Well, Dick, and all, I just dug out my old copy of N. Howard (Jack) Thorp's book named "Pardner Of The Wind"------The Caxton Printers, LTD., Caldwell, Idaho 1945. I found page 221 and began reading the 'turtle drive tale' for the first time in over 30 years.

At the start o9f the story, they are in a San Antonio "high-toned" eatery. "They sat down at a four-seated table where two men were already eating."-- is how it is told. They begins on soup...Say Mac, what kind o' soup are we eating? It's pretty fine."

"It ought to, says his friend; costs six bits a dish. If you ordered it up north, it'd be about two dollars.'

------Dick, Thorp's original just goes on and on--quite verbose and flowery if ya ask me. At the end, you are very correct; there is no sign of the Red River all hot and flowing with turtle soup. So there!
I guess that was me putting that in there after all. The half million Land Turtles got drowned and were dead! (Very sad. I'm choking up as I recount this.) I suspect I extrapolated the idea of heating up the entire river to save the day and make turtle soup out of a bad situation --- a solution (no pun intended) that ended up helping out the Indian tribes through a very tough winter!

On Kicking Mule KM-150 this tale sort of just ended---the way tall tales (and lives too) usually do end. Dead silence -- pretty much.

Later, I told this tale in Winfield, Kansas---at the Walnut Valley Festival. It was much smoother than the way I'd told it on that live at the Old Town School of Folk Music first album of mine. But by then I'd realized that modern folks in bars etc expect a punch line of sorts at the end for them to feel the cloture of it. So I tacked on a punny punch line!: "Folks, you're probably wondering how I know that story!? Well, I have turtle recall!"

To end this, that set I did at Winfield, Kansas was issued as a cassette by those folks. It was a benefit for me after I couldn't pick or travel. I must say a HUGE Thank You to everyone at that festival. You all got us through some very hard times.

There's more, but that's enough! Love to you all on here at Mudcat. And thanks, Max, for making this place I can hang out and say my peace. (A "piece" is a gun---and a good lay---and a great bottom line!

Art Thieme