Small town Rodeo Provides Tonic for High Tech Stress
A small town rodeo is tonic in this high tech world. I’m Susan Allen this is Open Range, back after the break. Last weekend I was in Wiley City Washington, a tiny blink of a town not far from Yakima but a step back to a place where a man is judged by how he handles a horse, kids aren’t coddled, and you don’t get a trophy for just showing up. At the Wiley City Rodeo folks still rise and remove their hats when the American flag passes by, veterans stand and receive applause for their service to our country and star spangled banner resonates loud and clear. There is mutton busting, stick horse races and a calf scramble for the tykes, and oddly with all the cow pies, arena dust, border collies and horse sweat I never once observed a helicopter mom with anti-bacteria wipes. In rodeo, unlike most of youth sports today, there are winners and losers and pride in a job well done. One eight year old cowboy was brimming ear to ear when he showed me the buckle he won for, in his words "mustin button". He was also puffed up over how he roped his calf in the scramble despite being drug through the dirt. My point in this recap is how refreshing I found WileyCity after spending the better part of last week buried in technology; phone aps, computer virus’s, backing up hard drives. This small town rodeo was a reminder of how life can be, used to be, when families connected with each other, not a power cord or ipod, where pig tailed little girls still ride on the front of their daddy’s saddle and little boys actually play in the dirt.
