Wednesday, May 07, 2014

AND THE BEAT GOES ON...

Also out back there, was jumps. All kinds and sizes. In the
ring part was cross like jumps. Bar types. Usually a
bar across and some times two.. and even 3. Those
jumps were not my favorite place. I had a pony which
I wrote about years ago here, called Bucky.  Actually
his name was Mighty Mouse, but his barn name was
BUCKY.. for good reason.  My mother decided that
Bucky and I would become jumping partners. Bucky
had other ideas.  So a lot of times I ended up going
over the jumps and Bucky didn't. Mastering the greatest
of brake system.. he manage to stop just inches from
the jump. Some times I went over.. some times I went
thru, and sometimes, I ended dumped right under it.

After months of failure and Bucky dumping Mom
a couple of times, she gave up on us become the
great team.  So Bucky and I mosey across the field
beyond. In the spring and fall the field was full of
fishing nets from the commercial fishing ship, called
the NOMAD. In the summer time the nets came and
went. So Bucky had plenty of time to lolly gag around.
Some times my goat Heidi would join us. 

The other jumps that were more out in the field, were
what we called chicken shed jumps, as they were shaped
like small chicken shed. They averaged about 4 to 5 feet
tall. And about 10 or 12 feet long. 
One of these had a flat top of about 6 inches. One summer
we must have watch Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney
movie as a group of us came up with the idea to have a
"show" AND we were going to charge for it.... a nickel.
Can you imagine, up on this jump.. 6 inches of board..
singing and dancing.. Yes, I said dancing. And if you
missed stepped, you ended up sliding down the side
of the jump. If you were lucky, you slide down the side
away from the audience.  Now, I am a self admitting
horrible singer. In fact to even use the term, singer,
is an insult to those who do sing well. I am so bad,
that my grandson told me 50 years later, not to give
up my day job.  And if I recalled right.. some of the
audience demanded their money back.  And when
the parents got involved I think it was a total refund
deal. We were bummed.  As there was a penny candy

store down the road, and we had great expectations.  

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