Hay Now: In Dallas, a South-Central Texas Ranch Hand Got Tumped Over and Pissed Off

Anyone who's driven south of town knows most of the state's suffering from a severe drought, especially south-central Texas. And without water, there can be no hay. So Monday morning before dawn, a ranch foreman from Harwood headed north to Bonham to buy some for the cattle and other farm...

By Kimberly Thorpe

August 11, 2009

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Anyone who's driven south of town knows most of the state's suffering from a severe drought, especially south-central Texas. And without water, there can be no hay. So Monday morning before dawn, a ranch foreman from Harwood headed north to Bonham to buy some for the cattle and other farm animals he's raising on a 450-acre property.

Joe Parish, 52, had loaded up his truck with 14 bales of hay by the afternoon. So he began the six-hour drive back home. But he got turned around approaching downtown Dallas and had to exit the highway. Just as he was getting back on Stemmons Freeway near Victory Park, he swerved to miss a pick-up truck that cut him off, and his heavy truck caught an edge and flipped. Hay spilled out everywhere. Dallas police soon arrived to help.

"It was either hit him or try to miss him, and he just kept on going," said Parish, who, by the time we ran into him at 7:30 p.m., had been standing under the I-35E overpass along with the cops for two hours. Parish and the police were waiting for a small crane to help get the hay back on the truck.

Parish was anxious to get home and leave behind the Dallas drivers who seemed to him to have "road rage." He had spent an entire day traveling just to bring his animals food. "We ain't had rain in 90 days," said Parish. "We ain't got no hay."

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