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After Alpena, I went to Flippin, a town of about a thousand in Marion County, which had more miles of unpaved roads than any other in our state. I went to see two young men I wanted to run my campaign there, Jim Red Milligan and Kearney Carlton. They put me between them in Reds pickup and took off down one of those dirt roads to Everton, a tiny place in the most remote part of the county, to see Leon Swofford, who owned the only store and whose UGGS on sale bailey bow support was worth a couple of hundred votes. About ten miles out of town, Red stopped the truck in the middle of nowhere. We were engulfed in dust. He took out a pack of Red Man chewing tobacco, put a wad in his mouth, then handed it to Kearney, who followed suit. Then Kearney handed it to me and said, We want to see what youre made of. If youre man enough to chew this tobacco, well be for you. If Cheap UGGS youre not, well kick you out and let you walk back to town. I thought about it and said, Open the damn door. They glared at me for about five seconds, then roared with laughter and took off down the road to Swoffords store. We got the votes there, and a lot more over the years. If they had measured me by my taste for Red Man, I might Cheap UGGS outlet still be wandering the back roads of Marion County.
A few weeks later, Id be tested like that again. I was in Clarksville in the Arkansas River valley with my twenty-two-year-old county leader, Ron Taylor, who was from a prominent political family and politically wise well beyond his years. He took me out to the county fair to see the county sheriff, whose support Ron said we had to have to carry the county. We found him at the rodeo grounds, holding the reins of a horse. The rodeo was about to begin with a parade of horses marching around the arena. The sheriff handed me the reins and told me to join the parade and Id be introduced to the crowd. He promised that the horse was well behaved. I was wearing Cheap UGGS for toddlers a dark suit and tie and wing-tipped shoes. I hadnt been on a horse since I was five, and then only to pose for a picture in a cowboy outfit. I had turned down the chewing tobacco, but I took the reins and mounted the horse. After a lifetime of watching cowboy movies, I thought, how hard could it be? When the opening ceremony started, I rode out into the arena just as if I knew what I was doing. About a quarter of the way around the arena, right after Cheap UGGS sale Id been introduced, the horse stopped and reared up on its hind legs. Miraculously, I didnt fall off. The crowd clapped. I think they believed Id done it on purpose. The sheriff knew better, but he supported me anyway.
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