I never knew my paternal grandfather, but I heard many stories. My father gave a tribute to him in one of the books he gave to us kids one year. Included is one of the poems Poppy wrote.
My grandfather, “Whose pioneer instinct led him to unsettled lands in the mountains of Montana. This paved the way for a whole family of FIRSTS. Did he get homesick?” This is what he wrote:
Take me back to old Montana
Where there is plenty room and air,
Where the hand clasp is the firmer
And the latch string’s open there
Where the boys wear chaps for breeches,
Buckskin gloves and Stetson hats,
Where they throw the diamond hitches
And brand cattle on the flats.
Land of promise, Land of sunshine,
The finest land on all the earth,
Take me back, let me recline
Land that gave my children birth.
– Bud Ward, 1927
