07/02/08 Local rodeo

I hate to mention fuel prices, but I just did and I have a reason. I'm Jeff Keane; stay tuned and I'll tell you why I used those ugly words. If you say fuel prices in the wrong company these days and your mother hears about it you just might get the ol' mouth washing with soap routine. I took the chance to utter those words because the Fourth of July is just a couple of days away. Most families have a traditional place they like to visit for the Fourth and even high fuel prices aren't enough reason to forego that tradition. But if you might be thinking of celebrating the holiday a little closer to home this year, I would like to suggest going to a local Fourth of July rodeo. Now I know there are big, high production rodeos across the country and plenty of well run, shall we say triple "A" shows to attend, but I'm talking local, watch-the-splinters-in-the-bleachers rodeo where every weed has not been cleaned out of the arena and the bucking chutes were just painted only twenty years ago. I remember one of these in our county a few years back that really got down to the essence of rodeo. A bunch of semi-wild horses were the bucking horses that definitely weren't the rodeo horse campaigners of today. They had only been corralled a few times in their lives and town wasn't even in their vocabulary. I do believe there was more bets on whether the bucking chutes would hold together than whether the horse would get rode. It was totally unscripted and totally entertaining. A local Fourth of July rodeo might be a good bet this year. I'm Jeff Keane.