SPRAY – I spent much of Saturday, May 24, trying to read between the lines. The lines to which I refer were etched on the face of a rugged octogenarian who was hosting me at the Spray Rodeo.

Tom Campbell, the wiry old cowboy who is one of the patriarchs of Spray’s annual blowout, is a noted storyteller. But on this day, the fact I was writing down everything he said probably made him a tad nervous.

I think he also wanted me to write about the rodeo and not his colorful past. During the day, it seemed liked everyone we encountered knew Tom. When he indicated I worked for the East Oregonian, they added a few anecdotes here or there about their old friend.

It quickly became clear he is something of an icon among the painted hills and river bottom pastures that dignify that part of Oregon.

Tom came to Kimberly about 1950 and started ranching about a mile east of town along the John Day River. His wife of 21 years, Deborah, runs the Kimberly Store. Together, they have five children.

I asked Tom if he minded living in such an isolated area.

“I grew up in Lonerock,” he said. “It’s not like I’m a city boy.” He attended grade school in Lonerock and then went to Condon to finish high school.

During the winter of 1949-50, he worked construction for Jack French. It was a horrible winter.

Campbell told me, “I had to chain up every day to get to Gurdane where we were working.” Later that year, he settled in Kimberly. “I’ve been here ever since,” he said, “I’ve never had enough money to leave.”

He raised sheep until 1974 and then switched to cattle.

These days he is in the process of turning over the cattle operation to his grandson Brian, but, by his own admission, he isn’t doing a particularly good job of retiring. Brian, who is 29, concurs. “He’s a legend in this valley and he’s the toughest, hardest-working man I know. I can’t believe the changes he’s had to make over the years – like from $1 diesel to $4 or from sheep to cattle. I hope someday to be a fourth the man he is.”

Brian also worries about being able to make enough changes of his own to cope with the rising expenses and challenges that face him and his fellow cattlemen.

“We’ve all made changes of one kind or another to be able to make it here,” he said. Their friend, Archie, who spent the day with us at the rodeo, runs a firefighting operation.

Before he was married the first time and started his family, Tom did quite a bit of rodeoing. He didn’t have a special event. “They didn’t always have enough contestants and we had to be in any event where they needed us,” Campbell said.

When he was raising sheep, he sometimes summered them at Meacham. “We would take them up to Meacham by truck and then trail them all the way back to Kimberly. We crossed the highway around Mount Emily.

He also was quite a fan of the Pendleton Round-Up. “I used to come up to Pendleton and stay with Duff Severe,” he said. In 1946, he participated in the NW bucking competition which was part of Round-Up.

Later, that event was moved to Heppner for a while.

Campbell rode in the parade before the May 24 rodeo. It was the 60th time in the 61-year history of the rodeo he has participated. He rode near the head of the parade – just behind the color guard, the Spray royalty, the grand marshals and a group of World War II veterans who rode in a pair of Hummers and also were later honored just before the rodeo kicked off. The honored combat veterans included a tail gunner, a member of a bomber crew and foot soldiers.

“If you have any doubt that patriotism is alive and well in America, all you need to do is come to Spray for rodeo weekend,” said the announcer. “This is a place where proud Americans can gather and honor our country.”

As the Hummers carrying the veterans slipped out of the arena, a lady on horseback began galloping around the enclosure carrying the American flag. With the national anthem reverberating off the rimrock hills that surround Spray, the rodeo got under way.

Campbell himself also used to work in the arena until a couple of years ago when he decided it was time to watch from the rail. It doesn’t seem to have stifled his movement about the grounds.

When he called on the phone a couple of weeks ago to make sure I was going to be in Spray for this year’s rodeo, he pointed out “you don’t have a clue about the Spray Rodeo until you see it person.”

Now I have.

And seeing it in the company of a tough old cowpoke made it all the better.

George Murdock is the editor and publisher of The East Oregonian in Pendleton.