For some reason my youngest son was drawn to the bull-riding-rodeo thing while he was in HS.?ÿ I wanted him to experience things for himself, but I had to bite my tongue when it came to the safety factor.
For a year or so he competed and practiced on mostly smaller animals.?ÿ But then he turned 18 and was getting into some stiff competition.?ÿ Up until then all that had ever happened to him was a few scrapes and bruises.
He drew a particularly nasty bull one Sunday afternoon.?ÿ I was right down on the pipe fence to get some good pics.?ÿ In about a half-second the bull slung him off and stomped the snot out of him.?ÿ The only pic I got was of his pretty Resistol hat in the dirt...with a 10" bull hoof imprint smack dab in the middle of it.?ÿ The clowns helped him to the fence.
He then decided he wanted to go home.?ÿ We left after the doc checked him out.?ÿ That was his last bull ride.?ÿ I was secretly pleased his interest had waned... ;)?ÿ
We used to see a guy at music sessions who was a bull rider.?ÿ Little wiry guy who must have been the toughest man per pound I've ever met.?ÿ He had a story about getting thrown from the bull, and his arm hurt while driving home.?ÿ After a few days it still hurt so he went to the doc.?ÿ There was a lot of referring to other caretakers, multiple xrays, and stuff in the story.?ÿ Anyway they decided it had been broken, but there wasn't anything to do except rest it.?ÿ So he wore a sling for the recommended time.
When he took off the sling, he couldn't straighten out the arm fully.?ÿ He got a couple buddies to set up arm-wrestling style and try to straighten it, but that didn't work.
He went to another rodeo and rode the bull successfully.?ÿ He had wrapped the rope around that hand, and said when he got off his arm was straight again.
@bill93?ÿ
Local fellow who is now 36 ran on the rodeo circuit for some time as a steer wrestler.?ÿ Things went fine until the night the steer's horn hit his square in the eye.?ÿ Light vs dark is the limit of his vision it that eye since then.?ÿ Somehow, he still is an excellent roper who rarely misses while working with his own herd.?ÿ His father passed away two years ago from cancer, leaving him the responsibility for over 4000 acres of land and the cattle that will support plus contracts to feedlots and contracts to buy cattle for others.?ÿ Mom holds onto the checkbook.
@holy-cow That wouldn't be Gilley's would it??ÿ When we lived there my wife worked at Pasadena Bayshore Hospital, which was next door.?ÿ Lots of bruises, sprains and cuts from the parking lot.?ÿ Gilley's had some BIG bouncers that didn't allow fighting in the place.
Andy
Nope, this was sorta out at the NW edge as I recall. West or NW of Jersey Village some place, I think.?ÿ BTW, Jersey Village is so named because much of the original part had been a dairy farm with Jersey cows.
Spent some time around Baytown and Galveston, too.?ÿ Missouri City, Pearland and Katy were on the radar as well.?ÿ Took some longer drives out to Hempstead, Brenham and College Station.?ÿ Heck, I even dressed up and went to the opera one time at what I think was the Wortham Center.?ÿ Took in an Astros Game.?ÿ The Zoo is excellent.
@holy-cow The closest I got to the opera was "The Texas Opry House", a bar in Houston that had some great Country/western acts.?ÿ I saw Jackson Brown, Jerry Jeff Walker and a few more there.?ÿ The most memorable was David Allen Coe, he put on quite a show.?ÿ?ÿ
I was sitting at a long table in there one night when a joint was being passes along the other side of the table.?ÿ When it reached the man across from me he just shook his head and pulled his lapel back to show a Texas Ranger badge.?ÿ Needless to say the joint went back the other way.
Andy
@holy-cow That wouldn't have been Virginia City, would it??ÿ Back then it would have been out in the sticks about halfway between Bammel and Tomball.
That might have been it.?ÿ It had a western sounding name as I recall 35 years later.
Living dangerously continuum??.?ÿ
wILD, DAnGerous and possibly life-threatening <??> going somewhere without a roll of toilet paper in the rig
Probably not a good thing with which to tell a good story.?ÿ But some of my most cringe-worthy and white-knuckled memories involved this very subject.?ÿ
The perils of making a living in the great outdoors...