The Challenge

My cousin Mike asked my dad, “can Bill stay”? “It’s fine with me if your dad says okay.” “If Bill will work to earn spending money a couple of days, harvesting honey.” We worked two half-days it wasn’t that hard, the second day we just cleaned the backyard. At night he’d tell stories about his youth, he made us wonder if they were the truth. The weekend came, he had business in town. He told us to have fun looking around. We each got two dollars for the work done. Two country boys just looking for some fun. Mike knew a place we could get us a pop, the General Store became our first stop. We also bought us some sunflower seeds, Money left over we’d filled all our needs. After an hour we decided to sit. That’s when it happened when we first saw it. The sign said: The Challenge, at noon today! No older than twelve if you want to play! It was only ten minutes until noon, the challenge accepted it would start soon. Two parts to complete if we were to win, Catch a young calf and take it for a spin. A two-child team made up of Mike and me, each of us had to pay a two-bit fee. The first team to rope the calf won part one, then came the second part, the greatest fun. There were five teams playing each got two ropes, the calf was quite quick made us feel like dopes. Mike was the smartest one he tricked the calf. Everyone ran crazy, Mike had to laugh, The calf soon was tired as if it was doped It let Mike walk up, it was easily roped. Part one was done, Mike had come through, Now it was my time to complete part two. The promoter came out and put on a saddle, Stirrups on each side, easy to staddle. Mike walked the calf; I took it for a spin. I rode for one minute; we got our win. The prize, two tickets for the next nights show. We asked Uncle Bobby if we could go. “I can’t say no to a real rodeo”, He bought a third ticket on the front row!