had a 25-acre garden and raised our own food,” Dale says. But young Dale’s favorite chore, he discovered, turned out to be roping, caring for and doctoring cattle. In 1969,
just as he was hon-
ing his craft, Uncle Sam lassoed 19-year-old Dale from his ranch and sent him to Vietnam to fi ght in the war — fresh out of high school— number 32 in the draft. “I served 12 months in Vietnam
and was honorably discharged as an E-5 in 1971,” Dale says. Coming back home proved to be diffi cult for Dale. “Back then, the Vietnam veterans were treated like dirt. It upset me for quite a while. We were just doing what Uncle Sam told us to do,” Dale recalls. The events of the war and mis-
“I’ll keep cowboyin’ as long as I can — as long as my health stays good. It’s what I was born and raised to do,” Harrimon says.
treatment of veterans was so up- setting to him that he felt the need to be alone for a time. “I went to the mountains and camped out. It took me quite a while to get used to people again. Just things that happened, it’s between me and the fencepost,” he looks down and says. After a year of being in the
mountains — hunting and fish- ing just to survive — Dale says his dad helped him get back on his feet and talked him down from the mountain. Dale thought he’d try the city life
Regular trips through the Schwertner pastures help Harrimon keep up with any calves that need to be doctored.
of us kids worked. When we started getting into trouble our parents gave us more work. Our parents did bust our britches for getting into trouble, too,” Dale remembers.
66 The Cattleman December 2013 The Harrimons made their living
as full-time farmers and ranchers. “During the winter Daddy would buy 200 head of hogs. We had a chicken house, and cattle, too. We
after things settled down from Viet- nam. One of his best friends from Hugo helped get him a 9-to-5 job as a technician at Texas Instruments in Dallas. “I didn’t like fi ghting the city and the traffi c. [There are] too many people,” Dale remembers. Proving his parents‘ theory true
— that idle hands are the devil’s workshop — Dale hit the bars at quitting time. “I knew I would have ended up in jail. So I decided to go back to Oklahoma where it was quiet and peaceful,” he says.
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