Everett "Cotton" Robuck, What a Man!

I stopped by "Mr. Cotton's" home one day shortly before Thanksgiving in 2003. Cotton said, "Lets go fishing", I explained to him that the stock tanks were all filled up and the only deep water we could get close enough to was along the dam. He liked to fish with minnows. I told him I thought the slope would prevent me from setting up a chair so that he could be comfortable. I told him I had corn feeders running and would he want to try to shoot a feral hog. He said sure and had me go find a rifle in his closet. I came back after looking and showed him two Ruger .22 pistols I found. He told me he could hit one with the long barrel pistol. So off we went. When we got to the ranch we found that the fishing wasn't any good. I drove to one of the corn feeders and angled my pickup truck so that he had a clear view out his window. We visited while waiting for the feeder to go off. It went off at 5:00 PM and about ten minutes later about six feral hogs came in to pick up the corn. Cotton raised the pistol, picked out a nice fat one, aimed, and shot. I want you to know that I was thinking that no way was he going to hit that pig much less kill it. To my surprise after some period of him carefully aiming he shot. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The pig rolled over kicking. Yep, and this was when he was 95. If you check out the picture closely you can see the pistol handle sticking out of his pants.
Cotton is pictured here with his hog. The pistol he used was a ruger 22 cal. long barell. I remember him really excited about making his "kill". He got on the phone that night and called Mike's home and talked to one of his grandchildren telling the story. He said that it wasn't long that the phone was "ringing off of the hook". Everyone wanted to hear his story. Yes, and this was when he was 95.
Cotton showing how he sighted down the barell to make his shot.
I stopped by to see "Mr. Cotton" three days before he turned 96. I found him cutting grass outside his home. He was getting things ready for some of his kids and grandkids that would be coming in for his birthday party. He was planning to celebrate on Sunday with a dinner at Barths Resteurant in Kennedy. I asked him to let me mow the grass. I told him that in three days he was going to turn 96 and it was time someone else mowed his grass. He looked at me with one of those "Cotton" grins and said, "I'm just getting started". He meant I think that you live life to the fullest. If you don't keep going you may not be around to go. I don't remember ever seeing a rocking chair in the Robuck house.
Everett "Cotton" Robuck, what a man! I told Mike, his son, the last time I saw him that Cotton left a piece of himself in many of us. I feel very fortunate to have my piece.