This is the story:

How Earl Got Herbert

I got Herbert as a throw-in when I bought my friend Earl's Harley Davidson 125 for $90. Herbert was a Banty rooster. How Earl came about getting Herbert is an interesting story. Actually, it's two interesting stories, each of them kinda true.

Back in 1953, when Earl and I graduated from High School, Earl headed out to go to college at the University of Oregon, and because they frowned on Banty roosters in their dormitories, Earl reluctantly gave Herbert to me as a going away present. This is the way I remember Earl telling me how he came to have Herbert in the first place. Over the last fifty-some years, the story has become much more ornate.

According to what I remember, Earl was out in his front yard one Summer's day, when a car drove by and a Banty rooster came flying out of the rear window. The rooster immediately made a bee-line toward Earl's house and the man jumped out of the car and hit the road, running. The rooster, later to be named Herbert, was running, Hell Bent for Leather when he spotted an unsuspecting squirrel running across the yard. Even though Herbert was running for dear life, he couldn't ignore the challenge of the squirrel, and took off after it. As Herbert came skidding around the corner in hot pursuit of the squirrel, he almost ran into Earl and Earl, being quick of mind and sure-handed reached down and caught the rooster. When the man came around the corner puffing like a steam engine and saw Earl, he hit the brakes and asked Earl for his rooster. Now Earl, being a real slick talker, managed to convince the man that what he really wanted to do was give the rooster to Earl. So, Earl kept the rooster and named him Herbert and when he went away to college in the Fall, he gave Herbert to me. As I said, that's the way I remember Earl telling it.

Here is what actually happened, according to Earl in 2006. The rooster did indeed escape from a passing car, but it was someone else who lived across the street who caught it. When he couldn't keep it, he gave it to Earl. Earl has no idea how the rooster came to be called Herbert. There was no hot pursuit of a squirrel, or any slick-talking done by Earl.

As I tell Earl, he remembers what happened. I remember how it should have happened. I like my story a lot better. I even had Herbert riding in a Cadillac when I wrote a song about him. Nothing was too good for Herbert.


   "He came a' riding in to town in a great big Cadillac
    With the windows all rolled down, tied in a gunny sack
    But the sack was for potatoes, and not for Herbert's kind
    And with his spurs as sharp as razors, he cut the ties that bind"

So, how did the squirrel get in the story? When I owned Herbert, he was one of the first "Free-range" chickens in the country. Earl kept him tied to a pole with a stout string around one leg. I let Herbert have the run of the yard, and because it wasn't fenced in, he had the run of the whole neighborhood.

   "When Herbert strolled the neighborhood, the squirrels stayed in their nests
    The dogs all looked the other way, and the cats would genuflect"

Herbert found squirrels to be a personal affront, and he made life Hell for the neighbor's cat and the pigeons I raised in our garage. Early on, the cat made the mistake of stalking Herbert, and when he pounced for the attack, Herbert had mysteriously disappeared. He reappeared just as mysteriously on the cat's back with his spurs dug in as firmly as a rodeo cowboy. Herbert took the cat for a little ride, and it was the last time the cat came within one hundred yards of him.

   "And Herbert was the terror of the local countryside
    Sometimes he'd flag the neighbor's cat and he'd take him for a ride
    And the pigeons in my Dad's garage got up to bar the door
   For those who messed with Herbert, were never seen no more"

So you see, my memory of how Earl got Herbert was about 90% wrong, but it was 100% Herbert. If Earl HAD been the one to catch Herbert, he WOULD have smooth-talked the guy out of his rooster. For something that never happened, I got the story just about right.

The next year, when I went away to college, I took Herbert out to my Uncle Jim's farm. But the song tells the rest of the story.