05/20/05 Straw hats

Straw Hats It's getting close to straw hat weather and it always reminds me of one certain hat story. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll tell you about it right after this. About this time of the year when I was still picking up bucking horses for a rodeo contractor we would put away the felt hats and break out the new straw hats for the year. But we always knew putting on those new hats that we would have to be extra careful when we picked up one certain bronc rider named Jimmy. New straw hats were like the Siren's call to Ulysses for Jimmy. He couldn't be happy with himself until he bent and mangled at least two straw hats a year. Jimmy was a good friend and a great saddle-bronc and bareback rider, but even good friends can have flawshe just couldn't help himself when it came to a new straw hat without a kink in it. We couldn't tie him on his horse like Ulysses to the mast so we just tried to protect our hats. Like I said Jimmy was a very good rider and athlete so when you rode up to get him off his saddle bronc he would time the horse to get an extra boost out of the saddle just before he handed over his buck rein. This little trick would put Jimmy pretty high in the air and he would come down on your new straw hat pretending to be out of control and claiming he had to grab for anything handy. It might have been a believable act if it weren't for Jimmy pointing to your mashed hat and smiling as he walked out of the arena. I got Jimmy first one time; just before he made his famous high dismount I grabbed his buck rein. It really messed up his timing and ruined his hat attack so he proceeded to tell me never take his buck rein from him again. I just smiled and pointed to my still well shaped hat. I'm Jeff Keane.