“I rode between Danny Flannigan and Sean Vargas one year, two weeks after Flannigan got a 99. That was in Orlando, Florida and you better believe I was in hog heaven.”
The announcer introduced the rodeo queens who rode around the arena with the state and national flags and then he introduced a lady he said had never missed a rodeo since 1960 and told about how they couldn’t start without her being there. He also told the crowd that the Cimarron Fourth of July rodeo was the longest running rodeo in the country, having been held every year without fail since 1923, and some of the wives and girlfriends rolled their eyes and said yes indeed they believed it WAS the longest running rodeo in the country starting at 10:30 in the morning and usually not ending until 6:00 at night and hoping it wouldn’t get too hot this year or rain and hail like last year.
“Jesus that ole Gretchen was gray haired and old looking when I left here twenty years ago. Wonder what she looks like now.”
“Old and gray-haired I reckon.”
“I remember when a man used to pray the horse would throw him because if he didn’t, the pick-up man would kill him for damn sure.”
A lot of laughing and reminiscing by middle-aged men that still talked about getting them a good roping horse one of these days but who would probably spend the rest of their weekends working overtime at the bakery, the shop, the factory in Denver, in Albuquerque, in Amarillo now the kids were in college, spending all their time studying and letting mom do their laundry, so they wouldn’t have to work in bakeries or auto repair shops or factories.