Repeat post "My Heroes haven't always been cowboys"

Busy  weekend  with  the  garage  sale here, it has gone  well  so far, not a huge  amount of  people  coming  but  enough.
One  cool  thing, a  fellow  stopped  by and  was looking  around, we  began  talking  horses, and  trailers  then on to the  Mane  Event , and my  books, he often  recites at  Cowboy  poetry  readings and asked to see my  books. He  did  buy  one  and also  requested  permission  to recite a  poem of  mine  at an upcoming  function (promised  to acknowledge  that it  was my original  work.) Of  course I said yes!!! why  wouldn't I? Well  we  talked  a  little  longer and he  told me  where  his  horses  were, and  small  world ! I said  "oh  I know  just  where  that is! Heine  Henkels old  place!" and  then  we  really  began  to chat  , talking  about my old  friend...
So  today,  because I have  been super  busy  and  have  no  new  pics, and , I have been  thinking of  him  again, I am re posting the post  I wrote  about him  some  time  ago.

"My heroes haven't always  been  cowboys"
  Nope, the hero's in my life have run the gamut from cowboys( Had a huge crush on Cody Snyder ,one of Canada's best Bull riders when I was about 14. Never met the man , but when has that ever stopped a teenage crush? )

To Cowgirls (to many to name , but Oh how I wanted to be just like them) to many other walks of life .

 You have all come to know by know ,just how incredibly proud I am of my family, each of them , my folks , my grandparents, uncles and Aunts have taught me something , and showed me a life worth living.


But this hero is a little different , he was a man I met when I first moved out this way . Quite elderly when we met , I have no idea how to spell his name  Heine(sounds like Hiney) Henkel. He was a local horse dealer, but a very special one .

He was honest as the day is long, and seemed to buy and sell horses more as a hobby than for profit . When I first met him I was a little taken aback. He lived in a ratty old trailer  at the entrance to town  with a broken down house on the place and a barn .Inside the trailer , he would sit at the table , which was covered in papers and books . Always cleared a space for you and offered you a cup of tea. Now Hiene's tea was an experience! You needed to time your visit just right . I swear he boiled the kettle first thing in the morning and poured water over about 5 tea bags, then topped it up with water the rest of the day .So if you showed up to early the tea would curl your hair, too late in the day,it was colored water! Right around 11:00 am  ish was darn near drinkable!

I bought a couple horses from Heine over the years , most memorable being Miami Mouse  a Sweet Little red roan Quarter horse , with some great training and some darn slick reining moves! I paid $600 for her which I came to find later was 50 less than he had bought her for. I was quite young , and I recall him saying," now dear, that's quite a bit of money ,why don't you pay half now and half in a month" Well things happened , and I didn't get back to him for nearly 3 months , I rushed over ,so upset and embarrassed , and he just smiled , and said "that's fine , are you sure you don't need longer to pay?" I should mention another thing that  makes Mouse a memorable horse is she is the dam of my very own Johnnie Handsome !

Over the years he would ask me from time to time to haul a horse for him . Usually not far, maybe 30 min drive or so . When he asked what I would charge I said , $20.00 . Well on those trips , he would point out parcels of land that were right around town , that he used to own . I stopped to think about this at one point , and came to realize this man had owned most of what was now Onoway township , and a great deal more! On another trip , for $20 we went east of Edmonton  close to Elk Island park! (for those who don't know the area , about 2 hours one way) he also bought me lunch at a diner that can best be described as the original "Greasy Spoon " I guess I should have charged him more ,for that trip, but he was such a sweet old man I didn't have the heart or the nerve .

Finally someone from town asked me who I had been hauling for. When I told them , they laughed and said $20 a trip??That old man is a millionaire!!! They told me quite a bit about him, and the fact that he was also a WWII veteran and a decorated soldier at that! . He never talked to me about his military years, and I never asked ,I can't tell you exactly why ,just that is seemed very private to him . He lived very simply , and as I said  he got his moneys worth out of a tea bag so...

Shortly after I was "blessed" with all this info  , he called again and asked me to haul a horse for him . Guess what I charged that time ???
Yup $20 . Same as always .

He passed away many years ago , and there was a huge write up about him in the paper , yes he was all of the things I had been told about him, but what they didn't say or didn't know is he was a wonderful kind old man with a heart as big as the sun, and he was my friend .
Nope not a cowboy, but a hero all the same

Stay safe  my  friends