Although I'm not sure these stories are actually getting passed on. I have it on good authority that the story about me and the box was deliberately excised in a certain household.
Nevertheless, the rodeo is in town this week (along with SXSW and UIL basketball - but that's another story) and last night on the news they showed the little kids riding sheep bareback. Maybe riding is the objective but these kids were lying face down on the sheep, clutching slippery wool and trying (unsuccessfully) to hold on for dear life.
And that reminded me of my career as a rodeo clown. Yes, it's true. Back in Breckenridge in my high school days I signed on as a clown for the Junior Rodeo. I wore baggy clothes, painted my face in clown features, glued a red rubber ball on my nose and went out and did stupid things - not all of them involving animals.
Admittedly, the largest animal we dealt with was a yearling calf, but if those suckers stepped on you while they were trying to get away from my classmates stupid enough to try and ride them, you hobbled for a while. Not to mention the fact that you could get slimed. There is a reason my mother called Reddi-Whip "calf slobber."
To be truthful, I don't remember a whole lot about the rodeo itself. I do remember the parade down the main street of town to promote the thing, and that my dad, in a spur-of-the-moment thing, hopped in a little red wagon and became part of the parade. The really memorable part was how upset my mother was at that. She explained in no uncertain terms how that jaunt lacked the decorum she felt a man of his age should maintain. See? I come by these things honestly.
I also remember that after I got my face painted and rubber nose glued on, none of my sister's (or her sister-in-law's) kids would have a thing to do with me. That probably was a wise choice - bet they wish they could have stuck with that in later years.
So, for my bucket list, I can mark off "
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1 comment:
Grandkids need to know these things.
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