Let us start with this:
No, I don't REALLY own a cowboy hat, but I always seem to be able to acquire one when the time is right. A couple of years ago, in a kicker bar in College Station, TX, with Jim standing by, I convinced a cowboy to let me borrow his hat for a while, so that I could feel authentic. This was long before we had any inkling that we would be moving to Fort Worth, Cowboy Capital of the Universe...maybe it was foreshadowing. Since we have moved here, I have made every effort to NOT conform to cowboy-ism. I have not purchased western wear, have no desire to own a pair of cowboy boots, fringes scare me, and wouldn't be caught dead in Wrangler's, but there is something about a cowboy hats and my head. They just go together...without really wanting to. Anyway, last night we were pretending to take pictures of me, when really we were trying to capture the sheer mass of the 10-gallon Stetsons that surrounded us, when this friendly cowboy came out of nowhere and offered me his hat so that we could get a 'REAL' picture. We did...the moment has been documented: Claire in her green peacoat and a real cowboy's hat at the Fort Worth rodeo. Then, to make it authentic, we got some corny dogs (yes, that's what they call them in Texas) and giant Coors Lights.
So, how can I describe the Fort Worth rodeo to those of you may not have been to a rodeo before? First of all, everyone wears cowboy hats and they are VERY serious about it. THere are no concerts unlike in Houston and the bull riders are bonified cowboys, unlike the prisoners, who ride in the Prison Rodeo near New Orleans. At the Fort Worth rodeo, everyone is VERY patriotic. We had to stand as the cowgirls rode their painted horses around the arena, waving giant American flags behind them. Picture doing the wave at a baseball game, but instead of doing it because you're drunk and happy, you're doing it because you are solemn and patriotic. After we stood for the several flags being paraded, we stood again to sing the National Anthem (Jim didn't get the words wrong this year...FOR SHAME, JIM! You are a descendant of Frances Scott Key!)
After praying, saluting, singing, there was a very dramatic tribute to the greatest bull contractors in history. Most of them were also former bullriding champions themselves. They came out to flashing lights and smoke and teetered out (the mean age of these cowboys was about 95) to the center of the arena with fancy videos showing in the background.
And, FINALLY, we got to the bull riding. There were 40 riders, who had all randomly drawn bulls. The bulls had names like Torpedo, Little Boy Blue, Old Yeller (just kidding) and they were all pretty angry by the time we saw them. Basically, the bull riders confine these 1600 pound bulls into a very small pen, strap very tight ropes around the bulls' testicles, and then get on top of the bulls. Some of the bulls bucked much more than others, some were bigger than others. We had a lot of questions: What if your bull doesn't buck that much? Does that count against you? What if your bull is smaller? Does that count against you? Why did some bulls have their horns sawed off and others didn't? We agreed that we would prefer to ride a bull with sawed off horns. We did figure out that you don't get any points unless you can stay on the bull for at least 8 seconds. Then factors like skill and style get added in. Some cowboys wore helmets, which those of us in Public Health can appreciate. Personally, I think they are the smart cowboys. When the crowd cowboys didn't like the judges calls, they booed. And everyone was keeping score on pink score cards that we somehow missed. We spent a lot of time spying on Jim's co-workers down below with our binoculars (Thanks Jack and Mindy! They work REALLY well!)
The cowboys who seemed to be the best at bullriding were the smaller ones. One cowboy got pierced in the leg by a bull and a couple of clowns got tossed around as well.
By far, the craziest thing that we saw last night was this:
These four cowboys had the priviledge of sitting at a card table in the middle of the bull ring. A raging bull was let out of the pen and he went straight for them, tossing 2 chairs and the table in one direction and then coming back to toss the other two about 20 feet. The cowboys all ran like hell and climbed up the gates surrounding the ring. They didn't get tossed themselves, but it would have served them right if they had.
We left early, so we don't know which of the handsome cowboys won the bull riding contest, but we'll try to stay for the whole thing on Saturday when we got back for MORE RODEO!!!!!! And that's when I get to pick up my "Fort Worth Pig Club" baseball hat, which was promised to me by another friendly cowboy (who was sporting one himself). I'm to meet him back in the same place on Saturday night to pick up my prize.
