left side of his body so that when he drew his gun, it was a "cross draw".
As the first paper plate was coming up, and "Buck" was dragging the .44 Colt across his body, Mary decided to give one last buck of rebellion.
The gun went off, and the .44 slug caught her right between the ears.
Down went Mary, and "Buck" some how cleared the stirrups and flew over her head.
In the hospital with multiple but not life-threatening injuries, "Buck" said to the three boys that had hauled him to the hospital, "Gonna really miss that horse. Some mornings gettin’ in the saddle with her was more fun than an epileptic hooker."
There were tears in his eyes. It was a solemn moment. The boys nodded and filed out of the room.
It wasn’t until they were half way down the back stairs that the first one started laughing. Marty laughed so hard he got tears in his eyes, missed a step, and fell and broke his leg.
The folks in the emergency room, were a little taken aback when two men carried in a third man with a broken leg, and all three of them were laughing like all get out.
Word has it that when "Buck" got wind of the incident, he kind of cracked a grin too.

Till next week
Helga Biermeister
Secretary