December pang approaching...
As the end of the year closes in, I'm getting ready to feel the pang I always get when NFR rolls around. I miss the rodeo world and the friends I had there and that feeling always seems to feel strongest at NFR time.
I've been thinking about going this year, but two things stop me. One, I don't have any credentials. And two, I don't have a real reason to go. See, it's hard for me to just sit through a rodeo. I'm so used to being behind the chutes, running down quick interviews and just clumping in the dirt that I don't enjoy just sitting in the stands.
There's a former bull rider out here that's just married a woman I used to work with. We talked about that feeling while drinking beers one night. He admitted that while he thought it was great that a lot of rodeo is televised now, he doesn't ever watch it. He told me he couldn't watch without feeling a pang and it was too much for him. I never rode bulls, but I knew what he was talking about.
Anyway, I think that I could still arrange press credentials, but why? Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it would just be a lonely experience.
But still...
I've been thinking about going this year, but two things stop me. One, I don't have any credentials. And two, I don't have a real reason to go. See, it's hard for me to just sit through a rodeo. I'm so used to being behind the chutes, running down quick interviews and just clumping in the dirt that I don't enjoy just sitting in the stands.
There's a former bull rider out here that's just married a woman I used to work with. We talked about that feeling while drinking beers one night. He admitted that while he thought it was great that a lot of rodeo is televised now, he doesn't ever watch it. He told me he couldn't watch without feeling a pang and it was too much for him. I never rode bulls, but I knew what he was talking about.
Anyway, I think that I could still arrange press credentials, but why? Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it would just be a lonely experience.
But still...
posted by Shawn at 7:02 PM
3 Comments:
I'm stupified... dumbfounded... stupidumified...
Call me unobservant (I've been called soooo much worse) but I just noticed that you have a (GASP!!) RODEO blog!
You're a cowboy too??! Well, colour me a tickly shade of pink!!(notice the "u" in coloured - an unmistakably Canadian spelling - gotta be true to my heritage)
At the risk of endangering my anonymity, I've gotta tell you that I come from a long line of rodeo-ers. Believe it or not, my dad is a rodeo clown (who could make this shit up?) and I spent each and every wkd from the time I was in utero through the age of 14 at a rodeo!
Wooo-eee... Cowboys in cyberspace... what will they think of next?
Okay...consider yourself coloured stupidumified...except you're too smart to be coloured that...how about simply surprised?
I guess I'm busted on my not so top secret alter ego.
Is your dad a clown or a boo fighter?
I really miss the rodeo world. I was pretty deeply immersed in it for a few years and met some really awesome people.
We had a lot of Canadian cowboys competing in the Columbia River Circuit where I was...Rod Hay, Davey Shields, and cowgirl Molly Powell come to mind.
Now that you found this spot, I guess I have to actually fill it up with some stories...
My dad is a bonified (bone-ified?)rodeo clown... hats and silly acts and all. He did the bullfighting thing before he had children and my mom spazzed out about the possibility of him being gored by a longhorn. Now he is relegated to the barrel - and the many joys of cowboy poetry.
Having not been to a rodeo since I was 14 (and I'm now 28), I suspect I'm more than a little out of touch with the current "who's who". I was always the city kid (funny for a girl from Moose Jaw) and never really fit in with the rodeo crowd anyway... It would've probably helped if I had gotten myself a pair of wranglers and a big belt buckle so I could have blended a little bit. I ditched the whole scene once I was old enough to stay home with my brother on wkds and getting pissed up at highschool parties was somewhat more appealing than the $10 a wkd I made as a gopher for my dad.
At any rate, there is a still a teensy part of me that misses the lifestyle. We didn't get to many rodeos in the states but the old man was kind of a big deal in Canada (relatively speaking anyway). He even had an appearance on Sesame Street!!
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