569
02 September 2012
R. Linda:
Recently I was at a lunch spot eating a sanny when I couldn't help but overhear a couple just back from a holiday in Ireland, talking to friends about their trip. Seems they drove themselves around and were in the Irish hills when they came across "gypsies." These are travellers also called tinkers, who live nomadically on the old sod, going from town to town picking up odd jobs where they can find them. Some live in caravan parks and cut sod like we found on the County Sligo/County Mayo border.
These days the travellers have upgraded to what in the U.S. are called trailers or RVs making life easier and quicker than driving a wagon hitched to horse or mule. Some still go the old route, and those are the ones this couple met up with. They stopped to ask directions and for a euro or two they got the directions which shocked them they had to pay. In the States, you stop, ask, and free directions come your way and usually, they are wrong. But not with the Irish said they. I chuckled to meself thinking of the ignorance of the couple and the sly ways of the travellers. I can only think these two dressed like tourists and well . . . the travellers probably thought correctly, they had lots of euros, why not get a few? The directions were spot on they said, and so it was worth a couple of euros because they had driven around for three hours LOST.
We Irish are an enterprising lot if we are anything. Anyway, these two and their friends were quite struck that people actually travel by horse and wagon. I wanted to interrupt them and tell them that they still do in the good old U.S. of A as well, but I be not a rude fella, no I just kept me thoughts to meself as hard as it was to not want to tell them about a man named Keith Woolery from rural Oklahoma, who drives a team of mules hitched to a covered wagon. Yes, sort of like those Irish "gypsies" back on the old sod. Now there be a story here about Mr. Woolery, his wagon and his mules. Yes, indeed and perhaps you have already heard it, but in case you haven't I will tell it to ye, or at the very least refresh your memory.
Not too long ago, on a Saturday night, Mr. Woolery was driving home from Heavener, a town near the Arkansas border and he had a bit to drink, just a few beers. Hey, it was Saturday! No big deal that. So, there he was moseying along his mules pulling his covered wagon, when a police car with flashing lights and siren wailing comes up behind him and he realises it be none other than the minions of the law. Seems Mr. Woolery was driving erratically, the wagon zig-zagging along the road. Well, according to the Wister authorities, Mr. Woolery refused to pull over and stop, no he kept on going and they said he even sped up. Do mules go fast? That was me question to meself because I always thought they were slow. Anyway, the police car pulled up alongside Woolery ordering him to stop and pull over. Seems he refused and egged the mules to ram the police car, not once but three times (according to the police).
So they did what they had to, which was once they got him stopped they ordered him down from the wagon, and of course he refused, so they Tasered him off and charged him for resisting arrest. Woolery said he was trying still to stop the mules so he couldn't get down. "We can halfway break it, but we can't just shut everything down," Woolery said. "If we do they start skidding the tires. It don't do no good. They just keep going. The harder it is for them to pull the more they pull." He added, "They shouldn't have parked that close and they shouldn't have been trying to ram a mules head-on with another car with lights and sirens going." Well, of course not, any dope knows mules spook just like horses!
Now just to reiterate so we have this straight: Mr. Woolery said he had no open containers in the wagon, he admits to having had a few beers prior to getting on the road and he said though he has brakes on the wagon when the police came up with lights and siren blaring, they spooked the mules and the animals took off and as they did they rammed the police car which was very close to them. He said he didn't get down from the wagon bench because he was trying to control the mules, but the police say otherwise.
What came out of this? Well, the authorities couldn't charge Woolery with DUI because he wasn't driving a motorised vehicle, yup. But he was charged with assault and battery of a police officer, resisting arrest, AND public intoxication. Woolery had this to say, "They did not find any open containers in my vehicle, nothing. We'd had some beers on the way from Heavener, but as far as being public intox, no."
I tell ya, one can't drive his mule and covered wagon without someone not liking the way he drives it. Furthermore, it was SATURDAY and a leisurely drive home was in order. There were no open containers, so obviously the alcohol the police said they smelled on Mr. Woolery's breath was from his time spent back in Heavener not while driving the wagon. I know we can nitpick as to what levels of intoxication Mr. Woolery might have been, and persons will say anyone impaired be a danger on the road, but we are talking back roads, mule and wagon going VERY Slow. Somehow I don't think that poses a danger, but I'm sure someone will ask about lights on the wagon, and if the wagon was on the wrong side of the road, and what if this, and what if that, but all the what ifs didn't happen. So? Anyway, here be a couple of pictures of the offending wagon AND those ornery mules.
02 September 2012
R. Linda:
Recently I was at a lunch spot eating a sanny when I couldn't help but overhear a couple just back from a holiday in Ireland, talking to friends about their trip. Seems they drove themselves around and were in the Irish hills when they came across "gypsies." These are travellers also called tinkers, who live nomadically on the old sod, going from town to town picking up odd jobs where they can find them. Some live in caravan parks and cut sod like we found on the County Sligo/County Mayo border.
These days the travellers have upgraded to what in the U.S. are called trailers or RVs making life easier and quicker than driving a wagon hitched to horse or mule. Some still go the old route, and those are the ones this couple met up with. They stopped to ask directions and for a euro or two they got the directions which shocked them they had to pay. In the States, you stop, ask, and free directions come your way and usually, they are wrong. But not with the Irish said they. I chuckled to meself thinking of the ignorance of the couple and the sly ways of the travellers. I can only think these two dressed like tourists and well . . . the travellers probably thought correctly, they had lots of euros, why not get a few? The directions were spot on they said, and so it was worth a couple of euros because they had driven around for three hours LOST.
We Irish are an enterprising lot if we are anything. Anyway, these two and their friends were quite struck that people actually travel by horse and wagon. I wanted to interrupt them and tell them that they still do in the good old U.S. of A as well, but I be not a rude fella, no I just kept me thoughts to meself as hard as it was to not want to tell them about a man named Keith Woolery from rural Oklahoma, who drives a team of mules hitched to a covered wagon. Yes, sort of like those Irish "gypsies" back on the old sod. Now there be a story here about Mr. Woolery, his wagon and his mules. Yes, indeed and perhaps you have already heard it, but in case you haven't I will tell it to ye, or at the very least refresh your memory.
Not too long ago, on a Saturday night, Mr. Woolery was driving home from Heavener, a town near the Arkansas border and he had a bit to drink, just a few beers. Hey, it was Saturday! No big deal that. So, there he was moseying along his mules pulling his covered wagon, when a police car with flashing lights and siren wailing comes up behind him and he realises it be none other than the minions of the law. Seems Mr. Woolery was driving erratically, the wagon zig-zagging along the road. Well, according to the Wister authorities, Mr. Woolery refused to pull over and stop, no he kept on going and they said he even sped up. Do mules go fast? That was me question to meself because I always thought they were slow. Anyway, the police car pulled up alongside Woolery ordering him to stop and pull over. Seems he refused and egged the mules to ram the police car, not once but three times (according to the police).
So they did what they had to, which was once they got him stopped they ordered him down from the wagon, and of course he refused, so they Tasered him off and charged him for resisting arrest. Woolery said he was trying still to stop the mules so he couldn't get down. "We can halfway break it, but we can't just shut everything down," Woolery said. "If we do they start skidding the tires. It don't do no good. They just keep going. The harder it is for them to pull the more they pull." He added, "They shouldn't have parked that close and they shouldn't have been trying to ram a mules head-on with another car with lights and sirens going." Well, of course not, any dope knows mules spook just like horses!
Now just to reiterate so we have this straight: Mr. Woolery said he had no open containers in the wagon, he admits to having had a few beers prior to getting on the road and he said though he has brakes on the wagon when the police came up with lights and siren blaring, they spooked the mules and the animals took off and as they did they rammed the police car which was very close to them. He said he didn't get down from the wagon bench because he was trying to control the mules, but the police say otherwise.
What came out of this? Well, the authorities couldn't charge Woolery with DUI because he wasn't driving a motorised vehicle, yup. But he was charged with assault and battery of a police officer, resisting arrest, AND public intoxication. Woolery had this to say, "They did not find any open containers in my vehicle, nothing. We'd had some beers on the way from Heavener, but as far as being public intox, no."
I tell ya, one can't drive his mule and covered wagon without someone not liking the way he drives it. Furthermore, it was SATURDAY and a leisurely drive home was in order. There were no open containers, so obviously the alcohol the police said they smelled on Mr. Woolery's breath was from his time spent back in Heavener not while driving the wagon. I know we can nitpick as to what levels of intoxication Mr. Woolery might have been, and persons will say anyone impaired be a danger on the road, but we are talking back roads, mule and wagon going VERY Slow. Somehow I don't think that poses a danger, but I'm sure someone will ask about lights on the wagon, and if the wagon was on the wrong side of the road, and what if this, and what if that, but all the what ifs didn't happen. So? Anyway, here be a couple of pictures of the offending wagon AND those ornery mules.
 |
| THE wagon |
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| THE mules |
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| Uh-huh enuff said! |
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