"I Want To Be a Cowboy!"

 Hilltop Lakes Resort City in the 1970's  was a unique place where folks could buy a lot, or even a house and a lot, and then enjoy all the amenities of being a property owner.  Located centrally and about the same distance from both  Dallas and Houston and just off Interstate 45, Hilltop Lakes has been a top vacation spot from the early 1960's to the present.

 Hilltop Lakes has a Texas-shaped swimming pool, a nice restaurant and lodge, an awesome golf course, beautiful lakes for fishing, boating, and swimming, a patio for showing outdoor movies, and hundreds of deer everywhere. It is still a great place to visit, take vacations, or live.

When my husband Noah Powell, my daughter Jon Marie, my son Jimmy, and I moved to Hilltop Lakes in 1970, it was officially to run the Quarter Horse Races and train Quarter Horses year round at the racetrack. We ended up running the Riding Stables and taking out Trail Rides and putting on Hayrides, too. We managed all the horse barns and pastures and handled anything that had to do with horses at Hillltop. 

 I ran the Cracker Barrell, a gameroom full of old nickel pinballs lining the walls and green-plush-topped twenty-five-cents-a game pool tables in the middle.  Back then, folks dropped their little four and five-year-old kids off at the Cracker Barrell --with a handful of change-- to stay all day and play games, knowing they would be watched and be safe. In that day and age, Hilltop Lakes was a wonderful place to visit and to live. Many of these youngsters loved to spend the day playing with my little son, Bobby Powell, born in 1975 at Madisonville, Texas, who stayed with me at the Cracker Barrell.

With four or even five trail rides going out in one day in the spring, summer, and fall, Noah and I stayed busy leading the rides. In the peak summer season, we always hired  teenage boys or girls to lead the hourlong trailride as it wound through the woods and by the picturesque lakes. Our trailride leaders either had their own horses or would ride one of ours and were usually good riders who had a lot of experience with horses. 

One summer day, someone really special came into our lives. I remember it happening this way:    

 I noticed a handsome little boy who looked to be about twelve years old hanging around the Cracker Barrell. This kid had lots of dark curly hair and was very polite. I realized he especially seemed to like the trailride horses, petting them and picking grass for them to eat. Between trailrides, the fifteen or twenty trailride horses were kept in a big corral, still saddled, but with their bridles removed, so they could have access to all the fresh water they might want on those hot summer days.

You could tell this skinny little kid really liked horses. After the third day of hanging around and sizing up the horses and the way things were done, this kid came up to Noah and me and introduced himself. I will never forget what he said:   "Hi, my name is Donnie Kinsey. I just moved here from Houston, and I want to be a cowboy! And I want a job taking out the trailrides!"

Laughing, but liking his looks and polite manner, Noah and I looked at each other, both of us thinking-- due to his size-- he wasn't old enough to be hired to take out trailrides. Donnie told us he was older than he looked, so Noah asked him if he had ever ridden a horse. He replied with a firm No, but he knew he could ride a horse-- It didn't look that hard! 

So we went outside to the corral where one of the rent horses, a blazefaced bay gelding with four white feet, was tied to the fence. This particular horse was named Dynamite, and there was a reason he was named Dynamite. If you got him away from the rest of the horses, he could be difficult to ride. He would rear up a little bit and keep rearing up until he was back with the other horses, usually scaring his rider half to death.  Only an experienced rider was ever put on Dynamite.

Noah looked at Donnie and said, "This horse is named Dynamite. Untie him, get on him,  ride him down to the racetrack, and ride him back. If you can do that, I might just hire you!"  Donnie untied Dynamite, hopped on him, and started kicking him to get him to move. Dynamite moved off a little way, then, as usual, began his rearing up, trying to come back to the barn and the rest of the horses.

However, Donnie was not having any of that and instinctively pulled Dynamite's head so he would keep going in a circle-- just as an experienced rider would have done. For a full five minutes, Dynamite tried to have his way, but Donnie wouldn't let him. Finally Dynamite gave up, and Donnie rode him down to the track and back without a problem, pulled up in front of us, and jumped off.

"Well, do I have the job or not?" he asked.  Noah said, "How old are you?"  Donnie answered back, "I'm older than I look!" We all laughed, and Noah told him he was hired. Donnie WAS older than he looked, and he turned out to be one of our best trailride leaders as well as a wonderful, dear friend to our children and to us.

Donnie fulfilled his dream of being a cowboy. He has been foreman and ranch manager for some of the biggest ranches in the country and even managed a big ranch in a foreign country. He is an expert on cattle and horses. It was a great honor that Donnie always gave the credit (or the blame, as his family put it!) for his becoming a cowboy to Noah Powell, his ideal cowboy, and to me, Dorothy Powell, his ideal cowgirl, all those many years ago.

Time passed, and things changed. I moved back to Waco in 1985, and had not seen Donnie until about three years ago, when old-time horsetrader and dear friend Alton Thornton called me one night. Alton said some man said he knows you, and this man looks like Tom Selleck. ( Just by that, I knew it had to be Donnie, as he made a very handsome man and could be Tom Selleck's double!) Alton said this man wants your phone number, that you and Noah Powell are the reason he is a cowboy!

And that is how Donnie Kinsey came back into my life again. I kept up with Donnie and knew he and his family had moved back to the Bryan area, but hadn't heard much lately. I knew his daughter, Brianna, loved horses, too-- just like her daddy did as a kid--  and that she was a cowgirl, just like Donnie was a cowboy.  I knew that Donnie kept and rode good horses and still lived the cowboy life. 

A few days ago, my friend in Bryan called and said she had news about Donnie. Her daughter, Tina, who went to school with Donnie and my kids, had just gotten word that Donnie has cancer. It had started in his kidneys and apparently is now inhis blood. The classmate who told Tina was asking that Donnie be put on all their prayer lists, so it doesn't sound good for Donnie.

 Donnie is about  46 or so years old now. All of us who know and love him are praying for that skinny little kid we remember, who is a natural horseman and who became the great cowboy he wanted to be.  I know I will never forget the privilege of having such a wonderful kid who made such a wonderful man calling me Friend.     

Update:     My oldest son Jimmy Powell and his little son, Noah E. Powell ( named for Jimmy's cowboy daddy), went to visit Donnie not long ago. Donnie was very upbeat, with a courageous and positive attitude of savoring every moment and living every day the very best you can. And that was always what the boy Donnie and the man Donnie were all about anyway.

Donnie had the bad kidney removed and is undergoing radiation. As I understand it, the cancer that started in the kidney is now in the bone marrow. Nadell, Donnie's mother and my dear friend of many years, had the same thing a few years ago, but hers was detected early on. Nadell had the kidney removed and is doing fine.  

Recently, a childhood friend of Donnie's also visited with him. John Bullard Johnson, who now lives in Oregon but grew up with all the Hilltop Lakes gang, said Donnie told him he was going to fight this thing with all the power that he, the Lord God, and the Great Spirit of the Cherokee Nation could muster! Donnie, never forget that many, many people love you and our prayers are with you.

A Special Blessing for you, Donnie:                  

The Lord bless and keep you and make His face to shine upon you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and grant you Peace.

With much love, always, from your second mother, Dorothy, and your second family, the Powells.