03/07/2026
Hey to say goodbye to a wise old sheep man tonight. He was a contemporary of my father's , I can remember many times when they would have western new york sheep & wool growers meetings Earl would be always one of the last to leave. Maybe that's because he was one of the directors that lived closest to us , I don't know. I do know that when I was 16 and learned how to shear sheep, .When I got to be about 17, my father was convinced that I was good enough to go Shear somewhere else. The first place my father ever sent me to shear sheep other than home was Earl Veley's. I talked to the girls tonight and the general consensus was that possibly their father on shropshire , at the time all remembered , they were got off of big , and it took me all day to do about twenty five or thirty of them. No, it's time I think dad was paying me about $10 a week. I think dad had me go over on a Sunday and I think Earl paid me like $45 and fed me lunch. I was hooked.I thought I was rich. After I move back from virginia , I shered for Earl for quite a few years you any got to where it was hard for him to take care of the sheep and his daughters took them over for him , and I still shear for both of them. Earl hurting himself bad as a kid with all crippled up, I thought for years he had polio, he would've been of that generation. But he told me , no , he had hurt himself in gym class bad and back then they didn't take you to the doctors , they just said , walk it off , get over it kid. I don't believe the man has the word can't in his vocabulary.When he had to be willing to seventies , he literally broke his hip coming out the door when he slipped on the ice , dragged himself to his truck and went to work. When he got there, then he went to the hospital.He said he would after he got a certain amount of work done. Everyone in this world that's set goes boohoo.Poor me ,I can't do this.I can't do that if they had just a little bit of the grit and determination of Earl Veley the world would be a much better place. God bless you ,Say hello , to father , when you see him. Rest well good shepherd
