The Man Behind All the Shit,The Owner of the Deep Shit Cattle Company, Mack Stark, Lavon Stark, and Ole Brownie, the manure pile.
April 15, 2009
Mack Stark figures cattle raisers can appreciate the name of his west central Texas ranch and makes no apologies for the words in big black letters on the steel arch over the dirt and gravel driveway. The name's not exactly fit to print, but let's just say "Deep Droppings Cattle Co." or "Deep Excrement Cattle Co." wouldn't have the same effect.
"Now the Deep Shit Cattle Company has a ring to it," the 75-year-old rancher said.
A ring of truth, Lavon Stark, his wife of almost 45 years, chimes in.
"If you've ever been in the cattle business, you know," she added.
After all, it's why cowboy boots go up almost to your knees. That comes in handy in this part of the state where manure runs deep and cars are outnumbered by cattle haulers rumbling along Texas Highway 36 in and out of Comanche, about 10 miles to the west of the Starks' 140-acre ranch.
And thus the name Mack Stark gave to his operation "six or eight years ago" after a tough day of herding and moving cattle and, naturally, stepping in it.
As he tells the story, after a third trip one day with a hauler to the cattle auction, somebody asked where this latest load was coming from. A tired and dirty Mack Stark blurted out a name that some now might consider a not-so-polite term for the economic situation of the nation.
"He has a dry sense of humor sometimes," Lavon Stark, 72, says.
The name _ like its namesake _ stuck.
The Starks' sons didn't forget the comment and made him a sign as a gift.
"He just died laughing," his wife recalled. "Now it sometimes gets real lonely around here without him. He was forever tracking shit into the kitchen and it stunk so bad I'd have to clean it up before we could eat supper."
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