Lovely Surprize

My home phone rang around 8:00 a.m. I got up, naked as a jay bird, and went to my den to answer it. Too late! I turned to return to my bedroom, suddenly, I heard someone at my front door. Hurriedly, I threw on some clothes, and turned to go back to the front door, when my son, Anthony, came in. I haven't seen him in 4 long months!!! He's home for the summer. It felt so wonderful to wrap my arms around him again!!!

He had brought a DVD "That's It, That's All" by Travis Rice - a high definition snowboard film. We watched it. Totally amazing to watch the snowboarders go straight down those mountains. It was filmed in Utah, Wyoming, Japan, and Alaska. Alaska was incredibly unreal. Just watching the film gave off enormous energy of actually feeling like you are right there.

Anthony drove 16 hours straight yesterday. He left from Steamboat Springs and stopped in Denver and stayed with a friend. They went out to eat at "The Buckhorn Exchange" a world famous steakhouse which opened in 1893. He had "Rocky Mountain Oysters" which he told me are "bull testicles". Ok...other items on the menu are rattlesnake, alligator tail, buffalo sausage, elk, quail, and lamb. The following article was also on the "menu":

"Denver, June 4, 1938 - It was an incredible scene yesterday, something out of Colorado's past, when a group of more than thirty Indians, in full battle regalia, rode slowly down Osage Street on horses and war ponies, looking neither right nor left. If Teddy Roosevelt was still in the White House instead of Franklin, a scene like this could have spelled real trouble. But as it was, the mission was one of peace, homage and respect for a Denver man whose reputation as a friend of the Red Man has never diminished. That man is H. H. "Shorty Scout" Zietz. The purpose of this delegation of Sioux headed by Chief Red Cloud, a nephew of the great Sitting Bull, was to present Zietz with one of the tribe's most treasured trophies - the sword taken by the Sioux chief, Sitting Bull, from the body of General George A. Custer following the death of the last tropper at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.

The small band of Indians rode fearlessly toward the Buckhorn Exchange Restaurant to be met by "Shorty Scout" Zietz. A touching ceremony ensued and the precious sword was turned over to Zietz forever. "This is a fitting gesture," said Chief Red Cloud, "and the end to a circle of friendship that began far out on the plains to the East where the great chief Sitting Bull himself gave you (Zietz) the name of "Shorty Scout."

It is well known that ever since he was a young man Zietz befriended the Indians and was trusted by them. As a scout ridinig with Buffalo Bill Cody in the 1870s he helped hunt food so the Indians wouldn't starve. In recent years, when the Indians came to Denver for the Stock Show, Zietz, who spoke four Indian dialects, fed them at no charge. He even allowed them to set up their tepees in the parking lot of his restaurant, making the lot briefly into an Indian camp site, complete with campfires every night.

It was because of his years of generosity and friendship to the Indians that Custer's long-missing sword was turned over to "Shorty Scout" yesterday. The nickname of "Shorty Scout" was pinned on Zietz by Sitting Bull in 1875-just one year before the famed battle that came to be known as "Custer's Last Stand," a battle in which over 260 cavalrymen were annihilated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull.

The sword, a military saber with the name "Custer" engraved on the blade, has belonged to the tribe since the death, in 1890, of Sitting Bull, who wished that it be given to Zietz. Custer was always a controversial figure, a West Pointer whose exploits in the Civil War were legendary and quickly led him up the ranks from Captain to General. It was Custer who stopped Lee at Appomattox and actually received the flag of truce from the great Confederate general.

It is truly ironic that his sword, the symbol of personal bravery, should eventually rest with a man who befriended his enemies."

So glad to have my son home! He's snoozing on the couch - a bit worn out.