When the weather has warmed up enough, Charlie Walker decides he'll go to Reno and sit in the sun down by the Truckee River.

If you're not familiar with the area around here, you might be interested in knowing that the Truckee River flows east, from Lake Tahoe in the High Sierras west of Reno, to Wadsworth in the foothills east of Reno. From there it goes northward to Pyramid Lake, home of the big Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian reservation.

The Truckee passes through downtown Reno on its journey, and that's where Charlie likes to go. There's a path that runs alongside the river, and there are several eating places with tables and benches downtown, for folks to sit and just watch the kayakers, and swimmers and fishin' folks.

Sioux, and her uncle Waco, volunteer to take Charlie there in their pickup truck, because he's kind of unsteady on his feet, and they don't want anything bad t'happen to 'im.

When they get settled down at a little table by the river walk, Charlie begins reminiscin' about "back then." The main story that comes out is one about how local Catholic men used to dye the river green for Saint Patrick's Day. But, in this story, some Protestant men decided to take charge of the situation and dye the river orange.

Charlie says, "See? This all goes back to Ireland, where Catholics wore green for Saint Patrick's Day, and Protestants wore orange. Lotta fights broke out between the two."

"Sioux says, "I've never seen anybody fighting about what color anybody is wearin'."

"Well," says Charlie, "This was around 1932, when some of the Irish Protestant cowboys in the Reno area decided to get to the river first and dye it orange. These are some of the toughest cowpokes this side of Saint Jo. Men like Boyle and Brady, Buckley and Burke, Costello, and Casey and Carroll. Others that signed on to join in the fun were Foley, Fitzgerald, and Farrell.

Early on Saint Patrick's Day, they all meet on the west side of town, with a water wagon carryin' hundreds of gallons of thick, orange dye.

They all ride upstream about a mile-and-a-half, and cheer lustily as they empty their gurgling cargo into the fast-moving water.

"Now," says Charlie, "what they don't know is that a bunch'a Catholic cowpokes--men like Hamilton, Hogan, Kelly and Lynch, O'Connell, O'Donnell, and Shea--had ridden upstream two miles to dump in their water wagon full of green dye." Charlie says, "Both sides mount up and gallop back to town to watch the river turn their favorite color. The Protestants lined up on the north bank, and the Catholics, on the south."

Sioux says, "Awww, Charlie, I can just see what's gonna happen." "You're probably right," says Charlie, "and it did. Someone hollered from off to the west, 'Here she comes, boys! Get ready!' Then along the river's edge, the shouting stopped, due to a shock of the kind that just numbs the vocal cords."

Waco says, "Boy, I'd like to've been there! I love a good fight." Sioux says, "Come on, Charlie. What happened?"

Charlie says, "Well, it only took minutes for that dye to get just about to where we're settin' right now. But when it did, the river had turned kind of a disgusting dark brown."

"So, how about the fight?" says Waco.

"Weren't one," says Charlie. "Both sides were so sheepish about the thing that they just went lookin' for the nearest place t'get some cool libations, and drown their troubles."

"That's kind of a disappointing ending," says Sioux.

"Well," says Charlie, "It don't end there. The fight--such as it is--still goes on from time to time. But the green and the orange you find these days, is only in the cowpokes' beer. Y'see, the reason the boys're drinkin' such stuff is that a well-known gummint agency threatened 'em all with jail if they're caught pollutin' the river with that gunky dye."

"I was kind of hopin' for an ending that's somethin' a little more dramatic than that," says Waco.

Charlie says, "Well, hope springs eternal in a cowpoke's heart. Most of 'em still has the feelin' that some Saint Patrick's Day morning, they'll find the Truckee River's either green or orange, and the ones responsible haven't got caught by gummint agents."

Sioux says, "Charlie, you want some more sasparilla before we head on back to Drytown?"

He says, "No thanks, but I'd appreciate it if you two'd wait while I go inside the restaurant here for a couple minutes. It's a long ride home, and not too many comfort stations along the way."

"I'll go with ya," says Waco. "I seen two bunches of cowboys in there-- one of 'em drinkin' orange beer, and the other drinkin' green. Looks like there could be some fun breakin' out any minute."

"Well, I'll wait here," says Sioux, "and if the sheriff comes askin' if I know you, I may or may not tell 'im I do."