dual personalities

Since it’s almost Independence Day, I thought I would post about a quintessentially American experience, a visit to the rodeo. On our way through North Dakota, we stopped at Jamestown, a small city about 100 miles east of Bismarck, so we could go to the James River Rodeo at the County Fair. We could also have watched stock car racing — boy, is that a noisy sport; it almost drowned out the rodeo announcer — but we restrained ourselves. The midway was pretty standard, although the food offerings were certainly exotic: pork chop on a stick, freshly battered cheese curd, and something awful with shrimp, the name of which escapes me. We were not brave enough to try any of it.

Without doubt the highlight of our evening was the rodeo, which cost a whopping $10.

I loved everything about it, including the fact that they started with the Cowboy’s Prayer, by Clem McSpadden (they begin every rodeo this way):

Our gracious and heavenly Father, we pause in the midst of this festive occasion, mindful of the many blessings you have bestowed upon us.

As cowboys, Lord, we don’t ask for any special favors. We ask only that you will let us compete in this arena as in the arena of life.

We don’t ask that we never break a barrier, draw around a chute-fighting horse, or draw a steer that just won’t lay. We don’t even ask for all daylight runs.

We only ask that you help us to compete in life as honest as the horses we ride and in a manner as clean and pure as the wind that blows across this great land of ours.

Help us, Lord, to live our lives in such a manner that when we make that last inevitable ride to the country up there, where the grass grows lush, green and stirrup high, and the water runs cool, clear and deep, that you, as our last Judge, will tell us that our entry fees are paid.

Amen.

Everyone stood, removed hats, and bowed heads for the prayer, and then placed their hands across their hearts for the national anthem. The whole thing reminded me of how great our country can be. People were simply out enjoying themselves; there was no drinking or bad behavior of any kind. By the way, in our travels throughout the north and west we never saw any political signs or slogans of any kind. We did see lots of veterans appreciation monuments and evidence of religion — how refreshing! Back in Iowa we even saw signs for the Bar None Cowboy Church (check it out!).  But I digress.

Rodeo events in Jamestown included bareback bronc riding, tie down calf roping, breakaway roping, saddle bronc busting, barrel racing, steer wrestling, ladies’ goat tying, team roping, and bull riding. You name it, they did it. All the cowboys and girls were from the region (North and South Dakota or Montana) and they all behaved very professionally (no swearing, no arguments, no tears). I didn’t take a lot of photos, but these few will give you an idea. Some of the contestants were quite young (high school) and one of the barrel racers was about 10.

Those broncs could really kick!

Ladies’ barrel racing was great, but they moved so fast it was difficult to get a good shot.

And the bull riding was so wild that my photos are all blurry. Seriously, those bulls were mean! In fact, they were so crazy that not one of the riders managed to stay on for the allotted time, but several of them did get stepped on. Fortunately, no one got seriously hurt.  Watching this made me glad that my boys are all grown up and not given to dangerous sports.

The rodeo was well run, friendly and thoroughly enjoyable. If you’ve never been to one, try to go — it’s nice to see all those cowboy hats!

If all goes well, by God’s grace, my next post will be from home sweet home! Happy July 4th!