Summer holidays - rodeo vs. regular people
Cowgirl Sass and Savvy

By Julie Carter--

For two decades, when summer arrived with its major holidays on both ends and the Fourth of July in the middle, never once did I plan for a picnic, a vacation or a backyard barbeque.

Summer meant rodeo season. It meant spending hours on the phone getting entered in the rodeos, thousands of miles of driving and dragging in Sunday night to be back to work on Monday.

In the middle of that, my rodeo friends and I often discussed our ponderings of what regular people did on the Fourth of July.

While we were mucking around in the mud after a summer downpour at the rodeo grounds, washing off the barrel horse's leg gear with the nearest water hose and hoping it would dry before it was time to compete again, regular people were, no doubt, sitting on a backyard deck eating grilled hunks of meat and laughing over memories of trips to Cancun.

That same water hose washed down children, dogs, horses and muddy cowboy boots.

It usually was attached to a hydrant accessible only by mucking through a standing lake of water in the corral shared by the rodeo bucking bulls.

They watched you slip, slide and likely fall, in your attempt to hurry, just in case they were in a bad mood.

While we were driving all night from one night rodeo to get to another that started in the afternoon on the other side of the state, regular people were slumbering soundly in their beds in a five-star hotel anticipating the next day's round of golf at a seaside resort.

While we spent the weekend trying to pass for civilized beings despite being rumpled, tired and nourished only by two-day old cold burritos from the cooler, regular people planned massive food get-togethers with friends and relatives somewhere near a swimming pool.

Get-togethers for the rodeo crowd were at the gas stations on the road to the next rodeo and perhaps some short conversation at the hamburger stand at the rodeo grounds.

Ranching offers about the same version of the holidays. It is not uncommon to have a cattle-working scheduled on a holiday because you know everyone will be available. The neighboring ranchers don't vacation on holidays either.

My life after rodeo resembled rodeo life so much I didn't ever get a chance to see how "normal" people live. I moved right from arena dirt to corral dirt and 5 a.m. starts - not to drive to a rodeo but to drive to the pasture.

Earlier this spring a friend of mine was so excited. She was invited to a "Wildflower Party."

Completely charmed by the idea she said the invitation claimed a "celebration of Texas' bountiful and beautiful wildflower display and would include cocktails, dinner and dancing to a live band."

What was most intriguing about the invitation was that for the first time in very long time in her life, it did not include instructions to bring a shod horse and be there by 5 a.m. for breakfast.

She said she could only conclude that the hosts either had no faith in her cowboying abilities or had already shipped their cattle.

While I am sure there is a certain amount of romanticizing of reality when I think everyone spends their holidays sitting on a beach, sailing boats or napping in the shade of a well-manicured yard, I probably won't ever really know.

I still look for some arena dirt, hot sun and miserable weather for my holidays. But now I use the events as part of my work through the use of my pen and camera.

It really makes more sense than me paying entry fees to spend 18 seconds in the spotlight.

For a look into rural America at its best, see a rodeo this summer. And remember, while they may not always look like it, rodeo cowboys are regular people, too.

Visit Julie’s Web site at www.julie-carter.com