HAT TIPS
By Dean Meyer
Hello,
This morning I was looking through some old articles and I came across one titled “Logan.” And since I heard that a Logan friend was getting married, I figured it might just be him. But, alas, wrong Logan. But I enjoyed reading it, and I hope you do. Here goes….
Hope you enjoyed your Fourth of July celebration!
I spent most of mine in the hay field. But, after last year’s drought, being in the hay field is a more wonderful thing than you can imagine.
Oh, we didn’t all go to the hay field. Will has gone off to rodeos somewhere. I think he’s been in Cody, Killdeer, Casper, Vernal, Mandan, Dickinson, Mobridge, Clear Lake, Belle Fouche, and I don’t know where else. Said he’d be home in a couple of weeks. Shirley made it to Mandan, Dickinson, and Killdeer. She’s starting to hold back a little. I made it to Mandan for the bareback riding and bronc riding one performance.
The great thing about rodeo is the people. As someone who grew up (and there are those who question whether I did grow up) in rodeo, I still enjoy meeting people.
At the Mandan rodeo, a bad thundershower came up. I mean a bad one. I was sitting up high in the bleachers watching it come. It was a huge black cloud with lightning flashing. I felt like I was sitting on top a lightning rod. They were just starting to steer wrestle, and from my vantage point, I could see the rain coming.
I grabbed my perfect grandchild and ran for the pickup. Just as we got there the rain hit! I mean it really hit! The wind gusts must have been seventy miles an hour. It got blacker than the inside of a cow. The lights came on. The rain came in sheets. There were a few large, soft hail stones. Horses were halter pulling and garbage was blowing around. I tell you, it was wild!
It lasted about a half hour, and then, just as suddenly as it came, it was gone. And a huge rainbow was all it left behind. And wet cowboys and cowgirls and little kids and horses and dogs started to show up.
The parents were getting ready to go on with the rodeo, so I took Gracy and Layton, another two-year-old, over to the arena. On the way over, as we were splashing through the mud, a little boy came over. I suppose he was about ten years old. Maybe younger. And he started to visit. He helped me get my kids through the mud puddles, and was telling me about his rodeos. His family had been to Belle, Cody, Mobridge, and Mandan the past couple of days. He had made lots of new friends, and was looking for some kid he had met at Mobridge.
He had introduced himself as “Logan.” All of a sudden, he looks up at me, out of the blue, and asked, “Are you guys Christians?”
Now, this is not something I expect to be asked on my way to the beer tent. But, I replied that I was.
Logan looks up at me and said, “I am, too! When that storm came I prayed that God would save us, and LOOK, he did! It looked so bad and all we got was this water!”
Now, I figure that kid is going to have a pretty good life. I’m always praying to win the lottery, or that my horse don’t blow up, or I hit that inside straight, or Shirley don’t wake up when I come in. And a lot of times, I am slightly disappointed.
I just ask for the wrong things!
But, I might keep trying.
Later,
Dean