Some called him a bullet shy of a full load, those that knew him. M.T. Chamber was born at a little bend in the Arkansas River called Wichita. Wichita was home, at one time or another, to many legendary outlaws and lawmen but none less notable than M.T. Chamber.
The oldest of one, M.T. was the first, and only, child in his family to attend kindygarden. Sadly, he was not cut out for public education, or any other scholarly endeavor for that matter, and was soon excreted for kissing all the little girls in the class and pulling their pigtails. Heck, they wouldn't kiss him otherwise.
As a young boy, not going to school and all, M.T. spent a lot of time at his grandpa's farm out in western Kansas. It was on the farm he learned to skin a catfish and shoot his first gun. His grandpa gave him a single shot .410 gauge shotgun at the start of pheasant season when he turned thirteen. Both his grandpa and his daddy knew better than to let M.T. carry a loaded gun. They let him hunt pheasant with them but, unbeknownst to poor M.T., his shotgun was never loaded. He often wondered why his gun made no sound, and why he never got any pheasant. When he inquired his daddy assured him there was nothing wrong with his gun, that he was just a lousy shot.
An idle mind being the Devil's playground, it was no surprise when M.T. began hanging out with a pretty tough crowd. It was a, then little known, band of hooligans that called themselves, the James Gang. M.T. was younger than the Youngers and they wouldn't let him go on robberies with them, mostly he just watered the horses. Later he would leave the James Gang and strike out on his own to form a lesser known group of outlaws called, the M.T. Chamber Gang.
Legend has it that the first robbery the M.T. Chamber Gang ever attempted was the stagecoach that ran from Wichita to Dodge City. One hot, windy afternoon they rode out of nowhere, hoopin' and hollerin', guns ablazin', like a gang of Mexican bandits. The stage might have stopped had the driver known they were behind him, but he couldn't hear them. It seems that no one in the M.T. Chamber Gang knew how to load a gun. They chased the stagecoach all the way to Dodge City. By the time they got there they were too tired to rob the stage and decided to have a drink down at the Long Branch Saloon.
It was there, in the Long Branch Saloon, that M.T. met the woman of his dreams. Actually, he met two women of his dreams, Fannie Oakley and her younger sister Booty Hill (she had been married before). M.T. couldn't decide whether he liked Fannie or Booty the most. He liked them both. He would have married them both but they wouldn't have it. So, they decided to flip a coin. Booty flipped the coin and M.T. called "heads" while it was still in the air. It came up "tails" and M.T. ended up marrying Fannie. Even after his marriage, he thought of Booty all the time.
It might have been a match made in heaven; Fannie Oakley was an accomplished shooter in her own right. Unfortunately, unlike M.T., Fannie kept her guns loaded. One afternoon she was polishing his pistol when the headboard knocked over her shotgun. It fell to the floor and discharged leaving a rather nasty and fatal gash in the side of his head.
While M.T. Chamber died that day, his memory lives on. You may even have cursed his name yourself, if you've ever drawn your gun, taken dead aim on the target, pulled the trigger, and heard that awful deafening silence you hear after firing...an M.T. Chamber.
The only time I would worry about that would be if someone was shooting at me. That's why I carry a 17 shot Glock instead of a 6 shot Smith revolver.
Almost jacket weather. The 26 with 12 goes in the safe. The 34 with 18 goes on the hip...
Lots O' Lead!
Good stuff ;D
Looking forward to the further mis-adventures ;) of MT and Booty Hill :o
Roger, It sounds like a never ending saga to me.
;D just wait till you know him ::)
BTW I still need your address ..PM me so I can get it at work... your stick is ready ;)
Quite a story. The man seems ta have a penchant fer Booties an Fannies. Good fer him. :D
Just wish he hadn't died so early in the story. :'(
Leo
Thanks for readin' my post fellas and Howdy. M.T. Chamber did die young and I won't try to revive him. It's usually better to let sleeping dogs lie. There was however a brief span of time following the ill-fated robbery attempt of the Wichita to Dodge City Stagecoach and prior to Fannie Oakley accidentally shooting M.T. Chamber with her shotgun while polishing his pistol. Enough time to attempt another daring robbery, this time of the Coffeyville Bank.
MT, "A Man's gotta know his limitations".
Tex, an obsession with the female glutious maxamus makes a feller ferget his limitations right quick, and in some cases leads him ta takin a dirt nap.
Is that the moral? Do I get a piece of candy?
Welcome MT, ain't none of us quite right in the head around here ;D
Leo
Great introduction............I take it your some kin to Russ T Chamber
could be ...they went to different schools together :P
Leo, Are you tryin' to tell us that you're a BUTT MAN?
There are several branches to the family. ;D In a previous incarnation I was Fully Loaded Chambers, but got tired of playin' the town drunk. ::) ;D
;D ;D ;D
A man's gottta know his limitations.
Quote from: Texas Lawdog on October 22, 2008, 05:58:54 AM
Leo, Are you tryin' to tell us that you're a BUTT MAN?
Can't deny that I enjoyin lookin at em, but based on MT's story, I'd say he is the Master.
Leo
We may have to call him a Past master, because of his untimely demise.
Welcome to Tall Tales, M. T. Chamber.
Good story.
Slim
Tall Tales and Lively Imaginations.
I think that MT will fit in here just fine.
Seems to me that I heard, over in the greetings section, that Cousin MT was having a birthday today!
Happy Birthday Cuz!
I believe you're correct Russ T., I believe your cousin M.T. is havin' a birthday. I mistakenly thought Silent Joe was wishin' me a happy
birthday and mine ain't comin' up again til April. I do have an anniversary comin' up soon though. As I told Silent Joe, as long as I've been married and as old as I am, I'm not sure which is worse, birthdays or anniversaries! ;D I'm wishin' M.T. a happy birthday too!
By the way, did you say there was an openin' for town drunk?
I knew there wasn't but one branch to my family tree! ::)
MT, You've got a great friend in Roger. Friends like him are hard to come by. He is a true PARD! Think about us poor folks that actually have winter.
Roger's the best friend I got! :D
I grew up in Kansas, the wind chill factor was 50 below the day I decided to move to Florida. 8)
I used ta work in Kansas alot when I lived in MO. In the winter, the clear days were the coldest when that wind kicked up. You couldn't put on enough layers ta keep the bite away.
Leo
The winters is one of the reasons I don't live in the Texas Panhandle anymore. It snows up there and really gets cold. We don't have much winter weather in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which suits me just fine. I worked construction in Oklahoma and Kansas in the winter when I got out of college and before the Army. Working outside in the cold and snow got old real fast.
I lived in Dallas a short while. What I remember are the ice storms. Made the trees right pretty and the roads right slick. :-\
Went through one of them ice storms in KC. The next morning is beautiful. Trees look like glass figurines, but man it causes some havoc. Power lines down, transformers blown, tree limbs in the road. That one built 6 inches so it was a doozie. Don't know how many times I slipped and fell on my butt everytime I had ta go outside.
Leo
You gotta stop drinkin' before you go out in an ice storm, Leo. ;D
Don't need ta be drinkin ta fall in that stuff. We coulda rented our front yard out as a skating rink.
Prolly would a done better if I had been drunk ::)
Leo
We had an ice storm one time, I was walking down the sidewalk. I hit a slick spot and fell down. I landed on the grass in the front yard. I just laid there to make sure I didn't have any broken bones. My wife ran outside and almost fell herself. She's hollerin' and I'm just lyin' there. She thought I was knocked out. She didn't appreciate my explanation.
We had a bad one here once. The front yard sorta slopes slightly down toward the driveway. Got down the steps real carefully, and on the grass to pick up the morning paper. Slipped on the icy grass and slid all the way to the driveway. I hope I never see another ice storm like that one
http://hamptonroads.com/pilotonline
Don't matter what the weather is. Same poor reportin' 'n ya ain't gottah pay for it or get yer hands dirty with the print edition. Ya kin still read 'bout the loon what got herownself strangled ta death by her pet python. The snake was like a member of the family.
Plus, ya get all of the well informed 'n thoughtful user comments ya don't get in the printed rag. It's always good for a laugh with yer mornin' coffee.
I was goin' to get some lunch yesterday afternoon, pulled up to the intersection and noticed the car to my right. The driver has some sort of snake wrapped around his left hand.