Through Tom, I met his boss’s wife who introduced me to the world-famous Dr. Sankar Chatterjee who introduced me to the world of strange Triassic animals and even showed me the real bones of what he then was naming Proto avis, a Triassic bird, all from right here near Crosbyton, Texas!

Chatterjee	Joe at Chatterjee’s postosuchus site, Post, Texas

More than once, it was Tom who directed me to a new spot that turned out to be a significant site, and without him going to the trouble to go get the tractor to haul out some heavy filed jackets filled with iron-red clay and black bones, I would have been unable to move them. More than once, the same tractor pulled me out of a flooded creek or took me back the several miles to bring gas to my dead 4X4.

What do acting, guitar music and rodeos all have in common? They’re all entertainment. When our county decided to put on a play about our Old West heritage, Tom and Kathy and kids all got in the act. I even did a part and learned to square dance, something Tom and Kathy had already mastered.

Tom (on the right) as a “cowboy” in God’s Country play

But that’s the short list. As my niece Barbara, Tom and Kathy’s daughter used to say, “It’s nice to have a dad who can do anything.” And she wasn’t kidding. There isn’t much Tom hasn’t or doesn’t do, except play guitar, and he left that up to me.

Tom, John, Joe in concert 1984

The first recording I ever did was with Tom. The first band I was in was with Tom and they still play our Mother’s records on the radio that Tom and John and Kathy and I sang back up on. Today, Tom and Kathy sponsor Sacred Harp singings. These are performed acapella and the music which is mostly 200 years old, takes a pretty darned good musician to keep up with, what with all four parts taking the lead at some point in the song, weaving in and out of the other parts and ending with an energy that is akin to shouting on pitch. But that’s not enough. Each song is usually sung at least once by the notes, by the names of the shapes of the notes; do, ra, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do. Sometimes the notes are coming in rapid-fire16^th notes. I join in, but usually get lost early on.

Sacred Harp song book

It’s all church. And church is what Tom traded the rodeo for. Not because he wasn’t good enough. He was. There is no doubt in my mind that Tom would have been in the national finals in saddle-bronc riding, bull riding or bull-dogging and anything else had he pursued it. But, something trumped all of it. And that was church and the desire to serve his Savior, Jesus Christ. Tom felt the leading to enter the ministry, and 10 years ago was ordained as a minister in the Primitive Baptist church. No amount of awards, or money or fame as a cowboy would even come close to being equal. Having managed a large ranch in the best of all possible settings, which no cowboy would think of giving up, Tom went to his boss and told him of his desire to enter the ministry and that if they needed to replace him, he fully understood. His heart was no longer in the thrill of riding horseback through the mesquite, looking for the next challenge in the rugged breaks of Blanco Canyon. The rancher was agreeable, though a few years later the ranch was turned into a hunting ranch and their Texas landmark house was turned into a hunters’ lodge and Tom and Kathy moved nearer town. One notable change; was not having to slip and slide over and up out of the canyon on four miles of dirt roads to go to church or get to school. When Tom started a small compact tractor business I told all my digging buddies they ought to get the one with the 12 inch backhoe with 4 ft front end loader. Check ‘em out at: www.affordablecompacttractors.com

Every bone digger should have one

Anyone who has visited the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton has seen Tom’s handiwork. He built all of the displays and hung the sign and has done the metal work and carpentry on numerous displays that have gone to museums everywhere.

“My dad can do anything.”	Some of Tom’s many display sets

Without Tom’s help, where would my fossil career be today...? Not anywhere near what it is. And Tom, like John has suffered through the Allosaur travesty right along with me. It has been a burden that neither he nor his family should have had to bear. But they have.

I know I can speak for my brother John in saying, there isn’t a better man in the world than our little brother Tom Taylor. May God’s richest blessings come to you Tom. How you have done all that you have, and as well as you have, with extreme asthma and allergies, and all those bones pinned together, mangled by tractor accidents, I don’t know. How you can keep from complaining, I don’t know. Maybe I have done enough for both of us.

If there was ever a son who stayed home and did his father’s bidding, never asking for anything, and who rejoiced to see a prodigal brother return home, it’s you brother. You have stayed the hard course. God bless you and your ministry and your family.

With great respect and greater love,

Your big brother,

Joe