Tittle Tales

    Last weekend we took the kids to the rodeo in Pontotoc. It was hot, fun and somewhat amusing in a disturbing, physically painful kind of way. Upon our arrival we were greeted by the fair in full gear with lights and music on every ride. The air was filled with fried foods, cotton candy and candied caramel apples.
    After filtering through the extensive menu of everything fried – literally from twinkies, oreos and snicker bars to dill pickles – I was finally able to order the corn dog and cheese fries I originally got in line for before being sidetracked by the 8,000 calorie snacks.         Walking around with my arms loaded down with food, I finally found my family, the kids were at the petting zoo entertained by watching a little billy goat escape the fenced in area that the fair workers had securely put in place.
    That stubborn little goat escaped twice into the busy parking lot and was almost road kill before the camel trainer stepped in and allowed his dynamic goat skills to shine. After watching the goat rescue twice, we finally made our way to the enclosed arena where the rodeo was being held and found our seats. All three kids were anxious for the action to start, especially when they saw the holding pen filled with calves.
     My youngest son asked me and our friends – 3,000 times – when were the bulls going to come out?
    My answer along with my friend’s were the same every single time he asked, but I think his excited short term memory loss sporadic episodes must have been in full swing, until the bull riding started that is.
    The rodeo started with the wild and beautiful bucking broncos, personally one of my favorites. The guys that rode did extremely well, considering what they were doing, although several were almost on the brink of serious injuries. Many of the cowboys had their hands stuck in the leather hand rope for a really long time; it felt like a long time to me anyway. They continued with roping and then led into my daughter’s favorite, barrel racing.
    They had some extremely talented women riding and fast, agile horses running the barrels and it was beyond entertaining. Then  after a plethora of bad jokes from the rodeo clown, I pointed out to my youngest, over-excited, son the chute were the cowboys were mounting the bulls. At last the moment he had been waiting for all night was finally upon us.
    Out shot the first crazy bucking bull, twisting and turning every which way. Most of the men riding stayed on almost eight seconds and they seemed to have better luck not getting their hand stuck when trying to jump off, like the bronco riders. It was extremely fulfilling and pleasing to my five year old son.
    The bull riding competition was the shortest but highly impressive. When the rodeo was over we made our way out to our car and headed home, I was informed that the little escape goat at the petting zoo had been tied up to avoid any and all goat fatalities for the night.
    I guess for us it’s just not a complete night at the fair and rodeo with out a little goat drama, dangerous bull riding and last minute cotton candy for the road!