My favorite uncle, yup.

I’m an only child. My mother had a sister and my father had a brother. Small family. But a cool one.

I had a great uncle Charlie, who had been a cowboy, gold miner and a deputy sheriff and who knew Pat Garrett who shot Billy the Kid.

Uncle Charlie told me stories about the old West and taught me how to spin a rope. And he gave me a raw gold nugget.

WhenI asked him about his six-guns, he said he buried them at Boot Hill. I doubt it, but the West was filled with wonderful tall tales—as were the westerners.