A few weeks ago I was in my old home town of Cody, Wyoming and stopped into see my friends John and Norma McDougal. There on their wall was a painting I did years ago for John titled Cody Social Club. John is that tough looking hombre in the center with his beautiful wife Norma standing at his shoulder. On the left is Bob Olsen, then in the center foreground is Dick Doerr. Bud Carpenter is to his right and Bob Merrill is on the far right. John still has his Thursday night poker night although most of the characters have changed.

In order to prepare to do this painting so many years ago, we all gathered in Old Trail Town (a museum town in Cody made of actual buildings from the late 1800s, all put together by Bob Edgar, an archeologist, historian and quick draw artist). We set up in the saloon where they put on my old costumes and promptly began a game of poker. Funny thing is these guys are all Church going men (usually) who don't drink (much) and so when I finished the painting and delivered it I pasted a cut out painting of milk and cookies on the poker table. It took everybody a few minutes to discover the joke. Unfortunately, since the milk and cookies were only taped on, they eventually fell off.

John was the high school football coach and long time mentor to many of the youth of Cody. The likeness in the painting is spot on. John has a face that says, "I don't take any crap!" but he is friendly, soft spoken and his wife Norma says he is a Saint. He'll growl a chuckle and say, "that's B.S.". John and Norma are great folks.