Seeing California with (Dr.) Cactus Chris

Cowboy poets come to their calling in various ways. Baxter Black was a practicing large animal veterinarian.

Some are working cowhands, or housewives cooking for haying and branding crews. Driver Dick Haag, from Indianola, is an over the road truck driver who wiles away the miles by setting his experiences to verse. But Cactus Chris Buethe came to cowboy poet circuit in one of the strangest ways.

Chris Buethe is a product of Southeast Nebraska. He grew up, the youngest of five children, on a farm in Johnson County, near Tecumseh, where, it is said, nothing grows but Buethes, Bartels, and Bindweed. All public meetings there are like miniature family gatherings, as most of the people in attendance are related in someway.

Chris' father was an amateur musician, and some of his earliest memories are attending barn dances where his father's group provided the music. When the little tykes tired of bothering the dancers, they fell asleep on the hay. They only awoke sometime later, during the long ride home.

When Chris' father died at an early age, Chris and his mother moved to Seward, where he raced through high school, entering the University of Nebraska at age 16.

It was at the University that I first met Chris, when we were both members of the Brown Palace Co-op, a sanctuary for financially challenged students -- board and room for $32 per month. Even with scholarships and cheap board and room Chris was forced to leave school twice, for a year at a time, to earn the necessary capital to pay his school costs.

But perseverance is one of Chris Buethe's strongest traits, and he kept at his schooling until he had not only earned his Bachelor's degree, but also his doctorate in education, from the University of Nebraska. With this degree in hand he taught at several colleges.

He taught one year abroad, as a Fulbright Scholar, in Tangier, Morocco. He spent the last 20 years of his teaching career at Indiana State University, retiring as the Chairman of the Education Department from that institution.

Dr. L. Chris Buethe is a man of many interests. While at Indiana State he became interested in the Indianapolis 500, and racing cars generally.

He regularly wrote scientific papers on various aspects of motorcar racing. One year he organized an Elderhostel in Indiana, which featured three courses on:

1. The Indy 500. The group took part as members of a pit crew in Gasoline Alley.

2. Basketball. It was during his tenure at ISU that Larry Bird starred for that team. One of Larry Bird's teammates had the little old ladies on the basketball floor, passing the ball and learning how to set a pick and the difference between a man-to-man and a zone defense., and

3. Swimming. A Catholic Nun taught the group and demonstrated various swimming strokes connected with the saving of a life in the water.

Space Exploration was another of Buethe's interests. In this field he wrote articles on various space subjects for the Encyclopedia Britannica, met a number of the astronauts while lecturing at seminars on space travel and attending space launches. One year he led a group of science teachers to Russia to witness a launching of one of the Soviet space ship launchings.

Chris and Diane Buethe became leaders in establishing a nationwide support group for head accident victims, after their teen-age son was severely injured in an intersection by a drunk driver who failed to stop at a red light.

Some scientific types cling to the edge of the scientiffc community in retirement. Not Dr. Buethe. This educator decided to reinvent himself in retirement. With his wife, Diane, he moved back to New Mexico, where both he and Diane had been teachers at New Mexico State U. in Las Cruces, years before. Because of his friendship with Baxter Black, Chris tried his hand at writing cowboy poetry. He found he had a knack for that art, so he exchanged his suits for western cut shirts and jeans, swapped his wing-tipped shoes for cowboy boots, bought a 10-gallon hat, grew a scraggly beard, and turned himself into Cactus Chris, Cowboy Poet, from Las Cruces.

In the years since he has become increasingly busy entertaining with his special brand of Cowboy Poetry at Conventions, on Cruise Ships, and at Cowboy Poets Gatherings at Elko, Dodge City, El Paso, and many such meetings in the Southwest. He has been a regular at the annual Ralph Edwards Festival at Truth or Consequences, N.M., and Geranimo Days at Cloudcroft, N.M. He has opened the program for Baxter Black at the Farm & Ranch Museum in Las Cruces and has appeared at the Buffalo Commons Storytelling Festival in McCook.

But what is remarkable, and quite wonderful, is that Cactus Chris, alias Dr. Buethe, is having a fine time in retirement -- making people feel good. Sometimes Cactus Chris, himself, is the butt of his own humor. Often he makes people laugh at themselves, and laugh, and sometimes cry, at the way he portrays events in the Western way of life.

But Chris Buethe was not always the grizzled old cowboy, or the serious college professor. I like to remember the time, in 1948, that Chris and I, as 20-year olds, traveled to California in the Buethe 1931 Model A Ford Coupe. The car was not entirely reliable. We had trouble traveling over the mountain passes in Colorado, and driving across the desert in Utah.

The radiator boiled, and numerous times we had to stop for water. A Model A is a very small vehicle and Chris Buethe is 6 foot 4 inches, most of which is legs. Several nights we were forced to sleep in that car. The next morning we were so cramped that we could scarcely walk.

However, one does not dwell on the negative aspects of his youth, so I tend to remember the positives of that trip. For instance, the Model A proved to be a great way to meet young ladies. Maybe they felt sorry for us, I'm not sure, but we stopped frequently along the way.

In Estes Park we went to dances with coeds from NU who were working at the YMCA Camp for the summer. In Utah, we learned about Mormonism while we swam in high mountain lakes (Brr! was that water cold!)

In Los Angeles we joined a beach party with a group of young surfer types. We delighted in swimming in the ocean, but were unaware of what the warm sun was doing to our bodies. We ended our beach party with the worst sunburn of our lives.

With all our distractions and troubles of the trip, including one slight accident, we were almost two weeks making the trip to California -- two of the greatest weeks of my life.

I hear from Chris Buethe often -- I have for over 50 years. He never fails to call me on his favorite (personal) holiday -- Feb. 2, Groundhogs' Day.

This year I look forward to seeing him again, in McCook, as Cactus Chris, along with Mike Adams, the Saggy Bottom Boys, and the winners of the Gazette Cowboy Poetry/Song Contest, at the Fox Theater, on Friday at 7:30.

He always makes me laugh and feel good. I think he'll make you laugh and feel good too.