It was a boys dream come true, when my parents let me travel to the USA after school and try to gather some experience abroad. But it went all wrong. With the cease-fire in Vietnam pending, the G.I.'s would come back and needed the jobs themselves.

So in 1972 I spent four months of my time working on a the MuleShoe Ranch near Willcox, Arizona, waiting for an immigration Visa that never came.

But those four months were among the best time I had in my life. The nature, the work and the hardship shaped me, set some priorities for the rest of my life. Even the traditional Dollar A Day made me understand, that money may be something nice to have, but it can't buy the satisfaction that a hard working day will give you.

What can be more beautiful than riding over those ridges to hunt for food or drive down cattle that had gotten themselves in high elevations on their search for some fresh grass in the blazing Arizona summer heat?

What can be more honest than waking up the chicken in the morning and saddle up the horses, to get some sweat driving work done 20 miles off the ranch headquarters? How can anybody be more satisfied than getting home at night and crashing into the bed with a sore butt?

What is more rewarding than having built a 1000 yard 5-fold barbed-wire-fence across the prairie to keep the cattle from grazing an unwanted section?

next