RODEO CLOWN
Before I was destined to be an artist, (a life I never knew existed until halfway through college). I had two ambitions in life: be a trapeze artist or a rodeo clown. My expectations for a career were quite low according to my friends who had ambitions of going to college and becoming doctors or teachers or marine biologists. Not me, I had rodeo clown as my number one goal in life.
Rodeo clowns were fast on their feet and very agile, and so was I. After all, I was on the gymnastics team in high school. I could do back flips over those bulls, I thought. This was quite appealing to me. The rodeo clowns saved lives, too. Knowing that other people’s lives would depend on me and my agility was exciting. This seemed the ideal career choice. My friends couldn’t understand why I would desire living so dangerously. “That's part of the excitement,” I told them. “You get to run and jump and entertain people and save lives on occasion. That's what a rodeo clown does, saves lives,” I told them. I secretly dreamed of being the hero, rushing and distracting the bull that was ready to gore the rider that had ridden him for eight seconds or had just been thrown. The adrenalin rush was intoxicating.
While friends were enjoying normal teenage lives on weekends, I was content to hone my skills by jumping over barrels or riding my horse trying stunts like the rodeo trick riders.
One of my favorite horses was Trixie, a beautiful palomino with a flowing golden mane. I felt like Roy Rogers on Trigger when I taught her to rear up. At night, if I couldn't sleep, I would sneak out of the house and just be on that beautiful horse, quietly riding about the pasture, bareback, or just lying on her hugging her neck. (I’m sure she really loved me for that). Trixie is the one that I tried my riding stunts on, like jumping in the saddle from the garage roof like Zorro or bouncing on the ground and back in the saddle or trying shoulder stands while she was galloping full steam down the pasture lane. The thought of breaking bones never occurred to me. Nor did it really bother me. After all, I had broken bones several times up through high school, like the time I made her rear up too far and she fell on top of me, and I broke a rib while Mama and Daddy were out of town. I'm surprised I didn't have a concussion.
Living on a farm had prepared me for such a career. I was a country boy, and it was almost a daily routine to wrestle horses that needed to be corralled or branded. Horses were in my blood. In fact, I had been given a beautiful sorrel mare for my first birthday. There exists, in some long-lost box, a picture of Daddy leading me around the yard sitting high in the saddle in my diaper. Where that elusive picture is, I can't tell you. I think Mama destroyed it when she had dementia while living in Assisted Living later in her life. As a teenager I never missed an occasion to ride. I lived on my horse. Many times, I would sit and eat a meal or read a book on Sheba. She was a huge plow horse with feet so big she could walk across the cattle guard. (She never did, but only because she never thought of it). Sheba was another of my favorite horses.
We lived on Jackson Street Extension in Alexandria, Louisiana in the 50's and early 60's, from the time I was in the 4th grade until I finished high school. It was out in the country at that time with nothing but fields of cotton or corn from MacArthur Drive all the way to Twin Bridges. Our farm later became the area of Mohon Street, Brame Jr. High, and the Camellia Place subdivision on Prescott Road in Alexandria. Brame Jr. High was my father's cotton field and my racing ground. We were, also, raising Shetland ponies showing them around the United States and, of course, we had horses and a few cows.
I attended rodeos every time one was around, like Ted Johnson's in Hineston, Louisiana, or Jimmy Thompson's near the traffic circle on MacArthur Drive. Some of my riding friends and I were usually the first ones at the gate for the Grand Entry. We would gather at our house on those evenings, saddle our horses and ride to the rodeo down Jackson Extension and all the way down MacArthur Drive.
This was when I fell in love with the rodeo clowns and all things rodeos. I loved the sights, the sounds, the smells. I loved the way the clowns kept the spectators entertained while bull riders prepared for their eight seconds of glory. I loved their makeup, their outfits, their ability to jump over barrels and sometimes over bulls. These individuals exposed themselves to great danger to protect the cowboy. This was the life I dreamed of. I think rodeo clowns are the glue that hold everything together. Without them there could be no rodeo. Now it’s true, I did consider being a bull rider or a bareback bronco rider and this would have been fine, but they were not like the clowns. It’s probably best anyway because I know my Daddy would never have been fine with that.
After I started college, I became interested in art and somehow, over the years gave up my dreams of life traveling from event to event. I quit being a cowboy and quit riding horses and although I don’t do that anymore I still love watching PBR and the bull riders.
Once in a while, I dream of what joy
it would have been if I had become a rodeo clown, or bullfighter as they are
known today. Sometimes I regret that I never had that opportunity. Ha! Maybe this should be on my bucket list.