The Bad Man

Daddy was born in the year 1902 before Oklahoma statehood. He was the son of an Irish immigrant who settled with his Czechoslovakian bride near where the town of Southard exists today. “When I was a boy,” he began, “Dad took me in the wagon to this house.” It was like a café, he explained, but the woman who lived there set up tables in her living room so the customers could sit. “A man was there having his meal. He ate, paid for his food, and left.” Afterwards, my five-year-old father learned the man was an outlaw in the territory. “What did he look like?” I wanted a description of the badman, but Daddy said he just looked like a regular guy. I could hardly believe there was not some outstanding trait of evil about this person, but he was simply an ordinary guy – like you and me.