Imagination and Rodeo Clowns

What started out to be a warm Sunday morning has now turned into a cold, gray, and windy Sunday afternoon. Debbie and I came home after church and brunch today with happy thoughts of her working flower beds and me working in my wood shop. Of course we had to take care of a traditional Sunday activity we like to call "nap time" first. Since Debbie gave up this practice several years ago it's up to me to keep the tradition alive. I never sleep more than 45 minutes during my nap. I don't know why. Even if I have nothing at all planned for the day I can't seem to stay asleep for more than 45 minutes. As I wandered back into our den after my nap I found Debbie stretched out on the sofa with the remote in her hand. I was about to ask why she wasn't outside when I glanced out to see the change in weather. Not wanting to get caught up with a movie I went on outside.

It wasn't all that cold in my shop but it was getting that way quick. I decided I would go shopping instead. It's getting dangerously close to Christmas and I haven't bought a thing yet. I went out to my truck, climbed in and decided it was too windy to go shopping. I ran a couple of errands instead then came on back home. As I got out of my truck I noticed the really sweet lady across the street trying to rake leaves. Afraid she had gone bonkers I figured I better go over to check on her. The leaves were blowing off the trees and the roof faster than she could keep up. My carefully worded inquiry into this craziness was explained as she told about her little girl wishing for a big pile of leaves to play in as she was taken in for a nap earlier. The little girl is an amateur napper and was still asleep. Her mother was out in the cold wind trying to make her little girl's wish come true. That was so sweet I had tears in my eyes. No, I'm not a sentimental sissy. I just got dust in my eyes from the wind...yeah, that's what it was. I would have helped her rake up a big pile of leaves but I didn't want to take away from her special time....so I went back home wishing I had already stocked up on fire wood. Today would have been a good day for a nice fire in the fireplace.

I was reminded of a similar cold, gray, and windy day sixty plus years ago when my brother Glenn and I had watched the televised rodeo at the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show. We really enjoyed the bull riding because those bulls could launch an unsuspecting cowboy pretty far into the air. There were clowns who would distract the bull while the cowboy shook off the cobwebs and staggered out of the rink. We loved those clowns. We loved them so much that after the rodeo was over we went outside and played "rodeo clown". We liked to name our made up games. In our minds we were two sage rodeo clowns who knew how to really work a bull. We would squat, then jump up and run while dodging the imaginary bull. We would grab its horns and jump up over the bull. If we got in a bind we would run and dive headfirst into the barrel. The bull would ram the barrel of course and we would get thrown out and land on the cold ground. I can't remember having so much fun. We played all afternoon and came inside just before our Dad got home from work. We weren't supposed to play in the front yard. We had a big back yard for playing but had we played back there no one would have been able to watch our brave but humorous antics. We walked inside and found our older sister Cindy sitting on the sofa and looking out the big picture window. She asked us, "What exactly were you two morons doing out there?" We couldn't believe she couldn't see we were rodeo cowboys risking our lives to keep the bull riders safe. She said we looked silly at best and insane at the least. She was so embarrassed for us. I guess she didn't see the charging bulls like we did. Girls don't have any imagination at all. I feel sorry for them.

Cold, gray, and windy afternoons make me think back on being a kid and what all we did to keep from being bored on those days. On days like this I am embarrassed a lot.