My old bass player grew up in the King Ranch spread. They got the Salk vaccine a year after most of the rest of the US did. Great guy, was Danny. Badass player, singer, and songwriter. Limped like shit, walked with cane, 'cause of the polio. It killed him young. Ran into a mutual friend, and asked about him. 'Oh he died 20 years ago'. Explains why he doesn't return my calls.Shit. Old drummer, I sent him a Happy Birthday, and got a response 'Oh, well, he was found dead in his house about 3 months ago.He'd died maybe 2 months before.' Did I tell them that it was okay to go and die without telling me? This is not acceptable
I grew up in Victoria Texas, worked at a small mom-n-pop grocery store as a teen. It was the last store in the area that gave people a line of credit. The O'Conner family used the store frequently, or actually their servants did. They come in and buy groceries and just say, charge it to the O'Conners. The old man would occasionally come in and buy a few things, mostly a case of Lone Star beer (which is nasty as shit) and I'd carry it out to his Cadillac. The back seat would be covered by cattle feed, saddles, etc., he used the damn thing like a pickup truck. The O'Conner kids were rotten to the core. Lived off of granddad's money, doing drugs, partying constantly, paying off cops and judges whenever one would get caught. One time one of the black sheep kids apparently got cut-off, raided the parents house for money, came in and bought a lot of stuff using silver certificates from the 1920's. I was the cashier and as soon as he left the store, I pulled all the money I had in my wallet and changed it out for as many of the silver certificates as I could. Still have then around here somewhere. They were living proof money don't buy class. The Welders were another family in the area, just as rich, never heard anything bad about their kids.
The King Ranch continues to expand their land holdings - they have a place they bought up a few years ago, near me in Central Texas, and holdings up in Wyoming too.
The entire population of the planet, 8 billion people, could live in the state of Texas and enjoy two and a half times the space that people currently enjoy in New York City. At. Night. (do the numbers, numbers don't lie).
In the 1800s, the state of Texas only had one thing: Land. No money. So, they paid for everything in Land. When they wanted to pay for a new Capitol building (the biggest ever, naturally), they sold 10 counties in the panhandle to a cattle consortium, and the XIT (Ten In Texas) Ranch was born. It was eventually sold and broken up form its heyday. But the XIT was among the largest single landholdings ever. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIT_Ranch
I remember seeing the 6666 ranch gates as I drove across Texas, that's a lot of land. Of course the speed limit was 55 and that multiplied the feeling.
My old bass player grew up in the King Ranch spread. They got the Salk vaccine a year after most of the rest of the US did. Great guy, was Danny. Badass player, singer, and songwriter. Limped like shit, walked with cane, 'cause of the polio. It killed him young. Ran into a mutual friend, and asked about him. 'Oh he died 20 years ago'. Explains why he doesn't return my calls.Shit. Old drummer, I sent him a Happy Birthday, and got a response 'Oh, well, he was found dead in his house about 3 months ago.He'd died maybe 2 months before.' Did I tell them that it was okay to go and die without telling me? This is not acceptable
ReplyDeleteThat's not a ranch mate
ReplyDeleteNow that's a ranch-
The Anna Creek Station
At a sprawling 23,000 square kilometers (14,000 square miles), the Anna Creek Station in South Australia is the world's biggest cattle ranch.
Anna Creek has about 17,000 head compared to the King ranch with 35,000 head. When I was a kid, the King ranch was shipped 40,000 head a year.
DeleteThe largest one here doesn’t even reach #73 on the list for Australia:
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_stations_in_Australia
I grew up in Victoria Texas, worked at a small mom-n-pop grocery store as a teen. It was the last store in the area that gave people a line of credit. The O'Conner family used the store frequently, or actually their servants did. They come in and buy groceries and just say, charge it to the O'Conners. The old man would occasionally come in and buy a few things, mostly a case of Lone Star beer (which is nasty as shit) and I'd carry it out to his Cadillac. The back seat would be covered by cattle feed, saddles, etc., he used the damn thing like a pickup truck. The O'Conner kids were rotten to the core. Lived off of granddad's money, doing drugs, partying constantly, paying off cops and judges whenever one would get caught. One time one of the black sheep kids apparently got cut-off, raided the parents house for money, came in and bought a lot of stuff using silver certificates from the 1920's. I was the cashier and as soon as he left the store, I pulled all the money I had in my wallet and changed it out for as many of the silver certificates as I could. Still have then around here somewhere. They were living proof money don't buy class. The Welders were another family in the area, just as rich, never heard anything bad about their kids.
ReplyDeleteKing also has a large spread in Florida. The largest in that state, I think.
ReplyDeleteThe King Ranch continues to expand their land holdings - they have a place they bought up a few years ago, near me in Central Texas, and holdings up in Wyoming too.
DeleteThe entire population of the planet, 8 billion people, could live in the state of Texas and enjoy two and a half times the space that people currently enjoy in New York City. At. Night.
ReplyDelete(do the numbers, numbers don't lie).
Welcome to Texas.
DeleteNow go the fuck home.
MadMarlin
In the 1800s, the state of Texas only had one thing: Land. No money. So, they paid for everything in Land. When they wanted to pay for a new Capitol building (the biggest ever, naturally), they sold 10 counties in the panhandle to a cattle consortium, and the XIT (Ten In Texas) Ranch was born. It was eventually sold and broken up form its heyday. But the XIT was among the largest single landholdings ever. More info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XIT_Ranch
ReplyDeleteDouglas lake cattle company in Canada is a pretty good size ranch. Between what they own and lease it's about 1.2 million acres
ReplyDeleteI remember seeing the 6666 ranch gates as I drove across Texas, that's a lot of land. Of course the speed limit was 55 and that multiplied the feeling.
ReplyDelete