The photograph below is courtesy of the Park County, Wyoming Historical Society. (This is, of course, the picture featured on the Home Page.) It pictures a group of Cody old-timers playing poker at the local saloon. Seated around the table (left to right): George Inman, Snake River Bill Morris Sanderson, John Kirkpatrick and Two Dog Johnson. Standing (left to right): Soo Foo, Cigarette Charley, George Gentner, Bill Jones, Harry Vreeland, Bill DeMaris, and bartender Red Felsheim.

Just Mice 'n Me

These wall, these walls, these cabin walls
are crawlin' close t’ me.
They 're crawlin' and I swear t' God,
they’re threatenin' as can be.
These weeks that I've been snowed in,
I've seen 'em slowly crawl
closer, ever closer,
till they're nearly wall on wall.


The cabin's sealed up like a tomb
with six foot drifts a' snow;
and I'm jailed in a' listenin'
to the ragin' blizzard blow.
I wish I were in Cody
playin' poker...drinkin' beer...
by the stove at Casey's Bar-
just any place but here.

The lucky stiffs that beat the storm
and made it into town
are playin' cards at Caseys now,
all warm and hunkered down.
 The woods all gone. I burned the chairs.….
The cabin’s cold as ice..
There's no one here t' talk to
'cept a couple scrawny mice.

There ain't no heat. There ain't no food....
'cept them two scrawny mice.
You think I wouldn't eat 'em?
Wouldn't think about it twice…..-
if only I could catch 'em,
but I'm just too numb t' try.
I'm stove-up, starved and weary-
and too damn mean t' die.

These walls, these walls, are crawlin' close.
They're breathin' in my face.
I wish I were at Caseys
or most any other place.
Casey’s big pot-bellied stove.
is red-hot. No ones cold.
They're playin' cards at Caseys-
while I'm here about t' fold.

Bette Wolf Duncan
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